"Gor is a continent in science fiction. Many may wish it did not exist, but it is there."- John Norman
According to the books ...
Gor, planet of-(noun): as Tarl was taught by his father, 'Gor is the name of this world'. In all the languages of the planet, it means 'Home Stone'. The planet is also called the Counter-Earth from the writings of the Pythagoreans who first speculated on it's existence. According to the Initiates, Gor was originally a satellite of a distant sun in the Blue Galaxies. It was moved several times from star to star by the Priest-Kings, by one theory, but, according to the 'Theory of the Sun Shield', it has remained in the same place, undiscovered because it is placed as a counterpoise to the Earth. It has the same plane or orbit and maintains that position, with occasional adjustments by the Priest-Kings, to always keep 'The Central Fire' between it and it's planetary sister, Earth.
Book 1: Tarnsman of Gor, pages 26, 28, 32 and 33
Gor is the center of a science fiction series, a fictional world of alternate reality, and the model for a collected philosophy. It is one or all of these things, and even more, to the thousands of fans which have come to be somehow involved in this imaginary land and its ways.
Gor itself was created by a man named John Lange, a university professor holding a doctorate in philosophy, writing under the assumed name of John Norman. In a series of twenty-five books, the first of which was published in 1967, he developed and defined the world of Gor and the cultures which populate it. Though fictional, this land and its peoples carry the influence of their creator and his profession, expressing the writer's thoughts and assertions in a form of allegory in which he explores the existence and purpose of men and women, their relationship to one another and their world, and the development of society and culture.
On Gor you will meet Men with a strength and will of steel, strong as the blade they carry. Freewomen with a knowledge to remain free, brave enough to walk among the Men of Gor. And slaves of beauty undefined, enraptured with their own sensuality and need to belong to a Man. Gor is a world ruled by Men, strict codes of conduct and fierce emotions: Loyalty, Honor and Passion.
It is a harsh land, where power and strength means survival, and honour and integrity are the rules that an entire world lives by.Those who cannot follow these simple ideals, do not last long among a population that expects no less.
Gor is a planet in it's nature without moralities of Earth. It is a magnificent world, full of fire and passion, war and strife, competition and collisions. A place where you must be strong enough to remain free, or take a place as a slave.
In the most general use of the word, Gorean means anything characteristic of the Gor science fiction novels by John Norman. In these novels, the word "Gorean" is used to refer to the fictional counter-earth, to its inhabitants and social customs, and to the particular language which is the most widely-spoken lingua franca in the known inhabited regions of Gor (though other languages are also spoken on the planet).
As applied to non-fictional individuals, the word Gorean means an adherent of the philosophies espoused in Norman's writings, especially someone who lives a lifestyle based on this philosophy. While the most conspicuous Gorean departure from mainstream modern norms is that Goreans allow and indeed promote sexual master/slave relationships, many who take the Gorean worldview seriously would insist that being Gorean is not necessarily about either sex or slavery, but about the general Gorean philosophy (so that one would not have to participate in a master/slave lifestyle or relationship in order to be Gorean). Some of this philosophy is concerned with "natural order" and the relations between men and women, which may or may not take the form of a master-and-slave dynamic. Where there is a master/slave relationship, the level at which adherents follow the books varies.