The Gorean world is full of intrigue, alliances, plots, schemes and duplicity. City states are divided against one another in various loose or strong alliances and confederations and all eyeing each other over farmland, shipping lanes, forests and mining areas. There is a near constant state of small scale warfare, raiding and espionage between the cities and the practice of new tarnsmen earning their position by kidnapping women from enemy cities ensures there is a constant state of tension between states.
Add to that the Caste of Merchants having their own spy organisation and the various agents of the Kur and Priest Kings gathering information and operating against each other on a low level and you have plenty of reason both for spies to travel and for them to get involved in almost anything, anywhere on the surface of Gor – or even off it.
In my opinion, one of the better options – though only touched on in the books – is found with the spy organisations of the merchant caste. The merchants are one of the few groups to operate across Gor above the level of the city state and to share information. They know – collectively – about many of the powers at play across the world, including the Kur, and are in a better position than many to defend their world against them. Perhaps even better equipped to do so than the actual agents of the Priest Kings.
The merchants may not be considered high caste, but their sheer wealth gives them an advantage no other group has and travelling merchants meet with a lot less suspicion than any other group.
An almost ideal player group might be a merchant spy and his guards and retinue, operating on the orders of those higher in the caste to seek out when wars are going to occur, trade secrets and the machinations of forces that may threaten the merchant caste’s bottom lline.
Postmortem Studios 