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The original books were followed up with a sequel series, ''The Malloreon'' (which is basically "''The Belgariad'' all over again but everyone is older", as the characters themselves quickly notice) and then much later by two standalone [[Prequel|prequels]], ''Belgarath the Sorcerer'' and ''Polgara the Sorceress'', which tell the life stories of the titular characters. All of Eddings's works are likely [[Spiritual Successor|Spiritual Successors]] of this one.
* ''The Belgariad''
** ''Pawn of Prophecy''
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See also ''[[The Elenium]]'', Eddings' third series and [[Spiritual Successor]] to ''The Belgariad'' and ''[[The Malloreon]]'' - albeit with a much stronger focus on over-the-top battles and [[Bond One-Liner|Bond One Liners]].
{{franchisetropes}}
=== A-C ===
* [[Achievements in Ignorance]]:
** Garion succeeds in bringing a horse back to life, simply because he doesn't ''know'' that it's supposed to be impossible.
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* [[Alien Geometries]]: Belgarath has a stick with [[Mind Screw|only one end]]. He uses it to [[Mundane Utility|keep children occupied so they don't bother him]].
* [[All Deaths Final]]: Due to universal agreement of the gods, with two notable exceptions.
* [[Alliterative Title]]: ''Pawn of Prophecy'' and ''Enchanters' End Game''.
* [[All Powerful Bystander]]: Both Prophecies by mutual agreement. If they directly clashed, they would blot out entire tracts of existence.
* [[Alternative Character Interpretation]]: In the Angarak world, Belgarath is apparently [[Complete Monster|something used to scare children into behaving]].
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** Garion and Torak both become enormous for the final battle. Polgara does it herself earlier.
** Also Durnik {{spoiler|when he banishes the Demon Lord Nahaz}} and {{spoiler|Poledra when she fights as a wolf against Zandramas who is in the form of a dragon}}, both in the Malloreon.
* [[Audible Sharpness]]: The Sword of the Rivan King is described as making a steely slithering sound when pulled out of its scabbard.
* [[Awesome Moment of Crowning]]: The Rivan King, of course. A sword drawn from stone? Check. Heralded as such by a keystone of creation? Check. Massive numbers of people bowing? Check. [[Big No]] from the girl who realized this means she has to marry you, even though she secetly wants to? Check. Awakening of a god, the god he is destined to duel? Big Goddamned Check.
* [[Axe Crazy]]: Urvon, Taur Urgas, and possibly Torak.
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** The Light Prophecy explicitly tells Garion that she was no longer a seer... but that she ''had'' looked into the future, and she has a ''very'' good memory.
* [[Capital Letters Are Magic]]: The word <small>EVENT</small>, rendered in small capitals, refers specifically to an event required for the fulfillment of prophecy. These <small>EVENTS</small> are in essence instantaneous conflict between the two opposing Wills of the Universe, settled by a choice made by a mortal. The reason that they are instantaneous is that longer conflicts would destroy the universe.
* [[Catch Phrase]]:
* [[Catch Phrase]] -- Garion: "Why me?" {{spoiler|Poledra}} and Polgara (on occasion): "How remarkable." Silk: "Trust me."▼
{{quote|'''Garion''': "Why me?"}}
* [[Charm Person]]: Asharak the Murgo's favourite trick, pulled liberally on Garion practically since birth. He stops when Garion decides to [[Kill It with Fire|kill him with fire]].▼
▲
{{quote|'''Silk''': "Trust me."}}
* [[Character Title]]: Eddings had originally envisioned ''The Belgariad'' as a trilogy with the titles ''Garion'', ''Ce'Nedra'', and ''Kal Torak''. In the end this was averted by Eddings' publisher, who mandated five books instead of three and insisted on [[Chess Motifs]] for the titles.
▲* [[Charm Person]]: Asharak the Murgo's favourite trick, along with [[Tongue-Tied]], pulled liberally on Garion practically since birth
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Sprinkled liberally throughout the series, but most obviously in ''The Malloreon''. Examples include Zith, Sadi's pet snake, whom Velvet uses to {{spoiler|kill Harakan}}; the whole business with the Grolims being afraid to go near Kell; the subtle cannon at the beginning, where Garion says 'Fortune tellers are never right- one of them once predicted Durnik will live twice. How silly is that?'; and most especially the frequent references to the Turim reef, which ends up being {{spoiler|The Place Which Is No More}}, but nobody noticed due to language drift.
* [[The Chessmaster]]: Both the [[Big Good|Light]] and [[Bigger Bad|Dark]] Prophecies. Having eons to prepare helps. Zandramas is also a decent Chessmaster, although whether it's personal skill, or the result of having been infused with the Spirit of Dark is up for debate. She certainly manages to plan ahead, with each of her moves ready to fall into place the minute that a previous one fails.
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* [[Cute Monster Girl]]: The Dryads are technically a race of this, but look identical to humans.
* [[Cute Mute]]: Errand, at least until ''The Malloreon'', and [[Lampshaded]] there: "I see you've learned to talk, boy."
=== D-F ===
* [[Day Hurts Dark-Adjusted Eyes]]: Ulgos.
* [[Dark Messiah]]: Zandramas to many Grolims, and the people of Darshiva. Harakan also enjoys playing this role, as evidenced by his Ulfgar and {{spoiler|Mengha}} personas, which he uses to subvert the Bear-Cult and the Karands respectively. Neither one of them really cares about the people that they're supposedly representing, and are only using it for power.
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* [[Death by Materialism]]: Most people who stray into Maragor.
* [[Death Seeker]]: Garion strongly suspects [[The Emperor|'Zakath]] of being one of these in [[The Malloreon]].
* [[Deconfirmed Bachelor]]: Silk, especially in ''the
{{quote|'''Garion:''' "Is ''everybody'' getting married?"
'''Silk:''' "Not ''me'', my young friend. In spite of this universal plunge towards matrimony, ''I'' still haven't lost my senses. If worse comes to worse, I still know how to run." -- ''(From the last few pages of the Belgariad)'' }}
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* [[Epic Fail]]:
** In ''[[The Belgariad]]'' Lelldorin manages to extend an epic fail over the course of several weeks. When he announces that he's going to get back to the main group, his beloved refuses to stay behind. During the departure and trip he manages to break her father's leg, run his cousin through the leg "just a little bit", punch out all of a priest's teeth, and cause enough assorted mayhem to get a bounty put on his head by the crown. And all of this was ''without trying''. This is also an example of [[Disaster Dominoes]]. He did successfully marry the girl in the process, though! (Only because traveling alone with her would cause more trouble.)
** In ''[[The Belgariad|The
* [[Eunuchs Are Evil]]: The kingdom of Nyissa seems to have a lot of evil eunuchs. Considering that you have to be a eunuch to work at the royal palace, and the palace is filled with intrigue, this is a [[Justified Trope]]. Remedied in the second series when {{spoiler|[[Evil Chancellor|Sadi]]}} turns out to be <s>a pretty decent guy</s> no worse than the protagonists. And pretty [[Badass]] to boot.
* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]:
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* [[Fat Idiot]]: [[Subverted Trope|Rhodar isn't one.]] In fact, he is fat because he loves to sit and read, and is one of the best educated people in the world.
* [[Fiery Redhead]]: Ce'Nedra, very much so.
* [[First Time in the Sun]]:
* [[Five-Bad Band]]: Torak is [[The Big Bad]], Ctuchik and Zedar are his [[Co-Dragons]], with Zedar doing double duty as [[The Evil Genius]], Taur Urgas is [[The Brute]], [[The Dark Chick]] position is kept open for Polgara, and the actual dragon is the [[Team Pet]].
* [[Five-Man Band]]:
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* [[The Fundamentalist]]: The Bear-Cult. [[Religious Bruiser|Relg]] starts out this way (albeit as a more positive variant), but after several books worth of [[Character Development]] he manages to lose the worst aspects of it, while remaining a deeply religious man.
* [[Funetik Aksent]]: Generally restricted to minor characters; the two most prominent examples are the juggler Feldegast, who has a thick brogue, and Th' Ol' Farmer I' Th' Tavern Wit' Th' Peg. (that's "pig", by the way.) Garion imitates the Old Farmer's accent at times when he's trying to amuse Ce'nedra or irritate Belgarath.
=== G-I ===
* [[Genre Blindness]]: The Child of Dark seems to feed from an unending stream of ignorance about the harm its [[You Can't Fight Fate|attempts to subvert the Prophecy]] do to its own cause. Then again, this is [[Lampshade Hanging|pointed out by the heroes]] as one of the reasons the Dark needs to be defeated -- it's incapable of changing or even acknowledging the need for change.
* [[Gentleman Thief]]: Silk is a prime example.
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** In ''Belgarath the Sorcerer'', assumedly to remain inconspicuous, Aldur takes the form of an old man riding a rickety cart.
** {{Spoiler|Eriond}}.
* [[God
* [[God of Evil]]: Played straight with Torak, who is very fond of human sacrifice.
* [[God's Hands Are Tied]]: Applies to both the gods and the Prophecies, as there are rules that the Prophecies have agreed to, one of these being that the Prophecies only battle each other through proxy.
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** In ''Belgarath the Sorcerer'', Belgarath and Beldin at one point meet for the first time in a while, and ask what the other has been up to; Belgarath had just finished a rigorous mathematical proof that three and three made six, while Beldin had been trying to determine the exact difference between the concepts of "right" and "good." Both men wonder why the other was doing something [[Mad Mathematician|so]] [[Contemplate Our Navels|pointless]].
* [[Hysterical Woman]]: Played straight with Ce'Nedra in ''The Belgariad'' and taken even further in ''The Malloreon''. In the first series she's prone to hysterics, often throws tantrums, and at one point almost gets her friend and Garion's cousin Adara killed because she was bored. In ''The Malloreon'' she becomes even more unstable with the theft of Geran, and her major contributions to the party are unreasonable demands that someone get her baby back that very second followed by crying fits when it's pointed out that she's asking for the impossible.
* [[I Am Who?]]: Garion and {{spoiler|Errand.}}
* [[Idiot Ball]]:
** In ''Guardians of the West'', neither Garion, Porenn, or Silk pick up on the the extremely obvious hints General Haldar drops about his involvement with the Bear Cult. Even Silk – the [[Guile Hero]] of the group – doesn't put two and two together.
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* [[Ignorance Is Bliss]]: Garion, deliberately. Also played with in Errand/Eriond.
* [[I Gave My Word]]: Garion in ''Pawn of Prophecy'', after unwillingly being taken into confidence about a plot to kill the king of Arendia and promising not to reveal where he got the information.
* [[I Have Many Names]]: Belgarath and Silk especially. Most of the party is royalty and have at least one title of some description.
* [[I Have You Now, My Pretty]]: A recurring threat against Polgara is that Torak will [[Mind Rape]] and force her into marriage. Indeed, the turning point of the final battle comes {{spoiler|when Polgara is able to tell Torak exactly where he can go stick what, despite his attempts to force her. Belgarath specifically points out that if Torak had had the emotional support of Polgara's "love", however false, Belgarion would never have been able to defeat him.}}
* [[I Just Want to Be Normal]]: Garion. Everyone's response: You're not. Get over it.
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"Does the ambassador know that you know?" Hettar asked.
"Of course he does." The fat man laughed. "But he doesn't think that I'm aware of the fact that he knows that I know." }}
* [[Impossible Task]]: Aldur had to resort to this in order to make Belgarath find out about the Will and the Word. Played for laughs when Belgarath tries to pull the same trick on Beldin, who, as it turned out, already knew about sorcery.
* [[Improbable Antidote]]:
** In ''Magician's Gambit'', Relg discovers that using his ability of passing through solid rock got rid of his cold.
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** Even Garion and Ce'Nedra, as she isn't technically human; it's stated that the Dryad strain breeds true in the female Borunes.
* [[In the Back]]: An interesting prevention tactic employed by Mimbrate tax collectors is mentioned in ''The Rivan Codex'': a thick, well-fitting wooden plank under the chainmail to protect the back from Asturian arrows. Apparently it's not unusual for a tax collector to just ignore the arrows stuck in his back.
* [[Insistent Terminology]]: Invoked a few times, especially with boats vs. ships.
{{quote|"Ships," Anheg corrected. "They're called ships. A boat is something else."}}
* [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons]]: Averted. Dragons are quite pathetic creatures in the world of the Belgariad and in the original series they are only mentioned in one page in ''Magician's Gambit'' and even then not referred to as dragons or in fact any name at all. Their portrayal – or lack thereof – makes one wonder if Eddings's publisher demanded he add dragons just because he was writing a fantasy series and it was only done to fill an arbitrary quota.
* [[Invisible to Normals]]: In ''Enchanters' End Game'', Belgarath teaches the Orb how to make itself, the Sword of the Rivan King, and even Garion appear "unremarkable" to most people.
* [[Involuntary Shapeshifter]]: Barak's hereditary "curse" is to turn into a bear when Garion is threatened. He passes the trait to his son, with respect to Garion's son.
=== J-L ===
* [[The Jester]]: Beldin's role and one of his disguises.
* [[Kill It with Fire]]: How Asharak/Chamdar [[You Killed My Father|killed Garion's parents]], [[Ironic Death|and thus]], how Garion kills Chamdar. And in ''Belgarath the Sorcerer'', Belsambar suggests throwing burning pitch into the Angarak cities.
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* [[Love Hungry]]: Torak, which guides much of his motivation.
* [[Love Potion]]: [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]] in ''Polgara The Sorceress''. The members of Duke Kathandrion's court exasperate Polgara with requests for such a potion, which she notes is a [[Trope|literary device]] prevalent in Arendish epics.
=== M-O ===
* [[Mad God]]: Torak and Mara. The latter was driven insane by the grief of {{spoiler|apparently}} having all of his worshippers slaughtered in a war, while the former went mad from [[And I Must Scream|the constant, unending pain of being burnt by magical fire]].
* [[Magic A Is Magic A]]:
** Magic is rather flexible... but you may ''not'' unmake anything. Breaking things is fine, as that just changes its state, but using magic to make something "Be not!" causes it to backlash and take ''you'' out. Which means that you technically ''can'' unmake something, so long as the something is ''you''. A couple of sorcerers in the [[Backstory]] actually committed suicide this way.
** Magic comes in several types in Eddings' world: Sorcery uses "the Will and the Word"; Witchcraft utilizes nature spirits; and Magic involves summoning a demon to do your bidding for as long as you can hold him in the shape you create for him (generally, not long enough.) Necromancy exists, which is the magic of speaking with the dead spirits and commanding them. There are Wizards, whose power is never specifically defined in either set of books. It is also hinted at that there are more types of magic than that, such as that Salmissra has a type of magic which appears to be specific to the Brides of Issa. Also, it's worth mentioning that Alchemy isn't a form of magic. It is considered a science. Senji just happens to be a
** Also: Magic requires you to pay homage to physics, meaning the
* [[Magic Knight]]: Garion, who's frighteningly proficient with both weaponry and sorcery.
* [[Magical Nanny]]: Polgara plays this role as caretaker of the Rivan line for two thousand years. And her cooking... divine!
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* [[My God, What Have I Done?]]:
** Garion's horror and self-loathing over Asharak's death (no matter how badly it was deserved) is a major plot element of ''Queen of Sorcery''.
** Also a major plot point for {{spoiler|Zakath}} and his back story which affects his behaviour and decisions in much of ''the Belgariad'' and
* [[Narrative Profanity Filter]]: Eddings uses this a great deal, most notably with Beldin. Only missed in a couple instances, but in referring to female dogs. Usually played for entertainment purposes. The descriptions of (and reactions to) people swearing can be as or more entertaining than the swearing itself.
{{quote|'''Garion:''' (in response to Ce'Nedra) "Why dear, I didn't even think you knew what half of those words meant!"}}
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* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: Belgarath has elevated this to an art form. Garion's not bad either. Anheg uses it with great skill for political purposes.
* [[Offered the Crown]]
▲** The Prophecy (and in the [[Retcon]] [[Prequel]], {{spoiler|Polgara and Ul}}) really screwed around with Belgarath. {{spoiler|Letting him suffer for four thousand years because he was lied to about his wife dying while he had - as he saw it - abandoned her?}} Harsh, man.
* [[One-Gender Race]]: The nonhuman Dryads. They kidnap human men and force them to father children. This goes one of two ways: a girl will always be a Dryad, and a boy will be human with Dryad genes lying dormant. These Dryad genes can then be passed on to the children of that male - and they are, resulting in Ce'Nedra, who, thanks to dilution, is half Dryad. (It's not stated explicitly, but the implication is that the Dryads, left to their own devices, kill male children.)
** Pure dryads don't have male children. In "Belgarath the Sorcerer", Belgarath notes that crossbreeding dryads with the House of Borune did some odd things, since a pure dryad "would never give birth to a male child".
* [[One-Handed Zweihander]]: Since the Orb – when attached to the handle – magically makes almost all the weight disappear, the Sword of the Rivan King can be used one-handed.
* [[Only Child Syndrome]]: A hereditary trait of the Rivan line, largely due to the interference of the Prophecy. Retconned in ''Polgara the Sorceress''. Apparently at least a few of Garion's ancestors had multiple children, but only the direct line mattered, so none of Garion's various great-great-etc-aunts and uncles ultimately mattered, and the only cousin he ever knowingly meets is from his mother's side of the family. The founder of the hidden line is explicitly the king's youngest grandson, implying that any male in an unbroken male line descended from Riva would work. Let's hope there aren't any more unbroken male lines. A direct sibling is never portrayed; while Polgara mentions having lots of children to play with in Cherek, they could've been maternal cousins or some such.
* [[Only the Chosen May Wield]]: The Orb, and as a consequence the Sword of the Rivan King due to its immense weight when Orb-less.
* [[Only the Pure of Heart]]: After its misuse by Torak, the Orb refused to bear the touch of any except one with a pure heart. This turned out to be Riva, and his descendants bear the mark of their bond with the Orb.
** Later Eriond, in ''The Malloreon''. His demonstration of this during Zandramas' first attack on the heroes nearly gives Polgara a heart attack.
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* [[Our Nudity Is Different]]: Relg rants about how Ulgo women tries to entice him by showing their calves and forearms.
* [[Outsourcing Fate]]: At the end of ''The Malloreon'', {{spoiler|Cyradis makes the final choice between the Light and Dark Prophecies}}.
=== P-R ===
* [[Pals with Jesus]]:
** Before the gods left the world, Belar, god of the Alorns, used to live among his "rowdy, undisciplined, and drunk" people. The admiration that Alorn girls displayed towards him [[Divine Date|didn't seem entirely religious either]].
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** Each of the nations of the world, overlaid on their [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]]. Drasnians are devious, Tolnedrans are greedy, Arends take [[Honor Before Reason]] to truly ridiculous levels, Nyissans are decadent hedonists, Alorns are sailors and party animals.
** Again, justified. The gods chose people who had traits that appealed to them to follow them, and have spent umpteen-thousand years cultivating those traits. Extra justified in the case of the Angaraks, who were split into nations based on physical characteristics after Torak returned from a few thousand years of doing god-stuff. Too bad those characteristics were caste-related and not tribal, like he thought.
** With the Murgos, as stated by Belgarath in ''Belgarath, the
* [[Plot Tailored to the Party]]: Each of the many companions has a specific skill (some more broadly applicable than others) which is necessary at some point.
* [[Power Limiter]]: Sorcery has some serious limitations. Its use results in physical exhaustion, and it makes noise that other people with the same talent can hear and use to locate you. The latter is especially cumbersome if you're trying to sneak around in enemy territory.
* [[The Power of Love]]: Torak isn't able to take over the world because Polgara {{spoiler|loves Durnik}}, and holds on to that while he's trying to bend her will to his.
* [[Power Strain Blackout]]: Since using sorcery always results in some amount of physical exhaustion, this is a very real risk, and not even the worst case scenario. Happens to {{Spoiler|Belgarath in ''Castle of Wizardry''}} and {{spoiler|Polgara in ''Enchanters' End Game''}}.
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* [[Pretty Boy]]: Torak ''was'' one, before the whole burning thing. He was often described as "over-pretty".
* [["Previously On..."]]: Found in some form in both series. Sometimes – especially in the Malloreon – part of the dedicated prologue section recaps events of both series on a general level. In pretty much all the books, though, more specific information is trickled out during the first few chapters with varying degrees of obviousness. Sometimes this exposition is rather well disguised, pretending to be mere context for a character's current thoughts, while other times party members are spouting [[As You Know]] dialogue in a rather out-of-character manner.
* [[Primal Fear (trope)|Primal Fear]]: [[Justified Trope|Justified]] and [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] with the underground-dwelling Ulgo people, who have a fear of ''non-enclosed'' spaces.
* [[Professional Killer]]: {{spoiler|Brill}} and the rest of the Daghashi, and Issus, a Nyissan poisoner and assassin. Silk, Liselle, and the other members of Drasnian intelligence have this as one of their skill sets.
* [[Prolonged Prologue]]: The entiriety of ''Guardians of the West'' is basically just a long, 450 page setup before the meat-and-potatoes of ''the Malloreon''. Even within the book itself, the first half is mostly about Garion's relatively ordinary everyday life before the plot starts to happen.
* [[Prophecies Are Always Right]]: [[Deconstructed Trope]]. The reason for the prophecies in the first place is that a pure accident caused the original Purpose of the Universe to be threatened, so it split apart to protect itself. The competing Purposes then each set about to cause a course of events to occur such that their preferred outcome would come to pass. They create prophecies specifically to set out instructions for their pawns to make those things happen -- or more specifically, to give meaning to the events. Moreover, the competing prophecies sometimes describe mutually exclusive outcomes that do not come to pass until they are resolved in a moment of Choice, which can only be made by a mortal.
* [[Prophet Eyes]]: The blind seer that Polgara cures has them. Naradas, Zandramas' [[The Dragon|Dragon]] in ''The Malloreon'' has something similar, but his pupils are visible and his eyes function -- just the rest of his eyes are blank white. Seeing as how he's neither blind or a prophet, the integrity of the trope is maintained.
* [[Protagonist-Centered Morality]]: To the point of caricature, but still played completely straight. It's even [[Discussed Trope|discussed]] by the heroes at a few points, and acknowledged that, while it may not necessarily be a good thing, it's absolutely necessary to fulfil the Prophecy. Belgarath performed assassinations as well as coerced marriages to create the families of the [[True Companions]], and is quite unapologetic about it. Yes, it was wrong, but [[Papa Wolf|he doesn't really care.]] At one point, he [[Lampshade|Lampshades]] this when he tells Garion that he's less interested in Good vs Evil than Us vs. Them.
* [[A Protagonist Shall Lead Them]]: Eventually played straight with Garion, but averted during the events of ''The Belgariad''. Ce'Nedra ends up being the one to rally the people of the West and lead them in the war against the Angaraks, since {{spoiler|Garion sneaks off with Silk and Belgarath to face Torak}}.
* [[Proud Warrior Race]]: The [[Boisterous Bruiser|Chereks]], [[Fragile Speedster|Algars]], [[Honour Before Reason|Arends]], and [[Blood Knight|Murgos]] all represent different flavors of this trope.
* [[Puberty Superpower]]: Beldin theorizes that their particular type of "talent" only shows itself during puberty as a safety precaution, since having baby sorceres around could be highly inconvenient.
* [[Rape as Drama]]: It's implied that Barak raped his [[Arranged Marriage|arranged wife]] Merel during the events of ''Pawn of Prophecy''. And since they already had two children, it's probably happened before. Merel [[Domestic Abuse|puts him through marital hell]] in retaliation, including occasionally [[Asshole Victim|preventing him from seeing his kids]] (and [[Parental Neglect|vice versa]], of course).
* [[Really Gets Around]]:
** Thull women have this reputation, but not in a good way - pregnant women aren't acceptable sacrifices to Torak, so they try to ''always'' be pregnant. The line of Salmissras in Nyissa also act this way, because the potion that keeps them looking young stimulates their [[Anything That Moves|libido]]; one of the reasons the last one doesn't mind being turned into an immortal snake is because, for the first time in years, she ''isn't'' horny. This is the reason why all the functionaries in Salmissra's palace are eunuchs. Even the Nyissans acknowledge that this is a necessity, because if they weren't then nothing would really be able to get done in the palace... for rather obvious reasons if you think about it.
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* [[Robe and Wizard Hat]]: Sorcerers maintain that this image of them is a fiction invented by [[Muggles]] who know nothing about them. The few times Belgarath is forced into such an outfit, he is notably apoplectic about it.
* [[Ruling Couple]]: Belgarion and Ce'Nedra of Riva, and Korodullin and Mayaserana of Arendia.
* [[Running Gag]]: Garion asking {{spoiler|'Zakath}} if he's sure he's not part Arendish. Comes up whenever the latter is behaving too enthusiastically in [[The Malloreon]].
=== S-U ===
* [[Sarcastic Devotee]]: At one point Garion notes that he understands now why Belgarath was so consistently irritated at Silk throughout the entire series - leadership is hard enough without someone standing behind you providing a sarcastic running commentary.
* [[Scaled Up]]: Zandramas turns into a dragon. She seems to go out of her way towards being as ostentatious as possible.
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* [[Sixth Ranger]]: Many characters join up with the group along the way, but the best example is probably {{spoiler|'Zakath}} in [[The Malloreon]]. He joins the group towards the end of the fourth book, after having been a major stumbling block to their progress during the first part of the series, and an antagonist in [[The Belgariad]]. He soon becomes something of a second [[The Lancer|Lancer]] to Garion (Durnik is his first one).
* [[Shower of Angst]]: After witnessing his first lethal fight, Garion takes a very thorough bath.
* [[Skunk Stripe]]: Polgara has one. All the
* [[Smug Snake]]: [[Eunuchs Are Evil|Sadi]], before a boatload of [[Character Development]] in [[The Malloreon]]. By the end he's just a straight up [[Manipulative Bastard]]. Most Nyissans (and all Nyissan eunuchs) seem to have this as their [[Planet of Hats|hat]]. Harakan is another good example, and even [[The Dragon|Ctuchik]] has his moments.
* [[The Sneaky Guy]]: Silk.
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* [[Tap on the Head]]:
** The safe way to deal with a sorcerer, apparently.
** Averted in ''the
* [[Tell Me About My Father]]: In ''Pawn of Prophecy'', a young Garion asks his Aunt Pol about his mother. A few years later he asks Mister Wolf to tell him about his parents.
* [[Terrain Sculpting]]: In the backstory, Torak, after stealing the Orb, is faced with a war against all the other gods and their followers. To protect himself and his people, he uses the Orb to crack the entire continent in two, turning a pangaea into two distinct landmasses and causing lots of geological fallout and mayhem.
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* [[Unstoppable Rage]]: When Polgara gets angry, even Belgarath keeps his head down. Polgara's explosion of rage in ''Castle of Wizardry'' (upon finding out that her father and Belgarion had sneaked out to face Torak without her) shook the entire royal palace of Riva and altered weather patterns for miles around. They go to some effort in ''The Malloreon'' to avoid a similar catastrophe. Of course, Belgarath takes a perverse interest in inspiring the rage, when it suits him. Also Barak, when Garion is in trouble; and Garion himself is goaded into this by Zandramas in ''The Malloreon''.
* [[Upbringing Makes the Hero]]: [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] by Polgara; she deliberately raises Garion as a [[Farm Boy]] to give him a solid moral foundation for when he ends up having to save the world.
=== V-Z ===
* [[Vain Sorceress]]:
** Zandramas definitely has some traits of this.
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** Let's not forget Vella and Beldin in ''the Malloreon'', which virtually becomes {{spoiler|part of their courtship before they end up mated as a pair of hawks at the end of the series}}. The level to which they go to in their language towards one another makes even some who are already used to Beldin blanch.
* [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]]: A power of sorcerers- most develop a fondness for a particular animal form. Wolf for Garion and Belgarath, owl for Polgara, human for Poledra (who ''started out'' a wolf), and dragon for Zandramas. We also see Beldin take the form of a hawk and Ctuchik (or maybe Urvon) use the form of a [[Hell Hound|Hound of Torak]] in ''Belgarath''.
* [[The Wall Around the World]]: The Eastern Escarpment (also called the Algarian Escarpment in ''The Rivan Codex''), a mile high sheer basalt cliff that acts as a natural barrier between some of the Kingdoms of the West and the Angarak kingdoms to the east.
* [[Wanted Poster]]: Silk gets this treatment a lot, much to his disgust. Beldin too, in Mallorea, thanks to his vendetta against Urvon, much to his delight. Specifically, he creates a series of masterful characters with the help of shapeshifting that render the posters useless--but every century or so, drops into Urvon's home base and butchers a lot of priests and guards to let Urvon know he's still kicking around and wanting to continue a discussion they once had about white-hot hooks and Urvon's guts.
* [[Weak-Willed]]: Ce'Nedra spends a lot of time getting mind-controlled. At one point, Belgarath shows his [[Genre Savvy]] by leaving her behind so this can't happen.
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* [[Well, Excuse Me, Princess!]]: Garion and Ce'Nedra's relationship in a nutshell.
* [[Wizard Duel]]: Belgarath vs. Ctuchik in Book 3 is an awesome scene. Also Belgarath vs. Zedar on the fifth book and prequel.
* [[Wizards Live Longer]]: Since all the sorcerers we meet
:In any case, all the sorcerers encountered in the books get immortality as a package deal with their powers, and witches like Vordai have a few more centuries than the average person in them (magicians' lifespans are never specified, though it's likely few reach their natural span ''anyway'', considering how [[Evil Is Not a Toy|dangerous]] what they do is).
* [[When Trees Attack]]: An unnamed species of a deadly, flesh-eating tree makes a short appearance in ''The King of the Murgos''. It's described as having golden leaves, colorful blossoms, and rich-looking purple fruit. It extrudes a sweet smell that makes one regard the tree with affection. All this to lure prey to the range of its tendrils. According to [[Plant Person|Ce'Nedra]], the tree feeds on the agony of its victims as much as on their flesh.
* [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]]:
** Mostly averted - the [[Magic A Is Magic A|local rules of magic]] mean that learning sorcery instantly conveys immortality. Sorcerers never bitch about it, and instead find ways to stay busy for all of those years. This is [[Justified Trope|explored further]] in ''The Malloreon'' and the supplemental novels. Sorcerers do spontaneously pop up from time to time, but there's some attrition due to accidentally (or deliberately) unmaking themselves. The ones that survive this process are the ones who learn how to handle immortality. Belgarath even admits that part of the sorcerer aloofness and tendency to hole up in their towers in study and ignore the passing of a few centuries, every now and then, is a vital coping technique, lest grief drive them insane. It also makes Polgara that much more incredible, as she was forced to forgo this tactic for a thousand years...living with a family line whose every member (''every'' member, ''from birth to death'') she was intimately involved with. It would be interesting to see how Garion copes in ten to twenty years time when the [[True Companions]] start dying off...<ref>Silk, the oldest non-immortal member of the group, is pushing fifty by the end of the ''
** Played very straight with Belgarath. Two of his sorcerer brothers – who he has lived with in the Vale for hundreds of years – take their own lives due to depression. After losing his wife of 500 years, he goes insane and has to be chained to his bed and constantly supervised to make sure he doesn't take his own life. After a year he starts [[Walking the Earth]] and becomes [[Drowning My Sorrows|a drunken beggar]] and eventually ends up [[Sex for Solace|entertaining women in Maragor]].
* [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?]]: Silk's dislike of enclosed spaces is tipped over into a full-blown [[Claustrophobia|phobia]] after a traumatic event in the first series. He also doesn't like snakes. This becomes a major plot point when his love interest in the second series starts to carry a highly venomous snake in her bodice. Some have speculated that she did this strictly to mess with Silk; however this is neither stated nor even strongly implied in the books. She has, however, commented on more than one occasion that Zith was cold and it was a place for her to be warm. Liselle is a pragmatist as well, and it is suggested that (possibly at the unknown prompting of the Prophecy of Light) she began doing so because it might be useful in the future. And it was. She did admit to Silk that the first time she did it it made her skin crawl and it was all she could do to keep from screaming.
* [[With Us or Against Us]]: Invoked by Belgarath in ''The Malloreon'', but it's at least [[Justified Trope|justified]] by the fact that there really ''are'' only two sides in the great conflict.
* [[Women's Mysteries]]: Played very straight with anything to do with women's biology.
* [[World of Snark]]: Both heroes and villains make liberal use of sarcasm. It's hard to go a page without somebody making some snarky comment.
* [[Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe]]: The gods and Mimbrates love to speak on this manner. Especially if in [[Big Words|eloquence]].
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