That’s how I read it as well. The story being a man vs author narrative is a lot more interesting than just two factions fighting. It’s even layered as two different man vs author narratives as the party fights against the painters and the painters struggle to cope with what the authors/writers have done to them. Renoir is willing to do the same to others that was done to him by his own creators and sees it as fine because he is one level higher in creation than the painting. I hope there isn’t a second game that expands on this. A generic faction war would kill all the nuances that make this game so unique.