The emperor is a reasonable person, as we saw. The enemy is the ascians, not the Garleans. The emperor doesn't trust the ascians, there is no reason to think the Garleans will not trust us. FYI long arsed quest chain to switch factions. That is a matter to the writing team however, I only wish to be able to join the Garleans because I don't want them to be all killed. The story is heading in that direction, it would be good if it became a struggle of factions, while also fighting the ascians.
