Am middle in act 1, and wondering about some gameplay elements.

There is an evil/good axis, that, I suppose, evaluates your roleplay decisions. As I've understood, it gives benefits to certain schools of magic.

My problem is, it's a very specific setting. You play a bigot (a justified bigot in a universe where god and demons exist), on a legitimate mission to cleanse the world of heresy (because in this universe, heresy is actually a big deal in terms of consequences). And torture is okay.

I bought and started playing the game thinking that, okay, this world is the world according to an inquisitor : basically how the world would need to be for inquisitors to be justified. So, I was to roleplay an uptight bigot, in a uiverse where being an uptight bigot is beig the good guy, given the objective circumstances. However, while playing, I realise thhat the moral options and available attitudes and consequences are simimal to more usual RPGs : being clever, understanding, tolerant, seems to get you further, as dialog options go. I tend to slide towards my common roleplay habits, out of character, because of this. I'm not sure where the universe rules stand.

In an inquisitor's world, "good" would meen being an intolerant puritan, because everything else is just compromission with the devil, and the purpose of an inquisitor is to cleanse the world to make it fit its idea of absolute purity (or else, demons roam aroun, which is litterally the case here). Compromising, forgiving, closing your eyes, on petty things, would be "weakness" or "corruption", and evil. However, in modern times and most RPGs, it's the other way round. So my question is, basically :

Is the moral axis in this game "etic" (out of character, objective) or "emic" (coherent with the character's, in-world, views). If I roleplay what would be good for an inquisitor in an inquisitor-belief-world, do I slide towards evil ? Are the "good points" choices the very choices that an inquisitor would loathe as weakness and compromission ?

Also, I suppose that learning forbidden books/spells make you slide towards evil, right ?

Is the concern that the game is narratively inconsistent (because it encourages you to act against your character's ethos), or that it's philosophically inconsistent (because its apparent ethics don't seem plausibly grounded in its metaphysics)?

The former one. At a practical level. As long as there is a moral axis, with gameplay effects, in a given universe, I'd like to be sure what is considered good/evil within that universe. Whether it matches our out-world morality or some in-world morality.

Also, whether forbidden magic schools have some consequences. I'm also afraid to give myself the trouble of following in-world moral constraints that are not supported by in-game mechanics.

Not to spoil anything, but there have been cases where acting in an understanding and compassionate way cause significant problems - immediately for you, and potentially for the world at large.

As for the good/evil axis, I have been trending toward "Good" by roleplaying how my Priest would act - understanding, of course, that my character is new to the whole "Inquisitor" role, and likely to err on the side of thoroughness and intellect. As an example, there are many times where you can negotiate with monsters, trick them, what have you. Whenever I meet them, I act as my Priest would: "I am here on the Lord's behalf to murder you and and cleanse the world of your filth." And I've been trending toward Good. In another RPG, that might be considered an evil act.

But I don't really see +1 good, +1 evil, or what have you. I just notice that my indicator is closer to the blue side than the red side.

Yes, mine has stayed very centered for some reason. I wonder if attacking my companion shifted it towards evil : I attack him a lot, casting locust swarm on him when he's too close to a monster, or when I forget that I don't have the healing spell selected.

Torture also shifts the cursor a lot, which may be an indication of whether your prisoner is actually innocent or not. In fact, if I wanted to maximise the effect of my forbidden spells, I could keep torturing innocents, and shift the cursor as much as I need (unless they die after a while). But I mostly use saint spells, and aim for "righteous" (in-game version) play. I wish there was such a handy way to shift towards "good", if only to compensate possible mistakes...