The Origin
Instead of powering the genesis of a new multiverse, they instead managed to collapse their own timeline.
Worse, they created a runaway dimensional wave that washed out across the existing multiverse. A single base timeline was strengthened, but at the expense of a vast swath of other divergent timelines, including the Collectors' own. Parallel dimensions burned away, fading and losing coherence over the course of mere days and weeks.
The remaining base timeline happens to be what we experience as the present day, where Earth orbits a star called Sol. For all its flaws, some quality possessed by the humans in the surviving base timeline is apparently a causal attractor. Perhaps, despite their many flaws as a species, humans were destined to someday spread across the solar system and beyond, much like the Collectors had in their own timeline.
The Collectors didn't know for sure, but they had little time to wonder. Despairing but not yet completely erased, they hatched a desperate plan to reverse their folly. As their plane of existence unraveled around them, they directed a massive chunk of one of their own disintegrating worlds through the dimensional fold, hurling it straight at Earth in the base timeline. Humans who noticed it looping in from space called it Nibiru.
The surviving Collectors followed the interdimensional hammer through the collapsing interstices in Zodion, a planar escape craft and mothership. They witnessed in jubilation when their plan succeeded. Earth was destroyed! With all the humans dead, the base timeline would revert, becoming one where Collectors thrived.
Then, something inexplicable happened. The impact was reversed. Mostly.
For the vast majority of people on Earth, the collision with the extradimensional body never occurred.
But some people experienced both realities. Metahumans have one foot on either side of the fractured timeline divide. They do remember the Crash but live in a reality where it never happened. It is perhaps this discontinuity that is responsible for their extraordinary abilities.
Ultimately, for all their efforts, Collectors remain not quite real. They're fragments of a divergent timeline that has crumbled away, like divergent timeline cyphers. But unlike divergences, Collectors are intelligent. And they have a new plan.
Collectors don't generally seek animals affected by the Crash because those creatures don't offer the same quantum reality-collapsing observation ability that metahumans have.
TIMELINE INVERSION GOAL
The Collectors achieved much, but didn't fully succeed. The Crash remains in a sort of Schrodinger's Cat-like limbo of did it or didn't it happen. Obviously, the Earth is not destroyed, so by most lights they failed to set the stage for a reversion to their own timeline as the dominant, base timeline. That said, some people do remember the Crash. So there is still a possibility for the Collectors to pull success from the jaws of failure.
All they need to do is gather a large group of metahumans, concentrate them in a secret location where they can remain safe and secure (most assuredly not "erasing" them from existence), and then amplify their memory of the Crash so much that that reality overtakes the base timeline. When that critical threshold is reached, the discrepancy between what people remember and what actually happened will resolve. The Earth will finally be destroyed, and without humans, the base timeline where Collectors yet reign will gain supremacy.
To this end, captured metahumans are brought to the Zodion, where they are hooked into the Collectors' dimension-warping technology. Zodion "drafts" behind Nibiru, captured by the sun's gravity in a highly eccentric orbit, visible in Earth's night sky as a faint star-like point. It's a star-like point they hope will intersect with the world as they first planned.
The most commonly encountered Collector is a shadow that appears almost human. But as it draws near, its silhouette resolves as something that is most assuredly alien, or at least monstrous and vaguely flylike.
Able to race across the ground or flit through the sky for short periods, Collectors prefer to step into and out of the Subworld as necessary to find new metahuman prey. And once found, they run (or fly) it down until captured. To the uninitiated eye, a Collector appears to dart into a dark alleyway, then out of a manhole opening down the street, through the door of a merchant's storefront, finally exiting a car (or diving into the open window of one if trying to escape).
For all their ferocity of purpose and ability to suck prey into apparent nonexistence, Collectors can be chased off. They value their existence, and a large-enough threat display can cause these alien beings to remember that self-preservation is even more important than their next metahuman capture. Usually.
Motive: "Gather" metahumans
Environment: Alone or in groups of two to four
Health: 30
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (5 points)
Movement: Short; short when climbing; long when flying
Modifications: Attacking objects and escaping as level 7; resists mental influence as level 13
Combat: When it wishes, a Collector's touch "dissolves" matter, inflicting damage that ignores Armor. If two or more Collectors coordinate their attacks against the same target, treat them as one attack from a level 8 creature, inflicting 8 points of damage.
In fact, Collectors aren't dissolving their targets, but slowly (and painfully) transferring them into one of several Collector silos hidden in the Subworld. PCs who would otherwise be killed by Collector attacks are instead teleported to one of these silos. The transferred PC is unconscious until they can succeed on a difficulty 5 Intellect-based task. On a success, they regain consciousness and immediately add 3 points to one Pool of their choice.
If a Collector loses 24 or more points of health, it attempts to flee through the Subworld, using an entrance it instantly creates in a nearby door, crack, or other opening large enough to accept them.
Interaction: No one has successfully talked with a Collector, or been able to sense a mind using telepathic abilities or artifacts.
No one, that is, except for Supernatural, who keep a lone Collector captive.
Use: The PCs receive a distress call from a friendly metahuman being pursued by a Collector.
GM Intrusion: The Collector coughs up a swarm of buzzing darkness that attacks a target up to a long distance away as if the Collector was making a touch attack.
It's a difficulty 5 Speed task to successfully follow a Collector fleeing into the Subworld; however, if one PC makes it through, everyone else can follow.
Collectors (and all their kin) have a secret vulnerability to sugar, as described in
Sometimes a Collector may flee a fight with metahumans only to return later—perhaps many days later—with a Collector behemoth in tow. The behemoth uses the Subworld to move from place to place like Collectors, but it's much larger, taking a few moments to allow its massive bulk to seep out through a much smaller opening, until it finally coalesces as a silhouette of a many-winged blob of writhing flesh almost 20 feet (6 m) in diameter. Its light-sucking wings constantly whir and buzz while keeping it aloft, and a nest of tiny legs dangle below it, eager to snatch up prey. Unlike regular Collectors, behemoths go for anything moving, not just metahumans. And unlike regular Collectors, behemoths usually can't be chased off by anything short of the creation of a rift (usually by means of a divergent timeline cypher).
Motive: "Gather" metahumans
Environment: Alone or accompanied by one or more Collectors
Health: 56
Damage Inflicted: Major wound (12 points)
Armor: 2
Movement: Short; immediate when climbing; long when flying
Modifications: Speed defense as level 5 due to size; attacking objects as level 10; resists mental influence as level 13
Combat: A behemoth can attack all creatures within immediate range of its bulk. Its touch "dissolves" matter, inflicting damage that ignores Armor. If a behemoth focuses all its attention on one target, its attack is eased by two steps, and it inflicts a major wound (15 points). "Dissolved" targets aren't dead, but instead face the same fate as defeated Collector foes.
A behemoth also gains sustenance from divergent timeline cyphers. A PC who knows this can distract a behemoth by tossing a cypher to the side. A behemoth will spend at least one round investigating, then consuming the cypher, which grants the behemoth 5 health per level of the cypher eaten. This can temporarily put it over its maximum health.
It takes a behemoth its entire action to seep into or out of the Subworld.
GM Intrusion (group):The behemoth brushes a wall or structure, causing it to begin collapsing on nearby innocent bystanders.
All Collectors are dangerous. One breed in particular—known as the "seeker"—is considered the most dangerous of all. While not as physically impressive as other varieties, the seeker has a sixth sense when it comes to finding metahumans and divergent timeline cyphers.
As shadowy as its kin, a Collector seeker is the silhouette of a sinuous, snaky beast with many slender forelegs and a fan of shadowy wings. Every few moments, a lambent red, tri-forked tongue flicks out, providing enough light that those being pursued by a seeker can see it (or more accurately, sense it) from blocks away. And if a metahuman can sense a seeker, it's certain that the seeker can sense them back in turn.
Motive: Sniff out metahumans
Environment: Alone or in the company of one or more Collectors
Health: 20
Damage Inflicted: Minor wound (3 points)
Movement: Short; short when climbing; long when flying
Modifications: Speed defense as level 6 due to sinuous grace; poisonous bite attack as level 6;
finding, tracking, and perceiving metahumans as level 6; resists mental influence as level 13
Combat: A seeker's touch "dissolves" matter, inflicting damage that ignores Armor. Alternatively (and especially if the seeker is encountered in a Collector silo), a seeker can try to bite a foe. On a failed Speed defense roll, the target must then attempt a Might defense roll or become paralyzed for one minute. Thereafter, the victim can begin making new Might defense rolls each round to break the effect.
If encountered outside a silo, seeker touch attacks aren't actually dissolving their targets, but slowly (and painfully) transferring them into one of several Collector silos hidden in the Subworld.
As its action, a seeker can attempt to get a fix on any metahumans within long range. PCs can resist detection with a successful difficulty 6 Intellect defense roll. If a seeker gets a fix, it either tracks the trace down itself, or somehow calls in a Collector to the indicated location within about a minute.
Interaction: No one has successfully talked with a Collector seeker, or even been able to sense a mind using telepathic abilities or artifacts.
Use: The PCs all get the sudden sense that someone has just walked over their grave. (In fact, it's a Collector seeker a very long distance away that just got a fix on their location.)
Seekers are commonly found crawling across Collector silos (page 75), looking to separate accidentally collected dross from the metahumans they value so highly.
GM Intrusion: A Collector steps out of a nearby door or other opening, called by the seeker to the conflict.