The Background Behind Sastasha (Hard)

So, with the reveal of aether balance in sentient creatures tilting to one aspect too harshly resulting in distinct physical changes (toward darkness leading to Voidsent, toward light leading to Sin Eaters, etc.) I came to wonder about the changes to our pirates chaps from Sastasha and how they came to become more sealife-like (obviously modelled after a particular crew from a certain popular pirate film). I don't recall (nor found) evidence of Leviathan being involved in it at all which could push their aether to tilt toward water and looking back at what text I could find online about the dungeon and the characters I haven't found anything conclusive.

Does anyone know what exactly befell our Serpent Reavers that caused them to change as they did by the time we adventure into Sastasha (Hard)?

According to the encyclopedia, the change in the sea reavers was caused by "repeated exposure to Leviathan's corrupting aether"

I think this is mentioned in the sahagin beast tribe quests too

So, it was Leviathan after all? Thank you!

The Serpent Reavers at Satasha were further Drowned by Leviathan for their failure to hold Satasha for the Sahagin. At least such is the presumption by NPCs involved in the relevent quest, "It's Definitely Pirates".

Be careful not to let the labels in the dungeon trick you into assuming there's zero examples of "the game is lying" in the dungeon, though. The lamia aren't actually over-Leviathan-tempered "wenches", those just wandered in from the broken internment hulk (coil) nearby.

>_> They also never really explained away how the pirate captain came back to life after the Sahagin at the end of Sastasha skewered him to death.

Double dipping in Leviathan tempering turning them into Mindflayer-like beasties? No problem.

Double dipping in Leviathan tempering bringing them back from the dead? Say what?!

My guess is that the wound simply wasn't lethal and he decided to feign death as an act of desperation. He was pretty quick to turn tail and flee during the dungeon itself after being beaten up, so I think the logic holds at least somewhat.