I was mostly asking about Boney's answer to the question. It was different than I expected it to be because Thorek had negotiated a treaty with Ulthuan on behalf of the High King.
That's a good point, but I suppose it's possible that Thorek
did consult the High King before signing the treaty (or negotiating it) to feel out the High King's position on matters, and it just wasn't mentioned in the text.
We do not, Boney's talked about it before. To Belegar it's just a runic crown that provides physical buffs.
Belegar didn't read the A Tide Turns interlude. He can't see it like the questers can. Mathilde guessed to Belegar that Laurelorn learned of Karak Eight Peaks when he completed the crown. But we know that's wrong, Karak Eight Peaks wasn't reconnected to the network until the crown arrived at Karaz-a-Karak.
Was the warpstone in Kvinn-Wyr blocking the nexus? The only way I can imagine it doing that is if it was in the chamber itself and the description we got of one of them didn't seem to imply that trolls could fit inside. The nexus was inactive because it had gone inert after Vala-Azril-Ungol was abandoned by the dwarves and it reactivated because the crown told it too.
Sssort of. The nexus was reactivated when Belegar's crown was completed and activated, but it wasn't reconnected to the KAWN until the crown came within range of Everpeak. So the crown
did act as the on/off switch for the nexus, but reconnecting it with the KAWN required bringing the activated crown to the Rune of Eternity.
As for the warpstone blocking the nexus, it's not known. It's possible that the warpstone was a byproduct of dhar buildup because the nexus was inactive. It's possible that the warpstone was from an abundance of dhar leftover in the nexus from when it had been deactivated and was leaking out (possibly as a safety valve for the nexus). It's possible it was due to some kind of minor damage to the nexus that would normally not be an issue with the nexus active but was a minor issue when it was inactive. But the fact that the reactivation of the nexus blew off the warpstone and that warpstone did not prevent the reactivation means that it was not blocking the nexus from functioning.
What we do know is that reactivating the nexus--but not reconnecting it to the KAWN--broke off the warpstone and hasn't caused any more warpstone to form since, suggesting that reactivating the nexus has solved the problem. Given that the trolls had been feeding off of the warpstone in a manner implying that it was a semi-renewable resource for them, it the warpstone wasn't just a one-time creation prior to the reactivation. Mathilde and Belegar might know that the warpstone was there before the reactivation and was lying on the ground in a way that suggests it had been blown off by the reactivation afterwards, though.
What's interesting is that the reactivation of the nexus ejected the warpstone buildup rather than absorb it. This might indicate that that function was a designed ability of the nexus, or it could be a side-effect of the nexus' normal function somehow. The reactivation did unleash a burst of energies in each of the mountains that the runelords and even Bok could clearly feel, so it's possible that that burst of energy was simply physically strong enough to break off the warpstone.
Yeah, but as Boney has pointed out, we're reading the quest. Belegar's not a quest reader.
Belegar knows that his crown is directly tied to the function of the nexus/nexuses within Karak Eight Peaks somehow, but he doesn't understand how it works or how to utilize that functionality beyond the fact that inserting all of the sapphires into their slots caused the nexus/nexuses to reactivate. He at least knows that the crown and its sapphires are critically important beyond just the symbolic/cultural/political value, both to Karak Eight Peaks and to the Karaz Ankor as a whole.
As for whether or not Belegar could have theoretically just inserted the sapphires into the crown before setting foot in Karak Eight Peaks and reactivated the nexus that way, it's not known and Boney has implied it's entirely possible that wouldn't have worked even if Belegar had tried it. It is kind of ironic that the energy from the fallen holds might still be pouring into Karaz-a-Karak if they had been designed to stay on even if the hold fell, or if the on/off switch for the nexuses had not relied on the holds being still held by their populations.
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