Upon entering the building you find it leads into a courtyard, within the courtyard you find a simple rock garden.
The citizens that enter here know which stone is the home stone, but to a stranger...
There is a squad of 25 city guards here at all times.
The Goreans generally, though there are exceptions, particularly the Caste of Initiates,
do not believe in immortality. Accordingly, to be of a city is, in a sense, to have been a part
of something less perishable than oneself, something divine in the sense of undying. Of course,
as every Gorean knows, cities too are mortal, for cities can be destroyed as well as men. And
this perhaps makes them love their cities the more, for they know that their city, like
themselves, is subject to mortal termination. This love of their city tends to become invested
in a stone which is known as the Home Stone, and which is normally kept in the highest cylinder
in a city. In the Home Stone sometimes little more than a crude piece of carved rock, dating
back perhaps several hundred generations to when the city was only a cluster of huts by the bank
of a river, sometimes a magnificent and impressively wrought, jewel incrusted cube of marble or
granite the city finds its symbol. Yet to speak of a symbol is to fall short of the mark. It is
almost as if the city itself were identified with the Home Stone; as If It were to the city what
life is to a man. The myths of these matters have it that while the Home Stone survives, so,
too, must the city.
But not only is it the case that each city has its Home Stone. The simplest and humblest
village, and even the most primitive hut in that, village, perhaps only a cone of straw, will
contain its own Home Stone, as will the fantastically appointed chambers of the Administrator
of so great a city as Ar.
~Outlaw of Gor, pages 22 - 23~
Young men and women of the city, when coming of age, participate in a ceremony which involves the swearing of oaths, and the sharing of bread. fire and salt. In this ceremony the Home Stone of the city is held by each young person and kissed. Only then are the laurel wreath and the mantle of citizenship conferred This is a moment no young person of Ar forgets. The youth of Earth have no Home Stone. Citizenship, interestingly, in most Gorean cities is conferred only upon the coming of age, and only after certain examinations are passed. Further, the youth of Gor, in most cities, must be vouched for by citizens of the city, not related in blood to him, and be questioned before a committee of citizens, intent upon determining his worthiness or lack thereof to take the Home Stone of the city as his own. Citizenship in most Gorean communities is not something accrued in virtue of the accident of birth but earned in virtue of intent and application. The sharing of a Home Stone is no light thing in a Gorean city.
Slave Girl of Gor Page - 394
Indeed, there is a saying on Gor, a saying whose origin is lost in the past of this strange planet, that one who speaks of Home Stone should stand, for matters of honor are here involved, and honor is respected in the barbaric codes of Gor.
Tarnsman of Gor Page 27
