Introductions, Disclaimers and the Boring Stuff (Comments here please)

This is a FanFic blog focusing on the books of John Norman, The Saga of Gor.  The story told within the pages to come is an on-going story, being built via Role Play (RP) on Second Life (SL).  The two main characters of this particular blog are Alesandro (Alex Lavendel) and Rowena (rowan Held).

Consider this your "adult content warning" - if you are not familiar with Gor, you should be aware that it is a harsh world, a counter-earth, in which the institution of slavery is considered the norm.  Sex is a common and consistent theme within the books of Gor, as is the very clear exploration of the different nature of relationships that exist between a Free Man of Gor and a Free Woman of Gor, versus that of a Free Man and his slave(s).

The primary authors of this blog have a combined several decades of experience in this "alternative lifestyle", have read the books multiple times (yes, they really are quite tedious to get through, sadly) and a strong background in writing; both professional and amateur - creative writing, technical writing and human interest writing.   Together, theyy have an in-depth knowledge of the 'facts' of the books, as well as the interpretive understanding of what the books as individual stories say and what the totality of the entire Saga (34 books as of this posting) conveys.

Over the ensuing pages you will have posts of the role play telling the story as it unfolds as well as notecards that facilitate role play lines when real life (RL - that dreaded and awful thing that pulls us away from the world we wish we could live in) keeps the characters apart.  There will be thoughts from both characters, experiences told from the individual perspectives of the characters, RPs that are not always done "together" and any other possible combination of ways in which the two of us can tell the story we are creating.  Yes, this means posts will be done by both of the main characters and as any others join into the core group of RPers they too will have access to add to the story.  Whichever person is writing, will identify their postings by including their Character name (known as a display name in SL) and SL name (known as the legacy name in SL).

There may be pictures uploaded.  OK, there WILL be pictures uploaded; pictures taken in-world and relevant to the story, not porn.

Currently, the tale is unfolding in the SL Gor location of Athos - if you feel this story, the characters, or the setting created appeal to you and inspire you to seek us out and join the fun, please feel free to do so.  Our names in-world are:

Alesandro (Alex Lavendel)
Rowena (rowan Held)


Finally, because many things in this story make use of fictional terminology, we will have an on-going post in which we can update terminology you may come across in this blog.  You are welcome to email us if you have questions and one of us will try to respond in a timely fashion (be warned, we live in different locations and use the affiliated e-mail concurrently for the purpose of this blog - you might end up with duplicate responses!).


Alesandro and Rowena

About the writer behind Rowena:
I am a typical Midwestern woman.  I'm a mom, I have a professional career and I absolutely LOVE writing.

There are many who poke fun at "Goreans", in particular, those who are dedicated to sticking to the storylines of the book (By The Book - BTB).  To me?  John Norman created an alternate world with some very specific aspects and some very broad ones and I enjoy creating the story(ies) of a character within the parameters set forth in the books.  As I am fond of saying, you would not go to a sim in SL that was designed for fans of Star Wars and expect to be allowed to be there in the uniform of a Star Fleet Officer from Star Trek - the same goes with Gor.  Once you move beyond the principles within the book, you have so drastically altered it that it is no longer Gor, but something "evolved" (GE) or worse Disney (unrealistic, so far from the premise of the books that it can't even be considered GE).

Some Random Tidbits

If you are unfamiliar with Second Life (SL) and/or Role Play, there are some things to keep in mind.

Sometimes real life (RL) interferes with a roleplay (RP) scene.  This means there can be huge time breaks between events.  It also means, sometimes a specific scene will get put on hold and when the next RP scene picks up, it is a completely different scenario.  This is because SL "time" is set up to move on its own schedule; the SL time schedule every 3 hours is a complete 'daytime' cycle and 1 hour 'nighttime' cycle.  Meaning every 4 hours of RL time is equal to one single day in SL (so 6 days in a 24 hour period).  When you paragraph RP (Para, Para-RP), it can take several RL hours to get through a single scene, however.  This means you need to understand that 'days' pass much faster in SL, but an RP can take several hours RL - you sort of need to just 'go with the flow' on time frames and days, and when there are gaps or unexplained changes in an RP scene, attribute it to the implied passage of time.

If you are new to RP and/or SL and you feel you want to explore this world, there are some basic things to keep in mind (beyond familiarity with the concepts of Gor).  Common courtesy rules of RP include (but are not limited to):

1.  Turn taking RP

     This means there is usually some sort of post order to follow.  This does not work as well in large groups so some adaptability is necessary.

2.  Limit the Out of Character (OOC) conversation that takes place in local chat (the place where the RP is taking place).  If you need to clarify something, use the instant message (IM) feature.  Try to keep all the "welcome back" comments out of the scene, etc.

3.  Try to involve everyone present in a particular scene IN the RP.

     One of the biggest misconceptions currently taking place on Gor is that the slave characters, in the presence of the free people, were not involved in the conversations.  This results in many, if not most, free men and women, utterly ignoring those people who choose to RP as a slave character.  Remember, everyone is here to RP and have fun, when you do this, you make it not fun for this group of people.  In addition, this is not at all correct by the book (BTB).  Slaves were integral to everyday life on Gor.  They were sought after for their intelligence, and in particular the Masters sought to know every thought and feeling of a slave, the slave's intelligence was considered a prize and another part of the slave in which he owned.  If you think about it, it would make no sense at all to exclude these characters from almost any RP going on (and not relegating them to nothing but glorified waitresses in fetching food and drinks).  Plus it is just plain bad RP form to exclude or ignore another person who is there to take an active part in RP.

4.  Do not rapid-fire one line comments in a group RP that is semi to full para-RP.

     This is very disruptive and impedes the ability of all other characters to accurately respond to what is going on in the RP.  Condense your thoughts and create a single post that contains everything you want to say at that particular time.  Personally, I find using a notecard very beneficial as I can put my inital thoughts/reactions together, and as other people post their replies I can incorporate that into my current comment so that when it rolls around to my turn to post, I have it ready to go and have responded to at least one thing, if not all things, each other character has said or done.  Having it ready by writing as people are also posting has the added benefit of preventing 20 minute gaps between posts.