Mallorea

Mallorea is a fictional location in The Belgariad and The Malloreon book series written by David Eddings.

Background

Mallorea is the eastern continent of the Eddings' world, and was formed after the Cracking of the World by the Angarak God Torak, following his defeat in the War of the Gods. It is visited briefly at the end of The Belgariad, and far more extensively in The Malloreon.

The Cracking of the World

Mallorea is the ancestral home of the Angarak people, and following the re-arrangement of the world, underwent massive social changes. Originally dominated by Torak from the High Places of Korim, the geographical alterations had now swamped the God's former residence. He relocated to the city of Cthol Mishrak in extreme North-Western Mallorea, on the shores of the Sea of the East. Meanwhile, the near-collapse of Angarak society saw the military take control, all but abandoning the once-dominant Grolim priesthood.

Angarak Society

Unable to integrate into this new power structure, the Grolims fled to the northern mountains of the new continent, settling at the city of Mal Yaska under the Disciple Urvon, whilst the military - and the majority of the Angarak remnant - settled in a fertile valley in the midlands, building the city Mal Zeth.

Melcene Society

Off the Eastern Shores of the new continent Mallorea were the Melcene Islands. Originally separate, but close to, the proto-continent, the Islands were swamped and almost destroyed in the Cracking of the World. The bulk of the people were, but now left trying to survive on a pitifully small landmass. The administration, a ponderous bureaucracy, eventually decided to expand the Melcene race to the new continent, which was already inhabited by several primitive kingdoms.

Existing Mallorean nations

On the eastern coastline of Mallorea are, from south to north, are the Melcene provinces of Gandahar, Darshiva, Peldane, Celanta, and Rengel. This is bordered in the north by the Seven Kingdoms of Karanda, and in the southwest by The Dalasian Protectorates, which stretches right to the western coast of Mallorea.The northwest portion of Mallorea is uninhabited until the arrival of the Angaraks.

Conquest, Assimilation, and War

The naturally fractious Angarak people, still divided between the secular Mal Yaska and the military Mal Zeth, continued to skirmish and fight, until Torak Himself issued an order to cease, and instead subdue the indigenous peoples of Mallorea. Forced into an uneasy alliance, Grolim and General arranged a campaign against the neighbouring peoples, the loose confederation of primitive nations known as the Seven Kingdoms of Karanda. The trained and experienced Angaraks soon defeat the resistance of the Karandese, and with the fate of millions at stake, one of the most critical decisions in Angarak society is made.

The Grolims are preparing for an orgy of sacrifice to Torak, but the General Staff see an opportunity to assimilate the Karandese, providing a vassal state and expanding the burgeoning Angarak empire. Both options are presented to Torak, who - in a break with his usual bloodlust - sides with the military and demands the subjugation of the Karandese to Angarak religion and governance. The Grolim priesthood reluctantly agrees, and quickly defeats the existing religion of demon-worship, thus doubling the size of the Angarak presence in Mallorea.

In the South-East, Melcena is expanding its borders through far more peaceful means. The bureaucracy, aiming always for efficiency, prefers to simply absorb the coastline kingdoms, and rule through the existing royalty of each country.

With the Angaraks expanding East, and the Melcenes expanding West, contact was inevitable. Although the event, nor its location is recorded, conflict was unavoidable. Legend has it that the Melcene army, supported by formidable elephant cavalry out of Gandahar, utterly devastated a numerically superior Angarak army. The Angarak commanders realise they cannot succeed in conflict against the advanced Melcene forces. They offer a tentative peace to the Melcenes, who readily accept; the bureaucrats can see Angarak numbers would eventually swamp the fledgling Melcene empire. The Angarak forces then turn their attention to the sprawling Dalasian territories, seemingly inhabited by simple village folk, thus consolidating their hold on the entire continent. This wary peace between the two dominant power systems of Mallorea is strained by several minor conflicts, but it is clear that neither side is willing to commit its entire might. In an attempt to foster peace - and no doubt conduct some information-gathering - influential families of Melcene despatch young men to live with senior military officers of Angarak, and vice-versa, creating a generation of men with awareness of both sides, and unintentionally setting the scene for the greatest political shift on the continent to date.

Co-operation and Integration

One of the Angarak youths sent to experience life in Melcena is Kallath, who lives with the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Melcene Empire. He regularly visits the court of the Emperor of Melcene, who has only one child, a daughter named Danera. The two youths get along very well, until Kallath has to return to Mal Zeth. There, his skills have him promoted to the General Staff, and he becomes the commander of the Rakuth Military District, the youngest man to serve on the commanding body of the Angarak empire.

Kallath promptly returns to Melcena and marries Danera, and upon the death of Emperor Molvan of Melcene, has himself declared the next Emperor. His next step is to summon the army of the Melcene Empire, and combine it with his own forces in the district of Rakuth in Angarak territory, forcing the General Staff to accede to him, and declare him Commander-in-Chief. Kallath is now the most powerful man in Mallorea, commanding the armies of Angarak, and the nations of Melcene. The integration of these two wildly different, antagonistic peoples is difficult, but eventually Melcene bureaucracy wins out over Angarak bloodlust. Although the Grolim priesthood manage to convert the Melcene people to a simplied form of worship of the Dragon God, they are not able to command the abject fear characteristic of the Angaraks, and their dominated subjects. Kallath has now formed the Malloreon Empire, the largest nation on the planet.

Invasion of the West

Kallath's Empire lasted a few scant centuries, before the Angarak God Kal Torak himself arrived at the gates of Mal Zeth, to depose the Emperor. Torak issued commands to the Murgo, Nadrak and Thullish Kings, preparing them for War, whilst his three disciples - Urvon, Ctuchik, and the Apostate Zedar - introduce a chilling regime of theocratic horror, destroying the secular nature of Mallorea with the return to power of the evil Grolim priesthood.

Torak's mobilisation of Mallorea for an invasion of the Western kingdoms nearly destroyed the empire. Millions of Angaraks and Karands were marched north, and over the land bridge to Gar og Nadrak, whilst Melcene and Dalasian troops are sent to the port of Dal Zerba, to be transported by massive fleets to southern Cthol Murgos. However, these forces are routed and destroyed after Torak is struck down at the Battle of Vo Mimbre, which has a catastrophic effect on Angarak society, from Cthol Murgos to the Melcene nations. Leaderless, and stripped of nearly it's entire male population, the empire of Mallorea totters on the edge of destruction. Only the ageing former Emperor, Kallath, and his surviving young son can repair the damage done. Korzeth, heir apparent, is tutored by his father until the young man callously deposes the former Imperial ruler, and moves to stem the fracturing of Mallorea in what is known as the bloodiest internecine war ever. He is successful, and delivers a newly unified Mallorea to his children.

This final, destructive act of aggression forges a new Mallorea. Before Torak's return, Imperial Mallorea was a gentle bureaucracy, run from the Melcene center of power. Now, lead by a succession of militant Emperors through violent periods, the Mallorean power base has shifted back to the Imperial City of Mal Zeth. A dictatorship had formed, characterised by centralised power, and a shifting regime of intrigue, conspiracy and infighting; Korzeth's descendants realised, like many others, a divided and distrustful court could never rise up against the Imperial throne, much like the original Emperor had!

The Rule of Emperor Kal Zakath

Mallorea's recovery was almost complete by the ascension of Emperor Zakath, eighteen at the time he assumed the title of most powerful ruler in the world. However, he was to become the victim of a paranoid plot by the xenophobic, psychotic Murgo ruler King Taur Urgas. Inexplicably fearing betrayal by his fellow Angaraks, who outnumbered the Murgo people by half, the insane King instigated a plot to try and control—or assassinate—the Malloreon Emperor, only to have it discovered, and precipitate in the young Zakath such a personality change, due to the personal nature of the conspiracy, that his own family could not recognise him. Zakath had become an ice-cold man, obsessed only with power, and revenge against Taur Urgas.