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Chapter 7 – New World Order From the notes of Chronicler Crisda. Most Matoran have always held the Vahki with a certain degree of dread. The unnerving way they speak, the unnatural way they move, the ruthlessness with which they carry out their orders… and yet, we still understand the Vahki. They’re consistent, predictable. But our new enforcers are far more frightening, for no one knows what’s truly going on behind those eerie eyes. * * * Ilton The Sea Gates were all closed. Sealing them up had proven to be the easiest part. It was actually finding them that had been the most difficult. The Great Barrier was pockmarked with cliffs and caves, some of which had collapsed during the earthquake that had wracked the universe after Teridax’s takeover. Several of the gates had been near-completely obscured, and it taken a close inspection of the cliffside to even discern their locations. Even being able to sense metal hadn’t helped Ilton as much as he’d expected. The Great Barrier was home to numerous smuggler caches and hideaways, not to mention shipwrecks. The tides (back when there still had been tides) had brought the debris and detritus of old wars piling up against the base of the barrier in some places, leaving rusted armour and broken weapons lodged amidst the rocks. But the work was now done. Metru Nui was now completely cut off from whatever was left of the old universe. Any hostile force that tried to reach the city would find the gates gone, reshaped into solid slabs of metal with twisting roots buried deep in the rock. Ilton had witnessed a great many horrors in Xia, and he’d done his utmost to ensure none of them would ever threaten Metru Nui… assuming any Vortixx, Skakdi, or Dark Hunters had even survived. The last report he’d gotten, via a Kadin-wearing messenger Toa who’d come and gone earlier that morning, was that the city was home to its fair share of horrors already. Ilton was all too eager to get back to the city – he was one of the best-suited Toa in the universe to take on an alleged Makuta, after all – but the messenger had advised that Icthilos and the others wanted him to stay safely away from the city until they had a better sense of what was going on. So here he waited, with a meagre crew and mounting worry, for his friends to send word. Hopefully Savnu wasn’t doing something characteristically reckless in his absence. He wandered about the ship for a while, chatting with various crew members to keep at bay the worries brimming in his brain. But eventually his concern could no longer be ignored, and he found himself approaching a lone Ga-Turaga perched near the front of the boat, hoping he might have some sagely solace to offer. The man’s name was Marik, if Ilton recalled correctly. He’d transformed into a Turaga in the earlier days of the Xia campaign, and had been mostly relegated to a support role since then. “Could I trouble you for some advice, wise one?” He asked gently. “Don’t call me that,” the Turaga snapped, glowering at Ilton as if he’d been slapped, not merely spoken to. Like the first Toa who’d died in the Vahki strike, he wore a Mask Of Clairvoyance, though his bore a ragged crack from battlefield damage that had likely rendered it powerless. Ilton almost blurted out an offer to repair it for him, but many of the Toa had kept Kirils as backup masks to repair their equipment after battles. Plenty of others would have offered to fix the crack long before now, which meant Marik was choosing to leave his mask mangled out of choice. “I apologise. I meant no offence.” “I’m the one who has committed the offence,” Marik replied, gesturing to his body, “I transformed with my blade buried in a Skakdi’s heartlight. This form isn’t a… promotion. It’s a punishment from the Great Spirit for breaking my oath as a Toa.” Ilton had heard the story. Marik had been the first – but far from the last – Toa who’d been forced to bend or break the Toa Code in the heat of battle. Ilton himself had escaped having to make that terrible choice, but he knew others – Savnu, Bihriis, Widrek – who’d crossed lines they once wouldn’t have. Unlike Marik, though, the others hadn’t turned into Turaga while doing so. “I was told that Skakdi you slew was poised to destroy a Xian transport with Matoran on board. How do you know that saving their lives wasn’t the fulfilment of your Destiny?” From what he’d heard, that transport’s destination had been the same foundry where Savnu had later deployed her Toa Stones. There was a very real possibility that the Matoran Marik had saved were among those who had gone on to become Toa. To Ilton, at least, that explanation seemed a far more likely interpretation of Destiny than assuming Marik was the only Toa in existence to be turned into a Turaga as some kind of cosmic punishment. But remorse and self-loathing were hard things to overcome, for Marik simply scoffed at the suggestion. “What would you know of Destiny?” “I’m one of the last Fe-Toa in existence, and I’ve just learned there’s a Makuta in Metru Nui in need of deposing. That sounds like Destiny’s design to me.” “Hm, perhaps-” Marik paused, brow furrowed. “Something stirs in the water. We’re not alone.” Sure enough, Ilton soon felt the same thing with his own abilities. A vast, complex shape with ample mechanical components moving beneath the water, as large if not larger than the boat beneath his feet. The sea began to swell as the unseen thing rose, then broke the surface, battering the boat with a brutal wave that brought it rolling against the rocks of the Great Barrier. As Ilton pulled himself upright, he saw the surfaced object for what it truly was: an airship. An airship with what looked to be a Hagah plasma cannon mounted on its underbelly. A plasma cannon that was now taking aim at the battered boat… * * * Trina Ten minutes of strained silence had passed since Widrek’s disappearance. Some of the Toa murmured amidst themselves, but few were willing to raise their voices above a whisper. Some of the Matoran were already helping themselves to the food and water that had been brought out, and Turaga were tending to the wounded, talking with the healers in hushed tones. Trina nudged Icthilos. “If you were so sure this was a trap, why did you let Widrek go?” “He wanted to go. None of us could’ve stopped him,” Icthilos replied softly. “And everyone here knows and respects him. If something happens to him, we’ll have no trouble rallying everyone against the Makuta.” Trina wasn’t shocked by the words, nor even disappointed. This was the side of Icthilos that the war had brought forth, the calculating pragmatist who sought the advantage in any situation, no matter how dire. He and Widrek had often thought alike, which meant Widrek’s had also considered the possibility that he was sacrificing himself when he’d chosen to step forward. “Besides, he didn’t go in alone,” Icthilos said, gesturing back towards the transport. Trina glanced in the direction he’d indicated. It took her a few moments to identify the detail that was out of place, a Toa lying unconscious on a stretcher with the rest of the wounded. A Su-Toa that she knew full well wasn’t actually injured: Orane. “You knew he’d do that?” She asked, certain she hadn’t seen Icthilos order Orane to do anything. “I assumed. Hopefully he can tell us more about whatever’s going on inside the Coliseum.” As if summoned by the mention of his residence, the one-eyed Mesmer that had been by Turaga Rost’s side earlier suddenly pushed through the crowd to approach the two Toa. “Icthilos, and Trina,” his mandibles clacked together as he spoke, “I’ve heard much about you.” “I’m afraid we can’t say the same, mister…?” Icthilos said. “I am Talok. Administrator Talok. Aide to the Makuta, advisor to the Regent,” his already-hunched form bent further forward into a bow, “I understand you are among the leaders of this group, so I thought it prudent to introduce myself and address any questions you may have.” Despite his poor posture, Talok seemed taller and burlier than the other Mesmers Trina had glimpsed around the arena. He was still head and shoulders taller than many of the Toa, save perhaps for Widrek and the Toa Vehi. Both his body and the ornate, angular armour he wore bore the scars of innumerable battles; this was an old being, and one who had known war. “I have… quite a few,” Trina said, “How about you start by giving us a bit of a rundown on the chain of command here. Obviously Makuta Vhel is at the top, Rost is his Regent, but how does the rest of the hierarchy fit together?” “I am the appointed leader of my people, just as Rost is for yours. There is also an advisory council, where your Turaga have input in our decision-making processes, as do some of the elders among my kind, and the Rahkshi representatives.” “You have Rahkshi advisors?” “At their final stage of evolution, some Kraata can speak and reason. They think and want just like the rest of us, and so they must be heard. There are three such Rahkshi in the council.” It sounded utterly insane, but Trina had heard rumours of powerful talking Rahkshi in the past. If such beings existed, she supposed it was only fair that they be given seats at the table. As fair as anything could be in this mad new pecking order. Although, the idea that there were Rahkshi involved in the city’s decision-making processes suddenly made the events of the previous evening far more worrying. Could these Rahkshi leaders prosecute the Toa for destroying the wild Rahkshi that had attacked them? Did they have that right? “So beyond this council, where does everyone else fit in?” She asked hurriedly, not wishing to dwell on the thought. “Your fellow Toa continue to fulfil their duties as protectors of the Matoran, while mine aid the Vahki as enforcers. The Matoran occupy the lowest tier of society, as workers.” “And why do your lot get to lord it over the Matoran?” Icthilos asked. “Because it is our Duty, given to us by the Great Spirit at the dawn of this universe, just as you were given yours. As you should well know, the Prime Species were ordained by Mata Nui himself to uphold law and order in the universe.” “And they dishonoured that Duty by becoming conquerors,” Icthilos countered. “Your lot aren’t worthy to claim that Duty now.” “By that logic, the failure of your kind to stop Teridax supplanting the Great Spirit would make you equally unworthy to continue in your role as protectors, would it not?” Trina audibly winced. She had nothing to offer as a counter or comeback. Teridax had outwitted them all. So many heroes had made so many sacrifices, and all they’d managed to do in the end was doom the universe to darkness. “I don’t blame you for your… narrow focus,” Talok continued, “Your Duty was only ever to protect your own people. But ours was to uphold order among all peoples, and now those who dwell in this city are all that remain. We have been denied our duty for tens of millennia, and we will not be denied any longer.” Trina felt Icthilos’ hand take her own, a gesture that was as much for her reassurance as it was his own. She could feel him trembling slightly, though whether it was due to anger or something else, she wasn’t sure. “Okay, what of the city?” She asked, “Why is Le-Metru abandoned?” “Le-Metru was deemed… wasteful. The machinery, the chute systems, it all used too much power, so it was evacuated and shut down.” “And the Rahkshi live there now?” Trina asked. “The Rahkshi reside in the Archives, beneath the city. They dwell there during daylight hours, and roam the streets at night.” Apparently anticipating their aghast reactions, Talok quickly continued, “There is an understanding in place. The Matoran adhere to a strict curfew, and the Rahkshi know not to trespass in any structure with doors or windows.” Trina wanted to scoff at the idea on instinct, but a key detail from the battle on the beach stopped her short. “They didn’t enter the boats,” Icthilos said, realising the same thing she had. “They attacked us on the beach, at the railings, even knocked down the mast, but none of them went inside.” It was a comfort to know, but only a small one. The Rahkshi had been merciless in their attack on the Toa; Trina didn’t want to imagine what the creatures would do to any Matoran who broke curfew. “Precisely,” Talok said. “As to your earlier question, the city has been restructured. With Matoran of more than the six prime elements present, we saw no sense in segregation. Le and Ko Metru are now abandoned, while Onu-Metru is only sparsely populated, and now used primarily for storage. The rest of the Matoran are now concentrated in the remaining Metrus. The furnace of Ta-Metru provides heating and other vital supplies for the city. Po-Metru is used for manufacturing, and Ga-Metru is the source of our food and water.” “It sounds like there’s not much room left in this new world order for Toa.” Icthilos said. “After what you’ve endured, is that so bad?” Talok asked, “You’ve done your Duty. You brought your lost Matoran home. You’ve earned your rest.” “If that were true, we’d all be Turaga by now,” Trina pointed out, “We’re still here, which means our Destinies remain unfulfilled.” “Well, of course. The people will always need their Protectors,” Talok said, starting to turn away, “I suppose only time will tell what they need protecting from.” Trina couldn’t shake the feeling that she was already looking right at it.

Glowak-Kal, the Bohrok-Kal of bling.

Rahkshi are one of my all-time favourite races in Bionicle. There's so much untapped potential and unexplored implications with them, which is a big part of why I gave them such a prominent role in this series. The gravity battle stemmed from the fact that while a lot of power scaling in Bionicle is vague and unspecified, Rahkshi have very clearly-defined power levels, with some of the Level 6 descriptions specifically stating they're stronger than even a Toa Nuva. For powers that overlap with Toa, like gravity, I felt like that would create some interesting room for strategic countering or cancelling-out of powers, and tug-of-war type struggles. Pira is definitely one of my favourite characters to write. With so many of the Toa basically being veterans who are set in their ways of faith and Duty, I felt that it was important to have a perspective that was essentially the complete opposite. She's very lightly inspired by Gavla, the Av-Matoran from 2008 who felt like she didn't fit in, and enjoyed being a Shadow Matoran. The ideas I posted in that other thread came together as I was working on this story. The history and fate of the League Of Six Kingdoms obviously have a pretty major role to play in Embers, so I spent a lot of time thinking and theorising about that. In the thread I framed the theories as being based on canon info, which is still the case, but they were influenced just as much by what would make for interesting plot points in this story. With Bionicle being a kids theme, there wasn't a lot of room for nuance or ambiguity. The antagonists were pretty much all moustache twirling, puppy kicking caricatures of villainy. But with so many different species and cultures in the Bionicle universe, surely there had to be members of other races who honoured Duty, who were seen as heroes by their own people? That's something I really wanted to dig into throughout this story, and a Makuta seemed like the perfect place to start. Thanks for reading, and for all of the feedback. I'm glad you've been enjoying the story. The next chapter will be out tomorrow.

I didn't mean to fall so behind on this series, and I am only catching up now. Chapter 3 review: another excellent continuation. I find complex battle scenes difficult to write and you did a good job keeping the reader's attention focused on a few concepts giving an idea of the general chaos. The Toa of Gravity having to mentally fight the Gravity Rahkshi was particularly creative and felt like an unusually hard sci-fi take on Bionicle powers, like the powers are radar beams that can have stronger or weaker signals. In general seeing the secondary Rahkshi in action was great. I always wished we got to see them more in canon. The few glimpses we got in the 2004 books was great and I was disappointed not much was done with the Rahkshi of Heat Vision in 2010, so this chapter really scratched that itch. Chapter 4 review: Pira is such a fascinating character. I'm curious to see what "Brother" capitalized like that specifically means. (On a lesser note, the consistent capitalization of "Of" in mask names throws me off.) Chapter 5 review: I knew I had read about Takadox's species being the original species of Odina on another topic, I looked it up and did not realize that was also you. I was going to ask if you got the idea from them, funnily enough. Chapter 6 review: this new Makuta is awesome. I've always been fascinated with the idea that the Makuta were ostensibly supposed to be "good" at some point and you've done a great job exploring this implication, plus everything about evidence vs. faith is well done and thought-provoking. I look forward to what's next.

First I planned to build Kardas, already got Vezon & Fenrakk so I needed Axonn and Brutaka. But at the moment I'm more for buying the Barad-Dur + Fell Beast combo.

Plutonium

what element is that kal?

would you mind telling me what parts are needed? I'm making dumb myself on a budget

Still got some interesting pieces for collectors. Piraka promo banner. Full set 10202 Ultimate Dume with box and instructions - SOLD Ebay taxes are ridiculous, and I can only send it within the EU. If you would be interested send me DM.

Probably just as well that this week's build stream was for a set I didn't find particularly interesting, as I had a lot of other things to get caught up on while listening in. At least I had an opportunity to mention a few other things in the chat, like my good fortune with getting all 12 of the space-themed Series 26 Collectible Minifigures. Also just as well that you'll be off for the next two weeks. Let's just say I could really use those extra hours to clear up some things on my to-do list... Since I don't know when I'll have an opportunity to make any suggestions before you get started on going through Lego Indiana Jones 2, I might as well add it to this comment. As I've said before, it is a very uniquely structured Lego game. Probably the first thing worth mentioning is that while it does include a "level builder" feature that does in fact contribute to 100% game completion, I would highly recommend you save that section of the game for the very last few things to do, as much of the so-called progress in that section is mostly just purchasing items, so you'll want to be sure you have plenty of studs already collected by that point. As for where to begin, it should be noted that while each hub world has five Treasure Levels (alternate versions of the Story Levels where the objective is to collect a minikit) and five bonus levels (levels that must be found in the hub world and are structured as if they were made in the level builder with the objective also being to collect a minikit) to complete, there's also other things to do while exploring the hub world, such as characters and vehicles to purchase, some races to run to unlock some other characters and vehicles for purchase, and destroying a number of certain objects to unlock the colored bricks for purchase that provide special bonuses (red for a stud multiplier, blue for a special aid such as fast interactions, and green for a sillier bonus that's just for fun). Since I assume you'll want to start at the Raiders of the Lost Ark hub world, the very first thing I would recommend you do is unlock and purchase the red brick in that area, as I remember from experience that some levels are practically impossible to fill the stud meter without at least one stud multiplier active.

me. I'm a massive hf fan, almost as much as a bionicle fan. I love the setting, sets, and comedic nature of it. I'm currently working on a stop-motion continuation/semi-soft reboot of it and have more hero factory Mocs than I have bionic Mocs. when I bought g2 kopaka, after building him, I tried to make him into brain attack stormer. I regularly rewatch hero factory fm and breakout, and I dream about hero factory sometimes. I do Mac megahertz impressions in the shower. I'm currently working on revamps of the entire alpha team. so...

community toxicity is a big part of Bionicle's history, you can't just ignore the bad. but If you want to talk about good, I was going to say pushing boundaries. redefining what's possible for lego to pull off. weather that's cringe raps, direct to dvd movies, a fan base that's still around after almost zero support from the creators, or even but bionicle mythical atmosphere really sells it for me. I got back into it in 2022, and I was still amazed by the story and atmosphere of 2001. I WASN'T EVEN BORN THEN AND I STILL HAVE NOSTALGIA FOR IT... yeah, too that my perspective on It, seeing as I'm a g2 fan

thanks for this Lenny, I'm going have to do a rewatch!

Nato G already sent a link with the original image in 1200x700px. Here it is.

link is still non-functional, at least for me. Edit: never mind, reading it now thanks

I'm not going to the event, but is there any way I can get one anyway?

highest quality image I could find, ai upscaled with upscale.media

Not so much skilled in editing images unfortunately

I suppose you have a point there. And yeah, I know exactly which type of story you're talking about. That wasn't my intent at all.

You're right, sorry. I'm not really sure. As he is written, Kalama sounds almost neurodivergent to me, thinking Agni is his friend and just being oblivious to how Agni really feels about him. I honestly feel pretty bad for him. To me at least, this reads like it is the introduction to a longer story about Agni and Kalama having a buddy adventure where they learn to see each other's points of view and gain a newfound respect for each other. As a complete story, though, with it ending abruptly with Agni just miserable and Kalama unaware that Agni isn't really his friend, it comes off as a little mean-spirited. To use another example from modern pop culture, some middle season episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants really get SpongeBob and Squidward's relationship wrong and just make it about SpongeBob annoying Squidward for no reason. Those episodes have an unofficial fan name that it would not be appropriate to say here, but you get the idea. It's a testament to your writing and the story's potential that I come away feeling so bad for both characters, but I found it frustrating how abruptly it concluded with no change in their relationship. Truthfully, I think the problem in the story is too fundamental to be fixed with just one or a few extra lines.

"Breaking the Habit" - Plankton AI.

You could also try using an image upscaler. Don't know how well it'll work though.