Tarnsmen of Gor

My Master is of the Red caste, he is a tarnsman of Gor. I was asked by Him to search and find out, what a tarnsman is.

A subcaste of the warrior caste, one does not become a Tarnsman, one is born a Tarnsman. There is a saying that when a Warrior & a War Tarn meet, the Tarn shall either except it's new master or devour him.

Once one has been a tarnsman, it is said, one must return again and again to the giant, savage birds. I think that this is a true saying. One knows that one must master them or be devoured. One knows that they are not dependable, that they are vicious. A tarnsman knows that they may turn upon him without warning. Yet the tarnsman chooses no other life. He continues to mount the birds, to climb to their saddle with a heart filled with joy, to draw the monster aloft. More than the gold of a hundred merchants, more than the countless cylinders of Ar, he treasures those sublime, lonely moments, high over the earth, cut by the wind, he and the bird as one creature, alone, lofty, swift, free. Let it be said simply I was pleased, for I was on tarn back again."

---Outlaw of Gor

"Something of the nature of the institution of capture, and the Gorean's attitude toward it becomes clear when it is understood that one of the young tarnsman's first missions is often the capture of a slave for his personal quarters. When he brings home his captive, bound naked across the saddle of his tarn, he gives her over, rejoicing, to his sisters, to be bathed, perfumed and clothed in the brief slave livery of Gor.

That night, at a great feast, he displays the captive, now suitably attired by his sisters in the diaphanous, scarlet dancing silks of Gor. Bells have been strapped to he ankles, and she is bound in slave bracelets. Proudly, he presents her to his parents, his friends and warrior comrades.

Then, to the festive music of flutes and drums, the girl kneels. The young man approaches her, bearing a slave collar, its engraving proclaiming his name and city. The music grows more intense, mounting to an overpowering, barbaric crescendo, which stops suddenly, abruptly. The room is silent, absolutely silent, except for the decisive click of the collar lock.

It is a sound the girl will never forget.

As soon as the lock closes, there is a great shout, congratulating, saluting the young man. He returns to his place among the tables that line the low-ceilinged chamber, hung with glowing brass lamps. He sits in the midst of his family, his closest well-wishers, his sword comrades, cross- legged on the floor in the Gorean fashion behind the long, low wooden table, laden with food, which stands at the head of the room.

Now all eyes are on the girl.

The restraining slave bracelets are removed. She rises. Her feet are bare on the thick, ornately wrought rug that carpets the chamber. There is a slight sound from the bells strapped to her ankles. She is angry, defiant. Though she is clad only in the almost transparent scarlet dancing silks of Gor, her back is straight, her head high. She is determined not to be tamed, not to submit, and her proud carriage bespeaks this fact. The spectators seem amused. She glares at them. Angrily she looks from face to face. There is no one she knows, or could know, because she has been taken from a hostile city, she is a woman of the enemy. Fists clenched, she stands in the center of the room, all eyes upon her, beautiful in the light of the hanging lamps.

She faces the young man, wearing his collar.

'You will never tame me!' she cries.

Her outburst provokes laughter, skeptical observations, some good-natured hooting.

'I will tame you at my pleasure,' replies the young man, and signals to the musicians.

The music begins again. Perhaps the girl hesitates. There is a slave whip on the wall. Then, to the barbaric, intoxicating music of the flute and drums, she dances for her captor, the bells on her ankles marking each of her movements, the movements of a girl stolen from her home, who must now live to please the bold stranger whose binding fiber she had felt, whose collar she wore.

At the end of her dance, she is given a cup of wine, but she may not drink. She approaches the young man and kneels before him, her knees in the dictated position of the Pleasure Slave, and, head down, she proffers the wine to him. He drinks. There is another general shout of commendation and well wishing, and the feast begins, for none before the young man may touch food on such occasions. From that moment on, the young man's sisters never again serve him, for that is the girl's task. She is his slave.

As she serves him again and again throughout the long feast, she steals glances at him, and sees that he is even more handsome than she had thought. Of his courage and strength she had already had ample evidence. As he eats and drinks with gusto on this occasion of his triumph, she regards him furtively, with a strange mixture of fear and pleasure. 'Only such a man,' she tells herself, 'could tame me.'"

---Outlaw of Gor


The Fundamentals of Tarn Flight & Control

The basic controls for flying the tarn are a series of rings attached at the front of the tarns harness. In turn these rings are attached to reins or straps so the Tarnsman can control the tarns flight. There are 6 positions, starting from the top clockwise. The tarn will respond to the commands until the control straps are released & continue in the direction of the last command. The one position commands the beast to take flight or to climb in altitude. Positions 2 is to bank right/up and position 3 is to bank right/down. The 4th strap commands the tarn to descend/dive or to land. 5th and 6th is the opposite of 3 & 4 straps, banking left up & down respectively. Using any combination of the control straps enable tarn and rider to become highly manuverable. They can dodge and veer off or close in on their opponents from almost any angle of attack. Utilizing these controls, the student must master them in order to move on to the next phase of training.

The primary way to control & discipline a tarn is by the use of a tarn-goad. Although voice commands can also be used, the Tarnsman & the Tarn would most likely have been long time partners. A Tarnsman or Tarn Keeper also utilize voice commands and some of the words might have been learned over time. Tarl Cabot utilized the concept of kindness & attention to the tarn to enhance their relationship further. These concepts would have greater ramifications for Tarl Cabot later on.

Further control of the tarn would consist of urging the tarn to walk or rather half-fly/skip along the ground. Once the Tarnsman progress pass this course he moves on to the next level.


http://dag66.tripod.com/tarnsman/id8.html

The basic combat load of a Tarnsman is the shield & spear stapped to the saddle. Sword over the shoulder. A longbow with arrows & a crossbow & bolts. A saddle pack with basic gear: tarn goad, rations, compass, maps, binding fibre & extra bowstrings. Addtional gear would consist of the Tarnsman's personal items, i.e. extra weapons, extra spear & the use of the lance (Open to RP but must be realistic). In addition, a Tarnsman has added cargo space in the form of tarnbaskect & extra saddle bags. Lengths of ropes may be attached to tarns carrying raiders into battle. Small clay flasks filled with tharlarion oil used as aerial bombardment weapons. They are light by shielded ship's lantherns. Weighted nets to entangle enemy tarnsmen. But all these do not compare to the raw power & sheer deadliness of the Tarn itself.

THE MAGNIFICENT TARN


The tarn, like most birds, is surprisingly light for its size, this primarily having to do with the hollowness of the bones. It is an extremely powerful bird, powerful even beyond what one would expect from such a monster.

Whereas large Urth birds, such as the eagle, must, when taking flights from the ground, begin with a running start, the tarn, with its incredible musculature, aided undoubtedly by the somewhat lighter gravity of Gor, can with a spring and a sudden flurry of its giant wings, lift both himself and his rider into the air. In Gorean, these birds are sometimes spoken of as "Brothers of the Wind".

The plumage of tarns is various, and they are bred for their colours as well as their strength and intelligence. Black tarns are used for night raids, white tarns in winter campaigns, and multicoloured, resplendent tarns are bred for warriors who wish to ride proudly, regardless of the lack of camouflage. The most common tarn, however, is greenish brown.

Disregarding the disproportion in size, the Earth bird which the tarn most closely resembles is the hawk, with the exception that it has a crest somewhat of the nature of a jay's.

There are three types of tarns...common, war and racing tarns; each very different from the other, not simply in the training, which does differ, but in the size, strength, build and tendencies of the bird.

Some tarns are bred primarily for strength and are used in transporting wares by carrying basket. Usually these birds fly more slowly and are less vicious than the war tarns or racing tarns.

The war tarns, of course, are bred for both strength and speed, but also for agility, swiftness of reflex, and combative instincts. War tarns, whose talons are shod with steel, tend to be extremely dangerous birds, even more so than other tarns, none of whom could be regarded as fully domesticated.

The racing tarn, interestingly, is an extremely light bird; two men can lift one; even it's beak is narrower and lighter than the beak of a common tarn or war tarn; it's wings are commonly broader and shorter than those of the other tarns, permitting a swifter take-off and providing a capacity for extremely abrupt turns and shifts in flight; they cannot carry a great deal of weight and the riders, as might be expected, are small men, usually of low caste, pugnacious and aggressive.

Racing tarns are not used by tarnsmen in war because they lack the weight and power of war tarns; meeting a war tarn in flight, a racing tarn would be torn to pieces in moments; further, the racing tarns, though marvellous in their particular ways, lack the stamina of the common tarn or the war tarn; their short wings, after a flight of perhaps only fifty pasangs, would begin to fail; in a short distance dash, of course, the racing tarn would commonly be superior to the war tarn.


Black tarns used in night raids
White tarns in winter raids
Some multicolored tarns for show
Common color is greenish brown

TRAINING TARNS


The Goreans believe, incredibly enough, that the capacity to master a tarn is innate and that some men possess this characteristic and that some do not. One does not learn to master a tarn. It is a matter of blood and spirit, of beast and man, of a relation between two beings which must be immediate, intuitive, spontaneous. It is said that a tarn knows who is a tarnsman and who is not, and that those who are not die in this first meeting.

Tarns, who are vicious things, are seldom more than half tamed and, like their diminutive counterparts the hawks, are carnivorous. It is not unknown for a tarn to attack and devour his own rider. They fear nothing but the tarn-goad. They are trained by men of the Caste of Tarn Keepers to respond to it while still young, when they can be fastened by wires to the training perches.

Whenever a young bird soars away or refuses obedience in some fashion, he is dragged back to the perch and beaten with the tarn-goad. Rings, comparable to those which are fastened on the legs of the young birds, are worn by the adult birds to reinforce the memory of the hobbling wire and the tarn-goad. Later, of course, the adult birds are not fastened, but the conditioning given them in their youth usually holds except when they become abnormally disturbed or have not been able to obtain food.

The spirit of the tarn must not be broken, not that of a war tarn. He is trained to the point where it is necessary for a strong master to decide whether he shall serve him or slay him. You will come to know your tarn, and he will come to know you. You will be as one in the sky, the tarn the body, you the mind and will. You will live in an armed truce with the tarn. If you become weak or helpless, he will kill you. As long as you remain strong, his master, he will serve you, respect you, obey you.'

BASIC ITEMS USED IN CONTROLING A TARN

TARN GOADS


A tarn goad is a metal rod about two feet long, with a leather loop attached. It had a switch in the handle, which can be set in two positions, on and off, like a simple torch. It is used to control the tarn; not used as a weapon. It has a leather loop, which is fastened around your wrist.

If You strike a tarn with it set to the 'on' position the goad will shower sparks in a sudden cascade of yellow light; on impact it feels like a sudden, severe electric charge, like the striking of a snake ...but leaves no wound.

The tarn-goad also is occasionally used in guiding the bird. One strikes the bird in the direction opposite to which one wishes to go, and the bird, withdrawing from the goad, moves in that direction.

There is very little precision in this method, however, because the reactions of the bird are merely instinctive, and he may not withdraw in the exact tangent desired. Moreover, there is danger in using the goad excessively. It tends to become less effective is often used, and the rider is then at the mercy of the tarn.



TARN WHISTLES


Each tarn is trained to respond to one particular whistle, one note, and the whistle is always sold on with the bird if it changes hands.

The whistle is used to call the bird to the rider.



TARN SADDLE


Climbing up the five-rung leather mounting ladder which hangs on the left side of the saddle and is pulled up in flight. He fastened himself in the saddle with a broad purple strap.



THE REINS

The racing harness, like the common tarn harness, works with two rings, the throat ring and the main saddle ring, and six straps. The major difference is the tautness of the reins between the two rings; the racing saddle, on the other hand, is only a slip of leather compared to the common tarn saddle, which is rather large, with saddle packs, weapon sheaths and paired slave rings.

On the racing saddle there are two small straps, rather than the one large strap on the common saddle; both straps fasten about the rider and to the saddle, in a sense each duplicating the work of the other; the theory is that though smaller straps can break more easily the probability of both straps breaking at the same time is extremely small; further the two straps tend to divide strain between them, thereby considerably lessening the possibility of either breaking; some saving in weight, of course, is obtained with the two smaller straps; further, the broad strap would be a bit large to fasten to the small saddle; even beyond this, of course, since races take place largely and most often over a net there is normally not as much danger in a fall as there would be in common tarn flight; the main purpose of the straps is simply to keep the rider in the saddle, for the purpose of his race, not primarily to protect his life

Most of the information in the above post came from :

http://www.angelfire.com/ne/Thentis/tarns.html
http://goreanreference.50megs.com/freemen/tarns.html
http://dag66.tripod.com/tarnsman/id8.html

.....To my Master, and my sister