marine life
Bint
A fanged, carnivorous, freshwater marsh eel which inhabits the rivers of the rainforests inland of Schendi.
Such blood might attract the bind, a fanged, carnivorous marsh eel, or the predatory, voracious blue grunt, a small, fresh-water variety of the much larger and familiar salt-water grunt of Thassa.
Explorers of Gor, page 267
Carp
A carp of the Delta of the Vosk. Mentioned in Raiders of Gor.
To my right, some two or three feet under the water, I saw the sudden, rolling yellowish flash of the slatted belly of a water tharlarion, turning as it made its swift strike, probably a Vosk carp or marsh turtle....
---Raiders of Gor, 1:1
Clam(Tamber Clam) - shellfish of the Tamber Gulf, its shell used to make jewelry
Nomads of Gor pg 20
Cosian Wingfish
Also known as songfish due to its whistling mating song; a tiny blue salt-water fish with 4 poisonous spines on its dorsal fin, found in the waters off the island of Cos. Its liver is considered a delicacy in Turia.
Near her, one night, lying off her shore, silently, I heard the mating whistles of the tiny, lovely Cosian wingfish. This is a small, delicate fish; it has three or four slender spines in its dorsal fin, which are poisonous. It is called the wingfish because it can, on its stiff pectoral fins, for short distances, glide through the air, usually in an attempt to flee small sea tharlarion, who are immune to the poison of the spines. It is also called a songfish, because, in their courtship rituals, males and females thrust their heads from the water, uttering a kind of whistle. Their livers are regarded as a delicacy.
Raiders of Gor, page 139
Cuttlefish
Mentioned in Marauders of Gor, no description is given.
...It contained as well the separated oil of the Thentis needle tree; an extract from the glands of the Cartius river urt; and a preparation formed from a disease calculus scraped from the intestines of the rare Hunjer Long Whale, the result of the inadequate digestion of cuttlefish....
---Marauders of Gor, 8:114
Dock Eel
A black freshwater eel 4 feet long, weighing 8-10 lbs. Carnivorous and aggressive, they inhabit the shallow waters around the dock and wharves of river ports.
I looked downward. Two or more heads, tapering, menacing, solid, were emerged from the water, looking up at me. Then, striking from under the water, suddenly breaking its surface, another body, some four feet in length, about eight or ten pounds in weight, leapt upward. I felt the jaws snap and scratch against the shearing blade. Then it fell twisting back in the water. It was the blood which excited them.
Guardsman of Gor, page 130
Eel
A voracious animal which can maim or kill a slave in moments. Some varieties are edible. Varieties include river eel, black eel, and spotted eel.
Many estates, particularly country estates, have pools in which fish are kept. Some of these pools contain voracious eels, of various sorts, river eels, black eels, the spotted eel, and such, which are Gorean delicacies. Needless to say a bound slave, cast into such a pool, will be eaten alive.
Magicians of Gor, page 428
Fisher - Waterside birds the 'tufted' variety, as well as the white, wading 'Ushindi' variety are said to live by the waters of lakes in the Jungle areas of Schendi
Explorers of Gor pg 236 & 311
Gint
A tiny freshwater fish which inhabits the rivers of the rainforests inland of Schendi. It has bulbous eyes and flipper-like fins and is amphibious, having both lungs and gills. It is capable of walking on its pectoral fins and is often found in the company of tharlarion, feeding off the scraps of their kills.
I recalled, sunning themselves on the exposed roots near the river, tiny fish. They were bulbous eyed and about six inches long, with tiny flipperlike lateral fins. They had both lungs and gills. Their capacity to leave the water, in certain small streams, during dry seasons, enables them to seek other streams, still flowing, or pools. This property also, of course, makes it possible for them to elude marine predators and, on the land, to return to the water in case of danger. Normally they remain quite close to the water. Sometimes they even sun themselves on the backs of resting or napping tharlarion. Should the tharlarion submerge the tiny fish often submerges with it, staying close to it, but away from its jaws. Its proximity to the tharlarion affords it, interestingly, an effective protection against most of its natural predators, in particular the black eel, which will not approach the sinuous reptiles. Similarly the tiny fish can thrive on the scraps from the ravaging jaws of the feeding tharlarion. They will even drive one another away from their local tharlarion, fighting in contests of intraspecific aggression, over the plated territory of the monster's back. The remora fish and the shark have what seem to be, in some respects, a similar relationship. These tiny fish, incidentally, are called gints.
Explorers of Gor, page 299
Gint, giant
A large cousin of the gint found in western Gor similar in appearance but with a 4-spined dorsal fin. It is also amphibious and capable of walking on its pectoral fins.
The creature which had surfaced near us, perhaps ten feet in length, and a thousand pounds in weight, was scaled and had large, bulging eyes. It had gills, but it, too, gulped air, as it had regarded us. It was similar to the tiny lung fish I had seen earlier on the river, those little creatures clinging to the half-submerged roots of shore trees, and, as often as not, sunning themselves on the backs of tharlarion, those tiny fish called gints. Its pectoral fins were large and fleshy.
Explorers of Gor, page 384
Grunt
A large, carnivorous, salt-water fish which inhabits Thassa. It is often attracted by the blood of a wounded creature.
Book 9, page 59
Grunt, Blue
A small voracious carnivorous freshwater fish related to the Thassa grunt; like its larger cousin it is attracted by blood.
Such blood might attract the bind, a fanged, carnivorous marsh eel, or the predatory, voracious blue grunt, a small, fresh-water variety of the much larger and familiar salt-water grunt of Thassa. The blue grunt is particularly dangerous during the daylight hours preceding its mating periods, when it schools. Its mating periods are synchronized with the phases of Gor's major moon, the full moon reflecting on the surface of the water somehow triggering the mating instinct. During the daylight hours preceding such a moon, as the restless grunts school, they will tear anything edible to pieces which crosses their path.
Explorers of Gor, page 267
Grunt, Great Speckled
A fish inhabiting the Thassa and caught as food for sailors.
I saw a great speckled grunt, four-gilled.
Slave Girl of Gor, page 360
Grunt, White
A large game fish that haunts the plankton beds in the Polar North to feed on parsit fish. Its eggs are considered a rare delicacy.
Before each guest there were tiny slices of tospit and larma, small pastries, and, in a tiny golden cup, with a small golden spoon, the clustered, black, tiny eggs of the white grunt.
Fighting Slave of Gor, page 276
Grunt - a large, carnivorous, salt-water fish which inhabits Thassa; is often attracted by the blood of a wounded creature; similar to the shark of Earth; 2) Blue variety: a small, voracious, carnivorous freshwater fish, related to the Thassa grunt; like its larger cousin, it is attracted by blood
Slave girl of Gor pgs 359-360,Explorers of Gor pg 267&432,Marauders of Gor pg 59,Fighting Slave of Gor pgs 275-276
Gull - Shore birds, 1)Vosk Gull is said to migrate North in spring, 2)Torvaldsdland Gull is said to have black tipped feathers on its wings and tail 3)Schendi Gull nests inland at night
Nomads of Gor pg 69, Marauders of Gor pgs 234-235,Explorers of Gor pg 99
Leach - salt leaches of the Delta of the Vosk
Vagabonds of Gor pg 97
Lelt
A small (5-7 inches) blind fish with fernlike filaments at either side of the head which are its sensory organs; white with long fins it swims slowly and is the main food of the salt shark; inhabits the brine pits such as those at Klima in the Tahari.
Lelts are often attracted to the salt rafts, largely by the vibrations in the water, picked up by their abnormally developed lateral-line protrusions, and their fernlike craneal vibration receptos, from the cones and poles. Too, though they are blind, I think either the light, or the heat, perhaps, from our lamps, draws them. The tiny, eyeless heads will thrust from the water, and the fernlike filaments at the side of the head will open and lift, orienting themselves to one or the other of the lamps.
The lelt is commonly five to seven inches in length. It is white, and long-finned. It swims slowly and smoothly, its fins moving the water very little, which apparently contributes to its own concealment in a blind environment and makes it easier to detect the vibrations of its prey, any of several varieties of tiny segmented creatures, predominantly isopods. The brain of the lelt is interesting, containing an unusually developed odor-perception center and two vibration-reception centers. Its organ of balance, or hidden "ear," is also unusually large, and is connected with an unusually large balance center in its brain. Its visual center, on the other hand, is stunted and undeveloped, a remnant, a vague genetic memory of an organ long discarded in its evolution.
Tribesmen of Gor, page 247
Mamba - large, predatory river tharlarion which inhabits the rivers of the rainforests inland of Schendi; they have long, log-like bodies, with short, powerful legs & a long snout & tail; similar to Earth crocodiles
See river tharlarion
Marine Saurian
There are two types of marine saurian. One type being harmless with a long neck and rows of sharp teeth. Its feeds on garbage and small fish. The other type is a fish-like predator with long, toothed snouts that are silent and aggressive; sailors fear them as they do the long-bodied sharks.
I had seen, yesterday, the long neck of a marine saurian lift from the waters of gleaming Thassa. It had a small head, and rows of small teeth. Its appendages ere like broad paddles. Then it had lowered its head and disappeared. Such beasts, in spite of their frightening appearance, are apparently harmless to men. They can take only bits of garbage and small fish. Certain related species thrive on crustaceans found among aquatic flora. Further, such beasts are rare. Some sailors, reportedly, have never seen one. Far more common, and dangerous, are certain fishlike marine saurians, with long, toothed snouts; they are silent and aggressive, and sailors fear them as they do the long-bodied sharks.
Slave Girl of Gor, page 360
Mocasin - five feet in length,rare poisonous, triangular headed snake found in the waters of the vosk marsh areas.
Vagabonds of Gor pg 267
We saw a narrow, dark shape, about five feet long, like a slowly undulating whip, glide past. A small triangular head was almost level with the water surface. I did not think there had been much danger, but there was some possibility that the movements of her legs in the water might have attracted its attention.
"That is a marsh moccasin," I said.
"Are they poisonous," she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"I never saw one before," she said.
"They are not common," I said, "even in the delta."
---Vagabonds of Gor, 26:267
Oysters
Presumably the same as earthen oysters they are found in the delta of the Vosk.
Other girls had prepared the repast, which, for the war camp, was sumptuous indeed, containing even oysters from the delta of the Vosk, a portion of the plunder of a tarn caravan of Ar, such delicacies having been intended for the very table of Marlenus, the Ubar of that great city itself.
Captive of Gor, page 301
Parsit fish
A silvery fish having brown stripes, the follow the 'parsit current' in the polar basin. In Torvaldsland, it is smoked and dried, stored in barrels, and used in trade to the south.
Book 12, page 38
River shark
A narrow, black, vicious, carnivorous fish with a triangular dorsal fin that inhabits the rivers of Gor.
Something, with a twist of its great spine, had suddenly darted from the waters under the pier and entered the current of the Laurius. I saw the flash of a triangular, black dorsal fin.
I screamed.
Lana looked out, pointing after it. "A river shark," she cried, excitedly.
Captive of Gor, page 79
Salt Shark
A long-bodied (12' or more) carnivorous fish having gills situated under the jaw, several rows of triangular teeth, a sickle-like tail and a sail-like dorsal fin. It inhabits brine pits such as those of the Tahari.
"Look!" I cried. This time it was close, surfacing not ten feet from the raft. We saw the broad, blunt head, eyeless, white. Then it submerged, with a twist of the long spine and tail.
The steerman was white. "It is the Old One," he said. On the whitish back, near the high dorsal fin, there was a long scar. Part of the dorsal fin itself was rent, and scarred. These were lance marks.
"He has come back," said one of the men.
The waters were still.
At the top of the food chain in the pits, a descendant, dark-adapted, of the terrors of the ancient seas, stood the long-bodied nine-gilled salt shark.
Tribesmen of Gor, page 251
Saurian - long necked, small headed and paddle-finned Salve Girl of Gor pg 360
The term saurian simply means 'lizard' and would thus refer to a reptile. One variety of these rather rare marine 'monsters', said to be an unusual sight and rather harmless although impressive by its size, is described as long-necked, small headed and paddle-finned; a list which would remind the reader of plesiosaurus, a species of predatory marine reptile that arose in the Triassic period and continued into the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.
The plesiosaur had a small, short head, a long, snakelike neck, a broad, solid body, and a short tail. Its sharp interlocking teeth were well equipped for catching fish, and its four paddlelike legs were similar to those of a marine turtle. In total length, Plesiosaurus ranged from 10 to 60 ft (3–18 m). The Plesiosaurus is an example of one of the two lines of marine reptiles produced in the order Sauropterygia. The other line evolved into forms which include Pliosaurus, some of which possessed short necks and gigantic skulls; the most extreme example, that of the Kronosaurus, had the largest known reptile skull, reaching 9 ft (2.7 m) in length.
Shark, Marsh
Long bodied, nine-gilled inhabitant of the rence island areas of the marsh, they are almost eel-like.
Beyond them would be the almost eel-like, long-bodied, nine-gilled Gorean marsh sharks.
Raiders of Gor, page 58
Snail
Once the Forkbeard went to her and taught her to check the scoop, with her left hand, for snails, that they not be thrown overboard.
Returning to me he held one of the snails, whose shell he crushed between his fingers, and sucked out the animal, chewing and swallowing it. He then threw the shell fragments overboard.
'They are edible,' he said. "And we use them for fish bait.'
---Marauders of Gor, 4:62
Sorp
A shellfish, common especially in the Vosk river, it is similar to an oyster and also produces pearls.
"They are probably false stones," I said, "amber droplets, the pearls of the Vosk sorp, the polished shell of the Tamber lam, glass colored and cut in Ar for trade with ignorant southern peoples."
Book 4, page 20
Urt, Canal
rapid moving water mammal living along canals; abundant in Port Kar, where they are hunted to decrease the population.
Behind the man, in the stern, lay the bloody, white-furred bodies of two canal urts. One would have weight about sixty pounds, and the other, I speculate, about seventy-five or eighty pounds.
Savages of Gor, page 67
Urt, Giant
fat, sleek, and white, it has 3 rows of needle-like white teeth and 4 horns. Large enough to drag a man in its jaws.
It was a giant urt, fat, sleek and white; it bared its three rows of needlelike white teeth at me and sealed in anger; two horns, tusks like flat crescents curved from its jaw; another two horns, similar to the first, modifications of the body tissue forming the upper ridge of the eye socket, protruded over those gleaming eyes that seemed to feast themselves upon me, as if waiting the permission of the keeper to hurl itself on its feeding trough. Its fat body trembled with anticipation.
The whip cracked again, and another command was uttered, and the animal, its long hairless tail lashing in frustration, slunk into another tunnel.
Outlaw of Gor, page 86
Urt, Forest
nocturnal animal living in the forests, hunted by the hook-billed night crying fleer.
From through the tress, on the other side of the camp, came what I took to be the sound of a bird, the hook-billed, night-crying fleer, which preys on nocturnal forest urts.
Slave Girl of Gor, page 117
Whale, Baleen
Bluish-white spotted whale with a blunt fin, hunted by the Red Hunters.
Book 12, page 265 and 334
Whale, Hunjer
Toothed whale hunted by the Red Hunters.
Book 12, page 36
Whale, Karl
Four-fluked baleen whale hunted by the Red Hunters.
Book 12, page 36
Whale - Similar to Earth
Marauders of Gor pg 63
Whale, Baleen - Bluish white spotted, blunt-finned whale found int he waters if the far North. Its bones are used in making of instruments, weapons and building materials
Beasts of Gor pg 265
Whale, Hunjer - a rar toothed whale of the Northern waters
Marauders of Gor pg 114, Beasts of Gor pgs 258-259
Wingfish - tiny blue salt-water fish with 4 poisonous spines on its dorsal fin; found in the waters off Port Kar; its liver is considered a delicacy in Turia
Nomads of Gor pgs 84-85
Cosian Wingfish
Also known as the songfish from the whistling sounds of its mating call, this poisonous spined salt water fish is found in the waters of Port Kar.
This fish is a tiny, delicate fish, blue, about the size of a tarn disk when curled in one's hand; it has three or four slender spines in its dorsal fin, which are poisonous; it is capable of hurling itself from the water and, for brief distances, on its stiff pectoral fins, gliding through the air, usually to evade the smaller sea-tharlarions, which seem to be immune to the poison of the spines. This fish is also some times referred to as the songfish because, as a portion of its courtship rituals, the males and females thrust their heads from the water and utter a sort of whistling sound.
The blue, four-spined wingfish is found only in the waters of Cos. Larger varieties are found farther out to sea. The small blue fish is regarded as a great delicacy, and its liver as the delicacy of delicacies.
---Nomads of Gor, 9:84-85
Beasts/Mammals of Gor
Anteater
more than six varieties inhabit the rainforests of Schendi. The great spined anteater grows to 20 ft in length and feeds on white ants or termites breaking apart their towering nests of toughened clay with mighty claws then darting it's 4 foot saliva coated tongue, drawing thousands into it's narrow tubelike mouth.
A great spined anteater, more than twenty feet in length, shuffled about the edges of the camp. We saw its long, thin tongue dart in and out of its mouth.
The blond-haired barbarian crept closer to me.
"It is harmless," I said, "unless you cross its path or disturb it."
It lived on the white ants, or termites, of the vicinity, breaking apart their high, towering nests of toughened clay, some of them thirty-five feet in height, with its mighty claws, then darting its four-foot-long tongue, coated with adhesive saliva, among the nest's startled occupants, drawing thousands in a matter of moments into its narrow, tubelike mouth.
Explorers of Gor, page 293
More than six varieties of anteater are also found here..
Explorers of Gor, page 312
Armored Gatch
a marsupial mammal that inhabits the rainforests inland of Schendi.
On the floor itself are also found several varieties of animal life, in particular marsupials, such as the armored gatch, and rodents, such as slees and ground urts.
Explorers of Gor, page 312
Bosk
a huge, shambling animal, with a thick, humped neck and long, shaggy hair. It has a wide head and tiny red eyes, a fearful temper, and two long, wicked, curved and pointed horns. The horns, from tip to tip, may measure as much as two spears in length in the larger animals. The bosk cow may be milked. The Wagon Peoples base their survival on this animal, using all of it for various things much like the Native Americans of Earth used the buffalo.
The bosk, without which the Wagon Peoples could not live, is an oxlike creature. It is a huge, shambling animal, with a thick, humped neck and long, shaggy hair. It has a wide head and tiny red eyes, a temper to match that of a sleen, and two long, wicked horns that reach out from its head and suddenly curve forward to terminate in fearful points. Some of these horns, on the larger animals, measured from tip to tip, exceed the length of two spears.
Not only does the flesh of the bosk and the milk of its cows furnish the Wagon Peoples with food and drink, but its hides cover the domelike wagons in which they dwell; its tanned and dew skins cover their bodies; the leather of its hump is used for their shields; its sinews forms their thread; its bones and horns are split and tooled into implements of a hundred sorts, from awls, punches and spoons to drinking flagons and weapon tips; its hoofs are used for glues; its oils are used to grease their bodies against the cold. Even the dung of the bosk finds its uses on the treeless prairies, being dried and used for fuel.
Nomads of Gor, page 5
Deer - animal from the North
Marauders of Gor pg 108
Frevet
small quick mammal, an insectivore that is kept in some homes for insect control.
The small animal skittered backward, with a sound of claws on the boards. Its eyes gleamed in the reflected light of the lamp. "Generally, too, they do not come this high," said the proprietor. "That is a frevet." The frevet is a small, quick, mammalian insectivore. "We have several in the house," he said. "They control the insects, the beetles and lice, and such."
Mercenaries of Gor, page 276
Gatch (Armored)
A marsupial of the rainforest areas of Schendi.
...On the floor itself are also found several varieties of animal life, in particular marsupials, such as the armored gatch, and rodents, such as slees and ground urts. Several varieties of tarsk, large and small, also inhabit this zone....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:312
Giani
tiny cat-sized panther of solitary habits that inhabits the low branches of ground level in rainforests inland of Schendi.
In the lower branches of the "ground zone" may be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized panthers, not dangerous to man.
Explorers of Gor, page 312
Guernon Monkey
found in the jungle along the Ua river; recognized by their chattering sound.
We could hear the chattering of guernon monkeys about.
Explorers of Gor, page 307
Hith - huge python-like snake
Priest-Kings of Gor pg 191,Outlaw of Gor pg 210, Captive of Gor pg 210
Hurt
a domesticated marsupial raised on large fenced ranches in several of Gor's northern cities. It is a two-legged animal and has wool that is sheared four times a year by slaves. It is herded by domesticated sleen. a kangaroo-like animal whose wool is used for cloth
Cernus of Ar wore a coarse black robe, woven probably from the wool of the bounding, two-legged Hurt, a domesticated marsupial raised in large numbers in the environs of several of Gor's northern cities. The Hurt, raised on large, fenced ranches, herded by domesticated sleen and sheared by chained slaves, replaces its wool four times a year.
Assassin of Gor, page 39
Jit Monkey
a simian mammal that inhabits the rainforests inland of Schendi; nocturnal
In the lower branches of the "ground zone" may be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized panthers, not dangerous to man.
Explorers of Gor, page 312
Kaiila, Desert
also known as sand kaiila; this omnivorous animal is related to the southern kaiila and similar in most aspects barring pelt color and rearing of young; pelt color is tawny or black and young are suckled for a length of time. The men of the Tahari Desert use this mount. Its milk can be drunk, it is reddish and salty due to the amount of ferrous sulfate within it.
The sand kaiila, or desert kaiila, is a kaiila, and handles similarly, but it is not identically the same animal which is indigenous, domestic and wild, in the middle latitudes of Gor's southern hemisphere; that animal, used as a mount by the Wagon Peoples, is not found in the Northern hemisphere of Gor; there is obviously a phylogenetic affinity between the two varieties, or species; I conjecture, though I do not know, that the sand kaiila is a desert-adapted mutation of the subequatorial stock; both animals are lofty, proud, silken creatures, long-necked and smooth-gaited; both are triply lidded, the third lid being a transparent membrane, of great utility in the blasts of the dry storms of the southern plains or the Tahari; both creatures are comparable in size, ranging from some twenty to twenty-two hands at the shoulder; both are swift; both have incredible stamina; under ideal conditions both can range six hundred pasangs in a day; in the dune country, of course, in the heavy, sliding sands, a march of fifty pasangs is considered good; both, too, I might mention are high-strung, vicious-tempered animals; in pelt the southern kaiila ranges from a rich gold to black; the sand kaiila, on the other hand, are almost all tawny, though I have seen some black sand kaiila; differences, some of them striking and important, however, exist between the animals; most notably, perhaps, the sand kailla suckles its young; the southern kaiila are viviparous, but the young, within hours after birth, hunt by instinct; the mother delivers the young in the vicinity of game; whereas there is game in the Tahari, birds, small mammals, an occasional sand sleen, and some species of tabuk, it is rare; the suckling of the young in the sand kaiila is a valuable trait in the survival of the animal; kaiila milk, which is used, like verr milk, by the peoples of the Tahari, is reddish, and has a strong, salty taste; it contains much ferrous sulfate; a similar difference between the two animals, or two sorts of kaiila, is that the sand kaiila is omnivorous, whereas the southern kaiila is strictly carnivorous; both have storage tissues; if necessary, both can go several days without water; the southern kaiila also, however, has a storage stomach and can go several days without meat; the sand kaiila, unfortunately, must feed more frequently; some of the pack animals in a caravan are used in carrying fodder; whatever is needed, and is not available enroute, must be carried; sometimes, with a mounted herdsman, caravan kaiila are released to hunt tabuk; a more trivial difference between the sand kaiila and the southern kaiila is that the paws of the sand kaiila are much broader, the digits even webbed with leathery fibers, and heavily padded, than those of its southern counterpart.
Tribesmen of Gor, page 71
Kaiila, Southern
large (20-22 hands) carnivorous mammal with long neck and silky fur; its eyes have 3 lids; is viviparous has incredible stamina (capable of covering 600 in a day) and can be domesticated for riding in spite of its vicious temper. It has a rich gold to black pelt. The kaiila is a mammal, but there is no suckling of the young, who begin hunt within hours of birth.
The mount of the Wagon Peoples, unknown in the northern hemisphere of Gor, is the terrifying but beautiful kaiila. It is a silken, carnivorous, lofty creature, graceful, long-necked, smooth-gaited. It is viviparous and undoubtedly mammalian, though there is no suckling of the young. The young are born vicious and by instinct, as soon as they can struggle to their feet, they hunt. It is an instinct of the mother, sensing the birth, to deliver the young animal in the vicinity of game. I suppose, with domesticated kaiila, a bound verr or a prisoner might be cast to the newborn animal. The kaiila, once it eats its fill, does not touch food for several days.
The kaiila is extremely agile, and can easily outmaneuver the slower, more ponderous high tharlarion. It requires less food, of course, than the tarn. A kaiila, which normally stands about twenty to twenty-two hands at the shoulder, can cover as much as six hundred pasangs in a single day's riding.
The head of the kaiila bears two large eyes, one on each side, but these eyes are triply lidded, probably an adaptation to the environment which occasionally is wracked by severe storms of wind and dust; the adaptation, actually a transparent third lid, permits the animal to move as it wishes under conditions that force other prairie animals to back into the wind or, like the sleen, to burrow into the ground. The kaiila is most dangerous under such conditions, and, as if it knew this, often uses such times for its hunt.
Nomads of Gor, page 13
Kailiauk, Barrens
gigantic, dangerous beast that stands 20-25 hands at the shoulder and weighing as much as 4,000 lbs., they migrate across the Barrens in massive herds, hunted by Red Savages and those who trade in their hides. They have a trident horn.
The kailiauk in question, incidentally, is the kailiauk of the Barrens. It is a gigantic, dangerous beast, often standing from twenty to twenty-five hands at the shoulder and weighing as much as four thousand pounds. It is almost never hunted on foot except in deep snow, in which it is almost helpless. From kaiilaback, riding beside the stampeded animal, however, the skilled hunter can kill one with a single arrow. He rides close to the animal, not a yard from its side, just outside the hooking range of the trident, to supplement the striking power of his small bow. At this range the arrow can sink in to the feathers. Ideally it strikes into the intestinal cavity behind the last rib, producing large-scale internal hemorrhaging, or closely behind the left shoulder blade, thence piercing the eight-valved heart.
Savages of Gor, page 40
Kailiauk, Forest
four-legged wide-headed, lumbering, stocky ruminants, described as short trunked and tawny. The males have 3 trident-like horns, with brown and reddish bars on the haunches. The males are 400 to 500 Gorean stone (1600-2000lbs) and are 10 hands at the shoulder. The females are 8 hands and weigh 300 - 400 Gorean stone (1200-1600 lbs.). Their horns and tooled hides are major exports of the port of Schendi.
Kailauk are four-legged, wide-headed, lumbering stocky ruminants. Their herds are usually found in the Savannah's and plains north and south of the rain forests, but some herds feruent the forests as well. These animals are short trunked and tawny. They commonly have brown and reddish bars on the haunches. The males, tridentlike, have three horns. These horns bristle from their foreheads. The males are usually about ten hands at the shoulders and the females about eight hands. The males average about four hundred to five hundred Gorean stone in weight, some sixteen hundred to two thousand pounds, and the females average about three to four hundred Gorean stone in weight, some twelve hundred to sixteen hundred pounds.
Explorers of Gor, page 93
Kailiauk, Prairie
short-trunked, stocky, awkward ruminant of the plains. Their color is tawny with haunches marked in red and brown bars. Their wide heads bear a trident horn. They instinctively circle when resting, their females and young protected within.
Even past me there thundered a lumbering herd of startled, short-trunked kailiauk, a stocky, awkward ruminant of the plains, tawny, wild, heavy, their haunches marked in red and brown bars, their wide heads bristling with a trident of horns; they had not stood and formed their circle, shes and young within the circle of tridents.
Nomads of Gor, page 2
Kur - a large (8-9') furred, mammal having 4 legs, which can stand upright or on all fours; each paw has 6 multiply-jointed digits with retractable claws and an opposing thumb, so that it can grip; it has 2 rows of teeth; they are incredibly strong and ferocious, and are carnivorous, even to eating humans, capable of speech
Priest Kings of Gor pgs 18-19&22, Explorers of Gor pg 312
Larl
a large (7 ft. at shoulder) feline with a broad viper shaped head and cat-like silted pupils; carnivorous; the females of the species tend to be smaller than the males.
The larl is a predator, clawed and fanged, quite large, often standing seven feet at the shoulder.I think it would be fair to say that it is substantially feline; at any rate its grace and sinuous power remind me of the smaller but similarly fearsome jungle cats of my old world.
The resemblance is, I suppose, due to the mechanics of convergent evolution, both animals having been shaped by the exigencies of the chase, the stealth of the approach and the sudden charge, and by the requirement of the swift and devastating kill. If there is an optimum configuration for a land predator, I suppose on my old world the palm must go to the Bengal tiger; but on Gor the prize belongs indisputably to the mountain larl; and I cannot but believe that the structural similarities between the two animals, though of different worlds, are more than a matter of accident.
The larl's head is broad, sometimes more than two feet across, and shaped roughly like a triangle, giving its skull something of the cast of a viper's save that of course it is furred and the pupils of the eyes like the cat's and unlike the viper's, can range from knifelike slits in the broad daylight to dark, inquisitive moons in the night.
Priest Kings of Gor, page 18
Larl, Black
predominately nocturnal larl which is sable coated and manned both male and female.
The black larl, which is predominantly nocturnal, is manned, both male and female. The red larl, which hunts whenever it is hungry, regardless of the hour, and is the more common variety, possesses no mane. Females of both varieties tend generally to be slightly smaller than the males, but are quite as aggressive and sometimes even more dangerous, particularly in the late fall and winter of the year when they are likely to be hunting for their cubs.
Priest Kings of Gor, page 18
Larl, Red
larl that is tawny-red coated and has no mane in either male or female. It hunts either day or night, whenever it is hungry.
The black larl, which is predominantly nocturnal, is manned, both male and female. The red larl, which hunts whenever it is hungry, regardless of the hour, and is the more common variety, possesses no mane. Females of both varieties tend generally to be slightly smaller than the males, but are quite as aggressive and sometimes even more dangerous, particularly in the late fall and winter of the year when they are likely to be hunting for their cubs.
Priest Kings of Gor, page 18
Larl, White
seen in icy mountains of the Sardar they are the largest of the big cats standing 8 feet; upper canines extending below their jaws very similar to saber-toothed tiger; long tails are tufted at the ends.
I was struck with wonder, though I was careful to keep beyond the range of their chains, for I had never seen white larls before.
They were gigantic beasts, superb specimens, perhaps eight feet at the shoulder.
Their upper canine fangs, like daggers mounted in their jaws, must have been at least a foot in length and extended well below their jaws in the manner of ancient saber-toothed tigers. The four nostril slits of each animal were flared and their great chests lifted and fell with the intensity of their excitement. Their tails, long and tufted at the end, lashed back and forth.
Priest Kings of Gor, page 22
Lart, Snow
a small 4-legged mammal, about 10 inches high, weighing between 8 and 12 pounds. The snow lart has two stomachs and hunts in summer, filling the second stomach in the fall to last the animal through winter. Its pelt is snowy white and thick. It is considered valuable, selling in Ar for half a silver tarsk. They are found in the Polar North.
Beasts of Gor, page 74
Leem - small 5-10 ounce artic rodent, hunted for its pelt, hibernates in the winter, coat is brown in the summer
Beasts of Gor pgs 74-74
Panther, Jungle
Inhabitant of the floor of the jungle. No true description given but it is inferred that there is more than one type.
On the jungle floor, as well, are found jungle larls and jungle panthers, of diverse kinds, and many smaller catlike predators.
Explorers of Gor, page 312
As I ran through the darkness I suddenly saw, before me, some fifty or sixty yards away, four pairs of blazing eyes, a pride of forest panthers. I pretended not to see them and, heart pounding, turned to one side, walking through the trees. At this time, at night, I knew they would be hunting. Our eyes had not met. I had the strange feeling that they had seen me, and knew that I had seen them, as I had seen them, and sensed that they had seen me. But our eyes had not directly met. We had not, so to speak, signaled to one another that we were aware of one another. The forest panther is a proud beast, but, too, he does not care to be distracted in his hunting....
---Captive of Gor, 8:181
Porcupine - long tailed mammal,found in the jungle phauna
Explorers of Gor pg 311
Quala
(pl. qualae) tiny, three-toed mammal, dun-colored with a stiff, brushy mane of black hair.
Near one of the green stretches I saw what I first thought was a shadow, but as the tarn passed, it scattered into a scampering flock of tiny creatures, probably the small, three-toed mammals called qualae, dun-colored and with a stiff brushy mane of black hair.
Tarnsman of Gor, page 141
Sleen
A ferocious feline, some 20 feet long, having 6 legs and 2 rows of teeth; can be domesticated for herding and tracking. It resembles a lizard, except it is furred and mammalian. In its attack frenzy it is one of the most dangerous animals on Gor
Sea Sleen
long sleek mammal with flippers and six legs and double fanged jaws can weigh as much as 1000 pounds.. and as much as 20 feet in length hunted by the Red Hunters for food and pelt.
Beasts of Gor, page 285
Sea Sleen, Black
one of the four main types of sea sleen found in the polar north.
Beasts of Gor, page 38
Sea Sleen, Brown
one of the four main types of sea sleen found in the polar north.
Beasts of Gor, page 38
Sea Sleen, Flat-Nosed
one of the four main types of sea sleen found in the polar north.
Beasts of Gor, page 38
Sea Sleen, Rogue
rare broader headed more dangerous variety of sea sleen found in the Polar North.
Beasts of Gor, page 283
Sea Sleen, Tufted
one of the four main types of sea sleen found in the polar north.
Beasts of Gor, page 38
Slee - a rodent which inhabits the rainforests inland of Schendi
Explorers of Gor pg 313
In the lower branches of the "ground zone" may be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized panthers, not dangerous to man... On the floor itself are also found several varieties of animal life, in particular marsupials, such as the armored gatch, and rodents, such as slees and ground urts.
---Explorers of Gor, 32:313
Sleen, Forest
It is long, up to 20 feet, sinuous, black or brown in color. It resembles a lizard, except it is furred and mammalian. In its attack frenzy it is one of the most dangerous animals on Gor.
The sleen has six legs. It is long, sinuous; it resembles a lizard, save that it is furred and mammalian. In its attack frenzy it is one of the most dangerous animals on Gor.
Captive of Gor, page 155
Sleen, Gray
said to be Gor's finest tracker, this six-legged sleen is a furred mammal with silver gray fur. It has an agile, sinuous body, thick as a drum and is 14-15 feet long. The gray sleen has a broad triangular head and a huge jaw with two rows of fangs and a dark tongue. Its widely set eyes have slit-like pupils. This breed is relentless and tenacious. It can follow a scent that is weeks old for a thousand pasangs.
To my terror, then, pushing over my body, to thrust its great jaws and head, so large I could scarcely have put my arms about them, into the hands and arms of my master, was an incredible beast. It had an extremely agile, active, sinuous body, as thick as a rum, and perhaps fourteen or fifteen feet long. It might have weight a thousand pounds.
Its broad head was triangular, almost viperlike, but it was furred. This thing was a mammal, or mammalian. Its eyes now had pupils like slits, like those of a cat in sunlight. So quickly then might its adaptive mechanisms have functioned. About its muzzle were gray hairs, grayer than the silvered gray of its fur. It had six legs.
Dancer of Gor, page 160
I was silent. I was frightened with those huge jaws, the two rings of fangs, the long, dark tongue, over me.
Dancer of Gor, page 161
"The sleen," he said, "and especially the gray sleen, is Gor's finest tracker. It is a relentless, tenacious tracker. It can follow a scent that is weeks old, for a thousand pasangs.
Dancer of Gor, page 161
Sleen, Hunting
the hunting sleen is a hunter of men. It is 20 feet in length and weighs eleven hundred pounds. This domesticated forest sleen is double fanged and six-footed. It's tail tends to switch back and forth, getting rigid, as it hunts, it's ears flatten against it's head just prior to it's final 'charge' attack on it's prey.
Beasts of Gor, pages 12-13
Sleen, Prairie
the prairie sleen is tawny in color, and are smaller than the forest sleen, but quite as unpredictable and vicious. Domesticated prairie sleen are used for hunting and nocturnal herd sleen are used as shepherds and sentinels. They are released from their cages with the falling of darkness, responding only to the voice of their master. They are killed with their owner dies.
farther to one side I saw a pair of prairie sleen, smaller than the forest sleen but unite as unpredictable and vicious, each about seven feet in length, furred, six-legged, mammalian, moving in their undulating gait with their viper's heads moving form side to side, continually testing the wind
Nomads of Gor, page 2
Squirrels
...Here, too, may be found snakes and monkeys, gliding urts, leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines, lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects, ants, centipedes, scorpions, beetles and flies, and so on....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:311
...In the lower branches of the "ground zone" may be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized panthers, not dangerous to man....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:312
Tabuk, Common
a kind of antelope, yellow in color with a single horn found in many areas’s of Gor. It travels in fleet footed herds and haunts the ka-la-na thickets of the planet. Men use its meat as food. It is a favorite prey of Tarns.
The tabuk is the most common Gorean antelope, a small graceful animal, one-horned and yellow, that haunts the Ka-la-na thickets of the planet and occasionally ventures daintily into its meadows in search of berries and salt. It is also one of the favorite kills of a tarn.
Outlaw of Gor, page 126
Tabuk, Northern
massive, tawny and swift is much larger than its smaller southern variety; standing ten hands at the shoulders. They have a single spiraling ivory horn, which at its base can be 2 1/2 inches in diameter and over a yard in length. The Red Hunters are tied to the tabuk for sustenance and the devices of daily living much like the Wagon Peoples and the bosk, and the Red Savages and the kailiauk.
Beasts of Gor page 152
Tabuk, Prairie
described as tawny and gazelle-like with a single horn, it responds to threat by scurrying away or lying down. Presumably this response is useful because of the high grass of the Barrens as most predators depend on vision to detect and locate its prey.
Blood Brothers of Gor, page 316
Tarsk
fat, grunting, shaggy-maned, hoofed, flat-snorted, rooting, short-legged quadruped, having a bristly mane which runs down its spine to the base of the tail. In the wild, it is viciously aggressive. Porcine animal akin to the Earth pig A common source of meat, and is often roasted whole. Market of Semris is famed for it's tarsk markets.
Still later that afternoon some groups of small, fat, fronting, bristly, bridled, shaggy-maned, hoofed, flat-snouted, rooting animals had been herded in, also with pointed sticks, and they, too, had been guided into identical cages. We had looked out of our cage, our fingers hooked in the mesh, to the other cages, some of them with girls in them, some with the fat, flat-snouted, grunting, short-legged, bridled quadrupeds.
"Those are tarsks," said one of the Gorean girls.
Dancer of Gor, page 108
Tarsk, Giant
presumably similar to the common tarsk, however it stands 10 hands at the shoulder and is hunted with lances from tarnback. Explorers of Gor, page 346
Tarsier
...In the lower branches of the "ground zone" may be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized panthers, not dangerous to man....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:312
Urt, Canal
rapid moving water mammal living along canals; abundant in Port Kar, where they are hunted to decrease the population.
Behind the man, in the stern, lay the bloody, white-furred bodies of two canal urts. One would have weight about sixty pounds, and the other, I speculate, about seventy-five or eighty pounds.
Savages of Gor, page 67
Urt, Giant
fat, sleek, and white, it has 3 rows of needle-like white teeth and 4 horns. Large enough to drag a man in its jaws.
It was a giant urt, fat, sleek and white; it bared its three rows of needlelike white teeth at me and sealed in anger; two horns, tusks like flat crescents curved from its jaw; another two horns, similar to the first, modifications of the body tissue forming the upper ridge of the eye socket, protruded over those gleaming eyes that seemed to feast themselves upon me, as if waiting the permission of the keeper to hurl itself on its feeding trough. Its fat body trembled with anticipation.
The whip cracked again, and another command was uttered, and the animal, its long hairless tail lashing in frustration, slunk into another tunnel.
Outlaw of Gor, page 86
Urt, Forest
nocturnal animal living in the forests, hunted by the hook-billed night crying fleer.
From through the tress, on the other side of the camp, came what I took to be the sound of a bird, the hook-billed, night-crying fleer, which preys on nocturnal forest urts.
Slave Girl of Gor, page 117
Leaf Urt –
A small tree-dwelling rodent, having 4 toes, which inhabits the rainforests inland of Schendi. Similar to the tree sloth
Vart
carnivorous; a small, sharp-toothed mammal that flies in flocks. Raised on Tyros in vart caves to be used as weapons.
Perhaps most I dreaded those nights filled with the shrieks of the vart pack, a blind, batlike swarm of flying rodents, each the size of a small dog, They could strip a carcass in a matter of minutes, each carrying back some fluttering ribbon of flesh to the recesses of whatever dark cave the swarm had chosen for its home. Moreover, some vart packs were rabid.
Outlaw of Gor, page 26
Vart, Brown
carnivorous animals that rest clinging upside down on branches.
I could, however, recognize a row of brown varts, clinging upside down like large matted fists of teeth and fur and leather on the heavy, bare, scarred branch in their case. I saw bones, perhaps human bones, in the bottom of their case.
Priest Kings of Gor, page 191
Verr
a mountain goat indigenous to the Voltai Mountains; wild, agile, ill-tempered with long hair and spiraling horns; source of a form of wool; its milk is potable as well as being used for cheese. Its meat is sometimes eaten by men.
The verr was a mountain goat indigenous to the Voltai. It was a wild, agile, ill-tempered beast, long-haired and spiral-horned. Among the Voltai crags it would be worth one's life to come within twenty yards of one.
Priest-Kings of Gor, page 63
Zeder
a small, sleen-like, carnivorous mammal that inhabits the Ua River area. It grows to about 2 feet in length, and weighs 8-10 lbs. It is diurnal can swim very well, and builds a stick and mud nest in the branches of a tree where it spends the night.
There is, however, a sleenlike animal, though much smaller, about two feet in length and some eight to ten pounds in weight, the zeder, which requents the Ua and her tributaries. It knifes through the water by day and, at night, returns to its nest, built from sticks and mud in the branches of a tree overlooking the water.
Explorers of Gor, page 312
INSECTS
Ant - a black ant also called Marcher, bites are painful but not poisonous, found in the jungles of Schendi, Termits are called white ants
Explorers of Gor pgs 311&400-402
Beetle - one of the insects frevets are used to control
Mercenaries of Gor pg 276
Arthropod - A creature found in the tunnels of the Nest of the Priest-Kings. It is 8 feet long and a yard high with a multi-segmented body and 8 legs. It's eyes are on long stalks. Priest-Kings of Gor, page 82
Centipede
...Here, too, may be found snakes and monkeys, gliding urts, leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines, lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects, ants, centipedes, scorpions, beetles and flies, and so on....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:311
Fly
larger than the usual house fly, most bite
Beasts of Gor pg 196,Vagabonds of Gor pgs 160-162,Tribesmen of Gor pg 152
Fly, Artic
At certain times in the summer even insects will appear, black, long-winged flies, in great swarms, coating the sides of tents and the faces of men.
---Beasts of Gor, 12:196
Fly, Needle
Most sting flies, or needle flies, as the men from the south call them, originate in the delta, and similar places, estuaries and such, as their eggs are laid on the stems of rence plants. As a result of the regularity of breeding and incubation times there tends, also, to be peak times for hatching. These peak times are also in part, it is thought, a function of a combination of natural factors, having to do with conditions in the delta, such as temperature and humidity, and , in particular, the relative stability of such conditions. Such hatching times, as might be supposed are carefully monitored by rencers. Once outside the delta the sting flies, which spend most of their adult lives a solitary insects, tend to disperse.
Of the millions of sting flies hatched in the delta each summer, usually over a period of four or five days, a few return each fall, to begin the cycle again. . . here could now be no mistaking the steadily increasing volume of sound approaching from the west. It seemed to fill the delta. It is produced by the movement of the wings, the intense, almost unimaginably rapid beating of millions upon millions of small wings. . . The sting of the sting fly is painful, extremely so, but it is usually not, unless inflicted in great numbers, dangerous. Several stings, however, and even a few, depending on the individual, can produce nausea.
Men have died from the stings of the flies but usually in such cases they have been inflicted in great numbers. A common reaction to the venom of the fly incidentally is a painful swelling in the area of the sting. A few such stings about the face and render a person unrecognizable. The swelling subsides, usually, in a few Ahn." Pp 161&162, Vagabonds of Gor
Fly, Sand
...Following such rains, great clouds of sand flies appear, wakened from dormancy. These feast on kaiila and men. Normally, flying insects are found only in the vicinity of the oases....
---Tribesmen of Gor, 10:152
Gitch
No description given, the gitch is mentioned as having a painful bite.
We watched a large, oblong, flat bodied black object, about half a hort in length, with long feelers, hurry toward a crack at the base of the wall. "That is a roach," he said. "They are harmless, not like the gitches whose bites are rather painful."
---Beasts of Gor, 22:277
Grasshopper
Although it is likely that grasshoppers were found in other places, the only quote on this insect is seen in Explorers of Gor, when a red, rather large variety is mentioned.
"Oh!" cried the girl, startled. A grasshopper, red, the size of a horned gim, a small, owllike bird, some four ounces in weight, common in the northern latitudes, had leaped near the fire, and disappeared into the brush.
---Explorers of Gor, 29:293
GOLDEN BEETLE This is an insect the size of a rhinoceros. Its back seems divided into two thick casings which once long ago might have been horny wings but which have fused into a thick, immobile golden shell. It has glowing eyes and its head can almost withdraw beneath the shell. It can still use its jaws when its head is beneath the shell. It has two multiply-hooked, hollow, pincerlike extensions that meet at the tips about a yard beyond its body. These suck a creature's fluids out. Its antennae are very short, curved and topped with a fluff of golden hair. There are also several long, golden strands that extend from its head over its domed back and fall almost to the floor behind it. Its bite has a paralytic venom. It hisses and can move fast but only for a brief time. Its greatest weapon is that it exudes an odor, somewhat oppressive, that induces sleep in people nearby. This is even effective on Priest-Kings. It's primary food is Priest-Kings. It lays its eggs, each about the size of a fist, in a host. The egg has leathery shell and the baby is the size of a child's turtle. The host will not die if the eggs are removed before they hatch.
HINTI: Small, flea-like insects; unlike fleas, They are not parasites.
Leech
Salt leeches are mentioned in Tarl's journeys through the Delta of the Vosk.
"Here is another," said a fellow wading near me, holding up its wet, half flattened, twisting body in his hand. It was some four inches long, a half inch thick.
---Vagabonds of Gor, 9:97
Lice
Mentions of lice are numerous, more particularly the large, marble-sized variety said to be found on Tarn. Other mentions are found pertaining to a more 'common' type, including the fact that they are, like on Earth, responsible for the spread of epidemic types of illnesses.
...I slapped his beak affectionately, as if we were in a tarn cot, and shoved my hands into his neck feathers, the area where the tarn can't preen, as the tarn keepers do when searching for parasites.
I withdrew some of the lice, the size of marbles, which tend to infest wild tarns, and slapped them roughly into the mouth of the tarn, wiping them off on his tongue. I did this again and again, and the tarn stretched out his neck....
---Tarnsman of Gor, 12:142-143
…The hair of the below-deck girls, mercifully, is shaved off; indeed, our body hair, too, was shaved off, completely. These precautions prevent, to a great extent, the nesting of ship lice. Slave Girl of Gor, 16:321
NEEDLE OR STING FLIES: Originate in the delta, and similar Places. It's sting is Extremely painful, but it is usually not dangerous, unless inflicted in great numbers.
Rennel
A crab-like desert insect found on the Southern Plains. Its bite is said to leave red speckled marks.
...I was told by Kamchak that once an army of a thousand wagons turned aside because a swarm of rennels, poisonous, crablike desert insects, did not defend its broken nest, crushed by the wheel of the lead wagon....
---Nomads of Gor, 5:27
She was gasping and stumbling; her body glistened with perspiration; her legs were black with wet dust; her hair was tangled and thick with dust; her feet and ankles were bleeding; her calves were scratched and speckled with the red bites of rennels.
---Nomads of Gor, 11:135
Roach
Described as black, oblong and flat and said to be essentially harmless.
We watched a large, oblong, flat bodied black object, about half a hort in length, with long feelers, hurry toward a crack at the base of the wall. "That is a roach," he said. "They are harmless, not like the gitches whose bites are rather painful."
---Mercenaries of Gor, 22:276-277
Scorpion
... Here, too, may be found snakes and monkeys, gliding urts, leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines, lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects, ants, centipedes, scorpions, beetles and flies, and so on....
SLIME WORM: A long, slow, blind worm which inhabits the caverns below the Nest
iExplorers of Gor pg 311
Spider
Mentions of spiders include the jungle rock spider, and the cell spider found in the Tahari.
Actually these are known as the Spider People. They are rational and speak to humans through the use of a translator device. They are large spiders that live in the swamps near Ar.
"Approaching me, stepping daintily for all its bulk, prancing over the strands, came one of the Swamp Spiders of Gor....and I caught sight of the mandibles, like curved knives...He then backed away from me on his eight legs...I saw then for the first time that strapped to his abdomen, was a translation device....They hunt us and leave only enough of us alive to spin the Cur-lon Fiber used in the mills of Ar."
Tarnsman of Gor, pages 81-83
...I detected the odor of kort rinds, matted, drying, on the stones, where they had been scattered from my supper the evening before. Vints, insects, tiny, sand-colored, covered them. On the same rinds, taking and eating vints, were two small cell spiders....
---Tribesmen of Gor, 7:115-116
... Also in the ground zone are varieties of snake, such as the ost and hith, and numerous species of insects. The rock spider has been mentioned, and termites, also....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:311-312
Rock Spider
an inhabitant of the rainforests lower level this brown or black spider camouflages itself by tucking legs under its body to look like a rock hence its name; it is approximately one foot in diameter and will catch small rodents or birds in its web. (Book 13: Explorers of Gor, pages 294, 311)
Swamp Spider
Those known as the spider people are actually rational beings rather than simple insects who inhabit the swamps of the Ar area. Like Priest Kings, they use a translator to communicate with humans. Swamp
...Approaching me, stepping daintily for all its bulk, prancing over the strands, came one of the Swamp Spiders of Gor....
...and I caught sight of the mandibles, like curved knives....
...I saw then for the first time that strapped to his abdomen was a translation device...
..."They hunt us and leave only enough of us alive to spin the Cur-lon Fiber used in the mills of Ar"....
---Tarnsman of Gor, 6:81-83
Termite
...Also in the ground zone are varieties of snake, such as the ost and hith, and numerous species of insects. The rock spider has been mentioned, and termites, also. Termites, incidentally, are extremely important to the ecology of the forest. In their feeding they break down and destroy the branches and trunks of fallen trees. The termite "dust," thereafter, by the action of bacteria, is reduced to humus, and the humus to nitrogen and mineral materials....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:311-312
Vint
A tiny, sand colored insect of the Tahari, seen feeding on rotting fruit.
I detected the odor of kort rinds, matted, drying, on the stones, where they had been scattered from my supper the evening before. Vints, insects, tiny, sand-colored, covered them. On the same rinds, taking and eating vints, were two small cell spiders.
---Tribesmen of Gor, 7:115
ZARLIT: The zarlit fly is very large, about two feet long, with four large, translucent wings, with a span of about a yard. It has large, padlikefeet on which, when it alights, it can rest on the water, or pick its way delicately across the surface. Most of them are purple. Their appearance is rather formidable and can one a nasty turn in the delta, but happily, one soon learns they are harmless, at least to humans. taken from Vagabonds of Gor, pg 160
BIRDS
Finch, Whistling: Flighted bird found at the ground level of the rainforest; it is insectivorous.
In the ground zone, and on the ground itself, are certain birds, some flighted, like the hook-billed gort, which preys largely on rodents, such as ground urts, and the insectivorous whistling finch, and some unflighted, like the grub borer and lang gim. Explorers of Gor, page 311
Fleer, Long-Billed: A bird that inhabits the emergent level of the rainforests of Schendi.
In the level of the emergents there live primarily birds, in particular parrots, long-billed fleers, and needle-tailed lits. Explorers of Gor, page 311
Fleer, Prairie - yellow bird with long wings and a sharp bill; sometimes called the 'maize bird' or 'corn bird' from the belief that it is usually the first bird to find food large, hook-billed bird which hunts at night
Slavegirl of Gor pg 117, Explorers of Gor pg 311, Savages of Gor pg 246
Frevet - a small mammalian insectivore which is used in the cities as a form of pest control. small, quick and freindly mammalian inse tivores. they sometimes live in insule in the cities and eat pests, as they cannot eat through walls, then they do not harm the insuae
Mercenaries of Gor pg 276
Fruit Tindel: A bird that inhabits the canopy zone of the rainforests of the Schendi area.
In the second level, that of the canopies, is found an incredible variety of birds, warblers, finches, mindars, the crested lit and the common lit, the fruit tindel, the yellow gim, tanagers, some varieties of parrot, and many more. Explorers of Gor, page 311
Gant, Arctic: Migratory bird that nests on cliffs in the Hrimgar Mountains, the southern border of the polar north. When frozen, their eggs are eaten like apples.
I stepped aside to let a young girl pass, who carried two baskets of eggs, those of the migratory artic gant. They nest in the mountains of the Hrimgar and in steep, rocky outcroppings, called bird cliffs, found here and there jutting out of the tundra. The bird cliffs doubtless bear some geological relation to the Hrimgar chains. When such eggs are frozen they are eaten like apples.
Beasts of Gor, page 196
Gant, Jungle: A bird related to the marsh gant that inhabits the river in rainforests inland of Schendi.
Along the river, of course, many other species of birds may be found, such as jungle gants, tufted fishers and ring-necked and yellow-legged waders. Explorers of Gor, page 311
Gant, Marsh: A small long-legged horned bird; broad-billed and broad-winged; hunted by marsh girls its cry is imitated by the rence people as a surreptitious means of communication.
I heard a bird some forty or fifty yards to my right; it sounded like a marsh gant, a small, horned, web-footed aquatic fowl, broad-billed and broad-winged. Marsh girls, the daughters of rence growers, sometimes hunt them with throwing sticks. Raiders of Gor, page 4
Gim, Horned: A small purplish owl-like bird with tufts over eyes c. 4 oz. in weight which inhabits the forests of northern Gor.
It was a small bird, about the size of a sparrow, but it looked a bit like a tiny owl, with tufts over its eyes. It was purplish. It looked at me quizzically. It was perched on some split piping. Captive of Gor, page 39
Gim, Lang: A bird that inhabits the ground level of rainforests inland of Schendi.
In the ground zone, and on the ground itself, are certain birds, some flighted, like the hook-billed gort, which preys largely on rodents, such as ground urts, and the insectivorous whistling finch, and some unflighted, like the grub borer and lang gim. Book 13, page 311
Gim, Yellow: A bird related to the horned gim that inhabits the second level of rainforests inland of Schendi.
In the second level, that of the canopies, is found an incredible variety of birds, warblers, finches, mindars, the crested lit and the common lit, the fruit tindel, the yellow gim, tanagers, some varieties of parrot, and many more. Explorers of Gor, page 311
Gint - a tiny (6") freshwater fish which inhabits the rivers of the rainforests inland of Schendi; it has bulbous eyes & flipper-like fins; is amphibious, having both lungs & gills; is capable of walking on its pectoral fins; often found in the company of tharlarion, feeding off the scraps of their kills
Explorers of Gor pgs 299-300
Gint,Giant - a large cousin of the gint found in western Gor, similar in appearance, but with a 4-spined dorsal fin; is also amphibious and capable of walking on its pectoral fins
Explorers of Gor pg 384
Gort,Hook-billed - a carnivorous hunting bird of the rainforests inland of Schendi; preys on ground urts
Explorers of Gor pg 311
Grub Borer: An insectivorous bird that inhabits the ground level of rainforests inland of Schendi.
In the ground zone, and on the ground itself, are certain birds, some flighted, like the hook-billed gort, which preys largely on rodents, such as ground urts, and the insectivorous whistling finch, and some unflighted, like the grub borer and lang gim. Explorers of Gor, page 311
Gull, Coasting: Found in Torvaldsland is this broad winged bird with black tips on its wings and tail feathers, similar to the Vosk gull. Its feathers are used on the war arrows of Torvaldsland.
Its feathers were five inches long, set in the shaft on three sides, feathers of the black-tipped coasting gull, a broad-winged bird, with black tips on it wings and tail feathers, similar to the Vosk gull.
Book 9, page 235
Gull, Schendi: Inhabiting the area around Schendi on the Thassa, they nest on land at night.
"Those are Schendi gulls,"said Ulafi, pointing to birds which circled the mainmast. "They nest on land at night." Book 13, page 99
Gull, Vosk: A gull of the Vosk Delta and Vosk River. Its feathers are used on sheaf arrows. It winters on the prairies of the Wagon Peoples and flies north in the spring, when the ice breaks up.
We then waited about a minute, and I saw several birds--river gulls--flying north. "Those are Vosk gulls, " said Kamchak, "In the spring, when the ice breaks in the Vosk, they fly north."
Book 4, page 137
Herlit: A large broad-winged bird of the Barrens. It is carnivorous and has yellow feathers tipped with black. Also called 'Sun-Striker' or 'out-of-the-sun-it-strikes' for its habit of striking with the sun above and behind it. the gorean eagle is called a Herlit
It was peeled Ka-la-na wood and, from its top, there dangled two long, narrow, yellow, black-tipped feathers, from the tail of the taloned Herlit, a large, broad-winged, carnivorous bird, sometimes in Gorean called the Sun Striker, or, more literally, though in clumsier English, Out-of-the-sun-it-strikes, presumably from its habit of mangeing its descent and strike on prey, like the tarn, with the sun above and behind it. Savages of Gor, page 143
Hermit, Yellow-Breasted: a bird of the Northern Forest, it beats with a sharp beak against trees to hunt for larvae.
Somewhere, far off, but carrying through the forest, was the rapid, staccato slap of the sharp beak of the yellow-breasted hermit bird, pounding into the reddish bark of the tur tree, hunting for larvae. Hunters of Gor, page 106
Hinti - small, flea-like insects; unlike fleas, they are not parasites
Blood Brothers of Gor pgs 219-220
Hook-Billed Gort: a carnivorous hunting bird of the rainforests inland of Schendi; preys on ground urts.
In the ground zone, and on the ground itself, are certain birds, some flighted, like the hook-billed gort, which preys largely on rodents, such as ground urts, and the insectivorous whistling finch, and some unflighted, like the grub borer and lang gim. Explorers of Gor, page 311
Jard: a small scavenger bird that flies in large flocks. A flock can strip the meat from a tabuk in seconds. Found near Lydius. a small, yellow-winged scavenger bird of the rainforest inland of Schendi
Beasts of Gor pg 170, Explorers of Gor, pg 415
"Most of the animals we leave for the larts and sleen, and the jards." The jard is a small scavenger. It flies in large flocks. A flock, like flies, can strip the meat from a tabuk in minutes. "Even the jards die, gorged with meat," said the man near us on the platform.
Book 12: Beasts of Gor, page 149
Kite - a migrating meadow variety bird
Nomads of Gor pg 137
Lit, Common: a bird found in the second level of rainforests in the Schendi area.
In the second level, that of the canopies, is found an incredible variety of birds, warblers, finches, mindars, the crested lit and the common lit, the fruit tindel, the yellow gim, tanagers, some varieties of parrot, and many more. Explorers of Gor, page 311
Lit, Crested: a brightly plumaged bird found in the second level of rainforests in the Schendi area.
In the second level, that of the canopies, is found an incredible variety of birds, warblers, finches, mindars, the crested lit and the common lit, the fruit tindel, the yellow gim, tanagers, some varieties of parrot, and many more. Explorers of Gor, page 311
Lit, Needle-Tailed: a bird found in the emergent (highest level) of rainforests in the Schendi area.
In the level of the emergents there live primarily birds, in particular parrots, long-billed fleers, and needle-tailed lits. Book 13, page 311
Mindar: a short-winged yellow and red bird of the rainforests inland of Schendi. It has a sharp bill that it uses to drill into the bark of flower trees for larvae and grubs.
Kisu pointed overhead. "See the mindar," he said. We looked up and saw a brightly plumaged, short-winged, sharp-billed bird. It was yellow and red. "That is a forest bird," said Kisu. The mindar is adapted for short, rapid flights, almost spurts, its wings beating in sudden flurries, hurrying it from branch to branch, for camouflage in flower trees, and for drilling the bark of such trees for larvae and grubs. Explorers of Gor, page 282
Parrot: A bird found in the emergent level of the rainforest some varieties are also found in the level of the canopies of the rainforest.
In the level of the emergents there live primarily birds, in particular parrots, long-billed fleers, and needle-tailed lits. Explorers of Gor, page 311
Tanagers - songbirds found in the Schendi regions
Explorers of Gor pg 311
The term tanager is well known to bird lovers around the world as an adaptation of the Portuguese word tangará, which refers to any of numerous chiefly tropical American oscine birds (family Thraupidae). Tanagers of Earth are usually brightly colored, unmusical and inhabit mostly woodlands.
...In the second level, that of the canopies, is found an incredible variety of birds, warblers, finches, mindars, the crested lit and the common lit, the fruit tindel, the yellow gim, tanagers, some varieties of parrot, and many more....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:311
Tarn: crested hawk-like bird large enough to be saddled and flown, it is used in battle and in racing and is bred for swiftness and aggressiveness.
The Goreans believe, incredibly enough, that the capacity to master a tarn is innate and that some men possess this characteristic and that some do not. One does not learn to master a tarn. It is a matter of blood and spirit, of beast and man, of a relation between two beings which must be immediate, intuitive, spontaneous. It is said that a tarn knows who is a tarnsman and who is not, and that those who are not die in this first meeting.
My first impression vas that of a rush of wind and a great snapping sound, as if a giant might be snapping an enormous towel or scarf; then I was cowering, awestricken, in a great winged shadow, and an immense tarn, his talons extended like gigantic steel hooks, his wings sputtering fiercely in the air, hung above me, motionless except for the beating of his wings.
"Stand clear of the wings," shouted the Older Tarl. I needed no urging. I darted from under the bird. One stroke of those wings would hurl me yards from the top of the cylinder. The tarn dropped to the roof of the cylinder and regarded us with his bright black eyes.
Though the tarn, like most birds, is surprisingly light for its size, this primarily having to do with the comparative hollowness of the bones, it is an extremely powerful bird, powerful even beyond what one would expect from such a monster. Whereas large Earth birds, such as the eagle, must, when taking flight from the ground, begin with a running start, the tarn, with its incredible musculature, aided undoubtedly by the somewhat lighter gravity of Gor, can with a spring and a sudden flurry of its giant wings lift both himself and his rider into the air. In Gorean, these .birds are sometimes spoken of as Brothers of the Wind.
The plumage of tarns is various, and they are bred for their colors as well as their strength and intelligence. Black tarns are used for night raids, white tarns in winter campaigns, and multicolored, resplendent tarns are bred for warriars who wish to ride proudly, regardless of the lack of camouflage. 'The most common tarn, however, is greenish brown. Disregarding the disproportion in size, the Earth bird which the tarn most closely resembles is the hawk, with the exception that it bas a crest somewhat of the nature of a jay's.
Tarns, who are vicious things, are seldom more than half tamed and; like their dim;native earthly counterparts, like hawks, are carnivorous. It is not unknown for a tarn to attack and devour his own rider. They fear nothing but the tarn-goad. They are trained by men of the Caste of Tarn Keepers to respond to it while still young, when they can be fastened by wires to the training perches. Whenever a young bird soars away or refuses obedience in some fashion, he is dragged back to the perch and beaten with the tarn-goad. Rings, comparable to those which are fastened on the legs of the young birds, are worn by the adult birds to reinforce the memory of the hobbling wire and the tarn-goad. Later, of course, the adult birds are not fastened, but the conditioning given them in their. youth usually holds, except when they become abnormally disturbed or have not been able to obtain food. The tarn is one of the two most common mounts of a Gorean warrior; the other is the high tharlarion, a species of saddle lizard, used mostly by clans who have never mastered tarns. No one in the City of Cylinders, as far as I knew, maintained tharlarions, though they were supposedly quite common on Gor, particularly in the lower areas-in swampland and on the deserts.
The Older Tarl had mounted his tarn, climbing up the five-rung leather mounting ladder which hangs on the left side of the saddle and is pulled up in flight. He fastened himself in the saddle with a broad purple strap. He tossed me a small object which. nearly fell from my fumbling hands. It was a tarn whistle, with its own note, which would summon one tarn, and one tarn only, the mount which was intended for me. Never since the panic of the disoriented compass back in the mountains of New Hampshire had I been so frightened, but this time I refused to allow my fear the fatal inch it required. If I was to die, it would be; if I was not to die, I would not.
I smiled to myself in spite of my fear, amused at the remark I had addressed to myself. It sounded like something out of the code of the Warrior, something which, if taken literally, would seem to encourage its believer to take not the slightest or most sane precautions for his safety. I blew a note on the whistle, and it was shrill and different, of a new pitch from that of the Old Tarl.
Almost immediately from somewhere, perhaps from a ledge out of sight; rose a fantastic object, another giant tarn, even larger than the first, a glossy sable tarn which circled the cylinder once and then wheeled toward me, landing a few feet away, his talons striking on the roof with a sound like hurled gauntlets. His talons were shod with steel-a war tarn. He raised his curved be to the sky and screamed, lifting and shaking his wings• s enormous head turned toward me, and his round, wicked eyes blazed in my direction. The next thing I knew his beak was open; I caught a brief sight of his thin,sharp tongue, as long as a man's arm; darting out and back, and then, snapping at me, he lunged forward, striking at me with that' monstrous beak, and I heard the Older Tarl cry out in horror, "The goad! The goad!"
TARNSMAN OF GOR p51 - 53
Tarn, Racing: A tarn that is lighter and smaller than normal tarns. Used for racing, its wings are shorter and broader than other tarns and its beak lighter and narrower.
The racing tarn, interestingly, is an extremely light bird; two men can lift one; even its beak is norrower and lighter than the beak of a common tarn or war tarn; its wings are commonly broader and shorter than those of other tarns, permitting a swifter take off and providing a capacity for extremely abrupt turns and shifts in flight; they cannot carry a great deal of weight and the riders, as might be expected, are small men, usually of low caste, pugnacious and aggressive. Assassin of Gor, page 144
Tibit: a small, thin-legged bird that lives on tiny mollusks found on the shores of Thassa.
I heard the cry of sea birds, broad-winged gulls and the small, stick-legged tibits, pecking in the sand for tiny mollusks. Hunters of Gor, page 247
Tufted Fisher: a water bird that inhabits the rivers of the rainforests inland of Schendi.
Along the river, of course, many other species of birds may be found, such as jungle gants, tufted fishers and ring-necked and yellow-legged waders. Explorers of Gor, page 311
Tumit: large flightless bird about the size of an ostrich having a long hooked beak; carnivorous.
I saw one of the tumits, a large, flightless bid whose hooked beak, as long as my forearm, attested only too clearly to its gustatory habits. Nomads of Gor, page 2
Umbrella Bird: bird that lives in the lower canopies of rainforest near Schendi.
In the lower portion of the canopies, too, can be found heavier birds, such as the ivory-billed woodpecker and the umbrella bird. Explorers of Gor, page 311
Ushindi Fisher: long-legged, wading bird near the Schendi; long, white, curling feathers used for headdresses.
His head was surmounted by an elaborate headdress, formed largely from the long, white, curling feathers of the Ushindi fisher, a long-legged, wading bird. Explorers of Gor, page 236
Veminium Bird: a bird with a beautiful song not otherwise described.
Perhaps in one of these times, due to no fault of Mistress he was charmed by her voice, as by the songs of the veminium bird.. Magicians of Gor, page 363
Vulo: a tawny-colored poultry bird similar to a pigeon that also exists in the wild; used for meat and eggs.
She was a peasant, barefoot, her garment little more than coarse sacking. She had been carrying a wicker basket containing vulos, domesticated pigeons raised for eggs and meat. Nomads of Gor, page 1
Wader, Ring-Necked: a variety of water birds that inhabits the rivers of the rainforests inland of Schendi.
Along the river, of course, many other species of birds may be found, such as jungle gants, tufted fishers and ring-necked and yellow-legged waders. Explorers of Gor, page 311
Wader, Yellow-Legged: a variety of water birds that inhabits the rivers of the rainforests inland of Schendi.
Along the river, of course, many other species of birds may be found, such as jungle gants, tufted fishers and ring-necked and yellow-legged waders. Explorers of Gor, page 311
Warbler
Songbirds mentioned in Explorers of Gor as part of the Schendi jungle fauna.
The term 'warbler' is synonymous to 'singer', and applied to a species of numerous small Old World oscine birds (family Sylviidae) of Earth, most of which are noted songsters.
...Monkeys and tree urts, and snakes and insects, however, can also be found in this highest level. In the second level, that of the canopies, is found an incredible variety of birds, warblers, finches, mindars, the crested lit and the common lit, the fruit tindel, the yellow gim, tanagers, some varieties of parrot, and many more....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:311
Woodpecker, Ivory-Billed: bird found in the lower canopies of the rainforests near Schendi
In the lower portion of the canopies, too, can be found heavier birds, such as the ivory-billed woodpecker and the umbrella bird. Explorers of Gor, page 311
Zad: a large broad-winged black and white bird with a long, narrow, yellowish, hooked beak found in the Tahari; they scavenge on carrion.
I heard, a short time later, wings, the alighting of one or more large birds. Such birds, broad-winged, black and white, from afar, follow the marches to Klima; their beaks, yellowish, narrow, are long and slightly hooked at the end, useful for probing and tearing. The birds scattered, squawking, as a Kaiila sped past. The birds are called zads. Tribesmen of Gor, page 232
Zad, Jungle: a less aggressive cousin of the Tahari zad; small, yellow-winged, scavenging birds with long, yellowish, slightly curved beaks; found in the rainforest inland of Schendi.
One was attacked even by zads, clinging to it and tearing at it with their long, yellowish, slightly curved beaks. These were jungle zads. They are less to be feared than desert zads, I believe, being less aggressive. They do, however, share one ugly habit with the desert zad, that of tearing out the eyes of weakened victims. That serves as a practical guarantee that the victim, usually an animal, will die. Explorers of Gor, page 415
Zadit: a small, tawny-feathered, sharp- billed bird of the Tahari. It is insectivorous, feeding on sand flies and other similar insects. They often land on kaiila and spend long periods hunting the sand flies that infest the host animal.
The zadit is a small, tawny-feathered, sharp-billed bird. It feeds on insects. When sand flies and other insects, emergent after rains, infest kaiila, they frequently alight on the animals, and remain on them for some hours, hunting insects. Tribesmen of Gor, page 152
REPTILES
Hith
The Gorean Python
"In another case, somnolent and swollen, I saw a rare golden hith, a Gorean python whose body, even when unfed, it would be difficult for a full-grown man to encircle with his arms."
Priest-Kings of Gor, page 191
Kaiila
A large reptile looking animal, used by the Wagon Peoples and in the Tahari as a mount. The Kaiila is well-suited for the harsh conditions of the Tahari and the Plains. Its viciousness makes it a formidable mount for a Warrior as well.
"The mount of the Wagon Peoples, unknown in the northern hemispheres of Gor, is the terrifying but beautiful kaiila. It is a silken, carnivourous, lofty creature, graceful, long-necked, smooth gaited. It is viviparous and undoubtedly mammalian, though there is no suckling of the young...The kaiila is extremely agile...normally stands about tweny to twenty-two hands at the shoulder, can cover as much as six hundred pasangs in a single day's riding. The head of the kaiila bears two large eyes, one on each side, but these eyes are triply lidded probably an adaptation to the environment which occasionally is wracked by severe storms of wind and dust; the adaptation, actually a transparent third lid, permits the animal to move as it wishes under conditions that force other prairie animals to back into the wind, or like the sleen, to burrow into the ground." It is a silken, carnivorous, lofty creature, graceful, long-necked, smooth-gaited. It is viviparous and undoubtedly mammalian, though there is no suckling of the young. The young are born vicious and by instinct, as soon as they can struggle to their feet, they hunt....once it eats its fill, does not touch food for several days. The kaiila is extremely agile, and can easily outmaneuver the slower, more ponderous high tharlarion. It requires less food...than the tarn. A kaiila, which normally stands about 20 to 22 hands at the shoulder, can cover as much as six hundred pasangs in a single days riding. The head of the kaiila bears two large eyes, one on each side, but these eyes are triply lidded." (page 13&14, Nomads of Gor)
Kailiauk
Another plains bison-type animal. The descriptions make it seem related to the bosk, though with more horns. The kailiauk is a 'symbol' to the Red Savages much as the bosk is to the Wagon Peoples...perhaps the differences in the two are related more to the climates they inhabit?
"I looked beyond Hci to the beasts, some two to three pasangs away. The kailiauk is a large, lumbering, shaggy, trident-horned ruminant. It has four stomachs and an eight valved heart. It is dangerous, gregarious, small eyed and short tempered. Adult males can stand as high as twenty or twenty five hands at the shoulder and weigh as much as four thousand pounds."
Blood Brothers of Gor, page 10
"It is difficult to make clear to those who are not intimately acquainted with such things the
meaning of the Pte, or Kailiauk, to the red savages. It is regarded by them with reverence and affection. It is a central phenomenon in their life, and much of their life revolves around it. The mere thought of the kailiauk can inspire awe in them, and pleasure and excitement. More to them than meat for the stomach and clothes for the back is the kailiauk to them; too, it is mystery and meaning for them; it is heavy with medicine; it is a danger; it is a sport; it is a challenge; and at dawn, with a lance or bow in one's hand, and a swift, eager kaiila between one's knees, it is a joy to the heart...."
Blood Brothers of Gor, page 8
" 'Over there,' said Hci, to us, pointing east by southeast, 'there is a draw. In the draw there is a fallen bull, a Smooth Horns, no more than some six winters in age. Attend to it.' 'Yes,Hci,' said Cuwignakea, obediently. A Smooth Horns is a young, prime bull. Its horns are not yet cracked from fighting and age. The smoothness of the horns, incidentally, is not a purely natural phenomenon. The bulls polish, them, themselves, rubbing them against sloping banks and trees. Sometimes they will even paw down earth from the upper tides of washouts and then use the harder, exposed material beneath, dust scattering about, as a polishing surface. This polishing apparently has the functions of both cleaning and sharpening the horns, two processes useful in intraspecific aggression, the latter process improving their capacity as fighteing instruments, in slashing and goring, and the former process tending to reduce the amount of infection in a herd resulting from such combats. Polishing behavior in males thus appears to be selected for. It has consequences, at any rate, which seem to be in the best interests of the kailiauk as a species."
Blood Brothers of Gor, page 63
"Almost at the same time, suddenly, about a bend in the draw, turning, lurching, its shoulder striking the side of the draw, its feet almost slippping out from under it, in its turn, in the soft footing, covered with dust, its eyes wild and red, foam at its nostrils and mouth, some twenty five hundred pounds or better in weight, snorting, kicking dust behind it hurtled a kailiauk bull.
As my beast scrambled up, regaining its feet, I mounted it, and turned it away down the draw. Cuwingnaka and I, then not more than a few yards ahead of the animals, which in a body, buffeting and storming, tridents down, their heads low, as the kailiauk runs, came streaming, flooding, bellowing, torrentlike, about that bend in the draw, racing to safety..."
Blood Brothers of Gor, pages 64-65
"Even past me thundered a lumbering herd of startled, short-trunked kailiauk, a stocky, awkward ruminant of the plains, tawny, wild, heavy, their haunches marked in red and brown bars, their wide heads bristling with a trident of horns; they had not stood and formed their circle, shes and young within the circle of tridents..."
Nomads of Gor, page 2
Kailiauk of the Barrens
"The kailiauk in question, incidently,is the kailiauk of the Barrens. It is a gigantic,dangerous beast, often standing from twenty to twenty five hands at the shoulder and weighing as much as four thousand pounds. it is almost never hunted on foot except in deep snow, in which it is almost helpless. From kaiilaback, riding beside the stampeded animal, however, the skilled hunter can kill one with a single arrow. He rides close to the animal,not a yard from its side, just outside the hooking range of the trident, to supplement the striking power of his small bow. At this range the arrow can sink in to the feathers. Ideally it strikes into the intestinal cavity behind the last rib, producing large scale internal hemorrhaging, or closely behind the left shoulder blade, thence piercing the eight valved heart."
Savages of Gor, page 40
"To the oases, caravans bring various goods, for example, rep-cloth, embroidered cloths, silks, rugs, silver, gold, jewelries, mirrors, kailiauk tusks..."
Tribesmen of Gor, page 37
Mamba
Word of the natives of Schendi that is used in reference to the river tharlarion found in their lands. (see river tharlarion)
NOTE; The word 'mamba', according to Webster and other sources, is of zulu origin and refers to any of several chiefly arboreal venomous green or black elapid snakes (genus Dendroaspis syn. Dendraspis) of sub-Saharan Africa. John Norman's use of this word varies significantly in that it pertains to a more crocodilian type of reptile.
The word 'Mamba' in most of the river dialects does not refer to a venomous reptile as might be expected, given its meaning in English, but, interestingly, is applied rather generally to most types of predatory river tharlarion. The Mamba people were, so to speak, the Tharlarion people. The Mamba people ate human flesh. So, too, does the tharlarion. It Is thus, doubtless, that the people obtained their name.
---Explorers of Gor, 44:393
Ost
A small, venomous snake whose bite will cause a painful death within seconds. Commonly they are bright orange, but the banded ost is yellowish orange with black rings. Both are poisonous.
"One to be feared even more perhaps was the tiny ost, a venomous, brilliantly orange reptile little more than a foot in length, whose bite spelled an excruciating death within seconds."
Outlaw of Gor, page 26
"The banded ost is a variety of ost, a small, customarily brilliantly orange Gorean reptile. The banded ost is yellowish orange and is marked with black rings.
Assassin of Gor, page 335
Ost, Banded
A variety of ost identified by its yellowish orange color and black rings.
Vancius laughed. “As I have great respect for the banded ost,” said he. I smiled. The banded ost is a variety of ost, a small, customarily brilliantly orange Gorean reptile. It is exceedingly poisonous. The banded ost is yellowish orange and is marked with black rings.
Assassin of Gor, page 335
Ost, Rainforest
A snake of the rainforests inland of Schendi that is identified by its red with black stripes.
Explorers of Gor, page 311
Salamanders
Inhabiting the brine pits along with the lelts; the salamanders are also white and blind. Unlike the lelts, though, salmanders have legs and external gills.
"Among the lelts, too, were, here and there, tiny salamanders, they, too, white and blind. Like the lelts, they were, for their size, long-bodied, were capable of long periods of domancy and posessed a slow metabolism, useful in an environment in which food is not plentiful. Unlike the lelts, they had long stemlike legs....but the filaments, in the case of the salamanders, interestingly, are not vibration receptors, but feather gills, an external gill system."
Tribesmen of Gor, pages 247-248
Thalarion
A lizard like animal used in various ways. Thalarions inhabit many parts of Gor; there exist High Thalarions, used by Warriors, they are carnivorous; Broad Thalarions, used as draft animals are not carnivorous; River Thalarions, also used as draft animals to pull the barges on the rivers, though there is one type of river thalarion, called a Mamba, both of which are carnivorous; a predator;Rock Thalarions, a small reptile of the Tahari; and Water Thalarions, which inhabit the marshes, these, too, are carnivorous. Thalarion fat is rendered to make lamp oil.
" The high thalarions, unlike their draft brethren, the slow-moving, four-footed broad thalarions, were carnivorous."
Tarnsman of Gor, page 125
"The ringing of the thalarions shod claws on the rode grew louder...He rode the species of thalarion called the high thalarion, which ran on it's two back feet in great bounding strides. Its cavernous mouth was lined with long, gleaming teeth. Its two small, ridiculously disproportionate forelegs dangled absurdly in front of its body."
Tarnsman of Gor, page 115
Tharlarion, Broad
Sluggish tharlarion used as draft animals; herbivorous.
The high tharlarion, unlike their draft brethren, the slow-moving, four-footed broad tharlarions, were carnivorous.
Tarnsmen of Gor, page 125
Tharlarion, High
Agile tharlarion used as a mount for riding. They have very short almost useless forelegs; carnivorous.
He rode the species of tharlarion called the high tharlarion, which ran on its two back feet in bounding strides. Its cavernous mouth was lined with long, gleaming teeth.
Its two small, ridiculously disproportionate forelegs dangled absurdly in front of its body.
Tarnsmen of Gor, page 115
Tharlarion, Land
Land dwelling tharlarion used for towing. The land tharlarion can swim, though not as efficiently as the river tharlarion.
Those approaching were drawn by land tharlarion, plodding on log roads along the edges of the river. The land tharlarion can swim barges across the river, but he is not as efficient as the vast river tharlarion.
Captive of Gor, page 81
Tharlarion, Marsh
Inhabitants of the marshes that comprise the delta of the Vosk; similar to a crocodile in some ways.
In the pool, clambering over one another, lifting their jaws upward were crocodiles, beasts like river tharlarion but differently hided and plated.
I nodded. The marsh tharlarion, and river tharlarion, of Gor are, I suspect, genetically different from the alligators, caymens, and crocodiles of Earth. I suspect this to be the case because these Earth reptiles are so well adapted to their environments that they have changed very little in tens of millions of years. The marsh and river tharlarion, accordingly, if descended from such beasts, brought long ago to Gor on Voyages of Acquisition by Priest-Kings, would presumably resemble them more closely. On the other hand, of course, I may be mistaken in this matter. It remains my speculation, however, that the resemblance between these forms of beasts, which are considerable, particularly in bodily configuration and disposition, may be accounted for by convergent evolution
Explorers of Gor, page 326
Tharlarion, Racing
these high tharlarions are bred and registered for racing. Unlike the animals used as cavalry, these are chosen from 'medium class' tharlarion, being smaller and lighter. Famous bloodlines include Venetzia, Toraii, and Thalonian.
We were astride rented tharlarion, high tharlarion, bipedalian tharlarion. Although our mounts were such, they are not to be confused with the high tharlarion commonly used by Gorean shock cavalry, swift, enormous beasts the charge of which can be so devastating to unformed infantry. If one may use terminology reminiscent of the sea, these were medium-class tharlarion, comparatively light beasts, at least compared to their brethren of the contact cavalries, such cavalries being opposed to the sorts commonly employed in missions such as foraging, scouting, skirmishing and screening troop movements. Rather our mounts were typical of the breeds from which are extracted racing tharlarion, of the sort used, for example, in the Vennan races. To be sure, it is only select varieties of such breeds, such as the Venetzia, Torarii and Thalonian, which are commonly used for the racers. As one might suppose, the blood lines of the racers are carefully kept and registered, as are, incidentally, those of many other sorts of expensive bred animals, such as tarsks, sleen and verr.
Magicians of Gor, page 290
Tharlarion, River (1)
Extremely large web-footed lizards used by bargemen of the Cartius River to pull barges.
A broad, low-sided barge began to back toward the pier. It had two large steering oars, manned by bargemen. It was drawn by two gigantic, web-footed river tharlarion. They were the first tharlarion that I had ever seen. They frightened me. They were scaled, vast and long-necked. Yet in the water it seemed, for all their bulk, they moved delicately. One dipped its head under the surface and, moments later, the head emerged, dripping, the eyes blinking, a silverish fish struggling in the small, triangular-toothed jaws. It engorged the fish, and turned its small head, eyes now unblinking, to regard us.
Captive of Gor, page 80
Tharlarion, River (2)
Crocodile-type animal; implied to be carnivorous and very similar to the marsh tharlarion.
In the pool, clambering over one another, lifting their jaws upward were crocodiles, beasts like river tharlarion but differently hided and plated.
I nodded. The marsh tharlarion, and river tharlarion, of Gor are, I suspect, genetically different from the alligators, caymens, and crocodiles of Earth. I suspect this to be the case because these Earth reptiles are so well adapted to their environments that they have changed very little in tens of millions of years. The marsh and river tharlarion, accordingly, if descended from such beasts, brought long ago to Gor on Voyages of Acquisition by Priest-Kings, would presumably resemble them more closely. On the other hand, of course, I may be mistaken in this matter. It remains my speculation, however, that the resemblance between these forms of beasts, which are considerable, particularly in bodily configuration and disposition, may be accounted for by convergent evolution
Explorers of Gor, page 326
Tharlarion, Rock
A small, six-toed reptile of the south.
...or with the tiny, six-toed rock tharlarin of southern Torvaldsland, favored for their legs and tails, which are speared by children.
Marauders of Gor, page 152
Tharlarion, Water; Tiny
Described as not much more than 'teeth and tail', this tiny scavenger follows in the wake of the larger water tharlarion and is not more than 6 inches long. It inhabits the marshes.
Immediately following I saw the water seem to glitter for a moment, a rain of yellowish streaks beneath the surface, in the wake of the water tharlarion, doubtless its swarm of scavengers, tiny water tharlarion, about six inches long, little more than teeth and tail.
Raiders of Gor, page 1
Turtle, Vosk
Can grow to be gigantic, these animals are carnivorous, aggressive and persistent. Can be difficult to kill.
It might, too, be a Vosk turtle. Some of them are gigantic, almost impossible to kill, persistent, carnivorous.
Nomads of Gor, page 204
Ul
winged, monstrous, hissing, predatory tharlarion, found flying over the deltas surrounding Port Kar. This reptile has a 25-foot wing span and a long, snakelike tail, terminating with a flat spade like structure.
Only one creature in the marshes dares to outline itself against the sky, the predatory Ul, the winged tharlarion.
Raiders of Gor, page 1
water lizards
lizards, that inhabit the swamps near Ar.
"...there was a stirring in the water, and I realized the small water lizards of the swamp forest were engaged in their grisly work. I bent down and washed the blade of my sword as well as I could in the green water, but my tunic was so splattered and soaked that I had no way to dry blade. Accordingly, carrying the sword in my hand, I waded back to the foot of the swamp tree and climbed the small, dry knoll at its base."
Tarnsman of Gor, pgs. 85-86
These are still weaving into the rest of the animals…..
Toos - a crab-like organism with overlapping plating; inhabits the Nest and scavenges on discarded fungus spores
Carp (Vosk Carp)
found in the Delta of the vosk
Raiders of Gor pg 1
"...turning as it made a swift strike, probably a Vosk carp or marsh turtle."
Raiders of Gor, page 1
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Cosian Wingfish
"...I heard the mating whistles of the tiny, lovely Cosian wingfish. This is a small, delicate fish; it has three of four slender spines in its dorsal fins, which are poisonous. It is called the wingfish because it can, on its stiff pectoral fins, for short distances, glide through the air, usually in an attempt to flee small sea thalarion, who are immune to the poisonous spines. It is also called a songfish, because, in their courtship rituals, males and females thrust their head from the water, uttering a kind of whistle."
Raiders of Gor, page 139
" 'Now this,' Saphrar the merchant was telling me, 'is the braised liver of the blue, four-spired Cosian wingfish.'
This fish is a tiny, delicate fish, blue, about the size of a tarn disk when curled in one's hand; it has three or four slender spines in its dorsal fin, which are poisonous; it is capable of hurling itself from the water and, for brief distances, on its stiff pectoral fins, gliding through the air, usually to evade the smaller sea-tharlarions, which seem to be immune to the poison of the spines. This fish is also some times referred to as the songfish because, as a portion of its courtship rituals, the males and females thrust their heads from the water and utter a sort of whistling sound. The blue, four-spired wingfish is found only in the waters of Cos. Larger varieties are found farther out to sea. The small blue fish is regarded as a great delicacy, and its liver as the delicacy of delicacies."
Nomads of Gor, pages 84-85
*
Gull (Vosk Gull)
" 'Those are Vosk gulls,' said Kamchak, 'In the spring, when the ice breaks in the Vosk, they fly north.' "
Nomads of Gor, page 137
Parsit Fish
A small, silvery striped fish commonly used (cut up and raw) in the bond-maid gruel of Torvordsland. It is also salted or dried and sold to more southern cities.
"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."
Marauders of Gor, page 27
"The men with the net drew it up. In it, twisting and flopping, silverish, striped with brown, squirmed more than a stone of parsit fish. They threw the net to the planking and, with knives, began to slice the heads and tails from the fish."
Marauders of Gor, page 61
"The men of Torvoldsland are skilled with their hands. Trade to the south, of course is largely in furs acquired from Torvoldsland, and in barrels of smoked, dried parsit fish."
Marauders of Gor, page 28
"The men who had fished with the net had now cleaned the catch of parsit fish, and chopped the cleaned, boned, silverish bodies into pieces, a quarter inch in width. Another of the bond-maids was then freed to mix the bond-maid gruel, mixing fresh water with Sa-Tarna meal, and then stirring in the raw fish."
Marauders of Gor, pages 63-64
*
Qualae
Three-toed, dun colored mammals with stiff brushy manes of black hair.
"I saw what I first thought was a shadow, but as the tarn passed, it scattered into a scampering flock of tiny creatures, probably the small, three-toed mammals called qualae, dun-colored and with a stiff, brushy mane of black hair."
Tarnsman of Gor, page 141
"...and these are often used for hunting light game, such as the brush-maned, three-toed Qualae,..."
Raiders of Gor, page 4
*
Rennels
Poisonous, crab-like desert insects.
"...that once an army of a thousand wagons turned aside because a swarm of rennels, poisonous, crablike desert insects, did not defend its broken nest..."
Nomads of Gor, page 27
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*
Slime Worm
"We had not walked far when we passed a long, wormlike animal, eyeless, with a small red mouth, that inched its way along the corridor, hugging the angle between the wall and the floor....
'What do you call it?' I asked.
'Oh,' said one of the slaves, 'it is a Slime Worm.'...
'It scavenges on the kills of the Golden Beetle...' "
Priest-Kings of Gor, pages 105-106
Sorp (Vosk Sorp)
A shellfish, oyster-like
"Ho-Hak looked at the man who wore the headband of pearls of the Vosk sorp."
Raiders of Gor, page 21
"He sat upon a giant shell of the Vosk sorp, as on a sort of throne, which for these people, I gather it was."
Raiders of Gor, page 14
"Her hair was blond and straight, tied behind her with a ribbon of blue wool, from the bounding Hurt, dyed in the blood of the Vosk sorp."
Marauders of Gor, pages 1-2
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*
Tabuk
Two varieties inhabit Gor; the smaller yellow tabuk of the plains, and the larger Northern Tabuk. Both are hunted for meat and hides.
"They were northern tabuk, massive, tawny and swift; many of them ten hands at the shoulder, a quite different animal from the small, yellow-pelted antelope-like quadruped of the south. On the other hand, they too were distinguished by the single horn of the tabuk. On these animals, however, that object, in swirling ivory, was often, at its base, some two and one half inches in diameter, and better than a yard in length. A charging tabuk, because of the swiftness of its reflexes, is quite a dangerous animal."
Beasts of Gor, page 152
"Gripped in the talons of the tarn was the dead body of an antelope, one of the one-horned, yellow antelopes called tabuks that frequent the bright Ka-la-na thickets of Gor."
Tarnsman of Gor, page 145
"At the end of the wall, Inmak wept, seeing the strewn fields of slaughtered tabuk. The fur and hide of the tabuk provides the red hunters not only with clothing, but it can also be used for blankets, sleeping bags and other articles...Too, they may be used for buckets and tents, and for kayaks, the light narrow hunting canoes of skin from which sea mammals may be sought. Lashings, harpoon lines, cords and threads can be fashioned from its sinews. Carved, the bone and horn of the animal can function as arrow points, needles, thimbles, chisels, wedges, and knives. It's fat and bone marrow can be used as fuel. Too, almost all of the animal is edible."
Beasts of Gor, pages 169-170
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*
Ul
A predatory, winged thalarion, pterodactyl-like
"Only one creature in the marshes dares to outline itself against the sky, the predatory Ul, the winged thalarion."
Raiders of Gor, page 1
"Also, at night, crossing the bright disks of Gor's three moon, might ocassionally be seen the silent, predatory shadow of the ul, a giant pterodactyl ranging far from its native swamps in the delta of the Vosk."
Outlaw of Gor, page 26
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Armored Gatch
a marsupial mammal that inhabits the rainforests inland of Schendi.
On the floor itself are also found several varieties of animal life, in particular marsupials, such as the armored gatch, and rodents, such as slees and ground urts.
Explorers of Gor, page 312
Kaiila, Desert
also known as sand kaiila; this omnivorous animal is related to the southern kaiila and similar in most aspects barring pelt color and rearing of young; pelt color is tawny or black and young are suckled for a length of time. The men of the Tahari Desert use this mount. Its milk can be drunk, it is reddish and salty due to the amount of ferrous sulfate within it.
The sand kaiila, or desert kaiila, is a kaiila, and handles similarly, but it is not identically the same animal which is indigenous, domestic and wild, in the middle latitudes of Gor's southern hemisphere; that animal, used as a mount by the Wagon Peoples, is not found in the Northern hemisphere of Gor; there is obviously a phylogenetic affinity between the two varieties, or species; I conjecture, though I do not know, that the sand kaiila is a desert-adapted mutation of the subequatorial stock; both animals are lofty, proud, silken creatures, long-necked and smooth-gaited; both are triply lidded, the third lid being a transparent membrane, of great utility in the blasts of the dry storms of the southern plains or the Tahari; both creatures are comparable in size, ranging from some twenty to twenty-two hands at the shoulder; both are swift; both have incredible stamina; under ideal conditions both can range six hundred pasangs in a day; in the dune country, of course, in the heavy, sliding sands, a march of fifty pasangs is considered good; both, too, I might mention are high-strung, vicious-tempered animals; in pelt the southern kaiila ranges from a rich gold to black; the sand kaiila, on the other hand, are almost all tawny, though I have seen some black sand kaiila; differences, some of them striking and important, however, exist between the animals; most notably, perhaps, the sand kailla suckles its young; the southern kaiila are viviparous, but the young, within hours after birth, hunt by instinct; the mother delivers the young in the vicinity of game; whereas there is game in the Tahari, birds, small mammals, an occasional sand sleen, and some species of tabuk, it is rare; the suckling of the young in the sand kaiila is a valuable trait in the survival of the animal; kaiila milk, which is used, like verr milk, by the peoples of the Tahari, is reddish, and has a strong, salty taste; it contains much ferrous sulfate; a similar difference between the two animals, or two sorts of kaiila, is that the sand kaiila is omnivorous, whereas the southern kaiila is strictly carnivorous; both have storage tissues; if necessary, both can go several days without water; the southern kaiila also, however, has a storage stomach and can go several days without meat; the sand kaiila, unfortunately, must feed more frequently; some of the pack animals in a caravan are used in carrying fodder; whatever is needed, and is not available enroute, must be carried; sometimes, with a mounted herdsman, caravan kaiila are released to hunt tabuk; a more trivial difference between the sand kaiila and the southern kaiila is that the paws of the sand kaiila are much broader, the digits even webbed with leathery fibers, and heavily padded, than those of its southern counterpart.
Tribesmen of Gor, page 71
Kaiila, Southern
large (20-22 hands) carnivorous mammal with long neck and silky fur; its eyes have 3 lids; is viviparous has incredible stamina (capable of covering 600 in a day) and can be domesticated for riding in spite of its vicious temper. It has a rich gold to black pelt. The kaiila is a mammal, but there is no suckling of the young, who begin hunt within hours of birth.
The mount of the Wagon Peoples, unknown in the northern hemisphere of Gor, is the terrifying but beautiful kaiila. It is a silken, carnivorous, lofty creature, graceful, long-necked, smooth-gaited. It is viviparous and undoubtedly mammalian, though there is no suckling of the young. The young are born vicious and by instinct, as soon as they can struggle to their feet, they hunt. It is an instinct of the mother, sensing the birth, to deliver the young animal in the vicinity of game. I suppose, with domesticated kaiila, a bound verr or a prisoner might be cast to the newborn animal. The kaiila, once it eats its fill, does not touch food for several days.
The kaiila is extremely agile, and can easily outmaneuver the slower, more ponderous high tharlarion. It requires less food, of course, than the tarn. A kaiila, which normally stands about twenty to twenty-two hands at the shoulder, can cover as much as six hundred pasangs in a single day's riding.
The head of the kaiila bears two large eyes, one on each side, but these eyes are triply lidded, probably an adaptation to the environment which occasionally is wracked by severe storms of wind and dust; the adaptation, actually a transparent third lid, permits the animal to move as it wishes under conditions that force other prairie animals to back into the wind or, like the sleen, to burrow into the ground. The kaiila is most dangerous under such conditions, and, as if it knew this, often uses such times for its hunt.
Nomads of Gor, page 13
Kailiauk, Barrens
gigantic, dangerous beast that stands 20-25 hands at the shoulder and weighing as much as 4,000 lbs., they migrate across the Barrens in massive herds, hunted by Red Savages and those who trade in their hides. They have a trident horn.
The kailiauk in question, incidentally, is the kailiauk of the Barrens. It is a gigantic, dangerous beast, often standing from twenty to twenty-five hands at the shoulder and weighing as much as four thousand pounds. It is almost never hunted on foot except in deep snow, in which it is almost helpless. From kaiilaback, riding beside the stampeded animal, however, the skilled hunter can kill one with a single arrow. He rides close to the animal, not a yard from its side, just outside the hooking range of the trident, to supplement the striking power of his small bow. At this range the arrow can sink in to the feathers. Ideally it strikes into the intestinal cavity behind the last rib, producing large-scale internal hemorrhaging, or closely behind the left shoulder blade, thence piercing the eight-valved heart.
Savages of Gor, page 40
Kailiauk, Forest
four-legged wide-headed, lumbering, stocky ruminants, described as short trunked and tawny. The males have 3 trident-like horns, with brown and reddish bars on the haunches. The males are 400 to 500 Gorean stone (1600-2000lbs) and are 10 hands at the shoulder. The females are 8 hands and weigh 300 - 400 Gorean stone (1200-1600 lbs.). Their horns and tooled hides are major exports of the port of Schendi.
Kailauk are four-legged, wide-headed, lumbering stocky ruminants. Their herds are usually found in the Savannah's and plains north and south of the rain forests, but some herds feruent the forests as well. These animals are short trunked and tawny. They commonly have brown and reddish bars on the haunches. The males, tridentlike, have three horns. These horns bristle from their foreheads. The males are usually about ten hands at the shoulders and the females about eight hands. The males average about four hundred to five hundred Gorean stone in weight, some sixteen hundred to two thousand pounds, and the females average about three to four hundred Gorean stone in weight, some twelve hundred to sixteen hundred pounds.
Explorers of Gor, page 93
Kailiauk, Prairie
short-trunked, stocky, awkward ruminant of the plains. Their color is tawny with haunches marked in red and brown bars. Their wide heads bear a trident horn. They instinctively circle when resting, their females and young protected within.
Even past me there thundered a lumbering herd of startled, short-trunked kailiauk, a stocky, awkward ruminant of the plains, tawny, wild, heavy, their haunches marked in red and brown bars, their wide heads bristling with a trident of horns; they had not stood and formed their circle, shes and young within the circle of tridents.
Nomads of Gor, page 2
Nar - Swamp spider
Quala
(pl. qualae) tiny, three-toed mammal, dun-colored with a stiff, brushy mane of black hair.
Near one of the green stretches I saw what I first thought was a shadow, but as the tarn passed, it scattered into a scampering flock of tiny creatures, probably the small, three-toed mammals called qualae, dun-colored and with a stiff brushy mane of black hair.
Tarnsman of Gor, page 141
Sea Sleen
Vart
carnivorous; a small, sharp-toothed mammal that flies in flocks. Raised on Tyros in vart caves to be used as weapons.
Perhaps most I dreaded those nights filled with the shrieks of the vart pack, a blind, batlike swarm of flying rodents, each the size of a small dog, They could strip a carcass in a matter of minutes, each carrying back some fluttering ribbon of flesh to the recesses of whatever dark cave the swarm had chosen for its home. Moreover, some vart packs were rabid.
Outlaw of Gor, page 26
Vart, Brown
carnivorous animals that rest clinging upside down on branches.
I could, however, recognize a row of brown varts, clinging upside down like large matted fists of teeth and fur and leather on the heavy, bare, scarred branch in their case. I saw bones, perhaps human bones, in the bottom of their case.
Priest Kings of Gor, page 191
Verr
a mountain goat indigenous to the Voltai Mountains; wild, agile, ill-tempered with long hair and spiraling horns; source of a form of wool; its milk is potable as well as being used for cheese. Its meat is sometimes eaten by men.
The verr was a mountain goat indigenous to the Voltai. It was a wild, agile, ill-tempered beast, long-haired and spiral-horned. Among the Voltai crags it would be worth one's life to come within twenty yards of one.
Priest-Kings of Gor, page 63
Zeder
a small, sleen-like, carnivorous mammal that inhabits the Ua River area. It grows to about 2 feet in length, and weighs 8-10 lbs. It is diurnal can swim very well, and builds a stick and mud nest in the branches of a tree where it spends the night.
There is, however, a sleenlike animal, though much smaller, about two feet in length and some eight to ten pounds in weight, the zeder, which requents the Ua and her tributaries. It knifes through the water by day and, at night, returns to its nest, built from sticks and mud in the branches of a tree overlooking the water.
Explorers of Gor, page 312
YELLOW POOL MONSTER
This was a bizarre creature so far unique to the city of Turia. Its origins are unknown. The merchant, Saphrar, has this creature in an indoor pool area. The room is hot and steamy. This may mean that this creature comes form the jungles near Schendi. The creature occupied an entire inground pool area. At first glance, it looks like a pool of yellow water that sparkles as though filled with gems . But, it is much more. It apparently breathes by releasing gases or steam. It also contains filamentous strands and spheres of color.
The creature can thicken and gel around someone within it. A victim's flesh will tingle and burn due to the corrosive elements within the creature. Saphrar would place men into the pool and the victims would find themselves unable to escape the creature and they would slowly be killed. It might take hours for a victim to be fully digested by this beast. A few men have lived as long as three hours. Slashing or cutting it generally does no harm to it. But, it has a collection of threads and granules in a transparent bag, imbedded in a darkish yellow jelly.
This is walled off by a translucent membrane. This area is vulnerable to attack and it reacts violently when this area is threatened. It may then solidify and push out someone irritating until you are standing on its now hard outer shell. Attacking it's darkish bag will cause a person to be expelled.
It can also be burned to death.
Priest-King (noun): the Earth translation of the Gorean term ‘Sardar;’ golden insect-like creatures about a yard wide and almost eighteen feet tall with six legs and globe-like head. Keepers of the Sacred Place in the Sardar Mountains. (Book 3: Priest Kings of Gor, page 75)
Priest-King’s egg (noun): the last egg of the Mother sought by Tarl Cabot as an agent of the Priest-Kings so that they might replenish their race and keep it from extinction. It was found in plain sight, a gray, squarish, grained, leathery object in the wagon of the Tuchuk Ubar San, Kamchak.
