The Iron Toa

I think every Toa's Nova Blast has about the same radius of destruction. So a Toa of Gravity's would probably create a tiny pseudo-black hole that obliterates everything in the normal radius, then disperses. I'm pretty sure such an attack would be suicidal for the Toa, too.

The one thing that occurs to me right of the back is to make the ocean the same color as the river; other than the graphic design is pretty neat for and sells the feel of a Matoran map. At first, I had a serious issue figuring out what that strip of color at the bottom was until I realized the river flowed directly into it. Translating the Matoran labels also made it pretty obvious what that was supposed to be. ("OCEAN" - straightforward enough!)

-----

Well, protodermic seawater is silver. I made the river more blue to mark it as freshwater.

 

Some of the geographic features are placed a little oddly. I feel like I would have had the jungle span across to both sides of the river. A river should support rampant vegetative growth and it seems to be acting as a border for it in this case. It also seems unusual to have the river's source up by the northern edge of the desert! It would make more sense if it wound off in the direction of the ice village. A meltwater spring starting a river - logical. A river miraculously springing up out of an parched area with a depressed water table and then crossing an arid region without drying out - a little less so.

-----

Yeah, when I made this region up years ago, I really wasn't thinking in realistic geologic terms! At the beginning, I wasn't even sure if the river was going to flow into or out of the ocean (then I realized it would probably be a seawater river if it flowed out of the ocean, which would be weird). There isn't really an excuse as to why the jungle doesn't grow on both sides, other than the fact that that's the way I made it on my story. Poor soil on the western side, maybe? As for the river, it's supposed to start in the bottom of a canyon next to the desert, not in the desert, and it's fed by underground springs (that maybe could somehow be linked to meltwater from the mountains). Later in the story, I mention that a major spring dries up, causing the river to start further down the canyon. So yeah, basically the story came first, so it follows the story, no matter how little that makes sense geologically.

 

As for how the orientation fits the plot of the epics, that's pretty good. I just get a kind of funny feeling because the villages with critical roles in the original Tale of Yrenta seem to form a right angle stretching from Volcano Tatakoa east to the desert and then south along the river. A little odd, but it everything fits the plot... as least as well as I can remember.

-----

Right, the Matoran of Yrenta mainly live along the mountain range and along the river. The De-Matoran live many kio away from everyone else, in the plains, where it's quiet. They feature more in Fate of Yrenta, though.

 

One other thing though: Is it just me, or does that river's label translate out of Matoran as "River Yrenttta?" I'm very familiar with the Northern Continent region known as Yrenta, but I don't suppose that's related in any way...

-----

That's a typo. I guess I wasn't paying attention when I was moving the letters to form vertical text. I'll fix that.

EDIT: Oh, one other thing. I liked those "skull-and-crossbones" symbols in the wasteland north of Mount Tasle. And I almost died laughing looking at the compass. That was awesome. In all honesty, that is exactly what north/west/south/east mean to the MU inhabintants - in which part of the Mata Nui robot it is situated.

-----

I'm glad you like the skull and crossbones. As for the compass, of course, the inhabitants don't know they're in a robot, but I thought it might be appropriate anyway seeing as that Great Spirit symbol shows up in other places. If it's too blatant about the true nature of their universe, I'll change it.

Yeah, Stone and Iron Nova Blasts would probably be great cascades of rock and metal respectively in all directions. I imagine an Earth Nova Blast would cause an extremely intense earthquake that would knock down everything in its area and throw a lot of earth into the air.

Some Great Masks I'd call lowercase-l legendary masks. They're special, unique masks, for example, the Mask of Shadow and the Mask of Alternate Futures. The Masks of Time, Life, and Creation are capital-L Legendary masks, a class of their own, tied to the reality of the Matoran Universe.

Actually, Makuta have certain control over the physical world (I think just the MU environment though) because of secret knowledge they possess. The Great Beings would have something like that but far greater, so I like your idea, Chro. It probably wouldn't apply so much to the natural universe, though, just their protodermis-based creations.

Dume is an unelected ruler, who has been at his position for thousands of years with no known term limit. Dume announces the news himself, with apparently no other journalist media present. He also has direct control over what goes in the archives and what doesn't, as well as what is closed to pubic access. The Matorans' employement opportunities are devided based on gender and colour. Though money is used, everyone happens to be more or less equally wealthy. The most valued workers, like Vakama, are the ones who are fiercely loyal to the system and long to reconstruct it even after it crumbled because its infrastructure was breached almost effortlessly by one person. Everyone shares the same belief in the same great spirit and dedicate their lives to his will. Anyone who is abnormal (like Takua) is looked down on and frequently arrested. Those, like Ehrye, who aspire to move up to better careers are unable to for thousands of years. The society has existed in this format since the end of the civil war, and has (as far as we've ever been shown in the story) gone, at least publicly, unchallenged.

 

Either Metru Nui is a place where, conveniently, everyone beleives the same things and have dreams and aspirations which agree with the mooth-running society, or Metru-Nui's government has a darker side than we've been shown.

I laughed out loud at how darkly - and yet accurately - you described the society of Metru Nui. And there were things such as smuggling rings, so I guess there was a dark side to Metru Nui.

the only people who aren't completly content with their role in society happen to be the ones with monstrous features and violent personalities.

What about Takua?

The boundary is the melting/freezing point. Toa of Ice could certainly freeze water and control it, as long as it's still frozen. As for slush, I guess a Toa of Ice could control the bits of ice and a Toa of Water could control the liquid part.

Oh, now that you mention it I remember he didn't want them to follow the Toa Nuva. But I didn't know that meant they weren't to leave Metru Nui at all.

He banned anyone from leaving Metru Nui when they returned to it? I remember the Turaga wanted to keep Mata Nui's imminent death secret, but not that part.

I guess it would work out if the bodies lingered for a while.

Well, I'm not sure how the society had developed by the end. But it would make sense if the original plans for Metru Nui were to have it be run by a dictatorship. After all, the inhabitants weren't meant to be free-willed beings.

Yeah, the only problem I have with this Red Star thing is the lack of evidence of it in the story.

I finally made a map of the main region I made up for my fan fiction. Well, I made a crude sketch on paper years ago, when I first had the idea, but that work is long lost. For this, I used Jasc Paint Shop Pro 9. I used a downloaded Matoran font for the labels. The texture effect is supposed to make it look like painted stone. Some of my stories were written long ago, and I skimmed over them to make sure the map was accurate, so hopefully it fits. This is the way Yrenta looks for most of its history (some things change later). I hope the meanings of the different colors and symbols are easy enough to figure out.

So here it is, on my Brickshelf:

Full-sized map (5000 x 3750)

Since that's quite big, I also uploaded a smaller version:

Small map (1250 x 938)

If you read my stories and see any inconsistencies, or just have any comments or suggestions on how to make the map better, let me know.

Edit: I made the desert and the jungle a little bigger and added hills south of the jungle to fit with the story, and slightly improved the wasteland symbols. Also, this time the smaller version of the map is a quarter the size of the original instead of a tenth.

Edit 2: Fixed that 'Yrenttta River' mistake. Thanks for catching it, Maganar.

I don't think so. Mask powers are either active or inactive. Some masks have effects that are always on, but I think the wearer has to be capable of using Kanohi in the first place to get those effects.

No, the rate of time is the same. If the Great Beings' creations could create a Mask of Time, I guess the GBs could have made time flow faster or slower in the MU, but I can't think of any reason they'd want that.

Toa of Plasma can heat things faster than Toa of Fire, but don't have the control over heat that Toa of Fire too. They can't absorb heat and flame.

In my fan fiction, Toa of Plasma are also good at providing illumination if they're skilled enough to maintain a brightly glowing mass that's not too hot. Of course, you'd be better off with a Toa of Light in such a situation.

It has something to do with everything in the Matoran Universe being artificial in some way. Well, originally time in the Matoran Universe was as it was in the 'real world', but when the Vahi was forged time in the MU became linked to it.

Elemental energy recharges over time.

Well, the Nuva could have been sped along by the OoMN, using fast vehicles, teleportation, etc, while it might have normally taken weeks or months to do all that traveling. And on the flip side in Mahri Nui, it probably took a little while to get the Mahri Nui Matoran safely in the caves under Voya Nui. Think about four or five days might fit both those?

As for the trip back from Artidax, the Toa Mahri probably only had to swim to the next place they could get a boat. The battle of Metru Nui was in progress when they arrived. Maybe it lasted a few days, and/or didn't start for a few days after they were sent to Artidax. The serials don't make the Destiny War seem months long, but if you consider the travel time that does make more sense.

Mahri Nui did seem pretty fast, but the Toa Nuva were traveling all around during that time, and that must have taken more than a couple days. And I know Teridax spent a while consolidating control of his new body, but I think if a year passed it would have been described as a year instead of several months.

Hm, I'm not sure if the Makuta were mostly Lawful Evil. Antroz sure was. But I wouldn't call Teridax that. He didn't seem to adhere to any sort of code (though he did keep his promise to Vakama in Time Trap, but that didn't do anything to mess up his plans anyway), he was just willing to do whatever to advance his plans. I see the Shadowed One as much more Lawful - his grievance with Teridax's killing of Nidhiki and Krekka seemed to be a matter of professional honor, he released Norik when Varian made her choice, and he even assigned someone to kill him if he was perceived as going soft. That last one is a big sign of some sort of Lawful Evil ethic.

How did MU inhabitants react to dead corpses disparitions? What was their interpretation of that?They were becoming one with the Great Spirit

How was the Red Star's teleportation broken?I don't have specifics on that

Last time we talked, you had mentioned that TSO is building a new army of rogues. Is he calling this new organization the Dark Hunters still?No, I do not believe so. I think a new time and a new place would call for a new name.

What, didn't post my Hero Factory questions? :3

Maybe we should continue this on the Red Star topic (if it hasn't expired), but I remember people talking about how Sidorak and a lot of Visorak must be up there. That can't be good for the other inhabitants.

Does this mean any newly canonized prefixes will have to be from a previous list such as the names of the Kraata and Kraana types?

I wonder if it works on Spherus Magna inhabitants. But yeah, just as we've seen it mutate Toa and Rahi, it could make Vortixx Hordika, Skakdi Hordika, Matoran Hordika, Conjurer's Species Hordika, etc.