The Laurius Exchange Point

The City of Laura’s … Laurius Exchange Point

    "High on the beach, I saw two pairs of sloping beams. They were high, large and heavy structures. The feet of the beams were planted widely, deeply, in the sand; at the top, where they sloped together, they had been joined and pegged. They were rather like the English letter "A", though lacking the crossbar. Within each "A", her wrists bound by wrapped and taut leather to heavy rings set in the sloping sides, there hung a girl, her full weight on her wrists. Each were panther girls, captured. Their heads were down, their blond hair falling forward. Their ankles had been tied rather widely apart, each fastened by leather to iron rings further down the beams.
    It was an exchange point.
    It is thus that outlaws, to passing ships, display their wares.
    We were fifty pasangs north of Lydius, which port lies at the mouth of the Laurius River. Far above the beach we could see the green margins of the great northern forests.
    They were very beautiful."

-Hunters of Gor pg. 18

You have arrived at the exchange point about one half a pasang outside the eastern quarries down river from Laura.

You may reach Laura’s LEP in one of several ways… From the depths of the Northern Forests or from a barge or small ship on the Laurius River.

We were a mere ten pasangs from the exchange point where we had, the preceding day, obtained two panther girls. Male and female outlaws do not much bother one another at the exchange points. They keep their own markets. I cannot recall a case of females being enslaved at an exchange point, as they bargained with their wares, nor of males being enslaved at their exchange points, when displaying and merchandising their captures. If the exchange points became unsafe for either male or female outlaws, because of the others, the system of exchange points would be largely valueless. The permanency of the point, and its security, seems essential to the trade.

-Hunters of Gor page 27

Arriving there you will see slaves for sale that have been hung on frames along the banks of the river... frames having two beams that join at the top to form something like an upside down “V”... the slaves are hung in these frames with wrists bound together hanging from the apex of the frame and their ankles bound wide apart one attached to each beam. Panthers are the main traders who may be here.

The girls had set two poles in the sand, and lashed a high crossbar to them. The man's wrists, widely apart, were, by leather binding fiber, fastened to this bar. He was nude. He hung about a foot from the ground. His legs had been widely spread and tied to the side poles.

-Hunters of GOR page 27

It was not unknown that among the bands in the forests, a male might be sold for as little as a handful of such candies. When dealing with men, however, the girls usually demanded, and received, goods of greater value to them, usually knives, arrow points, small spear points; sometimes armlets, and bracelets and necklaces, and mirrors; sometimes slave nets and slave traps, to aid in their hunting; sometimes slave chains, and manacles, to secure their catches.

-Hunters of GOR page 31

They will usually bring slaves, furs and other things from the forest to trade for goods that are not easily found in the forest... We have frequently seen steel arrowheads, spearheads and knives, collars, chains, slave traps, candies, brushes, mirrors and many other things being traded here.

    "A steel knife for each," I proposed to Sheera, "and twenty arrow points, of steel, for each."
    "Forty arrow points for each, and the knives," said Sheera, cutting at the sand. I could see she did not much want to conduct these negotiations. Her heart was not in the bargaining. She was angry.
    "Very well," I said.
    "And a stone of candies," she said, looking up, suddenly.

-Hunters of GOR page 31

    There was little sugar in the forest, save naturally in certain berries, and simple hard candies, such as a child might buy in shops in Ar, or Ko-ro-ba, were, among the panther girls in the remote forests, prized.

-Hunters of GOR page 31

Sheera, and her girls, watched carefully, not trusting men, and counted the arrow points twice.
-Hunters of GOR page 31

This area is covered by all appropriate City of Laura Rules.

These limitations that are set on this pull down is in accordance with the LEP at AR and is an attempt to get the Exchange more in line with the John Norman books.

( this is a direct quote from the LEP at AR) According to the books, there were rarely exceptions to these limitations... and if there were exceptions they would be from locations relatively near the Point... for example, Torvaldslanders might bring small ships down or Men of Port Kar or Tyros might venture to the Point... Citizens of distant cities or Wagon Camps would not be found here... Ubars/Administrators would rarely visit such a place... they would buy slaves in slave houses/auctions, not at this Exchange.

To request an exception to this rule be prepared to support the request with a quote from the books Any who do not fit the caste limitations for trading here should send a Slaver or Merchant, who might truly venture to this place, as an agent to conduct any business You require... this will promote good role play and a diversity of Castes...

This is a Neutral Area for Trading. Any drawing of weapons, violence, threats, berating, word bashing, offensive, boastful, insulting or abusive language will result in trade protection being revoked (i.e. normal room rules will apply).

...I saw only one slave cage on a barge moving downstream. It contained four or five nude male slaves. They seemed dejected, huddled in their cage. Strangely, a broad swath had been shaven lengthwise on their head. Lana saw this and shrieked out, hooting at them across the river. The men did not even look at us, moving slowly across the current toward Laura.
    I looked at Ute.
    "That means they are men who were taken by women," said Ute. "See," she said, pointing up to the hills and forests north of Laura. "Those are the great forests. No one knows how far they extend to the east, and they go north as far as Torvaldsland. In them there are the forest people, but also many bands of outlaws, some of women and some of men."
    "Women?" I asked.
    "Some call them forest girls," said Ute. "Other call them the panther girls, for they dress themselves in the teeth and skins of forest panthers, which they slay with their spears and bows."
    I looked at her.
    "They live in the forest without men," she said, "saving those they enslave, and then sell, when tiring of them. They shave the heads of their male slaves in that fashion to humiliate them. And that, too, is the way they sell them, that all the world may know that they fell slave to females, who then sold them."
    "Who are these women?" I asked. "Where do they come from?"
    "Some were doubtless once slaves," said Ute. "Others were once free women. Perhaps they did not care for matches arranged by their parents. Perhaps they did not care for the ways of their cities with respect to women. Who knows? In many cities a free woman may not even leave her dwelling, without the permission of a male guardian or member of her family." Ute smiled up at me. "In many cities a slave girl is more free to come and go, and be happy, than a free woman."

-Captive of Gor - pg. 81-82

Wandering slaves are not allowed! Slaves are ONLY allowed if escorted by a Master/Mistress with legitimate business here.

ALL UNESCORTED SLAVES WILL BE CONSIDERED CAPTURED AND BE PUT IN CITY OF LAURA COLLARS!

Unless they are wearing the collar of their Escort or the tags of His/Her camp, slaves should place ~escorted by Whoever~ on their tags or they are subject to capture. Even if you are a slave collared to another camp, if you wander into the Exchange alone, you ARE going to be captured! Unless it is a slave collared to a Panther of the forest, it is unlikely that anyone would know of the slave's capture, so no Captor of a slave in the exchange is obligated to notify the slave's former Owner or Home. Any communication from the captured slave to the former Owner or Home will be considered invalid role play. Any actions resulting from such OOC knowledge will be ignored within the role play

All captures in the Exchange will be properly and fairly role played.

The first Free Trader that posts to the slave has rights to finish the capture.

Panthers, Outlaws, Merchants, Slavers, Hunters, Raiders and Captains of Port Ships WILL NOT be captured, collared or killed here although captives from elsewhere in the forest are often brought here for sale.

Honor and respect will be shown toward all parties here to do legitimate, peaceful trading... if not, either party, if angered, has the right to leave or ignore the other... but no collaring or killing of Traders will be honored at the exchange point... if this exchange point ever becomes dangerous, it will be valueless...

NO SPARS OR RAIDS ARE ALLOWED IN THE EXCHANGE POINT! (No exceptions granted, Take it elsewhere Boys) If you have killing or capturing to do... go into the another Room or the nearby Forest....

All legitimate Traders are welcome at this exchange, however, if You live in a home on a chat site that does not allow captives to be taken and removed from the chat site. Then You will not be allowed to take captives from this exchange.

"…all truth and reality is not written in one's own codes." (Raiders of Gor, p.310)
"…but to take truth for granted is not to know it. Truth not won is not possessed. We are not entitled to truths for which we have not fought." (Marauders of Gor, p.7)