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Book 1. (30 results) Tarnsman of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
2	192	My father then explained to me something of the legends of the priest-kings, and I gathered that they seemed to be true to this degree at least—that the priest-kings could destroy or control whatever they wished, that they were, in effec...
13	67	The disease is named that because it is regarded as being holy to the priest-kings, and those who suffer from it are regarded as consecrated to the priest-kings.
2	147	Then, after a long moment, not looking at me, he said, "It is rumored there is such a stone, but it lies in the Sacred Place and is the source of the priest-kings' power".
2	148	"Who are the priest-kings?" I asked.
2	151	"Yes," said my father at last, "I must speak to you of priest-kings".
2	158	There was a sect among the people that worshipped the sun, I later learned, but it was insignificant both in numbers and power when compared with the worship of the priest-kings, who, whatever they were, were accorded the honors of divinity.
2	159	Theirs, it seems, was the honor of being enshrined as the most ancient gods of Gor, and in time of danger a prayer to the priest-kings might escape the lips of even the bravest men.
2	160	"The priest-kings," said my father, "are immortal, or so most here believe".
2	169	"My speculation, however," said my father, "is that the priest-kings are indeed men—men much as we, or humanoid organisms of some type—who possess a science and technology as far beyond our normal ken as that of our own twentieth century would be to the alch...
2	172	"The priest-kings," said my father, "maintain the Sacred Place in the Sardar Mountains, a wild vastness into which no man penetrates.
2	187	"Some think that such men in time become priest-kings themselves.
2	188	My own speculation, which I judge as likely or unlikely to be true as the more popular superstitious stories, is that it is death to learn the secret of the priest-kings".
2	198	"There is at least one area, however," said my father, "in which the priest-kings do take a most active interest in this world, and that is the area of technology.
2	204	"You wonder," he said, "why the numerous, rather obvious deficits in our technology have not been repaired—in spite of the priest-kings.
2	216	"Surely that is a marvelous example of your technology?" "Not of our technology, but of that of the priest-kings," he said.
2	218	"By priest-kings?" I asked.
2	226	He said, from what he could learn from the Initiates, who claimed to serve as the intermediaries of priest-kings to men, that the planet Gor had originally been a satellite of a distant sun, in one of the fantastically remote Blue Galaxies.
2	227	It was moved by the science of the priest-kings several times in its history, seeking again and again a new star.
2	241	One can't hide a planet the size of the Earth in our own solar system! It's impossible!" "You underestimate the priest-kings and their science," said my father, smiling.
2	242	"Any power that is capable of moving a planet—and I believe the priest-kings possess this power—is capable of effecting adjustments in the motion of the planet, such adjustments as might allow it to use the sun indefinitely as a concealing shield".
2	246	"It is my belief," he said, "that the priest-kings can control the forces of gravity, at least in localized areas, and, indeed, that they do so.
2	250	The priest-kings might gravitationally warp the space in their vicinity, causing light or radio waves to be diffused, curved, or deflected in such a way as not to expose their world".
2	254	"Of course, I only propose hypotheses, for what the priest-kings do and how it is done is known only to them".
2	271	In fact, there is so little probability that this tale will be believed that the priest-kings of Sardar, the Keepers of the Sacred Place, have apparently granted that it may be recorded.
2	274	Why have the priest-kings been so lenient in this case—those who control this second earth? I think the answer is simple.
2	277	After all, suppose you should accept this tale, should learn of the Counter-Earth and of the Voyages of Acquisition, what could you do? You could do nothing, you with your rudimentary technology of which you are so proud—you could do nothing at least for a thousand years, and by that time, if...
3	56	Oddly enough, there was little religious instruction, other than to encourage awe of the priest-kings, and what there was, Torm refused to administer, insisting it was the province of the Initiates.
3	58	I was given some prayers to the priest-kings to memorize, but they were in Old Gorean, a language cultivated by the Initiates but not spoken generally on the planet, and I never bothered to learn them.
3	74	I would guess that there is a Third Knowledge, that reserved to the priest-kings.
3	194	I would have supposed that armor, or chain mail perhaps, would have been a desirable addition to the accouterments of the Gorean warrior, but it had been forbidden by the priest-kings.

Book 2. (30 results) Outlaw of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
5	43	It was common, of course, for Initiates to claim to speak for the priest-kings; indeed, it was presumably the calling of their caste to interpret the will of the priest-kings to men.
5	65	"Did I not serve the priest-kings," I asked, "at the siege of Ar?" "The priest-kings used you for their ends, as it pleased them to do".
5	71	Was it on my account that a city had perished? Was it I who had brought disaster to its people, to my father, to my friends and Talena? Had I been too foolish to understand that I was nothing before the power of the priest-kings? Was I now to wander the forlorn roads and ...
19	153	It is said that as we are to the amoeba and the paramecium so are the priest-kings to us, that the highest and most lyric flights of our intellect are, when compared to the thought of the priest-kings, but the chemical tropisms of the unicellul...
20	92	What of the interminable prayers of the Initiates, the sacrifices, the observances, the rituals, the innumerable shrines, altars and temples to the priest-kings? Could it be that the smoke of the burning sacrifices, the fragrance of the incense, the mumblings of the Initi...
26	107	But I go to the Sardar for more than truth; foremost in my brain there burns, like an imperative of steel, the cry for blood-vengeance, mine by sword-right, mine by the affinities of blood and caste and city, mine for I am one pledged to avenge a vanished people, fallen walls and towers, a city frow...
26	120	Could priest-kings, with their knowledge and power, have need of such a man? But priest-kings need nothing from men, and once more my thoughts grow foolish.
1	101	"It means," laughed Cabot, a mirthless laugh, "—to the priest-kings of Gor!" He rose unsteadily.
1	195	Perhaps, as Tarl Cabot once remarked, "The agents of the priest-kings are among us".
2	3	I rose slowly to my feet, my fibers alive in the wind, my hair torn by its blasts, my muscles each aching and rejoicing in their first movements in perhaps weeks, for I had again entered that silver disk in the White Mountains which was the ship of the priest-kings, used ...
2	14	So standing, the sun upon me, without thinking I raised my arms as in pagan prayer to acknowledge the power of the priest-kings, which had once again brought me from Earth to this world, the power which once before had torn me from Gor when they were finished with me, tak...
2	15	There was no love in my heart for the priest-kings, those mysterious denizens of the Sardar Mountains, whoever or whatever they might be, but there was gratitude in my heart, either to them or to the strange forces that moved them.
2	17	The priest-kings, Keepers of the Holy Place in the Sardar Mountains, seeming knowers of all that occurred on Gor, masters of the hideous Flame Death that could with consuming fire destroy whatever they wished, whenever they might please, were not so crudely motivated as m...
2	19	It was rumored they used men as one might use pieces in a game, and when the piece had played its role it might be discarded, or perhaps, as in my case, removed from the board until it pleased the priest-kings to try yet another game.
2	66	I wondered why, and knew only that the priest-kings had intended it so.
3	79	"The priest-kings themselves," I said, "could not ask for more".
3	137	"May the priest-kings forgive me!" he cried.
4	71	The thought crossed my mind that it was a sign from the priest-kings that I should turn back.
5	19	"You have been touched by the priest-kings," said a voice behind me.
5	21	In the next flash of lightning I saw the white robes of an Initiate, the shaven head and the sad eyes of one of the Blessed Caste, servants it is said of the priest-kings themselves.
5	40	"Do you speak for the priest-kings?" I asked.
5	47	"I am one who conveys the will of the priest-kings to mortals," said the man, not choosing to answer my question.
5	55	"It was the will of the priest-kings," said the man.
5	56	"But why was it the will of the priest-kings?" I shouted.
5	57	"Because it was," said the man, "and there is nothing higher in virtue of which the will of the priest-kings may be determined or questioned".
5	75	He seemed to be struggling with himself, as though he wanted to speak his own words and not those of the priest-kings.
5	82	"Would that not frustrate the will of the priest-kings?" I asked.
5	113	He had told me to throw myself upon it, to avoid my shame, to frustrate for once the will of the mighty priest-kings of Gor.
5	116	Nor shall I grovel to the priest-kings nor live the life of shame they have allotted to me".
5	120	Like every man of Gor I knew the direction of the Sardar Mountains, home of the priest-kings, a forbidden vastness which no man below the mountains, no mortal, may penetrate.

Book 3. (30 results) Priest-Kings of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
2	77	I then understood that the larl I had heard must be a larl of priest-kings, for no animal and no man enters or exists in the Sardar without the consent of priest-kings, and if it was fed it must be at the hand of priest-king...
33	125	I had intended to make use of that moment myself, pretending to have come with a message from priest-kings, to encourage man to live as I wished him to live, to respect himself and others, to be kind and to be worthy of the heritage of a rational animal, and yet of what w...
1	64	Such contests, in which life is lost, used to be popular at Ar, for example, being sponsored in that city by the Caste of Initiates, who regard themselves as being intermediaries between priest-kings and men, though I suspect that, at least on the whole, they know as litt...
2	19	Sometimes these individuals are young idealists, rebels and champions of lost causes, who wish to protest to priest-kings; sometimes they are individuals who are old or diseased and are tired of life and wish to die; sometimes they are piteous or cunning or frightened wre...
5	143	"Yes," she continued, "I, armed with my beauty, would come to the Sardar and wrest the riches and power of the priest-kings from them, for men had always sought to serve me, to give me what I wanted, and were the priest-kings not men?" People h...
5	173	Perhaps Parp was the last of the priest-kings? Surely it seemed likely that such massive structures as the Hall of priest-kings must have been the product of more than one being.
8	37	"The priest-kings see and the priest-kings hear!" I cried.
10	2	What in the passageways I had taken to be the scent of priest-kings had actually been the residue of odor-signals which priest-kings, like certain social insects of our world, use in communicating with one another.
10	30	Similarly in the language of the priest-kings, the seventy-three "phonemes" or basic scents are used to form the meaning units of the language, and a single morpheme of priest-kings may consist of a complex set of odors.
10	33	I was told, incidentally, that the language of the priest-kings does possess more morphemes than English but I do not know if the report is truthful or not, for priest-kings tend to be somewhat touchy on the matter of any comparisons, particula...
13	4	If the scent-dots were themselves not scented one might be tempted to think of them as graphemes in the language of the priest-kings, but since they themselves are scented they are best construed as analogous to uttered phonemes or phoneme combinations, direct expressions...
17	13	"It is near the Feast of Tola," said Sarm, "and it is a time of pleasure and hospitality in the Nest of priest-kings, a time in which priest-kings are well disposed to all living things, whatever be their order".
17	112	I, in the very Nest of priest-kings, was more free than he who walked the stones of some road in the bright sun, somewhere beyond the palisade, far from the mountains of priest-kings yet still in the shadow of the Sardar.
20	144	Should I kill the innocent attendants, merely Muls who were performing the tasks allotted to them by priest-kings? Would I then have to slay Mul-Al-Ka and Mul-Ba-Ta as well? And what would I do with the girl in the Nest of priest-kings? And wha...
21	56	While the creatures remaining on the floor continued their mournful paean, their fellow creatures on the walls and ceiling, still carrying their torches, and scattering wild shadows of their own bodies and those of swollen priest-kings against the ceiling, began to fill t...
27	68	There were perhaps a thousand priest-kings in the Nest, and I supposed that this might be almost all the priest-kings in the Nest, save perhaps those that might be essentially placed at a few minimum posts, such as the guard at the steel barric...
27	104	The special Gur used on the Feast of Tola is, in the ancient fashion, kept for weeks in the social stomachs of specially chosen priest-kings to mellow and reach the exact flavor and consistency desired, which priest-kings are then spoken of as ...
27	109	I was already familiar with the astounding patience of priest-kings and so I was not surprised at the almost total lack of movement in the lines of that golden pattern, formed of priest-kings, which radiated out from the Platform of the Mother.
27	119	The rows of the priest-kings separated forming an aisle down the middle of the chamber and the priest-kings now stood facing this aisle, and down the aisle together came Sarm and Misk.
27	316	"I wanted to be," said the brown, dying creature, "the only Mother of priest-kings, and I listened to my First Born who wanted to be the only First Born of a Mother of priest-kings".
33	2	It was a strange but rapid journey, and as we leaped chasms and seemed almost to swim in the cold air I told myself that Misk and his priest-kings and the humans that were engineers in the Nest were losing the battle that would decide whether men and priest-...
33	86	"Now the priest-kings blow the breath of my sacrifice as a blessing upon you, letting it travel to the ends of Gor to speak of their wisdom and mercy!" There was a great cry of joy from the crowd and shouts of gratitude to the priest-kings.
35	35	Indeed, the ships were regarded as vehicles of a type forbidden to men by priest-kings and their passengers were attacked in the name of the very priest-kings from which they had come.
35	127	If I should attempt to help Misk, what would this mean, ultimately? Would it not be to surrender my race to the mercies of the people of Sarm and the priest-kings who had served him, or would it be ultimately to protect my race until it had learned to live with itself, un...
11	30	Impatience, for example, is often indicated by a tremor in the tactile hair on the supporting appendages, as though the creature could not wait to be off; a wandering of attention can be shown by the unconscious movement of the cleaning hooks from behind the third joints of the forelegs, suggesting ...
13	11	Scents, of course, will fade in time, but the specially prepared synthetic products of the priest-kings can last for thousands of years and, in the long run, will surely outlast the fading print of human books, the disintegrating celluloid of our films, perhaps even the c...
10	1	Misk the priest-King The priest-kings have little or no scent of their own which is detectable by the human nostrils, though one gathers there is a nest odor by which they may identify one another, and that the variations in this nest odor permit identifica...
10	15	For example, does a priest-King have the same qualitative experience that I do when we are confronted by the same scent? I am inclined to doubt it, for their music, which consists of rhapsodies of odors produced by instruments constructed for this purpose, and often played by pri...
15	69	"How long," I asked, "does a priest-King live?" "Long ago," said Misk, "priest-kings discovered the secrets of cell replacement without pattern deterioration, and accordingly, unless we meet with injury or accident, we will live until we are found by the Gol...
29	68	Two hypotheses would seem most likely to explain this phenomenon to them, first that I had fled the complex, second that I was nestled among them, and I smiled to myself, for I was certain that the second hypothesis would never occur to a priest-King, for it was too improbable and <...

Book 4. (30 results) Nomads of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
16	305	The Others—those of power, not priest-kings, must, to some extent, understand or sense the politics, the needs and policies of the remote denizens of the Sardar—they were probably not altogether unaware of the business of priest-kings...
7	206	Who, or what, could dare such a thing? Besides, how did I know that the message was not from priest-kings? I knew, as Kamchak and Kutaituchik did not, of the recent Nest War beneath the Sardar, and of the disruption in the technological complexes of the Nest—who kn...
7	209	And finally, I reminded myself again, was I not now engaged in their work? Was I not now attempting to be of service to them? Was I not now among the Wagon Peoples, in peril perhaps, on their behalf? But, I asked myself, if this message was not from priest-kings, from who...
2	17	And if I should find the object—why should I not myself destroy it, and destroy thereby the race of priest-kings, giving this world to my own kind, to men, to do with as they pleased, unrestricted by the laws and decrees of priest-kings ...
7	210	There must be others—others, who did not wish me to succeed in my work, who wished priest-kings, the race, to die, others who were capable even of bringing humans from Earth for their purposes—technologically advanced—others who were, perhaps, cautiou...
16	299	He might well be, and I supposed it true, merely an agent—but for whom, or what?—something that would challenge even priest-kings—but, it must be, something that feared priest-kings, or it would already have struck—t...
2	3	Some years before, perhaps between two and five years before, as the culmination of an intrigue enduring centuries, two men, humans from the walled cities of Gor, had, for the sake of priest-kings, undertaken a long, secret journey, carrying an object to the Wagon Peoples...
2	8	Could I—Tarl Cabot, a human and mortal, find this object and, as priest-kings now wished, return it to the Sardar—return it to the hidden courts of priest-kings that it might there fulfill its unique and irreplaceable role in the ...
2	10	But why was it I who came? Why not priest-kings in their ships and power, with their fierce weapons and fantastic devices? priest-kings cannot stand the sun.
2	26	Perhaps if I were successful I might save my race, by preserving the priest-kings that might shelter them from the annihilation that might otherwise be achieved if uncontrolled technological development were too soon permitted them; perhaps in time man would grow rational...
6	61	Had the girl been brought to this world by priest-kings? Was she the recent victim of one of the Voyages of Acquisition? But I understood them to have been curtailed in the recent subterranean War of priest-kings.
16	306	They could have learned of the destruction of much of the surveillance equipment of the Sardar, of the substantial reduction in the technological capabilities of priest-kings, at least for a short time—and, most importantly, that the War had been fought, in a way, ...
16	309	Thus, the Others might well infer that there was one, or more, concealed eggs, hidden away, which must now be secured that the new generation might be inaugurated, but hidden away quite possibly not in the Place of priest-kings itself, but elsewhere, out of the home of
17	35	It might be gilled, like Gorean sharks, probably descendants of Earth sharks placed experimentally in Thassa millennia ago by priest-kings, or it might have the gurdo, the layered, ventral membrane, shielded by porous plating, of several of the marine predators perhaps na...
26	299	It was not only that I had failed, that what I had fought for had now vanished, become ashes—not only that the war of priest-kings, in which I had played a prominent part, fought long before over such matters, had now become fruitless, meaningless—that my fr...
2	21	But I would not destroy the egg—not only because it contained life—but because it was important to my friend, whose name was Misk and is elsewhere spoken of; much of the life of that brave creature was devoted to the dream of a new life for priest-kings, a n...
16	295	How else would he dare to use the name of priest-kings on the message in the message collar?" I knew, of course, that the man was not a priest-King.
26	227	"Because," I said, "—it is the last seed of priest-kings—an egg—a child—the hope of priest-kings, to them all—everything, the world, the universe".
2	4	The two men who had carried this object, keeping well its secret as demanded by priest-kings, had braved many perils and had been as brothers.
2	9	What is this object? One might speak of it as many things, the subject of secret, violent intrigues; the source of vast strifes beneath the Sardar, strifes unknown to the men of Gor; the concealed, precious, hidden hope of an incredible and ancient race; a simple germ; a bit of living tissue; the do...
2	12	Men would not believe they were priest-kings.
2	13	Men conceive priest-kings as they conceive themselves.
2	16	Only that the egg was the egg of priest-kings gave me occasion to suspect, to hope, that somehow within that mysterious, presumably ovoid sphere, if it still existed, quiescent but latent, there might be life.
2	18	He had said to me, "Man is a larl to man; if we permitted him, he would be so to priest-kings as well".
2	32	Tal, I might say, in greeting, I am Tarl Cabot of Ko-ro-ba; I bring no credentials, no proofs; I come from the priest-kings; I would like to have the object which was brought to you from them; they would now like it back; thank you; farewell.
2	174	The effect of the scars, ugly, startling, terrible, perhaps in part calculated to terrify enemies, had even prompted me, for a wild moment, to conjecture that what I faced on the Plains of Turia were not men, but perhaps aliens of some sort, brought to Gor long ago from remote worlds to serve some n...
3	58	"Pray thou to priest-kings that the lance does not fall to me!" I did not understand this.
5	13	The Tuchuks and the other Wagon Peoples reverence priest-kings, but unlike the Goreans of the cities, with their castes of Initiates, they do not extend to them the dignities of worship.
6	60	I was thunderstruck that a girl, apparently of Earth, who spoke English, should be brought to the Tuchuks at this time—at the time that I was among them, hoping to discover and return to priest-kings what I supposed to be a golden spheroid, the egg, the last hope o...
6	63	But if the Voyages of Acquisition had been resumed, why had they been resumed? Or was it actually the case that she had been brought to Gor by priest-kings? Were there perhaps—others—somehow others? Was this woman sent to the Tuchuks at this time—perh...

Book 5. (30 results) Assassin of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
4	87	We were confident that this attempt on my life, for that it seemed to be, had something to do with the Sardar, and the priest-kings, and the Others, not priest-kings, who desired this world of priest-kings and men, a...
1	22	These men of Ko-ro-ba, he knew, when their city had been destroyed by priest-kings, had been scattered to the ends of Gor but, when permitted by priest-kings, they had returned to their city to rebuild it, each bearing a stone to add to its wal...
5	299	In the last days, I spoke often with Misk of the difficulties connected with obtaining the last egg of priest-kings, in particular informing him that others had wished the egg as well, and had nearly acquired it, others who had had the technology to visit Earth, to seize ...
7	73	The ship was disklike, as are the ships of priest-kings, but it had observation apertures, which the ships of priest-kings lack.
18	171	"Dar-Kosis," I said, "is thought to be holy to the priest-kings, and those afflicted with it to be consecrated to priest-kings".
1	6	It had once been destroyed by priest-kings, but now it was being rebuilt.
2	180	The Initiates, in their interpretations of sacrifices and in their preachments, primarily to the low castes, had led many of the city to fear that Kazrak might not long enjoy the favor of the priest-kings.
2	359	"The business of priest-kings and such," said she, "is surely less important than our present activities".
3	14	As I could I put these thoughts from my mind, but I could not fully escape them, for among them was the memory of a girl, she, Talena, the daughter of the Ubar of Ubars, Marlenus, who so many years before had been the Free Companion of a simple Warrior of Ko-ro-ba, he who had been torn from her at t...
3	15	When the city of Ko-ro-ba had been destroyed by priest-kings and its people scattered, no two to stand together, the girl had disappeared.
3	68	At any rate, disease is now almost unknown among the Gorean cities, with the exception of the dreaded Dar-Kosis disease, or the Holy Disease, research on which is generally frowned upon by the Caste of Initiates, who insist the disease is a visitation of the displeasure of priest-
3	69	The fact that the disease tends to strike those who have maintained the observances recommended by the Caste of Initiates, and who regularly attend their numerous ceremonies, as well as those who do not, is seldom explained, though, when pressed, the Initiates speak of possible secret failures to ma...
3	71	priest-kings have no wish that men become powerful enough on Gor to challenge them for the supremacy of the planet.
3	72	They believe, perhaps correctly, that man is a shrewish animal which, if it had the power, would be likely to fear priest-kings and attempt to exterminate them.
3	73	Be that as it may, the priest-kings have limited man severely on this planet in many respects, notably in weaponry, communication and transportation.
4	41	Caprus was said to be a friend of priest-kings.
5	145	* * * * Some months before, Elizabeth and I, the egg of priest-kings in the saddlepack of my tarn, had returned to the north from the Plains of Turia, the Land of the Wagon Peoples.
5	165	Then he stood there, in his some eighteen feet of golden height, balancing on his four posterior, four-jointed supporting appendages, the two anterior, four-jointed grasping appendages, each with its four, delicate, tiny prehensile hooks, held lightly, alertly before his body in the characteristic s...
5	182	The great compound eyes, on which priest-kings so seldom depended, were radiant; in that moment they glowed like diamonds burning in wine.
5	184	* * * * Elizabeth and I had remained with Misk in the Nest of priest-kings, that incredible complex beneath the Sardar, for some weeks.
5	218	Indeed, few of the Nest's humans were any longer slaves, save certain of the men and women who had betrayed us in the Nest War, certain men and women who had been reduced to such bondage because of transgressions, and certain others who had entered the Sardar to seek and acquire the riches of ...
5	296	"There is controversy among priest-kings," Kusk remarked, "as to whether or not humans should be taught to read".
5	305	"priest-kings," said Misk, "unlike humans, are not an aggressive organism.
5	336	"Moreover, we insist that they respect the weapon and technology laws of priest-kings, as a condition for their permitted survival".
5	347	"And not all priest-kings," said I, "happen to be Misks, you know".
5	357	"Doubtless," said Misk, "but the interesting thing to priest-kings is that the Others, rational and advanced creatures presumably, have elected this primitive fashion of controlling their population".
5	364	"I gather," I said, "that the Others are far more numerous than priest-kings".
5	375	"They acted boldly in the matter of attempting to interfere with the acquisition of the last egg of priest-kings," I pointed out.
5	389	"Such," I said, "is the good fortune of priest-kings".
5	398	"It is apparently their intention," said he, "to acquire influence in cities, to win humans to their side, to equip and lead them in war on priest-kings".

Book 6. (30 results) Raiders of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
9	173	Already she would doubtless be known to the Others, not priest-kings, who would challenge priest-kings for this world, and Earth.
1	64	I knew one in Port Kar, by name Samos, a slaver, said to be an agent of priest-kings.
1	69	Yet it was said, by those I trusted, that he had served priest-kings well.
3	34	My identity, that I was Tarl Cabot, and my mission, that I served the priest-kings of Gor, was not for others to know.
3	35	Coming from the Sardar, I knew only that I was to travel to Port Kar and there make contact with Samos, first slaver of Port Kar, scourge of Thassa, said to be trusted of priest-kings.
9	102	Samos, First Slaver of Port Kar, said to be an agent of priest-kings, was, I knew, a member of this council.
9	170	And I remembered, too, with bitterness, the girl, Elizabeth Cardwell, Vella of Gor, who had so helped me in my work in Ar on behalf of priest-kings.
10	71	He was said to be an agent of priest-kings.
10	75	I was now through with the service of priest-kings.
10	330	But how would he have come to know this? And how could he have come to understand that Bosk, fighting man and merchant, was the same as he who once had been a warrior of the towered city of Ko-ro-ba, the Towers of the Morning? Doubtless he wished to summon me to his presence, that he might recall me...
10	331	But I no longer served priest-kings.
11	270	It then occurred to me that this man could not serve priest-kings.
11	271	It occurred to me then, with a shudder which I did not betray, that such a man could serve only the Others, not priest-kings, those Others, in the distant steel worlds, who surreptitiously and cruelly fought to gain this world and Earth for their own ends.
15	3	I wore at my side a jeweled sword, no longer the sword I had worn for the long years when I had served priest-kings.
17	300	I knew he had once, through agents, served the Others, not priest-kings, who contested surreptitiously for this world, and ours.
18	321	If he served the Ubars, or Claudius, regent of Henrius Sevarius, or the Ubarates of Cos and Tyros, or the Others, or priest-kings, or himself, I no longer cared.
18	514	At my side I now wore the sword that I had brought originally to Port Kar, that which I had carried so many years before, even at the siege of Ar, and in Tharna, and in the Nest of priest-kings and on the plains of the Wagon Peoples, and in the streets of great Ar itself,...
18	833	"The dungeon of the hall of captains scarcely seemed the place to discuss the business of priest-kings".
18	834	"priest-kings?" breathed Telima.
18	844	"You serve priest-kings," I said.
18	854	"Return to the service of priest-kings," he said.
18	867	"Does Ho-Hak serve priest-kings?" I asked.
18	885	But priest-kings, for all their wisdom, know little of men".
18	887	"And there are men, too, of course," said he, "who, coordinating with priest-kings, oppose the Others".
18	909	"No," I said, "Samos, I cannot again serve priest-kings.
18	950	"Since you no longer serve priest-kings," said Samos, "there is no point in speaking of it".
18	968	"I no longer serve priest-kings," I said.
9	176	When at last I had brought her safely back to the Sardar I had thus told her I would arrange with Misk, the priest-King, that she be returned to Earth.
18	883	"Did Misk," I asked, "the priest-King, know of any of this?" "No," said Samos.
18	937	"When you lost your images of yourselves, and learned your humanity, in your diverse ways, and shame, you abandoned your myths, your songs, and would accept only the meat of animals, as though one so lofty as yourself must be either priest-King or beast.

Book 7. (6 results) Captive of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
11	1100	And, the priest-kings willing, a coin that is lost today, or a woman, may, at a later time, in a more convenient place, be found, and more! A woman who escapes your collar this afternoon may, by nightfall, find herself chained at your feet.
13	90	It had been decided that she should now undertake the journey to the Sardar, which, according to the teachings of the Caste of Initiates, is enjoined on every Gorean by the priest-kings, an obligation which is to be fulfilled prior to their attaining their twenty-fifth ye...
13	92	It is one of the tasks of the Initiates to keep rolls, and determine that each youth, if capable, discharge this putative obligation to the mysterious priest-kings.
13	101	The Merchants of Teletus, controlling the city, would demand it of her, fearing the effects of the possible displeasure of the priest-kings on their trade.
18	3	It is long since I have served priest-kings.
18	11	I wish to be free of priest-kings, and Others.

Book 8. (12 results) Hunters of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
1	10	"priest-kings and I," said Samos.
1	11	"I no longer serve priest-kings," said I.
1	108	"priest-kings tore me from her," I told Samos, hard-eyed.
1	172	"I no longer serve priest-kings," I said.
4	63	Together we had served priest-kings.
4	215	"And what of priest-kings?" she asked.
4	216	"I no longer serve priest-kings," I told her.
5	350	"To the priest-kings of Gor, and to the Sea".
12	30	In the past years, in Port Kar, since I had given up the service of priest-kings, my ambitions had enlarged.
18	13	He lifted his hands to the Sardar, to the priest-kings of Gor.
18	476	In Gorean legends the priest-kings are said to have formed man from the mud of the earth and the blood of tarns.
22	101	Saphrar, a merchant of Tyros, resplendent in Turia, had similarly described the man who had enlisted his services in behalf of those who contested worlds with priest-kings.

Book 9. (30 results) Marauders of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
2	54	It was said that he wished, in regret for the wickedness of his life, to be carried in death to the temple of priest-kings in Kassau, that the High Initiate there might, if it be his mercy, draw on his bones in the sacred grease the sign of the priest-...
2	223	I wondered what might become of the religion of priest-kings, if priest-kings should ever choose to make themselves known to men.
2	259	There were the golden bowls used to gather the blood of the sacrificed animals; cups used to pour libations to priest-kings; vessels containing oils; lavers in which the celebrants of the rites might cleanse their hands from their work; there were even the small bowls of ...
2	293	He comes in death to the temple of priest-kings, that his bones may be anointed with the grease of priest-kings.
2	330	But Ivar Forkbeard had come in death, if not in life, to the temple of priest-kings, betraying the old gods, to have his bones anointed at last with the grease of priest-kings.
11	31	To me this seems preposterous, for ones so wise as priest-kings, but, in spite of its obvious falsity, priest-kings regard the Kurii and men as rather similar, almost equivalent species.
11	208	If the priest-kings did not do this, perhaps for reasons of pride, their laws having been given, then, in effect, Gor might become a Kur world, in which, given local allies, the priest-kings might finally be isolated and destroyed.
15	57	Not only would the decision to halt the invasion be in violation of the practices and commitments of priest-kings, which would doubtless create dissension in the Nest, producing a leverage the Kurii might be able to exploit, but, if the invasion were halted, it being a la...
18	654	Native Kurii, bred from ships' survivors over centuries, would not, it seemed, if limited to the primitive weapons permitted men, be capable of conquering Gor, isolating the priest-kings in the Sardar, until they could be destroyed, or, alternatively, perhaps be used to l...
20	49	They need an envoy, one known to priest-kings, yet one independent of them, one whom they respect, a man of valiance and judgment, with whom to negotiate, one to carry their proposals to priest-kings".
20	138	Long ago, in the Sardar, Misk, the priest-King, had told me that priest-kings see little difference between Kurii and men, that they regarded them as equivalent species.
1	94	He had entered the Sardar and was one of the few men who knew the true nature of priest-kings, those remote and extraordinary beings who controlled the world of Gor.
1	99	And he had gone to the Land of the Wagon Peoples, to the Plains of Turia, and had obtained there the last egg of priest-kings and had returned it, safe, to the Sardar.
1	100	He had well served priest-kings, had Tarl Cabot, that young, brave, distant man, so fine, so proud, so much of the warriors.
1	102	He had well served priest-kings, that young man.
1	103	And then he had ventured to the delta of the Vosk, to make his way through it, to make contact with Samos of Port Kar, agent of priest-kings, to continue in their service.
1	152	But it would once have burned, and that was fixed, undeniable, a part of what had been, that it had burned; nothing could change that, not the eternities of time, not the will of priest-kings, the machinations of Others, the willfulness and hatred of men; nothing could ch...
1	251	I saw in the eyes of Samos that I must not speak of priest-kings.
1	261	"When priest-kings, by fire signs, made it clear Ko-ro-ba was to be destroyed, I left the city".
1	263	The population had been scattered, the city razed by the power of the priest-kings.
2	5	The High Initiate of Kassau, a town at the northern brink of the forest, sat still in his white robes, in his tall hat, on the throne to the right, within the white rail that separated the sanctuary of Initiates from the common ground of the hall, where those not anointed by the grease of prie...
2	7	"Praise the priest-kings," she repeated endlessly to herself, nodding her head up and down.
2	19	The men of Torvaldsland, on the whole, I knew, while tending to respect priest-kings, did not accord them special reverence.
2	21	The religion of the priest-kings, institutionalized and ritualized by the caste of Initiates, had made little headway among the primitive men to the north.
2	27	Sometimes, too, the religion of the priest-kings, under the control of the Initiates, utilizing secular rulers, was propagated by fire and sword.
2	42	When I had first come to Gor I had been forced to learn certain long prayers to the priest-kings, but I had never fully mastered them, and had, by now, long forgotten them.
2	55	It would thus indicate that he, Forkbeard, if not in life, had in death acknowledged the error of his ways and embraced the will and wisdom of the faith of priest-kings.
2	58	Now Initiates to one side of the sanctuary, opposite the throne of the High Initiate, began to chant the litanies of the priest-kings.
2	90	Their education, generally, is of little obvious practical value, with its attention to authorized exegeses of dubious, difficult texts, purporting to be revelations of priest-kings, the details and observances of their own calendars, their interminable, involved rituals,...
2	95	Whereas Initiates tend not to be taken with great seriousness by the high castes, or the more intelligent members of the population, except in matters of political alliance, their teachings and purported ability to intercede with priest-kings, and further the welfare of t...

Book 10. (30 results) Tribesmen of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
1	211	He knew more than I of the affairs of Others, the Kurii, and priest-kings.
1	244	Their cessation would surely alert the defense and surveillance facilities of priest-kings.
1	246	"It does not seem so," I admitted, "unless the Kurii, perhaps, feel that just such a move might put the priest-kings off guard, that it would be too obvious to be taken as a prelude to full war".
1	578	"Little has of late occurred in the Wars of priest-kings and Others".
1	745	"priest-kings would not well understand that sort of thing.
1	749	"Sometimes I think priest-kings do not well understand Kurii.
1	754	priest-kings surely had energies and passions, but, I suspected, they were, on the whole, rather different from those of men, or, indeed, those of Kurii.
1	755	The nature of the sensory experience of priest-kings was still, largely, a mystery to me.
1	763	The social bond of the priest-kings is Nest Trust.
1	770	Unfortunate though it might be, I doubted and, I think, realistically, that priest-kings, those large, golden creatures, so gentle and delicate seeming, so content to mind their own affairs, truly understood their enemy, the Kurii.
1	772	There was little place in the placid, lucid categories of priest-kings for comprehending the bloods and madnesses of either men or Kurii.
1	773	They, Kurii and men, understood one another better, I suspected, than the priest-kings understood either.
1	774	As long as the Kurii remained behind the fifth ring, that determined by the orbit of the planet called on Earth Jupiter, on Gor, Hersius, after a legendary hero of Ar, the priest-kings were little concerned with them.
1	783	Ship Kurii, still, then, did not know the extent to which the power of priest-kings remained crippled.
2	140	None, Samos and I suspected, would regard one with such a wench, so clumsy, so untaught, so obviously new to slavery, as being upon the business of priest-kings.
2	439	On the morning of the second day, in the process of my work for priest-kings, I had entered the shaded offices of the municipal slave master of Tor.
5	733	Yet I recalled that once had she labored, as I, before her flight, her disobedience, for priest-kings.
5	756	Once, it was true, she had served priest-kings, but then, so, too, had I.
5	761	It was now out of the question that she, a slave, might serve priest-kings.
7	216	Few on Gor knew of the secret war of priest-kings and Others, the Kurii.
7	347	"The famed agent of priest-kings, Tarl Cabot," he said, "in the brine pits! Excellent! Superb!" He laughed.
7	428	"The message collar," said Ibn Saran, "failed to bring about your death, the termination of your quest for the last egg of priest-kings".
7	433	"Investigating her further, understanding she accompanied you to the Sardar, with the last egg of priest-kings, we looked for further connections.
7	440	"She betrayed priest-kings?" I asked.
7	478	She, permitted once, secretly, to look upon you in the streets of Nine Wells, through the tiny veil of a haik, she nude beneath, in the keeping of one of my men, later confirmed, stripped on her knees before me, her lips to my feet, your identity—as Tarl Cabot, agent of priest-<...
7	579	"How well lovely Vella has served us," he said, "in how many ways, as in betraying priest-kings, in locating and identifying you, in collaborating in the arrangements of the hall of Suleiman.
7	642	"Actually you are agents of priest-kings, secretly seeming to work for Kurii.
7	663	"It was essential for us, to protect appearances with Kurii, to appear to attempt to delay you, to forestall you in the completion of your inquiry for priest-kings".
7	680	"I am pleased," I said, "to learn that you labor in the service of priest-kings".
7	735	It suddenly occurred to me that perhaps Ibn Saran, as he proclaimed, was indeed an agent for priest-kings.

Book 11. (2 results) Slave Girl of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
22	723	That must not be! Surely the priest-kings would not permit that! Surely they would see to it that she was delivered rather into my hands, for my vengeance.
26	107	"I charge you," said he, "in the name of the priest-kings of Gor, with being an agent of Kurii, and as such subject to the penalties connected therewith".

Book 12. (30 results) Beasts of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
3	137	An initiate in the lead carried a standard on which was mounted the sign of the priest-kings, a golden circle, that which has no beginning or end, the symbol of eternity, the symbol of priest-kings.
1	24	The other was a pristine world, virginal in its beauty and fertility, one not permitted by its masters, called the Sardar, or priest-kings, to follow the example of its tragic sister.
1	25	priest-kings would not permit men to destroy Gor.
1	31	Indeed, is not weakness the ultimate irrationality? Gor, too, it must be remembered, is also the habitat of the Sardar, or priest-kings.
1	39	The priest-kings, for thousands of years, had defended the system of the yellow star against the depredations of the prowling Kurii.
1	41	But some years ago, in the time of the Nest War, the power of the priest-kings was considerably reduced.
1	48	That Half-Ear had come to Gor was taken by Samos and priest-kings as evidence that the invasion was imminent.
1	55	Should he discover the weakness of the priest-kings, or construct a depot adequate to fuel, to shield, and supply the beaching ships, there seemed little reason to suppose the invasion would not prove successful.
1	167	Then I recalled that she had once betrayed priest-kings, and had pointed me out to my enemies.
3	49	Then he would lift her in his arms, hair unbound, before the mountains of the Sardar, rejoicing, and giving thanks to priest-kings that she was now his.
3	166	They would stand before the palisade, paying the homage of their presence to the mysterious denizens of the Sardar, the mysterious priest-kings, rulers of Gor.
3	167	Each young person of Gor is expected, before their twenty-fifth birthday, to make the pilgrimage to the Sardar, to honor the priest-kings.
3	171	More than one beauty who thought to have stood upon the platforms by the palisade, lifting laurel wreaths and in white robes singing the glories of the priest-kings, has found herself instead looking upon the snow-capped peaks of the Sardar from the slave platforms, strip...
4	61	Each, I supposed, had their petition to make to priest-kings.
4	671	"For the sake of priest-kings," said the man, "stop the bleeding".
5	56	"I can command you," said Samos, "as one loyal to priest-kings, to remain in Port Kar".
5	61	"Would you betray priest-kings?" asked Samos.
8	38	"Ones who are not priest-kings," she smiled.
8	53	Kurii, like priest-kings, often work through men, concealing themselves from those who would serve them.
8	54	Samos, for example, had little inkling of the nature of priest-kings.
8	207	"priest-kings oppose them," I said.
8	208	"I understand priest-kings are weak," she said.
8	211	Yet it was true, surely, that priest-kings were not an aggressive species.
9	185	The Fairs, and, I think, the will of priest-kings, prevents this.
10	190	And had she not succeeded where mere men had failed? Muchly then did she relish the sight of Tarl Cabot, it seemed, he, occasional champion of priest-kings, sometimes foe of Kurii, at the mercy of her guards, and in chains she doubtless regarded as her own.
11	283	"You are going to serve priest-kings, my pretty little charmer," I told her.
11	304	"How am I to serve priest-kings?" she asked, wincing.
32	76	"What of the priest-kings?" I asked.
32	87	"Yes," he said, "on the assumption that the priest-kings are as weak as I speculate".
32	97	"priest-kings are clever," he said.

Book 13. (30 results) Explorers of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
1	73	The first of these commonly occurs in certain of the Gorean enclaves on Earth, which serve as headquarters for agents of priest-kings; the second tends to occur in the lairs of Kurii agents on Earth; the first brand consists of a locked collar and, ascending diagonally ab...
1	74	It is apparently difficult to recruit Goreans for service on Earth, either for priest-kings or Kurii.
1	185	"Do you think you are the only one upon Gor who labors occasionally in the cause of priest-kings?" asked Samos.
1	276	"Shaba is an agent of priest-kings," said Samos.
1	278	"Surely you suspected others, too, served, at least upon occasion, in the cause of priest-kings".
1	281	It seemed to me better that I knew few of the agents of priest-kings.
1	447	"She betrayed priest-kings," he said, "and served Kurii agents in the Tahari".
1	546	I thought such a device might be of use to agents of priest-kings.
1	588	The Voyages of Acquisition, of priest-kings, I knew, had been of great antiquity.
1	639	"But priest-kings could surely determine, as soon as the switch was depressed, that the ring was false," I said.
1	648	"priest-kings might be killed," I said.
1	649	"Distrust and dissension might be spread then between men and priest-kings," said Samos.
2	37	Their own culture, perhaps because of the limitations imposed on it by priest-kings, who did not wish to be threatened or destroyed by an animal with which they shared a world, had taken different turnings.
5	662	The use of such rings, if their use were permitted by priest-kings, might well make it difficult or impossible for the Kurii to function on Gor.
5	666	Without it, given to me by a dying Kur warrior, I doubted that I could have survived to prevent, some years ago, the detonation of the explosives in the steel tower, in the Tahari, explosives that were intended to destroy Gor and the priest-kings, that the path to Earth m...
5	670	They sensed the weakness of priest-kings.
6	784	It was that which I sought, and perhaps, too, the blood of Shaba, who had betrayed priest-kings.
12	31	You come to us either from Kurii—or from priest-kings".
12	36	"The ring," said Msaliti, "may not be returned to priest-kings.
12	40	"No agent of priest-kings would wish the ring conveyed to the Sardar".
12	42	"You will then, of course," I said, to Shaba, "as an agent of priest-kings, bear the ring to the Sardar".
12	51	"You do not look like one who would betray priest-kings," I said to him.
14	720	If he should actually dare to deliver the false ring to the Sardar he would doubtless there fall into the power of the priest-kings.
15	168	I did not particularly wish to see him subjected to whatever priest-kings, or their human allies, might deem fit as the fate of a traitor.
16	63	There was, as far as I knew, nothing on Gor to compare with it except, of course, the advanced technological equipment at the disposal of the priest-kings and Kurii, equipment of a sort generally forbidden, in the weapons and communication laws, to most Gorean humans.
24	145	I have little doubt that most of the black equatorial stock on Gor, descendants of individuals brought to this world by priest-kings on Voyages of Acquisition, perhaps hundreds of years ago, derive from one of the Earth's major linguistic families, perhaps the Bantu group...
31	89	Perhaps those they call priest-kings, if they exist, have been thoughtful in this respect.
32	726	The marsh and river tharlarion, accordingly, if descended from such beasts, brought long ago to Gor on Voyages of Acquisition by priest-kings, would presumably resemble them more closely.
34	189	I had wanted her shipped to Schendi that I might, by means of her, following her sales and exchanges, be led to the lair of the treacherous Shaba, traitor to priest-kings.
53	36	"You are a traitor to priest-kings," I said.

Book 14. (5 results) Fighting Slave of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
7	39	But if the people, truly, ruled, why and how could their planet's processes proceed in such obvious ways inimical to their welfare? How could their world be so miserable for the people if they were truly kings within it? But perhaps they were not kings within it.
7	41	Who, I wondered, were the true kings? Or, perhaps there were no kings, truly, only the madness of the untended machine.
16	37	It is said on Gor that only slaves, outlaws and priest-kings, rumored to be the rulers of Gor, reputed to live in the remote Sardar Mountains, are without caste.
7	40	Perhaps they have only been told they are kings, and that satisfies them.
7	211	Is it not in the interest of slaves to prohibit kings from claiming their thrones? Then I was overcome with misery and guilt that I had even dared to think such thoughts! How wrong nature was! How wrong to be true to the deep themes of the animal kingdom! Did I truly need to be what I ...

Book 16. (1 results) Guardsman of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
20	1671	Perhaps one day they will again be kings".

Book 17. (30 results) Savages of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
1	648	They had not directly experienced priest-kings, only the power of priest-kings.
1	94	"You once served Kurii, the Others, the foes of priest-kings".
1	260	Such stories, for they were very old on Gor, probably go back thousands of years, dating from the times of very early Voyages of Acquisition, undertaken by venturesome, inquisitive creatures of an alien species, one known to most Goreans only as the priest-kings.
1	261	To be sure, few priest-kings, now, entertained such a curiosity nor such an enthusiastic penchant for exploration and adventure.
1	262	Now, the priest-kings, I feared, had become old.
1	265	I had two friends, in particular, who were priest-kings, Misk, and Kusk.
1	267	But they were only two, two of a handful of survivors of a once mighty race, that of the lofty and golden priest-kings.
1	268	To be sure, I had managed, long ago, to return the last female egg of priest-kings to the Nest.
1	331	He was, after all, an agent of priest-kings, and, indeed, the first captain of the council of captains, that body sovereign in the affairs of Port Kar.
1	615	I myself, whereas I had served priest-kings, did not regard myself as being of their party.
1	641	"Do you speak on behalf of priest-kings?" asked Kog.
1	644	"If you would speak with priest-kings," said Samos, "you must go to the Sardar".
1	645	"What are priest-kings?" asked Kog.
1	647	Such creatures, I gathered, had no clear idea of the nature of priest-kings.
1	650	priest-kings, wisely, did not choose to directly confront such creatures.
1	652	If such creatures should come to clearly understand the nature of the priest-kings, and the current restrictions on their power, in virtue of the catastrophic Nest War, I had little doubt but what the attack signals would be almost immediately transmitted to the steel wor...
1	654	"We know the nature of priest-kings," said Kog.
1	687	Else, once the priest-kings are disposed of, it would be easier to herd them to our cattle pens".
1	712	At the least they would be certain that he would be significantly involved in the affairs of priest-kings.
1	778	That such beasts, on this world, carried primitive weapons was a tribute to their fear of priest-kings.
1	780	priest-kings, on the whole, tend to ignore such beasts.
1	784	The priest-kings care for their world, but their primary interest is in its subsurface, not its surface.
1	791	The priest-kings, lofty and golden, remote, inoffensive and tolerant, were all, for most practical purposes, that stood between the Kogs and Sardaks, and the Earth and Gor.
1	1329	"He is a proven foe of priest-kings.
2	107	They come to the sea walls flying the merchant flag which, in virtue of Merchant Law, the only law common to civilized Gor other than the rules and dictates of priest-kings, normally allows access to a Gorean Port.
2	183	"Men and priest-kings would be well rid of him.
2	335	"In the name of priest-kings," he said, "I forbid you to go".
4	120	This practice, doubtless, was intended to aid them to elude detection by priest-kings.
4	125	If they were transported over the Boswell Pass they might, eventually, come to the attention of Clark of Thentis, a slaver of Thentis, who had rendered services to priest-kings.
4	187	"Thank the priest-kings!" cried the young man.

Book 18. (2 results) Blood Brothers of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
56	16	She, a former agent of Kurii, had fallen into the hands of one who had done service for priest-kings, one who had doings with Samos of Port Kar, one who was known to some as Tarl Cabot, to others as Bosk of Port Kar.
56	87	"I suppose," I said, "as one who has upon occasion espoused the cause of priest-kings, I should attempt to slay you".

Book 19. (18 results) Kajira of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
31	51	"Have you heard of priest-kings?" "Not really, Master, the word, little else".
31	55	"In any event, priest-kings, who have such power," said he, "have required that we on this world, for the most part, share a common language, the nature of which they left to us, and it has been composed, at least lexically, of many languages, and is regularly standardize...
31	56	"The priest-kings then," I said, "are wise and kind, and intend that by means of a common language all municipalities may well understand one another, and thus disagreement will be obviated, and peace and harmony assured".
31	63	"Then the intentions of these priest-kings have been frustrated?" I said.
33	668	"Some of us," said Menicius, "are familiar with the rumors, the frightening rumors, that there are forces on Gor, and elsewhere, who would challenge the power of the priest-kings themselves, rulers of Gor from time immemorial".
33	670	Sometimes it seemed likely to me that the priest-kings were mythical entities.
33	676	That counter-power, I suppose, for want of a better name, might be referred to as that of priest-kings.
33	681	This might be accomplished, presumably, within the weapon laws and technological limitations imposed upon Gorean humans by priest-kings, for whatever might be their purposes".
33	742	"What of the speculations of Menicius," inquired Claudius, "those having to do with affairs of worlds, of the business of priest-kings and others".
33	764	"We do not speak, then, of priest-kings," said a man, relieved.
33	765	"Who knows the nature of priest-kings?" asked a man.
33	783	That there is a third knowledge, that of priest-kings, is also a common belief.
33	788	"Gor, and the world called Earth," she said, "are prizes in a struggle of titanic forces, the forces of those whom you call priest-kings and of those whom you think of as 'others,' or whom we might think of as Beasts".
33	794	"Both priest-kings and Beasts possess powerful weaponry and are masters of space travel," she said.
33	798	In many respects priest-kings seem to be tolerant and defensive creatures.
33	845	"As beasts may be allied with men," said Claudius, "so, too, I suppose, might men be allied with priest-kings".
34	202	It was, I gathered, a device by means of which slavers, or those in league with Beasts, or those opposed to priest-kings, marked women brought to Gor for their purposes.
36	41	At the suggestion of Menicius who, at the same time, had returned to Corcyrus, Hassan was to take Sheila to Port Kar, for interrogation in the house of Samos, this with respect to matters having to do with priest-kings and beasts.

Book 20. (30 results) Players of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
1	883	From the testimony of Sheila, and other sources which seemed to corroborate it, we gathered that the Kurii might now be turning to the patient stratagems of piecemeal subversion, the control of cities and their eventual linkages in networks of power, to win a world by means theoretically within the ...
1	886	It would not bode well for humans, I thought, if some form of liaison, or arrangement, were entered into between priest-kings and Kurii.
1	933	"The ship was probably a ship of priest-kings," said Samos.
1	946	Yngvar and his fellows, unwittingly, I was confident, had witnessed the inauguration of a new dynasty among priest-kings.
1	952	I had no intention of prying into his affairs, or those of priest-kings.
2	885	I wondered if this matter had to do with priest-kings.
2	1131	"Of priest-kings," he said.
2	1139	"They pertain to the arrest and detention of one who is reputed to be an enemy of priest-kings".
2	1157	I would betray priest-kings before I would betray you".
2	1158	"You are a brave man," I said, "to risk the wrath of priest-kings".
2	1171	"That you have betrayed the cause of priest-kings," he said.
2	1173	"I am not really an agent of priest-kings.
2	1176	"It may be no easier to withdraw from the service of priest-kings than from that of Kurii," said Samos.
2	1223	"In any event the delay between the messages has given independent agents of priest-kings time to arrive in Port Kar.
2	1229	"I think I have just killed an agent of priest-kings," I said.
2	1235	"priest-kings would not behave in such a way," said Samos.
2	1239	"Do you know anything about Brundisium, anything having to do with either priest-kings or Kurii?" "No," said Samos.
2	1264	I could be gone in two Ahn, on tarnback, before priest-kings discovered the failure of their plans.
2	1276	I could be gone in two Ahn, on tarnback, before priest-kings discovered the failure of their plans.
2	1587	I feared I had slain an agent of priest-kings.
3	123	I assumed this woman must be an agent of priest-kings.
3	126	If she was an agent of priest-kings, it did not seem, ironically enough, that she realized who it was, so to speak, who was on her chain.
3	132	The woman, I assumed, must be working for priest-kings.
3	134	Perhaps, then, she was not an agent of priest-kings.
3	150	I was now more sure than ever that she was of the party of priest-kings.
3	204	She might be an agent of priest-kings.
4	79	I conjectured that they were theoretically on the same level, or nearly on the same level, perhaps reporting to the same superior, or superiors, presumably priest-kings.
4	113	This speculation had to do, I supposed, with possible recent misgivings on the part of priest-kings pertaining to the loyalty of Samos.
5	412	He would be, I supposed, an agent of priest-kings.
5	415	Yet I had no special wish to kill them, and particularly if they were agents of priest-kings.

Book 21. (4 results) Mercenaries of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
25	1004	The humans of Gor are of course human, mostly the scions of Earthlings brought to this world long ago by the priest-kings, in Voyages of Acquisition.
25	1005	Although doubtless the priest-kings had on the whole been careful to select excellent specimens, intelligent and healthy, and so on, for introducing to Gor, the specimens were surely of typical Earth stock.
26	625	It is regarded as constituting a violation of the Weapons Laws imposed on Goreans by priest-kings.
25	2313	"Let us hope that all kings, however stupid they may be, would have that much sense at least".

Book 22. (13 results) Dancer of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
17	16	Some visit the temples, paying coins, buying incense and burning it, petitioning priest-kings for favors, such things as better crops and success in ventures, such things as luck for themselves and calamities for their enemies.
17	17	Gorean petitions to the priest-kings seem on the whole to be very specific, and very practical.
17	34	The Gorean tends to regard priest-kings not so much as his masters as his potential allies, who might, if he is lucky, be flattered, wooed with gifts, and such.
17	35	On the high altar in each temple there is supposedly a large golden circle, the symbol of priest-kings, a symbol of eternity, of a thing without beginning or end.
17	36	The "sign of the priest-kings," similarly, is made with a closed, circular motion.
20	159	One popular account has it that an ancient hero, Hesius, once performed great labors for priest-kings, and was promised a reward greater than gold and silver.
20	161	He reproached the priest-kings with their niggardliness, and what he regarded as their breach of faith.
20	165	"If the priest-kings say this is worth more than gold and silver," said a wise man, "it must be true".
25	201	In Gorean mythology it is said that there was once a war between men and women and that the women lost, and that the priest-kings, not wishing the women to be killed, made them beautiful, but as the price of this gift decreed that they, and their daughters, to the end of ...
29	182	There is a Gorean saying that only priest-kings, outlaws and slaves lack Home Stones.
34	200	"I think perhaps they are put on the platforms outside the palisade of the Sardar Mountains, for priest-kings.
34	201	Then perhaps the priest-kings see that they reach Earth".
34	202	"I do not think there are such things as priest-kings," I said.

Book 23. (13 results) Renegades of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
24	755	Most Goreans, save for occasional sacrifices, observations, donations to temples, and such, called for by the caste of Initiates, who claim to mediate between men and priest-kings, live their lives without much concern for priest-kings, and see...
1	331	"It seems the priest-kings are grinding flour," laughed a man near me.
1	333	This was a reference to an old form of grinding, for some reason still attributed to priest-kings, in which a pestle, striking down, is used with a mortar.
1	352	Most Goreans, incidentally, do not attribute lightning and thunder to the grinding of the flour of priest-kings.
1	354	Some of the lower castes, however, particularly that of the peasants, and particularly those in outlying villages, do entertain the possibility that such phenomena may be the signs of disunion among priest-kings and their conflicts, the striking of weapons, the rumbling o...
8	630	Too, the tarnsman retains something of the glamour which on Earth attached to the horseman, particularly so as the technology laws of the priest-kings, remote, mysterious masters of Gor, preclude the mechanization of transportation.
21	1253	This is, it seems, as the priest-kings will have it.
24	749	I would suppose that it is due to a fear of displeasing priest-kings.
24	750	As speculative images of the priest-kings themselves, in effect, the rulers and gods of Gor, are forbidden, or at least generally discouraged, I suppose it is not surprising that humans are wary of boldly bedecking coins with their own images.
24	754	The symbol which represents priest-kings, found in temples, and so on, is the circle, usually golden, that which has no beginning or end.
24	757	Concern with the priest-kings is usually most prevalent, when it is found, amongst the lower castes.
24	758	All Goreans, on the other hand, are expected to make at least one pilgrimage during their lifetime to the Sardar Mountains, taken to be the home of priest-kings.
24	760	Presumably this is to avoid incurring the disfavor of priest-kings.

Book 24. (1 results) Vagabonds of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
40	104	Some speculated that they had drunk mysterious potions, rendering them invisible, others that they had been wafted away by priest-kings".

Book 25. (24 results) Magicians of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
3	1084	"Pray to the priest-kings! Pray to the priest-kings!" wept a man.
13	85	"But if they possess the power of priest-kings, why not call them priest-kings?" "Do you think they would mind, if I did not?" he asked, somewhat apprehensively.
1	350	"Praise the priest-kings!" said a man, fervently.
1	351	"Praise the priest-kings," said another.
1	353	An adult Initiate, in his flowing white robe, carried the staff surmounted with the golden circle, a figure with neither beginning nor end, the symbol of priest-kings.
1	362	"Save us, oh intercessors with priest-kings!" cried a woman.
1	363	"Pray to the priest-kings for us," cried a man.
1	376	"We must place our trust in the priest-kings," said another.
1	379	"We must place our trust in the priest-kings," said a man.
3	277	"We must trust in the priest-kings," said another.
6	64	The priest-kings are with me.
13	75	"Do you believe in priest-kings?" asked Marcus.
13	81	"Something exists," he said, "but they are not priest-kings".
13	83	"It is only that they possess the power of priest-kings!" he said.
13	87	Indeed, provided men kept their laws the priest-kings were content to let them do much what they wished.
13	88	The major concern of priest-kings with men, it seemed, was to have as little to do with them as possible.
13	90	"But what is the relation of the Initiates to the priest-kings, if there are such?" he asked.
13	92	"You do not think the priest-kings are on intimate terms with the Initiates, do you?" "Would you wish to be on intimate terms with an Initiate?" I asked.
17	30	It might also be noted, interestingly, that the Gorean, in spite of his awe of priest-kings, and the reverence he accords them, the gods of his world, does not think of them as having formed the world, nor of the world being in some sense consequent upon their will.
17	31	Rather the priest-kings are seen as being its children, too, like sleen, and rain and man.
17	473	I did not doubt, of course, from what I knew of them, that the science of priest-kings was such that many unusual effects could be achieved.
19	220	I had no ready response, incidentally, to his suggestion that the human race might have originated on Gor and then some of these folks, perhaps transported by priest-kings, had been settled on Earth.
27	874	"You may implore priest-kings," I said, "that your father does not return to Ar, and discover what you have done".
1	352	I thought that Misk, the priest-King, my friend, might have been fascinated, if puzzled, by this behavior.

Book 26. (30 results) Witness of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
19	475	Enough to spill a few drops from the first cup, a libation, honoring priest-kings, or perhaps, in the name of priest-kings, for what is involved here may have many names, what might hold sway over both men and priest-kings
19	310	But, could priest-kings do such things? And, if so, was it only priest-kings who could do them? I expected that, here and there on this world, and doubtless on others, similar ceremonies might take place.
19	311	The women of city A, for example, might be led to believe that it was the will of the priest-kings that they become the slaves of the men of city B, and the women of city B might be led to believe that it was the will of the priest-kings that t...
19	401	What if, for example, as an outside possibility, but one they were not willing to discount, there might be some mysterious connection between the Initiates and the priest-kings? Why not, then, put a coin in the bowl, particularly if it were not too valuable a coin? As far...
19	472	These would be neither the soldiers of priest-kings nor the foes of priest-kings.
11	1616	priest-kings, for example, whoever they may be, have no caste.
19	99	It might have been, too, something of an offering of thanks, so to speak, to the fates, or the gods, or the priest-kings, whoever they may be, for a safe return.
19	238	"They are the intermediaries between ourselves and the priest-kings".
19	245	The circle I would later learn was the sign of the priest-kings, the symbol of eternity, that without beginning or end.
19	269	How odd, I thought, that it should supposedly be they who had the ear of the mighty and mysterious priest-kings.
19	270	If there were priest-kings, I wondered if they knew about the caste of Initiates.
19	272	Why would the priest-kings, I wondered, if they really required intermediaries, and were unable to deal directly with men, and, indeed, if there was any point in them dealing with men at all, have chosen to achieve this end with so eccentric and improbable a caste? Why wo...
19	287	Before them, now, was the gaunt man, the standard of the priest-kings behind him.
19	290	"Praise be to the priest-kings!" he called.
19	293	"Praise be to the priest-kings," murmured the crowd.
19	295	"We are favored by the priest-kings!" He half turned to his left, and then to his right, gesturing expansively behind him, first in one of these directions, and then in the other, indicating accumulations of treasure, among and before the tarns and raiders, piles of it, b...
19	297	"We thank the priest-kings for the favors they have bestowed upon us!" he cried.
19	298	"Thanks be to the priest-kings," said the crowd.
19	299	"We thank them for the gifts they have given us!" "Thanks be to the priest-kings!" said the crowd.
19	300	"We thank them for the riches they have given us!" "Thanks be to the priest-kings!" said the crowd.
19	303	"Thanks be to the priest-kings!" said the crowd.
19	304	We were to be given to understand, I took it, that these various matters were to be viewed as having all proceeded in accordance with the will of the mysterious priest-kings.
19	306	Too, assuming them to be interested, I wondered if there were any independent way of finding out what might be the will of the priest-kings, short, that is, of waiting and finding out how things, in fact, came out.
19	307	It was difficult to know, you see, how such a claim, that things proceeded in accordance with the will of the priest-kings, might be evaluated.
19	313	I supposed that a woman might, in theory, believe that she, say, because she deserved it, or because it was appropriate for her, was destined to slavery by the priest-kings.
19	314	Perhaps she would accept this in virtue of the supposed wisdom of priest-kings.
19	317	On the other hand, I think that any reference to the will of the priest-kings in these matters is both unnecessary and misleading.
19	318	Incidentally, I have never personally known a slave on this world who brought the priest-kings into these matters.
19	319	We do not want our bondage, our joy in servitude, our submission, our love, demeaned by attributing it to something alien, something other than ourselves, something outside of ourselves, such as the will of the priest-kings, if such should exist.
19	321	It depends not on priest-kings, you see, but on what we are, women.

Book 27. (30 results) Prize of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
27	3488	"For the love of priest-kings," cried Tersius Major, "give me something to drink, something to eat!" "You have broken the law of priest-kings," said Portus Canio.
11	508	In their wars with priest-kings you have served them well".
11	513	She had heard of priest-kings, but did not believe they existed.
11	518	Since they were mentioned in connection with priest-kings, she thought that perhaps they did not exist either.
17	25	Their presence on Gor was originally due to the Voyages of Acquisition, apparently undertaken for scientific or aesthetic reasons by the mysterious priest-kings, whoever they might be.
27	392	"Praise the priest-kings," said a man.
27	421	By the priest-kings they move swiftly.
27	429	By the priest-kings, it is huge.
27	467	"By the priest-kings," whispered a man, regarding the five beasts who, some yards apart, were in advance of the riders.
27	656	"By the priest-kings," said Portus Canio.
27	657	"There are no priest-kings," said Mirus.
27	659	"Do you believe in priest-kings?" asked Mirus.
27	662	"At one time, long ago," said Mirus, "on another world, for this is not my native world, as you have probably conjectured from my speech, I thought there might be something to such suppositions, suppositions pertaining to priest-kings, and even repeated conjectures pertai...
27	665	She recalled that he had, in the house on Earth, recounted certain views pertaining to unusual alien beings, perhaps what were now being spoken of as "priest-kings".
27	667	Indeed, the hypothesis of priest-kings did not seem necessary.
27	677	In her training, of course, she had heard some of the instructrices speak of priest-kings but she herself had been taught no prayers or ceremonies pertaining to them.
27	684	"We have no evidence whatsoever of the existence of priest-kings, nor have we encountered any who have such evidence.
27	685	It is clear, now, that the myths and legends of priest-kings have been invented by the caste of Initiates, in order to exploit superstitious terror and live as parasites on the earnings of others".
27	687	Supposedly the caste of Initiates praised priest-kings, offered regular and special sacrifices, interceded with them on behalf of men, interpreted their will to men, and such.
27	695	"The priest-kings," suggested Portus Canio.
27	702	"I am willing to suppose that something, call it priest-kings, if you wish, might once have existed, long ago, but, if so, they are gone by now, and are at best a vanished race, an extinct species somehow recalled obscurely in legends, myths and lore".
27	703	"And so there are no priest-kings?" said Portus Canio.
27	706	"There are no priest-kings".
27	709	"Then," said Portus Canio, "the priest-kings will know of it".
27	710	"This is the world of the priest-kings," said a man.
27	712	"There are no priest-kings," said Mirus.
27	713	"If there were priest-kings they would have acted, to enforce their so-called laws.
27	714	But there are no priest-kings, as we see, and the laws have a simple explanation, namely, an attempt to preclude an ever-increasing efficiency of engineered carnage".
27	717	Yes, Ellen thought, it makes sense, the nonexistence of priest-kings.
27	721	"Perhaps there are no priest-kings," said one of the men at the wagon.

Book 28. (30 results) Kur of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
2	308	Why then? For what? To probe the defenses of priest-kings, to test equipment, to train and season pilots and task squads, to enact a trial of courage, to fling before priest-kings some sort of an act of defiance, what? Where are the pries...
57	2	"Dear Grendel!" he cried, "we had report that your plan had failed, and your command destroyed, wiped out, each and every one of our fellows, in the Vale of Destruction! Praise the priest-kings! You, and Cabot, and some others, Statius, I see, and some few, have escaped!"...
1	120	It is rumored that within recent years certain tumults or transitions have taken place in the realm of priest-kings.
1	126	The individual, Tarl Cabot, had, it seems, upon occasion proved to be of some value to priest-kings.
1	127	In some eyes, though not in his, we may conjecture, he was even taken as an agent of priest-kings.
1	130	In this respect I do not think we are so unlike the priest-kings, whoever, or whatever, they may be.
1	134	A certain area of the polar region was at that time being used as staging area, under the command of the aforementioned Zarendargar, a staging area with munitions and such, for an attack on the Sardar enclave, destined to suddenly, decisively, and irremediably terminate the rule of priest<...
1	143	Representatives of the Death Squad contacted Samos of Port Kar, clearly an agent of priest-kings, and Tarl Cabot, for assistance in hunting down and executing Zarendargar.
1	144	It was assumed naturally that this assistance would be readily tendered for Zarendargar was well understood to be significant amongst the Kurii and a relentless, dedicated, and dangerous foe of priest-kings.
1	147	This effort, of course, was not only contrary to the desires of the Death Squad, but, too, seemed clearly to be an act not in the best interests of priest-kings.
1	148	On whose side, so to speak, was this mysterious, unpredictable, ungoverned Tarl Cabot? Was he an agent of priest-kings? Was he an agent of Kurii? If he was an agent, it seems he was his own agent, or an agent of honor, for, long ago, it seems, he and Zarendargar had share...
1	151	The surveillance of priest-kings is rather efficient, as we have reason to know, but it is also, as we have reason to know, far from perfect, particularly so in recent years.
1	158	I personally suspect that this lapse of attentiveness or this seemingly tolerant permissiveness, or this seeming lack of zeal, on the part of priest-kings, and their ships, presumably mostly automated and remotely controlled, has less to do with technological limitations ...
1	162	On the whole, priest-kings seem tolerant of other life forms, their activities, partialities, and such.
1	195	The capabilities of the priest-kings, whoever or whatever they may be, are not well understood.
1	198	That such, the priest-kings, have form, and can interact with matter, however, seems obvious.
1	201	Shortly before the unexpected disruption, one which seems to have taken even priest-kings unawares, this seemingly adding indisputable and welcome evidence as to their limitations and vulnerability, two human females were entered into the container in question.
1	279	She was apparently obtained by priest-kings for some purpose or another.
1	292	It was not perfectly clear at the time how she came into the possession of priest-kings.
1	293	One supposed it might have been a matter of bartering at an exchange point, between our humans and those of priest-kings, for such interactions occasionally occur, however illegitimately; or she may have been taken to the surface by our human allies as, so to speak, negot...
1	297	Her master or keeper in the meantime might have made good his escape, or perhaps failed to do so, was apprehended by priest-kings, and routinely destroyed.
1	298	You might suppose that we could have easily solved this problem, how she came into the keeping of priest-kings, by simply asking her, but that would be incorrect, for she, as a typical Kur human, had never been taught to speak.
1	305	It is thus that priest-kings commonly keep their prisoners.
1	310	Presumably priest-kings, if interested in such matters, would select appropriate seed and eggs, fertilize them, and then tend the consequent embryos, at least for a time, in a secure laboratory environment.
1	323	One does not know the views of the priest-kings on these matters.
1	387	In particular, however, we should note that the English girl had been selected by her captors, the priest-kings, with particularly great care, and with all the expertise and wisdom of their advanced science, to be a match with the male in question.
1	391	It had its role to play in what would prove to be an interesting and remarkable, if duplicitous and guileful, gambit of priest-kings.
1	392	Each would seem to be a gift to the other, in the most profound modalities of male/female relations, but a gift, as it turned out, which had its ulterior purposes, one intended to further the designs of priest-kings.
1	504	Although we are not certain just how the priest-kings manage these things, we may presume they are not altogether unlike the practices of our human confederates.
1	514	Also, it is thought that the priest-kings wish to have a single language at their disposal by means of which they can address themselves to almost any human likely to be encountered on their world.

Book 29. (30 results) Swordsmen of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
1	270	How could we have then failed to embrace, and therewith comply with the will and intrigues of priest-kings? Do they not use us as their pawns, their dupes, and instruments? Using our congruent natures how could we, so subtly manipulated, have failed to dance upon their st...
4	83	Too, the caste of Initiates, which claims to mediate between humans and priest-kings, with their sacrifices, and such, would obviously prefer for priest-kings to remain as invisible and mysterious as possible.
5	74	Who is to tell priest-kings who will be their instruments? Are you privy to their councils, can you read the mists, the fogs and clouds, which hover about the Sardar?" I supposed it was possible that this man might be an agent of priest-kings.
5	191	Doubtless the agent of priest-kings would have resisted capture, and would have been quickly, brutally slain, it being presupposed that his life would be of small value, that he was the mere carrier of the message, a message presumably in the box, and the token, which the...
5	283	Perhaps this had little to do with Tyros? Perhaps a round ship would raise less suspicion? Perhaps this was the very ship on which the agent of priest-kings might have had his passage? "I speak in the name of priest-kings," said Sullius Maximus...
5	320	Presumably, too, assuming I was compliant to the will of priest-kings, I would now naively prosecute the machinations of Kurii, confident that it was in the cause of priest-kings that I labored.
12	76	How could it be otherwise, for I was disembarked on the northern coast according to the exact coordinates of priest-kings, secret coordinates doubtless, was there met by two agents, doubtless also in the service of priest-kings, though that app...
12	85	Too, why should they believe, in the first place, that I would wish to labor on behalf of priest-kings? Surely I had not been treated well by priest-kings.
18	171	The second major theory proposed to explain the ban of priest-kings on body armor is that the priest-kings, in their benign concern for human beings, one of the diverse life forms with which they stocked the planet, thought the banning of body ...
1	15	This mode of orientation is not Gorean, the common compass of which, with its eight cardinal points, is oriented to the Sardar, the dark, walled, mountainous abode of priest-kings, but founded on the Gorean poles.
1	68	"Sometimes the priest-kings," I said, "as a most cruel punishment, condemn an individual to Earth".
1	103	"Doubtless in virtue of an arrangement with priest-kings," I said.
1	104	"Who are priest-kings?" she asked.
1	105	"What are priest-kings?" "Do not concern yourself with the matter," I said.
1	117	"If you have been placed here, in this verdant wilderness, at the will of priest-kings, whoever or whatever they may be, might not the Lady Bina and Lord Grendel have their purposes, as well?" "I do not know".
1	188	These were both free women and I, who had seemingly displeased priest-kings had been, apparently, enclosed with them as an insidious punishment, that, sooner or later, as I weakened, becoming more bitter, frustrated, outraged, and needful, my honor would be compromised, o...
1	217	Following the denouement of the insurrection on the Steel World in question and, seemingly, in virtue of some interaction or agreement between priest-kings and victorious Kurii, it was determined that I, and others, were to be returned to Gor.
1	218	Might we have hoped that our labors on the Steel World had pleased, or, at least, appeased, priest-kings? Could such forms of life be mollified? And could they not then have been satisfied, at last, and have seen fit, in their wisdom, to free us from their interests? Cert...
1	222	I had then little hope that priest-kings had finished with me, as I would have fervently desired.
1	259	She had been one of the two women who had been enclosed with me in the small, transparent container on the Prison Moon, two who had been deliberately, carefully selected by priest-kings, with all their shrewdness and science, with all their malevolent expertise, to consti...
1	267	The priest-kings, I suspect, had, so to speak, fitted us together.
1	272	Presumably within Ehn, so shortly, the ships of priest-kings might come to investigate, to succor, to retaliate, to recover their threatened, violated sphere, the Prison Moon.
2	119	Much can be done with the body, it seems, but little with the mind, saving, perhaps, by priest-kings in the recesses of the Sardar.
2	197	I was not clear why the priest-kings had arranged my being in this place at this time.
2	420	"I would suppose the priest-kings of Gor," I said.
3	538	"priest-kings? Kurii?" I asked.
3	539	Certainly priest-kings knew the coordinates for the landing of the ship of Peisistratus, but, so, too, it seemed possible, did Kurii.
3	541	"I know nothing of priest-kings and Kurii," said Pertinax.
3	544	"Men who serve priest-kings, or Kurii?" I asked.
3	774	I was now confident that his employers were not representing priest-kings, but others, perhaps brigands, or merchants, somehow associated with Kurii.

Book 30. (26 results) Mariners of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
2	200	How wise they were, and how powerful they were, how sacrosanct and holy they were, to have the ear of priest-kings, to have at their disposal the prayers, the spells, the rituals, the devotions, and sacrifices by means of which priest-kings mig...
2	2	One feared it was a ship of no mortal creation, but rather a vessel of priest-kings, come from the clouds over the Sardar, gone on air.
2	107	It is rumored that there were gigantic dragons of the sea, prodigious monsters, lurking beyond the farther islands, aquatic prodigies guarding the end of the world, set there by priest-kings, as one might post guard sleen about the perimeter of a camp, but this thing, in ...
2	189	Surely this was no human thing, but a creation of the gods of Gor, of the priest-kings themselves.
2	191	Might that not displease the priest-kings, the gods and masters of Gor? I blinked my eyes, fiercely, to rid them of water.
2	196	Then I thought, "No, the priest-kings would not build such mortal frames, and, if so, not of wood.
2	199	But such stories must be false, as they were denied by Initiates, the white caste, highest and worthiest of all the castes, as they were intermediaries between priest-kings and mortals.
3	307	"It could only have been the intervention of priest-kings," she said.
3	322	It seemed obvious that such an ensuance could be explained, if at all, only in terms of a sky ship, and, such, if it existed, would presumably emanate from the Sardar, allegedly the abode of priest-kings.
4	172	This is no time to tempt the indulgence of priest-kings, no time to tempt the season, or the patience of Thassa.
5	381	"It has to do with priest-kings and Others," said Lord Nishida.
12	388	"Praise the priest-kings," said the voice.
14	280	"By the priest-kings, by the Home Stone of Cos, save me!" I crouched on my small craft and caught at vines, trying to pull the two nailed beams toward him.
15	95	"For the sake of the priest-kings," I cried, at last, "it is enough".
17	202	Perhaps from the Sardar, a sign of the displeasure of priest-kings".
20	249	I looked about, and I saw the incredible, mighty differences between men and women, and understood that I, by nature or the will of priest-kings, was of that profoundly different sort, the woman.
21	197	It was my understanding that a dialect of Gorean was spoken at the World's End, that the priest-kings had seen to this.
21	200	The priest-kings, on the other hand, by various manifestations of their power, doubtless the Flame Death, and such, had made clear the wisdom of retaining Gorean.
21	203	The common wisdom on such matters is that the priest-kings favor a common language, as a means to more easily communicate their views to humans, for example, with respect to the technology and weapon laws.
23	80	It was apparently only a tiny remnant of a once mighty force, driven about, harried, fought, defeated again and again, some seven or eight hundred men, perhaps a thousand, which, exhausted, bloodied, and starving, on a gray, cold morning, surrounded save for the sea, awaiting an onslaught they could...
23	82	"Not priest-kings," he said.
35	32	It had had to do with the will of priest-kings.
35	51	"I have gathered so," said the stranger, "long ago, by the intervention of priest-kings".
36	181	Commonly they do nothing for coin received, but, occasionally, they agree to bless the giver, and commend him to priest-kings.
36	182	Among their many services, for a sufficient fee, they assure success in business, politics, and love, which successes are unfailing, it is said, unless they not be in accord with the will of the priest-kings.
36	183	On the docks, also for a sufficient fee, they sometimes sell fair winds and clear skies, which also never fail, it is said, save when not in accord with the will of the priest-kings.

Book 31. (30 results) Conspirators of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
8	168	How could such a world exist and not be known, or, I thought, is it known? Perhaps it is known, but as a guarded secret, official or governmental, to be kept from the general public? Is it the will of the priest-kings, the alleged lords of this world, I wondered, that the...
3	11	I have gathered that much of this has to do with the rulings of your gods, called priest-kings, reigning from the dark, palisaded Sardar.
3	16	But perhaps, finally, you know as little of your gods, your sovereigns, or priest-kings, as we.
3	23	Your only protection against these Others, these Different Ones, the lurkers and watchers, are your gods, your priest-kings.
8	1187	The pervasiveness of Gorean on your world, as I understand it, has something to do with your gods, the priest-kings, laired in the Sardar Mountains.
8	1189	The caste of Initiates, it is said, act as the intermediaries between priest-kings and men, appointing festivals, prophesying, uttering oracles, accepting offerings, selling blessings, performing sacrifices, and such.
8	1190	Much remains unclear, however, as I understand it, concerning the actual relationship, if any, between the Initiates and the priest-kings.
8	1191	It is clear, however, that the priest-kings are not to be taken lightly.
10	237	And there were the mysterious Sardar Mountains, within which, supposedly, resided the gods of Gor, called priest-kings.
17	190	Supposedly this would be acceptable to those who were the guardians of two worlds, my world, called Earth in my native language, and Gor, the priest-kings of Gor, a mysterious set of beings regarded with great awe, both by humans and Kurii.
17	191	Supposedly the priest-kings, whoever or whatever they might be, concerned to protect the two worlds of Tor-tu-Gor, in particular, Gor, a generally undamaged world, and their own, would allow this alliance, provided their weapon and technology laws were respected, laws des...
17	194	Then, by means of smuggled weapons, and the aid of the technology of the metal worlds, the priest-kings themselves might be attacked and eliminated, following which the world would belong to Kurii, who might then, with their various, competitive factions, contest it as th...
17	202	There was an attempt to recruit a disaffected human, one alienated from, and inimical to, priest-kings, a warrior, whose name was not spoken.
18	199	In the house of Tenalion, I had heard certain slaves, being readied for their sale, beseeching priest-kings that they not fall into the clutches of a free woman.
29	27	It seemed to me a terrible weapon, one which might splinter beams, perhaps shatter rocks, but, also, I supposed that it complied with the weapon laws of the priest-kings.
29	142	"Thus," he said, "priest-kings are still feared.
31	115	And for their part, priest-kings, whatever they may be, such passive, inert, aloof, sessile creatures, they may be ignored or, if one chooses, destroyed".
31	128	"I am told that priest-kings regard us as rather equivalent species".
35	58	"The first phase," he said, "is likely to be securing the surface of Gor, with the exception, perhaps, of the Sardar Mountains, taken to be the range of priest-kings.
35	59	The priest-kings, as is well known, tend to refrain from interference in the affairs of both Kurii and men, provided their weapon and technology laws are respected".
35	60	"Do priest-kings exist?" I asked.
35	68	Thus, at the end of the first phase one would have a conquered world putatively shared by men and Kurii, men who have served Kurii, and Kurii who have directed and managed men, the men unaware of their manipulation, all this theoretically achieved in compliance with the weapon and technology laws of...
35	70	Then, with a Kur Gor, so to speak, with large amounts of smuggled weaponry in place, the way would be cleared for a massive invasion fleet from the remote habitats, one unlikely to be significantly deterred by priest-kings.
35	71	Lastly, the Sardar would be entered, and the priest-kings destroyed.
35	73	All this would be seemingly done within the weapon and technology laws of the priest-kings, until the final phase, the invasion of Gor from the remote habitats, abetted by the numerous emplaced Kurii, with their contraband weaponry".
35	84	"That is the view of the priest-kings," he said.
35	86	"That is the view of priest-kings," he said.
35	87	"I know a world where there are no priest-kings," I said.
37	56	"Is it not better to live for a time, than not to live, at all?" "The beasts are formidable," said Desmond, "but, within the laws of priest-kings, they are not invincible.
43	69	It is said there is a Third Knowledge, but that is reserved to priest-kings.

Book 32. (22 results) Smugglers of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
14	373	You have heard of priest-kings, and Kurii?" "All have heard of priest- kings," I said.
13	147	They are often spoken of, in whispers, as priest-kings.
14	374	"How else would there be a world, a universe?" "Perhaps," he said, "priest- kings are the children of the world, of the universe".
14	380	"Do you believe in priest- kings?" he asked.
14	400	"Suppose that priest-kings, wise and powerful, or cruel and powerful, or arrogant and powerful, or exotic and powerful, were in their way mortal, and vulnerable, and concerned to protect their kind and world".
14	408	"But I think they are foes of priest-kings".
14	436	"priest-kings and Kurii," I said, "have something to do with Tarncamp?" "I do not know," he said.
14	504	"It is said," he said, "on the wings of priest-kings".
14	515	"priest-kings and Kurii are involved," I said.
15	309	"Beasts, misfits, vagabonds, exiles, repudiated men, scoundrels, outlaws, and such," she said, and then, lowering her voice, whispered, "and perhaps priest- kings".
15	310	I felt it wise to retrain from speaking, as she had spoken of priest-kings.
20	95	Some of the girls, however, particularly those of the First Knowledge, deemed lightning, at least upon occasion, the cast, fiery missile of angered priest-kings, and its successor, thunder, as proclaiming, for all to understand, the fact of its terrible passage.
21	166	"You have heard of the Flame Death of the priest-kings?" asked the first beast of Tyrtaios.
21	168	"I have seen it once," said the beast, "when a fellow of mine, brandishing a forbidden weapon, one forbidden by the laws of priest- kings, was suddenly torn away from me, literally from my side, in a burst of light, of flesh, of blood, and ash.
21	171	They then, I thought, as men, realized the power of priest- kings, and feared them.
21	172	How formidable, how terrible, I thought, must be priest-kings.
40	24	In particular, there were the technology laws of priest-kings, and the ruthlessness with which they were enforced.
40	27	To be sure, once they were delivered to Gor, no interest seemed to be taken in them, unless they were somehow in contravention of the laws of priest- kings.
43	951	"He is only too ready to lower his hand! In the name of the priest-kings, if no other, save yourselves!" Genserich looked about, wildly.
44	48	I did not think that even the priest- kings of Gor would have dared to do so.
50	661	Perhaps, I thought, the clue to the mystery might lie in the distant, formidable Sardar Mountains, of which the legendary or fabled priest-kings were supposedly denizens.
14	425	"Have you ever seen a priest-King?" "No," I said.

Book 33. (30 results) Rebels of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
58	233	Did priest-kings favor Lord Temmu or Lord Yamada? Which, if either, was favored by Kurii? Surely both Kurii, or some Kurii, and priest-kings, or some priest-kings, had collaborated in the readying of, and the flight ...
21	75	It was obvious, given the technologies involved in such a suspension of consciousness and such a methodology of transition that either the priest-kings or the Kurii, or both, had chosen to intervene in what might otherwise have been regarded as little more than a final ba...
21	76	The possibility had suggested itself to some, a possibility which seemed plausible to me, that the Kurii, frustrated at the current failure of their designs, and the priest-kings, annoyed by probes, and predatory intrusions, might be willing to gamble for a world's surfac...
21	78	If the dice fell in favor of the bestial Kurii, the priest-kings would surrender to their intrusion and habitation the surface of their world, and should the dice fall in favor of the priest-kings, the Kurii would withdraw to their steel worlds...
27	178	"I know little of priest-kings, or their laws, or thoughts," said Haruki, "or that there are priest-kings, or that they think, but there are many ways to communicate quickly, to transmit even complex messages, explaining situations, issuing ins...
45	89	"If the iron dragon utilizes gravitational technology, as you suggest, and that is within the provenance of priest-kings," said Pertinax, "then it is clear the priest-kings favor Yamada".
45	93	For example, though the iron dragon clearly incorporates the technology of priest-kings, it just as clearly violates the laws of priest-kings, and would thus, in countering the effect of the cavalry, seem to tip a balance in favor of Yamada".
45	95	"With so much at stake," I said, "in effect, a planet, for Kurii would not long be likely to peaceably share a world with priest-kings or any others, and surely priest-kings would realize the danger of admitting a technologically advanced, aggr...
1	490	It seemed likely, however, given the mysterious appearance of Pani in the northern forests, and the work on a great ship, so far from civilization, a ship which might be capable of crossing Thassa, that this business would have to do, somehow, with Kurii, or priest-kings,...
6	18	In this I detected the work of priest-kings, and a wager, perhaps for the stakes of a world's surface, with Kurii.
6	21	It was a speculation that priest-kings and Kurii, weary of skirmishes, of indecision, of stalemates, of continual intrusions and probes, had proposed, if not agreed upon, a game of men, a drawing of cards or a casting of dice, on the outcome of which depended a coveted pr...
6	24	One supposed both the sophisticated weaponry of Kurii and the engines of priest-kings were to be abjured.
6	31	Well was I aware of the subtlety and deviousness of priest-kings, well was I aware of the determination and cunning of Kurii.
13	153	Had it not been for the intervention of priest-kings or Kurii, or both, I think the remnants of Lord Temmu's land forces would have perished on a beach long ago, rather than appearing, seemingly unaccountably, in the vicinity of Brundisium on continental Gor.
19	191	I had first met her on the Prison Moon where I had been confined by priest-kings, a confinement which had been ended by a raid of Kurii on that facility, following which I had been taken to one of the steel worlds, on which world, as noted, I had acquired the slave in que...
19	192	On the Prison Moon, a largely automated prison, it had been intended by the priest-kings that I should be defeated and broken as a warrior, by means of an ingenious torture consisting of the counterpoising of desire and honor.
19	195	Each, unbeknownst to herself, had her role to play in the machinations of priest-kings.
19	199	The first and I, I do not doubt, had been ingeniously matched, physically, psychologically, physiologically, and such, by all the technological and scientific brilliance of priest-kings, with the end in view that we should be irresistible to one another.
19	200	Indeed I had sometimes wondered if she had been, perhaps over generations, given the technology of priest-kings, their foresight and their knowledge of the world, bred for me.
19	219	Once I had lost my honor in that container, and become a ruination to myself, I am supposing the priest-kings would have executed me, or, if satisfied, merely returned me to some wilderness on Gor, where I might eke out a lonely, shabby existence, lost to myself, friendle...
21	91	Interestingly, I was unclear as to the gambling involved, in particular, who might favor which participant, Yamada or Temmu? For example, it seemed probable that the priest-kings had preserved the remnants of the forces of Temmu, but this did not imply that they favored t...
21	95	More importantly, I had no reason to trust either Kurii or priest-kings with respect to more than a pretence of impartiality.
21	97	Too, priest-kings, in all their wisdom, must realize that Kurii, suspicious, ambitious, and aggressive, would be unlikely, indefinitely, to peaceably and harmoniously share a world.
21	99	Indeed, had not such factions rendered their original world little more than a seared wasteland? Too, I knew from my own time in the Nest, long ago, that the priest-kings themselves might differ amongst themselves in trust and agenda.
27	174	"There are the laws of priest-kings," I said.
45	31	Long ago, in the Nest of priest-kings, in the Nest War, I was familiar with such things, the flat, circular transportation disks which could be used to speedily negotiate the vast intricate corridors and halls of the nest.
45	60	They are spoken of as 'priest-kings'".
45	66	Both priest-kings and Kurii possess technologies which are well beyond those available now on our home planet.
45	68	Skirmishes and altercations have taken place for generations between these two species, the Kurii wishing to obtain this world and the priest-kings, naturally, to retain it.
45	69	In temperament the Kurii tend to be imperialistic, tenacious, ambitious, and fierce, and the priest-kings, on the whole, tend to be pacific and nonaggressive, content, on the whole, to defend their world, rather than seek out Kurii in their strongholds and methodologicall...

Book 34. (30 results) Plunder of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
49	41	They bravely stand between the power, mystery, and formidableness of priest-kings and ordinary people, on whose behalf they will intercede, for a fee, with the priest-kings themselves.
8	342	"They are called priest-kings," he said.
8	347	"I have seen beasts," he said, "foes of priest-kings".
8	357	"Between priest-kings and beasts," he said.
8	364	"Both priest-kings and Kurii," he said, "enlist human allies.
8	381	"priest-kings are tyrants.
23	119	"There are elements in the caste of Slavers," he said, "bands that are secret, that proceed covertly, even having recourse to vehicles forbidden by the laws of priest-kings".
23	120	"I know nothing of priest-kings," I said.
23	121	"Indeed," he said, "it is rumored that certain elements of the Slavers, and others, have dealings with the enemies of priest-kings".
23	125	"Such vehicles, which tread the skies themselves, are forbidden to the men of Gor by the denizens of the Sardar, the priest-kings," he said.
23	127	I did not even know if there were priest-kings.
23	196	"Have you heard of dark wars, of secret wars, wars challenging the reign of priest-kings themselves, wars for viable spheres, for Gor itself? Have you heard of Kurii, of Steel Worlds?" "No, Master," I said.
28	86	"May the priest-kings look upon you with favor," called out Tyrtaios.
34	116	"They are priest-kings," I said.
34	119	"Why do not the Kurii," I asked, "if they are so ambitious, violent, and powerful, if this world is not yet available to them, seize Earth?" "priest-kings," said Kurik, "shelter Earth.
34	120	Who would place at the disposal of an enemy the resources of a planet, who would grant them an island, a platform, from which, in time, to launch a great attack, a mighty armada, against them?" "How is it," I asked, "that priest-kings have permitted humans on their world?...
34	124	"And priest-kings," I said, "condone humans, and even Kurii, on Gor?" "Provided the laws are kept," said Kurik.
34	125	"I was not brought to Gor by priest-kings," I said.
34	135	"Men serve priest-kings, men serve Kurii," said Kurik.
34	137	Thus, in various ways, they may be found of value to both priest-kings and Kurii, and on both Earth and Gor.
34	155	Accept, first, if you will, that both priest-kings and Kurii have uses for humans".
34	166	"To be sure," he said, "much of Gor, to humans, if not to Kurii or priest-kings, is terra incognita".
34	186	"So a plan was formed," he said, "to produce a form of life to bridge that chasm of mistrust and terror, to produce a form of life more acceptable to humans, one that might enlist the aid of thousands of humans, suitably armed, to rise against and overthrow priest-kings, ...
46	406	Too, such devices might be deemed to contravene the technology laws of priest-kings, in which case their construction and employment might be attended with great danger".
49	37	They regard themselves as the highest of the high castes, presumably in virtue of their claimed relationship, a very privileged relationship, apparently, to the priest-kings, the "gods" of Gor.
49	38	I do not know whether priest-kings exist or not, or, if they do, if they are aware of the existence of the Initiates.
49	44	Whether one is interested in the success of a supper, a happy outcome at the tarn races, or merely wishes to melt the heart of some aloof free woman, or such, the Initiates, humble in their holiness and concern, earnest and sympathetic, stand ready to take action, notifying the priest-...
49	46	Too, even in the best of cases, it must be admitted that the will of the priest-kings is sometimes inscrutable, even to Initiates.
54	107	"The priest-kings," said Kurik.
54	113	The laws of the priest-kings are strict.

Book 35. (2 results) Quarry of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
46	206	"May it be the will of priest-kings that the paga speeds to our door," said the Vat Master.
38	97	Pharaohs and emperors, kings and caliphs, had their secret forces, their networks of spies and informants.

Book 36. (13 results) Avengers of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
2	122	"Perhaps the priest-kings, with their mysterious and mighty powers, have some hand in this," said Clitus.
2	124	"Thank the priest-kings," said Aktis, "that you have not encountered the intruders.
2	125	Indeed, hire Initiates to petition the priest-kings that you do not do so".
2	145	How might one separate idle rumor from sober truth; how might one tell fact from fable, fear, and fancy? This had much to do with the technology laws of the priest-kings, who, it seemed, recognized the danger, both to themselves and other forms of life, of sharing a plane...
2	146	Did the priest-kings not regard us as an interesting, but simple, primitive, short-sighted species? Who knows what might come of putting matches, bombs, and dynamite in nurseries, and madhouses? "Go home, while you can," said Aktis.
4	114	"Mariners, noble mariners," cried one of the women, extending her hand piteously, "succor, succor!" "Glory to the priest-kings that you have seen us!" cried another.
7	127	What are six or seven ships against twenty, twenty naval vessels, manned by trained crews, vessels fierce and swift, like hungry sea sleen, armed with snouts of iron?" "By the priest-kings," said Archelaos, enthusiastically, his fist striking the table like a bird of prey...
14	1	An Anomaly is Noted, a Day from Daphna "Ho," called down the lookout, from the ringed platform near the top of the single mast, "land, island, tiny, four points Ror!" Whereas I, in the interests of intelligibility, have often had recourse to directions apt to my native world, Earth directions, appl...
16	168	"Of love, of fishing, of villages, of men, of priest-kings, of the mysteries of the universe? I warn you.
16	169	I know little of priest-kings or the mysteries of the universe".
35	19	"And it is said," said Clitus, "that there is a Third Knowledge, known only to priest-kings".
52	85	It speaks of the hands of priest-kings.
59	28	"May the priest-kings look with favor on the cheating and chicanery of your caste," he said.