Gor’s society is not based on nations or countries, but on independent city-states, similar to ancient Greek cities, each with their own laws and customs. Some cities are sometimes vassals of stronger ones. These cities are ruled by a Council of High Castes elected in times of peace, and an Ubar, or even an Ubara, although this is very rare, elected or appointed by the Council in times of war (which is often the case, as the city-states are constantly at war with each other). The Ubar is often, logically, an officer or veteran of the warrior caste.

Every free man and woman in a city-state is a member of a caste, passed down from father to son. A free woman belongs to her father’s caste or may adopt that of her Companion, subject to certain restrictions.

Caste is not simply a profession or a function, but defines a place in the social hierarchy. A caste brings together men bound by a common affiliation, codes, laws, symbols, secret knowledge, education, guilds, brotherhoods, and a set of rules that follow them from birth to death. Every man—even the poorest—is proud of his caste and generally cannot imagine leaving it, and above all, losing it! A man without a caste is as badly regarded as a man without honor. No one supports him anymore, he no longer belongs to the City or his community, and becomes an outlaw, deprived of all his possessions, who can be hunted down on sight.

Castes from the inside, some generalities

The caste system determines the social hierarchy in Gor. The ruling castes are the only ones with the right to vote and sit on the municipal councils of each city-state, and the highest administrative positions are all closed to non-ruling castes. Within the ruling castes, a hierarchy, which is symbolic but sometimes very real, emphasizes the authority of the highest to the lowest of the ruling castes.

There are two categories in the caste system: the High Castes and the Low Castes.

There are five High Castes: the Initiates, the Scribes, the Builders, the Physicians, and the Warriors, in order of precedence from highest to lowest. Each caste owes respect, deference, and a certain obedience to the castes above it. The Initiates are therefore the caste that can command and impose their will on everyone else. It should be noted that depending on the city and its laws, this list may differ, as each city-state decides which castes are high and which are not. Thus, the merchant caste, a low caste, can sometimes be a high caste.

These castes are the only ones with the right to vote in a city-state and elect its representatives to the city council, the supreme governing body. They have extensive political power, but this does not mean that they are the richest. It is even common for members of the high castes to be poor, in debt, or to work for the lower castes, especially merchants, who control the economy of the world of Gor. It should be noted that members of a city-state council, who represent their caste, can be either women or men. For a woman, being elected Consul is a significant social advancement.

The Lower Castes are almost innumerable and include all categories of professions, sometimes with sub-castes. Among the best known are merchants, slavers, farmers, herders, blacksmiths, assassins, artists and musicians, bakers, butchers, sailors, fishermen, etc.

The lower castes are vital to Gorean society, but they have no voting rights and therefore no direct political influence. However, they can elect their representatives to the city-state, hold festivals and gatherings, processions, schools, and markets, and are organized and close-knit. Despite their lack of official political power, they can therefore have a great influence on a city-state. And as I mentioned, high or low, a caste does not reflect wealth and material power, but social status. A very wealthy craftsman or merchant has the means to buy the votes he wants and influence city politics.

The major difference between high and low castes lies in two other specific points:

First and Second Knowledge

In this compartmentalized society, knowledge and learning are controlled and reserved. Thus, the High Castes reserve secret knowledge that is forbidden to the Low Castes. It should even be noted that some common knowledge is downright misleading when compared to secret knowledge: for example, the educated High Castes know that Gor is a planet. Most of the Low Castes believe, and are taught, that Gor is a flat world…

Precedence and authority

The High Castes are respected and held in high esteem by the people of the Low Castes, who make up about 90% of the Gorian population. Thus, the High Castes have authority and precedence over the Low Castes, which gives them a certain assurance that they will be obeyed when necessary and that they are entitled to relative consideration, politeness, respect, and deference. All Goreans are proud of their caste, but the lower castes will admit that the upper castes are superior to them and will give them, for example, a privileged place to attend an assembly, or greet them first, with respect, before saying hello to other neighbors. And when a high caste gives an order, if it is clearly for a good reason, the lower castes will tend to listen and obey. After all, the lower castes know that the high castes know much more than they do.

It is important to remember that all of this works primarily for members of the same city-state. With visitors or representatives from other cities, reputation, prestige, power, and rank and position in a more or less powerful city-state take precedence over caste. Thus, a penniless scribe from an isolated village would be wise to show respect and deference to a great university doctor in Ar, at the risk of getting into trouble. Similarly, being the Ubar of a distant village does not carry much weight with a simple legion officer from Turia. Caste precedence works well among members of one’s Home Stone. Outside the city-states, only prestige, renown, recognition, and respect—in short, material power—will compel your interlocutor to show the expected deference, even though, no matter what happens, a Gorean will tend to respect caste precedence, even with a stranger or visitor.

Being born into a caste means you stay in it. First, because you are educated in it. Second, because every Gorean is very proud of their caste and will inevitably claim that it is the most indispensable of all castes! But also because the castes are very closed. There are only two ways to change castes: for a woman, by becoming the companion of a man from another caste (if it is higher), who can then adopt her—but she loses all the privileges and rights of her previous caste. Or by being adopted by another caste, which is quite rare and requires proving that one is capable and worthy, that the local leaders of that caste accept them, and that the city-state council gives its permission.

The High-castes

You can find them all here in detail : https://www.psychee.org/gorpedia/category/english/the-goreans/castes-of-gor/

The Low castes

There are hundreds of low-castes and sub-castes of low-castes, and to list them all is impossible. So I’ve tried to make a rich and representative list of basse-castes and sub-castes, but it can’t be exhaustive.

For the record, a sub-caste is a caste within a caste, which is often almost independent, but remains identified with the caste from which it originates. Example: slavers are a sub-caste of the merchant caste. By extension, every slaver is also a member of the merchant caste, and respects its authority, even if the slaver caste has its own hierarchy and organization.

How does this all play out in terms of management, legality and administration? Not a clue. The most organized caste system known on Earth, that of Hindu India, has only four castes (plus the caseless – the untouchables), and the rest of its social organization was based on this hierarchy. I think the model most similar to the Gorean castes is that of the guilds and brotherhoods of ^14th-century Europe, which organized, not the hierarchy, but the socio-economic order of cities and large villages.

The caste system is intimately linked to the religion of the priest-kings, so there’s a sacred character to the caste system and to being born into a caste. All castes in a village or city have an organized structure with chiefs and representatives, and in case of misfortune they can all count on the solidarity of their caste to come to their aid. Each caste must have its own teaching systems and methods, its own standards and requirements in terms of working methods and product quality, and its own administration, at least in city-states. Low castes are inevitably protectionist and fiercely defensive of their interests, with alliances in castes to cope with the economic or financial demands of other castes.

Thus, a caste is at once a hereditary status, a profession, but also a brotherhood-like organization that protects the interests of its members, and controls the work and products they supply. I dare not imagine the army of accountants and clerks that all these castes employ to ensure their management and administration. At least the scribe caste isn’t too short of work!

Like the upper castes, all the lower castes have one or two colors that serve as their standard. They never wear these colors constantly, but display them proudly at official meetings and public processions of their caste. There really are many different colors, and Norman quotes very few, so I’ve done what I can to specify or deduce them, where possible.

Castes, workers & slaves

I must fill a gap left by Norman, and which must be filled to avoid two contradictions:

1) a member of one caste has no right to work in another caste.

2) there are only 3-4% slaves, on average, in the entire population of Gor.

So, in conclusion, this means that in order to operate certain trades, Gor needs an unskilled workforce, which is bound to be very large. But who is it? Since every Gorian is a member of a caste, because it’s a necessity and a law (not being one makes you an outlaw), companies needing unskilled workers employ members of other castes looking for work, or members of their own caste who don’t have the financial means to set up their own business. Since it’s unskilled work, it’s not “doing the work of another caste”. If you need training to be a potter, anyone can stack unfired pots in a pottery kiln, or work with clay soil to produce pure clay.

And so I can go on to reiterate that the idea that no slave can practice craftsmanship is based on the same principle as I’ve just explained for unskilled workers: a weaver knows all about the art of weaving textiles, but explaining to a slave how to handle the loom is a simple activity accessible to any unskilled worker. The idea that slaves can’t create anything with their hands, and should never practice handicrafts, is in fact erroneous and due to some out-of-context quotations from the novels.

Goreans don’t like slaves to practice a trade or an art, but this is by no means an absolute prohibition and not even a generality, since there are so many exceptions. Yes, the ban is an onlinism taken from quotes taken out of context. The Goreans need unskilled workers, and slaves serve this purpose as well.

The merchant caste (gold and white)

The merchant caste is an exception in the lower castes because it holds wealth, and therefore power, in its hands, whether it’s monetized in gold, merchandise, land or women. Merchants are influential everywhere, their caste is highly organized, some merchants are united in very powerful guilds, and their power can easily be compared to powerful city-states, where they sometimes even sit as High Caste, for example in Port-Schendi.

Slavers (gold and blue)

A very special sub-caste in the world of Gor. Slavers are in charge of training and trading slaves, a profession and art of their own in Gor. They see themselves as a separate caste with their own colors, and their own powerful and influential brotherhood. Given the importance of the traffic in enslaved women on Gor, they are very powerful, to the extent that some brotherhoods have a stranglehold on cities. An entire guide is dedicated to them in detail, which you can read here.

Lenders (gold and red)

Simply a sub-caste of money-lending merchants, who make a sum of money available to a borrower, with the obligation for the borrower to repay the capital with, generally, interest. This was another powerful sub-caste, as many investments in real estate or goods in city-states could not be made without them.

Innkeepers & tavernkeepers (gold and brown)

They sell a service: food, drink, pleasures and a warm bed for travelers, so they’re merchants. They also include bathhouse and brothel keepers.

Bankers

Closely linked to the lender caste, this caste provides the financial services essential to the economy of merchants and city-states: it offers to store wealth, with possible interest in commercial investments, i.e. with the support of the lender caste. It also provides what are known as bearer bonds, a non-nominative debt security that is recognized from one caste of bankers to another, and enables large sums of money to be exchanged without having to carry its weight in money. Of course, these bearer bonds always involve interest!

Magistrates merchants

Judges and arbitrators of commercial disputes between merchant castes and their sub-castes. They act as magistrates, but only for disputes within the merchant caste.

Brokers

The broker caste are commercial intermediaries who facilitate financial transactions, whether involving goods or the purchase and sale of financial assets, which are managed by the banker and lender caste. They seek out commercial customers and know who to contact to find the suppliers they need. In short, they are the organizers of goods traffic throughout Gor.

Money minters

They are responsible for producing coins, ensuring their legality and controlling currency fraud. They work in close collaboration with the bankers and magistrates of the scribe caste, and are also closely supervised by the city-state authorities, who need this activity to be perfectly secure.

Debt collectors

This sub-caste is in charge of pursuing indebted people and forcing them to pay their debts, including by publishing bounties, which are offered to mercenaries, gros-bras and bounty hunters, to achieve this.

The cook caste (orange and brown)

Broadly speaking, this is the caste of food artisans, i.e. all trades directly linked to the crafting of food and drink. Very close, as you’d expect, to the peasant caste, but also to the merchant caste, this caste includes all those who process or sell food, spices and beverages. Yes, selling spices is not the function of a merchant caste, but of the cook caste, which is in fact a very powerful and influential caste!

Butchers

This caste also includes the slaughterers. But they’re best known for their fresh meat stalls.

Bakers

Everything to do with bread production and baking recipes belongs to this caste, which feeds everyone. That said, most villagers bake their own bread, so this caste is specialized and rather urban.

Delicatessen-makers

Sausages, hams, pâtés, delicatessen specialties and roasted meats are all part of this caste’s trade.

Salt workers

This caste specializes in the art of drying, salting and smoking meats and fish. Again, this is a very family-run activity in the villages, so it’s a specialized and very urban trade.

Millers

The caste that sells flour and manages grain mills, whether hydraulic, wind-powered or man-powered, and produces flour. This may be a family activity in the villages, but to produce quality flour in large quantities, you need semi-industrial facilities, which this caste specializes in.

Cellarmen (orange and red)

Cellarmen don’t grow vines; they transform vines into wine, and store the wine in barrels in cellars to vinify and mature it, before selling the wine, in barrels or bottles, to customers.

Alcohol producers

Artisans of the caste who produce strong spirits by distillation using stills (which are, after all, things that tend to explode when mishandled). They produce, among other things, the famous paga!

Market gardeners

Fruit and vegetable vendors.

Fishmongers

Fish and seafood vendors.

Grocers

Sellers of spices, condiments and herbs.

The sailor caste (blue and red)

This is the caste of all professions directly linked to the seas and rivers, navigation and ship handling, including fishermen, naval officers, marine carpenters and shipbuilders. This is a very powerful sub-caste, as a large part of Gor’s trade is carried out by sea or river, and is closely linked to the merchant caste, which is its main customer and investor. The sailor caste does not include naval warriors or pirates, the latter being in a class of their own.

Fishermen

All professions involved in sea or river fishing, or aquaculture.

Boatmen

The caste of river sailors, who know how to navigate rivers and also include mariniers (towage sailors) whose job is to pull (haul) river vessels upstream using human or animal power, along towpaths on the banks of rivers.

The artisan caste (green and gold?)

This is the caste with the most sub-castes, which are often so independent that, depending on the city-state, they can be considered castes in their own right. To list them all is almost impossible, as we’re talking about so many different crafts. In the following list, for example, I’ve left out dyers and tilers! The caste also includes a number of service trades, such as hairdressers. It’s a caste that rarely has a centralized organization, but gets by from sub-caste to sub-caste, although I imagine it manages to have one or more official representatives to negotiate with the rest of a city-state’s organization, and especially with the merchant caste. After all, craftsmanship is also industry, and often the most profitable trade!

It’s worth noting that this is clearly the caste that employs the most slaves as workers, and I’d mention the various sub-castes that use them the most.

Metalworkers (green and gray)

Roughly speaking, all metal smelting trades, producing ingots, sheets, bars, wire, alloys, etc. The final shaping of these metals is dedicated to the next caste. It’s a dangerous and health-risking profession, employing many slaves who lead unenviable lives.

Blacksmiths

Blacksmiths are craftsmen who hand-forge and assemble pieces of metal to make everyday objects or building components. They may also know how to make weapons, but that’s more the specialty of the trade below.

Weaponsmith

This is the blacksmith who works metal to create weapons. And, unsurprisingly, because it’s an art in its own right, there’s a sub-caste for each type of weapon, the most prestigious being sword smith.

Tailors (green and red)

These are the craftsmen who cut and make bespoke garments – they too have sub-castes, but in general, they all work in a common workshop to create bespoke garments for Goreans who can afford to pay for their services.

Armorsmiths

Makers of shields, helmets and body protection for warriors and fighters.

Weavers (green and gold)

Craftsmen who make cloth using a loom. A profession that employs many workers, most often slaves chained to the loom, for a miserable life.

Tanners & leather workers (green and brown)

Craftsmen who produce leather from raw hides, which can then be transformed and trimmed for everyday objects, accessories or clothing. This is a dirty and arduous profession, employing a large number of workers, most of whom are slaves working in very unsanitary conditions and living a miserable life.

Tormentors (black and red)

This is a peculiar caste, because it exists only in the culture of the Wagon Peoples, and their art… well, it’s torture. They consider themselves a sub-caste of the artisans.

“The Wagon Peoples, of all those on Gor that I know, are the only ones that have a clan of torturers, trained as carefully as scribes or physicians, in the arts of detaining life.

Some of these men have achieved fortune and fame in various Gorean cities, for their services to Initiates and Ubars, and others with an interest in the arts of detection and persuasion. For some reason they have all worn hoods. It is said they remove the hood only when the sentence is death, so that it is only condemned men who have seen whatever it is that lies beneath the hood.

Nomads of Gor”

Carpenters

Artisans of wooden building construction and carpentry, they are also specialists in wooden beams, planks and planks.

Rope makers

Manufacturers of rope from plant or animal fibers, with silk (spider) rope being highly prized for its strength.

Bleachers

Craftsmen who wash, dry and iron clothes, sheets and so on. A trade that employs a lot of slaves, whose lives can hardly be described as happy.

Joiners

Craftsmen who work with wood to manufacture, assemble and install building components such as doors, windows, staircases, fences, etc.

Cabinetmakers

Craftsmen who transform wood, more or less precious, to create functional or decorative furniture. They can make both functional furniture and carefully engraved works of art.

Charcoal makers

Craftsmen who transform raw wood into charcoal. It’s a hard, poor and tedious job, but one that sometimes turns into a veritable industry, employing large numbers of slaves whose living conditions are far from enviable.

Perfumers

The makers of perfumes, scented soaps and beauty products, who manipulate a rather imposing chemistry, which also includes distillation to concentrate essences, then blend them to create fragrances. The production of soaps and the distillation of perfume ingredients employs many slaves in arduous conditions that are hazardous to health.

Goldsmiths & jewelers (green and violet)

Craftsmen who create jewelry and other objects and accessories in precious metals, decorated with stones or not.

Jewelers

Artisans who polish and cut precious and semi-precious stones, which become the components of jewelry and accessories.

Masons

Craftsmen specializing in the construction of masonry buildings, using materials such as stone, brick and concrete. They are responsible for building foundations, walls, partitions and other structural elements. They employ many workers, including slaves, mostly males, for the toughest jobs.

Stonemasons

Craftsmen who create architectural elements from cut stone: pillars, columns, pediments, cornices, balustrades, fireplaces, staircases, etc… They also install these devices on buildings.

Potters

Craftsmen who made ceramic objects, generally in terracotta, such as crockery, amphorae, etc. They also employed many workers and slaves, especially in brick-making, ceramic firing and clay preparation.

Papermakers

Craftsmen who made paper, usually from rence fiber (rice), but also from a mixture of wood and old cloth.

Printers

Craftsmen who print books and documents. No, these aren’t the scribes who copy by hand. Goreans are familiar with movable type printing and, while they probably don’t yet have rotary printing machines, they easily produce printed books of all kinds.

Glassmakers

Artisans who make glass from pure sand and lime in blast furnaces, including glassblowers and producers of glass tiles, mirrors, bottles and crockery. Some industries employ a large workforce in the production of raw glass.

Saddlers

A sub-caste of leather craftsmen, they make everything to do with leather saddles and harnesses, for animals and slaves alike.

Barrel makers

Barrel makers, a sub-caste of carpenters. Barrels are one of the most important means of preserving and transporting foodstuffs on Gor.

Locksmiths

Craftsmen specializing in micromechanics, which includes locks, padlocks, hinges, gears, and of course the most elaborate slave collars, but can encompass many other complex mechanisms, including precision tools such as stopwatches.

The peasant caste (brown)

Farmers and herders, this is one of the most modest castes, and the most numerous, but not the least proud. Their work feeds the world, and is indispensable. They often say of themselves: “We are the Ox on which the Homestone rests”. The peasant caste represents, along with the artisan and cook caste, the bulk of Gor’s population, and is by far the largest in number. This means that even though they are neither wealthy nor powerful, they can become very influential when they get organized, and no high-caste Gorean is unaware of this fact. The peasant caste is also, in a way, the caricature of the average Gorean citizen: a simple, sometimes difficult life, a lack of culture and education, a distrust of strangers and change, and a very superstitious faith. But don’t let this image stop you: a few rare peasants work in agricultural cooperatives and are powerful landowners with vast farming estates and hundreds of slaves working as laborers. Like artisans, they are also major consumers of slaves.

Farmers

Peasants who cultivate fields of cereals, fiber crops and vegetable plantations. While the vast majority work in families with a few plots of land, there are vast cooperatives and agricultural estates where hundreds of slaves work as laborers in a harsh and arduous life.

Plantation farmers

Farmers who cultivate and care for plantations of fruit, tea and coffee trees. They are organized in the same way as farmers.

Winegrowers

Farmers who cultivate vines and supply them to merchants and wine merchants.

Renciers (brown and black)

Both a people and a caste, they grow rence (rice) in the Vosk delta. Rence also provides the basic fiber used for paper.

Woodcutters (brown and green)

Peasants who harvest timber, felling trees and ensuring that forests grow back to keep the resource as intact as possible.

Cattle breeders

Depending on the region, there is a sub-caste for each type of livestock, but these are the farmers who raise animals for milk, labor, leather and meat.

Tarn breeders

Not sure if this is a peasant caste, but they are the ones who raise and train the precious and dangerous tarns, Gor’s giant birds of prey. They are used for war, travel and even for a sport: tarn racing.

Tharlarion breeders

The caste that breeds and trains tharlarions, both for war and travel, which are two quite different animal species, and are widespread everywhere.

Sleen breeders

The caste that breeds and trains the fearsome sleens, those rather strange animals that act as hunting and war dogs on Gor.

Caravanners

It’s not clear whether this is a peasant caste, or really a caste at all, but it seems to be directly related to the herders, so I’m putting it here. They are simply the drivers of beasts of burden who transport goods in a caravan.

The artist caste (blue and red)

Singers, storytellers, troubadours, poets, artists and musicians are highly regarded and respected. They are the rare ones to say or show out loud what Goreans keep rather taboo by their upbringing: life, love, grief, death. You can’t enslave a musician or a poet, but they don’t have the right to bear arms. No city would keep its gates closed if a member of this caste wanted to enter, and they are always welcome. It’s a caste whose members make their living from the patronage and generosity of their public. Few of them are very wealthy, but they can become highly respected and end their lives comfortably, and the cleverest among them can also monetize their spying skills, since they can come and go anywhere. It’s a very supportive caste.

Musicians

Alone or in orchestras, they play music in squares, taverns, inns, palaces or amphitheatres, to accompany dances, shows, operas and so on. Yes, I’ll do an article one day on music and musical instruments.

Poets

Whether written or improvised, poetry is an art form, both lyrical and critical.

Magicians

Prestidigitators and other fairground magicians.

Jugglers

This includes acrobats and some animal entertainers.

Painters

Goreans love drawing and painting, and like their homes decorated in this way. Painters also have patrons and receive private and public commissions.

Sculptors

A bit like painters, and they’re generally not short of work either.

Kaissa players

Women are not allowed to play kaissa (the equivalent of chess), but there’s no law against it. The game is considered a highly intellectual sport throughout Gor, with championships and prizes.

Singers

Troubadours, street singers and opera singers.

Comedians

Goreans love the theater, and comedians travel in troupes, often with singers and musicians, to perform in the street, inn or amphitheater.

 

There are many other castes, such as pirates, thieves, etc. I’ll mention two of the most characteristic, but also specific, below:

Thieves

(Mark of a trident under the left eye)

A caste exclusive to Port-Kar, yet outlawed even there:

“He’d had a split ear, probably as a result of some accident. I knew that such injuries were generally made to the ears of thieves. A repeat offender had his right hand cut off. On the third occasion, his left hand and both feet were cut off. By the way, there are very few thieves on Gor. I have heard that there is a Caste of Thieves in Port Kar, a strong group, which naturally protects its members from indignities such as ear splitting.”

(The Nomads of Gor)

The Assassins

(Dressed in black)

The Assassin Caste, also known as the Black Caste, is rather like a sect, almost outside the Gor caste system. It is feared, and generally frowned upon. Assassins have no Home Stone and support no allegiance to any city. They hire out their services as killers and mercenaries, and are scorned for it throughout Gor. They are also addressed as Killers, and when an Assassin is paid, there is talk of paying Black Gold. They have no companions, don’t start families, and live very isolated, paranoid and marginal lives, when they’re not on a mission. However, their role and mission are respected, and if an Assassin on a mission turns up in front of a city with the symbol of a dagger drawn on his forehead, the gates will be opened.