- Now class, who can tell me what to do if a student offers you bacon? Beorm? Shruikan asked.
- Eat the student? Beorm replied.
- —"The Official Fanfiction University of Alagaësia," ch. 3: "Evil Is as Evil Does"
The Inheritance Cycle has two mini types. Minis at the Official Fanfiction University of Alagaësia are simply dragonlings. Minis rescued from missions are mini-Urgals. As usual, there is no explanation for the difference beyond different authors naming the mini separately. Little is known about mini-Urgals, as only one has appeared.
Dragonlings are in charge of "security and punishment for no apparent reason" at the OFUA. They are distinct from most mini types in that they apparently breed like biological organisms, in a spawning pit hidden from the rest of the school. Additionally, rather than just saddling students with their own created misspelling, any student who claims to own a dragon on the registration form is given a dragonling in lieu of a real one. These dragonlings also match the color stated as "favorite" on the form. All dragonlings appear to be sentient, speaking in telepathic italics. While their size is not described, they are at least big enough (or perhaps simply powerful enough, when fanbrats are involved) to play sports games with the fan as the ball.
Galbatorix's dragon, Shruikan, is responsible for instructing dragonlings in the ways of evil. Galbatorix himself is particularly displeased with his obnoxious fan nickname, and keeps the dragonling Galby in his personal guard.
Canon Origin
Dragons play a major role in The Inheritance Cycle, where the bond between dragons and their Riders has been a driving force in the world's history. Dragon eggs destined to gain Riders were enchanted to only hatch for their destined Rider. Canon dragonlings learn to breathe fire at around six months; it is unknown if dragonlings-as-minis do, too. Dragons are telepathic and sentient.
A novel-verse Urgal, illustrated in Eragon's Guide to Alagaësia.
Urgals are the stock minion-of-the-bad guy orc-ripoff, at least at first glance. They are horned humanoids with greyish skin and an extremely violent, warrior-based culture. Most of the other races of Alagäesia consider them ugly, stupid and dangerously unpredictable. However, in a show of actual, legitimate creativity, Christopher Paolini eventually redeemed the Urgals, revealing that they had been forced into servitude by Galbatorix by a spell. The series ends with Urgals being inducted into the Varden and learning to become Riders.
The Eragon movie saw a bout of laziness on the part of the Urgals. Rather than following the description of Urgals from the novels, the producers got even less creative and used tall dudes with patterned face makeup to play the Urgals. The video games show more varieties of Urgal than the books and movie do.
Minis
- Murtaugh (mini-Urgal)