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I knew this man of Torvaldsland only by reputation. He was a rover, a great
captain, a pirate, a trader, a warrior. It had been he, and his men, who had
freed Chenbar of Tyros, the Sea Sleen, from a dungeon in Port Kar, breaking
through to him, shattering his chains with the blunt hammerlike backs of their
great, curved, single-bladed axes. He was said to be fearless, and mighty,
swift with sword and axe, fond of jokes, a deep drinker, a master of pretty
wenches, and a madman. But he had taken in fee from Chenbar Chenbar's weight
in the sapphires of Shendi. I did not think him too mad.
But now the Forkbeard was dead.
It was said that he wished, in regret for the wickedness of his life, to be
carried in death to the temple of Priest-Kings in Kassau, that the High
Initiate there might, if it be his mercy, draw on his bones in the sacred
grease the sign of the Priest-Kings.
It would thus indicate that he, Forkbeard, if not in life, had in death
acknowledged the error of his way, and embraced the will and wisdom of the
faith of the Priest-Kings.
Such a conversion, even though it be in death, would be a great coup for the
initiates.
I could sense the triumph of the High Initiate on his throne, though his cold
face betrayed little sign of his victory, Now initiates to one side of the
sanctuary, opposite the throne of the High Initiate, began to chant the
litanies of the Priest-Kings. Responses, in archaic Gorean, repetitive, simple
were uttered by the crowd.
Kassau is a town of wood, and the temple is the greatest building in the town,
It towers far above the squalid huts, and stabler homes of merchants, which
crowd about it. Too, the town is surrounded by a wall, with two gates, one
large, facing the inlet, leading in from Thassa, the other small, leading to
the forest behind the town. The wall is of sharpened logs, and is defended by
a catwalk. The main business of Kassau is trade, lumber and fishing. The
slender striped parsit fish has vast plankton banks north of the town, and may
there, particularly in the spring and the fall, be taken in great numbers. The
smell of the fish-drying sheds of Kassau carries far out to sea. The trade is
largely in furs from the north, exchanged for weapons, iron bars, salt and
luxury goods, such as jewellery and silk, from the south, usually brought to
Kassau from
Lydius by ten-oared coasting vessel. Lumber, of course, is a valuable
commodity. It is generally milled and taken northward. Torvaldsland, though
not treeless, is bleak. In it, fine Ka-la-na wood, for example, and supple
temwood, cannot grow. These two woods are prized in the north. A
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0of%20Gor.txt (13 of 136) [1/20/03 3:30:05 AM]
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arauders%20of%20Gor.txt hall built with Ka-la-na wood, for example, is thought
a great luxury. Such halls, incidentally, are often adorned with rich
carvings. The men of Torvaldsland are skilled with their hands. Trade to the
south, of course is largely in furs acquired from Torvaldsland, and in barrels
of smoked, dried parsit fish. From the south, of course, the people of Kassau
obtain the goods they trade northward to Torvaldsland and , too, of course,
civilised goods for themselves. The population of
Kassau I did not think to be more than eleven hundred persons. There are
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villages about, however, which use Kassau as their market and meeting place.
If we count these perhaps we might think of greater Kassau as having a
population in the neighbourhood of some twenty-three hundred persons.
The most important thing about Kassau, however, was that it was the seat of
the High Initiate of the north. It was, accordingly, the spiritual centre of a
district extending for hundreds of pasangs around. The nearest High Initiate
to Kassau was hundreds of pasangs south in Lydius.
The initiates are an almost universal, well-organized, industrious caste. They
have many monasteries, holy places and temples. An initiate may often travel
for hundreds of pasangs, and, each night, find himself in a house of
initiates. They regard themselves as the highest caste, and in many cities,
are so regarded generally. There is often a tension between them and the civil
authorities, for each regards himself as supreme in matters of policy and law
for their district.
The initiates have their own laws, and courts, and certain of them are well
versed in the laws of the initiates. Their education, generally, is of little
obvious practical value, with its attention to authorised exegeses of dubious,
difficult texts, purporting to be revelations of
Priest-Kings, the details and observances of their own calendars, their
interminable involved rituals and so on, but paradoxically, this sort of
learning, impractical though it seems, has a subtle practical aspect. It tends
to bind initiates together, making them interdependent, and muchly different
from common men. It sets them apart, and makes them feel important and wise,
and specially privileged. There are many texts, of course, which are secret to
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