The Writers are NOT a "fourth wall" joke, they're real
Every time there’s a thread about the Writers, some people say they represent nothing more than the game’s actual writers (Jen and Guillaume) and that it's just a joke meant to break the fourth wall. Except there’s an IGN interview with Jen that clearly shows the Writers have a real place within the game’s universe. She even talks about the possibility of other factions.
The relevant part:
> For the broader universe, we had some large-stroke ideas of when we talk about the writers. Again, I don't like to write stories where I don't have the answers to certain things. So I did have, at least in my head, a idea of, but it's not canon. But yes, there were some ideas that we had discussed.
(...)
> Are there other factions? We have writers, we have painters. What about the other arts? We have stuff there. And also some of the sub-disciplines within art, painting is just one of them. Sculpture, like various other things. So thinking through, how does the magic system work, how can you use the magic, and how does it tie to painting and how does it tie to each of these people?