| There are few things more impressive than the sight of a large Tuchuk encampment springing up on the windswept plains of Turia. With hundreds of thousands of wagons, each painted in its own bright pattern, the camp is alive with color. Visitors are overwhelmed with the bustle of movement, and the many sights and sounds: the lowing of the bosk, the sharp voices of the Freewomen, the bells of slaves and the hearty laughter of Warriors.
The Tuchuks are a nomadic people and consider themselves children of the Endless Sky. For this reason, most of their domestic tasks are handled out in the open air.
Always the bosk are present. While to the People, each is unique, and their numbers are perfectly tallied, to outsiders, they seem innumerable as the stars. Huge, dangerous mammals with ponderous gait and murderous horns, they too wear the nose ring of Tuchuk chattel, and as they graze, they are tended by slave girls who make countless trips to the nearest river for water. These girls, almost as fierce as the bosk, have an insolence rare in a Gorean kajira, and are much prized as slaves. In their brief leather chatkas, they gather bosk dung for the fires, clean the wagons, care for the bosk, and torment the stolid Freewomen with their proud beauty, often daring to steal meat from the cooking-pots and then running away, laughing. The bells on their collars and ankles make a pleasing musical counterpoint to the songs of the haruspexes, or holy men, and the crying of the bosk. The bosk is not the only animal to be found in the Tuchuk camp, although it is certainly the most important. The kaiila is the mount of the Tuchuk warrior, and several of these are kept with each Wagon, the actual number being determined by the wealth of the individual warrior. The kaiila is both swift and graceful, standing twenty to twenty-two hands high at the shoulder. It is both vicious and beautiful, and inhabits only the southern hemisphere of Gor. It does not suckle its young, who must hunt and kill the moment they are born. (For this reason, a bound verr or slave is left in the vicinity of the newborn kailla in the Tuchuk Camp.) The verr is more or less a Gorean goat. It is used for meat, and its skin can be used for the making of garments, vellum, or wineskins. Its hide is, of course, much lighter than the hide of the bosk. The last of the most important animals in the Tuchuk camp is the prairie sleen. This animal is the nocturnal guardian of the Camp. The sleen is a vicious carnivore, caged during the day, and set free only at night to roam the peripheries of the bosk herd. They are also used as trackers for escaped slaves, and can follow a scent that is a month old. When they find their quarry, they kill and eat it. A sleen cannot be approached by anyone but its own Master. Anyone else, it will kill. Each night, it is imperative that everyone be safe in the Camp before the sleen are released. Communication in the Camp is by means of drumbeats and blasts on hollowed-out bosk-horns. A summons to the Wagon of the Ubar, the leader of the Tuchuks, is made in this way. The Ubar's wagon is stationed on the highest ground to be found within the Camp, and Camp is centered around it. Outside this Wagon, seated on a simple pile of furs, covered with an old grey bosk hide, sits the Ubar, KnightStorm~WARDER~. While the Tuchuks are fond of show, it is enough for Him that His Camp prospers. This is not to say that wealth is not greatly evident, for it is wealth gained largely through feats of arms and proudly displayed. Thus, the wealth of an individual warrior speaks of his courage and his martial skill. The piles of riches proclaim his superiority as a warrior in much the same way as the ritual Scars on his face do. The Tuchuks are a proud people, known to be the fiercest of the Wagon Peoples, and are much feared in the southern hemisphere of Gor. When they approach with their thundering herds, whole villages flee from their path. There is a saying on Gor, "Gold has no caste." And this proverb is true, even amongst the fierce Tuchuks. Although most of their wealth comes from plunder, they are not above trading with merchants for things which they want. However, they disdain these men, as they disdain all those who dwell in cities. A merchant who wishes to sell to the Tuchuks must submit to being branded on the forearm with a small bosk-horn symbol. This brand guarantees safe passage through the Plains, but only at certain seasons of the year. It is demeaning, even as it grants the merchant an opportunity for lucrative trade. After all, on Gor, only slaves and animals are branded. |
As you walk through the Camp, you find yourself surrounded by cooking fires tended by the freewomen in their long leather dresses and braided hair. You step amongst, around, and over laughing children, and see the playing of games. You smell the rich aroma of roasting meat---Is that bosk?---it would be nothing else---and hear the ringing of metal tools as warriors tend to their weapons or practice with them. You also hear the guttural singing of Tuchuk war-songs between the wagons, or the tuneless wail of a haruspex foretelling the future. And you definitely see the slave girls in their brief costumes and their nose rings, dashing about their many tasks.