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#Post#: 34--------------------------------------------------
Warriors
DIR By: kharma
Date: January 9, 2014, 1:41 am
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Warriors
On the length of a Ubar's rule
"Normally the office is surrendered after the passing of the
crisis," said my father. "It is part of the Warrior's Code."
"But what if he does not give up the office?" I asked. I had
learned enough of Gor by now to know that one could not always
count on the Caste Codes being observed.
"Those who do not desire to surrender their power," said my
father, "are usually deserted by their men. The offending war
chief is simply abandoned, left alone in his palace to be
impaled by the citizens of the city he has tried to usurp."
I nodded, imagining a palace, empty save for one man sitting
alone on his throne, clad in his robes of state, waiting for the
angry people outside the gates to break through and work their
wrath.
"But," said my father, "sometimes such a war chief, or Ubar,
wins the hearts of his men, and they refuse to withdraw their
allegiance."
"What happens then?" I asked.
"He becomes a tyrant," said my father, "and rules until
eventually, in one way or another, he is ruthlessly deposed." My
father's eyes were hard and seemed fixed in thought. It was not
mere political theory he spoke to me. I gathered that he knew of
such a man. "Until," he repeated slowly, "he is ruthlessly
deposed."
---Tarnsman of Gor, 3:42-43
Submission and the codes
"You must take me with you," she said, eyes still downcast.
"Why?" I asked. After all, according to the rude codes of Gor, I
owed her nothing; indeed, considering her attempt on my life,
which had been foiled only by the fortuitous net of Nar's web, I
would have been within my rights to slay her, abandoning her
body to the water lizards. Naturally, I was not looking at
things from precisely the Gorean point of view, but she would
have no way of knowing that. How could she know that I would not
treat her as--according to the rough justice of Gor--she
deserved?
---Tarnsman of Gor, 7:92
...It was the same simple ceremony that Sana had performed
before me in the chamber of my father, back at Ko-ro-ba--the
submission of the captive female. Without raising her eyes from
the ground, the daughter of the Ubar said in a clear, distinct
voice: "I submit myself."
Later I wished that I had had binding fiber to lash her so
innocently proffered wrists. I was speechless for a moment, but
then, remembering that harsh Gorean custom required me either to
accept the submission or slay the captive, I took her wrists in
my hands and said, "I accept your submission."...
---Tarnsman of Gor, 7:93-94
"Like this," she responded, kneeling before me, lowering her
head and lifting her arms, the wrists crossed. She laughed. "Now
you must take me with you or slay me," she said, "and I know you
cannot slay me."
I cursed her, for she took unfair advantage of the Warrior Codes
of Gor.
---Tarnsman of Gor, 8:109
Challenge
"I like this girl," said the warrior. "Yield her to me!"
"No," I said.
"Yield her or I will have my tharlarion trample you," he
snapped, "or would you prefer to be spitted on my lance?"
"You know the codes," I said evenly. "If you want her, you must
challenge for her and meet me with the weapon of my choice."
---Tarnsman of Gor, 9:117
Sword brotherhood
"DO NOT HARM HIM," SAID Kazrak. "He is my sword brother, Tarl of
Bristol." Kazrak's remark was in accord with the strange warrior
codes of Gor, codes which were as natural to him as the air he
breathed, and codes which I, in the Chamber of the Council of
Ko-ro-ba, had sworn to uphold. One who has shed your blood, or
whose blood you have shed, becomes your sword brother, unless
you formally repudiate the blood on your weapons. It is a part
of the kinship of Gorean warriors regardless of what city it is
to which they owe their allegiance. It is a matter of caste, an
expression of respect for those who share their station and
profession, having nothing to do with cities or Home Stones.
---Tarnsman of Gor, 10:119
The raising of a weapon - challenge again
"You have lifted a weapon against me," he said. "My codes permit
me to kill you."
---Outlaw of Gor, 1:14
Warrior pledge
"I come on behalf of Lara, who is true Tatrix of Tharna. Sheathe
your weapons. No more shed the blood of men of your own city. I
ask this in the name of Lara, and of the city of Tharna and its
people. And I ask it in the name of the codes of your own caste,
for your swords are pledged to the true Tatrix--Lara--not Dorna
the Proud!"
---Outlaw of Gor, 24:231
I wondered how it was that Thorn had given his life for this
woman. It did not seem it could have been a matter of caste
obligation for this obligation had been owed not to Dorna but to
Lara. He had broken the codes of his caste to support the
treachery of Dorna the Proud.
---Outlaw of Gor, 25:242
Death in battle
I am of the Caste of Warriors, and it is in our codes that the
only death fit for a man is that in battle, but I can no longer
believe that this is true, for the man I met once on the road to
Ko-ro-ba died well, and taught me that all wisdom and truth does
not lie in my own codes.
---Priest Kings of Gor, 1:14
The treatment of slaves
Had I now become so much the Gorean warrior that I could
disregard the feelings of a fellow creature, in particular those
of a girl, who must be protected and cared for? Could it be that
I had, as the Codes of my Caste recommended, not even considered
her, but merely regarded her as a rightless animal, no more than
a subject beast, an abject instrument to my interests and
pleasures, a slave?
---Priest Kings of Gor, 6:47-48
Peril and steel
"Until you find Talena," he said, "your companion is peril and
steel."
It was an old Warrior saying.
---Priest Kings of Gor, 34:307
Swearing by the sword
"His hand on the hilt of his sword," said Mira, "and his other
hand on the medallion of Ar, his daughter was disowned."
I gasped, stunned.
"Yes," laughed Verna, "according to the codes of the warriors
and by the rites of the city of Ar, no longer is Talena kin or
daughter of Marlenus of Ar."
I lay, stunned. According to irreversible ceremonies, both of
the warriors and of the city of Ar, Talena was no longer the
daughter of Marlenus. In her shame she had been put outside his
house. She was cut off. In law, and in the eyes of Goreans,
Talena was now without family. No longer did she have kin. She
was now, in her shame, alone, completely. She was now only
slave, that and nothing more.
---Hunters of Gor, 9:131
The circle of each man's sword and the swords of others
In the codes of the warriors, there is a saying: "Be strong, and
do as you will. The swords of others will set you your limits."
---Marauders of Gor, 1:10
"Within the circle of each man's sword," say the codes of the
warrior, "therein is each man a Ubar."
---Marauders of Gor, 1:10
"Steel is the coinage of the warrior," say the codes. "With it
he purchases what pleases him."
---Marauders of Gor, 1:10
Poison
"Poison, I think," said he, "perhaps a subtle toxin, coated on a
blade, thus entered into a wound."
"Such is contrary to the codes," I said.
"Poisoned steel," he said.
I said nothing.
"Sullius Maximus," he said, "is in Tyros."
"I would not have thought Sarus of Tyros would have used
poisoned steel," I said. Such a device, like the poisoned arrow,
was not only against the codes of the warriors, but, generally,
was regarded as unworthy of men. Poison was regarded as a
woman's weapon.
---Marauders of Gor, 1:18 (revised edition)
A time for steel
"No," said the prisoner, "but there is a time and a place for
speaking, as there is a time and a place for steel."
"It is a saying of the warriors," said Borchoff.
---Slave Girl of Gor, 12:269
What makes a warrior
"Flee!" she said.
"I am of the Warriors," I said.
"But you may die," she said.
"That is acknowledged in the codes," I said.
"What are the codes?" she asked.
"They are nothing, and everything," I said. "They are a bit of
noise, and the steel of the heart. They are meaningless, and all
significant. They are the difference. Without the codes men
would be Kurii."
"Kurii?" she asked.
"Beasts, such as ice beasts, and worse," I said. "Beasts such as
the face you saw in the sky."
---Beasts of Gor, 27:340
"What is it to be a warrior?" she asked.
"It is to keep the codes," I said. "You may think that to be a
warrior is to be large, or strong, and to be skilled with
weapons, to have a blade at your hip, to know the grasp of the
spear, to wear the scarlet, to know the fitting of the iron helm
upon one's countenance, but these things are not truly needful;
they are not, truly, what makes one man a warrior and another
not. Many men are strong, and large, and skilled with weapons.
Any man might, if he dared, don the scarlet and gird himself
with weapons. Any man might place upon his brow the helm of
iron. But it is not the scarlet, not the steel, not the helm of
iron which makes the warrior."
She looked up at me.
"It is the codes," I said.
---Beasts of Gor, 27:340
Flags
"Even warriors long sometimes for the sight of their own flags,
atop friendly walls, for the courtyards of their keeps, for the
hearths of their halls. Thus admit the Codes."
---Blood Brothers of Gor, 35:306
This was the Kur I had come to think of as the eighth Kur. It
had been apparently separated from its companions at the time of
the massacre of the wagon train and the fight between the
soldiers and the savages. I had met it once before, when it had
returned to the field to feed. It was that Kur which had been
threatening the Waniyanpi, and whose attack I had frustrated. As
we had not been similarly armed, it alone, afoot, and I with
Grunt, he with an armed crossbow, and as it had not rushed upon
me, I had not contested its withdrawal from the field. Such had
seemed in accordance with codes to which I had once subscribed,
codes which I had never forgotten.....
---Blood Brothers of Gor, 51:459
She belonged to Samos, of course. It had been within the context
of his capture rights that she had, as a free woman, of her own
free will, pronounced upon herself a formula of enslavement.
Automatically then, in virtue of the context, she became his.
The law is clear on this. The matter is more subtle when the
woman is not within a context of capture rights. Here the matter
differs from city to city. In some cities, a woman may not, with
legal recognition, submit herself to a specific man as a slave,
for in those cities that is interpreted as placing at least a
temporary qualification on the condition of slavery which
condition, once entered into, all cities agree, is absolute. In
such cities, then, the woman makes herself a slave,
unconditionally. It is then up to the man in question whether or
not he will accept her as his slave. In this matter he will do
as he pleases. In any event, she is by then a slave, and only
that.
In other cities, and in most cities, on the other hand, a free
woman may, with legal tolerance, submit herself as a slave to a
specific man. If he refuses her, she is then still free. If he
accepts her, she is then, categorically, a slave, and he may do
with her as he pleases, even selling her or giving her away, or
slaying her, if he wishes. Here we might note a distinction
between laws and codes. In the codes of the warriors, if a
warrior accepts a woman as a slave, it is prescribed that, at
least for a time, an amount of time up to his discretion, she be
spared. If she should be the least bit displeasing, of course,
or should prove recalcitrant in even a tiny way, she may be
immediately disposed of.
It should be noted that this does not place a legal obligation
on the warrior. It has to do, rather, with the proprieties of
the codes. If a woman not within a clear context of rights, such
as capture rights, house rights, or camp rights, should
pronounce herself slave, simpliciter, then she is subject to
claim. These claims may be explicit, as in branding, binding and
collaring, or as in the uttering of a claimancy formula, such as
"I own you," "You are mine," or "You are my slave," or implicit,
as in, for example, permitting the slave to feed from your hand
or follow you.
---Players of Gor, 1:21
...Warriors, it is said in the codes, have a common Home Stone.
Its name is battle.
---Renegades of Gor, 20:343
He who cannot think is not a man, so saith the codes. Yet
neither, too, they continue, is he who can only think.
---Vagabonds of Gor, 3:65
"What is the 97th Aphorism in the Codes?" inquired Labienus.
"My scrolls may not be those of Ar," I said. To be sure, the
scrolls should be, at least among the high cities, in virtue of
conventions held at the Sardar Fairs, particularly the Fair of
En’Kara, much in agreement.
"Will you speak?" asked Labienus.
"Remove the female," I said.
"He is a Warrior," said one of the men.
One of the men lifted the bound Ina in his arms, one hand behind
the back of her knees, and the other behind her back, and
carried her from where we were gathered. In a few moments he
returned.
"The female is now out of earshot?" inquired Labienus, staring
ahead.
"Yes," said the fellow, "and she will stay where I left her, on
her back, as I tied her hair about the base of a stout shrub."
"The 97th Aphorism in the Codes I was taught," I said, "is in
the form of a riddle: "What is invisible but more beautiful than
diamonds?"
"And the answer?" inquired Labienus.
"That which is silent but deafens thunder."
The men regarded one another.
"And what is that?" asked Labienus.
"The same," said I, "as that which depresses no scale but is
weightier than gold."
"And what is that?" asked Labienus.
"Honor," I said.
---Vagabonds of Gor, 28:305-306
"...The warrior does not kill himself or aid others in the doing
of it. It is not in the codes."
---Vagabonds of Gor, 46:446
"You have drawn a weapon against me," I said.
"You are of the warriors?" said the fellow. He wavered. He, too,
knew the codes.
---Magicians of Gor, 8:129
...Too, both Marcus and myself were of the warriors, the scarlet
caste, and as such were not above taking slaves, Such is not
only permitted in the codes, but encouraged by them. "The slave
is a joy and a convenience to the warrior."...
---Magicians of Gor, 19:315
"Honor," I said, "has many voices, and many songs."
He looked down at me, startled. "That is a saying of warriors,"
he said. "It is from the codes. It is a long time since I have
heard it. I had almost forgotten it. Where did you, a slave,
hear it?"
---Witness of Gor, 46:711
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