Here are a few thoughts on what I feel it means to be a Red Savage on Gor, and our place in the scheme of things. I have read the books that cover us, Blood Brothers and Red Savages, more than once. To not do so does put one at a disadvantage in finding a point of reference to start from...see how close you are to where ~I~ am. We all need a common place to begin with in our expectations:

1. We are the Yellow Knives! The fiercest and cruelest of the Red Savages of Gor.

2. We are not a "kind to others" sort of People. If you are not YK, you ain't s**t as far as we are concerned.

3. Our lives revolve around warfare..from birth to death we fight the other Tribes on the Barrens, (interesting to note that the Kailla Savages are mentioned in the books by name as our mortal enemies *L*) and our common enemy the Wasicu (the Whites).

4. Whites (Wasicu) come to our camp at our tolerance only. We let them live or kill them as we feel the whim. To us, they are ~barely~ human.. they are pale, furry, two-legged creatures plagued by greed and ignorance. If they have something we want, we take it. Maybe they will get to go home alive, maybe not. *shrugs* It doesn't really matter much to us.

5. The Wasicu do not represent "civilization" to us at all. In fact, quite the contrary. We are not reservation Indians on Gor. The Wasicu have not put us here. They have no technological edge in warfare that puts us at a disadvantage of any kind. Indeed, they have nothing going for them that we can see.

6. To us, Tribe is everything...Teamwork is everything. If it does not benefit Tribe, it is not done. Conversely, pride in Tribe is extremely important. Insults to the Tribe are handled quickly...in creative and painful ways that deliver a message whenever possible.

7. Each FM of the Tribe is a Warrior first and foremost, regardless of whatever else they are trained to do. To fight with pride gives us purpose.

8. Resources on the Barrens are hard to come by. We waste nothing, and follow the herds of pte as they thunder across the Barrens. Where they go, we go. We waste no time on those that will not pull their weight. We cannot afford to. Anti-social persons are culled out of the Tribe to protect the common good.

9. To us, Savage is not an insult. It means we do not follow the affectations of the soft Wasicu and their social conventions. Our ways are the ways of our Ancestors. We have no need of adopting their manners and "courtesy".

10. Every band of Warriors has a specific function in combat or hunting. A band of the hand that fights like the movements of a watch. Surround and destroy an enemy. Illusions of "honorable" combat, one on one with a Wasicu, is something in their ways, not ours. They exist merely as fodder for our Warriors.

11. The Barrens are weeks in every direction on kailla back. No inahan runs away from Camp. There is no where to go...no where to hide. We see riders hours away, and can track prey with the slightest signs on a trail days cold. We are one with the land. No one surprises us..sneaks up on us or our camp in the dark. The very notion is laughable. An ocean of grass-lands is what we live on and in.

12. Discipline is tight. Very tight. Lack of respect means death, usually very quickly. If the Chief allows you to live following a breech of discipline, it is by His will alone that you do so. Orders are carried out very swiftly.

13. An inahan that is disrespectful or disobeys would get their ass kicked by the other inahans long before a Free even heard about it. Camp life can be very harsh, and anyone who makes life harder for others has a death wish in a place where life is cheap.

14. The Savages of Gor, esp the Yellow Knives, are fiercely proud of who and what they are, and what makes them different from all others on Gor. These differences are celebrated. Wasicu ways are not tolerated, even among those who are captured as inahan, or those that come to live among us.

I think it is time we started concentrating on being SAVAGE and stop worrying about being Wasicu or socially acceptable to anyone else. We cannot forget where we are and what we are. We are not Wasicu who simply wear feathers in our hair and live in lodges and tipis saying "Hou" and doing beadwork and bingo for tourists.

While all this does not mean I am endorsing a policy of kill all Wasicu on sight *EG* or the Warpath for the sake of such, or a even place where fun is frowned on (For that is certainly ~not~ the case for Red Savages *G*) I am interested in a consensus of viewpoints from you all on what it means to be in a Red Savage Tribe and why you are here as opposed to being in any other run of the mill Gorean room.