As We Count Down to the New Year...

The holidays are zooming past – fast! I've had a house guest this week, not to mention something going on literally every evening in the first life. And while the hustle and bustle of the season has been upon us, I've been keeping an eye on Imperial Ar, really thrilled with everyone for stepping up, roleplaying, welcoming in new residents, helping folks find their place, the OOC council for moderating and just keeping everything flowing well.

I am very excited about this coming month's events. If you haven't checked already, take a look at http://imperial-ar.org/imperial_ar_events.htm and click the blue arrow over to the month of January. We're kicking off an OOC celebration that Primus Moisant will be DJ'ing (Okay, I'm biased, but have you heard this guy DJ? He is the best). Everyone come, wear your best winter festive clothing and enjoy getting to know your fellow roleplayers on a more OOC level. Arhyia Jewell (Lady Constance) has really outdone herself on this set that she's been preparing for us, and I can't wait for you all to enjoy it.

The Veils of Ar Tea will be happening every other Tuesday at 11 a.m., and this event is for the Free Women of Ar on the Navonna Terrace – a roleplay event. We'll get together and gossip, plot, scheme, and do what free women do best – absolutely everything. It will be utterly delightful.

Combat with Cadence will occur 4 p.m. every Thursday. Harlequin Salome is one of our resident weapons gurus, and he will be on hand in the arena to teach both basic and advanced techniques for metered combat. If you plan to be involved in metered combat, you won't want to miss this class.

Fight Nights will be 6 p.m. every other Thursday (though we might be rearranging some of these dates, depending on the availability of our sponsor, so watch the calendar). This event is a fun roleplay event in which citizens of the city – sometimes in disguise – come to the Silver Chains tavern to duke it out... secretly! This event is metered roleplay. Shhh, nobody talks about Fight Night!

Once a month will be our OOC Council Meeting at 4 p.m. on the first Friday of the month. If you are on the council, please try to make this event. If you can't make it, the agenda will be posted ahead of time on the OOC forum, or get a copy of the notes thereafter so you're updated on what was discussed. It's a chance in-world for us to get together pixel to pixel. A LM will be given ahead of time.

Every other Saturday at 12 p.m., we will have an OOC Town Hall that anyone is welcome to attend. We'll meet in the Forum area right there in the TP zone and air out any OOC concerns, brainstorm ideas, let everyone who is part of the city have their voice. S.P.Q.A. at its finest!

Vagabonds and Villains is a production that will be coming live to the stage in Ar, put on by a group of Gorean players who are passionate about the art of performing. You won't want to miss this excellent event on January 8 at 3 p.m. We'll also have a stand-up Gorean tarnsman comedian who will be bringing loads of laughs to the stage on the 15^th.

Home Stone ceremonies are regularly held on Sundays and Wednesdays at separate times that should accommodate both Western and Eastern hemispheres of the globe. If you're a new citizen in Ar, check your calendar!

Later in the month, we'll have a Winter Merchant Sampling fair put on by Giada Koba. More details to follow, but Giada does everything with so much flourish and excellence that I'm on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what she's got in store for the merchants in this roleplay.

Sarus Rau has a new rigorous training schedule for our warriors, so warriors, taurentians, soldiers, please be sure to get with your commander and find out what the agenda is. The war drums are rumbling, and I've been contacted by a few reliable sources that Ar may be a focus in an upcoming war campaign. Danger, peril, death, intrigue, blood, and thunder! (Okay, okay... I stopped short of saying, "For the Horde!" but you get the picture.)

We haven't left out slaves... In fact, they make our world go 'round. Scavenger hunts, slave wrestling, girl catch, a major slave auction at the end of the month, and a dance competition with the theme of Winter's Chains will draw the best slaves to Imperial Ar. It's time to see those skills showcased, and the rest of Gor reminded that the very best in slave flesh is found in the Glorious City.

The Ubarate will be speaking to the populus, giving regular addresses in this turbulent political clime, will be holding a very political ball that the rest of the cities will be invited to, and the end of the month will be marked with state executions right on the plaza in front of the central cylinder.

None of this could be possible without the citizens of Ar who will be leading and organizing these events, both OOC and in roleplay. Every day, I log into the forums and read the notices, marveling at what talent we have – builders, scripters, roleplayers, moderators, lifestylers, and artists of every flavor who are passionate about Gor and about Imperial Ar. Come be a part and join with us this month. Would you like to be involved in helping organize? Ask around to find out who is in charge of the event and volunteer to help! It won't be the same without you.

The Home Stone

It is with great honor that I present the new Imperial Ar on this 23rd day of December, 2010, right in the midst of this special holiday season and on the very cusp of a new year. In 1999, when I slid my much younger hand over the worn cover of “Tarnsman of Gor,” a dream was birthed in my very soul to make the City of Ar, the Home Stone of Gor, somehow come alive for men and women. I had extensively studied the Latin language and Roman and Greek histories in my education, and given my intense draw to fictional romance, power exchange, the lyrical near-prose style of Norman, and Tarl's daring adventures, I soon found myself in love with Marlenus and wandering through the pillars and stadiums of Ar in my dreams. Too, I became Tarl and followed him through his countless perilous deeds for many years.

Chat rooms sprung up everywhere in the modern miracle of the internet, and it wasn't long before likeminded Gorean fantasists and lifestylers infiltrated IRC, yahoo, MSN, and html chat. They lived the dream in their written, roleplayed fiction, some even meeting offline with the philosophy in their hearts, as men and women who dared to somehow rise above society's common denominators that would govern their behavior, and they declared themselves to be Free. It wasn't long before Second Life became popular, and in 2006, I, wide-eyed, stepped off the ship that bore Dark Starr's Flag of Piracy, and onto the infamous docks of malignant Port Kar with one hand on a scroll of the Scribes and one eye on the throne of the Ubarate of Ar.

Ar in Second Life has come and gone. Risen and fallen. It's been built, torn down, its people brought together, fragmented, and then lost again. The most glorious of Gorean cities has never maintained stability here in our adventure world, and it was always my aim that, should I ever have the means or ability to build Ar the way it should be done, I would do so – but only with the right group of folks who were committed, who shared this Gorean vision, and who wanted it just as badly. Other people whose hearts could not be swayed by a single man or idea, who were tired of roaming from place to place and looking for their home, who were ready to embrace the ideal of that great City of Ar, not only as a “sim” with a “family” of roleplayers.

The ideal of Ar I speak of is this: That we, as Gorean roleplayers, lifestyle Goreans, or just... humans... have a quest for the Home Stone of our hearts. There is a truth that binds us, and it is why we return. It is the Home Stone. It is our community. It is us, unified. It is the “we.”

It is, now, our time.

This is Ar.

S.P.Q.A.