I just had a sinking realization that two fundamental concepts in the game are in direct conflict. On the one hand, the aura shial, which is green and represents truth, is fundamental to the game; characters can hold each other in greater or lesser perceived truthfulness. On the other hand, you can’t lie in eeyal. So what’s the point of trust if you can always trust everything everybody says?
Oops.
I can’t just dump one of the three auras; my only choice is to reinstate lying as an option. But this opens up a huge can of worms. What would people lie about? Here are the verbs that they might lie with, and the considerations that would apply to the use of lying with them:
X said Y-Z of you
This is a fairly safe lie to tell, but its value is equally small. The smaller the lie, the less utility it has; the larger the lie, the greater the chance of it rebounding upon the liar. All in all, I don’t see much value in lying here.
relate feelings
This is a more useful verb to lie with, but its value is still indirect. You might be able to convince your interlocutor that you are socially similar (you share his feelings). That could improve their attitude toward you, but you run a big risk if somebody else tells them something different with “X said Y-Z of you”.
express feelings
This is an even safer lie to tell, but it still runs a risk if somebody else uses “X said Y-Z of you”. Of course, relative trust might give you a leg up on that problem.
no news
A very safe lie to tell, but it accomplishes almost nothing.
break a deal-promise
This is a highly valuable lie to tell, but it will surely trigger a lot of angry recriminations from the victim. In order to make such recriminations useful, should I make them specific (as in “X broke a promise to give me a relic”) or generic (as in “I relate feelings trust very negative”)?
Hmm...