" 'Gor,' he said, 'is the name of this world. In all the languages of this planet, the word means Home Stone.' He paused, noting my lack of comprehension. 'Home Stone,' he repeated. 'Simply that.'
'In peasant villages on this world,' he continued, 'each hut was originally built around a flat stone which was placed in the center of the circular dwelling. It was carved with the family sign and was called the Home Stone. It was, so to speak, a symbol of sovereignty, or territory, and each peasant, in his own hut, was a sovereign.' "

Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, page 26

" 'Later,' said my father, 'Home Stones were used for villages, and later still for cities. The Home Stone of a village was always placed in the market; in a city, on the top of the highest tower. The Home Stone came naturally, in time, to acquire a mystique, and something of the hot, sweet emotions as out native peoples of Earth feel towards their flags became invested in it.' "

Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, pages 26 - 27

" 'Where a man sets his Home Stone, he claims, by law, that land for himself. Good land is protected only by the swords of the strongest owners in the vicinity.'
'Swords?' I asked.
'Yes,' said my father, as if there was nothing incredible in this admission. He smiled. 'You have much to learn of Gor,' he said. 'Yet there is a hierarchy of Home Stones, one might say, and two soldiers who would cut one another down with their steel blades for an acre of fertile ground will fight side by side to the death for the Home Stone of their village or of the city within whose ambit their village lies."

Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, page 27

" 'These stones,' said my father, 'are various, of different colors, shapes, and sizes, and many of them are intricately carved. Some of the largest cities have small, rather insignificant Home Stones, but of incredible antiquity, dating back to the time when the city was a village or only a mounted pride of warriors with no settled abode.' "

Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, page 27

"My father had risen to his feet and had begun to pace the room, and his eyes seemed strangely alive. In time I would come to understand more of what he felt. Indeed, there is a saying on Gor, a saying whose origin is lost in the past of this strange planet, that one who speaks of Home Stones should stand, for matters of honor are here involved, and honor is respected in the barbaric codes of Gor."

Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, page 27

" 'I shall show you someday,' he said, 'my own small Home Stone, which I keep in my chambers. It encloses a handful of soil from the Earth, a handful of soil that I first brought with me when I came to this world - a long time ago.' He looked at me evenly. 'I shall keep the handful of earth you brought,' he said, his voice very quiet, 'and someday it may be yours.' His eyes seemed moist. He added, 'If you should live to earn a Home Stone.' "

Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, pages 27 - 28

"Oddly enough, one of the expressions in the tongue of Gor for our sun was Lar-Torvis, which means The Central Fire, another Pythagorean expression, except that it had not been, as I understand it, originally used by the Pythagoreans to refer to the sun but to another body. The more common expression for the sun was Tor-tu-Gor, which means Light Upon the Home Stone."

Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, page 28

" 'It is the occasional dream of a conqueror or statesman,' he said, 'to have but a single Supreme Home Stone for the planet.' Then, after a long moment, not looking at me, he said, 'It is rumored that there is such a stone, but it lies in the Sacred Place and is the source of the Priest-Kings' power.' "

Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, page 28

" 'You must learn,' Torm had said matter-of-factly, 'the history and legends of Gor, its geography and economics, its social structures and customs, such as the caste system and clan groups, the right of placing the Home Stone, the Places of Sanctuary, when quarter is and is not permitted in war, and so on.' "

Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, page 40

"Yet if the Home Stone of Ar, the very symbol and significance of the empire, could be removed from Ar, the spell of Marlenus might be broken. He would become a laughing-stock, suspect to his own men, a leader who had lost the Home Stone. He would be fortunate if he was not publicly impaled."

Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, page 66

"The Home Stone of Ar, like most Home Stones in the cylinder cities, was kept free on the tallest tower, as if in open defiance of the tarnsmen of rival cities. It was, of course, kept well-guarded and at the first sign of serious danger would undoubtedly be carried to safety. Any attempt on the Home Stone was regarded by the citizens of the city as sacrilege of the most heinous variety and punishable by the most painful of deaths, but paradoxically, it was regarded as the greatest of glories to purloin the Home Stone of another city, and the warrior who managed this was acclaimed, accorded the highest honors of the city, and was believed to be favored by the Priest-Kings themselves."

Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, pages 67 - 68

"The Home Stone of a city is the center of various rituals. The next would be the Planting Feast of Sa-Tarna, the Life- Daughter, celebrated early in the growing season to ensure a good harvest. This is a complex feast, celebrated by most Gorean cities, and the observances are numerous and intricate. The details of the rituals are arranged and mostly executed by the Initiates of a given city. Certain portions of the ceremonies, however, are often allotted to members of the High Castes."

Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, page 68

"In Ar, for example, early in the day, a member of the Builders will go to the roof on which the Home Stone is kept and place the primitive symbol of his trade, a metal angle square, before the Stone, praying to the Priest-Kings for the prosperity of his caste in the coming year; later in the day a Warrior will, similarly, place his arms before the Stone, to be followed by other representatives of each caste. Most significantly, while these members of the High Castes perform their portions of the ritual, the Guards of the Home Stone temporarily withdraw to the interior of the cylinder, leaving the celebrant, it is said, alone with the Priest-Kings.
Lastly, as the culmination of Ar's Planting Feast, and of the greatest importance to the plan of the Council of Ko-ro-ba, a member of the Ubar's family goes to the roof at night, under the three full moons with which the feast is correlated, and casts grain upon the stone and drops of a red, wine like drink made from the fruit of the Ka-la-na tree. The member of the Ubar's family then prays to the Priest-Kings for an abundant harvest and returns to the interior of the cylinder, at which point the Guards of the Home Stone resume their vigil.--- According to the plan of the Council of Ko-ro-ba, exactly at the time of the sacrifice, at the twentieth Gorean hour, or midnight."

Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, pages 68 - 69

"How could I tell it from the others, the Home Stones of those cities which had fallen to Ar?
Yes! It would be the one that would be red with Ka-la-na, that would be sprinkled with the seeds of grain!"

Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, page 79

" 'Marlenus lost the Home Stone, the Luck of Ar. He, with fifty tarnsmen, disloyal to the city, seized what they could of the treasury and escaped. In the streets there is civil war, fighting between the factions that would master Ar. There is looting and pillaging. The city is under martial law.' "

Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, page 102

"I cut into the locked saddle pack. It contained, as I'd known it would, the Home Stone of Ar. It was unimpressive, small, flat, and of a dull brown color. Carved on it, crudely, was a single letter in an archaic Gorean script, that single letter which, in the old spelling, would have been the name of the city. At the time the stone was carved, Ar, in all probability, had been one of dozens of inconspicuous villages on the plains of Gor."

Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, page 144

"Almost as an afterthought I had included the Home Stone of Ar, that simple, uncomely piece of rock that had so transformed my destiny and that of an empire."

Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, page 145

" 'Perhaps some of them fight for their freedom - for the right to keep their own Home Stone,' I said. 'Surely not all of Pa-Kur's horde are adventurers, mercenaries.' Noting the Ubar's interest, I went on. 'Besides, few of the soldiers of Gor, barbarians though they might be, would risk the destruction of their city's Home Stone - the luck of their birthplace.' "

Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, page 172

"I opened the leather bundle. In it I found the scarlet tunic, sandals and cloak which constitute the normal garb of a member of the Caste of Warriors. This was as it should be, as I was of that caste, and had been since that morning, some seven years ago, when in the Chamber of the Council of High Castes I had accepted weapons from the hands of my father, Matthew Cabot, Administrator of Ko-ro-ba, and had taken the Home Stone of that city as my own."

Book 2, Outlaw of Gor, pages 21 - 22

"This love of their city tends to become invested in a stone which is known as the Home Stone, and which is normally kept in the highest cylinder in the city. In the Home Stone - sometimes little more than a crude piece of carved rock, dating back perhaps several hundred generations to when the city was only a cluster of huts by the bank of a river, sometimes a magnificent and impressively wrought, jewel- encrusted cube of marble or granite - the city finds its symbol. Yet to speak of a symbol is to fall short of the mark. It is almost as if the city itself were identified with the Home Stone, as if it were to the city what life is to man. The myths of these matters have it that while the Home Stone survives, so, too, must the city.
But not only is it the case that each city has its Home Stone. The simplest and humblest village, and even the most primitive hut in that village, perhaps only a cone of straw, will contain its own Home Stone, as will the fantastically appointed chambers of the Administrator of so great a city as Ar."

Book 2, Outlaw of Gor, pages 22 - 23

" 'I mean you and you Home Stone no harm,' I said. 'I have no money and cannot pay you, but I am hungry.'
'A warrior takes what he wishes,' said the man. "

Book 2, Outlaw of Gor, page 28

" 'I have peas and turnips, garlic and onions in my hut,' said the man, his bundle like a giant's hump on his back.
'The Priest-Kings themselves,' I said, 'could not ask for more.'
'Then, Warrior,' said the man, issuing Gor's blunt invitation to a low caste dinner, 'share my kettle.'
'I am honored,' I said, and I was.
Whereas I was of high caste and he of low, yet in his own hut he would be, by the laws of Gor, a prince and sovereign, for then he would be in the place of his own Home Stone. Indeed, a cringing whelp of a man, who would never think of lifting his eyes from the ground in the presence of a member of one of the high castes, a crushed and spiritless churl, an untrustworthy villain or coward, an avaricious and obsequious peddler often becomes, in the place of his own Home Stone, a veritable lion among his fellows, proud and splendid, generous and bestowing, a king be it only in his own den."

Book 2, Outlaw of Gor, page 29

"Indeed, frequent enough were the stories where even a warrior was overcome by an angry peasant into whose hut he had intruded himself, for in the vicinity of their Home Stones men fight with all the courage, savagery and resourcefulness of the mountain larl. More than one are the peasant fields of Gor which have been freshened with the blood of foolish warriors. "

Book 2, Outlaw of Gor, page 29

Book 2, Outlaw of Gor, page 45

"...the sun is referred to a Tor-tu-Gor, or Light Upon the Home Stone."

Book 2, Outlaw of Gor, page 178

"Chronology in Ar is figured, happily enough, not from its Administrator Lists, but from its mythical founding by the first man on Gor, a hero whom the Priest-Kings are said to have formed from the mud of the earth and the blood of tarns. Times is reckoned 'Constanta Ar', or 'from the founding of Ar.' The year, according to the calendar of Ar, if it is of interest, is 10,117. Actually I would suppose that Ar may not be a third of that age. Its Home Stone, however, which I have seen, attests to a considerable antiquity."

Book 2, Outlaw of Gor, page 179

"One of the latter was the power source of the Priest-Kings, the great plant wherein the basic energy is generated for their many works and machines.
'Sometimes this is spoken of as the Home Stone of all Gor,' said Sarm, as we walked the long, winding, iron spiral that clung to the side of a vast, transparent blue dome. Within that dome, burning and glowing, emitting a bluish, combustive refulgence, was a huge, crystalline reticulated hemisphere. 'The analogy, of course,' said Sarm, 'is incorrect for there is no Home Stone as such in the Nest of Priest-Kings, the Home Stone being a barbarous artifact generally common to the cities and homes of Gorean humans.'
I was somewhat annoyed to find the Home Stones, taken so seriously in the cities of Gor that a man might be slain if he did not rise when speaking of the Home Stone of his city, so airily dismissed by the lofty Sarm.
'You find it hard to understand the love of a man for his Home Stone,' I said.
'A cultural oddity,' said Sarm, 'which I understand perfectly but find slightly preposterous.' "

Book 3, Priest-Kings of Gor, pages 143 - 143 ~才

" 'Here,' said my father, reaching into a leather sack that he wore slung about his shoulder, 'is Ko-ro-ba,' and he drew forth the small, flat Home Stone of the city, in which Gorean custom invests the meaning, the significance, the reality of a city itself. 'Ko-ro-ba cannot be destroyed,' said my father, 'for its Home Stone has not perished!'
My father had taken the Stone from the City before it had been destroyed. For years he had carried it on his own person.
I took the small stone in my hands and kissed it, for it was the Home Stone of the city to which I had pledged my sword, where I had ridden my first tarn, where I had met my father after an interval of more than twenty years, where I had found new friends, and to which I had taken Talena, my love, the daughter of Marlenus, once Ubar of Ar, as my Free Companion."

Book 3, Priest-Kings of Gor, page 304 ~才

" 'Yes,' said my father, 'here too is Ko-ro-ba, not only in the particles of its Home Stone, but in the hearts of its men.'"

Book 3, Priest-Kings of Gor, page 304 ~才

"He circled me, widely. 'Beware,' he said, 'I carry a Home Stone.'
I stood back and made no move to draw my weapon. Though I was of the caste of warriors and he of peasants, and I armed and he carrying naught but a crude tool, I would not dispute his passage. One does not lightly dispute the passage of one who carries his Home Stone."

Book 4, Nomads of Gor, page 1 ~才

"I myself was startled, but would not speak. I had thought that Kamchak might destroy the stone, thus breaking the heart of the city, leaving it in ruins in the minds of men. It was only at that time, as he held court in the palace of Phanius Turmus that I realized he would permit the city its freedom, and its soul. I had hitherto only understood that Turians might perhaps return to the city, and that its walls would be left standing. I had not understood that it would be permitted to retain a Home Stone.
It seemed to me a strange act for a conqueror, for a Tuchuk."

Book 4, Nomads of Gor, page 334 ~才

"...and yet I knew that in each dirt-floored cone of straw that served as the dwelling place of a peasant and his family, there was, by the fire hole, a Home Stone;"

Book 6, Raiders of Gor, page 3