Bionicle: A Nuva World, a Nuva Way

We are Antidermis. We are what make up the very Essences of the Makuta for without us, the Makuta are nothing. We know things dating back to before the Great Spirit Mata Nui walked these lands. We know what those masters of shadows have forgotten, the things which they were meant to know. But now that Mata Nui has fulfilled his destiny, alongside his brother Teridax, our purpose is fulfilled and we are no longer needed. So as we sit here in our pool, waiting for a time when we shall be needed again, we look back on the events that brought the great journey to an end

Suggested Listening

101,000 years ago on the planet Spherus Magna, the people of that world, the Agori, lived in peace, separated by tribes and led by the Element Lords, beings who commanded the forces of nature itself. The Lords themselves, and everything the Agori had ever come to know, came from legendary figures who were called the "Great Beings". This powerful group of men and women created many things that benefited the Agori in so many ways.

There was once a time when the Great Beings themselves ruled the Agori, but the beloved rulers all shared a very exploitable and unavoidable flaw: a simple, inexorable urge to create, from which stemmed the multitude and diversity of their creations; as a result, they wanted to spend most of their time making new things rather than to rule a society. So using their inventions the Great Beings selected a member of the warrior class species from each tribe and gave them the power to control the Elements and thus the Element Lords were born. Placing them in charge of each of the seven tribes, the Element Lords orderly rule allowed the Agori to maintain a peaceful and prosperous coexistence.

But then one day a discovery was made that would forever change Spherus Magna.

They called it Energized Protodermis: a silver sentient substance with the power to transform someone or something for better or for worse, but if you were not destined to transform you would be destroyed. The Element Lords having developed an arrogant and power hungry persona due to their transformation immediately began arguing over control of the powerful liquid, heated arguments turned into fights which then escalated into a full scale planet wide war.

At first the Great beings tried to end the fighting through peaceful talks and then through force, but the power lust the Element Lords had overrode all logic and reasoning, and so what would be later be called the Core War raged on.

As the conflict ensued, the Great Beings made a terrifying discovery, the Energized Protodermis was slowly but surely corroding the planet from the inside out and would eventually cause a chain reaction that would explode and shatter the planet in the process.

Realizing what their negligence had caused, the Great Beings sought to rectify their mistake. Working in secret, they had artificial workers build a 40 million foot tall robot with the intention of repairing the planet when the time came. To maintain the inner workings of the robot, biomechanical nano-tech was created with limited artificial intelligence to keep the robot operational during the time it would be away from the planet. The first type of nanotech was dubbed Matoran which would act as the main driving force; the first Matoran being named Takua, a Matoran of light. Aware that potential problems would arise within the robot the great beings created Toa, a Matoran word which translated to "Hero". The first Toa that came into being was a Toa of Water named Helryx, followed by a Toa of Psionics named Orde. Eventually some Matoran were created with the dormant power to evolve into Toa when the time came. Tech-organic wildlife was created for the robot as well and were dubbed Rahi meaning "Not us", as well as other sapient species to help keep the robot working.

While the robot would observe other worlds with intelligent civilizations, a camouflage system was installed to disguise the robot's face with a large island whenever it landed on a planet. To clear the camouflage when the time came to leave the planet, the Great beings created insectoid robots called Bohrok, to clean the face of any non-sapient wildlife or vegetation so the robot would not kill any sentient lifeforms that may have settled on the fake island.

In order to drive the Bohrok, Krana were conceived to help with the cleansing. They were organic creatures that would act as the brains for the swarms as well as giving them additional powers, while two Bohrok Queens called Gahdok and Cahdok would act as rulers.

The creation of the Matoran and Krana however, had a unexpected side effect. From the aftermath of their birth new creatures called Zyglak, came into being alongside the Krana. They were feral, reptilian monstrosities that envied the Matoran as the Zyglak themselves were not one of the chosen races of the Great Beings. At first Toa Orde was sent to calm them down, but his temper got the best of him and the use of his powers caused the Zyglak to become even more feral. As a result of that incident, all Matoran and Toa of Psionics from then on were created as females.

Finally at long last the Robot was complete with a giant city called Metru Nui acting as the brain of the robot, while an endless energy storm within a massive cave called Karda Nui acted as the beating heart. The Great Beings named their creation "Mata Nui" meaning Great Spirit, so named because the giant would carry the Great Spirit of the once Beautiful Spherus Magna during its 100,000 year journey.

In order to preserve its finite resources, the giant robot had an interstellar space station created that would function as a repair hub for any damaged nano-tech from Mata Nui's body. This satellite also served as a rocket booster for the robot to break free of a planet's gravity pull. This engine was called the "Red Star" for it looked like a glowing crimson sun from space.

Then the time came when the event that would forever be known as “The Shattering” occurred. Energized Protodermis made its way to the surface of the planet, causing a chain reaction that exploded the planet into three pieces, the largest piece becoming a desert that began to encompass the rest of what remained of the world.

Around the same time, the robot Mata Nui launched into space, aided by the Red Star and began its journey throughout the galaxy, observing the sapient life of other worlds for the next 100,000 years until it was time for it to return home and complete its mission.

During its time in space, Mata Nui followed other instructions left by the Great Beings and created other species inside himself to help maintain order, one of those species was the Makuta, the first one to come into being was called Teridax, who developed a brotherly bond with the Great Spirit.

For a time, the Makuta, led by Miserix, created more Rahi to populate the robot and maintained order. They ended conflicts as well as overthrew warlords who sought to conquer the universe. Despite this, it was the Toa who received praise and admiration for their heroic deeds while the Matoran only respected the Makuta out of fear.

But then fate took a different course.

For Makuta Teridax had grown ambitious as well as envious of his "Brother in Arms" and planned to overthrow Mata Nui with the intention of ruling the universe for himself. With knowledge provided by Makuta Mutran, he infected the Great Spirit with a virus 300 years prior to the time Mata Nui was due to return to Spherus Magna which would cause Mata Nui to fall into a deep sleep.

Just as Mata Nui was about to fulfill his destiny, the virus struck and his body crashed into the ocean moon of Aqua Magna.

With his camouflage system damaged, a fake island was created while a massive Energized Protodermis leak filled the island with life. No sooner had the Matoran and Teridax made their home on the island as Mata Nui slept for 1,000 years.

Eventually the time came when Six Toa heroes whose spirit represented the six main elements were summoned to awaken Mata Nui. These Toa were made by the Great Beings in the event Mata Nui ever went to sleep. These Toa fought Makuta Teridax's minions as well as the prematurely awakened Bohrok swarms, transforming into Toa Nuva in the process. But before they could fulfill their destiny, the damage done by Teridax’s virus had caused Mata Nui to die in his sleep.  So Six new Toa were tasked with saving the Great Spirit’s life force with the legendary Kanohi Ignika, the Mask of Life. These Toa Mahri succeeded when Toa Matoro sacrificed his life in order to revive Mata Nui.

A final battle for power took place at multiple locations throughout the universe, from the stormless cave of Karda Nui to the sterling city of Metru Nui, and in the end it was good that prevailed.

But this was later to be revealed to part of Teridax’s master plan all along, for when the Toa Nuva succeeded in awakening the Great Spirit Robot, the Makuta took control of the massive machine before Mata Nui's spirit could return to his body, as a result, Mata Nui was sealed inside the Mask of Life and was banished by his brother from the robot where he landed on the largest chunk of Spherus Magna, the desert barren of Bara Magna.

Creating a new body, using the mask’s power, the former Great Spirit found and befriended the local Agori and Glatorian, aiding them in defeating their enemies: the Skrall and Bone Hunters. It was during this time that Mata Nui learned more about friendship and family than all his time of being a Godly figure.

Eventually Mata Nui found a Prototype Robot which his former body was based off of. Using an unstable power source Mata Nui faced off in a final battle against Teridax who had arrived on the planet to finish what he had started.

At first the corrupt Makuta offered Mata Nui to join him in enslaving reality, but Mata Nui refused and instead pleaded with his brother to end this madness, saying that repairing the broken world was also Teridax’s duty and neither could fulfill their destiny unless they worked together. But just like the Element Lords before him, the Makuta wanted to rule, to be respected and admired. No longer would he live in the shadow of his older brother, there could only be one ruler and it was going to be him.

To prove a point, the master of shadows tried to destroy the planet with a gravitic blast, but Mata Nui redirected the blasts into space and striking the two moons. Unknown to both of them, this set the lost pieces of Spherus Magna on a collision course to their original places on the world.

During this battle, the Makuta unleashed his Rakshi sons onto the battlefield which would make short work of the Toa who fought against them. Toa Tahu, using golden armor made by the Mask of Life, destroyed the creatures of shadow, turning their Kraata to ashes. The death of all his sons was felt by Teridax, who staggered in disbelief; it was this distraction that Mata Nui needed to defeat Teridax. By shoving his head into a meteor fragment of Aqua Magna, killing the tyrant and restoring Spherus Magna, Teridax himself unknowingly fulfilled his destiny to help fix the broken world before perishing.

As his final act as a giant robot, Mata Nui used the full extent of the Mask of Life's powers to bring life to the reborn world. A wave of life energy swept the planet; deserts turned into fertile grasslands, rivers that were dry for as long as anyone remembered flowed once more, mountains that had been leveled stood tall again and for the first time in hundreds of thousands of years ......it rained on Bara Magna.

His power spent, Mata Nui went dormant within the Mask of Life leaving the Matoran and Agori to their own future without the restrictions and mistakes that a ruler would make, but promising to return someday.

Now some would say that the journey ended here, but we sense a new one is about to come, a journey that one of our creators has in store for us.

We are the Antidermis, and these are the Nuva legends of the Bionicle /color]