"The Chamber of the Council is the room in which the elected representatives of the High Castes of Ko-ro-ba hold their meetings. Each city has such a chamber. It was in the widest of cylinders, and the ceiling was at least six times the height of the normal living level. The ceiling was lit as if by stars, and the walls were of five colors, applied laterally, beginning from the bottom white, blue, yellow, green, and red, Caste colors. Benches of stone, one which the members of the Council sat, rose in five monumental tiers about the walls, one tier for each of the High Castes. These tiers shared the color of that portion of the wall behind them, the Caste colors. The tier nearest the floor, which denoted some preferential status, the white tier, was occupied by Initiates, Interpreters of the Will of the Priest-Kings. In order, the ascending tiers, blue, yellow, green, and red, were occupied by representatives of the Scribes, Builders, Physicians, and Warriors." Tarnsman of Gor page 61.

High Castes

• Initiates~~the representatives of the Priest-Kings in Gorean society; responsible for guiding the spiritual life of Goreans through their rituals and prayers to the Priest-Kings; recognized by a white robe, shaven head and face, and refusal to eat meat or drink alcohol; required to be celibate; most are well read and commonly distrusted by those of the lower castes; Their caste color is WHITE.
  
  QUOTE: "And the men in that crowd were of all castes, and even of castes as low as the Peasants, the Saddle-Makers, the Weavers, the Goat-Keepers, the Poets and the Merchants, but none of them groveled as did the Initiates; how strange, I thought - - the Initiates claimed to be most like Priest-Kings, even to be formed in their image, and yet I knew that a Priest-King would never grovel; it seemed the Initiates, in their efforts to be like gods, behaved like slaves." Priest Kings of Gor page 294.
  
  
• Scribes~~concerned with history, accounting, record keeping, etc; serious and studious men and women who give a great deal of attention to detail and a passion for knowledge; sub-classes of this caste include the Mapmakers (explorers), the Magistrates and the Litigators; Their caste color is BLUE.
  
  QUOTE: "Many castes, incidentally, have branches and divisions. Lawyers and Scholars, for example, and Record Keepers, Teachers, Clerks, Historians and Accountants are all Scribes." Assassin of Gor page 208.
  
  " 'Ho!' cried Torm, that most improbable member of the Caste of Scribes, throwing his blue robes over his head..." Tarnsmen of Gor page 36
  
  
• Builders~~include architects, draftsmen, stone masons, inventors, technicians etc; Their caste color is YELLOW
  
  
• Physicians~~practice the healing arts; surgeons, apothecaries, medical researchers and health practitioners; recognized as non-combatants during a war; Their caste color is GREEN
  
  QUOTE: "On the first day the Physician, a quiet man in the green garments of his castle, examined me, thoroughly. The instruments he used, the tests he performed, the samples he required were not unlike those of Earth . . .. I could see neither cords nor battery cases. Yet the room was filled with a soft, gentle, white light, which the physician could regulate by rotating the base of the bulb. Further, certain pieces of his instrumentation were clearly far from primitive. For example, there was a small machine with gauges and dials. In this he would place slides, containing drops of blood and urine, flecks of tissue, a strand of hair. With a stylus he would note readings on the machine, and, on the small screen at the top of the machine, I saw, vastly enlarged, what reminded me of an image witnessed under a microscope." Captive of Gor page 93.
  
  
• Warriors~~includes infantry, tharlarion cavalry and tarnsmen; strictest sets of codes on Gor; most prized possession being courage; wagon Camps have Warriors in large numbers; girls born of a Warrior may marry a Warrior and pass the codes to their son; most romanticized and misinterpreted caste; the military branch of Gorean government; Their caste color is SCARLET .
  
  QUOTE" The Code of the Warrior is, in general, characterized by a rudimentary chivalry, emphasizing loyalty to Pride Chiefs and the Home Stone. It was harsh, but with a certain gallantry, a sense of honor that I could respect. A man could do worse then live by such a code." Tarnsman of Gor page 41.
  
  "For one thing she was not of the warriors and was thus not entitled to this badge of station; indeed, her wearing it, as she was a mere female, would be a joke to outsiders and an embarrassment to men; it would belittle its significance for them, making it shameful and meaningless. The insignia of men, like male garments, become empty mockeries when permitted to women. This type of thing leads eventually both to demasculinization of men and the defeminization of females, a perversion of nature disapproved of generally, correctly or incorrectly, by Goreans." Mercenaries of Gor page 56.
  
  "'The vengeance of a warrior,' said he, 'you will learn, little slut of a slave, is not a light thing.'" Slave Girl of Gor page 373.
  
  "Steel is the coinage of the warrior," say the codes. "With it he purchases what pleases him." Marauders of Gor page 16.
  
  "Within the circle of each man's sword," say the codes of the warrior, "therein is each man a Ubar." Marauders of Gor page 16.
  
  "In the codes of the warriors, there is a saying; Be strong, and do as you will. The swords of others will set you your limits." Marauders of Gor page 10.
  
  "I am of the Caste of Warriors, and it is in our codes that the only death fit for a man is that in battle, but I can no longer believe that is true, for the man I met once on the road to Ko-ro-ba died well, and taught me that all wisdom and truth does not lie in my own codes." Priest Kings of Gor page 14.
  
  "'Flee!' she said. 'I am of the Warriors,' I said. 'But you may die,' she said. 'That is acknowledged in the codes,' I said. 'What are the codes?' she asked. 'They are nothing and, and everything.' I said. 'They are a bit of noise, and the steel of the heart. They are meaningless, and all significant. They are the difference. Without the codes men would be Kurii.' 'Kurii?' she asked. 'Beasts, such as ice beasts, and worse,' I said. 'You need not keep the codes,' she said. 'I once betrayed my codes,' I said. 'It is not my intention to do so again.' I looked at her. One does not know, truly what it is to stand, until one has fallen. Once one has fallen, then one knows, you see, what it is to stand. 'None would know if you betrayed the codes,' she said. 'I would know,' I said, 'and I am of the Warriors.' 'What is it to be a warrior?' she asked. 'It is to keep the codes,' I said. 'You may think that to be a warrior is to be large, or strong, and to be skilled with weapons, to have a blade at your hip, to know the grasp of the spear, to wear the scarlet, to know the fitting of the iron help upon one's countenance, but these things are not truly needful; they are not, truly what makes one man a warrior and another not. Any man might, if he dared, don the scarlet and gird himself with weapons. Any man might place upon his brow the helm of iron. But it is not the scarlet, now the steel, nor the helm which makes a warrior.' She looked at me. 'It is the codes,' I said. 'Abandon your codes,' she said. 'One does not speak to slaves of the codes,' I said." Beasts of Gor page 340.
  
  "You have drawn a weapon against me, I said. You are of the warriors? said the fellow. He wavered. He, too, knew the codes. Yes, I said. And he? asked the fellow. He, too, I said. You are not in the scarlet, he said. True, I said. Did he think that the color of a fellow's garments was what made him a warrior? Surely he must realize that one not of the warriors might affect the scarlet, and that one who wore the grimed gray of a peasant, one barefoot, and armed only with the great staff, might be of the scarlet caste. It is not the uniform which makes the warrior, the soldier." Magicians of Gor page 129.
  
  "Even warriors long sometimes for the sight of their own flags, atop friendly walls, for the courtyards of their keeps, for the hearths of their halls. Thus admit the Codes." Blood Brothers of Gor page 306.
  
  "Warriors, it is said in codes, have a common Home Stone. Its name is battle." Renegades of Gor page 343.
  
  "It was lonely here. Yet such times are good in the life of a Warrior, times to be alone, to think. He who cannot think is not a man, so saith the codes. Yet neither, too, they continue, is he who can only think." Vagabonds of Gor page 65.
  
  "The 97th Aphorism in the Codes I was taught,' I said, 'is in the form of a riddle: What is invisible but more beautiful than diamonds? That which is silent but deafens thunder.' The men regarded one another. 'And what is that?' asked Labenius. 'The same,' said I, 'as that which depresses no scale but is weightier than gold.' 'And what is that?' asked Labenius. 'Honor,' I said. 'He is of the Warriors,' said a man. Vagabonds of Gor page 304.
  
  "The warrior does not kill himself or aid others in the doing of it. It's not in the codes." Vagabonds of Gor page 446.
  
  

This page was last modified on the 31st of January 2002.