Gorean Governance inc. Chart

 

 

 

 

This really applies mostly to the so called High Cities, or the civilized parts of Gor.

 

Priest Kings are the large golden insects like giant ants or praying mantis extra-terrestrial in orgin that rule Gor, having moved the planet from some other location and live in the Sadar Mountains. If you go to the Sadar Mountains without the Priest Kings permission your body parts rain down over the plains below for you get thrown off the mountains to your death. Carasses are found at the foot of the mountains in the desert. Animals refuse to go there and if you force a tarn to go he get disorientated and falls form the sky. The Priest Kings control Gor and make the laws. The main thing is they limit technology specifically weapons to a subset of rather primitive ones. They regard humans as primitive and violent. Weapons are things like swords, crossbows, and that sort of thing. The Priest Kings are rather neglectful, sort of benevolent dictators and are at war with the Kurii.

 

The Kurii are responsible for introducing advanced weapons. Sometimes Kurii provide transport and bring in weapons, sometimes their own and sometimes those of earth. If the Priest Kings notice they will destroy the person and weapon with the blue flame of death. Kurii look like abominable snowmen and eat slave girls or keep them as pets. There is always spies and tension between the Priest Kings and the Kur. Humans spy for both sides.

 

The Initiates are the Priesthood of Gor. Some of the Initiates are directly hooked to the Priest Kings via implants in their heads and spy for the Priest Kings, though you do not have to be an Initiate to have an impant. Thought the Priest Kings are amused and puzzled by the Initiates and people worshipping them as gods. Everyone in Gor is to go to the fairs at the foot of the Sadar Mountains once in their lives. These fairs are to be conducted by the Initiates but really are run by the merchants. At these fairs standardizing of weights and measures are set and the laws for that year are made called the Merchant Law. Merchant Law is the same from city to city but the laws in each city vary from city to city. So really the merchants have the real power of Gor, but they keep this to themselves. Merchants are of the low caste.

 

The low castes receive a limited form of education know as first knowledge. It includes only enough detail as is needed to function and some deliberately incorrect teaching designed to help keep them content with their lot. So they are taught Gor is a flat disk and if they travel to far, they might fall off the edge. They have superstitions about the power someone can get by knowing their "real" name and so often are addresses simply as by their profession or by nicknames. They are particularlysusceptible to the Priest Kings and at times where afraid to speak about them just incase something was said that would get you flamed. Note that the merchants interact so often with the high caste scribes so often that they do not seem to have the same restriction as the others of low castes. Some might say that the scribes and merchants control Gor together.

 

There are five High Castes. The Initiates spoke of already. Scribes are next and our color is blue. We are responsible for most things that involve the running of government. Scribes are the teachers, accountants, administrators, librarians. Most of the lower caste are illiterate and some of the high castes, though scribes are all able to read and write. Others in the high caste build (builder - yellow), heal (healers - green), or fight (warriors - scarlet) of the high caste. All high caste have Second Knowledge which includes an understanding of astronomy, knowledge of Earth, of history, geography, in short a basic good education. Most Gorean live in cities, towns, or villages. This is because Gor is a dangerous place and people need to band together to stay safe. Each cities is run by their own set of laws which are run by an Administrator except in times of war.

 

The Administrator is a single person who has basic charge of everything but who answers to the High Council who wears brown, the color of peasants so brown keeps the Administrator humble. Also all the crap hits the Administrators and stops with them.

 

The High Council consists of representatives of each High Caste. In many cities we have elected on representative of each High Caste as the "High" representative of each. Also some cities have a caste leader know as the "Chief" of which there is no such distinction in the writings of Gor where the "High" and "Chief" appear to be used interchangably. The fact that the decriptions of the High Council includes many people, benches full of each caste. Some cities may elect their representatives for each caste where others may appoint theirs. It is also said that cities are run by a few powerful families. Often these high caste representatives of the High Council are voted for only by male caste members, which seems to be a Gorean standard. Though this varies from city to city. There also is often tension between the High Castes members; Scribes and Physicians versus Warriors, Warriors and Scribes versus Builders, Builders and Physicians versus Scribes, and everyone against the Initiates thought tolerate them since the Priest Kings do. Some cities have a "High Merchant" who speaks for the lower castes as part of the High Council but he does not have a vote with in the Council. So if a slaver, or any other of the lower caste of the city wishes a voice, would speak to the High Merchant and the merchant would bring up the concerns to the High Council.

 

Then there are the Ubars of which there seems to be two types. There are the "nice" Ubars who are given absolute power in times of war, appointed by the High Council and chosen from among the warriors by the warriors. They give the power back after the crisis is over. Such a Ubar still answers to the High Council. Then there is the Ubars who declare themselves in charge and because the warriors back them they seize power and as such "bad" Ubars. These Ubars are rare in the writings of Gor and are not tolerated.

 

Depending on who is in power, either the Ubar of High Council makes the laws for the city and enforce them. Law is enforced by warriors but warriors are directed by and controlled by the Magistrates and Prefects. There are two types of Magistrates. They are the merchant magistrates whose job it is to enforce and to support merchant law. Then there are the city magistrates who are responsible for enforcing the city law. Magistrates are technically scribes. They are one of the subcastes of scribes. I would say Magistrates are more a combination of Lawyer and Judge, but people can appeal their ruling and so you get Praetors who are judges as well. Because magistrates are appointed in a particular city you may find someone who is a magistrate who is not a scribe. This goes for Ambassadors as well. There is one instance in the writing of Gor where an Ambassador was a warrior, which make sense because some warriors are highly literate and extremely well read. So in general Ambassadors and Magistrates are scribes but that is a matter of convenience and not an absolute rule. Others mentioned would include Archons who seem to be record keepers who judge from the records in the past. Ubara, who is like a queen with great power or who is one of the companions of an Ubar. There is no known case in the writings of Gor where an Ubara who was without an Ubar had power except for Talena who was called "Regent" or the "Tatrix" which is specific for the female leader of the city of Tharna.

 

"Gnieus Lelius, it seems, had been deposed, and Seremides, in a military coup he himself characterized as regrettable, had seized temporary power, a power to be wielded until the High Council, now the highest civilian authority in Ar, could elect a new leader, be it Administrator, Regent, Ubar or Ubara."

Magicians of Gor pg 83

 

"There are two systems of courts on Gor - those of the City, under the jurisdiction of an Administrator or Ubar, and those of the Initiates, under the jurisdiction of the High Initiate of the given city; the division corresponds roughly to that between civil and what, for lack of a better word, might be called ecclesiastical courts. The areas of jurisdiction of these two types of courts are not well defined; the Initiates claim ultimate jurisdiction in all matters, in virtue of their supposed relation to the Priest-Kings, but this claim is challenged by civil jurists. There would, of course, in these days be no challenging the justice of the Initiates. I noted with repulsion that on the roof of the Cylinder of Justice there shimmered a public impaling spear of polished silver, some fifty feet high, gleaming, looking like a needle in the distance."

Tarnsman of Gor pgs 193-194

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Labels: Administrator, Builders, Governance, High Council, Initiates, Kurii, Magistrate, Merchant Law, Physicians, Priest Kings, Scribes, Ubar, Warrior