DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
House of Lycus
HTML https://hol.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: General Discussion
*****************************************************
#Post#: 55--------------------------------------------------
Info dump about Torcadino
By: Tula Date: September 14, 2024, 12:35 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
To collect info about Torcadino. Starting with the most common
search info.
Torcadino:
City located on "Flats of Sarpeto" at the intersection of
various routes, the Genesian, the Northern Salt Line, the
Northern Silk Road, the Pilgrim's Road, and the Eastern Way (or
Treasure Road), Torcadino is a crossroads city SE of Brundisium,
SW of Ar. A walled city-state not unlike Vonda. Recently served
as a mercenary stronghold during the Ar/Cos conflict. Occupies a
position of great strategic importance in the central north.
Because of it's location. Once an ally of Ar, it served as
Cosian stronghold and staging center, until reclaimed by
Deitrich of Tarnburg. Torcadino is also notable for it's two
aqueducts, built a century ago, which bring fresh waer from the
Issus, a northwestwardly flowing tributary of the Vosk River.
Similar to any of the walled city-states of ancient Earth
Greece.
#Post#: 56--------------------------------------------------
Re: Info dump about Torcadino
By: Tula Date: September 14, 2024, 2:23 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Some quotes from Nercenaries of Gor, describing Torcadino or
(more often) the occupation by Dietrich of Tarnburg.
The mercenaries left Torcadino before the uprising in Ar, so
Torcadino probably switched allegations twice more (to Cos after
the mercenaries were gone and then back to Ar after Cos was
defeated).
Norman, John. Mercenaries of Gor (Gorean Saga Book 21)
“There are the aqueducts of Torcadino!” said Mincon. “I see
them,” I said. The natural wells of Torcadino, originally
sufficing for a small population, had, more than a century ago,
proved inadequate to furnish sufficient water for an expanding
city. Two aqueducts now brought fresh water to Torcadino from
more than a hundred pasangs away, one from the Issus, a
northwestwardly flowing tributary to the Vosk and the other from
springs in the Hills of Eteocles, southwest of Corcyrus. The
remote termini of both aqueducts were defended by guard
stations. The vicinities of the aqueducts themselves are usually
patrolled and, of course, engineers and workmen attend regularly
to their inspection and repair. These aqueducts are marvelous
constructions, actually, having a pitch of as little as a hort
for every pasang.
.......
In something like a half of an Ahn we had come to Torcadino’s
Sun Gate. Many cities have a “Sun Gate.” It is called that
because it is commonly opened at dawn and closed at dusk. Once a
Gorean city closes its gates it is usually difficult to leave
the city. They are seldom opened and closed to suit the
convenience of private persons. Sometimes rogues and brigands,
and even slavers, hang about the gates, seeking to trap late
comers against the walls. Many a lovely woman has fallen to the
slaver’s noose in just such a fashion. To be sure, a given gate,
the “night gate,” is usually maintained somewhere, through which
bona-fide citizens, known in the city, or capable of identifying
themselves, may be admitted.
.....
These inert, suspended, desiccated weights, now little more than
skulls and the bones of men, with some bits of cloth, fluttering
in the air’s stirrings, and threads and patches of dried flesh
clinging about them, had been arranged in a line along the
Avenue of Adminius, the main thoroughfare of Torcadino, near the
Semnium, the hall of the high council, doubtless as some sort of
mnemonic and admonitory display.
....
“That is the central cylinder of Torcadino,” he said, “the
administrative headquarters of her first executive, whether it
be Administrator or Ubar.” “Yes?” I said. “Look to its summit,”
he said. I did so. “Do you know the flag of Torcadino?” he
asked. “No,” I said. “It does not matter,” he said, “for of
recent months what has flown there has not been the flag of
Torcadino, but another flag, that of Cos.”
...
“It is silver,” I said. “It is far off. It is hard to make out.
The sun is glinting on it.” “It is the standard of the silver
tarn,” he said. “It is mounted on a silvered pole. Near the top
of the pole there is a rectangular plate on which there is
writing. Surmounting this plate, clutching it in its talons, is
a tarn, done in silver, its wings outstretched.”
Standard of Dietrich of Tarnburg
...
"Through the aqueducts."
“Of course,” he said. “They were entered, one near the Issus,
the other in the Hills of Eteocles, more than a hundred pasangs
away. Soldiers, in double file, wading, moving sometimes even
over the heads of Cosian troops, traversed them.”
...
There, some fifty yards away, kneeling, huddled together against
the brick wall of a public building, the wall composed of the
flat, narrow bricks common in southern Gorean architecture, was
a group of some one hundred to one hundred and fifty females.
They were naked. They were chained together by the neck. They
were in the keeping of two soldiers, with whips.
...
As these women had been apparently marked out for seizure long
ago, perhaps months ago, the numbers had doubtless been
preassigned. Doubtless there were lists on which their names
appeared, each name correlated for convenience with a given
number. For example, a given high lady of Torcadino, of a
faction favoring Cos, might have had opposite her name on some
list the number, say, 908. She would then, after the fall of the
city, have been hunted down, stripped, and put on the chain, the
number 908 being inscribed on her left breast. For months then,
she may have unsuspectingly, with haughty aplomb, in lofty,
benign ignorance, gone about her life in her usual way, with her
usual power and arrogance, unaware that she figured, however
trivially, in the plans of others, others to whom she was no
more than a naked female, who had been assigned the number 908.
Her fate was already planned, and set. The days of her freedom,
in a sense, were already gone. The marking stick was already in
existence which would inscribe that number on her fair breast.
In a sense she was then, unbeknownst to herself, 908; in a
sense, then, a sense of which she was ignorant, she was already
a slave. This sort of thing is not unusual, of course, the
marking out of given women for bondage. Many women on Gor have
been scouted, and selected for bondage, weeks or months, perhaps
even years, before they are picked up. In a sense, then, they
are already, at least in the view of their harvesters, slaves,
simply waiting to be gathered in. Too, doubtless, something
similar takes place on Earth, before Gorean slavers make their
strikes. Many a girl, one supposes, has been noticed, and
surreptitiously scouted and assessed, before she is found
acceptable and then, at the slaver’s convenience, taken in hand,
for transportation and delivery. Where are they noticed? One
supposes it could have been anywhere, perhaps in a high school
or college class room, perhaps in a corridor or a cafeteria,
perhaps on a street, perhaps in a park or on a beach, perhaps on
a bus or subway, or waiting at an airport, perhaps in an office,
perhaps while getting into or out of a taxi, perhaps while
shopping at the local supermarket. Who knows where or when the
eyes of the slavers are upon them? If they knew that would they
flee behind locked doors, hoping vainly to escape their fate;
would they crouch fearfully in closets, waiting for the doors to
be opened; or would they stand differently and move ever more
beautifully, hoping in shyness, deference and femininity, to
suggest their value, and their possible worthiness for a Gorean
slave collar?
...
“These are new bodies, fresh bodies,” I said. “Of course,” said
Mincon. We were at the foot of the low, broad steps of the
Semnium, the hall of the high council, which building, it
seemed, might now serve as the headquarters of the new masters
of Torcadino. These steps extended before the building, for the
entire length of its portico. “Who are they?” I asked. There
were some two to three hundred new bodies hung now from tarred
ropes along the Avenue of Adminius, in the vicinity of the
Semnium. “Collaborators, traitors, men who were of the party of
Cos, betrayers of the alliance with Ar, and such,” said Mincon.
“As those earlier were similarly adherents of Ar?” I asked.
“Perhaps,” said Mincon. “Some of those here,” I said, regarding
the lines of bodies dangling in the tarred halters, “are perhaps
the same as those who had been active in bringing about the
downfall of those who hung here formerly.” “Of course,” said
Mincon. “The winds have shifted in Torcadino,” I said. “Yes,”
said Mincon. “It seems your captain is in the pay of Ar,” I
said. “Of that you may judge yourself,” he said, “shortly.” “I?”
I asked. “Yes,” he said. “I do not understand,” I said.
“Follow me,” he said. I then, and the others, followed him up
the steps of the Semnium. I stopped once, at the entrance, to
look back, at the bodies. I briefly recalled the girl at the
chain, 437, and her mother, 261. Her mother, before her capture,
I had gathered, had been important, having been the confirmation
treasurer of one of Torcadino’s commercial councils, the Spice
Council. She had also, in her position, I had gathered, and
doubtless by her influence and acts, supported the cause of Cos.
This inclination, incidentally, is not all that uncommon among
individuals whose fortunes tend to be intimately involved in
such matters as importation and exportation, the location and
exploitation of foreign markets, and, in general, the overseas
trade, the Thassa and island trade. This is understandable. The
navies of Tyros and Cos, for most practical purposes, command
the green waves of gleaming Thassa. They control many of the
most familiar and practical oceanic trade corridors. Few coasts
are free from their patrols. Few ports could scorn their
blockades. 261, however, aside from all such considerations, was
a citizeness of Torcadino, and Torcadino had been sworn to the
cause of Ar. She had, it seemed, for whatever reason, presumably
opportunism or greed, betrayed the pledge of her Home Stone. In
the case of a man this can be a capital offense. She was not a
man, however, but a female. It was thus, doubtless, that she had
not been placed on a proscription list, but only on a seizure
list. It was her sex which had saved her. Had she been a man she
would have been hung. Within the entrance to the Semnium was a
marble-floored, lofty hall. Passageways and stairways led
variously from this broad vestibule. The walls were adorned with
mosaics, scenes generally of civic life, prominent among them
scenes of public gatherings, conferences and processions. One
depicted the laying of the first stone in Torcadino’s walls, an
act which presumably would have taken place more than seven
hundred years ago, when, according to the legends, the first
wall, only a dozen feet high, was built to encircle and protect
a great, sprawling encampment at the joining of trade routes.
Within the hall were several soldiers, and several officers, at
tables, conducting various sorts of business. To one side,
permanent fixtures, immovable and sturdy, their supports fixed
in the floor, were several rows of long, low, marble benches. It
was on these that clients and claimants, with their various
causes, grievances, and petitions, would wait until their turn
came to be called for their appointments or hearings. It was
here, too, that witnesses, and such, might wait, before being
summoned to give testimony on various matters before the courts.
...
“Cos will not dare let these refugees starve,” I said, “as they
are citizens of a city which had declared for them, which had
gone over to them. If they did not care for them, this would be
a dark lesson, and one favoring Ar, to every wavering or
uncommitted village, town and city within a dozen horizons.”
“Quite,” he agreed. “What was done with the garrison of
Torcadino?” I asked. “Most were surprised in their beds,” he
said. “Their weapons were seized. Resistance was useless. We
then expelled them, disarmed, from the city.” “So that they,
too, like the civilians, would aggravate the problems of Cos.”
“Yes,” he said.
...
I turned in the blankets, brought by soldiers, on the tiles of
the vestibule of the Semnium. There were perhaps two hundred
people, many of them civilians, being housed there this night.
Near me, a free female, one of those to be counted among the
spoils of Torcadino, was chained on one of the clients’ marble
benches, one of several serving on such benches, women who, one
after the other, in turn, were replaced with others.
...
Certain of the folks passed through the great gate of Torcadino
were searched rather thoroughly. Some of the women, probably
because the guards were interested in seeing them, were stripped
stark naked, standing on the stones before the portal and, to
their dismay, examined with Gorean efficiency. Certain coins and
rings were found. After such a search a woman is sometimes good
for nothing more than being a slave. But they were thrust
through the gate, their clothes then clutched in their hands.
Boabissia, interestingly, though quite comely, was spared this
indignity. Some objects were confiscated from various folks, men
and women, but little, really, was taken. I began to suspect
that the treatment this group was receiving was, on the whole,
little more than pro forma. I also suspected, after a few Ehn,
that Boabissia’s immunity from Gorean Strip Search, in spite of
the promise of pleasure to the guards of such a search, might be
due to her party, that she was with us. The letters of the
officer were now within my sheath. This tightened the draw, but
the hiding place, considering the few options at my disposal,
seemed a sensible one. Papers can be easily detected within
tunic or cloak linings. To be sure, if one has time, the
messages can be written on cloth within the linings, and then
should elude search, unless the garment be torn open. There are
many possible hiding places for messages or valuables, of
course. A few that might be mentioned are false heels or divided
soles in sandals, tiny secret compartments in rings, brooches,
ornate hair pins, hollow combs, fibulae, studs, and clasps. The
pommels of some swords are made, too, in such a way as to
unscrew, revealing such a compartment. Similarly walking sticks
and staffs often have one or more such compartments in them,
reached by unscrewing various sections of the stick or staff.
Needless to say, some of these, too, contain, daggers or
thrusting swords. Such concealed compartments and weapons, and
sometimes even builders’ glasses, sun chronometers, and
compasses, and such, are found in such objects. It is cultural
for white-clad pilgrims from certain cities to carry such
staffs, often entwined with flowers, in pilgrimages to the
Sardar. Such folks are not as harmless as they might seem, as
various brigands have learned to their sorrow.
...
#Post#: 59--------------------------------------------------
Re: Info dump about Torcadino
By: Tula Date: September 15, 2024, 4:06 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Thinking about the history of Torcadino, the city must have
switched allegiance at least four times:
1.) Ar to Cos, driven by the mercantile class
2.) Back to Ar when Dietrich of Tarnburg seized the city
3.) Back to Cos when the mercenaries decided to leave
4.) Back to Ar after the defeat of the Cosian invaders during
the uprising
As described in the book, male supporters of the temporarily
defeated faction were often executed while female supporters
were enslaved. After four overthrows of the ruling factions, it
stands to reason that many members of the ruling elites were
killed or enslaved, also resulting in much business know-how
being lost. With many of the merchant class favouring Cos, they
were hit hard again by the last switch of power.
Historically rulers or governments often tried to attract
settlers, especially people with special know-how, by providing
privilegels. That could be tax exemption (at least for a,limited
time) or providing a land grant. With Torcadino not being
destroyed, maybe new settlers could receive one of the empty
buildings of a disgraced member of their caste.
In the middle ages and I think also in the ancient time, rules
of cities were often very much bent into favour of their
citizens if the city could get away with it. An example were the
powerful independent cities at the Rhine like Cologne which had
the privilege to force merchants passing through their territory
to display their wares and offer them for wholesale prices to
the local merchants. Maybe the slavers of Torcadino (or maybe
only the new ones) are offered the privilege to cal dips on
judicially enslaved women etc., i.e. a right of first refusal.
With Marcus Lycus being a citizen of Ar and a businessman with
specialized caste know-how, he'd fit very much into the category
of people Torcadino might want to attract to fill the gaps in
their citizenship. The warriors might tell him about the
opportunities and provide in addition the letters of
recommendation. Once arriving in Torcadino, he might be offered
to take over a building and stalls of a slaver house hose
members were sentenced to death or enlsavement.
#Post#: 60--------------------------------------------------
Re: Info dump about Torcadino
By: emmaofgor Date: September 15, 2024, 4:56 am
---------------------------------------------------------
And I could see the npcs Asterios and Orfeas vouching for
Marcus, which would smooth the way for him to operate from
Torcadino. Perhaps an RP scene where Marcus meets them for
dinner (served by player and npc slaves) at their apartment,
specifically to discuss the Torcadino relocation.
*****************************************************