Results Details

Their neighbor's compartment might be despoiled by ruffians but, if they themselves were unharmed, they would think little of it and hasten to their chosen entertainment, fearing only that they might be late. - (Assassin of Gor, Chapter 17, Sentence #143)

Gangs of men, often armed, roamed streets and bridges, apparently undisturbed by Warriors, their depredations not curbed; and, startlingly, when captured and sent to the Central Cylinder, or to the Cylinder of Justice, pretexts would be found for their release, customarily on legal technicalities or an alleged lack of evidence against them. But, as this lawlessness grew, and it became such that men would not walk the bridges without arms, the frenzy over the races and the games grew more rabid; it became rare on the streets and bridges to pass a person who would not, either for himself or for someone he knew, wear a faction patch, even on those rare days in which the Stadium of Tarns stood empty. People seemed to care little for anything save the races and the games. Their neighbor's compartment might be despoiled by ruffians but, if they themselves were unharmed, they would think little of it and hasten to their chosen entertainment, fearing only that they might be late. The duel for the lead in racing hung suspended among three factions, the Greens, the Yellows and the Steels, the new faction. The progress and startling rise of the Steels as a faction dated from the first day of the races, when, in the eleventh race, Gladius of Cos, astride a great tarn, initiated the Steels as a faction with a surprising, but resounding, win over a strong field of competitors. The great bird he rode was no racing tarn but its size, its swiftness, its sureness, its incredible power and ferocity made it a terrible foe in the wars of the suspended rings; indeed, never had it lost; many of the other tarns of the Steels, as well, were not bred racing tarns, but war tarns, ridden by unknown riders, mysterious men hailing supposedly from far cities; the excitement of a new faction not only competing but dangerously challenging the established factions of Ar provided a spectacle that inflamed the imaginations of the men and women of Ar; thousands of fans, for one reason or another, discouraged with their factions, or seeking novelty, or wishing to feel a part of the great battle of the races, sewed or pinned on their garments the small rectangle of bluish-gray cloth, faction patch of the Steels. - (Assassin of Gor)