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The companions encountered kings, wizards, dryads, politics and treachery, but they ultimately succeeded in returning the Orb to its rightful place. There, Garion's true identity and [[The Chosen One|destiny]] were revealed. And so Garion took up the massive [[Blade of Fearsome Size|Sword of the Rivan King]] and met the dark god Torak in [[Duel to the Death|personal combat]].
 
That's the plot of [[David Eddings]]'s ''Belgariad''. [[Hero's Journey|And a whole lot of]] other things, too. The series is [[Strictly Formula]], but that was Eddings' intention from the start. He wrote the series after taking a course on literary criticism, [[Troperiffic|digging out all the tropes he could find, and deciding to actually build a good story with them]]. He also deliberately focuses on the characters rather than the tropes, injecting liveliness and sardonic humor into stock situations—andsituations -- and the end result is a series that's incredibly popular and well-loved by fantasy fans the world over.
 
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 [[prequelPrequel|prequels]]s, ''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]]s of this one.
 
<big>'''Books in the series'''</big>
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{{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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* [[Arcadia]]: The Rivan Pasturelands and The Vale of Aldur count as one.
* [[Arch Enemy]]: [[Big Good|The Prophecy of Light]] and the [[Bigger Bad|Dark Prophecy]], [[The Messiah|The Child of Light]] and [[The Antichrist|The Child of Dark]] (on a personal level, [[The Chosen One|Garion]] and [[Physical God|Torak]]), [[Cool Old Guy|Belgarath]] and [[The Dragon|Ctuchik]], [[The Grotesque|Beldin]] and [[Red Right Hand|Urvon]], [[Eviler Than Thou|Nahaz and Mordja]], and, in the backstory, [[God|UL]] and [[Satan|The King of Hell]]. Zandramas and {{spoiler|Poledra}} also have shades of this.
* [[Archetypal Character|Archetypal Characters]]s: Ubiquitously and deliberately, as noted above.
* [[Arranged Marriage]]: Garion and Ce'Nedra, ''centuries before they're born''. Note to the Tolnedran Empire: Signing a marriage contract for 'when the lost heir of Riva returns', when you don't really believe that day will ever come, can and will come back to bite you.
* [[Artifact of Doom]]: The Sardion. The Orb of Aldur shares some of this as well; anyone not expressly permitted to touch it will be obliterated, since it rebelled against Torak's misuse.
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*** To add real weight to that statement it should be noted that ALL Arends are difficult to scare, treat all life like really bad romantic poetry, and will pledge their lives to anyone in need without a second thought. Therefore inspiring even basic fear into them is very difficult.
** It should, however, be mentioned that Mandorallen is <s> very stupid</s> not overly burdened with intelligence, and so his judgement in the above example (with the legions) may be suspect.
* [[Badass Army]]: The Algars—aAlgars -- a culture of horse riding nomads who have trained themselves for centuries specifically to fight the Murgos. They are extremely good at it. Then there are the Mimbrate knights, who combine ridiculous combat prowess with utter fearlessness. And the Asturian archers, who can mow down opposing armies like wheat with a [[Rain of Arrows|storm of arrows]]. Then there are the Tolnedran legions, the only professional fighting force in the armies of the West, who are reputed to be able to kick the asses of any of the above, and the Cherek "navy", who pretty much can rule the seas if they want. Let's face it, most of the Western armies are badass to one extent or another.
* [[Badass Normal]]:
** [[Knight in Shining Armour|Mandorallen]], [[The Archer|Lelldorin]], [[Knife Nut|Silk]], [[Action Girl|Liselle]], [[Poisoned Weapons|Sadi]] and [[The Blacksmith|Durnik]] {{spoiler|pre-resurrection}} are among the few characters who aren't using magic, turning into bears, talking to horses, or at least making use of magically enhanced weaponry.
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* [[Berserk Button]]: Don't lie to Polgara. Or threaten Garion's son. (This goes for Ce'Nedra too.) Or threaten Garion anywhere near Barak.
* [[The Berserker]]: Barak's an unwilling heroic example. Apparently this kind of thing is common in Cherek warriors, even the ones who ''don't'' turn into bears. [[The Brute|Taur]] [[Axe Crazy|Urgas]] is an evil example.
* [[Best Served Cold]]: Belgarath buries the traitorous Zedar alive because of the astonishing number of atrocities he'd committed over the past, oh, four thousand years, including causing the {{spoiler|[[Not Quite Dead|death of Durnik (in self-defense)]].}} Let's also not forget Beldin's long standing grudge against Urvon, which causes the latter to erect [[Wanted Poster|Wanted Posters]]s across half of Mallorea in a desperate attempt to keep him at bay. In fact, Urvon's terror is so strong that it snaps him briefly back to reality when he's {{spoiler|[[Brainwashed and Crazy]]}}.
* [[Blade of Fearsome Size]]: The Sword of the Rivan King. At six feet long, and made of [[Thunderbolt Iron]] to boot, it would be impossible to lift without the Orb helping. The Orb also gives the sword its own personal [[Weirdness Censor]], at least when it isn't covering it in blue flames. The monstrous broadsword 'Zakath gets in Dal Perivor also counts; being mundane, Garion has to ask the Orb to help him lift it too.
* [[Big Bad]]: Torak in the first series and Zandramas in the second. Of course, the real villain is the [[Bigger Bad|Dark Prophecy]] itself.
* [[Bigger Bad]]: The Dark Prophecy. In a way, both the series' [[Big Bad|Big Bads]]s were just its Dragons, as they only existed to be instruments of its will. Still counts as this though, since it's never physically confronted, and like the Prophecy of Light, has to work through earthly instruments, specifically Torak and Zandramas.
* [[Big Good]]: The Prophecy of Light. It can defeat gods, and alter the fabric of reality, but is restrained by the rules that it and its [[Evil Counterpart|counterpart]] the [[Bigger Bad|Dark Prophecy]] laid out. If they ever fought directly it would destroy the Universe.
* [[The Big Guy]]: Several characters in the (slightly more than) [[Five-Man Band]] could qualify, but the standouts are Mandorallen in ''The Belgariad'' and Toth in ''The Malloreon''. As pointed out in the [[Five-Man Band]] section, when the Big Band (Barak, Hettar, Mandorallen, Relg, and Lelldorin) get together, Mandorallen is the only one who doesn't assume another role in the group. That's right: he's [[The Big Guy|The Big Guys']] [[The Big Guy|Big Guy]].
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** Ce'Nedra's ''is'' apparently innately vulnerable to this stuff- Ctuchik was explicitly banking on it in book three, and Belgarath had already figured this out and didn't bring her along for that one.
** Garion gets hit with a mild version of this early on, suddenly seeing his allies as malicious strangers that he must escape from.
* [[Chainmail Bikini]]: Justified, [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]], all-around 'verted, mocked mercilessly, and in general, has just about everything you can do with a trope done to it in book four; when Ce'Nedra is off purchasing some ceremonial armor to wear while raising up an army, she says this is necessary for what the armor is supposed to help her with—andwith--and she's more or less right. Ce'Nedra, at age sixteen, was tiny and flat-chested—shechested--she can't do anything about the height, but she needed people to respect her as an adult, long enough for them to listen to her. Having the armor the right shape—evenshape--even if she technically isn't--would help her audiences see her as an adult. It takes her a while, but she persuades the armorer to modify the breastplate to an acceptably female shape, and relies on his good taste for the exact dimensions. The final result works out well and satisfies all people involved, but the scenes with the armorer are fun to read.
* [[Brought Down to Normal]]: The possibility of this happening is enough to keep Belgarath [[Locked Out of the Loop]] in the fourth book after his nearly fatal duel with Ctuchik. Later, Polgara is threatened with this as a condition of {{spoiler|having Durnik brought back to life}}—fortunately -- fortunately, the gods have a sense of humor. Lastly, Cyradis in the final book of ''[[The Malloreon]]'' must be stripped of her powers of prophecy into order to {{spoiler|make the final choice between Light and Dark}}.
** It's strongly implied, towards the end of ''The Malloreon'', that Cyradis didn't actually lose her powers.
** 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.
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* [[The Chosen One]]: Whoever the Child of Light and Child of Dark are at the time.
* [[Chromatic Arrangement]]: The gods.
* [[Church Militant]]: The Bear-Cult, and many, many factions of the Grolim Priesthood, which includes: [[Evil Sorceror|Evil Sorcerors]]s galore, [[Hell Hound|The Hounds of Torak]], the Chandim (Hounds who've changed back into humans) and the Temple Guardsmen (evil knights sworn to Torak and Urvon).
* [[Church Police]]: Grolims are pretty much this in the various Angarak nations, though the extent of their power and the balance of power between them and civil or military law enforcement (if they even exist) varies.
* [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]]: Aldur and anything associated with him, including his disciples (the various sorcerers) and his Orb, is blue. Torak is fond of black and red.
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* [[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.
* [[Dashed Plotline]]: The prequels can skip centuries between chapters. Having main characters who are immortal makes this almost essential—aessential -- a biography of Polgara that tried to cover everything would make the Oxford English Dictionary look small, and her father's over twice as old as her.
* [[Dead Man Writing]]: In the Malloreon, the message from Torak to Belgarion they find in an uncorrupted copy of the Ashabine Oracles is one of these.
* [[Dead Person Conversation]]: In ''The Seeress of Kell'', a necromancer questions Naradas's spirit in order to reveal his true nature to the king of Perivor.
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]:
** Everyone to an extent—oneextent -- one of the big draws of the series is reading the characters' often clever back-and-forth banter. This is epitomized, however, by the ''Purpose of the Friggin' Universe'', who takes up residence as a snarky voice in Garion's consciousness and comes across as nothing so much as a long-suffering [[Game Master]] constantly annoyed that his players won't follow the script.
{{quote|'''Purpose''': "I love to watch his expression when he loses one of these arguments."}}
** When warned by Garion that Belgarath won't like what the Purpose intends in a certain situation, the voice responds with something along the lines of, "I can bear that prospect with enormous fortitude."
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* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: {{spoiler|Garion gets to add Godslayer to his constellation of grandiose titles at the end of the fifth book}}. Of course, this is explicitly justified as his purpose for existing in the first place, and he's aided by a power a wee bit higher than Torak.
* [[Dirty Coward]]: [[The Big Bad|Zandramas]]. Half the action in [[The Malloreon]] derives from her desperate attempts at avoiding the CHOICE. She never confronts the heroes directly either, and inevitably runs whenever they start catching up with her.
* [[Disposable Woman]]: Hilariously and spectacularly subverted at the climax of book three. Grolim High Priest [[The Dragon|Ctuchik]] is ecstatic at having lured the heroes into coming after him in his fastness, gloating that he need merely kill any one of the party to stop the Prophecy from coming true, only to be [[Oh Crap|somewhat disconcerted]] to find out that the only member of the group vulnerable enough that he actually ''can'' kill them before Belgarath and Polgara can finish blocking Ctuchik's attack—Ceattack -- Ce'Nedra—isNedra -- is not only not there, but has been safely left ''a thousand miles away''. In a hidden city ''buried underneath a continental shelf''. With '''the over-deity UL''' as her personal bodyguard. As Belgarath made sure to point out, Ctuchik really should have taken a headcount first before allowing the group inside.
* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: Belgarath's punishment of Zedar is viewed by several of the heroes as this, as the majority of his villainy was conducted [[Offscreen Villainy|offscreen]]. Belgarath, however, was a firsthand witness to it and Zedar's protestations of [[I Did What I Had to Do]] fall on deaf ears.
* [[Divine Assistance]] is invoked multiple times in the series:
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* [[Encyclopedia Exposita]]: Many of the novels start with an excerpt from a historical or religious text that provides relevant [[Backstory]] for the book in question. Humourously, the excerpts often reference the same event, with [[The Rashomon|completely]] [[Perspective Flip|different]] [[Unreliable Narrator|interpretations]].
* [[Enemy Civil War]]:
** Much of [[The Malloreon]] is composed of a huge [[Melee a Trois]] between [[The Emperor|'Zakath]], [[Vain Sorceress|Zandramas]] and [[A God Am I|Urvon]] for control of the [[Artifact of Doom|Sardion]], with [[Dark Messiah|Mengha]] and [[Evil Sorceror|Agachak]] looking to get involved from the outside, and the Demons [[Psycho for Hire|working for whoever summons them]]. Ultimately Mengha allies with Urvon (who he and [[Dragon-in-Chief|Nahaz]] start plotting against), {{spoiler|'Zakath [[Heel Face Turn|Heel Face Turns]]s}} and Zandramas secures her position as the [[Big Bad]] with the deaths of Urvon, Agachak, and Mengha, and the banishment of Nahaz, in one of the most stunning examples of [[Eviler Than Thou]] in fiction. Whew.
** Also at the climax of the Belgariad, when after {{spoiler|Torak}}'s death the Angarak invasion of the West {{spoiler|degenerates into a decades-long war between Mallorea and Cthol Murgos}}.
** Urgit's struggle to ascend the throne of Cthol Murgos {{spoiler|after the death of Taur Urgas}}.
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** Angaraks are portrayed this way in ''[[The Belgariad]]'', but get a makeover in ''[[The Malloreon]]'' when they get a less black and white treatment.
** The demons are [[Exclusively Evil]] in both series, but justified because, well, ''[[The Legions of Hell|demons]]''.
** Nyissa was portrayed as a nation of [[Smug Snake|Smug Snakes]]s in ''[[The Belgariad]]''. In ''[[The Malloreon]]'', this, like the Angarak example, is made much less black and white.
* [[Expansion Pack World]]: Eddings added the south & east of the second continent and the bottom of the first one only after the ''[[Malloreon]]'' was a go.
* [[Expressive Mask]]: After Torak becomes maimed, he takes to wearing a steel mask which covers his face and moves as his unburned face would.
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* [[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]]:
** Garion -- [[The Hero]], Durnik -- [[The Lancer]], Silk -- [[The Smart Guy]], Ce'Nedra -- [[The Chick]], with Belgarath and Polgara as [[Mentors]]. [[The Big Guy]] is sort of interesting, as the role is played by more than one character—incharacter -- in fact, the multitude of Big Guys could probably form their own Band within a Band: Barak—BigBarak -- Big Hero, Hettar—BigHettar -- Big Lancer, Mandorallen—BigMandorallen -- Big Squared, Relg—BigRelg -- Big Smart, Lelldorin—BigLelldorin -- Big Chick. Such characters are necessary, according to Eddings, in order to "handle all the killing and mayhem until the hero grows up to the point where he can do his own violence on the bad guys". In the ''[[Malloreon]]'', the Big Band is dropped from the main cast, and they wander around having mostly irrelevant adventures in other parts of the world. Also possibly a [[Five-Token Band]], since all the characters are from different cultures.
** The band's construction is somewhat altered in [[The Malloreon]]. Garion is much more firmly [[The Hero]], with Durnik as [[The Lancer]], Ce'Nedra remaining [[The Chick]], Belgarath and Polgara as [[Mentors]] and new arrival Toth fullfilling [[The Big Guy]] role. It's [[The Smart Guy]] that's split, with Silk, Liselle, and Sadi all fullfilling it in one way or another. Towards the end, {{spoiler|'Zakath}} joins up as a [[Sixth Ranger]]/ second Lancer.
* [[Flaying Alive]]: Taur Urgas' response to his guards' inability to prevent the unavoidable. Also a favoured method by Silk, alongside boiling, for [[Noodle Incident|implied past events upon which he didn't elaborate]].
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* [[Forgot About His Powers]]: The Orb's basically infinite power is often forgotten when Garion and/or other members of the party need to do something strenuous via sorcery, causing them to tire themselves out when it's not really necessary. Used mostly for [[Played for Drama|dramatic effect]].
* [[Friend to All Living Things]]: Belsambar. Belgarath recollects: "I think he knew half the rabbits and deer in the vale by their first names, and birds used to perch on him the way they would have if he had been a tree." Polgara is a friend to all birds. Ce'nedra talks to trees - ''and'' they listen to her!(she's a dryad, after all.)
* [[Functional Magic]]: The Will and the Word—FocusWord -- Focus your will, and then say the word. If you [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|believe]] (and happen to be a sorcerer), it'll happen. There are a variety of other types of magic users, including witches (who deal with spirits in nature, magicians (who summon and "control" demons), "wizards" with unspecified minor powers, necromancers, and seers, but in the end they are all stated to be variations of the same concept. Also, alchemy turns lead into gold... and glass into steel (or possibly high-durability plastic).
* [[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—itdefeated -- it's incapable of changing or even acknowledging the need for change.
* [[Gentleman Thief]]: Silk is a prime example.
* [[Go-Go Enslavement]]: A male example—inexample -- in the second book, Garion is kidnapped and drugged by the Queen of Nyissa and forced to sit on her throne wearing makeup and a short loincloth.
* [[God in Human Form]]:
** In ''Belgarath the Sorcerer'', assumedly to remain inconspicuous, Aldur takes the form of an old man riding a rickety cart.
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* [[Guile Hero]]: Silk. Fits the description like a glove.
* [[Handicapped Badass]]: King Cho-Hag. A cripple on the ground, frighteningly deadly on a horse.
* [[Hannibal Lecture]]: [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] and [[Justified Trope|Justified]]—in -- in the final battle of ''The Belgariad'', {{spoiler|Garion delivers one of these to ''Torak'', after Garion comes to realize that the true reason for their confrontation is not to fight Torak, but to reject him.}}
* [[Hard Head]]: Just about everyone. Garion in particular develops a deserved reputation for banging his head into things, which becomes something of a [[Running Gag]].
{{quote|'''Belgarath''': (noticing the bleeding gash on Garion's forehead) "What happened to you?"
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* [[Heel Face Turn]]: {{spoiler|Drosta, the Nadraks and many Thulls}} in the first series, {{spoiler|[[The Emperor|'Zakath]] and [[Eunuchs Are Evil|Sadi]]}} in the second.
* [[Heel Faith Turn]]: In ''Sorceress of Darshiva'', the group meets a Grolim who has turned to worshipping the future god of Angarak ({{spoiler|Eriond}}) and has given up human sacrifice for decorating the temple with flowers.
* [[Hell Hound|Hell Hounds]]s: The Hounds Of Torak. Actually Grolims who've transformed themselves into giant dogs. Some have since changed back to form the Chandim; they aren't noticeably more pleasant.
* [[Hellish Horse]]: The Hrulgin: carnivorous, horse-like beasts that the party has a brief encounter with. Hettar, true to his Horse-Lord nature, takes a stab at riding one. He regretfully kills it after he makes mind contact with it and realizes how utterly insane it is. At one point he muses that if he could raise one from a colt, he might be able to train and ride it, but relents after being reminded that it would look at the Algars' prized cattle as food.
* [[Heroes Want Redheads]]: Garion and [[Fiery Redhead]] Ce'Nedra.
* [[Heroic Comedic Sociopath]]: Silk's [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] really shows this... He finds out that someone he's worked alongside (and against) numerous times has been casually, and viciously, murdered by a group of nobles. His response to this is a series of murders which epitomizes the [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] trope quite nicely... Especially since he manages to fit about a dozen murders into the day or two he has in the city while the rest of the party is hung up waiting for the quest to continue. And he made most of the deaths look like accidents—untilaccidents -- until he got ''rushed''. Really, most of the characters count as this, due to extreme [[Protagonist-Centered Morality]].
* [[Hero's Journey]]: Used straight, very intentionally, and with great attention to detail.
* [[Honor Before Reason]]: Arends.
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* [[Intangible Man]]: Relg can pass through rock like water and take people with him, or [[Buried Alive|leave them in there]]. Sorcerers can also project their "shadows" as to appear somewhere else.
* [[Interspecies Romance]]:
** Belgarath and Poledra—shePoledra -- she's a wolf shapeshifted into human form. [[MST3K Mantra|No, you shouldn't think about it]]. When called out on this, Belgarath points out that the change of form is absolute. {{spoiler|Also, Poledra had her own part to play in the prophecy besides simply being Garion's ultimate grandmother.}}
** 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.
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* [[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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* [[The Lancer]]: Durnik to Garion, and Beldin to Belgarath. In [[The Malloreon]] {{spoiler|'Zakath}} also plays Lancer to Garion, post [[Heel Face Turn]].
* [[Last of His Kind]]:
** There is only one dragon in the series, who is both the first and the last of her kind. The gods made three, but the two males killed each other in the first mating season. The entire depiction of dragons is an intentional [[Subversion]] of the basic fantasy archetype of the creatures—justcreatures -- just dumb lizards. Garion is also the [[Single Line of Descent|last surviving descendant]] of the Rivan royal family, and Taiba is the last Marag.
** As for Taiba, not anymore, Mara and Relg saw to that. Hettar even complains that his wife Adara can't keep up when it comes to making babies with Taiba and accuses Mara of cheating.
* [[Law of Inverse Fertility]]: Played straight with {{spoiler|Garion and Ce'Nedra}} in ''the Malloreon''.
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** Silk, too. Instantly burning bacon! We can only assume Garion had to take over without Polgara around.
* [[Lethal Harmless Powers]]: Relg can use his ability to move through solid rock for combat purposes, by pushing enemies into the rock and leaving them to suffocate.
* [[Locked Out of the Loop]]: Belgarath in the fourth book, when it seems like he may have {{spoiler|lost his powers}}. Garion and Ce'Nedra's marriage, as well—bothwell -- both principals were not told about it to guarantee that they actually showed up for the wedding. Given their [[Slap Slap Kiss]] relationship, this was probably for the better. Garion, himself, is the ultimate example; he was intentionally raised in complete ignorance of his origin and potential powers "for his own safety". Justified, in that it's stated in-universe that there are sorcerers that can read minds. So if Garion knew exactly what he was, and thought about it too much, he could easily be pin-pointed. As well, it could have changed the way he did things, and then things might have turned out quite differently, for good or ill.
* [[Loveable Rogue]]: Belgarath, Silk (undisputable King of this trope), Yarblek, Beldin...
* [[Love Goddess]]: Mara.
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* [[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]]:
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* [[Malfunction Malady]]: After Belgarath collapses from overexertion, Polgara worries that he could find his powers greatly reduced or even completely gone. While this ultimately turns out not to be the case, Belgarath acknowledges it was a definite possibility.
* [[Mama Bear]]:
** Polgara—dearPolgara -- dear gods, Polgara. Ce'Nedra also shows tendencies of this after Geran is kidnapped, although she's [[The Chick|not nearly as capable of inflicting mayhem]].
** Barak [[Involuntary Shapeshifting|forcibly becomes one when Garion is threatened.]]
* [[Man Behind the Man]]: From a cosmic standpoint, Torak isn't ''really'' the [[Big Bad]]; the spirit that embodies the Dark Prophecy is, and it uses both Torak and later Zandramas to accomplish its purposes. The reader only really "meets" it twice, both times at the [[Final Battle]] for each iteration of the Light vs. Dark struggle.
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* [[Mind Rape]]:
** What Torak did to Zedar in the prequel when he tried to get the Orb back single-handedly. The threat of him doing this to Polgara is a major element of dramatic tension in ''Enchanter's Endgame''.
** Polgara employs a variant of this technique as an alternative to [[Cold-Blooded Torture]]; she conjures up an illusion of something so horrible that people spill their guts rather than face it. It fails rather hilariously in ''King of the Murgos'' when she tries it on Sadi—heSadi--he's so stoned out of his mind he thinks the projection is ''pretty'' and asks if it can do tricks.
** Silk should have recognised Asharak when they meet in Pawn of Prophecy; when told about the meeting, Belgarath implies that Asharak may have tampered with his mind.
* [[Mind Your Step]]: Belgarath has a loose step on the stair to his tower. It turns out that he put a diamond under it, in order to see how long it took for it to be ground to dust. Then he forgot he'd done so and simply developed the habit of skipping that step, since it wobbled...
* [[Mineral MacGuffin]]: The Orb of Aldur and the Sardion—bothSardion -- both halves of the original stone at the center of the universe and the embodiment of the power of the Prophecies of Light and Dark, respectively.
* [[Missed the Call]]: In a very ironic and somewhat sad way, Torak could be said to embody this trope for the Prophecy of Dark. It's discovered in ''The Malloreon'' that he was {{spoiler|never intended to be the seventh god, but the accident that split the universe caused him to come into being as a twisted, malevolent caricature. Despite being the Child of Dark for millennia beyond count, the Sardion never revealed itself to him, and his only purpose for existing was for Garion to kill him so Eriond could take his place}}.
* [[Mordor]]:
** Cthol Mishrak is the name of a city where the evil god Torak stayed for about two thousand years, but it's also applied to the region surrounding the city. The name means 'City of Endless Night,' because Torak created a huge mass of totally black clouds and parked them the city and its surrounding region. It really is as dark as night there, at all hours of the day. Due to the lack of sun, most plants don't grow and water doesn't evaporate quickly, leaving the place reeking of decay, fungus, and stagnant water. Torak's iron tower, which he knocked down in a fit of rage, has rusted down to a kind of metallic-reeking goop, and definite adds to the smell. The city's also far in the north, far enough for it to experience an arctic winter of extended periods of night. Put it next to an arctic swamp, and it's really miserable. Beldin described it as a suburb of Hell.
** In ''The Malloreon'', Zandramas' home province of Darshiva gets the same treatment, presumably due to the fact that she, too, is the Child of Dark.
** This is expanded on by the protagonists, who come to the realisation that Torak actually never did park that cloud over his city—hecity -- he was just so disgusting that the sun literally refused to look at him or anything near him. Also everything in the area around his manor house is blighted, even though he hasn't been there for centuries.
* [[More Than Mind Control]]: Used a bit disturbingly on Ce'Nedra in the fourth book by Errand, to convince her to go to Riva.
* [[Moses in the Bulrushes]]: Garion.
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* [[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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* [[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—orhappen -- 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—justfunction -- 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]]s 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.
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** Bethra, though this is subverted to a certain extent given that she has apparently {{spoiler|been using sex to manipulate various major players in Tolnedra's political turmoil on the orders of Drasnian Intelligence}}.
* [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|Really Seven Thousand Years Old]]:
** Most of the sorcerers are several ''thousand'' years old. Except for Polgara, who looks to be in her mid-late twenties, they all look like old men. Polgara falls for Durnik, who's in his thirties—bitthirties -- bit of an age gap. Belgarath is so old that he shows up as an aged ''mentor'' in the three-thousand-year-old "[[Crystal Dragon Jesus|Bible]]" of the series, and is basically considered to be [[Satan]] by the [[Big Bad]]'s followers. It doesn't help that when the sorcerers get caught up in research in their towers, they flat out seem to forget that time is flowing. Belgarath managed to not notice that the wolf which had been staring at him while he puttered around his tower had been doing so for a thousand years until one day he stopped and actually did the math to realize it. Belgarath himself doesn't even seem to notice how old he is until he's ''over three hundred years old'', when he finally asks his god why he doesn't seem to be aging. The god replies that he's always found it ''inconvenient''.
** Theories as to how this works are more or less confirmed in the prequel books, when Belgarath theorizes something to the effect of, "Old and distinguished on a man is perfectly natural and accepted. Old and distinguished on a woman equals crone," and there's no way Polgara would have put up with something like that.
** Inverted in the case of Salmissra, Queen of Nyissa and consort of the snake god Issa. She takes a potion to maintain her resemblance to the "original" Salmissra, who died ages ago, but she's really a mortal woman like all of her predecessors. Polgara [[Baleful Polymorph|"remedies"]] the situation.
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* [[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.
* [[Schmuck Bait]]: The Algar Stronghold. It's a ''huge'' self-sufficient walled city in the middle of the plains of Algaria, huge enough to hold every single Algar alive and still have lots of leftover space. But the Algars are nomads, so ''why'' did they waste the effort building it? For one very simple reason: The Murgos like to attack cities, and can't seem to resist attacking it. Which makes them sitting ducks for the Algars.
* [[Scry vs. Scry]]: The two competing Prophecies. There's also a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] version of this when Belgarath confronts Ctuchik—seeCtuchik -- see [[Disposable Woman]], above.
* [[Secret Legacy]]: Garion's "Aunt Pol" is revealed to actually be many times removed—sheremoved -- she's the sister of his ultimate grandmother. Belgarath is his ultimate grandfather.
* [[Secret Test of Character]]: In the [[Final Battle]] of ''The Belgariad''. {{spoiler|Garion realizes that defeating Torak isn't about killing him, but rejecting him utterly.}}
* [[Secular Hero]]: Garion grew up in Sendaria, where it's commonplace to worship pretty much all the gods, and whether he ever worshipped any god in particular is never brought up.
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* [[She's All Grown Up]]: Velvet, in ''The Malloreon'', as Silk is quick to notice.
* [[Shout-Out]]: A sword comes free from a stone that's held it in place, waiting for the one true king. The mechanisms are different, but that's a definite shout out to everyone's favourite mythical king.
* [[Single Line of Descent]]: Garion's family is this, and it's intentional on the part of the Prophecy of Light. The [[prequelPrequel|prequels]]s mention that there are other male children in the line, but only the firstborn can be the heir.
* [[Single-Minded Twins]]: Beltira and Belkira in the main series, at least. This was eased off of in the prequels in order to make them actual, y'know, ''characters''.
* [[Silk Hiding Steel]]:Velvet claims to be this in the Malloreon, but any woman who has graduated from the Drasnian spy academy probably doesn't qualify for Proper Lady status even if she is a Margravine.
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* [[The Stoic]]:
** {{spoiler|Polgara's mother, Poledra, hasn't shown visibly strong emotions in seven thousand years.}} She's never ''needed'' to. The only exception is her general irritation at {{spoiler|all the wenching Belgarath did after her death.}} She also broke down at the death of her daughter, and when the Prophecy called on her to leave.
** Another notable Stoic is the Voice of the Prophecy, which usually speaks with a certain dry amusement. Every now than then—usuallythen--usually when the rules it and its opposite have laid down are being ignored or things are about to go completely out the window—itwindow--it can get very angry or very excited.
* [[Stop Worshipping Me!]]:
** Aldur has no worshippers.
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* [[That Wasn't a Request]]: The heroes are quite fond of doing this.
* [[Theme Naming]]:
** When Aldur accepts someone as a pupil, beginning the extremely laidback process of becoming one of his disciples, Aldur prefixes the person's name with "Bel" for men and "Pol" for women; both syllables mean 'Beloved.' Garath = Belgarath, Garion = Belgarion, Polgara, Poledra...As Belgarath notes, Aldur sometimes has a way with words. Also, most races' cities and towns follows thematic naming schemes—everyschemes -- every city in Tolnedra starts with "Tol"; every city in Mallorea starts with "Mal"; every city in Maragor starts with "Mar"; etc.
** Silk and Velvet, the two Drasnian spies. Though other spies have different fake names that aren't fabric-themed.
* [[There Are No Therapists]]: Tends to occur a lot.
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* [[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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* [[Villainesses Want Heroes]]: Salmissra shows signs of this when she kidnaps Garion in Queen Of Sorcery.
* [[Vitriolic Best Buds]]:
** Polgara and Beldin. Their typical greeting ritual is to insult each other in such graphic terms that hardened warriors either turn pale, or rush to stop what they think is an impending murder attempt. It's actually how they show affection. [[Lampshaded]] when Garion points out that Polgara uses affectionate insults to greet Beldin because saying, "You're looking well," or suchlike would be massively insincere—heinsincere -- he is, after all, indescribably ugly. Beldin and Belgarath do this quite a bit as well.
** 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—butuseless--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.
* [[We Can Rule Together]]: Ctuchik resorts to this when his Plan A fails. Unfortunately for him Belgarath is not even remotely tempted by that kind of offer.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Fantasy Literature]]
[[Category:Belgariad{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Literature of the 1980s]]
[[Category:Literature of the 1990s]]
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