Helian

The Collectors are an order of panhandlers from the planet of Helios.

Background
The Collectors are headquartered on Helios where stands the Temple of the Five Winds.

Culture
The Collectors belives that their are five winds: North wind, South wind, East wind, West wind, and the Hoo Past wind. The last is said to be amythical wind that blows from the farthest reaches of the Galaxy; the wind that is invisible and proceed by stealth. Usually on a myriad worlds, when a faint noise is heard and there is a disturbance in the air there is ritual cry known as "Hoo Past wind?" followed by "It wasn't me."

The Collectors are a reclusive group that claim to shun the materiel wordl, preferring to travel the planet of Helio on foot with their small earthen bowls. These devotees prefer to beg for alms and commit their lives to learning the mysteriou Way of Kerching (though to be named after the sound of coin hitting a collecting bowl).

According to ther beliefs the Way of Kercging teaches them that all conflict is illusion. That the Galaxy is an illusion, even the planet that they walk on is an illusion. To become a true Collector, one must steadfastly follow the Highway of Fuzzy Logic

Throughout Collector history there are figures that once started out as apprentices before embarking on the Highway of Fuzzy Logic and becoming Master: Apprentice Collectors wear robes of pink, while Masters wears robes of black.
 * Master Collector Offkeee, who played the accordion and sand songs in an excruciating voice until people paid him to go away
 * Master Collector Freeloda who gate-crashed parties and cleaned them out of food and drink before begging for cab fare home.
 * Master Collector Frawdster, who collected vast amounts of money for charity, without revealing to the donors that his first name was Charity.

Begging Chants of the Apprentice Collectors
 * "Sum, Sum, sum.": For those that have attained wisdom
 * "Yum, yum, yum.": For asking for food
 * "Erm, ahm, um.": The Chant of the Hesitant Beggar

Appearances

 * Outernet Book 3: Odyssey by Steve Barlow