What is a Warrior

The Makings of a Warrior:

"You have drawn a weapon against me," I said.
"You are of the warriors?" said the fellow. He wavered.
He, too, knew the codes.
"Yes," I said.
"And he?" asked the fellow.
"He, too," I said.
"You are not in the scarlet," he said.
"True," I said. Did he think that the color of a fellow's garments was
what made him a warrior? Surely he must realize that one not of the
warriors might affect the scarlet, and that one who wore the grimed
gray of a peasant, one barefoot, and armed only with the great staff,
might be of the scarlet caste. It is not the uniform which makes the
warrior, the soldier.
-- Magicians of Gor, page 129

"You may think that to be a warrior is to be large, or strong, and to be
skilled with weapons, to have a blade at your hip, to know the grasp of
the spear, to wear the scarlet, to know the fitting of the iron helm upon
one's countenance, but these things are not truly needful; they are not,
truly, what makes one man a warrior and another not. Many men are strong,
and large, and skilled with weapons. Any man might, if he dared, don the
scarlet and gird himself with weapons. Any man might place upon his brow
the helm of iron. But it is not the scarlet, not the steel, not the helm of
iron which makes thewarrior".
She looked up at me.
"It is the codes," I said.
-- Beasts of Gor, page 340

A Warrior's Love of the Battle:

"An Assassin," he said, 'is like a musician, a surgeon. The Warrior is
like a butcher. He is a ravaging, bloodthirsty lout.
--Beasts of Gor, page 413

I could not believe it. He seemed elated. He was pleased with the prospect
of war. How terrible he was! How proud, how magnificient he seemed! I
thought I knew then with horror, the nature of men.
--Slave Girl of Gor, page 22

I myself, like many warriors, terribly enough, I suppose, tend to see war
more as the most perilous and exhilarating of sports, a game of warriors
and Ubars. --Vagabonds of Gor, page 18

"You are a monster, Captain," he laughed.
"I am of the warriors," I said.
"I know your sort," he said. "It is the fight you relish.
What a wicked sort you are, and yet how useful!"
I shrugged.
"You see a fight you want, you take it," he said,
"You see a woman you like, you take her."
"Perhaps if she pleased me," I said.
"You would do as you wished," he said.
"Of course," I said.
"Warrior!" said he.
"Yes, Warrior," I said.
-- Beasts of Gor, page 33

"I am of the Warriors" "I will take by the sword what women please me."
--Beasts of Gor, page 348

"I have fought, but so, too, might a tarn fly and a kailla run."
-- Renegades of Gor, page 343

"Within the circle of each man's sword," say the codes of the warrior,
"therein is each man a Ubar"
"Steel is the coinage of the warrior," say the codes,
"With it he purchases what pleases him"
--Marauders of Gor, page 9

"Civilized men" said Samos "the small and pale, the righteous,
the learned,the smug, the supercilious, the weak-stomached and
contemptuous, stand uponthe shoulders of forgotten, bloody giants."
-- Beasts of Gor, page 31



Warrior and Honor:

"You risked so much for a mere point of honor?" she asked.
"There are no mere points of honor," I told her.
--Vagabonds of Gor, page 63

What have we here!" cried a man cheerfully.
"Slaves!" cried others.
"Hold," said I. "We are honest men, and are not thieves.
Release them."
The man loosed the hair of the girls. Swiftly they knelt, frightened.
"These girls," said I, "belong to Imnak."
"He is a red hunter," said a man.
"He is one with us," I said.
There was an angry cry.
I drew my blade. "None may use them without his permission" I said "I
shall maintain discipline, if need be, my comrades, by the blade."
--Beasts of Gor, page 174

The Code of the warriors, in general characterized by a rudimentary
chivalry, emphasizing loyalty to pride chiefs and the home stone.
It is 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



Gorean War:

I had been so much a fool as to be sad. That is not the mood in which to
enter battle, even the battle which one knows one cannot win, even the
ultimate battle in which knows one is doomed to defeat. Do not be sad. Better
to take the field with laughter, with a joke, with a light heart, with a
buoyant heart, or to go forward with sterness, or in fury, or with hatred,
or defiance, or calculation, but never with self pity, never with sadness.
Never such things, never them! The warrior does not kill himself or aid
others in the doing of it. It is not in the codes.
-- Vagabonds of Gor, page 446

"I sensed that in Gor there was a youth and openness which had long been
missing from my old world. In Gor I sensed an ambition, a freshness and
hope, and sparkle, that had perhaps not been felt on Earth since the
Parthenon was new. Doubtless there is much on Gor to be deplored, but I
heartless, but yet, I think, too, it is innocent. It is like the lion,
impatient, cruel, heartless and innocent. It is its nature. Gor was a
strong-thewed world, a new world, a world in which men might again lift
their heads to the sun and laugh, a world in which they might again,
sensibly, begin long journeys. It was a world of which Homer might have
sung, singing of the clashing of the metals of men and the sweetness of
the wine-dark sea."
-- Fighting Slave of Gor, page 89

Also, it might be noted that most Gorean warfare is carried out largely
by relatively small groups of professional soldiers, seldom more than a
few thousand in the field at a given time, trained men, who have their
own caste. Total warfare, with its arming of millions of men, and its
broadcast slaughter of hundreds of populations, is Gorean neither in
concept nor in practice. Goreans, often castigated for their cruelty,
would find such monstrosities unthinkable. Cruelty on Gor, though it
exists, is usually purposeful, as in attempting to bring, through
discipline and privation, a young man to manhood, or in teaching a
female that she is a slave.
-- Fighting Slave of Gor, page 145



The applause of a warrior

Some of the warriors smote their shields with the blades of their spears.
--Captive of Gor, page 283

There was a shout of pleasure from the men and girls about I heard hands
striking the left shoulder in Gorean applause. Among the warriors, the
flat of sword blades and the blades of spears rang on shields. I closed
my eyes, shuddering.
--Captive of Gor, page 284

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