The Planet

Introduction

Gor is a planet made up of a multitude of geographical planes: treacherous mountains, wild forest land, treeless plains, wastelands and desert, and tropical rainforests. On this page , I will present as much geographical information as able to help understand the planet Gor. Please bear with me as this page is still under construction.

"Much of the area of Gor, surprisingly enough, was blank on the map, but I was overwhelmed trying to commit as many of the rivers, seas, plains, and peninsulas to memory as I could." — Assassin of Gor, page 43.

"Much of Gor was terra incognita. Few knew well the lands on the east of the Voltai and Thentis ranges, for example, or what lay west of the farther islands, near Cos and Tyros. It was more irritating, of course, to realize that even considerable areas of territory above Schendi, south of the Vosk, and west of Ar, were unknown." — Explorers of Gor, page 16.

Maps

Wunderlust is something that humankind has enjoyed for thousands of centuries. The first known geographers and cartographers go back beyond even that of ancient Greece. On Gor, it's no different; people want to learn of their world, generally for exploitation purposes ("I want to take over the world!"). Of course, merchants seek the need of maps to assist them on establishing worthwhile trade routes.

Geographers and cartographers, which fall under the Caste of Scribes in most parts of Gor, have explored Gor often and likely since the beginning of their arrival upon the world; the maps being the diaries of their journies. However, to clarify a bit, a geographer is a scientist whose area of study is that of geography — the study of the planet's physical environment and human habitat. Geographers identify, analyse and interpret the distribution and arrangement of features on the earth's surface. Though geographers are historically known as people who make maps, mapmaking is actually the field of study of cartography, a sub-field of geography. The geographer is capable of studying not only the physical details of the environment but also its impact on human and wildlife ecologies, weather and climate patterns, economics, and culture.

There has been seen debate on maps, some who believe Gor was never mapped, others believing maps were accessible to just anyone. The answer is really cultural. For example, the peoples of the Tahari are quite secretive of their locations of oases and kasbahs, and will kill anyone who attempts to map out the Tahari. Other cultural areas, such as the Ushindi region, recognizes a famed geographer and cartographer by the name of Shaba.

"The men of the Tahari kill those who make maps of it. They know their own country, or their districts within it; they are not eager that others know it as well. Without a guide, who knew the locations of water, to enter the Tahari would be suicidal." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 101.

"I poked through the other contents of the saddle pack, delighted to find my old maps and that device that serves Goreans as both compass and chronometer." — Tarnsman of Gor, page 144.

"… the areas of Gor which are mapped are large, but only a small fraction of the surface of the planet; much of Gor remains to her inhabitants simply terra incognita." — Nomads of Gor, page 3.

"It had been thought, and shown on many maps," I said, "that the subequatorial Cartius not only flowed into Lake Ushindi, but emerged northward, traversing the sloping western flatlands to join the Vosk at Turmus." Turmus was the last major river port on the Vosk before the almost impassable marshes of the delta.
      "Calculations performed by the black geographer, Ramani, of the island of Anango, suggested that given the elevations involved the two rivers could not be the same. His pupil, Shaba, was the first civilized man to circumnavigate Lake Ushindi. He discovered that the Cartius, as was known, enters Lake Ushindi, but that only two rivers flow out of Ushindi, the Kamba and Nyoka. The actual source of the tributary to the Vosk, now called the Thassa Cartius, as you know, was found five years later by the explorer, Ramus of Tabor, who, with a small expedition, over a period of nine months, fought and bartered his way through the river tribes, beyond the six cataracts, to the Ven highlands. The Thassa Cartius, with its own tributaries, drains the highlands and the descending plains." — Explorers of Gor, page 16.

I though of Shaba, and his voyages of exploration, the circumnavigation of Lake Ushindi, the discovery and circumnavigation of Lake Ngao, and the discovery and exploration of the Ua, even to the discovery of its source in the placid waters of that vast lake he had called Bila Huruma. But by the wish of Bila Huruma I had changed its name to Lake Shaba. He was surely one of the greatest, if not the greatest of the explorers of Gor, I did not think his name would be forgotten. "I am grateful," had said Ramani of Anango, who had once been the teacher of Shaba. I had delivered to him, and to two others of his caste, the maps and notebooks of Shaba. Ramani and his fellows had wept. I had then left them, returning to my lodgings. Copies would be made of the maps and notebooks. They would then be distributed by caste brothers throughout the cities of civilized Gor. The first copies that were made by anyone had already, however, been made, by the scribes of Bila Huruma in Ushindi. Ramani need not know this. — Explorers of Gor, page 454.

Reading a Map

On Gor, compass direction is set to the Sardar Mountains. Although we are not given precisely where the mountains are located, it's safe to assume they are northeast upon the continent, bordered to the north by the forests.

The Gorean compass, and therefore in the reading of maps when noting direction, begins at the Sardar Mountains, and is known as Var. To travel away from the Sardar (south), then you are traveling Ta-Sardar-Ki-Var; traveling toward the Sardar (north), you'd be travelling Ta-Sardar-Var. While the compass and directional navigation on Earth is made up of only four points (north, south, east and west), on Gor, there are eight focal points. Beginning with Ta-Sardar-Var (north), moving clockwise as on Earth, these are: Ror, Rim, Tun, Vask (also called Verus Var, or the true turning away), Cart, Klim, and Kail, and then again, of course, Ta-Sardar-Var. Longitude and latidude, much like on Earth, utilizes the divisions of day; Ahn, Ehn, and Ihn as opposed to Earth's hour, minute, and second.

"For purposes of convenience I am recounting directions in English terms, thinking it would be considerably difficult for the reader to follow references to the Gorean compass. Briefly, for those it might interest, all directions on the planet are calculated from the Sardar Mountains, which for the purposes of calculating direction play a role analogous to our north pole; the two main directions, so to speak, in the Gorean way of thinking are Ta-Sardar-Var and Ta-Sardar-Ki-Var, or as one would normally say, Var and Ki-Var; 'Var' means a turning and 'Ki' signifies negation; thus, rather literally, one might speak of 'turning to the Sardar' and 'not turning to the Sardar', something like either facing north or not facing north; on the other hand, more helpfully, the Gorean compass is divided into eight, as opposed to our four, main quadrants, or better said, divisions, and each of these itself is of course subdivided. There is also a system of latitude and longitude figured on the basis of the Gorean day, calculated in Ahn, twenty of which constitute a Gorean day, and Ehn and Ihn, which are subdivisions of the Ahn, or Gorean hour. Ta-Sardar-Var is a direction which appears on all Gorean maps; Ta-Sardar-Ki-Var, of course, never appears on a map, since it would be any direction which is not Ta-Sardar-Var. Accordingly, the main divisions of the map are Ta-Sardar-Var, and the other seven; taking the Sardar as our "north pole" the other directions, clockwise as Earth clocks move (Gorean clock hands move in the opposite direction) would be, first, Ta-Sardar-Var, then, in order, Ror, Rim, Tun, Vask (sometimes spoken of as Verus Var, or the true turning away), Cart, Klim, and Kail, and then again, of course, Ta-Sardar-Var. The Cartius River incidentally, mentioned earlier, was named for the direction it lies from the city of Ar. From the Sardar I had gone largely Cart, sometimes Vask, then Cart again until I had come to the Plains of Turia, or the Land of the Wagon Peoples. I crossed the Cartius on a barge, one of several hired by the merchant of the caravan with which I was then seeing. " — Nomads of Gor, page 3 (footnote).

The World's End

The term, "world's end", denotes something of a myth on the world of Gor. An expression of those learned in the first knowledge, the term denotes that place hundreds of pasangs beyond Cos and Tyros, a place that ships dare not to go, and those that do never return. It's speculated that this myth was brought to Gor from Earth; the famous world's end filled with leviathans and other monsters. It can be also be compared with the thinking of earlier civilizations that considered the Earth was flat, rather than a spheroid. This would explain much as to why most of Gor has been unexplored.

Additionally, the term was used by a Kurii general, Half-Ear, to denote the northern polar pole.

"Tersites," said Samos, not looking up, "builds a ship, fit to sail beyond the world's end." — Hunters of Gor, page 12.

"A ship must be built," said Samos, "A ship different from any other." I looked at him. "One that can sail beyond the world's end," he said.
      This was an expression, in the first knowledge, for the sea some hundred pasangs west of Cos and Tyros, beyond which the ships of Goreans do not go, or if go, do not return. Samos, of course, knew as well as I the limitations of the first knowledge. He knew, as well as I, that Gor was spheroid. I did not know why men did not traverse the seas far west of Cos and Tyros. Telima, too, of course, having been educated through the second knowledge in the house of Samos, knew that "world's end" was, to the educated Gorean, a figurative expression. Yet, in a sense, the Gorean world did end there, as it also, in a sense, ended with the Voltai ranges to the east. They were the borders, on the east and west, of known Gor. To the far south and north, there was, as far as men knew, only the winds and the snows, driven back and forth, across the bleak ice. — Raiders of Gor, page 312.

We did not know where lay the world's end, but we knew where it must be sought. The world's end was said to lie beyond Cos and Tyros, at the end of Thassa, at the world's edge. No man had sailed to the world's end and returned. It was not known what had occurred there. Some said that Thassa was endless, and there was no world's end, only the green waters extending forever, gleaming, beckoning the mariner and hero onward, onward until men, one by one, had perished and the lonely ships, their steering oars lashed in place, pursued the voyage in silence, until the timbers rotted and one day, perhaps centuries later, the brave wood, warm in the sun, sank beneath the sea. … Others said, in stories reminiscent of Earth, and which had doubtless there had their origin, that the world's end was protected by clashing rocks and monsters, and by mountains that could pull the nails from ships. Others said, similarly, that the end of the world was sheer, and that a ship might there plunge over the edge, to fall tumbling for days through emptiness until fierce winds broke it apart and the wreckage was lifted up to the bottom of the sea. In the maelstroms south and west of Tyros shattered planking was sometimes found. It was said that some of this was from ships which had sought the world's end. — Beasts of Gor, pages 28-29.

She had been the girl who had brought to the house of Samos the message of the scytale. The scytale had been a marked hair ribbon. Wrapped about the shaft of a spear, thus aligning the marks, the message had appeared. It had been to me, from Zarendargar, or Half-Ear, a war general of the Kurii, inviting me to meet him at the "world's end." My speculation that this referred to the pole of the Gorean northern hemisphere had proved correct. I had met Half-Ear there, in a vast northern complex, an enormous supply depot intended to arm and fuel, and otherwise logistically support, the projected invasion of Gor, the Counter-Earth. I think it likely that Half-Ear perished in the destruction of the complex. The body, however, was never recovered. — Explorers of Gor, pages 10-11.

 

 

 

Oceans and Seas

• Thassa
Known simply as "The Sea." It is, apparently, the sole sea of the planet, said to be without a farther shore, which of course, is not true. However, that area is unexplored sea and land. It's hard to imagine such but it seems that the planet is mostly a singular continent which extends from one polar cap to the other. The western shoreline of Thassa is the only area explored, settlements scattered along its length, with a few mentioned islands. Various rivers empty and meet with Thassa, such as the Ua and the Laurius. The Vosk however, does not directly spill into the sea, but into the Tamber Gulf.

"I could smell the sea, gleaming Thassa, in the myths said to be without a farther shore." — Raiders of Gor, page 1.

"And then the dawn came and, over the buildings of Port Kar, beyond them, and beyond the shallow, muddy Tamber, where the Vosk empties, we saw, I for the first time, gleaming Thassa, the sea." — Raiders of Gor, page 124.

"And I could smell the sea, Thassa, and the intermingling of the Laurius, with its fresh water, feeding into gleaming Thassa. I could smell tharlarion, and fish." — Hunters of Gor, page 42.

"The morning tide from Thassa was running in, swelling the river. I wished to leave at the height of the tide. It would breast at the tenth Ahn. It was late in the summer and the river was not as high as it is in the spring. In the Laurius, and particularly near its mouth, there are likely to be shoals, shifting from day to day, brought and formed by the current. The tide from Thassa, lifting the river, makes the entrance to the Laurius less troublesome, less hazardous. The Tesephone, of course, being a light ship, an oared ship, a shallow-drafted ship, is commonly very little dependent on the tide." — Hunters of Gor, pages 68-69.

"Tell me what you know of the Cartius," he said.
      "It is an important subequatorial waterway," I said. "It flows west by northwest, entering the rain forests and emptying into Lake Ushindi, which lake is drained by the Kamba and the Nyoka rivers. The Kamba flows directly into Thassa. The Nyoka flows into Schendi, and moves thence to Thassa." Schendi was an equatorial free port, well known on Gor. It is also the home port of the League of Black Slavers.
      "It was, at one time," conjectured Samos," that the Cartius proper was a tributary of the Vosk." "I had been taught that," I said.
      "We now know that the Thassa Cartius and the subequatorial Cartius are not the same river."
      "It had been thought, and shown on many maps," I said, "that the subequatorial Cartius not only flowed into Lake Ushindi, but emerged northward, traversing the sloping western flatlands to join the Vosk at Turmus." Turmus was the last major river port on the Vosk before the almost impassable marshes of the delta.
      "Calculations performed by the black geographer, Ramani, of the island of Anango, suggested that given the elevations involved the two rivers could not be the same. His pupil, Shaba, was the first civilized man to circumnavigate Lake Ushindi. He discovered that the Cartius, as was known, enters Lake Ushindi, but that only two rivers flow out of Ushindi, the Kamba and Nyoka. The actual source of the tributary to the Vosk, now called the Thassa Cartius, as you know, was found five years later by the explorer, Ramus of Tabor, who, with a small expedition, over a period of nine months, fought and bartered his way through the river tribes, beyond the six cataracts, to the Ven highlands. The Thassa Cartius, with its own tributaries, drains the highlands and the descending plains."
      There was good reason to speculate that the Cartius entered the Vosk, by way of Lake Ushindi," I said. — Explorers of Gor, pages 16-18.

"Waters from the overflow of Lake Ngao entered the great marsh between Ngao and Ushindi, and, thence, made their ways to Ushindi, which, by means of the Kamba and Nyoka, drained to gleaming Thassa, the sea." — Explorers of Gor, page 220.

"When Lakes Ushindi and Ngao had been joined by the canal a continuous waterway would be opened between Thassa and the Ua." — Explorers of Gor, page 455.

• Tamber Gulf
A shallow gulf located near Port Kar. It is here that the Vosk empties its waters, before they are carried off to mix with the salt waters of Thassa.

"No one had been found who would guide me into the delta of the Vosk. The bargemen of the Vosk will not take their wide, broad-bottomed craft into the delta. The channels of the Vosk, to be sure, shift from season to season, and the delta is often little more than a trackless marsh, literally hundreds of square pasangs of estuarial wilderness. In many places it is too shallow to float even the great flat-bottomed barges and, more importantly, a path for them would have to be cut and chopped, foot by foot, through the thickets of rush and sedge, and the tangles of marsh vine. The most important reason for not finding a guide, of course, even among the eastern rence growers, is that the delta is claimed by Port Kar, which lies within it, some hundred pasangs from its northwestern edge, bordering on the shallow Tamber Gulf, beyond which is gleaming Thassa, the Sea." — Raiders of Gor, pages 5-6.

"I looked out over the harbor, and over the muddy Tamber to the gleaming vastness beyond, my Thassa. "— Raiders of Gor, page 149.

Lakes

• Ice Lakes of the North
Unnamed lakes located in the frozen north; they are briefly mentioned with no other information.

"Port Kar, crowded, squalid, malignant, is sometimes referred to as the Tarn of the Sea. Her name is a synonym in Gorean for cruelty and piracy. The fleets of tarn ships of Port Kar are the scourge of Thassa, beautiful, lateen-rigged galleys that ply the trade of plunder and enslavement from the Ta-Thassa Mountains of the southern hemisphere of Gor to the ice lakes of the North; and westward even beyond the terraced island of Cos and the rocky Tyros, with its labyrinths of vart caves." — Raiders of Gor, page 6.

• Lake Ias
This lake is named but is not described as to itssize or definite relationship to any other feature, except that it is located perhaps west of the Issus (in relation to the other references in the quote). It is, however, mentioned along with other places near Argentum and Corcyrus, being within one hundred (100) pasangs of Corcyrus.

"Did your troops enter Argentum?" I asked.
      "Our generals did not feel it was necessary," said Ligurious.
      "It seems that our first victory, after the seizure of the mines, occurred on the Fields of Hesius," I said.
      "Yes," said Ligurious.
      "Our second occurred on the shores of Lake Ias," I said, "and our third east of the Issus." This was a northwestward-flowing river, tributary to the Vosk, far to the north.
      "Yes, my Tatrix," said Ligurious.
      "Now we have been victorious once more," I said, "this time on the Plains of Eteocles."
      "Yes, my Tatrix," said Ligurious.
      "They lie within a hundred pasangs of Corcyrus," I said. — Kajiras of Gor, pages 158-159.

• Lake Ngao
This equatorial lake, discovered by the explorer Shaba, was named Ngao, which means shield in the dialects of the inland region, because of its shape; the Ua River enters it's eastern extremity, connecting this lake to Lake Shaba in the northeast section of the rainforest. The Falls of Bila Haruma, named for the famed explorer of this region, lies one-hundred (100) pasangs to the east of this lake; the village of Unkungu is located on the northeast shore.

"To the west of Lake Ushindi," I said, "there are floodlands, marshes and bogs, through which a considerable amount of water drains into the lake. With considerable hardship, limiting himself to forty men, and temporarily abandoning all but two boats, which were half dragged and thrust through the marshes eastward, after two months, Shaba reached the western shore of what we now know as Lake Ngao."
      "Yes," said Samos.
      "It is fully as large as Lake Ushindi, if not larger," I said, "the second of the great equatorial lakes."
      "Shaba then continued the circumnavigation of Lake Ushindi," said Samos. "He charted accurately, for the first time, the entry of the Cartius proper, the subequatorial Cartius, into Ushindi. He then continued west until he reached the six ubarates and the heartland of Bila Huruma."
      "And it was there that he discovered that Lake Ngao was fed, incredibly enough, by one major river, as its eastern extremity, a river vast enough to challenge even the Vosk in its breadth and might, a river which he called the Ua."
      "It is impassable," I said, "Because of various falls and cataracts."
      "Shaba himself, with his men and boats, pursued the river for only a hundred pasangs," I said,. "when they were turned back by some falls and cataracts."
      "The falls and cataracts of Bila Huruma, as he named them," said Samos. — Explorers of Gor, pages 18-19.

"Shaba, the geographer of Anango, the explorer of Lake Ushindi, the discoverer of Lake Ngao and the Ua River," said Samos. — Explorers of Gor, page 30.

"Lake Ngao, which was discovered by Shaba, and named by him, was named for a shield, because of its long, oval shape. The shields in this area tend to have that shape. It is also an inland word, of course." — Explorers of Gor, page 100.

"Waters from the overflow of Lake Ngao entered the great marsh between Ngao and Ushindi, and, thence, made their ways to Ushindi, which, by means of the Kamba and Nyoka, drained to gleaming Thassa, the sea. The intent of the engineers of Bila Huruma was to set in place two parallel walls, low walls, some five or six feet high, placed about two hundred yards apart. The area between these walls, the marsh waters diverted on either side, was then to be drained and readied for the digging of the main channel. In this work draft tharlarion and greet scoops, brought from the north, as well as gigantic work crews, would be used. In the event that the central channel, when completed, would not prove sufficient to handle the overflow of Ngao, as seemed likely, conducting it geometrically to Ushindi, side channels were contemplated. The eventual intent of Bila Huruma was not only to open the rain forests of the deep interior, and whatever might lie within the system of the Ua, and her tributaries, to commercial exploitation and military expansion, but to drain the marshes between the two mighty lakes, Ushindi and Ngao, that that land, then reclaimed, thousands of square pasangs, might eventually be made available for agriculture. It was the intent of Bila Huruma not only to consolidate a ubarate but found a civilization." — Explorers of Gor, pages 220-221.

"When Lakes Ushindi and Ngao had been joined by the canal a continuous waterway would be opened between Thassa and the Ua. One might then, via either the Kamba or the Nyoka, attain Lake Ushindi. One might then follow the canal from Ushindi to Ngao. From Ngao one could enter upon the Ua. One could then, for thousands of pasangs, follow the Ua until one reached its terminus in Lake Shaba. And Lake Shaba itself was fed by numerous smaller streams and rivers, giving promise, like the tributaries of the Ua itself, to the latency of new countries. The importance of the work of Bila Huruma and Shaba, one a Ubar, the other a scribe and explorer, could not, in my opinion, be overestimated." — Explorers of Gor, page 455.

• Lake Shaba
This lake, located in the northeast section of Ushindi rainforest, is the source of the great Ua River. It was originally named Lake Bila Haruma for the explorer who discovered it; the name was changed at the great explorer's request by Tarl Cabot.

"Tell me what you know of the Cartius," he said.
      "It is an important subequatorial waterway," I said. "It flows west by northwest, entering the rain forests and emptying into Lake Ushindi, which lake is drained by the Kamba and the Nyoka rivers. The Kamba flows directly into Thassa. The Nyoka flows into Schendi, and moves thence to Thassa." Schendi was an equatorial free port, well known on Gor. It is also the home port of the League of Black Slavers.
      "It was, at one time," conjectured Samos," that the Cartius proper was a tributary of the Vosk." "I had been taught that," I said.
      "We now know that the Thassa Cartius and the subequatorial Cartius are not the same river."
      "It had been thought, and shown on many maps," I said, "that the subequatorial Cartius not only flowed into Lake Ushindi, but emerged northward, traversing the sloping western flatlands to join the Vosk at Turmus." Turmus was the last major river port on the Vosk before the almost impassable marshes of the delta.
      "Calculations performed by the black geographer, Ramani, of the island of Anango, suggested that given the elevations involved the two rivers could not be the same. His pupil, Shaba, was the first civilized man to circumnavigate Lake Ushindi. He discovered that the Cartius, as was known, enters Lake Ushindi, but that only two rivers flow out of Ushindi, the Kamba and Nyoka. The actual source of the tributary to the Vosk, now called the Thassa Cartius, as you know, was found five years later by the explorer, Ramus of Tabor, who, with a small expedition, over a period of nine months, fought and bartered his way through the river tribes, beyond the six cataracts, to the Ven highlands. The Thassa Cartius, with its own tributaries, drains the highlands and the descending plains."
      There was good reason to speculate that the Cartius entered the Vosk, by way of Lake Ushindi," I said. — Explorers of Gor, pages 16-18.

"To the west of Lake Ushindi," I said, "there are floodlands, marshes and bogs, through which a considerable amount of water drains into the lake. With considerable hardship, limiting himself to forty men, and temporarily abandoning all but two boats, which were half dragged and thrust through the marshes eastward, after two months, Shaba reached the western shore of what we now know as Lake Ngao."
      "Yes," said Samos.
      "It is fully as large as Lake Ushindi, if not larger," I said, "the second of the great equatorial lakes."
      "Shaba then continued the circumnavigation of Lake Ushindi," said Samos. "He charted accurately, for the first time, the entry of the Cartius proper, the subequatorial Cartius, into Ushindi. He then continued west until he reached the six ubarates and the heartland of Bila Huruma."
      "And it was there that he discovered that Lake Ngao was fed, incredibly enough, by one major river, as its eastern extremity, a river vast enough to challenge even the Vosk in its breadth and might, a river which he called the Ua."
      "It is impassable," I said, "Because of various falls and cataracts."
      "Shaba himself, with his men and boats, pursued the river for only a hundred pasangs," I said,. "when they were turned back by some falls and cataracts."
      "The falls and cataracts of Bila Huruma, as he named them," said Samos. — Explorers of Gor, pages 18-19.

"Waters from the overflow of Lake Ngao entered the great marsh between Ngao and Ushindi, and, thence, made their ways to Ushindi, which, by means of the Kamba and Nyoka, drained to gleaming Thassa, the sea. The intent of the engineers of Bila Huruma was to set in place two parallel walls, low walls, some five or six feet high, placed about two hundred yards apart. The area between these walls, the marsh waters diverted on either side, was then to be drained and readied for the digging of the main channel. In this work draft tharlarion and greet scoops, brought from the north, as well as gigantic work crews, would be used. In the event that the central channel, when completed, would not prove sufficient to handle the overflow of Ngao, as seemed likely, conducting it geometrically to Ushindi, side channels were contemplated. The eventual intent of Bila Huruma was not only to open the rain forests of the deep interior, and whatever might lie within the system of the Ua, and her tributaries, to commercial exploitation and military expansion, but to drain the marshes between the two mighty lakes, Ushindi and Ngao, that that land, then reclaimed, thousands of square pasangs, might eventually be made available for agriculture. It was the intent of Bila Huruma not only to consolidate a ubarate but found a civilization." — Explorers of Gor, pages 220-221.

We looked out over the placid, vast lake. On the level, to one side, we had built a great pyre. Bila Huruma himself, with his own hands, had cast the ashes of Shaba high into the air where the wind would catch them and carry them over the city, and to the jungles beyond. A part of Shaba, thus, would continue his geographer's trek, a bit of white ash blown on the wind, evanescent but obdurate, brief but eternal, something irrevocably implicated in the realities of history and eternity.
      "This lake, forming the source of the Ua," I said, "he named Lake Bila Huruma."
      "Cross that out," said Bila Huruma. "Write there, instead, Lake Shaba." — Explorers of Gor, pages 445-446.

I thought of Bila Huruma, and the loneliness of the Ubar. I though of Shaba, and his voyages of exploration, the circumnavigation of Lake Ushindi, the discovery and circumnavigation of Lake Ngao, and the discovery and exploration of the Ua, even to the discovery of its source in the placid waters of that vast lake he had called Bila Huruma. But by the wish of Bila Huruma I had changed its name to Lake Shaba. He was surely one of the greatest, if not the greatest of the explorers of Gor, I did not think his name would be forgotten. "I am grateful," had said Ramani of Anango, who had once been the teacher of Shaba. I had delivered to him, and to two others of his caste, the maps and notebooks of Shaba. Ramani and his fellows had wept. I had then left them, returning to my lodgings. Copies would be made of the maps and notebooks. They would then be distributed by caste brothers throughout the cities of civilized Gor. The first copies that were made by anyone had already, however, been made, by the scribes of Bila Huruma in Ushindi. Ramani need not know this. — Explorers of Gor, page 454.

"When Lakes Ushindi and Ngao had been joined by the canal a continuous waterway would be opened between Thassa and the Ua. One might then, via either the Kamba or the Nyoka, attain Lake Ushindi. One might then follow the canal from Ushindi to Ngao. From Ngao one could enter upon the Ua. One could then, for thousands of pasangs, follow the Ua until one reached its terminus in Lake Shaba. And Lake Shaba itself was fed by numerous smaller streams and rivers, giving promise, like the tributaries of the Ua itself, to the latency of new countries. The importance of the work of Bila Huruma and Shaba, one a Ubar, the other a scribe and explorer, could not, in my opinion, be overestimated." — Explorers of Gor, page 455.

• Lake Schendi
It's called "errors in scanning." There IS no Lake Schendi. I will post first the passage from an electronic version that has been passed around as being "clean and error free." However, I have encountered many errors in the entire set of books that was cleaned up by the same person, so I pulled out my trusty book. I will post the passage as it appears in said book creased open next to me.

The passage with the mistake taken from the electronic version.

"There was good reason to speculate that the Cartius entered the Vosk, by way of Lake Schendi," I said. — Explorers of Gor, pages 16-17.

The same passage taken directly from the copy of the book I have.

"There was good reason to speculate that the Cartius entered the Vosk, by way of Lake Ushindi," I said. — Explorers of Gor, pages 16-17.

• Lake Ushindi
Lake Ushindi is a large lake, located in the equatorial jungles, fed by the Cartius River, and drained by the Kamba and Nyoka Rivers; the Kamba emptying into Thassa directly, the Nyoka winding through the port city of Schendi before reaching Thassa. The inland village of Nyuki is located on the north shore; its western border is made up of bogs, marshes, and floodlands. A canal connects Lake Ushindi east across the swampland to Lake Ngao. Named for some unremembered victory in the Ushindi region, the word "Ushindi" means "Victory."

"Shaba, the geographer of Anango, the explorer of Lake Ushindi, the discoverer of Lake Ngao and the Ua River," said Samos." — Explorers of Gor, page 30.

"Ushindi means Victory. Thus Lake Ushindi might be thought of as Lake Victory or Victory Lake. It was named for some victory over two hundred years ago won on its shores. The name of the tiny kingdom or ubarate which had won the victory is no longer remembered." — Explorers of Gor, page 100.

"We had lain to after more closely approaching the port of Schendi in the evening of the preceding day, the day in which we had seen the fleet of the black slavers, of Schendi. We could see the shore now, with its sand and, behind the sand, the dense, green vegetation, junglelike, broken by occasional clearings for fields and villages. Schendi itself lay farther to the south, about the outjutting of a small peninsula, Point Schendi. The waters here were richly brown, primarily from the outflowing of the Nyoka, emptying from Lake Ushindi, some two hundred pasangs upriver." — Explorers of Gor, page 104.

"The smell of spices, particularly cinnamon and cloves, was now quite strong. We had smelled these even at sea. One smell that I did not smell to a great degree was that of fish. Many fish in these tropical waters are poisonous to eat, a function of certain forms of seaweed on which they feed. The seaweed is harmless to the fish but it contains substances toxic to humans. The river fish on the other hand, as far as I know, are generally wholesome for humans to eat. Indeed, there are many villages along the Kamba and Nyoka, and along the shores of Lake Ushindi, in which fishing is the major source of livelihood. Not much of this fish, however, is exported from Schendi. I could smell, however, tanning fluids and dyes, from the shops and compounds of leather workers. Much kailiauk leather is processed in Schendi, brought to the port not only from inland but from north and south, from collection points, along the coast. I could also smell tars and resins, naval stores. Most perhaps, I could now smell the jungles behind Schendi. This smell, interestingly, does not carry as far out to sea as those of the more pungent spices. It was a smell of vast greeneries, steaming and damp, and of incredible flowers and immensities of rotting vegetation." — Explorers of Gor, page 109.

"Waters from the overflow of Lake Ngao entered the great marsh between Ngao and Ushindi, and, thence, made their ways to Ushindi, which, by means of the Kamba and Nyoka, drained to gleaming Thassa, the sea. The intent of the engineers of Bila Huruma was to set in place two parallel walls, low walls, some five or six feet high, placed about two hundred yards apart. The area between these walls, the marsh waters diverted on either side, was then to be drained and readied for the digging of the main channel. In this work draft tharlarion and greet scoops, brought from the north, as well as gigantic work crews, would be used. In the event that the central channel, when completed, would not prove sufficient to handle the overflow of Ngao, as seemed likely, conducting it geometrically to Ushindi, side channels were contemplated. The eventual intent of Bila Huruma was not only to open the rain forests of the deep interior, and whatever might lie within the system of the Ua, and her tributaries, to commercial exploitation and military expansion, but to drain the marshes between the two mighty lakes, Ushindi and Ngao, that that land, then reclaimed, thousands of square pasangs, might eventually be made available for agriculture. It was the intent of Bila Huruma not only to consolidate a ubarate but found a civilization." — Explorers of Gor, pages 220-221.

"When Lakes Ushindi and Ngao had been joined by the canal a continuous waterway would be opened between Thassa and the Ua. One might then, via either the Kamba or the Nyoka, attain Lake Ushindi. One might then follow the canal from Ushindi to Ngao. From Ngao one could enter upon the Ua. One could then, for thousands of pasangs, follow the Ua until one reached its terminus in Lake Shaba. And Lake Shaba itself was fed by numerous smaller streams and rivers, giving promise, like the tributaries of the Ua itself, to the latency of new countries. The importance of the work of Bila Huruma and Shaba, one a Ubar, the other a scribe and explorer, could not, in my opinion, be overestimated." — Explorers of Gor, page 455.

Rivers and Tributaries

• Cartius River
One of the largest rivers on Gor once thought to be a tributary of the Vosk River, but later discovered there is another Cartius River — the Thassa Cartius (see: Thassa Cartius). An important equatorial waterway, vital for economic reasons, it flows west by northwest until it reaches the rainforests and dumps into Lake Ushindi. The Cartius does not meet Thassa at all. The explorer from Anango, Shaba, was the first civilized man to circumnavigate Lake Ushindi, and discovered that the Cartius proper enters the lake, finding its end.

"The Wagon Peoples claimed the southern prairies of Gor, from the gleaming Thassa and the mountains of Ta-Thassa to the southern foothills of the Voltai Range itself, that reared in the crust of Gor like the backbone of a planet. On the north they claimed lands even to the rush-grown banks of the Cartius, a broad, swift flowing tributary feeding into the incomparable Vosk." — Nomads of Gor, page 2.

"The Cartius River incidentally, mentioned earlier, was named for the direction it lies from the city of Ar. From the Sardar I had gone largely Cart, sometimes Vask, then Cart again until I had come to the Plains of Turia, or the Land of the Wagon Peoples." — Nomads of Gor, page 3 (footnote).

"Tell me what you know of the Cartius," he said.
      "It is an important subequatorial waterway," I said. "It flows west by northwest, entering the rain forests and emptying into Lake Ushindi, which lake is drained by the Kamba and the Nyoka rivers. The Kamba flows directly into Thassa. The Nyoka flows into Schendi, and moves thence to Thassa." Schendi was an equatorial free port, well known on Gor. It is also the home port of the League of Black Slavers.
      "It was, at one time," conjectured Samos," that the Cartius proper was a tributary of the Vosk."
      "I had been taught that," I said.
      "We now know that the Thassa Cartius and the subequaxorial Cartius are not the same river."
      "It had been thought, and shown on many maps," I said, "that the subequatorial Cartius not only flowed into Lake Ushindi, but emerged northward, traversing the sloping western flatlands to join the Vosk at Turmus." Turmus was the last major river port on the Vosk before the almost impassable marshes of the delta.
      "Calculations performed by the black geographer, Ramani, of the island of Anango, suggested that given the elevations involved the two rivers could not be the same. His pupil, Shaba, was the first civilized man to circumnavigate Lake Ushindi. He discovered that the Cartius, as was known, enters Lake Ushindi, but that only two rivers flow out of Ushindi, the Kamba and Nyoka. The actual source of the tributary to the Vosk, now called the Thassa Cartius, as you know, was found five years later by the explorer, Ramus of Tabor, who, with a small expedition, over a period of nine months, fought and bartered his way through the river tribes, beyond the six cataracts, to the Ven highlands. The Thassa Cartius, with its own tributaries, drains the highlands and the descending plains."
      There was good reason to speculate that the Cartius entered the Vosk, by way of Lake Ushindi," I said. — Explorers of Gor, pages 16-18.

• Fayeen River, Upper and Lower
These tributaries feed from the Cartius River; located in the Tahari Desert, they serve not only as a source of water, but also for the shipments of cargo. The Lower Fayeen is described as "sluggish;" the river port of Kasra is located here.

"I looked downward. Though on the map it occupied only some several feet of the floor, in actuality it was vast. It was roughly in the shape of a gigantic, lengthy trapezoid, with eastward leaning sides. At its northwestern corner lay Tor, West of Tor, on the Lower Fayeen, a sluggish, meandering tributary, like the Upper Fayeen, to the Cartius, lay the river port of Kasra, known for its export of salt." — Tribesmen of Gor, pages 32-33.

• Issus River
The Issus River has its origin at an unidentified location and enters the Vosk at an undisclosed point. The Issus is the site of one of the two aquaducts that supply Torcadino with fresh water. The site of the aquaduct is a little over 100 pasangs from Torcadino. Likely, John Norman took the name from the Issus River on Earth, also known as the Pinarus, and the history that surrounded it. The small city of Issus was near the river of the same name; both located on a major trade route and have therefore been famous battle sites over time. The most famous battle that took place there was in 333 BC, when Alexander defeated Darius. Not long after, in 194 AD, Septimius Severus defeated Pescennius Niger, Heraclius defeated Chosroes in 622 AD, and Bibars Sultan of Egypt defeated King Hetoum I (Hetum I) of Armenia in 1266 AD.

Dietrich of Tarnburg, of the high city of Tarnburg, some two hundred pasangs to the north and west of Hochburg, both substantially mountain fortresses, both in the more southern and civilized ranges of the Voltai, was well-known to the warriors of Gor. His name was almost a legend. It was he who had won the day on the fields of both Piedmont and Cardonicus, who had led the Forty Days' March, relieving the siege of Talmont, who had effected the crossing of the Issus in 10,122 C.A., in the night evacuation of Keibel Hill, when I had been in Torvaldsland, and who had been the victor in the battles of Rovere, Kargash, Edgington, Teveh Pass, Gordon Heights, and the Plains of Sanchez. His campaigns were studied in all the war schools of the high cities. I knew him from scrolls I had studied years ago in Ko-ro-ba, and from volumes in my library in Port Kar, such as the commentaries of Minicius and the anonymous analyses of "The Diaries," sometimes attributed to the military historian, Carl Commenius, of Argentum, rumored to have once been a mercenary himself. — Mercenaries of Gor, pages 31-32.

"The natural wells of Torcodino, originally sufficing for a small population, had, more than a century ago, proved inadequate to furnish sufficient water for an expanding city. Two aqueducts now brought fresh water to Torcodino from more than a hundred pasangs away, one from the Issus, a northwestwardly flowing tributary to the Vosk and the other from springs in the Hills of Eteocles, southwest of Corcyrus." — Mercenaries of Gor, page 101.

"Did your troops enter Argentum?" I asked.
      "Our generals did not feel it was necessary," said Ligurious.
      "It seems that our first victory, after the seizure of the mines, occurred on the Fields of Hesius," I said.
      "Yes," said Ligurious.
      "Our second occurred on the shores of Lake Ias," I said, "and our third east of the Issus." This was a northwestward-flowing river, tributary to the Vosk, far to the north.
      "Yes, my Tatrix," said Ligurious.
      "Now we have been victorious once more," I said, "this time on the Plains of Eteocles."
      "Yes, my Tatrix," said Ligurious.
      "They lie within a hundred pasangs of Corcyrus," I said. — Kajiras of Gor, pages 158-159.

• Kailla River
This river, located in the Barrens, at one point of its long length, branches into two rivers, referred to as the Northern Kaiila and the Southern Kaiila. Along with the Snake River, they serve as important boundaries in the territories of the various bands of the Kaiila tribe. It is theorized that the Kaiila tribe, finding large herds of wild kaiila in the area, took the name for themselves, and the rivers were known simply as the rivers of the Kaiila people, simplied further to Kaiila River, or Rivers.

"The Isanna was the Little-Knife Band of the Kaiila. They came from the countries around Council Rock, north of the northern fork of the Kaiila River and west of the Snake, a tributary to the Northern Kaiila. The normal distributions, given food supply and such, of the bands of the Kaiila are usually rather as follows. First, understand that there exists the Kaiila River, flowing generally in a southwestward direction. At a given point, high in the territory of the Kaiila tribe, it branches into two rivers, which are normally spoken of as the Northern Kaiila and the Southern Kaiila. The Snake, flowing in an almost southern direction, is a tributary to the Northern Kaiila. The land of the Napoktan, or Bracelets band of the Kaiila, is east of the Snake, and north of the Northern Kaiila, and the Kaiila proper. The Wismahi, or Arrowhead band of the Kaiila, holds the more northern lands in and below, to some extent, the fork of the Kaiila. The Isbu's lands are the more southern lands between the Northern and Southern branches of the Kaiila. The lands of the Casmu, or Sand band of the Kaiila, lie to the west of the Isanna, and to the north and west of the Isbu, above the descending northern branch of the Northern Kaiila. It is not clear, historically, whether the river is named for the red savages through whose territories it tends to flow, or whether the ages have taken their name from the river system. My own suspicion in this matter, borne out by tribal stories, is that the early savages in this area found large herds of wild kaiila roaming the plains. They took, then, probably for medicine reasons, the name of the Kaiila for themselves. Subsequent1y, one supposes, watercourses originally understood to be, say, the rivers of the Kaiila people, or the rivers in the country of the Kaiila people, came to be known more simply as the Kaiila River, or Rivers." — Blood Brothers of Gor, pages 24-25.

• Kamba River
One of the large rivers of the inland region, the Kamba River empties into Thassa. The word "Kamba" means rope. An important river to the inland peoples, it provides fresh fish for food.

"Tell me what you know of the Cartius," he said.
      "It is an important subequatorial waterway," I said. "It flows west by northwest, entering the rain forests and emptying into Lake Ushindi, which lake is drained by the Kamba and the Nyoka rivers. The Kamba flows directly into Thassa. The Nyoka flows into Schendi, and moves thence to Thassa." Schendi was an equatorial free port, well known on Gor. It is also the home port of the League of Black Slavers.
      "It was, at one time," conjectured Samos," that the Cartius proper was a tributary of the Vosk."
      "I had been taught that," I said.
      "We now know that the Thassa Cartius and the subequaxorial Cartius are not the same river."
      "It had been thought, and shown on many maps," I said, "that the subequatorial Cartius not only flowed into Lake Ushindi, but emerged northward, traversing the sloping western flatlands to join the Vosk at Turmus." Turmus was the last major river port on the Vosk before the almost impassable marshes of the delta.
      "Calculations performed by the black geographer, Ramani, of the island of Anango, suggested that given the elevations involved the two rivers could not be the same. His pupil, Shaba, was the first civilized man to circumnavigate Lake Ushindi. He discovered that the Cartius, as was known, enters Lake Ushindi, but that only two rivers flow out of Ushindi, the Kamba and Nyoka." — Explorers of Gor, pages 16-17.

"I now regarded again the brownish stains in the water. Still we could not see land. Yet I knew that land must be nigh. Already, though we were still perhaps thirty or forty pasangs at sea, one could see clearly in the water the traces of inland sediments. These would have been washed out to sea from the Kamba and Nyoka rivers. These stains extend for pasangs into Thassa. Closer to shore one could mark clearly the traces of the Kamba to the north and the Nyoka to the south, but, given our present position, we were in the fans of these washes. The Kamba, as I may have mentioned, empties directly into Thassa; the Nyoka, on the other hand, empties into Schendi harbor, which is the harbor of the port of Schendi, its waters only then moving thence to Thassa. Kamba, incidentally, is an inland word, not Gorean. It means rope." — Explorers of Gor, pages 99-100.

"One smell that I did not smell to a great degree was that of fish. Many fish in these tropical waters are poisonous to eat, a function of certain forms of seaweed on which they feed. The seaweed is harmless to the fish but it contains substances toxic to humans. The river fish on the other hand, as far as I know, are generally wholesome for humans to eat. Indeed, there are many villages along the Kamba and Nyoka, and along the shores of Lake Ushindi, in which fishing is the major source of livelihood." — Explorers of Gor, page 109.

"Waters from the overflow of Lake Ngao entered the great marsh between Ngao and Ushindi, and, thence, made their ways to Ushindi, which, by means of the Kamba and Nyoka, drained to gleaming Thassa, the sea." — Explorers of Gor, page 220.

"When Lakes Ushindi and Ngao had been joined by the canal a continuous waterway would be opened between Thassa and the Ua. One might then, via either the Kamba or the Nyoka, attain Lake Ushindi." — Explorers of Gor, page 455.

• Laurius River
Major river in the northern part of Gor, which flows in a westernly direction, emptying into the Thassa. Unlike the treacherous Vosk River, the Laurius is long, winding, gentle and slow, which makes it an excellent river to be used for a trade route.

"He was bound, traveling over the hills and meadowlands east and north of Ko-ro-ba, for the city of Laura, which lies on the banks of the Laurius river, some two hundred pasangs inland from the coast of the sea, called Thassa. Laura is a small trading city, a river port, whose buildings are largely of wood, consisting mostly it seems of warehouses and taverns. It is a clearing house for many goods, wood, salt, fish, stone, fur and slaves. At the mouth of the Laurius, where it empties into Thassa, is found the free port of Lydius, administered by the merchants, an important Gorean caste. From Lydius goods may be embarked for the islands of Thassa, such as Teletus, Hulneth and Asperiche, even Cos and Tyros, and the coastal cities, such as Port Kar and Helmutsport, and, far to the south, Schendi and Bazi. And, from Lydius, of course, goods of many sorts, though primarily rough goods, such things as tools, crude metal and cloth, brought on barges, towed by tharlarion treading on log roads, following the river, are brought to Laura, for sale and distribution inland. The Laurius is a winding, long, gently, slow river. It does not have the breadth and current which are the terrors of the titanic Vosk farther to the south, well below Ko-ro-ba, though well above Ar, which is said to be the greatest city of all known Go. The Laurius, like the Vosk, flows in a generally westernly direction, though the Laurius inclines more to the southwest then the great Vosk." — Captive of Gor, pages 59-60.

"And I could smell the sea, Thassa, and the intermingling of the Laurius, with its fresh water, feeding into gleaming Thassa. I could smell tharlarion, and fish." — Hunters of Gor, page 42.

It was now four days following my arrival, the master of the Tesephone, in the harbor of Lydius, near the mouth of the broad, winding Laurius River." — Hunters of Gor, page 64.

"The morning tide from Thassa was running in, swelling the river. I wished to leave at the height of the tide. It would breast at the tenth Ahn. It was late in the summer and the river was not as high as it is in the spring. In the Laurius, and particularly near its mouth, there are likely to be shoals, shifting from day to day, brought and formed by the current. The tide from Thassa, lifting the river, makes the entrance to the Laurius less troublesome, less hazardous. The Tesephone, of course, being a light ship, an oared ship, a shallow-drafted ship, is commonly very little dependent on the tide." — Hunters of Gor, pages 68-69.

"We had taken the Tesephone from the wharves of Laura, and ascended the river some twenty pasangs. It was there, on the north bank, that we made our camp. Above Laura the river is less navigable than below, particularly in the late summer." — Hunters of Gor, page 85.

• Nyoka River
One of the large rivers of the inland region, the Nyoka River empties into the Schendi harbor. The word "Nyoka" means "Serpent." An important river to the inland peoples, it provides fresh fish for food.

"Tell me what you know of the Cartius," he said.
      "It is an important subequatorial waterway," I said. "It flows west by northwest, entering the rain forests and emptying into Lake Ushindi, which lake is drained by the Kamba and the Nyoka rivers. The Kamba flows directly into Thassa. The Nyoka flows into Schendi, and moves thence to Thassa." Schendi was an equatorial free port, well known on Gor. It is also the home port of the League of Black Slavers.
      "It was, at one time," conjectured Samos," that the Cartius proper was a tributary of the Vosk."
      "I had been taught that," I said.
      "We now know that the Thassa Cartius and the subequaxorial Cartius are not the same river."
      "It had been thought, and shown on many maps," I said, "that the subequatorial Cartius not only flowed into Lake Ushindi, but emerged northward, traversing the sloping western flatlands to join the Vosk at Turmus." Turmus was the last major river port on the Vosk before the almost impassable marshes of the delta.
      "Calculations performed by the black geographer, Ramani, of the island of Anango, suggested that given the elevations involved the two rivers could not be the same. His pupil, Shaba, was the first civilized man to circumnavigate Lake Ushindi. He discovered that the Cartius, as was known, enters Lake Ushindi, but that only two rivers flow out of Ushindi, the Kamba and Nyoka." — Explorers of Gor, pages 16-17.

"I now regarded again the brownish stains in the water. Still we could not see land. Yet I knew that land must be nigh. Already, though we were still perhaps thirty or forty pasangs at sea, one could see clearly in the water the traces of inland sediments. These would have been washed out to sea from the Kamba and Nyoka rivers. These stains extend for pasangs into Thassa. Closer to shore one could mark clearly the traces of the Kamba to the north and the Nyoka to the south, but, given our present position, we were in the fans of these washes. The Kamba, as I may have mentioned, empties directly into Thassa; the Nyoka, on the other hand, empties into Schendi harbor, which is the harbor of the port of Schendi, its waters only then moving thence to Thassa. Kamba, incidentally, is an inland word, not Gorean. It means rope. Similarly the word Nyoka means serpent." — Explorers of Gor, pages 99-100.

"We could see the shore now, with its sand and, behind the sand, the dense, green vegetation, junglelike, broken by occasional clearings for fields and villages. Schendi itself lay farther to the south, about the outjutting of a small peninsula, Point Schendi. The waters here were richly brown, primarily from the outflowing of the Nyoka, emptying from Lake Ushindi, some two hundred pasangs upriver." — Explorers of Gor, page 104.

"One smell that I did not smell to a great degree was that of fish. Many fish in these tropical waters are poisonous to eat, a function of certain forms of seaweed on which they feed. The seaweed is harmless to the fish but it contains substances toxic to humans. The river fish on the other hand, as far as I know, are generally wholesome for humans to eat. Indeed, there are many villages along the Kamba and Nyoka, and along the shores of Lake Ushindi, in which fishing is the major source of livelihood." — Explorers of Gor, page 109.

"Waters from the overflow of Lake Ngao entered the great marsh between Ngao and Ushindi, and, thence, made their ways to Ushindi, which, by means of the Kamba and Nyoka, drained to gleaming Thassa, the sea." — Explorers of Gor, page 220.

"When Lakes Ushindi and Ngao had been joined by the canal a continuous waterway would be opened between Thassa and the Ua. One might then, via either the Kamba or the Nyoka, attain Lake Ushindi." — Explorers of Gor, page 455.

• Olni River
Large tributory river of the Vosk, once overrun by pirates, four (4) cities, known collectively as the Four Cities of Saleria created an alliance, known as the Salerian Confederation in order to rid the Olni River of the pirate influence and protect inland shipping. These four cities are Ti, the largest city holding the confederation seat, Lara, a pivotal town between the Salerian Confederation and the other Vosk townships, Port Olni and Vonda

"Vonda was one of the four cities of the Salerian Confederation. The other cities of this confederation were Ti, Port Olni and Lara. All four of these cities lie on the Olni River, which is a tributary to the Vosk." — Fighting Slave of Gor, page 171.

"Port Olni is located on the north bank of the Olni River. It is a member of the Salerian Confederation." — Savages of Gor, page 89.

"They had demonstrated that they could have destroyed Lara, but they had not seen fit to do so. This was taken as an expression of disinterest on the part of Ar in all out warfare with the Salerian Confeeration. Also, of course in the future, this action might tend to divide the confederation in its feelings toward Ar. When it had become clear, incidentally , that Ar had for most practical purposes, spared Lara, the troops of Lara, not bothering to join with those of Port Olni and Ti, had returned to their city. There would now be sentiment in Lara favoring Ar. This would give Ar political leverage at the confluence of the Olni and Vosk, a strategic point if Cos should ever choose to move in force eastward along the Vosk. Lara was the pivot between the Salerian Confederation and the Vosk towns." — Rogue of Gor, page 62.

"To be sure, in virtue of their mutual distrust of Cos and the Salerian Confederation normally maintained close relations, and the Vosk League, a confederation of towns along the Vosk, originally formed, like the Salerian Confederation on the Olni, to control river piracy, was, at least in theory, independent of both Ar and Cos. I say, 'in theory' because one of the charter cities in the Vosk League is Port Cos, which, although it is a sovereign polis, was originally founded by, and settled by, Cosians. If Ar were out of the way in the area of the Vosk, of course, I did not doubt but what friction would develop quickly enough between Cos and the Salerian Confederation, and perhaps between Cos and the Vosk League, and for much the same reasons as formerly between Cos and Ar. — Renegades of Gor, pages 33-34.

"The retinue was the betrothal and dowry retinue of the Lady Sabina of the small merchant polis of Fortress of Saphronicus bound overland for Ti, of the Four Cities of Saleria, of the Salerian Confederation. Ti lies on the Olni, a tributary of the Vosk, north of Tharna." — Slave Girl of Gor, page 110.

• Snake River
The Snake River is a tributary of the Northern Kaiila River.

"The Isanna was the Little-Knife Band of the Kaiila. They came from the countries around Council Rock, north of the northern fork of the Kaiila River and west of the Snake, a tributary to the Northern Kaiila. The normal distributions, given food supply and such, of the bands of the Kaiila are usually rather as follows. First, understand that there exists the Kaiila River, flowing generally in a southwestward direction. At a given point, high in the territory of the Kaiila tribe, it branches into two rivers, which are normally spoken of as the Northern Kaiila and the Southern Kaiila. The Snake, flowing in an almost southern direction, is a tributary to the Northern Kaiila." — Blood Brothers of Gor, page 24.

• Thassa Cartius
Tributary river of the Vosk; not to be confused with the subequatorial river, the Cartius. This river was discovered by the explorer, Ramus of Tabor and over a period of nine months, mapped by his expedition, ending in the Ven Highlands. The Thassa Cartius has more than one tributary, as evidenced in the following quote, and drains the highlands and descending plains.

"Tell me what you know of the Cartius," he said.
      "It is an important subequatorial waterway," I said. "It flows west by northwest, entering the rain forests and emptying into Lake Ushindi, which lake is drained by the Kamba and the Nyoka rivers. The Kamba flows directly into Thassa. The Nyoka flows into Schendi, and moves thence to Thassa." Schendi was an equatorial free port, well known on Gor. It is also the home port of the League of Black Slavers.
      "It was, at one time," conjectured Samos," that the Cartius proper was a tributary of the Vosk."
      "I had been taught that," I said.
      "We now know that the Thassa Cartius and the subequaxorial Cartius are not the same river."
      "It had been thought, and shown on many maps," I said, "that the subequatorial Cartius not only flowed into Lake Ushindi, but emerged northward, traversing the sloping western flatlands to join the Vosk at Turmus." Turmus was the last major river port on the Vosk before the almost impassable marshes of the delta.
      "Calculations performed by the black geographer, Ramani, of the island of Anango, suggested that given the elevations involved the two rivers could not be the same. His pupil, Shaba, was the first civilized man to circumnavigate Lake Ushindi. He discovered that the Cartius, as was known, enters Lake Ushindi, but that only two rivers flow out of Ushindi, the Kamba and Nyoka. The actual source of the tributary to the Vosk, now called the Thassa Cartius, as you know, was found five years later by the explorer, Ramus of Tabor, who, with a small expedition, over a period of nine months, fought and bartered his way through the river tribes, beyond the six cataracts, to the Ven highlands. The Thassa Cartius, with its own tributaries, drains the highlands and the descending plains." — Explorers of Gor, pages 16-17.

• Ua River
One of the rivers of the inland region, its name means "Flower." The river was discovered and mapped by the explorer Shaba of Anango.

"To the west of Lake Ushindi," I said, "there are floodlands, marshes and bogs, through which a considerable amount of water drains into the lake. With considerable hardship, limiting himself to forty men, and temporarily abandoning all but two boats, which were half dragged and thrust through the marshes eastward, after two months, Shaba reached the western shore of what we now know as Lake Ngao."
      "Yes," said Samos.
      "It is fully as large as Lake Ushindi, if not larger," I said, "the second of the great equatorial lakes."
      "Shaba then continued the circumnavigation of Lake Ushindi," said Samos. "He charted accurately, for the first time, the entry of the Cartius proper, the subequatorial Cartius, into Ushindi. He then continued west until he reached the six ubarates and the heartland of Bila Huruma."
      "And it was there that he discovered that Lake Ngao was fed, incredibly enough, by one major river, as its eastern extremity, a river vast enough to challenge even the Vosk in its breadth and might, a river which he called the Ua."
      "It is impassable," I said, "Because of various falls and cataracts."
      "Shaba himself, with his men and boats, pursued the river for only a hundred pasangs," I said,. "when they were turned back by some falls and cataracts."
      "The falls and cataracts of Bila Huruma, as he named them," said Samos. — Explorers of Gor, pages 18-19.

"Shaba, the geographer of Anango, the explorer of Lake Ushindi, the discoverer of Lake Ngao and the Ua River," said Samos. — Explorers of Gor, page 30.

"The Ua River is, literally, the Flower River." — Explorers of Gor, page 100.

"Waters from the overflow of Lake Ngao entered the great marsh between Ngao and Ushindi, and, thence, made their ways to Ushindi, which, by means of the Kamba and Nyoka, drained to gleaming Thassa, the sea. The intent of the engineers of Bila Huruma was to set in place two parallel walls, low walls, some five or six feet high, placed about two hundred yards apart. The area between these walls, the marsh waters diverted on either side, was then to be drained and readied for the digging of the main channel. In this work draft tharlarion and greet scoops, brought from the north, as well as gigantic work crews, would be used. In the event that the central channel, when completed, would not prove sufficient to handle the overflow of Ngao, as seemed likely, conducting it geometrically to Ushindi, side channels were contemplated. The eventual intent of Bila Huruma was not only to open the rain forests of the deep interior, and whatever might lie within the system of the Ua, and her tributaries, to commercial exploitation and military expansion, but to drain the marshes between the two mighty lakes, Ushindi and Ngao, that that land, then reclaimed, thousands of square pasangs, might eventually be made available for agriculture. It was the intent of Bila Huruma not only to consolidate a ubarate but found a civilization." — Explorers of Gor, pages 220-221.

"When Lakes Ushindi and Ngao had been joined by the canal a continuous waterway would be opened between Thassa and the Ua. One might then, via either the Kamba or the Nyoka, attain Lake Ushindi. One might then follow the canal from Ushindi to Ngao. From Ngao one could enter upon the Ua. One could then, for thousands of pasangs, follow the Ua until one reached its terminus in Lake Shaba. And Lake Shaba itself was fed by numerous smaller streams and rivers, giving promise, like the tributaries of the Ua itself, to the latency of new countries. The importance of the work of Bila Huruma and Shaba, one a Ubar, the other a scribe and explorer, could not, in my opinion, be overestimated." — Explorers of Gor, page 455.

• Verl River
Tributary of the Vosk river; the river flows northwestward before emptying into the Vosk. Located in its southern basin is the village of Tabuk's Ford known for its sleen breeding.

"Tabuk's Ford was a large village, containing some forty families; it was ringed with a palisade, and stood like a hub in the midst of its fields, long, narrow, widening strips, which radiated from it like the spokes in a wheel. Thurnus tilled four of these strips. Tabuk's Ford receives its name from the fact that field Tabuk were once accustomed, in their annual migrations, to ford the Verl tributary of the Vosk in its vicinity. The Verl flows northwestward into the Vosk. We had crossed the Vosk, on barges, two weeks ago. The field Tabuk now make their crossing some twenty pasangs northwest of Tabuk's Ford, but the village, founded in the area of the original crossing keeps the first name of the locale. Tabuk's Ford is a rich village, but it is best known not for its agricultural bounty, a function of its dark, fertile fields in the southern basin of the Verl, but for its sleen breeding. Thurnus, of the Peasants, of Tabuk's Ford, was one of the best known of the sleen breeders of Gor." — Slave Girl of Gor, page 135.

• Vosk River
One of the main rivers of Gor located south of Ko-ro-ba, but well north of the city of Ar, and flows in a westernly direction, though inclining more to the southwest. It's waters are quite wide and deep with treacherous currents.

"The Laurius is a winding, long, gently, slow river. It does not have the breadth and current which are the terrors of the titanic Vosk farther to the south, well below Ko-ro-ba, though well above Ar, which is said to be the greatest city of all known Gor. The Laurius, like the Vosk, flows in a generally westernly direction, though the Laurius inclines more to the southwest then the great Vosk." — Captive of Gor, pages 59-60.

"Tell me what you know of the Cartius," he said.
      "It is an important subequatorial waterway," I said. "It flows west by northwest, entering the rain forests and emptying into Lake Ushindi, which lake is drained by the Kamba and the Nyoka rivers. The Kamba flows directly into Thassa. The Nyoka flows into Schendi, and moves thence to Thassa." Schendi was an equatorial free port, well known on Gor. It is also the home port of the League of Black Slavers.
      "It was, at one time," conjectured Samos," that the Cartius proper was a tributary of the Vosk."
      "I had been taught that," I said.
      "We now know that the Thassa Cartius and the subequaxorial Cartius are not the same river."
      "It had been thought, and shown on many maps," I said, "that the subequatorial Cartius not only flowed into Lake Ushindi, but emerged northward, traversing the sloping western flatlands to join the Vosk at Turmus." Turmus was the last major river port on the Vosk before the almost impassable marshes of the delta.
      "Calculations performed by the black geographer, Ramani, of the island of Anango, suggested that given the elevations involved the two rivers could not be the same. His pupil, Shaba, was the first civilized man to circumnavigate Lake Ushindi. He discovered that the Cartius, as was known, enters Lake Ushindi, but that only two rivers flow out of Ushindi, the Kamba and Nyoka." — Explorers of Gor, pages 16-17.

Water Formations

• Cataracts
Waterfalls and rapids found at various locations throughout Gor.

Etymology: Latin cataracta waterfall, portcullis, from Greek kataraktEs, from katarassein to dash down, from kata- + arassein to strike, dash
      "a. (obsolete): waterspout;
      b: waterfall; especially a large one over a precipice
      c: steep rapids in a river." — Merriam-Webster Dictionary ©2006.

"To the west of Lake Ushindi," I said, "there are floodlands, marshes and bogs, through which a considerable amount of water drains into the lake. With considerable hardship, limiting himself to forty men, and temporarily abandoning all but two boats, which were half dragged and thrust through the marshes eastward, after two months, Shaba reached the western shore of what we now know as Lake Ngao."
      "Yes," said Samos.
      "It is fully as large as Lake Ushindi, if not larger," I said, "the second of the great equatorial lakes."
      "Shaba then continued the circumnavigation of Lake Ushindi," said Samos. "He charted accurately, for the first time, the entry of the Cartius proper, the subequatorial Cartius, into Ushindi. He then continued west until he reached the six ubarates and the heartland of Bila Huruma."
      "And it was there that he discovered that Lake Ngao was fed, incredibly enough, by one major river, as its eastern extremity, a river vast enough to challenge even the Vosk in its breadth and might, a river which he called the Ua."
      "It is impassable," I said, "Because of various falls and cataracts."
      "Shaba himself, with his men and boats, pursued the river for only a hundred pasangs," I said,. "when they were turned back by some falls and cataracts."
      "The falls and cataracts of Bila Huruma, as he named them," said Samos. — Explorers of Gor, pages 18-19.

"It had been thought, and shown on many maps," I said, "that the subequatorial Cartius not only flowed into Lake Ushindi, but emerged northward, traversing the sloping western flatlands to join the Vosk at Turmus." Turmus was the last major river port on the Vosk before the almost impassable marshes of the delta.
      "Calculations performed by the black geographer, Ramani, of the island of Anango, suggested that given the elevations involved the two rivers could not be the same. His pupil, Shaba, was the first civilized man to circumnavigate Lake Ushindi. He discovered that the Cartius, as was known, enters Lake Ushindi, but that only two rivers flow out of Ushindi, the Kamba and Nyoka. The actual source of the tributary to the Vosk, now called the Thassa Cartius, as you know, was found five years later by the explorer, Ramus of Tabor, who, with a small expedition, over a period of nine months, fought and bartered his way through the river tribes, beyond the six cataracts, to the Ven highlands. The Thassa Cartius, with its own tributaries, drains the highlands and the descending plains." — Explorers of Gor, page 16.

 

 

 

Mountain Ranges, Foothills and Passes

• Axe Glacier
A large glacier located east of Torvaldsland between two mountains of stone; its path toward the sea forming the shape of an ax, hence its name. The people of the region fish for whales and hunt snow sleen.

"Ax Glacier was far to the north, a glacier spilling between two mountains of stone, taking in its path to the sea, spreading, the form of an ax. The men of the country of Ax Glacier fish for whales and hunt snow sleen. They cannot farm that far to the north. Thorgeir, it so happened, of course, was the only man of the Ax Glacier country, which is usually taken as the northern border of Torvaldsland, before the ice belts of Gor's arctic north, who was at the Thing-Fair." — Marauders of Gor, page 139.

"I could see, high on the map, Ax Glacier, Torvaldsland, and Hunjer and Skjern, and Helmutsport, and, lower, Kassau and the great green forests, and the river Laurius, and Laura and Lydius, and, lower, the islands, prominent among them Cos and Tyros; I saw the delta of the Vosk, and Port Kar, and, inland, Ko-ro-ba, the Towers of the Morning, and Thentis, in the mountains of Thentis, famed for her tarn flocks; and, to the south, among many other cities, Tharna, of the vast silver mines; I saw the Voltai Range, and Glorious Ar, and the Cartius, and, far to the south, Turia, and near the shore of Thassa, the islands of Anango and Ianda, and on the coast, the free ports of Schendi and Bazi. There were, on this map, hundreds of cities, and promontories and peninsulas, and rivers and inland lakes and seas." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 7.

• Boswell Pass
Bordered by the southern edge of the Thentis Mountains and the northern range of the Voltai, the pass is the gateway to the Barrens, the home of the red savages. At the foot of the pass lay Fort Haskins, once an important military post, now serving as a trading center.

"The next town northward is Fort Haskins," I said. This lay at the foot of Bosswell Pass. — Savages of Gor, page 76.

• Fulvians
Foothills of the Voltai Mountains, northeast of Ar. The villa districts of Ar are found here.

"The sun was now high overhead. It was much hotter here, in this area, and at this time of day, than it had been earlier in the villa districts, in the hills northeast of Ar, the Fulvians, foothills in to the Voltai." — Magicians of Gor, page 299.

• Hrimgar Mountains
Translated from Gorean, meaning "Barrier Mountains," this range consists of tiers of interlaced chains of mountains both to the north and east of Torvaldsland, bordering the tundra, and penetrated by numerous passes through which host the trek of migrating herds of tabuk; one such pass named for a large herd called the Tancred herd.

"There are tiers of mountains, interlaced chains of them, both east of Torvaldsland and north of her. Ax Glacier lies in one valley between two of these chains. These chains, together, are sometimes called the Hrimgar Mountains, which, in Gorean, means the Barrier Mountains. They are surely not a barrier, however, in the sense that the Voltai Mountains, or even the Thentis Mountains or Ta-Thassa Mountains, are barriers. The Hrimgar Mountains are not as rugged or formidable as any of these chains, and they are penetrated by numerous passes. One such pass, through which we trekked, is called the pass of Tancred, because it is the pass used annually by the migration of the herd of Tancred. Four days after leaving the northern edge of Ax Glacier, we climbed to the height of the pass of Tancred, the mountains of the Hrimgar flanking us on either side. Below the height, the pass sloping downward, we could see the tundra of the polar plain. It is thousands of pasangs in width, and hundreds in depth; it extends, beyond horizons we could see, to the southern edge of the northern, or polar, sea." — Beasts of Gor, page 192.

"I could see the blue line of the Hrimgar Mountains in the distance to the south. To the north the tundra stretched forth to the horizon. Many people do not understand the nature of the polar north." — Beasts of Gor, pages 195-196.

• Sardar Mountains
Home to the Priest-Kings, black rocky crags define these mountains. John Norman didn't much provide a clue where they can be found. Speculation has placed them south of the Vosk and west of the Voltai, and something like one thousand (1,000) pasangs from Ko-ro-ba; yet another has placed these mountains near the Vosk between the Thassa Cartius and the Issus rivers; a third speculations places the Sardar north of the Vosk close to the Thentis Mountains. Wherever they are, they are the point of reference for the Gorean compass, as our north pole is on Earth.

"The Priest-Kings," said my father, "maintain the Sacred Place in the Sardar Mountains, a wild vastness into which no man penetrates. The Sacred Place, to the minds of most men here, is taboo, perilous. Surely none have returned from those mountains." My father's eyes seemed faraway, as if focused on sights he might have preferred to forget. "Idealists and rebels have been dashed to pieces on the frozen escarpments of those mountains. If one approaches the mountains, one must go on foot. Our beasts will not approach them. Parts of outlaws and fugitives who sought refuge in them have been found on the plains below, like scraps of meat cast from an incredible distance to the beaks and teeth of wandering scavengers."— Tarnsman of Gor, pages 29-30.

"The mountains of the Sardar were not such a vast, magnificent range as the rugged scarlet crags of the Voltai, that almost impenetrable mountains vastness in which I had once been the prisoner of the outlaw Ubar, Marlenus of Ar, ambitious and warlike father of the fierce and beautiful Talena, she whom I loved, whom I had carried on tarnback to Ko-ro-ba years before to be my Free Companion. No, the Sardar Range was not the superb natural wilderness that was the Voltai. Its peaks did not scorn the plains below. Its heights did not taunt the sky nor, in the cold of the night, defy the stars. In it would not be heard the cry of tarns and the roar of larls. It was inferior to the Voltai in both dimension and grandeur. Yet when I looked upon it, more than the gloriously savage, larl-haunted Voltai, I feared it. I took the tarn closer.
      "The mountains before me were black, except for the high peaks and passes, which showed white patches and threads of cold, gleaming snow. I looked for the green of vegetation on the lower slopes and saw none. In the Sardar Range nothing grew. There seemed to be a menace, and intangible fearful effect about those angular shapes in the distance. I took the tarn as high as I could, until his wings beat frantically against the thin air, but could see nothing in the Sardar Mountains that might be the habitation of Priest-Kings. …
      "Suddenly the tarn screamed and shuddered in the air! The thought of the emptiness of the Sardar Range was banished from my mind, for here was evidence of the Priest-Kings! It was almost as if the bird had been seized by an invisible fist. I could sense nothing. The bird's eyes, perhaps for the first time in his life, were filled with terror, blind uncomprehending terror. I could see nothing. Protesting, screaming, the great bird began to reel helplessly downward. Its vast wings, futilely, wildly, struck out, uncoordinated and frenetic, like the limbs of a drowning swimmer. It seemed the very air itself refused any longer to bear his weight. In drunken, dizzy circles, screaming, bewildered, helpless, the bird fell, while I, for my life, desperately clung to the thick quills of his neck. When we had reached an altitude of perhaps a hundred yards from the ground, as suddenly as it had come, the strange effect passed. The bird regained his strength and senses, except for the fact that it remained agitated, almost unmanageable. …
      "What had happened would have been regarded by the untrained Gorean mind, particularly that of a low caste individual, as evidence of some supernatural force, as some magical effect of the will of the Priest-Kings. I myself did not willingly entertain such hypotheses. The tarn had struck a field of some sort, which perhaps acted on the mechanism of the inner ear, resulting in the loss of balance and coordination. A similar device, I supposed, might prevent the entry of high tharlarions, the saddle lizards of Gor, into the mountains. In spite of myself I admired the Priest-Kings. I knew now that it was true, what I had been told, that those who entered the mountains would do so on foot." — Outlaw of Gor, pages 179-182.

• Ta-Thassa Mountains
The mountain range located within the southern hemisphere only, separate the plains of Turia and the shores of Thassa. "Ta-Thassa" translated from Gorean, means "to the Sea."

"Ta-Sardar-Gor. Ta-Thassa," said I, in Gorean. "To the Priest-Kings of Gor, and to the Sea." — Hunters of Gor, page 73.

"Even past me there thundered a lumbering herd of startled, short-bunked kailiauk, a stocky, awkward ruminant of the plains, tawny, wild, heavy, their haunches marked in red and brown bars, their wide heads bristling with a trident of horns; they had not stood and formed their circle, she's and young within the circle of tridents; they, too, had fled; farther to one side I saw a pair of prairie sleen, smaller than the forest sleen but quite as unpredictable and vicious, each about seven feet in length, furred, six-legged, mammalian, moving in their undulating gait with their viper's heads moving from side to side, continually testing the wind; beyond them I saw one of the tumits, a large, flightless bird whose hooked beak, as long as my forearm, attested only too clearly to its gustatory habits; I lifted my shield and grasped the long spear, but it did not turn in my direction; it passed, unaware; beyond the bird, to my surprise, I saw even a black larl, a huge catlike predator more commonly found in mountainous regions; it was stalking away, retreating unhurried like a king; before what, I asked myself, would even the black larl flee; and I asked myself how far it had been driven; perhaps even from the mountains of Ta-Thassa, that loomed in this hemisphere, Gor's southern, at the shore of Thassa, the sea, said to be in the myths without a farther shore.
      "The Wagon Peoples claimed the southern prairies of Gor, from the gleaming Thassa and the mountains of Ta-Thassa to the southern foothills of the Voltai Range itself, that reared in the crust of Gor like the backbone of a planet. On the north they claimed lands even to the rush-grown banks of the Cartius, a broad, swift flowing tributary feeding into the incomparable Vosk. The land between the Cartius and the Vosk had once been within the borders of the claimed empire of Ar, but not even Marlenus, Ubar of Ubars, when master of luxurious, glorious Ar, had flown his tarnsmen south of the Cartius." — Nomads of Gor, page 2.

Port Kar, crowded, squalid, malignant, is sometimes referred to as the Tarn of the Sea. Her name is a synonym in Gorean for cruelty and piracy. The fleets of tarn ships of Port Kar are the scourge of Thassa, beautiful, lateen-rigged galleys that ply the trade of plunder and enslavement from the Ta-Thassa Mountains of the southern hemisphere of Gor to the ice lakes of the North; and westward even beyond the terraced island of Cos and the rocky Tyros, with its labyrinths of vart caves." — Raiders of Gor, page 6.

• Teveh Pass
Mountain pass named, but no further description of precisely where it is located. It was the site of a battle in which Dietrich of Tarnburg fought in; likely the pass is located then in the Voltai Range.

Dietrich of Tarnburg, of the high city of Tarnburg, some two hundred pasangs to the north and west of Hochburg, both substantially mountain fortresses, both in the more southern and civilized ranges of the Voltai, was well-known to the warriors of Gor. His name was almost a legend. It was he who had won the day on the fields of both Piedmont and Cardonicus, who had led the Forty Days' March, relieving the siege of Talmont, who had effected the crossing of the Issus in 10,122 C.A., in the night evacuation of Keibel Hill, when I had been in Torvaldsland, and who had been the victor in the battles of Rovere, Kargash, Edgington, Teveh Pass, Gordon Heights, and the Plains of Sanchez. His campaigns (pg.32) were studied in all the war schools of the high cities. I knew him from scrolls I had studied years ago in Ko-ro-ba, and from volumes in my library in Port Kar, such as the commentaries of Minicius and the anonymous analyses of "The Diaries," sometimes attributed to the military historian, Carl Commenius, of Argentum, rumored to have once been a mercenary himself. — Mercenaries of Gor, pages 31-32.

• Thentis Mountains
Mountain range which lies on the northeast border of explored Gor, said to be north of the Voltai and beyond which lays the Barren lands inhabited by the tribes of Red Savages. Home to the city which bears its name, the Mountains of Thentis are famed for their flocks of wild tarns, and the production of black wine, the beans of which are grown on its slopes.

"I could see, high on the map, Ax Glacier, Torvaldsland, and Hunjer and Skjern, and Helmutsport, and, lower, Kassau and the great green forests, and the river Laurius, and Laura and Lydius, and, lower, the islands, prominent among them Cos and Tyros; I saw the delta of the Vosk, and Port Kar, and, inland, Ko-ro-ba, the Towers of the Morning, and Thentis, in the mountains of Thentis, famed for her tarn flocks; and, to the south, among many other cities, Tharna, of the vast silver mines; I saw the Voltai Range, and Glorious Ar, and the Cartius, and, far to the south, Turia, and near the shore of Thassa, the islands of Anango and Ianda, and on the coast, the free ports of Schendi and Bazi. There were, on this map, hundreds of cities, and promontories and peninsulas, and rivers and inland lakes and seas." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 7.

• Torvaldsberg
The large spear-blade shaped peak of Torvaldsland, more than four and a half pasangs high, home to the sleeping cave of the legendary Torvald.

In leaving the Thing-Field I saw, in the distance, a high, snow-capped mountain, steep, sharp, almost like the blade of a bent spear. I had seen it at various times, but never so clearly as from the Thing-Field. I suppose the Thing-Field might, partly, have been selected for the aspect of this mountain. It was a remarkable peak.
      "What mountain is that?" I asked.
      "It is the Torvaldsberg," said Ivar Forkbeard. — Marauders of Gor, page 180.

"The Torvaldsberg is, all things considered, an extremely dangerous mountain. Yet it is clearly not unscalable, as I learned, without equipment. It has the shape of a spear blade, broad, which has been bent near the tip. It is something over four and a half pasangs in height, or something over seventeen thousand Earth feet. It is not the highest mountain on Gor but it is one of the most dramatic, and most impressive. It is also, in its fearful way, beautiful." — Marauders of Gor, pages 220-221.

• Voltai Mountains
The 'spine of the continent' which draws the eastern border of known Gor. The Voltai range rises and spreads southward from northeast of Ar to the northern limits of the Tahari.

"The Wagon Peoples claimed the southern prairies of Gor, from the gleaming Thassa and the mountains of Ta-Thassa to the southern foothills of the Voltai Range itself, that reared in the crust of Gor like the backbone of a planet." — Nomads of Gor, page 2.

"The spires of Ar, depending on the weather, can normally be seen quite clearly from the nearer ranges of the Voltai, or the Red Mountains, the greatest mountain range of known Gor, superior to both those of Thentis and the Sardar itself." — Assassin of Gor, page 95.

"As nearly as I could determine from the map and my memory of the location of the Vosk and the direction I had been carried, I was somewhere in the Voltai Range, sometimes called the Red Mountains, south of the river and to the east of Ar.. My calculations as to my locale tended to be confirmed by the dull reddish color of the cliffs, due to the presence of large deposits of iron oxide." — Tarnsman of Gor, page 144.

"The beast had been taken southeast of Ar, while moving southeast. Such a path would take it below the eastern foothills of the Voltai and to the south." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 27.

"I could see, high on the map, Ax Glacier, Torvaldsland, and Hunjer and Skjern, and Helmutsport, and, lower, Kassau and the great green forests, and the river Laurius, and Laura and Lydius, and, lower, the islands, prominent among them Cos and Tyros; I saw the delta of the Vosk, and Port Kar, and, inland, Ko-ro-ba, the Towers of the Morning, and Thentis, in the mountains of Thentis, famed for her tarn flocks; and, to the south, among many other cities, Tharna, of the vast silver mines; I saw the Voltai Range, and Glorious Ar, and the Cartius, and, far to the south, Turia, and near the shore of Thassa, the islands of Anango and Ianda, and on the coast, the free ports of Schendi and Bazi. There were, on this map, hundreds of cities, and promontories and peninsulas, and rivers and inland lakes and seas." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 7.

Forests and Marshlands

• Northern Forest
What is known as the northern forest is that area north of the Laurius River, which extends from Thassa far to the east for thousands of pasangs wide spanning a natural border; its eastern edge is said to be unexplored. The northern forest is home to the giant Tur trees and the notorious panther girls.

"The northern forests, the haunts of bandits and unusual beasts, far to the north and east of Ko-ro-ba, my city, are magnificent, deep forests, covering hundreds of thousands of square pasangs." — Assassin of Gor, pages 293-294.

"I looked about myself. The forests of the northern temperate latitudes of Gor are countries in themselves, covering hundreds of thousands of square pasangs of area. They contain great numbers of various species of trees, and different portions of the forests may differ considerably among themselves. The most typical and famous tree of these forests is the lofty, reddish Tur tree, some varieties of which grow more than two hundred feet high. It is not known how far these forests extend. It is not impossible that they belt the land surfaces of the planet. They begin near the shores of Thassa, the Sea, in the west. How far they extend to the east is not known. They do extend beyond the most northern ridges of the Thentis Mountains." — Captive of Gor, page 129.

Woods Of Clearchus
A span of the northern forests named after a famous brigand who had once ruled the area, proclaiming it a ubarate and he its ubar. Clearchus was successfully chased out of the area by a large force of mercenaries hired by the Caste of Merchants, the woods of Clearchus still remain a haunt of brigands.

"Some two years ago the merchants and builders had opened the road of Cyprianus, named for the engineer in charge of the project, which led to the fairs rather from the southwest. This had considerably reduced the traffic on the road of Clearchus, now to its north, which had approached the fairs in such a way as to favor the traffic from the northwest, with the result that several of the establishments on the road of Clearchus had been abandoned or relocated. One advantage of the more southern route is that it passes through less rough terrain, terrain which provides less cover for highwaymen. In particular, it does not pass, for several pasangs, though the woods of Clearchus. As rumor has it, Clearchus was a famous brigand of some two centuries ago who decided to legitimize and regularize his brigandage. He proclaimed his area of operations a ubarate, proclaimed himself its ubar, and then proceeded to impose taxes and levy tolls. Interestingly enough, in time, several cities accorded this ubarate diplomatic recognition, generally in return for concessions on the taxes and tolls. Finally a large force of mercenaries, in the hire of the merchant caste, in a campaign that lasted several months, put an end to the spurious reign of Clearchus, driving him from the forest and scattering his men. It is generally conceded, however, that had Clearchus had more men he might have turned out to be the founder of a state. It is not altogether clear what happened to Clearchus but some historians identify him with Clearchus of Turia, an immigrant, with followers, to Turia, now chiefly remembered as a patron of the arts and philanthropist. The woods of Clearchus, incidentally, to this day, remain a haunt of brigands." — Players of Gor, pages 99-100.

• Rainforest of the Equatorial Zone
The Ushindi region is that vast area of land located in the equatorial zone of the planet. It is mostly rainforest land, and its main city, Schendi, one of the largest, most important port cities on Gor. The peoples of this region are negroid.

"I now regarded again the brownish stains in the water. Still we could not see land. Yet I knew that land must be nigh. Already, though we were still perhaps thirty or forty pasangs at sea, one could see clearly in the water the traces of inland sediments. These would have been washed out to sea from the Kamba and Nyoka rivers. These stains extend for pasangs into Thassa. Closer to shore one could mark clearly the traces of the Kamba to the north and the Nyoka to the south, but, given our present position, we were in the fans of these washes. The Kamba, as I may have mentioned, empties directly into Thassa; the Nyoka, on the other hand, empties into Schendi harbor, which is the harbor of the port of Schendi, its waters only then moving thence to Thassa.
      Kamba, incidentally, is an inland word, not Gorean. It means rope. Similarly the word Nyoka means serpent. Ushindi means Victory. Thus Lake Ushindi might be thought of as Lake Victory or Victory Lake. It was named for some victory over two hundred years ago won on its shores. The name of the tiny kingdom or ubarate which had won the victory is no longer remembered. Lake Ngao, which was discovered by Shaba, and named by him, was named for a shield, because of its long, oval shape. The shields in this area tend to have that shape. It is also an inland word, of course. The Ua River is, literally, the Flower River. I have chosen, however, to retain the inland words, as they are those which are commonly used. There are, of course, many languages spoken on Gor, but that language I have called Gorean, in its various dialects, is the lingua franca of the planet. It is spoken most everywhere, except in remote areas. One of these remote areas, of course, is the equatorial interior. The dialects of the Ushindi region I will usually refer to as the inland dialects. To some extent, of course, this is a misnomer, as there are many languages which are spoken in the equatorial interior which would not be intelligible to a native speaker of the Ushindi area. It is useful, however, to have some convenient way of referring to the linguistic modalities of the Ushindi area. Gorean, incidentally, is spoken generally in Schendi. The word Schendi, as nearly as I can determine, has no obvious, direct meaning in itself. It is generally speculated, however, that it is a phonetic corruption of the inland word Ushindi, which, long ago, was apparently used to refer to this general area. In that sense, I suppose, one might think of Schendi, though it has no real meaning of its own, as having .an etiological relationship to a word meaning 'Victory.'" — Explorers of Gor, pages 99-100.

The rainforest is composed of three tiers, or levels, or zones: the emergent zone, which is the highest, the canopy zone and the ground zone. Each zone has its own distinct variety not only of plant life, but also of animal and insect life.

Rain Forest:
"A tropical woodland that has an annual rainfall of at least 100 inches and often much more, is typical of but not wholly restricted to certain lowland areas, is characterized by lofty broad-leaved evergreen trees forming a continuous canopy, lianas, and herbaceous and woody epiphytes and by nearly complete absence of low-growing or understory ground-rooted plants — called also tropical rain forest."

• Temperate Rain Forest:
: woodland of temperate but usually rather mild climatic areas with heavy rainfall usually including numerous kinds of trees and being distinguished from tropical rain forest by the presence of a dominant tree (as the podocarpus forests of New Zealand)."

• Understory:
"A foliage layer lying beneath and shaded by the main canopy of a forest; the plants (as seedlings, shrubs, and herbs) that form the foliage understory of a forest — sometimes distinguished from ground cover; a layer of low vegetation underlying a layer of taller (as of grama grass beneath wheatgrass)."

• Canopy:
Etymology:Middle English canope, canape, from Medieval Latin canopeum, canapeum mosquito net, from Latin conopeum, conopium; 'A formation of branches affording a cover of foliage specifically: the uppermost spreading branchy layer of a forest; "Understory."

• Emergent:
"A plant (as a tall tree with its crown above the level of the forest) that emerges from its substrate." — Merriam Webster Dictionary ©2003-2006.

"In the rain forest we may distinguish three separate ecological zones, or tiers or levels. Each of these tiers, or levels, or layers, is characterized by its own special forms of plant and animal life. These layers are marked off by divergent tree heights. The highest level or zone is that of the "emergents," that of those trees which have thrust themselves up above the dense canopies below them. This level is roughly from a hundred and twenty-five feet Gorean to two hundred feet Gorean. The second level is often spoken of as the canopy, or as that of the canopies. This is the fantastic green cover which constitutes the main ceiling of the jungle. It is what would dominate one's vision if one were passing over the jungle in tarn flight or viewing it from the height of a tall mountain. The canopy, or zone of the canopies, ranges from about sixty to one hundred and twenty-five feet high, Gorean measure. The first zone extends from the ground to the beginning of the canopies above, some sixty feet in height, Gorean measure. We may perhaps, somewhat loosely, speak of this first zone as the 'floor,' or, better, 'ground zone,' of the rain forest. In the level of the emergents there live primarily birds, in particular parrots, long-billed fleers, and needle-tailed lits. Monkeys and tree urts, and snakes and insects, however, can also be found in this highest level. 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. Here, too, may be found snakes and monkeys, gliding urts, leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines, lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects, ants, centipedes, scorpions, beetles and flies, and so on. In the lower portion of the canopies, too, can be found heavier birds, such as the ivory-billed woodpecker and the umbrella bird. Guernon monkeys, too, usually inhabit this level. In the ground zone, and on the ground itself, are certain birds, some flighted, like the hook-billed gort, which preys largely on rodents, such as ground urts, and the insectivorous whistling finch, and some unflighted, like the grub borer and lang gim. Along the river, of course, many other species of birds may be found, such as jungle gants, tufted fishers and ring-necked and yellow-legged waders. Also in the ground zone are varieties of snake, such as the ost and hith, and numerous species of insects. The rock spider has been mentioned, and termites, also. Termites, incidentally, are extremely important to the ecology of the forest. In their feeding they break down and destroy the branches and trunks of fallen trees. The termite 'dust,' thereafter, by the action of bacteria, is reduced to humus, and the humus to nitrogen and mineral materials. In the lower branches of the 'ground zone' may be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized panthers, not dangerous to man. On the floor itself are also found several varieties of animal life, in particular marsupials, such as the armored gatch, and rodents, such as slees and ground urts. Several varieties of tarsk, large and small, also inhabit this zone. More than six varieties of anteater are also found here, and more than twenty kinds of small, fleet, single-horned tabuk. On the jungle floor, as well, are found jungle larls and jungle panthers, of diverse kinds, and many smaller catlike predators. These, on the whole, however, avoid men. They are less dangerous in the rain forest, generally, than in the northern latitudes. I do not know why this should be the case. Perhaps it Is because in the rain forest food is usually plentiful for them, and, thus, there is little temptation for them to transgress the boundaries of their customary prey categories. They will, however, upon occasion, particularly if provoked or challenged, attack with dispatch. Conspicuously absent in the rain forests of the Ua were sleen. This is just as well for the sleen, commonly, hunts on the first scent it takes upon emerging from its burrow after dark. Moreover it hunts single-mindedly and tenaciously. It can be extremely dangerous to men, even more so, I think, than the Voltai, or northern, larl. I think the sleen, which is widespread on Gor, is not found, or not frequently found, in the jungles because of the enormous rains, and the incredible dampness and humidity. Perhaps the sleen, a burrowing, furred animal, finds itself uncomfortable in such a habitat There is, however, a sleenlike animal, though much smaller, about two feet in length and some eight to ten pounds in weight, the zeder, which frequents the Ua and her tributaries. It knifes through the water by day and, at night, returns to its nest, built from sticks and mud in the branches of a tree overlooking the water." — Explorers of Gor, pages 311-312.

• Swamp Forest
The Swamp Forest so noted in Tarnsman, in the swamplands outside of Ar, seems to have a confusing location. Later, we read that not only does it border Ar to the north, but also to the south. At least at first glance it does. However, when you actually read the two quotes, you see that John Norman simply forgot where he had initially put the characters and the swamp forest in relation to that of Ar. The only really consistent thing about the swamp forest, are the strange trees and the Spider People, or Swamp Spiders.

"The third day's camp was made in the swamp forest that borders the city of Ar on the north. I had chosen this area because it is the most uninhabitable area within tarn strike of Ar. I had seen to many village cooking fires last night, and twice I had heard the tarn whistles of nearby patrols — groups of three warriors flying their rounds. The thought crossed my mind, of giving up the project, turning outlaw, if you will, deserter, if you like, but of saving my own skin, trying to get out of this mad scheme if only with my life, and that only for a time." — Tarnsman of Gor, page 74.

"When I opened my eyes, I found myself partially adhering to a vast network of broad, elastic strands that formed a structure, perhaps a pasang in width, and through which at numerous points projected the monstrous trees of the swamp forest. I felt the network, or web, tremble, and I struggled to rise, but found myself unable to gain my feet. My flesh adhered to the adhesive substance of the broad strands. Approaching me, stepping daintily for all its bulk, prancing over the strands, came one of the Swamp Spiders of Gor. I fastened my eyes on the blue sky, wanting it to be the last thing I looked upon. I shuddered as the beast paused near me, and I felt the light stroke of its forelegs, felt the tactile investigation of the sensory hairs on its appendages. I looked at it, and it peered down, with its four pairs of pearly eyes — quizzically, I thought. Then, to my astonishment, I heard a mechanically reproduced sound say, "Who are you?" — Tarnsman of Gor, page 80.

"I remembered her as I had seen her, in the swamp forest, south of Ar, with Nar the spider, and in the Ka-la-na grove, where I had freed her from the chains of a slave, only to put mine upon her; and in the caravan of Mintar, of the Merchants, in her collar, mine, and slave tunic, with Kazrak, my sword brother; and her dancing in my tent; and she upon the lofty cylinder of justice, in Ar, threatened with impalement, and as she had been, beautiful and loving, in the hours of our Free Companionship in Ko-ro-ba, before I had awakened again, stiff, bewildered, in the mountains of New Hampshire." — Captive of Gor, page 368.

Wetlands: Marshes, Swamps, Floodlands

• Marsh Lands of the Delta of the Vosk
A marshland of made up of hundreds of shifting, shallow channels which spreads over a hundred pasangs over the western edge of the Vosk, bordering the Tamber Gulf before the Vosk dumps into Thassa. This land is inhabited not only by carnivorous tharlarion, airborne and amphibious, but also by the rencers, so named for the rence plant, indigenous to this area and the fodder of their livelihood.

"On river barges, for hundreds of pasangs, I had made my way down the Vosk, but where the mighty Vosk began to break apart and spread into its hundreds of shallow, constantly shifting channels, becoming lost in the vast tidal marshes of its delta, moving toward gleaming Thassa, the Sea, I had abandoned the barges, purchasing from rence growers on the eastern periphery of the delta supplies and the small rush craft which I now propelled through the rushes and sedge, the wild rence plants. … No one had been found who would guide me into the delta of the Vosk. The bargemen of the Vosk will not take their wide, broad-bottomed craft into the delta. The channels of the Vosk, to be sure, shift from season to season, and the delta is often little more than a trackless marsh, literally hundreds of square pasangs of estuarial wilderness. In many places it is too shallow to float even the great flat-bottomed barges and, more importantly, a path for them would have to be cut and chopped, foot by foot, through the thickets of rush and sedge, and the tangles of marsh vine. The most important reason for not finding a guide, of course, even among the eastern rence growers, is that the delta is claimed by Port Kar, which lies within it, some hundred pasangs from its northwestern edge, bordering on the shallow Tamber Gulf, beyond which is gleaming Thassa, the Sea. … Man has not surrendered it entirely to the tharlarion, the UI and the salt leach. There are scattered, almost invisible, furtive communities of rence growers who eke out their livelihood in the delta, nominally under the suzerainty of Port Kar. The cloth I found had probably been a trail mark for some rence growers." — Raiders of Gor, pages 5-6.

"As I have mentioned, Port Kar claims the suzerainty of the delta. Accordingly, frequently, bands of armed men, maintaining allegiance to on or the other of the warring, rival Ubars of Port Kar, enter the delta to, as they say, collect taxes. The tributes exacted, when the small communities can be found, are customarily harsh, often whatever [-page 8-] of value can be found; typically what is demanded is great stocks of rence paper for trade, sons for oarsmen in cargo galleys, daughters for Pleasure Slaves in the taverns of the city.I looked on the red cloth tied to the rence plant." — Raiders of Gor, page 8-9.

"Never has a slave girl escaped from canaled Port Kar, protected on one side by the interminable, rush-grown delta of the Vosk, on the other by the broad tides of the Tamber Gulf, and beyond it, the vast, blue, gleaming, perilous Thassa." " — Assassin of Gor, pages 305.

• Marsh and Swamp Lands of the North
The swamplands extend outside of Ar in a rather unusual manner. Meaning, the location is rather at odds with itself in the books. The Swamp Forest so noted in Tarnsman, in the swamplands outside of Ar, seems to have a confusing location. Later, we read that not only does it border Ar to the north, but also to the south. At least at first glance it does. However, when you actually read the two quotes, you see that John Norman simply forgot where he had initially put the characters and the swamp forest in relation to that of Ar. The only really consistent thing about the swamp forest, are the strange trees and the Spider People, or Swamp Spiders.

"The third day's camp was made in the swamp forest that borders the city of Ar on the north. I had chosen this area because it is the most uninhabitable area within tarn strike of Ar. I had seen to many village cooking fires last night, and twice I had heard the tarn whistles of nearby patrols — groups of three warriors flying their rounds. The thought crossed my mind, of giving up the project, turning outlaw, if you will, deserter, if you like, but of saving my own skin, trying to get out of this mad scheme if only with my life, and that only for a time." — Tarnsman of Gor, page 74.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself partially adhering to a vast network of broad, elastic strands that formed a structure, perhaps a pasang in width, and through which at numerous points projected the monstrous trees of the swamp forest. I felt the network, or web, tremble, and I struggled to rise, but found myself unable to gain my feet. My flesh adhered to the adhesive substance of the broad strands. Approaching me, stepping daintily for all its bulk, prancing over the strands, came one of the Swamp Spiders of Gor. I fastened my eyes on the blue sky, wanting it to be the last thing I looked upon. I shuddered as the beast paused near me, and I felt the light stroke of its forelegs, felt the tactile investigation of the sensory hairs on its appendages. I looked at it, and it peered down, with its four pairs of pearly eyes — quizzically, I thought. Then, to my astonishment, I heard a mechanically reproduced sound say, "Who are you?" 80

"I remembered her as I had seen her, in the swamp forest, south of Ar, with Nar the spider, and in the Ka-la-na grove, where I had freed her from the chains of a slave, only to put mine upon her; and in the caravan of Mintar, of the Merchants, in her collar, mine, and slave tunic, with Kazrak, my sword brother; and her dancing in my tent; and she upon the lofty cylinder of justice, in Ar, threatened with impalement, and as she had been, beautiful and loving, in the hours of our Free Companionship in Ko-ro-ba, before I had awakened again, stiff, bewildered, in the mountains of New Hampshire." — Captive of Gor, page 368.

• Swamp Lands of the Ushindi
West of Lake Ushindi are the swamplands, marshes and floodlands of the equitorial jungles.

"To the west of Lake Ushindi," I said, "there are floodlands, marshes and bogs, through which a considerable amount of water drains into the lake. With considerable hardship, limiting himself to forty men, and temporarily abandoning all but two boats, which were half dragged and thrust through the marshes eastward, after two months, Shaba reached the western shore of what we now know as Lake Ngao." — Explorers of Gor, page 18.

Plains

• The Barrens
Located east of the Thentis Mountains, the Barrens is home to the red savages; the name of land is a bit of a misnomer, in that the land is not "barren" at all, but rather is filled with gentle sloping hillsides, lush green grass and dotted with trees, as well as canyons and arroyos. It is thought that the name is given as a warning of sorts, to keep the area free of white man, and pure to those of the tribes of the red savages.

"I considered the Barrens. They are not, truly, as barren as the name would suggest. They are barren only in contrast, say, with the northern forests or the lush land in river valleys, or the peasant fields or meadows of the southern rain belts. They are, in fact, substantially, vast tracts of rolling grasslands, lying east of the Thentis mountains. I have suspected that they are spoken of as the Barrens not so much in an attempt to appraise them with geographical accuracy as to discourage their penetration, exploration and settlement. The name, then, is perhaps not best regarded as an item of purely scientific nomenclature but rather as something else, perhaps a warning. Also, calling the area the Barrens gives men a good excuse, if they should desire such, for not entering upon them. To be sure, the expression 'Barrens' is not altogether a misnomer. They would be, on the whole, much less arable than much of the other land of known Gor. Their climate is significantly influenced by the Thentis mountains and the absence of large bodies of water. Prevailing winds in the northern hemisphere of Gor are from the north and west. Accordingly a significant percentage of moisture-laden air borne by westerly winds is forced by the Thentis mountains to cooler, less-heated air strata, where it precipitates, substantially on the eastern slopes of the mountains and the fringes of the Barrens. Similarly the absence of large bodies of water in the Barrens reduces rainfall which might be connected with large-scale evaporation and subsequent precipitation of this moisture over land areas, the moisture being carried inland on what are, in effect, sea breezes, flowing into low-pressure areas caused by the warmer land surfaces, a given amount of radiant energy raising the temperature of soil or rock significantly more than it would raise the temperature of an equivalent extent of water. — Savages of Gor, page 64.
      "The absence of large bodies of water adjacent to or within the Barrens also has another significant effect on their climate. It precludes the Barrens from experiencing the moderating effects of such bodies of water on atmospheric temperatures. Areas in the vicinity of large bodies of water. because of the differential heating ratios of land and water, usually have warmer winters and cooler summers than areas which are not so situated. The Barrens, accordingly, tend to be afflicted with great extremes of temperature, often experiencing bitterly cold winters and long, hot, dry summers." — Savages of Gor, pages 64-65.

• Fields of Hesius
The Fields of Hesius are mentioned in connection with the battles that were fought at at the mines of Argentum, Lake Ias, east of the Issus River, and the Plains of Eteocles. These locations are all within one hundred pasangs of the city of Corcyrus. The fields likely named for the a man of legend on Gor, that of an ancient man named Hesius, who performed great labors for the Priest-Kings, promised by them a reward that was greater than gold and silver. He is famed for the original Home Stone.

"Did your troops enter Argentum?" I asked.
      "Our generals did not feel it was necessary," said Ligurious.
      "It seems that our first victory, after the seizure of the mines, occurred on the Fields of Hesius," I said.
      "Yes," said Ligurious.
      "Our second occurred on the shores of Lake Ias," I said, "and our third east of the Issus." This was a northwestward-flowing river, tributary to the Vosk, far to the north.
      "Yes, my Tatrix," said Ligurious.
      "Now we have been victorious once more," I said, "this time on the Plains of Eteocles."
      "Yes, my Tatrix," said Ligurious.
      "They lie within a hundred pasangs of Corcyrus," I said. — Kajiras of Gor, pages 158-159.

• Plains of Eteocles
Also: Hills of Eteocles
The Plains of Eteocles are within 100 pasangs of Corcyrus, and more than 100 pasangs from Torcadino. Water from springs in this area feed the aqueducts of Torcadino.

"Did your troops enter Argentum?" I asked.
      "Our generals did not feel it was necessary," said Ligurious.
      "It seems that our first victory, after the seizure of the mines, occurred on the Fields of Hesius," I said.
      "Yes," said Ligurious.
      "Our second occurred on the shores of Lake Ias," I said, "and our third east of the Issus." This was a northwestward-flowing river, tributary to the Vosk, far to the north.
      "Yes, my Tatrix," said Ligurious.
      "Now we have been victorious once more," I said, "this time on the Plains of Eteocles."
      "Yes, my Tatrix," said Ligurious.
      "They lie within a hundred pasangs of Corcyrus," I said. — Kajiras of Gor, pages 158-159.

"The natural wells of Torcodino, originally sufficing for a small population, had, more than a century ago, proved inadequate to furnish sufficient water for an expanding city. Two aqueducts now brought fresh water to Torcodino from more than a hundred pasangs away, one from the Issus, a northwestwardly flowing tributary to the Vosk and the other from springs in the Hills of Eteocles, southwest of Corcyrus." — Mercenaries of Gor, page 101.

• Plains of Sanchez
Throughout the books, especially towards the end of the series in which Tarl Cabot regains his warrior spirit and thrives as a mercenary on a mission of his own self-vengeance, various points of geographical notation are mentioned in brief, with no real clear-cut identification where a particular geographic point of interest is located. Most likely, the Plains of Sanchez are located in the northern plains zone that is specifically the area east of Thassa, south of the northern forests, north of the rainforests, and west of the Thentis and the Voltai Mountains and the Tahari.

"Dietrich of Tarnburg, of the high city of Tarnburg, some two hundred pasangs to the north and west of Hochburg, both substantially mountain fortresses, both in the more southern and civilized ranges of the Voltai, was well-known to the warriors of Gor. His name was almost a legend. It was he who had won the day on the fields of both Piedmont and Cardonicus, who had led the Forty Days' March, relieving the siege of Talmont, who had effected the crossing of the Issus in 10,122 C.A., in the night evacuation of Keibel Hill, when I had been in Torvaldsland, and who had been the victor in the battles of Rovere, Kargash, Edgington, Teveh Pass, Gordon Heights, and the Plains of Sanchez." — Mercenaries of Gor, pages 31.

"Did your troops enter Argentum?" I asked.
      "Our generals did not feel it was necessary," said Ligurious.
      "It seems that our first victory, after the seizure of the mines, occurred on the Fields of Hesius," I said.
      "Yes," said Ligurious.
      "Our second occurred on the shores of Lake Ias," I said, "and our third east of the Issus." This was a northwestward-flowing river, tributary to the Vosk, far to the north.
      "Yes, my Tatrix," said Ligurious.
      "Now we have been victorious once more," I said, "this time on the Plains of Eteocles."
      "Yes, my Tatrix," said Ligurious.
      "They lie within a hundred pasangs of Corcyrus," I said. — Kajiras of Gor, pages 158-159.

• [The] Plains of Turia
The Turian plains consume a large portion of the southern continent of Gor, extending from the Thassa (the Sea) and the Ta-Thassa Mountains and down to the Voltai Range. The Wagon Peoples claim these plains as their home. Much to the consternation of many, the southern plains are treeless.

"The Wagon Peoples claimed the southern prairies of Gor, from the gleaming Thassa and the mountains of Ta-Thassa to the southern foothills of the Voltai Range itself, that reared in the crust of Gor like the backbone of a planet. On the north they claimed lands even to the rush-grown banks of the Cartius, a broad, swift flowing tributary feeding into the incomparable Vosk." — Nomads of Gor, page 2.

"I was afoot, on the treeless southern plains of Gor, on the Plains of Turia, in the Land of the Wagon Peoples." — Nomads of Gor, page 9.

"The wagons of the Wagon Peoples are, in their hundreds and thousands, in their brilliant, variegated colors, a glorious sight. Surprisingly the wagons are almost square, each the size of a large room. Which is drawn by a double team of bosk, four in a team, with each team linked to its wagon tongue, the tongues being joined by tem-wood crossbars. The two axles of the wagon are also of tem-wood, which perhaps, because of its flexibility, joined with the general flatness of the southern Gorean plains, permits the width of the wagon." — Nomads of Gor, page 30.

"I realized that I must, somehow, gain access to the wagon and find and carry away the sphere, attempting to return it to the Sardar. I would have given much for a tarn. Even on my kaiila I was certain I could be outdistanced by numerous riders, each leading, in the Tuchuk fashion, a string of fresh mounts. Eventually my kaiila would tire and I would be brought down on the prairie by pursuers. The trailing would undoubtedly be done by trained herd sleen. The prairie stretched away for hundreds of pasangs in all directions. There was little cover." — Nomads of Gor, page 145.

"I lifted my hand to them and then drew on the one-strap and the wings of the great tarn began to strike the resistant air and the Tuchuks on all sides fell back stumbling in the dust and the driven wind smote from beneath the mighty wings of the bird and in that instant we saw the wagons fall away beneath us, extending in their squares for pasangs, and we could see the ribbon of the creek and then the Omen Valley and then the spires of distant Turia, far off." — Nomads of Gor, page 344.

The Omen Valley
Located on the Turian Plains, this valley was the meeting place every ten years for the Omen Year. Here would be found haruspexes practicing their craft and reading omens.

I resolved that the best- time to steal the egg would be during the days of the Omen Taking. At that time Kutaituchik and other high men among the Tuchuks, doubtless including Kamchak, would be afield, on the rolling hills surrounding the Omen Valley, in which on the hundreds of smoking altars, the haruspexes of the four peoples would be practicing their obscure craft, taking the omens, trying to determine whether or not they were favorable for the election of a Ubar San, a One Ubar, who would be Ubar of all the Wagons." — Nomads of Gor, pages 146-147.

"Coming over a low, rolling hill, we saw a large number of tents pitched in a circle, surrounding a large grassy area. In the grassy area, perhaps about two hundred yards in diameter, there were literally hundreds of small, stone altars. There was a large circular stone platform in the center of the field. On the top of this platform was a huge, four-sided altar which was approached by steps on all four sides. On one side of this altar I saw the sign of the Tuchuks, and on the others; that of the Kassars, the Kataii and the Paravaci. I had not mentioned the matter of the Paravaci quiva which had almost struck me last night, having been in the morning disturbed about the disappearance of Elizabeth Cardwell and in the afternoon busy following Kamchak about in his rounds. I resolved to mention the matter to him sometime-but not this evening-for I was convinced this would not be a good evening for anyone in the wagon, except perhaps for Kamchak, who seemed pleased about the arrangements he had made with the herder pertaining to crossing livestock and the bargain, it seemed, he had contracted with the fellow with the quivas and saddle. There were a large number of tethered animals about the outer edge of the circle, and, beside them, stood many haruspexes. Indeed, I supposed there must be one haruspex at least for each of the many altars in the field. Among the animals I saw many verrs; some domestic tarsks, their tusks sheathed; cages of flapping vulos, some sleen, some kaiila, even some bosk; by the Paravaci haruspexes I saw manacled male slaves, if such were to be permitted; commonly, I understood from Kamchak, the Tuchuks, Kassars and Kataii rule out the sacrifice of slaves because their hearts and livers are thought to be, fortunately for the slaves, untrustworthy in registering portents; after all, as Kamchak pointed out, who would trust a Turian slave in the kes with a matter so important as the election of a Ubar San; it seemed to me good logic and, of course, I am sure the slaves, too, were taken with the cogency of the argument. The animals sacrificed, incidentally, are later used for food, so the Omen Taking, far from being a waste of animals, is actually a time of feasting and plenty for the Wagon Peoples, who regard the Omen Taking, provided it results that no Ubar San is to be chosen, as an occasion for gaiety and festival. As I may have mentioned, no Ubar San had been chosen for more than a hundred years. " — Nomads of Gor, pages 170-171.

"I drew on the one-strap and took the tarn into the air, striking out across the prairie skies to intercept my Thousand on its way to the wagons of the Tuchuks. In my flight I could see at one point the Omen Valley, where the haruspexes were still working about their numerous, smoking altars. I laughed bitterly." — Nomads of Gor, page 258.

"I lifted my hand to them and then drew on the one-strap and the wings of the great tarn began to strike the resistant air and the Tuchuks on all sides fell back stumbling in the dust and the driven wind smote from beneath the mighty wings of the bird and in that instant we saw the wagons fall away beneath us, extending in their squares for pasangs, and we could see the ribbon of the creek and then the Omen Valley and then the spires of distant Turia, far off." — Nomads of Gor, page 344.

• Polar Plain
Also: Tundra
This refers to the tundra of the frozen north which extends for thousands pasangs in width and hundreds in depth.

Etymology: Russian, from Russian dialect (northeast) tundra, tundara, from Kildin Sami (Sami language of the northern Kola Peninsula) tunter;
"A level or rolling treeless plain that is characteristic of arctic and subarctic regions, consists of black mucky soil with a permanently frozen subsoil, and has a dominant vegetation of mosses, lichens, herbs, and dwarf shrubs; also: a similar region confined to mountainous areas above timberline." — Merriam-Webster Dictionary ©2006.

"Four days after leaving the northern edge of Ax Glacier, we climbed to the height of the pass of Tancred, the mountains of the Hrimgar flanking us on either side. Below the height, the pass sloping downward, we could see the tundra of the polar plain. It is thousands of pasangs in width, and hundreds in depth; it extends, beyond horizons we could see, to the southern edge of the northern, or polar, sea." — Beasts of Gor, page 192.

"I could see the blue line of the Hrimgar Mountains in the distance to the south. To the north the tundra stretched forth to the horizon. Many people do not understand the nature of the polar north. For one thing, it is very dry. Less snow falls there generally than falls in most lower latitudes. Snow that does fall, of course, is less likely to melt. Most of the land is tundra, a cool, generally level or slightly wavy, treeless plain. In the summer this tundra, covered with mosses, shrubs and lichens, because of the melted surface ice and the permafrost beneath, preventing complete drainage, is soft and spongy. In the winter, of course, and in the early spring and late fall, desolate, bleak and frozen, wind-swept, it presents the aspect of a barren, alien landscape. At such times the red hunters will dwell by the sea, in the spring and fall by its shores, and, in the winter, going out on the ice itself." — Beasts of Gor, pages 195-196.

• Ven Highlands
Highlands which drain through 6 cataracts into the Thassa Cartius. These lands are home to ferocious river tribes which are largely responsible for these areas remaining unexplored.

"The actual source of the tributary to the Vosk, now called the Thassa Cartius, as you know, was found five years later by the explorer, Ramus of Tabor, who, with a small expedition, over a period of nine months, fought and bartered his way through the river tribes, beyond the six cataracts, to the Ven highlands. The Thassa Cartius, with its own tributaries, drains the highlands and the descending plains." — Explorers of Gor, page 16.

Deserts

• [The] Tahari
The desert land nestled deep in the eastern part of the Voltai range, a harsh dry land where tribes of raiding nomads call home, akin to the Sahara on Earth, shaped in the form of a giant trapezoid. Some parts of this desert land are more habitable than others; Tor is the large thriving trade city. The Dune Country (also referred to as The Wastes and The Emptiness is an example of the less hospital area within the Tahari. This region lies east of Tor, hundreds of pasangs deep, thousands of pasangs long, is generally avoided, although there are a few scattered oases in this zone. Generally rocky and hilly (except for the dune country which is nothing but blowing sands), with minimal water supply, is rarely traveled. By day, the Wastes can reach temperatures of 120 Fahrenheit —in the shade. In the dune country, of course, the temperatures reach even higher degrees. Water in the Wastes travels in underground rivers, erupting occasionally into springs. Deep wells, two hundred feet plus (200' +) are another means of tapping into these underground rivers.

"I looked downward. Though on the map it occupied only some several feet of the floor, in actuality it was vast. It was roughly in the shape of a gigantic, lengthy trapezoid, with eastward leaning sides. At its northwestern corner lay Tor, West of Tor, on the Lower Fayeen, a sluggish, meandering tributary, like the Upper Fayeen, to the Cartius, lay the river Port of Kasra, known for its export of salt. It was in this port that the warehouses of Ibn Saran, salt merchant, currently the guest of Samos of Port Kat, were to be found. This city, too, was indicated in the cording of his agal, and in the stripes of his djellaba. The area, in extent, east of Tor, was hundreds of pasangs in depth, and perhaps thousands in length. The Gorean expression for this area simply means the Wastes, or the Emptiness. It is a vast area, and generally rocky, and hilly, save in the dune country. It is almost constantly windblown and almost waterless. In areas it has been centuries between rains. Its oases are fed from underground rivers flowing southeastward from the Voltai slopes. The water, seeping underground, eventually, in places, due to rock formation, erupts in oasis springs, or, more usually, is reached by deep wells, some of them more than two hundred feet deep. It takes more than a hundred and fifty years for some of this water to make the underground journey, seeping hundreds of feet at times beneath the dry surface, moving only a few miles a year, to reach the eases. Diurnal air temperatures in the shade are commonly in the range of 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Surface temperature, diurnally, is, of course, much higher in the dune country, by day, if one were so unwise as to go barefoot, the bright sand would quickly cripple a man, abraiding and burning the flesh from his feet in a matter of hours." — Tribesmen of Gor, pages 32-33.

"This was irritating to Hassan, and did not much please me either, for the oasis of the Battle of Red Rock was the last of the major oases of the Tahari for more than two thousand pasangs eastward; it lay, in effect, on the borders of the dreaded dune country; there are oases in the dune country but they are small and infrequent, and often lie more than two hundred pasangs apart; in the sands they are not always easy to find: among the dunes one can, unknowingly, pass within ten pasangs of an oasis, missing it entirely. Little but salt caravans ply the dune country. Caravans with goods tend to travel the western. Or distant eastern edge of the Tahari; caravans do, it might be mentioned, occasionally travel from Tor or Kasra to Turmas, a Turian outpost and kasbah, in the southeastern edge of the Tahari, but even these commonly avoid the dune country, either moving south, then east, or east, then south, skirting the sands. Few men, without good reason, enter the dune country." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 179.

Oases

Oasis; plural Oases
Etymology: Late Latin, fertile land in the Libyan desert, from Greek, probably of Hamitic origin; akin to Coptic wahe
      A small isolated fertile area (as in the midst of a sandy desert) that is surrounded by general aridity or barrenness and that is typically marked by trees or other greenery and that has a water supply furnished by local springs or wells or by local seepage or by water flowing from a distant source either naturally or through artificial irrigation. — Merriam-Webster Dictionary ©2006.

• Oasis of the Battle of Red Rock
A Tashid oasis, Red Rock is one of the major oases of the Tahari, it is located on two thousand pasangs eastward within the desert, bordering the dune country. It is one of the few outpost oases maintained by the Aretai tribe, enemies of the Kavars. From Red Rock, traveling westward, one would reach first Two Scimitars and finally Nine Wells. From Nine Wells, via a major caravan route, is Tor. Tarna and her followers attempted to burn down the oasis.

"The oasis of the Battle of Red Rock," said Hassan to me, "is one of the few outpost oases maintained by the Aretai. To its west and south is mostly Kavar country." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 172.

"Does the oasis of the Battle of Red Rock have, at its northeast rim, a kasbah, with four towers?"
      "Yes," said Hassan. — Tribesmen of Gor, page 174.

"This was irritating to Hassan, and did not much please me either, for the oasis of the Battle of Red Rock was the last of the major oases of the Tahari for more than two thousand pasangs eastward; it lay, in effect, on the borders of the dreaded dune country; there are oases in the dune country but they are small and infrequent, and often lie more than two hundred pasangs apart; in the sands they are not always easy to find: among the dunes one can, unknowingly, pass within ten pasangs of an oasis, missing it entirely." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 179.

"Four days ago, at dawn, Tarna, at the head of her men, left the Oasis of the Battle of Red Rock in flames. Only its citadel, its kasbah, had been impregnable. Its palm groves had been cut down, its gardens destroyed, four of its five public wells caved in and filled. The other well, by two many men, had been defended with too much vigor. There had been some four or five hundred raiders. When they left Red Rock their kaiila had been heavy with loot. Some forty female slaves, coffled, braceleted, had been taken. Two males, too, had been taken, myself and Hassan." — Tribesmen of Gor, pages 188-189.

"Red Rock was a Tashid oasis under the hegemony of the Aretai, enemies of the Kavars." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 271.

"The march would proceed to Red Rock, thence to Two Scimitars, thence to Nine Wells, thence, by a major caravan route, to Tor. Different bodies of men would leave the march at various points, as tribesmen returned to their lands. Only some few hundred would journey as far as Tor, and those largely to conduct herded slaves to the fine markets of that city, which is the Tahari clearing house for slaves to be sold north." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 342.

• Oasis of Farad
The location or size of this oasis is not provided; it is only briefly mentioned.

"She was bought for two tarsks, from a caravan master named Zad of the Oasis of Farad," he said. — Tribesmen of Gor, page 55.

• Oasis of Four Palms
This oasis serves as a Kavar outpost located far to the south of Red Rock.

"The march of Hassan had as its object not Red Rock, northwest of Klima, but Four Palms, a Kavar outpost known to him, which lay far to the south of Red Rock" — Tribesmen of Gor, page 270.

• Oasis of the Lame Kaiila
A tiny oasis; its location is defined as being nearest to the Oasis of Nine Wells.

"On foot, on the trail, they would have only enough water to reach the tiny oasis of Lame Kaiila, where there would be for them doubtless sympathy, but little aid in the form of armed men. Indeed, it lay in a direction away from Nine Wells, which was the largest, nearest oasis where soldiers might be found." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 136.

• Oasis of Nine Wells
Located east of Tor; its Ubar once Suleiman until he was overthrown. A major caravan route begins here heading west to the city of Tor.

"In Kasra I had learned the name, and father, of the boy who had found, in pursuing a kaiila, the rock on which had been inscribed 'Beware the steel tower'. His name was Achmed, and his father's name was Farouk, who was a Kasra merchant. I had failed to contact them in Kasra, as I had planned, but I had learned that they were in the region of Tor, purchasing kaiila, for a caravan to the kasbah, or fortress, of Suleiman, of the Aretai tribe, master of a thousand lances, Ubar of the Oasis of Nine Wells." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 44.

"I was returning to my compartment in Tor, from the tents of Farouk of Kasra. He was a merchant. He was camping in the vicinity of the city while purchasing kaiila for a caravan to the Oasis of Nine Wells. This oasis is held by Suleiman, master of a thousand lances, Suleiman of the Aretai." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 61.

It had been on the route to the Oasis of Nine Wells that the boy had seen the rock. "I am a humble merchant," I said. "I have a few small stones which I would like to sell at the Oasis of Nine Wells, to buy date bricks to return and sell in Tor." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 62.

Things, it seemed to me, were proceeding well. Enroute I would find the rock, which had been discovered, some months ago, by the boy Achmed, the son of Farouk. This rock would be the place at which my search must begin. After determining this point, I would continue on to the Oasis of Nine Wells, where I would lay in supplies and water, attempt to hire a guide, and, returning to the rock, strike eastward into the Tahari." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 63.

"I hoped to obtain supplies, and a guide, at the Oasis of Nine Wells. It was held, I recalled, by Suleiman, master of a thousand lances, Suleiman of the Aretai." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 68.

• Oasis of the Sand Sleen
The location or size of this oasis is not provided; it is only briefly mentioned. Apparently it is fairly near the Oasis of Nine Wells.

"Six days ago," said the merchant, "soldiers, Aretai, from Nine Wells raided the Oasis of the Sand Sleen." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 152.

"The merchant told us that six days ago Aretai from Nine Wells raided the oasis of the Sand Sleen."
      "Yes," said Hassan.
      "Six days ago." said I, "the soldiers at Nine Wells were in the vicinity of the oasis, hunting for a fugitive, escaped from their prison, who had been sentenced to the pits of Klima for an alleged attempt on the life of Suleiman Pasha." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 159.

• Oasis of Stones of Silver
An oasis of the Char tribe, so named by thirsty men centuries before had discovered it due to the silvery glow from dew upon large, flat stones. Its location is not provided.

"Kavar," he said. "Tribesmen. And men of their vassal tribe, the Ta'Kara." He looked at me closely. "There may soon be war," he said. "Caravans will be few. Merchants will not care to risk their goods. It is their intention that Suleiman not receive these goods. It is their intention to divert them, or most of them, to the Oasis of the Stones of Silver." This was an oasis of the Char, also a vassal tribe of the Kavars. Its name had been given to it centuries before, when thirsty men, who had moved at night on the desert, had come upon it, discovering it. Dew had formed on the large flat stones thereabout and, in the light of the dawn, had made them, from a distance, seem to glint like silver. — Tribesmen of Gor, page 93-94.

• Oasis of Two Scimitars
An out-of the-way oasis, maintained by the Bakahs, following their defeat in the Silk War of 8,110 C.A. It is located between Red Rock to the east and Nine Wells to the west.

"The oasis of Two Scimitars is an out-of-the-way oasis, under the hegemony of the Bakahs, which, for more than two hundred years, following their defeat in the Silk War of 8,110 C.A., has been a vassal tribe of the Kavars. The Silk War was a war for the control of certain caravan routes, for the rights to levy raider tribute on journeying merchants." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 151.

"The mud buildings at an oasis such as that of Two Scimitars last for many years. In such an area one often goes years without rain." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 152.

"Who, then," I asked, "raided the oasis of the Sand Sleen, the oasis of Two Scimitars?" — Tribesmen of Gor, page 160.

"Why Two Scimitars?" I asked. "It is a small oasis, not even Kavar." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 160.

"Indeed, to my surprise, word of the attack, putatively by Aretai, on the Bakah oasis of Two Scimitars, of some days ago, had not yet seemed to reach Red Rock. None here spoke of it. Had they known of the raid it would, surely, have been the topic of pervasive converse in the oasis. It seemed to me clear that none here, at least of the common population, knew of it. Had it truly been by Aretai I had no doubt but what the oasis would be preparing itself, even now, for Kavar reprisals. It was not odd, of course, for Red Rock not to have yet heard of the attack. It was explained so simply as by no man yet having brought them the news. No one had yet journeyed to them, who knew of the attack, or knew of it and would tell them. Since Red Rock was an oasis under the governance of the Tashid, a vassal tribe of Aretai, of course, no Bakah, or other member of the Kavar confederation, would be likely, particularly in such times, to drop in and, in friendly fashion, convey this intelligence to them. Indeed, they would tend to avoid Aretai and Aretai-dominant oases, at least until they could come in force, paying the respects of the Tahari with steel." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 180.

"The march would proceed to Red Rock, thence to Two Scimitars, thence to Nine Wells, thence, by a major caravan route, to Tor. Different bodies of men would leave the march at various points, as tribesmen returned to their lands. Only some few hundred would journey as far as Tor, and those largely to conduct herded slaves to the fine markets of that city, which is the Tahari clearing house for slaves to be sold north." — Tribesmen of Gor, page 342.

Man-Made Geographical Areas

• Aqueducts
The most famed are those aqueducts of Torcadino; two aqueducts, built over a century ago, which bring fresh water from the Issus, a northwestwardly flowing tributary of the Vosk River.

Torcodino, on the flats of Serpeto, is a crossroads city. It is located at the intersection of various routes, the Genesian, connecting Brundisium and other coastal cities with the south, the Northern Salt Line and the Northern Silk Road, leading respectively west and north from the east and south, the Pilgrim's Road, leading to the Sardar , and the Eastern way, sometimes called the Treasure Road, which links the western cities with Ar. Supposedly Torcodino, with its strategic location, was an ally of Ar. I gathered, however, that it had, in recent weeks, shifted its allegiances. It is sometimes said that any city can fall, behind the walls of which can be placed a tharlarion laden with gold. Perhaps, too, the councils of Torcodino, did not care to dispute their gates with forces as considerable as those which now surrounded them. The choice between riches and death is one that few men will ponder at length. Still I was surprised that Ar had not moved swiftly on behalf of her ally. Torcodino, as far as I knew, had been left at the mercy of the Cosian armies. The city was now used as a Cosian stronghold and staging area. Mincon, for example, after delivering his goods in Torcodino, was to return northward on the Genesian to Brundisium, where he was scheduled to pick up a new cargo. Certainly the movements of Cos seemed quite leisurely, particularly as it was late in the season. Mercenaries, as I may have mentioned, are often mustered out in the fall, to be recruited anew in the spring. To be sure, in these latitudes, cold though it might become, the red games of war need seldom be canceled.
      "These are the aqueducts of Torcodino!" said Mincon.
      "I see them," I said. The natural wells of Torcodino, originally sufficing for a small population, had, more than a century ago, proved inadequate to furnish sufficient water for an expanding city. Two aqueducts now brought fresh water to Torcodino from more than a hundred pasangs away, one from the Issus, a northwestwardly flowing tributary to the Vosk and the other from springs in the Hills of Eteocles, southwest of Corcyrus. The remote termini of both aqueducts themselves are usually patrolled and, of course, engineers and workmen attend regularly to their inspection and repair. These aqueducts are marvelous constructions, actually, having a pitch of as little as a hort for every pasang. — Mercenaries of Gor, pages 101-102.

• Canals
While Port Kar is a city made of a mazework of canals, such as Venice, Italy on Earth, however, there are also canals which were built by Bila Huruma in the Ushindi region; some meant to handle overflow of water of lakes, another long waterway developed to bridge a more direct route among the large lakes and riverways.

"I found it astonishing, and I think most Goreans would have, even those of Schendi, that a ubarate of the size and sophistication of that of Bila Huruma could exist in the equatorial interior. One of the most amazing evidences of its scope and ambition was the very project in which I was now unwillingly engaged, the visionary attempt to join Lakes Ushindi and Ngao, separated by more than four hundred pasangs by a great canal, a canal that would, via Lake Ushindi and the Nyoka and Kamba rivers, then link the mysterious Ua river, it flowing into Lake Ngao, to gleaming Thassa, the sea, a linkage that would, given the Ua, open up to the civilized world the riches of the interior, riches that must then pass through the ubarate of Bila Huruma. …
      "Waters from the overflow of Lake Ngao entered the great marsh between Ngao and Ushindi, and, thence, made their ways to Ushindi, which, by means of the Kamba and Nyoka, drained to gleaming Thassa, the sea. The intent of the engineers of Bila Huruma was to set in place two parallel walls, low walls, some five or six feet high, placed about two hundred yards apart. The area between these walls, the marsh waters diverted on either side, was then to be drained and readied for the digging of the main channel. In this work draft tharlarion and greet scoops, brought from the north, as well as gigantic work crews, would be used. In the event that the central channel, when completed, would not prove sufficient to handle the overflow of Ngao, as seemed likely, conducting it geometrically to Ushindi, side channels were contemplated. The eventual intent of Bila Huruma was not only to open the rain forests of the deep interior, and whatever might lie within the system of the Ua, and her tributaries, to commercial exploitation and military expansion, but to drain the marshes between the two mighty lakes, Ushindi and Ngao, that that land, then reclaimed, thousands of square pasangs, might eventually be made available for agriculture. It was the intent of Bila Huruma not only to consolidate a ubarate but found a civilization." — Explorers of Gor, pages 219-221.

"When Lakes Ushindi and Ngao had been joined by the canal a continuous waterway would be opened between Thassa and the Ua. One might then, via either the Kamba or the Nyoka, attain Lake Ushindi. One might then follow the canal from Ushindi to Ngao. From Ngao one could enter upon the Ua. One could then, for thousands of pasangs, follow the Ua until one reached its terminus in Lake Shaba. And Lake Shaba itself was fed by numerous smaller streams and rivers, giving promise, like the tributaries of the Ua itself, to the latency of new countries. The importance of the work of Bila Huruma and Shaba, one a Ubar, the other a scribe and explorer, could not, in my opinion, be overestimated." — Explorers of Gor, page 455.

• Margin of Desolation
Salted plains that once served as the forboding border of Ar. After the theft of the Home Stone and subsequent fall of Marlenus, the margin of desolation had not been maintained. Even upon Marlenus' return as Ubar, he had never ordered Ar to see to its maintenance.

"At first even the countryside was depressing, for the men of Ar, as a military policy, had devastated and area of some two or three hundred pasangs on their borders, cutting down fruit trees, filling wells, and salting the fertile areas. Ar had, for most practical purposes, surrounded itself with an invisible wall, a bleached region, forbidding and almost impassable to those on foot." — Tarnsman of Gor, page 73.

"For several days, to the sound of the caravan bells, we made our way through the Margin of Desolation, that wild, barren strip of soil with which the Empire of Ar had girded its borders." — Tarnsman of Gor, page 129.

"Far below, I could see the burned, dead Margin of Desolation was dotted here and there with patches of green, where some handfuls of seed had blindly asserted themselves, reclaiming something of that devastated country for life and growth." — Tarnsman of Gor, page 140.

"I took the tarn high, to bring a circle of some two hundred pasangs or so under my view. In the far distance I could see the silver wire I knew must be the great Vosk, could see the abrupt shift from the grassy plains to the Margin of Desolation." — Tarnsman of Gor, page 146.

"Marlenus, who has seen his city threatened by a league of cities in the time of Pa-Kur, doubtless views with disfavor the rise of the Salerian Confederation. To be sure, at this time, it is relatively weak. A Ubar, however, must think ahead. On the other hand, it is commonly suspected the major threat of the Salerian Confederation is not to Ar's security, but to her ambitions, in the person of Marlenus. The great margin of desolation which once flanked Ar on the north, just south of the Vosk, has not been maintained. It was a long wall of wilderness, an empty, unpopulated, desertlike area without water and beneficient vegetation a thousand pasangs deep. Wells were poisoned and fields burned and salted to prevent the approach of armies from the north. Now, however, in the last years, it has become green. New wells have been dug, peasants have moved into it. This, said to be a plan to bring more arable land under cultivation, is generally viewed as being an opening of this territory to large-scale military passage. It is even being stocked with game and wild bosk. It retains now of its old character only its name, the Margin of Desolation. We had had no difficulty in traversing it, on the great road leading south to Ar. As the Margin of Desolation, no longer an artificially maintained cruel wilderness, has flowered, it has been said the eyes of Ar have been turning north." — Slave Girl of Gor, page 145.

• Siege Reservoirs
Common among many of the larger cities, great wells which serve to provide a city water in case of war, although often these are attacked by enemies, as Ar learned during the siege of Pa-Kur.

"Within the city the Initiates, who had seized control shortly after the flight of Marlenus, would have already tapped the siege reservoirs and begun to ration the stores of the huge grain cylinders. A city such as Ar, properly commanded, might withstand a siege for a generation." — Tarnsman of Gor, page 163.

"On the twentieth day of the siege there was great rejoicing in the camp of Pa-Kur, because in one place the wires had been cut and a squad of spearmen had reached the main siege reservoir, emptying their barrels of toxic kanda, a lethal poison extracted from one of Gor's desert shrubs. The city would now have to depend primarily on its private wells and the hope of rain." — Tarnsman of Gor, page 179.

"There was no problem of water in the city, incidentally, for Turia's waters are supplied by deep, tile-lined wells, some of them hundreds of feet deep; there are also siege reservoirs, filled with the melted snows of the winter, the rains of the spring." — Nomads of Gor, page 182.

 

 

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 stricly 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.

Menu

• The Planet Gor
• Flora & Fauna
• Climate
• Geography
• Cities & Territories
• Highways & Roadways
• Maps of Gor
• _________
• Contact Me
• Gor Home
• Gorean Blog
• Message Board

Search the Annals