History Literature / TheBelgariad

** Almost everywhere. Eddings mined real-world cultures almost exclusively when populating the world of ''The Belgariad''. {{Word of God}} states "The Sendars correspond to rural Englishmen, the Arends to Norman French, the Tolnedrans to Romans, The Chereks to Vikings, the Algars to Cossacks, The Ulgos to Jews, and the Angaraks to Hunnish-Mongolian-Muslim-Visigoths out to convert the world by sword. I didn't really have correspondences in mind for the Drasnians, Rivans, Marags, and Nyissans."

* KidAnova: Garion shows traces of this in the first book: being one of the rivals over Zubrette, flirting with a young maid at an inn and getting kissed by a Cherek girl. Funnily enough, when [[LoveInterest Ce'Nedra]] shows up, they [[SlapSlapKiss take an instant dislike to each other]].

* KidAnova: Garion shows traces of this in the first book: being one of the rivals over Zubrette, flirting with a young maid at an inn and getting kissed by a Cherek girl. Funnily enough, when [[LoveInterest Ce'Nedra]] shows up, they [[SlapSlapKissCouple take an instant dislike to each other]].

* BlondeBrunetteRedhead

** In ''The Malloreon'', the three women in the party are technically this (Velvet blonde, Polgara brunette, and Ce'Nedra redhead), but while Polgara and Ce'Nedra are of course a BrainyBrunette and FieryRedhead respectively, Velvet is a capable spy and ActionGirl.

* CapitalLettersAreMagic: The word [-EVENT-], rendered in small capitals, refers specifically to an event required for the fulfillment of prophecy. These [-EVENTS-] are in essence instantaneous conflict between the two opposing Wills of the Universe, settled by a choice made by a mortal. The reason that they are instantaneous is that longer conflicts would destroy the universe.
** Also [-UL-], father of the gods. Oddly, the habit of capitalizing his name originated in a printing error that Eddings thought looked good.
*** It may have originated as a printing error, but even then it was an amazingly appropriate one - considering how UL is supposed to be the near-ineffable over-deity of the resident pantheon, and how the Ulgo people were modeled after the Jews. Meaning that UL bears more than a passing similarity to YHWH.

** Ce'Nedra's ''is'' apparently innately vulnerable to this stuff. Ctuchik was explicitly banking on it in book three, and Belgarath had already figured this out and didn't bring her along for that one.
*** Possibly indirectly justified, seeing as all "Monsters" went mad when Torak broke the world - except (mysteriously) the dryads. It might well be that dryads indeed have a bit less sanity to go around, making her more susceptible to mind-affecting meddling.

* ChainmailBikini: Justified, {{Lampshaded}}, all-around 'verted, mocked mercilessly, and in general, has just about everything you can do with a trope done to it in book four; when Ce'Nedra is off purchasing some ceremonial armor to wear while raising up an army, she says this is necessary for what the armor is supposed to help her with -- and she's more or less right. Ce'Nedra, at age sixteen, was tiny and flat-chested (she's a dryad, they develop differently!) -- she can't do anything about the height, but she needed people to respect her as an adult, long enough for them to listen to her. Having the armor the right shape -- even if she technically isn't -- would help her audiences see her as an adult. It takes her a while, but she persuades the armorer to modify the breastplate to an acceptably female shape, and relies on his good taste for the exact dimensions. The final result works out well and satisfies all people involved.

* ChainmailBikini: Justified, {{Lampshaded}}, all-around 'verted, mocked mercilessly, and in general, has just about everything you can do with a trope done to it in book four; when Ce'Nedra is off purchasing some ceremonial armor to wear while raising up an army, she says this is necessary for what the armor is supposed to help her with -- and she's more or less right. Ce'Nedra, at age sixteen, was tiny and flat-chested -- she can't do anything about the height, but she needed people to respect her as an adult, long enough for them to listen to her. Having the armor the right shape -- even if she technically isn't -- would help her audiences see her as an adult. It takes her a while, but she persuades the armorer to modify the breastplate to an acceptably female shape, and relies on his good taste for the exact dimensions. The final result works out well and satisfies all people involved.

* BecauseDestinySaysSo: Literally. Expect the voice of destiny to get cranky at times.

** After Sadi joins the party, it becomes a plot point that the Murgos consider Nyissan drugs illegal, despite gleefully participating in the slave trade. Sadi himself is an example, as he regarded many aspects of the slave trade to be repulsive. And although Silk isn't evil, there's a hilarious {{Lampshading}} when Sadi points out that he has no qualms against swindling people or murdering them in cold blood but balks at dealing in drugs. Interestingly, Silk is often the only person to express shock or horror at the [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality more dubious actions]] of the rest of the group -- Belgarath [[spoiler:entombing Zedar in stone for all eternity]] springs to mind.

* BloodBath: Zandramas, {{Evil Sorcer|er}}ess and priestess of a ReligionOfEvil, shows a fondness for cutting out people's hearts and bathing in their blood. This is not atypical for Angarak priests in general.

** Neat subversion with Queen Islena, when she makes her High Priest choose between joining the army or getting thrown into the dungeon. The king could never have made that threat to a priest because there's specific laws about evidence and proper treatment regard priests, which would be politically scandalous for the king to ignore. Islena got away with it because everyone thought her too stupid to know better. The subversion is that the whole thing was planned by her smarter advisors, taking advantage of both her ignorant reputation and her actual ignorance. Had anyone else tried that, it would have been only an ineffective bluff. But coming from Islena, the threat was believable, since everyone thought her too stupid to know better.
* AdiposeRex: Subverted and later deconstructed by King Rhodar of Drasnia. He is extremely obese, yes, but subverts the trope by being the best-read king in the West, and the best strategist along with being a compassionate and competent ruler, with a little help from his loving and similarly clever wife. Deconstruction rears its ugly head when his girth ultimately shortens his life.

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