The True Threat of Kralkatorrik (Spoilers & Such)

From the Abaddon's Gate mission dialogue:Kormir: "No. Yes. Kormir. And much more."Party leader: "Abaddon?"Kormir: "No. His power. His knowledge. But not him. His will is broken. There is a new god of secrets. There is a new day."

So, we know that Kralkatorrik and Aurene both absorbed something from Balthazar. We also know that when Kormir absorbed something similar from Abaddon, she also obtained his knowledge. What if Kralkatorrik just absorbed Balthazar's 2000+ years of knowledge regarding the secrets of the gods, military strategy, the strengths and weaknesses of different weapons and the various tactics used when employing them? That would make Kralkatorrik much more than just a super powerful Elder Dragon; it would effectively make him the most brilliant military mind on the planet with power surpassing that of any god.

Either that or Aurene inherited some of that knowledge and is probably a better commander than we are now...

Discuss?

EDIT: Also, if Kralkatorrik does enter the Blood Legion homelands, perhaps we could expect an epic showdown between Kralkatorrik, the scion of Balthazar's military genius, and the three High Legions of the charr. Who will win?! Mortal Military Machine, or Immortal Military Genius? Dragonbowl 2019.

Hard to say. Firstly, Abaddon was the god of knowledge, so it makes sense for Kormir to absorb Abaddon's knowledge. Meanwhile, Balthazar was the god of war, so his knowledge and memories being passed down doesn't exactly mean the same as for Abaddon. Nothing really shows that Grenth learned what Dhuum had known over his time as god of death. Though Dhuum also couldn't be killed, and gained power from nearby deaths, which would hint that the idea that each god is omnipotent "in their own domain" is true - which in turn means that Balthazar's successor would simply be an unmatched warmonger, not learning all that Balthazar knew per se.

Secondly, Balthazar was already stripped of his divinity, so he's not the same case as Abaddon or Dhuum. The magic that Kralkatorrik and Aurene consumed was mostly from the bloodstone, Primordus, and Jormag. While Balthazar did have some of his own magic (he reignited Sohothin), it's probably not all that much. And even if there was a decent amount, there's nothing to say that got absorbed by the two either - we've had dozens of hints that divinity cannot be easily consumed by the dragons (from Forgotten to Foefire to Divine Fire to Bloodstone).

According to the lore, Kralkatorrik is not sentient. He is only an animal. According to lore when he first woke up Anise and Queen Jenneh tried to read his mind and it was it was rage and chaos. Its stands to reason that Mordremoth was the only dragon that was sentient because the "mind" was one of his powers. So unless they retcon the whole mind reading thing; then I assume he only adsorbed Balthazar's powers and could not do anything with his knowledge.

No, that's according to the common individual's interpretation of the Elder Dragons - that they're "mindless forces of nature". The Personal Story - hell, even the novel Edge of Destiny - shows that all the Elder Dragons are very much intelligent.

When Jennah and Anise tried to read into the storm's mind, they didn't get any real sense of what is or is not there, because they were not prepared for the backlash that trying to go into an Elder Dragon's mind results in. When Snaff went into Kralkatorrik's mind, there was a very clear desire, a wanting and a hatred - and mindless things do not have desire nor hatred. The book outright calls Kralkatorrik cold and calculating, and a mindless thing cannot calculate.