Unsurprisingly, over the course of John Norman’s 36 novels, we realize that he wrote almost nothing about medicine, and even less about the Physician High Caste. A subject that only interested him if, broadly speaking, it intersected with his tales of enslaved women and virile warriors. Don’t weep for your bad luck if you wanted to play the role of physician, that’s the case with most of the High Castes, Scribes and Warriors excepted!

That said, he wrote enough to make it easy enough to develop the subject and describe it, without betraying Gor’s spirit, and that’s what we’ll do here.

Warning: I’m sticking above all to the basics of the means and technical knowledge on the subject described in the novels. These may not reflect your in-game experience in Second Life. Some players play doctors with talents and resources similar to the best general practitioners in our contemporary world, while others play quasi quack characters straight out of the doctors in Molière’s Le Malade Imaginaire, including the bleeding of the humours. There’s no judgment here about right or wrong interpretation; I’m only describing and interpreting what Norman has described. Personally, I’m not shocked that some physicians deploy contemporary, even science-fictional medical means, as long as it’s done in a credible and coherent way. The reason I’m talking about credibility and coherence here is that, let me remind you, Priest-Kings and super-technology, such as computers or wave communication, not to mention anything that can become a technological weapon, don’t mix well. And the Initiates, who stick their noses into everything, will quickly burn down all this equipment and the physicians who use it, if they find out!

1- the level of medical knowledge

Before we talk a little about caste, let’s take a quick look at what Gor’s medicine generally allows. As mentioned above, Gor medicine isn’t very detailed: we don’t have many excerpts on surgery or operating techniques, we don’t really know what Gor people are capable of in terms of emergency medicine and resuscitation etc…

But one thing is certain: in many respects, Gor’s medicine is more primitive than Earth’s, but produces far superior results. It is especially in the field of pharmacopoeia and disease prevention that it excels, even appearing a little miraculous. Where it falls short is in the fields of surgery, internal medicine and, as a general rule, extensive knowledge of biology. In a nutshell, a Gorean suffering from internal bleeding, cancer or autoimmune disease is often doomed, and there’s virtually nothing anyone can do to save him or her. Luckily, Gor’s preventive medicine makes this kind of risk very, very low (except for internal bleeding, which is unlucky).

The main source of the remarkable success of Gorean medicine are its strange machines, derived from gifts from the priest-kings, via the Initiate caste, then studied and reproduced or adapted by the Builder and Physicians caste. These are mainly blood analysis machines, stethoscopes, tensiometers and microscopes. Syringes, cannulas, infusions, scalpels, clamps – all emergency and surgical instruments – are commonplace in the equipment of a good physicist, if he can afford them. Here again, it’s the Builder Caste, especially its engineers and craftsmen of precision mechanics, who make them for them, in collaboration with the academies of the Physician Caste.

Physicians, generally, have no idea how the most advanced machines work, only what can be done with them. And this equipment is terribly precious, as it is often irreplaceable. Among the most formidable analysis machines, Norman mentions those capable of analyzing the chemistry of human hair, urine or tissue. It is then easy to detect profound biological changes: whether a person has taken the Longevity Serum or not, whether it has worked properly or not, whether the person is pregnant, poisoned, or infected by a known disease etc… and even blood type.

Yes, it’s downright fantastic; no, it doesn’t seem very coherent in Gor’s world. But there it is. And I haven’t even mentioned genetics yet…

Of course, these electromechanical machines, which totally defy the average Gorian’s level of scientific knowledge, are worth a fortune. That’s why they’re only found in the medical academies of the big cities, where doctors share them among themselves. The little country physician, if he has a stethoscope and a dusty old tensiometer, is already well varnished. And, finally, we’re talking about civilized places with a high cultural level, where the Physicians’ Caste exists! Among the Torvis, there’s no such thing as a real doctor, only herbalists, healers and bonesetters. The same applies to the jungles of Schendi and the nomads of the Turia Plains.  That doesn’t mean their care is bad, but don’t expect miracles!

A physician, his knowledge, his equipment, his expertise – in short, it’s VERY rare, on the scale of Gor’s world. That’s why they’re so respected, considered and pampered, as we’ll come back to later.

As we’ve said, Gor pharmacopoeia is far more muscular than Earth pharmacopoeia. It’s not that Goreans are better chemists, it’s just that the world around them abounds in active substances and medicinal remedies. A good herbalist can cure most simple ailments on Gor with just a few infusions and poultices. A physician, on the other hand, can be far more effective against most illnesses.

And of course, not to mention the impressive stuff like slave wine, fertility wine, vaccines against most STDs, there’s… Stabilizing Serum, which gives health, youth and long life… so long that some old Goreans are five to six hundred years old. But more on that later.

2- The Physicians’ Caste

While the Physicians’ high-caste is not the most prestigious in terms of precedence (it’s only above the Warriors’ and below all the others), it is, in terms of fame and recognition for all Goreans, as prestigious, if not more so, than that of the Builders.

Note: Yes, if you’re wondering: the Initiate caste is highly respected, superstitiously so, but just as much feared, especially as it often remains mysterious.  The Scribe caste is reputed to be particularly haughty, closed-minded and jealous of its knowledge and rank, a kind of pedantic aristocracy that never mixes with the common people. The Warrior caste is admired and respected, but rightly feared, if not hated, by the common people, as it is this caste that commits the most bloody and unjust exactions (yeah, the rarii don’t protect the common people much, in fact). As for the other high castes, they distrust the warrior caste like the plague and try to muzzle it as best they can. This leaves two castes close to the people (who make up almost 90% of the Gorean population): the builders… and the physicians!

The Physicians caste’s color is green, and on Gor Second Life it’s emblazoned with the caduceus symbol, which is never shown in the novels. Because this color is associated with a certain number of privileges, to which we’ll return below, Physicians are accustomed, especially when traveling, to displaying their color on their tunic, so as to be recognized from afar.

The Physicians’ caste is highly organized: each major city has its own medical academy, the central place where the caste manages its affairs and passes on its knowledge. The academy occupies at least one complete cylinder, often in an extensive area, with hospices and all the equipment and infrastructure needed to receive and treat patients, train students and give courses. Then there are many smaller private practices, where several Physicians and students work together, sharing their resources. It’s a wealthy caste, we must admit, but one that deploys its fortune for the well-being of all, and in the end, the Physicians themselves are rarely rolling in dough.

The two women’s bracelets

A striking feature of the Physician caste is that, in the High Castes, it has by far the largest number of female practitioners. The other castes can’t compete with this, and consider their wives to be just like all other Goreans: at home, raising the kids and running the household. Not so the physicians, who train their womens to practice like men and assume the same role, responsibilities and power included.

That’s why the Physicians have a custom that exists only among them: at the age of fifteen, a female member of the Caste is given two bracelets, one on each wrist. They are only removed, one on each wrist, if she has children. As long as she wears these bracelets, she cannot be considered a titled physician: before becoming one, she must assume her social role as a mother; only then can she have the status of titled physician, with equal rank to any male titled physician in the caste.

Another point: the Physician caste, along with the Builder caste, is the caste that meets the most and exchanges the most between cities, even in times of war (which is a good thing, given that most Gorean cities spend their time at war). Colloquia are held several times a year during major trade fairs, and doctors come to exchange knowledge, innovations and research, constantly improving medicine and its effectiveness. And it doesn’t matter if two doctors are from two enemy towns: their duty to heal and help heal takes precedence over their loyalty to the Home Stone.

We don’t enslave physicians!

Finally, the Physicians’ Caste tends to have a kind of informal safe-conduct, just about everywhere. It’s not a law, nor a sacred tradition, but only a custom, respected by the importance of their social role: everyone avoids, on the one hand, attacking or killing a physician. And for the same reason, because they’re simply too precious, too important to everyone, and their talent requires years and years of training, you never enslave a physician out of whim or envy. Even as punishment for an offence, we’ll think twice and prefer, if possible, to exercise other sentences. This is really the only High Caste to enjoy this informal privilege! Even the Builder caste, which is very close to the people, cannot claim to have these arrangements to the general customs of the Goreans.

Physicians have their own specialties: in fact, with the exception of dentists (although, if need be, doctors can also intervene, simply because it’s not a specialty), practically everything that exists today can exist as a medical specialty. Among the most sought-after are nutritionists (especially for luxury slave breeding), obstetricians (for childbirth), pharmacists (for obvious reasons), emergency surgeons (for battlefield injuries), pediatricians (for children and babies) and, last but not least, epidemiologists (because epidemics happen, and quite often!).

3- The Stabilisation Serum, physicians miracle

It’s going to be hard for me to talk about all the remedies and care methods used by goreans, because, as I’ve already mentioned, Norman doesn’t spend much time on them. I’m planning an article that will bring together everything I know, from books or invented, about medicines and medical remedies. But before I do, I’d like to explain something that changes everything in Gorean health: the Stabilisation Serum.

Note: Norman’s a ignorant jerk… Well, it’s been a long time since I said that. He’s always claimed, in his novels, that the very good health of the Goreans was due to their simple lifestyle in the middle of nature and all that, and their diet of no excesses whatsoever. The hundreds of millions, if not billions, of human beings, with simple lifestyle in the middle of nature, who have died of disease and hunger in the history of the world will sneer with irony. If a good proportion of Goreans enjoy good health – and this must be put into perspective – it’s because Gorean medicine works miracles, the first of which is the Preservation Serum.

The zenith of Gorean medicine is this remedy, which takes the form of an injectable, and which, no more and no less than prolongs youth and lifespan.

Depending on the version, the Preservation Serum is a direct gift from the Priest-Kings that has existed for around 1000 years and can only be obtained by the Physicists’ Caste via the suppliers of the Initiates’ Caste, OR it is a remedy created by the physicians of Ar and Ko-Ro-Ba some 500 years ago, the formula of which is available to any physician who asks for it and has the necessary chemistry skills to compose it. The novel version is… well, actually, it depends on the books, so I give both versions, although I like the one of a human creation by the Doctors. But you know what? We’re not far off from a mistake, or a paradox. Which raises the question of why, then, a character like Matthew Cabot is over 600 years old, when, incidentally, Norman specifies that no one exceeds the age of 150 to 200 and that the serum has only been around for 500 years?

Which also raises the question of how the serum is supplied, but this last point is secondary: the serum is available to any doctor, for his patients, slaves included. Theoretically, it’s considered a gift for every Gorean, of whatever kind: every human living on Gor is entitled to it, and it’s even one of the rare rights of slaves. The people of Gor consider old age to be a disease, a scourge like any other, which they have managed to counter in part thanks to the Serum. Preservation Serum, although expensive to manufacture, is one of the medical services a city provides for its citizens and slaves. It’s available like any other medicine, you just have to ask for it… but you also have to pay for it, and it’s expensive, completely unaffordable for most Goreans, who rarely see more than one or two silver coins in their lives.

The Serum remains, therefore, a luxury – and an expensive one at that! Basically, there’s a huge difference between everyone being entitled to it, and everyone having access to it, which clearly translates into the fact that 5%, maybe 7% of people on Gor will benefit from it, i.e. the wealthiest and their slaves, roughly speaking. The majority of people – peasants, workers, small craftsmen, fishermen, villagers, etc. – will never see the color of the Serum. These people do what everyone else does: they’re worn out at 35, old at 50, venerable or buried at 70.

And yes, I can hear your indignation from here, because everyone on Gor SL has, or could have, access to the longevity serum. But Gor SL isn’t the world of Gor, and you don’t play simple inhabitants of this world. The concepts are different, and that’s part of it. But then, yes, running into lots of shrivelled old 70-year-olds and a few rare young and beautiful 100-year-old women is one of the paradigms of the world of Gor. You, the low or High-caste gorean who could afford the serum, may well see your friends, or even your family, grow old and die while you stay young and alive, for a century or two. In the final analysis, it’s a privilege of the rich. I can imagine a generous, wealthy doctor producing a few doses and giving them away for free, but since creating the Preservation Serum is very expensive and complicated, he can’t vaccinate his entire community against old age – far from it.

Notes: How much does it cost? You’ll laugh, I didn’t see any mention of the Serum’s price. I think we can put it at a few silver coins, between 5 and 15 on the ZcS base 100 system. In Gor’s world, it would be on the order of one to three silver coins. That’s nothing for a well-to-do man… but you have to remember that the lower classes of society (90% of goreans, therefore) never see that much silver more than once or twice in their lives.

The Longevity Serum is a series of injections described as taking place over four days in a row, in the lower back, above the hip. Given the nature of the product, it is likely that the injection is simply made into the kidneys. The mutagenic effect of the serum is felt immediately, and not necessarily very pleasantly: by the time the carrier’s biology and genes have been modified, he or she will be ill for the duration of the injections, generally for around a week. The effects are very varied, and can include fevers, nausea, febrile states and even more violent reactions. And, on rare occasions, it simply doesn’t work, or can kill the patient outright.

What does this mean in practice? If all goes well, the treated patient becomes much more resistant to disease in general, mainly internal illnesses, cancers and autoimmune diseases. They will not suffer from high blood pressure, heart disease, inflammatory rheumatism and so on. Norman insists several times that diseases are almost unknown on Gor, which I refute because it’s inconsistent,  and which he himself contradicts on numerous occasions in his various novels. But on the other hand, people treated with Preservation Serum are clearly going to be much less sick than average, whether it’s minor ailments or major infections. That’s not to say that they can’t pick up a stubborn infection, but that in most cases these will be of little consequence to them. In a village, in winter, cold snaps, flu, smallpox, typhus and pneumonia can take their toll… but those who have the Serum have nothing to fear. Nor do they fear superinfection of a wound. In Gor’s world, everyone else can die of sepsis, gangrene or tetanus if they’re not treated and cared for quickly. One last point: as the laws of nature are merciless, Preservation Serum has an effect on fertility. It doesn’t make you sterile, but it does reduce fertility in both men and women. This is because the energy the body spends constantly regenerating itself is not enough to cover the energy expenditure involved in sexual reproduction.

The Serum also significantly improves recovery from wounds and, last but not least, prolongs life. Specifically, it significantly slows down the aging process, if not stopping it altogether. In other words, even very old people, say a hundred years old, some Goreans retain the physique of a 25-year-old. This depends on the quality of the Serum and its effectiveness. For others, at the same age, they’ll look like they’re in their late forties, with the onset of old age catching up with them. In the end, death rears its ugly head again, on average after 150 to 200 years. But it can go on for much longer: 300 or even perhaps 400 years for the very rare lucky ones who haven’t died of something else in the meantime. The fact that it can exceed 600 years… let’s just say that since it’s based on a contradiction in the novels, I’m tempted to say: don’t fuck around either. But do what you want.

4- Common medical services

In addition to the obvious services of receiving injured or sick patients for treatment, and monitoring their regular patients to ensure their good health, physicists are very much present on other fronts, and offer a number of services in the world of Gor, which we’ll touch on briefly here:

– Health services for slaves:

this is quite a broad field, in fact. On the one hand, slaves who are newly enslaved or about to be sold are always brought before doctors to have their health checked and to help fill in the details on their ownership papers. The aim is to formulate a pedigree that identifies the slave by his or her particular signs and ensures medical follow-up concerning hygiene and vaccinations. On the other hand, the physicians were called upon to visit the ports and caravanserais on the outskirts of towns, to monitor the convoys of slaves, just as others, often merchants, monitored perishable goods. Doctors, for their part, ensure that slaves are disease-free, deciding on prophylactic treatments, quarantines, or even demanding that a slave showing obvious signs of contamination be secluded or destroyed for safety’s sake. Finally, during an auction, the organizer is sure to have a physician with him, who will examine the health of each slave, on the spot, before the sale. Sometimes it’s even wealthy customers who hire the services of a physician for a pre-purchase opinion. And in this field, unsurprisingly given the Caste of Physicians, it’s not at all shocking that the doctor is a woman.

-Slave breeding & genetic selection :

I told you we’d talk about it! Because yes, there are doctors who specialize in the selection of human lines, crossing specimens to ensure that a particular trait appears or is encouraged, creating a line of selected slaves. Yes, just as we’ve been crossing and hybridizing animal and plant species for a very long time, long before anyone knew what DNA was or even the principles of heredity.

In fact, while earthlings didn’t really understand this until the 20ᵉ century, Gor’s doctors got a big head start! Like, centuries: through experimentation and trial and error, they understood and learned how to manipulate hereditary factors and apply them to the human species. They also understood the principles of epigenetics, i.e. the importance of external factors (living conditions, environment) on heredity and gene transmission. As a result, they create lines of breeding slaves with efficiently selected traits, from the most useful to the most exotic; lines that are sometimes spread over centuries and centuries.

In other words, Gor’s physicians, if they could, have got their hands on Earth’s genetic technology and DNA sequencers, and are secretly using and abusing them!

– Private services for free women:

while no doctor would ever think of inducing an abortion – not even in a slave, even if her master requested it – as children are considered sacred on Gor, contraception is not a taboo subject, and some doctors therefore meet with their patients so that they can drink slave wine and thus avoid becoming pregnant. Sermon on the role of the fertile woman guaranteed! But a doctor won’t usually refuse this service. More often than not, women prefer to talk to other, more understanding women. Doctors also discreetly deal with the libido and frigidity concerns of free women. While most of them will offer advice as primitive as “learn a slave dance”, some – again, especially women – will be more attentive to a problem that mainly concerns free women who are the companions of high castes and wealthy men, for whom their companion is… just a layer of offspring. For pleasure, they have their slaves. Finally, among the services, it seems that there would be artificial insemination: clearly concerning only free women and left in abeyance in the novels, it is only evoked, as a reality and an existing medical service.

Quote, about a pregnant haute-caste:

“I’d never been in a man’s arms before,” she said, “because Tharna men can’t touch women.”

She saw my perplexity.

“The caste of doctors”, she said, “under the direction of the High Council of Tharna, knows how to deal with these matters”.

Outlaws of Gor

– The management of slaves’ marks and tattoos:

we’ll talk elsewhere about this common but moderately effective custom of employing kajirae as forced messengers, tattooing the secret message on their skulls and then letting their hair grow so that it’s concealed, until the day the message is delivered. There are other customs directly concerned with marks and tattoos, such as invisible tattoos… which make it possible to write on a slave’s skin without it being visible, as long as a reagent is not passed over the tattooed area to make the message appear. Some people use this method to mark a slave personally, temporarily or for life, without having to damage her beauty with a visible tattoo. And it’s legally recognized and practiced by doctors of the Physician caste.  Norman talks about this in Slave-Girl of Gor:

Quote:

The doctor ran a transparent liquid over my arm. Suddenly, much to my surprise and his amusement, a small phrase appeared, written in fine, bright red letters, as if by magic. It was on the inside of my elbow.

I knew what the phrase said, because my mistress, the lady Elicia d’Ar, had told me. It was a simple phrase. It said, “It’s her.” It had been painted on my arm with a small brush, with another transparent liquid. I’d seen the moisture on the inside of my arm, where the arm bends, on the inside of the elbow, and then it had dried and disappeared. I wasn’t even sure the writing had remained. But now, under the action of the reagent, the writing had appeared, fine and clear. Then, a few moments later, the doctor poured liquid from another bottle onto a red cloth pad and, as if by magic, erased the writing. The invisible stain had disappeared. The original reagent was then tried again, to verify the erasure. There was no reaction.

The chemical mark that identified me to the agents associated with Lady Elicia, my mistress, had disappeared. The doctor then used the second fluid to clean my arm again, removing the residue from the second application of reagent.

Slave-Girl of Gor

Apart from these various services, secret tattoos, in the hair, marks visible only with reagents, either with indelible invisible ink, or with invisible tattooing that reacts to the right reagents, the doctors of the Physicians’ Caste never, apart from a few exceptions, remove a slave brand. Firstly, because in the majority of cases, the surgery required will do more damage than anything else and leave a deep, ugly scar; secondly, because it’s illegal! Of course, a freed slave can undoubtedly request this service discreetly; of course, an owner unhappy with his slave’s mark can ask for it to be erased. But in any case, doctors must be particularly careful what they do. Because the legal punishment for this kind of crime can be enslavement!

Note: there are regenerating balms, created from Stabilizing Serum, which come from Sardar, and which some doctors know how to synthesize. They can really erase a scar, more or less quickly, but their price is prohibitive and they are very rare. I think it’s something that can easily be bought for half a tarn of gold.

– Dietetics:

a quick word on this rather interesting point: Gorean doctors hold dietetics in high regard. Basically, it’s to ensure a perfect diet and good yield for pricey slaves who masters don’t want to get fat or weak. The kajirae of pleasure are subjected to a strictly controlled diet that forbids any excess, and we don’t care if they don’t like it. But since dietetics has proven its effectiveness in the form of competence, it’s an important part of the services doctors offer to free people with health concerns. And Gorean diets are obviously very effective in helping people get back on their feet. This is part of preventive medicine, and it’s very common for a gorean to follow these diets, to have them followed by his slaves, and for this diet to be controlled by physicians.

– Disease control & vaccination:

we don’t have too much of a list of what Gorean doctors are capable of in terms of vaccination, so I’m not going to get ahead of myself on the subject. A priori, this mainly concerns STDs such as syphillis and smallpox (Bazi’s plague). Probably also tetanus, poliomyelitis and rabies, which don’t seem to be a real danger in Gor. As long as we’re talking about infections, antibiotics exist on Gor, and while they’re mostly herbal remedies, they’re described in the novels as frighteningly effective.

– Hypnosis, conditioning, mental care:

Ha bha yes, in the Gorean pharmacopoeia, there are quite a few psychotropic drugs, used to calm, put to sleep, relax, but also to help hypnotize and condition. They can be used to accelerate the healing of mental disorders and, above all, certain violent traumas – including those suffered by slaves, for whom they were primarily intended. They can also be used in certain legal or investigative contexts, or – and this is the most frequent case – to facilitate the education and conditioning of certain slaves from whom deeply ingrained behaviors and reflexes are to be drawn. As the handling of these drugs and techniques cannot be invented, it is physicians who supply them and collaborate with slave owners.

5- Common and serious illnesses

Norman says that diseases are almost unknown on Gor, which I refute, having explained why above. So there are always infections, epidemics, etc… Let’s just say that diseases cause much less devastation on Gor than on an ancient world like the Romans, or even during the Renaissance. With their miraculous pharmacopoeia and organized healthcare system, cities rarely have to worry about a pandemic decimating the population.

However, despite the proven existence of vaccination systems, and antibiotics, certain diseases can sometimes become real problems: cholera must regularly fall on the poor in winter, and even if it’s fairly easy to cure, it must take its toll, as must pneumonia, encephalitis and diptheria.

One example is smallpox. The Goreans call it the Plague of Bazi, as it ravaged the city of the same name a few years ago. Smallpox is a virus, resistant to antibiotics, terribly contagious and very deadly: it can kill up to 40% of an infected population in a matter of weeks or months. If you have no idea what smallpox is, you should know that the Antonine Plague, a smallpox pandemic, which struck Rome in 165 and lasted 20 years, and which was described by the physician Galen, killed between 5 and 10 million of the 60 million inhabitants of the Roman Empire.

The Bazi plague reappears here and there on a regular basis. Goreans have only vaccination and serum, both with uncertain results, to combat the disease. The only other solution is quarantine and epidemic control. In other words, many doctors are anxiously seeking a cure… but working with this disease is in itself a danger, since it exposes you to it. It’s worth noting that the Plague of Bazi haunts more or less all Gorean cities: the high infant mortality rate in villages and poor city districts is largely due to the fact that smallpox cannot be eradicated.

The other endemic disease in Gor’s world is leprosy, which the Goreans call Dar-Kosis, meaning sacred disease/taboo. People suffering from leprosy are considered cursed by the Priest-Kings. In the minds of the Goreans, they no longer exist, once it has been admitted that they are afflicted. The law considers all lepers to be dead, and applies the same rules to this consideration as for a death. As leprosy is notoriously contagious, lepers are a real danger.

They are therefore chased out of towns, stoned or killed on sight when they approach, condemned to beg as best they can. Only the caste of Initiates offers them help, in the form of lazarets or isolated pits, far from everything, where they are summarily cared for and fed, but with no hope of survival. But the caste of Initiates also formally forbids the caste of Physicists from researching leprosy, as they believe this encroaches on their sacred domain. This hasn’t stopped some doctors from doing it, but you have to be aware that it could end very badly if such research ever became officially known.

That’s it for information on doctors and medicine… a future article will deal with remedies and treatments in detail!