Gorean weapons and armour are limited by the restrictions of the Priest Kings. They correspond to a roughly medieval level of weaponry with a more primitive approach to armour. Crossbows are ubiquitous though conventional bows have become more popular in recent years, despite being seen as a weapon of the lower castes. Swords, spears and shields form the bulk of weaponry for most and across civilised Gor that sword is the gladius and the spear and shield are used in a phalanx.
Exotic weapons are much more rare, but include such oddities as the whip-knife of Port Kar and venom-capped golden teeth used by merchants.
The Priest King enforcement of weapon laws is peculiar, perhaps done to protect themselves, perhaps to maintain a ‘state of nature’ on Gor where fighting takes strength and skill and personal, physical capability beyond the ability to push a button or pull a trigger. Perhaps this is also the reason for their constrictions on armour – though it does not apply to helmets.
Occasionally someone will create a more complex weapon, such as a firearms or cannon. When this occurs, or when high technology weapons are smuggled to Gor they are destroyed by ‘the flame death’, an energy weapon wielded by the Priest Kings from an orbiting network of ships and used to strike down those who break their rules.
Despite this, the Kur have had some success smuggling different weapons to Gor and hiding them from the Priest Kings. Mostly these devices are hidden and only used within and in the defence of their own compounds (blaster weapons, explosive dart throwers and so forth) while others are used by the ‘native Kur’ including repeating crossbows.
The Priest Kings themselves have access to the Flame Death and to disintegration weapons as well as the terrifying ability to manipulate gravity itself. The very reason the Kur are so wary of assaulting the inner solar system directly.
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