Tear Jerker / The Elenium

• From The Sapphire Rose:
  • The death of Kurik. And Talen, crying over his father's body: "He's dead, Sparhawk! My father's dead!"
  • The death and last words of Martel; "This isn't so bad.... I get to die in the presence of the only two people I ever really loved." Both of whom are his enemies, and one of whom blesses him in his dying moment and sheds tears over it.. Made sadder if one has read the Tamuli and knows that Martel was seduced into evil by his drive for supremacy rather than (initially) personal malice.
• Two from The Shining Ones:
  • First, throughout the novel Sephrenia shows extreme loathing for the titular race and it is explained that she thought they were behind the murder of her family. Then it turns out to have been Zalasta, the man she's known for centuries as a true friend. He also tries to kill Aphrael, the goddess Sephrenia devoted her life to.
  • After failing to kill Aphrael directly, Zalasta has his minions in Eosia seek out the Styrics and kill Aphrael's worshippers. Styric gods are extremely devoted to their worshippers and they love them like family members, so seeing the normally playful Aphrael crying and declaring that "They're killing my children, Sephrenia! All over Eosia! The Elenes are killing my children! I want to die!" is enough to make anyone start crying.
    • The other layer of the plan is equally horrible: he finally figured out how to kill a goddess: by killing all her worshippers. No worshippers, and divinity faded away, forgotten to the mists of history.
• From The Hidden City:
  • When it is revealed that 30,000 Knights got killed in a single battle with Klael's troops. Especially once they mention that almost all of the Cyrinic Knights were killed following their Preceptor — Abriel, arguably the most fundamentally decent character in the whole series — in a charge, meaning that an entire order of Knights has been all but eradicated.
• One might make a case for the slow, books long, death-by-alcoholism of King Wargun of Thalesia. Pretty much everyone tries to warn him at some point of what is going to happen to him, and Wargun just brushes it off, until by The Tamuli he's sealed up in his palace, raving mad, while friends and colleagues like Ehlana reflect on the fact that they always liked him, when he was sober.
• In The Ruby Knight, a servant of a count was forced to watch as the count’s sister fell to hideous corruption, gaining horrific powers in return. After her powers were stripped from her by Sparhawk and Sephrenia, the servant cared for the deteriorating woman, until he could not tolerate her suffering. He then proceeded to poison her to give her peace. Distraught at his actions, he fled from his master and joined an army, hoping to die in combat. His story does end somewhat more happily, when Sparhawk has him confront Patriarch Bergsten, who lays on him a heavy penance as his servant. The Patriarch knows that only heavy penance will let the servant feel he has atoned, he will receive years of good service, and eventually the servant would be assigned to a church as a capable abbot.

---