City Of Thentis

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Welcome To The City Of Thentis

A fortress city in the Mountains of Thentis. Possessed of some agriculture, particularly the export of wool from its goat-like mountain hurts and its export of beans used to make "Black Wine" (coffee). Also famed for its great Tarn flocks, which are indigenous to the Mountains of Thentis. Most of the tarns on Gor are bred here. This city is not currently at war with anyone, except perhaps the city of Treve. It is similar to several Tyrolean mountain cities found in the Southern Alps in ancient Earth.

The Tarn

Tarns are enormous relatives of the Earth golden eagle, some with a fifty (50) foot wing span. They are bred in two types: war tarns which are heavier but agile, trained to aid in battle and racing tarns which are slender, lighter birds bred for speed and endurance. Racing tarns are also used by messengers to go from one city-state to another. Tarns may also be wild.

The Tarnsman

"It was a War Tarn, bred for courage, for endurance, for combat in the skies of Gor. My nostrils drank in the wild, strong odor of the tarn, so offensive to some, yet an ambrosia to the nostrils of the tarnsman." ---Outlaw of Gor, page 120

"Forgive me if I say that I was happy, as I should not have been in the circumstances, but my feelings are those that a tarnsman would understand. I know of few sensations so splendid, so godlike, as sharing the flight of a tarn.

I was one of those men, a tarnsman, who would prefer the saddle of one of those fierce, predatory titans to the throne of a Ubar.

"Once one has been a tarnsman, it is said, one must return again and again to the giant, savage birds. I think that this is a true saying. One knows that one must master them or be devoured. One knows that they are not dependable, that they are vicious. A tarnsman knows that they may turn upon him without warning. Yet the tarnsman chooses no other life. He continues to mount the birds, to climb to their saddle with a heart filled with joy, to draw the monster aloft. More than the gold of a hundred merchants, more than the countless cylinders of Ar, he treasures those sublime, lonely moments, high over the earth, cut by the wind, he and the bird as one creature, alone, lofty, swift, free. Let it be said simply I was pleased, for I was on tarn back again." ---Outlaw of Gor, page 130-131

Tarnsmen is a subcaste of the Warrior caste. To become a true Tarnsman, one must already be a warrior. Tarnsmen are not made, they are born. The first meeting of a Warrior and a Tarn will be most important for the Tarn will either accept the warrior or out right eat him. One must be strong to be a Tarnsman.

It is said that a tarn knows who is a tarnsman and who is not, and that those who are not die in this first meeting. --Tarnsman of Gor

The Caste Of Warriors

Fifth and lowest of the High Castes. This caste includes infantry, tharlarion cavalry, and tarnsmen. They are known to have one of the strictest sets of caste codes in use on Gor. Members of this caste comprise the military branch of Gorean government. "A man could do worse then live by such a code."
Tarnsman of Gor, page 41

"Indeed, there is a saying on Gor, a saying whose origin is lost in the past of this strange planet, that one who speak of Home Stones should stand, for matters of honor are here involved, and honor is respected in the barbaric codes of Gor."
Tarnsman of Gor, page 27

--Tarl Cabot--
"The Code of the Warrior is, in general, characterized by a rudimentary chivalry, emphasizing loyalty to Pride Chiefs and the Home Stone. It was harsh, but with a certain gallantry, a sense of honor that I could respect. A man could do worse then live by such a code."

Tarnsman of Gor, page 41

"I would have supposed that armor, or chain mail perhaps, would have been a desirable addition to the accoutrements of the Gorean warrior, but it had been forbidden by the Priest-Kings. A possible hypothesis to explain this is that the Priest-Kings may have wished war to be a biologically selective process in which the weaker and slower perish and fail to reproduce themselves. This might account for the relatively primitive weapons allowed to the Men Below the Mountains. On Gor it was not the case that a cavern-chested toothpick could close a switch and devastate an army. Also, the primitive weapons guaranteed that what selection went on would proceed with sufficient slowness to establish its direction, and alter it, if necessary."
Tarnsman of Gor, page 48

"The tarn is one of the two most common mounts of a Gorean warrior; the other is the high tharlarion, a species of saddle-lizard, used mostly by clans who have never mastered tarns. No one in the City of Cylinders, as far as I knew, maintained tharlarions, though they were supposedly quite common on Gor, particularly in the lower areas in swampland and on the deserts."
Tarnsman of Gor, page 52

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