What is Sardaria?

"How does a city obtain a Home Stone? Men decide that she shall have one."

- RAIDERS OF GOR, Pg. 251

WORDS ON WHAT SARDARIA IS AND SEEKS TO ACHEIVE

"The creation of a Gorean community, existing and interacting both online and offline, built through the dedication and commitment of its citizens, and sworn to a living Home Stone."

Sardaria is a community of men and women sharing a belief in and commitment to a particular set of ideas and principles collected and commonly called Gorean Philosophy. It is a place where those of a certain opinion can gather together with others of a like mind, embracing a lifestyle and culture that calls to each of them and enjoying it in an atmosphere founded on what they all hold in common. This foundation is based closely upon the Gorean Novels of John Norman, developing out of the ideas presented within them, and seeking to foster and understand the depths of the themes suggested on their pages as can be realistically applied to life in general. In all, a strong sense of unity, purpose and determination prevails, founded in the philosophies inherent to the books, conducted under concepts relevant to Gorean culture, and manifested in a community dedicated to the realization of a Home Stone.
The existence of Sardaria is not a matter of online or offline presence. It exists in those who are a part of it, and gathers together wherever or however its people may meet. Though the most regular place for this is online, the community cannot and should not be considered an online entity, because it goes far beyond so limited a term and what that implies. The real intentions of the community are found elsewhere, in the continuation and increase of regular "regional" and "national" gatherings, where citizens and trusted friends have the opportunity to meet together face to face. It is upon this that the true depth of a community is developed, for there is no better way to strengthen bonds of unity, loyalty and understanding than exposure to one another in a tangible way. This is truly the only means though which someone can really begin to embrace and observe the traditions and customs that fall under the title of "Gorean," at least in any social sense. It is also far harder to fool others about the truth of who you are and what you claim to be when standing before them, besides providing a safer atmosphere than initially meeting one on one, particularly where situations involving the concept of slavery are part of the intention.
The Internet supplies an easily utilized means for day to day interaction, especially between those separated by great distances. Its ease of accessibility is ideal for filling the gaps between offline gatherings, and provides a convenient forum for regular communication. It also enables the creation of an environment within which interested individuals can further explore the relationship of Gorean culture to their lives. While this pales in comparison to what can be had offline, its use again is one with obvious benefits which serve to enhance the community as a means of daily communication, a library of information, an entertaining diversion, and a way to meet new people with similar beliefs.
Normally, this online existence is just an alternative means of communication, with no fictional constructs being used. Conversation simply occurs where it actually is - in an online chat room or on a message board, with the setting being the reality of that text based location. These are the primary forms of interaction between those of Sardaria and their guests online - conversation about not just Gor and Gorean ideals, but life in general. It is believed that if this truly is a lifestyle, and a community based on one, then it encompasses all aspects and interests that are a part of life, not just some pre-approved listing of accepted material. When friends who respect one another gather to share each others company, they speak of whatever it is that they wish, however serious or lighthearted that may be. It's not so much what they talk about that matters, or for that matter where it is that they meet, but in terms of the lifestyle, it's the particular system of values and beliefs they apply to the topic they are considering, and the conclusions they come to based on these things. In some cases, in particular locations, a fictional setting is assumed to simulate an alternative environment, giving the venue somewhat more atmosphere. Though rarely employed by those of Sardaria, when it is used, it is strictly an external device designed to give a bland chat room a certain flavor for the benefit of those involved. But any use of fictional constructs ends with the imagined setting and its related trappings, and this is done only as an occasional diversion and change of pace. If you think that the Gorean lifestyle revolves around slavery and the repetitious practice of online beverage service, you will likely find Sardaria not in keeping with what you seek.
The community itself is not a role playing environment, especially not in the true sense of what that term means. While those of Sardaria may use pseudonyms and occasionally some related fictional devices, they do not "play roles" as their personal representation within the community. Sardarians are real people who are part of a real organization, not a collection of fictional personas and characters proceeding to live an ongoing imaginary existence constituting part of a fantasy game. Each individual in Sardaria is simply himself, the same person and personality found online in the community as would be offline, with their Sardarian SN/Nick being a reflection of this. This is not to say its people do not enjoy themselves or seek entertainment, it is just that it is not always necessary to pretend to be someone or somewhere else to do so. This enjoyment is also not bought at the cost of being untrue to oneself and the convictions one claims to have, in terms of lying about who you are or trying to pass off a fantasy persona as the real thing. And is further not purchased through pretending to hold certain beliefs and convictions that in reality mean nothing to you, or manifest themselves only through talk. A man cannot take one step towards following a philosophy with honesty at its core, if his first step is a lie. Sardaria is not the place to live a "hidden life," escape one's reality or pretend to live as you only wish you could. It is a community, not an excuse. Cyberspace is of course not real in the tangible sense of offline life, but how each person in Sardaria presents and carries himself is in keeping with who and what he really is, a condition without which nothing of true substantiality and longevity can be built.
Sardaria as a whole is the attempt to create a Gorean community, existing and interacting both online and offline, built through the dedication and commitment of its citizens, and sworn to a living Home Stone. A place where all involved can interact and feel an active, contributing part in a very real and personal way. A place that is continually developing and improving, where both the community and each of its individuals become consistently stronger in purpose and understanding. A place that goes beyond any online terms, to hold something of the pride and feeling that comes when one considers the word, Home Stone.
* * *
It is said that a city cannot die if its Home Stone does not perish. As long as the Home Stone remains, so too does the city, even if its walls are torn down, its buildings smashed to rubble, and its people scattered to the winds. It is the central point, that place upon which all else physical and spiritual is built, and the focus of the will, hope, pride, and conviction of its people. Sardaria need not exist as a tangible location to be something real to those who are a part of it. It has a Home Stone, and so long as that is true, so long as it remains in the hearts of those sworn to it, it exists.

"Perhaps, here and there, men will form themselves into small communities, where the names of such things as courage, discipline and responsibility may be occasionally recollected, communities which, in their small way, might be worthy of Home Stones. Such communities, emerging upon the ruins, might provide the nucleus for regeneration, a sounder, more biological regeneration of a social structure, one not antithetical to the nature of human beings."

- EXPLORERS OF GOR, Pg. 333
"I did not take my eyes from the city, so spendid before us. Yes, I thought, it is all there, the habitats of culture, the intricate poetries of stone, the incredible places where, their heads among clouds, common bricks have been taught to speak and sing, the meanings uttered scarsely understood by those who walk among them."

- MERCENARIES OF GOR, Pg. 259
"There is no Gorean expression for 'country' in the precise sense of a nation. Men of Earth think of cities as being within countries. Men of Gor tend to think of cities and the lands controlled by them. The crucial political entity for Goreans tends to be the city or village, the place where people and power are. There can be, of course, leagues among cities and tangential territories. Men of Earth tend to think of territory in a manner that might be considered circumferential, whereas Goreans tend to think of it as a more radial thing. Consider a circle with a point at its senter. The man of Earth might conceive of the territory as bounded by the circumference; the man of Gor would be more likely to think of the territory as a function of the sweep of the radius which emanates from the central point. Geometrically, of course, these two conceptions are equivalent. Psychologically, however, they are not. The man of Earth looks to the periphery; the man of Gor looks to the center. The man of Earth thinks of territory as static, regardless of the waxing and wanings of the power that maintains it; the Gorean tends to think of territory as more dynamic, a realistic consequence of the geopolitical realities of power centers. Perhaps it would be better to say that the Gorean tends to think more in terms of sphere of influence than he does in terms of imaginary lines on maps which may not reflect current historical realities."

- FIGHTING SLAVE OF GOR, Pg. 144-145
"For them a city is almost a living thing, or more than a living thing. It is an entity with a history, as stones and rivers do not have history: it is an entity with tradition, a heritage, customs, practices, character, intentions, hopes. When a Gorean says, for example, that he is of Ar, or Ko-ro-ba, he is doing a great deal more than informing you of his place of residence."

- OUTLAW OF GOR, Pg. 22
"To be of a city is, in a sense, to have been a part of something less perishable than oneself, something divine in the sense of undying. Of course, as every Gorean knows, cities too are mortal, for cities can be destroyed as well as men. And this perhaps makes them love their cities the more, for they know that their city, like themselves, is subject to mortal termination."

- OUTLAW OF GOR, Pg. 22
"The welfare of a larger number of individuals, as the Goreans reason, correctly or incorrectly, is more important than the welfare of a smaller number of individuals."

- FIGHTING SLAVE OF GOR, Pg. 210
"In peasant villages on this world, 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.
Later, 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 same hot, sweet emotions as our native peoples of Earth feel toward their flags became invested in it.
These stones 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."

- TARNSMAN OF GOR, Pg. 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."

- TARNSMAN OF GOR, Pg. 27
"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."

- TARNSMAN OF GOR, Pg. 27
"The community could now, if it wished, the Home Stone moving, even migrate to new lands. In Gorean law allegiances to a Home Stone, and not physical structures and locations, tend to define communities."

- BLOOD BROTHERS OF GOR, Pg. 474
"I wondered about the Home Stones of Gor. Many seem small and quite plain. Yet for these stones, and on account of these stones, these seemingly inauspicious, simple objects, cities have been built, and burned, armies have clashed, strong men have wept, empires have risen and fallen. The simplicity of many of these stones has puzzled me. I have wondered sometimes how it is that they have become invested with such import. They may, of course, somewhat simply, be thought of as symbolizing various things, and perhaps different things to different people. They can stand, for example, for a city, and, indeed, are sometimes identified with the city. They, have some affinity, too, surely, with territoriality and community. Even a remote hut, far from the paved avenues of a town or city, may have a Home Stone, and therein, in the place of his Home Stone, is the meanest beggar or the poorest peasant a Ubar. The Home Stone says this place is mine, this is my home. I am here. But I think, often, that it is a mistake to try to translate the Home Stone into meanings. It is not a word, or a sentence. It does not really translate. It is, more like a tree, or the world. It exists, which goes beyond, which surpasses, meaning. In this primitive sense the Home Stone is simply that, and irreducibly, the Home Stone. It is too important, too precious, to mean. And in not meaning, it becomes, of course, the most meaningful of all. It becomes, in a sense, the foundation of meaning, and, for Goreans, it is anterior to meaning, and precedes meaning. Do not ask a Gorean what the Home Stone means because he will not understand your question. It will puzzle him. It is the Home Stone. Sometimes I think that many Home Stones are so simple because they are too important, too precious, to be insulted with decoration or embellishment. And then, too, sometimes I think that they are kept, on the whole, so simple, because this is a way of saying that everything is important, and precious, and beautiful, the small stones by the river, the leaves of trees, the tracks of small animals, a blade of grass, a drop of water, a grain of sand, the world. The word 'Gor,' in Gorean, incidentally, means 'Home Stone.' Their name for our common sun, Sol, is 'Tor-tu-Gor' which means 'Light upon the Home Stone.'"

- MAGICIANS OF GOR, Pg. 485-486
"I think the explanation for the Gorean political arrangements and attitudes is the institution of the Home Stone. It is the Home Stone which, for the Gorean, marks the center. I think it is because of their Home Stones that the Gorean tends to think of territory as something from the inside out, so to speak, rather than from the outside in. Consider again the analogy of the circle. For the Gorean the Home Stone would mark the point of the circle's center. It is the Home Stone which, so to speak, determines the circle. There can be a point without a circle; but there can be no circle without a central point. But let me not try to speak of Home Stones. If you have a Home Stone, I need not speak. If you do not have a Home Stone, how could you understand what I might say?"

- FIGHTING SLAVE OF GOR, Pg. 145