Free Girls!
Free Girls! |
|
|
What's New on Zhor?
UPDATE
From Overlord:
We have not updated in over a year. Burnout is a common occurance in any creative endeavor, but this time can be partially justified by all the factors that hit us last year. We became unable to upload to some sites (including our own) due to sudden technical problems. The fix, we eventually found, would be expensive, and so we long delaid it. Then, too, our routine had changed around the same time. We were earning more, but now lacked as much time as priviously for hobbies. And over that was the demoralizing effect of a fall off of guest contributions, or even fan letters. (Though those that came in was very good). Because this site has no meter, it is not possible to know how many hits we're getting; the only gage by which one can know if the World of Zhor is liked is by letters and contributions. So, we took some time off from Zhor and concentrated on personal relationships and making a living.
But Zhor is too good to give up on forever. Now that we have finally upstated our equipment we want to offer something nw to our silent fans out there, whatever their numbers. Hobby time is still short, but our energy state has improved. Formerly, we tried to update once per month. That was always extremely hard to do and it came at a cost to other activities. For the present, we will probably be more irregular than before in putting up new material. We'll update when we update; that's all we can promise. One thing that can help us along is more material, and fan letters that will rev up our enthusiasm.
Your webmaster is making plans for the site. We want to make it easier to get more postable stories. Too often
in the past, we have had to turn down good material simple because of our strict rule that it has to have something
to do with Zhor. It's painfully true that not enough people are doing Zhor stories these days. To make it easier
to contribute, we are thinking about adding a section that will feature non-Zhorian stories. Because we have mostly
filled up our storage capacity, we are forced to be very selective about what we will be accepting. Otherwise
we will have to start deleting old material to make room for new. What do we want to receive? TG adventure stories
is, hands down, our favorite type of story. There are themes we don't care for and don't have the space to accomodate.
Sissy tales or cross-dressing stories will have a better chance elsewhere. And, personally, we have never much
cared for fem-dom. A full information sheet for contributors shall be provided when our plan is further along.
"The World of Zhor" Revised
We've puttered with the World of Zhor information essay off and on for a year. Now it is somewhat expanded, edited,
and provided with even more pictures of beautiful Zhorians. Click here.
A New Illustrated Illo by Spiff
Spiff has sent us part 2 of his text-and-story short called Zhorian Princess-2. The lesson here seems to be that bad choices lead to hard decisions.
.
Mission Statement for the World of Zhor
|
|
Zhor is an otherworldly TG universe inspired by John Norman's GOR series. We try hard to make it more than a mere pastiche, despite our admiration for the Norman series. Even so, one who is familiar with Gor can fill in gaps regarding the details of Zhorian life with parallels from the books. In general, both planets are ostensibly at old Earth's Hellenistic stage of development and erotic slavery is widely practiced upon both of them.
On Gor, the great majority of people are free. But there has always been a small slave population. Some careless readers, reviewersm mostly, seem to think that most women on Gor are slaves. Absolutely not true. We of Earth are the true slavers, with our widespread totalitarian notions. The Gorean population seems much larger than it actually is because Norman's stories usually deal with persons, especially beautiful young women, who fall slave.
He details the slave culture of Gor richly. That that planet, some women seek the embonded life voluntarily (many women being possessed of the gene that makes them seek for male domination), but most enter slavery from a state of freedom. People, men and women, may be enslaved through capture in war, abduction by bandit raiders, or by raids by professional slavers. Also, legal judgments send many women into slavery. (Males more often are sentenced to terms of forced labor, but are not classed as slaves). A great many Gorean slaves (of both sexes) are mere drudges, doing the same chores that servants and slaves on Earth have accustomly performed for millennia. But this drab type of slave is only occasionally brought into a Gor story; it is the other kind of slave, the alluring female "pleasure slave," that we become most familiar with. And for this we should be grateful to author Norman.
A pleasure slave of Gor is selected for her sexual charisma. She is put to work at tasks where sexuality is at a premium: paga slaves (basically barmaids or cocktail waitresses), private pleasure slaves (concubines, harem girls), house servants (basically French maids), and coin girls, which are the Gorean streetwalkers.
Most pleasure slaves experience male domination, though women may own male and female slaves also. Pleasure slaves go nude at their masters' whim or, alternately, must dress to please him -- usually in scanty garments resembling lingerie. Erotic slaves are expected to enhance their natural assets with cosmetics and scent. They are trained to walk, talk, and gesticulate in ways that suggest sensuality. For a free woman to dress, paint her face, or use perfume -- normally considered fit only for a pleasure slave -- is to make herself the object of scandal.
Men, on the other hand, find their greatest joy in being the masters of female slaves. (There is a Gorean male sex slave called the "silk slave," vain, wimpish creatures for the most part, but Norman rarely deals with these unmanly Goreans). We may regret that while the creator of Gor goes to great lengths describing the erotic slave system of Gor, he never touches upon the TG subject. This omission is unfortunate, for the science of Gor should have been able to achieve advanced forms of transsexual transformation. The main purpose of offering Zhor to the public is to remedy this glaring lack that is found in Gorean adventure. On Zhor, therefore, fans of Gor-type action-fantasy may enjoy the TG eroticism that is not obtainable on Gor.
We offer Zhor as an open universe; we are happy to have new Zhorian stories sent to us. We also allow such tales to be sent and posted elsewhere. However, we hope that folks will let us know where such stories have found a home, only so that we can enjoy them, too. We like best of all the Zhor tales where the emphasis is upon fun and romance. A Zhor story goes wrong, we think, when it emphasizes physical brutality and cruel punishments. Eroticism, the fulfillment of powerful longings, not cruelty, is what Zhor is all about. To a true Zhor fan, the world is a Never Never Land of primordial passion realized, of Man finding his true happiness, and Woman finding hers.
Now, reader, how about sending us that Zhor story that you've been thinking of doing?
1) For a briefing on the details of Planet Zhor, here is a useful primer.
Click here to view "The World of Zhor" fact sheet.
2) For a first-rate example of how to work the different facets of Zhorian culture into a vast story of one's own making, check out Aardvark's Zhor novel at the link below:
Click here to view "The Warrior From Batuk."
3)For another prose tale of Zhor too good to miss, we have Spiff's "Thaumatrope." Can a courageous warrior resist the slave urges imposed by Ruk's Serum long enough to complete a vital mission for his liege lord?
Click here to view "Thaumatrope."
4) For novelette filled with humor and gusto, there is "The Lancer's Tale." It gives an account of how a lusty Zhorian takes erotic revenge upon a beautiful serum girl, one who has crossed him in a matter of the heart (back when she was still a male and his best friend). Ranbarth's tale should not be missed.
Click here to view "The Lancer's Tale."
|
|
For comments, questions and suggestions, contact Overlord at:
