< Belgariad

Belgariad/Characters


Characters appearing in the Belgariad. Needs more work. Spoilers and Loads And Loads Of Deadpan Snarkers abound!!!

The Belgariad

Garion's Companions

Garion (Belgarion)

"Why me?"

Polgara

"To this very day, if you're impolite enough to ask Polgara how old she is, she'll probably say something like, 'We're about three thousand- or so.' Beldaran's been gone for a long time, but she still looms very large in Polgara's conception of the world."

Belgarath
Durnik
  • An Axe to Grind: Often uses his woodsman's axe in the first series.
  • Back from the Dead: At the end of the Belgariad. One of only two exceptions in history to All Deaths Final.
  • Badass
    • Badass Normal: Is an ordinary blacksmith with little formal battle training traveling among professional warriors and sorcerers. Still kicks ferocious amounts of ass. Even Silk was chilled when Durnik killed one enemy by maneuvering him into falling into quicksand -- and then waited, watching the fellow sink, long enough to be sure he wouldn't be able to pull free.
  • The Blacksmith
  • Boring but Practical: Durnik's ideas are rarely exciting or terribly complex, but they inevitably work.
  • Drop the Hammer: As a blacksmith he's quite proficent with one of these. In The Malloreon he gains a magic one with similar properties to the Sword of the Rivan King.
  • Hidden Depths: Even Polgara was caught off guard in The Malloreon when it came out that Durnik was for a time apprenticed to a maker of musical instruments -- and as a result is very good, stirringly good, at playing the harp.
  • Intergenerational Friendship: With Garion. He's old enough to be the boy's father, yet their relationship is very much that of two good friends.
  • The Lancer: To Garion.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: At the beginning Durnik is just a Sendarian blacksmith in the company of a master thief, a competent warrior and two sorcerers. He become more and more prominent as the story goes along though.
  • Power Glows: His hammer in the second series.
  • Sixth Ranger: To the Disciples of Aldur.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Repeatedly, including two assists from the gods.
  • Unskilled but Strong: One of the reasons for his success as a fighter in the first series. Durnik may not be a warrior, but he's a big man and as a smith he possesses formidable upper body strength. He gains more talent as the story progresses.
Barak
  • An Axe to Grind: Carries a waraxe along with his sword.
  • Badass
  • Beard of Barbarism/Seadog Beard: All Chereks are Vikings at the end of the day.
  • 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 Big Guy: He fullfills this role in Pawn of Prophecy. In the later books he's The Hero of The Big Guy Band, doing his best to keep the likes of Hettar, Mandorallen, and Relg in line.
  • Cursed with Awesome: Barak's "curse" is to turn into a bear when Garion Heir to the long-empty throne of Riva and Overlord of the West by treaty is threatened. A rampaging, unstoppable bear. At first he thinks it's just a progressive ailment and attempts suicide, but once he gets filled in on the trigger conditions (i.e., his family is now the hereditary protectors of Garion's family), he contemplates tasteful ways to work it into his coat of arms. Who wouldn't want to advertise that?
  • Dual-Wielding: With a sword in one hand and a battleaxe in the other.
  • Everything's Worse with Bears: Called "The Dreadful Bear" for a reason.
  • Fiery Redhead: A male version
  • Genius Bruiser: A very good man in a fight, he's also very politically savvy, good at reading peoples' intentions, and has a philosophical way of looking at things.
  • In the Blood: His curse is genetic. His son, Unrak, turns into a bear when Garion's son, Geran is threatened.
  • Involuntary Shapeshifting: Barak's hereditary "curse" is to turn into a bear when Garion is threatened.
  • Odd Friendship: With Silk
  • Protectorate: Garion's family is this to Barak's family.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Cousin to King Anheg of Cherek, Earl of Trellheim, Clan-Chief, and all around useful badass.
Kheldar (Silk)

"Trust me."

  • Combat Pragmatist
  • Deconfirmed Bachelor: Thanks to Liselle in the Mallorean.
  • Gentleman Thief
  • Guile Hero
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: If he likes you, he's sarcastic. If he doesn't like you, he's sarcastic. If he's worried, he's sarcastic. If he's feeling fine, he's sarcastic. Only a few things ever break through his shell of smartassery.
  • Knife Nut
  • Lethal Chef
  • Loveable Rogue
  • Manipulative Bastard
  • May-December Romance: He's about twenty years older than Liselle.
  • Professional Killer
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: At one point during The Mallorean, certain parties conspire to have one of Silk's fellow spies killed. The woman in question is an old friend/enemy, but someone Silk had immense respect for. His response to their conspiracy eventually causes a mass exodus of all the most powerful people related to the plot, surrounded by guards, and many of them simply do not make it out.
  • 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.
  • Unrequited Love: For his aunt-by-marriage, Queen Porenn.
Hettar
Ce'Nedra
Sir Mandorallen, Baron of Vo Mandor
Relg
Lelldorin
The Orb of Aldur (Cthrag Yaska)

The Kingdoms of the West

King Anheg of Cherek
  • Badass
  • Beard of Barbarism/Seadog Beard: Anheg is still a pirate at heart.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Anheg pretends to be far dumber than he really is.
  • Genius Bruiser: Anheg is a brutal Viking warchieftain. He's also one of the most widely read people on the continent, and can read The Book of Torak without endangering his mental health.
  • Horny Vikings
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Runs his nation, leads his army, and commands his fleet. He's also very intelligent and does his best to keep abreast of world events and assist Belgarath.
  • Stay in the Kitchen: Subverted. When Ce'Nedra demands the Alorn kings follow her, Anheg sides with the conservative Brand and does all the talking...in order to preemptively sabotage any arguments Brand might raise against her.
Queen Islena of Cherek
  • Achievements in Ignorance: It's illegal to throw a priest into prison without evidence. Islena doesn't know that, and Grodeg knows she doesn't. Anheg finds the entire situation hilarious.
  • Brainless Beauty: When Anheg is asked why he married her, his response is that "It certainly wasn't for her brains!"
  • Break the Haughty
  • Hot Consort: This is why Anheg married her.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Initially Islena is a pompous wuss who caves in every time Grodeg shouts at her. She finally has enough, threatens to have him muzzled and throne in jail, and ships he and the rest of the Bear-Cult off to join the army. Anheg is impressed.
  • Weak-Willed: Is initially totally under the thumb of Grodeg, Chief Priest of Belar. With some help from Merel and Porenn she eventually overcomes this.
Merel of Trellheim
King Rhodar of Drasnia
Queen Porenn of Drasnia
Cho-Hag, Clan Chief of Clan Chiefs of Algaria
  • Handicapped Badass: Cho-Hag can barely stand, but that doesn't stop him from kicking ass. Justified as he, like most Algars, is a cavalryman, and lets his horse do the fighting for him.
  • Happily Married
  • It's Personal: His hatred of Taur Urgas goes far beyond mere politics.
  • The Quiet One: Among the Alorn rulers, he and Brand share this role.
  • Sword Fight: Has an epic one with Taur Urgas.
Brand, The Rivan Warder
  • The Quiet One
  • Regent for Life: Brand is part of a long line of Rivan Warders, who vowed to rule the island and protect the Orb until the Rivan King returned. Unlike his predecessors, Brand is actually able to give up this position.
  • Stay in the Kitchen: Brand has very conservative values, particularly as regards women.

Villains

Asharak/Chamdar
Brill/Kordoch
Ctuchik

"Justice? There's no such thing, Polgara. The strong do what they like; the weak submit. My Master taught me that."

Taur Urgas

"Make way for the King of Algaria. He's mine!"

  • Abusive Dad: Towards all of his sons.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking
  • Axe Crazy: He actually foams at the mouth in combat.
  • Badass: A veritable force of nature on the battlefield.
  • The Berserker: Goes utterly mad(er) while fighting. He utterly terrifies his troops, but at the same time, galvanises them. It's as though by giving into his madness they feel that they too may become as invincible as he.
  • Bling of War: Taur Urgas' chainmail is dipped in red Angarak gold. Rather than making it look overly pretty, it instead makes him look as though he has bathed in blood.
  • Blood Knight: He's always at war, sleeps in his armour, and orders his Praetorian Guard to clear the way for Cho-Hag so that he can fight him. And that's without even mentioning his Famous Last Words.
  • The Brute: He may be the King of Cthol Murgos, but one could definitely make the case of Taur Urgas being The Brute. He's got all the hallmarks of the personality: no empathy, totally Axe Crazy, a Berserker in combat, and he also seems to fit in terms of his position and role in the villainous hierarchy: he's the ruler of one of the largest countries subject to Torak, and provides manpower and muscle for the Angarak armies, while still being subject to Ctuchik, Torak's Dragon.
  • The Caligula: All the Urgas are Royally Screwed-Up, but Taur Urgas is crazy even by their standards.
  • Domestic Abuser: Beats his wives, keeps them under lock and key, tosses them down flights of stairs, occasionally kills them.
  • Famous Last Words: "Come back Cho-Hag! Come back and fight!"
  • I Control My Minions Through...: Fear, and a degree of Respect. See The Berserker for how.
  • It's Personal: With Silk and Cho-Hag.
  • Lack of Empathy
  • The Mentally Ill: In addition to his bloodthirstyness, Taur Urgas is prone to fits wherein he chews on the furniture.
  • Royally Screwed-Up: Sadism, brutality, and outright madness are hereditary in the Urga bloodline.
  • Sword Fight: Against Cho-Hag.
Zedar
Torak
  • Antagonistic Offspring: To his father, UL, to the point where he flatout refuses to admit there is a relationship.
  • Beauty Is Bad: The most beautiful god, and the most flat out evil, complete with being obsessed with his own appearance.
  • Bishonen: Before he got his face toasted.
  • Cain and Abel: With all of his brothers, but most notably, Aldur.
  • The Chosen One: By the Dark Prophecy
  • Cool Mask: Wears a steel mask to hide his maiming. All of his followers wear one too.
  • Cool Sword: Cthrek Goru, his infamous cursed black sword. It instills fear in those who see it.
  • Dark Is Evil
  • The Devil Is a Loser: He's maimed, unloved, and incapable of change. It's eventually revealed that he was never even supposed to exist in the first place.
  • Dystopia Justifies the Means: Wants an entire world bowing down in worship and offering him sacrifices.
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Inverted. Even after everything he's done the Universe still loves Torak. So do UL, Aldur, and the other gods for that matter.
    • Also played straight: his last word is an anguished "Mother!"
  • Even Evil Has Standards: In a moment of sanity he saw the kind of future that Zandramas would create, and left a note for Garion, urging him to take her down.
  • Evil Cripple: Justified. When Torak misused the Orb it burned off one of his hands and boiled one of his eyes. He was evil long before he was a cripple.
  • God of Evil
  • Handicapped Badass: Still a brutally dangerous swordsman despite missing a hand and having no depth perception. Being a god probably helps.
  • Love Hungry
  • Narcissist: Torak cannot conceive of a world that doesn't revolve around him. In the Book of Torak he claims to have created the Universe (his own mother). He's also one in the classic sense, being utterly obsessed with his own appearance.
  • Physical God
  • Red Right Hand: What hand?
  • Take Over the World
  • Two-Faced: Beneath his mask.
  • Villainous Crush: On Polgara
  • Wound That Will Not Heal: Gods aren't designed to be injured, and because of that his burnt face, boiled eye, and missing hand continue to pain him, leaving him in perpetual agony.
  • Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe

The Malloreon

Garion's Companions

Liselle (Velvet)
  • Action Girl
  • Combat Pragmatist
  • Guile Heroine
  • Knife Nut
  • May-December Romance: She's about twenty years younger than Kheldar.
  • Precocious Crush: When Silk was an up-and-coming star of the Intelligence Service, he'd often play dolls with the boss's niece, Liselle, who was approximately twenty years younger than him. As an adult, she pursued him and caught him.
  • Professional Killer
  • 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.
  • She's All Grown Up
  • Spy Catsuit: Subverted in the Malloreon. Velvet frequently dresses in tight-fitting leather, but it is described as looking masculine, workman-like, bleak and completely uninteresting.
Emperor Kal'Zakath
  • Ambition Is Evil
  • Ascended Extra: A minor villain in the first series. A major player in the second.
  • Badass
  • BFS: Justified. Garion has the Orb make an enormous greatsword as light as a rapier, enabling 'Zakath to fence with it.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Zakath is one of the rare pre-emptive examples of this trope, in that after finally dawning to just how thoroughly the odds are against him he decides to just skip the 'defeat' and go straight to the 'friendship'.

"You know something, Garion? I've always believed that someday you and I would go to war with each other. Would you be terribly disappointed if I decided not to show up?"

Sadi
  • Anti-Hero: Type IV.
  • Ascended Extra: A minor antagonist in the first series; a major player in the second.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: Justified. Sadi's brilliance as a poisoner stems from his experience as Chief Eunuch at the Nyissan court; if you want to live very long you get very good at surviving.
  • Badass: Eventually becomes one of the few Badass eunuchs in fiction.
  • Bald of Evil: In The Belgariad. Becomes a Bald of Awesome during The Malloreon
  • Combat Pragmatist
  • Drugs Are Bad: Averted. Sadi's drug-dealing and abuse is portrayed as a bad thing, but isn't treated as anything worse than Silk's thievery and drinking.
  • Eunuchs Are Evil: Played straight in the first series and subverted in the second. The Prophecy refers to him as "The Man Who Is No Man."
  • Evil Chancellor: Averted. Even in the first series he's one of the voices of reason at Salmissra's court.
  • Evil Genius/The Smart Guy: Plays this role after joining up with the heroes in the second series, sharing the position with Liselle and Silk.
  • Guile Hero
  • Knife Nut
  • Lean and Mean
  • Manipulative Bastard
  • Master Poisoner: As Garion puts it, "Sadi could poison one person at a banquet with a thousand guests."
    • This is demonstrated at one point. He poisoned the spoon, not the soup.
  • Poisoned Weapons: All of his knives are coated in poison, and he's been known to toss very concoctions straight into his enemies' faces when all else fails.
  • Sissy Villain: Starts out as one, but loses these traits after months on the road.
  • Smug Snake: Starts out as an archetypal example, becoming an antiheroic variant by partway through The Malloreon.
  • Snakes Are Evil: Subverted. His pet snake, Zith, proves to very useful to the heroes.
  • Street Urchin: As a child.
  • Token Evil Teammate: Sadi's alliance with the protagonists is not accompanied by a Heel Face Turn. While he likes them all by the end, and has certainly become a braver, more well-rounded individual, he has not become a good person by any stretch of the term.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Sadi starts out as a typically prissy Sissy Villain and Smug Snake. By the end he's a lean, mean fighting machine with his own unique style of combat. For a eunuch he has balls.
Beldin

Villains

Zandramas
Naradas
Urvon
Harakan/Mengha
Nahaz

"I need this thing..."

Mordja
The Sardion (Cthrag Sardius)

Gods and Prophecies

The Prophecy
The Dark Prophecy
UL
  • God: As the Father of all the other Gods, UL is the closest thing the series has to the Judeo-Christian God.
  • Physical God
Aldur
Eriond
Issa
The King of Hell
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