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IC: Zha’ar – The Crossroads For several long moments, Zha’ar just looked down at the other Gatherer, his words reverberating in her mind. She’d spent so much of her life trying to keep to herself, to go unnoticed, to avoid making herself a target. At best she’d only ever been a nuisance, tolerated by other Gatherers, not worth the effort for Glatorian to hunt down. After all of that effort, it was surreal to realise that someone had noticed. Someone had seen her, not just for what she was, but for what she could be. She couldn’t refuse. This was her chance to become something more, to be known, to be remembered, to have a life that was more than just scraping by until her luck ran out. “I’d like to see that as well,” she said. “You have my bow.” @a goose

IC: Zha'ar - The Crossroads "Skills?" She sputtered, shifting around in her saddle as if trying to escape the unexpected praise. "All I've ever done is... not die. That's not to say that not dying isn't an accomplishment, I guess, but I don't..." she trailed off, unable to muster more meaningless noise to cover for her conflicted thoughts. Self-worth didn't come easily to someone who'd been abandoned by her own clan. What could someone as powerful and important as Crucius see in her that she didn't even see herself? "...you really want me? He really wants me?" @a goose

IC: Zha'ar - The Crossroads “Imagine what you could do with two working legs.” More than any other trait, it was caution that had kept Zha'ar alive in her isolation. When something looked or sounded too good to be true, it was almost always a trap. Gatherers were bandits and thieves; they didn't go around giving gifts. On the other hand... what would be the point of trapping her? She couldn't recall robbing anyone recently that would have made her an enemy of another Gatherer clan, and a lone wanderer like herself was no threat to whatever unified group Crucius was trying to build. Which meant Crucius wanted something. Zha'ar herself, or something he thought she could provide. And the offer itself... from anyone else she would have laughed it off, but Crucius' mechanical arm spoke for itself. This was someone who had the means to make good on such a life-changing promise. "That's quite the generous offer to make someone you've just met," she replied, forcing herself to slow down and choose her words carefully. "What do you want in return?" @a goose

Tren Krom's island appears to be located in one of the hands, and is still visible on the map above. As is Keetongu's, which should be Chirox's territory, but I mistakenly drew a line to the island above it. I cropped out the rest of the southern islands as they're unnamed, unexplored, and unknown (and take up a lot of space). I'd guess they must have agents or contact points or more lawless islands like Xia and Stelt? We know the Dark Hunters buy weapons from the Vortixx, and that they've recruited at least two beings from Stelt in the past, so they're probably keeping tabs on those islands.

Based on the info we have in canon, Artidax is as far south as anyone has officially explored (barring Axonn's backstory of conquering some unspecified islands, the Toa Nuva's mission to quell some volcanos, and the events of Journey's End). Bitil has the most southern-most territory.

I made renders of the masks (and Miserix's head build) in Stud.io, then reduced the colour to all black in order to get a silhouette. With Krika I had to edit the eye holes back in, and I titled the Shelek slightly the second time in order to get different icons for Mutran and Chirox. Yeah, I'd already committed to the icon idea before I realised we didn't have canon masks for those two. The Avohkii seemed an easy fit for Kojol, while the crossed swords is just meant to reference the fact that Stelt is known for its coliseums and fighting pits. Yeah, it's a little weird. The wording on his BS01 page actually says he's assigned to "the region around Odina". The page for Odina also asserts that its location is secret and Vamprah didn't discover it. There are no citations for either of these details, and frankly it seems bizarre to me that the Makuta couldn't have identified Odina's location when people were constantly coming and going, and the Toa Nuva seemed to have no difficulty finding it.

At the suggestion of Master Inika, I’ve edited another map of the Matoran Universe, this time to depict the known territories of the various canon Makuta. The original suggestion was to do a colour-coded map, but that ended up looking very cluttered, so I decided to go for a simpler style. According to Greg Farshtey, there were once 100 Makuta, and only a handful of them are covered by canon. Even so, based on the amount of territory controlled by the Makuta we do know of, it seems like a lot of the unknown Makuta probably didn’t have regions, or controlled islands so minor they weren’t even worth putting on the map. Starting from the top, our main man Teridax was the assigned Makuta of Metru Nui, while the Brotherhood’s alleged best fighter, Icarax, took over Karzahni. Krika was originally assigned to the north part of the northern continent, and later expanded his territory to include Zakaz after Spiriah’s fall from grace. Sharing the Northern Continent was Gorast, who is specified to have ruled the lower region known as the Tren Krom peninsula. Based on this division, it seems like at least one more Makuta must have had a claim to part of the Northern Continent. Tridax ruled Nynrah, biker bro Antroz ruled Xia, and Vamprah was responsible for Odina (I guess he sucked at his job, since he clearly never did anything about the Dark Hunters). I feel like Greg only vaguely glanced at the map when he decided on Chirox’s territory, since his region includes two completely disconnected islands that are nowhere near each other (one in the hand, one in the leg). He controls Keetongu’s and Tobduk’s homelands (the latter being better known by its current name, Visorak). (I realised after posting that I'd also made a mistake here myself, drawing a line to the wrong island). Chirox-but-with-a-better-colourscheme Mutran controlled the “central part of the Southern Continent”, which is probably intended to refer to Voya Nui. Prior to being deposed, Miserix was the Makuta of Destral. As far as we know, no other Makuta formally claimed that title after Miserix was imprisoned. Bitil is said to have controlled the west chain of the southern islands. However, the map claims that no one has explored further than Artidax, so Bitil’s territory likely ends there. It’s worth noting here that while Spiriah was formerly the Makuta of Zakaz, some pages on BS01 say that he also controlled Artidax. However, there seems to be no citation for this, and since he’s in exile I’ve left him off the map entirely. Finally, a couple of Makuta we don’t have canon appearances for: Kojol was the Makuta of Artakha, prior to raiding the place and getting assassinated by the Order Of Mata Nui, while the Makuta of Stelt is exactly what it says on the tin. This leaves a number of locations unclaimed. Given the way most territories have been divided up, there would have been at least one more Makuta for the Northern continent, and potentially two or three more dividing up the Southern. The large island above Keetongu’s homeland may have had a Makuta (unless it was also included in Chirox’s territory). The small island between Nynrah and Odina could also have had a Makuta (unless it fell into Tridax or Vamprah’s territories). The two islands up near Stelt and Xia (Nocturn’s homeland?) would have likely had at least one Makuta assigned to them, possibly two. I’m less sure about the other side of the map, since we have no information to confirm if the Makuta had any major presence at all in that entire arm. There are also a whole bunch of other islands out there that don’t appear on the map but are mentioned in-story, some of which would have likely had Makuta overseers as well. Let me know if there's anything I've missed, or if you have any suggestions. I'd also love to hear if anyone's assigned territories to their own fanon Makuta.

That's a good thought. I'll set some time aside to have a go at that.

Just FYI, resin prints and resin casts are two very different things. Resin prints are made in a 3D-printer using a digital file of the mask, and though they're definitely way better than filament ones, as you said, they'll still have visible layer lines and extrusions where the supports were attached. Resin casts are created in a mould of the original piece, which is what Socketball does, creating a perfect smooth surface that matches the official parts.

When they were first introduced in 2007, the Barraki brought with them a game-changing new backstory that completely reframed everything we thought we understood about the history of the Bionicle universe. The idea that the Matoran aren’t the chosen people, that the Toa weren’t the original peacekeepers, has always fascinated me, and it was disappointing that future years of the storyline never explored these implications. The fact that these six all-important Prime Species never really played much of a role in the story before or since 2007 is strange as well, so in this thread I wanted to explore some theories about where the Prime Species come from, and what happened to them after the Barraki were imprisoned and their armies were disbanded. From information given in the 2007 storyline, in guidebooks and encyclopaedias, and comments from Greg Farshtey, we have a wealth of information to work with. We know each Barraki was the leader of a different species, and Greg Farshtey has been adamant in the past that none of these species were ones we’d encountered in-story before, meaning none of them are Toa, Skakdi, Vortixx, Steltians, etc. A caveat to that is his statement that connections to the Dark Hunters weren’t discussed, meaning that some of the Dark Hunters of unknown origin could theoretically be members of a Prime Species. The encyclopedia gives a rough rundown of which region each Barraki ruled, though there’s some dispute over this, as Takadox’s entry completely contradicts information given in the other five. BS01 considers the Takadox account to be incorrect, so for the purposes of this thread, and my map above, I’m going with the information in the other five entries. (Note: as Destral can move, Daxia was secret, and we know from The Mutran Chronicles that Artakha and the Southern Islands weren’t conquered, I’ve left those locations unclaimed on my map. We also don’t know for sure if Karzahni was taken over, but given its proximity to Metru Nui, I’m choosing to assume it was). For the purposes of my theories, I’m operating under the assumption that most of the Barraki include their own homelands in their territories. Ehlek probably has the weirdest territory of the bunch, ruling his homeland of Zakaz, but also controlling the western island chain. This arrangement makes a little more sense if we assume he was also responsible for the oceans in general. His species is the only one we know for sure has appeared in-story post-2007, with Federation Of Fear revealing that they became servants of the Order Of Mata Nui. Kalmah was said to have ruled the Northwestern region of the universe. In my map I’ve given him the Northern Continent, but I theorise that he also ruled the island that once neighboured Artakha. The Bionicle World guidebook (written in-universe by the Order Of Mata Nui), states that the inhabitants of Artakha destroyed a larger neighbouring island that was connected to theirs by a land bridge, as part of the measures to hide their island from the rest of the universe after Makuta Kojol’s raid. The guidebook claims this larger island was uninhabited, but given the generally deceitful and villainous nature of the Order, I think this entire account is questionable. We know the Order actively assassinated anyone who knew the location of Artakha, and that Kalmah’s species, ruling the Northwestern part of the universe, would have likely known the location, so I believe that the Order may have committed genocide against the species and sunk their homeland to hide the evidence, explaining why we don’t see this species again in-story. This is further evidenced by a line from Kalmah in The Mutran Chronicles, where he says “As for Artakha, let the old fool putter among his creations,” a strangely personal insult which suggests some degree of first-hand knowledge, given that most other beings we see in-story reverentially regard Artakha as a near-mythical figure. Pridak is one of the biggest mysteries here. All we know about his origins is that he was a servant of the Brotherhood of Makuta who travelled a lot. Upon becoming a Barraki, Pridak is said to have ruled the northeastern part of the universe, with Xia being the only island specifically named. To give him a territory more comparable in size to some of the other Barraki, on my map I’ve given him Stelt, Karzahni, and the unnamed islands to the east. But given what we know of his backstory, I don’t think any of these islands are his original homeland. The best theory I’ve seen - in Click's wonderful Simplifying the Species List thread - is that he might be a member of Tobduk’s species (with his pride/vanity being the emotion he feeds on). This would reframe the Brotherhood’s decision to unleash the Visorak on that island as an act of deliberate revenge against Pridak, and/or an attempt to prevent others of his kind from taking up his banner. Takadox is said to have ruled the eastern part of the universe, which I’ve interpreted as the chain of islands that includes Odina, Nynrah, and Visorak. These islands provide a few possibilities for the origin of his species. Nynrah is said to have a native species of craftsmen, separate from the Fe-Matoran who would later become known as the Nynrah Ghosts. This doesn’t fit what we know of Takadox super well, so I believe a better candidate for his homeland would be Odina. The Bionicle World guidebook states that there was a society native to Odina prior to the Dark Hunters making the island their base of operations, who were killed off/driven out. The Dark Hunters were established after the Barraki were imprisoned, so I feel that this fits the timeline quite well, and explains why Takadox’s race doesn’t appear again in-story. Finally, we have Mantax and Carapar. Mantax is said to have ruled the central part of the empire, while Carapar controlled the south section, and made some attempts to conquer the island chains further south. Given that it’s the only landmass left, I’m assuming that these two shared the Southern Continent, with the Tren Krom river being the border separating their territories. We know the Great Cataclysm did severe damage to this continent, and likely decimated the populations of these species. Given that no other Barraki seem to originate from the same landmass, it’s also possible that the homeland of Carapar’s species is actually one of the southern islands. In this case, us not seeing anything more of his species still makes sense, since the story never really explored those islands.

I was recently reminded that blogs exist, so I figured that this was as good a place as any to post the first official teaser for an upcoming project that will be releasing later this year. ___________________ Deep down, everyone’s afraid of the dark. It’s a powerful, primal thing, an instinct born long before any of us were created. In the dark, anything could be waiting. A ravenous rahi, a roving Rahkshi, Karzahni or Irnakk or Tren Krom or any one of the other nightmares of legend. But now we know there’s nothing waiting for us in the dark. Nothing at all. And somehow, that makes it even more frightening. ___________________ In this alternate reality take on the Bionicle story, the Great Spirit Robot was mysteriously shut down shortly after Teridax took over. In the wake of this second Great Cataclysm, lightstones and heatstones begin to dim and die throughout the universe, dooming its denizens to a dark, cold demise. Metru Nui – with lifegiving light still seeping through the sun holes overhead, and its cold streets heated by the fires of the Great Furnace – becomes the last bastion for the Matoran species. But when the city’s Toa depart to rescue Matoran still trapped out in the dark of the dying universe, they leave the populace vulnerable to the machinations of an unexpected enemy, and return to a city they no longer recognise… Work on Embers began in August of 2022. During that time, I was writing for my Farewell To Corpus Rahkshi collaboration, which put me in a nostalgic, inspired frame of mind, motivating me to finally act on some story concepts I’d been toying with for a long time. Embers was originally envisioned as a trilogy of three “books” that I expected to be ready for release sometime in 2023, but the story ballooned massively in size and scope as I began work on it, expanding to six instalments instead. Due to my nasty habit of starting projects, getting overwhelmed, and not finishing them, I was determined to fully complete a first draft before I began posting anything. I felt that being able to go back and revise the story as a whole would also allow for a more cohesive and consistent narrative overall. As I post this teaser, I’m finishing off the first draft of Book 6. While I’ll still need to carry out a few editing passes (and probably completely rewrite some parts I rushed through), I’ll absolutely be in a position to begin posting chapters sometime later this year. This is by the far the biggest project I’ve attempted and actually followed through on, and I’ve already got ideas for a possible sequel trilogy if the story is well-received. Keep an eye out on the Epics forum for the official release in the coming months.

I think I've got to give my pick to Mazeka's Swamp Strider. It's pretty much the only vehicle in Bionicle's run that didn't have wings or wheels, which helps it stand out. The design is solid and sturdy, and it has the best take on the Zamor launcher of any set. Honourable mentions go to the other three vehicle sets I owned: the Kaxium, Thornatus, and Jetrax.

From what I understand he's insanely busy, so I imagine he doesn't have much time for that sort of thing.

I don't believe so.

IC: Zha'ar - The Crossroads Zha'ar's embarrassment over almost insulting such a famed individual two seconds after meeting him evaporated when Crucius asked his question. Rare was the day when someone could make Zha'ar shut up once she'd started babbling, but Crucius had just managed it. She blinked blankly at him for several seconds, jaw hanging open, before finally finding her voice again. "You've heard of me?" @a goose