Norman, John - Gor 09 - Marauders of Gor.txt

by Marauders of Gor [lit]

  "Praise the Priest-Kings," she repeated endlessly to herself, nodding her head

  up and down Near her , bored, was a slender, blondish girl, looking about. He r

  hair was hung in a snood of scarlet yarn, bound with filaments of golden wire.

  She wore, over her shoulder, a cape of white fur of the northern sea sleen. She

  had a scarlet vest, embroidered in gold, worn over a long-sleeved blouse of

  white wool, from distant Ar. She wore, too, a log woollen skirt, dyed red, which

  was belted with black, with a buckle of gold, wrought in Cos. She wore shoes of

  black polished leather, which folded about her ankles, laced twice, once across

  the instep, once about the ankle. She saw me regarding her with interest, and

  looked away. Other wenches, too, were in the crowd. In the northern villages,

  and in the forest towns, and northward on the coast the woman do not veil

  themselves, as is common in the cities to the south. Kassau is the seat of the

  High Initiate of the north, who claims spiritual sovereignty over Torvaldsland,

  which is commonly taken to commence with the thinning of the trees northward.

  This claim, like many of those of the initiates, is disputed by few, and ignored

  by most. The men of Torvaldsland, on the whole, I knew, while tending to respect

  Priest-Kings, did not accord them special reverence. They held to old gods, and

  old ways. The religion of the Priest-Kings, institutionalised and ritualised by

  the castle of Initiates, had made little headway among the primitive men to the

  north. It had, however, taken hold in many towns, such as Kassau. Initiates

  often used their influence and their gold, and pressures on trade and goods, to

  spread their beliefs and rituals.. Sometimes a Chieftain, converted to their

  ways, would enforce his own commitments on his subordinates. Indeed, this was

  not unusual. Too, often, a chief's conversion would bring with it, even without

  force, those of his people who felt bound to him in loyalty. Sometimes, too, the

  religion of the Priest-Kings, under the control of the initiates, utulizing

  secular rulers, was propagated by fire and sword. Sometimes those who insisted

  on retaining the old ways, or were caught making the sign of the fist, the

  hammer, over their ale were subjected to death by torture. One that I had heard

  of had been boiled alive in one of the great sunken wood-lined tubs in which

  meat was boiled for retainers. The water is heated by placing rocks, taken from

  a fire, into the water. When the rock has been in the water, it is removed with

  a rake and then reheated. Another had been roasted alive on a spit over a long

  fire. It was said that he did not utter a sound. Another was slain when an adder

  forced into his mouth tore its way free through the side of his face. I looked

  at the cold, haughty, pale face of the High Initiate on his throne. He was

  flanked by minor initiates, in their white robes, with shaven heads. Initiates

  do not eat meat, or beans. They are trained in the mysteries of mathematics.

  They converse among themselves in archaic Gorean, which is no longer spoken

  among the people. Their services, too, are conducted in this language. Portions

  of the services, however, are translated into contempory Gorean. When I had

  first come to Gor I had been forced to learn certain long prayers to the

  Priest-Kings, but I had never fully mastered them, and had, by now, long

  forgotten them. Still I recognized them when heard. Even now, on a high

  platform, behind the white rail, an Initiate weas reading one aloud to the

  congregation. I was never much fond of such meetings, the services and the

  rituals of initiates, but I had some special interest in the service which was

  being helf today Ivar Forkbeard was dead. I knew this man of Torvaldsland only

  by reputation. He was a rover, a great captain, a pirate, a trader, a warrior.

  It had been he, and his men, who had freed Chenbar of Tyros, the Sea Sleen, from

  a dungeon in Port Kar, breaking through to him, shattering his chains with the

  blunt hammerlike backs of their great, curved, single-bladed axes. He was said

  to be fearless, and mighty, swift with sword and axe, fond of jokes, a deep

  drinker, a master of pretty wenches, and a madman. But he had taken in fee from

  Chenbar Chenbar's weight in the sapphires of Shendi. I did not think him too

  mad. But now the Forkbeard was dead. It was said that he wished, in regret for

  the wickedness of his life, to be carried in death to the temple of Priest-Kings

  in Kassau, that the High Initiate there might, if it be his mercy, draw on his

  bones in the sacred grease the sign of the Priest-Kings. It would thus indicate

  that he, Forkbeard, if not in life, had in death acknowledged the error of his

  way, and embraced the will and wisdom of the faith of the Priest-Kings. Such a

  conversion, even though it be in death, would be a great coup for the initiates.

  I could sense the triumph of the High Initiate on his throne, though his cold

  face betrayed little sign of his victory, Now initiates to one side of the

  sanctuary, opposite the throne of the High Initiate, began to chant the litanies

  of the Priest-Kings. Responses, in archaic Gorean, repetitive, simple were

  uttered by the crowd. Kassau is a town of wood, and the temple is the greatest

  building in the town, It towers far above the squalid huts, and stabler homes of

  merchants, which crowd about it. Too, the town is surrounded by a wall, with two

  gates, one large, facing the inlet, leading in from Thassa, the other small,

  leading to the forest behind the town. The wall is of sharpened logs, and is

  defended by a catwalk. The main business of Kassau is trade, lumber and fishing.

  The slender striped parsit fish has vast plankton banks north of the town, and

  may there, particularly in the spring and the fall, be taken in great numbers.

  The smell of the fish-drying sheds of Kassau carries far out to sea. The trade

  is largely in furs from the north, exchanged for weapons, iron bars, salt and

  luxury goods, such as jewellery and silk, from the south, usually brought to

  Kassau from Lydius by ten-oared coasting vessel. Lumber, of course, is a

  valuable commodity. It is generally milled and taken northward. Torvaldsland,

  though not treeless, is bleak. In it, fine Ka-la-na wood, for example, and

  supple temwood, cannot grow. These two woods are prized in the north. A hall

  built with Ka-la-na wood, for example, is thought a great luxury. Such halls,

  incidentally, are often adorned with rich carvings. The men of Torvaldsland are

  skilled with their hands. Trade to the south, of course is largely in furs

  acquired from Torvaldsland, and in barrels of smoked, dried parsit fish. From

  the south, of course, the people of Kassau obtain the goods they trade northward

  to Torvaldsland and , too, of course, civilised goods for themselves. The

  population of Kassau I did not think to be more than eleven hundred persons.

  There are villages about, however, which use Kassau as their market and meeting

  place. If we count these perhaps we might think of greater Kassau as having a

  population in the neighbourhood of some twenty-three hundred persons. The most

  important thing about Kassau, however, was that it was the seat of the High

  Initiate of the north. It was, accor
dingly, the spiritual centre of a district

  extending for hundreds of pasangs around. The nearest High Initiate to Kassau

  was hundreds of pasangs south in Lydius. The initiates are an almost universal,

  well-organized, industrious caste. They have many monasteries, holy places and

  temples. An initiate may often travel for hundreds of pasangs, and, each night,

  find himself in a house of initiates. They regard themselves as the highest

  caste, and in many cities, are so regarded generally. There is often a tension

  between them and the civil authorities, for each regards himself as supreme in

  matters of policy and law for their district. The initiates have their own laws,

  and courts, and certain of them are well versed in the laws of the initiates.

  Their education, generally, is of little obvious practical value, with its

  attention to authorised exegeses of dubious, difficult texts, purporting to be

  revelations of Priest-Kings, the details and observances of their own calendars,

  their interminable involved rituals and so on, but paradoxically, this sort of

  learning, impractical though it seems, has a subtle practical aspect. It tends

  to bind initiates together, making them interdependent, and muchly different

  from common men. It sets them apart, and makes them feel important and wise, and

  specially privileged. There are many texts, of course, which are secret to the

  caste, and not even available to scholars generally. In these it is rumoured

  there are marvelous spells and mighty magic, particularly if read backwards on

  certain feast days. Whereas initiates tend not to be taken with great

  seriousness by the high castes, or the more intelligent members iof the

  population, except in matters of political alliance, their teachings and

  purported ability to intercede with Priest-Kings, and further the welfare of

  their adherents, is taken with great seriousness by many of the lower castes.

  And many men, who suspect that the initiates, in their claims and pretensions,

  are frauds, will nonetheless avoid coming into conflict with the caste. This is

  particularly true of civil leaders who do not wish the power of the initiates to

  turn the lower castes against them. And, after all, who knows much of

  Priest-Kings, other than the obvious fact that they exist. The invisible barrier

  about the Sardar is evidence of that, and the policing, by flame death, of

  illegal weapons and inventions. The Gorean knows that there are Priest-Kings. He

  does not, of course, know their nature. That is where the role of the initiates

  becomes most powerful, The Gorean knows there are Priest-Kings, whoever or

  whatever they maybe. He is also confronted with a socially and economically

  powerful caste that pretends to be able to intermediate between Priest-Kings and

  common folk. What if some of the claims of Initiates should be correct? What if

  they do have influence with Priest-Kings? The common Gorean tends to play it

  safe and honour the Initiates. He will, however, commonly, have as little to do

  with them as possible. This does not mean that he will not contribute to their

  temples and fees for placating Priest-Kings. The attitude of Priest-Kings toward

  Initiates, as I recalled, having once been in the Sardar, is generally one of

  disinterest. They are regarded as being harmless. They are taken by many

  Priest-Kings as an evidence of the aberrations of the human kind. Incidentally,

  it is a teaching of the initiates that only initiates can obtain eternal life.

  The regimen for doing this has something to do with learning mathematics, and

  with avoiding the impurities of meat and beans. This particular teaching of the

  initiates, it is interesting to note, is that least taken seriously by the

  general population. The Gorean feeling generally is that there is no reason why

  initiates or only initiates, should live forever. Initiates, though often feared

  by lower castes, are also regarded as being a bit odd, and often figure in

  common, derisive jokes. No female, incidentally, may become an Initiate. It is a

  consequence, thusly, that no female can obtain eternal life. I have often

  thought that the Initiates, if somewhat more clever, could have a much greater

  power than they posses on Gor. For example, if they could fuse their

  superstitions and lore, and myths, with a genuine moral message of one sort or

  another, they might appeal more seriously to the general population: if they

  spoke more sense people would be less sensitive to, or disturbed by, the

  nonsense; further, they should teach that all Goreans might, by following their

  rituals, obtain eternal life; that would broaden the appeal of their message,

  and subtly utilise the fear of death to further their projects; lastly, they

  should make greater appeal to women than they do, for, in most Gorean cities,

  women, of one sort or another, care for and instruct the children in the crucial

  first years. That would be the time to imprint them, while innocent and

  trusting, at the mother's or nurse's knee, with superstitions which might, in

  simpler brains, subtly control then the length of their lives. So simple an

  adjustment as the promise of eternal life to women who behaved in accordance

  with their teachings, instructing the young and so on, might have much effect.

  But the initiates, like many Gorean castes, were tradition bound. Besides, they

  were quite powerful as it was. Most Goreans took with some seriousness their

  claim to be able to placate and influence Priest-Kings. That was more than they

  needed for considerable power. There had been much fear in Kassau when the ship

  of Ivar Forkbeard had entered the inlet. But it had come at midday. And on its

  mast, round and of painted wood, had hung the white shield. His men had rowed

  slowly, singing a dirge at the oars. Even the tarnhead at the ship's prow had

  been swung back on the great wooden hinges. Sometimes, in light raiding galleys,

  it is so attached, to remove its weight from the prow's height, to ensure

  greater stability in high seas; it is always, however, at the prow in harbour,

  or when the ship enters an inlet or river to make its strike; in calm seas, of

  course, there is little or no damage in permitting it to surmount the prow

  generally. That the tarnhead was hinged back, as the ship entered the inlet, was

  suitable indication, like the white shield, that it came in peace. The ship was

  a beautiful ship, sleek and well-lined. It was a twenty-bencher, but this

  nomenclature may be confusing. There were twenty beches to a side, with two men

  to each bench. It carried , thus, forty oars, with two men to each oar. Tersites

  of Port Kar, the controversial inventer and shipwright, had advocated more than

  one man to an oar but, generally, the southern galleys utilised one man per oar,

  three oars and three men on a diagonal bench, facing aft, the oars staggered,

  the diagonality of the bench permitting the multiplicity of levers. The oars

  were generally some nineteen feet in length, and narrower than the southern

  oars, that they might cut and sweep with great speed, more rapidly than the

  wider bladed oar; and with two men to each oar, and the lightness of the ship,

  this would produce great speed. As in the southern galleys the keel to beam

  ratio was designed, to
o, for swiftness, being generally in the neighbourhood of

  one to eight. Forkbeard's ship, or serpent, as they are sometimes called, was

  approximately eighty Gorean feet in length, with a beam of some ten feet Gorean.

  His ship, like most of the northern ships, did not have a rowing frame, and the

  rowers sat within the hull proper, facing, of course, aft. The thole ports, I

  noted, had covers on the inside, on swivels, which permitted them to be closed

  when the ship was under sail. The sail was quite different from the southern

  ships, being generally squarish, though somewhat wider at the bottom. The mast,

  like that of the southern ships, could be lowered. It fitted into two blocks of

  wood, and was wedged into the top block by means of a heavy diagonal plug,

  driven tight with hammers. The northern ship carries one sail, not the several

  sails, all lateens, of the southern ships, which must be removed and replaced.

  It is an all-purpose sail, hung straight from a spar of needle wood. It can be

  shortened or let out by reefing ropes. At its edges, corner spars can hold it

  spread from the ship. I doubted that such a ship could sail as close to the wind

  as a lateen-rigged ship, but the advantages of being able to shorten or let out

  sail in a matter of moments were not inconsiderable. The sail was striped, red

  and white. The ship like most of the northern ships, was clinker built, being

  constructed of overlapping planks, or strakes, the frame then fitted within

  them. Between the strakes, tarred ropes and tar served as calking. Outside the

  planks, too, was a coating of painted tar, to protect then from the sea, and the

  depredations of ship worms. The tar was painted red and black, in irregular

  lines. The ship, at night,, mast down with such colourings, moving inland on a

  river, among the shadows, would be extremely difficult to detect. It was a

  raider's ship. The clinker-built construction, as opposed to the carvel

  construction of the south, with flush planking, is somewhat more inclined to

  leak, but is much stronger in the high waters of the north. The clinker

  construction allows the ship to literally bend and twist, almost elastically, in

  a vicious sea; the hull planking can be bent more than a foot Gorean without

  buckling. The decking on the ship is loose, and may be lifted or put to one