The Infernal influence in Cheliax is pretty well spelled out, and I see Devils interacting with Golarion through the use of deals and contracts which are loopholed in their favor. Would it be outside the tactics of LE Outsiders to sow political discord into a region (false-flag operations, terrorism, psychological warfare) with the long term goals of causing enough chaos to necessitate the establishment of a totalitarian regime which favors a Diabolical theocracy? ie, using chaos to establish law?
Is this what actually happened in Cheliax, or did Hell just take advantage of the opportunity to prop up a puppet government?
A separate but related question, would an individual under infernal influence, either through subtle manipulation or straight up mind control and soul-jar-possession, ping as Evil under a Detect Evil spell?
Would it be outside the tactics of LE Outsiders to sow political discord into a region (false-flag operations, terrorism, psychological warfare) with the long term goals of causing enough chaos to necessitate the establishment of a totalitarian regime which favors a Diabolical theocracy? ie, using chaos to establish law?
It seems to me that it would be TOTALLY in character. Of course, the entities sowing chaos in hopes of reaping tyranny might be attacked on that angle. (Please keep in mind that evil organizations are likely to be just full of backbiting people plotting against each other, and I can certainly see Pit Fiend #34 attacking one of Pit Fiend #33's servants on the grounds that he's being too chaotic... think Soviet show trials or the Really Bad version of the Inquisition turned upon itself.)
Is this what actually happened in Cheliax, or did Hell just take advantage of the opportunity to prop up a puppet government?
Not sure. The general impression I get is that the House of Thrune took the opportunity to make a pact during the chaos, and came out on top, but I think a lot of the details are incredibly murky, probably on purpose. How much did House Thrune call out to Hell of their own accord, and how much were they tempted by infernal power to make that call and bargain in the first place? I think it was mostly opportunistic rather than a deep-laid plan, but I could be wrong.
A separate but related question, would an individual under infernal influence, either through subtle manipulation or straight up mind control and soul-jar-possession, ping as Evil under a Detect Evil spell?
Subtle manipulation, not necessarily, depending on what they had been manipulated into doing.
Straight-up mind control, maybe not -- if the mind control spell itself has the "[evil]" descriptor then I think it would ping, but an LG guy dominated by a succubus would still ping LG-meters. Admittedly, if the mind control had been done in person by a powerful enough entity, there might be traces of its evil still clinging to their unwilling minion -- see the detect evil spell description for more details.
I think out-and-out possession, like magic jar or shadow demons, would certainly trigger the evil-o-meter, because you'd be pinging the possessing entity's aura directly. You might get some confusing results if you've got good-o-meters and evil-o-meters going off at the same time, though (LG policeman possessed by CE demon would detect as L G C E all at the same time.)
That would be my call as GM, anyway.
Thank you tonyz