Quote Originally Posted by Katie_Kitty View Post
I keep hearing this stuff about how Hydaelyn is "deceitful and manipulative," but actually I don't recall a single time she lied to us. Did she tell us about Amaurot? No, she didn't. But point to me one outright lie she told. I don't think she told any. If your issue is the "light and dark did once dwell as one" thing, then you don't actually know that's not true. It very well could be. So I don't see how Hydaelyn is deceitful at all.
It's not really direct lies, but lies of omission. She uses peoples' ignorance of her true nature to present herself as a goddess and task people under that false pretense with combating the Ascians and their influence. Further she's not exactly forthcoming with the truth (for whatever reason), and Emet-Selch implies if not outright states she covered up the history of Amaurot after the Sundering. (Why? Who knows.)

The possibility that neither Hydaelyn nor Emet-Selch are lying about anything isn't lost on me. There are ways to reconcile their conflicting viewpoints. That said we don't have Hydaelyn's side of the story - but we do have a reliable (though very biased) expositor on the history of the world pre-Sundering whose claims are pretty well backed up. I don't think Hydaelyn is necessarily lied about that but with the information presented in Shadowbringers... yeah, she kinda did.