u/StardustTendency

In Risen we got extensive confirmation that Yirix and the Conclave were working with Calus and the Witness, yet they are never seen in Lightfall when they absolutely could have stalled us quite a bit. The Witness didn't take them with it either into the Pale Heart, and for some reason didn't seem to take issue with them ditching it.

By Echoes it's pretty clear Yirix uses the Shadow Legion's resources as tools and didn't drink the Salvation Kool-Aid, but I gotta wonder if part of why they didn't help Calus more was because he associated himself and his Legion with Nezarec, who must be the very last being a Psion desiring real independence would want to help restore. Nezarec even says in some Neomuna patrol dialogue that he will make sure the Psions worship him again.

There's also the weirdness of the Conclave's second most important associate, Otzot, having been on Calus's kill list not a decade before the Witness war.

This 4pc set bonus is genuinely the most fun I've had as a Warlock in years. Stormdancer's Brace and Skull of Dire are insanely fun with it. It won't allow someone to solo a raid or anything but for normal to harder content it's incredible and makes Iron Banner attractive for the first time in forever.

I think it's because he figured out or already knew who Simon really was: his master Paracelsus's son, either artificial or biological. Paracelsus refers to Simon as "my" sea monster in his excommunication letter, and we know Simon's father is an Eternal who cares so little for family bonds that he was willing to cast aside his own child, per Simon's confession. (This tracks with Simon not starting at the top and being at the lowest ranks of the Alchemists at first, despite being an Eternal Council member's son).

What seals the father being PP specifically for me is how explicitly dismissive Paracelsus is of human connection, specifically family ties, in his letter to Valentinus. His protecting Lea and Sophia, his daughters, was seen as a weakness by Paracelsus. We know Lea interfered with the Alchemists constantly, yet he refused to cast her aside to the very end unlike what Simon's father did to him.

The Eternals are eternal because of their "hearts of Ergo" (denoted by turquoise hair like Paracelsus's) which connect minds via wavelengths per the note in Grand Exhibition. As such, they can effectively read minds. (In a world with only Eternals, there can thus be no lies, which is Simon's plan)

Him being Paracelsus's son or creation then explains how he can read minds despite not being an Eternal, by inheriting the ability. He was either a homonculus or the son of an Eternal and a normal human woman.