To that end, there are no fully safe zones anywhere in our room or subrooms. Instead, the relative "safety" of any location is represented by two different labels:
- Limited Safe Zones - areas where killing and collaring are not permitted, save with the out-of-character consent of the would-be victim. Capture is permitted, but without the out-of-character consent of the victim, the captive must be immediately turned over to the control of Room Management. This includes starting a thread on the Judgements board with the details of the capture; this is the responsibility of the captor, not the captive. How this is represented in-character (caging, arrest by the city guard, etc.) should be determined logically based on the location and circumstances, but no injury or permanent change to the character may take place during this roleplay. Room Management will determine permanent outcomes or consequences of the capture, if any.
- Kill/Capture/Collar Zones - areas where killing, collaring, and capturing are not restricted or limited. No character may be forced to leave a Limited Safe Zone and enter a Kill/Capture/Collar Zone without their out-of-character consent.
- City Goreans (and their property) - i.e. those of the cities, those with castes, Turians, Kargashi, visiting Arians, etc. In the Plains of Turia main room, pulldowns in Turia or the Turian Plateau (being within sight of the city's walls, and thus under its protection) are considered Limited Safe Zones for City Goreans. In the Great Southern Plains subroom, pulldowns in the Ta-Thassa Mountains and Kargash regions, as well as the settlements of Kasra and Tor, are considered Limited Safe Zones for City Goreans.
- Wagon People (and their property) - i.e. those of the wagons, those with clans, Tuchuks, Kassars, Kataii, and Paravaci. In the Great Southern Plains subroom, the Kassar/Kataii/Paravaci/Tuchuk Wagons and the Omen Valley pulldowns are considered Limited Safe Zones for Wagon People.
- Others - i.e. anyone not in the first two groups, talunas, outlaws, barenecks, etc. All pulldowns are considered Kill/Capture/Collar Zones for characters from these groups. Neither dominant culture accepts or protects them.
Examples
Given that captures, collars and death are among the largest sources of drama and dispute in Gorean roleplay, I figure a handful of common examples might help everyone figure out how to navigate most situations. If you're still unclear, my Discord and PMs are always open.
- A Turian free woman is in a Turian paga den
This is a classic, and applies to basically any "behaving inappropriately" situation. The woman is a city gorean, and she's in a city. Therefore she's in a Limited Safe Zone and no one can just collar her for her "crime." Remember, if the typist wants to be collared? Game on, no need to involve anyone. Otherwise, she ought to be captured and turned over to Room Management on the Judgements board. To be clear, men are absolutely encouraged to roleplay out the capture and assert their "right" to collar the woman (without actually doing it). Out-of-Character: I'll look at the Judgement and decide if the capture/proposed collar is warranted. In-character: The appropriate magistrate or city official will either overturn the capture or validate it. - A bareneck slave, anywhere
Another classic. Barenecks are classified as "other" which means they aren't safe anywhere, which is pretty straightforward. The more common issue here tends to be someone insisting they aren't a slave/bareneck, while absolutely presenting as a slave (though av, tags, roleplay, etc.) without a collar. I suspect this is more likely to happen with newcomers, rather than established members of our community. Use your best judgement - but I will say that I'm not a fan of taking advantage of someone who may not know better. That's a great way to make someone never want to come back to Gor, and the Gorean community has gotten small enough thank you. - Two Turian free men get into a fight in the city
Both men are in a Limited Safe Zone, basically taking death off the table unless both men consent to an outright death spar. From an in-character perspective? Two men brawling or fighting probably isn't a super rare occurrence in a Gorean city, and the guards don't care - but if they start trying to murder one another? The guards will step in. Also, even if both parties do consent to a death spar? Killing someone on a city street is going to result in at least inquiries from the guards, if not arrest. There are no laws beyond the walls - inside the walls is a different story. - Two free men, one Turian and one of the wagons, get into a fight before the city gates
This is an interesting one. As they're technically 'within Turia' the Turian FM is in a Limited Safe Zone (and thus can't be killed without his consent), while the Wagons FM is in a Kill/Capture/Collar Zones (and thus can be killed, regardless of his OOC feelings). It's not fair, but life often isn't - the guards on the walls won't care if their fellow citizen kills an enemy (the wagon man), while they're not about to stand idly by while some nomad kills one of their fellows. This goes both ways - a man of each culture fighting at the wagons puts the Turian man in greater danger. - Assassins
In all likelihood, a full-blown rule or policy on the Black Caste will be forthcoming at some point in the future. Currently they receive no special considerations: meaning in a Limited Safe Zone, an Assassin is incapable of killing a character who doesn't consent to it OOC. Meaning the assassin will need to catch their target out in the open, lure them out, set an ambush, something. The Black Caste actually need to put the work in here. - A free chooses to execute a slave that they own
This is a hard one, because our attitudes regarding consent smash right into Gor as it is presented in the books. An owner has every right (within the fiction) to kill his/her own slave, the books are very clear about it. And it remains true. From our perspective, playing a character in another person's collar effectively is consenting to let that other person have a substantial amount of narrative control over your own character. (And yes, maybe you were captured against your will, but if you were in an unsafe zone then going there was a form of consenting to the consequences of roleplay that might take place in that unsafe zone, etc.) Which means an owner may kill his or her own slave anywhere, including Limited Safe Zones. That said, anyone contemplating such an act would do well to re-read our ((anti-bullying rules)), as well as contemplate how important that specific act is to them (as opposed to selling a slave that has displeased them). Killing someone else's character is not something we ever regard as a minor occurrence within our community.