The Collect

The Collect's speculated appearance

The Collect is a multiversal entity, and is one of "The Five", being simillar to The Council of Life, The Xir'algath, The id and The Infinites. they serve as a supporting character in both 2059: The invasion, Escape from Whitegate and Cataclysm. Interestingly, similar to how the Xir'algath are representative of the forces of darkness and the Council of Life are representative of light, The Collect seems to represent the void; or the absence of either.

## Personality

To put it simply, the collect is a hypocritical, rude and incredibly haughty individual, believing everyone and everything to be below them, and for good reason. Although The Collect is only as old as the others of The Five, he is still incredibly powerful. Despite this, The Collect is very reserved with their powers, not being overly showy with them.

## Powers

### Energy and Soul manipulation

The Collect has the power to bend the energy of beings' souls. This ability was demonstrated when The Collect tore Charybdis' astral form from his body.

### Dimensional Manipulation

The Collect has the power to transport matter, materials and objects between dimensions. This was demonstrated in the creation of Ironbolt Penitentiary.

### Shards

Much in the same way that 3-dimensional beings have 2-dimensional shadows, so too does The Collect(a 4-dimensional being) have a 3-dimensional shadow. The Collect's shadow is their only presence on the physical plane, and their only way of interacting with it. Because unlike the other beings in The Five, who can alter their dimensional frequencies at will, The Collect is somehow for some reason permanently suspended in the 4th dimension. This could be due in part to the effects of The Collect's exposure to Absolute Nothingness over time, or perhaps because of a sabotage committed in the past, but there can only be speculation for now.

Anyways, The Collect's shadow is the only way they can physically interact with the third dimension. So, they split off fragments, "shards" of their shadow away from their main shadow, and gave them a rudimentary sentience, however it is still unknown why. The Shards act in function much similarly to Vessels, minus the fact that while Vessels can still touch things and interact, the Shards are limited to speaking and creating semi-sentient projections.

Each Shard reflects and embodies a certain specific aspect of The Collect's personality. Known Shards include:

#### "Peeping Tom"

 File:Image0-16.jpg
The Peeping Tom is a mysterious and unnerving figure, sporting a wide grin and empty eye sockets.
The Peeping Tom's tendencies and habits are very similar to that of an obsessive stalker, with him watching and pursuing certain individuals from afar for unknown reasons.
The Peeping Tom has also been linked to numerous disasters and accidents, with a sighting of him usually occurring shortly before or after the incident itself occurs. Because of this, the peeping tom is seen by many as a foreboding omen of dark events.

### "Absolute nothingness" Manipulation

The Council of Life have Primordial Energy, The Xir'algath have Xalnergy, The id have Ignotium Energy, and The Infinites have The Crimson; Whilst the Collect has mastery over "Absolute Nothingness", essentially allowing them to "erase" certain things. However, due to The Collect's refusal to "show off", it's difficult to guage the exact limitations of the power. This allows The Collect to keep the element of suprise should they ever need to fight. However, considering the power of "absoulte nothingness" that has been thus far witnessed, it can be assumed that actually fighting The collect would be difficult if not impossible.

Due to The Collect's connection to absolute Nothingness, one could argue that The Collect may be the oldest being in The Multiverse, since they were created from Absolute Nothingness and nothing predates The Multiverse. However, The **known** Collect's consciousness had only been formed at the time of The Five's creation, so they are still technically just as old as every other Multiversal Race. And furthermore, The Architect was an entity which predated nothing, and therefore predates The Collect that others have met.
However, as for the nature of the True Collect, it may never be known, and is better left that way...