What, you thought I was going to classify animals by taxa and classes? Or start with predators? Uh, well, I’m sorry. But I thought starting with the animals that goreans breed was the most interesting. But, I promise, there will be articles on predators, wild animals and flora, of course! The Gorean Archives attempts to be a form of encyclopedia, so, yes, I’ll try to cover the whole subject.

PS: no, giani is not on this list. Because this little Gorean feline is rarely tamed and has never been domesticated, not to mention the fact that the species is only found in the jungles of Schendi.

1- definitions

Each animal is described by a text and several characteristics, to get a better idea of the animal:

• Rarity: lets you know if the animal is common or not.
• Distribution: its location on Gor’s geography (when I can tell).
• Diet: what the animal eats.
• Size: in meters and centimeters, because I’m European.
• Weight: in tons and kilos, because I’m European.
• Lifespan: when possible.

2- Farmed animals

Bee

• Rarity: very common
• Distribution: all Gor
• Diet: mellivorous
• Size: 1 cm
• Weight: –
• Lifespan: 30-60 days

The Gor bee is our domesticated bee, with a few subspecies. Although the novels only mention hives and beekeeping in Torvaldsland, honey is a common and prized food, so beekeeping is widespread. What’s more, it’s a good idea for a farmer to keep beehives at home, to ensure the pollination of his fruit trees, for example.

Eel

• Rarity: very common
• Distribution: all bodies of fresh or brackish water
• Diet: carnivorous & scavenging
• Size: 80 cm to 1.20 m long
• Weight: 4 to 5 kg
• Lifespan: 15 years

Eels are found just about everywhere, from marshes and rivers to lakes and lagoons. And they’re a fat, delicious fish that’s easy to raise and feed. It’s hardy, reproduces quickly, grows fast, and its flesh is easy to preserve in brine or salted and dried. Hm, need I say that falling into an eel farm pond is a horrible form of death?

Bosk

• Rarity: common
• Distribution: everywhere in farms (see text)
• Diet: herbivorous
• Size: 1.30 to 1.60 m at the withers
• Weight: 700 kg to 1.2 tons
• Lifespan: 20 years

The bosk is not a cow, but a buffalo, or a bison, depending on the subspecies. The big difference? Cows have been bred for docility for millennia, whereas buffalo and bison are animals enough skittish and powerful to make any predator on Earth hesitate, preferring instead to hunt something less dangerous. And bosk horns, pointed forward, are even longer than those of the buffalo.

The best-known bosk is the dairy bosk, which is the most domesticated, and is exploited everywhere, for milk and meat. But there are at least fifteen subspecies, including the red bosk, the emblematic animal of the Wagon People. Even the most peaceful bosk is considered dangerous, and young children are not allowed to milk them. Herds of wild bosk are most common on the Turia plains, where the Wagon People live.

Common carp

• Rarity: common
• Distribution: Vosk delta, Vosk plains
• Diet: omnivorous
• Size: 30 to 80 cm
• Weight: 3 to 15 kg
• Lifespan: 20 years

The carp is a fish of ponds, lakes and stagnant river arms, feeding on aquatic vegetation, mollusks and insects. But in fact, as long as it’s small enough for her, she’ll eat anything, which makes her very easy to breed, as she’ll even eat vegetable waste, bread or grain.

A hardy fish with fatty flesh that doesn’t keep well, carp are often transported alive in barrels, and killed on the spot in the inns that serve them on the menu. It’s not unusual for a wealthy villa to have its own pool of farmed carp for banquets.

Frevet

• Rarity: very common
• Distribution: from the Vosk plains to the Great Northern Forest.
• Diet: insectivore
• Size: 10 to 30 cm
• Weight: 80 to 250 g
• Lifespan: 5 years

The frevet is a kind of weasel with a pointed snout that hunts insects. The animal is much appreciated by Goreans, not only for its efficiency in getting rid of pests, but also for its social nature and ease of feeding. As a result, it’s a popular pet, and quite common in the countryside. Frevets are constantly on the move, either playing or hunting, and must eat a third of their body weight.

Gant

• Rarity: very common
• Distribution: from Torvaldsland to the Vosk delta, as well as the Pani islands.
• Diet: herbivorous
• Size: 50 to 90 cm high
• Weight: 6 to 10 kg
• Lifespan: 20 years

The gant is a goose, and like geese, the wild species is migratory, traveling thousands of kilometers from north to south every year. The torvis wait for these migrations to hunt them and harvest their eggs and thick, warm down, which is used to make padded jackets and quilts for winter nights.

The gant is also domesticated, and while the animal needs a body of water to live comfortably, it’s a common farm animal, easy to raise (as long as you don’t forget to clip its wing feathers), easy to tame, and prized for its meat and eggs.

Hurt

• Rarity: common
• Distribution: Torvaldsland, Great Northern Forest, northern Vosk Plains
• Diet: herbivorous
• Size: 1.6 meters tall
• Weight: 35-50 kg
• Lifespan: 10 years

The hurt looks like a small woolly kangaroo. It’s a marsupial, it’s bipedal, it moves by leaping – and it moves faster than a horse or a kaiila, it has a marsupial pouch and it too is a vegetarian. And he must have a bad temper, because it’s safer to keep hurts in enclosures, and have sleens look after them.

I’m not sure whether its fleece is alway black, and I think the animal was bred to have light, even white wools, i.e. more useful for weaving and dyeing. The animal is best known in the northern cities of Gor, and prefers colder climates. On the face of it, its meat is not very famous.

Desert Kaiila

• Rarity: uncommon
• Distribution: Tahari Desert and Turia Plains
• Diet: omnivorous
• Size: 1.5 to 1.8 m
• Weight: 400 to 550 kg
• Lifespan: 25 years

To begin with, there are two main, very different subspecies of kaiila, so we’re only going to talk about the domestic version here, and I may disappoint some people about what they think they know about this animal. The carnivorous kaiila of the Barrens will be described under predators.

So, the domestic kaiila is the desert kaiila, used as a mount in the Tahari. It’s an agile, powerful animal that resembles a horse with a fawn or even black coat, but hoofless legs with camel-like pads and claws. It also has three-lidded eyes, one of which is translucent and suited to sandstorms. Its head is more massive than a horse’s, with a wider mouth and a jaw featuring several rows of teeth, including canines.

The desert kaiila is omnivorous, and only hunts if it hasn’t found fruit, leaves or grasses to graze on, or if a good opportunity presents itself. The kaiila is not only fast, but also very agile, and can run over sand or rocks. Even when well trained, the kaiila remains touchy, dangerous and cunning. You really need to know these animals well to ride them, and always remain cautious.

It is said that a kaiila accepts only one rider, but this seems to be more reputation than reality. Although I can’t say for sure, a kaiila’s performance and speed seem to be quite similar to that of an Earth horse.

Sleen

• Rarity: very common
• Distribution: all Gor, except tropical jungles
• Diet: carnivorous
• Size: 2.5 to 6 meters
• Weight: 100 to 500 kg
• Lifespan: 20 years

Let’s start by dispelling a common misconception: the sleen is not a reptile at all! It’s much closer to a mammal, although clearly exotic. The sleen has a streamlined, serpentine body, like a ferret or weasel, and a triangular head with small, mobile ears, reminiscent of a mustelid. In fact, it shares a common trait with the mustelid family: the sleen stinks! Its smell is very strong and musky, like that of a ferret or badger. On the other hand, its double row of teeth is as exotic as its six short legs along its slender body, covered with dense hair, and its six clawed toes. The sleen is a nocturnal predator in the wild, and counts some ten subspecies; it is clearly the most common predator in Gor’s world, with the exception of the jungles of Schendi.

The domestic sleen is Gor’s dog. The comparison is perfect, since a sleen performs almost the same services as a dog, and the sleen can be trained like a dog. But a giant, temperamental dog, who can easily dig through the wood of a doorway in a matter of moments, or make a leap over three meters in the air.

The domestic sleen is far less bloodthirsty than its reputation suggests. It’s not just an animal for hunting and stalking; it can guard herds of animals, serve as a watchdog, or as a sniffer dog to combat smuggling, and so on. But it’s still a big, powerful beast that can’t be turned into a docile lapdog.

Tarn

• Rarity: very common
• Distribution: all Gor, except polar and subarctic regions (no Tarn in the Torvaldsland!).
• Diet: carnivorous
• Size: 4 to 7 meters (wingspan approx. 12 to 18 meters)
• Weight: 160 to 350 kg
• Lifespan: 30 years

The tarn is Gor’s flying mount, and is relatively rare in the wild. There are only a handful of subspecies, but many domesticated varieties. The tarn is a giant, hawk-like bird with a feathery crested head. The most common color is green-brown, but there are also red-browns, blacks, whites and even some multicolored ones. The tarn is a diurnal predator, swooping like a bird of prey. It does not tolerate cold climates. Last but not least, a tarn doesn’t fly well from the ground; in the wild, it flies from a high point (tree, peak, cliff).

The domestic tarn is, in a way, the ideal flying mount for goreans, and it’s highly prized and widely used, and, I’m going to break another preconceived idea, no, it’s not just the tarnsmens of the warrior caste who ride them. Tarnsmen warriors are an elite air cavalry unit, that’s all. The tarn is also used for transporting goods and people, and for sport, with famous air races – and a variety of very small, fast and light tarns. In fact, tarn breeders and keepers form a low caste in their own right.

And I’m going to break another onlinism (yes, I love it!): no, tarns don’t systematically kill any woman trying to ride them. They kill anyone, male or female, who isn’t strong, patient, persistent, attentive and self-confident enough to dominate them! In fact, that’s the test that every tarnsman passes: he’s not taught to ride, he’s given a few tips on how to approach his war tarn, and he tries to get on and ride it. And if the tarn doesn’t like it, good-bye tarsnman, and on to the next! Think of the flying mounts in James Cameron’s Avatar – that’s what it’s all about. Except that war tarns are more vicious, and the only thing that really forces them to obey is fear of the tarn goad, which they’ve all learned since they were fledglings. That said, men don’t let a woman ride a tarn, by sexist tradition; hey yeah, we’re on Gor. But a woman could very well do it… and get into so much trouble that it’s not worth it!

A transport tarn can lift around 400-500 kg and fly long distances without a break. And tarns aren’t at all afraid of flying over seas. It’s just that they need a place to land, so flying over the sea without being sure of their route and stops is risky. There’s no real indication of how far a tarn can fly in a day, but I think, comparing it with other large land raptors, it can cover a distance of around 600 to 800 km without a break (530 to 710 pasangs or 370 to 500 miles).

Tarsk

• Rarity: very common
• Distribution : all Gor, except polar and subarctic regions
• Diet : omnivorous
• Size: 60 cm to 1.4 meters at the withers
• Weight: 60 to 180 kg
• Lifespan: 30 years

The tarsk is Gor’s wild boar, but also his domestic pig. The animal is very widespread, and its way of life seems quite similar to that of the wild boar, with numerous subspecies, both large and small. It’s a burrowing omnivore that eats fruit, roots, seeds, plants, mushrooms, insects and just about anything else that passes through its snout, including carrion.

The tarsk clearly resembles a cross between a wild boar and a warthog, with six powerful tusks and a long, bristling mane all over its back. The wild tarsk is larger than the domestic tarsk, and can exceed one meter at the withers. Goreans enjoy hunting it, but given its power, you need spears and hunting stakes to kill it, and it’s not without risk; it can very well disembowel a hunting sleen.

The domestic tarsk is bred in enclosures for its meat, which is highly prized because it’s fatty and easy to salt and smoke, and can be used to make a wide range of cured meats. In tarsk, as in pig, everything is good!

Riding tharlarion

• Rarity: common
• Distribution: all Gor, except polar and subarctic regions
• Diet: carnivorous
• Size: 2.5 to 3 meters tall
• Weight: 250 to 400 kg
• Lifespan: 30 years

The tharlarion is a generic name describing two species of Gor reptiles, either bipedal or quadrupedal, carnivorous or herbivorous, with subspecies depending on the environment. We’re going to look at the high-tharlarion, the riding tharlarion that replaces the horse as mount on Gor.

The easiest way to describe it is to imagine the velociraptor from the film Jurassic Parc, i.e. a warm-blooded, scaly reptile with no hair or feathers, but with small, unhelpful arms. The high-tharlarion is temperamental (like almost all riding and draft animals on Gor!) and sometimes rebellious. A rider will often use a riding crop to hit his mount on the eyes or ears to make it obey, as the tharlarion is more or less insensitive to pain anywhere but there.

The riding tharlarion isn’t very fast, but it’s solid and hardy, except for the fact that it eats meat, which makes it of little use when traveling, as managing its food is complicated. On the battlefield, however, it’s a terrifying ally for the enemy!

Riding a riding tharlarion is not easy, and it’s quite uncomfortable as soon as it runs, as it propels itself in great leaps. You need suitable, padded saddles with safety straps.

Working tharlarion

• Rarity: very common
• Distribution: all Gor, except polar and subarctic regions
• Diet: herbivorous
• Size: 5 to 8 meters long
• Weight: 400 to 600 kg
• Lifespan: 50 years

So, as we were saying, there are two species of tharlarion, and the second has also been domesticated. It’s a large, warm-blooded, quadrupedal reptile with the appearance of a herbivorous iguana, a thick body and short legs. It likes water, and there are even sea varieties. Slow, placid and a little lymphatic, its size and power make it an excellent animal for pulling carts or towing boat along rivers. It can even be used as a mount for long journeys, as it is hardy and easy to feed, making do with whatever grasses and leaves it can find.

Verr

• Rarity: common
• Distribution: all Gor
• Diet: herbivorous
• Size: 40 cm to 1 meter at the withers
• Weight: 25 to 120 kg
• Lifespan: 15 years

A native of Earth, the verr is not a sheep at all, but a long-haired mountain goat found in the wild in the Voltai mountains. It is, however, domesticated everywhere, and raised for its milk, wool and meat.

Vulo

• Rarity: very common
• Distribution: all Gor
• Diet: herbivorous
• Size: 20 to 40 cm
• Weight: 200 to 500 gr
• Lifespan: 10 years

The vulo is a pigeon, not a chicken. That’s why Goreans have pigeon lofts rather than chicken coops. It also lives in the wild. The vulo is raised for its eggs and meat, but there is also a subspecies of carrier vulos, smaller than the domestic vulo, used to carry messages from one place to another.