The general level of medical knowledge

 Please note that the Gorean Saga is a fictional series, and its world, customs, and values may not align with modern societal standards or moral principles.

Gor is Copyrighted by John Norman

For those that wish to know more about Medicine in the Gor Culture. 

Before getting into the castes, it’s worth pausing to consider what Gorean medicine can actually do. As mentioned earlier, the books don’t give us a deep technical overview—there’s very little detail about surgical methods or emergency procedures, so it’s hard to know exactly how far their capabilities go in those areas.

What is clear is that Gorean medicine is, in many ways, simpler than what we have on Earth—yet it often produces results that seem far beyond what such a system should allow. It shines when it comes to pharmacology and the prevention of illness, to the point where some of it feels almost miraculous. On the other hand, it’s much weaker when dealing with internal conditions that require extensive biological knowledge or advanced surgery. A Gorean suffering from internal bleeding, cancer, or an autoimmune disease would generally have very poor odds of survival. Luckily, their preventative medicine is so effective that such situations are uncommon—internal injuries being the main exception.

A major reason behind their surprising success is the presence of odd, highly advanced machines. These range from blood analyser's and genetic sequencers to centrifuges, refrigerators (sometimes even cryogenic ones), stethoscopes, blood pressure cuffs, microscopes, and occasionally X-ray–like devices. Basic medical tools—syringes, cannulas, IV equipment, scalpels, forceps, and so on—are standard for a well-equipped physician, provided they can afford them. All of this equipment is crafted by members of the Builders caste—engineers, mechanics, electricians—working closely with the Physicians’ academies.

Most physicians don’t actually understand how the most complicated devices function; they only know how to use them and interpret their results. And these machines are incredibly valuable since many can’t easily be replaced. Some of the most impressive devices can analyse hair, urine, or tissue samples, revealing things like whether someone has taken the stabilization serum, whether it’s working, if a person is pregnant, poisoned, infected, and even their blood type.

It’s undeniably fantastic—but Gor is a science-fiction setting. A well-equipped Gorean lab ends up looking more like a clean, mid-20th-century facility than anything out of medieval history.

Because these electromechanical and electronic devices are so rare and expensive, they’re usually found only in big cities and shared among the medical academies there. A lone country physician is considered well supplied if he has a stethoscope and an old blood pressure cuff. And that’s only in places with an actual Physicians’ caste. Among the Torvaldslanders, the jungle peoples of Schendi, or the nomads of the Turian plains, formal physicians don’t really exist—people rely instead on herbalists, healers, and traditional bone-setters. Their treatments aren’t necessarily bad, but no one should expect miracles.

A fully trained physician—with proper knowledge, experience, and equipment—is extremely rare on Gor. That rarity is precisely why they’re held in such high esteem.

Gorean pharmacology as a whole is far richer than Earth’s, not because their scientists are more advanced, but because their world is filled with potent plants and natural compounds. A skilled herbalist can handle many minor illnesses using nothing more than teas, infusions, and poultices. Physicians take things further, since they also know how to synthesize certain drugs in ways not unlike our own (though with more limitations).

And then there are the more extraordinary substances—slave wine, breeding wine, vaccines for epidemics and most STDs, and of course the stabilization serum, which grants long life and prolonged youth. Some Gorean's live to be five or six centuries old because of it. But that’s a topic all its own.