he found it a dull dreary place,

he spent his first hours looking around Tharna and

what was to come would be considered the revlolution of Tharna ....

"Sa'ng-Fori" Would be heard through the Streets....

In the beginning Tharna had been much as other Gor cities,

in which women were too little regarded and enjoyed too few rights.

In those days it had been a portion of the Rites of Submission,

as practiced in Tharna, to strip and bind the captive

with yellow cords and place her on a scarlet rug,

the yellow of the cord being symbolic of talenders, a flower often associated with feminine love and beauty,

the scarlet of the rug being symbolic of blood, and perhaps of passion.

He who had captured the girl would place his sword to her breast and utter the ritual phrases of enslavement.

They were the last words she would hear as a free woman:

Weep, Free Maiden.

Remember your pride and weep.

Remember your laughter and weep.

Remember you were my enemy and weep.

Now you are my helpless captive.

Remember you stood against me.

Now you lie at my feet.

I have bound you with yellow cords.

I have placed you on the scarlet rug.

Thus by the laws of Tharna do I claim you.

Remember you were free.

Know now you are my slave.

Weep, Slave Girl.

At this point the captor would untie the girl's ankles and complete the rite.

When she rose from the rug to follow him, she was, in his eyes and hers, a slave.

Over a period of time this cruel practice fell into disuse

and the women of Tharna came to be more reasonably and humanely regarded.

Indeed, through their love and tenderness, they taught their captors that they, too,

were worthy of respect...and affection.

And, of course, as the captors came gradually to care for their slaves,

the desire to subjugate them became less,

for few men long desire to subjugate a creature for whom they genuinely care,

unless perhaps it's they fear to lose her should she be free.

Yet as the status of women became more ennobled

and less clearly defined the subtle tensions of dominance and submission,

instinctual throughout the animal world, tended to assert themselves.

The balance of mutual regard is always delicate and,

statistically, it is improbable that it can long be maintained throughout an entire population.

Accordingly, gradually exploiting, perhaps unconsciously,

the opportunities afforded by the training of children and the affections of their men,

the women of Tharna improved their position considerably over the generations,

also adding to their social power the economic largesse of various funds and inheritances.

Eventually, largely via the conditioning of the young and the control of education,

those superiorities which the female naturally possesses

came to be enlarged on at the expense of those possessed by the male.

And just as in our own world it is possible to condition entire populations

to believe what is, from the standpoint of another population,

incomprehensible and absurd,

so in Tharna both the men and the women came eventually to believe the myths

or the distortions advantageous to female dominance

Thus it was, gradually and unnoticed, that the gynocracy of Tharna

came to be established, and honored with the full weight of tradition and custom,

those invisible bonds heavier than chains because they are not understood to exist.

Yet this situation, socially viable though it might be for generations,

is not one truly productive of human happiness.

Indeed, it is not altogether clear that it is preferable to the male dominated ethos

of most Gorean cities, which, too, surely has its unfortunate side.

In a city such as Tharna the men, taught to regard themselves as beasts,

as inferior beings, seldom develop the full respect for themselves essential to true manhood.

But even more strangely the women of Tharna do not seem content under the gynocracy.

Although they despise men and congratulate themselves on their more lofty status

it seems to me that they, too, fail to respect themselves.

Hating their men they hate themselves.

I have wondered sometimes... if a man to be a man must not master a woman

and if a woman to be a woman must not know herself mastered.

I have wondered how long nature's laws, if laws they are,

can be subverted in Tharna.

I have sensed how a man in Tharna longs to take the mask from a woman,

and I have suspected how much a woman longs for her mask to be taken.

Should there ever be a revolution in the ways of Tharna I would pity her women -

at least at first - for they would be the object of the pent-up frustrations

of generations. If the pendulum should swing in Tharna,

it would swing far.

Perhaps even to the scarlet rug and yellow cords.

And with that ...

came the prophecy of Tharna ...

The Revolution started in the Silver Mines across to the fields of the farms

and through the city,

The men took up arms with whatever weapon they could find,

and took back their city and values.

Lara , the true Tatrix of Tharna was betrayed by and sold into Slavery by Dorna

the Proud and Thorn Captain of Tharna.

Tarl Cabot bought her from Targo and brought her back to Tharna

to Return her to the Throne so that she may right the wrongs

of the Years under the Laws of the Silver Masks.

For she understood that the ways of the Silver Masks were over.