World of Gor

I knew that the metal collar of a female slave, that obdurate circlet of steel, locked, which she could not remove, so contrasting with her softness, so proclaiming its vulnerability and rightlessness, often transformed even an inhibited, hostile, cold wench, hating men, into an abandoned, yielding, man-vulnerable, passionate slave girl, loving to lie helpless at the mercy of their touch, that of masters.
---Tribesmen of Gor, 10:162

"The collar has four common purposes, Master," she said, "First, it visibly designates me as a slave, as a brand might not, should it be covered by clothing. Second, it impresses my slavery upon me. Thirdly, it identifies me to my Master. Fourthly - fourthly -" 
"Fourthly?" he asked. 
"Fourthly," she said, "it makes it easier to leash me."
---Explorers of Gor, 5:80-81

Unlike the brand, which is also sometimes specific, but more commonly a general statement status, the collar specifically identifies the slave's owner.  Her first collar may be that of a slaver and the steel she will wear through the years may change many times as she is sold, traded or captured by raiders.  By the color, make and shape of her collar, as well as by the inscription on it, the slave is identified as property of one specific City, group or individual.

...She was barefoot, and as her eyes shyly met mine, I saw they were blue and deferential. My eyes suddenly noted her one piece of jewelry--a light, steel-like band she wore as a collar....
---Tarnsman of Gor, 2:26

...The girl I had originally seen had been a slave, and what I had taken to be the jewelry at her throat had been a badge of servitude. Another such badge was a brand concealed by her clothing. The latter marked her as a slave, and the former identified her master....
---Tarnsman of Gor, 3:46

What a slave may or may not do, who she may or may not serve and to what extent, where she may or may not go and when, is always up to her owner, or then, temporarily, to any he grants her use to.

...The girls are usually branded impersonally, perfunctorily, as cattle. Though they feel the mark intensely physically, it is felt, interestingly, even more intensely, more profoundly, psychologically; not unoften it, in itself, radically transforms their self images, their personalities; they are only slaves, not permitted their own wills, rightless, at the bidding of masters; the mark is an impersonal designation; this is understood by the girls; when she is marked she understands herself not to be marked by a given man for a given man, to be uniquely his, but rather, so to speak, that she is marked for all men; to all men she is a slave girl; usually, of course, only one among them, at a given time, will be her master; the brand is impersonal; the brand marks her property; the brand is impersonal; the collar is intensely personal; the brand marks her property; the collar proclaims whose property she is, who it is who has actually taken, or paid for, her; that the brand is an impersonal designation of absence of status in the social structure is perhaps another reason why masters do not often brand their own girls; the brand relationship to the free man is institutional; the collar relationship on the other hand is an intensely personal one...
---Tribesmen of Gor, 2:42

Most collars are described as lock collars which means they are secured by means of a lock.  In certain areas such as Torvaldsland however, the collar is hammered shut by 6 pins, it is said, one for each of the letters in the word kajira.

Collar Types

Collars vary according to two main elements, the first, being purpose. If a collar is used in a specific manner, or requires that the slave wearing it be identified as having a specific purpose (as are message collars for example), it will, by its differences, be quickly recognized. By their very nature, these types of collars are usually temporary, and may be slipped over the girl's 'real' collar.

There are doubtless many sorts of collars on Gor, ranging from light, primarily decorative collars to punishment collars, weighty and ugly, etc.

The two most familiar collars are the "common collar" and the "Turian collar."

The common collar is bandlike, narrow, flat, close-fitting, locking in back. Generally it would not fit as high on the throat as a "choker," but it would be higher than the Turian collar. The Turian collar is narrow and rounded, and looser, and also locks in the back. Under the common collar one could place a finger or so, which is convenient for snapping leash locks on the collar, tying a slave to a ring by its means, and such. One could grasp the Turian collar with the entire hand and draw the slave toward one. Neither collar, of course, can be slipped.

The common collar is normally engraved, perhaps with a simple legend, such as "I belong to Mirus," "Return me to Mirus," "I am Sally. My Master is Mirus of Ar," etc. The Turian collar is not engraved. A slave might also have a chain collar to which an identificatory disk, suitably engraved, is attached. If a Master wishes to use a slave as a "lure girl," she might be put in a belly chain and disk, which would not be evident underneath the clothing of a free woman. (Incidentally, it can be a capital offense for a slave, unbidden, or without permission, to don the clothing of a free woman.) The collars of some slaves might be jeweled, and such. Doubtless some masters enjoy competing by means of their slaves, using them to exhibit their own wealth and taste, rather as some rich individuals on Earth might feel that their particular social and economic status requires, say, a blond wife and a Mercedes. Some slaves are primarily "display slaves," indications of their masters' position in society.
---John Norman, Letter to the Gorean Group, Sept 20th 2000

I.D. anklet
A band of metal affixed to Earth captive's ankle for transportation to Gor.

"...My ankles were crossed and tied together, with a short piece of rope. A metal anklet of some sort was fastened on my left ankle."
"A girls identificatory anklet." I said. "It is removed after her delivery to Gor."
---Savages of Gor, 13:181

Capture collars
Essentially, any collar which is made from available materials at the site of capture.

I took a length of binding fiber and knotted it, with capture knots, about her throat. It was her collar. Too, the capture knots, those of a warrior, would serve to identify her as mine in the north.
---Beasts of Gor, 11:183-184

Coffle collar
Various types of collars used for coffles (a chain of slaves).

...The collars had front and back rings, were hinged on the right and locked on the left. This is a familiar form of coffle collar. The lengths of chain between the collars were about three to four feet long. Some were attached to the collar rings by the links themselves, opened and then reclosed about the about the rings, and some of them were fastened to the collar rings by snap rings. Another common form of coffle collar has its hinge in the front and closes behind the back of the neck, like the common slave collar. It has a single collar ring, usually on the right, through which, usually, a single chain is strung. Girls are spaced on such a chain, usually, by snap rings. An advantage of the first sort of coffle arrangement is that the chain may, as girls are added or subtracted, be shortened or lengthened. A chain which has been borne by fifty girls would, of course, be impracticably heavy for five or six. An advantage of the second arrangement is that girls can be easily spaced on the chain, more or less closely together, and can be conveniently removed from, and added to, the chain. Which chaining arrangement is best for a given set of girls depends, of course, on the particular intentions and purposes of their master....
---Savages of Gor, 8:135-136

Dance and Display collars
More to do with chain arrangements than collars, these types of adornments will usually include wrist and ankle cuffs to which different chains will be affixed, linking the throat, wrists, ankles and sometimes waist of the dancer in various fashion for the purpose of display or dancing. Commonly, these collar/chain arrangements will be placed over the 'regular' collar.

A wrist ring was fastened on her right wrist. The long, slender, gleaming chain was fastened to this and, looping down and up, ascended gracefully to a wide chain ring on her collar, through which it freely passed, thence descending, looping down, and ascending, looping up, gracefully, to the left wrist ring. If she were to stand quietly, the palms of her hands on her thighs, the lower portions of the chain, those two dangling loops, would have been about at the level of her knees, just a little higher. The higher portion of the chain, of course, would be at the collar loop.
---Kajira of Gor, 8:142-143

Leather leash collar
Leather collar slipped over the slave's formal collar, for the purpose of leashing.

He then turned her about and put a leather collar leash collar, with its attached lead, now dangling before her, on her neck.
---Magicians of Gor, 2:33

Lock collar
A hinged collar which is 'locked' on the slave's throat by use of the traditional 6 pin lock, as opposed to the type of collar which is hammered about throats, such as is commonly, the collar of slave girls in training, or riveted, such as the Northern collar.

The small, heavy lock on a girl's slave collar, incidentally, may be one of several varieties, but almost all are cylinder locks, either of the pin or disk variety. In a girl's collar lock there would be six pins or six disks, one each, it is said, for each letter of the Gorean word for female slave, Kajira; the male slave, or Kajirus, seldom has a locked collar; normally a band of iron is simply hammered about his neck; often he works in chains, usually with other male slaves...
---Assassin of Gor, 5:51

Message collar
Rather self explanatory, a collar which holds in its folds a message the slave is usually unaware of, but that is easily found by those who recognize the collar. Usually made of a folded, thick leather band, into which the message, usually a piece of paper, will be slipped before the edges are sewn together.

Kamchak and I regarded one another.
"Did you note the collar she wore?" I asked.
He had not seemed to show much interest in the high, thick leather collar that the girl had had sewn about her neck.
"Of course," he said.
"I myself," I said, "have never seen such a collar."
"It is a message collar," said Kamchak. "Inside the leather, sewn within, will be a message."
---Nomads of Gor, 6:40

Slaves are also seen transporting messages by way of a 'message tube'; a small, capped tube into which the message is rolled and inserted, left dangling from a thong attached to a back-braceleted girl's collar.

..."I approached the Central Cylinder. I knelt before the guards, my head down. The capped message tube even touched the stones." ...

She had, of course, reported to the guards at the Central Cylinder back-braceleted, with the message tube about her neck. In this way, she could not have uncapped the tube and read the message....
---Magicians of Gor, 21:359

Plank collar
A collar which is part of the device used for securing slaves, generally, to a bench in a barge. But also, as seen below, it can be a type of coffle arrangement.

Nearby there were four girls in a plank collar. This is formed from two boards into which matching semicircles have been cut. The two boards are connected and supported by five flat, sliding U-irons; when the U-irons are slid back, the collar is opened. When they are slid into place, and the two leaves are bolted together, the collar is closed. Two hasps with staples, secured with padlocks, occur, too, at opposite ends of the planks. These lock the collar. The four girls in the plank collar were kneeling, waiting for their master to conduct some business. He was of the peasants. They were nude. Their hands were tied behind their backs.
---Rogue of Gor, 7:69

...The primary holding arrangements for women on the benches (this is in a barge), however, are not chains. Each place on the bench is fitted with ankle and wrist stocks, and for each bench there is a plank collar, a plank which opens horizontally, each half of which contains five matching, semi-circular openings, which, when it is set on pinions, closed, and chained in place, provides thusly five sturdy, wooden enclosures for the small, lovely throats of women. The plank is thick and thus the girls' chins are held high. The plank is further reinforced between each girl with a narrowly curved iron band, the open ends of which are pierced; this is slid tight in its slots, in its metal retainers, about the boards, and secured in place with a four-inch metal pin, which may or may not be locked in place....
---Savages of Gor, 2:60

Plate collar
Usually a single band of metal which is shaped to fit the neck with a hammer. It will be seen used on untrained girls, and usually replaced by a lock collar once the training completed.

Ho-Tu grinned. "Call the smith!" said he to the guard. "Plate collars!"

...When the smith arrived, he took, from a rack in the wall, two narrow, straight bars of iron, not really plates but narrow cubes, about a half inch in width and fifteen inches in length.
The girls were then motioned to the anvil. First Virginia and then Phyllis laid their heads and throats on the anvil, head turned to the side, their hands holding the anvil, and the smith, expertly, with his heavy hammer and a ringing of iron, curved the collar about their throats; a space of about a quarter of an inch was left between the two ends of the collar; the ends matched perfectly; both Virginia and Phyllis stepped away from the anvil feeling the metal on their throats, both now collared slave girls.
"If your training goes well," said Flaminius to the girls, "you will in time be given a pretty collar." He indicated Elizabeth's yellow enameled collar, bearing the legend of the House of Cernus. "It will even have a lock," said Flaminius.

..."I will decide if and when they receive a lock collar," said Sura.
---Assassin of Gor, 12:153-154

Shipping collar
The collar which is placed on a girl who is being shipped as part of a cargo, identifying her as such.

"I have a collar here," said Ulafi, lifting a steel slave collar. It was a shipping collar. It had five palms on it, and the sign of Schendi, the shackle and scimitar. The girl who wore it would be clearly identified as a portion of Ulafi's cargo
---Explorers of Gor, 4:67

Transport Collars
Another system used as means of identifying cargo in the process of its transport to the block or the buyer. It involves the use of metal tags on which the necessary information would be placed.

...Our hands, too, those of all of us, were secured, braceleted behind our backs. We all, too, had new collars on our necks, probably transport collars. They had metal tags attached to them....
---Dancer of Gor, 6:73

Work collars
Term used for the collars chained to each other by chains of varying lengths depending on the task at hand, that are placed on slaves which are part of a work chain.

The two girls, on their hands and knees on the deck, linked together by a gleaming neck chain, some five feet in length, attached to two steel work collars, these fitted over their regular collars, looked up....
---Explorers of Gor, 6:98

Collar sleeves
Silken sleeves which are used in few places, slipped over collars usually for the purpose of 'matching' the collar to the slave's garments.

"What is this?" I asked.
"The silk?" she asked. "That is a collar stocking, or a collar sleeve. They may be made of many different materials. In a cooler climate they are sometimes of velvet. In most cities they are not used."
---Kajira of Gor, 3:46

"The purpose of the collar sleeve is to hide the collar," I said.
"No, Mistress," she said. "Surely the collar's presence within the sleeve is sufficiently evident."
"Yes," I said, "I can see now that it is."
The girl smiled.
"The yellow fits in nicely with the yellow of your belt," I said, "and the yellow flowers on the tunic."
"Yes, Mistress," smiled the girl. The sleeve I saw now could function rather like an accessory, perhaps adding to, or completing, an ensemble. It did, in this case, at least, make its contribution to the girl's appearance. "The belt is binding fiber, Mistress," said the girl, turning before me. "It may be used to tie or leash me, or even, coiled, to whip me."
---Kajira of Gor, 3:48

The second element of difference in collars, is the origin, the culture to which the collar belongs. Throughout Gor, metal may or may not be available for the making of collars, and the throats of imbonded women will reflect this. Further, the type of collar used may not have to do with the availability of metal, but simply carry its own significance within the specific culture it belongs to.

Bead collars of the Red Savages
The collar used in the Barrens by Red Savages. Rather than the commonly used inscription, the collar is made in a color and pattern code which is unique to each man, thus identifying the slave's owner.

...It was about an inch and a half high. It had a distinctive pattern of beading. The colors and design of the beading marked it as Canka's. It is common among red savages to use such designs, such devices, to mark their possessions. A collar of identical design, back in the village, was worn by the lovely, red-haired girl, the former Miss Millicent Aubrey-Welles, who had so taken the fancy of the young warrior. Both of our collars were tied shut. The knots on them had been retied personally by Canka after our arrival at his camp. This is done, in effect, with a signature knot, in a given tribal style, known only to the tier. This gives him a way of telling if the knot has been untied and retied in his absence. It is death, incidentally, for a slave to remove such a collar without permission. It can be understood then that slaves of the red savages do not tamper with their collars. They keep them on.
---Blood Brothers of Gor, 1:15-16

Cord collars of Rencers
A type of collar sometimes used in the Delta, by Rencers, consisting of simple rence cord to which an identification tag is attached.

...On some rence islands I have heard, incidentally, that the men have revolted and enslaved their women. These are usually kept in cord collars, with small disks attached to them, indicating the names of their masters....
---Vagabonds of Gor, 31:341

Iron collars of Torvaldsland
Term used in reference to the collars of the men of Torvaldsland. It consists of a band of black iron, which is riveted to the girl's neck rather than locked as collars usually are.

...Over the anvil lay the joining ends of the two pieces of the collar. The inside of the collar was separated by a quarter of an inch from her neck. I saw the fine hairs on the back of her neck. On one part of the collar are two, small, flat, thick rings. On the other is a single such ring. These rings, when the wings of the collar are joined, are aligned, those on one wing on top and bottom, that on the other in the center. They fit closely together, one on top of the other. The holes in each, about three-eighths of an inch in diameter, too, of course, are perfectly aligned.
The smith, with his thumb, forcibly, pushed a metal rivet through the three holes. The rivet fit snugly.
"Do not move your head, Bondmaid," said the smith.
Then, with great blows of the iron hammer, he riveted the iron collar about her throat.
---Marauders of Gor, 6:87

Kur collar
The lock collar of leather used by Kur on their female cattle.

...Over her iron collar she wore a heavy leather Kur collar, high, heavily sewn, with its large ring....
---Marauders of Gor, 18:261

String collars of the Red Hunters
Leather strings knotted in sets of four, which Red Hunters use as collars. In lieu of the usual inscription, it is the knotting pattern, unique to each master, which serves to identify the slave's owner.

...Under the tether on the throat of each there was tied an intricately knotted set of four leather strings. In such a way the red hunters identify their animals. The owner of the beast may be determined from the knotting of the strings.
---Beasts of Gor, 9:153

Turian Collar
Unlike most Gorean slave collars, the Turian collar is made of a single band and fits about the slave's neck in a loose fashion.

...The Turian collar lies loosely on the girl, a round ring; it fits so loosely that, when grasped in a man's fist, the girl can turn within it; the common Gorean collar on the other hand, is a flat, snugly fitting steel band.  Both collars lock in the back, behind the girl's neck.  The Turian collar is more difficult to engrave, but it, like the flat collar, will bear some legend assuring that the girl, if found, will be promptly returned to her master....
---Nomads of Gor, 5:29