The recent words of John Norman, re-printed in the newly-released Witness of Gor, state that “Gor is a continent in science fiction … that lies a thousand degrees north of monothink, a thousand degrees east of orthodoxy, a thousand degrees west of ideological conformity …” (Book 26, p. equiv. 719). This popular quote does not, of course, state that he used longitude and latitude back in the 60s when he conceptualized a mental background map for the Gor series. It does legitimize the idea of treating Gor like a continent with its corresponding coordinate-based referents. The metaphor used in that passage for the ideological characterization of the series only works if the cartographic model makes sense. Given the sheer immensity alleged for the imaginary continent, a proper conceptualization for the landscape on which the adventures play out demands an expanse which is only truly comprehendible using the mind’s eye to project longitude onto the mental map of Gor.

The Implications of a Longitude-Based Cartography

Longitude is an angular measure dividing a globe into 360 degrees from points originating at the north and south poles. It divides the globe into a series of straight lines running true north and true south.

The closer points along longitude lines are to the origin point, the closer the points are to each other. The lines converge at the poles and are farthest apart at the equator. If the Gorean planet has the main bulge south of the equator, the place where the lines are farthest apart would of course be there, but in a standard planetary globe the greatest point of width is the equator, which is by definition mid-way between the poles. The main concept here is that there is more ground distance between places that are 20 degrees of longitude apart at the equator than there is ground distance between places that are 20 degrees of longitude apart at 60 degrees north latitude.

Maps of Gor may see the western edge of the supercontinent as being curved sort of like Turkey, or they may see the western edge as being more “straight up and down” on the page. Attention to longitude can satisfy both perspectives regarding the coast. As an example, imagine looking at a two-dimensional map of Gor from a point in the known southeast, such as Turia, toward points on the coast, such as Schendi and Port Kar. If the map is a curved map, Port Kar would look like it is northeast of Schendi. If the curve happens to be a single longitude line, then Port Kar would actually be directly north of Schendi, and if you leave Turia and rotate your view to look directly above the longitude line on the coast itself, Port Kar will then visually seem to be directly north of Schendi.

Maps that use equal-area grids and make longitude lines equi-distant obviously distort the true distances between points, making places in the northern latitudes look farther apart than they are supposed to be. If you imagine looking at a map in which everything is placed “straight up and down” on a page, it becomes apparent that places must be conceived as being closer together as the points near the north pole.

Map-making that uses longitude as the basis for locating places will use curved lines, which will better demonstrate the north-south orientations of one place compared to another. However, one must remember that the apparent distances portrayed on a two-dimensional map belie the fact that only a 3-dimensional globe can truly demonstrate the combination of both distance and true north-south orientations of one place compared to another.

In terms of Gorean cartography, one is faced with an immense landmass comprehensible visually only by using longitude. What that longitude means in terms of linear surface distance, however, depends on how large you think Gor is.

The Size of Gor

To conceptualize what the longitude lines mean in terms of liner surface distance, one must have a reference for comparison. Several passages in the Books compare Gor to either Earth or the Kurii homeworld since the context of those comparison passages involves creatures from those planets. It might be more useful for measurement purposes, however, to compare Gor with not with either Earth or the Kurii homeworld but with Venus.

Venus is close to Earth in size, and I think of Gor as being just slightly smaller than Venus.

Gor has less mass than Earth has, as evidenced by its lower gravity, and it must be remembered that mass is a function of factors other than size. The composition and density of a body affect the planetary mass as well. Venus, for example, has a solid core some 3,000 km in diameter, a molten layer, and then a crust that is thicker than that of Earth. While the diameter of Venus is 95% that of Earth, the mass of Venus is only 80% that of Earth. Because we do not know what the interior of Gor is like, Gor can be only slightly smaller than Venus and still have the noticeable gravity difference that seems to remain within Earth-quality parameters. No one bounces high into the air on Gor. Earth people simply have a bit more “spring to the step.”

Conceptualizing Gor as being just slightly smaller than Venus keeps Gor as a nearly identical planet to Earth while accounting for the difference in the apparent larger size of the sun as viewed from Gor. Either Gor is closer to the sun than Earth is and therefore has an orbit that turns out to be not the same as Earth’s orbit, or the apparent size difference is an illusion of contrast caused by a smaller Gorean horizon. The evidence points to Gor being a slightly smaller and slightly less dense planet than Earth is. Having Gor being the same size as Venus seems too easy a convention, and making it slightly larger seems to defeat the purpose of having it smaller and less dense than Earth. I choose therefore to think of it as being just smaller than Venus. However, nobody died and made me Ubar, so you may choose a different size for Gor than I do. Depending on how you choose to see the size of Gor, your mileage will quite literally vary.

The diameter of a planet is the straight line passing through the center and connecting points on opposite side at the equator. The diameter of a planet measures the planet’s size at the equator. The diameter of Venus is roughly 12,000 km. A kilometer is 0.6 of a mile while the equivalent Gorean unit of measurement, the pasang, is 0.7 of a mile (Book 1, p. 58). Converted into pasangs, the diameter of Venus is roughly 10,285, so round to 10,300 pasangs. The circumference of a circle is determined by multiplying the diameter of a circle by pi, which is rounded at 3.14. If the equator of a planet is a circle, then the circumference of the equator of that planet is determined by multiplying the equatorial diameter by 3.14. The circumference of Venus would therefore be roughly 32,342 pasangs. Since there are 360 degrees of longitude encompassing a planet, Venus would have 898, or roughly 900 pasangs between every 10 degrees of longitude at the equator.

If Gor is slightly smaller than Venus, say for convenience some 10,000 pasangs in diameter, with an equatorial circumference of therefore roughly 31,400 pasangs, then the distance between every 10 degrees of longitude at the Gorean equator would be roughly 872 pasangs. We could, then, conceptually shrink the planet a tad for convenience and round the distance to 850 or even 800 pasangs.

The point is not to quibble over whether some exact or vague figure is more appropriate than another. The point is to have some starting point of reference so that one can imagine the size of the stage on which the Gorean saga unfolds. Comparing Gor to Venus, whether one chooses to think of Gor as larger than, equal to, or smaller than Venus, is probably more true to the Books than thinking of Gor in terms of Earth measurements. Having some general idea of the distances involved in the climate regions will then translate into longitude parameters and will help complete an understanding of Gorean geography.

The Longitudinal Extent of the Gorean Supercontinent

I believe that the western limit of the supercontinent is found at the rainforests, although it is possible that the southern prairies extend a bit more westward before curving southeasterly and rounding the tip of the continent like southern Africa. The western extent of the rainforests is determined by where their eastern origin point is, and in this regard it is important to acknowledge a southeastern corridor of plains and valleys connecting Turia to the northern temperate zones.

South of the rainforests lie the southern prairies, which are described as being “huge” (Book 4, p.1), extending from the coast and the Ta-Thassa Mountains to the west and south all the way to the foothills of the Voltai Range to the east. The subequatorial Cartius River apparently flows from those Voltai foothills, making the northern boundary, and with the inclusion of the rainforests in a later book, one must also add that the rainforests also form part of the northern boundary. The Ta-Thassa Mountains may also run the course of the rainforests as a northern boundary, since it was said that the wagons pasture “on this side of the Ta-Thassa Mountains” (p. 240) and since there was speculation that some animals running north of Turia might have come from the Ta-Thassa Mountains (pp. 1, 2). The subequatorial Cartius, though, runs across land described as “valleys” over which the Wagon People once rode to Ar itself (p. 13). I see this as a southeastern corridor of plains and valleys between the southern latitudes and the northern temperate zone. The Wagon People use this corridor to winter, as they approach the equator from the south (pp. 55, 58). The point here is that the rainforests are stopped where this corridor is. In my own view of the map of Gor, the Ven Highlands is a good candidate for raising the altitude and stopping the eastward expansion of the rainforests. The corridor thereby becomes the starting point for determining how far west the rainforests extend.

The major river in the rainforests, the Ua, begins somewhere in the eastern part of the rainforests and is thousands of pasangs long (Book 13, p. 455). It is not specified whether this refers to winding distance or “as the tarn flies” distance, but the use of the plural makes one understand that the distance that must be accounted for is immense. Other known distances are the distances between the city of Schendi on the coast and the two relatively nearby major lakes. Lake Ushindi is some 200 pasangs east of Schendi (p. 104) and Lake Ngao is some 400 pasangs east of that (p. 220). Combining these distances and realizing that the rainforest extends eastward from Lake Shaba and the Ua River, one realizes the probablility that the rainforests extend for 3 or more thousand pasangs along the equator. How many pasangs make up “thousands”? 3,000? 4,000? 5,000? More?

If every 800 to 850 pasangs of planetary circumference at the equator equals 10 degrees of longitude, then the rainforests may extend 40, 50, or more degrees westward from their eastern origin point.

Similarly, the Tahari is said to extend for thousands of pasangs eastward and to be almost a continent of rocky hills and dunes, the remains of an extinct arm of Thassa or some other salt ocean (Book 10, pp. 33, 238, 239). The latitude of the Tahari makes the distances between the longitude lines smaller, but the idea that the desert extends for an indeterminable distance makes the size of the region truly monumental.

If one supposes 40 to 50 degrees of rainforests and the same extent for deserts and some space in between for the corridor, one can easily conceive of at least some 100 degrees of longitudinal landmass. Recalling that a hemisphere is defined as being 180 degrees of longitude, and using the latitudes mentioned in the companion article, one can then easily think of the supercontinent as covering more than half of the hemisphere.

The locations of Gorean places with respect to each other when viewed by longitude is perhaps best illustrated by the concept of time zones.

Gorean Time Zones

The added bonus in conceiving longitude referents for Gorean places is the artifact of time zones. A globe has 360 degrees of longitude originating at the poles. The Gorean day is divided into 20 Gorean hours. An axial rotation of 360 degrees in 20 hours means that the Gorean day advances by one hour with every 18 degrees of rotation. Every 18 degrees, the time is a different hour of the day. The Gorean time zones therefore correspond to 18 degree longitudinal intervals.

The Voltai Mountains are described as the high-altitude spine of the Gorean continent. They extend from just south of the Thentis Mountains to the beginning of the Tahari, with southern foothills that arise south of the Tahari. Although the Voltai Range itself bulges westward at the middle where Ar is located, the Voltai is pretty much a straight shot from north to south. That makes it convenient as a mental marker for Gor’s equivalent of the Prime Meridian.

If you consider the Voltai to mark the Prime Meridian, then there is at least one known time zone east of the Voltai. I think of it as the Barrens / Tahari time zone. The Barrens and the Tahari both lie east of the Voltai, the Barrens being bordered on the west by the Voltai and the Tahari being south and east of the range. The Barrens and the Tahari border each other, with the Barrens being north of the Tahari. Most of the Tahari is watered by underground seepage originating in the Voltai and flowing southeastward. The settlements and oases that are fairly close to the mountain line would be in that Barrens / Tahari time zone. The city of Tor lies at the mountain line and therefore people rolepaying Torians could choose to make Tor use the Arian / Turian clock or the Barrens / Tahari clock, depending on whether most interactions are with folks from the cylinder cities or folks from the oases. Because both the Barrens and Tahari regions extend for unknown pasangs, some known places might be in yet another time zone. For example, depending on how far you believe Klima actually is from the other places in the Tahari (a 24 day trudge in undisclosed directions from the Oasis of Nine Wells according to Book 10, p. 231, 233), Klima might be in its own time zone.

West of the Voltai, there would be a new time zone every 18 degrees, for one at 18 degrees west, another at 36 degrees west, and another at 54 degrees west. How many time zones you have depends on how far out you think the rainforests extend. The coast seems for the most part to run north and south, and I visualize it running albeit unevenly along the same longitude line. When myst and I made a picture of Gor from space using NASA images collaged into a globe, I chose 45 degrees west as that line. The rainforest city of Schendi and the coastal islands would be at the middle of a coastal time zone. Torvaldsland and Port Kar would also be in that time zone. The southern coast below the rainforests curves eastward. I think of the Ta-Thassa Mountains as being both part of the coastal border of the southern plains and part of the southern border of at least the western portion of the rainforests, and so I place at least the western part of the Ta-Thassa Mountains in the coastal time zone as well.

The time zone at the western edge of the Voltai would contain Ar, Turia, Thentis, and the Sardar.

The next time zone would contain Lake Shaba.

The Wagon People who range west of Turia could also be in the Lake Shaba time zone. I think of the Kataii, since they are blackskinned, as being related in some distant past way to the rainforest people, and therefore as living mostly in either the coastal time zone or the Lake Shaba time zone, whereas I think of the Tuchuk as living in the Turian time zone. The curvature of the southern plains, as that region is the southern tip of the supercontinent, makes that guesswork harder.

Due to the increasing closeness of the longitude lines as one goes north, I would place Ko-Ro-Ba either in the Lake Shaba time zone or the Thentis time zone, depending on the east-west distance that is imputed between Ko-Ro-Ba and Thentis.

Moving from east to west, then, one can visualize Klima Time, Tahari Time, Arian / Turian Time, Ko-Ro-Ba / Lake Shaba Time, and Coastal Time.

Online Gorean fandom seems to be concentrated in the English-speaking world and the German-speaking world. That population covers time zones from Australia through North America to Germany. Online roleplayers have to contend with Earth’s time zones in their interactions with others, and the concept of virtual Gorean timezones gives a storyline enhancement to the daily reality of communicating across a globe.

Conclusion