golden torc
Names: golden torctorcthe ringgolden collarneckletcollardog collarsilver torcgray torctorcsgold torcsilver collargolden collarsgray torcsgraysgray neckletgoldsilver torcsgold torcstwisted golden ringthe new torcgold ornamentbarbarian necklettorc of slaveryprecious joy that gleamed the color of the sunGolden toretoregolden torestorescache of golden toresgold-toregray toreslave-toretore technologygray toresmagic collarsilver toregray-choker
First appears in Book 1: The Many-Colored Land, chapter 1 (Prologue)
Appearances
B1
B2
B3
B4
What you know
Book 1: The Many-Colored Land
- Ch 1A golden torc, alive with power, is found by a young ramapithecus in a dormant flyer at the crater; his mother throws it into a gorse thicket.
- Ch 23Tanu wear the golden torc for life as a religious symbol; Tully's necklet is similar but dark-colored, and Creyn uses his to summon Tully.
- Ch 24Torcs bind wearers to Tanu control; gray torcs make people harmless, and wearers' guards are freed from bondage when their heads are severed.
- Ch 27Torcs enhance metapsychic abilities: gold for Tanu, silver for human prisoners, gray for guards and for soothing Stein.
- Ch 30Humans in critical jobs wear torcs; metafunctional humans can progress from silver to gold torcs as proven loyalists. Tanu call it a symbol of union.
- Ch 34Gold torcs amplify latent metafunctions into operant ones, magnifying only what the wearer already has; all gold torcs are identical in power.
- Ch 34Silver torcs have the mind-expanding functions of gold plus control circuits; gray torcs and small collars have only controls, pleasure-pain circuits and limited telepathic communication.
- Ch 35The golden torc was worn by Epone and was Felice's key to controlling her inner power and freeing the human slaves.
- Ch 36Silver torcs make latent metafunctions operant; gray torcs control the wearer with pleasure, pain, sleep and hypnotic suggestion, producing loyal workers.
- Ch 38Torc-wearing humans can hear mental speech and understand the alien Tanu words of the welcoming song.
- Ch 39Torc bonds to the wearer's life-force within an hour; removal brings death in convulsions, and the wearer is compelled to obey a nearby coercive Tanu.
- Ch 39Barium, extracted by rama workers from meager ore, is vital to manufacturing all torcs.
- Ch 45Torcs allow Tanu and torc wearers to control ramas through mental commands and pleasure-pain circuitry.
- Ch 49Gray torcs link human troops telepathically and compel obedience to Tanu overlords, but their circuits can be overloaded by Firvulag terror.
- Ch 49Wearers are offered amnesty only if the torc is removed, which kills them; the Lowlife tribunal executes them.
Book 2: The Golden Torc
- Ch 1Gray torcs give wearers collective mental community, comprehension of mindspeech and gradual education, but oblige obedience to Tanu orders; they are tested for suitability first.
- Ch 1Silver torcs are put on metapsychic latents regardless of mental consequences because the Tanu want their genes for breeding toward Tanu operancy.
- Ch 1Torcs are worn by humans under Tanu control; the gray torc on Highjohn lets Tanu inflict ecstasy on him.
- Ch 2Silver torcs have built-in psycho-regulators, making human latents safer before they are fully assimilated; silvers may later be advanced to gold.
- Ch 2Gray torcs are for so-called nonlatent humans who can tolerate very low-level metapsychic involvement, and could be mass-produced, giving the Tanu ascendancy.
- Ch 5A golden torc has no coercive circuits; it enhances a wearer's telepathy, permits mindspeech and control of ramas, and cannot be removed once worn.
- Ch 5Golden torcs are handmade over almost a week by Tanu and human technicians at the Coercer Guild, with grown crystal chips installed in the metal shell.
- Ch 5Gomnol developed a psychoregulator for silver and gray torcs that puts the wearer at the mental disposal of any gold-torc wearer.
- Ch 5Gray torcs are mass-produced in a factory-like workshop with stamping machines and rama assemblers, but still have some problems.
- Ch 6The torc amplifies mental powers; some human brains are incompatible with its long-term effects, and Tanu-human hybrids often struggle to adapt.
- Ch 9The golden torc is a mental amplifier invented by the Tanu that makes latent metafunctions imperfectly operant and simulates psychounity.
- Ch 19The torc amplifies minds but, Brede says, left an entire galaxy's Mind at a dead end; its wearers are latent and not truly operant.
- Ch 24Felice uses the promise of a replacement gray torc, which gives ecstasy, to push Harry to keep piloting.
- Ch 34A golden torc enables mental farspeech and apparently some powers like flight; it feels warm when pressed.
- Ch 42Its knobs snap open and its halves turn, so it can be fitted around a neck; it now fits snugly and cannot be slipped off over the head.
Book 3: The Nonborn King
Book 4: The Adversary
- Ch 4Tanu wear golden tores that give metapsychic power; the crystal chains of submission are fastened to them.
- Ch 5Any artificial mind enhancement that becomes a permanent crutch, such as the tore, is an intrinsic bar to Unity.
- Ch 6Skathe brought Tony a golden tore as a 'present'; Tony wore it after killing her.
- Ch 8Gray tores enslave and silence wearers at the Tanu's will; the Bastards are rendered mute and submissive by them.
- Ch 11Unlike Tony's old silver tore, the golden one has no slave-circuitry and no tracking device, yet gives the same mind-expanding powers.
- Ch 11It lets Tony extract water from air, roast peanuts, make light, kill vermin, cool air, ease pain, induce sleep, and warn of approaching life-forms within fifteen meters.
- Ch 11It gives Tony metasenses (farspeech, hearing, dim sight) over about 300 kilometers, but he cannot farsense through stone walls.
- Ch 12Aiken's silver torc rechanneled his aberrant psychic energies and helped him change as he exerted real power.
- Ch 19Gray tores contain psychoelectronic components; a gold or silver master can program pleasure through them and control the wearer.
- Ch 22Torcs let humans see in the dark, receive telepathy and farsight from Tanu, and have circulation boosted to keep feet warm.
Connections
- related toDougalthrew it away
- created bySebi-Gomnoldevised the silver and gray system
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 1Ramapithecus child finds the torc
A young ramapithecus puts on a golden torc found in a flyer, showing new powers. His mother tears it off and flings it into gorse.
- Book 2 · Ch 14Felice takes the golden torc
In Velteyn's ruined bedchamber, Felice removes the golden torc from a dead gold-torc woman, cleans it and fastens it on, awakening her powers. She laughs triumphantly over the ruined city.
- Book 2 · Ch 29Aftermath at the auberge
Counselors find the ashes, the torc and the amber messages in the gazebo and take them to the director.
- Book 2 · Ch 42The ramapithecine reclaims the torc
The young ramapithecine returns to the crater rim by the Lake of Giant Birds, digs the golden torc out of a gorse bush and fastens it around his neck. He then heads to his mate, perceiving the world with new intensity.