Purpose of Free Companionship by Arealius the Sailor
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On the Purpose of Free Companionship Contracts: A Personal Reflection by Arealius of the Scribe Caste of Port Olni.
I speak not as a man of many unions, but as one who chose once—and never again. Over forty Gorean years have passed since I claimed the Lady Sorana as my Free Companion in the salt-stained halls of Port Kar. She was a scribe of rare intellect, once of the Soaring Herlit of the Thentis Mountains, and I, a young scribe with ink-stained fingers and too many questions. We did not sign a contract. We did not negotiate terms. I simply claimed her, and she did not refuse me.
That was the only companionship I have ever known. And it endures.
Yet I have studied the institution deeply, as all scribes must. The one-year Free Companionship contract, so common among the high castes, is not a romantic indulgence. It is a mechanism—precise, deliberate, and deeply political. It is the breeding ledger of the free cities.
Freewomen of Gor are not ornaments. They are purebred mares, raised and groomed to bear the heirs of powerful men. Their beauty is cultivated, yes, but it is their lineage that matters most. The bloodlines of the high castes must be preserved, strengthened, and strategically interwoven. The Free Companionship contract is the tool by which this is done.
Within its clauses, one finds not poetry, but policy. The duties of the woman—her expected conduct, her obligations to the household, her role in the caste—are spelled out with the precision of a legal scroll. The man’s responsibilities—provision, protection, political alliance—are likewise enumerated. And most critically, the fate of any offspring is predetermined. The child of such a union may be claimed by the father’s family, or the mother’s, depending on the strategic needs of the caste. In some cases, the child is pledged to a future companionship before it can walk.
This is not cruelty. It is civilization.
The contract’s one-year term is not a reflection of instability, but of flexibility. It allows the castes to adapt, to respond to shifting alliances, to dissolve unions that no longer serve the Home Stone. And if the companionship proves fruitful—politically, intellectually, reproductively—it may be renewed. Or not.
Some may balk at this view, calling it cold, transactional. But I say it is Gorean. We are not the men of Earth, who drown in sentiment and mistake lust for loyalty. We are sons of the Home Stone. Our unions must serve it.
I do not regret my own path. Sorana and I were not bred for alliance, but for understanding. We have had half a dozen, but boys and girls, all raised and trained to be Scribes that know the ways of the other high castes, and we have never renewed a contract, because we never signed one. Ours is a companionship of minds, not bloodlines. But I do not mistake our anomaly for a model.
Let the Freewomen be bred to strength. Let the contracts be signed with ink and ambition. Let the castes rise.
That is the Gorean way.
—Arealius, History and Cartographer of the Caste of Port Olni.
https://goreanfreewomanjournal.blogspot.com/?zx=e112082e3f528543
My Companion and I have spoken many times about his view of the purpose of Free Companionship, so he already knows that I disagree with his interpretation. Free Women are not 'brood mares' and there is no reason to consider a Companionship as political under the rules of Gorean society.
ReplyDeleteWhile it is true that children are cherished by the Free People of Gor, they are not seen as a commodity for trade. The children are seen as a continuation of the family, not as a dynasty. Castes do not seek out specific bloodlines to add to their glory; their ranks grow without them pressuring their members to reproduce. Ubars don't pass their rule to their children, nor do peacetime administrators. Thus, there is no need to Companion to produce a good bloodline.
The Companion Contract is simply to ensure that, once the contract ends, no one is cheated. The fact that most Contracts are resigned year after year is a testimony to the fact that the Companionship is *not* a transaction. Were that true, most would end the minute the transaction was completed and frankly would be better handled by the Merchant caste.
Well said, Lady Sorana. The difference between the original missive and your concise rebuttal, as it were, shows the way Men and Women see things differently. Of course, women always being right, I will simply smile and offer you some of my chocolate.
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