The Planting Feast is celebrated early in the growing season
It is a complex feast, celebrated by most gorean cities with numerous rituals
The Home Stone of a city is the centre of various rituals.
The next would be the Planting Feast of Sa-Tarna, the Life-
Daughter, celebrated early in the growing season to ensure a
good harvest. This is a complex feast, celebrated by most
Gorean cities, and the observances are numerous and
intricate.
Tarnsman
Details of the rituals are arranged and mostly executed by Initiates
Members of the High Castes have certain portions of the ceremonies The details of the rituals are arranged and
mostly executed by the Initiates of a given city. Certain
portions of the ceremonies, however, are often allotted to
members of the High Castes.
Tarnsman
The Home Stone is the center of Planting Feast (and other) rituals The Home Stone of a city is the centre of various rituals.
Tarnsman
Examples of how High Castes participate in the Planting Feast in the city of Ar
In Ar, for example, early in the day, a member of the Builders
will go to the roof on which the Home Stone is kept and place
the primitive symbol of his trade, a metal angle square,
before the Stone, praying to the Priest-Kings for the
prosperity of his caste in the coming year; later in the day
a Warrior will, similarly, place his arms before the Stone,
to be followed by other representatives of each caste. Most
significantly, while these members of the High Castes perform
their portions of the ritual, the Guards of the Home Stone
temporarily withdraw to the interior of the cylinder, leaving
the celebrant, it is said, alone with the Priest-Kings.
Lastly, as the culmination of Ar's Planting Feast, and of the
greatest importance to the plan of the Council of Ko-ro-ba, a
member of the Ubar's family goes to the roof at night, under
the three full moons with which the feast is correlated, and
casts grain upon the stone and drops of a red, winelike drink
made from the fruit of the Ka-la-na tree. The member of the
Ubar's family then prays to the Priest-Kings for an abundant
harvest and returns to the interior of the cylinder, at which
point the Guards of the Home Stone resume their vigil.
This year the honour of the grain sacrifice was to be
accorded to the daughter of the Ubar. I knew nothing about
her except that her name was Talena, that she was rumoured to
be one of the beauties of Ar, and that I was supposed to kill
her.
According to the plan of the Council of Ko-ro-ba, exactly at
the time of the sacrifice, at the twentieth Gorean hour, or
midnight, I was to drop to the roof of the highest cylinder
in Ar, slay the daughter of the Ubar, and carry away her body
and the Home Stone, discarding the former in the swamp
country north of Ar and carrying the latter home to Ko-ro-ba.
Tarnsman
The city is ablaze with the lights of the Planting Feast The city of Ar must have contained more than a hundred
thousand cylinders, each ablaze with the lights of the
Planting Feast. I did not question that Ar was the greatest
city of all known Gor. It was a magnificent and beautiful
city, a worthy setting for the jewel of empire, that awesome
jewel that had proved so tempting to its Ubar, the all-
conquering Marlenus. And now, down there, somewhere in
that monstrous blaze of light, was a humble piece of stone,
the Home Stone of that great city, and I must seize it.
I had little difficulty in making out the tallest tower in
Ar, the cylinder of the Ubar Marlenus.
Tarnsman
Bridges in Ar are lined with celebrants
Tarnsmen fly among the cylinders, revelling in the undisciplined liberty of the
feast
Tarnsman race each other, dive low to scare the crowds As I dropped closer,
I saw that the bridges were lined with the celebrants of the
Planting Feast, many perhaps reeling home drunk on Paga.
Flying among the cylinders were tarnsmen, cavalry warriors
revelling in the undisciplined liberty of the feast, racing
one another, essaying mock passages at arms, sometimes
dropping their tarns like thunderbolts towards the bridges,
only to jerk them upward just inches above the terrified
heads of the celebrants.
Drunken tarnsmen challenging & joking with each other
Boldly I dipped my tarn downward, into the midst of the
cylinders, just another of the wild tarnsmen of Ar. I
brought him to rest on one of the steel projections that
occasionally jut forth from the cylinders and serve as tarn
perches. The great bird opened and closed his wings, his
steel-shod talons ringing on the metal perch as he changed
his position, moving back and forth upon it. At last,
satisfied, he brought his wings against his body and remained
still, except for the alert movements of his great head and
the flash of those wicked eyes scrutinising the streams of
men and women on the nearby bridges.
My heart began to beat wildly, and I considered the facility
with which I might yet wing my way from Ar. Once a warrior
without a helmet flew near, drunk, and challenged me for the
perch, a wild tarnsman of low rank, spoiling for a fight. If
I had yielded the perch, it would have aroused suspicion
immediately, for on Gor the only honourable reply to a
challenge is to accept it promptly.
'May the Priest-Kings blast your bones,' I shouted, as
cheerfully as I could, adding, for good measure, 'and may you
thrive upon the excrement of tharlarions!' The latter
recommendation, with its allusion to the loathed riding
lizards used by many of the primitive clans of Gor, seemed to
please him.
Tarnsman
Sharing paga 'May your tarn lose its feathers,' he roared, 'slapping his
thigh, bringing his tarn to rest on the perch. He leaned
over and tossed me a skin bag of Paga, from which I took a
long swig, then hurled it contemptuously back into his arms.
Tarnsman
Tarnsman sings as he flies off with his paga In a moment he had taken flight again, bawling out some
semblance of a song about the woes of a camp girl, the bag of
Paga flying behind him, dangling from its long straps.
Planting Feast of Sa-Tarna
