I'm not touching the favoritism bit. As regards alignment and cabals/tribs, however, it seems silly to argue against Dulrik's views by arguing with OA.
I was curious about the context of his quote, because I didn't remember seeing it, so I did a quick search of "alignment" posts by Dulrik. It also showed this tidbit, which seemed quite apropos:
Dulrik wrote:
All of the guardians are magical constructs - aka robots. They do not have an alignment, so your spell is just giving a false reading.
Seek it here:
http://www.shatteredkingdoms.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=14244&p=209561&hilit=alignment#p209561The original one that was quoted:
http://www.shatteredkingdoms.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=14259&p=379253&hilit=alignment#p379253When it comes to SK and what goes and what doesn't, Dulrik is Alpha and Omega, captain of the dictator ship, head honcho, big cheese, etc. etc. Thus, a quote of D's views...absolutely no interpretation, just flat out "this is what the man said"...is a trump card and irrefutable until and unless you get the man to say otherwise.
It's not really my two cents, it's more like pointing at where D's are, but I felt it needed to be said.
Also:
http://xkcd.com/386/(edited because I fail at quoting)