"To think that you could stop me with a snap of your fingers... But no, you choose to cling to the silly belief that this all turns to good someday."
― Aephorul
Aephorul, also known as The Fleshmancer, is a character in Sea of Stars. He is an evil immortal alchemist who creates monstrous creations and unleashes them upon the world. He is responsible for creating Dwellers and for the Gorilla Matriarch's affliction.
Aephorul is the final boss of the game's real ending, fought at the Fleshmancer's Lair after completing The Chronophage in the Moorlands.
Profile[]
Appearance[]
Aephorul conceals his body with a purple hood and dark clothing. His arms have fleshy extensions, and two horns protrude from his upper back. He often touches the green gem on his chest while casting spells. During the Seat of the Triumvirate flashback, his horns were shorter, and his hood was down. He had long white hair, red earrings, and green-tinted skin.
Personality[]
Aephorul grew to be heartless when he gained immortality. He treats those who live average-length lives as worthless, and thus expendable. He detests how immortality has withered his body, and reflects this bitterness by spreading suffering and pain through committing horrible crimes onto other lifeforms. He considers himself a god, and is easily angered by disrespect. He is apathetic to the suffering of his followers.
Unlike his treatment with mortals, Aephorul reveals a different side when speaking with his former colleague and friend, Resh'an, interacting him instead as a peer. Despite their conflict, he treats him with respect, and concedes that certain aspects of Resh'an's craftsmanship outshine his own work.
Boss Fight[]
Overview[]
Aephorul is fought with Zale, Valere, Seraï, Resh'an, B'st, and Garl as the available party members. His first move of the battle is always Maw, followed by a regular attack, followed by Sap. Aephorul has Haste naturally applied to his timer, though the appendages he summons during Throne of Flesh do not, and the seeds he summons after Sap do not have Haste or any timers.
Aephorul's boss fight shifts between two types of combat: the standard turn-based combat, and non-standard "shoot-'em-up" combat. The latter type of combat is previously first seen during the initial ending, when fighting the World Eater for the first time. Aephorul's health must be depleted in both types of combat before the fight can be completed. The battle against Aephorul starts off with turn-based combat, and after his initial health pool is depleted (3,999 HP), it transitions to shoot-'em-up combat.
Space Shooter[]
Intro[]
During the transition to shoot-'em-up combat, Aephorul flies up out of the arena, with Zale and Valere pursuing him in their Guardian God forms. In outer space, he takes on a new larger form, and attacks Zale and Valere from the top of the screen with projectiles coming from his four limbs. His right tentacle throws Wind Blades, his right arm produces Multi-Shot, his left arm throws Death Stars, while his left tentacle casts Twin Twine.
Shielding[]
Zale and Valere can protect themselves from Aephorul's attacks with the Shield button (Y on Nintendo Switch, square on PlayStation, X on Xbox, R on keyboard), which a notification appears for in the lower-right corner the first time they take damage from Aephorul. The notification also appears when Aephorul first uses his powerful beam attack, which is unavoidable without shielding. Zale and Valere's health bar in the lower-left corner is represented by 5 segments, and is labeled either "Solen & Luana" or "Luana & Solen," depending on the party leader. The health segments are depleted when they are hit by Aephorul's attacks.
Shielding surrounds the party leader with a round shield for about a second. Any enemy projectiles that come into contact with the shield are deleted. The party leader can freely move around while shielding, but they lose the ability to attack. Prior to the "Dawn of Equinox" game update, Zale and Valere had access to the "dive" ability rather than the "shield" ability. Diving allowed them to safely pass through projectiles for about a second, and also removed their ability to attack, but it didn't remove enemy projectiles.
Player's Attacks[]
Zale and Valere can destroy Aephorul's projectiles and deplete his health by holding the confirm button to shoot their own waves of vertical-traveling projectiles at him. After landing a certain number of hits, a notification appears in the lower-right corner of the screen that they can press the Super Beam button (ZR on Nintendo Switch, R2 on PlayStation, RT on Xbox, E on keyboard) to perform a special attack that deals a large amount of damage for a few seconds.
Aephorul's Health[]
The upper-right corner shows Aephorul's two health bars, and are labeled "Aephorul." The purple one represents the health of Aephorul's limbs, and the teal one represents his head weakpoint. The teal health bar cannot be depleted until the purple health bar is depleted, which occurs when all four of his limbs are destroyed. To signify this fact, the purple health bar partially obscures the teal health bar and then disappears upon depletion, revealing the teal one.
After the four limbs are destroyed, Aephorul's head becomes vulnerable for a short time. The vulnerability eventually wears off, and he follows up with a powerful beam attack (Makankosappo), which can be dodged with good shield timing while moving horizontally. When the beam attack is finished, his limbs will regenerate and shoot projectiles once again, and the purple health bar returns. This pattern must be repeated until the teal health bar is depleted, returning the player to the main fight. Alternatively, Zale and Valere are returned to the main fight early if they run out of health after being hit five times by Aephorul's shoot-'em-up attacks.
In either scenario, the player is returned to the turn-based combat, with Aephorul's health restored but with a 20% max health reduction (799 HP), with a lower boundary of 30% of his max health (1,199 HP). This means that his health is at 3,200 the first time they return to the battlefield, 2,401 the second time they return to the battlefield, 1,602 the third time they return to the battlefield, and 1,199 every subsequent return. His health must be depleted again during turn-based combat in order to either complete the fight or in order to attempt the shoot-'em-up combat again.
Damage made to Aephorul's teal health bar during the shoot-'em-up phase is not reset, and the damage to both health bars is retained across multiple attempts (failing and then returning to the shoot-'em-up phase). The fight will end on the attempt Aephorul's HP during turn-based combat is depleted when Aephorul's HP during shoot-'em-up combat has already been fully depleted.
Skills (Aephorul)[]
Regular Attack[]
| Timer | Target | Strikes |
|---|---|---|
| 1-3 | 1 party member | 1 |
Aephorul hits a single party member with an energy shot. If this attack is not blocked, it deals exactly the amount of damage equivalent to Garl's maximum HP when he was mortally wounded by Aephorul at the Clockwork Castle. This attack ignores any Lunar Shields, destroying one of them in the process if the party member survives, or destroying all of them in the process if the party member is knocked out.
Maw[]
| Locks | Timer | Target | Strikes |
|---|---|---|---|
 
|
2 | All party members | 1 each |
 
| |||
| |||
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|
Aephorul submerges into the flesh-covered battlefield and simultaneously hits all party members with a giant flesh maw, then re-emerges.
Sap[]
| Locks | Timer | Target | Strikes | Summon | Max Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
2 | 1 party member | 1 | Seed | 3 |
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Aephorul saps the life force out of a single party member, which summons 1-3 seed enemies, depending on the number of locks remaining. This attack ignores any Lunar Shields, destroying one of them in the process. This attack does not KO the target, unless they only have 1 HP remaining.
The seed enemies are harmless, but they are resistant to all damage types and can transform into appendages if not destroyed. Any seeds that are on the battlefield when Aephorul is defeated are automatically destroyed.
Throne of Flesh[]
| Locks | Timer | Summon | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5-lock permutation, allowing for repetition, of
|
1 | Appendage | # of Seeds |
Aephorul eventually casts Throne of Flesh after Sap. If all of the seed enemies are destroyed when Throne of Flesh's timer reaches 0, the move will fail, and he will substitute the move by performing Sap again.
Throne of Flesh will move Aephorul out of the fight, making him invulnerable, and transform the seed enemies into different-colored appendages that can attack the party. Each appendage is randomized to have one specific weakness, which corresponds with their color: gray appendages are weak to sword, brown appendages are weak to blunt, orange appendages are weak to sun, blue appendages are weak to moon, green appendages are weak to venom, and purple appendages are weak to arcane. After all of them are defeated, Aephorul returns to the fight.
Skills (Appendage)[]
Regular Attack[]
| Timer | Target | Strikes |
|---|---|---|
| 1-3 | 1 party member | 3 |
An appendage wraps its mouth around a single party member and delivers a wicked smooch three times in a row.
Main Story[]
Countless millennia before the events of Sea of Stars, Aephorul was a powerful alchemist who set out to create the Elixir of Life, along with another alchemist known as Resh'an. The two succeeded and gained immortality, but at a price, as their bodies decayed and became disfigured, which they hid underneath their robes. The two spent centuries nurturing the world. But eventually, Aephorul became embittered and began cursing the world with his monstrous creations created through forbidden schools of alchemy. He embraced the title of "The Fleshmancer."
Resh'an attempted to intervene, but The Fleshmancer and his creations became increasingly powerful. In desperation to gain ground against The Fleshmancer, Resh'an boldly performed transmutation alchemy on the space-time continuum, breaking reality down into countless timelines and parallel universes. Aephorul was delighted at the countless universes to destroy, though in order to find a measure of peace in their immortal conflict, he struck a deal with Resh'an, to allow the fate of each timeline to play out on its own.
During the events of Sea of Stars, their deal is unintentionally violated when Resh'an has the Vial of Time, his weapon, taken from him and thrown at the Dweller of Strife at the Clockwork Castle. Aephorul immediately arrives on the scene and gets a free shot at the Solstice Warriors as recompense; Garl takes the hit, suffering a mortal wound not even Resh'an can heal. Satisfied with his victory, Aephorul departs to his lair.
When the party meets him at his lair, he agrees to a duel with the Solstice Warriors for the fate of the timeline. In the initial ending, he summons Elysan'darëlle to fight in his stead. During the real ending, Garl confronts Aephorul for his cowardice in refusing to fight his own battles, which agitates Aephorul and prompts him to fight the party, rather than summoning Elysan'darëlle. In both endings, after the fight is completed, Resh'an arrives to personally oversee Aephorul's banishment from Zale and Valere's timeline.
Nomenclature[]
Aephorul[]
| Language | Name | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
English | Aephorul | - |
|
Québécois | Aephorul | - |
|
French | Aephorul | - |
|
German | Aephorul | - |
|
Russian | Эфорул Eforul |
Aephorul |
|
Spanish | Aephorul | - |
|
Brazilian-Portuguese | Aephorul | - |
|
Korean | 에이포룰 Eipolul |
Aephorul |
|
Japanese | エフォラル Eforaru |
Aephorul |
|
Simplified Chinese | 艾弗瑞尔 Ài fú ruì ěr |
Aephorul |
|
|
Traditional Chinese | 艾弗瑞爾 Ài fú ruì ěr |
Aephorul |
The Fleshmancer[]
| Language | Name | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
English | The Fleshmancer | - |
|
|
Québécois | le Fleshmancer | the Fleshmancer |
|
|
French | le Fleshmancer | the Fleshmancer |
|
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German | der Fleshmancer | the Fleshmancer |
|
|
Russian | Флэшмансер Fleshmanser |
Fleshmancer |
|
|
Spanish | el Fleshmancer | the Fleshmancer |
|
|
Brazilian-Portuguese | o Fleshmancer | the Fleshmancer |
|
|
Korean | 골육술사 Gol-yugsulsa |
Bone Master |
|
|
Japanese | フレッシュマンサー Furesshumansā |
Fleshmancer |
|
|
Simplified Chinese | 造物术士 Zàowù Shùshì |
Demiurge Warlock |
|
|
Traditional Chinese | 血肉法師 Xiěròu Fǎshī |
Flesh and Blood Mage |
Gallery[]
Artwork[]
Sprites[]
Screenshots[]
See Also[]
References[]
- ↑
"Is he hiding somewhere here too?"
― Valere