Gorean Cheat Sheet

What to expect

We have never ran a Gorean community on Conan Exiles, and while we have experience in other Gorean communities such as IMVU, AOL, IRC and Second Life, there is no way we can predict what unique flavor will develop here. I can at best offer some reasonable guesses.

Strict Recreation

This type of clan will be most interested in recreating the Gorean Experience and will likely choose to ignore as much of the continental differences that comes with playing on Conan Exiles. This type of clan is likely to refer to a particular drink as paga or refer to various people on the map by their Gorean names such as calling all Aesir, Vanir and Nordheimers as Torvaldslanders.

Adapted By the Book

This type of clan will seek to provide as close to a by the book setting as possible but will adapt to the environment of the game. This may include adopting the words for plants, animals, food and so on. It may further include changes to castes or roles to accommodate the variation in the setting.

Conan+Goreans

This type of clan is most likely to try and keep the Gorean Ideals but completely integrate the fiction of the continent into their role-play, dropping most if not all Gorean words or even adopting the religions in Conan.

Not Really Gor

We also have to expect that we will get players who are drawn to the server because there are people actively role-playing. These people may end up playing something that is based entirely on Conan and doesn't resemble Gor at all. (We may or may not disallow these groups.)

Where to find more information

Read the Books

You will hear this over and over and over so you might as well get us to it. Go read the books.

Gorean Cave

The Gorean Cave is generally considered a safe website for Gorean knowledge because it offers book quotes with out interpretation Gorean Cave

What you need to know first

• Hello and Hi are not used. Tal is appropriate for all characters. Greetings is also acceptable, and in Torvaldsland you will see people say Ho!, usually accompanied by the raising of a hand. Hail is also used in Torvaldsland.

Counter Earth

Gor is a planet that circles the sun in our solar system directly opposite to Earth. Gor has a different gravity, three moons, and plants and animals unfound on Earth. It is not a clone of Earth.

Gorean Animals

On the server the plants and animals we experience are similar to Earth animals and it is acceptable to call them by their in game name in role-play. But understand as characters who were born on Gor the names would be unfamiliar to us. SO, even if you don't know the names of the Gorean animals you can refer to the wild life with a certain hesitancy. Such as "Is that a .. go-at?" *frowns learning the new word*.

However, you may hear other's refer to plants/animals by their Gorean name. Just go ahead and look it up on google. For those of you who like to be prepared you are most likely to hear the following terms; verr (sheep/goat), bosk (Cow/Bison), fevret (weasel/ferret), sa-tarna (grain like wheat), sul (potato), Kur or Kurii (sentient alien that looks sorta like a werewolf), tarsk (boar), tarn (giant ridable hawk), tabuk (antelope with a single horn), larl (giant cat), kaiila (weird carnivorous horse thing).

• https://www.angelfire.com/ky3/bakah/animalsplants.html

Overall Behavior

While some of the more barbaric cultures in Gor are rough spoken, in general a certain level of archaic speech and formality works best for those who are new to Gor; this includes men, woman and slaves.

• Slaves should call all men either master or Jarl in Torvaldsland.
• Free women commonly use lady for other free women and sir for free men.
• Free men do not have a regular honorific for other men unless that man is of rank, but may call free women lady or woman, and slaves are typically called beast or girl.

Some exceptions

• The leader of a Torvaldsland village or clan is called Jarl or even my Jarl by everyone.
• The war leader of a southern city is the Ubar. (We may have clans that do not have an Ubar, but I doubt it at the moment. Will update if necessary.)

Caste

The bulk of Gorean society is divided by caste with the highest of castes being the initiates (priests), warriors, physicians, scribes, builders. Everyone else is low caste and comprises dozens of different professional and craftsman castes.

Non Caste

The "barbarian" people of Gor which include Torvaldsland typically do not have castes. Instead, they are grouped into free men, free women, slaves and sometimes a priest class (Rune Priest in Torvaldsland).

Note

"Barbarian people" is not a gorean term its just one used to describe the people of Gor who are less structured then central Gor. Do not confuse it the word barbarian which is used in the books to refer to someone from earth.

Slaves

There are dozens of different types of slaves, not all are pleasure slaves. However the most common terms you will hear are:

• Kajira - Word for female slave everywhere but in Torvaldsland.
• Kajirus- Word for male slave everywhere but in Torvaldsland.
• Bondmaid - Female slave in Torvaldsland
• Thrall - Male slave in Torvaldsland.

Please note that there are no silk colors for bondmaids; white, yellow and red silk is not a thing in Torvaldsland.

Armor and Weapons

On Gor, almost all armor is prohibited by the Priest Kings, as is mass communication and a few other laws. The armor worn by the natives of this continent are *obviously* not restricted to the same degree as chain mail, scale mail and even some platemail IS mechanically available. It will be a fictional learning curve for recent arrivals.

Most of the weapons are the same, however the best weapons on the mainland are steel, none of the "better metals" available on this continent would be known.

Medicine

Medicine on Gor is surprisingly advanced for the setting, especially in the bigger cities. None of that medicine is available on this continent. However there does seem to be some rather advanced herbalism and alchemistry; it is probably very unfamiliar to most main land physicians, but should be easy enough to learn. (Torvaldsland and other barbarian tribe "healers" would pick it up just as fast.)

Points of Note

A solution will have to be figured out for the Stabilization Serums, Slave Wine and Noble Wine. Check back later.

Relationships between the people

In Gor, shit rolls down hill. And while many role-players do not enjoy being mean to other characters, it IS by the book.

• Free men generally ignore free women until they do something wrong. Marriages are for convenience and rarely for love. Free men generally prefer the company of other men or their slaves.

• Free women are jealous of slaves and will generally ignore them at best or torment them at worse. The prettier and better dressed the slave is, the more likely they will earn the ire of a free woman.

• Female Slaves are also jealous and competitive with each other and are known to get into fights with other slaves. And they typically are down right brutal to male slaves.

• Male Slaves are at the very bottom of the social dung pile.

Note

It is considered ungorean for a free man to interfere when a Free Women torments a slave, or when other slaves torment them. However, a free woman should be very careful just how far she goes lest a free man think she expressing her desired to be enslaved by her jealous actions.

A free man who sticks his nose into the business of women may find himself teased for being unmanly and too worried about the concerns of women.

Visual Aesthetic

NOT ALL OF THE (available) CLOTHING IS APPROPRIATE - even if appropriate.

• High heels, corsets and shorts are not a thing. (Evil Cabinet Harlot)
• Sexy free woman clothing is not a thing. Nor are pants.
• Anything that would look better on a drow ... is NOT a thing. (Some of the Evil Cabinet Noctorian.)
• Platemail Armor is really pushing the Gorean aesthetic. (Medurian, Blackgrail & Darkguard)

Keep it simple and low key

Tunics (roman and medieval), leather armors, furs, skins, medieval silk dresses, trousers and pirate shirts, are fine.

Magic and Religion

For some the fact that these two topics are intertwined maybe confusing, yet this article is probably the best overview of both topics, so I have combined them to keep our lessons here brief. In general, slaves and woman are accorded very little access to or role within religion.

http://www.moonproductions.com/Fantasy/Gor/religiousbeliefs.html

There are four "religions" on Gor:

• Sun Worshipers - Very rare and very little information available.
• Odin and Thor - the gods of Torvaldsland. There are other "gods" in the creation myth but we are never given their names.
• Sky Worship - Unique among the Wagon People

And of course:

• The Priest Kings - Worshiped by everyone else.

Magic

Magic becomes a wholly new issue in Conan Exiles were magic is part of the world and mechanics. It is generally safe to assume that the average Gorean is superstitious and believes in magic. In a world where magic is not just a theory, and not just parlor tricks, the Gorean response to magic is likely to be significant among all but the central high castes.

High Caste Goreans (see above) are far less likely to believe in magic or religion.

First and Second Knowledge

https://greathof.wixsite.com/hofsl/1st-2nd-3rd-knowledges

Low Caste Goreans and those of Barbarian cultures are more likely to know only First Knowledge, while high caste Goreans are taught Second Knowledge. I am trying to avoid burying you all in quotes, but this one really does explain it completely.

I was also instructed in the Double Knowledge - that is, I was instructed in what the people, on the whole, believed, and then I was instructed in what the intellectuals were expected to know. Sometimes there was a surprising discrepancy between the two. For example, the population as a whole, the castes below the High Castes, were encouraged to believe that their world was a broad, flat disk. Perhaps this was to discourage them from exploration or to develop in them a habit of relying on commonsense prejudices something of a social control device.

On the other hand, the High Castes, specifically the Warriors, Builders, Scribes, Initiates, and Physicians, were told the truth in such matters, perhaps because it was thought they would eventually determine it for themselves, from observations such as the shadow of their planet on one or another of Gor's three small moons during eclipses, the phenomenon of sighting the tops of distant objects first, and the fact that certain stars could not be seen from certain geographical positions; if the planet had been flat, precisely the same set of stars would have been observable from every position on its surface.

I wondered, however, if the Second Knowledge, that of the intellectuals, might not be as carefully tailored to preclude inquiry on their level as the First Knowledge apparently was to preclude inquiry on the level of the Lower Castes. I would guess that there is a Third Knowledge, that reserved to the Priest-Kings.

Appearance Quirks

There are some random appearance quirks that those new to Gor might want to be aware of.

• Short hair isn't really a fashion style option. Having short hair is generally assumed to mean that you are a slave and were punnished by having your hair cut. We can assume this punnishment might also be applied to FW but I can't remember any specific examples.
• Earrings are a southern slave thing and FW do not have their ears peirced and (northern) bond-girls mock southern slaves as being pierced ear girls.
• Free women do not wear make up, choakers, earings or nail polish, but normal necklaces such as pendants and bracelets are acceptable.

Panther Girls/Taluna

aka Forest Girls

In the Gorean books Panther Girls are woman (both free and slave) who live in the forest away from the influence of men and are considered outlaws because of the strict caste system of central Gor.

In Second Life Gor the relationship between BtB Role-players and Panther Girls is complicated and probably not worth going into for those of you who have never actually experienced it.

Feel free to read up on them here: https://lunacaleengpanthers.wordpress.com/about-gor-and-panther-girls/

In our setting

I do not know how the relationship between traditional clans and Panther Girls will develop. I suspect it will vary from clan to clan.

However, given the way in which our setting is established, it is very plausible that women may have arrived on this land with no one to protect them. They would either die or survive. This could be going on for years or even perhaps they were born in this land and know little of the mainland. But these woman may not be comprised of only those who fled, but those forced into this life by circumstance. They may choose to join a clan again as a free woman or slave, or negotiate a trade relationship. For a small clan, a tribe of Panther Girls may be a valuable resource.

A warning to prospective Panther Girls

At first glance playing a panther girl might seem like an ideal option; you get to have weapons, you can wear your hair down, you don't have to be completely covered, and no man controls you.

Stop

If you are new to gor and think this is tailor made for your free thinking feminist ways where you can dress sexy and fight on equal footing with men, you need to read what I am about to tell you.

• Panther Girls are OUTCASTS. Not in a fun off doing their own thing, but as in outside of law and homestone. They have absolutely no rights under any legal system or code of honor.
• Gorean Male RPers are WEIRD about panthers. Some are addicted to them like hobby fisher men who want to catch, (fuck), and release. Some hate them and wish they were not in the books at all and will use any fictional excuse to avoid them or force them not to RP anywhere near them.
• This can extend to anyone who is willing to RP with Panthers. We had cases of other Gorean Males refusing to RP with Baene simply because he SPOKE to a panther girl and didn't immediately collar her. (They are of course wrong, but they will swear they are right.)
• A panther girl who wants to RP with others needs to consider the following options: Disguising themselves as free women, receiving the protection of a powerful man/clan/city, sticking to the outskirts of a settlement and being prepared to bolt, and most importantly ...

Do not RP as being a mouthy bitch. Nothing will enrage a Gorean Male faster, and they will seek to kill not collar. You do have more freedoms, but in some ways you have less. There are pros and cons to this role just as there are to being a Free Women and a Slave.