Tunic, leather apron and cap
Leather gloves
Belt
Rough, scarred hands
Hair cropped short
I looked about. It seemed a common, motley crowd for the house of Vart,
where men came generally to buy cheap girls, sometimes in lots, at bargain
prices. His establishment was located in a warehouse near the docks. I
conjectured there were some two hundred buyers and onlookers present. I wore
the tunic, and leather apron and cap, of the metal worker.
Explorers
"Heat an iron," said Ulafi to the metal worker, a brawny fellow in a
leather apron.
Explorers
I donned leather gloves and took the iron from the metal worker, who
cheerfully surrendered it.
Explorers
There, standing before the low doorway, I looked once more upon the squat,
powerful figure of Kron, of the Caste of Metal Workers. His great hammer was
slung from his belt and his blue eyes glistened with happiness. The huge,
scarred hands of a metal worker were held out to me.
Outlaw
Mip was a chipper fellow, and a bit dapper considering his caste and his
close-cropped hair, for his brown leather was shot with green streaks, and
he wore a Tarn Keeper's cap with a greenish tassel; most Tarn Keepers,
incidentally, crop their hair short, as do most Metal Workers;
Assassin
Anvil
Workbench
Conical Forge
Bellows
Branding rack - on rotating metal platform
From some eighty or so yards away, from the tiny shop of a metal worker,
I heard a girl scream.
Explorers
I walked through the streets of Lydius until I came to the small metal
worker's shop, one out of the main ways of the city.
I entered the shop.
"Are you still crying?" I asked Constance.
She sat in the straw beside an anvil. A chain ran from the anvil and was
padlocked about her neck.
"My brand hurts, Master," she said.
"Very well," I said, "cry."
"There," said the metal worker. He eased the heavy iron collar, with the
short, dangling chain, from Ram's neck.
"Ah," said Ram.
Beside him, on the floor, knelt Tina, which was now her slave name.
Ram directed the metal worker to saw away an inch and a half of the opened
collar. He put it in a vise on his workbench and did so.
Beasts
“We always keep an iron hot,” said the metal worker. But he did turn to his
assistant, a lad of some twelve years. “Heat the coals,” said he to him. The
lad took a bellows and, opening and closing it, forced air into the conical
forge. The handles of some six irons, their heads and a portion of their
shafts buried in the coals, could be seen. Explorers
The, girl was brought into the shop and stood in the branding rack,
which was then locked on her, holding her upright. The metal worker placed
her wrists behind her in the wrist clamps, adjustable, each on their vertical,
flat metal bar. He screwed shut the clamps. She winced. He then shackled her
feet on the rotating metal platform.
Explorers
The metal worker turned the apparatus, spinning the shaft, with its
attached, circular metal platform. The girl’s left thigh now faced us. It
was an excellent thigh. It would take the mark well. The metal worker then,
with a wheel, tightening it, locked the device in place, so that it could not
turn.
Explorers
Employed in a House or Holding
Often employed by wealthy Slavers
Reside in the mens quarters of the House with other retainers employed
A simple band of iron had been hammered about her neck by one of the
metal workers in the employ of Samos.
Tribesmen
Elizabeth led me to a room off a kitchen on the third floor of the cylinder.
There were some men in the room, mostly men-at-arms but some staff members,
a Metal Worker, two Bakers and a pair of Scribes. The tables were separate and
small. I sat behind one, and Elizabeth knelt back of me and to my left.
Assassin In the House of Cernus, Slaver
Training and Apprentices
Masters, incidentally, seldom brand their own slaves. To brand a girl
well demands a sure hand, and, usually, experience. In training a man to use
the iron slavers always give him poorer women at first, sometimes having him
mark them more than once, until he becomes proficient. Usually by the
fifteenth or the twentieth woman, the man is capable of marking them deeply,
precisely and cleanly. It is important for the girl's thigh to be held
immobile: sometimes it is held by more than one man; sometimes it is bound
to a wagon wheel; sometimes, in the house of slavers, a heavy, vise equipped,
metal branding rack is used.. Tribesmen
They regulate their numbers and craft in much the same way that, in many
cities, the various castes, such as those of the metal workers or cloth
workers, do theirs.
Mercenaries
The handles of some six irons, their heads and a portion of their shafts
buried in the coals, could be seen.
“I have five brands,” said the metal worker, “the common Kajira brand, the
Dina, the Palm, the mark of Treve, the mark of Port Kar.”
“We have a common girl to brand,” said Ulafi. “Let it be the common Kajira
brand.”
Explorers
Ram directed the metal worker to saw away an inch and a half of the opened
collar. He put it in a vise on his workbench and did so.
Beasts
The metal worker finished sawing the portion off the heavy collar Ram had
worn.
Ram then pulled Tina to the feet by her hair and forced her head down on the
anvil.
Beasts
"lf I had my tools," he said, "I could have these off of you in a matter of
Ehn."
I looked up at him, startled. I knew, of course, that he was of the metal
workers.
"But without a key, or such help, you are absolutely helpless in them, aren't
you?" he asked.
Kajira
Two men were there. They were dressed entirely in black. They
wore masks. One of them held an unshuttered dark lantern and the
other opened a leather wrapper containing keys and tools on the
ground. He, then, with a variety of keys and picks, and small tools,
swiftly, expertly, trying one thing and then another, addressed himself to
the upper lock. He was skillful, and apparently a smith in such matters,
perhaps a skilled specialist within his caste. In fifteen Ehn both locks
had yielded. The cage door was opened and I was pulled out. I was
put on my back and the inan, swiftly, with numerous small keys, and
some of the other tools, addressed himself to my collar lock. I felt the
collar pulled away.
Kajira
Subcastes or specialists
Silver Smiths A Corcyran merchant had brought charges against him, a matter
having to do with a bowl, purportedly silver, but only plated, and one
bearing a forged mark, misrepresenting it as the work of the
silversmiths of Ar.
Kajira
I passed a fellow inlaying wood, and the shop of a silversmith,...
Tribesmen
Weapon Smiths Tor was, as Gorean cities went, rich, trading city. It was headquarters for
thousands of caravan merchants. In it, too, were housed many craftsmen,
practicing their industries, carvers, varnishers, table makers, gem cutters,
jewelers, carders, dyers of cloth, weavers of rugs, tanners, makers of
slippers, toolers of leather, potters, glaziers, makers of cups and kettles,
weapon smiths, and many others.
Tribesmen
Most quivas, incidentally, are wrought in the smithies
of Ar.
Nomads
What the job entailed
Making collars and keys
Hammering collars onto necks of slaves
Removing collars
Branding slaves
Inscribing collars
Making earrings
Crafting quarrels
Making gold goblets
Making locks
Making Metal tools
Also on the way home, I purchased her a slave tunic and stopped at the shop
of a metal worker, where i had her measured and purchased a collar for her.
I had the collar inscribed according to my specifications. I put it in my
sack with its two keys, tied to it with a string.
Rogue
I remembered her from several months ago when I had first seen her,
when she had had about her throat only a simple collar of iron, curved about
her throat by the blows of a metal worker's hammer.
Explorers
When the smith arrived, he took, from a rack in the wall, two narrow,
straight bars of iron, not really plates but narrow cubes, about a half inch
in width and fifteen inches in length.
The girls were then motioned to the anvil. First Virginia and then Phyllis
laid their heads and throats on the anvil, head turned to the side, their
hands holding the anvil, and the smith, expertly, with his heavy hammer and
a ringing of iron, curved the collar about their throats; a space of about
a quarter of an inch was left between the two ends of the collar; the ends
matched perfectly; both Virginia and Phyllis stepped away from the anvil
feeling the metal on their throats, both now collared slave girls.
Assassin
The, girl was brought into the shop and stood in the branding rack, which
was then locked on her, holding her upright. The metal worker placed her
wrists behind her in the wrist clamps, adjustable, each on their vertical,
flat metal bar. He screwed shut the clamps. She winced. He then shackled her
feet on the rotating metal platform.
Explorers
"Remove the collar immediately," commanded Kamras,plenipotentiary of Phanius
Turmus, Administrator of Turia.
Kamchak smiled. "It seems," he said, "that I have forgotten the key."
"Send for one of the Caste of Metal Workers!" cried Saphrar.
Nomads
"She is not branded," observed another. "That technicality can be swiftly
remedied by a metal worker." said one of the men.
Rogue
My ears had been pierced. It had been done yesterday morning. The metal
worker had put tiny, circular training pins in them, to keep the wounds from
closing.
Dancer
Many Gorean men apparently find pierced ears in a girl extremely
provocative. Craftsmen of the metal workers, men specializing in the working
of gold and silver, were concerned to work out new forms of jewelry for
slave females.
Captive
I saw the young crossbowman, under the cover of a shield, held by his
friend, the other young fellow from the front wall, harvesting quarrels
from the walkway. There were fine quarrels, crafted by metal workers, not
sharpened rods, not blunt sticks, fit for stunning birds. He distributed
these to cohorts behind the shield wall, neglecting not to retain some for
himself. He was young but his aim was fearsomely accurate.
Renegade
The Leatherworker, accordingly, does not spend much time envying the
Metalworker, or the Metalworker the Leatherworker, or either the Clothworker,
and so on. All need sandals and wallets, and clothes, and metal tools.
Explorers
cunningly wrought goblets of gold from the smithies of luxurious Turia, Ar of the
south.
Marauders
Producing Steel & Iron Girders for Caste of Builders
Although we had come up several flights, we were probably not more than
seventy or eighty feet Gorean from the street level. Without girders,
frame steel and timber iron, as the Goreans say wrought in the iron shops,
such as are used in the towers, physics, even indexed to the Gorean gravity,
is quick to impose its inexorable limits on heights. Such buildings tend to
be vulnerable to structural stresses, and are sometimes weakened by slight
movements of the earth. Sometimes walls give way; sometimes entire floors
collapse.
Mercenaries
Making and selling ankle rings and slave bracelets I had purchased more than marking and collars at the smithy.
"On your feet," boomed Turnock to Thura, and she leaped frightened to
her feet, standing ankle deep in the thick pile rug.
At the gesture from Clitus, Ula, too, leaped to her feet.
I put ankle rings on Midice, and then slave bracelets. And tore from
her the bit of silk she wore. She looked at me with terror.
Raiders
Locks
On Gor, though most locks are of metal, wooden locks are not altogether
unknown.
Assassin
Common Lock
In the most common variety there are two sets of matching pins, one fixed
on a wooden spatula like key and the other set, movable, falls into the bolt,
securing it. With the key placed under the bolt, and pressed upward, the
movable pins are lifted over the bolt, permitting its movement. This form of
lock, however, as one might suspect, provides a poor sort of security, for the
pins may be lifted individually by tiny sticks wedged in the holes until the
bolt is free.
Assassins
Notched Beam Lock
Another form of lock, providing perhaps even less security, is the
notched beam lock which may be opened by a heavy sickle-like key which is
inserted through a hole in the door, fitted into the notch, and then rotated
to the left or right, depending on whether the door is being locked or opened.
These keys are quite heavy and are carried over the shoulder, and can, if
necessary, even function as weapons.
Assassins
Padlocks
Padlocks, it might be mentioned, are common on Gor.
Assassins
Combination Locks
Also, combination locks are not unknown, but they are infrequently found.
The most common combination lock consists of a set of lettered rings which
conceal a bolt. When the letters are properly aligned the bolt may be
withdrawn.
Assassin
Knife Locks
Some locks, on the compartments of rich persons, or on the storehouses of
merchants, the treasuries of cities, and so on, are knife locks or poison
locks; the knife lock, when tampered with, releases a blade, or several of
them, with great force, sometimes from behind the individual at the lock.
On the other hand, knife locks are seldom effective against an individual
who knows what to look for.
Assassins
Poison Lock
Much more dangerous is the poison lock, because the opening through which
the tiny pins, usually coated with a paste formed from kanda root, can
emerge can be extremely small, almost invisible to the eye, easy to overlook
in the crevices and grillwork of the commonly heavy, ornate Gorean lock.
Assassin
Pit Lock
Another form of lock difficult to guard against is the pit lock, because
of the natural crevices in Gorean tiling commonly found in corridors of
cylinders; when tampered with a trap falls away beneath the individual,
dropping him to a pit below, usually containing knives fixed in stone, but
upon occasion osts, or half-starved sleen or water tharlarion; sometimes,
however, the pit may be simply a smooth-sided capture pit, so that the
individual may later be interrogated and tortured at length.
Assassin
No Unauthorized keys for locks
Lastly it might be mentioned that it is a capital offense for a locksmith,
normally a member of the Metal Workers, to make an unauthorized copy of a
key, either to keep for himself or for another.
Assassin
Other Metal items likely made by this caste
Anchor Hooks "Soon, each drawn by two warriors, the anchor hooks, curved and
three-pronged, not unlike large grappling irons, emerged dripping from the
mud of the marsh. These anchor hooks, incidentally, are a great deal lighter
than the anchors used in the long galleys, and the round ships."
Raiders
Caste of Metal Workers
