"Now the rider in front of me lifted the colored chains from his helmet, that I might see his face. It was a white face, but heavy, greased; the epicanthic fold of his eyes bespoke a mixed origin. I was looking on the faces of four men, warriors of the Wagon Peoples.

"On the face of each there were, almost like corded chevrons, brightly colored scars, their prominence, reminded me of the hideous markings on the faces of mandrills; but these disfigurements, as I soon recognized, were cultural, not congenital, and bespoke not the natural innocence of the work of genes but the glories and status, the arrogance and prides, of their bearers. The scars had been worked into the faces, with needles and knives and pigments and the dung of bosks over a period of days and nights. Men had died in the fixing of such scars.

"Most of the scars were set in pairs, moving diagonally down from the side of the head toward the nose and chin. The man facing me had seven such scars ceremonially worked into the tissue of his countenance, the highest being red, the next yellow, the next blue, the fourth black, then two yellow, then black again. The faces of the men I saw were all scarred differently, but each was scarred. The effect of the scars, ugly, startling, terrible, perhaps in part calculated to terrify enemies, had even prompted me, for a wild moment, to conjecture that what I faced on the Plains of Turin were not men, but perhaps aliens of some sort, brought to Gor long ago from remote worlds to serve some now discharged or forgotten purpose of Priest-kings; but now I knew better; now I could see them as men; and now, more significantly, I recalled what I had heard whispered of once in a tavern in Ar, the terrible Scar Codes of the Wagon Peoples, for each of the hideous marks on the face of these men had meaning, a significance that could be read by the Paravaci, the Kassars, the Kataii, the Tuchuks as clearly as you or I might read a sign in a window or a sentence in a book.

"At that time I could read only the top scar, the red, bright, fierce cord-like scar that was the Courage Scar. It is always the highest scar on the face. Indeed, without that scar, no other scar can be granted. The Wagon Peoples value courage above all else. Each of the men facing me wore that scar."



In Tuchuk, we use the Scars as follows:

The Red Courage Scar is always awarded first... NOTHING else can be granted before that.

Red: is the Courage Scar, and affixed furthest from the name.
Green: is the Ubar's Scar, worn only by KnightStorm.
Gold: is the Scar of the Trusted, those most Trusted by the Ubar, True Brothers as it were.
Blue: is the Scar of the Dark Brotherhood, the smallest and most select group of Brothers.
Black: is the Scar of the Original, Those who first made the move to Tuchuk.
Sienna: is the Scar of the Gaidan, the Warders of Free Women.
Purple: is used to denote Membership in a Camp; an additional Scar is affixed for each Camp a Warrior is a Member of.




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