Initiates
Religious rites, observances and matters concerning the Priest-Kings.
- Provide the spiritual and ceremonial life associated with their caste.
- The Caste Leader represents the Initiates and helps newcomers understand caste expectations.
Work, station and belonging
Castes & Roles
A role in Rorus should give a character a place in village life, responsibilities to fulfil and natural reasons to create roleplay.
The High Castes
Knowledge, Authority & Service
Caste is more than a title. Each active caste recognizes a Caste Leader through roleplay. The leader recruits, identifies vacancies, guides newcomers and represents the caste.
“Only the caste leader may call the council.”
Slave Girl of Gor, Book 11, p. 228
Scribes
Census, law, records, contracts, accounts, archives and registration.
- Witness or record agreements and maintain the village’s official written records.
- The Census Scribe registers residents and the property and chattel they declare to Rorus.
Builders
Architecture, surveying, construction, roads and waterworks.
- Oversee the planning, construction and maintenance that allow the village to function.
- Building work, repairs and improvements create continuing village roleplay.
Physicians
Health, examination, treatment, medicines and medical records.
- Provide examination and treatment suited to Gorean knowledge and the character’s circumstances.
- Maintain medical records and support roleplay arising from illness, injury and recovery.
Warriors
Defence, guards, patrols, training and lawful enforcement.
- Warriors may openly bear military arms and provide the martial defence of Rorus.
- Their caste oversees guards, patrols, training and lawful enforcement under the proper civil authority.
Village life
Trades & Community Roles
Herding, animal keeping, gardening, domestic service, carting and similar work may be occupations attached to the caste, household or business best suited to the role.
Assassins
The Black Caste: trained killers whose loyalty is to their caste, gold and the knife.
- Assassins are not ordinary Guards and do not serve the Warriors’ Caste.
- Any contracted hunt conducted in Rorus is governed by the Black Caste Rules of Engagement.
- Black clothing alone does not identify a character as a trained Assassin.
Read the Rules of Engagement →“The sword of the warrior ... is pledged to a Home Stone, that of the assassin to gold and the knife.”
Beasts of Gor, Book 12, p. 136
Merchants
Trade, markets, weights, measures, contracts and disputes.
- Merchants conduct commerce using honest weights, measures and coinage.
- Fraud, false accounts, counterfeit coin and tampering with measures are offences.
- Agreements may be recorded by a Scribe; disputes go to the proper village authority.
- Lawful ownership and authorized sale or transfer of goods, animals and slaves must be respected.
- All village services use zCS HUD Coins.
Slavers
Slave trade and care, records, training and placement of state slaves.
- Rorus treats Slavers as a distinct working caste while recognizing their canonical place within the Merchant Caste.
- The Slaver receives state slaves and confirms collars, brands, ownership and records with the Scribes.
- The Slaver maintains the slave pens and coordinates confinement, security, supplies and equipment repairs.
- Training, discipline, work assignments and public service are coordinated for each state slave.
- Ownership claims are reviewed and proposed sales, transfers or placements are prepared for approval.
- Escape, illness, misconduct, disputed ownership and serious discipline are reported to the proper authority.
- The Slaver may not personally claim, sell, transfer, free or impose an irreversible consequence upon a state slave without approval.
“The Slavers, incidentally, are of the Merchant Caste.”
Assassin of Gor, Book 5, p. 208
“The Slavers is a subcaste of the Merchants.”
Smugglers of Gor, Book 32, p. 521
“Some view the Slavers as a caste, others as a subcaste of the Merchants.”
Swordsmen of Gor, Book 29, p. 25
Peasants
Farming, crops, land stewardship and food-producing homesteads.
- Peasants are a distinct caste with their own Caste Leader; they do not fall under the Merchants’ Caste Leader.
- Their work sustains Rorus through agriculture, livestock, gardens and care of village lands.
- Village farming uses book-supported Gorean animals, crops, foods and plants appropriate to the locality.
- Practical tools or weapons may be carried when appropriate to the work and setting.
“Economically, the base of the Gorean life was the free peasant.”
Tarnsman of Gor, Book 1, p. 43
Guards
Defence, patrols, training and lawful enforcement under the Warriors’ Caste.
- Guards protect the village, patrol its lands and carry out lawful orders issued by the proper civil authority.
- They may carry practical weapons appropriate to their work, setting, training and ability.
- Drawing a weapon, threatening violence or using force remains a roleplay action with consequences.
- Guards are not Assassins; the two roles have different purposes and obligations.
Slaves
Property under Gorean law, serving an individual, household, business or the village through roleplay.
- A state slave is owned by Rorus; the Slaver is not the legal owner.
- State slaves are placed under the Slaver’s operational care and may be confined in the slave pens or kennels.
- Slave pens are the village facility; kennels describe confinement and are not the proper name of the state-slave facility.
- Collars, brands, ownership, work assignments and disciplinary records must remain accurate.
- Theft, concealment or unauthorized transfer of another person’s slave is an offence.
- Collar removal, escape attempts and serious disobedience are handled in roleplay by the owner or authority.
- Permanent transfer, sale, manumission or irreversible consequences for a state slave require approval.
“I am a state slave. I am owned by the state of Ar!”
Conspirators of Gor, Book 31, p. 266
“Generally it is a male slave from the pens.”
Assassin of Gor, Book 5, p. 258
“When the two new girls ... grow weary of the kennels, and of the gruel of the iron pens.”
Smugglers of Gor, Book 32, p. 243
Ready to take a place?