Toa Gali was a Toa of Water and one of the Toa Mata. She was gifted with the elemental power of water; wore a Kanohi Kaukau, the Great Mask of Underwater Breathing; and carried two hooks through which she could channel her elemental water power. Gali and the other Toa Mata were a part of the legend of Mata Nui, a legend that the Turaga of Mata Nui often told to the Matoran during the millennium between the Great Cataclysm and the Toa Mata’s arrival. The legend itself was spawned by a mix of common Matoran legends, the past experiences of the Turaga as the Toa Metru, and Turaga Vakama’s visions.

The legend, as the Matoran of Mata Nui knew it, stated that the Great Beings sent the Great Spirit Mata Nui from the heavens into the world to care for all living things. Mata Nui brought with him the Matoran to the paradise that was the island of Mata Nui, named so in his honor. Mata Nui gave the Matoran the Three Virtues to live by: unity, duty, and destiny; and the Matoran lived happily under Mata Nui’s loving protection. Unfortunately, Mata Nui’s dark brother, the Makuta, had followed Mata Nui from paradise and coveted the world and all that his brother had. Makuta cast a spell over Mata Nui that caused him to fall into a deep slumber. Then, Makuta claimed the world as his own, bringing darkness and destruction everywhere. Fields withered away, sunlight grew cold, and the ancient values of the Matoran were eventually forgotten. However, all was not lost; for the Great Beings would send six mighty Toa to defeat Makuta and awaken Mata Nui once more; and one day, the Toa finally did appear.

Like her fellow Toa Mata, Gali’s origin before coming to the island of Mata Nui is very mysterious. She probably came into being about 95,000 years before she arrived on the shores of Mata Nui. She had never been a Matoran prior to being a Toa, and it is possible that she and the other Toa Mata’s sole purpose was to serve as a failsafe for the Great Spirit Mata Nui should he ever have fallen into danger. As happens with every Toa, Gali’s spirit star came into being, which rested in the sky above Mata Nui. Whatever island that Gali and the rest of the Toa Mata came from, they were trained in the use of their powers as Toa: the use of their elemental powers, the use of Kanohi, and the ability to form Toa Kaita. A Matoran local of the island once described the place as the “world that feeds the world,” the “wellspring of flame that burns none but its bearer until nothing is left, not even ashes.” Some time later, on the same island, the Toa Mata willingly put themselves into transportation canisters that the local Matoran created especially for them to fall into a deep sleep and await a call to action.

The Toa Mata’s call came when the Great Cataclysm occurred and Mata Nui was cast into endless slumber. Their canisters were activated and rocketed up into the sky above Mata Nui to safely fall back down again into the ocean surrounding the island. Had their canisters been working properly, the Toa would have arrived on the shores of Mata Nui, made their way underground to Metru Nui, and found a way to defeat Makuta while he was still weakened and awaken Mata Nui. Unfortunately, an unintentional mechanical fault caused their canisters to malfunction. Instead of steering themselves toward the island of Mata Nui, the canisters floated freely in the ocean with the Toa inside of them for a thousand years. Due to their prolonged time sealed in the canisters, some of the Toa’s biological ligaments decayed over time, causing some of their mechanical parts to fall apart. Their memory faded during that time as well. All the while, on Mata Nui, Makuta harassed the Matoran for a thousand years with his Rahi beasts.

A thousand years after the Great Cataclysm, the adventurous Matoran Takua gathered the Toa stones from all over the island of Mata Nui and brought them together at the Kini-Nui. In doing this, he unwittingly sent a beacon to the Toa’s canisters that finally steered them toward the island. Gali’s canister washed up on the south-eastern cape of Naho Bay. The canister opened, and Gali’s loose body pieces flew out onto the beach. Gali reassembled herself, her organic tissue regrowing once she fitted her mechanical parts back together. Once Gali noticed her Kanohi Kaukau lying on the ground and put it on, she felt a surge of energy course through her that she had probably not felt for centuries. Just as the Matoran’s legends had foretold, Gali remembered nothing except dreams of darkness and her own name.

Gali traveled inland and wandered throughout the island of Mata Nui until she met up with Tahu, Onua, and Lewa at the foothills of Mount Ihu. Pohatu and Kopaka soon found this meeting of Toa and joined. Gali learned from the other Toa what each of their Turaga had told them of the island’s situation: how Makuta had been using the Rahi to harass the Matoran for centuries, and how Makuta had cast the Great Spirit Mata Nui into endless sleep. The Turaga had informed the Toa that, in order to gain the strength needed to defeat Makuta, they all needed to go on a quest for the Kanohi masks of power that were hidden all over Mata Nui. Additional to her Kanohi Akaku, Gali would have to collect five other Great Kanohi – Hau, Kakama, Pakari, Miru, Akaku; and retrieve five Noble Kanohi – Huna, Komau, Ruru, Mahiki, and Matatu – that had been stolen by the Rahi. As the Toa conversed, Gali calmly analyzed each Toa in turn, noting their personalities. During the meeting, Gali strongly supported the idea of the Toa working together as a team in their mission. After a heated discussion, however, the Toa decided to split up during their quest for the masks rather than working together as a team, much to Gali’s dismay. The Toa then got a first taste of Makuta’s own power when he sent a brief combination of hail, lightning, and an earth tremor against them to disrupt the meeting.

Gali departed from the meeting with Lewa. They were traveling through the jungle when Lewa saved Gali from an “angry” pool of water under the power of Makuta. Despite this close encounter, Gali and Lewa parted ways. Gali traveled far from that point towards Ga-Koro, where Turaga Nokama lived with the Ga-Matoran. On her way, Gali encountered a Tarakava while she was swimming toward the village. She trapped the Rahi in a cave; but when she arrived at Ga-Koro, she found that a Tarakava had attacked the village as well. Gali arrived in time to rescue Nokama and the Ga-Matoran from the Tarakava, and the village welcomed Gali as a hero. Nokama soon showed Gali a rocky peak on top of which rested a Kanohi Miru. Gali climbed up this great rock spire and reached the resting place of the Kanohi Miru only to have the mountain crumble under the power of Makuta. Gali snatched the mask as both were falling to the ground below and quickly put it on her face, using its power of levitation to safely land. Unfortunately, Gali soon found herself surrounded by a few Tarakava and Nui-Jaga, although Tahu suddenly arrived to help Gali fight the Rahi off. During the battle, Gali was knocked unconscious and tossed into the sea, where she received a strange vision of two beings called the Toa Kaita. When Gali came back to reality, the Rahi had fled. Tahu told Gali that he had come to tell her that, after the Toa had realized that they had all had limited success in finding the Kanohi masks alone, Onua had called a meeting near his landing site. Tahu took Gali to Onua’s meeting, where all of the other Toa waited. After a great battle against the Rahi and Makuta’s power over the island, this meeting ended in one unanimous decision: the Toa would work together as a team.

The Toa turned to the Ta-Matoran for the location of the next hidden Kanohi mask to find. The Ta-Matoran told the Toa that Tahu’s Kanohi Miru was beneath the waves of the shoreline just south of Po-Koro. With this in mind, the Toa traveled to this location as a group, although they still wasted much time on petty disagreements. When they arrived, the Toa who already possessed the Kanohi Kaukau – Onua, Kopaka, and Gali – went underwater to retrieve the mask while Lewa, Pohatu, and Tahu guarded the beach. The Toa underwater encountered a Tarakava from which they removed its infected mask. The Toa retrieved Tahu’s Miru and returned to the surface successful.

As Gali collected Great Kanohi on her quest, the masks were teleported back to the Ga-Suva when they were not in use, and could be summoned back and forth for her use at any time. If Gali came across a Noble Kanohi, she returned it to Turaga Nokama when she had the chance. As Gali collected more and more Kanohi, she gained more and more abilities from the Great and Noble Masks. After the Toa collected several more Kanohi with significant success, they split off into two groups to find Pohatu’s two last Great Kanohi. Lewa, Pohatu, and Kopaka went to Po-Wahi; and Tahu, Onua, and Gali went to Le-Wahi. Gali grew angry with Tahu for burning a tree to the ground in order to get the mask that rested in its branches.

The Toa’s quest for the masks finally ended in the drifts of lower Mount Ihu where they found Tahu’s Kaukau. After the Toa had collected all of the Great and Noble Kanohi and had for the most part freed the Rahi from Makuta’s control, they were uncertain of what to do next. They had heard rumors of Gold Kanohi, and both Gali and Kopaka had had brief, mysterious visions of the Toa Kaita and of a massive temple in the center of the island. The Toa, having each collected all six of their necessary Great Masks, returned to their Koro. When Gali visited the Ga-Suva in Ga-Koro, where her Great Masks were kept, and placed her own mask on it, her six Great Kanohi formed a single Gold Kanohi in the shape of her Kanohi Kaukau.

Armed with her new Gold Kanohi, which gave her the powers of the six Great Kanohi she had collected, Gali journeyed with the other Toa to the Kini-Nui. It was there that they met the Chronicler’s Company, who agreed to defend the Kini-Nui from the Rahi while the Toa were facing Makuta. The Toa then unlocked an underground passageway to Mangaia, Makuta’s underground lair, through the Kini-Nui with the Makoki stones. The Toa traveled through this tunnel down to Makuta’s realm. When, on their way to Makuta, the Toa encountered the Manas – Makuta’s two most powerful Rahi guardians – they could not find a way to defeat them until they merged their beings together to form two powerful Toa Kaita. Gali merged with Lewa and Kopaka to form Toa Kaita Wairuha. The Toa Kaita were able to defeat the Manas and move on toward Makuta’s inner lair.

Once the Toa Kaita reached Makuta’s inner lair, they split apart once again into the six Toa. It was there that the Toa faced the Shadow Toa – dark essences of themselves given independent life by Makuta. The Toa were evenly matched against their Shadow Toa counterparts. The Toa, faced with essentially fighting themselves, still managed to triumph by acknowledging that the darkness was a part of them, just as it was a part of all beings. This realization enabled the Toa to reabsorb the Shadow Toa back into their bodies, ending their threat.

With the Shadow Toa defeated, the Toa faced the Makuta himself. Makuta revealed only a small part of his true form to the Toa, at first taking on the appearance of a pitted, scarred, infected Matoran. Then, after greeting the Toa, he transformed into a mass of tentacles that quickly beat back the Toa. Even with their mask powers, the Toa were rapidly caught up in an intense battle that did not seem to press on in their favor. It was only when the Toa used their elemental powers together against Makuta’s being that they were able to defeat him. Makuta, beaten, mysteriously disappeared. After their great fight, the Toa started back up to the surface of Mata Nui victorious. The Toa, it seemed, had saved the island of Mata Nui and its Matoran at last.

When the Toa reached the surface, they did not hear the sounds of peace but the sounds of turmoil all over the island’s landscape. They found a Ta-Matoran near the Kini-Nui who repeated one word over and over: Bohrok. The Toa used their Kanohi to speed their way to Ta-Koro to investigate, where they found mysterious creatures attacking the village. As it turned out, these new creatures were swarms of Pahrak and Kohrak. Gali was able to combine her powers with Lewa to create a storm to drive away these creatures; but the Toa had just faced Mata Nui’s newest threat: the Bohrok swarms.

As the Toa stood around a single fallen Pahrak, Turaga Vakama told the Toa the legend of the Bohrok, which was yet another prophecy spawned by his visions. This legend stated that the Bohrok had slept a seemingly endless sleep for thousands of years. When they wakened, they would rampage throughout Mata Nui and devastate the island. The weakness of any Bohrok, however, was its Krana – a purely organic creature within the Bohrok’s head plate that guided the Bohrok on its mission and gave it extra power. Even the mightiest of Bohrok would be rendered helpless if parted from its Krana.

Turaga Vakama told the Toa of a new mission: to gather the eight Krana breeds from each of the six Bohrok swarms – a total of forty-eight Krana to collect. The Toa took a Krana Xa from the fallen Pahrak. As leader, Tahu ordered the other Toa to return to their Koro to make sure their villages were safe and to start on their mission to gather the Krana.

After leaving the others, Gali traveled through the jungles of Le-Wahi on her route to Ga-Koro. She encountered a swarm of Tahnok trying to destroy the Vuata Maca trees, with little success. Just as the swarm was about to move on towards Po-Wahi, Gali summoned a rain storm to turn the already swampy ground beneath the Tahnok even stickier, making her task of gathering some Krana even easier. Gali then sped to Ga-Koro to make sure its villagers were safe.

Gali soon left Ga-Koro and met up with Pohatu, Onua, and Kopaka at the Tiro Canyon in Po-Wahi. Onua dug a tunnel from the canyon wall to the sea, and Kopaka froze the opening. Onua and Kopaka left, while Pohatu and Gali waited to spring the trap. When a group of marauding Tahnok marched through the canyon, Pohatu kicked a boulder that shattered Kopaka’s ice plug, causing the waters to gush out of the opening and flood the canyon. Pohatu watched as Gali quickly dove into the already boiling waters and retrieved four Krana from the submerged Tahnok. The two fled when the Tahnok started climbing up the canyon wall toward them. The Tahnok later caught up with Pohatu and Gali in another canyon in Po-Wahi. Pohatu stopped the swarm with a rock wall; and Gali flooded the canyon with her elemental power of water, dissuading the Tahnok from following them.

Gali traveled up the foothills of the Mangai Volcano with Pohatu, where the two met up with Tahu and Kopaka, who had discovered the entrance to the Bohrok nest. Onua and Lewa soon arrived; and when the Toa summed up the Krana they had collected, they realized that they had gathered all they needed. At Lewa’s suggestion, the Toa wasted no time in traveling with their Krana to the entrance of the underground Bohrok nests. The Toa descended into the tunnel, trying their best to avoid exiting Bohrok and fighting past them when they could not. After the Toa traveled into the tunnel for some distance, Tahu descended down an opening in the floor that sealed itself shut once he was inside the Tahnok nest below. Meanwhile, a slab of stone suddenly came down and sealed the tunnel ahead of the Toa waiting up above. The five Toa then faced a surge of lava flowing down the tunnel they had come just down through. Desperate to escape, Onua and Pohatu worked on shattering the stone slab while Kopaka tried to slow the lava flow. Despite all of Onua and Pohatu’s strength, they could not produce even a scratch in the stone. It was Lewa, who had survived the experience of having a Krana attached to his face, who realized that the stone slab was an illusion. Once the Toa stopped believing that the stone was actually there, it dematerialized. The five Toa escaped from the tunnel and met up with Tahu once again when he burst through the floor, having heated the air in the Tahnok nest until the air pressure blew the nest apart.

The floor gave way under the Toa, sending them falling into a large chamber below. The Toa used their mask powers to cushion their fall and landed safely. They noticed special niches in the ground specialized for the Krana they carried, so they placed in them the Krana they had worked so hard to collect. Once the Toa did this, the ground shook, causing six doors in the walls of the chamber to crumble. The doorways revealed six entrances, and each Toa went into his own passageway. The Toa discovered Exo-Toa armor in the new chambers, which gave them more power than ever before.

Coming back to the larger chamber and occupying the suit of Exo-Toa armor, Gali watched as Tahu encountered Cahdok – one of the Bahrag, twin queens of the Bohrok swarms. Tahu drove Cahdok back into the larger chamber as Lewa and Kopaka drove Gahdok into the area as well. The Toa quickly surrounded the Bahrag and drove them into the center of the chamber as a strategic move. However, the Bahrag’s symbiosis allowed them to grow more powerful as they came closer together. When the Toa attacked the Bahrag with the new weapons of the Exo-Toa, they had no effect. Despite the new power that the Exo-Toa gave the Toa, their battle with the Bahrag did not seem to be in their favor. The Bahrag quickly smothered Gali in waves of heat. Most of the other Toa were promptly overcome, and they found themselves once again fighting a battle that did not seem to move along in their favor. Tahu finally reasoned that the only hope to win the fight was to get out of the Exo-Toa, which hindered the use of the Toa’s elemental and Kanohi powers. After he ordered the Toa to shed their Exo-Toa armor, the Toa attacked the Bahrag as one, this time combining their elemental powers in a single beam against the Bahrag. This beam of the Toa’s six elemental blasts combined created a barred cage of indestructible solid protodermis around the Bahrag, imprisoning them. Because of this, the Bahrag’s mental link was cut off from the Krana, and in turn cut off from the Bohrok. The Bohrok all over Mata Nui ceased their rampages at once, and the Toa had saved Mata Nui once again.

Immediately after the Bahrag’s defeat, the Toa were drawn into tubes in the floor of the chamber that were filled with energized protodermis. As destiny would have it, the Toa were transformed by the substance into something more powerful than any other Toa had ever been, with greater elemental powers, stronger Kanohi masks, and shiny new armor. No longer were they Toa Mata. Forever after, they would be known as the Toa Nuva. Gali became known as Gali Nuva.

Throughout her existence, Toa Gali possessed the elemental power of water, which basically allowed her to create and manipulate water and moisture by using elemental energy. Gali could also absorb elemental water energy from her surroundings to replenish it in herself. Gali carried two hooks for Toa tools, which she could use to channel her elemental water power and climb slippery rock surfaces. Before she received her gold Kanohi, Gali favored to wear her Kanohi Kaukau, which she had possessed even before her time on Mata Nui. The Ga-Matoran were very loyal to her and greatly respected her power. Gali was also known for her incredible wisdom, which was perhaps greater than that of all the other five Toa put together. She was very skilled at noting the personalities of the other Toa Mata and the interactions among them. She was the most agile and gymnastic of the six Toa, having incredible jumping abilities and her own brand of acrobatic self-defense. Gali easily found herself at home both in and near water; and she could swim quickly through waterfalls and worked in harmony with the waters, which helped to protect her in times of danger. However, Gali was weakened and slowed in excessive heat and drought. Gali always stressed unity among the Toa Mata, and was discouraged when they refused to work together.