Taur Urgas

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'Taur Urgas' is a fictional character in David Eddings' The Belgariad. He is king of Murgo, the race of warrior Angaraks who border the western kingdom of Algaria.

Taur Urgas is quite mad, the extent of which is revealed by his son, Urgit in The Malloreon, and is killed at the Battle of Thull Murdu by Cho-Hag, king of Algaria, for which Urgit is eternally grateful.

Apparently Taur Urgas beat his wives, and encouraged his male children to murder each other, as a sort of intuitive survival of the fittest. He also had his throne made without any cushioning, as an example of Murgo toughness (an act which eventually earned him a fistula). He automatically crushed any goblet he drank from, and any man whose shadow touched him was executed. He also foamed at the mouth and chewed on furniture when he was upset. After his death, his sole remaining heir--actually not even his own child--Urgit cut his throat, hammered a stake into his heart, buried the corpse seventeen feet head-down (Urgit did this on his own), and then stampeded a herd of horses across it to conceal the grave site. Urgit boasts not a single person knows the exact location of Taur Urgas's grave.