Slave Discipline

Do you discipline your slave?

Do you humour her daily, hourly on what you allow?  Does she know that 'look' that tells her she has gone to far, does she whimper, knowing she has been displeasing?

No?

Then your doing something wrong, in fact, your slave might well be laughing at you.

Fact is, while Goreans in general, are not cruel, and slaves in general do not feel the whip often across their flesh, the slave, in the books, knows full well that she is suscepital to it.  She recognises that for any reason, or for none at all, her owner, her Master might command her to bring it to him, and she might feel its caress across her body.  Across her flesh.

First, lets examine the Gorean whip.

The Gorean whip is not the typical whip you might bring to mind when mentioned. It is not a 'Indiana Jones' style bullwhip. Such a whip would tear flesh from the body of a man, much less a woman, especially when utilized improperly.
“If you are late by so much as five, Ehn, “ he called, “you will be caressed by the five fingers of leather.” This was an allusion to the Gorean five-strap slave whip, commonly used on girls because of the softness and width of its lashes. It punishes severely but, because of its construction, does not permanently mark the girl.
“I hurry, Master! I hurry!” cried Vella.
The man left.
Tribesmen of Gor pg(s) 314-315

The gorean whip is not what first comes to mind.  Its more nuanced, while effective its does no where near the damage of what most individuals think of in their minds eye, when it comes to disciplinary whipping.

"The other girl," she whispered, "is she unpleasant or difficult to get on with?"
"Perhaps," I said.
"Do you find her at times a bother, or troublesome?"
"Yes," I said.
"May I make a suggestion?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"Buy a whip," she said.

Rouge of Gor - Page 113

A household without a whip, without this prime disciplinary device, will create issues, the slave will become unpleasant or difficult to manage.  The mere fact that it exists in the home, is evidence to her that it can, and will at some time be used on her.

"Perhaps it should only be added that the Gorean Master, though strict, is seldom cruel. The girl knows, if she pleases him, her lot will be an easy one. She will almost never encountered sadism or wanton cruelty, for the psychological environment that tends to breed these diseases is largely absent from Gor. This does not mean that she will not expect to be beaten if she disobeys, or fails to please her Master."
Outlaw of Gor - Page 53

Cruelty on Gor is often disparaged in both lifestyle, and roleplay.  It simply is not supposed to exist.  While we battle our earthly habits and learnings, this is a matter of proof of self control Goreans have.  You might compare this to a man beating a child for discipline, verses, a man smacking a child on the ass, a couple times, and quickly stopping, setting limits on what he himself (or herself) commits on the individual needing discipline.

The whip on Gor, incidentally, though it is much in evidence, is seldom used. That it will be used, and promptly, if the occasion arises, is perhaps, paradoxically perhaps, why it seldom needs to be used. Most girls avoid feeling it, at least generally, by striving to be excellent slaves. To be sure, every female slave will have felt it, upon occasion. It is then common that they try to make certain that these occasions are quite infrequent. To be sure, some women do not fully understand they are owned, until they are whipped.
Vagabonds of Gor - Page 21

Again, proof the mere fact, that a whip exists, and is available for use by a slaves owner is enough for a slave to simply BE obedient.  Keep in mind, this requires the appropriate 'headspace' by the slave, if in roleplay.  Again, its encouraged that every woman, should feel the whip (the 5 bladed whip) at least once.

It is one thing to be subject to the whip, and to know that that subjection is quite real, that the master can, and will, whip you, and well, if you are not pleasing, and something else to be actually whipped.
Mercenaries of Gor - Page 420

The slave, that has not felt the whip, does not know she is subject to it, the slave that is not disciplined, gets spoiled, and tends to become increasingly difficult to manage.  In fact, it could be argued that you are spoiling, and ruining the slave for not only yourself, but for others.  The slave becomes damaged property, and, while in time this damage can be corrected, this damage might be repaired in time, but why should it?  Why should damage done to a slave, for lack of discipline, be repaired, and corrected?  The effort put forth, to whip, to discipline a slave, to let her know that she is, indeed, WORTH, being disciplined, in fact would do far more to increase her value, and improve her rather then do damage.  

Do not be afraid, to discipline, do not be afraid to show her you care by wielding the whip.  That is, unless your not really Gorean, that is, unless your slave is nothing more then a girlfriend, who has a great deal more say then Gor would allow.  Just dont try to claim, that she is a slave, cause both you, she, and everyone around you, will know otherwise, from her lack of discipline.

Limiting Gor

Of all the topics across Gor, this one comes up an awful lot, and in an awful lot of contexts.

The more painful context, is the least brought up of course.  Cruelty, of course, role play that verges on 'Friday the Thirteenth' type blood and gore.

Was Gor itself bloody, and full of gore?  it could be, but there were also certain lines.  My usual mantra continues here, 'the strength of your sword shall set your limits'.

For one, Goreans loved children, would never dream of harming a child, test them and make them learn their limits? certainly, but outright harm them? Never.

There has been over the years, in second life, role play seen and passed around of various groups, who seem to think its fun and games to 'force' this kind of role play onto the women they come across.  Aborting pregnancies because the child wasn't part of the contract, while there is thankfully no example of this sort of thing in the books to define it either way, and yes, admittedly that can be a mixed bowl of paga, but you have to think, wouldn't it be simply easier to instead of killing the unborn child, to allow the woman to have the child, so you can then have your way with the captured free woman before handing her over to the expected contractor.

Oh Im sorry, your in a rush... GO GET A DAMN SLAVE!

Apparently some 6 months or so ago, a man I know, and yes, do not think highly of, took part in something along the same lines, a woman they had a contract on, was pregnant, and the end result of the supposed role play, was that the 'newborn?" children where beheaded.

Goreans Loved Children

Goreans Loved Life

Goreans would not, in my mind, have done this sort of thing.

What would most likely have happened, worst case, is the mercenaries, or contracted individuals, would have either kept the children, raised them, trained them, or in the case of females, if they where not ransomed out, they might have been raised, to be then sold off later into slavery.  Note, this wouldn't have happened until near the age of majority.

An then there is the capture of free women, now this happens right across Gor, probably on a weekly basis, for one reason or another.  There was an instance where one was tortured, and killed, for refusing to submit.  Was it cruel? was it Ogreish? Sure it was, but was it Gorean?  I would have to argue it was a darn site more 'Gorean' then the baby stealing/killing/massacre' role play I've seen before.

This sort of thing might not have happened ALL the time, but a woman, who is not found pleasing, and fails to obey, is in fact putting her life at risk.

The larger problem here, is did those partaking in the role play, take the time to read any of the books, did any of them take a moment out of their role play, to understand the culture they have chosen to play in, who their characters might be, who they themselves might be sans role play, within the Gorean environment.

This is one of the reasons I think we have the hated role play limits.  This is one of the reasons we have role play bans, etc, we fail to learn, and hold ourselves to a minimum standard.

In the role plays above, there is a very important aspect missing in all the 'enjoyment' taken, and that is the most valuable learning part of all, for those that cross what is desired within our gorean communities.

Where are the angry mobs.  Where are the men, with pitchforks, shovels, flaming torches, with fists, and heavy boots, hunting down the men who decided their sword was strong enough to allow them to do these things.  Where are these men?

Do they exist?

Why do they not act?

A woman screams for help as she is dragged from her town, when others are present.  Only one comes to assist.

Do they not care?

Why do they shrug their shoulders?

Do they not want role play?

The answer might be allot more scary then I like to think.

They want it when its convenient, and anything other, they wont tolerate.

Find something to get all hot and fired about.

I dare you, to find sometime in the next month, the next 4 hands, to find something to get all fired up about, to create a mob mentality about something on your sim, in your home, cry out for justice on some small thing, on some large injustice, march on your ubar's mansion and demand he step down for a administrators vote.  The role play ITSELF might just be worth the practice.

May your sword, defend your heritage.

Administrating Gor

Second life Gor.

Its a huge beast, you might compare it to turning a thalarion around, compared to a urt, or even a kaiila.  You can not change its direction easily, its a huge behemoth that just keeps going and runs over anyone who decides its direction is not right, that something needs to be changed.

So much so that some beautiful builds of Second Life Gor,  From Ar, to the more recent Thermae, to other builds such as incarnations of Cos, Tyros, Treve, even my old home Verr Fjord where I administered on behalf of Lyndal Homewood, they get cut down before their time.  They end up a distant memory until someone tries again, or tries something new.

Each and every one of us, who visit, or choose to live in a town, paid for by the generousity of others, need to pause, and take stock of our own contributions.  The least each and everyone of us can do, is determine to give the best possible role play that we can find within ourselves.

While I write this, the Jarl of Thermae has released notices to his group, about the sims closure, I stand here talking to him about the difficulties he has experienced, and to be honest, I know something about some of these, as I myself administrated Verr Fjord for nearly two years.

There will always be troubles from an administrative angle, you will always have at least a couple who make a circus out of how things are handled, or tended to, there will always be one, or two who will take exception to some act, large, or small by another, just for the sake of creating drama, and creating hardship for someone else.  You would think, that if its just one, or two difficult citizens, or visitors, the administration of a town, or camp should not be such a huge issue, it should not take alot of time out of the administrators hands, you would think that they would be able to be out, and about, enjoying their sim, taking part in roleplay, instead of 'putting out fires' or dealing with drama.

I was relatively lucky I guess, back when I administered Verr Fjord, I had a sim owner, who simply handed me the town reigns and said 'go with it'.  Of course, my name itself might have had a large part to play in that decision,  he wanted to fade to the background, and enjoy himself, he needed time away, which we all get from time to time, where second life events, storylines, drama can just get to much for each of us.  The story can just as easily be a polar opposite for another.  Especially if the sim owner himself administers the town.

When I come to Gor, I come to roleplay, yes, those who know me, know that I push lines, lines blur, and yes, I do bring a huge part of who I am in real life, to the role I take on within the Second Life grid we use to reconstruct John Normans Gor.  I take pride in knowing what I know from the books, a knowledge that while its far from perfect, is well earned, and hard LEARNED.

I also do something else when I come into Gor, and that applies every time I open a second life group, every time I open a IM, every time I step on a sim to roleplay.  I do a fact check on myself, every interaction, every word I say, its carefully measured against ONE standard.  That standard is the collection of John Normans Gor novels.

I suspend the truth we all know, that exists on earth, in how I was raised, to some extent, I align myself in the heritage of what is found in the culture, and ramblings of John Norman's Gor.  

Settlements like Thermae, like Tyros, like, well, each and every sim anyone has ever tried to build, have to survive not only financial burden, and the burdens that real life puts on us.  The time we spend in secondlife, should be enjoyable, should allow us to escape the pressures of our first lives, and explore, escape into something while fictional, and recreational, but perhaps even much more enjoyable.

The largest problem, it seems, that most of these sims, these settlements have to battle however, is something far different from financial.  Its far far worse.

Drama

Thats right, Drama, and its not even the good kind, that is roleplayed, and allows everyone to play off of each other for their own enjoyment.

I have seen this in person, however I was relatively lucky with the people that frequented Verr Fjord.  Turn that around however after I left, and in another settlement, another sim, different people, and suddenly I can see a bit more clearly why a city can be the best build in Second Life, it can be low lag, it can be perfect, and yet, when you add people, when you add the very life of a town to it, you risk destroying the hopes and dreams of what could have been.

In the end all it takes is one, one person, one role player, to destroy it.  Do you know your role?  Do you know how your character, played, would react? would grow?  would evolve?  Do you take what would be natural, as per the books, and integrate that into who you are when you put on your character inside Gor?  if you don't you would probly do alot of people, a huge favour by either not staying long, or staying out entirely.  Don't get me wrong, you'll most likely be welcomed.  You will likely be invited, you will get some roleplay, they will try to guide you, as long as you can be guided, and helped.

However.

What truely destroys these sims, these cities, is the fact that the drama queens, and kings of second life, they come in, they integrate themselves into a sim, to be part of it, either on an occassional basis, or as a key role basis, and then they take exception to an event, or a small bit of roleplay, or they toss a hard worked storyline in the garbage because they cant give up the least bit of control over their roleplay.  Every person who enters these chat areas, these roleplay areas, and it goes the same for second life, irc, or any other environment used to replicate, reproduce what we desire to roleplay in, needs to know how much damage they risk imparting on the community as a whole when they suddenly break from story, from culture, from what their role would be.

The problem is in Second life the financial strain is higher, and so when it comes down to a decision, a sim ends up being lost.

I can not stress how badly, its needed for each and everyone of us to throw down, and be what we came here, Gor, albeit Second Life Gor, to be.  Don't get hung up on the legalities, dont get hung up on the technicals, do not get hung up on every small detail, the books are varied for a reason, the books stretch over a huge mass of time, and across vast distances, so unless there is something in the books, that says something is 'unlikely' or 'did not happen', dont restrict your roleplay by it.

Remember, the strength of the sword shall set your limits; It also would not hurt, to let your sim owner, or sim administrator know, how much you appreciate them, and lend them your loyalty, they might have earned it.  Just a little.

Wind and Steel.