Eight days of reading and documentation, three days of procrastination and, finally, 9 hours of writing, for an article that I put off as long as I could, because I really didn’t feel like it, but it’s done! To write this article, I had to partly reread four novels (Priest-Kings of Gor, Witness of Gor, Kur of Gor, Rebels of Gor) go through six other novels with my ctrl+f to find references and quotations, then sort them out, and, fortunately, I didn’t have to do too much encyclopedic research for historical references.

Yes, even though I’ve already read all the novels (and only the first 16 have been translated into French), I know next to nothing about the Caste of the Initiates. They really don’t fascinate me. So I had to dive back into reading, and take notes. So, as always, I’ll do my best, but I’m not sure everything is perfect or accurate. As always, everything I write is more or less contained in the novels, or deduced from the same cultural and historical references as Norman, namely the period of the Imperial Roman world but also, here, ancient Egypt, which inspired him for this caste.

“The Initiates claim to be intermediaries between the Priest-Kings and mankind. They have temples, rituals, ceremonies and so on. They are celibate, shun beans and study mathematics. They are very attached to asceticism and purity, at least officially. Their robes are long, severe and white. Their heads are shaved. They are a blend of elements from the ancient Egyptian priesthood and the Pythagorean brotherhood. They are a powerful caste, but parasitic, rapacious and self-righteous.

John Norman, in gorean forum letter.

1- Religion on Gor

There are three general ways of believing or pretending to believe in a divine force:

1. Sincere faith, which may or may not involve rituals and ceremonies. It’s based on the notion of real devotion, with an attachment to substance before form, and often a certain distrust of clerical organizations. A friend of mine, who is a pastor in Europe, describes it very well: “a true believer doesn’t really need a church, he just needs to pray.”
2. Superstitious faith, which is attached to symbols, rites, ceremonies, sacred places and preaching. It is a faith that above all respects codes, rites and clerical authority, and often hopes to gain personal and material advantage in exchange for its faith and its material efforts to respect rites.
3. False faith, which is generally based on wise prudence, more rarely on political or personal interest. It’s a question of not standing out socially from one’s own culture, to avoid unfortunate consequences such as marginalization, suspicion or outright persecution. But it can also be a clever comedy to exploit faith as an instrument of political power.

In Gor’s world, atheism exists. But he’s a special case, and for that I’ll use myself as an example. I’m a total atheist, because nothing has ever proved to me that the existence of a god is necessary for the universe and everything in it, whether known or yet to be discovered, to be what it is.

But if, tomorrow, irrefutable proof were to tell me that God exists, what would I do? Do I start believing and praying? In a way, I’ve already prayed, even though I have no religious faith. My faith is in humanity, life and science. But in the face of proof, I’d admit this existence, changing my social relations to true believers, but without suddenly becoming a religious believer, I think. I would remain anticlerical in general, because I hate absolute power, whether religious or secular, while remaining respectful of true believers and sacred places, because I always have been. Just because I don’t believe doesn’t give me the right to despise believers. Ok, I despise hypocrisy and fanaticism, but sincere faith has always seemed to me worthy of respect.

Now, in Gor, gods do exist. They are called the Priest-Kings, and while few people have ever seen one, their power, through their weapon of retribution, the Fire of Death, capable of incinerating a man, a house or even a city, is quite real. The most unbelieving of Goreans knows that the Priest-Kings are real, that their influence and terrible power is a reality, so even if he is, like me, of an atheistic nature, he won’t play at defying these gods too openly. And he will fear and respect the men who form the intermediaries between the gods and the Goreans: the Initiates.

The cult of the Priest-Kings, with the Initiates as priests and religious intercessors, thus dominates Gorean cultures from north to south. But it’s not the only religion. I’ll briefly describe what each major culture believes in below.

Solar worship

So, it’s only mentioned a few times, so I can’t tell you much more than the fact that it exists. It’s a very discreet, minority religion of little influence, which exists here and there in Gorean culture, and which places the sun as its deity. It’s quite obvious that, given the mentality of the Initiate caste and the Priest-King cult, this religion is actively hunted down and persecuted. Yes, I know, it’s not much information.

The Red Hunters

This people have their own animistic beliefs, but the Priest-Kings are the pinnacle of their deities. As this is an animist cult, with very different principles from the Priest-Kings’ cult, they have plenty of spirits and gods to worship, since animism considers that everything that exists, animate or inanimate, has a living soul, and that every being is reincarnated. Unsurprisingly, the cult of Priest-Kings tries to eliminate these beliefs as best it can (preaching in the polar ice caps is a bit like preaching in the desert).

The Red Savages

They have a fairly complex shamanic cult, in which the Priest-Kings also play an important role, but with very specific beliefs and rites. The Priest-King cult would also like to banish this heresy, but as a reminder, the Red Savages kill any foreigner who sets foot on their steppes.

The Torvaldslanders

This culture, directly descended from the Scandinavians of the Middle Ages, improperly called Vikings, respects the Priest-Kings… and actively hates them! Their religion is that of the ancient Scandinavians, based on the cult of Odin, father of all things, and the entire Nordic pantheon, with Thor, god of war, at the head. And, to put it simply, the Initiates cruelly, sadistically hunt down and kill on sight anyone practicing this cult, and it’s exactly the same on the other side! Torvis and Goreans are permanently at war, and now you know why.

People of the Chariots

They have their own creator god, based around a shamanic cult: the Spirit, a god who can only be worshipped mounted on a bosk or kailla, and whom women are forbidden to pray to. But the Spirit is not a god, for these people, but a concept, a divine notion, representing the entity that rules their people. So, they too believe in the Priest-Kings, but it’s not to them that they address their prayers (at least, not the men, because the women do!). Unsurprisingly, the Priest-Kings cult doesn’t take too kindly to this belief.

The Taharians

Their religion in Taharian cities is that of the Priest-Kings cult, with a few local peculiarities based on wind spirits, star spirits and desert demons. Nomads don’t recognise castes, and if the word ubar is used among them, it’s one of the many words for chief (like pasha, bey, vizier). Their cult is not described, but it speaks of desert and stars spirits and demons, all of which are called djinns.

The Panis

Their religion is similar to the animist Shinto cult, and contrary to what I’d written, the Priest-King cult and its initiates who arrived on the islands a few hundred years ago imposed the Gorean language and the Priest-King religion by force and death by flame. But it didn’t go down well, and the Panis crucified and burned most of them alive. Suffice to say, relations between the Pani people and the Priest-King cult are not going well. I’ll go back and read it again next time (thanks to ʍǟɖǟʍɛ ɢʏʀɛ for the corrections).

2- The cult of the Priest-Kings

“On this world, religious matters are rather closely guarded by the caste of initiates, who allow very few members of other castes to participate in their sacrifices and ceremonies. I was given a few prayers to the Priest-Kings to memorize, but they were in old Gorean, a language spoken by the Initiates but not generally spoken on the planet, and I never bothered to learn them. To my delight, I learned that Torm, whose memory was phenomenal, had forgotten them years ago. I sensed that a certain mistrust existed between the caste of scribes and that of initiates”.

Tarnsman of Gor

The Priest-King cult is dominated by the Initiate caste, and they are the only ones allowed to perform the rites and ceremonies of this religion. It’s a centralized monotheistic religion with an organized, authoritarian and powerful clergy (yes, I know, the Priest-Kings are a plural entity, but the cult considers them as a whole, and they are never identified, named or characterized as individuals).

Their main power lies in their respect for codes, rites and ceremonies; their omnipresence in civil life, in which they participate and which they structure; their extensive authority, since they possess judicial power; and finally, the frightening, omnipresent and very real threat: the blue flame, also known as the fire of death. If you’re wondering why, with all their science and skill, the Goreans aren’t already at the stage of the industrial steam revolution, you’re beginning to understand more clearly.

The symbol of the Priest-Kings’ cult is a golden circle, a symbol that adorns their temple, which believers wear around their necks and Initiates wear as a prayer ring and atop their walking staffs. Pure white is another color symbolic of the cult; it’s the color of their robes, temples and buildings. As I mentioned earlier, there is no representation of the Priest-Kings – indeed, it’s forbidden to imagine one.

The religious heart of the Priest-Kings’ cult is the Sardars Mountains. At the foot of this mountain lies the main religious complex of the Initiates, and it’s here that the four annual fairs take place, as well as the pilgrimage that every Gorean must make at least once in his or her life, usually before their 25 years. At the end of this complex is the entrance to the Sardar Mountains, enclosed by a vast palisade and heavily guarded. However, if you want to cross the entrance to the Mountains, they’ll let you…

… and you won’t come back. Yep, behind that palisade is the domain of the Priest-Kings, and whatever you see there, you’ll never be able to leave again – and usually you’re dead, more rarely will you have the dubious chance of discovering what is Gor’s most guarded secret.

A few features of this religion:

– It’s hermetic: the sacred books are only accessible to Initiates, some cults are secret, its members – all male, hand-picked – live apart from the rest of the Goreans and must pass initiation rites, and prayers are made in a little-known language, ancient Gorean.

– It’s political: Gor’s first caste, the one that takes precedence over all others, is that of the Initiates. The caste has a powerful influence on the people, and, thanks to offerings and donations, is generally always very wealthy. A Gorean is forced to participate in some of the cult’s most important rites, at the risk of losing his citizenship, and social pressure will be strong on anyone who tries to do as little as possible. In short, if an Ubar wants to keep his job, this is the first caste to seduce and get on his side!

– It is inquisitorial: it has the right of cultural censorship, control of science and technology and extensive legal prosecution, escapes in part from the laws that apply to all other Goreans, and can declare an individual a heretic, condemn him to exile, torture or death, under its own codes. Yes, it’s like the Inquisition, although the cult of the Priest-Kings is more moderate than Torquemada’s Spanish Inquisition. I’d compare it to the papal Roman Inquisition.

– It’s erudite: even if religious education is rather restricted and secular education is rather managed by the Scribe caste, the Priest-King cult also takes care of safeguarding and transmitting written knowledge… on its own terms, of course.

The temples

We could hear the bells, the chanting. In a moment, we could see the raised golden circle, on its staff, approaching. People in the streets rushed to press against the walls. “Initiates,” I said to Marcus. I could now see the procession clearly.

“Kneel,” said the one next to me. “Kneel,” I said to Marcus. We knelt down. I was surprised that people knelt, because free Goreans don’t usually kneel, even in the temples of the initiated. Goreans generally pray standing up. The hands are sometimes raised, which is often the case when initiates pray.

Magicians of Gor

Every city and town has its own temple. Even villages have a chapel if they’re too modest to have anything better. Although the style of the buildings varies greatly, they are all based on a rectangle, with the front facing the Sardar Mountains.

Unsurprisingly, the temples are white. The interior is grandiose but austere, with no benches, cushions or seats for the public. Goreans pray standing up, like the Initiates. Initiates have seats, but only to rest between rituals, preaching and prayer. The temple is separated, between the laity and the officiants, by a white cordon that no one would dare cross. The pomp of the cult is in its architecture, in the richness of its religious art, in the accessories… and in the lavish opulence of their grandiose processions.

Each prayer is punctuated by chants, with choruses of shaven-headed boys, usually slaves belonging to the caste, and offerings, which may be merely symbolic, sometimes very rich gifts from believers, and often include animal sacrifices. No, there are never, a priori, human sacrifices.

Rites and calendar

I haven’t found any precise information on temple prayer days, but the temples are always open – and guarded – and there is at least one service a day. It’s conceivable that the main day of worship takes place once a week, coinciding with a market day.

On the other hand, the main rites take place at each new Hand of Passage (the week between two months), and at each equinox and solstice. The Gorean calendar is based on the cycle of the three moons. The year begins at the spring equinox, in the month of En’kara.

For more information on the calendar, here’s a link.

That said, initiates don’t just pray in temples. There are processions, public blessings, and an Initiate can be asked (in return for a generous donation) to come and bless a building, a field, livestock, or even a project. So, the cult of the Priest-Kings is involved in everything, and we come across it very often, via its representatives. Many aspects of Gorean life are punctuated by these local rites and blessings.

Except… one: companionship is not blessed by any rite or ceremony. It’s a private matter, a contract between two parties, and nothing to do with the Initiates. But we can imagine that they would be quick to bless the birth of a child, or the choice of its name!

Of course, a frequent rite is the funeral rite. Goreans do not bury their dead, but practice cremation. The bones are then placed in an urn kept by the family, while the ashes are scattered. There are no funeral rites for slaves, and it’s unclear what happens to their bodies when they die (thrown in the garbage, burned, fed to animals, etc.). It’s never really specified.

Sardar fairs

These are large fairs held at the foot of Mount Sardar, and they combine religious rites, trade fairs and diplomatic meetings.

As I mentioned earlier, every Gorean who practices the cult of the Priest-Kings, and indeed every Gorean who wants to become or remain a citizen of his city-state, must visit the Sardar Mountains once in his life, preferably before the age of ²⁵. This is an important pilgrimage, which ends at the foot of the mountain, where the main temples and monasteries of the Initiate caste are located.

And so, four times a year, the fair plays host to these pilgrimages. They take place at each equinox and solstice, the most famous of which is spring, culminating in the En’kara Fair, made famous in Second Life as a major gaming event, the date of which I’ve announced.

The reason these pilgrimages generally take place on specific dates is so that they can be organized into powerful, well escorted caravans. Pilgrims bring gifts, offerings and money for the journey, and pirates and outlaws see this as a golden opportunity to enrich themselves.

Although no one can be enslaved at the fair, slaves can be bought and sold within its walls, and slavers do a thriving trade there, surpassed perhaps only by that of the Rue des Marques d’Ar. The reason for this is not only that there is a good market here for these goods, since men from various towns come and go at the fair, but also because every Gorean, whether male or female, is supposed to see the Sardar Sardar mountains, in honor of the Priest-Kings, at least once in his life, before his twenty-fifth year. As a result, pirates and outlaws who line the trade routes to ambush and attack caravans en route to the fair, if successful, often have more than metals and cloth to come and trade for their vices.

Priest-kings of Gor

Religious education

One of the roles of the Initiate caste is to restrict and control knowledge. A good way to do this is to teach it!

On Gor, being cultivated is expensive, and the peasant, even as a child, has little time to devote to learning to read and write: he works in the fields from the age of seven or eight. However, the Initiates offered a basic education in reading and mathematics, including to peasant children who were fortunate enough to be able to come and study. This also enables the cult of Priest-Kings to teach its official vision of the world – in short, its religion – to the people. Oh yes, and it’s a great way to recruit. More on that later.

It’s worth noting that the Initiate caste is very good at mathematics, and it’s almost an obsession for them. In fact, it’s one of their most secret and complex rituals.

The principles of religion

I’m just going to mention a few important points here, as the content of the Priest-Kings’ prohibitions, codes and principles of worship is not detailed in the novels. And I don’t think Norman was too fond of the Initiates, or at least, they almost never play the good role.

According to religious texts, the cult of the Priest-Kings was born when the Priest-Kings, who created the Goreans from the mud, prevented men and women from killing each other in an all-out war at the beginning of time. Specifically, the men were on the verge of winning and had every intention of killing all the women. The Priest-Kings intervened, to stop the slaughter. They declared that men would forever dominate women, and that women would be submissive to men, but in exchange, women would be the most beautiful in the world. To prevent another all-out war, they forbade Goreans to wear armor, and to ensure that Goreans prospered in harmony with nature, they laid down rules on scientific and technological progress. They designated the first caste, the Initiates, their intermediaries, and said they would be there, on the Sardar Mountains, to watch over them forever.

The mythical stage was set. The caste system, the home stone, the social relations between men and women, the justification of Gorean slavery (including certain practices and theoretical foundations), all come from these texts. And the most common Gorean prohibitions either come from these original texts, or were added later, such as the rules on the control of technology, science and industry. Moreover, these texts have evolved considerably, and even in the course of the novels, we can clearly see that certain prohibitions and taboos are undergoing significant reform. Even the cult of the Priest-Kings is forced to evolve with the times.

So… the principles? I’m going to sum them up in a few key sentences, as far as possible. I’m going to forget some, so I’ll just mention the most important ones:

• Respect the caste principle and the natural authority of each caste over the lower ones.
• Immortality and life after death do not exist. Only the most worthy Initiates, through their devotion, initiation and rites, can hope to attain it.
• Man is born to dominate woman, woman to serve man. Gorean slavery of women is therefore entirely natural.
• Anyone who insults the Priest-Kings, or disrespects the Caste of Initiates, will be punished.
• Wearing armor is forbidden (in fact, only metal armor is, not helmets).
• Citizenship, linked to the sacred home stone, is a merit, not a due, and only those who have made the pilgrimage to the Sardar can claim it.
• Every believer must attend the great rites of the equinoxes and solstices.
• First knowledge is for the common people, second knowledge for the high-castes, sacred knowledge for the Initiates.
• Dar-kosis is a sacred disease, a punishment that no one should attempt to cure. A sick person is no longer a Gorean, so his name must be forgotten, and his possessions distributed. By the way, it is forbidden to kill or injure one of these sick people!
•  Seeking out too much knowledge, science and technology risks heresy (in particular, anything that explodes or could be used to make motorized vehicles and machines).

Well, these are the rules of the cult, but of course they are more or less respected or flouted. While the superstitious lower classes don’t generally go against them, the higher up the social hierarchy and the more cultured castes, the less they are taken literally. The cult of the Priest-Kings is not all-powerful, it is often in more or less head-on opposition to secular authority, and although the Initiates are numerous enough, they are not sufficiently numerous to enforce these rules to the letter, and must therefore accept compromises. When they don’t, sometimes things don’t go well for the Initiates… and the threat of Death by Flame doesn’t work so well for the most educated and powerful Goreans.

It had been decided that she should now undertake the journey to the Sardar, which, according to the teachings of the Initiate caste, is imposed on every Gorean by the priest-kings, an obligation that must be fulfilled before they reach their twenty-fifth year. If a city fails to ensure that its young people undertake this journey, then, according to the teachings of the initiates, misfortune may befall the city. The merchants of Teletus, who control the town, would demand it of her, fearing the effects of the Priest-Kings’ possible displeasure on their trade. If she did not undertake the journey, she would simply, before her twenty-fifth birthday, be removed from their authority, placed alone outside their jurisdiction, outside the protection of their soldiers. Such exile, for a Gorean, is generally equivalent to slavery or death.

Captive of Gor

The threat of Death by Flame

Well… okay, you know that the Priest-Kings are an insect-like alien civilization with technology so advanced that even ^21st-century Earthlings would say it almost looks like magic? Well, now you know. Gor is, quite literally, their creation. The Priest-Kings have existed as an interstellar civilization for millions of years, and have moved the planet around the solar system, and according to some passages in the novels, this isn’t the first time they’ve done so. And they have, among other things, drones and satellites with death rays.

The Blue Fire, or Death by Flame, or even the Flame of Death, is, according to the cult of the Priest-Kings, the sword of Damocles that hangs over the heads of all Goreans. The Initiates brandish the threat, and sometimes, especially in the past, this threat falls like a blue flash from the sky, incinerating a person, a place or even an entire city.

The reality of this threat, however, is far more nuanced. And here, I must digress: in the first two novels, this threat is not only real, but described as commonplace. It’s the power the Initiates rely on to punish heretics of all kinds, and clearly, they can easily use it as a concrete threat. But from the third volume onwards, Norman’s novel makes this tool much rarer, much less effective and, above all, detached from the goodwill of the Initiates.

Why is this so? Because it’s no fun writing stories with such a power that approaches a deus ex machina. In fiction, deus ex machina have to be very rare if they are to be credible. So, while the Priest-Kings take a hell of a beating in the Nest War, they also lose their network of cybernetic spies, with their cyber eyes and remote-communicating brain mesh, who were implanted all over Gor, mostly totally unaware of their role. Invisible satellites and drones are still capable of aiming at a target and destroying it within a radius of energy, but the Priest-Kings now see very little. And the Initiates, who made up the majority of these spies, can no longer summon blue fire. Just use the threat. Or was Norman planning this from the start, and I’ve got it all wrong?

Well, instead, the Initiate caste has an excellent inquisition. It’s not much better. But it’s a far less omnipotent and omnipresent force; it can be countered, it can be escaped and it can even be disavowed.

That said, the majority of Goreans have no knowledge of all this. The power of the Priest-Kings is always, for them, real, and, with rare exception, a Gorean threatened with punishment by an Initiate will take the threat quite seriously.

“‘You see through the eyes of an Implanted,’ says Sarm. “The pupils of his eyes have been replaced by lenses, and a control network and transmission device have been fused with his brain tissue. He is now unconscious because the control network is activated.”

Priest-Kings of Gor

“Sometimes on Gor, we destroy a city, choosing it by means of a random selection device. This teaches the lower classes about the power of Priest-Kings and encourages them to respect our laws.”

“But what if the city hasn’t done anything wrong?” asked I.

“So much the better,” replied Misk, “because then men are lost and fear us even more, but the members of the initiate caste, we’ve found, will always find an explanation for the destruction of the city. They invent one, and if it seems plausible, they’re quick to believe it.”

Priest-Kings of Gor

3- The Initiate caste

“The crowd parted to my left and I saw, making its way through the crowd, a kind of standard, a golden staff surmounted by a golden circle. This circle, I would later learn, was the sign of the Priest-Kings, the symbol of eternity, of that which has no beginning and no end. Two boys first emerged from the crowd, one ringing bells and the other waving a censer, circulating incense vapors. Behind them, another boy carried the standard of the golden circle. Behind him came a gaunt, hideous man. His features startled me. I had no doubt he was mad. Behind him, in double file, side by side, came a score of other men. Each of them carried a golden cup in front of him. They made me uncomfortable. Something about their appearance seemed unhealthy. They looked pathological. Some looked simple. Others seemed deranged. Some were mumbling to themselves, prayers perhaps. They certainly didn’t look like the normal men of this world. They were too pale. Didn’t they know sunshine and fresh air? They didn’t move well. Had they never jumped, run or wrestled? Were they ashamed of having a body, of being alive? Did they take refuge in pathetic lies? Did they think that absurdities gave them dignity? It occurred to me that these people might not be comfortable in this demanding, difficult world. But maybe they had found a way to survive. Maybe these people, who might have been considered pathetic misfits, mere failures of nature, had managed to build themselves a social niche, perhaps by inventing and providing a service. They seemed so smug, so furtive, so sly, so self-righteous, so hypocritical! How serious they were. Did they fear that the world would suddenly discover them and burst out laughing? All these men had shaven heads. All wore gleaming white robes. They were, as I understand it, “Initiates”, supposedly the highest of the high castes.

Witness of Gor

I deliberately chose this quote, in which the narrator’s view of the procession is skewed by his vision of Gorean humanity, because it describes the Initiates quite well, visually. One also senses, because the Initiate caste never really gets a fair shake in Gor’s novels, that Norman didn’t like them either. Seriously, the Initiates get pretty bolossed (beaten up, French slang) throughout the novels. And few of them are presented in a good light. In fact, it’s usually the least fanatical and religious of them that Norman puts in a positive light.

Well, I think you’ve understood the role and social position of the Initiates if you’ve read all the above, so I won’t go into that again, and talk about the caste itself.

The Initiate caste is exclusively male. It’s the only caste that doesn’t pass on its social rank from father to son (oh no, sorry, there are also assassins, my mistake). It recruits from both the low-caste and the high-caste, and unlike the Catholic Church’s recruitment during the great papal eras, it’s not a way of getting your youngest son into a prestigious position on the cheap. Recruitment is strict, demanding and arduous, and few are capable of completing the initiations and tests that will make them Initiates.

Training

Any man can try to become an Initiate, but the Initiates prefer to recruit young men, even from among their slaves, who will become novices during long, arduous years of training.

The novice begins by shaving off all body hair, including his head. He renounces weapons, carnal pleasures, meat, alcohol, the benefits of luxury and comfort, beans of all kinds, and must maintain constant, irreproachable hygiene. Next, he must learn ancient Gorean (a complex and little-known language), to be able to read and memorize sacred texts, codes, laws, prayers and rituals of worship. Finally, he’ll need to learn mathematics and master its complexities. A priori, we’re talking here about a training program that takes about ten years of monastic life (forget personal wealth and possessions!) and is punctuated by complex initiations, all of which are tests that the novice must pass, on pain of being expelled. Or die; yes, because with such a hermetic cult, one can clearly assume that a novice who comes close to succeeding, but fails the ultimate initiation, knows too much about the Initiates to risk leaving him alive.

“But perhaps he would leave the caste before it was too late, if not already too late, before, say, he had taken his final vows.”

Magician of Gor

Prohibitions & obligations

Initiates are forbidden to carry weapons or fight. But they do have guards, and if they want to kill someone, they hire an assassin, and they don’t lack the funds to do so, even personally. They’re vegetarians, and given how much Norman insists on it, I’m not even sure they eat eggs and fish. They don’t drink alcohol and all forms of beans are also forbidden to them (why? I don’t know, it’s clearly directly inspired by Egyptian priests). They are chaste, totally. They can’t touch a woman or be touched by one. They can own slaves, but only boys, who are also all bald and hairless.

Apart from everything I’ve mentioned about their training, and their frequently renewed vow of obedience to the Initiates’ Caste, the most notorious obligation is the notion of purity: in addition to their strict, even ascetic diet, they must have impeccable hygiene. They wear only white, are always dressed in immaculate robes, and wash at least four to six times a day (yeah, even I’m exhausted). It also seems that they have to justify a serious reason for refusing to conduct a blessing rite when a devotee comes to them asking for one, with good manners, and the appropriate offering.

Unsurprisingly, apart from appearances, there’s little that’s totally respected to the letter, and some powerful Initiates outright flout the majority of their prohibitions and obligations, at least secretly. It has to be said, at such a high level of power (and wealth), it would be foolish for some not to indulge in pleasures, be it food, drink or the warm arms of a kajira. And while, of course, all this is highly frowned upon, it’s enough to be high up in the caste, be it local high-initiate, monastery head, or spiritual advisor to the Ubar and power and money will silence protests.

“He was a tall, rather heavy man, with soft, bland features, but his voice was very deep and would have been very impressive in one of the temples of the Initiates… His eyes, I noted, in contrast to his bland features, his almost pudgy softness, were very sharp and perceptive. He was no fool. His left hand, fat and limp, bore a heavy ring set with a large white stone, engraved with the sign of Ar.”

Priest-Kings of Gor

The organization

Initiates tend to live among themselves for the most part, in large cult complexes around their temples, or in monasteries. In this respect, they are everywhere, and this gives an idea of the caste’s material power and the number of its members. It is said that a traveling Initiate has no trouble finding room and board in a caste building at night. This implies that, at least in the heart of Gorean civilization, there is a tightly-knit network of temples, monasteries, abbeys and chapels, probably rarely more than 15 pasangs (or miles) apart, and all along navigable roads and rivers. That’s a lot of people, and a lot of wealth, because such a large population needs to be fed, and the Initiates can’t rely on donations and offerings alone: they also own vast landholdings, estates and farms, which are administered by laymen at their service.

Initiates live among themselves, far from women and temptation, and generally lead a rather ascetic lifestyle. They are highly structured, with a strict hierarchy, and we can distinguish a few ranks mentioned by Norman:

• Novices, in the process of initiation.
• Initiates, forming the bulk of the caste’s forces.
• Monastery and abbey chiefs, who are not in charge of a temple, but of the caste’s private structures.
• High Initiates, who are in charge of a temple. There is one for each temple, with some cities having several.
• The principal High Initiates, who head the caste in a city-state.
• The Grand High Initiate, head of the temple at the foot of Mount Sardar, is the most important representative of the caste as a whole.

On the high altar of each temple stands a great golden circle, symbol of the Priest-Kings, symbol of eternity, of something without beginning or end. The “sign of the Priest-Kings”, in the same way, is made with a closed circular movement.

Dancer of Gor

Faith

Devout, exalted, fervent and fanatical for the most part, this is a pretty good way of describing the Initiates as Norman shows them in the novels. Their faith is as sincere as it is superstitious, and no doubt they fear the cult of the Priest-Kings even more than the peasants themselves.

But that would be reductive. The Initiates have immense power, but an equally gigantic responsibility, and live under a crushing discipline. Above all, the higher they climb in their hierarchy, the more they know! The more they understand both the truth about the role of the caste, and the truth about the Priest-Kings. And the more they have to revise their own beliefs and illusions. Because no matter how much you believe, things take on a whole new perspective when you begin to understand the inner workings of the system on which your faith is based. And while Initiates may live among themselves, they must also mingle with the people, help them, assist them, understand them too, and therefore put water in their wine.

Initiates with a sincere but tolerant faith are therefore not so rare, and are surely the caste’s best public relations agents. And Initiates who play the game but no longer have faith, or a very relative faith, are quite common as soon as you look into the highest spheres of the hierarchy. They may still believe in their mission, and their role, but may also have decided to use their power for personal enrichment or purely political ends.

With most,” he says, ”it is as you think, and they are simple, believing members of my caste, and there are others who suspect the truth and are tormented, or who suspect the truth and pretend — but I, Om, High Initiate of Ar, and some of the High Initiates, resemble none of these. …Thus, unbeknownst to most of my caste, we exist to be victors, showing in our own way the way to man’s greatness.”

Priest-Kings of Gor