[14:02] Jarvis Quan: Let's see down and begin
[14:03] Jarvis Quan: Well today's class is the last in the series of nine we have for our scribe apprentices.
[14:04] Jarvis Quan: To quote my favorite teacher whose classes I enjoy very much. we are officially OOC but please act Gorean and this is informal, please break in with discussion and corrections.
[14:04] Jarvis Quan: And brownie points for catching me in an error.
[14:04] Jarvis Quan: I intend to do this class in two parts.
[14:04] Marci Torok chuckles
[14:04] Jarvis Quan: First I will cover what the homestone is, what it means, and something about the ceremonies.
[14:05] Jarvis Quan: I will then switch to the very practical aspects of the citizenship application process.
[14:05] Jarvis Quan: There was one Gorean city that was famous because it had no homestone. Does anyone know which one that was?
[14:06] Jarvis Quan: It was Port Kar
[14:06] Jarvis Quan: Anyone recall how Port kar got its homestone?
[14:06] Owen Landar is Online
[14:06] Jarvis Quan: Well Tarl said this:
[14:06] Jarvis Quan: "Go outside," I told him, "and find a rock, and bring it to me."
He looked at me.
"Hurry!" I said.
He turned about and ran from the room.
We waited quietly, not speaking, until he returned. He held in his hand a sizable rock, somewhat bigger than my fist. It was a common rock, not very large, and gray and heavy, granular in texture.
I took the rock.
"A knife," I said.
I was handed a knife.
I cut in the rock the initials, in block Gorean script, of Port Kar.
Then I held out in my hand the rock.
I held it up so that the men could see.
"What have I here?" I asked.
Tab said it, and quietly, "The Home Stone of Port Kar."
[14:07] Jarvis Quan: From this we learn that the homestone itself, a physical entity is nothing, just the most common kind of rock.
[14:07] Jarvis Quan: Yet for the Gorean it was also the single most important thing in his life because it was the representation of exactly who he was.
[14:07] Jarvis Quan: further down in the same quote we see the reaction of them when the homestone was declared.
[14:08] Jarvis Quan: And, suddenly, the room was filled with cheers and more than a hundred weapons left their sheaths and saluted the Home Stone of Port Kar. I saw weathered seamen weep and cry out, brandishing their swords. There was joy in that room then such as I had never before seen it. And there was a belonging, and a victory, and a meaningfulness, and cries, and the clashing of weapons, and tears and, in that instant, love.
[14:08] Jarvis Quan: What is a homestone?
[14:08] Jarvis Quan: It is identity.
[14:08] Jarvis Quan: all those men in the room on Port Kar knew Tarl merely scratched a common rock.
[14:08] Jarvis Quan: they saw him do it
[14:09] Jarvis Quan: Yet it became a symbol of who they were.
[14:09] Jarvis Quan: In Gorean law allegiances to a Home Stone, and not physical structures and locations, tend to define communities.
Blood Brothers of Gor, 474.
[14:09] Shayna Wulluf gave you New Note.
[14:09] Jarvis Quan: Community, which is everything in Gor is defined not by any stupid rock, but by allegience to the Homestone and what it means.
[14:09] Jarvis Quan: When Goreans meet a stranger they don't ask what is the man's name. What do they ask? What is your homestone.
[14:10] Owen Landar is Offline
[14:10] Jarvis Quan: What is your homestone and as soon as the homestone is declared you automatically know much about the man.
[14:10] Jarvis Quan: Part of the reason is each Homestone oath of allegiance is to each is unique depending on the community.
[14:10] Jarvis Quan: Take this quote: “Free People come from the conception of a child, between a free man and a free woman, but they may be born from the belly of a slave, by Tharnan law. In most cities, women must be free until the child is born, for the child to be considered free as well. Boys, as a portion of the Home Stone ceremony, swear an oath of mastery to never surrender the dominance which is rightfully theirs by nature.”
-Vagabonds of Gor, p 267
[14:10] Owen Landar is Online
[14:11] Jarvis Quan: This homestone allegiance includes a special part to deal with the past spoken by boys when they make oath
[14:11] Jarvis Quan: So if a man says he is of Tharna you know he will pay particular attention to not giving up male dominance as one example.
[14:11] Jarvis Quan: Each hovel, each building, each place any group called home had its homestone from the simplest peasant hovel to the grandest city like Ar.
[14:11] Jarvis Quan: The stones themselves were not likely to be jewel encrusted.
[14:12] Jarvis Quan: They were smaller, simpler, defined by history and not their value. Therefore Tarl of Cabot/Karoba could take the homestone of Ar and slip it easily into his saddlebag even though Ar was in the biggest and finest city in Gor.
[14:12] Jarvis Quan: The homestone defines the city.
[14:12] Jessie Nirvana is Offline
[14:12] Owen Landar is Offline
[14:12] Jarvis Quan: The city defines the man
[14:12] Jarvis Quan: The typical Gorean would be born in a city, grow up, come of age, swear allegance, and live in die in his city.
[14:12] Jarvis Quan: A gorean did not easily change cities.
[14:13] Brixton Canning is Online
[14:13] Jarvis Quan: I personally get very impatient in role play when someone says something like "Fine, if X and Y does or does not happen I am leaving."
[14:13] Jarvis Quan: Gorean did not pack up and leave their homestone because some slave pissed them off or they didn't like someone else in the city.
[14:13] Owen Landar is Online
[14:13] SnapDragon Tigerpaw grins.
[14:13] janette Inglewood is Online
[14:13] Jarvis Quan: And again another quote:
[14:13] spediye Chrome smiles
[14:13] Jarvis Quan: 'For the Gorean, though he seldom speaks of these things, a city is more than brick and marble, cylinders and bridges. It is not simply a place, a geographical location in which men have seen fit to build their dwellings, a collection of structures where they may most conveniently conduct their affairs.
[14:13] Jarvis Quan: The Gorean senses, or believes, that a city cannot be simply identified with its material elements, which undergo their transformations even as do the cells of a human body.
For them a city is almos t a living thing, or more than a living thing. It is an entity with a history, as stones and rivers do not have history; it is an entity with a tradition, a heritage, customs, practices, character, intentions, hopes. When a Gorean says, for example, that he is of Ar, or Ko-ro-ba, he is doing a great deal more than informing you of his place of residence.
[14:14] Simon Eddingham is Offline
[14:14] Jarvis Quan: When a city is destroyed it can be rebuilt if the Homestone is safe.
[14:14] Owen Landar is Offline
[14:14] Jarvis Quan: These men of Ko-ro-ba, he knew, when their city had been destroyed by Priest-Kings, had been scattered to the ends of Gor but, when permitted by Priest-Kings, they had returned to their city to rebuild it, each bearing a stone to add to its walls. It was said, in the time of troubles, that the Home Stone had not been lost, and it had not. And even Kuurus, of the Caste of Assassins, knew that a city cannot die while its Home Stone survives. Kuurus, who would think little of men on the whole, yet could not despise such men as these, these of Ko-ro-ba.
[14:14] Simon Eddingham is Online
[14:15] Owen Landar is Online
[14:15] Jarvis Quan: So if the homestone survives the spirit of the city survives and a city can be rebuilt as we saw with Ko-ro-ba
[14:15] Jarvis Quan: But if the homestone is destroyed the city dies, men are scattered and become outlaw, if they are lucky they might be able to join another city.
[14:15] Jarvis Quan: SO that is what the homestone is.
[14:16] Jarvis Quan: Any questions?
[14:16] Marci Torok: I have a comment
[14:16] Jarvis Quan: please go ahead
[14:17] Marci Torok: I have noticed some travel from place to place..They become citizens ,..they get thier feathers ruffled and leave and goto the next city. Does this happen here as well?
[14:17] Jarvis Quan: Yes.
[14:17] SnapDragon Tigerpaw: a lot..
[14:17] Jarvis Quan: HOwever i have also noticed that those who flit from homestone to homestone rarely effect the bottom line. They are not rent payers.
[14:18] Jarvis Quan: They are not contributors
[14:18] Marci Torok: nods..they are more like freeloaders
[14:18] Jarvis Quan: So I think we lose little when they depart except some drama
[14:18] Jarvis Quan: That we can all do without.
[14:18] Marci Torok: Yes..I agree 100 percent
[14:19] Jarvis Quan: However to be fair I have had some come here who were deeply rooted and connected to their homesteon and devasted when they felt driven out.
[14:19] Jarvis Quan: Those ones usually do pay rent and are usually fine citizens
[14:19] Marci Torok: nods..
[14:19] SnapDragon Tigerpaw: yes.. but were before the conflict arose..
[14:19] Jarvis Quan: Yes.
[14:20] Jarvis Quan: It IS sometimes the fault of the sim owner.
[14:20] Jarvis Quan: usually not but sometimes
[14:20] Jarvis Quan: The homestone ceremony itself is quite complex.
[14:21] Jarvis Quan: According to the descriptions in the books there would be a presentation ot city leadership, usually with a sponsor who stood up for them, per4haps a parent.
[14:21] Jarvis Quan: It was common for the Adminsitrator to require they pass a test of some sort to prove they were worthy.
[14:21] Jarvis Quan: They also had to have a caste in most cities
[14:21] Jarvis Quan: And then they had to prepare to take oath.
[14:22] Jarvis Quan: The leader of the city would offer the new citizens bread fire and salt according to some descriptions
[14:22] Jarvis Quan: They woould then swear allegience to the homestone
[14:23] Jarvis Quan: This would be followed by some physical act to demonstrate that feality
[14:23] Jarvis Quan: kissing the homestone
[14:23] Jarvis Quan: I have seen warrors slice opn a hand and let the blood drip on the homestone
[14:23] Jarvis Quan: As the nature of the oath varies by cityso to would the act I expect.
[14:24] Jarvis Quan: I will move now to the issue of citizenship applications in Gorean cities here in SL now.
[14:24] Jarvis Quan: First step is have a good application. It should ask the right questions.
[14:24] Jarvis Quan: It should also not be so long as to make people give up in disgust and leave.
[14:25] Jarvis Quan: My daughter lady Angeliquaelle Khandr came up with her own decision tree on accepting a candidate based on what she learned from Lady ChippyAnn Kamm and she gave a copy to me.
[14:25] Jarvis Quan gave you Decision Tree Citizen Applications.
[14:25] Jarvis Quan: So you have in front of you an application.
[14:25] Jarvis Quan: Read the application, check for missing parts, unanswered questions
[14:26] MystiTool HUD 1.3.1: Entering chat range: averdrace Macbain (6m)
[14:26] Calli Llewellyn is Online
[14:26] Jarvis Quan: We just started the section on processing citizen ship applications
[14:27] Jarvis Quan: I'll be sending out a trasncript as well after class so you can catch up to this part.
[14:27] Jarvis Quan: I'll just repeat that part again for the Lady's benefit
[14:27] Jarvis Quan: [14:24] Jarvis Quan: I will move now to the issue of citizenship applications in Gorean cities here in SL now.
[14:24] Jarvis Quan: First step is have a good application. It should ask the right questions.
[14:24] Jarvis Quan: It should also not be so long as to make people give up in disgust and leave.
[14:25] Jarvis Quan: My daughter lady Angeliquaelle Khandr came up with her own decision tree on accepting a candidate based on what she learned from Lady ChippyAnn Kamm and she gave a copy to me.
[14:28] Jarvis Quan: [14:25] Jarvis Quan: So you have in front of you an application.
[14:25] Jarvis Quan: Read the application, check for missing parts, unanswered questions
[14:28] Jarvis Quan: What they don't say can tell you as much as what they say. What if they list no refereences?
[14:28] Jarvis Quan: Contact references
[14:28] Jarvis Quan: It is stunning what you get when you do.
[14:28] Jarvis Quan: Usually you get confirmation this is a good person but sometimes you get tales of whoa and drama that make your hair curl, even if you don't have any.
[14:29] spediye Chrome smiles
[14:29] Jarvis Quan: pats his own bald head
[14:29] Jarvis Quan: Examine profile for group affiliations, evidence of alting, potential trouble spots, making notes of assessment for interview questions
[14:30] Jarvis Quan: People who play alts frequently leave astonishing obvious clues in their profile.
[14:30] Jarvis Quan: With very litle effort you can find these errors.
[14:30] Jarvis Quan: we had one fellow arrive breand new claiming he knew no one yet right in his picks was one of the city's citizens.
[14:30] Marci Torok shakes her head
[14:30] Jarvis Quan: If he claims to be Black but doesn't belong to any of the groups you also have to wonder.
[14:31] Jarvis Quan: I once tracked down a criminal who had created a new alt by looking at their home pick, going to that location and checking to see who owned the property.
[14:31] Jarvis Quan: Lo and behold 95% of the property in the person's home was that of the previous alt!
[14:31] Jarvis Quan: So I knew this new alt was the same person and he had been major trouble in the sim.
[14:32] Jarvis Quan: Banned for his actions both OOC and IC and he was trying to sneak back in.
[14:32] Jarvis Quan: It's not a "for sure" kind of thing but you can garner many clues by a careful check of the profile
[14:32] Jarvis Quan: Send out request for appointment card
[This point acts as a filter because about one quarter never bother to keep their appointment or answer.]
[14:32] Jarvis Quan: I make exceptions for things like compnaions of someone already accepted. Those I may skip this step for.
[14:33] Jarvis Quan: So you read the application, send out a request for an appointment and if they don't reply, they likely weren't very serious.
[14:33] Jarvis Quan: So they arrive for the first interview. You can assess much there.
[14:33] Jarvis Quan: understands Gor?
[14:33] Jarvis Quan: yes- continue, no reject or consider mentoring
[14:33] Jarvis Quan: know city laws?
[14:34] Jarvis Quan: a lot of people claim to have read the laws but when you ask them they haven't read them
[14:34] Jarvis Quan: has adequate rp and dress?
[14:34] Jarvis Quan: I had one Free Women arrive dressed like an Amazon not a Gorean Free Woman yet she claimed to have read all the books.
[14:34] Jarvis Quan: Or the Free Woman arrives with dangling earrings
[14:34] SnapDragon Tigerpaw grins.
[14:34] Jarvis Quan: All rght to be fair maybe she just came from an OOC dance club and forgot about it, but you do get clues.
[14:35] spediye Chrome looks to the floor
[14:35] Jarvis Quan: laughs
[14:35] Jarvis Quan: has rational and reasonable personality for role play?
[14:35] Jarvis Quan: I admit one can pretend to be normal for just one interview but the real bad cases will show up soon in first interview.
[14:35] Jarvis Quan: It is important to discuss Caste Placement in the frist interview.
[14:36] Jarvis Quan: Some new people automtically opt for warrior or scribe because they don't know anything. If you talk to them more you often suggest other ideas that might fit better.
[14:36] Jarvis Quan: I almost always suggest peasant for brand new to Gor people.
[14:36] Jarvis Quan: A peasant is expected to be rough, and uneducated. A peasant would be expected to arrive in the city, look around in awe, and not understand much of what is happening.
[14:36] Jarvis Quan: A peasant is also not expected to be ready to fight or enter into roleplay. Most of the higher castes will simply ignore a peasant or be minimally polite.
[14:36] Jarvis Quan: In the garb of the curious peasant you can wander about Vonda, check out the sights and sounds, stop by the library and pick up the many notecards there on Gor, being Gorean, and find many tips for joining the fun.
[14:36] Jarvis Quan: If you are male, you can go to the arena and pick up the free city sword. You can try it out, see of you like the idea of fighting.
[14:37] Jarvis Quan: All this as example
[14:37] Jarvis Quan: It may be that a particualr caste has a good set of lessons and support for a newcomer so you can safely place even someone very new into the caste.
[14:37] Jarvis Quan: For that you need to know your city.
[14:37] Jarvis Quan: Caste approval?
[14:38] Jarvis Quan: Our city's original first sword had a great policy and it is very Gorean.
[14:38] Jarvis Quan: He accepts all new applicants without question. He just kills those he doesn't like.
[14:38] Marci Torok: *Laughs*
[14:38] SnapDragon Tigerpaw chuckles
[14:38] Jarvis Quan: Saves a lot of trouble
[14:38] Jarvis Quan: Other castes will want complex detailed paperwork and their own interviews.
[14:38] Jarvis Quan: You must know what each caste wants.
[14:38] Jarvis Quan: And be prepared to conform to their needs.
[14:39] Jarvis Quan: I also recommend followup. After one week:
Settling in?
Yes? End of process.
[14:39] Jarvis Quan: I offer friendship to all newcomers as a rule.
[14:39] Jarvis Quan: I tell them to come back and see me if they have trouble.
[14:39] Jarvis Quan: No? ascertain nature of problem and attempt to remedy, contact caste head for assessment of potential systemic problems, add one month followup, if required refer to supervisor for assessment of potential systemic problems
[14:40] Jarvis Quan: This means if a Caste leader isn't doing his job you don't lose people because of it, you alert those in charge so that person can be replaced.
[14:40] Jarvis Quan: For example, a builder may be a very fine builder but rotten breaking in newcomers.
[14:40] Jarvis Quan: basically newcomers are simply ignored and left on their own
[14:40] Jarvis Quan: In that case you need to bring it to the attention of someone and change that or refer the poor abandoned newcomer to another caste, or even, anoher city.
[14:41] Jarvis Quan: I have personally referred several people to other cities when it was obvious to me they had the potential to be very good but my city lacked supports for them.
[14:41] Jarvis Quan: Also you need to followup on the caste heads.
[14:41] Jarvis Quan: Make sure they didn' bury the application and forget it.
[14:41] Jarvis Quan: Or that they haven't left SL and forgot to you.
[14:42] Jarvis Quan: The person doing the citizenship applications is in the position of the most senstivity to the pulse of the city, what is working and what is not by the information gathered in the followup.
[14:42] Jarvis Quan: Now slaves.....
[14:43] Jarvis Quan: Slaves are not given such an interviewing.
[14:43] Jarvis Quan: They are usually collared by someone, usually the worst jerk in the city who does nothing but hang out by the docks.
[14:43] Jarvis Quan: Then they leave
[14:43] Jarvis Quan: I try my best to talk to slaves before collaring them in an OOC fashion.
[14:43] Jarvis Quan: Many are under the impression they can walk into a city and submit and be taken care of.
[14:43] Jarvis Quan: In fact being a slave is very difficult.
[14:44] Jarvis Quan: Harder than being a free in some ways.
[14:44] Jarvis Quan: So I try to steer people to the peasant role first. This goes double for a female who has never been a Gorean slave. She can always submit later if so inclined but what if she finds she loves role play but isn';t suited for slavery and she's already brqnded and collared?
[14:45] Jarvis Quan: She's stuck.
[14:45] Jarvis Quan: I have personally known three such women who resolved it by killing off their avatar and coming back again as a Free Woman. Why put people through that?
[14:46] Jarvis Quan: a Free Woman who makes a mistake in ettiquette will generally not end up being whipped for it where as a slave likely will.
[14:46] SnapDragon Tigerpaw nods.
[14:46] Jarvis Quan: lloks over the decision tree
[14:46] Jarvis Quan: Angel is this exceptionally rational and mathemtically inclined geek.
[14:46] Jarvis Quan: said with great fondness
[14:47] Marci Torok: she has done a very fine job on the decission tree
[14:48] Jarvis Quan: Yes
[14:48] Jarvis Quan: Now if someone wlaked in and said "I want to be a slave like Elizabeth" and proceeded to quote extensively from the books about what they wanted and it fit, I would not say, "No go be a peasant."
[14:48] Jarvis Quan: That one I would collar
[14:48] Jarvis Quan: That is everything I wish to cover today for the class. Any further questions or comments?
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