"See, I'm not that kind of strategist. I don't do the thinking ten steps ahead thing. I like doing one foot in front of the other and see where I end up. The joys of discovery." Authority is kind of a different aspect altogether. There needs to be some kind of authority, or it's all anarchy and chaos. But there's good reason to distrust some authority.

(Look at the rebel mages that strongly object to Templars, for example.)

The rest gives him a little pause. Purses his lips for a moment, and then moves to another shelf, not finding the poetry yet. "I don't know about burden, really. Maybe in some respects, but I mostly see the use. Easier to know what kind of person you're talking to if you can get a sense of who they are or what they're about just by watching them." He'd pulled that trick on Astarion day one, which might be why they get along so well. "Everyone's gotta use what the Maker gave them however they can."