That’s the trouble with people like them, I suppose; whenever you think you’re detecting the first signs of them starting to behave responsibly, it’s… - Iain Banks

But are we within likelihood? Batra asked. Are we even still within the realm of anything other than paranoid lunacy?

Apparently I am what is known as an Unreliable Narrator, though of course if you believe everything you're told you deserve whatever you get.

So," he said to the monk, "you are of an Order which also despises the Great Infernal Wizard."
"Indeed, your gracious Majesty," the monk said, looking down modestly at the carpet. His voice sounded respectful. "Our Belief—perhaps not so dissimilar from your own, more venerable and more widely followed creed, is that God is a Mad Scientist and we His experimental subjects, doomed forever to run the Maze of Life through apparently random and unjust punishments for meaningless and paltry rewards and no discernible good reason save His evil pleasure.