oh no I mean you can be against Mirage and save him. I chose to fight her and both Feliar and Vicoria are still alive and friends with me lol. plus staying neutral is fine but sometimes choosing neither side can be worse than choosing one. (also to answer your question, yes. it will ruin your relationship with all orcs excluding skullbreaker. but if you ask Mirage she's willing to leave Northcrest alone, so they'll be fine but the other orc tribes won't be.)
and ikr? i've been here a couple years now and it was also my introduction to adult games. no regrets whatsoever and if I had friends irl they would know everything about this game whether they wanted too or not with how obsessed I've become lmao. plus if I'm correct Hyao doesn't actually have a team he does everything except art and writing guest characters on his own. from what I remember at least.