The format of the story was inspired by a series of kids' books that were popular when I was little, called Choose Your Own Adventure, which are narrated in that style and the outcome is based on the choices that you make.

As for the fact that we get to see good and evil clearly on display here--I think that there are some moments in our lives where we truly do face a choice that is that clear as to who and what we are going to be and what we are going to make the world around us.  I believe that there truly are moral points of no return in our lives...though they can often only be recognized through the lens of history (which we have the advantage of having here), because it's true that people can repent after some truly awful misdeeds.  It isn't a popular thing to acknowledge these days, with moral relativism being all the rage, but one act of mercy, one act of reaching out is capable of making a world of difference.  And it's in these life-or-death moments where we see the clarity that we rarely see in our average, everyday lives.

If I'd wanted to be truly black and white, though, I would never have given Kelor Vetar or Rhirzum Akleen important continuing roles to play after the choice is made to spare Pretam.  I could have had it simply be "believers win, nonbelievers lose," and given the Oralians a monopoly on all that was good.  But that didn't feel right to me.  The interesting thing is, two choices were made, not just one, even though the reader only gets to play Akleen's role.  Akleen can choose to spare Pretam's life--but Pretam also chooses to reach out and to listen.  It was both of those choices that saved Cardassia...the combination of the two.  Knowing what I know about Pretam, even if she had lived but simply never met Akleen, I don't think it would have entered her mind to try to challenge the system as a Guide and try to push for reforms.  And then someone else would have filled Akleen's shoes, most likely, and committed the act that turned Cardassia into some form of empire even if not Akleen's exact vision that we see in the canon series.

Pretam taught Akleen a lesson in mercy and forgiveness.  But Akleen taught Pretam a lesson in humility and boldness (two opposites but I really think he made her think about both).  Akleen had to challenge Pretam's views and she had to be willing to listen to those challenges and see where something could be learned from them, in order to shape the AU Cardassia.  It was the combination of them together, that saved Cardassia, not just Pretam.  That's why although Pretam and the Castellan who took over to help initiate the reforms are well-known figures in AU Cardassian history, Akleen and Vetar are respected too as examples of courage.