History NightmareFuel / InheritanceCycle

** Also, right after we see them being used as a torture instrument, we cut to Eragon, on [[spoiler: Doru Arabea]], finding some weird-looking worms and having no idea what they are capable of. Good thing he treated them with the same caution ''anyone'' would upon confronting something unknown, possibly hostile...

* Murtagh's account of his first meeting with Galbatorix and what convinced him to get the hell out of the capital. Not long after he turned eighteen, Murtagh was summoned to dine with Galbatorix and finds him surprisingly nice, despite the king's reputation and Murtagh's own experiences with his father, the cynical young man starts thinking that perhaps the king isn't so bad after all. Then in his next meeting Murtagh is confronted by the King after some of the Varden have attacked his soldiers. Galbatorix is in a rage and orders Murtagh to take a group of soldiers to a village close to the site of the attack and [[MakeAnExampleOfThem punish any locals who aided the rebels]]. When Murtagh asks how he is to determine who is guilty and who is not, Galbatorix orders him to [[KillEmAll raze the town and kill all men, women and children]]. This is the first current account of Galbatorix the readers get and it paints a rather worrying picture about the sanity of the most powerful magician and ruler in the land.

* Angela poisoning the enemy soldiers. The act sickens even her as it does the others, with the only reason it was done period being [[NecessaryEvil because it might mean the difference between survival and dying in the coming battle]], but the imagined screams of the tortured souls isn't any easier to swallow.

** This one deserves a bit more emphasis. These worms? They aren't described by an onlooker to the process. No, they're being described from the point of view of the person who is being ''eaten'' by them as a form of torture. Of all the creatures in the book, they're probably the most straight-up revolting and terrifying.

* Everything about [[AbandonedArea Vroengard]]. The place is basically ''radioactive'', seeing as it was annihilated by a FantasticNuke (you can replace any mention of 'magic' when the contamination is mentioned with 'radiation' very easily). Burrow grubs, those disgusting carnivorous maggots which Galbatorix uses to torture Nasuada, originated there. It's also populated by giant man-eating snails that move as fast as a running human. What's worse is that they were on Vroengard ''before'' said FantasticNuke. ''They survived the equivalent of a nuclear explosion and the resulting fallout''.

* On a related topic, you also have even the weakest magician being able to read anyone's mind at any time without being detected, not to mention Mind Rape. And in Book 4, Galbatorix does just that to Nasuada. He starts out pretty tame, just a few simple tricks (such as manipulating the flow of time). He follows up with an illusion where Nasuada thinks years have passed, she's happily married, and has kids. When this fails, he puts her in a dream where she's being repeatedly killed. Nasuada starts laughing. And later, Galbatorix slowly tears Eragon's mind to pieces. Yes, he gets better, but really! ERAGON, the insanely powerful [[InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons Dragon]] [[DragonRider Rider]]. Imagine what an ordinarily powerful magic-user could do to Muggles like us!?!

* Selena, Eragon's mother, before her HeelFaceTurn, when she was still known as Galbatorix's assassin "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Black Hand]]". To test her skill and creativity, her lover Morzan taught her the magic word for "heal" (and nothing else) and then pitted her against some of his best warriors. She healed them of their fear and anger and all the things that made them want to kill her, basically turning them into placid, mindless idiots, then slit their throats. It's pretty hard to accept her HeelFaceTurn after what she did... though as said by Oromis, [[UnreliableNarrator tales of her exploits have grown twisted, and probably aren't entirely truthful.]] But it's never made clear just how much was willing, or what wasn't...

* On a related topic, you also have even the weakest magician being able to read anyone's mind at any time without being detected, not to mention Mind Rape. And in Book 4, Galbatorix does just that to Nasuada. He starts out pretty tame, just a few simple tricks (such as manipulating the flow of time). He follows up with an illusion where Nasuada thinks years have passed, she's happily married, and has kids. When this fails, he puts her in a dream where she's being repeatedly killed. Nasuada starts laughing. And later, Galbatorix slowly tears Eragon's mind to pieces. Yes, he gets better, but really! ERAGON, the insanely powerful [[InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons Dragon]][[DragonRider -Rider]]. Imagine what an ordinarily powerful magic-user could do to Muggles like us!?!

** Perhaps the most nighmarish thing about Elva is that even Galvatorix is implied to be very worried and terrified about her powers. In fact, the first thing Galbatorix make once he meet Elva is magically silence her.

* Murtagh's account of his first meeting with Galbatorix and what convinced him to get the hell out of capital. So Murtagh was summoned to dine with Galbatorix and finds him surprisingly nice, despite the kings reputation and Murtagh's own experiences with his father the cynical young man starts thinking that perhaps the king's isn't so bad after all. Then in his next meeting Murtagh is confronted by the King after some of the Varden have attacked his soldiers. Galbatorix is in a rage and orders Murtagh to take a group of soldiers to the site of the attack and punish any locals who took part in the attack. When Murtagh asks how he is to determine who is guilty and who it not. Galbatorix orders him to raze the town and kill all men, women and children in the area. This is the first current account of Galbatorix the readers get and it paints a rather worrying picture about the sanity of the most powerful magician and ruler in the land.

* Shruikan's situation and the end result. To clarify the book's show that the bond between Dragon and Rider is a thing of absolute intimacy with both souls having fundatmental access to the others deepest thoughts and feelings to the point where they a closer to a single being with two bodies at times. Galbatorix was driven crazy by the loss of his Dragon and tried to recreate the bond with another, Shruikan. The connection between Galbatorix and Shruikan is repeatedly noted in universe to be an abomination and perversion of a real Dragon/Rider bond, forcing Shruikan to serve Galbatorix when he really doesn't want to. Further Galbatorix used magic to make Shruikan grow to the size of an elder dragon, making him a borderline Kaijuu, and as a result of this enslavement Shruikan has the mentality of a rabid animal wanting nothing more to kill and kill and never stop.

* Varaug, the Shade created as a [[GodzillaThreshold a last ditch attempt]] by the Imperial defenders of Feinster to defeat the Varden drips with this trope. Unlike Durza, [[GeniusBruiser who was intelligent and capable of reasoned thought]], Varaug is an AxCrazy monster who doesn't care about the Varden or the Empire, heavily implying his only interest is in killing anything that gets in his path, [[PutThemAllOutOfMyMisery due to the rage of the spirits trapped inside him at being caged]]. He also comes very close to killing Eragon and Arya, and both of them are caught off guard by just how powerful he is.