Exitium

@bonesiii: I stand corrected on the status of Quest for the Toa and the terms included in it. However, I want to take a moment to respond to your claims because I think you were a bit patronizing and misunderstood or mischaracterized my argument. I don't believe you've adequately addressed my point about the second assumption implicit in this argument, which you seem to have taken for granted. I accept your assumption that the canon Matoran language must have patterns, some of which we may see, and many we won't. Where I take issue is the assumption that in inventing this language, TLG had any pattern in mind. In fact, they appear to have mostly taken words from a variety of languages, many of which are not etymologically related at all (such as Maori and Latin). So while the canon Matoran language has patterns, there is no reason to believe that the sample we have access to (which was created by a toy company, not linguists) has any discernible patterns. I respectfully disagree about the size of our "huge library" of Matoran words. We have on the order of 50 words, which given the size of most languages is too little to create a theory with solid evidence. What I'm suggesting is not that there is no pattern, but that the pattern has no meaning. Personally, I find the connection between "Olisi" and "Olmak" to be tenuous rather than making "perfect sense," although I will admit that there is a better case for "Makoki" and "Olmak." My examples of words like "hau" and "rau" and "vahi" and "mohtrek" are intended to demonstrate that there are just as many other patterns, which you dismiss while accepting the evidence that fits the theory. (The technical term for the mistake you made here is confirmation bias, for the record. Also, the argument from ignorance is actually the claim that something is true because it hasn't been proven false; I'm arguing something is false because it hasn't been proven true.) Ultimately, we have to step back and remember that this language was created across nine years, probably by several people who are not linguists. Unlike other fantasy languages like Klingon or Quenya, I doubt Lego put much thought into creating a language structure. As a result, any patterns found can easily be coincidences. My priorities are perfectly in whack, thank you. I'm not feeling "negative emotions," I'm simply unable to form a coherent theory due to lack of evidence. I believe you've misunderstood my use of the word "frustrated." What I mean to say here is that given the relatively small sample of the Matoran language we have to work with, it is interesting to examine the language but impossible to create a theory that has compelling evidence to back it up. That is my problem with this theory. It is logical, it has a couple examples to back it up, but ultimately it tries to make a mountain out of a molehill. That's not QM's fault. There simply can never be enough evidence to put together a theory with enough evidence to withstand this sort of scrutiny. So as I said before, I laud the attempts to better understand the Matoran language because I think it's an interesting topic. I just believe that any "theory" attempting to describe it will necessarily be mostly conjecture, as QM so accurately named this topic.

While this is an interesting theory, I've noticed a few flaws. The crux of your hypothesis relies on two unstated assumptions. The first is that Amana Volo, Volo Lutu, and Madu Cabolo are canon terms. Given that they never appear in any canon source, this assumption is dubious at best. The second, as others have pointed out, is that TLG created names with a specific pattern and maintained this pattern for the nine years of Bionicle's development. We have very few examples of Matoran words, not to mention grammar, making it difficult to make any generalizations; however, given what little evidence we have, one can still find examples that contradict your conclusions. In the case of nouns modifying other nouns, "metru" does not change forms when it stands alone, is modified by an adjective (e.g. "Metru Nui"), or modifies another noun, such as in "Toa Metru." The same is the case for "Toa Mahri" and "Toa Mangai." I'm also inclined to believe that the other patterns you found are coincidences. If you look at other seemingly related words, such as "Le-" and "Phantoka" or "Mohtrek" and "Vahi," there are no noticeable patterns. Other words that sound similar, such as "hau" and "rau" or "manas" and "mangai," have no relation I have looked at the Matoran language in the past as well, and I laud your attempt to analyse it, but it's a frustrating endeavor because there's too little material from which to draw any real conclusions.

I see two distinct possibilities here. 1) There exists an alternate universe in which Sidorak, Nidhiki, and Krekka are alive, Axon and Brutaka are evil, and all of them are on Voya Nui with Roodaka and the Piraka looking for the mask of life, along with Bohrok, Visorak, Vahki, and Rahkshi. There's also a silver Toa who can transform into other Toa simply by wearing their masks, a power we've never seen outside this one game. 2) The games aren't canon. Occam's razor would suggest that the second option is most likely to be true. Games generally aren't considered canon, and there are simply too many differences between VNOG and Heroes for them to be telling the same story anyway. Given that this alternative universe doesn't seem to make any sense and that we have no reason to believe that it even exists, it probably isn't canon.

Perhaps I should clarify a few points that I didn't explain properly in my previous posts. First, an authoritarian state is simply one in which the people submit to the government's authority, and the government is usually a small group of individuals with all the political power. Its contrast is liberal democracy, in which individual freedom and democratic politics prevent centralization of power. So you can have an authoritarian government that doesn't abuse its powers and isn't "power hungry," although there is little incentive to do unless the dictator is fundamentally a good person (arguably Dume). But as soon as you have a dictator, benevolent or not, you have authoritarianism. Second, I don't disagree with Sir Kohran's point that this story is not about the Vahki and governing structures. It couldn't be farther from that. However, this sort of thing fascinates me, and I find it interesting to think about what the story (probably unintentionally) tells us about the nature of authoritarian governments. However, I do find toa kopaka's comments interesting since the Vahki have been around for about a third of Dume's rule. That means that for more than 90% of Metru Nui's history, there was no law enforcement (since Metru Nui didn't have its own Toa team until after the Vahki were invented) despite the crime that we know occurred. And I also think his point about Metru Nui being a "flawed system" that was "easily abused" represents the problem with having a dictator. One dictator might be good, but another not so much, leaving the population with no institutional way of throwing out bad leaders. Naturally the solutions are democracy and checks on the leader's power, and information about these in the Bionicle world is sadly lacking. I guess what I'm try to say here is that Dume's not interesting because he's a dictator, he's interesting because he's a benevolent dictator. Authoritarianism is not inherently good or bad, but the 2004 story manages to show us both a benevolent dictator and a malevolent dictator. It's up to us to make our own conclusions about the significance of these events, or we can simply sit back and enjoy the story. (On a completely unrelated note, Teridax is ironically one of only two characters confirmed to be democratically elected. The other is Defilak.)

Why thank you An interesting twist, but there's a subtle difference there. If the Vahki had been Makuta's doing then they would have been purely evil and would have portrayed the city's authoritarianism in an entirely negative light. However, the Vahki were created with good intentions, and we saw where that road led. In my opinion, the actual story is much more interesting because it shows how authoritarianism can be intended for a benevolent purpose (e.g. law enforcement) and end up being abused for malevolent purposes (e.g. abusing citizens). So the end result is the same, but the significance is subtly different in an important way.

There's been a lot of speculation here, so let's focus on what we actually know, keeping in mind that 1) Bionicle is a kids' story, so we can't read into this too much and 2) Teridax was in control of Metru Nui for most of the time that we saw it. I think we can agree that Dume was a benevolent dictator. He seemed to be a good guy, listened to his populace, didn't abuse his powers and so on, but he was still a dictator, and there didn't appear to be any institutional checks on his power. As a result, Teridax was able to abuse this power (and possibly expand it, although we don't know that for sure), and no one questioned him until it was too late. We don't know how Dume assumed office, but we know that his immediate predecessor was weak and ineffective. One interpretation is that Dume replaced this Turaga because he was ineffective (suggesting some sort of democratic pressure) but there's no real evidence to support that. Anyone who tells you that Dume was elected or was installed democratically is merely speculating, and we'll probably never know how he got his job. We know he seemed to do it well and probably maintained the confidence of his subjects and any government that may have existed. So, Takhamavahu's portrayal of Metru Nui is cynical, but's essential correct. James Madison once wrote "If men were angels, no government would be necessary." For the most part, Matoran and Turaga seem to be fundamentally good, so there was very little need for any government. It is interesting to point out however, that there was a Ministry of Tourism, although that probably isn't canon. However, we do know that Macku need Dume's permission to run her own business which demonstrates that contrary to what bones said earlier, Dume was involved in the minor details of running the city. It also represents that citizens needed permission from the highest (possibly only) level of government in order to perform a task not assigned to them. Also, keep in mind that the Matoran did not know they were inside Mata Nui. They knew that their work was vital to him, but I don't think they knew that in a literal sense, as they did willingly stop working and put the whole system in jeopardy during the Matoran Civil War. I think we generally characterize Metru Nui's government as authoritative because of the Vahki. It's important to remember that the Vahki were cast as the "villains" of 2004, so they were marketed as such and we still see them as somewhat sinister, even though they aren't inherently so. But even ignoring the events that occurred when Teridax was in control, the Vahki are still somewhat disturbing from a purely ideological sense. I think these quotes give us a sense of how unpopular the Vahki were in Metru Nui, and although they were mostly used for law enforcement and keeping everyone working, Teridax demonstrated the potential for abuse that they represented. Although the system worked for most of Metru Nui's history, we cannot deny that it is an authoritarian government that limits the freedom of its people without their formal input. The system is seemingly run by one person with no limits to his power, who listens to his citizens but has no obligation to do so. His rule in enforced by a unitary police force that answers to him and him alone and maintains his citizens' strict and orderly way of life. The Vahki don't seem to follow any rules (other than Dume's orders) and they have no qualms about attacking the very people they exist to protect. Now I doubt Greg intended any of us to read into this so much, but for government geeks like me, Teridax's abuse of Metru Nui's benevolent dictatorship demonstrates the importance of personal freedom and limited government.

This is definitely an interesting story, and a well-written one at that. I do have some minor nitpicks though, mostly arcane grammar stuff.The use of present tense in itself isn't a problem. It adds a sense of immediacy to the story, and I think this is one of the few cases in which a writer can actually pull it off. On the other hand, the shift to past tense with Burahk is a little jarring and distracts the reader. There are also some awkward sentences in Tehkii's narrative that make use of both past and present tense.Personally, I wouldn't have killed Tehkii, and his death seemed a little sudden and random. It would have been one thing if the killer had still been at the scene of the crime, but having a Matoran (I assume he's a Matoran) die by hitting his head on a rock is a bit much for me.I think you emphasized your moral a bit too strongly at the end. You don't need to tell your reader outright that curiosity killed the Matoran because your writing has done such a good job conveying that message by itself. I think you could scrap the last sentence, and the ending would be even more powerful.The only other thing that I noticed about this story is that it has no element of Bionicle in it aside from the names. If you changed Burahk to Joe and Tehkii to Bob, no one would ever guess that this is a Bionicle story. There's no problem with that since it is a great story, but I think it would be better of in COT.Now for grammar. For the most part you have your grammar down, and the story is devoid of obvious mistakes, I actually had to reach for my writing handbook for a few of these, but they're all fairly minor. A semicolon must divide two independent clauses, and the second part of this sentence is a dependent clause. A dash (--) might work better. This is a fairly common mistake, but in general it's better to use "not only ... but also" rather than simply "not only ... but." This should read "fast-paced." Grammatically there's nothing wrong here, but the sentence is a little awkward mostly because you use three different verb tenses in one sentence. If you want to keep the narrative in present tense, I would recommend something along the lines of "In the distance, he sees the bush and light post that have led him to find what is right in front of him." Even then "what is right in front of him" is a bit wordy and would be better off with something like "the body." This point is a bit debatable, but technically this is a fragment. There's nothing wrong with using a few fragments for effect, and can ignore this if you want, but I don't think the sentence suffers much if you add "He was" to the beginning.Finally, the penultimate sentence is a little long, which is a bit of a problem since many of the sentences before it are short, heightening the dramatic effect.Sorry that was long, but I hope it helps. Keep in mind that these suggestions (other than the grammar) are only my opinions. You know how to keep the reader engaged, and this story demonstrates strong writing skills. Overall, this is an excellent story.

I changed "brotherhood" to "fellowship," so that was a pretty easy fix. I think that's all that you needed me to fix, but let me know if I missed something. I didn't actually change anything here, but I did want to make it clear that Nidhiki probably doesn't know or care about Mimic's past. Although I could have added a little more about Mimic and his past, the story is not really about him, and those details don't add anything significant to Nidhiki's story. That's exactly what happened. Mimic's last words to Nidhiki are meant to mean something along the lines of "Don't expect to win just because you have the moral high ground," but Nidhiki completely misses the point and interprets them as "Do morally questionable stuff to win."

Yeah, this sentence is a remnant of my earlier version of Mimic, so I've tweaked it slightly. Although I didn't directly state this in my story, I did imply that he was patrolling the city without his mask. Notice that he doesn't activate his mask until he's about to attack, which matches his behavior in Birth of a Dark Hunter. He also turns off his mask just so Mimic can see him, which would also be an unnecessary risk in my opinion. This is sort of what I was trying to accomplish, but I wanted Nidhiki to twist the truth rather than simply lie. He could have easily written lies to fool other readers, but he would never believe them himself, so that wouldn't satisfy him. He's really writing this to justify his actions to himself, which is why his reasoning for betraying Metru Nui seems reasonable from his perspective. But if you read Birth of a Dark Hunter, it's clear that Nidhiki is actually only thinking of himself, which would suggest that his "saving lives" excuse is something he thought of after the fact to justify his greed. Don't worry about it, I think the new Mimic came out much better than the old one.

Thank you Takhamavahu, I've decided to take your advice, and I've tweaked some of Mimic's dialogue to bring it more in line with how you described him. Here's a list of the exact changes I made, for those who are interested.In paragraph four, "He seemed entertained by my offer to bargain with them," was changed to "He sighed when I explained that I was there to bargain with them."In paragraph five, "that is exactly what we will do," was changed to "that is exactly what we must do"; "I can hardly deprive my teammate a chance to flex his muscles before the raid" was changed to "I am not sure I can prevent my teammate from flexing his muscles before the raid."In paragraph eight, "'You get to keep your head on one condition,' he said," was changed to "'There will be enough death tonight,' he said with weary resignation."In paragraph twenty-one, the section in bold was added: "'I see you have twice failed to heed my warning,' he replied, shaking his head sadly."Paragraph twenty-seven was completely changed. It originally read, "'You can try all you want to win this war,' Mimic said as he came to, 'but your morals make you weak, and this city will fall.'" It now reads, "'You are fighting a futile war,' Mimic said as he came to, no longer trying to resist. 'Although fate has placed us on opposite sides of this conflict, I must warn you that against the Dark Hunters, your morals alone will not be enough to save your city.'"I hope these changes better reflect people's interpretations of Mimic. I do appreciate all the suggestions that everyone has provided, and I do not want to appear as though I am trying to get around the mistakes in my entry that judges are validly pointing out. Thank you for reading and reviewing, and I hope you all have enjoyed it.

I had never intended the quote to be canon, and I was rather fond of it myself, but since enough people have commented on it, I have removed it. Is this something that needs to be "fixed" before this entry can onto the polls? I feel like this is more of a subjective critique than a canon one. In the first draft or two, I actually had a paragraph about his transformation, but I removed it because it was awkward and didn't fit thematically with the rest of the story. We already know about his transformation and that he hated it, and this story is really more about Nidhiki's inner changes than his physical ones. As naive and trusting as Mimic is, he did agree to join a gang of thieves and murderers willingly. That said, I tried to make it clear that Mimic was simply doing his job and was not actually evil. Thanks for the comments everyone, they've been quite helpful. :)EDIT: Didn't notice Takhamavahu's comment. The only reference to lightstones being turned off is in The Many Deaths of Toa Tuyet, in which they are simply said to be "doused." I changed the word "lighstones" to "torches" to avoid any confusion. You got me there. I changed it so that Nidhiki now merely suspects that the Dark Hunters are behind the attack. Here's a quote from Legends of Evil: I still maintain that Metru Nui did not have any Toa for most of its history, but I've removed the offending sentence anyway because you're the second judge to comment on it, and it really doesn't add anything to the story. Again, is this something that must be changed, or is this just your perspective? I feel like we all have different opinions of Mimic given what little information we know about him, but I don't really see anything in this story that makes him aggressive. As he points out, he's simply carrying out his orders and nothing more, which is why he initially decides to spare Nidhiki.

After Infrared's review, I guess I'm supposed to explain here what I changed, so here we go.In paragraph one, "Despite the darkness, a full moon lights my way" was changed to "Despite the darkness, the stars light my way."In paragraph three, "We had only worked together on a few occasions, but from time to time they insisted that we band together because that is what Toa do" was changed to "We had only worked together on a few occasions, but from time to time the others insisted that we band together because that is what Toa do."In paragraph eleven, "Within minutes of our arrival, someone doused the lights" was changed to "Within minutes of our arrival, someone doused the lightstones."In paragraph twenty-six, "Taking a deep breath, I sucked the air out of the immediate area" was changed to "I took a deep breath and then used my powers to suck the air out of the immediate area."In paragraph twenty-seven, "'You can try all you want to win this war' Mimic said" was changed to "You can try all you want to win this war," Mimic said. In paragraph twenty-nine, "The thing about morals though," was changed to "The thing about morals, though."In paragraph thirty-two, "leaving me with nothing but my memoires" was changed to "leaving me with nothing but my memories."In paragraph thirty-three, "my cool dude partner, Krekka," was changed to "my moronic partner, Krekka."In paragraph thirty-seven, "Our mission begins tomorrow at dawn," was changed to "Our mission begins at dawn."I hope I did that right. As for the things Infrared was unsure about, I ended up changing most of them, but you can see my comments in the entry thread as to why I think the others don't need changing.Edit: Here's a few more minor changes.The epigraph (the Les Mis quote) was removed.In paragraph eleven, "someone doused the lightstones," was changed to "someone doused the torches."In paragraph fifteen, the section in bold was removed entirely: "One day the news reached me that the Kanohi Dragon was once again attacking Metru Nui, a city which had somehow survived most of its long history without any Toa to protect it."

Thanks, Infrared, I made most of the changes you suggested, but I would like to make a few comments. I left this as is because while we know there were some Toa in Metru Nui, I'm pretty sure Metru Nui spent most (not all) of its history up until this point with no Toa to protect it. Here's what BS01 has to say: If you still think that's a problem, I can remove it, since it's just a minor sentence. They did in fact know that the Dark Hunters were behind it. In Legacy of Evil, the Toa Mangai encounter Reidok, Vezok, and Avak in Turaga Dume's chambers soon after they release the Kanohi Dragon. Both Dume and Nidhiki identify them as Dark Hunters. Ironically, Nidhiki uses this word to describe Krekka in Birth of a Dark Hunter. I changed it to something more acceptable. I'm pretty sure the other domes had some form of artificial light source that the inhabitants of the MU referred to as a "sun." Here's a quote from The Mutran Chronicles: Savage is mostly just there for foreshadowing (since he's another former Toa who joins the Dark Hunters), but I think elaborating on him detracts from the plot, so I think I'm going to leave it as is. Most of these are fairly minor, so if you need me to change anything else, I should be able to do so without too much trouble

I'm surprised there haven't been more entries by now.MemoryAuthor: ExitiumProtagonist: NidhikiWord count:2394

Memory It is midnight on Odina. Despite the darkness, the stars light my way down to the beach that now bears my name. As I listen to the silence of the night, broken only by the occasional sound of the wind, I think back on the circumstances that brought me here. I also ponder my next mission, which will take me back to the place where my former life ended and this living nightmare began. My name is Nidhiki. With a smile, I remember when I was a Toa of Air once, one of the guardians of the Trem Krom Peninsula, a place so inhospitable to life I often questioned why Matoran bothered to live there. Although I had no particular attachment to my home, I felt some naïve duty to defend it. It was there, not far from the acid falls, that I first encountered the Dark Hunters. The first attack struck a village on the other side of the peninsula. Within days another village fell, followed by another. No one from my homeland had previously crossed paths with the Dark Hunters, so my team of Toa assigned me to negotiate with them. Perhaps “team” is the wrong word. We had only worked together on a few occasions, but from time to time the others insisted that we band together because that is what Toa do. As a novice Toa, I had no idea that teams of Toa merely make for bigger targets. As I soon learned, dealing with Dark Hunters is more difficult than it may sound. Unprepared for a fight, I was quickly captured and beaten by a tall figure with black armor, whose codename I later learned was Savage. The Dark Hunter known only as Mimic eventually put a stop to his partner’s brutality and asked me why I was there. He sighed when I explained that I was there to bargain with them. “Dark Hunters do not negotiate,” he said flatly. “We have been hired to eliminate several targets in the nearby villages, and that is exactly what we must do. The final strike is tonight on the village at the tip of the peninsula, and although you are not a target, I am not sure I can prevent my teammate from flexing his muscles before the raid.” “If you flex your muscles now, you’ll be exhausted by the time you’re done with my team of Toa,” I shot back, my bravado belying my nerves. “You may kill me, but how many Toa can you face before we bring you down?” Mimic did not look pleased taking demands from a Toa. However, he had no particular hatred of Toa and no desire to do any more than he had been ordered to do. “There will be enough death tonight,” he said with weary resignation, cutting the ropes that bound my hand. “Aside from our target, the other villages are safe as long as you and your companions remain far away from the Dark Hunters.” Naturally, I shared this information with the rest of the Toa. Instead of thanking Mata Nui for sparing them, they decided to defend the nearby village in defiance of the Dark Hunters. As a noble warrior of Mata Nui, I ran headlong into the targeted village with them. My comrades expected the mere sight of Toa to send our enemies scurrying, but I secretly hoped that we would have the opportunity to face them in battle. We thought the Dark Hunters would target only one or two Matoran. We thought there were only two of them. We did not know that they intended to raze the whole village. We did not know that there were far more than two of them. Within minutes of our arrival, someone doused the torches, and the village descended into panic. The screams of Matoran and Toa alike filled the air as the Dark Hunters struck from the shadows, swiftly eliminating the other Toa. By the time the Dark Hunters set the huts ablaze and illuminated the village, I was the only Toa still standing. I contemplated summoning a windstorm to put out the blaze, but it was too late to save the village. Outnumbered by the remaining Dark Hunters, I decided instead to save myself so I could live to fight another day. Activating my Mask of Stealth, I disappeared into the shadows, vowing vengeance on the Dark Hunters. I hated myself for retreating, but sometimes you have to make difficult decisions in order to survive. Even if we had known the Dark Hunters’ numbers, we still would have foolishly attacked them. That was a poor decision, and on the night my first team fell, I learned that a valiant Toa is a foolish Toa, and a foolish Toa is a dead Toa. As the years turned to centuries, I continued to remain on the Trem Krom Peninsula, drifting from village to village and adapting my fighting style. Relying more on my mask, I began to strike from the darkness and use stealth to my advantage. I had no love of my homeland, but I remained nonetheless, secretly hoping that the Dark Hunters would return to finish the job. Then perhaps I could use their strengths against them. One day the news arrived that the Kanohi Dragon was once again attacking Metru Nui. I had met Turaga Dume in the past, and I did not mind an excuse to leave the Tren Krom Peninsula, but I had a different reason to travel to Metru Nui. Although I had no proof at the time, I thought that the Dark Hunters may have been involved. The Dark Hunters were indeed behind the attack, but I had to wait before getting my hands on my enemies. The other ten Toa who fought the Kanohi Dragon with me decided to stay in Metru Nui, which suited me just fine. I was happy to remain there, knowing that the Dark Hunters would not rest until they had captured the city. After a thousand years, the Dark Hunters made their move. I was the only Toa who celebrated (albeit privately) when the Dark Hunters invaded the city. The first attack ignited a spark within me that I had not felt in years. While I enjoyed the chance to strike back at my enemies, to atone for my foolishness, the Dark Hunters were winning a war that we should have won easily. Near the end of the war, I was patrolling the city outside the Coliseum when I spotted a figure on the rooftops. Activating my Mask of Stealth, I snuck around behind the figure to get a better look at him. I could not believe my luck when I recognized him as Mimic. Smiling to myself as I approached the moment of my retribution, I aimed my scythe at the Dark Hunter, bombarding him with a gust of wind. My attack knocked him off the rooftop, but he landed nimbly on his feet on the street below. He charged in the direction of my attack, but I had already faded back into the shadows. I quickly repositioned myself and hurled another blast of wind, knocking Mimic off his feet. Believing that I had him subdued, I deactivated my mask so Mimic could see me and know that the novice Toa who had once fled from the Dark Hunters in disgrace had now defeated him in battle. It took him a moment, but the light of recognition entered his eyes. “I see you have twice failed to heed my warning,” he replied, shaking his head sadly. “You’ve involved yourself in yet another conflict that does not concern you.” “I don’t really care about this city or its inhabitants,” I replied, “but I always enjoy a chance to flex my muscles whenever your kind rears its ugly head.” Mimic slowly stood up, leaving his sword on the ground and holding his hands in a nonthreatening manner. “I am merely doing a job,” he said. “I have no love of the Dark Hunters, and it doesn’t matter to me whether their schemes succeed or fail. I’m only fighting for them because they offered me something in return, something I desperately want. In that way, we are not as different as you think.” I tightened my grip on my scythe. “I am nothing like you,” I spat. “I fight for a noble cause: to rid the universe of trash like you. You mercenaries will never understand that.” “Perhaps not,” Mimic replied. Before I could react, he moved with lightning speed, grabbing his weapon from the ground and knocking me back with one motion. He stood over me, sword raised for the finishing blow. I took a deep breath and then used my powers to suck the air out of the immediate area, leaving Mimic gasping for breath. Concentrating on my powers and struggling to control my anger, I then redirected that air back at Mimic, leaving him stunned on the ground near me. Pleased with myself, I subdued my prisoner and bound his hands. "You are fighting a futile war,” Mimic said as he came to, no longer trying to resist. “Although fate has placed us on opposite sides of this conflict, I must warn you that against the Dark Hunters, your morals alone will not be enough to save your city." Long after I locked up Mimic with the other Dark Hunters we had captured, I was still thinking about his words. As much as the Toa did not want to admit it, we were losing this war. The heroes of the day could not stand up to the villains of the night if we allowed our values, our naïve insistence on fighting fairly and sparing our enemies, to weaken us. I knew Lhikan would never abandon his principles, even for the greater good. He would sacrifice himself, the Matoran, and the city, and console himself that at least he still had his morals. The thing about morals, though, is that they don’t do you much good when you’re dead. It was clear that we needed a way to end the war as quickly as possible. As much as I wanted to crush the Dark Hunters, if we continued this fight, they would overwhelm the Toa, and the city would be lost. Thinking back to the time I first fought the Dark Hunters, I started thinking of unorthodox ways to win the war. I understood that the ends always justify the means. So when Lariska offered me Metru Nui in exchange for the Toa, I took it. The Dark Hunters would be gone, the Matoran would still have me to protect them, and Dume (whose stubborn defiance started this pointless war in the first place) would be dead. I might even have been able to negotiate to keep the Toa alive. As thanks, Lhikan branded me a traitor and threatened to kill me if I remained on the island. Even if he had not staged his own counter ambush, the war still would have ended on that day due to my actions. I made the difficult decision to end the war and save lives, but Lhikan would not have it. Doing the right thing was too important to him, even if it meant the death of everyone he cared about. One day, that foolishness will cost him. That day, the sun set on my time as a Toa, leaving me with nothing but my memories of glory. For almost two millennia now, I have served the hunters. Like Mimic, I have no loyalty to them beyond what they can offer me. No longer able to strike at the Dark Hunters, my only care in life was that I could fight back against the Toa and show them the errors of their ways. None of my assignments particularly interested me except the one I have just been given. The Shadowed One never tolerates failure, but he was unusually clear that we were not to fail this mission. He explained in detail how Eliminator was to ambush and kill the remaining Toa Mangai while my moronic partner Krekka and I were to patrol the city and recover the Great Disks. “The Brotherhood of Makuta is one of our most important clients,” the Shadowed One explained to the three of us. “They are most displeased with your failure to protect the Mask of Light, but they are willing to give you a second chance and requested you specifically for this task. Do not fail me, for if you do and the Toa do not kill you, I will bring the full might of the Dark Hunters down on you.” The Shadowed One turned his head and stared at me with cold eyes. “I doubt your return to Metru Nui will be a happy one, Nidhiki,” he continued. “I do not expect any feelings you may have for your former allies to get in the way.” I looked down at my disgusting form and clenched my claws. In the space of two thousand years I had lost so much. Now it was time for revenge. “Of course not,” I replied. “I’ve waited for this moment for a long time.” Our mission begins at dawn, but I am not able to sleep. The thought of punishing Lhikan for his betrayal appeals to me, but somehow I wonder if I can bring myself to kill him. I never realized how much I needed the fellowship and sense of purpose I felt as a Toa. I did not know it then, but when I was a Toa in Metru Nui, I was happy. I may have fallen since then, but I made the right decision, and there is no going back now. Or is there? After all, Roodaka is probably still alive, and even in this form I could overpower her and force her to change me back into a Toa. I had never dreamed of returning to my former life, but then again, I had never imagined that I would ever see Metru Nui again. Tomorrow, I will see the skyline of the City of Legends for the first time in two millennia. Wondering if there is a chance I can relive my days in the sun, I watch as the first rays of dawn rise over the silver sea, and a new day begins. Partly inspired by “Memory” from Cats. Music by Andrew Lloyd-Webber and lyrics by Trevor Nunn.

As far as non-canon characters go, would it be alright to mention a group of Toa that were killed defending a village? These Toa would not have names, personalities, or anything else that identifies them as characters, and the protagonist would only explain that they had died in battle without actually describing either the Toa or the battle in any detail. Is that permissible or does it stretch the rules too much?