...Or sometimes "Les Quatre Freres des Lames," or sometimes with accent marks, or both...

Les Quatre Freres de Lame were the first important group of sentient Spirits shown in the Bioni-Lords story--Obscura, BionicleKeyblade, Language, and Zodiakai. When each one seeks out a human ally and come into contact with each other, a great disaster is on the horizon, and more often than not they make the difference between victory and defeat but don't live through it. And the truth is...they're just something I made up as I went along.

If you've read the lecture on the Origins of Bioni-Lords, you're familiar with Obscura's origins. Since he was the first Orb/Spirit/Bionimon/etc made by someone other than me, I thought he deserved an appearance in the story, so when I was coming up with Nikari I decided to give him Obscura. Ironically, due to Nikari's nature and sacrifice, that Obscura's voice was never heard and Obscura has had the least presence of any of Les Quatre Freres de Lame, to the point where he's the only one without a Super Spirit form. With another Gathering taking place in Book 3, I hope to give Obscura a bit more spotlight, which I feel he deserves. And yes, there will be a Super Spirit form eventually, but even that involves another Spirit as well...

BionicleKeyblade started as a MoC I made in my intial Kingdom Hearts craze and was converted into a Spirit when, after a Spirit Design contest (in the days where there had to be a contest for designs to be sent in), I decided to put in all 3 entries but wanted to keep the final number of Spirits even. It was the first Spirit I had made that wasn't based on a Bionicle, so I wanted to feature it, and BionicleKeyblade was thrown into the story and somehow ended up becoming Khadaz's signature Orb. I was a bit unsure about giving him a name--I thought it might be inconsistent if, right near the end of the Book, we change "BionicleKeyblade" to "Vinxeng" (which was originally meant to be a Makuta name). I decided to go ahead and give him a name, and then I decided to give names to each of the individual Freres. I can't completely remember where I got the idea to make Twilight Sage, but it may have just been an attempt to make battles more over-the-top. Or it could have something to do with a feeling that robes were somehow more appropriate for Khadaz's older self as opposed to BionicleKeyblade's hastily thrown together armor...*shrug*. The abilities of Twilight Sage were intended to be an advanced state of Elemental Powers, but now I realize it's a bit too Mage-like for Khadaz's Warrior style...if only Neya had sent me the Dread Paladin idea sooner!

When I started introducing Spirits based on Anime characters, I got the idea to turn to Pokemon, Unown specifically. Unown is a Pokemon I've always been interested in since they form their own alphabet (which, I will admit, I went to the trouble of learning and using), but they ARE among the weakest of Pokemon...they can only learn one move. Just one. I wanted them to have a presence in Bioni-Lords, but because I wanted them to be more buffed up the result is pretty much unrecognizable--a Toa-sized warrior with a sword who wears Krana. I decided to call it "Language" since it had forms based on the alphabet, and each one has an alphabetical attack because I wanted to expand that feature--Unown had little if any difference between forms aside from their shape. Language was a last-minute addition to the Freres, and I think the only reason he became a candidate was because I gave one to Norscu in my late desire to feature the Spirit. Language also has had fairly little spotlight, with Language X appearing once in Book 1 and Language Supreme not appearing until very late in Book 2, but he'll be rather important in the Gathering that takes place in Book 3. As for Kotoba, I'm not really sure what made be decide to make his ally female...maybe an attempt to balance the gender ratio and earn at least one female reader. This is a bit of a spoiler, but Zenrei and Kotoba display a technique in an upcoming chapter that's based on the crystal effect the Unown produce in the third Pokemon movie--you'll know it when you see it, but if you'd read it without knowing what it's based on it might've seemed kind of random.

A lot of my friends are into Anime as well, and they have introduced me to some new series. One of which is "Fruits Basket"...which I'm almost embarrassed to admit since it is in fact a shojo manga (aimed toward girls). Don't judge me. I enjoyed the characters and the magic component. That magic component involves the Chinese Zodiac, and since I tend to obsess over a series once I start reading/watching/playing it, I became very interested in the Chinese Zodiac, to the point where I developed a set of techniques based on the animal signs involved. I also inlcuded the Cat, which is not a part of the Chinese Zodiac, but, as I learned from reading Fruits Basket, there are legends to explain why the cat isn't a part of the Zodiac. I needed to do something with these techniques, and since Bioni-Lords is always on my mind I decided to give them to a Spirit. Zodiakai's name is an obvious corruption of "Zodiac", his armor colors (black and gold) just seemed a good fit (maybe because they're the color of space and stars?), the Kanohi Arthron is one of the most epic-looking masks ever (in my opnion), the cape was added to give him more epicness, and Jaller Mahri's sword...*shrug*. I also gave him the Rasengan, which is a technique from Naruto that I wanted to try and make a fairly standard Rahaga-type attack, but the bulk of his moveset is comprised of Zodiac Style attacks, and I decided it would (somehow) make sense for him to be a "Toa of the Chinese Zodiac". Since I had already established the habit of giving Toatoa only Toa Spirits and was giving new Spirits to the main characters again, I decided to give Zodiakai a chance to be featured, and since he came in right when I was considering Les Quatre Freres de Lame he got the job. I still feel it was a little...awkward to just suddenly give him a voice and name (but no spotlight) right at the end of Book 1, but it's not something I can easily change. The Ju-San Seishin were thought up because I was a little obsessed with the idea of Super Spirits after designing Twilight Sage, and Sohma Xotaku was thought up when I realized I prefer writing one-on-one duels. "Sohma" is the name of the family in Fruits Basket under the Zodiac curse, and his technique "Yume no Enkai" (Banquet of Dreams) is a reference to the legend that the Zodiac animals were all called to a banquet, and the order in which they arrived is the order in which they appear in the Zodiac.

With Khadaz using BionicleKeyblade, Nikari and his Obscura fresh in our memory, Toatoa getting Zodiakai, and Language X showing up in Norscu's roster, I realized that I had four Rahaga-type, sword-wielding Orbs in close proximity to each other, and I decided to capitalize on that by giving them some sort of great importance. Thus, "Les Quatre Freres de Lame" was created. Why is the name in French, you ask? Because I was coming up with this during my first year of French class.

If there are any further questions about Les Quatre Freres de Lame, or requests for future Bioni-Lords Lecture topics, please leave a comment!