It's the DMs job to deliver the lore in a way that the player can comprehend, for the player's benefit not the characters. If the DM is talking about minerals and symbols and the player is staring at them with a blank expression, the DM might set them aside and say "hey, in this playgroup you're expected to know a couple things about the game setting before you show up!" But it's a little different if you know for sure that your player is a first time player without a clue. In that case you'd probably preamble it and do some story-time off the cuff to bring the player up to speed. That should be Larian's starting point, with no assumption there, and some definite effort put into introductions.
Sure we could throw a lore book in the new player's face, but that's not terribly endearing or exciting. I think the point is that Onyx might be Shar's without dispute, and the onyx stone in the lockbox even says that pretty clearly, even before we could free Shadowheart from the pod, but a new person who is not in the know wouldn't know what to make of that. Or at least I thought that is what the OP was trying to communicate right? That more general frustration that the game isn't setting up the setting, but just expecting us to already be familiar with it. That's fine for half of us, but not for the other half.
Yes that is what I am trying to communicate.
Allow me to talk about another character in the game where I had zero knowledge about but was still able to fully appreciate.
Kagha and her shadow druid connections and the finale where I expose her. I had no prior knowledge of shadow druids but they do sound ominous. And when I found that letter and talked to the rats I realized something is going on. And then the story happened which I wont spoil further but that was totally fine. A lot of the things were self-explanatory that I can understand. And the whole thing happened because I found a chest and read the letter in it.
But Shar is different. First off there is SH, her mission, the artifact, the selune temple and now Grymforge. Shar is being shoved in my face by Larian more than the Mindflayers after the intro... and all I have is some books I have to search out?
In the current format of the game I don't know how to addres that. Maybe my character gets an Religion check when they meet SH on the ship when we see her gear... Maybe my character has a mind melding with SH as she is stuck in the pod. It could be flashing nonsense... maybe a scene from the promo art with SH surrounded by masked individuals. Or maybe just have the narrator explain the shar thing when the secret is exposed so we don't "spoil" the reveal on the ship... but make it really cinematic where I see images of human sacrifice, kidnapping and torture chambers as sharrans do sharran things that makes them so hated.
Honestly anything. Anything besides an easter egg hunt of game texts. Edit: I just read that book in the chapel. If anything it makes me pity the sharrans rather than find them abhorrent. This still doesn't explain why people refuse to associate with Sharrans. They give up their own memories, they don't steal my memories...
