#Mallorean

[ajaneofmanytalents]

Characters I wish I could introduce to each other:

Pheris Erondites and Eugenides, from Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series

Mags, from Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series

Diana Hyde, from Theodora Goss' Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series

Silk and Velvet, from David and Leigh Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean pentologies

the goddess Aphrael, from David and Leigh Eddings' Elenium and Tamuli trilogies

Call it the Convention of the Sneaky Bastards (affectionate) :)

[deadchovsky]

not nearly enough discussion online about how homoerotic zakath and garion were in demon lord of karanda, and that's a shame honestly.

[gorgonstaringcontest]

Oh my God, it's fucking perfect.

I read and reread The Belgariad, The Mallorean, Belgarath and Polgara's standalones and the Rivan Codex over and over when I was younger.

I literally used to dream that Aunt Pol would show up and tell me that she was going to take me to my real family.

I don't think I'd even considered people would cosplay her.

You've done such a good job!!!

POLGARA COSPLAY TEST

she is my favourite character from anything ever man I need to reread the book

[utilitycaster]

all clear! I have stuff to do so I won't get to cooldown/reblogs/writing meta etc until later today but I will be opening the inbox, and most crucially my first thought is "lol Vox Machina, the only party with zero ties to any dunamancy, is going to have to rescue the luxon beacon"

[avemakuta]

Kal is such a silly title for Torak to use. "I'm not only a God, I'm also a king!" It's like saying "don't call me President Smith anymore, call me President Smith, 2001 Jonestown High Pie-Eating Champion!"

[givemethesleep]

So so sorry guys going into a minor obsession with a mediocre 80s fantasy series that I hold dearly because it was one of the series my dad raised me on. But also seriously I should not be allowed to consume media because there is ZERO reason to make ocs for an old book series no one knows.

[yarns-and-d20s]

Just finished watching a YouTube video about JKR and her whole "I'm never going to forgive those young people who disagree with me!" nonsense. The YouTuber made a bit of a throwaway comment about the adults who can't let go of HP because of what it meant to them in their youth, and I had too many thoughts for a YouTube comment, so, here I am.

My HP credentials: the first book came out when I was 15. I borrowed it from a younger person in my life, and ended up DNF'ing at the time because those opening chapters were so brutally mean-spirited and bleak I couldn't handle it. What can I say, I was a pretty fragile little thing. I ended up going back to the franchise in 2001 when my best friend wanted me to see the first movie with her. She'd already seen it, and just desperately wanted to share it with me, but would say no more. She bought my ticket and my popcorn, and, well, I ended up spending several years in the HP fandom, and was with it all through the release of the final film, and then slowly, it just sort of dwindled in my interest, though I did re-listen to the Fry-narrated audiobooks or watch the movies again from time to time, and had my various bits of merch hanging around my room.

But I gotta admit, I feel the same way that YouTuber does about the HP adults. The ones who won't let it go despite JKR, rather than, y'know, holding on because of her. The ones who wail, "But you don't understand what Harry Potter meant to me!"

Because the thing of it is: I do. My Harry Potter was David & Leigh Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean, which was 10 entire books, that grew up alongside its main character, a very special orphan chosen one boy with magic powers and even a special mark on his body (Garion's was on his hand). Hell, he was also raised by his aunt, though I think Aunt Pol would kick Aunt Petunia's ass, and ends up marrying a redhead.

I started reading Pawn of Prophecy when I was 10 (I was a very precocious reader!). I re-read both series a lot up until 2010; I re-read them so much that all 10 books needed to be replaced because they were falling apart. Yeah, they got bought twice in my house. My best friend--the same one who took me to see Philosopher's Stone--also loved the Belgariad & Mallorean and we bonded over those books, talked about them constantly, the whole nine yards. Not only that, but my only other friend in the entire world as a teen also loved those books. They meant the world to me.

But as I progressed through my 20s, I started noticing the bioessentialism and the thing where people from the north and west were good but the people from the south and east were scary and evil or just plain old strange. The fact that very nearly all the female characters could be described as "beautiful and sassy" and were rewarded with marriage and babies if they were good women but if they were bad women who were too masculine in their appetites or behaviours, they got punished for it. On top of all that, news resurfaced several years ago about how the Eddings had been tried and found guilty of abusing their adopted children. They never adopted again after they served out their punishments, and the Belgariad was envisioned by the couple as, like, a love letter/apology letter to children or something like that.

So, yeah, I actually get it. A lot. And the Eddings are dead now, and can't hurt anybody, but I haven't touched those books in 14 years. They were so important to me, and I can still "hear" the influence of the Eddings' style in my own fiction writing. They'll always be special to me, but, you know, there's... there's other books.

I spent years rolling my eyes at people who would pull the "read other books" line. It was kind of ridiculous; I never knew anybody who was into HP and never read anything else. It was just that HP always inspired a particular fandom and devotion because so many people had it in common. I understand how important the community itself was; remember, I was in it.

But by the same token, because nuance is a thing, I don't fully understand not being able to let it go. Yes, I'm sure it was easier for me to let go of because I was an adult (19, closer to 20 than to 18) when I actually got into the franchise. And there was never really a huge, thriving Belgariad/Mallorean fandom. But if your HP fandom friends are only your friends because of HP, then... they're not really your friends, are they?

The Eddings are dead. They can't use their money to hurt anybody. There are living authors right now who are not raging sacks of shit who are struggling to put food on their plates. There are also lots of shows and games that you can love, and maybe there's a movie occasionally, sometimes (note to self: edit and post mini-essay about how the advent of the DVD was a huge stepping stone that led us to the current state of cinema).

I both do and don't know how hard it is to let go of something that meant so much to you as a kid. I know in so much as I've done it; but my autistic brain is struggling to not understand why if I can do it, other people can't. If it's about friends--guys, gals, non-binary pals, they ain't your friends if they don't want anything to do with you if you can't talk about Harry goddamn Potter. If they will talk to you without it, find that thing to talk about.

I know it'll hurt. I still ache sometimes to go back to [insert setting of Belgariad/Mallorean here], and see all my book friends, but, hey, I've sure read a lot of books since I stopped re-reading the same 10 books every 12-18 months for 13 years.

Sometimes, we outgrow things. That's okay. It's allowed. I gave myself permission to make 2010 the last time I read those 10 books. I give myself permission to miss them. I give myself permission to think fondly of what they meant to me. But it became time to move on, because my soul is bigger than racism, sexism, and two people who beat their children, and needed to be fed with new things.

[elizabethswitch]

ha

ha hah

haHAHhahahaah

'series'

'WAS'

not allowed to say Harry Potter, but what was your book series obsession as a teen

mine was definitely Eragon

[thecircularsystem]

Hmm I'm curious what is your favorite book? Books if you can't pick just one. :)

Lol best thing is that I’m fronting-

My favorite book series at this moment in time is Super Powereds by Drew Hayes. I try to reread it each year, though I think I didn’t manage it last year. Been a rough time.

The plot synopsis: the world has Supers (folks who have powers), Humans (folks without powers), and Powereds (folks with powers and no control over them). 5 Powereds go through an experimental procedure to become Supers and gain control over their powers. What do they do now? Obviously, go to Superhero College to become Superheroes.

It’s genuinely one of the best examples I’ve seen of foreshadowing and world building in the super hero genre. It’s what made me like super hero stories. It also features a character who can easily be read as plural, and literally features a therapy technique I’ve seen described for DID as part of his power.

Other favorites:

Villains Code by Drew Hayes — Another super hero genre, but flip the script entirely, with entirely different world building. Also a very good series, but features a running incredibly racist gag that… was not needed in the slightest. I get why it’s there (to highlight how horrible the supers are in this world) but it definitely dampens my opinions of the series.

The Belgariad and The Mallorean by David Eddings — Coming of age fantasy, followed by “fuck this I have to be the chosen one AGAIN?” fantasy. BUT ALSO OH MY GOD IS IT RACIST. FUCK. I am rereading it after finally getting out of my parents abusive house, and reading it with my partner, I can finally see how much influence the abusive nature of the characters had on normalizing things for me. And at the same time, I ADORE the series. It’s one of those, “I wish I could rewrite this to be better” novels for me. I think it’s a really good book to read to analyze the shit that just seeps through fantasy novels. I think this novel was hugely influential for the fantasy sphere.

Avalon: Web of Magic by Rachel Roberts — A childhood guilty pleasure of mine. 3 young girls, coming of age fantasy, but the Power of Fwendship Saves Ewwyone 🥺🥺🥺. It’s a YA novel, very clearly geared for younger readers (I’d say 8-12), but god if I don’t love losing myself in it.

Rose is Rose comics by Don Wimmer and Pat Brady — you ever want Calvin and Hobbes but more wholesome? Here you go. (Can be a little Christian at times, but very sweet) (Also: read more Calvin and Hobbes too)

Malice by Chris Wooding — Fundamental meta novel for my writing style. Comic book that sucks people in is slowly becoming real through the power of imagination. Splendid writing, beautiful art.

Skeleton Creek series by Patrick Carmen — Requires an Internet connection! Horror series with videos as part of the epistolary novel genre. GAVE ME NIGHTMARES. Love showing it to students around Halloween!

All I’ve got time for rn sadly. Back to work. But I loved this ask so much :) thank you

[misssugarpinkshome]

Author's Update! (Finally)

Took me a bit, but I'm here now!

I was right about posting that prev chapter being a good omen. Things did get better, a little, so here's the updates, and major news at the bottom.

So, November came and went. We are now full time in our house, with internet and everything!! We also now have heat, which is good, because the pipes apparently leak into our kitchen when we don't have heat and it's too cold.

Let's see... This is not in order, nor as organized as the last update, but I'm just trying to squeeze in the time where I can.

Our boiler had been overfilled, so the boiler guys had to drain it for like a half hour. Then, when that still didn't fix our heat, they had to take off the thermostat. THAT fixed it, so they replaced the thermostat for us.

Then we... ran out of oil just before Christmas, so... they had to come fix that too, lol. It's been an expensive year.

Barely managed to scrape by to ~15k for NaNo this year, but still proud that I managed that much. Lots of visits to the library.

At some point, I managed to finish reading The Belgariad to my partner, meaning we moved into The Mallorean. That was really enjoyable. I've also been reading a lot more.

I wrote up an entirely too long post combating some of the drama going on from Problematic Callout Number Infinity, and asked people to just... not mention it, leave me alone, I'm done. And for the most part people did? Sure, Callout Asshole did not leave me alone, continued writing their... Over 800 page rant about how I'm abusive, jfc, I hope you're okay... Writing out my post about it helped a lot with the feelings, though.

My old landlords evidently were saying some... less than kind things about me to my ex-roommate, who is still staying with them. So... Being who I am, being the writer I am, I wrote up a response to them, and I sent it off. It was heartfelt, and meaningful, an really just... Was what I was feeling. They were kinda floored and did not realize just how rough things had been for me and my fiance.

Just a few days after I posted the last update, I got my pronouns back at work <3 The union really came through. My school pulled some assholery to get out of more legal trouble, but I can at least be whatever pronouns my sorta-but-not-really-it's-hard-to-explain-genderfluid self wants again.

We've recently started to understand a lot more about ourselves in our own brain. It's been really helpful. Therapy's been going more poorly lately (he switched to entirely virtual meetings, which has been a lot harder for me) but I'm also at a point where I feel a lot less distress.

I started up that Bracket Blog I mentioned for realsies, and GOD has it been funny.

I MANAGED TO MEET MY WRITING GOAL FOR 2024 I AM SO HAPPY. New goal is 1mil words for 2025. I think I can do it. It shouldn't be too difficult if I keep pacing myself. According to the tracker I have, it's about 3k words a day. Seeing as I count ALL words (emails, blog posts like this one, even discord messages sometimes) I should have that down pat.

My partner and I are changing our names, officially, and we finally figured out last names too. I'm so happy to be leaving behind the last name of the people who hurt me the most. I'm so happy to be coming into my own.

And then... Big news... ARE YOU READY?

:3

I got married.

The night I posted the chapter -- New Years Eve -- I got married at 11:59pm.

It's just the legal stuff -- paperwork and all that -- but I'm officially married to my partner. My spouse. EEE!!!

We'll have a ceremony another time. For now, we wanted to get married while we could, to really solidify our lives. With the election and everything, we wanted to be sure the world recognized me and them as Together, Forever, What I Own Is Theirs kinda stuff.

So... Yeah!!!

I've been working on this post for like 2 hours now so I'm just gonna post it as it is <3 Love y'all :)

[christinaroseandrews]

I unironically love David & Leigh Eddings' books. I read those books so much growing up that I wore them out and had to buy new copies. I also appreciated that a David eddings knew how not to infodump and didn't feel the need to give me the entire world's history all at once. The world felt lived in. In much the same way that Star wars felt lived in. Yes the prologues of the books sort of provided that info up but it was done in a way that sort of felt like we were getting a sliver of those worlds books. Again he knew how to pass on world building without it becoming boring.

I also absolutely loved the fuck out of his characters. Especially his female characters. Growing up in the '80s and '90s finding solid female characters in fantasy and science fiction was tough. Especially coming from what I knew was a male author. It wasn't until the Seeress of Kell came out that it was acknowledged that his wife had been the co-author of these books. Because sexism was alive and well. (And still is...) And one of the things I really liked is that throughout his books he got better at the isms. The Murgos and the Malloreans became more well-rounded and less caricature and more character.

And there are scenes that live rent free in my head to this day. The whole Archprelate election from the Elenium. "Do you like X?", "Yes.", "I like him too." Then there's the section in the Mallorean where it describes how a plague spreads.

The Eddings books are also books I recommend for any author who wants to learn how to nail dialogue. Eddings dialogue is so spot on in each of his characters sound distinct from one another. Yes, he tends to repeat character archetypes across the different series but each archetype sounds different.

About a decade before the books were published, he did some horrible things to his kids. As did his wife. They served their time and returned to society. Some people can't forgive them for what they did and that's fine. But knowing people who went to jail for shitty things they did when they were younger, and how they have become much better human beings with a fuck load of therapy makes me more willing to give people a second chance. I have no idea if David and Leigh Eddings became better people afterward. It doesn't matter much anyway Both he and his wife are dead now, so boycotting his books because he was a problematic human for part of his life is not going to do him any harm. If you don't like the books that's fine. But this isn't a JK Rowling situation. I don't know who or what benefits from his royalties now think his estate was given to a university. But ultimately I kind of have the philosophy that if the author is dead, then my reading their books isn't going to benefit them and if I excise every single author who had done something problematic in their life then I wouldn't be able to read anything written ever. Because people are problematic, there is no one who is absolutely perfect and squeaky clean because the goal posts keep moving. And in the terms of society and progression it's important that these goal posts keep moving. (I am 100% here for people not being declared legal adults at the age of 12 for women and 14 for men, and that it's totally legal for a woman to have a credit card in her own name.) But because the goal posts do move and change, no one is ever going to be perfect; no one is ever going to get it perfectly right. So it's okay to read things that were messy or contain stuff that is not okay now--looks pointedly at Agatha Christie and her antisemitism, racism, xenophobia, and orientalism--just so long as you understand going in that those concepts are going to be present and understand that they are to some degree of products of their time.

So yeah love Eddings. They are some of the easiest to read fantasy novels that I've ever come across and they are to some degree the standard to which I hold a lot of other fantasy novels to. And I think anyone who puts down people for liking something that was written by a "problematic" author or contains "problematic material" needs to seriously take a hard look at their own faves and make sure that they're completely pristine and pure. And then look again in 40 years and see if they are still pure.

The Eddings books were good for their time. Buffy the vampire Slayer was great for its time. Star Trek was also good for its time. All of them have problematic creators and some pretty bad-isms. It still doesn't mean you can't enjoy them.

This rant brought to you by the purity police in the notes of this post.

Tell us about a childhood favorite you've never talked about on this blog?

Oh, that's a hard one, considering I've got zero filter, haha.

Hmm. Probably The Belgariad series by Leigh and David Eddings. It's dated now, in terms of racism and probably a few other isms, but it was one of the first fantasy series I read on my own after my dad finished reading LotR to me.

It's a classic hero's journey/coming-of-age story where an unlikely hero (a farmboy named Garion) winds up being the chosen one fated to restore goodness to the world. And he's going to kick and scream about it the entire way while surrounded by his very own D&D party of friends. (Understandable, if someone told me I needed to save the world, I would also do the very non-heroic equivalent of hitting the snooze button and asking for five more minutes before I need to get up and avert the apocalypse.)

It was easy to read, if a little waffly in places (as 80s fantasy often was), and I liked that it didn't shy away from being silly and humorous. Which was nice, for me, because all the fantasy/sci-fi was turning to grimdark when I was growing up. It was nice to have something that didn't take itself too seriously.

Also, the Rivan Codex is an excellent example of how to track your own world-building. It's by no means a "how to" (it's literally just a codex of everything in the world), but seeing it all mapped out like that makes you realize he had his world-building and lore locked in.

[utilitycaster]

If you're still answering these I don't have any rpg characters to share but I do love veth brenatto. Any spare thoughts about my girl?

Hey! so. technically the deadline was last night, which I'm saying to stave off further ones - thank you, truly, and I will be here in 2026 with the same game for the midterms. But I'll do this one as the last one, because I have been thinking about Veth a lot.

Some of it is something I said for the ask this morning, namely, I love the non-D&D rogueish archetype - Silk in the Belgariad/Mallorean, Vin in Mistborn, the general vibe of the Crows in what I know of Dragon Age (plus Nadia Carcossa, Thedas's most annoying woman and an inspiration, may we all be her except that bit at the end except not the bit at the end where she survives the impossible, we should do that, just don't get tricked by demons) but I think D&D mechanics stifle what I like - independence and ingenuity - in exchange for "well, because you can kill someone so fucking hard, you can only do it under the sort of circumstances one generally encounters in ancient Welsh folklore." Arcane tricksters are a really good way around those dumb mechanics. And through her backstory and relationship with Caleb, her story really coheres - I understand why she is a rogue and why she has the skills she does.

But I think what I like most about Veth, and there really is a lot to love about her, is that, like all the Mighty Nein, her story is about figuring out her place in the world and what she wants - how, when everything seemed lost to her, it forced her out of complacency. Veth is interesting because she's one of the few Nein characters who had actively built something of a life and was conscious of losing it. And I think that's why in some ways she struggles the most to find what her new one is. At times I felt it was a lack of direction, but with some space I really think it's a commentary on how she did have, in some ways, more to lose, and how in its own way her story is no less about grief than Caleb's is. For all Veth jokes about Yeza possibly being dead, and hitting on minotaurs, I do think, because her childhood wasn't exactly pleasant but it wasn't as obviously traumatic as Caleb or Fjord or Yasha's, she wonders what would have happened had this all happened a few years earlier. I don't think she regrets her marriage or her family, but I think she wonders, and that's a story people do not tell much, especially about women from their perspective, and it's a fascinating one. I don't like indecision in characters and Veth is the rare character who makes it compelling, and that is a testament to how good a concept she is.

[lasenbyphoenix]

10 fandoms / 10 characters

rules: list ten favorite characters from separate fandoms/media, then tag (ten) people

Tagged by @sunriseverse thank you!

1. Ba Ye (DMBJ)

2. Jean Grey/Phoenix (X-men)

3. Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Marvel comics)

4. Morgan le fey (Arthuriana)

5. McGuyver (original McGuyver series)

6. Joan Wilder (Romancing The Stone)

7. Data (Star Trek)

8. George (Famous Five books)

9. Polgara (The Belgariad & Mallorean books)

10. Garfield (Garfield comics)

Tagging @gaiahenshin @uhhhhmanda @strandedchesspiece @rainvillage-trio and anyone else who wants to!

[shodaw]

What’s your favorite book rn?

I’m not sure what my favorite book would be so I’ll tell you what I’m reading right now: the series The Mallorean by David Eddings

[xerohourcheese]

favourite and least favourite books?

Favourite? The Belgariad, and Mallorean books by David and Leigh Eddings.

Least? Any sort of mass produced slushy romance books, like anything written by Barbara Cartland, or published by Mills & Boon.

[drunkfightingllamas]

Another Musings On The Monkey Nut!

@clockworkalpaca, Monkey Nut, and Hexadecimal Offspring Extraordinaire, has recently 'Done A Tonka' after finishing the 'Dracula Daily' online experience, and was describing how in the 'seven(?) years later' epilogue, it says how Lord Godalming and Doctor Seward were still happily married, making them think they meant to each other.

Except they pronounced Godalming as 'Gold-Damming'. Just like when they read the 'Belgariad' and 'Mallorean' books, they pronounced Mandorallen, as Mandalorian, and Lelldorin, as Lendorolin.

Bless!