Collector

Collectors are unique to other schools in that they are the least focused on personally practicing magic. Instead their power comes from the size and quality of their collection of magical artifacts.<ref name=":0">Collectors either don’t practice or practice less than the traditional practitioner. Their primary focus is in collecting things of a particular type; such as strictly keys, things relating to water, or say, ghosts. The greater the unification of the collection, the greater the collector, with larger & more coherent collections opening up the ability of each item in the collection; their abilities as a ‘practitioner’ tend to involve being a toolbox, with items for various purposes. Their focus is often in establishing deals or conquering Others to establish a steady supply of new items. - Pact Dice: The Practices - Wbow Version</ref> In some cases they may not even be Awakened, just Aware.<ref name=":1">Matias never awoke as a practitioner, but became a Collector nonetheless.  He’s not innocent, and he’s Aware, but he’s not bound to keep from lying.  As a kid, he glimpsed a group of creepy, eerily tall men and women, some with wide toothy smiles and all with long fingers, gathering for a wordless meeting in an abandoned building.  One woman found him, stooped down to eye level, held a long finger with an even longer painted nail on the end to her mouth to indicate silence, and gave Matias three random, uncursed items, wrapping his hands around them.  He’s kept the silence and they’ve kept their end of the deal as pseudo-patrons.  Once a season, so long as he’s hunting down items, they’ll either save him from a dire fate, or they’ll give him an item if he ended up not needing the rescue.  He’s in the mix now, with a knack for finding items and stealing from Collectors. - Pact Dice: Collectors</ref>

Methodology

Since the bulk of most magic items' cost is paid in their creation/aquisition, they can often use their powers without much cost in the moment. The biggest risk is losing their collected items.<ref>Collectors gather and maintain a list of trinkets or items of power that they can use on the fly.  While not necessarily without their risks, the prices paid for these powers is in the item’s finding and acquisition, not typically their use.  As such, a collector with a partially or fully complete collection is versatile and can use their available powers relatively freely.  At the same time, their power can be taken from them or lost. - Pact Dice: Collectors</ref>

They generally focus on a specific type of item.<ref name=":0">Collectors either don’t practice or practice less than the traditional practitioner. Their primary focus is in collecting things of a particular type; such as strictly keys, things relating to water, or say, ghosts. The greater the unification of the collection, the greater the collector, with larger & more coherent collections opening up the ability of each item in the collection; their abilities as a ‘practitioner’ tend to involve being a toolbox, with items for various purposes. Their focus is often in establishing deals or conquering Others to establish a steady supply of new items. - Pact Dice: The Practices - Wbow Version</ref> Collectors will often combine their items into a diagram, multiplying their power as their collection grows more complete.<ref>Items are typically placed in vaults, treasure rooms, or are worn in specific places, where they form a kind of diagram; bigger, more powerful, and more accurate diagrams instill a greater overall power and improve the collection as a whole.  The items may then be taken with, though always with the knowledge they are safer in the vault than in the field.

The chase for items may bring one collector into conflict with another, or into conflict with practitioners of other types, who may be able to use their items for their own practice.  As individuals get closer to a complete collection, other forces may start taking an interest.  And should they complete a collection, some say a Collector may be akin to a deity. - Pact Dice: Collectors </ref><ref>Initial practices will let the practitioner start to hunt down more, similar items.  How a practitioner hunts may differ wildly…
[...]
The initial goal is likely to be the creation of a triad - arguably the most basic set a Collector could make.  They need to get the items and then they’ll draw a diagram and place the items within when the items aren’t on the practitioner’s person.  This creates a ‘Collection’ - a grouping of items, and gives the practitioner greater ownership and connection to the items.  If they then make a ‘set’ within that collection, a streak, straight, flush, four of a kind, or whatever else, the set items improve and the entire collection gets a benefit.
Once a collection is formed, even a minor triad, the practitioner gains increased affinity for the collection and the items in that collection - a better ability to find the items, use them, and unlock their potential. - Pact Dice: Collectors </ref><ref>The goal of practitioners trying to complete a true collection is typically to collect a large set of grails, where they are collecting ‘the’ items under a category.  One couldn’t have a sword collection without Excalibur, for example.  These could be Lost items, or Swords, Cups, or Aztec Treasures, to suggest categories.  An example of what one might strive for: items of a suitable category, of power level 1 through 13, with all seven colors represented, as well as treasures representing the off-set colors white, black, gold, silver, colorless, and multicolor, all grails.
The more grail items one has, the more they’ll find themselves wrapped up with Keepers and rival collectors, but they also gain a lot of power, and more overall claim to the rest of the set. - Pact Dice: Collectors </ref>

One notable ritual employed by more powerful Collectors (and some related Practitioners, such as some Technomancers) is the "Alcazar"; which turns an item into an expansive realm which can be entered, explored & examined.<ref>With a major ritual in this line, the Alcazar, one might turn an item into a place the practitioner can enter, so they may explore it, its history, or diagnose problems. - Pact Dice: Collectors</ref><ref>Hazel was nine when she saw her little sister get devoured by a fox statue in her grandmother’s garden.  Her research into statues led to her collecting statuettes and storybooks, and when she inherited her grandmother’s house and the statue in the garden sixty years after her sister’s death, she began to decipher the statue itself.  She knows enough practice to draw out a diagram and set up the other statues crafted by various Others, and is periodically turning the fox statue into a gateway to the statue’s interior, where she can explore old stories and histories, and try to find a trace of her sister.  Every statue she collects is power for her and a tool she can use to dive further in. - Pact Dice: Collectors</ref><ref>–Immaterial Realms – Visting Ruins, Storm, creating an Alcazar for diagnosis.

[...]

Stickemup: realms are interesting to me what’s an Alcazar?

A Literal Cat: a wooble search says it’s a kind of castle.

- 4.1 Bonus Material </ref>

Keepers

Collectors are associated with a mysterious species of Other known as Keepers or Connoisseurs.<ref name=":2">KEEPERS
Also Connoisseurs (Ex: Connoisseur of Swords)
Relevant Schools:  Collectors - Heroic or Priest may encounter in specific scenarios.
Appearance: Human-like figures, often thin and exaggerated in height (sometimes seven feet tall), with distorted hands and faces that may have some symbolic connection to their item, favoring heavy coats or draping clothing that can conceal items within, often with wide hats or heavy hoods.  They keep to the shadows.
- Pact Dice: Collectors</ref>

Tall and long-fingered, they act both to prevent items being destroyed and to prevent Collectors from completing powerful collections.<ref>Keepers - Taller than humans, long-fingered, these cryptic Others keep track of collections and intervene in events more and more as collections grow more complete.  Often hold a few obscure items themselves, and are exceptional at using them.  Sometimes said to be self-charged with keeping items in circulation, preventing them from being lost in the fracas as Collectors fight among one another.  At other times, said to be agents of the universe itself, keeping a ‘true’ collection from ever being finished.  Only those who come near the completion of a true collection are likely to unravel the mystery of Keepers, and unraveling it may be a necessity. - Pact Dice: Collectors</ref> Their faces are also often distorted in some minor way.<ref name=":2" />

They are silent, but can communicate wordlessly with other Keepers from their "set".<ref name=":1" /><ref>Keepers appear in ones, threes, or the exceptionally rare seven, corresponding with how broad a collection is.  When they appear in multiples, they work in silent concert as families vie for key or legendary items. - Pact Dice: Collectors</ref><ref>Keepers do not speak, though they may leave messages, with clear tics in language and writing.  One might write in rhyme, the last line always off. - Pact Dice: Collectors</ref> They have the ability to vanish and reset themselves when unobserved, but must otherwise rely on (considerable) skill and magic items.<ref>Strengths: Keepers often have one to three items from the collection in their ownership - if their focus is on a collection of books, they’ll have books.  They’ll use these items to their full functionality and utility, and they fully know the capacity and full functionality of all other items in the same collection.  They are smart, slightly above ordinary humans in terms of physical capabilities, well trained at all pursuits necessary to their goals, from driving to computer hacking, and survive anything that does not outright kill them.  Left unobserved for more than a few seconds, they have the capacity to disappear outright, shedding any effects that were on them.  Finally, the mystery surrounding Keepers is an asset to them - the fact that their motives are unknown or even unknowable makes them difficult to counter or predict. - Pact Dice: Collectors</ref> For some reason, newly-manifested Keepers are already bound to the Seal of Solomon.<ref>Binding: Keepers are bound by the seal of Solomon by default, even when newly manifested, and play by set rules, both the ones usual for Others and the ones unique to them.  These can vary from one collection to another, but they do tend to involve the items.  As one case, Keepers can be bound into service with a simple trade- essentially giving up one item from the collection into the ‘pool’ in exchange for a term of service, and if the binding is to be long term, it may involve offering additional assistance.  This route is sometimes taken by those who wish to forfeit their pursuit of the items- giving up their stake, oftentimes in a way to get some revenge.

As another case, they can be bound with relative ease if contested and defeated on three separate occasions - typically requiring that the Keeper enter play to pursue or retake one or more items, with the practitioner beating them to it or keeping the items three times.  This isn’t typically an option for non-Collectors.
Boxes, cases, and puzzle boxes are common Keeper binding cases.  Specialized cases will have clear crystal or tinted glass panes, or segments which allow for keys or tiles to move to spell out words.  This is the only real way to communicate with a Keeper after binding it. - Pact Dice: Collectors </ref>

Notable Collectors

• Shepard? (Collector of Ghosts)
• Mr. Canfield<ref>Interlude 5</ref>
  • Courtney Canfield?
• Eric & Stan Ritchie (Dabblers working towards becoming Collectors of texts)

References

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