Hettar

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Hettar is a fictional character in the David Eddings book series The Belgariad followed by The Malloreon. A dark and brooding Algar warrior, he is the adopted son of Cho-Hag, King of Algaria. Hettar is a Sha-Dar (Clan Chief of the Horses)—a person who can telepathically communicate with horses. He is known as the Horse Lord in the Mrin Codex and other similar texts.

He is a lean, tall man with a hooked nose and a head completely shaved except for a long, flowing lock of black hair (this scalp-lock is worn in traditional Algar fashion).

When he was seven, a Murgo raiding party murdered Hettar's parents before torturing him and leaving him for dead. Cho-Hag found Hettar a couple of days later and eventually adopted him as his own son. As a result, Hettar has a legendary hatred of Murgos (his eyes go completely flat at the mere mention of the word "Murgo"), and will often go out of his way to kill them.

Murgos are very much aware of his feelings for them, and his reputation has developed to the point where he's said to be a thousand feet tall and wear a necklace of Murgo skulls.

He speaks very little, but has a very dry and ironic sense of humour. He often provides supporting comments when Silk makes a funny remark.

He eventually marries a girl named Adara, who is Belgarion's cousin, and has an undisclosed number of children.

Hettar usually wears a black, long-sleeved jacket made of horsehide and reinforced with steel discs. He is skilled with fighting on horseback using a sabre. He's also fought Murgos to the point of exploiting a common mistake Murgos make in a sword fight, an opening that allows him to finish a fight quickly. As he put it, "They always make the same mistake and leave themselves open. I think there's a hole in their training somewhere."