Disease on Gor

Disease is almost completely abolished on Gor, due to the fear of growing old. Yes, Old Age is something the Goreans fear most over anything else; even death. The Caste of Physicians thought old age to be a disease, and not a fact of life, and therefore spent hours upon hours researching cause and effect. In doing so, many of the more common ailments that plague the human species were eradicated permanently.

"Age, on Gor, interestingly, was regarded, and still is, by the Castes of Physicians as a disease, not an inevitable natural phenomenon. The fact that it seemed to be a universal disease did not dissuade the caste from considering how it might be combated. Accordingly the research of centuries was turned to this end. Many other diseases, which presumably flourished centuries ago on Gor, tended to be neglected, as less dangerous and less universal than that of aging. A result tended to be that those susceptible to many diseases died and those less susceptible lived on, propagating their kind. One supposes something similar may have happened with the plagues of the Middle Ages on Earth. At any rate, disease is now almost unknown among the Gorean cities, with the exception of the dreaded Dar-kosis disease, or the Holy Disease… " — Assassin of Gor, pages 29-30.

Let's explore some of the known diseases that did inflict the people of Gor, some rare.

• Bazi Plague
One of the rare fatal diseases of Gor. The disease is limited to the Bazi region and therefore of no threat to anyone unless they venture there, or an infected person escapes. It is a common practice for travelers to be examined by physicians if a known traveler is coming from an infected area.

"Two men from the desk of the nearest wharf praetor, he handling wharves six through ten, a scribe and a physician, boarded the ship. The scribe carried a folder with him. He would check the papers of Ulafi, the registration of the ship, the arrangements for wharfage and the nature of the cargo. The physician would check the health of the crew and slaves. Plague, some years ago, had broken out in Bazi, to the north, which port had then been closed by the merchants for two years. In some eighteen months it had burned itself out, moving south and eastward. Bazi had not yet recovered from the economic blow. Schendi's merchant council, I supposed, could not be blamed for wishing to exercise due caution that a similar calamity did not befall their own port." — Explorers of Gor, page 117.

The disease is known for its highly contagious nature, the forming of pustules, severe itching and yellowed eyes; most probably a form of pox. Here, in the following quote, it seems Tarl possibly has contracted the plague, yet he is not truly feeling ill. Is it the plague?

"Look at his eyes," said the paga attendant, backing away another step. She could not have been gone long. I must hunt her in the streets.
       Suddenly the dancer on the sand threw her hands before her face, and screamed. Then she pointed at me. "It is the plague!" she cried. "It is the plague!"
       The paga attendant, stumbling, turned and ran. "Plague!" he cried. Men fled from the tavern. I stood alone by the wall. Tables had been overturned. Paga was spilled upon the floor. The tavern seemed, suddenly, eerily quiet. Even the paga girls had fled. I could hear shouting outside, in the streets, and screaming.
       "Call guardsmen!" I heard.
       "Kill him," I heard. "Kill him!"
       I walked over to a mirror. I ran my tongue over my lips. They seemed dry. The whites of my eyes, clearly, were yellow. I rolled up the sleeve of my tunic and saw there, on the flesh of the forearm, like black blisters, broken open, erupted, a scattering of pustules.
       "Master?" cried Sasi.
       "Do not fear," I said to her. "I am not ill. But we must leave this place quickly."
       "Your face," she said. "It is marked!"
       "It will pass," I said. I unlocked her bracelets and slipped them into my pouch. "I fear I may be traced here," I said. "We must change lodgings."
       I had left the paga tavern by a rear door and then swung myself up to a low roof, and then climbed to a higher one. I had made my way over several roofs until I had found a convenient and lonely place to descend. I had then, wrapped in the discarded aba of Kunguni, made my way through the streets to the Cove of Schendi. Outside, from the wharves and from the interior of the city, I could hear the ringing of alarm bars. "Plague!" men were crying in the streets.
       "Are you not ill, Master?" asked Sasi.
       "I do not think so," I said. I knew that I had not been in a plague area. Too, the Bazi plague had burned itself out years ago. No cases to my knowledge had been reported for months. Most importantly, perhaps, I simply did not feel ill. I was slightly drunk and heated from the paga, but I did not believe myself fevered. My pulse and heartbeat, and respiration, seemed normal. I did not have difficulty catching my breath. I was neither dizzy nor nauseous, and my vision was clear. My worst physical symptoms were the irritation about my eyes and the genuinely nasty itchiness of my skin. I felt like tearing it off with my own fingernails. — Explorers of Gor, pages 135-136.

• Dar-Kosis
Also known as the Holy Disease or the Sacred Affliction, this disease is thought by the general public to be contagious and those afflicted are treated as though they were lepers and are considered already dead. Discovered by the Physicians that in reality, this disease can be combated and cured, and possibly eradicated. However, the Initiates did not want this discovery released as they used Dar-kosis as an example of the Priest-Kings wrath upon non-believers, and therefore. remanded the Physicians to halt their announcement of this discovery to the point that they hired mercenaries to destroy all laboratories and evidence.

Once, however, Talena dragged me to the side of the road, and scarcely able to conceal our horror, we watched while a sufferer from the incurable Dar-kosis disease, bent in his yellow shrouds, hobbled by, periodically clacking that wooden device which warns all within hearing to stand clear from his path. "An Afflicted One," said Talena, gravely, using the expression common for such plagued wretches on Gor. The name of the disease itself, Dar-kosis, is almost never mentioned. I glimpsed the face beneath the hood and felt sick. Its one bleared eye regarded us blankly for a moment, and then the thing moved on. — Tarnsman of Gor, page 113.

"I am of the Afflicted," said the weird, cringing figure. "The Afflicted are dead. The dead are nameless." — Tarnsman of Gor, page 151.

The figure seemed to shrink backward and grow smaller in its yellow rags. Pointing to its shadowed, concealed face, it whispered, "The Holy Disease." That was the literal translation of Dar-Kosis - the Holy Disease - or, equivalently, the Sacred Affliction. The disease is named that because it is regarded as being holy to the Priest-Kings, and those who suffer from it are regarded as consecrated to the Priest-Kings. Accordingly, it is regarded as heresy to shed their blood. On the other hand, the Afflicted, as they are called, have little to fear from their fellow men. Their disease is so highly contagious, so invariably devastating in its effect, and so feared on the planet that even the boldest of outlaws gives them a wide berth. Accordingly, the Afflicted enjoy a large amount of freedom of movement on Gor. They are, of course, warned to stay away from the habitations of men, and, if they approach too closely, they are sometimes stoned. Oddly enough, casuistically, stoning the Afflicted is not regarded as a violation of the Priest-Kings"s supposed injunction against shedding their blood. — Tarnsman of Gor, pages 150-151.

"At any rate, disease is now almost unknown among the Gorean cities, with the exception of the dreaded Dar-kosis disease, or the Holy Disease, research on which is generally frowned upon by the Caste of Initiates, who insist the disease is a visitation of the displeasure of Priest-Kings on its recipients. The fact that the disease tends to strike those who have maintained the observances recommended by the Caste of Initiates, and who regularly attend their numerous ceremonies, as well as those who do not, is seldom explained, though, when pressed, the Initiates speak of possible secret failures to maintain the observances or the inscrutable will of Priest-Kings." — Assassin of Gor, pages 29-30.

The Dar-Kosis Pits
Pits were dug as a "service" to those afflicted. These pits became homes to many that had no other recourse; food dropped to them from tarnback and water fed from wells.

As an act of charity, Initiates have arranged at various places Dar-Kosis Pits where the Afflicted may voluntarily imprison themselves, to be fed with food hurled downwards from the backs of passing tarns. Once in a Dar-Kosis Pit, the Afflicted are not allowed to depart. — Tarnsman of Gor, page 151.

"In what seemed like an hour, but must have been no more than three or four minutes, I was behind the camp of Pa-Kur and searching for the dreaded Dar-Kosis Pits, those prisons in which the Afflicted may freely incarcerate themselves and be fed, but from which they are not allowed to depart. There were several, easily visible from above because of their broad, circular form, much like a great well sunk in the earth. When I came to one, I would bring the tarn lower. When I had completed my search, I had found only one pit deserted. The others were dotted with what appeared, from the height, to be yellow lice — the figures of the Afflicted. Boldly, giving no thought to the possible danger of lingering infection, I dropped the tarn into the deserted pit. — Tarnsman of Gor, — pages 194-195.
       "The giant landed on the rock floor of the circular pit, and I looked upward, my glance climbing the sheer artificially smoothed sides of the pit, which stretched perhaps a thousand feet above me on all sides. In spite of the breadth of the pit, perhaps two hundred feet, it was cold at the bottom, and as I looked up, I was startled to note that, in the blue sky, I could see the dim pin-pricks of light which, after dark, would become the blazing stars above Gor. In the center of the pit a crude cistern had been carved from the living rock and was half filled with cold but foul water. As nearly as I could determine, there was no way in and out of the pit except on tarnback. I did know that sometimes the pathetic inmates of Dar-Kosis Pits, repenting their decision to be incarcerated, had managed to cut footholds in the walls and escape, but the labor involved — a matter of years — the death penalty for being discovered, and the very risk of the climb made such attempts rare. ... "Looking about, I saw several of the caves dug into the walls of the pit, which, at least in most pits, house the inmates. In desperate, frustrated haste, I examined several of them; some were shallow, little more than scooped-out depressions in the wall, but others were more extensive, containing two or three chambers connected by passageways. Some contained worn sleeping mats of cold, moldy straw, some contained a few rusted metal utensils, such as kettles and pails, but most were completely empty, revealing no signs of life or use at all." — Tarnsman of Gor, pages 194-196.

The Initiates, vain, self-superior and controlling, not only meddle in affairs of the state to ensure the financial support of their caste, but also within the medical field. Dar-kosis, thought to be incurable, is an example. Physicians in the early years of Marlenus' rule, discovered an immunization to prevent Dar-kosis. This quest for this immunization lead to unrest from the Initiates. Citing Dar-kosis as a disease subjected to mankind by the Priest-Kings for dishonor against them, the Initiates relied on this threat in their endeavors to manipulate the peoples of Gor, and therefore, could not allow for this immunization to be made known, let alone become available to the general population. Hiring henchment, though never proven it to be so, the Initiates had all the research destroyed which gave evidence of the this immunization reality. Justifiably, the High Initiate that ordered the destruction of the evidence of this vaccine ended up dying of the disease himself.

Scientific Experimentation and Lab Animals

Interesting in the following quote, too, is the evidence of the use of laboratory rats, or in the case of Gor, urts, as well as other animals unnamed, for scientific experimentation on the development of medicines.

"You seem to me, from what I have seen and heard," I said, "a skilled Physician."
       "In the fourth and fifth year of the reign of Marlenus," said he, regarding me evenly, "I was first in my caste in Ar." — Assassin of Gor, page 265.
       I took a swallow. "Then," said I, "you discovered paga?"
       "No," said he.
       "A girl?" I asked.
       "No," said Flaminius, smiling. "No." He took another swallow. "I thought to find," said he, "an immunization against Dar-kosis."
       "Dar-Kosis is incurable," I said.
       "At one time," said he, "centuries ago, men of my caste claimed age was incurable. Others did not accept this and continued to work. The result was the Stabilization Serums." — Assassin of Gor, pages 265-266.
       Dar-Kosis, or the Holy Disease, or Sacred Affliction, is a virulent, wasting disease of Gor. Those afflicted with it, commonly spoken of simply as the Afflicted Ones, may not enter into normal society. They wander the countryside in shroudlike yellow rags, beating a wooden clapping device to warn men from their path; some of them volunteer to be placed in Dar-kosis pits, several of which lay within the vicinity of Ar, where they are fed and given drink, and are, of course, isolated; the disease is extremely contagious. Those who contract the disease are regarded by law as dead.
       "Dar-kosis," I said, "is thought to be holy to the Priest-Kings, and those afflicted with it to be consecrated to Priest-Kings."
       "A teaching of Initiates," said Flaminius bitterly. "There is nothing holy about disease, about pain, about death." He took another drink.
       "Dar-kosis," I said, "is regarded as an instrument of Priest-Kings, used to smite those who displease them."
       "Another myth of Initiates," said Flaminius, unpleasantly. "But how do you know that?" I queried.
       "I do not care," said Flaminius, "if it is true or not. I am a Physician."
       "What happened?" I asked.
       "For many years," said Flaminius, "and this was even before 10,110, the year of Pa-Kur and his horde, I and others worked secretly in the Cylinder of Physicians. We devoted our time, those Ahn in the day in which we could work, to study, research, test and experiment. Unfortunately, for spite and for gold, word of our work was brought to the High Initiate, by a minor Physician discharged from our staff for incompetence. The Cylinder of Initiates demanded that the High Council of the Caste of Physicians put an end to our work, not only that it be discontinued but that our results to that date be destroyed. The Physicians, I am pleased to say, stood with us. There is little love lost between Physicians and Initiates, even as is the case between Scribes and Initiates. The Cylinder of the High Initiate then petitioned the High Council of the City to stop our work, but they, on the recommendation of Marlenus, who was then Ubar, permitted our work to continue." Flaminius laughed. "I remember Marlenus speaking to the High Initiate. Marlenus told him that either the Priest-Kings approved of our work or they did not; that if they approved, it should continue; if they did not approve, they themselves, as the Masters of Gor, would be quite powerful enough to put an end to it." — Assassin of Gor, pages 266-267.
       "What happened then?" I asked.
       Flaminius took another drink, and then he looked at me, bitterly. "Before the next passage hand," said he, "armed men broke into the Cylinder of Physicians; the floors we worked on were burned; the Cylinder itself was seriously damaged; our work, our records, the animals we used were all destroyed; several of my staff were slain, others driven away." He drew his tunic over his head. I saw that half of his body was scarred. "These I had from the flames," said he, "as I tried to rescue our work. But I was beaten away and our scrolls destroyed." He slipped the tunic back over his head. … — Assassin of Gor, page 267.
       "I had," he said, "shortly before the fire developed a strain of urts resistant to the Dar-kosis organism; a serum cultured from their blood was injected in other animals, which subsequently we were unable to infect. It was tentative, only a beginning, but I had hoped I had hoped very much."
       "The men who attacked the Cylinder," I said, "who were they?"
       "Doubtless henchmen of Initiates," said Flaminius. Initiates, incidentally, are not permitted by their caste codes to bear arms; nor are they permitted to injure or kill; accordingly, they hire men for these purposes.
       "Were the men not seized?" I asked.
       "Most escaped," said Flaminius. "Two were seized. These following the laws of the city, were taken for their first questioning to the courts of the High Initiate." Flaminius smiled bitterly. "But they escaped," he said. — Assassin of Gor, pages 267-268.
       "Did you try to begin your work again?" I asked.
       "Everything was gone," said Flaminius, "the records, our equipment, the animals; several of my staff had been slain; those who survived, in large part, did not wish to continue the work." He threw down another bolt of Paga. "Besides, said he, "the men of Initiates, did we begin again, would only need bring torches and steel once more."
       "So what did you do?" I asked.
       Flaminius laughed. "I thought how foolish was Flaminius," he said. "I returned one night to the floors on which we had worked. I stood there, amidst the ruined equipment, the burned walls. And I laughed. I realized then that I could not combat the Initiates. They would in the end conquer."
       "I do not think so," I said.
       "Superstition," said he, "proclaimed as truth, will always conquer truth, ridiculed as superstition." … — Assassin of Gor, page 268.
       "One thing more to this little story," said Flaminius. lifted the bottle to me.
       "What is that?" I asked.
       "At the games on the second of En'Kara, in the of Blades," said he, "I saw the High Initiate, Complicius Serenus."
       "So?" said I.
       "He does not know it," said Flaminius, "nor will he learn for perhaps a year."
       "Learn what?" I asked.
       Flaminius laughed and poured himself another drink. "That he is dying of Dar-kosis," he said. — Assassin of Gor, pages 268-269.

• Unnamed Diseases
Although no particular disease is mentioned, due to the lack of proper food and water, it is most likely forms of cholera, dysentery and other bacterial diseases which were seen.

"Worse, from the reports of deserters, it became clear that the city was starving and that water was running short.. Disease had broken out." — Tarnsman of Gor, pages 186-187.

 

 

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Special Note

Because of the differences in publishing the books, depending upon whether published in the U.S. or Europe, depending upon whether a first publishing or a Masquerade Books release, page numbers will often vary. All of my quotes are from original, first-printing U.S. publications (see The Books page for a listing of publishers and dates) with the exception of the following books:

  • Tarnsman of Gor (2nd Printing, Balantine)
  • Outlaw of Gor (11th Printing, Balantine)
  • Priest-Kings of Gor (2nd Printing, Balantine)
  • Assassin of Gor (10th Printing, Balantine)
  • Raiders of Gor (15th Printing, Balantine)
  • Captive of Gor (3rd Printing, Balantine)

Disclaimer

These pages are not written for any specific home, but rather as informational pages for those not able to get ahold of the books and read them yourself. Opinions and commentaries are strictly my own personal views, therefore, if you don't like what you are reading — then don't. The information in these pages is realistic to what is found within the books. Many sites have added information, assuming the existences of certain products and practices, such as willowbark and agrimony for healing, and travel to earth and back for the collection of goods. I've explored the books, the flora, the fauna, and the beasts, and have compiled from those mentioned, the probabilities of certain practices, and what vegetation mentioned in the books is suitable for healing purposes, as well as given practicalities to other sorts of roleplaying assumptions.