Animals of Gor (Luther)

From Luther Scroll Archives

There are a wide variety of animals on Gor, some which were originally transported from Earth to Gor, others which are native to Gor and some which have come from other planets. The following is a list of many of the animals mentioned in the Gor series but does not include all of the animals that do exist on Gor. Not all varieties of some animals, which are mentioned in the series, are named. Some animals are described but are not given names. I have not provided descriptions for animals that are similar or identical to Earth animals.

Not all Earth animals exist on Gor. Most specifically, the horse and dog are not known on Gor except in legend and myth. There are no canine type animals, such as wolves or coyotes, known to be on Gor. There are Gorean animals that are similar to some Earth animals but are native to Gor. The theory of convergent evolution states that there are certain optimum configurations for animals that would be similar on similar planets. This explains why larls and Earth cats are similar. On Gor, the larl is the optimum configuration for a land predator while on Earth it is the Bengal tiger.

It is unknown whether some men evolved from Gor or all were originally brought from Earth. There are some anthropoidal fossils on Gor though which may indicate that at least some men may have independently evolved on Gor. There are no mention of any other types of fossils so it is largely unknown what other creatures may have existed in Gor's past or may exist in isolated wilds. Dinosaurs may have also once walked the world of Gor millenia ago.

This list is alphabetical and some entries may not have a lot of description as the books did not provide much description. This list will help though understand much about the animals of Gor.

Ant

There is a particular variety of ants that inhabit the rainforests near Schendi. They are referred to as the "marchers." Essentially, this is a huge mass of black ants that move through the jungles. The ants usually form a column that is about a yard wide but that could be pasangs in length. The column widens only when food is found. It may then spread up to five hundred feet wide. To cross small streams, the ants will make a bridge of themselves. During a rain, they will separate and seek shelter, reforming after the rains stop. A knowledge individual could guide the marchers on a specific path. The bite of these ants is extremely painful but not poisonous.

Anteater

There are six varieties of anteaters in the rainforests near Schendi. One type is the great spined anteater. It is about twenty feet long and has heavy clawed forefeet. These claws are generally used to break into termite nests, its primary prey. They are also strong enough to eviscerate a larl. The anteater's four-foot long tongue is coated with an adhesive saliva that it uses to collect them. It also commonly makes a whistling sound.

Bee

Honeybees are domestically raised for their honey. Though the books only depicted an instance of such breeding in Torvaldsland, the wide availability of honey throughout Gor seems to support bee keeping in many other regions.

Beetle

One variety of beetle known to exist on Gor is the marsh beetle.

Bint

There are two types of bints. One is a small, carnivorous freshwater fish like a piranha that inhabits the rivers of the rainforests. A large school of these bints can strip a carcass bare in minutes. The other type is a fanged, carnivorous marsh eel.

Bosk

There are fifteen varieties of bosk, a cattle like animal. These varieties include the brown bosk, red bosk, and milk bosk. They are commonly the long-haired wild ox of the plains. They have a thick, humped neck, a wide head, and tiny red eyes. They also have the temper of a sleen. With their two, long, wicked horns they can be quite deadly. The horns reach out and suddenly curve forward and may even reach the length of two spears. They are very important animals to the Wagon Peoples and also many others on Gor. Bosk meat and milk is available over much of Gor.

Carp, Vosk

Centipede

Clam, Tamber

Their polished shells are generally used in making cheap jewelry though certain shells can be quite valuable.

Crayfish

Cuttlefish

Deer

A swift type of deer lives in the north areas.

Eels

There are several varieties including dock eels, river eels, black eels, spotted eels, carnivorous eels, and Vosk eels. The dock eel is a black freshwater fish, comonly about four feet long and weighing eight to ten pounds. They are carnivorous, living in the shallow waters around the docks of most river ports.

Finches

Fisher, Ushindi

A tufted waterbird of the rainforests near Schendi. It has long white feathers and long legs.

Fleer

The fleer is a large, hook billed bird that hunts at night. There are two types, the prairie fleer and the long-billed fleer. The prairie fleer lives in the Barrens and is a yellow bird with long wings and a sharp bill. It is both gregarious and voracious. It is sometimes called the maize or corn bird from the belief that it is usually the first bird to find food. The long-billed fleer live in the rainforests.

Flies

There are many types of Gor including sand flies, arctic flies, and sting flies. Sand flies live in the Tahari and appear after the rains. The flies in the arctic are black and long-winged. Sting flies, also known as needle flies in the southern regions, usually live in deltas and similar wet areas. They generally lay their eggs on the stems of rence plants. They tend to be attracted to eyes and cause a painful sting. Several stings can cause nausea and a swelling that will go away after a few Ahn. But, in great numbers they can kill. The hatching time is the most dangerous period and last for four to five days. Luckily, that season is predictable so can be easily avoided.

Frevet

These are small, quick, and friendly mammalian insectivores. They sometimes live in insulae in the cities and eat pests. As they cannot eat through walls, then they do not harm the insulae.

Fruit tindel

This is a brightly plumaged bird that inhabits the rainforests near Schendi.

Gants

There are a few different types of these birds. The marsh gant is a small, horned, web-footed aquatic fowl. It is broad-billed and broad-winged. Its call is a kind of piping whistle. Rence growers tame them and also eat them. The jungle gant is a bird of the rainforests related to the marsh gant. The migratory arctic gant nests in the Hrimgar mountains in steep, rocky outcroppings called bird cliffs. Their eggs may be frozen and eaten like apples.

Gatch, armored

This is a marsupial that lives in the rainforests near Schendi.

Giani

These are solitary, prowling, tiny cat-sized panthers. They live in the rainforests near Schendi and are not dangerous to man.

Gims

This bird comes in several varieties. The horned gim is a small owl-like bird, about four ounces in weight, that inhabits the forests of northern Gor. It migrates from the Plains of Turia late in the spring. The lang gim is an insectivorous bird that lives in the rainforests. The yellow gim also resides in the rainforests. Most gims make a throaty warbling.

Gint

There are two types of gints. One is a tiny, six-inch freshwater fish inhabiting the rainforests. It has bulbous eyes and flipper-like fins. It is amphibious and capable of walking on its pectorals. It is often found feeding off the scraps of tharlarion kills. It is similar to the Earth lungfish. They sun themselves on exposed roots near the river, remaining close to the water. They may even rest on the backs of resting or sleeping tharlarion. There is also a giant gint in the rainforests that is about ten feet long, weighs a thousand pounds.and has a four-spined dorsal fin.

Gitches

These are insects that cause a painful bite. Some can grow quite large.

Goat

Golden Beetle

One of the most unique and dangerous creatures in the Nest is the Golden Beetle, that lives in the unlit caverns beneath the Sardar caves of the Priest-Kings. This is an insect the size of a rhinoceros. Its back seems divided into two thick casings which once long ago might have been horny wings but which have fused into a thick, immobile golden shell. It has glowing eyes and its head can almost withdraw beneath the shell. It can still use its jaws when its head is beneath the shell. It has two multiply-hooked, hollow, pincerlike extensions that meet at the tips about a yard beyond its body. These suck a creature's fluids out. Its antennae are very short, curved and topped with a fluff of golden hair. There are also several long, golden strands that extend from its head over its domed back and fall almost to the floor behind it. Its bite has a paralytic venom. It hisses and can move fast but only for a brief time. Its greatest weapon is that it exudes an odor, somewhat oppressive, that induces sleep in people nearby. This is even effective on Priest-Kings. Its primary food is Priest-Kings. It lays its eggs, each about the size of a fist, in a host. The egg has leathery shell and the baby is the size of a child's turtle. The host will not die if the eggs are removed before they hatch.

Hook-billed gort

This is a carnivorous hunting bird of the rainforests. It preys largely on rodents like ground urts.

Grasshopper

In the rainforests, there is a red grasshopper that weighs about four ounces in weight.

Grub borer

This is an insectivorous bird of the rainforests near Schendi.

Grunt

There are a few different types of this fish. One type is a large, carnivorous salt-water fish that inhabits Thassa. It is often attracted to the scent of blood like a shark. The blue grunt is a small, voracious, carnivorous freshwater fish also attracted to blood. It is particularly dangerous during the daylight hours preceding its mating periods. During its mating period, they are harmless. They are also more of a threat when they school and not when a solitary individual is encountered. The white-bellied grunt is a large game fish which feeds on parsit fish.

Gulls

Vosk gulls and Schendi gulls are two types of this bird. Vosk gulls migrate north from the southern hemisphere in the spring time when the ice breaks in the Vosk River. Schendi gulls nest on land at night.

Herlit

This is the Gorean eagle. It is also called Sun-Striker or Out-of-the-Sun-it-Strikes, from its habit of striking with the sun above and behind it. It lives in the Barrens. It has a wingspan of six to eight feet and stands about four feet high. It is carnivorous. It has yellow feathers tipped with black. It has fifteen tail feathers which are the mostly highed prized of its feathers. They they are fourteen to fifteen inches long and used by the Red Savages to mark coups. The wing, or pinion, feathers are used for ceremonial and religious purposes. The breath feathers, light and delicate, from the base of the bird's tail, are used with the tail feathers in the fashioning of bonnets and complex headdresses. Feathers from the right side of the tail are used in the right side of the headdress and the left side used in the left side. To make a headdress requires several birds. Two to five Herlits may be traded for a kaiila.

Hermit bird

This is a yellow-breasted bird similar to a woodpecker. It hunts for larvae in tur trees.

Hinti

These are small, flea like insects though they are not parasites.

Hith

This is the huge, many banded python of Gor. The great banded, horned hith is the most feared constrictor but is only native to certain areas of the Great Forests. The golden hith is a rare snake. Its body would be difficult for a grown man to encircle with his arms.

Hurlit, Forest

A bird that migrates from the Plains of Turia late in the spring.

Hurt

This is a two-legged, domesticated marsupial that bounds like a kangaroo. It is raised on ranches in several northern cities, herded by sleen and sheared for their white wool. Hurts replace their wool four times a year. The finest wool is sheared in the spring from the bellies of hurts and verr.

Jard

This is a small, yellow-winged scavenger bird of the rainforests. There is a variety in the north that flies in large flocks and can strip a carcass quickly.

Kaiila

There are two varieties of kaiila, the southern kaiila and the desert or sand kaiila. The earlier books stated that kaiila did not exist in the northern hemisphere but this was later changed as the Red Savage in the Barrens have kaiila. The two varieties are very similar. The southern kaiila are used by the Wagon Peoples as mounts. It is a silken, lofty, and graceful animal. It is long necked, smooth gaited, and carnivorous. It is mammalian but doesn't suckle its young. The young are born vicious and can hunt as soon as they struggle to their feet. The mother's instinct is to deliver the young near game. Once a kaiila eats its fill, it won't eat for several days. They are extremely agile and can easily outmaneuver a high tharlarion. They require less food than a tarn. They normally stands about twenty to twenty-two hands at the shoulder. They can cover as much as six hundred pasangs a day. Its head bears two large eyes, one on each side, and the eyes are triply lidded so it can travel in adverse weather like storms. It is most dangerous at these times and often hunts then. Some are colored black. They also have long, triangular tongues, long ears and four rows of fangs. They are trained to avoid the thrown spear. Until it is proficient in this skill, it is not allowed to breed. The sand or desert kailla is used as a mount in the Tahari. They are almost all tawny colored though there are some black ones. This variety does suckle their young. Kailla milk is reddish and has a strong salty taste. This is an omnivorous creature and must feed more frequently than the southern kailla. Its paws are much broader, the digits being webbed with leathery fibers and heavily padded. Its hair is never sheared though it is gathered when it sheds. The most prized hair is found on its belly. Such hairs are commonly used to make cloth. The long outer hairs are coarser and used for ropes and tent cloth.

Kailiauk

This is a short-trunked, stocky, awkward ruminant of the plains. There are several varieties including the Yellow Kailiauk. The yellow variety are tawny and their haunches are marked in red and brown bars. The males have a trident of horns and usually stand about ten hands at the shoulder. Females only stand about eight. The males weigh about sixteen hundred to two thousand pounds and the females only weigh twelve hundred to sixteen hundred pounds. They are located in the savannahs and plains north and south of the rain forests. Some herds even frequent the forests.

The kailiauk of the Barrens is the larger type, standing twenty to twenty-five hands, and weighing up to four thousand pounds. Their numbers in the Barrens are enormous and most have never seen a man or sleen. They have nearly no natural enemies. They are migratory creatures and drift with the seasons, bending northward in the summer and southward in the winter. They generally follow a gigantic oval pattern that crosses the lands of many tribes so a tribe need not leave its own territory to hunt them. The known kailiauk in the Barrens travel in herds that have often been named. Some famous herds include the Boswell, Bento and Hogarthe herds. The four or five best known herds number between two and three million animals. The tremors from any of those herds can be felt fifty pasangs away. There are several smaller herds numbering in the hundreds of thousands, and there are even smaller herds of hundreds to thousands. They are rarely hunted on foot except in snow. They are commonly hunted by kaiilaback. They have four stomachs and eight-valved heart. A red savage can kill one with a single arrow by striking into the intestinal cavity behind the last rib causing large internal bleeding or by a shot behind the left shoulder blade into the heart.

Kites

A type of bird with a shrill call. One variety is the Meadow Kite that migrates from the Plains of Turia early in the spring.

Larl

There are several varieties of this tawny leopard-like beast that is indigenous to the Voltai and other ranges. It is six to eight foot tall at the shoulder. Its head is broad, sometimes more than two feet across, and shaped roughly like a triangle. This makes its head viper-like. Their heads are in constant motion. It has an unobtrusive bony ridge which runs from its four nasal slits to the start of its backbone. The ridge can be penetrated by a spear but an imperfect cast would glance off the bone. It has an eight-valved heart in the center of its breast. They sometimes visit the civilized plains. When it hunts alone, it is silent until it roars preceding its charge. When hunting with others, they emit hunting cries, cries to drive their prey toward a certain direction, into the path of quiet larls of the same pride. A larl prefers to ruin a hunt, even with a number of other quarry, if it means that one might escape. No one had ever tamed a larl. Even when raised from a cub, a larl will go wild at sometime and run away. They are hunted with spears. They usually only attack men when provoked or no other prey is available. Hunters of larls use the Gorean spear. They go in single file. When they see a larl, the first man in the line casts his spear and then drops to the ground, covering himself with his shield. If the larl is not dead, the next man in line will cast his spear. The last spear must stand his ground if the larl is not dead and face it with his sword alone so the others can escape. The First Spear is usually the best spearsman and Last the worst. Its pelt is normally a tawny red or sable black. The black larl is predominately nocturnal and both male and female are maned. The red larl, the more common type, hunts whenever hungry and has no mane. Females of both types are smaller but are quite as aggressive and sometimes even more dangerous particularly when they are hunting for their cubs during the late fall and winter. The white larls have upper canine fangs that are a foot in length and extend down like a saber tooth tiger. There tails are long and tufted at the end. There are also larls in the jungles near Schendi. The heart of the mountain larl allegedly brings great luck, even more luck than that of the sleen. There is even a larl hunter dance that is performed by men. They dance in a file, dancing the stalking of the beast including the confrontation and the kill.

Lart, snow

This is a four-legged mammal whose winter fur is snowy white. It has two stomachs and the food in its second stomach can be held almost indefinitely. It hunts in the sun, eating bird's eggs and leems. It is about ten inches high and weighs eight to twelve pounds. A good pelt could sell in Ar for maybe half a silver tarsk.

Leech

A salt leech is one type of known leech. A marsh leech is another. A marsh leech is about four inches long and half an inch thick. If a leech is stuck on you, burning it or placing salt on it will cause it to let go.

Leem

This is a small arctic rodent, five to ten ounces in weight. It hibernates in the winter and their summer coats are brown.

Lelt

This is a small, five to seven inches long, blindfish. It has fernlike filaments at either side of the head which are its sensory organs. It is white with long fins and swims slowly. It inhabits the brine pits and is the main food of the salt shark.

Lice

Lice vary in size from very tiny to the size of marbles. The larger variety infest tarns so tarnsman must remove them. When they remove them, they might feed them to the tarn. Lice can be dangerous though as they transmit the pox.

Lit

There are several varieties of this bird including the common lit, crested lit, and the needle-tailed lit. They are all found in the rainforests. The crested lit is brightly plumaged with red and yellow feathers.

Mamba

This is a large, predatory river tharlarion from the rainforests. It has a long, log-like body with short powerful legs. It has a long snout and tail. It is similar to a crocodile.

Mindar

This bird is similar to a hummingbird. It is a short winged, yellow and red bird of the rainforests. It uses its sharp bill to dig at the bark of flower trees for larvae and insects. Its wings have adapted for short, rapid flights.

Monkeys

Several varieties of monkeys lives in the rainforest such as the Guernon monkeys , tarsiers and the nocturnal jit monkeys.

Ost

This is a venomous, brilliantly orange snake that is little more than a foot long. Its bite causes an excruciating death within seconds. A powder prepared from its venom can be put into wine. The osts of the rainforests are red with black stripes. The banded ost is yellowish orange and marked with black rings. .

Panther

There are several varieties of these cats. They include jungle panthers, yellow panthers, and forest panthers. The forest panther is a proud beast that does not care to be distracted when it is hunting. They hunt largely at night but are not invariably nocturnal. They will hunt when hungry or irritable. Panthers will usually only attack men if they are provoked or if no other prey is available. Panthers are able to climb but they normally take a hunting scent from the ground.

Parrot

Parsit fish

There are several types of this slender, silvery fish with brown stripes. They are migratory fish and the principal prey of sea sleen.

Pike

This is a carnivorous fish about fifteen inches long.

Porcupine

A long-tailed variety lives in the rainforests.

Quala

This is a small, three-toed mammal. It is dun colored with a stiff brushy mane of black hair. It travels in a scampering flock. The plural form for them is qualae.

Rennels

These are crablike desert insects with a poisonous bite though it is not too lethal. They leave little red bites.

Roach

This is commonly an oblong, flat-bodied black creature about half a hort long. It has long feelers and is basically harmless.

Salamanders

In the salt mines, salamanders are tiny, white and blind. They are long bodied with long, stemlike legs. They have fernlike filaments at the sides of their heads that are feather gills, an external gill system. They have a slow metabolism and are capable of long periods of dormancy.

Scorpions

Sharks

There are several varieties of sharks on Gor, saltwater and freshwater. The common shark is nine-gilled and its skin is very rough and abrasive. Varieties include river sharks, salt shark, marsh shark, white sharks of the north and the Vosk and Laurius sharks. The salt shark is commonly over twelve feet long, with a sickle-like tail. It has several rows of triangular teeth and a sail-like dorsal fin. It inhabits brine pits such as those of the Tahari region.

Slee

This is a rodent of the rainforests.

Sleen

There are several varieties of this six-legged, long bodied carnivorous mammal. It is almost like a snake. Some can get as big as twenty feet long and up to twelve to fourteen hundred pounds. They have two rows of teeth in a wide and triangular head. Their paws have six claws. They smell like a weasel or ferret but only stronger. Sleens are very dirty animals. It is an efficient, tireless, almost infallible hunter. It is capable of pursuing a scent, days old, for hundreds of pasangs. Sleens in the wild are burrowing and nocturnal. They do not climb. Their preferred prey is the tabuk. They mate once a year in the spring. Their mating ritual is interesting. If a female has never mated before, she will flee and fight a male sleen. The male must finally take her by the throat and, belly to belly, mate with her. After mating once, a female never needs to be forced again. The mating season is usually confined to the spring. Their gestation period is six months and there are usually four young born. The young are commonly white furred and darken by the next spring. Young sleen are about eight feet long and adults are nineteen to twenty feet long. A young sleen's attack is noisy, a whistling rush, a clumsy squealing charge. An adult sleen sometimes makes kills swiftly and silently. There is also a hunting frenzy underwent by some sleen that is a function in part of the secretions of certain glands. Most domestic sleen are bred as it is hard to tame a wild one and a wild sleen could revert. If young sleen are taken from their mother within the first two months of their life, there is a good chance they can be tamed. It may still revert though, especially in the spring, during the mating period. The specific verbal signals between a master and his trained sleen are private. Verbality is important as a sleen on the hunt may not look at his master. Sleen are used for herding verr and bosk, tracking tabuk and slaves, guarding and patrolling, and many other activities. In Thentis, sleen sniff out the smuggling of black wine beans. Assassins even sometimes use them. The Gray sleen is the best tracker. The forest sleen is large, and commonly either brown or black. Prairie sleen are smaller than forest sleen, usually only seven feet in length. They are domesticated as herd sleen and used as shepherds and sentries by the Wagon People. Aquatic sleen, or sea sleens, are common in the north. There are four varieties of sea sleen in the north including the black sleen, brown sleen, tusked sleen, and flat-nosed sleen. Many migrate though some remain largely dormant in the winter. Their principal prey are parsits and they follow their migrations. A medium-sized adult sea sleen is about eight feet long and weighs 300 to 400 pounds. There is a white snow sleen in the north as well. Sleen hunters, for luck when they kill one, eat its heart. The heart of the mountain larl brings the most luck. There are no sleen in the rainforests. The sleen is considered Gor's most perfect hunter.

Slime Worm

This is a long, whitish, wormlike animal that resides in the Sardar. It is eyeless and has a small, red mouth on the underside of its body. It inches its way along, hugging the angle between the wall and floor. It once functioned as a sewerage device but it has not done so for thousands of years. It now scavenges on the kills of the Golden Beetle.

Sloth

Snails

Snakes

Besides the ost and hith mentioned before, other snakes also exist on Gor. Some other snakes include the adder and marsh moccasin.

Vosk sorp

This is giant-shelled mollusk that creates pearls like an oyster. Its blood is used for dye. Its shell could even be used as a chair.

Spiders

One unique type of spider on Gor is the rock spider. They are usually brown or black and when they fold their legs beneath them, they look almost like a rock. Rock spiders can be huge, almost eight feet thick. They live in the rainforests. Cell spiders are tiny creatures.

Squirrels

Tabuk

There are several varieties of this one horned, yellow antelope. The common type frequents Ka-la-na thickets. It is small, graceful and eats berries and salt. Young tabuk rarely leave the thickets. Their hide is a mottled yellow and brown. Northern tabuk are massive, tawny, and swift. Many stand ten hands at the shoulder. Northern tabuk hairs are hollow and give its fur an excellent insulative quality. Both types have a single horn of ivory, a deadly weapon. It is a yard or so long and two and a half inches at the base. The herd of Tancred is a gigantic herd of northern tabuk, one of several. This herd winters in the rims of the northern forests, south and east of Torvaldsland. In the springtime, short-haired and hungry, they migrate northward, following the shore of Thassa until they reach the tundra of the polar basin for their summer grazing. When winter comes, long-haired and fat, they return south. The prairie tabuk reside in the Barrens. They are tawny, single-horned, and travel in herds. Some varieties lie down when sensing danger. They can attain short-term speeds of eighty to ninety pasangs an Ahn. Their evasive leaps can cover thirty to forty feet in length and heights of ten to fifteen feet. There are twenty varieties of tabuk in the rainforests.

Tanager

This is a brightly plumaged bird in the rainforests near Schendi.

Tarns

These are the giant riding birds of Gor, also called the Brothers of the Wind. They resemble a hawk but with a crest like a jay. They are surprisingly light for their size due to the hollowness of their bones. A tarn is an extremely powerful bird. It can fly from the ground with a spring and sudden wing flurry. Its tongue is thin, sharp and as long as a man's arm. It has a curved beak, slit with narrow nostrils. They are not migratory birds and cannot live in the cold northern regions. Tarns are diurnal and carnivorous. They eat only what they catch themselves, usually antelopes and wild bull. If enough food is available, they will eat half their weight. But by Renegades of Gor, tarns are being trained to eat prepared meat. They are seldom more than half-tamed and it is not unknown for a tarn to attack its own rider. Their plumage varies and they are bred for color. The most common color is greenish-brown. Black tarns used for night raids, white for winter raids, and multi-colored for proud warriors who care not for camouflage. It is extremely difficult to fly a tarn from the sight of land. The jungle tarn is a rare bird, gloriously plumaged, from the tropical reaches of the Cartius. Tarns often are trained for specific functions. Draft tarn are used for transporting cargo while Saddle tarns are used for transport of people. War tarns are used by Tarnsmen in battle. Racing Tarns are made for entertainment like Earth horse racing. Racing tarns are different in size, strength, build, and tendencies from most other tarns. They are extremely light so that two men could lift one. Its wings are broader and shorter permitting a swifter take off and a capacity for extremely abrupt turns and shifts in flight. They lack the stamina of most other tarns and cannot carry heavy weight.

Tarsk

This is a six-tusked wild boar, with a bristly mane running down its spine. There is a giant tarsk that stands ten hands at the shoulder. There are several varieties of tarks in the rainforests, both large and small. They can be domesticated and the rencers keep some. They are best hunted from the back of kaiila with lances and the giant tarsk is often hunted on tarnback with lances. Tarsk meat tends to be salty.

Termites

They are also called white ants.

Tharlarion

There are numerous varieties of this reptile. One type is a species of saddle lizard, common on Gor especially in swamplands and deserts. They are used mostly by those who have not mastered tarns. Tharlarions have been bred for a thousand generations before the first tarn was tamed. Wild tharlarion have round, shining eyes, webbed feet, teeth ridges and a long brown tongue that curls around their prey. They are carnivorous creatures. High tharlarion are short-tempered creatures, that run on its two back feet. Its forelegs are tiny and near useless. They respond to voice signals though sometimes the butt of a lance is needed to move them, hitting them about the eye or ear openings. Those are the few sensitive areas on its body as they are almost impervious to pain, having a sluggish nervous system. Most of the larger varieties have a brain and a smaller brainlike organ, located near the base of the spine. They need far less water than tarns and their metabolism is slower than a tarn. When they move slowly, their stride is a proud, stalking movement. When going fast, they bound in leaps that can carry them twenty paces at a time. Its saddle is built to absorb shock, unlike the tarn saddle. Mounted warriors though still wear a leather belt around their waists. They also wear high, soft boots to protect against the abrasive hide of the creature. Draft tharlarion are four footed, slow moving animals. They are herbivorous and also known as Broad tharlarions. There are at least four species of draft tharlarion. Sea tharlarion, immune to the poison of Cosian wingfish, grow up to thirty feet and more in length and have a yellowish slatted belly. Rock tharlarion are the small lizards of the Tahari. There are tiny water tharlarion, about six inches long, that are little more than teeth and tail like piranha. Some live in the swamps. There are also marsh tharlarion and river tharlarion. River tharlarion are long necked, web-footed, and scaled. Some of them are herbivorous and can be domesticated. They may be used to tow barges on the Cartius River. Tharlarion are also used as cavalry and there are even racing tharlarions. Racing tharlarion are usually larger and more agile than saddle tharlarion but smaller than draft or war ones. The city of Venna is famed for its tharlarion races. Some select breeds of racing tharlarion include the Venetzia, Torarii and Thalonian.

Tibit

This is a small, thin-legged bird that lives on tiny mollusks on the shores of Thassa.

Toos

This is a crablike creature, covered with overlapping plating, that resides in the Sardar. It lives on discarded fungus spores.

Tumit

This is a large flightless bird of the prairies with a hooked beak as long as a forearm. Wagon Peoples hunt these with bolas.

Turtles

There is a variety of Vosk turtle, a hook-beaked creature, that can grow to be gigantic. It is a persistent carnivore that is almost impossible to kill. The marsh turtle is another variety of turtle on Gor.

Ul

This is a silent, giant pterodactyl-like creature that is native to the swamps of the Vosk delta. It is a predatory winged tharlarion. It has a wing span of twenty-five to thirty Gorean feet. It has a small head with long, narrow toothed jaws with a narrow extension of bone and skin in the back. Its long snake-like tail ends in a spadelike structure. It has a clawed hand with a very long fourth digit. There are several smaller varieties, some as small as a jard. The larger ones are isolated and territorial. They will not attack a tarn as a tarn could easily tear them to pieces.

Umbrella bird

This bird lives in the rainforest.

Unnamed creatures

There are a few creatures that exist in the Sardar that were described but never named.

• There is a segmented arthropod, about eight feet long and three feet high, with multiple legs. It has eye stalks, pincers, and its body plates rustle like plastic armor. It is a timid creature that does not like the sight of men.

• There is a flat, sluglike creature with multiple legs.

• There is a small humanoid creature with a receeding forehead and an excessively hairy face and body.

Urt

There are several varieties of this common rodent. It is usually fat, sleek and white. It has three rows of needlelike teeth, tusks that curve from its jaw, and two horns that protrude over its eyes. It also has a long hairless tail. Most are tiny enough to hold in palm of your hand but some can get as big as wolves or ponies. Certain varieties migrate twice a year though it is only dangerous if you are in the middle of their path. In the rainforests there are gliding, ground, leaf and tree urts. The canal urt is web footed and can be found in Port Kar's canals. There are also brush urts and forest urts. Some large urts are domesticated and bred for attacking and killing. Most urts attack in a pack and are messy and noisy when attacking.

Vart

These are blind, batlike flying rodents. They can grow to the size of a small dog. They can strip a carcass in minutes. Some are rabid and they hang upside down like bats. There are jungle varts in the rainforests. Varts on Tyros are trained as weapons.

Veminium bird

This is a songbird that may live among veminium flowers.

Verr

This is a mountain goat, indigenous to the Voltai Mountains. They are long-haired, spiral horned, and ill-tempered. There is a small, long-haired verr that is smaller and less belligerent than the wild verr. Some are domesticated and they are a source of wool and milk. The finest wool is sheared in the spring from the bellies of the hurt and verr.

Vints

These are tiny, sand-colored insects.

Vulos

These are domesticated, tawny-colored pigeons raised for eggs and meat. At least some of their meat is white.

Wader

There are at least two varieties of this waterbird in the rainforests. This includes the ring-necked wader and the yellow-legged wader.

Whales

There are several varieties of whales on Gor including the Karl whale, baleen whale, and the Hunjer Long Whale, a rare toothed black whale which eats cuttlefish.

Wingfish, Cosian

This is a tiny, delicate fish, about the size of a tarn disk when curled in one's hand. It is blue in color and has three or four slender spines in its dorsal fin that are poisonous. It can hurl itself from the water and glide through the air for brief distances on its stiff pectoral fins. It does this to evade sea-tharlarions who are immune to their poison. It is sometimes called the songfish because of the whistling sound they make in courting rituals. The fish thrust their heads out of the water to whistle. The blue, four-spined variety is only found in Cosian waters. Larger varieties are found farther out to sea. It is a great delicacy, especially its liver.

Woodpecker

There is an ivory-billed variety

Worms, silk

Yellow pool monster

This was a bizarre creature so far unique to the city of Turia. Its origins are unknown. It makes its appearance in Nomads of Gor. The merchant, Saphrar, has this creature in an indoor pool area. This pool area is a spacious chamber decorated with numerous exotic floral designs representing the vegetation of a tropical river. The room is hot and steamy. This may mean that this creature comes form the jungles near Schendi. The creature occupied an entire inground pool area. At first glance, it looks like a pool of yellow water that sparkles as though filled with gems. But, it is much more.

It apparently breathes by releasing gases or steam. It also contains filamentous strands and spheres of color. The creature can thicken and gel around someone within it. A victim's flesh will tingle and burn due to the corrosive elements within the creature. Saphrar would place men into the pool and the victims would find themselves unable to escape the creature and they would slowly be killed. It might take hours for a victim to be fully digested by this beast. A few men have lived as long as three hours. Slashing or cutting it generally does no harm to it. But, it has a collection of threads and granules in a transparent bag, imbedded in a darkish yellow jelly. This is walled off by a translucent membrane. This area is vulnerable to attack and it reacts violently when this area is threatened. It may then solidify and push out someone irritating until you are standing on its now hard outer shell. Tarl Cabot was fed to this creature but learned how to irritate it. Once he found he could not escape its clutches, he swam within it towards its center. He attacked the darkish bag and it reacted by expelling him. The creature would then later be killed by being burnt to death once the Tuchuks had taken the city.

Zad

This is a large, broad winged, black and white bird with a long, narrow, yellowish, hooked beak. There is a variety found in the Tahari, scavengers like vultures. There is a jungle zad in the rainforests, but it is less aggressive than the desert ones. They both like to tear out the eyes of weakened victims.

Zadit

This is a small, tawny-feathered, sharp billed bird of the Tahari. It is insectivorous, feeding on sand flies and other insects. It often lands on kaiila and eats the insects on this animal. They leave small wounds on the kaiila which the drovers treat with poultices of kaiila dung.

101. Zarlit fly: This is a large, harmless, purple insect about two feet long with four translucent wings spanning a yard across. It is insectivorous. It hums over water and alights on the water with its padlike feet daintily walking across the surface.

102. Zeder: This is a small, sleen-like carnivore from the rainforests. It frequents the Ua River and its tributaries. It grows to two feet and weighs eight to ten pounds. It is diurnal, can swim well, and builds a stick and mud nest in tree branches where it sleeps at night.

About

Since the saga of the Books of GOR have started back in 1966 many texts have already been written and many persons have spent countless hours studying and sharing information to help others understand better what is GOR. One of these persons is known as “Ubar Luther” who wrote a series of papers (most seem to be over 15 to 20 years old, but still very up-to-date in many topics) called the “Luther’s Gorean Educational Scrolls” that were available on Gor-Now.net, but that site has been hacked. So to preserve them, I have moved them to this wiki.