* The ending. A lot of attention is given to the character arc of [[spoiler: Gorath, his struggle to accept humans as potential allies and eventually friends, and his TragicDream of reforming his people to a more peaceful, prosperous and less starving and cutthroat existence. At the end, he's the one who has to give his life to save the whole world if not the whole ''multiverse'' from the return of the [[AbusivePrecursors Valheru]]. When Delekhan tries to release them, Gorath stops him, but the Valheru start possessing them both. Upon hearing Pug say that the only way to save the world is to destroy both of them, and Owyn hesitating (not surprising for someone who has spent the entire story ''befriending'' him), Gorath shouts at him to [[KillUsBoth do it]]. He is subsequently blown to smithereens. His dream of reforming the moredhel? That dies with him. The epilogue leaves the fate of the moredhel somewhat open, with Narab ''or'' the more reasonable Liallan fighting for leadership, but there's nothing to be optimistic about. The books in the series, at least, make it clear that the moredhel don't seem to have changed much even centuries after ''Betrayal''. Gorath's death is made worse by the fact that he had previously ''Returned'', aka undergone a spiritual transformation to an ''eledhel'', which means that his exile and traitor status are no longer an issue and that he ''does'' have a place to go and happily spend the rest of his days in - although, considering that Gorath is interested in reformation of his whole people and not just himself and that Returning has burned all bridges to any future non-hostile contact with them, ''ever'', that might be a TearJerker just by itself. ]]