Mechalibur

I played an early version of the mod and I'd just like to say that there's a lot of great stuff here and I definitely recommend trying it out on a second playthrough of Infestation! Being able to use any combination of creation types that you want without hurting your overall build is a very welcome addition to the game.

Correct. Per the game text: "Though we did not make the disease which afflicts Awakened serviles, it is useful. Will watch for infection here. With our work, cure is easy. Look deep within disease. See weakness." They didn't make the disease, but they did withhold the cure for it.

Ethical concerns, I'd say. There are a lot of specific areas of research they consider off limits, and it makes sense biological warfare would be among those. The Taker ending in G2

In Buck Creek.

Of course, if the Shapers ever find the Sholai homeland, they're going to be at a huge disadvantage if they don't have Shaping Magic of their own. Infestation adds some interesting lore about it though - apparently the Sholai lands are very difficult to find and when they go on expeditions, only their navigators know how to return (like they intentionally take some wrong turns to confuse the rest of the crew). Their navigators also use magic that straight up kills them if they ever reveal the location of their homeland. Kind of hardcore.

I did something similar as a challenge run for Mutagen... never again!

I think the Purifying Blade is still better - 15% Lifedrain is just a 15% chance to recover 20% of damage dealt with a single-target attack. It doesn't stack with the Lifedrain weapon shaping skill either, which is essentially a buff that gives 100% lifedrain and can be cast prior to starting combat. The 10 melee weapon requirement is also a bit steep (compared to I think 5 for the Purifying Blade)

From his last AMA (after Infestation released) he said "Over the next two years, we want to finish the Queen’s Wish series and remaster Avernum 4," so it looks like it's still planned. One of the comments in the AMA was "Firstly, glad to hear Queen's Wish 3 is coming. Was a little worried that series would get abandoned for some reason." and he didn't correct them, so that makes me think it's still planned as a full game.

Every single named Obeyer that returns in G2 is now Awakened, I believe.

There's dialogue about it (Jaffee in the Magus Complex) - the Obeyers integrated into the Awakened after realizing the Shapers would never accept them.

She hides the fact that she's with the Awakened and won't tell you her allegiance unless you're also Awakened. This leads me to believe she's fearful for her life if she were to be discovered.

A bit of an aside, but I think Barzahl is actually the easiest by a fair margin if you take advantage of the machinery in Rising to disrupt the drayks.

It's absolutely a great addition. I want to hear about cultures native to the Ashen Isles in the 3 remake and what their perspective on the war is.

The Takers certainly have a philosophy that can sound reasonable on its own - the Shapers are perpetuating slavery and there's no way to free the serviles (and commons to a lesser extent) without drastic action being taken. The biggest issue for a lot of players, I think, is how awful the Takers are to you personally. In the first game, your first encounter with a Taker is a spy that asks you to murder Ellhrah, the leader of a faction that's been quite reasonable to you. While most serviles you encounter treat you as either an equal (the Awakened) or a superior (the Obeyers), a significant number of Takers you meet are either violent (requiring leadership or stealth to bypass) or dismissive of you. Only a few actually make an attempt to reason with you like Gnorrel or Eko Blade. Second game is more of the same. The first Taker you're likely to meet asks you to kill an Awakened guard who's keeping the roads safe from rogues. Unless you do that, you likely have to fight or sneak your way around Taker encampments separating the Taker and Awakened lands who want to attack you on sight. Syros is willing to work with you and explain their philosophy, but even if Zhass-Uss is friendly, several of the serviles there want nothing to do with you. Now that's not to say they're jerks for no reason. There's definitely a history that guides their actions, but from a player perspective, I can see why a lot of people have an adverse reaction to them.

His resistance is mostly fire damage. You'd be better off having drayks/drakons use their melee attack against him.