Caste of Warriors

 Fifth and lowest of the High Castes. This caste includes infantry, tharlarion cavalry, and tarnsmen. They are known to have one of the strictest sets of caste codes in use on Gor. Members of this caste comprise the military branch of Gorean government. Their caste color is Scarlet.

Caste Codes

Code: The only honorable reply to a canjellne (challenge) is to accept it promptly. (Warriors do not back down from challenges. They face such matters with bravery.)

Code: One who has shed your blood, or whose blood you have shed, becomes your sword brother, unless you formally repudiate the blood on your weapons.

Code: Warriors do not break their sworn word.

Code: The only death fit for a warrior is in battle.

Code: If you want another's slave, you must challenge for her and meet your opponent with the weapon of his choice. This is also known as the claim of sword-right.

Code: He who cannot think is not a man and neither is he who can only think.

Code: Warriors do not kill themselves or aid others in doing so. (Suicide is not an option for a warrior.)

Code: Do not enter battle with sadness or self-pity, even if you are in an unwinnable battle.

Code: When a women kneels, lifts her hands up with wrists crossed, and submits to a warrior, custom demands that he either accepts the submission or slays the captive.

Code: If a warrior accepts a woman as a slave, it is prescribed that, at least for a time at his discretion, she be spared. But if she is in the least bit displeasing, she may be immediately killed.

Code: Sword loyalty is the bond of fidelity to an Ubar, a military sovereign. It is not sworn lightly. When an Ubar is thought unfit, the sword loyalty is dishonored and the Ubar may be deposed by his own warriors.

Code: Warriors have a common Home Stone. Its name is battle.

Code: The slave is a joy and a convenience to the warrior.

Code: If you lift a weapon against a warrior, he is permitted by his codes to kill you. (Do not draw a weapon against a warrior unless you are prepared for battle.)

Code: There is nothing in the codes that explicitly demands resistance to brigands.

Code: Poisoned steel is against the codes.

Code: Even warriors long sometimes for the sight of their own flags, atop friendly walls, for the courtyards of their keeps, for the hearths of their halls.