Here, we’ll try to help you interpret this role and find out how to have fun, above all. This involves a few safeguards and precautions, always important when embarking on role-playing the world of Gor, whose aspects and intrinsic violence are quick to arouse tensions not always easy to manage. And also, how to ensure that your playing style, your emotes, your phrases, make this interpretation attractive.

1- A few safety tips

If you haven’t yet grasped the challenges of playing the role of a Gorean slave-girl, let me remind you that, in short, you’re playing a character who has no rights whatsoever, who is literally protected by nothing except her owner, at his whim, and who is destined as much for chores, even the dirtiest ones, as for the sexual pleasure of all Goreans.

In absolute terms, according to Gor’s principles, a slave is a property, a commodity, an animal, not a human being: she can be traded, sold, given away, lent, rented; anyone can punish her, beat her, humiliate her, use her at will; her owner can even do whatever he wants with her, including kill her. She’s a domestic dog, but with even fewer rights. And so it’s easy to see that, taken in absolute terms, playing a kajira can very quickly turn out to be an ordeal, can’t it?

It’s a game

However, let me reassure you: it’s a game. The people who play in Gor’s world are you, they’re me, they’re people with our moral values. So while they, too, play a role, they don’t indulge in the abuses, simply unbearable to our ethics, that we see in Norman’s novels. On the one hand, because it shocks them themselves, and on the other, because in general, everyone’s concern is to have fun and make sure others have fun. There can be – and will be – intense, violent, difficult moments in the story of your kajira and its adventures. But they won’t be imposed on you without precautions for your well-being and emotional safety. And the rest is play, nothing but play!

Don’t forget that whatever your character goes through, you won’t be going through it yourself, and everyone else will be making sure you get through it as well as possible, if need be. And if it ever gets too hard, there’s no shame in saying stop! Or to stop and take a break. It can happen, and no one will hold it against you – on the contrary! Just say it without hesitation, politely and clearly. I encourage you to read this article on emotional safety, and have others read it too!

Define your reasonable limits

When you’re playing a character in a Second Life role-playing game, it’s a good idea to define your limits. This is an important trick: you specify what you accept or don’t accept happening to your character. But the character limits defined by a player must be logical and coherent with the universe. And that’s where I’m going to explain what is and isn’t possible in role-playing in the world of Gor:

– Death: logically, nobody wants their character to die, but it can happen and must be accepted. Write instead: no death without my agreement. You admit that it can happen, but not without you having a say.

– Capture: rather than refusing capture (and ending up with a collar, enslaved, etc.), favor the three-day rule and agreement on the duration: basically, after three days, you decide that your character returns to whoever you feel like playing with. In some cases, enslavement or capture may last longer, but agree to discuss the matter.

– Mutilation (including hair loss): here again, rather than a categorical no, opt for acceptance with your agreement.

– Sex: paradoxically, this is the least of the problems. You can play a Kajira without wanting this sort of thing, and everyone understands that, so don’t worry.

– Collar (enslavement): this is a risk for all characters in the world of Gor, and is one of the foundations of this universe. You can’t – whether you’re playing free or enslaved – say that you refuse. Just refer to the capture rule above, and to the possibility of discussing the subject. But you can’t say: no collar.

– Nudity: as with enslavement /collaring: it can happen, it surely will, it’s one of the basic risks of Gor’s world. Refusing what is one of the basic risks of the world of Gor is not possible. You can’t refuse nudity.

– No RP: last point and a reminder: nothing and nobody can force you to RP with someone you don’t like. It’s even against the rules of SL, the “ToS”. So, the No RP limit (so-and-so) is perfectly acceptable and cannot be refused. I confess that, personally, I’m even more radical: when I don’t want to RP with someone at all and I don’t like their presence, I block them.

A final piece of advice is to keep things simple and clear, with enough open doors to allow the plot to progress and to accept whatever happens, but not without discussing it first. As an example, here are the limits of my character I play regularly:

* Don’t do to me what you don’t want to do to yourself.

* I’m the only one who makes the final decision about my avatar and what happens to him. Death included.

* I refuse any emote or forced RP action. That’s what the dice rolls on the HUD are for.

*I love what’s rough and intense, but extreme violence (including words) and sadistic torture: No.

Find a partner

This isn’t compulsory advice, but I do recommend it: look for a partner with whom to create the in-game relationship of playing a slave owned by a master.

I’ve talked about this in another of my advice articles, and I’ll say it again here:

You can, of course, take the risk of creating your character and go in blind. Surprise is good, and it can end well. But it can also be a disappointment, or even end in dramatic failure, whatever your own good will: because to have a good game, you need good players: i.e. fair-play, patient, open-minded, willing to listen and experienced. So, if possible, try to find a partner with whom to live your first experience; he or she will play the role of the trainer, who need not be the local slave-driver. The latter can also do the trick, if you’re aware of his acting skills, his fair play, his understanding of his role and his attention to the emotional safety of the players behind the characters.

In short, find out and choose well, prepare your entrance with him/her, determine in advance what you are able to accept of the mistreatment your character is going to endure, so that the player who is going to play the trainer knows when and where to stop. Without mutual understanding, complicity and total consensuality, you run the risk of drifting into very unpleasant areas of this kind of role-playing intrigue. That’s where the drama comes in, or even worse, where it becomes so shocking that you’re disgusted to play the role and continue the adventure.

Getting started on a sim

So, if you take the sim’s landmark and see how it goes straight away, in my opinion that’s not the best method, especially when you’ve created a kajira character, whose integration requires a certain amount of preparation:

– Read the sim’s rules carefully, as well as its background (its presentation): it’s quite important to know how the rules work in the place you want to discover and where you want to play. It’s also where you’ll find out what the sim’s principles are, whether it’s BtB, etc…

– Contact a moderator: their names are usually clearly indicated for this purpose, so use this tool! Contacting a moderator will enable you to ask questions about how to come and play, who to play with, how things work, who to contact for information, how to integrate your character. Don’t hesitate, it’s the moderators’ job, and they’ll usually be delighted to hear from you!

2- What does a slave do?

Slavery isn’t the life of a princess, and the romance of it all disappears as soon as you leave the fairy-tale books and the dreams of the most naive free women in the world of Gor. Virtually all slaves have seen their own blood spilled, experienced the harshest deprivations, rapes, the worst humiliations, in short, I’m not going back on the subject. As for their activity, beyond the expression “exquisite beauty and absolute obedience”, all slaves, with a few rare exceptions, toil; their main task being to serve all masters according to their needs and whims, and to satisfy their comfort.

Fortunately, as we discover even in the novels, not all kajirae work from dawn to late at night without interruption. Yes, there are some who toil to exhaustion, like kitchen or workshop slaves, not forgetting the unfortunate coin or paga girls. But there are just as many who are considered pets: they have chores to do, and woe betide them if they’re not done right, but they also have free time. This may be dictated by the owner’s desires, but the personal and pleasure slaves of free people who own them often  have time during the day to stroll and rest.

Constraints

These are fairly short:

– Serve your master with devotion

– Serve all masters with respect

– Always be available and pleasant

– Always obey (never say no!)

– Avoid being too curious or asking too many questions

A slave’s first duty is to perform all the tasks, requirements and chores dictated by her owner. In general, this means keeping the house clean, washing clothes and cooking meals. Goreans don’t generally live with an abundance of luxury and business. In fact, only the wealthiest live in large, well-furnished rooms with lots of clothes and possessions. And they then have an entire kennel of slaves of various functions to take care of domestic chores. Individually, a slave rarely has much work to do, even a city slave in an official city enclosure. Only prostitute, laborer or agricultural slaves, exploited for a lucrative function, work from morning to night.

Thus, a slave has free time, but time that never excludes the fact that she must serve all masters, always please them, be available for their every whim, and always obey, whatever is asked of her, unless it goes against her owner’s orders and desires. Thus, kajirae can be seen playing together in a park or strolling down the street, or running errands for their master, but also lending a hand to city slaves, helping out in the businesses of their master’s friends, such as the local inn, and being requisitioned by neighbors for this or that task. They can’t refuse, in general… and trying to dodge these requests is a good way of disgracing their owner.

Freedoms

That said, the Goreans themselves don’t say, and don’t believe, that a slave must always work. Well, no… they’re even the first to appreciate that they’re free to roam here and there, at their whim! The expression “a slave must always work” is in fact a stupid onlinism from people who have never opened a Gor novel!

So, a slave has certain freedoms, which are obvious when you take into account who they are, but also the Gorean way of life and their way of thinking.

Remember: this doesn’t apply to all kajirae. Many of them are locked up or chained to their workstations; they live a miserable (and short) life and know no freedom. But the following applies to all characters played by players.

A Kajira can :

– Show her emotions freely; cry, blush, sulk, laugh and even get angry! There may be consequences, but slaves are expected and even demanded to show all their emotions, so enjoy this freedom!

– Learn and improve, mainly from other slaves but not only. That said, freemen don’t usually teach a slave to read or do a free trade, but it can happen.

– Walk freely and relax, take physical exercise; this is even encouraged or imposed by masters.

– Talk to anyone, as long as she respects the above constraints.

– Have kajirae friends, which again will always be encouraged.

– Go to a public library, if she can read, and consult the books authorized for slaves; the master just has to pay the library access fee.

– Attend public shows, when these are free and open to slaves, i.e. the vast majority of street and arena shows.

3- the poetry of gesture & emotion

It’s very difficult to play a kajira in its entirety, with all its codes, obligations, deep-seated nature (the slave heart, discussed in this guide), specific knowledge and way of being. It’s not for nothing that the English-speaking world has its own courses and training programs, such as the Université Goréenne.

So, if you think it’s easy to play a kajira, you’ve really failed! It’s a complicated role (all roles in Gor’s world are, but this one is particularly so). It requires a lot of training and experience; but we’ll try to help you grasp the essential elements of how to interpret it in your emotes, and add the poetry of gesture and emotion that always accompanies a kajira.

Warning: if you’re a fan of emotes of just a few words, these tips won’t do you any good. To make the most of them, you’ll have to decide to try your hand at some writing skills, which can only produce results if you write emotes of several lines.

Make people feel rather than describe

Who cares if a player playing a slave describes what she’s doing, if what she’s doing doesn’t introduce elements designed to interact with said slave?  Who cares if the slave washes the dishes or follows the service ritual to the letter? Rather, what’s important in this kind of emote is the information it contains, offering the possibility of interaction.

So, in my opinion, the kajira’s emotions, mannerisms, gestures, expressions and state of mind are more important than the actual action. The latter is the support on which to graft information that will provide the reader with avenues of play, enabling him or her to bounce off this information or retain it for the next interaction. Emotion in an emote is all about the way the kajira does things, her apparent feelings and way of being or state of mind, not the action itself.

This is the time to work on your kajira’s character: her shyness, her awkwardness, her perfection, her boldness, her sensuality, her joy, her doubts, her assurance, her sadness, her fear, her confidence, the reasons for her emotional state, and how these can be perceived or guessed by the reader. This is the time to bring your kajira to life, not by doing something you describe, but by putting all the nuance of the kajira’s emotions and states of mind into doing something.

Examples:

“Lara is leaning over the sink full of dishes. It’s her turn to do the washing-up chore at the inn, an unpleasant moment for her, who prefers to smile sensually and wink promisingly at the factional warriors who come to have a drink and relax. But, heaving a sigh, she restrains herself, not without glances around the room. And, hoping to escape her chore, she plays up the beauty of her hips and sleek body to undulate gracefully, offering the spectacle of her back and loins to the men present, in the hope of attracting their attention and going off to do something else far more fun than washing dishes.”

“Anis carefully prepares the tea requested by the free lady, whom she doesn’t know and who has placed her order without even looking at her. Leaning over the counter, watching the water boil while she prepares the tea set, she applies herself with great care; here, her kajira tricks would be useless towards a woman, so it’s hardly by preparing the best tea she’s capable of that she’ll be able to succeed in pleasing her, and thus bring honor to her master.”

Reading emotions

Goreans are often rather dry-looking people. Free men and women tend to keep their emotions in check and not let them show too much in public. For Free women, it’s even worse: the veil that hides their mouth and nose isn’t there by chance; it’s there to mask any smiles or facial expressions they might have, so that they don’t show too much emotion. If they did, they’d be opening the door to the lustful appetites of men, who tend to want to enslave and abuse every female individual.

Emotions are the prerogative of kajirae, so play with them! Nothing is more boring than a slave who shows nothing, feels nothing, knows nothing of joy, sorrow, surprise, hesitation or awkwardness. It’s in these expressed emotions that the nature and beauty of slaves lie, and it also helps to avoid playing a carpette or decorative slave, i.e. one with no personality, and therefore no soul, and who won’t interest anyone.

I’d like to come back to a tip I mentioned earlier: think carefully about your kajira’s personality. Even broken, trained, reconditioned, she retains or has recreated her own personality and tics, habits, ways of being that are constants expressed in her visible emotions. And since all slaves can’t hide anything, and generally have great difficulty doing so, now’s the time to put your slave’s signature personality into your emotes. To do this, choose terms, adjectives, expressions that recur in your emotes, as a signature of that personality… and what’s more, it’ll make your life easier when writing!

Examples:

“Iris stared at the sandy track, not daring to raise her eyes to the men who, silent, awaited her dance. She was about to make a spectacle of herself in front of them, whom in the past she would have humiliated with arrogance from the height of her status as a free woman of high caste. Fear gripped her as she stepped onto the sand, while the musicians sounded their cymbals. It was impossible not to feel all those gazes, impossible not to know how beautiful she could be at that moment, and how ardently desired by all those spectators. For the first time in her life, Iris, the former free woman of the enslaved high caste who had become a kajira, began to blush…”

“Calliope turned at her name, surprised by the force of the cry to call her. Giving a bewildered pout, immediately worried about the reasons for this call, she slipped out of the kitchen, pointing her nose with a mixture of curiosity and fear on her face, giving a glimpse, on her face framed by red hair, of a youthful beauty, naive and hesitant, which changed into an immediate joyful smile of relief. Her mistress had returned.”

Making beauty readable

One of the absolute codes of a kajira is “exquisite beauty”. And believe me when I tell you that it’s hard to interpret in emotes… especially as sometimes you tend to go round in circles trying to put these reports to the beauty of gesture and attitude in your slave emotes.

So, what is “exquisite beauty”? Simply put, it’s all the codes of femininity in appearance, gesture and movement. Walking with a sway, placing the foot delicately on the ground, undulating gracefully, turning the head in a sensual movement, grasping an object with grace, casting a fiery or shy glance, etc… There’s also appearance, in hairstyle, make-up, beauty care, perfumes, accessories. Even dressed in rags, a kajira will strive to behave and move in permanent beauty; she has been trained and conditioned to do so.

Now, rest assured: yes, it’s hard to talk about a kajira’s beauty in her every move, but you won’t be asked to do so constantly and, above all, only the best-educated kajirae have this kind of constant attitude. For the others, it’s simply a question of knowing how to please, of becoming seductive, while staying in their place, attracting the eye and desire, but without being provocative either. And a tower slave, for example, will rarely use this kind of artifice; she won’t generally be asked to do so. But doing it a little, putting feminine beauty into her emotes, is a fun game for female players… and somehow, being beautiful and saying it, is still one of the pleasures of playing a kajira.

Examples:

“Edel will continue her delicate pantomime of amorous and transient exaltation, her gestures restrained, fragile and amorous, imbued with an erotic sweetness running through the slightest of her movements and steps, her body playing a silent melody of lurid seduction, at once as fleeting as a butterfly’s flight in a bluish dawn. Walking among the freemen in a wiggle rolling the curve of her loins and the roundness of her breasts, she comes to present each glass, suddenly offered as a unique and precious gift; the look she gives each time, eyes expertly lowered, resembling an eternal sensual promise… Thus, everyone ends up with a glass of rum and she returns to caress the wood of the workbench as if it were the silkiest of fabrics, apt to wring shivers of bewitching delight from her. “

“Sina glides with her hand across the sand, rising in a brutal arc of the spine, soaring as she emancipates herself from the limits of the body and the constraints of gravity. To whom could she show this fire and speak, through its eroticized undulations, of her desire, she who, blinded by the blindfold, looks at no one. Would she even want to, if some witness were watching? Would she answer him… for whom would this outstretched hand, this heavy sigh in a breath, these taut breasts in an offered arch, these loins that sway to expose the globes of her rump and the delicacy of her legs to view, since no one sees?  But it’s no use; she slides across the sand, floored, in droplets of sweat and the clatter of cymbals. She lies on the sand of the runway, coiled like a snake, in all-consuming, burning despair.”

Don’t be afraid to try

Okay, now you’ve read the examples and you’re thinking: I could never do that. Well, I could. Probably not the first few times, but you’ll get there. Writing, writing beautiful emotes, finding expressions, ways of describing emotions, beauty, richness, it’s a training, which develops with practice and time.

I’ve often seen players say they’d never manage it and simply don’t try. But we all know how to write and we all have a little spark of a novelist somewhere in the back of our minds and hearts. You just have to dare to start. And not to be too hard on yourself when you’re struggling, when you can’t manage, when your first attempts seem mediocre. The exercise of writing like this requires you to train your brain to imagine and think such emotes in order to write them, so it only comes with practice.

Practise a little! Take your time when writing! Yes, the players in front of you have to wait, but somewhere along the line, if you make an effort to make your emote pleasant to read, they can make an effort to wait, can’t they? One thing I often did was to write my emotes in a text editor, like Word, and copy them into SL’s game chat, rather than writing directly into the chat. This makes it easier to proofread and correct if necessary. Another thing I always do is take literary examples, inspirations, from just about everywhere: erotic novels, romance novels, miscellaneous stories and, of course, I look at how mates make their emotes for inspiration!

So don’t be afraid to try. It’ll come with practice, training and experience. But try! It’ll be a particularly pleasant reward when other players feel compelled, in turn, to make an effort to match the quality of your emotes… and interact with you all the more passionately and richly!