The Formation of Voya Nui

[RahiSpeak]

From what I have read, or at least understand, the island of Voya Nui was created during the Great Cataclysm, breaking off from the Southern Continent. What has confused me, however, is exactly how this happened and its effect on the Matoran Universe. Consider these points:

 

-The island, of course, "rocketed upward", punching a hole in the Mata Nui robot. But what caused Voya Nui to fly upward? Shouldn't it have instead collapsed onto Karda Nui? After all, Mata Nui crashed downward, hence Voya Nui would continue the course unless something else pushed it up.

 

-During the island's ascent, it would first have to crash through Mata Nui's armor, then float to the surface of the water. How would any matoran survive such a series of unfortunate events: squashed then flooded out? Moreover, how was the island not simply smashed to pieces?

 

-After the island's formation, the hole it created formed a great waterfall. Do the matoran of the Southern Continent greet each day by staring at this giant wall of water? What exactly do they make of it? And given the large size of Voya Nui compared to the Mata Nui robot, how is it that all of Karda Nui wasn't flooded within days?

 

To be honest, I am a returning bionicle fan, so while I have done a fair amount of research on biosector01, I have almost completely forgotten the books. My questions may be in error. If so, please correct them. Thank you!

[Sumiki]

Your questions are highly pertinent, but sadly, there are no answers; applying anything resembling real-world physics to this universe is inevitably going to end in disappointment for everyone involved. You almost have to approach the level of the troll physics comics to begin to make sense of some of this stuff.
 
Inertia would not cause Voya Nui to detach. It's like having our planet rocket towards the sun, only to stop halfway, have India break off, and then have the entire subcontinent go to Mars and survive the trip. It's utterly implausible. It doesn't make sense even if you think Mata Nui landed on a Voya Nui-shaped island, because then Karda Nui would have been crushed.
 
The only point that could be addressed is the third, and that's only if Karda Nui somehow has a functioning system of pumps to get excess water out. However, that brings up another question: the water would be coming down at massive speeds, since it had to originate where Voya Nui was floating, come through the hole in Mata Nui's torso, travel all the way down through the Voya Nui-shaped hole in the Southern Continent, then down even further until it hits the bottom of Karda Nui. That's at least two-thirds of the way through a extraordinarily thick robot, and with the water pressure of an entire ocean forcing its way in ...

[aldero]

Yeah, explaining it is a bit of a toughie.

 

First of all, the immense shock of the Great Spirit Robot falling onto Aqua Magna cracked the area around the Southern Continent, so the rest of the shock caused it to rocket upwards. The island also wasn't always shaped like a crescent, as Mahri Nui was once an area of Voya Nui that soon broke off.

 

Yes, many Matoran did die. This was even the cause of Turaga Jovan's death. The Southern Continent was once a massive society, so a small percentage would have survived, thus they are the Voya/Mahri Nui population.

 

I don't know about the massive waterfall in the Southern Continent, but it actually wasn't that massive. If you look at the panels before Matoro enters Karda Nui, you'll see the waterfall is a rather small cavity in the ocean floor. Most of this was patched up by Mahri Nui. And if you look at Karda Nui, the waterfall is actually quite small. Also, Karda Nui wouldn't be flooded in days, not even a thousand years. 

 

This is mainly because it actually took a very long time for Matoro to eventually fall into the Swamp of Secrets via the waterfall. Karda Nui is humongous, and it probably took Matoro five minutes or so to reach the ground.

[bonesiii]

From what I have read, or at least understand, the island of Voya Nui was created during the Great Cataclysm, breaking off from the Southern Continent. What has confused me, however, is exactly how this happened

You and everybody. Unfortunately it was something they never explained (Greg has even resisted attempts to explain it), and although it can be explained (some of it even makes sense ), the whole thing almost certainly would have been better avoided. They could even have had a floating island if they'd wanted but maybe explain it some simpler way like something like Destral's teleportation going awry.

 

I do have a complete explanation (that I've mentioned several times) in my retelling (this part not yet posted; Chapter 51), some details of which I would rather not spoil. I'll answer what I can, though.

 

and its effect on the Matoran Universe. Consider these points:

 

-The island, of course, "rocketed upward", punching a hole in the Mata Nui robot. But what caused Voya Nui to fly upward?

A popular theory was that something like a power surge in Karda Nui (the highest point of that being right under VN after all) shot it upward. Unfortunately, Greg oddly didn't like this explanation for some reason (if badmem serves...). He seems to favor some vague "it broke off in the GC" explanation. I found a way to make this work for my retelling (sorry, you'll have to read it ), but I think the surge explanation should have been canonized instead.

 

Shouldn't it have instead collapsed onto Karda Nui? After all, Mata Nui crashed downward, hence Voya Nui would continue the course unless something else pushed it up.

Well, further complicating things is that Mata Nui is depicted as landing more sideways than downward in the Mata Nui Saga... It's still possible that either downward motion or bouncing upward motion could work here, as momentum could have the sideways motion be almost irrelevant at least at first, just as objects in a car going over a bump fast will seem to go up. It seems Greg's explanation is some variant on the bouncing up idea, but it seems like he doesn't appreciate just how unlikely it is that the speed could be enough to blast it out (and it alone), without similar impacts killing everybody, let alone the VN folks.

 

The overload jet explanation would work way better as it could possibly build up gradually, so the initial acceleration could be gradual rather than zero to maximum instantly. This explanation would have the advantages that the VN Matoran could plausibly survive (read on though), and its being caused by Karda Nui explains why similar events don't happen everywhere, so most others survive the GC too.

 

There's a way to salvage it, but it relies on lots of things going just right... Which works in my story for non-canon reasons, but canonically.... yeeaahhhhh... not so much.

 

During the island's ascent, it would first have to crash through Mata Nui's armor, then float to the surface of the water. How would any matoran survive such a series of unfortunate events: squashed then flooded out? Moreover, how was the island not simply smashed to pieces?

There's actually a great explanation to all three of these problems, and thankfully (probably by sheer luck ) the story team picked an island shape that does it; the island is shaped like a bullet (close enough to work):

 

http://biosector01.com/wiki/images/f/fb/Promo_Art_Voya_Nui_Anchoring.PNG

 

The key to this explanation is that (whatever the cause of its flying upward) its asymmetrical shape could force it to flip around, and then its more aerodynamic shape that way could force it (like a paper airplane) to stay aligned upside-down as long as it stayed in flight. As it is now gradually decelerating, all the Matoran have upward momentum, so the fact that they're on the underside doesn't make them fall off (and indeed air friction on the island would make them feel up as down for a little; it would press against their feet, and this could work as long as this all happens quickly). A bubble of air would form behind it so that they're not just blown off.

 

Then in this alignment it could pierce the hull of the giant, and the water, and physically survive both (there have also been other theories that something aids all this, including perhaps the Mask of Life intervening somehow since it's on VN), puncturing rather than being smashed.

 

Also note that as this would be happening as the giant is landing, the ocean hasn't necessarily covered his chest yet, so the water part might be (all or mostly) irrelevant, although that would be moving fast too, so there's only a narrow window of time when this helps.

 

After the island's formation, the hole it created formed a great waterfall. Do the matoran of the Southern Continent greet each day by staring at this giant wall of water?

Yesh.

 

What exactly do they make of it?

Wasn't defined; the only SC Matoran we got the perspective of were on VN, not those left behind still on the continent. But probably pretty similarly to how the Av-Matoran who moved down into Karda Nui saw the lower half of the waterfall. Just kinda mysteriously there.

 

And given the large size of Voya Nui compared to the Mata Nui robot, how is it that all of Karda Nui wasn't flooded within days?

It's pretty much universally agreed that the official map has to have this detail wrong; no appeal to alternate physics could reconcile this contradiction as a hole that big should flood not just KN but the entire MU pretty much instantly. Ergo, VN has to be much smaller than shown on that map. Evidently when the map was made nobody thought about this problem.

 

That's not much of an issue, though, since sizes on that map are already guaranteed not to be canon in every way; the distances between islands can't work either to fit it inside the shape of the giant. So the map is likely meant only to give a general idea of island shapes and locations, rather than sizes (though most other than VN are probably on the same scale as the others; just shrink the others by the same amount until they fit in domes, but for VN, no; it should be seen as just a tiny dot on that map, and I have portrayed it that way in my version).

 

To replies:

 

applying anything resembling real-world physics to this universe is inevitably going to end in disappointment for everyone involved.

It really depends on the example. I would advise against blanket statements like this, especially universal negatives. It's usually better just to say you haven't yet seen an explanation, etc.

 

Inertia would not cause Voya Nui to detach. It's like having our planet rocket towards the sun, only to stop halfway, have India break off, and then have the entire subcontinent go to Mars and survive the trip. It's utterly implausible.

You're forgetting one likely factor about the giant robot (which I used in my version... I have resisted spoiling this... if somebody guesses this one I guess I'll confirm, since there are other details I don't need to ). Think Star Trek...

 

if Karda Nui somehow has a functioning system of pumps to get excess water out.

Actually I don't think anybody's brought that up. You just explained something I haven't seen anybody be able to explain yet. I suppose that could salvage things even if Greg says the map size is canon.... but I still reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally hope he doesn't (and I doubt it would work for the SC... long story though, but hopefully self-evident). As long as the pumps were located no lower than the water level seen in 2008 at least.

 

And I suppose having pumps like that in the MU would be a good design feature the GBs might think of.

 

 

The island also wasn't always shaped like a crescent, as Mahri Nui was once an area of Voya Nui that soon broke off.

Just in case you're bringing this up to say it originally wasn't (your wording is unclear and is technically right, but irrelevant here), Mahri Nui formed after the GC from the volcano. (Incidentally, explaining a still-active volcano on a floating island is another big issue...)

 

The Southern Continent was once a massive society, so a small percentage would have survived, thus they are the Voya/Mahri Nui population.

This wording makes it sound like you thought all or most of the SC population was on the VN land. Not so; only the obscure village of the refugees from Karzahni were there, and the vast majority of SC population wasn't (regardless of the size of VN, but this certainly fits best with the tiny dot version). Many of the Karzatoran did die, but just how much of a percentage (or approximately), isn't known as far as I recall. I believe closer to the majority of them survived, as they had enough to want to build a "city" of what would become Mahri Nui.

 

I don't know about the massive waterfall in the Southern Continent, but it actually wasn't that massive. If you look at the panels before Matoro enters Karda Nui, you'll see the waterfall is a rather small cavity in the ocean floor. Most of this was patched up by Mahri Nui.

Not sure what you mean by the last sentence in this quote. Mahri Nui had nothing to do with the size of the waterfall as far as I'm aware.

 

Also, Karda Nui wouldn't be flooded in days, not even a thousand years. 

 

This is mainly because it actually took a very long time for Matoro to eventually fall into the Swamp of Secrets via the waterfall. Karda Nui is humongous, and it probably took Matoro five minutes or so to reach the ground.

I think you missed his point, which was valid. Basically, Karda Nui isn't that big compared to the size on the original map of VN thus the hole it would make in the SC's roof. (But... might as well expand on this part that I only implied above -- the hole between VN's original spot and Karda Nui might be small, so Karda Nui might (maybe) not flood in that time, but the rest of the MU should, like if you dump a gallon of water in a funnel faster than the water can go through it; it overflows.)

 

But that's easily solved if the size on that map is inaccurate and VN is tiny.

Edited December 23, 2014 by bonesiii

[RahiSpeak]

Thank you all very much; you were quite helpful. By the way, bonesiii, it may not be that tricky to explain Voya Nui's volcano. If Mata Nui had landed somewhere that was at least partially volcanic, one could imagine multitudes of great lava plumes shooting up from the shattered rock. Odds are, one of them was bound to snag the island, thus forming the Cord. But anyway, thanks again to everyone for their speedy and helpful replies!

 

About an hour after posting the previous paragraph, I realized a perhaps semi-plausable way that Voya Nui could have formed simply through the Great Cataclysm without any external force. If the Mata Nui robot had crashed at an angle of somewhere around, maybe, 60-75 degrees, the region around his chest area would have come to a halt(perhaps some skidding) while the rest of his body would continue to move. This would cause his torso to bend violently in a way it probably wasn't supposed to. Voya Nui, if properly located, may have then slid over the Southern Continent, which would then push the island to point upward. The ceiling in that area would be ruptured as well as crunched inward, close enough so that the island could reach it and even slide through. If enough of the island was sticking out of Mata Nui's chest, then when he began to come to a rest, his body would be lying nearly flat and therefore the rupture would significantly increase in size, releasing the snuggly held Voya Nui (it would have still needed to force part of its way through). As the water began to rush in underneath, Voya Nui would be pushed upward and only have to float upward a short distance. In fact, Voya Nui may have been able to remain surfaced the whole time while Mahri Nui became submerged and broke off because it was still partly stuck in the Mata Nui robot.

 

Well, those are my thoughts. Should any credence be given to them, do you think?

Edited December 23, 2014 by RahiSpeak

[bonesiii]

It sounds like you're saying the Cord came up from volcanism of Aqua Magna? No, it formed downward from Mount Valmai on Voya Nui, after Mahri Nui broke off (previously the lava built up the land that made Mahri Nui). The lava had to come from within the floating island.

 

There are two main theories to that. First, that once the volcano was disconnected from its Southern Continent source, since the lava was part of the system of protections of the Mask of Life, the Ignika itself did something to ensure it would keep working. Perhaps turned some rock alive so it would slowly eat through the island's interior via heat. (Would be a weird form of life but stranger forms have been seen in Bionicle.)

 

The other is that the GBs had included some mechanism from the start to make the volcano self-contained in some way similar to this (perhaps even creation of new rock and heat via elemental energies so it would never run out, although it seems more unlikely to me they would think such a thing would be necessary).

 

Either way, I think it's likely that the heat was obtained by absorbing environmental heat from the edges of the island, explaining the ice ring (if the latter theory, presumably a contingency that switched on at that point; I doubt there was an ice ring originally).

Edited December 23, 2014 by bonesiii

[Regitnui]

Wasn't there a rahi on Voya Nui that looked like a pile of rocks? It was in the VNOLG, if I recall right.

[bonesiii]

I don't recall any such Rahi on Voya Nui, but Mata Nui (and the Matoran Universe in general) had Vatuka rock elementals, seen in the GBA game.

[Boidoh]

Wasn't there a rahi on Voya Nui that looked like a pile of rocks? It was in the VNOLG, if I recall right.

I was just playing Quest for the Toa for the GBA. There was a rahi that looked like a pile of rocks there.

[IcarusBen]

I kinda like to believe that Voya Nui is a sort of emergency system designed to protect the Ignika in case of an emergency, i.e. the GC.

[Toa Komali]

Yikes this thread is like a window into my own problems with voya nui. The water fall filling Karda Nui was a puzzler and also I know the Staff of Artakah fixed the GC damage. But surely the part of Mata Nui would have a lasting effect like a mechanical scar. 

 

Though my math is a little rough here my thought was Voya Nui was about as big as Metru Nui and thats not very large when your talking on a scale of millions of feet. Mata Nui couldn't stand up on a planet like Earth let alone end up lying on his back. But still how did Voya Nui not end up a water ball?

[Banana Gunz]

One answer: Bionicle physics. Just... it makes sense if you don't think about it.

[IcarusBen]

I imagine Aqua Magna is a lot larger than Earth but has much less mass, therefore it can stand on the planet.

 

Of course, perhaps 1 foot to a GB is actually, like, a millimeter to a person.

 

That could explain why Matoran are referred to as "nanotech." 

 

Wait a minute! New WMG! The GBs are really just a bunch of kids playing with their Legos! Aqua Magna is the sink or the bathtub, Bota Magna is Mom's planter or perhaps the garden, Bara Magna is the carpet, and these kids build the GSR on a much smaller scale than, say, a Matoran.

 

Wait... Whaddya mean that's off-topic? Fine. Blah blah Aqua Magna's bigger than Earth, blah blah less mass, blah blah.

[Votuko]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that each dome in the GSR must have its own artificial gravity in order for everything to work if the robot is stood up. Therefore there is a simple explanation for how Voya Nui flew upwards, without any obvious event that could cause an upwards force.

 

Imagine that the Great Cataclysm begins and the GSR collides with the ocean. In that instant, artificial gravity must be set to a huge upwards value to counter the force of the impact, otherwise every single GSR occupant would be crushed into the ground (if you don't see why, imagine being in a lift (elevator) when the cable breaks and it falls to the ground). The gravity systems probably weren't designed for that level of stress, and combined with parts of the system breaking in the crash, calculational errors arose (or some sort of gravitational turbulence) and were concentrated above the Universe Core, creating an area of overly-powerful upwards gravity. That gravity repelled Voya Nui through the roof of the GSR, and depending on how the artificial gravity was dissipated, it could have also been the gravity that punched the hole in the robot, explaining how Voya Nui escaped intact.

[fishers64]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that each dome in the GSR must have its own artificial gravity in order for everything to work if the robot is stood up. Therefore there is a simple explanation for how Voya Nui flew upwards, without any obvious event that could cause an upwards force.

 

Imagine that the Great Cataclysm begins and the GSR collides with the ocean. In that instant, artificial gravity must be set to a huge upwards value to counter the force of the impact, otherwise every single GSR occupant would be crushed into the ground (if you don't see why, imagine being in a lift (elevator) when the cable breaks and it falls to the ground). The gravity systems probably weren't designed for that level of stress, and combined with parts of the system breaking in the crash, calculational errors arose (or some sort of gravitational turbulence) and were concentrated above the Universe Core, creating an area of overly-powerful upwards gravity. That gravity repelled Voya Nui through the roof of the GSR, and depending on how the artificial gravity was dissipated, it could have also been the gravity that punched the hole in the robot, explaining how Voya Nui escaped intact.

For the record, artificial gravity systems are a confirmed fact. 

 

And this is one of the better theories I've seen on this subject.  Not quite sure how artificial gravity could blow a hole in the robot hull, but everything else seems sound. 

[Archon~]

I have a simple solution: the area of Voya Nui wasn't welded onto the robot as well as the rest of the land.

[RahiSpeak]

Xelphene, that is by far the best explanation I have ever heard. It is so perfect that I think it should be made canonical. Geez, makes my explanation sound long-winded and improbable doesn't it?

[fishers64]

I think merging the two together would make the most sense. Voya Nui the landmass was on top of a hollow cave - therefore it follows logically that it would have a weaker connection to the bottom of the bot hull than, say, Metru Nui. Then you have the artificial gravity plus the inertial reaction of the robot to such high speeds, and boom.  

[The 1st Shadow]

In addition to that, remember what was directly underneath Voya Nui? Karda Nui, the energy generator. The storms. When we later saw that area, the storms were gone. The sudden damage to the robot could have caused an error in the energy circuits, causing it to feed back directly into Karda Nui. All that built-up energy, in addition to the gravity thing, could have punched out a hole in the center of the roof--presumably the weakest point.

 

Also, what if the area around Voya Nui was designed as a protective environment, since it was intended to house the Ignika. The region could have been constructed as a fortress or given some kind of shielding abilities, allowing it to remain intact, thereby protecting the Mask. This would have protected the beings immediately on the surface on the way up.

[RahiSpeak]

Alright, this is all very well and fine, but now there is something else that has to be answered. How was Mount Valmai still active? Moreover, how did it get enough material to form not only the Cord, but also Mahri Nui? I like bonesiii's idea of drawing heat from the outside thus forming the ice ring. The idea that the lava came out of nowhere, that I don't like. Any solutions to this improbability?

[Jacks]

RahiSpeak, I don't remember if it was in this thread or another one, but somebody raised the idea that since Mount Valmai was part of the Ignika's defense system, there could have been some mechanism for continually generating magma if the volcano were to be cut off from the rest of the land

 

Actually, given that the entire MU was an artificial environment, there could not really have been any natural tectonic activity, so all volcanoes inside the GSR would probably function like that. I guess we can't really compare them to real-world volcanoes

[bonesiii]

I like bonesiii's idea of drawing heat from the outside thus forming the ice ring. The idea that the lava came out of nowhere, that I don't like. Any solutions to this improbability?

Maybe I forgot to mention it earlier, maybe you missed it, but my idea answers that; it simply uses material from the interior of the island, hollowing it out over time. Or... elemental energy perhaps (since the island would only have so much mass to eat, but over 1000 years that should probably be okay).

[Jacks]

And if the island is mostly hollow inside the layer of ice, that helps explain how it stays afloat

[RahiSpeak]

Oh, I understand what you meant, bonesiii. My point was that Voya Nui does not have near the volume required to create both Mahri Nui and the Cord. Unless of course, Voya Nui were REALLY thick, which would in turn make for a very thick sphere around Karda Nui. It would be so thick that there would be no way some overloaded "gravity makers" (or any other source of energy) would have a chance at blowing it skyward. Another interesting point that was brought up is that a hollow Voya Nui would float. This is of course true, but now Voya Nui has to hold the material to form Mahri Nui and the Cord AND the island must be hollow. Obviously, that means Voya Nui must be MUCH thicker than its already "REALLY thick" size. So, things to think about. And also, I think I may have sounded a bit more... brash than I intended in my previous post. That wasn't intentional, I was just trying to be quick, kind of like now (using an old ipod; not fun on forums).

[IcarusBen]

When Voya Nui skyrocketed, the material used to make Mahri Nui and the Cord wasn't there. It was generated by a combination of fire and stone elemental energy afterwards.

 

Problem solved!

[The 1st Shadow]

You're all assuming that Mahri Nui is massive. It was initially part of Voya Nui (which the lava from Mount Valmai added to while it was floating around in the open sea. After about 700 years, that portion of the land broke off and sunk, taking one small settlement of Matoran with it. The lava continued to flow down and it formed what is basically a giant straw leading down to the sunken piece of land. Remember, there weren't a lot of Matoran on Voya Nui to begin with (fewer than one thousand).

 

To help give some perspective: My high school had around 3000 students, and the campus was about a .5-square mile, including the parking lots. Not very big, when you think about it. Now, you could take that same amount of area and fit about 300 Matoran into separate homes with enough space to spare.

 

So, basically, if we stop assuming that Mahri Nui was huge (I've always imagined it as being about 1/9 or 1/10 the size of Voya Nui), then some of the theories here aren't so far-fetched. 

[bonesiii]

And if the island is mostly hollow inside the layer of ice, that helps explain how it stays afloat

Yes, but only if there was hollowing out going on well prior to the GC; otherwise it would sink at first. I think it's clear there's at least a lot of airtight caves in there, and possibly it's mostly made of a rock like pumice. Or the Ignika may have done something to make it float.

 

My point was that Voya Nui does not have near the volume required to create both Mahri Nui and the Cord.

?? Sure it does. I don't know why you'd say that.

 

Unless of course, Voya Nui were REALLY thick, which would in turn make for a very thick sphere around Karda Nui.

I didn't understand this sentence. Could you clarify?

 

The idea that VN is of a material like pumice (whether naturally or something the Ignika did) would explain this nicely. Bubbles in the rock (or the majority of the rock) would "boil" out when the volcano eats at it, and the resulting lava on Mahri Nui would be more dense. Explaining why it later sank.

 

But MahriN is smaller anyways, so however it works, there's plenty of space for its mass to be from VN. I'm not saying it is; there may indeed be elemental energy sources at work, but it could plausibly be.

[derhenson]

This is one of those thing that I'm not even going to try to make sense of. I'll just settle for "well, it just happened."

 

What gets me, though is HOW characters got from inside the MU to the surface of Voya Nui. The canisters would basically have to levitate upwards through the hole in the GS's body and arrive on the surface of Aqua Magna. Although, theoretically, if you went straight south from Mata Nui, you'd eventually reach Voya Nui since they're in the same ocean.

 

As much as I loved the story, that whole arc (multiple arcs, really) was a geographical nightmare. My head hurts just thinking about it.

Edited January 12, 2015 by derhenson

[bonesiii]

The canisters would basically have to levitate upwards through the hole in the GS's body

Toa canisters have an intangibility power.

[IcarusBen]

I always thought that the GSR had several, for lack of a better term, docking bays where Toa Canisters can go in and out of the robot.

 

Yeah, that sounds about right.

[derhenson]

 

The canisters would basically have to levitate upwards through the hole in the GS's body

Toa canisters have an intangibility power.

 

Ya learn something every day

[RahiSpeak]

For some reason, I cannot quote bonesiii's post so I will just say that this post is in response to post #27.

 

I suppose that whether or not Voya Nui possessed the volume necessary to form Mahri Nui and the Cord is pretty dependent on how much of Mahri Nui was created by Mount Valmai. Mahri Nui existed in the space between the two ends of the crescent-shaped Voya Nui and appears that it is at least one-third the size of it (probably more). There is no way that this could possibly happen when one must consider the size of the Cord that must accompany it. So Mahri Nui, under such circumstances, might have had only had a small part formed by lava and simply taken much of the surrounding land with it. Providing that it was possible that Mahri Nui was solely the result of volcanic eruptions, Voya Nui would probably have such a shaky structure from the immense resource drain that it would crumble at the first earthquake. Again, maybe Voya Nui would have the volume to form part of Mahri Nui and that would have the density to pull much else with it, but otherwise I am very skeptical. Anyway, the idea of condensing pumice is cool.

 

What I meant by Voya Nui being very thick can be summed up with: thicker island>more volume>more material>new island. I mentioned Karda Nui because most theories require a blast of energy to propel the island upward. If the island were incredibly thick then it would also be incredibly heavy and incredibly well fused to the surrounding area. Any blast of energy sufficient to blow Voya Nui skyward would probably be enough to destroy the rest of the Mata Nui robot's upper body (or at least enough of it). I have posted an idea on the island's formation without said energy blasts, but no one has tried to critique it (probably because it is either confusing or very wrong).

[bonesiii]

I suppose that whether or not Voya Nui possessed the volume necessary to form Mahri Nui and the Cord is pretty dependent on how much of Mahri Nui was created by Mount Valmai.

I would going to say all of it... then again, I suppose it's possible a bit of VN's pre-existing rock might have snapped off with it. I doubt it though, given that the curve of the bay seems consistent as of 2006 story.

 

Mahri Nui existed in the space between the two ends of the crescent-shaped Voya Nui and appears that it is at least one-third the size of it (probably more). There is no way that this could possibly happen

Here we go with universal negatives again. They are almost always a bad idea.

 

(Notice I didn't say always. )

 

And where are you getting that math for Mahri Nui's size? It appears to be speculation; I'm not seeing it on the BS01 page. It seems more likely to be a tiny dot in the bay, given the tiny dot size of the volcano itself on the VN map.

 

when one must consider the size of the Cord that must accompany it.

Cords have a way of being long without requiring much mass. Look up the lengths of our DNA compared to us, or our intestines, if they were to be spread out, for some well-known examples. I don't see how you get an "absolutely no way" from this. (Obviously you mean for the theory the VN mass was recycled; this wouldn't apply to the elemental energies theory.) The cord is portrayed as thin enough (in some images), that it may be reasonably ignored in estimates, depending on how long it is.

 

Here's an image of VN, apparently canon, with cord:

http://biosector01.com/wiki/images/f/fb/Promo_Art_Voya_Nui_Anchoring.PNG

Now, admittedly it's a bit thick there, but that makes sense for this end. It could taper. An image of the much smaller Mahri Nui indeed shows it as thinner at the bottom:

 

http://biosector01.com/wiki/images/9/9c/MahriNui.png

 

A concept art image of VN, unsure if considered canonically relevant, but seems to have a thinner cord:

http://biosector01.com/wiki/images/c/c1/Concept_Art_Voya_Nui_Cross_Section.jpg

 

Another image:

http://biosector01.com/wiki/images/8/84/Command_Toa_Mahri_Voya_Nui_Sink.png

This is obviously showing it as much thicker, but proportions here are almost certainly not canon. But it also seems to show it as not long at all, so it would balance out to about the same. If thick plus long are combined, your point could become relevant, but if thin plus being as short as shown here are combined, it's basically irrelevant. Since we weren't given definitive numbers (and that would be very unlikely for this sort of detail), I don't see grounds for such confidence that the Cord is a problem, size-wise, for the recycled mass theory.

 

Note: I suspect longer is more accurate than shorter, though, due to the deadly compression effect of the water at Mahri Nui's depth (or rather the deadly difference if you rise too fast as seen with one Matoran). But also thin, just enough to act as an anchor, so the basic idea of a cord being of much less mass than you might think seems valid.

 

Basically, it looks like you're picking numbers from unknowns to make worst-case scenario. That doesn't disprove the theory because those numbers are non-canon (far as I know). It would only disprove the version of the scenario you described.

 

I mentioned Karda Nui because most theories require a blast of energy to propel the island upward. If the island were incredibly thick then it would also be incredibly heavy and incredibly well fused to the surrounding area. Any blast of energy sufficient to blow Voya Nui skyward would probably be enough to destroy the rest of the Mata Nui robot's upper body (or at least enough of it).

Keep in mind I said that Greg seems to have declined the energy blast theory, so we're beating a dead horse here. But for sake of analysis, there's more apparently unwarranted certainty in here. How do you know it would destroy those things? The logic applied to a gun would apparently say that because a strong force of gunpowder exploding propels a bullet, that force by itself must be extremely destructive (without the bullet), so the blast itself should, for example, destroy a target a few feet away.

 

But that isn't how we observe physics working in this world (you could appeal to fictional physics to justify it but now you're piling unknowns on that aren't even seen in Bionicle; we only appeal to Bionicle physics to explain what we DO see there); we see the explosion's kinetic force being largely transferred to the bullet, which does the majority of the damage.

Edited January 13, 2015 by bonesiii

[RahiSpeak]

Alright, it occurs to me that it might be a good idea to share an assumption I had made. You see, I thought that Mahri Nui used to fill the entire space of the curve of Voya Nui. If that is wrong and Mahri Nui is just a small dot, then this whole thing is really just a misunderstanding. Also, most of the submerged images that I have seen of Voya Nui potrayed it as being more thin and disk-like, which apparently isn't the case and certainly makes a big difference (your pictures were helpful). Anyway, I tried so hard to find all of the "universal negatives" but it appears one got away.

 

Well, thanks for putting up with me!

[bonesiii]

Glad I could help.