Free Men of Gor - Initiates

The Initiate Caste, also known as the Blessed Caste, is the highest of the five High Castes on Gor.  Their Caste color is white, a color that is often associated with impartiality and justice, especially the justice of the Initiates.  The Initiates are considered as possible intermediaries to the mysterious Priest Kings.  The Initiates are a well-organized and industrious caste.  They have many monasteries, holy places and temples throughout Gor.  They are also a wealthy and powerful Caste.  They regard themselves as the most important Caste on Gor and many cities seem to agree.                                     
     The Initiates claim to speak for the Priest-Kings and interpret their will.  The Priest-Kings are their gods.  The Initiates zealously guard their monopoly over religious matters.  Other Castes are allowed limited roles, if at all, in religious ceremonies or rituals.  All Goreans accept that the Priest-Kings actually exist but they disagree as to their true nature.  Some believe the Priest-Kings are gods while others feel they are only powerful guardians. Initiates are feared and respected because they may be servants for the Priest-Kings.  People worry that the Initiates might know some important matters about the Priest-Kings so they often take care not to offend the Initiates.  They consider it better to be safe than sorry.  The Low Castes are the ones most prone to believing and respecting the Initiates. In fact, Ubars have often employed Initiates as tools, some even contending that a primary function of the Initiates is to keep the Low Castes contented with their servile lot.  Despite this fear, Initiates are still regarded as being a bit strange and often figure in derogatory jokes.
     Initiates are bound by many Caste restrictions.  They must wear white robes and be bald-headed.  Being bald has been traditional for the Caste for centuries.  It may have a distant connection to the practices of the Nest within the Sardar where Muls all have shaven heads. This is part of their hygiene program within the Nest.  Initiates also cannot eat meat or beans. The basis for these restrictions is that they constitute part of a regimen to achieve immortality. This regimen also includes a study of mathematics.  Initiates believe that only they can achieve eternal life. Most Goreans do not take this belief seriously.  They do not believe in immortality at all.
     Initiates are also forbidden to carry weapons, shed blood or kill anyone.  Initiates are often the most timid of Goreans.  They must hire others to perform their executions, torture or defense.  They sometimes hire members of the Torturer's clan of the Wagon Peoples to work for them.  Torturers engage in torture and executions though they are not Assassins.  Their skills may also be used in interrogation.  Initiates have the financial resources to hire whatever Warriors they generally need.
     Most of their education and training is largely unpractical, mostly concerning archaic religious texts.  Yet, this education serves to bind Caste members together.  They learn matters that no other Caste has access to.  This makes them feel important and privilieged.  They also have many secret tomes and scrolls, rumored to contain mighty magics.  These spells are thought to be especially potent if read backward on certain feast days.  The general public is aware that Initiates may have access to such powerful magics.  Some Priest-Kings even claim to be able to call down the Flame Death on someone.  The Flame Death is a form of capital punishment imposed by the Priest-Kings and triggered from the Sardar.  The victim seems to spontaneously erupt in blue flames.  No Priest-Kings truly has the ability to call the Flame Death.
     Females are forbidden from becoming Initiates, thus they are denied any chance of immortality.  It is also forbidden for Initiates to even touch women or for women to touch them. This is far more expansive than just being unable to have sex with women.  It includes even the slightest touch.  This would mean that Initiates would not own female slaves as it would be too difficult to deal with them, not being allowed to even touch them.  The only slaves possessed by Initiates in the novels were male slaves.  Though it might be technically possible for an Initiate to have a female slave without touching her, it makes no sense in light of their restrictions for that to happen.
     As there are no female Initiates, how do they get Caste members?  Unlike the vast majority of other Castes, membership in the Initiates is not a matter of birth.  All of its members had to petition for membership and meet all applicable entry criteria.  The books though do not detail what that criteria entails.  Though it is a powerful Caste, its various restrictions would serve to limit the number of interested applicants.  The Caste is probably also choosy in selcting applicants as they are the highest Caste and must adhere to certain standards.
     The Initiates perform most of their ceremonies and religious services in Old Gorean, an archaic language generally unspoken now.  Only a portion of their services are in contemporary Gorean, those sections which most Goreans are meant to repeat during religious services.  This would be similar to the use of Latin by the Catholic Church when all of their services were once in that language.  Using this archaic language helps the Initiates maintain their control over religious matters.  The Physician's Caste is one of the only other Castes that uses Old Gorean, and only to keep their records.  Again, this is another similarity to Latin.  Initiates are prominent at funerals but not at the Waiting Hand rituals so that is unlikely to be a religious holiday.
     A High Initiate, also known as a Chief Initiate, rules the Initiate Caste of each city.  The High Initiate is appointed by the High Council of the Initiates of each city.  Each city may contain a Cylinder of Initiates where most of them reside and where there are also offices, a courtroom, prison and more.  The High Initiate of Ar considers himself to be the Supreme Initiate of all Initiates on Gor though most of the other High Initiates of the other cities do not view him as so.  He allegedly received his appointment directly from the Priest-Kings.  Each High Initiate appears to jealously guard their position from other High Initiates, maintaining their independence and power.  High Initiates may wear a tall hat as a badge of office.
     There are two court systems on Gor, the city system that is under the jurisdiction of the Administrator or Ubar and the system of the Initiates.  These are akin to civil and ecclesiastical courts.  The areas of jurisdiction are vague but Initiates claim supreme authority in all matters. This sometimes causes jurisdictional problems with the civil authorities.  In actuality, unless the matter directly affects them, they usually do not get involved.  Any crime the Initiates wish to handle is done within their temples.
     One matter that is very important to them revolves around Dar-kosis, the Holy Disease. This is horrible, wasting disease similar to leprosy.  It is highly contagious as well.  Those afflicted with the disease are considered to be holy to the Priest Kings.  It is heresy to shed their blood though they can be safely stoned to death.  The Initiates feel Dar-kosis is an instrument of the Priest-Kings to punish those who displease them.  Initiates have arranged Dar-Kosis pits where the Afflicted may voluntarily imprison themselves, to be fed with food dropped by men on tarns.  Once in a Pit, an Afflicted is not permitted to leave.  The Initiate Caste will not let the Physician Caste search for a cure because it is a holy disease.  Some Physicians in Ar once tried to seek a cure and Initiates hired some men to stop their research. These men broke into the Cylinder of Physicians, burned several floors, destroyed records, killed test animals and Physicians, and set fire to the place.  The Physicians had been making good ground until this disaster.
     Initiate temples vary in style and extravagance.  Some are quite lavish while others are austere.  Temples generally do not have chairs, benches or pews except for worshippers. Only the Initiates are permitted such items.  A white rail separates the sanctified area for the Initiates from the common room where all those who are not specially anointed must stand.  Goreans do not kneel in the temples.  They pray standing up and often hold their hands in the air as the Initiates often do.  Weapons are forbidden within the temples.  All temples are oriented to the Sardar.  On the high altar is a large golden circle, the symbol of the Priest-Kings, a symbol of eternity.  There are no depictions of the Priest-Kings as it is considered blasphemy to attempt to depict them.  Initiates claim that Priest-Kings have no shape, form or size.  Very few Initiates have any idea of the true form of the Priest-Kings.  Choirs of young boys often sing in major temples, standing outside the white rail.  Their heads are shaved and are most often young slaves who have been castrated by civil authorities.  They are trained in song by the Initiates to sing with their beautiful soprano voices.  Services may include the smells of burning incense, ringing bells rung, singing and chanting. Animal sacrifices are also common.
     The Initiates use various types of thickened chrism, consecrated oil.  It is commonly used by Initiates to make the sign of the Priest-Kings, the circle of eternity, on their foreheads.  There is also a chrism of temporary permission that allows one not consecrated to the Priest-Kings to enter their sanctified area.  This chrism allows laborers and other workers to enter the sanctified area to perform their work.  This is considered an inferior anointing.  Such anoinitings were first used at roadside shrines to permit civil authorities to enter and slay fugitives who had taken sanctuary within.  It is also used for workmen and artists who work in the temple.  Dead bodies do not require annointing so they may be freely placed within the Initiate sanctified area.
     Some Initiates have prayer rings, a means to keep track of a cycle of prayers.  It is worn on the first finger of the right hand.  It has several tiny knobs which when turned keep track of the cycle of prayers.  When you return to the circular knob, you have completed the entire prayer cycle.
     Initiates claim that Gor was once the planet of a distant sun in the remote Blue Galaxies and has been moved several times to different stars.  Gor eventually came to our solr system.  Priest Kings are believed to be immortal and likely gods.  Almost no one, including the Initiates, have ever seen them.  Priest-Kings generally ignore most matters on Gor except for technology violations.  They pay little attention to the Initiates, considering them both amusing and harmless.  Initiates are considered as examples of the aberrations of humans.  Prior to the Nest War in Priest-Kings of Gor, some Initiates were implanted by the Priest-Kings with a fine webbing of gold wire into their heads.  They might also have special eye implants.  The Priest-Kings could use these Initiates as surveillance devices.  In addition, they could kill these Initiates easily, causing their heads to burst and burn.  After the Nest War, this practice was basically stopped.
     Every Gorean is expected to at least once journey to the Sardar Mountains before they are twenty-five years old.  The Initiates keep lists of who goes and who does not.  Initiates teach that misfortunes hit a city if their people try to avoid this obligation.  Sometimes the Initiates will ask individuals to go at a certain time.  In some cities and islands, your family receives a gold tarn disk if you go when they ask.  That is a vast sum for most Goreans so most people go when the Initiates ask you to.  The Sardar journey subjects all Goreans to the bandits and slavers who haunt the trade roads to the Sardar.  It is a dangerous journey and some do not return.
     The sacred Sardar Mountains are the home of the Priest-Kings.  The Sardar Mountains are dark and often crowned with ice.  Nothing grows there.  There is an invisible force shield that prevents all animals from entering the mountains.  It may affect their inner ear and cause them to lose control of their bodies.  A palisade of black logs encircles the Sardar, with a towering gate of black logs bound with wide bands of brass.  An Initiate stands guard at the gate to the Sardar and he decides if the gates will be opened for someone who wishes to climb the Sardar. Generally, no one is refused.  Often old men who are tired of life or brash young men make the attempt.  None of them have ever returned.  A huge, hollow metal bar tolls whenever someone passes through the gate.  To open the massive gates, blind slaves must turn wooden windlasses.
      The Sardar fairs are held four times each year in the shadow of the Sardar Mountains, on the plains below the western slopes.  Though the Merchant Caste effectively arranges and administers the fairs they are nominally under the direction of a committee of Initiates.  But they content themselves with doing just its ceremonies and sacrifices.  They are more than happy to delegate the administrative details to the Merchants.  The Initiates have decreed though that it is a crime against the Priest-Kings to engage in violence or bloodshed at the fairs.  This prohibition though does not extend to slaves. In addition, no one may be enslaved at the fair though slaves can be purchased.
     The Initiate Caste wields vast power on Gor, primarily based on the support of the Low Castes.  It is the Low Castes that believe most fervently in the power of the Initiates and Priest-Kings.  They truly believe the Initiates possess mystical powers and fear their wrath. "The religious conditioning of the men of Gor, based on superstition though it might be, was as powerful as a set of chains-more powerful than chains because they did not realize it existed. They feared the word, the curse, of this old man without weapons more than they would have feared the massed swords of a thousand foemen." (Tarnsman of Gor, p.206)  The High Castes understand their effect on the Low Castes and thus often leave the Initiates alone.  They do not wish the Initiates to turn the Low Castes against them.  Some Initiates even rule cities as Administrators.
     What is the purpose of the Initiate's Caste?  Does the quote at the top of the scroll say it all? Are they more a burden than a benefit?  Most members of the Initiates are simple believers. They accept the teachings of the Caste without question.  A small number suspect the truth about the Priest-Kings.  Of that group, some simply ignore it and pretend to be a complete believer.  Others are tormented by their doubts.  There is also a small, elite group of a few High Initiates who know much of the truth.  These men believe in a greater purpose for the existance of the Initiate Caste.  It is a noble purpose.
     In Priest-Kings of Gor, Om, the High Initiate of Ar explains this all to Tarl Cabot. Om stated they they "wait for man" as he is not yet ready "to believe in himself."  He then continues to explain the matter. "We speak not to man's heart," said Om, "but only to his fear. We do not speak of love and courage, and loyalty and nobility-but of practice and observance, and the punishment of the Priest-Kings-for if we so spoke, it would be that much harder for man to grow beyond us. Thus, unknown to most members of my caste, we exist to be overcome, thus in our way pointing the way to man's greatness." (Priest-Kings of Gor, p.300-1)  They thus fulfill a very significant function, one destined to lead men to a better world. It is doubtful though that it will happen anytime soon.
     Initiates are not a Caste generally emulated by RTers or most RPers.  There is no reason for a RTer to follow the path of an Initiate.  As for RPers though, an Initiate can be a challenging role.  Yet, many keep away from them due to all the restrictions on the Caste, especially the restriction on women.  As many RP Gor to have a slave or two, playing an Initiate offers no real attraction.  The few Initiates that have been RPed offer have great difficulty interacting with other players.  Most other players simple sneer at Initiates and ignore the power they possessed in the books.  Low caste characters especially should fear and respect Initiates. Even High Caste characters generally will not openly sneer at Initiates.  A creative player can have a lot of fun with an Initiate but it will most definitely be a challenging role.

http://furmesnest.tripod.com/id27.html

Initiates, First of the High Classes
information gotten from this site
http://www.geocities.com/delphius2002

Gorean Governance inc. Chart

This really applies mostly to the so called High Cities, or the civilized parts of Gor.

Priest Kings are the large golden insects like giant ants or praying mantis extra-terrestrial in orgin that rule Gor, having moved the planet from some other location and live in the Sadar Mountains. If you go to the Sadar Mountains without the Priest Kings permission your body parts rain down over the plains below for you get thrown off the mountains to your death. Carasses are found at the foot of the mountains in the desert. Animals refuse to go there and if you force a tarn to go he get disorientated and falls form the sky. The Priest Kings control Gor and make the laws. The main thing is they limit technology specifically weapons to a subset of rather primitive ones. They regard humans as primitive and violent. Weapons are things like swords, crossbows, and that sort of thing. The Priest Kings are rather neglectful, sort of benevolent dictators and are at war with the Kurii.

The Kurii are responsible for introducing advanced weapons. Sometimes Kurii provide transport and bring in weapons, sometimes their own and sometimes those of earth. If the Priest Kings notice they will destroy the person and weapon with the blue flame of death. Kurii look like abominable snowmen and eat slave girls or keep them as pets. There is always spies and tension between the Priest Kings and the Kur. Humans spy for both sides.

The Initiates are the Priesthood of Gor. Some of the Initiates are directly hooked to the Priest Kings via implants in their heads and spy for the Priest Kings, though you do not have to be an Initiate to have an impant. Thought the Priest Kings are amused and puzzled by the Initiates and people worshipping them as gods. Everyone in Gor is to go to the fairs at the foot of the Sadar Mountains once in their lives. These fairs are to be conducted by the Initiates but really are run by the merchants. At these fairs standardizing of weights and measures are set and the laws for that year are made called the Merchant Law. Merchant Law is the same from city to city but the laws in each city vary from city to city. So really the merchants have the real power of Gor, but they keep this to themselves. Merchants are of the low caste.

The low castes receive a limited form of education know as first knowledge. It includes only enough detail as is needed to function and some deliberately incorrect teaching designed to help keep them content with their lot. So they are taught Gor is a flat disk and if they travel to far, they might fall off the edge. They have superstitions about the power someone can get by knowing their "real" name and so often are addresses simply as by their profession or by nicknames. They are particularlysusceptible to the Priest Kings and at times where afraid to speak about them just incase something was said that would get you flamed. Note that the merchants interact so often with the high caste scribes so often that they do not seem to have the same restriction as the others of low castes. Some might say that the scribes and merchants control Gor together.

There are five High Castes. The Initiates spoke of already. Scribes are next and our color is blue. We are responsible for most things that involve the running of government. Scribes are the teachers, accountants, administrators, librarians. Most of the lower caste are illiterate and some of the high castes, though scribes are all able to read and write. Others in the high caste build (builder - yellow), heal (healers - green), or fight (warriors - scarlet) of the high caste. All high caste have Second Knowledge which includes an understanding of astronomy, knowledge of Earth, of history, geography, in short a basic good education. Most Gorean live in cities, towns, or villages. This is because Gor is a dangerous place and people need to band together to stay safe. Each cities is run by their own set of laws which are run by an Administrator except in times of war.

The Administrator is a single person who has basic charge of everything but who answers to the High Council who wears brown, the color of peasants so brown keeps the Administrator humble. Also all the crap hits the Administrators and stops with them.

The High Council consists of representatives of each High Caste. In many cities we have elected on representative of each High Caste as the "High" representative of each. Also some cities have a caste leader know as the "Chief" of which there is no such distinction in the writings of Gor where the "High" and "Chief" appear to be used interchangably. The fact that the decriptions of the High Council includes many people, benches full of each caste. Some cities may elect their representatives for each caste where others may appoint theirs. It is also said that cities are run by a few powerful families. Often these high caste representatives of the High Council are voted for only by male caste members, which seems to be a Gorean standard. Though this varies from city to city. There also is often tension between the High Castes members; Scribes and Physicians versus Warriors, Warriors and Scribes versus Builders, Builders and Physicians versus Scribes, and everyone against the Initiates thought tolerate them since the Priest Kings do. Some cities have a "High Merchant" who speaks for the lower castes as part of the High Council but he does not have a vote with in the Council. So if a slaver, or any other of the lower caste of the city wishes a voice, would speak to the High Merchant and the merchant would bring up the concerns to the High Council.

Then there are the Ubars of which there seems to be two types. There are the "nice" Ubars who are given absolute power in times of war, appointed by the High Council and chosen from among the warriors by the warriors. They give the power back after the crisis is over. Such a Ubar still answers to the High Council. Then there is the Ubars who declare themselves in charge and because the warriors back them they seize power and as such "bad" Ubars. These Ubars are rare in the writings of Gor and are not tolerated.

Depending on who is in power, either the Ubar of High Council makes the laws for the city and enforce them. Law is enforced by warriors but warriors are directed by and controlled by the Magistrates and Prefects. There are two types of Magistrates. They are the merchant magistrates whose job it is to enforce and to support merchant law. Then there are the city magistrates who are responsible for enforcing the city law. Magistrates are technically scribes. They are one of the subcastes of scribes. I would say Magistrates are more a combination of Lawyer and Judge, but people can appeal their ruling and so you get Praetors who are judges as well. Because magistrates are appointed in a particular city you may find someone who is a magistrate who is not a scribe. This goes for Ambassadors as well. There is one instance in the writing of Gor where an Ambassador was a warrior, which make sense because some warriors are highly literate and extremely well read. So in general Ambassadors and Magistrates are scribes but that is a matter of convenience and not an absolute rule. Others mentioned would include Archons who seem to be record keepers who judge from the records in the past. Ubara, who is like a queen with great power or who is one of the companions of an Ubar. There is no known case in the writings of Gor where an Ubara who was without an Ubar had power except for Talena who was called "Regent" or the "Tatrix" which is specific for the female leader of the city of Tharna.

"Gnieus Lelius, it seems, had been deposed, and Seremides, in a military coup he himself characterized as regrettable, had seized temporary power, a power to be wielded until the High Council, now the highest civilian authority in Ar, could elect a new leader, be it Administrator, Regent, Ubar or Ubara."

Magicians of Gor pg 83

"There are two systems of courts on Gor - those of the City, under the jurisdiction of an Administrator or Ubar, and those of the Initiates, under the jurisdiction of the High Initiate of the given city; the division corresponds roughly to that between civil and what, for lack of a better word, might be called ecclesiastical courts. The areas of jurisdiction of these two types of courts are not well defined; the Initiates claim ultimate jurisdiction in all matters, in virtue of their supposed relation to the Priest-Kings, but this claim is challenged by civil jurists. There would, of course, in these days be no challenging the justice of the Initiates. I noted with repulsion that on the roof of the Cylinder of Justice there shimmered a public impaling spear of polished silver, some fifty feet high, gleaming, looking like a needle in the distance."

Tarnsman of Gor pgs 193-194