Characters / The Belgariad Gods And Prophecies

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The Prophecy

• All-Powerful Bystander: Neither it nor its counterpart can intervene directly without destroying the universe. That's why they act through proxies to fulfil parts of their respective prophecies.
• Big Good: Represents the original purpose of the Universe.
• The Chessmaster: With millenia of experience.
• Deadpan Snarker: More or less constantly. It particularly enjoys annoying Belgarath, though it does does snark a bit at some of Garion's teenage absurdities. More generally, it across as being rather like a long suffering Game Master who is annoyed that his players won't follow the script.
  "Point. Point and game."
• Earn Your Happy Ending: It may put its instruments through a lot, but they will be rewarded for their efforts (with the possible exception of Zedar), with Belgarath musing that it has a sense of obligation.
• The Gadfly: It's fond of Belgarath, and particularly enjoys annoying him. It also enjoys teasing Garion, responding to his rhetorical question of whether it's so cryptic just because it knows it annoys him with "What an interesting idea."
• Not So Above It All: As it admits towards the end of The Malloreon, while if the heroes succeed it will be part of the next Purpose, it won't be dominant as it has too many old grudges - against most Angaraks, for a start.
• Not So Stoic: When it becomes so, you know things are very serious:
  "The child!" the voice in Garion's mind crackled, no longer dry or disinterested. "Save the child or everything that has ever happened is meaningless!".
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Whenever it slips into Not So Stoic mode, something very, very serious is happening.
• Rules Lawyer: It is far more concerned about the "points" than its counterpart, arguing at length when it feels it earned one, even right at the very end of The Malloreon.
• The Voice: It manifests as a dry voice in Garion's mind, which provides advice, exposition, and snarky commentary.

The Dark Prophecy

• All-Powerful Bystander: Neither it nor its counterpart can intervene directly without destroying the universe. That's why they act through proxies to fulfil parts of their respective prophecies.
• Casting a Shadow: The sun never shines in the home of the Child of Dark.
• The Chessmaster: Has manipulated aeons of history to thwart its counterpart.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means: Seeks a Universe of constant stagnation and where everything is, at best, stuck in stasis.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Possibly. It won't cheat, but it doesn't seem to stop its instruments from cheating, either — though Aldur claims to Belgarath that after Torak tried to cheat following the reclaiming of the Orb, the Dark Prophecy apologised and punished him.
• Evil Counterpart: To the Light Prophecy, though both operate on somewhat Blue-and-Orange Morality - the Light Prophecy has absolutely no problem with being utterly ruthless, and borderline genocidal at points, while the Dark Prophecy sticks to the rules and seems to sincerely believe that a universe of perpetual stasis is a good thing.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Everything the villains do throughout both series is to advance the goals of the Dark Prophecy, whether they know it or not.

UL

• A God I Am Not: Amusingly, despite being the literal creator of the universe, he originally had this attitude as he wasn't all too pleased that his children had created the world and many of the odd things on it, and was certainly not interested in being anyone's god. In the end, the original Gorim essentially bullied him into it with a hefty dose of patience, emotional blackmail, and guilt-tripping.

• God: As the Father of all the other Gods, UL is the closest thing the series has to the Abrahamic God.
• The Maker: Created the Universe and the other Gods, but played no part in making the world

• Sixth Ranger: Until the third book, there appears to have been seven Gods. Then you learn there was an eighth God who didn't take part in the creation of the world, and who adopted (some of) the peoples who were left out when the other gods chose their own followers. The true nature of his relationship to the other gods isn't revealed until the end of the first series of books.

Aldur

• Big Good: He shares this role with the Prophecy. While the heroes revere all the gods (save Torak) to some degree, Aldur is their chief patron.
• Cain and Abel: Torak hates all the other gods, but his rivalry with Aldur is the fiercest, and it is Aldur's disciples who constantly stand in his way. Aldur, for his part, is pretty miserable that it came to this.
• Grandpa God: He has something of this in his appearance, with the white hair and long white beard, and the somewhat elderly appearance (unlike his father, Ul, who's more robust).
• Nice Guy: He's one of the nicest and gentlest characters in the series, with only allusions to his disliking Angaraks and a former Gorim as spots on his character. And in the former case, he protected them — specifically, a Mallorean army — from demons anyway at Belgarath's request, Belgarath just warned Zakath that it would probably be best for his troops to stay out of the glowing blue ditch just in case, because of Aldur's dislike for Angaraks (and even then, all they note is that something 'odd' might happen to them). In the latter, apparently no one liked that particular Gorim.

• Wizard Beard: He looks a heck of a lot like Belgarath, actually. Or more accurately, Belgarath looks a heck of a lot like him. As does Zedar, and a number of the other disciples. This is explained as his leaving a kind of imprint on people.
• Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Averted. He frequently uses archaic language, as part of his more scholarly and formal demeanour, but it's flawlessly rendered.

Belar

• Horny Vikings: He's the Alorn God, after all. Most of the Viking-related tropes that apply to Alorns also apply to Him. Also, amusingly, it does share the meaning that the trope's description states it doesn't have.
• Manchild: Downplayed. More like "Man Adolescent", as both his appearance and behaviour are perpetually fixed in that of a young, boisterous, slightly juvenile Alorn.
  Belgarath: [Growing up] happens to everybody—except to Belar, maybe. I don't think we can ever expect Belar to grow up.
• Nice Guy: He's friendly and both Belgarath and Polgara note that he has exquisite manners. Unfortunately, he's also a little too nice and refuses to take sides when his Alorns squabble.
• Physical God: Like all of the gods, and best displayed when he and Aldur casually stop the onrushing sea and raise the western continent to prevent it from being swamped after Torak cracked th eworld.
• Really Gets Around: Possibly. Belgarath suspects it, it was certainly rumoured, and a then-wolfish Poledra refers to the girls he's with at the time (who Belgarath is ogling) as his females. At the least, he certainly spent a lot of time around a lot of attractive young Alorn women who dreamed of a divine visitation - dreams he liked to make come true. If this is the case, it might explain why the Chereks, the most fundamental Alorns, are so incredibly fertile.
  Belgarath: I have my suspicions about Belar. He was surrounded by a bevy of busty, blonde-braided Alorn maidens, who all seemed enormously fond of him. Well, he was a God, after all, but the admiration of those girls didn't seem to be entirely religious.

Issa

• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: Subverted. Issa's eyes are snake-like and lifeless, but he's a pretty good guy.

• Reasonable Authority Figure: He can be a bit forgetful (Nyissa's system of succession was a consequence of him forgetting to make the original Salmissra immortal), but he's not the most demanding of gods.

Mara

• Inelegant Blubbering: He has wept continuously since the annihilation of the Marags. He only stops crying when he hears about Taiba.
• Mad God: Went insane when the Marags were slaughtered for the gold in their land, and now spends his time in the ruins of Maragor, tormenting anyone who passes through them. When he is informed that Taiba is still alive, he regains his sanity and focuses on protecting the last of his people.
• Physical God: Unlike the other gods, he has not withdrawn from the physical world, preferring to spend his time mourning the death of his followers in the ruins of Maragor.
• Spanner in the Works: Nearly prevents Durnik's resurrection by refusing to let the gods bring someone back when he can't have his people back. On hearing that the Marags aren't extinct, he makes a deal with UL to "borrow" Relg so his people can be repopulated before withdrawing his denial.

The King of Hell

• Dystopia Justifies the Means: He seeks to upend both Prophecies and recreate the Universe in his own image with legions of Demons feasting on all mortal souls.

• Greater-Scope Villain: Nahaz, Mordja, and the rest of the Demon Lords all answer to this guy. Despite that, he never even appears in the story.
• Outside-Context Problem: The intrusion of demons into the war between the Prophecies forces some quick improvisation on both sides.
• Oxymoronic Being: When Belgarath creates an image of him, it appears as a creature impossibly made of both fire and ice.

• Sealed Evil in a Can: He was chained by UL at the moment of Creation.

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