Civitatis Ar, Plus!

Avenues / Streets / Districts

Avenue of Turia

"You might try the Ally of the Slave Brothels of Ludmilla. That is behind the Avenue of Turia."
"What?" I said.
"For lodging," he said.
"Oh," I said.
"Do you know where it is?" he asked.
"I know where the Avenue of Turia is," I said. It is named for the city in the southern hemisphere, incidentally, doubtless as a gesture of amicability on the part of Ar. Stately Tur trees, appropriately enough, line its walks. It is a broad avenue with fountains. It is well known for its exclusive shops. "It is in the vicinity of the Street of Brands."  MERCENARIES OF GOR-, (21) Page 267

"This way," I said. We could go south on the Avenue of the Central Cylinder, some four or five pasangs, and then make a left on Wagon Street, taking it over to the Avenue of Turia. Somewhere in that vicinity, probably in the lower end of the avenue, somewhere in the Street of Brands district, was the Alley of the Slave Brothels of Ludmilla. I would have to ask directions once we were on the Avenue of Turia. I did not doubt but what we could quickly find such an area. It sounded as though it would not be unknown.
"What is the name of the place?" asked Boabissia.
"The Alley of the Slave Brothels of Ludmilla," I said.
"I do not like the sound of that," said Boabissia.
"I do not think it sounds bad," I said.
"No," said Hurtha.  MERCENARIES OF GOR-, (21) Page 272

"Where is this house?" I asked.
"It is not far, Master," said Feiqa.
"That is interesting," I said.
"There are some fine houses in this district," said Hurtha, "particularly over several blocks. We saw some yesterday."
"True," I said. Ar, as many cities, sometimes had rather contrasting neighborhoods in surprising proximity to one another. For example, the Avenue of Turia, nearby, was one of the finest streets I Ar. Yet, behind it, reached by a crevice between some buildings, only a walk of some two or three Ehn away, was the Alley of the Slave Brothels of Ludmilla.  MERCENARIES OF GOR-, (21) Page 293

"It was wrought in Turia," she said. I found that easy to believe. It had the Tur tree, emblem of Turia, in the southern hemisphere, on the porcelain stone. Too, I knew such rings were manufactured in Turia. Indeed, I had even seen them there. Rings of this design, however, though perhaps not of this purpose, were rare in Ar, in the northern hemisphere. Most fellows of Ar would not recognize the ring, or suspect its purpose. She had probably purchased it in an import shop on the Avenue of Turia, which was nearby. To be sure, perhaps the setting was solid, and not hollow. Many rings of this appearance are totally innocent.  MERCENARIES OF GOR-, (21) Page 356

I pulled my captive around and between buildings, and emerged onto the street called the Alley of the Slave Brothels of Ludmilla, and then I went between more buildings and emerged on the Avenue of Turia. This is a splendid avenue, and there are many shops on it. There I put my captive on her knees, her back to a slave ring, fixed in a wall a foot or so above the level of the pavement. I then slipped the extra binding fiber dangling from her wrists, that with which I had earlier tied her ankles up behind her, to her wrists, through the ring and then crossed her ankles and knotted it securely about them. Once again then were her wrists fastened to her ankles, though she was this time secured as well to a slave ring.
"This is a very busy street," I said, "though it does not seem so at this hour. Doubtless you will soon attract your share of attention. Doubtless some of the customers of the Tunnels will recognize you. You may consider what you will say to guardsmen, to explain your presence here. You might consider in particular how to explain to them the meaning of the tarsk bit on your belly. But then they may be familiar with such things, and their meanings."  MERCENARIES OF GOR-, (21) Page 400

She looked at me, suddenly. "This is the Alley of the Slave Brothels of Ludmilla," she said. "Escort me at least back to the Avenue of Turia."
"Very well," I said.
She then led the way back across the street, to the opening between the buildings, one of several which joined the Avenue of Turia, in this section, with the Alley of the Slave Brothels of Ludmilla. She walked well before me. A few yards into the passageway, which was winding, and about a hundred yards long, with some side passages, she stopped, and turned, and faced me.  MERCENARIES OF GOR-, (21) Page 407

She then preceded me from the back passage, into the larger passage, running between the buildings, leading to the Avenue of Turia. She did walk well. I wondered why I had decided to accompany her to her dwelling. I was not certain about the matter. Surely she could have found her way there safely, and particularly now, in the full daylight. I did have extra binding fiber in my pouch.
On the Avenue of Turia, to the left, we saw a small crowd. "Wait," I said. "Let us investigate that." We went a bit closer. Then, between people, we saw the hostess from the Tunnels. She was still on her knees, tied to the slave ring. Though it must have been the tenth Ahn, she had not yet been released. Her head was down. Much, I gathered, had she been suitably mocked. "Look, Mother," said a child. "She is naked!"
"Come away," said the mother.
"I know her," said a man. "She is from the Tunnels."
"Look," said another fellow, "she has a tarsk bit tied on her belly!"
"Yes!" laughed another. I did not think that that free woman would be likely to return to her work at the Tunnels. That sort of thing, I thought, was behind her. I did not think that she would be any longer wearing leather. Other garmentures would now be more appropriate for her, I speculated, such as tiny rags of rep-cloth or brief tunics of silk, bound with girdlings of binding fiber, and perhaps, about her neck, closed closely about it and locked shut, a graceful ornament of steel, a slave collar.
"Let us continue on our way," I said.
"Yes, Master," said the blonde.
She then took her way in the opposite direction, which would have been to the right, as we had emerged between the buildings. Behind her I was in an excellent position to see the looks she received, which were many, the admiring glances, the intakes of breath, the sudden delights at seeing such a female. To be sure, she walked well. She did belong in a collar, I thought. I put the binding fiber in my pouch from my mind. I must not think of it. She was a free woman. Yet, to be sure, she was desirable and exciting, and should be a slave.
"It is here," she said, after a long walk.
"In that tower?" I asked. We were on one of the lower bridges.
"Yes," she said.
It seemed to soar to the clouds.
"You must be wealthy," I said. We were in one of Ar's finest residential districts, that of the seventeen Tabidian Towers.
She shrugged.
"Quite wealthy," I said.  MERCENARIES-, (21) Pages 425-426

We were walking in the Metellan district, and then turned east toward the Avenue of Turia. Phoebe was heeling Marcus.
This morning, some Ahn before dawn, a convoy of wagons had rattled past our lodgings in the Metallan district, in the insula of Torbon on Demetrios Street. Our room, like many in an insula, had no window, but I had gone to the hall and thrust back the shutters of a window there, overlooking the street. Below, guided here and there by lads, with lanterns, were the wagons. There had been a great many of them. Demetrios Street, like most Gorean streets, like no sidewalks or curbs but sloped gently from both sides to a central gutter. The lads with the lanterns, their light casting dim yellow pools here and there on the walls and paving stones, performed an important function. Without some such illumination it is only too easy to miss a turn or gouge a wall with an axle. Marcus had joined me after a time. The wagons were covered with canvas, roped down. It was not the first such convoy which we had seen in the past weeks.
"Well," Marcus had asked, "what is being borne?"
"Who knows?" I had asked.
He laughed.  MAGICIANS OF GOR-, (25) Page 102

In a few Ehn we were on the Avenue of Turia, one of the major avenues in Ar. It is lined with Tur trees.  MAGICIANS OF GOR-, (25) Page 104

We then left the Avenue of Turia and were once again on a side street. Many Gorean streets, incidentally, do not have specific names, particularly from one end to the other, some being known by one designation here and another there. Indeed, sometimes a long, winding street will have several names, depending on its turns and so on. Others may have no names really, in themselves, but are referred to, for example, as the street on which Sabor has his smithy, and so on. This becomes more intelligible if one thinks of "alleys." For example, alleys seldom have names. So, too, many Gorean streets, particularly those that are smaller and much like alleys, may not have names. One may usually hire a lad from the district to direct inquiries of fellows in the area. In such inquiries, the male will normally speak to a male, and the female to a female. This has to do not only with matters of propriety, enshrined in Gorean custom, but also with common-sense security measures. For example, a woman would not wish to seem forward, nor, in effect, to be calling herself to the attention of a strange male, which can be dangerous on Gor, and a woman, a free woman, might be well advised not to respond to the accostings of a strange male. He might even be a slaver, or a slaver's man, interested in seeing if she had a pleasing voice, one suitable for a slave. Similarly if she responds to a strange male this may be taken as evidence that she is eager to please a man and obey, two attributes which suggest her readiness, even immediately, for his collar. One may, of course, make such inquiries of slave girls. In such a case they are expected to kneel immediately, being in the presence of a free man, or person, and be as helpful as possible. It is desirable, incidentally, for the girls of a district to know the district well, in case they are asked for directions and such. If they do not know the information desired, it is sensible on their part to keep their head very low, even to the stones, or even to belly to the interlocutor. This may save them a cuffing or kick. This street, however, had a name. It was Harness Street, apparently so called from long ago when it was once a locale of several harness makers. The harness makers are members of the caste of leather workers. The "harness makers" on Gor, provide not just harnesses but an entire line of associated products, such as saddles, bridles, reins, hobblings and tethers. Presumably the harness makers on this street would not have dealt in slave harnesses. That product would have been more likely to have been, as it still was, available on the "Street of Brands," a district in which are found many of the houses of slavers, sales barns, sales arenas, holding areas, boarding accommodations, training facilities, and shops dealing with product lines pertinent to slaves, such as collars, cosmetics, jewelry, perfumes, slave garb, chains, binding fiber and disciplinary devices. In such a district one may have a girl's septum or ears pierced. There are many varieties of slave harness, incidentally, with various purposes, such as discipline, display and security. Many of them are extremely lovely on a woman, and many, by such adjustments as cinching, tightening, and buckling, may be fitted closely and exquisitely to the individual slave.  MAGICIANS OF GOR-, (25) Pages 108-109

"Four soldiers were found murdered this morning," said the officer, "off the Avenue of Turia. The delka was found there, too."  MAGICIANS OF GOR-, (25) Page 185

This afternoon, on the Avenue of Turia, a cart, putatively carrying the records of the veterans of the delta, supposedly on its way from the house of records to the war office in the Central Cylinder, had been surrounded by a group of youths, crying out against the veterans of the delta, almost as if it had been months ago, a time in which there had been several abusive demonstrations against the delta veterans, whose crime seemed to be that they had been loyal to the Home Stone and that they had been so foolish as to have served Ar, and suffered for her, in the north. Those demonstrations, of course, had been instigated at the behest of Cos, and carefully planned and organized by Cosian agents. Such demonstrations, in spite of the apparent beliefs of many of their participants, do not somehow materialize by magic, in response to some requirement of appropriateness. They are structured events, serving certain purposes. In brief, however, these lads, some dozens of them, had surrounded the cart and its guards, screaming out reproaches against the delta veterans, spitting on the records, and such. The guards, I think, Cosians, were not certain how to respond to the demonstration. They tried to push back the youths, but their lines were crowded through, while they themselves were being greeted as friends and brothers, saluted as allies and hailed as heroes. Soon one or two youths, seemingly overcome with hatred, had leaped upon the records, and were tearing them apart and hurling them to the gathered crowd. In another moment a torch had been brought. Marcus and I, knowing the movement was to take place, and, indeed, it had been on the public boards, had come to watch. Men drew swords but the officer restrained them. The papers had then been burned and the youths had withdrawn in triumph, singing songs to the glory of Cos. I had recognized the first youth to spring upon the cart. It had been he who, some days before, had cut the defiant delka deeply into one of the public boards on the Avenue of the Central Cylinder.
"Those are brave lads," I had said to Marcus later.
"But surely," he said, "the destroyed papers were not the records of the delta veterans."
"No," I said. "They would have been moved secretly."
"What was the purpose of all this?" asked Marcus.
"Many associate the veterans of the delta with the Delta Brigade," I said. "This was undoubtedly a trap set by Seremides. In pretending to move the records, records from which the identities of the delta veterans might be obtained, to a place of safer keeping, he hoped to lure an attack by the Delta Brigade. Certainly there were many guards, near the cart, far more than one might expect, and there were a great many others, if I am not mistaken, in the crowd, in plain garments, with concealing cloaks. They moved, at any rate, with the cart."  MAGICIANS OF GOR-, (25) Pages 238-239
 

Kudos to you, Mr. Norman for writing the Gorean series!
A rich, yet utterly simple saga; a world, a time, a people;
those of the Counter-Earth .. the planet .. Gor.
Thank you!

The material presented herein was researched and compiled by me, naia{Saul}.
The material referenced comes from John Norman's Gor Series, The Counter-Earth Saga.
This is a work in process.
Please, do not take, copy, duplicate, or use this work as your own.
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