DarkLloyd, In your tertiary post, you said that, yes. Buried, yes. I'd call that 'fine print', as it were.
As for the rest, I don't know. I haven't been obsessively tracking everything down, I don't have a lot of the books, and right now I don't have
anything but 4e PDFs, as the books I
do have are not currently in my possession. I also don't recall what you're saying about Sappho and Kalheim being played out post-boxed-set, but that's life. I highly doubt that Ghostwalker would have let Sappho wander free, though.
The problem is that all three options are canon, even when they contradict each other.
No, they aren't. You're confusing 'what is written as an option' with 'what has been written post-option-given'. Options are, by definition, to be decided by the Game Master. Later on, if you-as-GM are using the published materials as being 'what happens in your game', and they mention 'oh, X is what really is taking place' -- as they did, for example, in the Aztlan execution of Dzibitchalbakkawakkahoohaw (the feathered serpent whose name is bloody unpronounceable), where they specifically did
not say he was a Great Dragon, because let me tell you that would have had even more serious repercussions (also, he wasn't at the big 'Great Dragon' conference in
Survival of the Fittest) -- then that option and
only that option becomes 'canon' for official SR world purposes.
I believe the writers have kept very carefully away from 'choosing' for the GM what most of those options were.