The Eddings Trivia Page

This page is out of date. It has had absolutely no maintenance since before I acquired Polgara and it is really beginning to show. One of these days I'll have time (between my work, home life, and the book I'm writing) to do an update. Until then, this page is just gathering virtual dust...

Contents

• Does David Eddings post to alt.fan.eddings?
• What books has David Eddings written?
• What is this Bel/Pol prefix business?
• Does sorcery make you immortal?
• I have noticed some inconsistencies...
• About Ce'Nedra and Dryad genetics...
• What is on Garion's amulet?
• I'd like to know about Joe Bloggs (from the Belgariad/Malloreon)
• What about the various countries and places throughout the Belgariad/Malloreon?
• What about countries in the Elenium/Tamuli?
• Do you have any information on the Gods of Garion's world?
• How about the Gods of Sparhawk's World?
• The Will and The Word
• What are the magical disciplines in the Belgariad and Malloreon?
• How did the Orb get on Brand's shield at the Battle of Vo Mimbre?

Does David Eddings post to alt.fan.eddings?

He certainly doesn't post under his own name, and I suspect that even if he ever saw the group, the drivel level (see the Genetics Thread Summary for an example ) would rapidly drive him away...

If you want to contact him, the best way is either to do it care of whoever publishes his books in your country, or to contact one of the following email addresses:

eddings@hist.mel.edu.mallorea
de@hots.tu-cimmura.elenia


The humour-impaired should note that the above addresses are utterly false. HAND!

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What Books has David Eddings Written?

Well, he has written a number of series of fantasy novels, along with a few other oddball books which have been centred about the American Northwest.

The Belgariad

1. Pawn of Prophecy (abbreviated PoP)
2. Queen of Sorcery (abbreviated QoS)
3. Magician's Gambit (abbreviated MG)
4. Castle of Wizardry (abbreviated CoW)
5. Enchanter's Endgame (abbreviated EE)

The Malloreon

1. Guardian's of the West (abbreviated GotW)
2. King of the Murgos (abbreviated KotM)
3. Demon Lord of Karanda (abbreviated DLoK)
4. Sorceress of Darshiva (abbreviated SoD)
5. Seeress of Kell (abbreviated SoK)

The Elenium

1. The Diamond Throne (abbreviated DT)
2. The Ruby Knignt (abbreviated RK)
3. The Sapphire Rose (abbreviated SR)

The Tamuli

1. Domes of Fire (abbreviated DoF)
2. The Shining Ones (abbreviated SO)
3. The Hidden City (abbreviated HC)

The Prequels

1. Belgarath the Sorceror (with Leigh Eddings)(abbreviated BtS)
2. Polgara the Sorceress (with Leigh Eddings)(abbreviated PtS)
3. The Rivan Codex (with Leigh Eddings)(abbreviated tRC)

Other books

• High Hunt (abbreviated HH)
• The Losers (abbreviated tL)

Forthcoming...

Give us afe types a chance to ask him first! More info here when I hear of it.

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What is this Bel/Pol prefix business?

`Bel' and `Pol' both mean beloved and nothing more. It's just that `Bel' is the male form and `Pol' is the female form. Beldaran is an anomaly, but languages (especially English) are full of them, so you'd better get used to it...

---

Does sorcery make you immortal?

Strictly speaking, immortal means that you cannot die. This is conspicuously not the case with the sorcerers in the Belgariad and Malloreon. Instead, sorcerers in these books cease to age once they pass some indeterminate point.

There is a Greek myth wich highlights the difference between these two ideas. In it, a goddess (the dawn goddess Eos - or Aurora in Latin) so loved a human (Prince Tithonus) that she persuaded the Zeus (the chief god) to make him immortal. However she forgot to ask for him to be made non-ageing as well, so he got older and older and more and more decrepit until he pleaded to the chief god to be allowed to die as he just couldn't take being alive any longer. Or something like that...

This illustrates the substantial difference between immortality and non-ageing; the two are not the same.

Thanks to Lucy Lim for tracking down the names in this myth for me.

---

I have noticed some inconsistencies...

In fact, there have been a lot of inconsistencies noticed by people on this group. I'll try to collect a list together here.

• On the maps in the Belgariad, the southern boundry of Nyissa is marked as unknown, but this is clearly known by the time of the Malloreon, only a few years later.
• Garion can pick up the Orb, despite being manifestly not pure in thought.
• Zalasta is still able to cast spells at the end of the Tamuli, despite being conspicuously lacking in Godly (or Demonic ) support. I don't think Klæl was in a position to supply the support here, what with having just been banished by the Bhelliom.
• The famous Chamdar/Chaldan one in SoK. This particular one seem to get pointed out every couple of months. Please stop it! (This is an example of bad proof-reading, and not a true inconsistency anyway )
• Brill is just a Sendarian hired eye/thug in PoP, but by the end of MG he has turned into some kind of super-assassin. This wouldn't be too much of a problem except that Durnik manages to get the better of him without much trouble in PoP (when Garion and Belgarath are in the stable trying to stop Brill from dashing off to tell his employers that he had found Polgara and that she was leaving Faldor's farm), whereas, in his persona of Kordoch I wouldn't have believed that possible.
• In the Prologue to MG it states that one of the types of monster that supported the first Gorim at Prolgu was dragons. In fact, it even uses the plural. Quite obviously, this contradicts what we learn about dragons in the Malloreon, so this is a full-blown inconsistency.

  I actually think that this is because David hadn't decided that the big beast heard flying about above the mountains above Maragor (later the same book) was a dragon. In fact, I got the opinion from reading that book the first time that she was something much more like a Roc, and was a lot more dangerous than a mere dragon...

• I was thinking about the previous inconsistency when it occurred to me that there was another one lurking round here (same root cause though IMHO). Belgarath says, when he and Garion are listening to the (as we later find out) dragon flying about above Maragor, that the Grolims chased her out of her cave. Since her cave was actually out at Korim, they would have found this very difficult, since they wouldn't have been able to even get close.

Now you can go to a list of inconsistencies that you can add to yourself - please use this (form-based) interface as it saves me a lot of work...

You can add to this list by mailing me at fellowsd@cs.man.ac.uk with your suggestions, and I'll stick it in here. Known submitters include:

• Donal K. Fellows
• S.G. Donohue
• Orjan Stromberg I don't know if this email address is correct, since the From: field of the news article was not a valid mail address

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About Ce'Nedra and Dryad genetics...

There is actually quite a bit of information that I have collected together and puzzled out. Here is some of it...

• Her name is written either as Ce'Nedra (the Tolnedran style) or X'Nedra (the Dryad style). The Tolnedran style is probably better for normal use as the Dryads don't tend to write a lot down.

• Her name is pronounced something like se-NED-ra though the Dryad method would have the s sound a bit more like an x (still farily soft though). I can't be bothered to figure out exactly how to pronounce this, as the differences are fairly fine.

• She will live for several hundred years (since the limit on her age is set by that of her oak tree which is probably located in the Wood, although Tol Borune is also a possible location of it; Tol Honeth is extremely unlikely).

• All her daughters will be Dryads, and her (only) son is an ordinary human (well, ordinary for a Rivan King... ). The reasoning for this is as follows:

  FACT:	There are no male dryads. We are told this in QoS.
  FACT:	Instead, they catch human males to perform this function (this sounds faintly disgusting...)
  ASSUME:	You cannot be a dryad without your mother being a dryad (allowing for random mutations, of course )
  ASSUME:	If your mother is a dryad, then you will either be a male human, or you will be a female dryad.
  ASSUME:	There is a single genetic factor which determines whether a female is a dryad. I'll call it D for short.
  HENCE:	From the above facts and assumptions (plus my memories of genetics) I deduce that there must be some factor present in males but not in females which inhibits the action of D.
  HENCE:	Also, this factor D must not be passed from father to child. This leads to the conclusion that it is not nucleo-centric.
  BEYOND:	(Getting out on a limb here). There is genetic material located in the mitochondria which is inherited solely from the mother. If D was located there, it would follow the phenotypic inheritance patterns described above (provided that D was blocked in males).
  FACT:	We are not ever actually told (in BtS or elsewhere) that D is not passed from father to daughter. Page 590 of the UK edition: ... I've mentioned the tendency of Tolnedrans to marry their cousins several times in the past, I think, and Ran Borune XXI was no exception. The Dryad strain in the Borune family always breeds true in female children, and the men of the family are absolutely captivated by Dryads. I think it's in their blood. This can't really be taken as evidence one way or the other, so this puts us right back to square one...
  COUNTER:	It has been pointed out to me that mitochondrial genetic material is not particularly stable, and that sucha change would have been unlikely in the first place. My riposte to this is that it only requires relative stability (for ten thousand years for an example) and that the change could have been magically induced.

  I suppose the only real test of this theory is to see what happens when a dryad or the son of a dryad undergoes a full-blown sex-change... (Kalten will find this idea amusing )

  ---

  Further thoughts on the whole dryad breeding business (which attempt to deal with some of the points raised in response to the above tract).

  Here I assume that there is only one dryad gene, as it makes things much simpler. Anyone who wishes to speculate one something more exotic is welcome to, but what I've got here already makes my head spin when I'm going over it again to check for mistakes...

  1. All dryads are born of the union of a dryad and an ordinary human man - most of whom we can assume will not be carriers of the dryad gene, no matter what the circumstances.

  2. For this to work then, the dryad gene must override non-dryad traits, and it must be enabled by some kind of protein that is related to human sexual differentiation (thus simply explaining why there are no male dryads).

  3. Next, in order to deal with the way that all dryads have no ordinary female offspring (so the dryad gene is not recessive) and are full dryads (the gene cannot be dominant either) you have to postulate that either the gene is carried on a portion of the genetic material that is always inherited from the mother (something like mitochondrial RNA) or that it can jump across to the other chromosome.

     Whether a genetic transfer happens only when activated or not, I can't tell, since this would require, for example, Geran to marry a non-dryad and have non-dryad female children in order to test. As it is, this sort of thing is still rather far-fetched.

     Using non-nuclear genetic material is an alternate solution, which unfortunately suffers from being less stable than nuclear DNA. This problem is surmountable by invoking the Prophecies, but that is a bit of a cop out in my opinion.

  4. There may also be other factors involved (like a dryad can only be the child of a dryad, since she would need a tree, and only drayds (and Polgara ) really know about these things). This would mean that a possible (and not very good) test for the method of super-dominance in females only would be to see whether Geran could have any female children by a non-dryad at all.

     Note that the Borunes would be a good test of this, except in that they all adore dryads and marry them as much as possible. Grrr!

  The more I write on this topic, the less I like thinking about it for some reason...

  ---

  The Rivan Codex states right out that all dryads have only female children except for the Borune line up to Ce'Nedra and that that exception was induced by the prophecy. So all this speculation is pointless...

  ---

  What is on Garion's amulet?

  I have had a good look at this problem, and as far as I can tell, we are never told in the books. The only reference to the design on his amulet that I could find was in QoS (p?) which referred to it as a ``geometric design'' but did not elaborate further. Sorry about this!

  Some suggestions have included:

  • A Möbuis strip
  • A rune symbolising a word
  • A sword and a crown (I think Garion would recognise this )
  • The Isle of the Winds.
  • A wolf
  • A design that is humans cannot understand because only a mind that consider the multiple possibilities of life like the prophecy could understand it.

  (Thanks to Jonathan Yen <jtcyen@casbah.acns.nwu.edu> for the summary)

  NB I used to think that it was a wolf, but I was wrong. Here we have a case of somewhere where this group has changed my mind about something in the Books. This is rare so enjoy it while it lasts...

  ---

  I'd like to know about Joe Bloggs (from the Belgariad/Malloreon)

  While I don't know how David Eddings pronounces these (the authoritative way if there is any), the way I pronounce them is in this style:

  Adara

  A-da-ra. Cousin of Garion (youngest daughter of Ildera's sister, I think). Married to Hettar with many children. Curative plant created by Garion (Adara's Rose) named by Ce'Nedra after her.

  Algar Fleet-foot

  AL-gar. Son of Cherek. Founder of Algaria. One of band who retrieved the Orb from Cthol Mishrak.

  Anheg

  AN-hegg. King of Cherek. Married to Islena. Intelligent, fairly conservative. Cousin of Barak.

  Asharak the Murgo.

  ASH-ar-rack. Alias for Chamdar.

  Barak

  BA-rack. Earl of Trellheim. Cousin of Anheg. Married to Merel with two daughters (Gundred and Terzie) and one son (Unrak). Companion of Garion. Skilled warrior. Transformed by the Prophecy of Light into a bear where necessary to provide protection for Garion. Prophetic name: Dreadful Bear.

  Beldaran (younger)

  BELL-dar-ran. Daughter of Garion and Ce'Nedra. Dryad. Named for her elder namesake.

  Beldaran (elder)

  BELL-dar-ran. Daughter of Belgarath and Poledra. Sister of Polgara. Married to Riva. Original owner of amulet with tree, which enables the wearer to see and hear things that they wouldn't otherwise be able to.

  Beldin

  bel-DIN. Sorcerer (disciple of Aldur). Hunchback. Preferred animal form: Blue-banded hawk. Married to Vella?

  Belgarath

  BELL-ga-rath. Sorcerer (first disciple of Aldur). Resembles Aldur (an old man) except in that he (usually) has a michevious glint to his eyes. Married to Poledra. Father of Polgara and (the elder) Beldaran. Preferred animal form: wolf. Known for indolence, thievery, wenching, drunkeness and downright shabbiness. Also a professional storyteller. Owner of amulet with a wolf on it.

  Belkira

  bel-KIH-ra. Sorcerer (disciple of Aldur). Twin brother of Beltira. Good cook. Sweet, saintly, and IMHO insufferable!

  Beltira

  bel-TIH-ra. Sorcerer (disciple of Aldur). Twin brother of Belkira. Good cook. Sweet, saintly, and IMHO insufferable!

  Bethra

  BETH-ra. Tolnedran courtesan. Known employers include Ran Borune XXIII (her profession) and Javelin (his profession ). Was Hunter during Tolnedran succession. Murdered by Harakan with the assistance of the Honeths.

  Brand

  BRAND (how else would anyone pronounce it? ). Strictly, the title of the leader of the Rivans during the period extending from the murder of King Gorek by Nyissan assassins to the accession of Garion to the Rivan throne. The holder of the office is not permitted to mention his own name in order to prevent him from having any pride in the office.

  Notable holders of the office have included:

  • The holder at the time of the Battle of Vo Mimbre. Severely wounded Torak in a duel, and helped form the Accords of Vo Mimbre (probably with much assistance from Belgarath).
  • The holder at the time of Garion's accession to the throne. String conservative. Four sons (Verdan, Kail, Brin, Olban). Murdered by Cherek members of the Bear Cult when preventing them from attacking Ce'Nedra and Geran.

  Brill.

  Pronounced as in brilliant. Alias for Kordoch.

  Ce'Nedra

  se-NED-ra. Garion's wife. Daughter of Ran Borune XXIII (I think that was his number) and Ce'Vanne. Owner of Beldaran's amulet, which has a picture of the Tree on it. Red-haired dryad with a temper that stereotypically goes with red hair. Titles include Queen of Riva and Flower of the Tolnedran Empire. Mother of (the younger) Geran and (the younger) Beldaran. Prophetic name: Queen of the World.

  Chamdar

  CHAM-dar (or cham-DARR - it depends on how foreign you want it to be). High-ranking Grolim priest, and Ctuchik's agent in the West. Very amitious. Responsible for the deaths of Darral, Alara, Geran and Ildera in an attempt to gain complete control over Garion, foiled by Belgarath. Tried to dominate Garion several times (as well as gaining control of Polgara, and nearly sparked a civil war in Cherek and (possibly) Tolnedra in the process. His reward for this last attempt was to be burned to death by Garion in his first conscious act of Sorcery.

  IMHO, he was asking for it...

  Cherek Bear-shoulders

  CHEH-rek. Last King of Aloria. Over 7 feet tall. Father of Dras Bull-neck, Algar Fleet-foot and Riva Iron-grip, as well as the Cherek dynasty.

  Cho-hag

  CHOE-hag. King of Algaria. Excellent cavalry commander. Killed Taur Urgas in single combat. Crippled. Married to Silar and father (adopted) of Hettar

  Ctuchik

  k-TOO-chik. Sorceror and Disciple of Torak. Cadaverous. Originally controlled Cthol Mishrak, then went to control the Western Grolims (and through them, the Murgos, Thulls and, to some extent, Nadraks) from Rak Cthol. Former Chandim (if my reading of BtS is correct). Died when he tried to unmake the Orb of Aldur, thus triggering the wholesale destruction of Rak Cthol.

  Cyradis

  SIH-ra-diss. Dalasian Seeress before the last EVENT, and Empress of Mallorea after (well, within the year ). Married to Zakath. Very beautiful, and fond of flowers and archæic language.

  Doroon

  doh-ROON. Sendarian peasant. Childhood friend of Garion. Died at Thull Mardu.

  Dras Bull-neck

  DRAZ. Son of Cherek Bear-shoulders and founder of Drasnia. Not very smart. Cheated a lot at dice, especially with Belar, though it was noted that if there was money involved, he would cheat his own mother. Brave.

  Drosta lek Thun

  DROSTAH leck THUNN. King of Gar og Nadrak. Coward, very fond of cheap whores, and embezzler. Absolutely not to be trusted unless with his back to the wall, and then not far.

  Durnik

  DUR-nick. Smith/sorceror. (probably Beldurnik, but that sounds silly ). Married to Polgara. Two children (twins). Owner of amulet with a hammer on it. Sendar.

  Eriond (Errand)

  EH-ri-yond. Bearer of the Orb and new God of the Angaraks (see below). Very innocent until his deification.

  Faldor

  FAHL-door. Sendarian farmer. Owner of the farm where Garion grew up.

  Fulrach

  FUL-rach. King of Sendaria. Married to Layla. Not quite as bright as Belgarath wants (but then, very few are anyway )

  Garion (Belgarion)

  GA-ri-on (bell-GA-ri-on). The hero of the Belgariad and the Malloreon (indeed, the first series is named after him). Sandy-haired King of Riva. Noted achievements include killing Torak and the Dragon, and choosing Eriond to be CoL after him. Sorcerer. Married to Ce'Nedra. Preferred animal form: wolf. White mark on palm. Father of (the younger) Geran and (the younger) Beldaran. Parents: (the elder) Geran and Ildera. Fostered by Polgara on Faldor's Farm. Child of Light (CoL) for most of both series. Owner of amulet.

  Geran

  JEH-ran. There have been absolutely masses of Gerans thoughout history, largely due to the influence of Polgara I suspect.

  These include:

  • Geran, son of Gorek. Saved by Polgara from a watery grave during the Assassination attempt by Nyissans.
  • Geran, father of Garion. Killed by Chamdar.
  • Geran, son of Garion. One time Child of Dark. Heir to the throne of Riva.

  Gorek

  GOE-reck. Last crowned king of Riva before Garion. Assassinated by Nyissans at Salmissra's command (instigated by Zedar). Survived by one son (Geran).

  Gorim

  GOE-rimm. Title of the leader of Ulgo - named so for the first such who persuaded UL to become God of the Ulgos. Alternative title: Holy One.

  There are two main Gorims mentioned in the series:

  • The office holder round the time of the Angarak invasion.
  • The Gorim who married Garion and Ce'Nedra. Will be succeeded by Relg and Taiba's son.

  Hettar

  HET-tar. Adopted son of Cho-Hag and husband of Adara. Number of children: unknown, but fairly large... Sha-dar. Parents were killed by a Murgo raiding party, and he nearly was at the same time. This gave him a certain mission in life, but his attitude seems to softening now, what with his marriage and the ascencion of Urgit. Prophetic name: the Horse Lord.

  Issus

  IH-ssuss. One-eyed Nyissan assassin. Very good, and utterly mercenary.

  Kordoch

  KOR-doch. Wall-eyed Dagashi assassin/spy. Stinks. Known as Brill when first encountered in the books. Eventually killed by Silk by throwing him off the top of Rak Cthol, to see if bouncing counted in the process of learning to fly...

  Polgara

  POL-ga-ra. Sorceress. Foster mother to Belgarion and Eriond, and real mother of twins (names and sexes unknown). Married to Durnik. Very beautiful with jet black hair except for one white lock. Was prophesied to marry Torak, but she rejected him. Preferred animal form: owl (parallels with Pallas-Athenæ?). Owner of amulet with an owl on it.

  I'll do some more when I have time - Donal

  ---

  I'd like to know about Joe Bloggs (from the Elenium/Tamuli)

  This is yet another project for a rainy weekend...

  ---

  What about the various countries and places throughout the Belgariad/Malloreon?

  Again, these are all my opinions:

  Riva

  Corresponds to the U.K (the climate fits, as does quite a bit of how the people actually are ), and is pronounced REE-vah

  Cherek

  Corresponds to the Norse/Vikings and is pronounced CHE-reck

  Drasnia

  Possibly corresponds to northern Germany and is pronounced DRAS-ni-ya

  Algaria

  Corresponds to your favourite bunch of plains nomads (American Indians or Mongols) and is pronounced Al-GAHR-i-ya

  Sendaria

  I feel that this corresponds to parts of the U.S. or the U.K. (not the same bits that correspond to the bits that form Riva though). I pronounce it sen-DAR-i-ya

  Ulgoland

  This is clearly a trogloditic Tibet! Pronounced UL-goe-land

  Asturia

  Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen... I pronounce it a-STUR-i-ya

  Mimbre

  Whichever bunch of brainless medæval knights you care to choose. Can be pronounced MIM-bur

  Arendia

  Pronounced a-REND-i-ya

  Maragor

  This might correspond to the Mayas, though I'm not really sure about this one. Easy to pronounce as Ma-ra-GORE

  Tolnedra

  This undoubtedly corresponds to the Roman Empire. I pronounce it TOLN-dra, but I think this is clearly wrong! However, I'm not changing...

  Nyissa

  This is Ancient Egypt with touches of some of the ancient cultures from South East Asia thrown in for good measure. Pronounced NISS-ah

  Gar og Nadrak

  I think this corresponds to Canada or parts of Russia (mining, trapping, forests, mountains. You get the idea ), and I pronounce it GAH-og-NAD-rack

  Morindland

  This is your archetypical arctic waste, inhabited by Eskimos and Inuit (I don't actually know what the difference between the two is). Pronounced MORE-ind-land

  Mishrak ac Thull

  Hmm. My current best guess is Poland or some other part of Eastern Europe (due the the ability to get stomped on by every passing army ). I pronounce it MISH-rack-ack-THULL

  Cthol Murgos

  In my opinion, this is Arabia and Persia writ extra large. It even comes complete with the Grolims acting as ``Mad Mullahs'' . I pronounce it as K-tholl-MUR-goss (the hard K seems to suit them in my opinion). However, the people that live there (the Murgos) I pronounce as MUR-goes. I never claimed to be consistent... Military districts are:

  Araga	(AH-ra-ga)
  Cthaka	(k-THA-ka)
  Cthan	(k-THAN)
  Gorut	(goe-RUT)
  Goska	(GOSS-ka)
  Hagga	(HAG-ga)
  Morcth	(MOREcth)
  Urga	(URR-gah)
  Verkat	(ver-KATT)

  Dagashi

  If the Arabs had invented Ninjas, then these would have been the types. No argument. Pronounced da-GASH-i. Headquarters are at Kahshah (Damn! Can't remember how to spell it!) in the Great Desert of Araga.

  According to R. Shaw (who I'm inclined to believe in this matter, as it corresponds with my own memories), the original Assassins were Arabs. Apparently, they were a religions cult that was based in a mountain fortress, and they used hasish to convince those working for them that Heaven would be their reward by `giving them a glimpse'.

  He adds that modern Middle Eastern terrorists are in much the same tradition...

  Mallorea

  I think that Ancient Mallorea is largely modelled after Russia (this is an especially strong feeling in the Belgariad, which dates from the time of the Cold War). I pronounce it as MAL-lore-iya (as in mallet). The military districts are:

  Camat	(CAM-at)
  Dariya	(DAR-i-ya)
  Venne	(Ven-ne)
  Rakuth	(ra-KOOTH)
  Gemil	(ge-MILL)

  Dalasia

  I'd say this was India, but without all the communal violence. Pronounced dal-AY-zi-ya (as in Dalai Lama ) The protectorates are:

  Ebal	(E-bal)
  Likandia	(li-KAND-i-ya)
  Finda	(FINN-dah)
  Tobore	(toh-BOAR)

  Karanda

  This is very similar to Morindland, but it has a lot more trees. I'd place Siberia as my current best guess. I pronounce it as kah-RAND-ah. The Seven Kingdoms are:

  Katakor	(ka-ta-KORE)
  Jenno	(JENN-no)
  Ganesia	(ga-NEEZ-i-ya)
  Pallia	(PAL-li-ya)
  Delchin	(del-CHIN)
  Zamad	(za-MAD)
  Voresebo	(vore-EEZE-bo)

  Melcena

  This may sound ridiculous, but the idea that fits best is Japan with the English aristocracy. Pronounced mel-SCENE-ah

  Gandahar

  The jungles of South East Asia. I pronounce it as gand-a-HARR (I have changed my mind bout how to write down how I pronounce it from when I wrote the original pronunciation guide)

  Darshiva

  The bits of South East Asia that haven't been stuffed into Gandahar! Pronounced DARR-she-vah

  Rengel,Celanta and Peldane

  I don't really have a separate vision of each of these kingdoms, but my general impression is that of China or Korea, but the brogue spoken doesn't fit with this at all. Oh well, I pronounce them as se-LANT-ah, pell-DANE and RYE-jell

  Perivor

  This is merely Mimbre and magic! Pronounced PERR-ry-vore

  ---

  What about countries in the Elenium/Tamuli?

  I promise I'll get round to putting something in here...

  ---

  Do you have any information on the Gods of Garion's world?

  Oh yes! In spades...

  Aldur

  • Probably no totem animal
  • Pronounced AL-dur
  • Colour: Dark Blue
  • No people (or maybe the Brotherhood of Sorcerers?)

  Belar

  • Totem animal: Bear
  • Pronounced BEL-ar
  • Colour: Beige (that's light brown if you've never encountered the word before)
  • People: Alorns

  Issa

  • Totem animal: Serpent
  • Pronounced ISS-sa (very hissy sounding)
  • Colour: Green
  • People: Nyissans

  Chaldan

  • Totem animal: Bull
  • Pronounced CHAL-dan
  • Colour: unknown (guessed as being Red)
  • People: Arends

  Nedra

  • Totem animal: Lion
  • Pronounced NED-ra
  • Colour: Yellow
  • People: Tolnedrans

  Mara

  • Totem animal: unknown (guessed as being a cat or a rabbit - BtS increases the likelyhood of the latter, IMHO)
  • Pronounced MAH-ra
  • Colour: unknown (guessed as being Lavender)
  • People: Marags

  Torak

  • Totem animal: Dragon
  • Pronounced TOUR-ack.
  • Colour: unknown (guessed as being Black)
  • People: Angaraks

  Eriond

  • Totem animal: unknown (guessed as being a horse)
  • Pronounced ERRY-ond
  • Colour: Light Blue
  • People: Angaraks (takes over from Torak)

  UL

  • Totem animal: unknown (maybe a monster or an albatross, though he doesn't really need one )
  • Pronounced ULL (not U.L.)
  • Colour: White
  • People: Ulgos (after the first Gorim bullied him into it )

  Thanks for some of the info in this section goes to:
  

  Who	For
  Dan Alder	hunting down colours.
  B.R. MARTIN	hunting down colours.
  Derik K Cowan	hunting down colours.
  Flapjack	hunting down colours.
  Ann McDonald	confirming Eriond's colour.
  Deanna Toxopeus	Mara's totem animal.
  Nancy Pace	Eriond's totem animal.
  Nadine Grange	Eriond's totem animal.
  David Berg	UL's totem animal.
  Wayne Peace	Additional suggestions for Nedra's colour.
  Nicholas Ellan	Colours for Aldur, Nedra and Belar.

  ---

  How about the Gods of Sparhawk's World?

  We don't have as much here.

  • The Troll Gods

    Ghnomb,	GHnomb,	the God of Eat
    Khwaj,	KHwajj,	the God of Fire
    Schlee,	SHlee,	the God of Ice
    Zoka,	ZOR-ka,	the God of Mating (putting it delicately...)
    Ghworg,	GHworg,	the God of Kill

    Collectively, their priest is Bhlokw.
  • The Elder (Styric?) Gods
    • Azash, AZ-ash, who died in tSR. I suppose that his chief priest (or at least chief worshipper ) would be Otha.
  • The Younger Styric Gods
    • Aphrael, AFF-ray-el, the Child Goddess. Source of magic used by Pandions. Chief Priestess: Sephrenia. Known for meddling, and getting Her own way. Especially dangerous when She starts giving kisses...
    • Setras, SET-rass, an artist? Source of magic used by Alciones. Rather vague. Well, stupid would be more accurate...
    • Romalic, ROMM-al-ic. Source of magic used by the Cyrinics. Large, and rather loud (spot the understatement... )
    • Hanka, HANN-ka. Source of magic used by the Genidians. Short-tempered and abrupt.
  • Others
    • The Elene God. Very little known about Him. Chief Priest: Dolmant. He is a fairlt obvious transliteration of the pre-Reformation Western Christian Church (and we all know what that makes Dolmant )
    • The Tamul Gods. Childish
    • The Atan God. Very remote (except to His own people)
    • Cyrgon, syrr-GONN, Chief Priest: Ekatas. Conservative, militaristic.
    • Edaemus, eh-DAY-muss, Chief Priest: Cyron (title Anari). Involved in transforming all his followers into light for some reason not wholly within my comprehension.
    • Sparhawk (temporarily?) See HC for details.

  Interesting questions:

  1. Why are the other Younger Gods afraid of Aphrael? (see HC where Romalic tries to persuade Sephrenia to become over-priestess).

     I have had it suggested to me that this is because She created herself out of nothing. Unfortunately for the suggester, I disagree, since I think that all the Younger Gods (however many there are ) created Themselves out of nothing, though the situation in which They were able to do this was brought about by the Elder Gods; thus meaning that Aphrael telling Azash that She created Herself was not too good for him, but not news to any of the other Younger Gods (and I think that Gods like the Elene God count as Younger in this respect).

     There's something else going on here...

  2. Why do magic and magnetism not mix? (Would this reduce the capabilities of the Church Knights because of the quantity of steel they wear, and would this reduce the effect of hostile magic upon them? Could this be translated into an effective weapon against Gods? Could this explain why our own society is so Godless? )

  Thanks for comments/additions in this section go to:

  • Erin Dolmage (Somewhere in Canada, she was losing her email access when she contacted me)

  ---

  The Will and The Word

  This is condensed from the posting <3h6nf9$8sg@sol.ccs.deakin.edu.au> by Craig Cowled.

  Ok. This thread looks as if it needs a refresher course in the nature of "The Will and the Word". Here is a brief explanation which should cover the bell sound etc...

  Sorcery is all about energy. In MG Garion and his grandfather have a few rather interesting discussions about the form of sorcery. A few valid points came out of these discussions:

  1. To do an act of sorcery one must first have the talent.

  2. One must have a full understanding of the task at hand. Look at Garions failed attempt at turning over the rock to see what happens when you don't think it through.

  3. Sorcery is all about the "Will" and the "Word". This means that to do it you must have some reserve of energy (or means of collecting energy) and then channel this energy to a task with a single word. ie.. "move" - "push" and "flop", however, are not suggested.

     A gesture works as well, but it isn't strictly necessary. The gesture or the word merely serves to concentrate the mind enough to make it happen. Also, you must not doubt your ability to do something (see discussion in CoW) - Donal.

  4. Using sorcery creates a noise which other sorcerors are able to hear. The usual form of sorcery, as explained by Belgarath to Garion, creates a rushing noise. The bell-like noise is very rare because of how it is accomplished. (Not because it has anything to do with the prophecy). There are only two recorded instances where the bell-like tone happens instead of the rushing sound. This is because, in both instances, the energy used to create the flower and resurrect the horse came from within Garion. He did not reach out and gather energy from around him as he did to move the rock, but instead reached into some deep reserve within him. This is the difference. The bell-like tone signifies creation whereas the rushing sound indicates nothing more than a change in the overall pattern of things. ie. moving a rock from one place to another is a very different sort of magic than creating a flower from nothing.

     The purpose of the Universe is to create things (I forget exactly which book Belgarath says this in, but I think it is MG). Since acts like restoration of life to the colt, or the creation of ``Adara's Rose'' are in line with this universal policy, they are accompanied by a sound which indicates that what you have done is good. Oh, and the bell-sound was also produced by the ressurection of Durnik - Donal

  Of course there is a lot more to the "will and the word" than just this but brevity does not permit it to be written here.

  ---

  What are the magical disciplines in the Belgariad and Malloreon?

  Disciplines mentioned in those series are:

  • Sorcery (the ``Will'' and the ``Word'')
  • Witchcraft (practised by witches and wizards, I think. Uses benign and mischievous spirits)
  • Magic (the use of Demons. Mainly practised by the Morindim and the Karands)
  • Necromancy (talking to dead spirits)
  • Astromancy (being a seer)
  • Astrology
  • Mantology (divining)
  • Alchemy
  • The reading of tea-leaves (related to being a seer?)

  ---

  How did the Orb get on Brand's shield at the Battle of Vo Mimbre?

  
  This was written before Belgarath the Sorceror had been released. The question is now closed.

  We don't actually know (we'll probably find out when Polgara gets published, sometime in 1996), but one thing we can say for sure is that the Rivan King did not put it there. If he had, it would have signified his return, leaving nothing for Garion to do .

  Those who use the ``proof'' that Garion held the Orb when he was a baby are spouting b*llsh*t, since if he had, he would have woken Torak right then, and that would have been that. The placing of each heir's hand on the Orb was only carried out in the period up to King Gorek's assassination, and discontinued thereafter. The mark on the palm of each Heir was there so that people could see which child was to have his hand placed upon the Orb.

  Interestingly enough, the Rivan Warders must have been able to communicate with the Orb, since it Brand says (in CoW) that he was glad that Garion came, since it was getting time for him to choose his successor with the advice of the Orb (or something like that). This might have some bearing on the matter...

  Other suggestions have included:

  • Belgarath moved the Orb on by translocation. Unfortunately, this means that Zedar didn't need Eriond to steal the Orb. A nice idea though.
  • Belgarath talked to the Orb and asked it very nicely. This one is my favourite.
  • They held the shield very close to the Orb and ``click''. I like this one for the wonderful description!
  • The Orb morphed the sword into a shield for Brand. This is also quite a good suggestion.

  (This was summarised by Jonathan Yen <jtcyen@casbah.acns.nwu.edu>. Thanks!)

  In the light of BtS, we find out that it was actually Poledra who was responsible for getting the Orb onto the shield. Mind you, we also find out that the Orb doesn't destroy anyone who touches it, but rather bonds to them instead. It only wipes them out if they try to misuse it's power, which would probably happen sooner or later if they weren't pure of heart.

• Anne Geiger, anne.geiger@yale.edu