About Port Kar - Gorean Shores

"Port Kar, squalid, malignant Port Kar, scourge of gleaming Thassa, Tarn of the Sea, is a vast, disjointed mass of holdings, each almost a fortress, piled almost upon one another, divided and crossed by hundreds of canals...."
"It is, in effect, walled, though it has few walls as one normally thinks of them. Those buildings which face outwards, say, either at the delta or along the shallow Tamber gulf, have no windows on the outward side, and the outward walls of them are several feet thick, and they are surmounted, on the roofs, with crenelated parapets."
"The canals which open into the delta of the Tamber were, in the last few years, fitted with heavy, half-submerged gates of bars."   [Raiders of Gor  P103]

 

Port Kar is a city of Gor established on Thassa, the main sea of known Gor. It is located in a humid, tropical climate, and situated near the Vosk delta marsh on the Tamber Gulf and Thassa. Famed mostly as a trading port and den of outcasts, outlaws, cutthroats and scoundrels, Port Kar is known for its shipping: pirate fleets, grain fleets, oil fleets, slave fleets, etc... The city is renowned for her seamen. Her ships are feared throughout known Gor.  Only the Ubarates of Cos and Tyros, her traditional enemies, have tarnships to match the fleets of Port Kar.  Port Kar trades to the north and south for goods and items it requires. The merchant cities of Thassa aid in the trade between Port Kar and her traditional enemies.

Port Kar is ruled by a Council of Captains, those being determined by the number of ships and men they command. There is more written of the Council and its history elsewhere.

It is the only city on Gor built by slaves, and it is also the only city constructed completely without towers. Although slaves are permitted to build houses of men of Port Kar, slaves are not permitted to build their ships. It is said that the chains of a slave girl are heaviest in Port Kar. It is likewise said that no slave has ever escaped from Port Kar.

Port Kar is also the home of the only Caste of Thieves in all of Gor. The Caste of Thieves have a lot of power in the lower canals and perimeters of Port Kar. The scar of their caste mark is "...a tiny three-pronged brand burned into the face in back of and below the eye, over the right cheekbone."

One aspect of the area around Port Kar is the Vosk delta marsh. The delta "is Port Kar's strongest wall." The nearest solid land lies around 100 pasangs to the north of Port Kar. There are kept "log outposts...where slave hunters and trained sleen, together, patrolled the marshes edges."

Port Kar is completely dependent on preserves set in the northern forests for their timber to build their ships. "Tur wood is used for galley frames, and beams and clamps and posts, and for hull planking; Ka-la-na serves for capstans and mastheads; Tem-wood for rudders and oars; and the needle trees, the evergreens, for masts and spars, and cabin and deck planking." The men of Port Kar also purchase wood from the Forest Peoples in the winter when the logs can be sledded to the sea.

And, of course, the dancing slaves of Port Kar are considered the finest on Gor.

The tavern of Gorean Shores is located in the city of Port Kar. Gorean Shores exists in the period of time after the uprising of the Ubars in Port Kar, as described in Book 6, but prior to the great sea battle of 25 Se'Kara and the discovery of the Homestone of Port Kar by Tarl Cabot. Thus, there is no Homestone in Gorean Shores.