Friday, August 1, 2025

Caste of Slavers Miscellany

 


SLAVERS SPECIALIZING IN SALE AND RENTING OF DANCERS


Dancers bring high prices on Gor. Some slavers specialize in dancers, renting them, and buying and selling them. Two such houses in Ar are those of Kelsius and Aurelius.

(Explorers of Gor, page 343)


"SLAVER'S NECKLACE" IS A CHAIN OF SLAVES


Many of them were beauties, and I thought that the chain, though small, was a rich one, and that almost any man might find thereon a woman to his taste. They were vital, splendid creatures, many of them undoubtedly exquisitely trained to delight the senses of a master. And many of the cities of Gor were represented on that chain, sometimes spoken of as the Slaver's Necklace.

(Outlaw of Gor, pages 194-195)


Throughout most of human history, the "slaver's necklace," a coffle of chained beauties, was a familiar sight.

(Prize of Gor, page 291)


"I think she is rather pretty," said the officer. "I think she would look well, chained by the neck, being marched in a slave coffle. I do not think she would be the worst bead on a slaver's necklace."

(Prize of Gor, page 328)


A SLAVER CAN SPOT A BRED SLAVE AT A GLANCE


To a slaver, certain girls can be recognized at a glance, as being of certain varieties developed by certain houses.

(Assassin of Gor, page 110)


A SLAVER'S JOKE


A slaver's joke, one which free women are likely to hear with apprehension, has it that there is always room for another female on the chain.

(Magicians of Gor, page 161)

Cloth Workers Basics

 CLOTH WORKERS


- produce textiles for various uses and make clothing

- are separate from Leather Workers, who are their own caste

- like Merchants, Cloth Workers have numerous subcastes:


"The Carders and Dyers, incidentally, are subcastes separate from the Weavers. All are subcastes of the Rug Makers, which itself, interestingly, perhaps surprisingly, is accounted generally as a subcaste of the Cloth Workers. Rug Makers themselves, however usually regard themselves in their various subcastes, as being independent of the Cloth Workers. A rug maker would not care to be confused with a maker of kaftans, turbans, or djellabas." 

Tribesmen of Gor, pages 49-50


- the caste of Bleachers is not explicitly said to be a subcaste of Cloth Workers, but that would make sense


"...its libraries, its records and files; its cubicles for Smiths, Bakers, Cosmeticians, Bleachers, Dyers, Weavers, and Leather Workers..." Assassin of Gor, page 111


- some Cloth Workers own shops


I had taken a large. room on the ground floor, behind a cloth-worker's shop, just off the Street of Tapestries. 

(Explorers of Gor)


- some Cloth Workers are considered to be "high", not as in being an actual high caste, but as in having an esteemed status within their own caste; they are the ones who make bespoke clothing for wealthy customers, or, more specifically, "masters of the foremost garment houses"

- high cloth workers would be in the position to affect and create fashion trends


" (...) I am educated and refined. I have exquisite taste. I am accustomed to the finest silks, the most expensive materials. I have my gowns, my robes, even my veils, especially made for me by high cloth workers!"

"I am not a high cloth worker," I said, "but I did make it especially for you."

Players of Gor, page 215


How and when fashions changed, and why they changed, was not clear. Doubtless there were setters of trends, say, highly placed officials, wealthy Merchants, Actors, Singers, and Poets, certain women of noble family

and high caste, and such, but why should one option rather than another succeed in being adopted, however transiently? Perhaps the higher, better fixed, more established or influential members of the Cloth Workers had something to do with it, with hints, with words dropped now and then, with boulevard posters, with some judiciously distributed free garmenture, here and there, and so on. Doubtless each time a fashion changed at least the high Cloth Workers, masters of the foremost garment houses, would sell more garmenture, at least to the fashion conscious, to those who were concerned to keep up with the times, to those who feared to be pitied or ridiculed for being out of style, and such.

Conspirators of Gor, ebook edition


- going by the general understanding of Rug Makers as a subcaste of Cloth Workers, the "family tree" of these castes would go as follows (unattested suggestions in brackets):


                             Cloth Workers

                              |                  |                      

   subcaste: Rug Makers      (subcaste: Tailors? "high cloth workers") 

                     | 

    subcastes: Carders, Dyers, (possibly Bleachers), Weavers                     


Common Livestock of Gor (Peasants, Animal Handlers)

Bosk

Hurt

Frevet

Kaiila

Sleen

Tarsk

Tharlarion

Verr/Goat

Vulo

Dyes on Gor (Cloth Workers, etc.)

 DYES ON GOR


Ingredients of natural dyes

Vegetable dyes - from bark, leaves, roots, flowers, crushed insects, animal products


The dyes used in the making of these rugs are, on the whole, natural dyes, vegetable dyes, some made from barks and leaves, and roots and flowers, others from animal products, crushed insects, etc. At various places in the bazaar, from a latticework laid between the buildings, numerous skeins of wool hung, dyed in various bright colors, drying.

(Tribesmen)


A red dye from mashed roots of telekint mixed with water


The drover threw back the hood of his burnoose, and pulled down the veil about his face. Beneath the burnoose he wore a skullcap. The rep-cloth veil was red; it had been soaked in a primitive dye, mixed from water and the mashed roots of the telekint; when he perspired, it had run; his face was stained. He thrust back the sleeve of his trail shirt. 

(Tribesmen)


A red dye of unknown origin is mixed with palm oil


Kisu, with a knife, was cutting a length from the rough, red-dyed cloth, plaited and pounded, derived from the inner bark of the pod tree, which we had obtained in trade some days ago at the fishermens village. It has a cordage of bark strips resembling a closely woven burlap, but it is much softer, a result in part perhaps due to the fact that the dye in which it is prepared is mixed with palm oil.

(Explorers)


A blue dye from the blood of the Vosk sorp


It was Luma, the chief scribe of my house, in her blue robe and sandals. Her hair was blond and straight, tied behind her head with a ribbon of blue wool, from the bounding Hurt, dyed in the blood of the Vosk sorp. 

(Marauders)


Chemical dyes of unknown origin


My goods, substantially, consisted of blankets, colored cloths, ribbons, mirrors and beads, kettles and pans, popular in the grasslands, hard candies, cake sugar and chemical dyes. 

(Savages)


DYED GARMENTS


Rep cloth patches 


Generally, it was a small faction patch sewn on the left shoulder; the faction patches of the High-Caste women tended to be fine silk, and tastefully done; those of low-caste women merely a square of crudely stitched, dyed rep-cloth; some of the masters had dressed their slave girls in slave livery of the color of the faction they favored; others had twined a colored ribbon about their hair or in their collar. 

(Assassin)


Rep cloth, dyed purple with unknown dye


Her hair was tied behind her head with a strip of purple cloth, dyed rep-cloth.

(Raiders)


Rep cloth takes dyes well


Rep is a whitish fibrous matter found in the seed pods of a small, reddish, woody bush, commercially grown in several areas, but particularly below Ar and above the equator; the cheap rep-cloth is woven in mills, commonly, in various cities; it takes dyes well and, being cheap and strong, is popular, particularly among the lower castes. 

(Raiders)


Dyed wool garments


She had a scarlet vest, embroidered in gold, worn over a long-sleeved blouse of white wool, from distant Ar. She wore, too, a long woolen skirt, dyed red, which was belted with black, with a buckle of gold, wrought in Cos.

(Marauders)


Some wore trousers of skin, others tunics of dyed wool. 

(Marauders)


Her kirtle was of the finest wool of Ar, dyed scarlet, with black trimmings. 

(Marauders)


Dyed fur garments


He wore a collar of fur, dyed scarlet, and a long cloak, over the left shoulder, of purple-dyed fur of the sea sleen. He wore beneath his cloak yellow wool, and a great belt (...)

(Marauders)


Dyed leathers


In another place tanned, dyed leathers were hanging, purple, red, yellow. 

(Tribesmen)


I could smell, however, tanning fluids and dyes, from the shops and compounds of leather workers.

(Explorers)


Dyed bark cloth


The results of our trading had been two baskets of dried fish, a sack of meal and vegetables, a length of bark cloth, plaited and pounded, from the pod tree, dyed red, a handful of colored, wooden beads, and, most importantly, two pangas, two-foot-long, heavy, curve-bladed bush knives. 

(Explorers)



HAIR DYES


An unknown dye that can turn red hair black


Accordingly, for the next few days, I remained with Kazrak and bided my time. I dyed my hair black and acquired the helmet and gear of an Assassin.

(Tarnsman)


I stayed four days in the rooms above the shop of Dina of Turia. There I dyed my hair black and exchanged the robes of the merchant for the yellow and brown tunic of the Bakers, to which caste her father and two brothers had belonged. 

(Nomads)


I was not much afraid of being recognized. I had dyed my hair black, I had not been in Ar in several years.

(Assassin)


This dye washes out easily in a water fountain


I accompanied him, stopping only long enough to rip away most of the upper portions of the baker's tunic and rinse the dye from my hair in a street fountain. 

(Nomads)


MISCELLANEOUS USES FOR DYES


Dyed whale tooth


About his neck, from a fine, golden chain, pierced, hung the tooth of a Hunjer whale, dyed blue. 

(Marauders)


Dyed tharlarion egg


"Have you examined the golden sphere carefully?"

Kamchak was asking.

"I never had the opportunity,' I said.

"You might do so now," said Kamchak.

I shook my head negatively.

"Look," said Harold, thrusting his hand under my face. I saw that his thumb and forefinger were marked with a golden stain.

I gazed at his hand, not comprehending.

"It is dye," he said.

"Dye?" I asked.

Harold got up and went to the shattered, stiff shard of the egg. From it, wet, wrinkled, rotted, dead for perhaps months or years, he drew forth the body of an unborn tharlarion.

"I told you," said Kamchak, kindly, "the egg was worth less."

I staggered to my feet, standing now and looking down at the shattered fragments of the egg. I stooped down and picked up one of the stiff shards and rubbed it, seeing the golden stain now left on my fingertips. 

(Nomads)


Female Slavers (Slavers, Merchants)

 FEMALE SLAVERS


Extending in a line to my left, the same line in which I formed the initial point, stripped, secured as I was were twenty more male slaves.  We were being examined by five women, veiled and robed, women slavers. 

(Fighting Slave of Gor, page 82)


She pushed up, under my upper teeth, with her thumb. The robes and veils the women wore were graceful and of silken sheens. They were predominantly blue and yellow in their colors, which are the colors of slavers. 

(Fighting Slave of Gor, page 82)

 

USUALLY WORK IN CITIES AND ESTABLISHED HOUSES

 

Most female slavers, incidentally, are not involved in field captures. It is, on the whole, too dangerous for them. Too, there is always the danger that they might be added to the catch by their men. Most female slavers, accordingly, are established in cities, where they own or manage houses. There they buy and sell slaves, board or rent them, train them, and so on. 

(Players of Gor, page 86)


DO NOT OFTEN DO ACTUAL CASTE WORK


Statistically, there are very few female slavers. Most Gorean women tend to be attractive, and most Gorean men tend to be strong, for example. Accordingly, in a business such as slaving it is not unusual that the female slaver sooner or later, in one way or the another finds the collar on her own throat. That, then, she then helplessly under the whip like any other female, is that. 

(Players of Gor, page 86)


BUT SOME DO PARTICIPATE IN THE HANDS-ON TRAINING OF SLAVES


"How is it,” I asked, “that the Lady Tendite knows English?"

"She learned the language in connection with training Earth-girl slaves,” she said, “in the House of Andronicus. At one time, two or three years ago, English was one of the Earth languages used in that occupation. Now, as you may know, Earth girls are trained substantially in, or entirely in, Gorean."

(...)

"Even after this change, of course,” said the Lady Tima, “she continued in her employment in the House of Andronicus, continuing to be used particularly in her specialty, that of the training, though now generally brief, of naked, collared Earth sluts."

I swallowed, hard.

"The little Earth beauties learned to fear her whip well,” said the Lady Tima.

(Fighting Slave of Gor)


AS PRESENTERS AND AUCTIONEERS 

(at a women's market where kajiri are sold. Reading the entire chapter is recommended)


“Five tarsks!” I heard.

“Stand, Jason!” ordered the Lady Tima.

I stood.

“Here is the slave,” said the Lady Tima. “You have seen him kneel naked to a woman and beg to be collared. Has not your lovely auctioneer, the Lady Tendite, well prepared him for his sale?”

”Six tarsks!” I heard.

(Fighting Slave of Gor)


Gorean Measurements (Merchants, etc.)

 GOREAN MEASUREMENTS


DISTANCE


Hort: 1 1/4 inches

(Tribesmen of Gor, page 49)


Foot: 12 1/4 inches

(Raiders of Gor, page 127)


Pasang: 0.7 mile

(Tarnsman of Gor, page 58)


LENGTH


Ah-il: a unit of measure, the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, c. 18 inches; analogous to the Earth cubit; 10 ah-il equal one ah-ral.


Cloth is measured in the ah-il, which is the length from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, and the ah-rah, which is ten ah-ils.

(Tribesmen of Gor, page 50)


Ah-ral: a unit of measure equalling 10 ah-il, or approx. 180 inches


Cloth is measured in the ah-il, which is the length from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, and the ah-rah, which is ten ah-ils.

(Tribesmen of Gor, page 50)


Both measurements are used in the sale of cloth.


VOLUME


Talu: a unit a measure equaling 2 gallons


A talu is approximately two gallons. A talu bag is a small bag.

(Tribesmen of Gor, page 242)


Tef: a fistful

(Tribesmen of Gor, page 46)


Tefa: 6 tefs

(Tribesmen of Gor, page 46)


Huda: 5 tefa

(Tribesmen of Gor, page 46)


WEIGHT


Stone: 4 pounds

(Raiders of Gor, page 127)


Ten Stone: 40 pounds

(Tribesmen of Gor, page 37, Raiders of Gor, page 127)


Illiteracy

 *

I have known extremely intelligent men on Gor, incidentally, who could not read. Illiteracy, or, more kindly, an inability to read and write, is not taken on Gor as a mark of stupidity.

(Magicians of Gor, pages 393 - 394)

*


Many Gorean people, mostly those of low caste, are illiterate. There is no particular shame in this in most cases; on the contrary, some people are even proud of their illiteracy. Consider the implications of this in everyday life, and how this could be played out in SL Gor:


*

Occasionally heralds, or criers, would pass by, calling out news or announcements. Many on this world, you see, cannot read. Thus the importance of the heralds, the criers, and such. Many things are advertised, too, in such a way, by calling out bargains, the fruits in season, the markets, the cost of cloth, and such. Too, one may hear men, or often boys, for it costs less to hire them, calling out the pleasures of various taverns, and the delights that may be found in within.

(Witness of Gor, page 37)

*


Ideas for including illiteracy in your SL Gorean world:


- Have heralds, town criers, advertisers instead of city newspapers, flyers, posters

- Play out not being able to understand a letter you received or a poster on a corner. Try to find someone to read it for you

- Pay a scribe to write your letters or do the paperwork of your business

- If you do want to be low caste but able to read, have a plausible explanation for it. Maybe you were unusually clever or curious, or listened in while high caste children were taught, or needed to learn so you could manage the finances of your family business

- If you're illiterate, make fun of a peer who can read. Call them fancypants or a wannabe scribe, get in a fistfight and make up over mugs of paga afterwards