General Description
Tor, lying at the northwest corner of the Tahari, is the principal supplying point for the scattered oasis communities of that dry vastness, almost a continent of rock, and heat, and wind and sand. These communities, sometimes quite large, numbering in hundreds, sometimes thousands of citizens, depending on the water available, are often hundreds of pasangs apart. ~ Tribesman, p. 36
Even in the reduced scale of the map the desert seemed vast. It's mere representation, as earlier indicated, covered several square feet of the floor. It was roughly in the shape of a gigantic, lengthy trapezoid, with eastward leaning sides. At its northwestern corner lay Tor. West of Tor, on the Lower Fayeen, a sluggish, meandering tributary, like the Upper Fayeen, to the Cartius, lay the river port of Kasra, known for its export of salt...The area, in extent, east of Tor, was hundreds of pasangs in depth, and perhaps thousands in length. The Gorean expression for this area simply means the Wastes, or the Emptiness. It is a vast area, and generally rocky, and hilly, save in the dune country. It is almost constantly windblown and almost waterless. ~Tribesmen, p. 32 & 33
Even in the reduced scale of the map the desert seemed vast. It's mere representation, as earlier indicated, covered several square feet of the floor. It was roughly in the shape of a gigantic, lengthy trapezoid, with eastward leaning sides. At its northwestern corner lay Tor. West of Tor, on the Lower Fayeen, a sluggish, meandering tributary, like the Upper Fayeen, to the Cartius, lay the river port of Kasra, known for its export of salt...The area, in extent, east of Tor, was hundreds of pasangs in depth, and perhaps thousands in length. The Gorean expression for this area simply means the Wastes, or the Emptiness. It is a vast area, and generally rocky, and hilly, save in the dune country. It is almost constantly windblown and almost waterless. ~Tribesmen, p. 32 & 33
Tribes of the Tahari
Aretai-"Aretai Victorious"
Ravei Tahsid Tajuks Ti Zevar |
Kavar-"Kavar's Supreme Bakahs
Char Kashnari Ta'Kara * Marked with a blue scimitar on the left forearm facing outward from the body
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Location of the Tahari
NOTE: Maps of the Tahari are forbidden and will result in immediate death: "Had I not seen Suleiman shortly I would have had to strike eastward myself. Without a guide this would have been incredibly dangerous. The men of the Tahari kill those who make maps of it. They know their own country, or their districts within it; they are not eager that others know it as well. Without a guide, who knew the location of water, to enter the Tahari would be suicidal. ~ Tribesmen of Gor, p.101
Cities
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Landmarks
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Oasis
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Climate
- Deserts are typically arid, barren, and sandy environments. They reach scorching temperatures during the day and freezing temperatures at night.
- Shelter Trenchs are approx 5 feet deep and 18 inches wide, used to take shelter from desert storms and the heat.
- Tents are pitched facing the east to absorb the morning sunlight.
- In areas it has been centuries between rains. Its oases are fed from underground rivers flowing southeastward from the Voltai slopes. The water, seeping underground, eventually, in places, due to rock formations, erupts in oasis springs, or, more usually, is reached by deep wells, some of them more than two hundred feet deep. It takes more than a hundred and fifty years for some of this water to make the underground journey, seeping hundreds of feet at times beneath the dry surface, moving only a few miles a year, to reach the oases. Diurnal air temperatures in the shade are commonly in the range of 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Surface temperature, diurnally, is, of course, much higher. In the dune country, by day, if one were so unwise as to go barefoot, the bright sand would quickly cripple a man, abrading and burning the flesh from his feet in a matter of hours. ~Tribesmen, p. 32 & 33