Pirates on Gor

Policrates the leader of a pirate stronghold is known as the "Captain"
Kliomenes is known as his "Lieutenant"
"The fellow who threaten me," I said to Tasron, the proprietor of the tavern, "he called Kliomenes. Who is he?"
"He is Kliomenes, the pirate, lieutenant to Policrates," said Tasdron. "And the other," I asked, "he who was standing by the table, speaking to the man who saved me?" "His captain," said Tasdron, "Policrates himself."
Rogue

Pirate bands with strongholds & ships
Not unusual to have three or four hundred men and 8 - 10 ships
People of village towns are unwilling to speak on the business and location of the pirates, out of fear.
There are relationships among bands of pirates - alliances & divisions of territory
For several weeks, I had moved from one river town to the next, examining slave markets and attempting to obtain information on the whereabouts of the pirate, Kliomenes. Understandably I encountered few willing informants. Many people, I was sure knew more of this fellow then they admitted. His name, and that of his captain, Policrates, were apparently feared on the river. These river pirates were not, it must be understood, a few scattered crews of cutthroats. Various bands had their own strongholds and ships. It was not unusual that a single captain had as many as three or four hundred men and eight to ten ships. Similarly there were relationships among these bands, division of territory and alliances. They were a power on the river.
Rogue

Pirates have some form of law and justice within their own precincts
“Surely a polity, even if it be one of pirates, if it is to survive, if it is to protect itself, must establish some forms of justice and law within its own precincts?”
“One would suppose so,” I said. “Even if it is of the rack and spear.”
“I would suppose so,” I said.

Renegades

SEE ALSO Thassa page for information about Thassa itself

On Thassa, the color of pirates is green. Ships, sails, ropes and oars all painted green to provide camoflage against the green Thassa
Twice we had been scouted by pirates from Tyros, in their green ships, painted to resemble the sea, but neither of them had chosen to engage us.
Raiders

"What shall we do now, Captain," asked Clitus, of me.
"Return to Port Kar," I said. "As I recall, I have waiting for me there a galley, heavy class, for my work in Cos."
"True!" said Thurnock.
"And when he have come to Port Kar, what then?" asked Tab.
I looked at him evenly. "Then," said I, "paint my ships green."
Green, on Thassa, is the color of pirates. Green hulls, sails, oars, even ropes. In the bright sun reflecting off the water, green is a color most difficult to detect on gleaming Thassa. The green ship, in the bright sun, can be almost invisible.
"It will be done," cried Tab.
There were more cheers from the men about.
...
And thus it was that the ships to Bosk, he of Port Kar, came to be painted green.
Raiders

Treasures increased by pirating on Thassa
Captured ships taken and made part of the pirate fleet
By the end of the second month the flag of Bosk, carried by one ship or another, was known from Ianda to Torvaldsland, and from the delta of the Vosk to the throne rooms of Cos and Tyros.
My treasures were soon increased considerably, and the number of ships in my fleet, by captured prizes, was readically augmented, so much so that I could not begin to wharf them within the lakelike courtyard of my holding.

Gold won by sword at sea
Ram ships sent out to pirate
With gold won by sword at sea I purchased extensive wharfage and several warehouses on the western edge of Port Kar. Even so I found myself pressed and, to ease the difficulties of wharfage and mooring right, I sold many a round ship taken, and some of the inferior long ships. My round ships, as much as possible, I engaged in commerce, usually acting on the advice of Luma, the slave girl, my chief accountant; the ram-ships I sent against Cos and Tyros, usually in twos and threes; I myself commonly commanded a fleet of five ram-ships, and spent much time searching the seas for larger prey.
But in all this time I had not forgotten the treasure fleet which was due to sail from Tyros to Cos, bearing precious metals and jewels for her coffers, and a lovely lady, Vivina, to grace the couch of her Ubar.
I put spies in Tyros and Cos, and in many of the other ports of Thassa.
I think I knew the shipping, the cargos and the schedules of those two islands Ubarates, and several of their allies, as well or better than many of the members of their own high councils.
Raiders

Bejar of Port Kar overtakes a ship of Cos
“Bejar,” said Samos, “in an action at sea, overtook a ship of Cos.”
I listened. Cos and Tyros, uneasy allies, one island ubarate under large-eyed Chendar, the Sea Sleen, and the other under gross Lurius, of Jad, were nominally at war with Port Kar.
Explorers

The ship, passengers and cargo fall to Bejar as his prize
“The engagement was sharp,” said Samos, “but the ship, its crew, passengers and cargo, fell to Bejar as prize.”

Explorers

The ship now moored at Bejars hwarfage
“It is known, or would soon be known, that her ship was taken by Bejar,” I said. “It is doubtless moored prize at his wharfage even now.
Explorers

The women on the ship are to be sold as slaves
“It is known, or will soon be known, she was taken by Bejar,” I said. “When his other women prisoners are put upon the block, let her be put there with them, only another woman to be sold.”
“They will be sold as slaves,” said Samos.
“Of course,” I said, “let her, too, be sold as a slave.”
Explorers

The auctioneer describing a woman as loot taken by Bejar
“Another loot girl taken by our noble Captain, Bejar, in his brilliant capture of the Blossoms of Telnus,” called the auctioneer.
Explorers

The crew and male passengers of the ship are also sold, as work slaves
They were among the eleven women, including the blond barbarian, who had been sold by Bejar to Vart. They had been taken in the capture of the Blossoms of Telnus. The crew and male passengers of the Blossoms of Telnus had also been sold by Bejar to Vart, but these had been auctioned by Vart in the morning, on the wharf blocks, as work slaves.
Explorers

Even before the women are sold, Bejar returns to try his luck on Thassa
“How do I know she is a slave?” asked the praetor. “Her body, her movements, do not suggest that she is a slave. She seems too tight, too cold, too rigid, to be a slave.”
“She was free, captured by Bejar, in his seizure of the Blossoms of Telnus,” said Ulafi. “She is new to her condition.”
“Is Bejar present?’ asked the praetor.
“No,” said a man. Bejar had left the port yesterday, to again try his luck upon gleaming Thassa, the sea.
Explorers

When the ship was captured, women were put in a dark hold, naked
“I was captured,” wept the girl. “I was put on another ship. I was chained in a dark hold, with other women, naked. I do not know what happened to anything. Have pity on a slave!”
The girl in the black slacks drew back her hand again, again to strike with a five-bladed lash, but he who had been called Kunguni motioned for her not to strike. He spoke, in Gorean, to the girl in the black slacks.
“What was the name of the ship which captured the Blossoms of Telnus?” she asked. “Who was its captain?”
“I do not know,” wept the blond girl. “I do not even know in what market I was sold.”
“It was the Sleen of Port Kar,” said he who had been called Kunguni, “captained by the rogue, Bejar, of that port.”
Explorers

The three men looked at one another, and then backed away. They would not choose to do business with one who carried a Home Stone, even though they were three to two. It was as I had speculated. There were road pirates. Possibly the stones had been deliberately loosened.
Renegades

Free women not often found in vicinity of pirates
Put to the prow as captives, then enslaved
Free women are not often found in the vicinity of pirates. After a free woman has once been at the prow, there is nothing to do with her later, of course, but to make her a slave.
Guardsman

If a woman is beautiful, pirates enslave her
If she is not, her throat may be cut
Woman is carted off in front of citizens of the town
I heard a woman scream and saw her, thrown over the shoulder of a laughing pirate, a brawny fellow being carried to one of the galleys.
"What will be done with her?" whispered a woman, near me, terrified.
"If she is beautiful," said a man near us, "perhaps she will be kept to serve in the stronghold of Policrates. If she is not, perhaps her throat will be cut."
The woman gasped, her hand at her veil.

Women are stripped and tied to railing of pirate galley during pillaging of town, soon to be in collars
The pirate threw the woman to his feet near the nearest galley and there stripped her and handed her to a comrade who stood on board the galley. He put her on the outside of the railing, facing outward, with the small of her back tightly against it, her arms hooked over it and behind it, as with the others.
He then, with a length of binding fiber, running tight across her body, fastened her wrists together, as he had similarly those of the others.
All were well displayed. Too the exposition of captures in this way tends to discourage retaliatory missile fire from the scene of the pillaging.
The woman was comely, I did not think she would have her throat cut.
Lusty men have better uses to which to put such women. I did think, however, that they would soon, all the captures, be marked and put in collars.
"If I were you," said the man near the women in the crowd, "I would draw back in the crowd and hide. Then I would flee."
"But I am free," she said.
"So, too were they," said the man gesturing to the bound woman at the railing of the pirate galley.
She shrank back suddenly frightened.

Pirates directing citizens of Victoria to load loot on their galleys
I saw Kilomense, some seventy yards away, directing his men and the enforced laborers, citizens of Victoria, loading the galleys.
Another woman chosen and taken by gorean pirates
"You there, female," called a pirate, his eyes roaming the crowd, "step forth!"
The men holding the ship's pole, frightened, lowered it. "Step forth!" said the pirate.
The woman shook her head pressing back against the men.
"Unhood her, face-strip her!" ordered the pirate.
"Protect me, save me, please," she begged.
Her hood was thrust back. Her veil was torn away. She was lovely. The price she would bring would be good. I wondered why such a woman would come to the wharves in a time of such danger. Surely she must have understood the peril to which she would be exposing herself.
"Step forth Beauty," said the pirate.
Numbly she approached him. I made to move but two men restrained me.
Swiftly before us all, in the light of the flames, was the woman stripped by the pirates blade.
"Lie down," he said he.
She hesitated and looked at him in anguish.
"Or do you wish to be slit like a larma?" he asked. His sword jabbed into the sweet roundness of her belly.
Swiftly she knelt at his feet, her back on the harsh tarred boards.
The pirate looked at us and laughed. "here at my feet, supine, stripped is a free woman of Victoria. Do any of you dispute her with me?"
Two men restrained me. No others moved.
"Kneel," he ordered the woman.
She did so.
He then pressed the point of his blade against her fair throat. Numbly, slowly lifting her arms, the blade between her arms, her fingers trembling, she tied the bondage knot in her own hair. She looked at him. "Please spare me Master," she said.
For a long moment or two the point of the blade remained at her throat, as the pirate considered the girl's plea.
I saw his eyes roam her now-imbonded curves. He laughed. He thrust his blade back in its sheath. She almost fainted with relief.
"On your feet!" he said. "Run to the nearest galley! Beg to be displayed there, as the loot you are!"
Rogue

Drunken pirate swinging sword against citizens of Victoria
"Stand back, lest you be hurt!" cried a man.
I was seized by two men, citizens, and dragged back into the encircling crowd. I was bleeding. My tunic was cut. The sword of the pirate, in a drunken swing, had grazed my chest. Other citizens, with ship poles, of the sort used on Gorean galleys in casting off and thrusting from the wharves, pressed back the crowd. I felt the side of the pole against my belly. I was jostled by the crowd. The pirate turned away, laughing.

Guardsmen maintain their posts, allowing the pillaging of the town
"Where are the guardsmen of Port Cos?" I asked. "Where are the guardsmen of Ar's Station?" There were several guardsmen from each of these towns in Victoria. There was smoke in the air. Five warehouses and some ancillary buildings were afire.
"They maintain their posts," said a man grimly. "They protect their own headquarters." "Victoria is not their concern," said a man bitterly.
I watched the pirates, perhaps some 50 or 60 of them, unchallenged, moving between the warehouses and the wharves, where two pirate galleys were moored. Some townfolk at swordpoint, were loading goods onto the galleys. Some of the pirates bore torches. "The tribute will be paid by morning," said one of the men near me.

Swilling paga and strutting about while pillaging
I saw several of the pirates with bottles of paga, swilling from them, as they strutted about, sometimes pausing to cut into a bale of goods or overturn a barrel kicking it open, permitting its contents to run out over the boards. The alarm bar continued to ring futilely. The pirates made no effort to stop the desperate fellow who meaninglessly continued to strike it.

Even though the citizens greatly outnumber the pirates, no move is made against them
"We outnumber them 50 to 1," I said. "Let me rush upon them. Let us stop them!" "They are Masters in Victoria," said a man, "Do nothing rash."

Rogue

Pirates roam trade routes in search of loot
Take as slaves the women in pilgrimmage to Sardar that they capture
Although no one may be enslaved at the fair, slaves may be bought and sold within its precincts, and slavers do a thriving business, exceeded perhaps only by that of Ar’s Street of Brands. The reason for this is not simply that here is a fine market for such wares, since men from various cities pass freely to and fro at the fair, but that each Gorean, whether male or female, is expected to see the Sardar Mountains, in honor of the Priest-Kings, at least once in his life, prior to his twenty-fifth year. Accordingly the pirates and outlaws who beset the trade routes to ambush and attack the caravans on the way to the fair, if successful, often have more than inanimate metals and cloths to reward their vicious labors.

Males are often killed or driven off
Women are stripped & collared
The trip to the Sardar is a serious risk of falling slave to gorean pirates
This pilgrimage to the Sardar, enjoyed by the Priest-Kings according to the Caste of the Initiates, undoubtedly plays its role in the distribution of beauty among the hostile cities of Gor. Whereas the males who accompany a caravan are often killed in its defense or driven off, this fate, fortunate or not, is seldom that of the caravan’s women. It will be their sad lot to be stripped and fitted with the collars and chains of slave girls and forced to follow the wagons on foot to the fair, or if the caravan’s tharlarions have been killed or driven off, they will carry its goods on their backs. Thus one practical effect of the edict of the Priest-Kings is that each Gorean girl must, at least once in her life, leave her walls and take the very serious risk of becoming a slave girl, perhaps the prize of a pirate or outlaw.
Priest Kings

Pirates exact tribute from small towns in their area
When tribute is not paid, pirates attacked and burned
"The men of Victoria seem adamant in refusing to pay the tribute to Policrates," I said. "Yes Master," she smiled.
I thought this was courageous on their part, but I did not know if it were wise. It had been the first time in five years that this had happened. The last time the pirates of the dark stronghold had carried fire and sword to a dozen wharfed ships. The tribute had then been rapidly forthcoming. To be sure, in the past years the pirates had become more and more dependent on the markets of Victoria to dispose of their loot and captures. In the light of this, many in Victoria regarded themselves as having at last attained a position in which they might succeed in evading the humiliating burden of tribute.
Rogue