A collar is the most personal item that a slave may wear. It not only designates her as slave but it also is often enscribed with her owner's name. A collar may be as simple as a piece of cloth of fiber and as intricate as gold with jewels upon it.
The collar, unlike the brand, is not permanent and may be changed within the same house or by the same Master or as the slave is sold from Master to Master (Tarnsman of Gor), just like the slave's nick may be changed.
A slave's collar often denotes her rank. Perhaps a lowly kettle slave may wear a fiber collar or at most an iron collar. A slave purely trained for pleasure may wear an enamelled collar of yellow or red or whatever color her owner sees fit to put her in. A love slave may even bare a collar encrustled or dangling with jewels. A punished slave may wear a collar with bells upon it so that her master may not find her 'sneaking' upon him.
"Where in Tharna," I asked, "did you find Pleasure Slaves?" I had noted that the throats of the girls were encircled by silver collars.
{Outlaw of Gor}
The last book of the series states that a slave should have the new collar put upon her throat before the old is taken off. This way the slave feels no sense of freedom, even if only for a few ihn.
I then fetched the collar, designed to resemble a state collar, from the flat leather box. I went behind her and locked it on her neck, above the Appanius collar. She now wore two collars. I then removed the Appanius collar from her neck. In this way there was no moment in which she was not in at least one collar.
{Magicians of Gor, 358}
It is said that once the collar is off the girl is in fact free. She may be free for just the moment or she may be freed to become the Master's Free Companion.
I took from my tunic the key my father had given me, the key to Sana’s collar. I reached to the lock behind her neck, inserted the key and turned, springing open the mechanism. I jerked the collar away from her throat and threw it and the key from the tarn’s back and watched them fly downward in a long, graceful parabola.
"You are free," I said. "And we are going to Thentis."
{Tarnsman of Gor}
Different cities/regions are known to have their own style of collar. For instance the Turian collar is round and loose. The Bazi-style collar is wide, tapered towards the top, belled out at the bottom, and commonly inscribed and/or enameled with intricate designs and motifs which signify the Owner and/or the nature of the kajir.
The collars of the male slaves are often not lock collars. The collars are even hidden so that they may not see how numerous they really are.
Whether or not there were male slaves I could not well judge, for the collars would have been hidden by the gray robes. There is no distinctive garment for a male slave on Gor, since, as it is said, it is not well for them to discover how numerous they are.
{Outlaw of Gor}
