Yeah they're real people to me, I actually think about them a lot. They're super inspiring to me.
The Wheel of Time is awesome too. The characters are not anywhere near as realistic as Goodkind's characters nor are the themes as deep, at all. But certain aspects are phenomenal. He does an amazing job of conceptualizing a rich, diverse world, and describing and detailing the various cultures and their interactions. Also the "magic" equivalent is so cool and a really interesting idea. Actually if you read them you'll see a variety of close parallels in the concepts of some things to the Sword of Truth. The Wheel of Time is a lot less graphic and gruesome, but also less glorious. I used to like them better when I was younger but I no longer feel that way.
Also, Robert Jordan (their author) died before writing the last 3 books (there are 14 of them), and Brandon Sanderson took over and did a phenomenal job finishing them, I think he's actually a better writer. The last 3 are the best ones. I think Robert Jordan had some emotional/women/love issues and it comes out in his writing, often humorously, and sometimes annoyingly. When Brandon Sanderson took over, the writing became much more emotionally intense and the people seemed more real, and less characterized. Anyway, it's still my second favorite fantasy series, it's really great and awesome and well worth reading. Even longer than Sword of Truth though, most of the individual books as well as the total number of books.
I'm going to have to check out this other series you mentioned, Belgariad it is?
It's kinda depressing at my house today, alone, in the middle of 2-3 days of steady, gloomy rain, hiking plans ruined, and my roof is now leaking in 3 places... fucking fun. I've got no means by which to fix the issue, and it'll only get worse until I do. Hard to believe at the moment that a week ago I was having fun in the sun with my family, as happy as I've ever been.
Oh well, I'm just having a moment... it's all good.