Yes, that's a very good question. When we began playing I was actually in doubt what to make of it. Had I gone too far? would it be relatable at all? I found lots of similarities in history - Iron age Germanic, Celtic, West African and Aztec human sacrifices, the archaic Greek ideas of death and the after life, Egyptian hierarchical cult, Fascism and Stalinism, Capitalism and its technological consumerism - but I wasn't sure it wasn't too bleak.
But as role playing is much more than the game master who invents the world it slowly became clear that the players coped just like ordinary people, by focusing on the little tasks at hand, being kind to others even though things are bad etc. It was actually rather interesting to experience.
Wow!!! I love that. The human condition is a thing, even in imaginary worlds. Makes me wonder if everything we call real isn't actually imaginary.
In a way it is. We are all living in a guarded community where our language and its derivatives - stories, identity, science are the barbed wire protected walls.
The three player have each made their own protagonist who deals with things in their own way. One is mad, cruel and ambitious, one is conformist and doesn't question things, and the last hates the system and avoids magic and Gods as best he can while reluctantly taking care of people they meet. So these three roles have each found a sort of way through all the cruelty. They are trying to figure out what is going on and to analyse all the forces that are manipulating them while they also are part of the system. In reality it is really just like the rest of us :)
and gives credence to the claim some make that we are all living in a vast simulation.
The brain in a vat theory :)