Conspirators of Gor (98 page)

In any event, at least one Gorean deck of cards, presumably one commonly found, as it appears in the “Miscellany,” contains sixty cards, divided into five suits. It will be helpful, I think, if we devote some attention to the number “60,” as it is a most interesting number. It is the smallest number which contains the largest number of factors. It contains twelve factors, which is germane to the twelve cards in each of the five suits. The twelve factors of 60 are, 60, 30, 20, 15, 12, 10, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. The number 60 is sometimes referred to as “The Great Number,” “The Ubar’s Number,” “The Sacred Number,” “The Priest-Kings’ Number,” and so on. The five suits are named for the five high castes of Gor, namely, the Initiates, whose color is white; the Builders, whose color is yellow; the Scribes, whose color is blue; the Physicians, whose color is green; and the Warriors, whose color is red. Each of these suits consists of twelve cards, respectively the Tarn, the Larl, the Sleen, the Panther, the Tarsk, the Tharlarion, the Urt, the Verr, the Vulo, the Jard, the Vart, and the Ost. The Initiate’s Tarn would be white, the Builder’s Tarn yellow, and so on. The values follow the factors of 60. A Tarn counts 60, the Larl 30, the Sleen 20, and so on, until one reaches the Ost which has a value of 1. Thus, a Larl at 30 would take precedence over a Sleen at 20, but two Sleen, giving us 40, would take precedence over a Larl, which is valued at 30. There is nothing in the Miscellany, to the best of my knowledge, which, at least to date, gives us the rules for any particular game. One supposes, naturally, as with most decks of cards, any given deck might sustain an indefinite number of games.
 

—J. N.

Endnotes