...There
is a saying on Gor that the laws of a city extend no further than
its walls.
---Outlaw of Gor
, 6:50
Gorean civil law, as the
above quote notes, is entirely up to the governing body of each
city, village, territory or other social or political unit. There
are of course many similarities between the laws of various cities,
and it is more often in the finer nuances that they will differ.
Certainly, one would expect that theft, murder, betrayal of one's
Home Stone or destruction of other people's property, for example,
are subject to one form or another of the most severe punishment
the given area has determined appropriate.
Beyond the obvious, though,
there are numerous legal issues which are mentioned throughout the
travels of Tarl Cabot, sometimes specifically identified as the
law of a given city, and other times simply referred to as a law
which is common to 'many' or 'most' Gorean cities.
The laws of a city will state
not only the rules its citizens must abide by, but also the treatment
reserved for visitors, from setting times by which all visitors
must exit the city, to issuing a form of permit for visiting, to
simply letting folks move about freely, context and conjuncture
having much to do with how welcoming a city will be. War and conflict
naturally call for tighter control and surveillance of a city's
gates, while peaceful times or the day to day needs of a trade port
allow and/or require that entry be less restricted.
Heralds and messengers of
various types usually wear what is described as a golden slash on
their helms so that they may be easily identified and accorded immunity.
Visiting dignitaries or ambassadors, even of enemy cities, are usually
granted immunity as well although there are certainly examples where
this protection rule was dismissed without much scruple.
...for to
enter a city without permission or without satisfactory reason is
tantamount to a capital crime, and the punishment is usually a swift
and brutal implement. Pikes on the walls of Gorean cities are often
surmounted with the remains of unwelcome guests. The Gorean is suspicious
of the stranger, particularly in the vicinity of his native walls.
Indeed, in Gorean the same word is used for both stranger and enemy.
---Outlaw of Gor, 6:49
As would be expected and
since other than merchant law and the edicts of Priest-Kings there
is no trans-Gorean law system, a city's laws usually cover areas
of civil, criminal, penal, constitutional and the Gorean equivalent
of marital laws.
Building a city
Civil construction is something in which slaves may not take part.
This law/principle is mentioned as the reader witnesses the rebuilding
of the city of Ko-Ro-Ba, but stated to be universal enough that
only one city is known to have made exception to it.
I knew that
only those who were free would be permitted to make a city. Doubtless
there were many slaves in Ko-ro-ba but they would be allowed only
to serve those who raised the walls and towers. Not one stone could
be placed in either wall or tower by a man or woman who was not
free. The only city I know of on Gor which was built by the labor
of slaves, beneath the lash of masters, is Port Kar, which lies
in the delta of the Vosk.
---Assassin of Gor
, 5:60-61
Acquiring and maintaining
citizenship
Goreans, although born into
a caste, are not born citizens of a city. The right to citizenship
is accompanied by a pledge to the Home Stone which is first taken
in the course of the coming of age ceremony and then renewed annually.
It is also mentioned that young Goreans must perform this ceremony
upon reaching the age of majority or risk being expelled from the
city.
Young men and women of the
city, when coming of age, participate in a ceremony which
involves the swearing of oaths, and the sharing of bread, fire and
salt. In this ceremony the Home Stone of the city is held by each
young person and kissed. Only then are the laurel wreath and the
mantle of citizenship conferred....
---Slave Girl of Gor
, 26:394
...Citizenship
in most Gorean communities is not something accrued in virtue of
the accident of birth but earned by virtue of intent and application.
The sharing of a Home Stone is no light thing in a Gorean city.
...To claim
a Home Stone as one's own when it is not is a serious offense among
Goreans....
---Slave Girl of Gor, 26:395
When one
does not have a Home Stone, it is possible to become a citizen of
a town/city by being permitted in a public ceremony to kiss the
Home Stone of the town/city.
"Why would one think of her in the terms of a Ubara?"
I asked. "Sworn from Marlenus, she is no longer his daughter."
"I am not a scribe of the law," he said. "I do not
know."
"I do not think she has a Home Stone," I said.
"Gnieus Lelius permitted her to kiss the Home Stone,"
he said. "It was done in a public ceremony. She is once again
a citizeness of Ar."
"Gnieus Lelius seems a generous, noble fellow," I said.
---Mercenaries of Gor
, 21:265
“I am surprised to
hear such sentiments,” I said, “from those who must
once have held and kissed the Home Stone of Ar.” This was
a reference to the citizenship ceremony which, following the oath
of allegiance to the city, involves an actual touching of the city’s
Home Stone. This may be the only time in the life of a citizen of
the city that they actually touch the Home Stone. In Ar, as in many
Gorean cities, citizenship is confirmed in a ceremony of this sort.
Nonperformance of this ceremony, upon reaching intellectual majority,
can be a cause for expulsion from the city. The rationale seems
to be that the community has a right to expect allegiance from its
members.
---Vagabonds of Gor
, 28:303
Legal registries - the
right to a name?
"Some
clue, then, as to her origins, may be there," I said. Goreans
are usually rather careful about such things as crests, signs, family
emblems, and such. Sometimes such things are actually registered,
and legally restricted in their use to given lines.
---Mercenaries of Gor, 24:292
Maps, keys, forgery and
fraud
As one would expect, fraud and forgery, much as they are in
our own world, are illegal and subject to criminal justice. Copyright,
although not established on a trans-municipal level, does have a
certain level of protection, at least locally.
Lastly it
might be mentioned that it is a capital offense for a locksmith,
normally a member of the Metal Workers, to make an unauthorized
copy of a key, either to keep for himself or for another.
---Assassin of Gor, 5:52
...On the
other hand, I suspect that they fear too broad a dissemination of
the caste knowledge. Physicians, interestingly, perhaps for a similar
reason, tend to keep records in archaic Gorean, which is incomprehensible
to most Goreans. Many craftsmen, incidentally, keep such things
as formulas for certain kinds of glass and alloys, and manufacturing
processes, generally, in cipher. Merchant law has been unsuccessful,
as yet, in introducing such things as patents and copyrights on
Gor. Such things do exist in municipal law on Gor but the jurisdictions
involved are, of course, local.
---Magicians of Gor
, 22:394
...It is
illegal in many cities, incidentally, to take maps of the city out
of the city. More than one fellow, too, has put himself in the quarries
or on the bench of a galley for having been caught with such a map
in his possession.
---Magicians of Gor, 22:388
"We
will require a map of the depths," said the leader of the strangers.
"None exists in the city, by policy," said the pit master,
"just as no map of the city, either, may be prepared."
This, as I understood it, was not uncommon in this world. In some
cities it is regarded as a capital offense to make or be found in
possession of a city map. The motivations for such policies, one
assumes, are military.
---Witness of Gor, 33:574
Companionship contraction,
renewal and dissolution
Although not always
done in legal fashion, these are provided for one way or another
in most cities, the usual rule being that companionships are contracted
for life and do require yearly renewal. These elements of the law
are discussed more at length on the Companionship
page of this section. Note that Gorean women do not change their
name when they become companioned.
There is no marriage, as
we know it, on Gor, but there is the institution of the Free Companionship,
which is its nearest correspondent. Surprisingly enough, a woman
who is bought from her parents, for tarns or gold, is regarded as
a Free Companion, even though she may not have been consulted in
the transaction. More commendably, a free woman may herself, of
her own free will, agree to be such a companion. And it is not unusual
for a master to free one of his slave girls in order that she may
share the full privileges of a Free Companionship. One may have,
at a given time, an indefinite number of slaves, but only one Free
Companion. Such relationships are not entered into lightly, and
they are normally sundered only by death. Occasionally the Gorean,
like his brothers in our world, perhaps even more frequently, learns
the meaning of love.
---Outlaw of Gor, 6:54
The next
to appear before Bila Huruma were two members of the nobility, a
man and his companion. He complained of her that she had been unwilling
to please him. By one word and a stroke of his hand between them
Bila Huruma dissolved their companionship....
---Explorers of Gor
, 18:231
"It is long since you
have been the Free Companion of Talena, daughter of Marlenus,"
said Samos. "The Companionship, not renewed annually, is at
an end. And you were once enslaved."
I looked
at the board, angrily. It was true that the Companionship, not renewed,
had been dissolved in the eyes of Gorean law. It was further true
that, had it not been so, the Companionship would have been terminated
abruptly when one or the other of the pledged companions fell slave.
---Hunters of Gor
, 1:9
Enslavement
Other than being an actual common sentence, enslavement, especially
the enslavement of women, is legally determined by a number of factors
and can be the result of situations which do not tie into the usual
criminal sentencing. The institutions of capture, voluntary submission
and other forms of enslavement are also discussed in detail on the
free women page of this section.
The women
cried out in misery. To enter the circle, if one is a female, is,
by the laws of Torvaldsland, to declare oneself a bond-maid. A woman,
of course, need not enter the circle of her own free will. She may,
for example, be thrown within it, naked and bound. Howsoever she
enters the circle, voluntarily or by force, free or secured, she
emerges from it, by the laws of Torvaldsland, as a bond-maid.
---Marauders of Gor
, 3:44-45
...I recalled
hearing now, in the house, of "capture rights," respected
in law. I had originally thought these rights referred to the acquisition
of free women but I had later realized they must pertain, more generally,
to the acquisition of properties in general, including slaves....
Theft, or capture, (Ed--of a slave) if you prefer, conferred rights
over me. I would belong to, and must fully serve, anyone into whose
effective possession I came, even if it had been by theft. The original
master, of course, has the right to try to recover his property,
which remains technically his for a period of one week. If I were
to flee the thief, however, after he had consolidated his hold on
me, for example, kept me for even a night, I could, actually in
Gorean law, be counted as a runaway slave, from him, even
though he did not technically own me yet, and punished accordingly....
Strictures of this sort, of course, do not apply to free persons,
such as free women. A free woman is entitled to try to escape her
captor as best she can, and without penalty, even after her first
night in his bonds, if she still chooses to do so. If she is enslaved,
of course, then she is subject to, and covered by, the same customs,
practices and laws as any other slave.... After the slave has been
in the possession of the thief, or captor, for one week she counts
as being legally his....
---Dancer of Gor
, 6:95-96
...in most
cities, on the other hand, a free woman may, with legal tolerance,
submit herself as a slave to a specific man. If he refuses her,
she is then still free. If he accepts her, she is then, categorically,
a slave, and he may do with her what he pleases, even selling her
or giving her away, or slaying her, if he wishes. Here we might
note a distinction between laws and codes. In the codes of the warriors,
if a warrior accepts a woman as a slave, it is prescribed that,
at least for a time, an amount of time up to his discretion, she
be spared. If she should be the least bit displeasing, of course,
or should prove recalcitrant in even a tiny way, she may be immediately
disposed of.
It should
be noted that this does not place a legal obligation on the warrior.
It has to do, rather, with the proprieties of the codes....
---Players of Gor
, 1:21
One aspect of the law which
is typically Gorean and not likely comparable to any laws with which
the reader is familiar would be the crime of slave behavior and
its consequence for the woman who commits it. On various levels,
certain types of behaviors have been identified as slave-like and
hence a free woman found guilty of such would be sentenced to slavery.
These crimes are extremely varied and it does seem that cities in
general tend to be more restrictive in these matters. It would also
seem that the higher the woman's status, the less she is permitted
to demonstrate behaviors which might be even remotely seen as slave-like.
The principle
he had alluded to pertains to conduct in a free woman which is taken
as sufficient to warrant her reduction to slavery. The most common
application of the principle occurs in areas such as fraud and theft.
Other applications may occur, for example, in cases of indecency
and vagrancy. Prostitution, rare on Gor because of female slaves,
is another case. The women are taken, enslaved, cleaned up and controlled.
Indulgence in sensuous dance is another case. Sensuous dance is
almost always performed by slaves on Gor. A free woman who performs
such dancing publicly is almost begging for a collar. In some cities
the sentence of bondage is mandatory for such a woman.
---Renegades of Gor
, 21:372
In many less formal cultures,
such as the Rence or the Wagon Peoples, women dress for the physical
labors that are part of their everyday life and in most cases this
requires a certain amount of freedom of movement which simply could
not exist within the confinement of the city woman's robes of concealment.
Cultural differences do play a clear role in these matters as the
reader will find one area of Gor where free women all but move about
naked without any man finding this to be the behavior of a slave,
and in other areas the showing of so much as a foot or an ankle
can be interpreted as a tease.
It is imperative then to
look at the various laws within the context of the territory and
culture to which they belong, if only to keep from becoming confused
as to what does and what doesn't constitute slave-like behavior
on a criminal level. Interestingly, although the veil is not legally
obligatory in most cities, some cities consider it a serious crime
to face-strip a woman against her will.
...The veil,
it might be noted, is not legally imperative for a free woman; it
is rather a matter of modesty and custom. Some low-class, uncompanioned,
free girls do not wear veils. Similarly certain bold free women
neglect the veil. Neglect of the veil is not a crime in Gorean cities,
though in some it is deemed a brazen and scandalous omission. Slave
girls may or may not be veiled, this depending on the will of their
master. Most slave girls are not permitted
to veil themselves. Indeed, not only are they refused the dignity
of the veil, but commonly they are placed in brief, exciting slave
livery and may not even bind their hair....
---Slave Girl of Gor, 5:107
Then he jerked
away the veil of state from my features. I, though a free woman,
had been face-stripped before free men. My face was as bare to them
as though I might be a slave. Face-stripping a free woman, against
her will, can be a serious crime on Gor. On the other hand, Corcyrus
had now fallen. Her women, thusly, now at the feet of her conquerors,
would be little better than slaves. Any fate could now be inflicted
on them that the conquerors might wish, including making them actual
slaves....
---Kajira of Gor
, 13:183
...Indeed,
in some cities an unveiled free woman is susceptible to being taken
into custody by guardsmen, then to be veiled, by force if necessary,
and publicly conducted back to her home..... Repeated offenses in
such a city usually result in the enslavement of the female....
---Players of Gor, 6:125
(Ed.--addressing
a male as 'Master') In the Gorean culture, of course, this sort
of thing is very significant. Indeed, in some cities such things
as kneeling before a man, or addressing him as "Master"
effects legal imbondment on the female, being interpreted as a gesture
of submission.
---Players of Gor, 6:139
…in
some cities a free woman who might be found with bared legs is taken
in hand by magistrates, tried and sentenced to bondage. After the
judge’s decision has been enacted, its effect carried out
upon her, reducing her to the status of goods, sometimes publicly,
that she may be suitably disgraced, sometimes privately, by a contract
slaver, that the sensitivities of free women in the city not be
offended, she is hooded and transported, stripped and chained, freshly
branded, a property female, slave cargo, to a distant market where,
once sold, she will begin her life anew, fearfully, as a purchased
girl, tremulously as the helpless and lowly slave she is.
---Mercenaries of Gor, 5:69
"In
Ar's Station," he said, "as in Ar, robes of concealment,
precisely, are not legally obligatory for free women, mo more than
the veil. Such things are more a matter of custom. On the other
hand, as you know, there are statues prescribing certain standards
of decorum for free women, For example, they may not appear naked
in the streets, as may slaves. Indeed, a free woman who appears
in public violation of these standards of decorum, for example,
with her arms or legs too much bared, may be a slave
---Renegades of Gor, 21:367
...Any free
woman who voluntarily couches with another’s slave, or readies
herself to do so, becomes the slave of the slave’s master.
By such an act, the couching with, or the readying herself to couch
with, a slave, as though she might be a girl of the slave’s
master, thrown to the slave, she shows herself as no more than a
slave, and in this act, in law, becomes a slave....
---Magicians of Gor, 19:303
It is understood and believed
by those Goreans who know of Earth, that Earth women are natural
slaves. There are a number of explanations to this belief, one of
them being that those of earth have no Home Stone and hence no legal
identity. To most of Gor, Earth is simply known as 'the slave world'.
"...You
are an Earth girl and thus stand within a general permission of
enslavement, fair beauty quarry to any Gorean male whatsoever."
Earth
had no Home Stones. No legalities, thus, were contravened in capturing
them and making of them abject slave girls.
"The first to capture you, owns you," he said. "Prepare
to be leashed as a slave."...
---Slave Girl of Gor, 26:394
Enslavement and caste
It is mentioned on numerous occasions that the castes offering
the service of entertainment are protected from enslavement as a
matter of principle, custom, and sometimes law. It is also said
that the caste of players, in most cities, is immune to bondage.
In most cities
its regarded, incidentally, as criminal offense to enslave one of
the caste of players. A similar decree in most cities stands against
the enslavement of one who is of the caste of musicians.
---Beasts of Gor
, 3:44
...The musicians
were free. Musicians on Gor, that is, members of the caste of musicians,
are seldom, if ever, enslaved. Their immunity from bondage, or practical
immunity from bondage, is a matter of custom. There is a saying
to the effect that he who makes music must, like the tarn and the
Vosk gull, be free. This is a saying, however, which I suspect was
invented by the caste of musicians, to protect itself from bondage.
For example, there are many musicians on Gor, not members of the
caste, who are enslaved. For example, it is quite common on Gor
to train a slave girl in the use of a musical instrument, that she
might be more pleasing to masters. It never seems to occur to anyone
that she should then be freed. Indeed, it is felt that since she
is in a collar, it will make her performance, her playing, and perhaps
her singing, even more superb. Too, some male slaves are fine musicians.
The only other caste on Gor which is generally considered, for most
practical purposes, as immune from bondage is the caste of players.
These are the fellows who make their living from the game of Kaissa,
playing it for prizes, charging for games, giving instruction and
exhibitions, annotating games, and so on. They are usually poor
fellows but generally have little trouble securing a night's food
and lodging for a game or two. The general affection and respect
which Goreans feel for the game of Kaissa is probably the explanation
for the practical immunity from bondage commonly accorded the members
of the caste of players....
---Kajira of Gor, 28:297-298
Post enslavement logistics
There is, in the case of enslavement, an instant annulment of
status, caste membership, citizenship and any other right or claim
the enslaved individual may have had prior to enslavement. Assets
are subject to whatever succession law is in place and their disposal
is immediate and irreversible. Caste rights, the right to a name
or a clan and citizenship rights do not revert when the individual
is freed, should this occur.
It then occurred
to me, suddenly, that, following Gorean civic law, the properties
and titles, assets and goods of a given individual who is reduced
to slavery are automatically regarded as having been transferred
to the nearest male relative--or nearest relative if no adult male
relative is available--or to the city--or to, if pertinent, a guardian.
Thus, if Aphris of Turia, by some mischance, were to fall to Kamchak,
and surely slavery, her considerable riches would be immediately
assigned to Saphrar, merchant of Turia. Moreover, to avoid legal
complications and free the assets for investment and manipulation,
the transfer is asymmetrical, in the sense that the individual,
even should he somehow later recover his freedom, retains no legal
claim whatsoever on the transferred assets.
---Nomads of Gor
, 9:103
...They had
declared themselves slaves. The slave herself, of course, once declaration
has been made, cannot revoke it. That would be impossible, for she
is then only a slave. The slave can be freed only by one who owns
her, only by one who is at the time her master or, if is should
be the case, her mistress....
---Explorers of Gor, 48:409
In the same fashion, past
crimes and/or the responsibility associated with them are no longer
legally held against the slave. It is often said, of course, that
the slave will pay dearly for her/his transgressions as they often
fall into the hands of those whom they have wronged. This is partially
expected though at times frowned upon if pursued for extended periods.
Goreans insist that slavery , in many ways, removes one's past from
them. Indeed, how to justify that assets and other positive aspects
of a former status be ignored while refusing to dismiss more negative
aspects of one's former life?
...Sometimes
a girl is permitted to scream. Sometimes she is not. It depends
on the will of the man. When she is branded a girl is commonly permitted
to scream, at least for a time....
I dismissed her from my mind, for she was a slave. Her history as
a free woman had terminated; her history as an imbonded beauty had
begun.
---Beasts of Gor, 2:27
...The legal
point, I think, is interesting. Sometimes, in the fall of a city,
girls who have been enslaved, girls formerly of the now victorious
city, will be freed. Technically, according to Merchant Law, which
serves as the arbiter in such intermunicipal matters, the girls
become briefly the property of their rescuers, else how could they
be freed? Further, according to Merchant Law, the rescuer has no
obligation to free the girl. In having been enslaved she has lost
all claim to her former Home Stone....
---Explorers of Gor, 48:409-410
Laws, rules or simply
principle? - slave rules
While the corporate and marketing
aspects of slave management are covered by merchant law, city laws
will also cover, in many cases, the management of human property
as it comes to public allowances, i.e., things slaves may or may
not do. Though certain things are clearly stated as law, many times
rules are mentioned along the texts of the Gor pages that can be
viewed as law for the slave but that are in fact not written laws
so much as understood rules of expected behaviors. One needs to
remember that in the context of Gorean slavery, slaves are not citizens,
have no rights, and that to the slave, the master's word IS law.
On Gor a
slave, not being legally a person, does not have a name in his own
right, just as, on earth, our domestic animals, not being persons
before the law, do not have names.... That name which he has had
from birth, by which he has called himself and knows himself, that
name which is so much a part of his own conception of himself, of
his own true and most intimate identity, is suddenly gone.
---Outlaw of Gor, 21:197
"...In
the eyes of Gorean law you are an animal. You have no name in your
own right. You may be collared and leashed. You may be bought and
sold, whipped, treated as the master pleases, disposed of as he
sees fit. You have no rights whatsoever. Legally you have no more
status than a tarsk or vulo. Legally, literally, you are an animal."
---Explorers of Gor, 32:316
Various passages which mention
slave laws will usually either speak in very general terms, use
the word law or refer to an act as being illegal rather than simply
mention it to be forbidden. It is also more common to find laws
pertaining to enslavement and disposal of slaves than to slave behavior,
since essentially, no matter what a slave may be told she can or
cannot do, such requirements are subject to change without notice
depending on as little as a whim; again, a simple effect of the
absence of status or rights.
...A male
slave can be slain for touching a free woman....
---Kajira of Gor, 8:144
"Forgive
me, Masters!" she wept. "You are men! You are men! A slave
begs forgiveness!" Her concern was certainly not out of place.
The demeaning of men, whereas it is permitted to, and not unknown
among, free women, is not permitted to female slaves. Such, on their
part, can be a capital offense.
---Magicians of Gor, 14:226-227
Law, rule or simply principle?
The slave may not teach a
free person or be responsible for educating them. While clearly
there are a number of things one might learn from a slave, the official
function of education cannot be held by a slave, nor can it be considered
one of their responsibilities.
...slaves
were not permitted to impart instruction to a free man, since it
would place him in their debt, and nothing was owed to a slave....
---Tarnsman of Gor
, 3:46
In many places or simply
by their master's word, most slaves may not handle legal documents,
money or weapons and certainly attempt at using a weapon to harm
a free person would be considered a capital offense.
When one
who is a slave strikes a free person the penalty is not infrequently
death by impalement, preceded by lengthy torture.
---Assassin of Gor, 5:74
...A girl
dares not raise a weapon against a free man. Some girls have been
slain, or had their hands cut off, for so much as touching a weapon.
---Slave Girl of Gor, 9:220
...It can
be a capital offense on Gor, incidentally, for a slave to so much
as touch a weapon.
---Mercenaries of Gor, 4:57
"Many
masters," I said, "do not permit a slave to so much as
touch money. To be sure, they might let her carry coins in an errand
capsule, or and errand sack, tied about her neck, instructions to
a vendor perhaps also contained within it, her hands braceleted
behind her."
---Renegades of Gor, 8:122
They may not enter temples,
or play Kaissa. They are expected to kneel in the presence of all
free men and in fact all free persons, although quite often they
are removed from the presence of free women who find their very
existence to be offensive. They are also commanded to address all
free persons as Master and Mistress.
...It had
been argued that slaves had no right upon the Kaissa board. One
might note also, in passing, that slaves are not permitted to play
Kaissa. It is for free individuals....
---Beasts of Gor, 3:43-44
A Gorean
slave girl in the presence of a free man or woman always kneels,
unless excused from doing so.... A Gorean slave, incidentally, always
addresses free men as "Master," and all free women as
"Mistress."
---Captive of Gor
, 7:73
Certain of
these things, such as failing to kneel in the presence of a free
man, may be regarded as a capital offense on the part of a Gorean
slave girl, even if it is inadvertent. If intent is involved in
such an omission, it can be an occasion for death by torture.
---Players of Gor, 12:252
Honesty is not only expected
from a slave, but demanded in all things. The slave is forbidden
to hide feelings, emotion and particularly sexual need which are
considered to be an essential element of her nature and slavery.
The absolute
truth must be spoken to a Gorean master. It is forbidden to a girl
to hide her feelings.
---Captive of Gor, 16: 346
...I looked
down upon her. "You are a wanton slave," I said. She looked
up at me laughing. "A girl in a collar is not permitted inhibitions,"
she said. It was true. Slave girls must reveal their sexual nature,
totally. Do they not do so, they are beaten....
---Marauders of Gor, 21:278
The free
woman, often, fears to feel. The slave, on the other hand, fears
not to feel, for she may then, in all likelihood, be punished. The
same frigidity which may be accounted a virtue among free women,
figuring in their vanity competitions, how well they can resist
men, is commonly among slaves an occasion for the imposition of
severe discipline; it can even constitute a capital offense. The
degraded slave has little choice but to yield, and yield well....
---Savages of Gor
, 12:222
"I will
never yield to them," wept the girl.
"Then you will be killed," said the woman.
The girl gasped, shrinking back in the chains. "I could pretend
to yield," she whispered.
"That is the crime of false yielding," said the mother.
"It is easy to detect, by infallible physiological signs. It
is punishable by death."
---Mercenaries of Gor, 16:191-192
She, of course, may also
not try to conceal her status and is expected to be easily identifiable
as slave in any given situation. Attempt at denying one's condition
is considered an extremely serious lie.
A girl with
pierced ears is, of course, either a slave , or a former slave.
If she is a former slave, her papers of manumission had best be
in perfect order. More than one freed woman, because of pierced
ears, has found herself again on the block, again reduced by strong
men to the helpless state of bondage....
---Slave Girl of Gor, 4:97-98
...Free men
do not take it lightly that a Kajira would dare to don the garments
of a free woman. This is regarded as an extremely serious offense,
fit to be followed by terrible punishments. It can be worth the
life of one to do so....
---Slave Girl of Gor, 5:120
...This was
my first owner collar. The laws of Ar, incidentally, do not require
a similar visible token of bondage on the bodies of male slaves,
or even any distinctive type of garments....
---Kajira of Gor, 24:268
...It is
very serious "cause for punishment" on the part of a slave
to conceal or deny her status. Normally, of course, there is very
little danger of this sort of thing occurring, as she is usually
collared and branded and, usually, is clad in distinctive manner.
---Renegades of Gor, 21:376
...She had
attempted to take advantage of the fact that she had not yet been
branded and collared. She had attempted to pass herself off as a
free woman. In many cities, such a thing is a capital offense....
---Renegades of Gor, 21:389
Discipline and punishment
remain the right of the slave's owner, though it is understood that
slaves in public places are at the mercy of all free persons present
and not protected from punishment.
"Any
free man may discipline an insolent or errant slave," I said,
"even one who is the least bit displeasing, even one he might
merely feel like disciplining. If she is killed, or injured, he
need only pay compensation to her master, and that only if the master
can be located within a specific amount of time and requests such
compensation." In virtue of such customs and statutes the perfect
discipline under which Gorean slaves are kept is maintained and
guaranteed even when they are not within the direct purview of their
masters or their appointed agents....
---Players of Gor, 12:235
"The
discipline of a slave," I said, "may be attended to by
any free person, otherwise she might do much what she wished, provided
only her Master did not learn of it." The legal principle was
clear, and has been upheld in several courts, in several cities,
including Ar.
---Magicians of Gor, 8:122
Odds and ends - Miscellaneous
mentions of laws
...A man
who refused to practice his livelihood or strove to alter status
without the consent of the Council of High Castes was, by definition,
an outlaw and subject to impalement.
---Tarnsman of Gor, 3:46
...In most
Gorean cities it is illegal to offer an unbranded woman in a public
sale. This is presumably in deference to the delicacy and sensibilities
of free women. The brand draws a cataclysmic gulf between the Gorean
free woman, secure in her arrogance, beauty and caste rights, and
the stripped, nameless, rightless slaves, suitably vended as the
mere lovely beasts they are in the flesh markets of this primitive,
gorgeous world. Unbranded women, of course, may be sold privately,
for example, as fresh captures to slavers or, say, to men who have
speculated that they might find them of interest.
---Savages of Gor, 7:101
"She
lived from men, following them and exploiting them," I said.
"She was a debtor slut. I paid her bills and thus came into
her de facto ownership, through the redemption laws."
---Renegades of Gor, 10:172