Here, then, are the predators, of all hairs, scales and sensing organs, that can be encountered in the world of Gor. Yes, a few unique creatures are missing, but they’re unique and will be the subject of a separate article. Next time, we’ll detail the known fauna that Gor people hunt, fish or simply frequent.

1- definitions

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

• Rarity: indicates whether 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- Predatory animals

Rock spider

• Rarity: uncommon
• Distribution: Schendi jungles
• Diet: carnivorous
• Size: 2-meter wingspan
• Weight: 80 kg
• Lifespan: unknown

A solitary weaver spider from the jungles of Schendi. Giant in size, which makes me think it’s one of the insects with lungs in Gor’s world, its name comes from its camouflaged carapace, which can make it look like a rock when it hides, legs folded. It weaves vast horizontal webs in hollows, holes and under trees. Even an adult Gorean has a hard time escaping the web and the spider that swoops down on him.

Giani

• Rarity: uncommon
• Distribution: tropical jungles in the wild
• Diet: carnivorous
• Size: 30 to 50 cm
• Weight: 12 to 15 kg
• Lifespan: 20 years

The giani is a nocturnal feline, known throughout Gor, but not for its danger. Small in size, resembling an ocelot or a serval, and therefore larger than a domestic cat or even a European forest cat, it hunts in the jungles of Schendi and lives in the forests of tropical regions. The giani never attacks man, contenting itself with small prey. If it’s known everywhere, it’s because wealthy goreans like to own one, either caged or tamed. But it has never been domesticated, and no matter how cute and small, a giani is still fierce. And it can rip a human’s face off with a few swipes of its claws.

Gim

• Rarity: common
• Distribution: forests
• Diet: carnivorous
• Size: 30 cm
• Weight: 2 to 3 kg
• Lifespan: 30 years

The gim is a small nocturnal bird of prey that resembles a barn owl, and can be found in all the forests of Gor. It is not very discreet, as its feathers are purplish in color, with variations depending on the region. It is occasionally tamed.

Grunt

• Rarity: common
• Distribution: rivers and seas
• Diet:
• Size: 20 cm to three meters
• Weight: 500 gr to 100 kg
• Lifespan: 3 to 10 years

The grunt is a variety of carnivorous fish, the smallest of which are found in rivers and the largest in the sea. It resembles a shark, has gills and lungs, moves in schools and has a feeding behavior reminiscent of a piranha, but hunts primarily small prey, including krill and shrimp. It is fished for its egg sacs, a highly prized delicacy considered a luxury.

Herlit

• Rarity: rare
• Distribution: Voltai Mountains, Barrens plains
• Diet: carnivorous
• Size: two-and-a-half-meter wingspan
• Weight: 8 kg
• Lifespan: 25 years

The herlit is Gor’s equivalent of the eagle, with golden feathers and black tips. It is a daytime hunter. It is much sought-after for its feathers, and much coveted by the Red savages, who use its feathers as a prestigious ornament to signal their achievements. He’s also known as the sunstriker, for his habit of swooping down on his prey with the sun at his back.

Hith

• Rarity: rare
• Distribution: Schendi jungles
• Diet: carnivorous
• Size: 6 to 12 meters
• Weight: 150 to 500 kg
• Lifespan: 30 years

It’s simple, it’s Gor’s constrictor python. The smallest are as big as the anacondas of the Amazon swamps; the biggest, the golden hiths, have a diameter of over 80 cm and effortlessly swallow an adult man. They are, however, hunted for their magnificent, highly sought-after scaly leather.

Hunjer

• Rarity: rare
• Distribution: mainly northern seas
• Diet: piscivorous
• Size: 15 to 22 meters
• Weight: 18 to 35 tons
• Lifespan : unknow

Whales exist on Gor, and so does the sperm whale; it’s called the hunjer and is the terror of sailors’ darkest legends. A gigantic predatory cetacean, it lives mainly in the cold waters of Gor, and the Red Hunters don’t hesitate to hunt it, although they prefer to attack the less aggressive baleen whales. From time to time, however, a large male hunjer migrating south will attack a ship on its way. A mighty galley may escape, but a chebec or langskip is almost certain to sink.

Kaiila of Barrens

• Rarity: uncommon
• Distribution: Barrens plains
• Diet: carnivorous
• Size: 1.5 to 1.8 meters at the withers
• Weight: 400 to 550 kg
• Lifespan: 25 years

The kaiila is a complicated creature, and this is one of the huge inconsistencies Norman left in his novels. Initially herbivorous and from the Barrens, then omnivorous in the Tahari desert, it later reappears in the Barrens of Savages of Gor, but as a vicious and dangerous carnivore. I’ve decided to describe it as it is in the minds of most Gor SL players: an omnivorous (not carnivorous) mount, but reputedly one of Gor’s most dangerous predators.

So, let’s describe the wild, carnivorous kaiila of the Barrens. It is very similar to the domestic Kaiila. It’s an agile, powerful animal that resembles a horse with a tawny, 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 Barrens kaiila is strictly carnivorous and does not suckle its young: they eat regurgitated meat, and quickly become ruthless, cunning and intrepid hunters. They don’t live in herds in the wild, but in small family groups, which hunt prey of all sizes in the manner of lions. It’s simple: if you look edible, the kailla will hunt you without hesitation, and will only give up if you manage to wound it, or if you can scare it away with fire.

Larl

• Rarity: rare
• Distribution: all Gor
• Diet: carnivorous
• Size: 3.2 m to 5 m long
• Weight: 345 to 650 kg
• Lifespan: 30 years

Take a smilodon, a saber-toothed tiger, give it a height of 1.30 to 1.80 m at the withers, with a coat of fawn, brick-red, black or even white for the mountain larl, the largest in Gor, and you have an idea of the fawn.

Larl are mainly nocturnal predators. They can see very well at night, and hunt alone, lying in wait, prey up to the size of a bosk or a quadrupedal tharlarion. They are rare, and their hunting territory is immense. If the kaiila is one of the most feared predators, and the sleen one of the most renowned hunters, the larl is the ultimate beast: silent, invisible, patient, inexhaustible and implacable.

Larls cannot be tamed. Many people have tried, and their memory will serve as a lesson to those who still want to try: sooner or later, the larl will revert to its wild nature, and kill you. If you want to tame a big cat, settle for a panther. Hunting a larl is a highly prized feat, but needless to say, it’s a difficult and risky hunt, given the animal’s power, intelligence and elusiveness, not to mention the fact that at some point, the hunter has to ask himself whether he hasn’t become the hunted.

Lart

• Rarity: uncommon
• Distribution: northern forests and arctic regions
• Diet: carnivorous
• Size: 40 cm long without tail
• Weight: 6 to 8 kg
• Lifespan: 15 years

Gor’s snow fox is a small hunter that lives in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. Its white winter fur is highly sought-after, but the animal itself is highly prized in Ar, as a pet, and is also quite expensive.

Mamba

• Rarity: rare
• Distribution: Schendi jungles
• Diet:
• Size: 6 to 7 meters long
• Weight: 600 to 800 kg
• Lifespan: 20 years

A cousin of the quadrupedal tharlarion, and almost as big, the mamba looks more like a Komodo dragon than an iguana. Short-legged, long-bodied and streamlined, adapted to rivers and swamps, it swims as well as it runs. With its long, wide mouth, it is a carnivore, eating large prey that come to drink or bathe in the waters of the Schendi jungles. The Mamba people’s nickname is no doubt a reference to this feared gluttonous predator.

Shark

• Rarity: uncommon
• Distribution: vast rivers and ocean
• Diet: carnivorous
• Size: 1 to 3 meters
• Weight: 60 to 140 kg
• Lifespan: 30 years

Yes, there are sharks on Gor, even if they’re not really sharks. Rather rare, they have six or eight gills, are more streamlined than Earth sharks and generally smaller, except for the North Sea white shark. There is a river species, which is a vicious and particularly feared hunter, capable of biting and drowning a child.

Ost

• Rarity: rare
• Distribution: southern Gor and Schendi jungles
• Diet: carnivorous
• Size: 25 cm
• Weight: –
• Lifespan: 10 years, I think.

Gor’s most feared venomous snake. It lives not only in the desert, but also in the southern plains and jungles of Schendi. It’s very small, but very aggressive, and its bite is deadly and considered one of the worst forms of agony on Gor. It is orange or red in color, with black rings. There is no antidote to its venom, which, as I understand it, causes violent hemorrhagic shock: basically, you bleed from your eyes and all orifices, for hours.

Panther

• Rarity: uncommon
• Distribution: large northern forests and northern Vosk mountains
• Diet: carnivorous
• Size: 1 m to 2.3 m long
• Weight: 50 to 80 kg
• Lifespan: 15 years

The Gor panther is what we call a puma, or mountain lion. It lives mainly in the great forests of the north, where winter lasts four to five months, and is adapted to the cold, but smaller, more discreet ones can also be found in the jungles of Schendi.

It’s a leopard-like fawn without spots, with a creamy, more or less dark coat, and lives solitary. It hunts mainly small prey and rarely attacks anything larger than a tabuk.  The female panthers of the northern forests are named after this discreet, cunning and hardy beast.

Panthers can be tamed! They’re even highly sought-after, as owning one is a sign of luxury. The animal is rare and its fur prized, not to mention a sought-after trophy.

Wild Sleen

• Rarity: very common
• Distribution: all Gor, except tropical jungles
• Diet: carnivorous
• Size: 30 cm to 6 meters
• Weight: 5 to 500 kg
• Lifespan: 10 to 20 years

Let’s start by dispelling a common misconception: the sleen is not a reptile at all! It’s much more closely related to mammals, although it’s 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, and counts some ten subspecies, including an aquatic one; it is clearly the most common predator in Gor’s world, with the exception of the jungles of Schendi.

There is a dwarf variety of sleen, about the size of a house cat, much cuter and more harmless than their larger cousins. Gor people appreciate them as pets.

Wild Tarn

• Rarity: rare
• Distribution: all Gor, except polar and subarctic regions.
• Diet: carnivorous
• Size: 4 to 7 meters (wingspan approx. 12 to 18 meters)
• Weight: 160 to 350 kg
• Lifespan: 30 years

The tarn, Gor’s flying mount, is relatively rare in the wild. There are only a handful of subspecies. The tarn is a giant, hawk-like bird with a crested head of feathers. The most common color is green-brown, but there are 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; it hunts from cliffs, or the tops of tall trees, and needs open spaces, like plains, to swoop down on its prey. We can clearly assume that it nests high up on mountain walls.

Wild Tharlarion

• Rarity: common
• Distribution: all Gor, except polar and subarctic regions
• Diet: carnivorous
• Size: 2.5 to 3 meters high (5 meters long for river tharlarion)
• Weight: 250 to 600 kg
• Lifespan: 30 years

There are quite a few varieties of tharlarion, bipedal or quadrupedal, of which we’ll focus here on the predatory tharlarions. The best known is the high tharlarion, which is used by goreans as a mount, especially for war. It resembles the velociraptor from the film Jurassic Parc, a warm-blooded, scaly reptile without hair or feathers, but with small, unhelpful arms. It is virtually insensitive to pain and can spend days dozing and digesting. But it is a formidable hunter and runner.

The other predatory tharlarion is the river tharlarion. Imagine a big, aggressive crocodile, and you’ve got a good idea of the beast. It haunts the marshes of the Vosk delta and the meanders of the vast river, and is really, really feared. Fortunately, he’s more of a lone hunter on the prowl.

Vart

• Rarity: uncommon
• Distribution: tropical jungles, Tyros and Schendi
• Diet: carnivorous
• Size: 80 cm wingspan
• Weight: 1 kg
• Lifespan: 10 years

The vart is a blind, carnivorous bat that lives in dense packs in tropical jungles. They are voracious nocturnal predators and scavengers, with an original and terrible hunting method: several of them swoop down on a large prey, devouring it alive until only bones remain. They prefer carrion, or attacking sick or wounded animals, but can be trained, by starving them, to attack anything that moves in a pack.

The Goreans on the island of Tyros have turned them into a weapon, evidently by using a scent that repels varts, who thus only pounce on their enemies to try and devour them alive. Varts are often carriers of rabies, so even a single bite can be fatal.

Urt

• Rarity: very common
• Distribution: all Gor
• Diet: omnivorous
• Size: 10 to 40 cm
• Weight: 200 gr to 6 kg
• Lifespan: 5 years

The urt is Gor’s rat, but more of an omnivorous carnivore than a rodent. From the size of a large mouse to that of a beaver, depending on the subspecies, it has three rows of needle-like teeth, tusks and horns on its forehead, as well as a long, hairless tail. Yes, he’s scary, and yes, he doesn’t look much like an Earth rat.

The Gorean city urt is a nocturnal scavenger that lives in packs and eats anything. It’s about the size of a rat and has a white coat. It can swoop down in a chaotic mass on weakened or sick prey to devour it alive. It is aggressive, noisy and moves very fast. It’s a carrier of disease, and there’s nothing cute about it. The best weapon for hunting them is the sleen, as frevets won’t go near them.

Zad

• Rarity: common
• Distribution: Tahari desert, southern plains, Schendi jungles.
• Diet: carnivorous
• Size: 1.2 meters high
• Weight: 15 kg
• Lifespan: 20 years

A kind of large, long-billed vulture, with black and white feathers. A scavenger, it can be found in the Tahari desert and the Schendi jungles. Particularly bold, it can start pecking at its prey while it’s still alive, gouging out its eyes and attacking its face to finish it off. It is as tall as a child, and quite widespread.