Year Keepers
That clan of the Wagon People, whose role is to keep track of the years; the historians.

Year Names
The traditional naming of years by the Wagon People, generally named for an important event.

Yellow Gim
A variety of bird found in the Ushindi.

"In the second level, that of the canopies, is found an incredible variety of birds, warblers, finches, mindars, the crested lit and the common lit, the fruit tindel, the yellow gim, tanagers, some varieties of parrot, and many more." — Explorers of Gor, page 311.

Yellow-Kaiila Riders
A warrior society of the Kaiila; painted on the flanks of their kaiila a depiction of the kaiila in yellow print over red horizontal bars. Not to be confused with the Yellow Knives.

"The Kaiila were mostly members of the All Comrades, a warrior society, like the Sleen Soldiers, of the Isbu Kaiila. They were under the command of Canka, Cuwignaka's brother. One other was with the party, too, an older warrior, Kahintokapa, One-Who-Walks-Before, of the prestigious Yellow-Kaiila Riders. He was of the Casmu, or Sand, band." — Blood Brothers of Gor, page 14.

""Two societies are represented among the Kaiila here," said Grunt. "Most belong to the All Comrades, and one belongs to the Yellow-Kaiila Riders. That may be told by the stylized yellow kaiila print, outlined in red, on the flanks of his beast, over the red horizontal bars." I nodded. The red horizontal bar, or bars, as the case is, is commonly associated with the Kaiila, the Cutthroat tribe. — Savages of Gor, pages 314.

Yellow Knives [Tribe]
One of the "wild" tribes of the Barrens interior. A warrior society of this tribe is known as the Urt Soldiers.

"It is unusual, is it not, for Dust Legs to be on the rampage?" I asked. I had understood them to be one of the more peaceful of the tribes of the Barrens. Indeed, they often acted as intermediaries between the men of the settlements and the wilder tribes of the interior, such as the Yellow Knives, the Sleen and Kaiila. — Savages of Gor, page 85.

"Red savages," smiled Grunt. "Fleer," he then said. "Kaiila, Sleen. Yellow Knives, Kailiauk." … The sign for the Yellow Knives had been the sign for knife alone would suffice for this tribe. — Savages of Gor, page 246.

"The painted prints on the flanks of the kaiila of the Yellow Knives?" I asked.
      "The sign of the Urt Soldiers," said Grunt, "a society of the Yellow Knives." — Savages of Gor, pages 314.

Yellow Pleasure Silk (Slave)
A slave garment.

Yellow Pool [of Turia]
A pool in Turia in which held a sort of amoebic creature which was carnivorous; it was later destroyed by Kamchak, Ubar of the Tuchuks.

… said Saphrar… "no one ever leaves the Yellow Pool of Turia alive." — Nomads of Gor, page 195.

"He fell back from my blade, turned once and fell into the glistening, living liquid of the Yellow Pool of Turia." — Nomads of Gor, page 214.

"What is the nature of the beast in the pool?" I asked.
       "You will learn," Saphrar laughed. — Nomads of Gor, page 204.

The chilling description of the Yellow Pool and the creature within (all from Nomads of Gor pages 204-213) and the death of the Yellow Pool ( Nomads of Gor pages 321-323):

… the Yellow Pool of Turia… is indoors in a spacious chamber in the House of Saphrar with a domed ceiling of some eighty feet in height. The pool itself, around which there is a marble walkway some seven or eight feet in width, is roughly circular in shape and has a diameter of perhaps sixty or seventy feet. Around the edge of the pool there were eight large columns, fashioned and painted as though the trunks of trees, one standing at each of the eight cardinal points of the Gorean compass; from these, stretching often across the pool, were vines, so many that the ceiling could be seen only as a patchwork of blue through vinous entanglements… I was puzzled by the manner in which the heat and humidity were introduced to the room, for I saw no vents nor cauldrons of boiling water, or devices for releasing drops of water on heated plates or stones. I had been in the room for perhaps three or four minutes before I realized that the steam rose from the pool itself. I gathered that it was heated. It seemed calm. I wondered what I was expected to meet in the pool. I would have at least the quiva. I noted that the surface of the pool, shortly after we had entered, began to tremble slightly, and it was then once again calm. I supposed something, sensing our presence, had stirred in its depths, and was now waiting. Yet the motion had been odd for it was almost as if the pool had lifted itself, rippled, and then subsided. — Nomads of Gor, page 204. ….
       I studied the pool. It was beautiful, yellow, sparkling as though filled with gems. There seemed to be wound through its fluids ribbons and filaments and it was dotted here and there with small spheres of various colors. I then became aware that the steam that rose from the pool did so periodically, rather than continuously. There seemed to be a rhythm in the rising of the steam from the pool. I noted, too, that the surface of the pool licking at the marble basin in which it lay trapped seemed to rise slightly and then fall with the discharge of the steam. — Nomads of Gor, page 205. ….
       I turned about, as well as I could, and examined the pool again. I still had seen nothing break the surface to breathe, and now I was determined that my unseen foe must indeed be aquatic… Though it might have been my imagination it seemed that the pool's yellow had now become enriched and that the shifting fluid hues that confronted me had achieved new ranges of brilliance. Some of the filamentous streamers beneath the surface now seemed to roil beneath the surface and the colors of the spheres seemed to pulsate. The rhythm of the steam seemed to increase in tempo and I could now detect, or thought I could, more than simple moisture in that steam, perhaps some other subtle gas or fume, perhaps hitherto unnoticed but now increasing in its volume. — Nomads of Gor, page 206. ….
       I now looked across the surface of the pool. Its appearance was now truly remarkable. It was almost as if it were lower in the center and the edges higher near the marble basin, inching as high as they could toward our sandals. I took it that this was an optical illusion of some sort. The pool was now, it seemed, literally coruscating, glistening with a brilliance of hues that was phenomenal, almost like hands lifting and spilling gems in sunlit water. The filamentous strands seemed to go mad with movement and the spheres of various colors were almost phosphorescent, pulsating beneath the surface. The steam rhythm was now swift, and the gases or fumes mixed with that moisture, noxious. It was almost as though the pool itself respired. — Nomads of Gor, page 207. ….
       Feet first, quiva in hand, I plunged into the yellow fluid. To my surprise the pool, at least near the edge, was not deep. I stood in the fluid only to my knees. I took a few more steps out into the pool. It became deeper toward the center. About a third of the way toward the center I was entered into the pool to my waist. I looked about, searching for whatever it was that would attack me. It was difficult to look into the fluid because of the yellow, the glistening brilliance of the surface troubled by my passage. I noted that the steam, and gas or fumes, no longer rose from the pool. It was quiet. The filamentous threads did not approach me, but now seemed quiet, almost as if content. The spheres, too, seemed quiescent. Some of them, mostly whitish, luminescent ones, had seemed to float nearer, and hovered slightly beneath the surface, in a ring about me, some ten feet away. I took a step towards the ring and the spheres, doubtless moved by the fluids displaced in my step, seemed to slowly disperse and move away. The yellow of the pool's fluid, though rich, no longer seemed to leap and startle me with its vibrance. I waited for the attack of the monster. I stood so, in the fluid to my waist, for perhaps two or three minutes. — Nomads of Gor, page 207. …
       "What is the monster?" I cried.
       "The pool!" he shouted… "It is alive!" — Nomads of Gor, page 208. …
       At the very instant that Saphrar had called out there was a great blast of steam and fumes that seemed to explode from the fluid about me as though the monster in which I found myself had now, its prey satisfactorily entrapped, dared to respire and, at the same time, I felt the yellow fluid about my body begin to thicken and jell. I cried out suddenly in alarm horrified at my predicament and struggled to turn back and wade to the edge of the marbled-basin that was the cage of the thing in which I was, but the fluid, tightening about me, now seemed to have the consistency of a rich yellow, hot mud and then, by the time I had reached a level where it rose to a point midway between my knees and waist the fluid had become as resistant as wet, yellow cement and I could move no further. My legs began to tingle and sting, and I could feel the skin beginning to be etched and picked by the corrosive elements now attacking them. — Nomads of Gor, page 209. ….
       I stood as still as I could. My feet and legs felt cold and yet as if they were burning presumably the acids of the pool were at work. As nearly as I could determine the pool was thick, rubbery, gelatinous, only in the area near to my body. I could see it rippling, and splashing a bit against the edge of the marbled basin. Indeed, it was even lower toward the edge now, and had humped itself in my vicinity, as though in time it might climb my body and, in some hours perhaps, engulf me. But doubtless by then I would have been half digested, much of me little more than a cream of fluids and proteins then mixing with and nourishing the substance of my devourer the Yellow Pool of Turia. — Nomads of Gor, page 211. …
       Then suddenly, the yellow, encircling cementlike substance had oozed from my limbs and I could take two or three free steps. The fluid was now, however, to my armpits. One of the luminescent, white spheres floated by, quite close to me. To my horror I saw it change its shade as it neared the surface, more closely approaching the light. As it had risen toward the surface, just beneath which it now rested, its pigmentation had changed from a luminescent white to a rather darkish gray. It was clearly photosensitive. I reached out and slashed at it with the quiva, cutting it, and it withdrew suddenly, rolling in the fluid, and the pool itself seemed suddenly to churn with steam and light… Then it was quiet again. Yet somehow I knew now the pool, like all forms of life, had some level of irritability. More of the luminescent, white orbs now floated about me, circling me, but none of them now approached closely enough to allow me to use the quiva. — Nomads of Gor, page 211. …
       I felt the fluids of the pool once again begin to gell and tighten… Always, the luminescent, photosensitive orbs seemed to float behind me and around me in the fluid… Beneath me, vaguely, several feet under the surface, I could see a collection, almost like threads and granules in a transparent bag, of intertwined, writhing filaments and spheres, imbedded in a darkish yellow jelly, walled in by a translucent membrane. — Nomads of Gor, pages 211-212. …
       … I felt a globular, membranous tissue, wet and slimy, recoil spasmodically from my touch. Upside down, locked in the gelling fluid, I took the quiva from my mouth and, with both hands, pressed down with the blade against that twitching, jerking, withdrawing membrane. It seemed that the living, amorphous globe of matter which I struck began to move away, slithering away in the yellow fluids… Now below me the fluid began to gell swiftly almost like a rising floor and it loosened and withdrew on all sides and suddenly my head broke the surface and I breathed. I now stood on the hardened surface of the Yellow Pool of Turia and saw the fluids of the sides seeping into the mass beneath me and hardening almost instantly. I stood now on a warm, dry globular mass, almost like a huge, living shell. I could not have scratched the surface with the quiva. — Nomads of Gor, pages 212-213. …
       Then suddenly l heard his agonized cry and saw that beneath me, once again, there glistened the yellow fluids of the pool, moving about him, for the thing perhaps thermotropic had again, as rapidly as it had hardened, liquified and swirled about him, the luminescent spheres and filaments visible beneath its surface. — Nomads of Gor, page 213.

"He struggled to move in the glistening, resprung, sparkling substance of the Yellow Pool, but could not change his place… Beneath the surface we could see places where his robes had been eaten away and the skin was turning white beneath the surface, the juices of the pool etching their way into his body, taking its protein and nutriment into its own, digesting it… Saphrar threw back his head like a dog and howled in pain. He began to scratch and tear at his body, as if mad… We stood silently there for a time, until Kamchak saw small, white bones, like bleached driftwood, rocking on the sparkling, now watery surface, being moved bit by bit, almost as if by tides, to the edge of the pool, where I gathered attendants would normally collect and discard them." — Nomads of Gor, pages 321-322.

"Bring a torch," said Kamchak. He looked down into the sparkling, glistening living fluid of the Yellow Pool of Turia… The torch was brought, and the pool seemed to discharge its vapor more rapidly, and the fluids began to churn, and draw away from our edge of the pool. The yellows of the pool began to flicker and the filamentous fibers began to writhe, and the spheres of different colors beneath the surface began to turn and oscillate, and dart in one direction and then the other. Kamchak took the torch and with his right hand, in a long arc, flung it to the center of the pool. Suddenly like an explosion and conflagration the pool erupted into flames and Kamchak and I and Harold and the others shielded our faces and eyes and withdrew before the fury of the fire. The pool began to roar and hiss and bubble and scatter parts of itself, flaming, into the air and again to the walls… The pool then attempted to desiccate itself and retreat into its hardened shell-like condition but the fire within the closing shell burst it apart and open and then it was again like a lake of burning oil, with portions of the shell tossed like flaming chips upon it. For better than an hour it burned… — Nomads of Gor, pages 322-323.

Yellow Salt
Most of the salt used on Gor is from the mines of Klima, located in the Tahari desert. There is mention of a yellow colored salt, but no indication of where this salt is mined or found, except that it is "from the south."

"Without being asked I had taken a position at the table of Cernus himself. No one had objected, at least explicitly, though I did sense some disgruntlement at my action It had been expected, I gathered, that I would sit at one of the two long side tables, and perhaps even below the bowls of red and yellow salt which divided these tables. The table of Cernus itself, of course, was regarded as being above the bowls. Ho-Tu sat beside me, on my left." — Assassin of Gor, page 86.

Yoke
This device can be made of either wood or bone (generally wood), with holes drilled in the middle and at each end. See: "Girl-Yoke" and "Northern Yoke."

Etymology:Middle English yok, from Old English geoc; akin to Old High German joh yoke, Old Norse ok yoke, Gothic juk yoke (of oxen), Latin jugum yoke, jungere to join, Greek zygon yoke, zeugnynai to yoke, join, Sanskrit yuga yoke, yunakti he yokes, joins;
       "1a(1): A bar or frame of wood by which two draft animals (as oxen) are joined at the heads or necks for working together and especially for drawing a plow or a load and which is usually a piece of timber hollowed or made curving near each end, laid on the necks of the oxen, secured in place by a bow passing under and enclosing each neck, and fastened through the timber;
       1a(2): an arched or curved device formerly laid upon the neck of a defeated person; also: an arch consisting of a spear resting horizontally upon two upright spears under which a captured foe is compelled to pass as a symbol of submission;
       1a(3): a usually wooden frame fitted to a person's shoulders to carry a load suspended in two equal portions on opposite sides of the body." — Merriam-Webster Dictionary ©2004-2006

 

 

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Special Note

Because of the differences in publishing the books, depending upon whether published in the U.S. or Europe, depending upon whether a first publishing or a Masquerade Books release, page numbers will often vary. All of my quotes are from original, first-printing U.S. publications (see The Books page for a listing of publishers and dates) with the exception of the following books:

  • Tarnsman of Gor (2nd Printing, Balantine)
  • Outlaw of Gor (11th Printing, Balantine)
  • Priest-Kings of Gor (2nd Printing, Balantine)
  • Assassin of Gor (10th Printing, Balantine)
  • Raiders of Gor (15th Printing, Balantine)
  • Captive of Gor (3rd Printing, Balantine)

Disclaimer

These pages are not written for any specific home, but rather as informational pages for those not able to get ahold of the books and read them yourself. Opinions and commentaries are strictly my own personal views, therefore, if you don't like what you are reading — then don't. The information in these pages is realistic to what is found within the books. Many sites have added information, assuming the existences of certain products and practices, such as willowbark and agrimony for healing, and travel to earth and back for the collection of goods. I've explored the books, the flora, the fauna, and the beasts, and have compiled from those mentioned, the probabilities of certain practices, and what vegetation mentioned in the books is suitable for healing purposes, as well as given practicalities to other sorts of roleplaying assumptions.