INFORMATION SCROLLS: PANI CULTURE BASIC(or PANI CULTURE 101)

​
The Pani are a very strict culture of people on Gor they are secluded Area Called World's End. Many of there ways or beliefs are different than what you would find in Southern or Northern Gor. The Pani regard anyone not of them as inferior it seems. It would regard the same view that Japan had (and still has) in respects to foreigners or outsiders. Pani pride themselves on being literate. They speak Pani and Gorean. (Most will type in English and for those that enjoy using a Japanese phrase or word now and then usually do so).

“It was my understanding that a dialect of Gorean was spoken at the World’s End, that the Priest-Kings had seen to this. By there mysterious power, and secret sky ships, it seems they had long ago placed the Initiates amongst the Pani, perhaps centuries ago, who had taught them Gorean. "
– Swordsmen of Gor
​
​
About the edges of this area, which was better than a hundred yards in width, there were several structures. Most of these were rudely timbered, and most were windowless. Some, on the other hand, had an open wall, facing the area. Two seemed to be shops, with an open wall, one for metal
workers, the other for leather workers. Some of these structures, it seemed, served as storehouses, for supplies and tack, such as saddles and harnessing, and others as shelters, for trainers and craftsmen, and doubtless, too, for those whom one might think of, in a way, as recruits. There was a
larger building, too, which had a plank floor and an open wall. This, I would learn, was a dojo, or training hall. To one side there was a tank for water and there were several racks from which hung meat, probably tabuk, forest tarsk, and forest bosk. The greater forest tarsk, unlike the common tarsk, can be quite large. When I first came to Gor I saw a tapestry depicting the tarn hunting of such beasts, and, from the sizes involved, I had thought the tapestry to be based on some fantasy or myth. Only later did I discover that there were beasts of such a size. The common tarsk, on the other hand,
is much smaller. When a slave, or even a free woman, is disparaged as a "she-tarsk," the smaller animal, the common tarsk, is invariably in mind. Otherwise the metaphor would be unintelligible. Indeed, many Goreans have never seen the forest tarsk, and many do not know of its existence. The
forest bosk tends to be territorial, and, as I have already suggested, it can be quite dangerous. Most interestingly to me were the cots in the area, of which there were several. These cots were mostly improvised, walled with rope nets strung between trees, and, too, large, heavy poles, doubtless
from local trees, trimmed of bark and branches. Rope netting is used rather than wire to protect the birds. Tarn wire, for example, sometimes used to "roof a city," to defend it from tarn attack, is almost invisible, and can easily cut the wing from a descending bird. A lighter form of wire is called "slave
wire," and it, too, is dangerous. A slave attempting to escape through such wire is likely to be found suspended within it, piteously begging for help, half cut to pieces. Two of the cots were large and conical. Their framing, formed of light metal tubing, fitted together, was not untypical of a form of cot found in open camps. I supposed it derived from Thentis, and might have been brought to the coast by wagon, and then north by ship, as doubtless was the case with many forms of supplies.

- Swordsmen of Gor 353
​
⦁ Pani people do not recognize the caste system of continental Gor. Rank and Status are important. Showing clear rules of behavior between Nobles and Commoners. In the Case of Nobles, their names are important to status. Having a surname would denote someone of higher rank such as a Daimyo. They seem to be very aware of rank and status whereas on continental Gor the same amount of respect is accorded to all men. Lord Nishida avoids speaking directly to a non Pani, low ranking officers, but speaks directly to any Pani. Yet to all Pani the Matter of Honor hold it most high. The Pani have little tolerance for cowardice, weakness, or disrespect.
​
I was then prepared to leave the plaza, but, in turning about, I saw a sight which, to me, if not to Tajima, and his people, seemed exceedingly odd.

"What is going on there?" I asked.
"One is preparing to recover his honor," said Tajima.

On a small platform, in a white kimono, one of Tajima's people, which I will now refer to as the Pani, as that is their word for themselves, knelt. His head was bowed, and before him, on the platform, was a curved wooden sheath, which contained, doubtless, a knife. Near the fellow, also clad in a
rather formal kimono, white, stood a fellow with an unsheathed sword, of the longer sort.

"Do not intrude," said Tajima.
"What is the fellow with the sword doing?" I asked.
"It is sometimes difficult to perform the act," said Tajima.
"If it cannot be well completed the swordsman will assist. There is no loss of honor in that."
"Stop!" I called.
"Do not interfere!" cried Tajima, whose suave placidity was for once not at his disposal.

I thrust Tajima back and strode to the figure on the platform, who had now loosened his robe and drawn forth a small dagger from the sheath.
The man with the sword stood to one side, two hands on the hilt of the weapon. He regarded me. He did not seem resentful, outraged, or such. Rather, he seemed puzzled. He had not expected this intrusion, nor had the fellow on the platform. The fellow on the platform gripped the knife. I thought blood had drained from his hand. He looked up, not fully comprehending this disruption. He had already, I understood, given himself to the knife, and all that remained now was to finish the deed.

"Allow him dignity!" begged Tajima.
"I will not allow this," I said.
"Who are you to stop it?" asked Tajima

Once again in command of his emotions. The Pani are an extremely emotional, passionate race, as I would learn, and the calmness of their exterior demeanor, their frequently seeming impassibility, even seeming apathy, was less of a disposition than an achievement. Civility is not an adornment, but a necessity. Is the beast not always at one's elbow? Behind the facade of a painted screen a larl may lurk. Every chain can snap, every rope break. Savagery lies close to the precincts of civilization. The borderland between them is narrow and easily traversed. Courtesy, or politeness, you see, must not always be understood as a lack, a debility, or insufficiency. One must not recklessly part curtains. Behind them might be found things you would just as soon not see. He who writes poetry and sips tea, and waits expectantly for a flower to blossom, may, in a frenzy, on the field of battle, take head after head. In any event, it is unwise to take mountains for granted. They may conceal volcanoes.

"I am commander, I am captain," I told Tajima.
"This man is a coward," said Tajima.
"No," I said, "he is not."
It seemed to me that the act he contemplated was
sufficient evidence of that.
"He fled from a tarn," said Tajima.
"He will not do so again," I said.
"Do not interfere," said Tajima. "You can make no
difference. He will simply complete the act later, when you
are not present."
"No, he will not," I said.
"Why not?" asked Tajima, genuinely interested.
"Because I forbid it," I said. "I will have no more of this
amongst men who will dare the tarn."
"It is our way," said Tajima.
"Who is captain?" I asked.
"You, Tarl Cabot, tarnsman," said Tajima.
"It is not my way," I said.
"You are captain," said Tajima, quietly.
"I will not lose men in this fashion," I said.
"It is better to lose such men," said Tajima.
"If you want to die," I said to the kneeling figure on the
platform, "do so under the talons of the tarn."
"It is wrong for you to interfere in this, Tarl Cabot,
tarnsman," said Tajima. "One must recover honor."
"One recovers honor in life," I said, "not in death. If he
lives, he may begin again, and gain honor."
"That is not our way," said Tajima.
"But it is a way," I said.
"Doubtless," said Tajima.
"And it is my way," I said.
"Yes," said Tajima. "It is your way."
"And I am captain," I said.
"Yes," said Tajima. "You are captain."
"Return to your training," I told the fellow kneeling on the
platform. "You are late."
Swordsmen of Gor pg 362-364


⦁ They depend on rice as a staple as opposed to Sa-Tarna; hence, they commonly drink sake'(Rice Wine) while paga is rare and expensive.
​
“The staple in the Twelve Islands, which is actually far more than twelve, is not Sa-Tarna, but rice.
– Mariners of Gor
​
“Rice fields, or paddies, are associated with each village. A daimyo or shogun will have suzerainty over various villages, which he protects, and from which he obtains the means to maintain his men. He who controls the rice, it is said, controls the islands.”
— Mariners of Gor

⦁ High Pani, used Larls as prison camp guards and used them as guards to the Shogun near his throne and kept them back using wands. (Some sort of Fence)
​
A cage wagon rolled past, in which, turning and twisting about one another, agitated, were several larls. These were the beasts, primarily, who had patrolled outside the wands. They were trained from cubhood, to respond to secret commands. Accordingly, one who knew these commands might command them, venture beyond the wands, and so on. Ashigaru prowled the edges of the road, lest any of Lord Nishida's minions, primarily mercenaries, be tempted to avail themselves of an unobstructed highway to another prince, one with perhaps a deeper purse.
-Swordsmen of Gor pg 635
​
​
⦁ A Pani free woman were able to run a business and own property. Yet they had social restrictions and ways expected of them. Pani free women, incidentally, seem, except for the companions of high officers, and such, to have much lower status than the typical Gorean free woman. For example, an older sister, even a mother, must defer to a male child, bowing first, and such.

“The Pani free women, incidently, seem, except for the companions of high officers, and such, to have much lower status than the typical Gorean free woman, certainly one of upper caste. For example, an older sister, even a mother, mus defer to a male child, bowing first, and such.
— Mariners of Gor
​
⦁ They have contract women, who are not slaves but not considered free.
​
I glanced to the two women of the "strange men" on the lacquered platform. They were looking upon Cecily, but I saw no sign of envy, hostility, or jealousy. This was quite different from the way in which a Gorean free woman would look upon a slave girl. They see the slave girl as a vulnerable, but hated rival, with whom, for the interest of men, they could not begin to compete. These women, however, seemed to view Cecily more as one might have a lovely pet, doubtless of great interest to men but not really constituting a threat to themselves, and their position. I would later learn that thesewere, indeed, "contract women," who, as girls, were often sold to pleasure houses, most often by their parents. Sometimes, too, they would sell themselves to such a house, to be trained in arts of pleasure, for example, music, dancing, singing, conversation, and such. As their contracts could bebought and sold they were, in effect, slaves, but they were not thought of as such. For example, they occupied an understood, accepted, and generally respected niche in their society. They were not tunicked, not branded, not collared, and so on. They were not "collar-girls." Indeed, they regardedthemselves, without arrogance, and with much justification, as far superior to collar-girls. They were, in their view, in a different category altogether. The collar-girl was an animal who might be put to the straw in a stable, and would not even be permitted within the refined precincts of the pleasurehouse. The collar-girl was ignorant of the simplest things, even the proper serving of tea, the careful, delicate, symbolic arrangements of flowers, and such. She would be of little interest to a gentleman, save for her performance of lengthy, servile labors, and her squirmings, gaspings, moanings,thrashings, and beggings, perhaps back-braceleted, in his arms. Certainly the contract women knew the attractions of simple collar-girls for males, but they did not regard them as rivals. When, wearied of a world's concerns, he wished to spend a leisurely, elegant evening, gratifying his various cultivated senses, physical, intellectual, and aesthetic, his choice would not be the collar-girl, but the women trained to comfort and delight him in traditional and cultural manners. Interestingly, though I suppose there must be exceptions to this generalization, the women of the "strange men" seemgenerally reconciled to the fact, and will even expect, that their males will seek gratifications beyond the walls of their own domiciles. Nothing culturally heinous seems to be associated with this matter. As many companionships are arranged between families, with considerations not of love, or even of attraction, paramount, but of wealth, prestige, status, and such, and the young people often being scarcely considered in the matter, this is, I suppose, understandable.The female companion's complacency in this matter, or her understanding, or her tolerance, is, one gathers, quite different from what would be expected in the case of, say, a Gorean free companion, who, commonly, would find these arrangements outrageous and insufferable. For example, she would not be likely, resignedly, without question, to pay a bill arriving at her domicile from a pleasure house, pertaining to a pleasant evening spent there by her companion. In the light of these considerations, to the extent they might apply, then, it should be clear why the "contract women" would not be likely to concern themselves overly much with collar-girls. First, they regard the collar-girls as far inferior to themselves, and thus scarcely in the category of rivals, and, secondly, they share the general view, as I understand it, of the women of the "strange men," namely that they have little or no hold over a male, and he may be expected to pick flowers, so to speak, where he pleases. If, however, a contract woman might find herself in love with a client, she, being quite human, and utterly helpless in her contractual status, might, understandably, resent his interest in, say, another contract woman, or, even, as absurd as it might seem, a collar-girl.
-Swordsmen of Gor Pg 276-277
​
⦁ The slaves of the Pani are referred too as collared-girls. Once a Pani Woman is collared they are no longer considered Pani but slave beasts.

"'I am the property of Nishida of Nara'," she said.
This was doubtless Lord Nishida.
"What is Nara?" I asked.
"I do not know," she said.
On the common Gorean collar it might be a city, a district, even a cylinder. On her collar, for all I knew, it might be a place, a port, a caste, a family, a clan, or something else. I did not know what. I would later learn it was a citadel, a lofty fortress castle.
-Swordsmen of Gor pg 330

"Perhaps she has a pretty body," I said, "which would look
well in a collar."
"She is a contract woman," said Tajima.
"Surely, wherever you come from, which I suspect is
faraway, you have collar-girls."
"Yes," he said.
"And I suppose they are not all light-skinned or darkskinned."
"No," said Tajima, "but they are not of the Pani."
"How is that?" I asked.
"Because as soon as they are collared, they are no longer
of the Pani, but only slave beasts."
"I see," I said.
"There are many such slave beasts," he said. "War is
frequent amongst the Pani."
-Swordsmen of Gor pg 402

​
⦁ They use Vulo to communicate between islands. (Later tarns were introduced to the Pani, however, remember they cannot fly very far over Thassa, their use would be limited)

“Though I had never been in that room, it’s window high , unshuttered, open to the sky, it obviously housed a number of the swift-flighted, messenger vulos, by means of which Pani might convey messages.”
— Mariners of Gor