[Wids]

Now here's where we start veering into philosophical territory.


7) The Lie Made of Truths

What the Leiran says: "Chickens digest their food better if you crumble up some pebbles and mix it into their feed."
What the Leiran means: "Chickens digest their food better if you crumble up some pebbles and mix it into their feed."

"But Wids," you say, "that Leiran's telling the truth! Isn't that against the rules of their church?" Well, maybe so, or maybe not. But here's the context: That Leiran's not being his or her usual Leiran cleric or Leiran worshipper self; that Leiran's disguised as a chicken farmer. And chicken farmers are expected to know the "hearth wisdom" of their trade, which includes such details as ways to improve the chickens' digestion of their feed, ways to treat dry fowl pox and other poultry diseases, the differences between the various breeds, and so on.

So if you want people to believe that you're a genuine, bona fide chicken farmer -- and not some out-of-place poser who doesn't even know which end of the hen makes the eggs -- then you have to play that part convincingly if you want people to actually buy it.

Therefore, when you're pretending to be something that you're not, anything you say in support of that false identity -- whether it be truth, falsehood, both or neither -- becomes a falsehood by virtue of integration into that overarching lie. The truth may indeed be a truth, but it becomes a lie because of its purpose: To convince other people that you are a genuine article, rather than an impostor.


8) Deceit by Reverse Psychology

What the Leiran says: "The Second Sermon of Cyric is most certainly not kept inside the cell at the end of the corridor. That's the owlbear pen."
What the Leiran means: "...Seriously, don't go in there. The owlbears will kill you. But you're not going to listen to me, are you? Oops...there you go. Now you're owlbear food. Too bad you didn't listen to me, eh?"

Leirans, when recognized as Leirans, are placed in a self-contradictory position: They're expected to lie in support of their goddess' word, yet everyone knows (or at least believes) that Leirans lie constantly. So how is a Leiran supposed to pass a successful lie when everyone is expecting that Leiran to lie to them?

Well, the truth of the matter (if "truth" is a word which one could ever apply to Leira and her church) is that the Church of Leira exists to spread deception in all its forms, not lies alone; lies are merely one facet of deception, after all.

And when one's adversary expects every word out of one's mouth to be a lie, then the truth itself becomes an instrument of deceit.

So when a gaggle of Cyricists tie you up and demand to know where your temple is hiding a rare writ from the hand of Cyric himself, then by all means, tell them the truth. They'll never expect it from the likes of you, and if you phrase the truth just right, then you can send them galumphing right into the jaws of defeat without them realizing it until it's too late. At best, they might just come away with a goulash recipe which looks like something that Cyric may have written. Either way, you conned them out of completing their quest thanks to the truth told by way of reverse psychology, which is arguably one of the more artful forms of deception. Well done!