Gor

Many of you have known Bane, Torolf and I as members of the Gorean community for years, specifically Torvaldsland. Many years ago, we moved away from running Gorean sims because the introduction of storylines and conflict was met with ever-increasing RP restrictions and sim to sim bans. To be fair, some of the pushback was based on legitimate criticisms; unrealistic raid reasons, too few fighting men, and ungorean behavior. Just as often, however, the difficulties stemmed from the nature of conflict roleplay in Gor. We all have our own view of the problem.

What attracted us to Gor was the fiction written by John Norman in his books. To an avid fan of Gor's many novels, the master-slave relationship was only one aspect o a long running story filled with epic adventures, wars, heroism, exotic locales, unusual people, and the daily struggle for survival in a harsh world. In Gor might made right and the clash of cultures was every entertaining.

Yet, ask your standard Second Life roleplayer what Gor is and you'll be met with far much less flattering descriptions. At best, many would write off the fiction as a poor excuse for a BDSM dating service.

We have always felt that such an attitude toward the fiction was unfair at best, but it did ring painfully true in some ways. Look around almost any Gor sim and you'll find either ghost towns or sims filled with people locked behind closed doors roleplaying with their private RP partners. Where were the city states of Ar and Koraba with their legions of warriors and tarnsmen battling for dominance? What of the dreaded black caste where a common person could buy the justice their own sword arms could not obtain for them? The initiates and their crusade in the north to convert the wild men of Torvaldsland to the religion of the Priest Kings? Could it really just be that Gorean roleplayers weren't interested in the fiction and it's possibilities outside of the whole slave/master relationship? Is that all Gor would ever be good for?

We tried for years to push the boundaries of what was on offer on our sims. While some successes were had, we found that true conflict roleplay, especially that on an epic scale, was just a bit too niche for the average Gorean. So, what's a team of old hands to do when confronted with a desire for that which did not readily exist? Make it ourselves!

Gor had all sorts of good things for us to borrow from. Ancient cultures, check. Powerful city states where politics only mattered within boundaries carved out of the land in blood? Check! Slaves and sex and debauchery? Hell, why not! Check! Low fantasy human based lore that is easy to identify with and relate to, without having to read 36 novels that not everyone is in love with? CHECK! There was so much about Gor to like and play with, we just didn't think we could find enough people in SL Gor to make it worth while, so we moved on.