#but on the other hand. i cam very much see him being a walking shitpost at that point

[smaller-comfort]

Ahahaha oh god and he's the only one with a hard hat, of course. (I like to think he didn't start wearing the hood up until after he and Resh'an started fighting, but that image is just too good.)

I do like the idea that Serai had some kind of relationship to the Queen! I agree that she's got to be at least a few hundred years old, and I think most of the humans were probably turned at around the same time. We don't see any cyborg babies, so it may be that Aephorul waited until all of them were at least self aware before throwing them through the machine.

I do wish we knew why he made them into cyborgs, unless it was to maintain a steady food supply for the Dweller of Dread. Maybe it was just spite; cursing other creatures with immortality seems to be a big part of what he's doing.

Now I keep thinking about Aephorul, surveying all the forklift certified Songsters working on Es'tristae, and then filing all of their complaints about unsafe working conditions directly in the trash.

He keeps his "World's #1 Boss" coffee mug (a gift from Two) on his desk next to a framed picture of Resh'an.

Pondering timelines and things under the cut.

Resh'an talks about wanting natural flight

Aephorul finds the birdmen on Serai's world and makes a deal with them- he synthesizes their souls into a transmutation spell for Resh'an, and they get mind magic and a god

He takes a bunch of Songsters hostage to force T'kor to build Es'tristae. This may or may not happen before he completes the spell for Resh'an.

The human Queen sells out her people in exchange for a body made of guns. This may or may not happen before the spell is complete and the Songsters are subjugated.

Resh'an gets his birthday gift. This may or may not happen before (3) and (4).

Resh'an captures the Sands of Time with Aephorul's help.

At least several hundred years later, Resh'an finds out about Aephorul; they start fighting

Resh'an breaks the space-time continuum.

Aephorul starts building the Clockwork Castle (to impress Resh'an. Bruh.)

Cael and the kids build the cloud condensers for Sky Base

Aephorul crashes the moon into the ocean and blots out the sun, solidifying his base on Serai's world

Night Shroud over Lucent

Aephorul withdraws from homeworld

Dweller of Strife takes out the Order

Erlina and Brugaves turn traitor

Events of the game happen

Stuff that I can't place but will have to make decisions on at some point-

The last of the Songsters die or get turned into gaseous soul-forms. ('Untethered souls', which are not the same thing as ghosts; Hortense and the former Aventry Manor staff aren't subject to the same limitations.) We don't know how long Aephorul was experimenting on them. I would probably put this between 7 and 8 on the list above, followed by:

The transformation of the remaining Repine humans into cyborgs. Could happen concurrently with any number of other items in the list. I think the humans probably fell after the Songsters, and Aephorul used what he learned from the Songsters to create the cyborgs.

Barrier over Mesa Island- was this raised by Khukharr as a containment measure after DoS? Or was it raised after Aephorul left? Can Khukharr raise and lower it at will?

The Acolytes can move through the barrier without issue, but we don't actually know how teleportation works.

How did Yomara get to Songshroom Marsh? Has she been there since before the barrier went up? Could she leave before it came down?

When did Romaya move into the eastern swamp? Could she have left without getting pulled in by the DoW? Her soulstones can cancel DoW's summons, but if Woe were really determined to take her, would she have stood a chance?

Can't decide if I like the idea of Moyara also having an affinity for swamps, or if she didn't even know how to swim.