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There are a wide variety of water creatures on Gor. Like animals, some of which were originally transported from
Earth to Gor, others which are native to Gor.
Bint:
There are two types of bints. One is a small, carnivorous freshwater fish, like a piranha, that inhabits the rivers
of the rainforests. A large school of these bints can strip a carcass bare in minutes. The other type is a fanged, carnivorous
marsh eel.
Carp,
Vosk
"...turning
as it made a swift strike, probably a Vosk carp or marsh turtle."
~Raiders
of Gor, page 1~
Clam,
Tamber:
Their polished shells are generally used in making cheap jewelry though certain shells can be quite valuable.
Eels:
There
are several varieties including dock eels, river eels, black eels, spotted eels, carnivorous eels, and Vosk eels.
The dock eel is a black freshwater fish, comonly about four feet long
and weighing eight to ten pounds. They are carnivorous, living in the shallow waters around the docks of most river ports.
"The
dock eels, black, about four feet long, are tenacious creatures. They had not relinquished their hold on the flesh in
their jaws when they had been forcibley struck away from the leg, back into the water."
~Rogue
of Gor, pages 154-155~
"I
was only dimly conscious of the wetness of my back. Then something wet and heavy, slithering; leapt upward out of the
water, and splashed back. My leg felt stinging. It had not been able to fasten its jaws on me. I looked
downward. Two more heads, tapering, menacing, solid, were emerged from the water, looking up at me. Then, streaking
from under the water, suddenly breaking its surface, another body, some four feet in length, about eight or ten pounds in
weight, leapt upward...I knew that the fastening of those jaws, in a fair bite, could gouge ounces of flesh from a man's body...."
~Rogue
of Gor, page 130~
Gint:
There
are two types of gints. One is a tiny, six-inch freshwater fish inhabiting the rainforests. It has bulbous eyes and flipper-like
fins. It is amphibious and capable of walking on its pectorals. It is often found feeding off the scraps of tharlarion kills.
It is similar to the Earth lungfish. They sun themselves on exposed roots near the river, remaining close to the water. They
may even rest on the backs of resting or sleeping tharlarion. There is also a giant gint in the rainforests that is about
ten feet long, weighs a thousand pounds.and has a four-spined dorsal fin.
Grunt:
There
are a few different types of this fish. One type is a large, carnivorous salt-water fish that inhabits Thassa. It is often
attracted to the scent of blood like a shark. The blue grunt is a small, voracious, carnivorous freshwater fish also attracted
to blood. It is particularly dangerous during the daylight hours preceding its mating periods. During its mating period, they
are harmless. They are also more of a threat when they school and not when a solitary individual is encountered. The white-bellied
grunt is a large game fish which feeds on parsit fish.
"Before
each guest there were tiny slices of tospit and larma, small pastries, and in a tiny golden cup, with a small golden
spoon, the clustered, black, tiny eggs of the white grunt."
~Fighting
Slave of Gor, pages 275-276~
"Three
other men of the Forkbeard attended to fishing, two with a net, sweeping it along the side of the serpent, for parsit fish,
and the third, near the stem, with a hook and line, baited with vulo liver, for the white-bellied grunt, a large game fish
which haunts the plankton banks to feed on parsit fish."
~Marauders
of Gor, page 59~
Leech:
A
salt leech is one type of known leech. A marsh leech is another. A marsh leech is about four inches long and half an inch
thick. If a leech is stuck on you, burning it or placing salt on it will cause it to let go.
"I
flicked a salt leach from the side of my light rush craft with the corner of the tem-wood paddle."
~Raiders of Gor, page 5~
Lelt:
This is a small, five to seven inches long, blindfish. It has fernlike
filaments at either side of the head which are its sensory organs. It is white with long fins and swims slowly. It inhabits
the brine pits and is the main food of the salt shark.
"The
lelt is commonly five to seven inches in length. It is white and long-finned."
~Tribesmen
of Gor, page 247~
"Lelts
are often attracted to the salt rafts, largely by the vibrations in the water, picked up by their abnormally developed lateral-line
protrusions, and their fernlike craneal vibration receptors, from the cones and poles. Too, though they are blind, I think
either the light, or the heat, perhaps, from our lamps, draws them. The tiny eyeless heads will thrust from the water, and
the fernlike filaments at the side of the head will open and lift, orienting themselves to one or the other of the lamps."
~Tribesmen
of Gor, page 247~
"It
swims slowly and smoothly, its fins moving the water very little..."
~Tribesmen of Gor, page 247~
Mamba:
This
is a large, predatory river tharlarion from the rainforests. It has a long, log-like body with short powerful legs. It has
a long snout and tail. It is similar to a crocodile.
Parsit fish:
There are several types of this slender, silvery fish with brown stripes.
They are migratory fish and the principal prey of sea sleen.
"The
main business of Kassau is trade, lumber and fishing. The slender striped parsit fish has vast plankton banks north of the
town, and may there, particularly in the spring and the fall, be taken in great numbers."
~Marauders
of Gor, page 27~
"The
men with the net drew it up. In it, twisting and flopping, silverish, striped with brown, squirmed more than a stone of parsit
fish. They threw the net to the planking and, with knives, began to slice the heads and tails from the fish."
~Marauders
of Gor, page 61~
"The
men of Torvoldsland are skilled with their hands. Trade to the south, of course is largely in furs acquired from Torvoldsland,
and in barrels of smoked, dried parsit fish."
~Marauders
of Gor, page 28~
"The
men who had fished with the net had now cleaned the catch of parsit fish, and chopped the cleaned, boned, silverish bodies
into pieces, a quarter inch in width. Another of the bond-maids was then freed to mix the bond-maid gruel, mixing fresh water
with Sa-Tarna meal, and then stirring in the raw fish."
~Marauders
of Gor, pages 63-64~
Sharks:
There are several varieties of
sharks on Gor, saltwater and freshwater. The common shark is nine-gilled and its skin is very rough and abrasive. Varieties
include river sharks, salt shark,
marsh shark, white sharks of the north and the Vosk and Laurius sharks. The salt shark is commonly over twelve feet long, with
a sickle-like tail. It has several rows of triangular teeth and a sail-like dorsal fin. It inhabits brine pits such as those
of the Tahari region.
"Beyond
them would be the almost eel-like, long-bodied, nine-gilled Gorean marsh sharks."
~Raiders
of Gor, page 58~
"I
saw a sudden movement in the water. Something, with a twist of its great spine had suddenly darted from the waters under the
pier and entered the current of the Laurius. I saw the flash of a triangular, black dorsal fin.
I screamed. Lana looked out, pointing after it. 'A river shark,' she cried, excitedly."
~Captive
of Gor, page 79~
"We
saw the broad, blunt head, eyeless, white...On the whitish back, near the high dorsal fin, there was a long scar. Part of
the dorsal fin itself was rent, and scarred. These were lance marks....At the top of the food chain in the pits, a descendant,
dark-adapted, of the terrors of the ancient seas, stood the long-bodied, nine-gilled salt shark."
~Tribesmen
of Gor, page 249~
"A
recalcitrant girl may be kept on the oar for hours. There is also, however some danger in this, for sea sleen and the white
sharks of the north occasionally attempt to tear such a girl from the oar."
~Marauders
of Gor, page 66~
Vosk sorp:
This is giant-shelled mollusk that creates pearls like an oyster. Its
blood is used for dye. Its shell could even be used as a chair.
"Ho-Hak
looked at the man who wore the headband of pearls of the Vosk sorp."
~Raiders
of Gor, page 21~
"He
sat upon a giant shell of the Vosk sorp, as on a sort of throne, which for these people, I gather it was."
~Raiders
of Gor, page 14~
"Her
hair was blond and straight, tied behind her with a ribbon of blue wool, from the bounding Hurt, dyed in the blood of the
Vosk sorp."
~Marauders of Gor, pages 1-2~
Turtles:
There is a variety of Vosk turtle, a hook-beaked creature, that can grow to be gigantic. It is a persistent carnivore that is
almost impossible to kill. The marsh
turtle is another variety of turtle on
Gor.
"...turning
as it made a swift strike, probably a Vosk carp or marsh turtle."
~Raiders of Gor, page 1~
Whales:
There are several varieties of whales on Gor including
the Karl whale, baleen whale,
and the Hunjer Long Whale, a rare toothed black whale which eats cuttlefish.
Wingfish, Cosian:
This is a tiny, delicate fish, about the size of a tarn disk when curled
in one's hand. It is blue in color and has three or four slender spines in its dorsal fin that are poisonous. It can hurl
itself from the water and glide through the air for brief distances on its stiff pectoral fins. It does this to evade sea-tharlarions
who are immune to their poison. It is sometimes called the songfish because of the whistling sound they make in courting rituals.
The fish thrust their heads out of the water to whistle. The blue, four-spined variety is only found in Cosian waters. Larger
varieties are found farther out to sea. It is a great delicacy, especially its liver.
"...I
heard the mating whistles of the tiny, lovely Cosian wingfish. This is a small, delicate fish; it has three of four slender
spines in its dorsal fins, which are poisonous. It is called the wingfish because it can, on its stiff pectoral fins, for
short distances, glide through the air, usually in an attempt to flee small sea thalarion, who are immune to the poisonous
spines. It is also called a songfish, because, in their courtship rituals, males and females thrust their head from the water,
uttering a kind of whistle."
~Raiders
of Gor, page 139~
Yellow pool monster:
This was a bizarre creature so far unique to the city of
Turia. Its origins are unknown. It makes
its appearance in Nomads of Gor. The merchant, Saphrar, has this creature in an indoor pool area. This pool area is
a spacious chamber decorated with numerous exotic floral designs representing the vegetation of a tropical river. The room
is hot and steamy. This may mean that this creature comes form the jungles near Schendi. The creature occupied an entire inground
pool area. At first glance, it looks like a pool of yellow water that sparkles as though filled with gems. But, it is much
more.
It apparently breathes by releasing gases or steam.
It also contains filamentous strands and spheres of color. The creature can thicken and gel around someone within it. A victim's
flesh will tingle and burn due to the corrosive elements within the creature. Saphrar would place men into the pool and the
victims would find themselves unable to escape the creature and they would slowly be killed. It might take hours for a victim
to be fully digested by this beast. A few men have lived as long as three hours. Slashing or cutting it generally does no
harm to it. But, it has a collection of threads and granules in a transparent bag, imbedded in a darkish yellow jelly. This
is walled off by a translucent membrane. This area is vulnerable to attack and it reacts violently when this area is threatened.
It may then solidify and push out someone irritating until you are standing on its now hard outer shell. Tarl Cabot was fed
to this creature but learned how to irritate it. Once he found he could not escape its clutches, he swam within it towards
its center. He attacked the darkish bag and it reacted by expelling him. The creature would then later be killed by being
burnt to death once the Tuchuks had taken the city.
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