Sleep, as we all know, is one of the first save-or-suck spells. She squirms her way into Ghwerig's cavern - suggesting that the Gods, for all their power, are still basically semi-corporeal beings - and promptly starts using those bard levels by casting Sleep. Aphrael is "nimble," so presumably she's a rogue or bard. Epic-level items running around might give adventurers or gods ideas! So they decide to render Bhelliom impotent, and select one of their number - the child-goddess Aphrael, who will also Be Important later. Quite a while passes, and eventually we're introduced to the Younger Gods of Styricum, who by dint of their appellation probably aren't Lovecraftian horrors. When their "Elder Gods" - a name that doesn't sound ominous at all - learn of this epic-level artifact in the land, they all want it for themselves, and Ghwerig, being a canny sort, creates a powerful illusion to seal up the entrance to his dungeon and block off the Elder Gods. (This will be important eventually.) Now that he's got himself an epic-level artifact, "great were the wonders Ghwerig wrought by the power of Bhelliom."īut then, after centures, comes that most terrible of creatures - man, in the form of the rude Styrics. When this is finished, the shards are colorless, and the gem's blue essence has flowed into Bhelliom. So Ghwerig carves rings from the leftover detritus - finest gold, with shards of Bhelliom for the stones. Awkward! So he makes offerings of heavy gold and silver to the GM/Troll-Gods, demanding answers. It takes Ghwerig decades to carve the gem, but when he's finished with his new artifact-level magical item, Bhelliom won't respond. At the same time, he spends decades imbuing the gem with the power of his Gods - because hey, when you've got a pretty stone, why not make a divine implement from it? This is supposedly to increase the value of his hoard, although who knows why, since we're given no indication Trolls have a currency. He discovers a sapphire with a particular shape in a deep gallery, and with a surprising delicacy carves the gemstone into a rose. Ghwerig is something of a hoarder, and an outcast. The gem is called Bhelliom, and its creator, "at the dawn of time, long before the ancestors of Styrium slouched, fur-clad and club-wielding, out of the mountains and forests of Zemoch onto the plains of central Eosia," is a misshapen Troll named Ghwerig. We open, typically for Eddings, with some mythology, discussing - coincidentally - the creation of a certain blue-hued gemstone of infinite power in very flowery language. Prologue - Ghwerig and the Bhelliom, from the Legends of the Troll-Gods With that said, here we go! Prologue and the first chapter for tonight. Chapters will be summaries for the most part, with silly dramatizations or noteworthy bits in quotes. So bear with me as I go along I'll update as I can. I haven't done a IWIRR before, and my attempted IWIW was a failure. Instead, expect enthusiasm and occasional really lame video game jokes. So if you're expecting a hate-read, you may want to find it elsewhere. In fact, it was my first fantasy trilogy. So these are going to be, generally speaking, positive takes on these books. In fact, in a number of ways I feel like Eddings, in these books, was ignoring some of the Standard Fantasy Trends that ultimately got deconstructed in A Song of Ice and Fire - battle is nasty and violent, war is horrifying, the world is corrupt (but worth saving), and knights have to make moral compromises all the time with their rigid codes of honor.
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