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Gorean Book Quote Requests
Requests 1-173 were asked and answered back when there were only 25 books.
Also, some of the early questions were unintentionally truncated and cannot be restored. However, the answers are shown in their totality.
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Q # | Question |
179 | I'm looking for a single quote or a number of quotes that talk about how dual Castes are not permitted on Gor.
Thank you.
Answer "Caste is important to the Gorean in ways that are difficult to make clear to one whose social structures do not include the relationships of caste." This is stated in Book 14 Fighting Slave of Gor.
It is not easy to change caste. Normally, mating takes place among caste members, but if the mating is of mixed caste, the woman may elect to retain caste, which is commonly done, or be received into the caste of the male companion. If there are children, they inherit the caste of the father.
One could assume that given the preponderance of evidence across the whole of the series, that one belongs to only one caste at a time, Except that, as with so many other 'rules', there are exceptions.
An example of this exception is Cernus. Cernus was of the Caste of Slavers. However, he became invested, by decree of the High Council, as one of the caste of Warriors too. Thus he was, at the same time, both of the Slavers and the Warriors.
Maybe not the answer you wanted to hear but nonetheless, I wish you well, Fogaban
To be sure, it is not easy to change caste, nor is it frequently done. Indeed, few would wish to do it. Goreans tend to be extremely devoted to their castes. In a sense they belong to their caste. It is surely part of their selfidentity, and not only in their own eyes, but in the eyes of others, as well. And, indeed, there are few caste members who are not convinced that their caste, somehow, is especially important, even that it may be, in some way, the most essential or the most estimable of all. Surely the peasants, supposedly the lowest of all the castes, have this view. They regard themselves as the "ox on which the Home Stone rests," and, in a sense, they may be right. On the other hand, where would any of the other castes be, or civilization itself, were it not for my own caste, that of the Warriors? Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 33
Caste, commonly, though not invariably, is a matter of birth. One may, too, be received into a caste by investment. Normally mating takes place among caste members, but if the mating is of mixed caste, the woman may elect to retain caste, which is commonly done, or be received into the caste of the male companion. Caste membership of the children born of such a union is a function of the caste of the father. Similar considerations, in certain cities, hold of citizenship. Caste is important to Goreans in a way that is difficult for members of a non-caste society to understand. Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 212
Caste is important to the Gorean in ways that are difficult to make clear to one whose social structures do not include the relationships of caste. In almost every city, for example, one knows that there will be caste brothers on whom one may depend. Charity, too, for example, is almost always associated with caste rights on Gor. One of the reasons there are so few outlaws on Gor is doubtless that the outlaw, in adopting his way of life, surrenders caste rights. Fighting Slave of Gor Book 14 Page 210
Most Goreans take caste very seriously. It is apparently one of the socially stabilizing forces on Gor. Dancer of Gor Book 22 Page 186
Further, because of his services to the state, including the sponsorship of games and races, Cernus was, upon the petition of Saphronicus, Captain of the Taurentians, invested in the scarlet of the Warrior, thus honoring him with High Caste. He did not, of course, give up the House of Cernus nor any other of his widely ranging interests in Ar and beyond it. I do not suppose the Hinrabian Administrator much cared to approve this raising of caste in the case of Cernus, but he lacked the courage to go against the wishes of the Taurentians, and of the city generally. The High Council, with scarcely a murmur, agreed to the investiture. That he was now of the Caste of Warriors did not change much with Cernus, of course, save that a strip of red silk, with those of blue and yellow, now adorned his left sleeve. Assassin of Gor Book 5 Pages 210 - 211
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