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The Races of Men
Since each of the Gods picked a race of their own and shaped them in their image, both culturally and (to a lesser extent) physically, they tend to be somewhat distinctive.
Alorns
The people of Belar, inhabitants of the Alorn Kingdoms, which used to be Aloria — the largest empire in history save only Mallorea, ruling the vast majority of the Western continent, including what is now Gar Og Nadrak. They are now divided into the Algars, Chereks, Drasnians, Rivans and, technically, Sendars. Famous for their military skill, their driving concern for the last few thousand years has been the protection of the Orb of Aldur. Accordingly, they provide most of the protagonists.
- Barbarian Hero: The Chereks, who're both superstitious and mistrustful of magic (save where the likes of Belgarath and Polgara are concerned), with reference being made to their burning witches.
- Born Under the Sail: The Kingdom of Cherek was founded specifically to maintain Riva's naval defense. The other Alorns are decent sailors, but the Chereks are by far the best at it.
- Corrupt Church: The Church of Belar as a whole isn't necessarily bad, but it has a thick strain of the Bear-Cult within it, including the High-Priest, and the Chief Priest of Algaria.
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Designated Hero: It's made clear over time that, allowing for not having a Mad God (like the Angaraks) or a culture focused on honour and the Cycle of Revenge like the Arends, they're not really much better than anyone else — after all, they generated the fanatical Bear-Cult. This isn't really a bad thing, as it plays into the overall point of the series. - Explosive Breeder: They have shades of this, though not so much — or so peculiarly — as the Marags. As is noted on more than one occasion, Chereks, the archetypal Alorns and the least influenced by other cultures and races, are renowned for their fertility.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Broadly speaking...
- Algars: Magyars/Poles/Scythians — the European end of the horse-riding steppe nomads.
- Chereks: Horny Vikings, right down to the near ubiquitous Seadog Beard.
- Drasnians: Medieval Switzerland, being a Proud Merchant Race famous for its disciplined pikemen, with shades of the Sami as they go towards the north pole.
- Rivans: Britain/Ireland — small and extremely damp island notable for its sheep, with polite but reserved, isolationist and drably dressed inhabitants who're extremely conscious and protective of a magic sword that Only the Chosen May Wield, and are patiently awaiting the return of their King.
- The Fundamentalist: 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 Maragor, 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 Sinister Minister. 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 Cannon Fodder.
- Gloomy Gray: Discussed regarding the Rivans, an isolated people who live in a grey stone Citadel City on a rainy island and wear grey cloaks as a national costume. Some outsiders think they're totally joyless, but they're actually dutiful pragmatists with Hidden Depths — their private lives are full of colour and art. As Brand points out, underneath the cloaks their clothes are as colorful as anyone else's; it's just that the material they use for the cloaks is nearly impossible to dye.
- Horny Vikings: The Chereks are rowdy Northerners who maintain a large navy and do a spot of pillaging in their free time. Their warships are the terror of every sea-trading nation.
- Hot-Blooded: The Chereks in particular, being notably prone to going berserk — though the tendency runs through all of the Alorn kingdoms.
- Leeroy Jenkins: One persistent flaw in the Alorns is that most of them will charge into a fight without thinking twice. They're not as bad as the Arends about this, but they're the next best thing.
- Mirroring Factions: They tend to roll their eyes at Arendish melodramatics, but it's noted by Brand that Alorns are nearly as emotional (in this context, Hot-Blooded) as Arends and prone to acting without thinking.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Their other main flaw.
- Chereks have it the worst, being described as arch-conservatives. They tend towards casual sexism that in the nastier cases veers into outright 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 are spies. 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. Witch-burning isn't ever seen on page, but it's alluded to in reference to Martje the Blind Seer in Pawn of Prophecy and, in rural Drasnia, 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.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: The Pillage and Burn parts are discussed in passing, with it being noted as how the Alorns (again, especially the Chereks, who are the archetypal Alorns and Horny Vikings). The "rape" part is elided.
Sendars
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, as well as parts of Wacune. Thanks to Polgara's influence, the great cattle market of Muros, 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 (and perhaps a dab of Angarak too). 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.
- Arcadia: Initially played up as the homely version of this, though not without its less pleasant aspects — Camaar is a low-level Wretched Hive, for instance. However, while it's generally a pretty great place to live by the standards of a Medieval Fantasy world, Faldor's farm is definitely on the nicest end of it.
- Combat Pragmatist: When they do fight, Sendars don't tend to be military geniuses or great warriors, 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.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Southern England/Midwestern US. Fertile land inhabited by hard-working, polite, and extremely practical farmers, who're descended from a relatively broad Western ethnic blend.
- Good Counterpart: To the Malloreans in the first series, thanks to their racial and religious mixing, combined with a certain practicality of mind. This is shifted in the sequel series, with a farm in Mallorea being pointedly almost identical to Faldor's, and noted as the product of the same practical mindset.
- Good Is Not Soft: They're arguably the nicest nation by culture, if a bit stiff. However, both Durnik and Garion, very typical Sendars (while Garion is half-Algar, half-Rivan/generalised Alorn, 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 often crucified his enemies. 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.
- Hufflepuff House: Of the Alorn Alliance, being far more practical and prosaic. Unusually, their practicality is (usually) deeply respected by the more excitable Alorns.
- Humble Hero: Sendars have a very self-deprecative attitude. Their first king, Fundor the Magnificent (elected basically by chance - he was literally the only person in Sendaria that wasn't trying to rig the election for himself), was a turnip farmer, whose first official words as king were telling the would-be nobles that they were kneeling in manure.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Just because they don't like fighting doesn't mean that they won't.
- Non-Action Guy: Stereotyped as this, lacking the martial culture of the Alorns, Arends, and (some) Angaraks, or the professional military of Tolnedra and (other) Angaraks. Even the Ulgos have more of an apparent ruthless streak (they can see in the dark and have horribly serrated knives). It gets to the point where in Pawn of Prophecy, King Fulrach worries that Torak's forces will roll straight over Sendaria and take its fertile foodstores for themselves. However, Durnik, the archetypal Sendar, responds by saying that if necessary, the Sendars will fight and burn everything in their fields and stores.
- Only Sane Man: Of the Alorn Alliance, and the world as a whole. Belgarath cites the mixture of heritages as the reason for this in his prequel, observing that while they're a bit stuffy, the mixing has removed the obsessions that occupy each other race. This is another trait that's mirrored by the similarly mixed Malloreans.
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 Malloreans. The Murgos in particular appear to be Always Chaotic Evil, and the Nadraks as the Token Good Teammate. As the series goes on, however, it becomes apparent that it's rather more complicated than that, which is expanded upon in The Malloreon.
- Always Chaotic Evil: 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 Ctuchik, they're not really any worse than anyone else. This latter quality is also emphasised with the Malloreans in the second series.
- Anti-Villain: Most of them are doing what they do out of fear of Torak and his disciples and priests, rather than inherent evil. Even Taur-Urgas was genuinely insane and couldn't help himself. The Thulls in particular are pitiable, being terrified into submission by the Grolims, while the Nadraks want nothing to do with the Grolims if they can possibly avoid it — or the war, come to that. The Disciples and Grolims, on the other hand, are all pretty awful.
- Butt-Monkey: 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 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 are spotted by the Thulls and systematically thrown off of a very large cliff — but out of the way of the construction workers, because the Thulls are considerate like that).
- Corrupt Church: The Grolims are pretty much all evil, as one would expect of priests of a Religion of Evil that involves Human Sacrifice at regular intervals.
- The Dog Bites Back: The Thulls, both those that are captured by Ce'Nedra's army, and more generally after Torak's death. In the former case, entire villages of them surrender without a fight and gladly work for the invading army as porters or workers. They even grab Grolim spies, take them a mile along the escarpment and methodically chuck them off the cliff. In the latter, it's remarked that for a people stereotyped as being stupid and unimaginative, they are remarkably creative in finding new and interesting ways for Grolims to die.
- Evil Counterpart: Initially, the Nadraks are this to the Drasnians, and to a lesser extent, the Thulls to the Chereks, the Murgos to the Algars, and the Malloreans to the Sendars, Rivans, and Tolnedrans. However, it's revealed to be rather more complicated than that.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: All Murgos scar their cheeks as a blood offering to Torak.
- Half-Breed Discrimination: The Malloreans, thanks to their Empire including Dals (relatives of the Ulgos), Karands (more distant relatives of the Ulgos via the Morindim), and Melcenes (also relatives of the Ulgos), 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 put them on collision course, 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.
- Hidden Depths: The Thulls. As noted above, for a people so famous for their bovine stupidity, they're extremely creative when it comes to dishing out several millennia worth of revenge on the Grolims.
- Offering Another in Your Stead: Angaraks who've been selected for Human Sacrifice can only escape by being pregnant or by substituting a slave. Due to the huge numbers in which Thulls are sacrificed, they all live in fear, desperately scrounging money for slaves to take their place on the altar.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: The Murgos, mainly, being the main slave-holders, obsessed with racial purity, and having a Stay in the Kitchen mentality so strong they keep their women locked up. Then there's the Religion of Evil, of course. Given that they've been under the thumb of Ctuchik for several thousand years, more than any other Angarak Kingdom, this isn't surprising. While Mallorea had both Urvon and Zedar, Urvon was terrified of leaving Mal Yaska as it risked encountering Beldin, and Zedar's Mind Raped loyalty meant that he tended to stick to Torak's side. Ctuchik, meanwhile, had more or less free reign.
- Proud Merchant Race: The Nadraks, as the counterparts to the Drasnians, to the point where it's explicitly noted that they were originally the merchant class in the old Angarak kingdoms before being sent West.
- Proud Warrior Race: Almost all Murgos qualify, as they were the warrior aristocracy back before they were sent west. While that was about three thousand years ago, the cultural memory lingered.
- Religion of Evil: An unfortunate by-product of having a bloodthirsty Mad God. Not only does Torak demand vast numbers of Human Sacrifices, the Grolims are shown to relish the power and terror they wield over the other Angaraks — and many of them pass the time by dabbling in Black Magic to boot.
- Sinister Minister: Ctuchik is the most prominent example, though the other disciples (Zedar and Urvon) and all the Grolims e.g. Chamdar a.k.a. Asharak, Naradas, and Zandramas, qualify.
- Stay in the Kitchen: The Murgo mentality regarding women, to the point where women's quarters have bars on the windows.
- We ARE Struggling Together: The Nadraks hate the Murgos and distrust the Malloreans, the Murgos disdain the Nadraks and hate the Malloreans, the Malloreans hold all the Western Angaraks in contempt, and everyone looks down on the Thulls. This is not helped by the manoeuvrings of the various disciples and factions within the Grolim Church, or the Murgo obsession with racial purity (hinted to be cultivated by Ctuchik to oppose the mixed ancestry Malloreans), and is exploited by the heroes.
- Lampshaded by Urgit when told that Zakath has more important things to do than exterminate the Murgos.Nonsense! Of course he wants to exterminate the Murgos. Everybody wants to exterminate the Murgos. Even I want to exterminate them-and I'm their king.
- Lampshaded by Urgit when told that Zakath has more important things to do than exterminate the Murgos.
- Zerg Rush: A legitimate fear of the Kingdoms of the West, as while they can barely match the Murgos alone (and even that's doubtful, accounting for the southern Murgos), while the Malloreans far outnumber them.
Arends
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 Dal Perivor. Famous for their chivalry, courage, tendency towards dramatics, stubbornness, 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.
- Antiquated Linguistics: Affected by the Mimbrate nobility, and consciously avoided by the Asturians for that exact reason, marvellously avoiding Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe.
- Crapsaccharine World: Asturia and Vo Mimbrae look beatiful, but they're constantly at war with themselves (and each other) and the entire thing is fueled by the exploitation of the serfs. Dal Perivor is notable in having broken free of this - the original Arendish settlers abolished serfdom when they realized what they were doing to their own relatives, and jousting has long since replaced warfare as the means by which they settle internal disputes. The heroes attribute this to intermarriage with the Dals.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: They manage to do this with both the Knight In Shining Armour and the Robin Hood version of the archer, while also providing two utterly straight versions of both (Mandorallen and Lelldorin) by deconstructing the Chivalric Romance style kingdom setting. It's 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 Lelldorin see how unjust this is (which happens eventually). He isn't the only one to pass negative comment on it.
- Didn't Think This Through: They're horribly prone to this. All of them.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Several, naturally.
- Asturians: Based on the Romanticised versions of the Saxon English, with a side of the lesser nobility from the Norman and Plantagenet eras, as a nod to the intermarriage that took place (and faint whiff of hypocrisy) and the fact that the Asturians were formerly very powerful, bulldozing the post-Roman British coded Wacites, while (like the Dukes of Normandy) the Mimbrates were bit-parts. Alternatively, as the name suggests, they also compare with the Spanish Kingdom of Asturias, which swallowed up several competitors (evolving into the Kingdom of León in the process) and was later itself swallowed up by the Mimbre-like Castile.
- Mimbrates: Norman/Plantagenet era nobility, with a side of the French nobility from the same era (which was hardly any different), right down to the elaborate courtesy, fondness for epics and tapestries, and jousting. Alternatively, it compares neatly to Castile, for similar reasons.
- 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 ended up defeated in their turn, having let their great achievements go to ruin. Has a brogue accent similar to the Irish.
- 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, and will settle disputes through jousting.
- Fatal Flaw: Pride — once they start something, they don't back down for anything, and hold grudges like nobody's business. They're somewhat self-aware of it, but they're not entirely sure how to stop.
- Hidden Depths: They tend to be rather smarter than they seem once they actually stop to think. Unfortunately, getting them to actually do that is easier said than done. They're also more than a little self-aware, again, when they stop to think, with even the legendarily brainless Lelldorin noting the Fatal Flaws of the Arendish character, but in that case they don't seem to know how to stop.
- Knight In Shining Armour: The Mimbrate Knights are legendary, and all at least pretend to the archetype — Mandorallen is a legendary example of one who walks the walk.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Their Fatal Flaw is a mixture of this and Pride, both causing disputes by charging in without thinking, and then refusing to back down afterwards. It gets to the point where the 500 years worth of low-key civil war between Asturians and Mimbrates after the marriage of the Duke of Mimbre and Duchess of Asturia nominally united the kingdoms was based on a technicality — the Mimbrates refused to acknowledge Asturian titles because the Asturians wouldn't swear to the monarchy, which they wouldn't do because of their pre-existing oath to the Duchy of Asturia. What makes this downright idiotic is that the King of Arendia and the Duke of Asturia were the same person. The tragic part is that in 500 years, no one bothered to ask or explain any of this. All the Arends are mortally embarrassed and wryly amused by it when they figure it out.
- Medieval Stasis: The most striking example in a series intentionally rife with it (the universe is essentially stuck on repeat until one of the two Prophecies comes out on top), thanks to the knights in shining armour.
- Thinks Like a Romance Novel: 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 neither is shy of exploiting it when it suits them).
Tolnedrans
The people of Nedra. Primarily obsessed with money and a bit self-centred, they live in an empire the rough size of an upper-medium sized kingdom, whose living space is cut further by the Forest of the Dryads, which lies within its southern borders. This would be ridiculously pretentious if it wasn't for the fact that through sheer economic might and cunning diplomacy connected to its efficient highway system, the Tolnedran Empire has significant influence throughout the Western continent, having de facto created the nation of Sendaria (at Polgara's instigation). This intangible power is backed by the very tangible might of the Legions, which are pound for pound the best military in the West, if not in the world. However, their influence doesn't always go quite as far as they think it does.
- Combat Pragmatist: Unlike the Alorns and Arends, when the Tolnedrans do go to war, they're entirely professional about it, with even the Alorns grudgingly admitting that pound for pound the Legions are the best trained fighting force in the West, and they use appropriately methodical and practical tactics. Separately, Belgarath states that the campaign that culminated in the Battle of Vo Mimbre was "won in the Imperial War College."
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: 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 influence, despite a very well-trained military) is closer to the later Byzantine Empire.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: An entire culture of them, although the amount of scepticism varies. As it is, they generally don't take too much persuading, and it's observed that, mostly, it's a pose on theological and philosophical grounds as Nedra doesn't approve of mysticism.
- It's All About Me: On a national scale; they tend to assume that their internal politics are matters of universal concern. They really aren't.
- Proud Merchant Race: While they prize their university and their legions, the main preoccupation on any Tolnedran's mind is money — how much they have, and how much they can make. Ce'Nedra exploits this to essentially swipe her father's entire army from right under his nose towards the end of The Belgariad.
- Vice City: Tol Honeth is a downplayed variant. There is law enforcement, but bribery is a common subject of conversation, political assassinations are a fact of life, and Silk gleefully refers to it as the most corrupt place in the world, where everything is for sale.
Nyissans
The people of Issa, the Snake-God. One of the more unusual peoples in the world of The Belgariad, they live in a tropical jungle/swamp. Ruled absolutely by Salmissra, the latest successor to the original Salmissra, handmaiden of Issa since Issa went into hibernation and unfortunately forgot to make his lover immortal, they venerate snakes and all of them tend to be perpetually at least slightly drugged. Small, weak, and relatively poor, they tend to be neutral whenever they can get away with it.
- Butt-Monkey: Owing to their small size, a Queen who is trained solely to perform a specific role, drugged into borderline insensibility, and perpetually horny thanks to the drugs that delay the appearance of ageing (until Polgara 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 turns the latest Salmissra into a snake, however, and Sadi is allowed to run the country more or less unhindered, they become a bit more stable.
- Combat Pragmatist: One of their hats, when they have to fight — they use drugs and poison like they're going out of style, including poisoned blades. Issus, a Nyissan paid assassin, is a prime example of this.
- Decadent Court: Complete with a perpetually high Queen and a court full of eunuchs busy manoeuvring and poisoning each other for advantage.
- Master Poisoner: A whole race of these, with the very best ending up in charge (mainly because they're most likely to survive Nyissan power politics).
- Poisoned Weapons: They favour these, when they fight.
- Poison Is Evil: The firm opinion of the Alorns, along with Drugs Are Bad. The faintly ridiculous nature of this view is pointed out, repeatedly, in The Malloreon, especially as Polgara uses extensive quantities of both when necessary. The drugs thing is eventually consigned to "cultural differences" — though the poison one has a certain validity, as while the likes of Sadi can poison someone with perfect precision, most others are a great deal less precise.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Fairly normal, particularly in the Decadent Court.
- Team Switzerland: Their default stance is to neutrality; as is pointed out, they're usually caught between two mighty powers (the Alorns and the Angaraks — specifically, the Murgos), and taking sides too firmly (by assassinating the Rivan King on Zedar's behalf) nearly got them obliterated by the vengeful Alorns. Whenever they get called on this, they either point out the above or go, "yeah, so what?"
- Token Evil Teammate: To the Kingdoms of the West; they have the most positive relations with the Angarak Kingdoms, are the main purveyors of the slave trade, killed the Rivan King (1300 years prior to the start of the story, but Alorns hold grudges), are casually amoral, and often on drugs (though as is pointed out, this isn't all that different to the Alorn habit of binge drinking).
Dallish Races
A large and diverse group of people without a chosen God, with the exception of the Ulgos.
Dals
The Dals are a race of Godless Ones, who live in the southwestern part of the Mallorean Continent, with a remnant being enslaved in southern Cthol Murgos. They are a mystic people, and have seers and necromancers and share a collective mind called an Oversoul. Technologically speaking, they might just be the most advanced people on the planet.
- Advanced Ancient Acropolis: Their capital city of Kell is a medieval flavoured version of this — as, presumably, were their other cities before they dismantled them. Even the Melcenes acknowledge its supremacy.
- Beware the Silly Ones: They're seen as weird and harmless mystics, though the Disciples of Aldur know better — and even they don't know the full extent of what the Dals are capable of. At one point, Belgarath notes that they can funnel their entire power through Cyradis and she could probably stop the sun if she wanted to. Even aside from that, the Grolims are terrified of going near Kell for good reason, with even Zandramas being unwilling to chance it, and their vast knowledge of the future means that they can patiently direct the destiny of the entire world.
- Blind Seer: Their seers are all blindfolded so they can see the future more clearly, and all are looked after by giant mutes.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: They're not particularly picky about who they aid or what they do to ensure the future comes to pass, though they might feel a bit bad about it.
- Butt-Monkey: It depends how you look at it, but they've been extremely patient through some truly awful things, waiting to choose their new god.
- The Chooser of the One: One of theirs, the Seeress of Kell, is the one who'll choose who the New God will be (implicitly by comparing their mental image of what the God will look like to the candidates).
- Extreme Doormat: They appear to be this, but it's an act. A very good, very patient act.
- Fatal Flaw: They're a bit too reliant on their predictive capabilities and Hive Mind telling them what they should do, which proves a complication for Cyradis when she eventually has to make the Choice after being deprived of both.
- Hive Mind: They have one composed of every living Dal, and quite possibly every dead Dal. Silk dubs it an Oversoul. It might also be the reason they're so advanced, as they don't forget anything. Ever.
- Proud Scholar Race: They've been studying more or less everything since pretty much the beginning of time, and Cyradis all but states that they'll continue to do so even after the technical reason for doing so passes — old habits die hard, after all.
- Psychic Powers: How their magical powers usually manifest, whether it's through precognition, mental manipulation, or even necromancy.
- Seers: Their main hat is their ability to see the future, which even the Grolims begrudgingly admit is flawless (and they went some way to try and prove the Seers wrong).
Ulgos
Originally one of the Godless Ones until the original Gorim convinced UL to be their God. Living beneath the mountains of Ulgoland after the cracking of the world, their city has an extensive cave system and the people are religious and pacifistic unless when necessary to involve combat such as sending nocturnal fighters to Vo Mimbre and Thull Mardu.
- Beware the Nice Ones: They're friendly, pacifistic, and mostly just a bit shy. Their obsession with religion and sensitivity to light makes them seem downright odd. They can also see like cats at night, are deceptively strong, wield hooked and serrated knives explicitly designed to go in easily and make a horrible mess coming out, and for Torak-related reasons, they absolutely hate Angaraks. Which means that they have absolutely no compunction about sneaking into camps at night and killing people in their sleep, or going out after a battle and finishing off the wounded.
- Blade Enthusiast: Their favoured weapons are some truly terrifying knives.
- The Fundamentalist: A fairly benevolent version, by and large, since their entire lives revolve around their religion. However, some of the zealots, such as Relg (pre Character Development), take it to extremes.
- Tunnel King: They produce 'Diviners' capable of this on a semi-regular basis, capable of finding new caves and travelling through solid rock. This ability is understandably prized in a people who live underground, and they all tend to be religious fanatics.
Melcenes
Consisting of the island of Melcena and expanding to the southeastern coasts of Mallorea, the Melcenes take pride for being civilized, and are known for being great bureaucrats and architects due to their ludicrous attention to detail and organized approach to problems.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: Even more so than Tolnedrans, for the most part, who at least accept the cracking of the world as having a theological basis. The Melcenes just explain it as a geological cataclysm and dismiss the claims otherwise as being primitive peoples trying to grasp something they can't understand. However, the run-up to Vo Mimbre was a bit much for even them to deny.
- It's All About Me: Like their Western counterparts, the Tolnedrans, they see their civilisation as the centre of the world and tend to be a bit smug about their perceived importance. To an extent, though, some of this is justified — aside from the Dals, their civilisation is the oldest one on Earth, and one of the most advanced.
Morindim
A nomadic demon-worshipping race who live in the northern fringes of the Western continent. They are related to the Karands.
- Smarter Than You Look: As Belgarath observes, everyone assumes that because as far as technology goes, they're the least advanced civilisation in the setting, they're idiots. This is a mistake that Zedar made when he tried to use them as Cannon Fodder against Belgarath.
Karands
Related to the Morindim, they are a demon-worshipping race consisting of seven kingdoms in the northeastern part of Mallorea.
- The Pig-Pen: Sometimes literally — their kingdoms are stereotyped as being very muddy and they're very fond of pigs.
