History Characters / TheBelgariad

* TheFanatic: The Bear-Cult, which has a very broad (and wrong) interpretation of the concept of Aloria protecting the Orb. That is to say, they want to reunite the Alorn Kingdoms (Sendaria included), conquer Arendia, Nyissa, Tolnedra, Ulgo, and whatever's left of Magagor, ''then'' turn on the Angaraks. Basic supporters are stereotyped as violently racist, deeply misogynistic, and dimmer than a dead glow-worm, while senior members tend to be a variant on the SinisterMinister. They are exclusively portrayed as antagonists, and sufficiently popular that both the main antagonist and secondary antagonist exploit it in ''The Malloreon'' to raise fanatical CannonFodder.

** Rivans: Britain/Ireland - small and extremely damp island notable for its sheep, with polite but isolationist and drably dressed inhabitants who're extremely conscious and protective of a magic sword that OnlyTheChosenCanWield, and are patiently awaiting the [[RightfulKingReturns return of their King]].

*** Witch-burning isn't ever seen on page, but it's alluded to in reference to Martje the BlindSeer in ''Pawn of Prophecy'' and Vordai, the Witch of the Fens.
** Even the other, milder Alorn kingdoms have this, with Garion's declaration that he would rule jointly with Ce'Nedra being treated as shocking, even if the various Queens often play more of a part than custom strictly allows. By the time of ''The Malloreon'', the various monarchs aren't remotely fazed by it, but Belgarath notes with some disgust in his prequel that despite Porenn being one of the most competent leaders (as Queen-Regent in ''The Malloreon'') the world's ever seen, a lot of back-country Drasnians dismiss her because she's a woman.They also hold a lesser, but still present, grudge against the Nyissans for killing the Rivan royal family 1300 years prior to the story, after which they made a very spirited attempt to exterminate them. Now, they're civil enough, though the Nyissan practices of slavery and poisoning don't exactly endear them to anyone.

* GoodCounterpart: To the Malloreans in the first series, thanks to their racial and religious mixing, combined with a certain practicality of mind. This is shifted to NotSoDifferent in the sequel series, with a farm in Mallorea being pointedly almost identical to Faldor's.
* GoodIsNotSoft: They're arguably the nicest nation by culture. However, both Durnik and Garion, very typical Sendars - Garion is half-Algar, half-Rivan/generalised Alorn, but he was raised a Sendar - sometimes display a streak of cold-blooded pragmatism that surprises the likes of Silk, a master spy and assassin, and Zakath, who spends most of the series only about two steps removed from a total monster. In Durnik's case, this was chasing a man into quicksand and watching him drown, which Silk remembers with a shiver an entire series later.

People of Torak, the most numerous in the world, and at least initially the source of the vast majority of the antagonists, divided into Nadraks, Thulls, Murgos, and Malloreons. The Murgos in particular appear to be AlwaysChaoticEvil, and the Nadraks as the TokenGoodTeammate. As the series goes on, however, it becomes apparent that it's rather more complicated than that, which is expanded upon in ''The Malloreon''.

* ButtMonkey: The Thulls. Intentionally bred from the labourers of old Angarak to be big, strong, and stupid, they're routinely mocked by everyone, dismissed by enemies and allies alike. They're also targets for the Grolims and live in eternal terror. There are hints that there are a few with brains, but the intelligent ones are implied to be picked off by the Grolims to prevent resistance. In the meantime, Thullish women have a reputation for [[ReallyGetsAround really getting around]], but it's out of fear - being pregnant screws up the Grolim accounting system so prevents sacrifice - while Thullish men work all their lives to make enough to buy a slave that they can substitute if their name is picked out of the lottery. It gets to the point where entire villages of them turn up and wait patiently for days to be captured by Ce'Nedra's army and are ''happy'' to be pressed into service as porters etc because there are no Grolims (those that ''do'' get in as spies [[TheDogBitesBack are spotted by the Thulls and dropped off a very large cliff]] - but out of the way of the construction workers, because the Thulls are considerate like that).

* ArcherArchetype: Asturians culturally favour the Robin Hood style, operating in a vast forest and portraying themselves as the oppressed Anglo-Saxon style victims of the Norman-style Mimbrates (while this isn't exactly wrong, it ignores the fact that Asturia flattened Wacune before that). They learn from birth, and they are all very, ''very'' good.

* ThinksLikeARomanceNovel: The vast majority of Arends, ''especially'' Mimbrates, are prone to this, being glued to their romantic epics. Ce'Nedra and Polgara find it endearing. Garion and Belgarath, by contrast, find it vastly irritating (though Belgarath isn't shy of exploiting it when it suits him).

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The Byzantine Empire. While the iconography is very classical Rome, the method of operations (preferring clever treaties and use of economic power over military solutions to exert disproportionate inflence, despite a very well-trained military) is closer to the later Byzantine Empire.

* ButtMonkey: Owing to their small size, a Queen trained solely to perform a specific role, is drugged into borderline insensibility, and perpetually horny thanks to the drugs that delay the appearance of ageing (until Polgara [[spoiler: turns her into a snake]]), and the palace eunuchs that actually run the place constantly scheming and backstabbing, they usually get steam-rolled by other factions. After Polgara [[spoiler: turns the latest Salmissra into a snake]], however, and [[HyperCompetentSidekick Sadi]] is allowed to run the country more or less unhindered, they become a bit more stable.

* CluelessChickMagnet: Midway through the series, Garion's descent from [[LivingLegend Belgarath]] is common knowledge, but his identity as the Rivan King and therefore betrothal to Ce'Nedra is still a secret (even to him). Since Belgarath's family is the most noble in the world basically by default (it doesn't hurt that Polgara has acquired titles from more or less everywhere, and spent a few centuries ruling a moderately powerful duchy thanks to doing the Duke of Vo Wacune a ''very'' big favor), this briefly makes Garion the most eligible bachelor in the West, a fact he was neither aware of nor prepared for.

* PapaWolf: Do ''not'' touch his children. Seriously. He's not as coldly vicious as Polgara and Belgarath are capable of being, but he's a six foot plus borderline PhysicalGod (being definitively the most powerful sorcerer on the planet), a MasterSwordsman with the Alorn tendency to go berserk under sufficient stress, as well as a giant sword and what amounts to a pet RealityWarper on the hilt of said sword, which is very fond of his family in its own right. That, plus an oft underestimated intelligence and a capacity for cold-blooded pragmatism that astonishes ''Zakath'' of all people.

* UpbringingMakesTheHero: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Polgara; she deliberately raises Garion as a {{farmboy}} to give him a solid moral foundation for when he ends up having to save the world. Additionally, many of his ancestors ''did'' know, and in one or two cases, it went to their heads (usually temporarily and with a nudge or two from Chamdar), and made them stick out at exactly the wrong moment. However, the downsides of this - such as his not being able to read until Ce'Nedra teaches him - are also pointed out, usually by Belgarath.

* MindRape: She can cast illusions which are guaranteed to make her victims beg her to stop - her self-narrated prequel explains that each illusion is tailored to the subject, and is created by reaching into the depths of their mind and finding what they fear the most. She's very prone to doing this as part of interrogations, and it's usually extremely effective - though Sadi became the one person in both series and both prequels to NoSell it by the simple expedient of being stoned out of his mind (he thought her illusion was "pretty").

* SheCleansUpNicely: Was once a ragged tomboy with a disregard for her appearance that made her father's habitual smelly tramp disguise look positively fastidious. Is now regarded as the most beautiful woman on the planet.

* SilkHidingSteel: After she decides to clean herself up, she becomes an extremely well-mannered and well-dressed lady, who's frequently described as being the most beautiful woman in the world. She's also extremely powerful and even more cold-blooded than her father at times, if a bit less vicious, and when she's properly angry, she terrifies the Kings of the West in ways that even Belgarath doesn't.

* AntiHero: He's prone to drinking, lying, [[ReallyGetsAround wenching]], and thieving - in the latter case, he bluntly admits that he was a thief from early childhood, and mostly seems to do it for the fun of it. As Polgara observes in her prequel when he clobbers a fleeing Grolim with a lead-encased fist in a tactic right out of a bar-room brawl, "Ancient Belgarath" has a rather colourful history. Oh, and he's thoroughly ruthless and utterly cold-blooded when the mood takes him, candidly admitting in his prequel that while it's not usually his first choice, he's murdered quite a few people for the sake of Necessity. That's before you account for the several centuries he spent traipsing around Sendaria, leading Chamdar around by the nose in his search for Polgara by suddenly murdering half a dozen Murgos in any given location to make it seem like they were getting close. And none of that accounts for [[FateWorseThanDeath what he did to Zedar...]] (though he does seem to regret that one).

* DirtyOldMan: While he's always had a streak of ChivalrousPervert in him, he becomes this after Poledra's apparent death, spending several years living it up in Maragor in an attempt to drown his sorrows (alcohol having failed in this regard). Even afterwards, he's noted as having an eye for the ladies, and more than a few have an eye for him, even without knowing who he really is.

* ItsPersonal: Holds a significant grudge against Zedar, who not only betrayed him, but a) organised the assassination of the Rivan royal family, Belgarath's descendants, b) might have been responsible for the suicide of at least one of his fellow disciples - a theory Belgarath brings up in his prequel, with the notation that if he ever gets confirmation of it, he's going to get Zedar (who's currently sealed [[AndIMustScream in rock, alive,]] and put him somewhere "much less comfortable").

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He plays up the image of the grumpy and often ruthless old man, who's cold and entirely emotionally detached from humanity, and does so effectively enough that it actually fools Polgara for most of her youth... until she turns into a snowy owl like her mother and to her utter astonishment, he breaks down in tears on the spot. His heart of gold mainly manifests in a keen sense of family, sharing a VitriolicBestBuds type relationship with Polgara and his brothers, deep grief for his two DeaderThanDead brothers, his other daughter, and his wife, even thousands of years after their deaths ([[spoiler: apparent death, in the case of Poledra]]), and a deep fondness for his various grandsons, especially Garion. He even shows real wistful regret for how Zedar turned out, revealing that he regrets what he did to him (though he also notes that if he gets confirmation of a theory of his, he'll do considerably worse). And then there's the ''spectacular'' PapaWolf tendencies.

* MrViceGuy: He's chronically lazy, given the opportunity, and prone to "drunkenness, lying, thieving, and wenching" - [[LadyKillerInLove though the latter vanished when Poledra was around]]. When Zakath muses in ''The Malloreon'' that if he let Belgarath run his bureaucracy, he'd have the most efficient government in the world, Garion, amused, points out that Belgarath a) is likely to live forever, b) is more corrupt than Silk (an example of this trope and MasterSpy in his own right) and Sadi (a MasterPoisoner and drug-dealer extraordinaire) put together. None of this makes him any less heroic, however.

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Belgarath has elevated this to an art form. He looks and acts like a disreputable, drunken, dirty-minded tramp (as Ce'Nedra thinks, he's "frequently a public nuisance"). However, most of it is by design; his clothes, for instance, only ''look'' shabby in order to blend in, and he notes that after Camaar, he's spent rather more time holding tankards than drinking from them. Additionally, as his daughter grudgingly notes, this does not in any way change the fact that he is the first disciple of Aldur and could probably stop the sun in the sky if he was ever so inclined. As Poledra remarks at one point, he once got irritated with a hammer after accidentally hitting his thumb with it, and threw it away in a fit of anger - not away as in 'across the room', away as in 'up into the sky'. That was several thousand years ago, and apparently, it's still going. And that isn't even getting into the fact that he's spent the last several millennia pragmatically arranging and manipulating the various Western kingdoms to his and the Necessity's satisfaction, maintaining several families - which Polgara notes, as she had enough trouble with just one (thought that 'one' had a perpetual target on its back).

* SilverFox: He's the oldest person in the world short of the gods and ''looks'' appropriately venerable for an aged sorcerer, albeit in the sense of someone who's aged well, yet pulls this off when he strips to his briefs to dive into a lake and shows off his impressive physique in the process.

* DeadlyDecadentCourt: Complete with a perpetually high Queen and a court full of eunuchs busy manoeuvring and poisoning each other for advantage.

* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: Fairly normal, particularly in the DeadlyDecadentCourt.

* EvilChancellor: Averted. Even in the first series he's one of the voices of reason at Salmissra's court. However, one doesn't survive to reach and keep the top position in an almost literally (the murder method of preference in Nyissa is poison, not knives) cut-throat DeadlyDecadentCourt without being able to be just as ruthless as everyone else, and has murdered or arranged for the murder of people in the name of political expediency or gain on multiple occasions.

* HappilyMarried: To Garion in ''The Malloreon''.

* GoodIsNotSoft: They're arguably the nicest nation by culture. However, both Durnik and Garion, very typical Sendars - Garion is half-Algar, half-Rivan/generalised Alorn, but he was raised a Sendar - sometimes display a streak of cold-blooded pragmatism that surprises the likes of Silk, a master spy and assassin, and Zakath, who spends most of the series only about two steps removed from a CompleteMonster. In Durnik's case, this was chasing a man into quicksand and watching him drown, which Silk remembers with a shiver an entire series later.

* FormerlyFat: Sadi is, in his original appearance, a rather pudgy courtier. However, spending months travelling across two continents on short rations and minimal amounts of drugs leave him LeanAndMean.

* AmbiguousDisorder: He's described as being a "pure innocent", but he seems to suffer from some kind of learning disability: he can initially only say his own name and has problems speaking even after learning other words, and doesn't seem to understand the concept of danger, either with relation to his personal safety, or how dangerous the Orb is. [[spoiler: It's actually because he's an ...]]
* [[spoiler: AmnesiacGod: He was supposed to be a god but the Accident ended up causing Torak to replace him]]

* CreepyChild: He has this vibe, knowing things he shouldn't be able to and not speaking very much.

* VerbalTicName: Is originally called "errand" because it's the only word he seems to know.

* TheSpymaster: Shares this role with her husband.

* TookALevelInBadass: From ordinary farmboy to the most powerful mortal (for a given value of mortal, considering that sorcerers are all TheAgeless) on the planet.

* MyBelovedSmother: She veers into this from time to time, to Garion's displeasure, which Belgarath points out. However, she very frequently has ''excellent'' reason for her attitude - and where Garion specifically is concerned, it might have a lot to do with guilt over not being there to stop Asharak/Chamdar from killing Garion's parents.

* RoaringRampageOfRescue: She and Barak tear Salmissra's palace to pieces trying to rescue Garion in ''Queen of Sorcery'', and in the process, she stares down Issa (a God), and [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor gives Salmissra the immortality she wanted]] by turning her into a giant snake (though, ironically, she does actually turn out to be happier with it than she was before, as are her subordinates).

* LostLenore: Poledra, his wife. Even thousands of years later, he's still grieving for her.
* TheMentor: To Garion, Polgara, and most of Aldur's other disciples. Polgara grudgingly notes that he's actually a very good teacher - if not the best in the history of the world, to use her exact words.
* MundaneUtility: Most of the sorcerers in the world do everything the normal way unless they have a good reason to use magic, Belgarath uses magic for everything unless he's trying to hide (which, since he's hiding for most of the series, isn't immediately apparent). He conjures his meals out of thin air, he levitates books off the shelf into his hand, he lights the fire in the evening with a snap of his fingers, etc. One of the end results of this, combined with his age, is that while he's not the smartest sorcerer (that's Beldin) or the most powerful (that's Garion) he is the most practised.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Belgarath has elevated this to an art form. He looks and acts like a disreputable, drunken, dirty-minded tramp (as Ce'Nedra thinks, he's "frequently a public nuisance"). However, most of it is by design; his clothes, for instance, only ''look'' shabby in order to blend in, and he notes that after Camaar, he's spent rather more time holding tankards than drinking from them. Additionally, as his daughter grudgingly notes, this does not in any way change the fact that he is the first disciple of Aldur and could probably stop the sun in the sky if he was ever so inclined. As Poledra remarks at one point, he once got irritated with a hammer after accidentally hitting his thumb with it, and threw it away in a fit of anger - not away as in 'across the room', away as in 'up into the sky'. That was several thousand years ago, and apparently, it's still going. And that isn't even getting into the fact that he's spent the last several millennia pragmatically arranging and manipulating the various Western kingdoms to his and the Necessity's satisfaction.

* UnderdressedForTheOccasion: Greets kings while dressed as a tramp - and usually verbally flips them off if they've interrupted him from doing something important - and has to be forced (usually by Polgara) into formal wear.

* [[spoiler: DeconfirmedBachelor: Thanks to Liselle in ''The Mallorean.'']]

** Technically, Silk is one too, since having his real identity (that he is prince Kheldar, the nephew and heir of the king of Drasnia) public knowledge would be bad.

* SadClown: While he cracks jokes every other line, prior to the first series, his life is pretty miserable. His mother, formerly one of the most beautiful women in Drasnia, was horribly scarred and blinded by a plague some years before the series and doesn't know that she's been scarred, and he spends the first series hopelessly in love with [[spoiler: his uncle's [[MayDecemberRomance much younger second wife, Porenn]]]] - who is very fond of him, but not like that, and furthermore, [[spoiler: his uncle]] is one of the very few people he respects enough to never try anything with [[spoiler: Porenn]], even if she were interested.

* TheWrongfulHeirToTheThrone: A self-aware one. Silk is well aware that he would be a terrible king, and wants nothing less than to take his beloved uncle's throne.

A silent Algarian horseman, Hettar is the adoptive son of Clan-Chief Cho-Hag. Born with the ability to speak to horses, Hettar was left a bitter, damaged man when a band of Murgo raiders murdered his parents.

* AntiHero: Hettar's habit of killing every Murgo he comes across is bad enough in the first series, but pushes him firmly into antihero territory once the Murgos become more fleshed out in the sequel - though it should be said that the Murgos he would have encountered would probably have mostly been soldiers, raiders, or Grolims/Agents of Torak and his disciples, with the Murgo civilians being generally well behind enemy lines.

* BloodKnight: Where Murgos are concerned, his day is incomplete if he doesn't kill at least a few, something that is mostly PlayedForLaughs during ''The Belgariad'' - though it is pointed to as an irrational compulsion that risks derailing their mission, and by Hettar's own account, his adoptive father Cho-Hag took him on a counter-raid hoping that once he killed a Murgo or two he'd get the obsession out of his system (needless to say, it didn't work). It's downplayed in ''The Malloreon'' as part of his CharacterDevelopment, while the Murgos get more development in their own right, and in Belgarath's prequel, Polgara flat out states that as a child, he's on the verge of becoming a proper monster.

* SerialKiller: How the Murgos view him, and they're not entirely wrong - as Polgara notes in Belgarath's prequel, as a boy he's on the verge of becoming an outright monster.

-->'''Zakath''': You ''married'' this woman?

* InnocentFanserviceGirl: For a given value of 'innocent'. Tolnedra is an equatorial country and much warmer than the Alorn kingdoms, and Dryads often dress very [[{{Stripperiffic}} minimally]], so Ce'Nedra often wears skimpy clothing and has a tendency towards casual nudity - the 'innocent' part is in doubt because she's completely aware of the effect this has on Garion and does it to tease him. This behaviour led to the elderly Sendarian ambassador resigning his post after walking in on her in lingerie - which she casually modelled for him, asking his opinion on each piece. His next dispatch contained a plaintive appeal to be allowed to retire.

* ManipulativeBastard: Goads her own father into a fit at one point, just to get what she wants, something that startles even Polgara (who's entirely capable of this trope herself). Since she knew that it would simply incapacitate him for about an hour, without doing permanent damage, and thus give her the chance to go behind his back and ''steal his entire army'' (which she needed to back up Garion), it's not as bad as it immediately sounds, and her father later looks back on the incident with genuine pride, wistfully remarking on what an Emperor she would have made if she'd been born a boy.
* MotorMouth: She can talk. A lot.

* RebelliousPrincess
* RousingSpeech: She's damn good at this. In fact it's why she was born in the first place. However, doing so takes a toll on her, one that builds up.

* [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Spell My Name With An "X"]]: InUniverse example. Dryad names always have an X in them, but hers seems to break the rule. In ''The Malloreon'' it's explained that it's supposed to be spelled "X'Nedra", but that Tolnedran speech patterns soften the pronunciation of the "X" to "Ce". Her mother, Xvanne, was called Cevanne by Ran Borune. After a moment of trying to pronounce it, Garion decides to keep calling her Ce'Nedra. At the end of ''The Mallorean'', Garion also muses that he's pretty sure she's privately added an "X" someplace of their daughter Beldaran's name.

* TheDreaded: He's the most feared man in Arendia. Even Lelldorin and the other Asturians grudgingly respect his reputation.
** By the sequel series, it gets to the point where he's world famous.

* FloweryInsults: Mandorallen exceeds at this far above others, particularly in the closing chapters of The Malloreon where he spends nearly two full pages insulting a young hot-headed baron.

* LargeHam: To parodic extents.

* OddFriendship: With the NotSoDifferent Lelldorin. They go from hereditary enemies to BashBrothers - as in, in ''The Malloreon'', when Lelldorin hears that Mandorallen has got involved in a war with another local Baron, he goes to back him up. So far, so expected. The special part is that ''he brings an army with him.'' Conversely, at the end of the series, a young Mimbrate Baron insults Lelldorin, who's about to take this personally. Mandorallen promptly steps in, insisting that since they're in Mimbre, it's his responsibility to address this insult. He promptly gives a detailed ReasonYouSuckSpeech to the young upstart, before throwing down his gauntlet and 'missing' the floor. He then proceeds to beat the crap out of said Baron in a jousting match with surgical precision, being described as 'peeling' him out of his armour, before openly challenging everyone in the court who shares his prejudices to step up and get it out of the way.

* OneManArmy: He ''is'' basically unstoppable. At one point, he points out to a minor villain that his plans to [[spoiler:reach the crown by killing Ce'Nedra]] made the small mistake of placing himself, surrounded by a century of light-armored legionaries, within reach of a fully armoured, mounted Mandorallen: "Thy soldiers will be as blades of grass before me", he said, and was NOT bluffing. It becomes a NegatedMomentOfAwesome, since said villain is backed up by Asharak, a perfectly capable sorcerer, but he still qualifies.

* ItsAllAboutMe: His problem at first. UL forcibly sets him straight.

* CripplingOverspecialisation: Best archer of his generation who has ImprobableAimingSkills and can identify his own arrows among thousands in the dark, pretty good fencer, and total idiot at every other aspect of life.
* TheDitz: He has no brains whatsoever. As Ce'Nedra's internal monologue notes when she first meets him, in his eyes she can see a vast sincerity and absolutely no intelligence, whatsoever.

* LoveMakesYouStupid: Although to be fair, he wasn't exactly winning any Nobel Prizes to begin with. It's more dramatic with Ariana, who ''is'' genuinely very intelligent, leading to Garion hoping that she'll mitigate his more ridiculous tendencies... but very quickly realises that these hopes are in vain, because all her common sense goes out the window when he's around.

* PluckyComicRelief: He's Garion's comedy sidekick. Things usually [[HilarityEnsues take a turn for the hilarious]] when he's around, and get darker [[ShooOutTheClowns when he's not]], and vice versa - such as when Garion arrives in Riva after the very tense latter half of the quest to retrieve the Orb, which very nearly [[spoiler: killed Belgarath and was feared to have destroyed or severely reduced his powers]], and runs into Lelldorin. Lelldorin immediately regales him with the increasingly ridiculous story of how he ended up having eloped with his nurse, Ariana, (who was also his host's sister, and a Mimbrate, and thus an ancestral enemy), accidentally broke the leg of said host while trying to escape, beat up the priest who initially refused to marry them (at least nominally to protect Ariana's reputation), got into a duel with his prejudiced cousin for what he said about Ariana and running him through the leg ("just a little bit"), ending up being declared an outlaw in Arendia... ''all in the space of a single week.'' Unsurprisingly, Garion is left helpless with laughter.

* EmpathicWeapon: When attached to the Sword of Riva.

* LivingMacGuffin: It's alive, sentient, and while it doesn't exactly talk, it ''is'' somewhat empathic - meaning that it has discernible emotions. This is most hilariously demonstrated right at the end of the series when Garion decides to keep his son out of trouble by giving him the Orb to play with. He then ends up taking it back, and the Orb spends the rest of the day sulking.

* WrongContextMagic: The Orb can maim Gods, raise the dead, cast out demons, and basically do anything that a sorcerer can't (except unmake something)

* AmnesiacGod: He was supposed to be a [[spoiler: god but the Accident ended up causing Torak to replace him]]

* [[MassiveNumberedSiblings Massive Numbered Children]]: Mara 'interferes' with her reproductive system after she and Relg marry and locate to Maragor, so Taiba keeps having children in twos and threes. We never see any of the kids, though, or get any kind of number- though given a God's capabilities, the number probably reached three digits at some point.

* GeniusBruiser: Anheg is a brutal Viking-style war chieftain. 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.

* BreakTheHaughty

* TookALevelInBadass: 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 thrown in jail, and ships him and the rest of the Bear-Cult off to join the army. Anheg is impressed.

* ArrangedMarriage: With Barak, and she was very opposed to it.
* CharacterDevelopment: From petty bitch to TheGoodChancellor.

* HotConsort: To Rhodar

* RegentForLife: 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.
* StayInTheKitchen: Brand has very conservative values, particularly as regards women, though he goes along with what the Rivan King commands out of UndyingLoyalty. [[spoiler: It's later revealed that a lot of this was just acting - and good enough to fool even Polgara and Belgarath. When Garion was made king (first one in millenia) and made Ce'Nedra co-ruler of Riva (completely unheard of), Brand set himself up as the leader of the traditionalists, fully intending to "cave in" at some point. By drawing the conservatives to him, he could keep more disruptive conservative elements in check, and in the end discredit them by fully supporting the Royal family.]]
* UndyingLoyalty: To Garion and his family.

[[folder: Emperor Ran Borune]]
* PapaWolf: To Ce'Nedra. Despite it being a binding treaty his nation signed, does everything he can to get Ce'Nedra out of the ceremony at Riva, where he fears she'll be humiliated. Despite constantly bickering with her, it's evident he loves her.

* TheEmperor: Well, duh. Tolnedra is actually a medium sized country leaning towards the smallish, but he still has a very long arm as it's the economic powerhouse of most of the world and has an international highway system controlled by its legions who are, pound for pound, probably the best army in the world (though the Alorn kingdoms could overwhelm them if they combined forces). As a result, Ran Borune is not afraid to throw his weight around when it comes to politics, though he only gets his way some of the time.

* CharacterDevelopment: Actually rather improves after being turned into a snake and, while being coldly logical, is generally quite polite.

* SmallNameBigEgo: He's undoubtedly dangerous, but he can't hope to threaten Belgarath in person, despite his protestations to the contrary - and the one time he faces an enraged Belgarath, the only thing that saves his life is the fact that he threw baby Garion at him, then ran for his life.

* YouKilledMyFather: Killed Garion's parents. Ends up very dead when Garion finds out.

* AllTrollsAreDifferent: Eldrakyn are distantly related to Trolls and Algroths, but larger and smarter. Grul bulks eight feet tall, talks, and wears armour and a helmet that he has modified to fit his gargantuan body.

** Even the other, milder Alorn kingdoms have this, with Garion's declaration that he would rule jointly with Ce'Nedra being treated as shocking, even if the various Queens often play more of a part than custom strictly allows. By the time of ''The Malloreon'', the various monarchs aren't remotely fazed by it, but Belgarath notes with some disgust in his prequel that despite Porenn being one of the most competent leaders (as Queen-Regent in ''The Malloreon'') Drasnia's ever had, a lot of back-country Drasnians dismiss her precisely because she's a woman.They also hold a lesser, but still present, grudge against the Nyissans for killing the Rivan royal family 1300 years prior to the story, after which they made a very spirited attempt to exterminate them. Now, they're civil enough, though the Nyissan practises of slavery and poisoning don't exactly endear them to anyone.

The odd ones out, being a nation created out of what was once the Duchy of Erat (ruled by none other than Polgara), which in turn had been fought over by Wacune and Asturia during the Arendish Civil Wars, before the Duke of Wacune gave it to Polgara thanks to her doing him a ''very'' big favour. Thanks to Polgara's influence, the great cattle market of Darine, and its location on the way to more or less everywhere, it ended up as a multi-cultural hub with ethnic influences from practically every race - Arends, Tolnedrans, and the Alorns in particular, though there's also Nyissan in there. As a result of this, they have a peculiarly ecumenical attitude to religion, paying homage to all seven gods. Nevertheless, the Alorn influence is the strongest, so they tend to be considered an honorary member of the Alorn Alliance, and the OnlySaneMan.

* CombatPragmatist: When they do fight, Sendars don't tend to be military geniuses, but they ''do'' have a mastery of practicalities, especially the crucial matter of logistics. As the Alorn Kings and General Varana observe, Sendars make the perfect quartermasters.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Southern England/Midwestern US. Fertile land inhabited by hard-working, polite, and extremely practical farmers, who're descended from a relatively broad ethnic blend.

* HufflepuffHouse: Of the Alorn Alliance, being far more practical and prosaic. Unusually, their practicality is deeply respected by the more excitable Alorns.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Averted. The problem is [[GodOfEvil Torak]], not the Angaraks themselves. Even early on, it's pretty clear that the Thulls are pitiable - they're favourite targets for HumanSacrifice by the Grolims, so their lives are spent in complete terror - and the Nadraks are NotSoDifferent from the Drasnians. The Murgos appear to be this for most of the first series, but the second series confirms that away from the frontlines, with a genuinely sane King and minus [[SorcerousOverlord Ctuchik]], they're not really any worse than anyone else. This latter quality is emphasised with the Malloreans in the second series.

* ButtMonkey: The Thulls. Intentionally bred from the labourers of old Angarak to be big, strong, and stupid, they're routinely mocked by everyone, dismissed by enemies and allies alike. They're also targets for the Grolims and live in eternal terror. There are hints that there are a few with brains, but the intelligent ones are implied to be picked out and picked off by the Grolims to prevent resistance. In the meantime, Thullish women have a reputation for [[ReallyGetsAround really getting around]], but not out of desire, but fear - being pregnant screws up the Grolim accounting system so prevents sacrifice - while Thullish men work all their lives to make enough to buy a slave that they can substitute if their name is picked out of the lottery. It gets to the point where entire villages of them turn up and wait patiently for days to be captured by Ce'Nedra's army and are ''happy'' to be pressed into service as porters etc because there are no Grolims (those that ''do'' get in as spies [[TheDogBitesBack are spotted by the Thulls and dropped off a very large cliff]] - but out of the way of the construction workers, because the Thulls are considerate like that).

* HiddenDepths: The Thulls. As noted above, they're extremely creative when it comes to dishing out several millennia worth of revenge on the Grolims.
* MixedAncestry: The Malloreans, thanks to their Empire including Dals (relatives of the Ulgos), Karands (more distant relatives of the Ulgos via the Morindim), and Melcenes, the latter of which formed a powerful empire that the Angaraks had to fuse with rather than take over entirely. The Murgo obsession with racial purity informed the less than positive response, but the Mallorean Empire was too powerful to argue with. Funnily enough, this makes them the Angarak counterparts to the Sendars, with the same kind of practicality - at one point, the heroes even find a farm almost identical to Faldor's deep in Mallorea, and it's observed that it's the logical product of the same kind of mentality.

* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Almost all Murgos qualify, as they were the warrior aristocracy back before they were sent west. While that was about five thousand years ago, the cultural memory lingered.

* SinisterMinister: Ctuchik is the most prominent example, though the other disciples (Zedar and Urvon) and all the Grolims e.g. Asharak/Chamdar, Naradas, and Zandramas, qualify.

People of Chaldan, the bull-god, and divided into Asturians and Mimbrates (and, until a couple of millennia before the story starts, Wacites), and as revealed in ''The Malloreon'' [[spoiler: Dal Perivor]]. Famous for their chivalry, courage, tendency towards dramatics, and lack of anything resembling common sense; all of which contributes to a culture infamous for its duels, feuds, and civil wars. While usually stereotyped as stupid by everyone else, the overall picture is a little more complicated than that.

** [[spoiler: Dal Perivor]]: Largely carbon copies of the Mimbrates - since they ''are'' Mimbrates (mostly) - but perhaps more like the Sicilian Normans, who became much more cosmopolitan than their relatives after exposure to other cultures (primarily the Arabs and Byzantines), and less likely to go to war for obscure reasons (though their territorial ambitions remained).

* HiddenDepths: They tend to be rather [[SmarterThanYouLook smarter than they seem]] once they actually stop to think.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: the Byzantine Empire. While the iconography is very classical Rome, the method of operations (preferring clever treaties and use of economic power over military solutions to exert disproportionate inflence, despite a very well-trained military) is closer to the later Byzantine Empire.

!!Garion's Companions

[[folder: Garion (Belgarion)]]
--> ''"Why me?"''

Grandson of Belgarath and nephew of Polgara, Garion was raised as a scullery boy on a farm in Sendaria, completely ignorant of his family's near-divine status, or his role in the Prophecy. When Zedar the Apostate steals the Orb of Aldur, Garion's aunt and grandfather drag him on a cross-country journey, during which he learns that he is a sorcerer, the long-lost King of Riva, and the Child of Light of which the Prophecy speaks.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He plays up the image of the grumpy and often ruthless old man, who's cold and entirely emotionally detached from humanity, and does so effectively enough that it actually fools Polgara for most of her youth... until she turns into a snowy owl like her mother and he practically breaks down in tears on the spot (which makes her realise that he does actually have a heart, and starts their real reconciliation). Under his grumpy shell there's a heart of gold, mainly shown in a keen sense of family, manifesting as a VitriolicBestBuds type relationship with Polgara and his brothers, as well as deep grief for his two DeaderThanDead brothers, his other daughter, and his wife, even thousands of years after their deaths ([[spoiler: apparent death, in the case of Poledra]]), and a deep fondness for his various grandsons, especially Garion. And then there's the ''spectacular'' PapaWolf tendencies.
** He's also kind to Vordai, admitting in his prequel that he felt sorry for her, and to two of the Salmissras, after they show minds of their own: one he gives political advice on how to get rid of the eunuchs who were planning to kill and replace her after it became apparent she wasn't just a puppet, and the other, Illessa, the Salmissra who was manipulated into killing the Rivan royal family by Zedar, whom he had every reason to hate, he comforted on her deathbed with the knowledge that Zedar's scheme had failed.

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Belgarath has elevated this to an art form. He looks and acts like a disreputable, drunken, dirty-minded tramp (as Ce'Nedra thinks, he's "frequently a public nuisance"). However, most of it is by design (his clothes, for instance, only ''look'' shabby, and that in order to blend in), and as his daughter grudgingly notes, this does not in any way change the fact that he is the first disciple of Aldur and could probably stop the sun in the sky if he was ever so inclined. As Poledra remarks at one point, he once got irritated with a hammer after accidentally hitting his thumb with it, and threw it away - not away as in 'across the room', away as in 'up into the sky'. That was several thousand years ago, and apparently, it's still going. And that isn't even getting into the fact that he's spent the last several millennia pragmatically arranging and manipulating the various Western kingdoms to his and the Necessity's satisfaction.

* PapaWolf: To the ''world.'' Less so to Polgara, since she can generally more than take care of herself, and less to Garion [[TookALevelInBadass after he becomes able to take care of himself]] (though it's notable that the one time Chamdar faced him directly, just after murdering Garion's parents, the only thing that saved him was the fact that he threw Garion at the homicidally enraged Belgarath and ran like hell). However, he is ''definitely'' this to the rest of his family - after the Rivan royal family (his descendants via Beldaran) are murdered in the back-story, he organises an ''epic'' RoaringRampageOfRevenge that more or less ''flattens'' Nyissa (though he ends up being kind to the Salmissra who nominally ordered it, as she was a TragicVillain and as much of a victim of [[ManBehindTheMan Zedar's]] scheme as the Rivan royal family). And speaking of Zedar, his being condemned to a FateWorseThanDeath was the result of killing [[spoiler: Durnik, Belgarath's future son-in-law]], and while Belgarath expresses regret for it in his prequel, he also adds that if his suspicions surrounding the suicide of Belmakor, one of his fellow disciples (namely, that Zedar caused it) are ever confirmed, he won't just leave Zedar where he is - he'll go back there and put him "somewhere a lot less pleasant."

* PhysicalGod: He's not on par with the actual gods, but he's the next best thing. Polgara, generally not prone to exaggerating, remarks both that the other disciples of Aldur (most of whom are {{Living Legend}}s in their own right) tend to defer to him as if he's a kind of demigod, and that if he wanted to, he could probably stop the sun in the sky. Poledra, her mother, also not prone to exaggerating, remarks that in a fit of irritation, he once threw a hammer ''into space.''

* TimeAbyss: Easily the oldest living human at 7,000 years old. Only the gods and a certain tree have any time on him.

* WizardClassic: In apparent age and dress - when he can be stuffed into formal wear - if not necessarily attitude.

* IntergenerationalFriendship: With Garion. He's old enough to be the boy's father (and [[spoiler: ends up marrying Polgara, [[ParentalSubstitute the nearest thing Garion has ever had to a mother]]]]), yet their relationship is very much that of two good friends.

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Recently ascended to disciplehood and granted a mystic hammer and a power boost from Aldur, Durnik delivers a brutal one to the Demon Lord Nahaz at the conclusion of ''Sorceress of Darshiva''.

* UptownGirl: Polgara is an [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld ancient]], powerful, [[WorldsMostBeautifulWoman gorgeous]] sorceress with titles from more or less every kingdom in the West, who has shaped the fates of nations for three thousand years, and is the daughter of the most powerful man in the world. Durnik is.... a simple Sendarian blacksmith. She is ''way'' out of his league and he knows it -- but that doesn't stop her from falling in love with him. [[spoiler:Their love winds up ''saving the universe'', and he gets a serious level-up from the Gods because Destiny ''really'' wants Polgara to be happy.]]

* TheFanatic: The Bear-Cult, who have a very broad (and wrong) interpretation of the concept of Aloria protecting the Orb. That is to say, they want to reunite the Alorn Kingdoms (Sendaria included), conquer Arendia, Nyissa, Tolnedra, Ulgo, and whatever's left of Magagor, ''then'' turn on the Angaraks. They're power-hungry, violently racist and misogynistic, and exclusively portrayed as antagonists, demonstrating SinisterMinister types aren't in short supply on either side. Support for it is sufficient that both the main antagonist and secondary antagonist exploit it in ''The Malloreon'' to raise fanatical CannonFodder.

** Rivans: Britain/Ireland - small and extremely damp island notable for its sheep, with polite but isolationist and drably dressed inhabitants who're extremely conscious and protective of a magic sword (even if the sword itself only becomes magical with the Orb attached) that OnlyTheChosenCanWield, and are patiently awaiting the [[RightfulKingReturns return of their King]].
** Sendars: England/Midwestern US. Fertile land inhabited by hard-working, polite, and extremely practical farmers, who're descended from a relatively broad ethnic blend.

* HufflepuffHouse: The Sendars, being the most culturally mild-mannered and least martial of the Alorns - and technically, not entirely Alorns, since their kingdom was primarily ruled by Asturian or Wacite Arends (then, for the best part of a millennium, by Polgara as the Duchy of Erat, before she abdicated and arranged for its transformation into a nation state) and influenced by Tolnedra. Nevertheless, their practical sensibility gains them a lot of respect.

** Chereks have it the worst, being described as arch-conservatives. They tend towards casual sexism that in the nastier cases veers into outright [[HeManWomanHater misogyny]] and it's wryly observed as early as ''Pawn of Prophecy'' by Silk that "our Cherek cousins haven't realised that women are human yet." They also kill Angaraks on sight, and ban them from the kingdom - though this one at least has the mild justification that most Angaraks heading that far west have been dispatched as spies. They also hold a lesser, but still present, grudge against the Nyissans for killing the Rivan royal family 1300 years prior to the story, after which they made a very spirited attempt to exterminate them. Now, they're civil enough, though the Nyissan practises of slavery and poisoning don't exactly endear them to anyone. Polgara and Belgarath muse in their respective prequels that this kind of racism is rather unpleasant, but it ''was'' useful when hiding Garion's ancestors.
** Even the other, milder Alorn kingdoms have this, with Garion's declaration that he would rule jointly with Ce'Nedra being treated as shocking, even if the various Queens often play more of a part than custom strictly allows. By the time of ''The Malloreon'', the various monarchs aren't remotely fazed by it, but Belgarath notes with some disgust in his prequel that despite Porenn being one of the most competent leaders (as Queen-Regent in ''The Malloreon'') Drasnia's ever had, a lot of back-country Drasnians dismiss her precisely because she's a woman.
** Witch-burning isn't ever seen on page, but it's alluded to in reference to Martje the BlindSeer in ''Pawn of Prophecy'' and Vordai, the Witch of the Fens.

[[folder: Angaraks]]

!!The Angaraks.

People of Torak, the most numerous in the world, and at least initially the source of the vast majority of the antagonists, divided into Nadraks, Thulls, Murgos, and Malloreons. The Murgos in particular appear to be AlwaysChaoticEvil, and the Nadraks as the TokenGoodTeammate. As the series goes on, however, it becomes apparent that it's rather more complicated than that, which is expanded upon in ''The Malloreon''.

* AntiquatedLinguistics: Affected by the Mimbrate nobility, and consciously avoided by the Asturians for that exact reason, marvellously avoiding YeOldeButcheredeEnglish.

* DeconstructedArchetype: The Chivalric Romance style kingdom based on a feudal system is revealed to be rife with internecine conflicts that compound the misery of the serfs, who're miserably oppressed and largely ignored even by sympathetic characters. Garion, raised in Sendaria where there are no serfs, is utterly horrified and spends some time trying to make his friend Lelldorin see how unjust this is (which happens eventually). He isn't the only one to pass negative comment on it.

** Wacites: More difficult, but probably closest to the post-Roman British, being a very musical people with a beautiful court that was widely connected, celebrated high culture, and got destroyed and absorbed by the Saxon counterparts who let their great achievements go to ruin (though in fairness, in real life, that was due to the lack of renewed economic viability of cities like London until much later).

!!Garion's Companions

[[folder: Garion (Belgarion)]]
--> ''"Why me?"''

Grandson of Belgarath and nephew of Polgara, Garion was raised as a scullery lad on a farm in Sendaria, completely ignorant of his family's near-divine status, or his role in the Prophecy. When Zedar the Apostate steals the Orb of Aldur, Garion's aunt and grandfather drag him on a cross-country journey, during which he learns that he is a sorcerer, the long-lost King of Riva, and the Child of Light of which the Prophecy speaks.

* BloodKnight: Garion's generally a fairly mild-mannered person, and as Zakath notes, remarkably gentle. However, this trope ''is'' an Alorn characteristic and while Garion was raised a Sendar, he ''is'' an Alorn (well, technically, he's half). In short, it's InTheBlood, and it's apparent that even from a young age he enjoys fights for their own sake. He even indignantly complains when someone else kills ''his'' Murgo, to the amusement of Silk, Barak and Hettar, with Silk lightly remarking, "He's turning savage on us." However, after he ends up killing Chamdar, which he regrets (since Chamdar was an AssholeVictim, it was more the method that horrified him), this trope becomes less apparent.

-->''"I pray thee, be moderate in thine address. Even I might experience some difficulty in facing the massed legions of all Tolnedra."''

*** Alternatively, as the name suggests, they also compare with the Spanish Kingdom of Asturias, which swallowed up several competitors and was later itself swallowed up by the Mimbre-like Castile.

!!Garion's Companions

[[folder: Garion (Belgarion)]]
--> ''"Why me?"''

Grandson of Belgarath and nephew of Polgara, Garion was raised as a scullery lad on a farm in Sendaria, completely ignorant of his family's near-divine status, or his role in the Prophecy. When Zedar the Apostate steals the Orb of Aldur, Garion's aunt and grandfather drag him on a cross-country journey, during which he learns that he is a sorcerer, the long-lost King of Riva, and the Child of Light of which the Prophecy speaks.

* AchievementsInIgnorance: Garion succeeds in bringing [[spoiler: a horse]] back to life, simply because he doesn't know that it's supposed to be impossible. That said, a good deal of that had to do with the fact that [[spoiler: Horse]] was a moderately important part of future events, so the Necessity probably gave him a helping hand.
* BelligerentSexualTension: With Ce'Nedra, from her introduction in Book 2, until long after they're married.
* TheBerserker: Only under severe stress/magical manipulation, but sometimes. Since he's an adult by the time it really happens, a fully trained MasterSwordsman and a powerfully built man who's over six feet tall, he becomes a OneManArmy even without using his powers.
* BigBrotherInstinct:
** He eventually regards Errand as a surrogate younger brother, owing to how they were both raised by Polgara, and is protective of him.
** He also has a degree of this towards Lelldorin - while they're about the same age (if anything, Lelldorin's a couple of years older), Lelldorin has absolutely no common sense whatsoever, meaning that a lot of their conversations involve Garion pointing out why Lelldorin's latest grand scheme is a very bad idea.
* BloodKnight: Garion's generally a fairly mild-mannered person, and as Zakath notes, remarkably gentle. However, this trope ''is'' an Alorn characteristic and while Garion was raised a Sendar, he ''is'' an Alorn (well, technically, he's half). In short, it's InTheBlood, and it's apparent that even from a young age he enjoys fights for their own sake. He even indignantly complains when someone else kills ''his'' Murgo, to the amusement of Silk, Barak and Hettar, with Silk lightly remarking, "He's turning savage on us." However, after he ends up killing Chamdar, which he regrets (since Chamdar was an AssholeVictim, it was more the method that horrified him), this trope becomes less apparent.
* CatchPhrase: "Why me?"
* ChildhoodBrainDamage: PlayedForLaughs at one point, when Garion comments that maybe his tendency to charge into dangerous situations without thinking about the danger is because his Aunt Pol dropped him on his head as a baby. Belgarath counters that Polgara is very careful "with babies and other breakable things".
* TheChosenOne: By the Prophecy.
* CluelessChickMagnet: Midway through the series, Garion's descent from [[LivingLegend Belgarath]] is common knowledge, but his identity as the Rivan King and therefore betrothal to Ce'Nedra is still a secret (even to him). Since Belgarath's family is the most noble in the world basically by default (it doesn't hurt that Polgara has acquired titles from more or less everywhere, and spent a few centuries ruling a moderately powerful duchy thanks to doing the Duke of Vo Wacune a ''very'' big favor), this briefly makes Garion the most eligible bachelor in the West, a fact he was neither aware of nor prepared for.
* CombatPragmatist: Having been mentored by the likes of Silk and Belgarath, Garion has never met a fair fight that he liked or didn't try to avoid.
* CoolHorse: He gets one in ''Demon Lord of Karanda'', courtesy of Emperor Zakath -- a big dark gray stallion named Chretienne.
-->'''Zakath''': A King needs a kingly horse, and I think you'll find that Chretienne can lend himself to any occasion that requires ceremony.
* CoolSword: The Sword of the Rivan King.
** {{BFS}}: Justified, as the Orb of Aldur lightens its weight.
** FlamingSword: The Orb causes the Sword to burst into blue flame.
** OneHandedZweihander: Normally Garion uses the Sword with two hands, but he can do this if the situation calls for it.
** OnlyTheChosenMayWield: As long as the Orb is attached.
** PowerGlows: Bright blue, just like the Orb.
** ThunderboltIron: Forged from a fallen meteor.
** UnbreakableWeapons: Nothing can shatter the blade of the Rivan King.
* DeadpanSnarker: Develops into this from TheComicallySerious over time (exposure to Silk, Belgarath, Polgara's increased snark in her father's presence, and the Light Prophecy probably contributed to this), to the point where Beldin complains in the second series that he liked Garion much better before he developed such a smart mouth.
* {{Farmboy}}: Garion is one, but only technically. He lived on a farm, but aside from other tasks, he usually worked in his aunt's kitchen... as a dishwasher.
* FightsLikeANormal: For most of the first series, partly because he's initially ignorant of his powers (by design), then because he rejects them due to going through a moral crisis [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone after what he did to Asharak/Chamdar]], so he gets trained in normal combat instead. This continues for the majority of the second series - his instinct is to use his sorcery to aid his more conventional prowess in battle rather than use it as a weapon outright.
* TheHeart: He tends to be, with the exception of Eriond (and possibly Durnik), the kindest and gentlest at heart of the heroes, with Zakath noting that he's a remarkably gentle person. However, this does not preclude an occasional habit of quite literally going berserk and, as also noted by Zakath, a capacity for being extraordinarily cold-blooded.
* TheHero: Of the entire series.
* HeroicLineage: It becomes common knowledge by the second book that he's the descendant of Belgarath and ward of Polgara, and then that he's closely related to a high-ranking Algar clan through his mother, but the true extent of it - that he's the heir to the Rivan Throne - is hidden until the end of the fourth book.
* HiddenDepths: He's much smarter and more perceptive than most, including him, realise. As Belgarath observes, he has a knack for condensing very large, very complex ideas into very simple and easy to manage forms, and as a result, he's one of the few people who [[TheSmartGuy Beldin]] expresses an interest in discussing philosophy with - the others all being geniuses, or Durnik, who played no small part in raising Garion, and practically redefines this trope in his own right.
** He's also the first person outside of Belgarath and Polgara (who both knew straight off) that the spoilt Tolnedran noble lady tagging along with them in the first series is Princess Ce'Nedra, when even ''Silk'' didn't realise it. Moreover, he's the first person full-stop, ''including'' Belgarath and Polgara to work out that [[spoiler: the female wolf]] who's travelling with them in ''The Malloreon'' is, in fact, [[spoiler: Poledra]].
* {{Hypocrite}}: PlayedForLaughs, when having cracked up laughing at Lelldorin's thoroughly bizarre (and admittedly hilarious) romance related adventures, he complains only a couple of chapters later when everyone else finds his prospective problems with Ce'Nedra hilarious, practically quoting Lelldorin's reproachful "a friend wouldn't laugh at me."
* IgnoranceIsBliss: [[InvokedTrope Deliberately.]]
* IJustWantToBeNormal: Garion's {{Catchphrase}} is "Why me?" [[CharacterDevelopment He gets over it...]] [[TheGadfly but he isn't above occasionally repeating it to the Prophecy just to wind it up.]]
* {{Kidanova}}: Garion had a quite a way with the ladies as a teenager, though it was entirely accidental, and mostly (but not exclusively) related to his being related to Belgarath and Polgara, and thus an ''extremely'' eligible bachelor; ironically Ce'Nedra was the first girl he met who wasn't instantly smitten with him.
* KillTheGod: He's supposed to kill Torak. [[spoiler:By the second series one of his nicknames is "Godslayer".]]
* LargeAndInCharge: It's not brought up very often, but after a growth spurt towards the end of the first series, and in between then and the second series, Garion towers up to well past six feet tall, and is powerfully built with it.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: To varying degrees until late in Book 4.
* MagicKnight: Garion becomes frighteningly proficient with both weaponry and sorcery, though more so with the former - he's trained by Hettar and Mandorallen, arguably ''the'' two greatest [[MasterSwordsman master swordsmen]] in the series, challenged only by Cho-Hag (who's Hettar's adoptive father and fencing teacher).
* MosesInTheBulrushes: How his father saved his life, more or less, when their house was burning down around them, using stone-cutting tools to hack open a small hole and shove baby Garion out. At first, Asharak/Chamdar, the man who set the house on fire in the first place grabbed him... before very sensibly throwing him at a homicidal Belgarath and running like hell.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: His killing Chamdar/Asharak by [[spoiler: burning him alive]], though poetic justice, horrifies him - and understandably so, considering that he's only 15. It lingers with him and makes him extremely unwilling to accept that he's now a sorcerer.
* NoiselessWalker: It's briefly handwaved that he learns the trick of walking soundlessly through a forest full of twigs and leaf litter by watching Silk.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Frequently plays the country simpleton to great effect.
* PapaWolf: Do ''not'' touch his children. Seriously. He's not as coldly vicious as Polgara and Belgarath are capable of being, but he's a six foot plus borderline PhysicalGod (being definitively the most powerful sorcerer on the planet), a MasterSwordsman with the Alorn tendency to go berserk under sufficient stress, as well as a giant sword and what amounts to a pet RealityWarper on the hilt of said sword, which is very fond of his family in its own right. That, plus an oft underestimated intelligence and a capacity for cold-blooded pragmatism that astonishes ''Zakath'' of all people.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: Graduates to this towards the end of ''the Belgariad'', and starts tipping into the PhysicalGod category - even ''without'' the Orb of Aldur - in ''the Malloreon.''
%% * PhysicalGod: Starts verging on this in ''The Malloreon'', and has more raw power than even Belgarath - but far less experience of how to use it.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Delivers a brutal one to Torak in the first series, and to the Dark Prophecy in the second.
* RefusalOfTheCall: Refuses his destiny as a sorcerer after [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone killing Chamdar/Asharak - specifically, how he did it, something which sticks with him even into the second series -]] due to a mixture of a moral crisis and not wanting to accept that he's no longer the simple {{farmboy}} he once was. He eventually comes round when he realises that he ''has'' to learn how to use it.
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: In spades.
* SorcerousOverlord: A heroic version, as the nigh-immortal, mystically empowered, godslaying King of Riva and Overlord of the West.
* StrongButUnskilled: He's ''the'' most powerful Sorcerer in the series, even without using the Orb, but he has by far the weakest understanding of his powers. This justified by the fact that most of the sorcerers in the series have decades to centuries of experience and study on him, and save Zandramas (who was the Child of Dark), all the really powerful ones have ''millennia'' on him. Plus, initially Polgara and Belgarath are dedicated to keeping his talents hidden, and their full manifestation (killing Chamdar) leaves him horrified and initially deeply unwilling to use them again. After that, he's mostly occupied by his position as King of Riva.
** However, he's also noted to have an intuitive skill for sorcery - when taught/shown something, he picks it up ''fast'' - and he has a habit of casually doing the impossible (or at least, deeply improbable).
* SuperDrowningSkills: Has acquired this skill ever since he hit a log on a pond while showing off.
* ThereWasADoor: A few times. The most impressive case of this is the disintegration of a city gate... and a lot of the wall around it. Bits of which landed about five miles away. The degree to which the gate ceased to be was caused by the Orb deciding to help.
* TookALevelInBadass: From ordinary farmboy to the most powerful mortal (for a given value of mortal, considering that sorcerers are all TheAgeless) on the planet.
* UnevenHybrid: Had a sorcerer grandfather and a wolf grandmother (technically, they're both many, many times grandparents, but the 'greats' are removed for the sake of simplicity).
* UpbringingMakesTheHero: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Polgara; she deliberately raises Garion as a {{farmboy}} to give him a solid moral foundation for when he ends up having to save the world. Additionally, many of his ancestors ''did'' know, and in one or two cases, it went to their heads (usually temporarily and with a nudge or two from Chamdar), and made them stick out at exactly the wrong moment. However, the downsides of this - such as his not being able to read until Ce'Nedra teaches him - are also pointed out, usually by Belgarath.
* UnskilledButStrong: Especially in the first series, where he lacks finesse and experience, but has enough raw power to terrify the Grolim Hierarchs (though, notably, not the likes of Ctuchik). This isn't really rectified either--it's just that by the second series his raw power is so significant that his relative lack of precision doesn't matter.
* WellExcuseMePrincess: His relationship with Ce'Nedra (in the first series, and the early part of ''Guardians of the West'') summed up in four words. Marriage and time mellow them both out somewhat.

[[folder: Polgara]]

Daughter of Belgarath, and twin sister of Beldaran of Riva. Following in the footsteps of her mother, Polgara was the second female disciple of Aldur, and is the long-time guardian of the Rivan King's line. Haughty and regal, Polgara is a deeply affectionate woman at her core, and Garion's safety and security is her foremost concern.

* AbsurdlyElderlyMother: In chronological, but not biological age, since Sorcerers [[TheAgeless stop ageing]] at an age that "feels" right to them. As a result, Polgara remains youthful (general estimates of her apparent age settle on 'early thirties, at most') for 3000 years and is able to [[BabiesEverAfter have twins at the end]] of the ''Malloreon'' sequel series. Belgarath observes that this probably has a lot to do with the fact that society regards elderly men as venerable, but classes elderly women as crones.
* TheAgeless: Hasn't aged since she hit her thirties.
* AngstySurvivingTwin: Polgara was very close to her sister and outlived her thanks to being a sorcerer.
-->'''Belgarath''': "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."
* AnimalMotifs: A snowy owl.
* BelatedLoveEpiphany: She doesn't realize how desperately she loves Durnik until he's killed by Zedar -- but that awareness gives her the strength to hold fast against ''Torak''. [[spoiler:Fortunately, Destiny ''really'' wants her to be happy - and has plans for Durnik - so the Gods (with some help from Garion and the Orb) bring him back to life so she can marry him.]]
* BrainyBrunette: Their mother magically altered both twins in the womb to prepare them for their roles in life, including making Polgara this as opposed to Beldaran's blonde hair.
* CombatMedic: She's spent literal centuries studying the healing arts and is probably the best healer in the world, but she not only won't hesitate to defend herself or her loved ones if necessary, but could probably level a small country if she put her mind to it.
* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: When she decides to transform Salmissra into a giant snake, thus freeing her from all her human nature and all the drugs her body was suffering from.
* DarkChick: Torak always kept this place in his FiveManBand open for her. She's ''really'' not interested.
* TheDreaded: To Grolims in particular. This is because due to Torak's interest, they're not entirely sure how to behave towards her - on the one hand, she's their implacable enemy, and the daughter of Belgarath, who's the closest thing the Angarak faith has to the Devil. On the other, she's also the chosen bride of their god, whose displeasure they ''really'' don't want to incur.
* HerHeartWillGoOn: Her mortal lover died during the fall of Vo Wacune. She eventually came back stronger, but it was a long road.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Technically, her mother was a shape-shifting wolf (though she was human when pregnant with Polgara and Beldaran), and while she is very much human, it is occasionally mentioned that she has a somewhat wolfish sense of [[ThickerThanWater family loyalty]].
* HotWitch: She's an ageless sorceress and repeatedly stated to be the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman.
* ImmortalRuler: In her prequel she was the benevolent ruler of the Duchy of Erat for over half a millennium, but after her first mortal lover's death she set up a constitutional government and abdicated.
* MagicalNanny: Polgara plays this role as caretaker of the Rivan line for two thousand years, with varying degrees of closeness (sometimes, she's more detached, other times, like with Garion, she's a full on ParentalSubstitute). And her cooking... divine!
* MamaBear: Dear gods, yes. To take, but one example, Salmissra has a fifteen year old Garion kidnapped and subjected to GoGoEnslavement. Polgara responds by ''ripping apart Salmissra's entire palace'', staring down the spirit of a god, Issa, and makes an example of Salmissra by transforming her from a woman into a giant snake, all to get Garion back and demonstrate her ''extreme'' displeasure.
* MerlinAndNimue: She is mentored by her father in magic, and through the centuries they often team up together. Their blood relationship eliminates the romantic elements of the trope, however, and they never betray each other.
* MindRape: She can cast illusions which are guaranteed to make her victims beg her to stop - her self-narrated prequel explains that each illusion is tailored to the subject, and is created by reaching into the depths of their mind and finding what they fear the most. She's very prone to doing this as part of interrogations, and it's usually extremely effective - though Sadi became the one person in both series and both prequels to NoSell it by the simple expedient of being stoned out of his mind (he thought her illusion was "pretty").
* MyBelovedSmother: She veers into this from time to time, to Garion's displeasure, which Belgarath points out. However, she very frequently has ''excellent'' reason for her attitude - and where Garion specifically is concerned, it might have a lot to do with guilt over not being there to stop Asharak/Chamdar from killing Garion's parents.
* TheNotSoHarmlessPunishment: She gives a SmugSnake seer (who was making inconveniently timed proclamations of Garion's true identity and refusing to stop) her sight back, preventing her from having visions anymore, something which utterly breaks the seer in question.
* ParentalSubstitute: To Garion, and later Errand. In return, both of them, excepting a couple of teenage rocky periods on Garion's part (which mostly have to do with his being LockedOutOfTheLoop and her occasional MyBelovedSmother tendencies), absolutely adore her.
* ThePowerOfLove: The power of Durnik's love for her, and hers for him, quite literally ''saves the universe''.
* PsychicPowers: One of her particular specialities, which she uses for illusions, extremely subtle mental manipulation, and sometimes outright MindRape.
* RoaringRampageOfRescue: She and Barak tear Salmissra's palace to pieces trying to rescue Garion in ''Queen of Sorcery'', and in the process, she stares down Issa (a God), and [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor gives Salmissra the immortality she wanted]] by turning her into a giant snake (though, ironically, she does actually turn out to be happier with it than she was before, as are her subordinates).
* SecondLove: She lost the first man she ever truly loved -- her Champion, Count Ontrose -- in the battle that doomed Vo Wacune. Millennia later, she meets and falls in love with Durnik, and eventually marries him.
* SheCleansUpNicely: Was once a ragged tomboy with a disregard for her appearance that made her father's habitual smelly tramp disguise look positively fastidious. Is now regarded as the most beautiful woman on the planet.
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Both times she truly falls in love. Her {{first love}}, Count Ontrose, is a consummate gentleman and the [[KnightInShiningArmor paramount knight of all Arendia]], devoted to duty and to Polgara (unfortunately for her, [[LovedINotHonorMore in that order]]). Durnik, the man she ultimately marries, is ([[TookALevelInBadass at least initially]]) a simple Sendarian blacksmith, but he's also kind, pure-hearted, courageous, and just plain ''good'' -- Polgara calls him the "best and bravest" man she's ever known.
* SkunkStripe: Her trademark, and a plot point in the back-story - namely, it makes her stick out when she wants to be overlooked.
* SilkHidingSteel: After she decides to clean herself up, she becomes an extremely well-mannered and well-dressed lady, who's frequently described as being the most beautiful woman in the world. She's also extremely powerful and even more cold-blooded than her father at times, if a bit less vicious, and when she's properly angry, she terrifies the Kings of the West in ways that even Belgarath doesn't.
* TantrumThrowing: While she's usually calm and dignified, when really pushed, she does this at least twice. The results are noted in the series to be quite spectacular, not to mention severely dangerous, given that she could level a small country if so inclined.
* TrueBlueFemininity: When not in her earth-tone coloured travelling clothes, she wears blue dresses reserved for special occasions, and blue is her signature colour.
* UptownGirl: To Durnik. This doesn't stop her from figuring out she returns his feelings... eventually.
* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: Frequently described as such.

[[folder: Belgarath]]

Garion's ultimate grandfather and the most renowned sorcerer in the world, Belgarath is Aldur's senior disciple, a position that sees him treated as royalty by the Alorn kings, and a bogeyman by the Angaraks. Dedicated to the fulfillment of the Prophecy, Belgarath has spent 7000 years fighting to keep the universe from spinning off its course.

* TheAgeless: Stopped ageing at about seventy or so - and even that is more of an aesthetic choice than anything else, considering, broadly fitting the WizardClassic stereotype (or at least, the age category).
* AnimalMotifs: A wolf.
* {{Archenemy}}: To Ctuchik and Zedar.
* BadassBeard: A short-cropped silver beard.
* BadassBookworm: He may not seem like the scholarly type, but he usually spends the intervening centuries between adventures reading in his tower - in his self-narrated prequel, it actually gets to the point where Beldin complains that he hardly ever looks up from his books.
* CoolOldGuy: He's mischievous, charismatic, an excellent story-teller and one of the most powerful men in the world, all traits that make him very popular with his many grandsons and Eriond (on all of whom he is a bad influence), much to Polgara's exasperation.
* DeadpanSnarker: A premier example in the series - really, you can see where Polgara (and later, Garion) gets it from.
* DirtyOldMan: While he's always had a streak of ChivalrousPervert in him, he becomes this after Poledra's apparent death, spending several years living it up in Maragor in an attempt to drown his sorrows (alcohol having failed in this regard). Even afterwards, he's noted as having an eye for the ladies, and more than a few have an eye for him, even without knowing who he really is.
* DisappearedDad: Belgarath's mother died when he was a child, and he doesn't know who his father was.
** He was one himself for a while when he abandoned Polgara and Beldaran after they were born and didn't come home until years later - having gone mad with grief had a lot to do with this.
* DoomedHometown: Though he hadn't lived there for centuries, Belgarath is upset when he discovers that his home village of Gara (his original name, Garath, meant 'of the town of Gara') was destroyed in the Torak cataclysm.
* EccentricMentor: Belgarath has several bad habits; the habitual stealing, drinking, and [[ReallyGetsAround all that business in Maragor after Poledra's death]], and he generally looks like a tramp (though that's actually by design, and none of his clothes are actually half as shabby as they appear), but he is still Aldur's first disciple, "possibly the best teacher in the history of the world" when he puts his mind to it, as Polgara admits, and quite capable of demonstrating why all the Grolims are terrified of him.
* ElderlyImmortal: Appears appropriately old, at least on his face.
* InterspeciesRomance: His beloved wife was originally a wolf he encountered in wolf form while travelling, and became his companion, and eventually his lover when she learned how to shapeshift from him.
* ItsPersonal: Holds a significant grudge against Zedar, who not only betrayed him, but a) organised the assassination of the Rivan royal family, Belgarath's descendants, b) might have been responsible for the suicide of at least one of his fellow disciples - a theory Belgarath brings up in his prequel, with the notation that if he ever gets confirmation of it, he's going to get Zedar (who's currently sealed [[AndIMustScream in rock, alive,]] and put him somewhere "much less comfortable").
** Also decides that this applies first to the Bear-Cult (who were involved in the kidnapping of Garion's son), then Zandramas (who orchestrated it), spending a large chunk of ''The Malloreon'' in a state of TranquilFury, [[PapaWolf stating his intention to tear apart the world to get his grandson back.]]
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He plays up the image of the grumpy and often ruthless old man, who's cold and entirely emotionally detached from humanity, and does so effectively enough that it actually fools Polgara for most of her youth... until she turns into a snowy owl like her mother and he practically breaks down in tears on the spot (which makes her realise that he does actually have a heart, and starts their real reconciliation). Under his grumpy shell there's a heart of gold, mainly shown in a keen sense of family, manifesting as a VitriolicBestBuds type relationship with Polgara and his brothers, as well as deep grief for his two DeaderThanDead brothers, his other daughter, and his wife, even thousands of years after their deaths ([[spoiler: apparent death, in the case of Poledra]]), and a deep fondness for his various grandsons, especially Garion. And then there's the ''spectacular'' PapaWolf tendencies.
** He's also kind to Vordai, admitting in his prequel that he felt sorry for her, and to two of the Salmissras, after they show minds of their own: one he gives political advice on how to get rid of the eunuchs who were planning to kill and replace her after it became apparent she wasn't just a puppet, and the other, Illessa, the Salmissra who was manipulated into killing the Rivan royal family by Zedar, whom he had every reason to hate, he comforted on her deathbed with the knowledge that Zedar's scheme had failed.
* LargeHam: He is a professional story teller and he uses it whenever he can. In her prequel, Polgara frequently notes, and occasionally laments, his dramatic streak.
* LetsGetDangerous: As Polgara observes, while he's normally deeply lazy, insouciant, and generally nothing like what you'd expect a legendary sorcerer to be, he can throw that off in the blink of an eye, function for weeks with minimal sleep and food, and pull off feats that should be impossible.
* LostLenore: Poledra, his wife. Even thousands of years later, he's still grieving for her.
* TheMentor: To Garion, Polgara, and most of Aldur's other disciples. Polgara grudgingly notes that he's actually a very good teacher - if not the best in the history of the world, to use her exact words.
* MundaneUtility: Most of the sorcerers in the world do everything the normal way unless they have a good reason to use magic, Belgarath uses magic for everything unless he's trying to hide (which, since he's hiding for most of the series, isn't immediately apparent). He conjures his meals out of thin air, he levitates books off the shelf into his hand, he lights the fire in the evening with a snap of his fingers, etc. One of the end results of this, combined with his age, is that while he's not the smartest sorcerer (that's Beldin) or the most powerful (that's Garion) he is the most practised.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Belgarath has elevated this to an art form. He looks and acts like a disreputable, drunken, dirty-minded tramp (as Ce'Nedra thinks, he's "frequently a public nuisance"). However, most of it is by design (his clothes, for instance, only ''look'' shabby, and that in order to blend in), and as his daughter grudgingly notes, this does not in any way change the fact that he is the first disciple of Aldur and could probably stop the sun in the sky if he was ever so inclined. As Poledra remarks at one point, he once got irritated with a hammer after accidentally hitting his thumb with it, and threw it away - not away as in 'across the room', away as in 'up into the sky'. That was several thousand years ago, and apparently, it's still going. And that isn't even getting into the fact that he's spent the last several millennia pragmatically arranging and manipulating the various Western kingdoms to his and the Necessity's satisfaction.
** However, it is also worth noting that some of it is just who he is, played up for dramatic effect, with the more serious parts of him hidden away: he is frequently found with a drink in hand (at one point Garion fondly thinks that Belgarath could probably find a cask of ale in a coal mine), he prefers passing as a tramp, and he is spectacularly dirty-minded.
* PapaWolf: To the ''world.'' Less so to Polgara, since she can generally more than take care of herself, and less to Garion [[TookALevelInBadass after he becomes able to take care of himself]] (though it's notable that the one time Chamdar faced him directly, just after murdering Garion's parents, the only thing that saved him was the fact that he threw Garion at the homicidally enraged Belgarath and ran like hell). However, he is ''definitely'' this to the rest of his family - after the Rivan royal family (his descendants via Beldaran) are murdered in the back-story, he organises an ''epic'' RoaringRampageOfRevenge that more or less ''flattens'' Nyissa (though he ends up being kind to the Salmissra who nominally ordered it, as she was a TragicVillain and as much of a victim of [[ManBehindTheMan Zedar's]] scheme as the Rivan royal family). And speaking of Zedar, his being condemned to a FateWorseThanDeath was the result of killing [[spoiler: Durnik, Belgarath's future son-in-law]], and while Belgarath expresses regret for it in his prequel, he also adds that if his suspicions surrounding the suicide of Belmakor, one of his fellow disciples (namely, that Zedar caused it) are ever confirmed, he won't just leave Zedar where he is - he'll go back there and put him "somewhere a lot less pleasant."
** He also spends a large chunk of ''The Malloreon'' in a state of TranquilFury after Geran is kidnapped by Zandramas, deciding ItsPersonal and, again, leading the expedition that destroys the Bear-Cult (who were partly involved), and then with Garion and company, going after Zandramas herself, making clear that he'll tear the world apart to get his grandson back.
* PhysicalGod: He's not on par with the actual gods, but he's the next best thing. Polgara, generally not prone to exaggerating, remarks both that the other disciples of Aldur (most of whom are {{Living Legend}}s in their own right) tend to defer to him as if he's a kind of demigod, and that if he wanted to, he could probably stop the sun in the sky. Poledra, her mother, also not prone to exaggerating, remarks that in a fit of irritation, he once threw a hammer ''into space.''
* RummageSaleReject: Deliberately. As it turns out, his clothes are actually much better crafted than they appear (the patches are for show).
* SilverFox: He's the oldest person in the world short of the gods and ''looks'' appropriately venerable for an aged sorcerer, albeit in the sense of someone who's aged well, yet pulls this off when he strips to his briefs to dive into a lake and shows off his impressive physique in the process.
* TerrorHero: Let's put it this way: In the Angarak faith, he holds the roughly same position as Satan does in the Abrahamic religions. All Angaraks are utterly terrified of him, and Polgara plainly states when it looks like he might have lost his powers that fear of him is pretty much the one thing holding them back.
** He also sometimes veers into this when dealing with the Bear-Cult and the Nyissans. He's organised the suppression of the former on multiple occasions, and he once ''flattened'' Nyissa in response to their assassination of the Rivan royal family (at the behest of Zedar).
* TimeAbyss: Easily the oldest living human at 7,000 years old. Only the gods and a certain tree have any time on him.
* TheTramp: Wanders the world dressed as a vagabond. As it happens, his clothes are all finely tailored, and their shabby appearance is just to allow him to blend in.
* UnderdressedForTheOccasion: Greets kings while dressed as a tramp - and usually verbally flips them off if they've interrupted him from doing something important - and has to be forced (usually by Polgara) into formal wear.
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Beldin, and his daughter, Polgara.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: He was born in the now long forgotten village of Gara, and was orphaned as a child (hence his name, Garath, which means 'of the town of Gara' - he's not strictly sure if it's his original name, but went with it). He ran away in his teens after getting a beating from a farmer whose daughter he got caught necking with, and ended up in Aldur's valley. When Torak split the world centuries later, Gara was destroyed, severing the last link to his past.
* WizardBeard: A short, clipped version.
* WizardClassic: In apparent age and dress - when he can be stuffed into formal wear - if not necessarily attitude.

[[folder: Durnik]]

Garion's oldest and most loyal friend, Durnik was the smith at Faldor's farm and accompanied him and Polgara when Zedar stole the Orb. A deeply practical man with an enormous crush on Polgara, Durnik's bravery and common sense serve the company well on their trek across the world.

* AnAxeToGrind: Often uses his woodsman's axe in the first series and for a while in the second.
* BackFromTheDead: At the end of ''The Belgariad.'' One of only ''two'' exceptions in ''history'' to AllDeathsFinal - and it's debatable whether Poledra was ever really dead to begin with.]]
* BadassNormal: Is an ordinary blacksmith with little formal battle training travelling among professional warriors and sorcerers. Still kicks ferocious amounts of ass (it helps that all that smithy work has made him ridiculously strong).
* TheBlacksmith: His primary trade.
* BoringButPractical: Durnik's ideas are rarely exciting or terribly complex, but they inevitably work.
** SimpleYetAwesome: Especially in ''The Malloreon'', where he really gets to shine.
* DeclarationOfProtection: He originally goes on the quest ''specifically'' to protect Polgara, with whom he has been hopelessly in love for years. [[spoiler:He has no idea that his presence, and his love for her, will save not only her sanity but ''the entire universe''.]]
* DissonantSerenity: Utterly calm despite the chaos that swirls around him during his battle with Nahaz.
* DropTheHammer: As a blacksmith he's quite proficient with one of these. In ''The Malloreon'' he gains a magic one from Aldur with similar properties to the Sword of the Rivan King.
* EmpoweredBadassNormal: After he comes [[spoiler: BackFromTheDead.]]
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: ''Everyone'' knows how he feels about Polgara.
* GadgeteerGenius: He immediately understands what the Drasnian engineers are doing to hoist ships up a cliff, and was able to invent and arrange the construction of a cradle to help with moving the ships over land in about a ''day''.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: With Garion. He's old enough to be the boy's father (and [[spoiler: ends up marrying Polgara, [[ParentalSubstitute the nearest thing Garion has ever had to a mother]]]]), yet their relationship is very much that of two good friends.
* TheLancer: To Garion.
* MagicKnight: He's a huge, physical bruiser who becomes proficient in magic ''and'' gains a mystic hammer.
* NiceGuy: The bedrock of his character -- he's just a good ''person''. He's kind, steadfast, supportive, compassionate, and morally upright -- more so than any other character in the series, save possibly Eriond.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Recently ascended to disciplehood and granted a mystic hammer and a power boost from Aldur, Durnik delivers a brutal one to the Demon Lord Nahaz at the conclusion of ''Sorceress of Darshiva''.
* NotSoStoic: Durnik almost ''never'' visibly loses his composure, but when he does, it's almost invariably because Polgara is hurt or in danger.
* OvershadowedByAwesome: At the beginning Durnik is just a Sendarian blacksmith in the company of a master spy/thief, a politically astute Cherek warrior who occasionally transforms into a giant bear, two incredibly powerful sorcerers, and a boy who happens to be TheChosenOne. He becomes more and more prominent as the story goes along, though.
* PowerGlows: [[spoiler: His hammer]] in the second series.
* SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl: Polgara is something of a whirlwind, whereas he is rock-steady and unflappable. Even before they get together, he proves able to settle her down better than anyone else, and in ''The Malloreon'' he's clearly her bedrock.
* SecondLove: To Polgara, who lost her {{first love}} in the sack of Vo Wacune.
* SixthRanger: To the [[spoiler:Disciples of Aldur.]]
* TechnicalPacifist: He will avoid killing someone as best he can. He is such that he breaks down and weeps the first time he kills someone on purpose. He does not, however, have any qualms about leading someone to their own death, such as leading an enemy into a quicksand pit.
* TookALevelInBadass: Repeatedly, including [[spoiler:two assists from the gods.]]
* UnskilledButStrong: 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 [[spoiler:(and Talent)]] as the story progresses.
* UptownGirl: Polgara is an [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld ancient]], powerful, [[WorldsMostBeautifulWoman gorgeous]] sorceress with titles from more or less every kingdom in the West, who has shaped the fates of nations for three thousand years, and is the daughter of the most powerful man in the world. Durnik is.... a simple Sendarian blacksmith. She is ''way'' out of his league and he knows it -- but that doesn't stop her from falling in love with him. [[spoiler:Their love winds up ''saving the universe'', and he gets a serious level-up from the Gods because Destiny ''really'' wants Polgara to be happy.]]

[[folder: Barak]]

The Earl of Trellheim, and cousin to King Anheg of Cherek, Barak is a boisterous warrior who hides a dark secret--he is suffering under a curse that regularly transforms him into a beast. Unhappily married, and terrified of what he is becoming, Barak buries his fears under an uncaring facade, and devotes himself to the protection of Garion.

* AnAxeToGrind: Carries a war-axe along with his sword.
* BadassBeard: A typically Viking style one, and he is extremely badass.
* BeardOfBarbarism[=/=]SeadogBeard: All Chereks are Vikings at the end of the day.
* BearsAreBadNews: Called "The Dreadful Bear" for a reason.
* TheBerserker: 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.
* TheBigGuy: He fulfils this role in ''Pawn of Prophecy''. In the later books he's the OnlySaneMan of TheBigGuy Band, doing his best to keep the likes of [[BloodKnight Hettar,]] [[KnightInShiningArmour Mandorallen,]] [[IdiotHero Lelldorin,]] and [[TheFundamentalist Relg]] in line.
* CursedWithAwesome: Barak's "curse" is to turn into a bear when Garion [[spoiler:heir to the long-empty throne of Riva and Overlord of the West by treaty]] is threatened (at least, until he can look after himself). A rampaging, unstoppable bear. At first he thinks it's just a progressive ailment and threatens suicide, but once he gets filled in on the trigger conditions (i.e. his family are now the hereditary protectors of Garion's family), he starts contemplating tasteful ways to work it into his coat of arms. Who wouldn't want to advertise that?
* DualWielding: With a sword in one hand and a battleaxe in the other.
* FieryRedhead: A male version.
* GeniusBruiser: 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.
* InTheBlood: His "curse" is inherited. His son, Unrak, turns into a bear when Garion's son, Geran is threatened.
* InvoluntaryShapeshifting: Barak's hereditary "curse" is to turn into a bear when Garion is threatened.
* OddFriendship: With Silk.
* OnlySaneMan: As far as the BigGuy band is concerned - Hettar's a BloodKnight entirely focused on his RoaringRampageOfRevenge against the Murgos (until he gets married), Relg is a heroic version of TheFundamentalist having mellowed somewhat, Lelldorin is a master archer and Robin Hood archetype with very few brains and even less common sense, and Mandorallen is a KnightInShiningArmour who entirely seriously suggests that the lot of them take on ''the entire Mallorean army.'' Barak's entirely understandable response to the latter suggestion is to put his head down on the table and cry.
* {{Protectorate}}: Garion's family is this to Barak's family.
* RoaringRampageOfRescue: This is his literal purpose in life. If Garion is in danger, Barak turns into a bear and shreds anyone in his path until he can reach Garion.
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Cousin to King Anheg of Cherek, Earl of Trellheim, Clan-Chief, and all around useful badass.

[[folder: Kheldar (Silk)]]
->''"Trust me."''

A Prince of the Drasnian royal house, and one of his nation's finest intelligence agents, Silk is a bad little man with an innumerable amount of disagreeable habits -- not least of which is his loose understanding of the finer points of property ownership. A thief, a gambler, and a drunk, Silk is nonetheless one of the most valued members of the party from Sendaria, and one of Garion's closest friends after Durnik.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: Silk is the greatest spy that Drasnia has ever produced, but he's also idiosyncratic to a fault. It's why he's never appointed 'Hunter' (the top agent of Drasnian Intelligence) or given an administrative role. His fellow Drasnian spies describe him as "brilliant but erratic."
* BloodKnight: Though normally not afflicted by any Alorn tendencies towards this, he becomes positively giddy at the thought of testing his kung fu against a senior Dagashi (a cult of Murgo assassins).
* {{Claustrophobia}}: After Relg helped him escape a pit by walking through rock walls.
** He showed signs of mild claustrophobia in the initial trip through the caves of Ulgo. His experience with Relg later made it worse.
* CombatPragmatist: Like Belgarath, Silk never met a fair fight he liked, a trait that both of them pass on to Garion.
* [[spoiler: DeconfirmedBachelor: Thanks to Liselle in ''The Mallorean.'']]
* {{Fiction 500}}: At one point in the ''Malloreon'', Zakath is wondering if Silk's holdings in the empire should be shut down. One of his advisers points out that if they ''did'', the empire's economy would collapse.
* GentlemanThief: He mostly steals for the fun of it, an attitude he extends to his at least nominally legitimate dealings as a businessman.
* GoToAlias: He apparently has several, but his favourites are the down-on-his-luck spice merchant Ambar of Kotu, and the far more successful wholesaler Radek of Boktor.
** Technically, Silk is one too, since having his real identity (that he is prince Kheldar, the nephew and heir of the king of Drasnia) public knowledge would be bad.
* GuileHero: Silk is excellent at reading people, predicting people, telling lies, spying, and using his enemies' own vices (e.g. greed) against them.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: 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.
* KnifeNut: Carries at least three knives on his person at all times.
* LethalChef: He's an absolutely terrible cook.
* LoveableRogue: He's charming, funny, and cheerfully acknowledges that he's a morally terrible person - it helps that he ''does'' have some standards. As Belgarath observes in his prequel, it's perfectly okay to ''like'' Silk... it's just an absolutely terrible idea to trust him.
* ManipulativeBastard: Silk's fast-talk and ability to manipulate others are his main assets. [[spoiler: His wife turns out to be just as good at it as he is.]]
* MayDecemberRomance: He's about twenty years older than [[spoiler: Liselle]].
* MerchantPrince: After the events of ''The Belgariad'', Silk forms a partnership with Yarblek and by ''The Malloreon'' is one of the richest and most powerful men in the world.
* TheNavigator: His epithet in the Prophecy is 'The Guide'. As he frequently tell Belgarath, "I know a back way out of every place."
* NonIdleRich: Professional spy, occasional assassin, and one of the richest men in the world through extremely successful merchant venturing.
* ProfessionalKiller: He's one of Drasnia's go-to men when assassination is required.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: At one point during ''The Malloreon'', certain parties conspire to have one of Silk's fellow spies killed. The woman in question is an old friend (and enemy, but only professionally), 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.
** It becomes a bit more stark when you realize the progression of his revenge. The first two nights he tries to make it look like natural or accidental deaths by smothering them with their pillows or tossing them out third story windows. The third night, Silk abandons all pretexts and takes it UpToEleven by just knifing each of his targets.
* SadClown: While he cracks jokes every other line, prior to the first series, his life is pretty miserable. His mother, formerly one of the most beautiful women in Drasnia, was horribly scarred and blinded by a plague some years before the series and doesn't know that she's been scarred, and he spends the first series hopelessly in love with [[spoiler: his uncle's [[MayDecemberRomance much younger second wife, Porenn]]]] - who is very fond of him, but not like that, and furthermore, [[spoiler: his uncle]] is one of the very few people he respects enough to never try anything with [[spoiler: Porenn]], even if she were interested.
* SarcasticDevotee: One of his less popular features. At one point, when he has to take charge, 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.
* SpareToTheThrone: His uncle is the King of Drasnia, and for the longest time, Silk was his heir. The day that his cousin Crown Prince Kheva was born, Drasnia and Silk both breathed a deep sigh of relief.
* UnrequitedLove: For [[spoiler: his aunt-by-marriage, Queen Porenn]], who is genuinely very fond of him and aware of his feelings, but as is made explicit, does not share them, being very HappilyMarried. He gets over her, and marries [[spoiler: Liselle]] instead.
* TheWrongfulHeirToTheThrone: A self-aware one. Silk is well aware that he would be a terrible king, and wants nothing less than to take his beloved uncle's throne.

[[folder: Hettar]]

A silent Algarian horseman, Hettar is the adoptive son of Clan-Chief Cho-Hag. Born with the ability to speak to horses, Hettar was left a bitter, damaged man when a band of Murgo raiders murdered his parents.

* AntiHero: Hettar's habit of killing every Murgo he comes across is bad enough in the first series, but pushes him firmly into antihero territory once the Murgos become more fleshed out in the sequel - though it should be said that the Murgos he would have encountered would probably have mostly been soldiers, raiders, or Grolims/Agents of Torak and his disciples, with the Murgo civilians being generally well behind enemy lines.
* BeastMaster: As a Sha-Dar, he speaks to and effectively controls horses.
* TheBigGuy: A member of The Big FiveManBand; he plays Lancer to Barak.
* BloodKnight: Where Murgos are concerned, his day is incomplete if he doesn't kill at least a few, something that is mostly PlayedForLaughs during ''The Belgariad'' - though it is pointed to as an irrational compulsion that risks derailing their mission, and by Hettar's own account, his adoptive father Cho-Hag took him on a counter-raid hoping that once he killed a Murgo or two he'd get the obsession out of his system (needless to say, it didn't work). It's downplayed in ''The Malloreon'' as part of his CharacterDevelopment, while the Murgos get more development in their own right, and in Belgarath's prequel, Polgara flat out states that as a child, he's on the verge of becoming a proper monster.
* TheDreaded: He's a nightmare figure among the Murgos.
* FightsLikeANormal: The ability to talk to horses is pretty useful, but won't help much in a fight.
* FreudianExcuse: His hate of the Murgos stems from the fact that a band of Murgo raiders murdered his parents while he was still a kid and forced him to watch.
* HappilyAdopted: By Cho-Hag.
* HappilyMarried: In the sequel.
* TheQuietOne: He doesn't speak much.
* PayEvilUntoEvil: It should be noted that a good chunk of the Murgos he killed are indeed working for Torak, and none of them are civilians.
* {{Revenge}}: Seeks to depopulate Cthol Murgos singlehandedly in vengeance for a Murgo raid that killed his parents. He has to be physically restrained by his friends to prevent him killing Murgos at inopportune times. CharacterDevelopment has it that by the end of ''The Malloreon'' he has gotten over this and can walk into a city filled with Murgos without any homicidal urges. His wife probably helped a lot there.
* SerialKiller: How the Murgos view him, and they're not entirely wrong - as Polgara notes in Belgarath's prequel, as a boy he's on the verge of becoming an outright monster.
* SpeaksFluentAnimal: Speaks Fluent Horse.
* TheStoic: He tends to be the straight man as a result.
* TerrorHero: What Belgarath is to the Murgos from the supernatural side of things, Hettar is from the more mundane end.
* WarriorPrince: The adopted son of Cho-Hag, King of Algaria.

[[folder: Ce'Nedra]]

The opinionated, pushy, and at times, downright insufferable daughter of Tolnedran Emperor Ran Borune, Ce'Nedra is Garion's destined fiancee -- a fact that both of them are unaware of when they first meet. Arrogant and hotheaded, Ce'Nedra spends an inordinate amount of time fighting with Garion, or jockeying for position within the company. Her political skills are, however, second-to-none, and when she has to, Ce'Nedra can easily live up to her Prophetic nickname of "The Queen of the World".

* ACupAngst: Her related argument with an unsympathetic armourer is ''hilarious.''
* ArbitrarySkepticism: Ce'Nedra initially does not believe in sorcery, despite having the ability to talk to trees as a result of her Dryad heritage. Her Tolnedran upbringing has a lot to do with this.
* BelligerentSexualTension: With Garion to a truly hysterical degree. It continues long after they're married.
* BlingOfWar: Wears golden armour to impress the troops. It's justified as the armour isn't meant to protect her and she's not going to do any fighting. It's solely for its appearance. [[spoiler:The armor is also polished brazen alloy and not actual gold, because the armorer drew the line at that point.]]
* BrainwashedAndCrazy, In ''The Malloreon'', due to Zandramas' sorcery. And Harakan's. She's kind of a magnet for this stuff - [[FridgeBrilliance probably because she's the only member of the party without some kind of mental defences.]]
* BreakTheHaughty: Throughout ''Queen of Sorcery'' and ''Magician's Gambit''.
* BreastExpansion: Averted. Ce'Nedra suggested that Polgara could use sorcery to correct her "deficiencies", but Polgara refused, as using magic for plastic surgery is apparently very dangerous, and instead tells her to have a couple of children and let nature take care of it.
* BreastPlate: Justified, believe it or not. Ce'Nedra intends to speak to an army, and it's very important that she look like a queen and not a little girl (or boy). Problem is, she's very flat. So she has an armourer solve her problem (after a very long debate).
* TheChick: Well, somebody had to do it, and she makes the best of it, being crucial in raising the armies of the West in the last two books of ''The Belgariad'' that give Garion his necessary distraction. And not just the Alorns, who were all going anyway, either. She talks round the Arends, whose constituent Mimbrate and Asturian noblemen hate each other and suspect treachery at the drop of a hate, and whose serfs are in such an awful situation that they don't really care for honour, glory, or national pride (she gets around this by offering them decent meals), and her country's Legions by dangling the prospect of the red gold of Cthol Murgos under their noses.
* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: She comes up with a darkly hilarious example in ''The Malloreon'' when a Corporal who she interceded for after he got demoted (and owing to the hierarchies of Mal Zeth, evicted) for drinking on duty gets drunk again. He's brought in, stone-fucking drunk, and she's solicited for her opinion by 'Zakath. Absently examining her nails, she dismissively says, "oh, hang him", before going back to complaining about how she's split a nail. Cue the Corporal immediately sobering up and begging for his life. Afterwards, she suggests to a stunned 'Zakath that he be spared and sent back to his wife, ''but'' a gallows should be built outside his house and left there so he'll have a reminder any time he feels thirsty.
-->'''Zakath''': You ''married'' this woman?
-->'''Garion''': It was arranged by our families, really.
-->'''Ce'Nedra''': Be nice, Garion.
* DamselInDistress: Garion does rescue her a couple of times, which is unsurprising, considering that she's often InHarmsWay because of circumstances, physically very petite (at one point, she bluntly asks if there's a warrior in the entire ''world'' small enough for her to fight), and untrained in combat. However, she makes up for it near the end of the first series by deciding that since he needs a distraction, she'll provide one: by raising an absolutely ''enormous'' multinational army.
* DarkSkinnedRedhead: Dark, almost golden skin, flaming red hair.
* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: She raises an ''international army'' just to provide cover for Garion sneaking off to fight [[BigBad Torak]].
* FieryRedhead: Very much so.
* GenderEqualsBreed: Every Borune woman and any daughters she has are Dryads, but their sons are completely human - though on the smaller side, like their Dryad relatives. Because magic.
* GenerationXerox: Ce'Nedra is virtually identical in appearance, voice and personality to every Borune woman since the Dryads entered the family line. This is suggested to be related to the fact that they're technically full-blood Dryads.
* GirlPosse: A non-villainous example - Ce'Nedra is able to establish a clique of friends among the local women wherever she goes.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Her mother was a Dryad. Technically, there's no "half" - [[OneGenderRace female children of Dryads are always Dryads]].
* HappilyMarried: To Garion in ''The Malloreon''.
* HeroesWantRedheads: Garion, though it takes him a while to realise it.
* HiddenDepths: Beneath her self-centred facade and occasional immaturity lies a consummate manipulator, an accomplished politician charismatic enough to ''raise an international army'', a surprisingly resilient personality (she puts up with traipsing all over the world in a way that Garion explicitly notes that Zubrette, a farm girl, couldn't) and, of course, a MasterActor to hide it all. It takes some time for Garion to realise that there's more to her than a RoyalBrat.
* InelegantBlubbering: Polgara tells her she shouldn't cry in public; she hasn't got the right coloring for it.
* InnocentFanserviceGirl: For a given value of 'innocent'. Tolnedra is an equatorial country and much warmer than the Alorn kingdoms, and Dryads often dress very [[{{Stripperiffic}} minimally]], so Ce'Nedra often wears skimpy clothing and has a tendency towards casual nudity - the 'innocent' part is in doubt because she's completely aware of the effect this has on Garion and does it to tease him. This behaviour led to the elderly Sendarian ambassador resigning his post after walking in on her in lingerie - which she casually modelled for him, asking his opinion on each piece. His next dispatch contained a plaintive appeal to be allowed to retire.
* ItsAllAboutMe: She eventually grows out of it.
* LawOfInverseFertility: In ''Guardians Of The West'', the stability of half the world rests on her ability to get pregnant, and it eventually takes magical intervention from the Queen of the Dryads herself to make it happen. However, this is implied to be simply a matter of getting the ball rolling, as after the main plot of ''the Malloreon'' comes to an end, it's implied that with their respective lifespans, she and Belgarion will have a ''lot'' of children.
* JerkAss: For most of the first series, shading into JerkWithAHeartOfGold following her BreakTheHaughty experiences and the resultant CharacterDevelopment.
* KeepTheHomeFiresBurning: See DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu.
* LethalChef: Ce'Nedra's cooking is only edible by a very loose definition of the term. Garion dutifully, if somewhat reluctantly, eats it anyway.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Until Book 4.
* MamaBear: After [[spoiler: Geran is kidnapped.]]
* ManipulativeBastard: Goads her own father into a fit at one point, just to get what she wants, something that startles even Polgara (who's entirely capable of this trope herself). Since she knew that it would simply incapacitate him for about an hour, without doing permanent damage, and thus give her the chance to go behind his back and ''steal his entire army'' (which she needed to back up Garion), it's not as bad as it immediately sounds, and her father later looks back on the incident with genuine pride, wistfully remarking on what an Emperor she would have made if she'd been born a boy.
* MotorMouth: She can talk. A lot.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: She has a reputation as a vapid pretty princess, but she's much smarter than she looks, and she's not above using her image to her advantage.
* PaperThinDisguise: Shortly after her first appearance she tries to get out of going to Riva by sneaking out of Tol Honeth with dyed hair and an increasingly unconvincing false identity. It doesn't work, and even if it had, she almost immediately runs into the protagonists, who take her to Riva anyway. BecauseDestinySaysSo.
* PlantPerson: Dryads have an intimate relationship with trees, and live as long as their oak does.
* RebelliousPrincess
* RousingSpeech: She's damn good at this. In fact it's why she was born in the first place. However, doing so takes a toll on her, one that builds up.
* SpoiledBrat: She grows out of this - eventually.
* [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Spell My Name With An "X"]]: InUniverse example. Dryad names always have an X in them, but hers seems to break the rule. In ''The Malloreon'' it's explained that it's supposed to be spelled "X'Nedra", but that Tolnedran speech patterns soften the pronunciation of the "X" to "Ce". Her mother, Xvanne, was called Cevanne by Ran Borune. After a moment of trying to pronounce it, Garion decides to keep calling her Ce'Nedra. At the end of ''The Mallorean'', Garion also muses that he's pretty sure she's privately added an "X" someplace of their daughter Beldaran's name.
* StandardHeroReward: She is literally described as Garion's "reward" for defeating Torak at their wedding. By the presiding priest. In almost those exact words. Considering that Garion went to some trouble to ensure her status as his co-ruler and equal, ensuring that she's ''not'' just considered an ornament, she doesn't mind too much.
* TantrumThrowing: She's thrown some impressive ones. Amusingly, for her a tantrum is almost like a performance art. Often when she's incensed she will calmly examine her location to assess how well it can be used for her self-expression, and if there aren't enough things to throw and/or break, or the room is otherwise unsatisfactory, she will hold her fire in until she finds a more suitable stage for her performance.
* {{Tsundere}}: Ce'Nedra makes most anime Tsunderes look ''amateurish''. A good capsule description of her is "[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Asuka]], only having traded in all of her self-esteem issues for even more self-centeredness." In fact, setting aside the ZettaiRyouiki qualification, she's possibly the ultimate ShanaClone, surpassing all animated and Japanese versions with ease.
** Some parts of the books are told from her point of view. It's truly fascinating to read her inner monologue, she can literally go from adoring Garion to hating him like the plague in the subsequent sentence, and vice versa. It dies down somewhat after they get married and the two of them mellow somewhat.

[[folder: Sir Mandorallen, Baron of Vo Mandor]]
-->''"I pray thee, be moderate in thine address. Even I might experience some difficulty in facing the massed legions of all Tolnedra."''

The greatest knight in all of Arendia, by both his own, and everybody else's, admittance. Totally convinced of his invincibility Mandorallen is, in truth, very nearly as good as he thinks he is, and despite his towering egotism, is perhaps the ultimate example of a KnightInShiningArmour.

* ArmourIsUseless: Averted. Mandorallen's armour is probably the only reason he's still alive.
* BadassNormal: All the crazy stuff we mention in this entry? He does it with no powers or supernatural aid of any kind.
* TheBigGuy: The most archetypal example. In the Big FiveManBand he's Big Squared. Oddly, though, he's described as not being much taller than average, or particularly bulky.
* BoisterousBruiser: Mandorallen is always spoiling for a chance to demonstrate his prowess.
* CasualDangerDialog: Just see his quote line - and note that he's not being sarcastic; he still fancies his chances.
* TheChampion: Ce'Nedra's. He got the position after he saved her from a lion ''by killing it with his bare hands''.
* TheDreaded: He's the most feared man in Arendia. Even Lelldorin and the other Asturians grudgingly respect his reputation.
** By the sequel series, it gets to the point where he's world famous.
* DumbMuscle: And rather proud of it - though under the BoisterousBruiser attitude, he's [[HiddenDepths much sharper than expected.]]
* FloweryInsults: Mandorallen exceeds at this far above others, particularly in the closing chapters of The Malloreon where he spends nearly two full pages insulting a young hot-headed baron.
* HappilyMarried: Eventually.
* HeroicBastard: He is "The Bastard of Vo Mandor" due to some irregularities surrounding his birth, and people remarking on the need to get that ironed out becomes a RunningGag.
* HiddenDepths: Mandorallen isn't overly burdened with common sense, but he's still got plenty of depth beneath his KnightInShiningArmour exterior, and is far more socially intuitive than many members of the group - see ManipulativeBastard.
* HonorBeforeReason: In the first book of ''The Malloreon'', Mandorallen, Relg, Barak, Hettar and Lelldorin were forbidden to accompany Garion and the others on the quest to retrieve Garion's son. Later on, they are told by Queen Porenn that Emperor Zakath intends to send the bulk of his Imperial Army in pursuit of Garion and his crew. Mandorallen, in all seriousness, stands up and proposes that their Big FiveManBand go to Mallorea and take on the ''entire Mallorean army'' in order to keep them off Garion's back. [[OnlySaneMan Barak,]] in response to this, just puts his head down on the table and cries.
* HotBlooded: He'll ride into a fight at the drop of a hat.
* InvincibleHero: On a mundane level. If it's even theoretically possible to kill by force of arms, Mandorallen can kill it - with his bare hands, if need be, as demonstrated in the lion example, and not only is he not joking in his folder quote, it's not entirely impossible that he could do it.
* KnightInShiningArmor: Mandorallen is the archetype, if it somehow gained a life of its own.
* LargeHam: To parodic extents.
* LoveTriangle: His love is married to an older man she respects far too much to cheat on. For that matter Mandorallen respects them both too much to ask her to - especially since the older man helped raise him. Plus the husband, well aware of the situation, ''also'' respects both of them so much he would never think of putting an end to it or doubting their loyalty - and also starts taking up dangerous hobbies to try and get himself out of the way. InUniverse, "a whole generation of Arendish virgins has cried themselves to sleep" over their tragic tale. Eventually settled when her husband dies and Garion orders the two to get married in order to ''settle'' all this crap. And they do, ending a war in the process.
* ManipulativeBastard: Astonishingly, he's actually very capable of this, when he plays on Lelldorin's rigid devotion to duty to save his life: Lelldorin had been seriously wounded and was insisting on coming with the heroes, despite the fact it would probably kill him to do so. Mandorallen bluntly and harshly pointed out that in his condition, he would slow them down when they couldn't afford to waste time. Lelldorin, humiliated, stops resisting and miserably submits to treatment. When Garion angrily confronts him, Mandorallen calmly explains his reasoning, and that this was the one argument that would actually get through Lelldorin's stubbornness and thereby save his life. Garion promptly apologises.
** It might be InTheBlood - his distant maternal ancestress, Countess Asrana, appears in Polgara's prequel as a close friend of Polgara's while she's in Arendia, and proves to be a very accomplished manipulator under a pretty and harmless exterior.
* NegatedMomentOfAwesome: The scene below under OneManArmy gets cut short by [[spoiler:Chamdar using magic to]] [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands make him drop his sword]].
* OddFriendship: With the NotSoDifferent Lelldorin. They go from hereditary enemies to BashBrothers - as in, in ''The Malloreon'', when Lelldorin hears that Mandorallen has got involved in a war with another local Baron, he goes to back him up. So far, so expected. The special part is that ''he brings an army with him.'' Conversely, at the end of the series, a young Mimbrate Baron insults Lelldorin, who's about to take this personally. Mandorallen promptly steps in, insisting that since they're in Mimbre, it's his responsibility to address this insult. He promptly gives a detailed ReasonYouSuckSpeech to the young upstart, before throwing down his gauntlet and 'missing' the floor. He then proceeds to beat the crap out of said Baron in a jousting match with surgical precision, being described as 'peeling' him out of his armour, before openly challenging everyone in the court who shares his prejudices to step up and get it out of the way.
** Ironically, this turns out to be InTheBlood, or at the very least, another incident of things repeating themselves - their ancestors around the time of the Battle of Vo Mimbre, five centuries before, became similarly close.
* OneManArmy: He ''is'' basically unstoppable. At one point, he points out to a minor villain that his plans to [[spoiler:reach the crown by killing Ce'Nedra]] made the small mistake of placing himself, surrounded by a century of light-armored legionaries, within reach of a fully armoured, mounted Mandorallen: "Thy soldiers will be as blades of grass before me", he said, and was NOT bluffing. It becomes a NegatedMomentOfAwesome, since said villain is backed up by Asharak, a perfectly capable sorcerer, but he still qualifies.
* ParodySue: Mandorallen is an AffectionateParody of the knights from medieval fairy tales and Arthurian lore- virtually invincible, brave, noble beyond reproach and respected by his peers. Nonetheless, he is absolutely devoid of common sense, he constantly throws himself into avoidable danger, he lacks the emotional maturity to handle fear (he's never actually felt it before), and that same HonorBeforeReason attitude that makes him so heroic is also the cause of many problems in his life.
* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: Played with in that Mandorallen skips the "butcherede" part by using it correctly and fluently, oh ''so'' '''very''' fluently. He does not ''write'' flowery one-page monologues in that style, the reaction to which of other [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness Arendish courtiers]] is to spend whole nights frantically writing answers to be able to compete with him; he ''improvises'' them.
-->'''Mandorallen:''' ''(bowing to the throne)'' Lord King, gladly do I greet thee and the members of thy court, and dare to call ye all kinsmen. I presume to bear thee warmest greetings from their Majesties, King Korodullin and Queen Mayaserana, monarchs of well-loved Arendia, for, doubtless, as soon as I return to Vo Mimbre and reveal that those who were once lost are now joyfully found again, their Majesties' eyes will fill to overflowing with tears of thanksgiving, and they shall embrace thee from afar, if needs be, as a brother, and, as great Chaldan gives me strength, shall I presently return to thy magnificent city with missives top-filled with their regard and affection which shall, methinks, presage a soon-to-be accomplished reunion (may I dare even hope, a reunification) of the dissevered branches of the holy blood of sacred Arendia.
-->'''Zakath:''' ''(murmuring to Garion with some awe)'' He managed to say all that in one sentence?
-->'''Garion:''' ''(murmuring back)'' Two, I think.

[[folder: Relg]]
--> "''Don't touch me.''"

An Ulgo religious fanatic with a horror of being touched and an obsessive need to maintain his own purity, Relg is staggeringly judgemental--of both himself and of others. Needed by the company for his ability to walk through solid rock, Relg slowly loosens up, especially once the Prophecy starts throwing the Marag woman Taiba at him.

* BadassPreacher[=/=]ReligiousBruiser: He may be TheFundamentalist and spend all his time {{Wangst}}ing about sin (until the final book of the first series), but he's also an incredibly strong KnifeNut who can ''submerge you inside solid rock'' without breaking a sweat.
* BlindfoldedVision: Relg has to wear a blindfold when above ground, since his eyes are hypersensitive to light. The Prophecy refers to him as "The Blind Man", a play on both this, and his inability to see past his own problems.
* TheBigGuy: Big Smart, becoming a respected spiritual leader, squashing a suggested madcap plan by the Big Guy Band in the second series on theological grounds (related to the Prophecy) with nary a whisper of protest.
* CharacterDevelopment: One of the biggest examples in the series, going from haughty ItsAllAboutMe fundamentalist, to fundamentalist who's prone to {{Wangst}} over sin (tied to his previous ego trip, following [[BreakTheHaughty a very blunt conversation with Ul]]) and sexuality in particular, to well-balanced, happily married and well respected spiritual leader. His authority in the latter respect is sufficient that when the Big Guy Band are scheming over ways to get around the Prophecy and its restrictions on their involvement in ''The Malloreon'', he squashes their first suggestion and doesn't get a murmur of protest, and the second plan (which is a bit more reasonable - still ridiculous, but doesn't risk the Prophecy) only goes ahead with his say so.
* DayHurtsDarkAdjustedEyes: Hence the blindfold.
* FirstTimeInTheSun: Relg had never been above the ground before Belgarath hauled him along on his quest. The sun hurt his eyes, and the seemingly empty sky terrifies him. By the second series, he's got used to it and isn't bothered by normal sunlight.
* TheFundamentalist: He starts out insistent on hours of daily prayer and ritual cleansing from sin. He later mellows into a much more sensible, but still genuinely devout, version of this trope. This gets him a great deal more respect from the rest of the cast, as shown in the sequel.
* [[spoiler:HappilyMarried: To Taiba]]
* HeManWomanHater: He believes that AllWomenAreLustful and resents them for [[SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny supposedly trying to tempt him into sin at every turn.]] Garion's internal monologue, since he's unwillingly TheConfidant to Relg, notes many of the inconsistencies in this approach. [[CharacterDevelopment He gets over it eventually,]] [[spoiler: marrying Taiba.]]
* IntangibleMan: Relg can pass through rock like water and take people with him, or [[BuriedAlive leave them in there]].
* ItsAllAboutMe: His problem at first. UL forcibly sets him straight.
* KnifeNut: Carries a heavy, hook-pointed Ulgo knife.
* TheLeader: Of the Big Guy Band in ''The Malloreon'', to an extent - mainly because the only other member with sanity and/or brains, Barak, thinks it's all a horrible idea.
* LethalHarmlessPowers: Relg can use his ability to move through solid rock for combat purposes, by pushing enemies into the rock and leaving them to suffocate.
* SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny: Although in his case it's more like "Being In The General Vicinity Of A Woman Is Evil, And I Have A Normal Sex Drive". He gets over it, much to everyone's relief.
* TunnelKing: Relg moves through solid rock with ease.

[[folder: Lelldorin]]
-->''(Lelldorin gives a detailed account of how he stole Baron Oltorain's sister, married her without his consent, broke his leg, assaulted several of his people - and a priest (who "had it coming"), run his cousin Torasin through the leg - "just a little bit", and was "sort of" been declared an outlaw in Arendia.)''
-->'''Garion:''' ''"You managed to get into that much trouble in just a week?"''

An Asturian patriot with more eagerness than brains, Lelldorin becomes fast friends with Garion after briefly joining up with the company. Constantly in trouble due to his inability to think things through, Lelldorin means well, and usually manages to do more good than harm.

* AffectionateParody: Of RobinHood and the swashbuckling hero archetype.
* AltarTheSpeed: Lelldorin smacks a priest around until he agrees to marry he and Arianna. Done to prevent her from being shamed by travelling with a man who is not her husband. HilarityEnsues, to a [[UpToEleven degree]] that the one line so descriptive of Lelldorin as to be his page quote (see above) is not said '''by''' him, but '''to''' him.
* BashBrothers: With Mandorallen, eventually, to the point where they become ThoseTwoGuys, much to Garion's private despair. Both are extremely brave, extremely noble, and extremely devoid of any common sense whatsoever.
* TheBigGuy: Big Chick.
* BrainlessBeauty: Male version. He's described as very good looking, and utterly devoid of brains.
* BrainsAndBrawn: Generally serves as the Brawn to Garion's Brains - or rather, Garion usually points out the flaws in whatever insane scheme Lelldorin's got himself caught up in this time.
* CripplingOverspecialisation: Best archer of his generation who has ImprobableAimingSkills and can identify his own arrows among thousands in the dark, pretty good fencer, and total idiot at every other aspect of life.
* TheDitz: He has no brains whatsoever. As Ce'Nedra's internal monologue notes when she first meets him, in his eyes she can see a vast sincerity and absolutely no intelligence, whatsoever.
* {{Flynning}}: When Lelldorin first met Garion, Garion had just pulled him off his horse and attacked him with a sword. As they fight, Garion quickly realises that Lelldorin (who is a much better fencer at that time), is deliberately using inefficient and flashy moves, and avoiding actually hitting him because he's enjoying the duel so much and wants to prolong it as much as possible.
* GoodIsDumb: Very, very good, and very, ''very'' stupid.
* HappilyMarried: To Ariana. They adore each other. Most characters hope that she'll temper his lack of brains and sense. Unfortunately, while she's much smarter than he is, she also adores him so much that their shared glances are repeatedly described as being completely devoid of any kind of sense whatsoever.
* HiddenDepths: He's actually a decent actor, being able to play the part of a [[TheQuisling collaborating Asturian]] very well, when required. That's about as far as it goes.
* HonorBeforeReason: He's as bad as Mandorallen - worse, in fact, since while Mandorallen has a few brains, genuine HiddenDepths, and a surprising degree of social intelligence, Lelldorin has none whatsoever of any of the above.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: He's an extraordinarily skilled archer.
* LetsYouAndhimFight: His first encounter with Garion was the latter attacking him unprovoked and trying to run him through with is sword. Not that Lelldorin minded, he enjoys a good scrap.
* LoveMakesYouStupid: Although to be fair, he wasn't exactly winning any Nobel Prizes to begin with. It's more dramatic with Ariana, who ''is'' genuinely very intelligent, leading to Garion hoping that she'll mitigate his more ridiculous tendencies... but very quickly realises that these hopes are in vain, because all her common sense goes out the window when he's around.
* OddFriendship: With Mandorallen. They're hereditary enemies, but quickly find they're NotSoDifferent and develop into BashBrothers, to the point that in the sequel series, Mandorallen gets into trouble and Lelldorin responds by ''raising an army''. Also in the sequel series, a Mimbrate Baron insults Lelldorin to his face, and Mandorallen responds by throwing down his gauntlet and [[BlatantLies 'missing']] the floor, instead hitting the Baron in the face, before beating the crap out of him with surgical precision in a jousting match, then challenging anyone else who shares such views to step on up.
* PluckyComicRelief: He's Garion's comedy sidekick. Things usually [[HilarityEnsues take a turn for the hilarious]] when he's around, and get darker [[ShooOutTheClowns when he's not]], and vice versa - such as when Garion arrives in Riva after the very tense latter half of the quest to retrieve the Orb, which very nearly [[spoiler: killed Belgarath and was feared to have destroyed or severely reduced his powers]], and runs into Lelldorin. Lelldorin immediately regales him with the increasingly ridiculous story of how he ended up having eloped with his nurse, Ariana, (who was also his host's sister, and a Mimbrate, and thus an ancestral enemy), accidentally broke the leg of said host while trying to escape, beat up the priest who initially refused to marry them (at least nominally to protect Ariana's reputation), got into a duel with his prejudiced cousin for what he said about Ariana and running him through the leg ("just a little bit"), ending up being declared an outlaw in Arendia... ''all in the space of a single week.'' Unsurprisingly, Garion is left helpless with laughter.
* StarCrossedLovers: Averted. Despite the fact that he and Arianna are an Asturian and a Mimbrate and married without her elder brother's consent they end up HappilyMarried. The fact that he's close friends with the Rivan King helps.
* ThoseTwoGuys: Develops into this with Mandorallen, to Garion's despair, since neither of them has even the slightest bit of common sense.
* UndyingLoyalty: To Garion, Mandorallen (eventually) and anyone else he considers a friend. It's both his best quality and greatest weakness - one of his first actions in the series is to insist on Garion knowing every detail of a plot to rebel against the crown that he is part of, since Garion is his friend and he trusts him totally. Despite the fact that he literally met Garion that day. It also makes him - in Garion's view - the best person to help him search for the would-be Rivan assassin, since he'll keep it quiet simply because Garion asks him too.
* WrongGenreSavvy: To a certain extent. He acts as if he lives in a universe that runs on fantasy tropes, which he does, but he thinks he's the noble rebel outlaw, when in fact he's the comedy sidekick in Garion's story. However, once he finds out that Garion is TheHero, he happily accepts his supporting role.

[[folder: The Orb of Aldur (Cthrag Yaska)]]

A mystic stone that Aldur recovered from a river, the Orb is intimately connected to the Prophecy, and has the power to reshape the entire world at a whim. It can only be used by members of the Rivan King's family, around whom it tends to act like an overly helpful dog.

* ArchEnemy: The Sardion.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Blue=Good
** It also goes pink when embarrassed and bright red when it's angry.
* CompanionCube: It's sentient, if a bit limited - it's generally described as having the understanding of a small child, meaning that while it's usually helpful (to the chosen wielders), it's also a bit over-enthusiastic. Also, it happily serves as [[spoiler: Geran's toy]] and when taken away from him, [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments it sulks.]]
* EmpathicWeapon: When attached to the Sword of Riva.
* CovertPervert: When it blushes, Belgarath realises that it was looking in on Garion and Ce'Nedra on their wedding night.
* KillItWithFire: Magical blue fire, to be precise. It's one of its go-to tactics.
* KillTheGod: One of the few things capable of injuring or killing a God.
* LivingMacGuffin: It's alive, sentient, and while it doesn't exactly talk, it ''is'' somewhat empathic - meaning that it has discernible emotions. This is most hilariously demonstrated right at the end of the series when Garion decides to keep his son out of trouble by giving him the Orb to play with. He then ends up taking it back, and the Orb spends the rest of the day sulking.
* MineralMacGuffin: It's a rock.
* OnlyTheChosenMayWield: As Torak was very painfully shown, the Orb will respond viciously to any use of its power it does not consent to. When Torak sundered the world with it, it responded by crippling Torak and causing him to burn for eternity.
* OnlyThePureOfHeart: Subverted. In ''Belgarath the Sorcerer'', it's revealed to have been a useful half-truth that Belgarath spread to keep people away from the Orb. It is, however, a self-aware manifestation of a SentientCosmicForce of Prophecy, and is violently intolerant of being held by people it doesn't trust to serve that Prophecy.
* PowerGlows: Usually blue, sometimes pink (when embarrassed), and bright red (when it's angry).
* WrongContextMagic: The Orb can maim Gods, raise the dead, cast out demons, and basically do anything that a sorcerer can't (except unmake something)

[[folder: Errand (Eriond)]]
--> "''Errand?''"

A totally innocent boy who was raised by Zedar, Eriond is actually [[spoiler:the missing God of Angarak]], and the only person other than Garion who can actually touch the Orb of Aldur.

* ABoyAndHisX: He has a special bond with the Horse that Garion revived.
* AmbiguousDisorder: He's described as being a "pure innocent", but he seems to suffer from some kind of learning disability: he can initially only say his own name and has problems speaking even after learning other words, and doesn't seem to understand the concept of danger, either with relation to his personal safety, or how dangerous the Orb is. [[spoiler: It's actually because he's an ...]]
* AmnesiacGod: He was supposed to be a [[spoiler: god but the Accident ended up causing Torak to replace him]]
* ChildrenAreInnocent: Zedar's thinking in picking him up, but there was more to it than that...
* CreepyChild: He has this vibe, knowing things he shouldn't be able to and not speaking very much.
* TheEmpath: He gains the ability to know people's inner thoughts and feelings during the ''Mallorean''.
* ParentalSubstitute: Polgara almost instantly becomes his surrogate mother and later [[spoiler:Durnik]] becomes his father figure.
* PhosphorEssence: At the end of the ''Malloreon''.
* PurityPersonified
* VerbalTicName: Is originally called "errand" because it's the only word he seems to know.

[[folder: Taiba]]

The only survivor of the Marag race, Taiba is rescued from the dungeons of Rak Cthol by Garion and his companions.

* BabiesEverAfter: And after. And after. It's actually her purpose - she and Relg together make the new Marags (and the next Gorim).
* BeautifulSlaveGirl: She's described as being very beautiful.
* GenocideSurvivor: Taiba is the last surviving Marag. Her ancestors were almost completely wiped out when the greedy Tolnedrans invaded their realm hundreds of years earlier in an ill-conceived search for gold.
* HappilyMarried: To Relg.
* IOweYouMyLife: 'Owe' is a stretch, but after Relg saves her life, she finds herself fascinated by him, due in some part to her gratitude for his saving her life (the other part is probably the Prophecy's meddling).
* {{Irony}}: When she was first rescued, she despised religion and honoured no god. As of ''The Malloreon'', she and Relg are living in Maragor, under the eye of Mara.
* [[LastOfHisKind Last Of Her Kind]]: She's the last living Marag, descended from those who were imprisoned and carried out of Maragor to be slaves. There were actually more Marags in the slave pens under Rak Cthol, but after the city was destroyed, she was the last one left.
* [[MassiveNumberedSiblings Massive Numbered Children]]: Mara 'interferes' with her reproductive system after she and Relg marry and locate to Maragor, so Taiba keeps having children in twos and threes. We never see any of the kids, though, or get any kind of number- though given a God's capabilities, the number probably reached three digits at some point.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: She had twin baby girls before Garion and co found her, but they were [[NightmareFuel sacrificed]] [[MoralEventHorizon by Ctuchik.]] This, above all, was the catalyst that drove her to escape, steal a knife and look for Ctuchik so she could kill him. As it turned out, she got lost, which is when Garion and co found her.
* PleasePutSomeClothesOn: Relg is outraged by her nakedness when they first meet, even when Taiba points out that she doesn't ''have'' any other clothes - and that she's not ashamed of her body, so she really has no reason to want more clothes.
* RapeAsBackstory: Sadly, though [[AngstWhatAngst it never comes up in great detail.]]
* SatelliteCharacter: Taiba's whole reason for existing is to marry Relg and give birth to the Marags. That's it. She's rarely seen without Relg, and she isn't seen at all after the ''Belgariad'' concludes.
* SlapSlapKiss: Her relationship with Relg started this way - both of them were attracted to each other, but Relg kept denouncing her sinful life, while she kept challenging him about his religion and some of his more illogical extremes.

!!The Kingdoms of the West

[[folder: King Anheg of Cherek]]
* BeardOfBarbarism[=/=]SeadogBeard: Anheg is still a pirate at heart.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Anheg pretends to be far dumber than he really is.
* GeniusBruiser: Anheg is a brutal Viking-style war chieftain. 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.
* HornyVikings
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: 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.
* StayInTheKitchen: 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.
** The above is itself subverted when it turns out [[spoiler: not to have been necessary, as Brand's opposition to Ce'Nedra had ''also'' been an act]].

[[folder: Queen Islena of Cherek]]
* AchievementsInIgnorance: It's illegal to throw a priest into the dungeon without evidence. Islena doesn't know that, and Grodeg knows she doesn't know that -- so he's forced to do everything Islena demands of him because he ''really'' doesn't want to be thrown into the dungeon. Anheg finds the entire situation hilarious.
* BrainlessBeauty: When Anheg is asked why he married her, his response is that "It certainly wasn't for her brains!"
* BreakTheHaughty
* GrewASpine: During her confrontation with Grodeg.
* HotConsort: This is why Anheg married her.
* TookALevelInBadass: 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 thrown in jail, and ships him and the rest of the Bear-Cult off to join the army. Anheg is impressed.
* WeakWilled: Is initially totally under the thumb of Grodeg, Chief Priest of Belar. With some help from Merel and Porenn she eventually overcomes this.

[[folder: Merel of Trellheim]]
* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: The characters in-universe believe that she's a spiteful, petty bitch who is choosing to make Barak's life hell - though it is also suggested that her behaviour isn't without cause. Many fans believe that she's a woman who's trapped in a marriage she doesn't want and is doing her best to get revenge on the man who, while drunk, later rapes her.
* ArrangedMarriage: With Barak, and she was very opposed to it.
* CharacterDevelopment: From shallow bitch to TheGoodChancellor.
* TheGoodChancellor: To Islena, post-CharacterDevelopment.
* HappilyMarried: By the end, and after an intervention from the Purpose of the Universe itself.
* HiddenDepths: Merel appears to be a shallow, petty bitch. The "petty" and the "bitch" are right on the money, but there's more to her than meets the eye, and we see it as early as ''Pawn of Prophecy'' when she stands up to Anheg on Barak and Garion's behalf.
* RapeAsDrama: ... Sort of. The fact that it's rape is fairly clear, even if it isn't explicitly stated. She even locked the door and he knocked it down. It's not certain whether this is the first and only time it happened (arguments can be made either way), but at the very least, it's not in the least bit surprising that she's incredibly spiteful to him at first.
** This is, unusually, acknowledged by Barak immediately afterwards, who seems to be genuinely contrite.
** The Drama, part, though, is another matter, since the story seems to ignore that part later on, as a sort of implicit {{Retcon}}.

[[folder: King Rhodar of Drasnia]]
* AdiposeRex: Physically, yes. Character wise, no.
* FatIdiot: Subverted. He is hugely obese, but this is because he prefers academic study (and eating) to more physical pursuits.
* HappilyMarried: To Porenn.
* MayDecemberRomance: He and his second wife, Porenn. Despite the age gap they are deliriously happy together.
* RealityEnsues: Dies of complications caused by his weight during ''The Malloreon''
* TheSmartGuy: Among the Kings of the West.
* TheSpymaster: Thanks to the work of his right-hand man, Javelin, Rhodar is privy to almost every secret in the world.
* TheStrategist: There are more... martially inclined kings than Rhodar, but none of them have his solid theoretical grasp of strategy and tactics.

[[folder: Queen Porenn of Drasnia]]
* AscendedExtra: Gets a larger role in ''The Malloreon'', as she takes on Rhodar's role as the West's spymaster.
* BrainlessBeauty: Subverted - she's one of the smartest characters in the series.
* HappilyMarried: To Rhodar.
* HotConsort: To Rhodar
* ManipulativeBastard: She's an exceptionally skilled political manipulator.
* MayDecemberRomance: And a very happy one, until Rhodar dies.
* TheSmartGuy: Among the Queens of the West (and frankly, monarchs full stop).
* TheSpymaster: Shares this role with her husband.

[[folder: Cho-Hag, Clan Chief of Clan Chiefs of Algaria]]
* HandicappedBadass: 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 walking for him.
* HappilyMarried
* ItsPersonal: His hatred of Taur Urgas goes far beyond mere politics.
* TheQuietOne: Among the Alorn rulers, he and Brand share this role.
* SwordFight: Has an epic one with Taur Urgas.

[[folder: Brand, The Rivan Warder]]
* HiddenDepths: He is, among other things, an extremely talented [[spoiler: actor, fooling more or less everyone into believing that he's sufficiently conservative to sympathise with the Bear-Cult. As it is, he doesn't, at least not that far, and just acts the part to keep such elements in check.]]
* TheQuietOne: Rarely speaks, but when he does, it's worth hearing.
* RegentForLife: 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.
* StayInTheKitchen: Brand has very conservative values, particularly as regards women, though he goes along with what the Rivan King commands out of UndyingLoyalty. [[spoiler: It's later revealed that a lot of this was just acting - and good enough to fool even Polgara and Belgarath. When Garion was made king (first one in millenia) and made Ce'Nedra co-ruler of Riva (completely unheard of), Brand set himself up as the leader of the traditionalists, fully intending to "cave in" at some point. By drawing the conservatives to him, he could keep more disruptive conservative elements in check, and in the end discredit them by fully supporting the Royal family.]]
* UndyingLoyalty: To Garion and his family.

[[folder: Emperor Ran Borune]]
* PapaWolf: To Ce'Nedra. Despite it being a binding treaty his nation signed, does everything he can to get Ce'Nedra out of the ceremony at Riva, where he fears she'll be humiliated. Despite constantly bickering with her, it's evident he loves her.
* KingOnHisDeathbed: In ''The Malloreon''. He was already very old to start with, as the intrigue in Tolnedra in ''The Belgariad'' all centres around who his successor will be, so this is a ForegoneConclusion.
* TheEmperor: Well, duh. Tolnedra is actually a medium sized country leaning towards the smallish, but he still has a very long arm as it's the economic powerhouse of most of the world and has an international highway system controlled by its legions who are, pound for pound, probably the best army in the world (though the Alorn kingdoms could overwhelm them if they combined forces). As a result, Ran Borune is not afraid to throw his weight around when it comes to politics, though he only gets his way some of the time.

[[folder: Salmissra]]
* AffablyEvil: For a given value of evil, again, following her shapeshifting. Snakes don't generally see much point in being rude. You piss them off, they bite you. Then it's done.
* BadBoss: known for killing off incompetent/insubordinate underlings, though usually they manage to kill each other first.
* BalefulPolymorph: Sort of. For her shenanigans, Polgara transforms her into a giant snake, permanently. Actually ends up being a better monarch and, peculiarly, a much nicer person (relatively speaking), this way.
* CharacterDevelopment: Actually rather improves after being turned into a snake and, while being coldly logical, is generally quite polite.
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Has a nasty habit of killing off her eunuchs on a whim, and is described as having the most absolute, iron-fisted rule over her people out of all the monarchs in the West.
* LegacyCharacter: Picked at age 12 for her physical resemblance to the original Salmissra, and named as such.
* ReallyGetsAround: Prior to her shapeshifting. The potions that keep her looking young have the side effect of making her really, really horny. This holds true for all previous Salmissras and is the reason for all the palace servants being eunuchs.
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: A curious variant. Personally, as a snake, she's somewhat disturbing to most people. Personality wise, however, she isn't that unpleasant.
* SmugSnake: Ironically, she loses this quality ''after'' she transforms into a snake. Before, it was very much present.
* TheSpock: After she becomes a snake.

!!Villains

[[folder: Asharak/Chamdar]]

A Grolim priest whose history with Garion's family is as long as it is ugly. Having murdered Garion's parents, he has been spying on the boy since he was a child, in order that he might one day derail Belgarath and Polgara's efforts to raise Garion as a weapon against Torak.
----
* TheAgeless: He's centuries old and doesn't look it.
* AlasPoorVillain: Even though he's a bastard, the horrible nature of his death elicits some sympathy from Garion and some readers alike.
* CompellingVoice: Able to control Garion with vocal commands, he also has a hypnotic effect on others.
* EvilSorcerer: Like the majority of Torak's Grolims he has some sorcerous ability - and in his case, a great deal more than most.
* IHaveYourWife: A variant--Chamdar tries to force Polgara to do what he wants by threatening to kill Garion.
* KarmicDeath: He killed Garion's parents by burning their house. He dies burned alive when Garion activates his magical abilities.
* ManipulativeBastard: His forte. He's an expert at manipulating pawns into starting wars on his behalf.
* ManOnFire: How he makes his exit, burned alive when Garion activates his magical abilities.
* SinisterMinister: The first of the Grolim priests encountered in the series.
* SmallNameBigEgo: He's undoubtedly dangerous, but he can't hope to threaten Belgarath in person, despite his protestations to the contrary - and the one time he faces an enraged Belgarath, the only thing that saves his life is the fact that he threw baby Garion at him, then ran for his life.
* SmugSnake: Incredibly full of himself, and not quite as deadly as he thinks he is.
* StarterVillain: The main villain of the first two books, he's no threat to Belgarath, but proves a challenge for Garion.
* YouKilledMyFather: Killed Garion's parents. Ends up very dead when Garion finds out.

[[folder: Brill/Kordoch]]

A Dagashi assassin from Cthol Murgos, Brill entered the Kingdoms of the West disguised as a common criminal. Employed by Chamdar the Grolim, Brill outlives his former master, and dogs the party for much of ''Magician's Gambit'', prior to his final confrontation with Silk.
----
* BeardOfEvil: A matted, patchy black one.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Appears to be a common footpad. Is actually a ninja.
* DisneyVillainDeath: Thrown off a cliff by Silk.
* DragonTheirFeet: He was absent from Chamdar's final, fatal confrontation with Polgara and Garion in ''Queen of Sorcery'' and pursues the party for another book.
* EvilCounterpart: To Silk.
* HalfBreedDiscrimination: Subverted. Like most Dagashi he's probably only about 1/4 Murgo so he'll blend in. Since Murgo culture values racial purity he would face this from his soldiers, if they weren't all scared to death of him - but they are, and with good reason.
* HandicappedBadass: Blind in one eye. Can fight Silk on an equal footing.
* {{Jerkass}}: He presents like a bitter jerk with a sour disposition. He's actually a merciless professional killer. Either way, he's a total bastard.
* LackOfEmpathy: A pitiless killer who rides horses to death just to get ahead.
* TheMole: Initially appears to be Asharak's spy on Faldor's farm. He's actually much worse than that.
* {{Ninja}}: Pretty much
* ThePigpen: Brill bathes infrequently.
* ProfessionalKiller: The Dagashi are a society of killers hired out by Ctuchik.
* UnderestimatingBadassery: After Brill is outed as a Dagashi, Silk and Belgarath both curse themselves for having underestimated him. As Silk notes "Brill's been a little too good all along to be an ordinary Sendarian footpad."

[[folder: Grul]]

An Eldrak (think Troll but bigger) who Belgarath once fought on a journey through the mountains of Ulgo. He ambushes the company years later, searching for revenge.

* AllTrollsAreDifferent: Eldrakyn are distantly related to Trolls and Algroths, but larger and smarter. Grul bulks eight feet tall, talks, and wears armour and a helmet that he has modified to fit his gargantuan body.
* ArmorIsUseless: Averted. While Grul's armour is patched and has plenty of weak spots, it still protects him very, ''very'' well.
* TheBerserker: Not unlike Taur Urgas, Grul totally loses his mind in combat, foaming at the mouth and abandoning what reason he has.
* CarryABigStick: Carries an immense club, wrapped in steel, and studded with spikes.
* HeroKiller: He and Belgarath have met before, and the Gorim of Ulgo knows his name and reputation. He proves to be perhaps the greatest single physical threat that the group encounters, overpowering Mandorallen (and his horse!), Barak, Hettar, Silk, ''and'' the shapeshifted Belgarath before Poledra's arrival saves them. As Silk notes "our oversized playmate there was almost more than we could handle".
* ImAHumanitarian: Intends to eat Belgarath and his companions after killing them.
* ItCanThink: Barak's reaction when Grul starts talking to them.
* ItsPersonal: He's had a grudge against Belgarath for decades.
* LightningBruiser: Grul is ''staggeringly'' fast for his size, taking everyone in the party by surprise.
* LoneWolfBoss: Grul has no connection to Torak, Ctuchik, Zedar or any of the series' major villains. He's just a huge, bad-tempered monster with his own grudge against Belgarath.
* NearVillainVictory: Grul is in the process of beating the entire party into the ground when Polgara and Garion summon Poledra's ghost to aid them, tilting the odds back in their favour. Even then it's a very near run thing.
* SympathyForTheDevil: While the Gorim understands why Belgarath and the others had to kill him, he expresses some sympathy for the dead Eldrak nonetheless.
* TookALevelInBadass: The first time that Belgarath encountered him, Grul, while enormous, was unarmed and unarmoured. In between their confrontations he's made himself a suit of armour and armed himself with a gigantic club, making him altogether more deadly than he was before.

[[folder: Ctuchik]]
--> ''"Justice? There's no such thing, Polgara. The strong do what they like; the weak submit. My Master taught me that."''

Torak's eldest disciple and Belgarath's opposite number, Ctuchik is first and worst among the company's enemies in the original series. Aiming to prevent the fulfillment of the Prophecy of Light and gain control over the Orb of Aldur, Ctuchik desires not to awaken Torak, but to gain personal mastery over the world.

* InnocentFanserviceGirl: For a given value of 'innocent'. Tolnedra is an equatorial country and much warmer than the Alorn kingdoms, and Dryads often dress very [[{{Stripperiffic}} minimally]], so Ce'Nedra often wears skimpy clothing and has a tendency towards casual nudity - the 'innocent' part is in doubt because she's completely aware of the effect this has on Garion and does it to tease him. This behaviour led to the elderly Sendarian ambassador resigning his post after walking in on her in lingerie - which she casually modelled for him, asking his opinion on each piece.

* OneManArmy: He ''is'' basically unstoppable. At one point, he points out to a certain minor villain that his plans to [[spoiler:reach the crown by killing Ce'Nedra]] made the small mistake of placing himself, surrounded by a century of light-armored legionaries, within reach of a fully armoured, mounted Mandorallen: "Thy soldiers will be as blades of grass before me", he said, and was NOT bluffing. It becomes a NegatedMomentOfAwesome, since said villain is a perfectly capable sorcerer, but he still qualifies.

* [[spoiler: BackFromTheDead: At the end of ''The Belgariad.'' One of only ''two'' exceptions in ''history'' to AllDeathsFinal - and it's debatable whether Poledra was ever really dead to begin with.]]

* [[spoiler: EmpoweredBadassNormal: After he comes BackFromTheDead.]]

* PowerGlows: [[spoiler:His hammer in the second series.]]

* [[spoiler:SixthRanger: To the Disciples of Aldur.]]

* [[spoiler: AmnesiacGod: He was supposed to be a god but the Accident ended up causing Torak to replace him]]

* [[spoiler: PhosphorEssence: At the end of the ''Malloreon''. ]]

* RealityEnsues: Dies of complications caused by his weight them during ''The Malloreon''

* DraggedOffToHell: [[spoiler:As Nahaz is banished back to Hell, he grabs Urvon on the way.]]

%% * {{Bishonen}}: Before he got his face toasted.
* CainAndAbel: With all of his brothers, but most notably, Aldur.
* TheChosenOne: By the Dark Prophecy

* DarkIsEvil: His main motif is darkness, one way or another.

* DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal: Subverted, he planned to MindRape Polgara into loving him and making her his bride. This was depicted as being just as horrifying as it sounds.

* [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Oh Me, What Have I Done?]]: After coming out of a prophetic trance and reading what would happen if the Dark Prophecy were to triumph, Torak is so [[EvenEvilHasStandards shocked]] that in his only moment of sanity he decides to [[EvilVersusEvil fight against that destiny]] and even ''writes a note for his ArchEnemy Garion to '''[[EnemyMine urge him to do that in his stead]]''', should Garion [[DeadManWriting have killed him]] in their duel''. [[spoiler:Instantly subverted as the moment of sanity ends, his egotism prevails, and he excises the message from all copies of the Oracles, choosing not to believe the horrible truth.]]

* OrcusOnHisThrone: Spends all but the climax of the story in a coma
* PhysicalGod
* RedRightHand: What hand?

* TakeOverTheWorld: Wants the world.
* TwoFaced: Beneath his mask.
* UnholyMatrimony: In his dreams.
* VillainousCrush: On Polgara.

* AGodAmI: Worshipped as a god by the people of Karanda. He also plans to become god over the whole world by capturing the Sardion for the King of Hell.

* MuggleBornOfMages: the entire rest of her family were Sorcerers. Her? Not so much. It doesn't seem to have bothered her, though.

* ModestRoyalty: He was incredibly informal and laid back, even treating the quest to Cthol Mishrak as a family jaunt with his boys.

* ArbitraryScepticism: Ce'Nedra initially does not believe in sorcery, despite having the ability to talk to trees as a result of her Dryad heritage. Her Tolnedran upbringing has a lot to do with this.

* BadassGrandpa: One of the most powerful men in the world, no matter how he looks - or acts, come to that.
* CoolOldGuy: He's mischievous, charismatic, and an excellent story-teller, all traits that make him very popular with his many grandsons and Eriond (on all of whom he is a bad influence), much to Polgara's exasperation.

* BadassGrandpa: Ctuchik's a vile son of a bitch, but undoubtedly a badass, able to go toe to toe with Belgarath himself.

** CoDragons: Alongside Zedar and Urvon, though it's fairly obvious that he has primacy amongst the three.
** DragonWithAnAgenda: Has no loyalty to Torak and plans to rule the world himself.

* EvilOldFolks: Ctuchik has centuries of depravity and excess behind him, and they show on his face.