And He Raised The Orb is a work of fan fiction based on the works of David and Leigh Eddings, specifically the Belgariad and Malloreon series. It stemmed from some discussions on the newsgroup alt.fan.eddings about what might have happened had Torak won his battle with Garion at the end of the Belgariad. I have always taken the view that that outcome would not necessarily have meant a final victory for the Dark, as that seems to me to be the implication of the Malloreon and of The Rivan Codex. On the other hand, several people reckoned that Torak would have been utterly unstoppable after a victory at Cthol Mishrak.
The upshot of all this was that, after I had a stroke of inspiration while I was away from the net over Christmas 1998 and jotted down a chapter in longhand, I decided to write a full-scale fanfic to demonstrate that my theory wasn't completely loony. Though it's only hinted at in the story itself, the point where it diverges from the Belgariad is that, in my version, Garion fails to throw Torak's mental blandishments back in his teeth while travelling to Cthol Mishrak. As a result, he doesn't have the motivation to help Polgara resist Torak, so she loses, and he yields to Torak as a result. The title refers to the last sentence of the first chapter, which, out of all the chapter endings I've written, has to be my favourite, and is the foundation for most of the rest of the story.
I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I'm enjoying writing it. There's an awful lot more to come, and I'm afraid it won't just be jotted off in a few weeks or even months; I'm not a practised writer, and I write on inspiration as much as anything else, so chapters may be delayed for fairly arbitrary periods of time if I suffer from a mental block about what's going to happen next. I don't know the full direction of the plot yet, though I have written a few chapters beyond what I've published in order to make sure that what I'm publishing now isn't going to make the future plot unviable.
Lastly, a disclaimer. I'm not trying to take advantage of the Eddings' work in any way. I am making no money out of this, either directly or indirectly. I am merely a fan, one who has loved the Eddings' books for many years now, and writing is an activity which gives me great pleasure. I also hope that I can give some small pleasure to others through this work, since clearly this is not a story D&LE are ever going to write. If the Eddings or their publishers wish me to stop writing fan fiction based on their works, then I will do so, but, especially since Del Rey have suggested in the past that fan fiction is acceptable (see the e-mail received by Aquarius), I sincerely hope that they will view it as the harmless activity it is.