Quick facts
Race: Feline creature from another realm · Home: Collector’s Mansion, North City · Family: Master Korrin (half-brother) · Status: Dead (killed by Terra Misu Umber)
Artist unknown.
The Collector was the master of North City’s elite entertainment: host of the Greatest Below the Heavens tournament, owner of the stadium, keeper of a vast collection of magical items, and holder of the contracts that bound the Collector’s Gems. He was the main villain of the middle stretch of Campaign 1, until Terra Misu cut his head off.
Overview
The Collector stood around seven feet tall, broad and muscular, with a thick mane of dark brown fur running down his back, arms and legs. His fur ranged from dark brown to black, with white on his chest, belly and the tips of his ears. He had piercing yellow eyes set deep in a feline face, a broad nose, sharp teeth, large paw-like hands and feet with claws, and a long tail that twitched as he prowled. He carried himself with an intimidating, alluring grace.
He was a master of manipulation and trickery and a powerful spellcaster who could summon creatures to serve him. Master Korrin, his half-brother, warned Elyon that he was more ruthless and powerful than he let on.
History
The tournament
The Collector opened the Greatest Below the Heavens tournament with a speech to the crowd, followed by performances from his Gems. He laid out the three phases (qualifying fights against monsters, a battle royale down to sixteen, and a one-on-one bracket) and promised the winner a prize from his collection. Killing an opponent meant disqualification.
After Elyon won the final against Greene, the Collector paid Greene 25,000 gold for second place and took the two of them into his collection so Elyon could choose her prize. Inside they found Oolong fighting an automaton in the room that held a Star Orb. In his office, the Collector explained that Oolong had originally been meant for his collection, but the men hired to deliver him had mutinied and vanished. He agreed to let Oolong go if the party brought him the vase holding King Piccolo, recently stolen from Turtle Island.
When Terra Misu Umber begged him to free Sophie, he refused, then offered a trade: Emerald could leave with the party if Terra stayed to work for him. Terra agreed, and Sophie’s binding bracers moved to Terra’s wrists.
Turning on the Cacklers
The Collector was furious when Sophie’s mission failed. He listed her offenses: complicating Piccolo’s release, fleeing the continent, letting a major western city fall into “absolute chaos and death,” and interfering with a meeting with a high-ranking Rose Ribbon Army official. He stripped her of her leniency and sent her and Obsidian back to their barracks. After the Cacklers broke Sophie out and her rampage killed the Gems Ruby and Sapphire, the Collector published a wanted ad in the North City Times with a 50,000 gold bounty on Emerald, accusing her of murder, property destruction and kidnapping Obsidian.
The Cacklers answered by disguising Oolong as the Collector and telling the newspaper that Emerald had already been “taken care of.” The paper ran an update announcing Emerald’s death. The real Collector, now made a liar, visited Jebidiah at the Cackler Barrel to talk about “Ginyu Force flavor” franchising, then sent the Cacklers a mental threat: “I know that you were behind this and I’ll be damned if you’re going to make me a liar… first I will break your heart and then I will break your body.” Sophie replied, “I’m just going to say fuck you. You pompous little kitty tiger.”
The final showdown
When the Cacklers snuck into a side room of his mansion, the Collector was waiting. A portal took them to a scorching place of smoke and lava, where he appeared with Amethyst, a mysterious man, and Terra, still enslaved by the bracers. “Well, well, well. We meet again at last. I believe that it’s time that we settle this.”
He caged Oolong and Obsidian in a wall of force, joking that he’d “kill two birds with one cage,” shrugged off the party’s spells and clawed Greene. Then Oolong dispelled the bracers on Terra. Freed and enraged, and with a nod from Sophie, Terra cleaved the Collector’s head clean off. Amethyst and Pizzazz died in the same fight. The party took the glowing blue box he had stolen from Max the Andalite.
Aftermath
In the final fight he collected Masha and Vath from the FeyWild to help him, but they turned and fought with the Cacklers, and he cursed Vath as he had Greene. A week later, when Oolong tried to walk into the mansion disguised as the Collector, its security recognized him as “deceased for 7 days” and attacked. Behind his Star Orb room the Cacklers found hundreds of starving kenku in cells and freed them all. In the nightmares that followed his death, Greene saw a monstrous striped creature among tubes of floating bodies that roared, “You are fucking around with things you don’t understand,” and Terra heard a voice whisper, “First, I will break your heart.” The curse from the Collector’s attack later mixed with a werewolf’s bite and turned Greene into a were-tiger.
Relationships
- Master Korrin: Half-brother.
- Collector’s Gems: His performers and enforcers, bound by contract.
- Sophie Ghiradelli and Terra Misu Umber: Held each in turn under his bracers.
- Rose Ribbon Army: Business with at least one high-ranking official.
Notable quotes
- “Welcome, one and all, to the Greatest Below The Heavens tournament!”
- “First I will break your heart and then I will break your body.”
- “You are fucking around with things you don’t understand.”