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The Collectors were the first official 'group' dedicated to collecting the Objects scattered around the United States. Founded by Arlene Conroy, the manager of the original Sunshine Motel in which the Objects were created, the Collectors worked between 1961 and 1966 to recover all of the Objects.

History[]

The Collectors were founded after they Arelene Conroy and her husband, Gus Jacobs, realised that something happened at their motel after Conroy found the Key to the non-existent Room 10. Finding that the Occupant had only recently left and that there were still some Objects in the Room, Arlene and her friends formed the Collectors with the initial goal of gathering the remaining Objects.

The Collectors then began gathering Objects between 1961 and 1966. Karl Kreutzfeld claims that they were close to getting all of them but, as described by her husband, Arlene Conroy started doing experiments revolving around Room 9, and they discovered that arranging Objects on the door and opening it with the key could tear a hole in reality. They wanted to use this power to reshape reality but the Eddie McCleister put a stop to their experiment by pulling Arlene Conroy into the alternate dimension of Room 9, much to the dismay of her husband.

Believing that Arlene had sacrificed herself to prevent the tear in reality from destroying the whole world, Gus Jacobs left the Collectors some time before the First Cabal War, in which many Collectors were killed, including John Clarke, who was a prison guard who joined the Collectors some time after the creation of the Objects. The Collectors used the prison in which he worked to conceal a Vault from those who wanted to gather Objects for themselves, and in it they hid the Objects they deemed too dangerous for people to use, including the Glass Eye. Judging by the coffin-shaped box in the vault, it can be assumed that they intended for the Occupant to be put there as well, and as they had the Polaroid it is likely that they knew of his existence.

After this, the remaining Collectors vanished, with their surviving members either disappearing or going insane. It is thought that any of the Collectors who survived the First Cabal War either died of natural causes soon after, like Barbara Stritzke, or went into hiding like Gus Jacobs. It is not known who the Collectors were fighting during the First Cabal War but it is thought that it is either the Order or another older Cabal who had since disbanded.

Legacy[]

By the early 2000s, the Collectors had adopted a near-legendary status among those in the Object community. The tale of their attempts to gather the Objects, and the fate of many of their members, served as one of many cautionary tales for those who joined the hunt for Objects. Despite the fame of the organisation, the Object community seemed to be largely ignorant of the specifics of the Collector's membership or intentions as it was later revealed that several former members of the group were still alive.

By the time Karl Kreutzfeld attempted to recreate the Conroy Experiment, the only known surviving Collector was Gus Jacobs, who had long abandoned the hunt for the Objects after the horrific fate his wife suffered. However, several of the members had surviving relatives, such as Harold Stritzke, the nephew of Barbara Stritzke, and John Clarke's nephew who sold many Collector's artifacts to Sood.

Notable Members[]

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