Codes of the Warrior

  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