Timageness

He'd still be feeling the pain, though, so it would more or less have a similar effect.

Quite literally my first Corpus Rahkshi combat losses, and one of them was to a sibling of Omega. Exxan and Glass were quite understandable, but Omicron was just the icing on the cake... of utter humiliation. Well played, Onaku. Karma was with you on that day. P.S. - Torc would like to join Exxan, but after being practically shish-kebabed in the rib cage, I'd imagine that he's currently having some trouble breathing at all.

Just a head's up, but you might have to wait a bit longer for those profile approvals. Sergei and Strider haven't gotten around to discussing either of them yet over on our Discord chat.

So in other words, it's moving away from the Gundam or Evangelion themes and more towards IGPX, just not entirely focused around racing? That could be interesting.

IC: Saffina - Cliffside (Capstone Bar and Market) Hmmm... Must not be much of a talker. This changes things. Seeing as to how the Turaga kept staring back towards the door, he was most likely waiting for an associate of his to meet him here, one that was likely either dragging their heels or had found themselves caught up in other troubles if their current lack of presence was any indication. There was also the small possibility that the old man had simply arrived early, but given the fact that his eyes were glued, and soley glued, to the front entrance of the building, she sort of assumed that this wasn't the case. Either way, it seemed that she would have to alter her approach just a bit if she ever wanted to learn anything potentially useful. And unfortunately for the old man, that meant he was about to have some company, whether he liked it or not. Stretching as she began to stand, she proceeded to stroll over to his table, only to pull up an adjacent chair before positioning it backwards and once again taking a seat. While she had originally planned to be much less intrusive, he did decide to ignore her, after all, and seeing as to how she had opened up her own wallet on his behalf, that struck her as more than a little rude. Even though he hadn't accepted her peace offering, he still owed her a conversation at the very least; whether or not it would yield anything fruitful, however, was still yet to be determined. "You know," she said quietly, setting her glass down and closing one eye, only to frame the area around the building's entrance with her fingers. "If you're that captivated with the scenery, you should probably just etch it into a carving. I doubt anyone would bother you too much about it if you were to make the occasional order every now and then, and who knows? Somebody might actually fork over a decent chunk of change for an artistic depiction of a common, sub-average doorway. People have weird tastes sometimes."

Right... My bad. Must've counted Parii twice when you quoted the original profile. Whoops. To be fair, I wasn't trying to imply that there should be a GM-controlled safeguard put into place, just that it was entirely possible to take off with someone else's aircraft without actually attempting to fly it, meaning that the "you can only pilot/possess one ship" rule doesn't exactly apply to this situation as a whole. Personally, if people want to keep their stuff, they should be smart enough to play in a way that allows them to do so. If you don't make yourself out to be an easy target, then you're a lot less likely to be messed with, and while it certainly sucks on occasion, that's usually just how the world works, unfortunately. As for not upsetting the tech level itself, there are some clever ways around this; removing whatever spark plug equivalent the vehicle uses, having the location of the actual ignition changed, or even outright dismantling some other key component are just some examples of potential actions that would effectively do the trick. The issue here isn't so much that people can have their things stolen, it's more along the lines of them tricking themselves into believing that they're in control over every little aspect of their character's lives, which then understandably leaves them quite upset when the illusion they have concocted is eventually shattered. We've all done it at some point or another, and the only person we can truly blame for us falling into such an obvious trap is ourselves. As for Bionifight Infinite and Matoran und Panzer, however, stealing a mech would've been almost downright impossible in the former, seeing as to how strictly they were handled outside of the arena matches (and didn't they get teleported back out of the arena when their pilot ended up dying anyway?), but the latter actually did contain one particular incident where Lohi (Miras) tried to blackmail Kik (Dane) out of his Minotaur in exchange for his life. Granted, it wasn't exactly successful, but it still technically occured. Also, if I recall correctly, Ikira (Tex) of the Jatikko was considering something similar at one point as well, so there is a precedent for this kind of stuff happening. And heck, if you want to throw the entire Foreign Tech category from the BZPRPG into the mix, relieving weapons and such from a defeated foe is one of maybe two ways max (the other essentially requiring said character to be evil, or at the very least, morally unrestricted) that any Matoran-based characters can even get their hands on some to begin with. In short, yeah, if folks are doing it just to be a nuisance, then break out the smiting. Or better yet, if and when they fail, simply toss their characters into prison. On the flipside, if players are good enough to actually be able to realistically pull it off, then they should be allowed to do so too, and if that just so happens to upset someone along the way, there's really not much that you can feasibly do about that aside from letting them get a new ride. Either way, I don't really see why this is such a big deal in the first place.

Just want to point this out, but there are currently three different characters with no listed ships running around, two of them being GM NPCs, and the third being an actual thief. What's to stop them from suddenly deciding that they now want one, and that they're going to try to "acquire" it from somebody else? And while everyone may be limited to possessing only one personal aircraft at a time, there really aren't any other safeguards put into place that prevent people from taking another on someone else's behalf, such as an NPC or other vehicle-less character in the case of a job, or to stop them from simply ripping off specific pieces or weapons for their own future usage before hooking the rest of it up to their own and towing it off to their friendly neighborhood scrap merchant either. Not being able to fly something due to an OOC ruleset doesn't necessarily render it unstealable. This discussion sort of makes me want to try typing up a character who goes around repossessing and salvaging vessels for one of the settlements now, or at the very least, someone who runs a chop shop out of their airship.

IC: Saffina - Cliffside (Capstone Bar and Market) In truth, the Vortixx wasn't entirely sure if the beverage would even be accepted or not; the Turaga's table presented no evidence suggesting that he had ordered anything for himself at all, and this, alongside the fact that he had barely paid any attention to her, was enough to tell her that he clearly wasn't here to enjoy himself or be sociable. To be perfectly honest, if some random customer had bought something for her in here, she'd probably be more than a little apprehensive about accepting it as well. Thieves and killers made up the majority of Cliffside's inhabitants, after all, and if it wasn't for the constant stream of coin flowing through this place, she highly suspected that the beings working the bar would've tried their hand at poisoning everyone already just to take their stuff. Karz, for all she knew, they were subtly doing just that anyway, and simply maintaining the illusion of an actual business in order to pick out the best potential targets while simultaneously disguising their activities. ... ... ... Note to self: Start buying bottles directly from the other settlements, and only drink in my ship from now on. Still, this mattered little, as the gesture only served to get her foot in the door. She knew well enough from personal experience that the best laid plans required two very important things working in tandem, and shelling out a few widgets for one of them was a paltry sacrifice at best. The untouched glass sitting before him was merely a hook, one that she had yet to apply the proper bait to. "To better days," she said simply, raising her own to her lips once she had caught his attention, only to inject a small dose of irony into her tone. "And to those who are still capable of understanding the concept of punctuality."

Hence why I've been locking up and disabling my vehicles since the days of Matoran und Panzer. Granted, nobody had ever actually attempted to hijack The Dreadnought back then, and it's a little too soon to say the same for The Crimson Takea, but it never hurts to be prepared.

IC: Saffina - Cliffside (Capstone Bar and Market) Had somebody told her that her previous job would've actually panned out just a few days earlier, Saffina probably would have simply assumed that they were mocking her before resolving to punch them in the face. As things stood right now, however, she was still silently trying to suppress her disbelief. The drink she had ordered mere moments ago was already starting to taste even more watered-down than usual, mostly due to the heat beginning to take its toll on the chips of ice keeping it cool as she continued to gently swirl the liquid around in her glass. The money she had made ferrying those hunters to Aqua Magna and back was by no means plentiful, and she honestly couldn't help but wonder if they actually knew what they were doing for a time, but her earnings did manage to cover the cost of the repair work needed on her ship, plus a little extra on the side for various other expenses. What topped that, however, was the fact that she was able to land relatively close to Capstone itself; seeing as to how most of the space near the building was taken up by merchant ships and suppliers, she had once considered that achievement to be a statistical improbability. A few minutes of throwing her name around, bribing the right people, and making some thinly-veiled threats, and she was fairly confident that no one would be stupid enough to try screwing her over. Locking the landing gear in place and removing some of the smaller core components from within the dashboard's interior was simply an extra safety measure in the event that aspiring thieves somehow found their way inside the cockpit. Despite leaning back in her chair and having her feet resting on the table, though, her reasons for being here were strictly centered around finding potential business opportunities. The widgets in her possession were never expected to last indefinitely, but in her experience, it was much better to have the next gig already lined up before one made the unfortunate discovery that their pockets were empty, and in this settlement, that frequently ended up happening without even possessing the knowledge that such an event had occured. The highly unprofessional being situated in the back of the actual bar area, shooting his mouth off at a volume that surprisingly wasn't giving him a headache and revealing details about a previous job while flashing his wealth around like he owned the place, would likely soon learn that lesson the hard way, thus eliminating him as both a potential employer and a reliable source of information. The pair of Skakdi just outside the front entrance who were claiming to have been shot down by Vorox were also immediately singled out as a seemingly poor choice as well, seeing as to how they didn't appear to have anything even remotely valuable still on them, Saffina wasn't particularly known for her charitability, and if the problem continued to persist, the people running Tesara would likely start offering up bounties for capturing or killing off members of said offending group anyway. In short, doing something for free when she could just as easily get paid for it simply did not sit right with her. That, of course, left the Turaga, who was completely out of place amidst his current surroundings, and was the only one of the four who wasn't airing out his dirty laundrey for everyone and their mothers to see. The fact that one with such a high public standing would even be spending time here of all places was rather... peculiar, to say the least, though recognising this settlement in particular for what it was, a haven for criminals such as herself, she figured that subtlety was probably the only reason why nobody was presently trying to kidnap him in order to demand a hefty ransom from someone who actually cared about his well-being. While not initially planning on going down that route (though she'd be lying to herself if she wasn't now considering it to be a potential option), she did feel that his presence warranted at least some further investigation, but was definitely intelligent enough to realise that attempting to barge in on his personal affairs likely wasn't going to do much in the way of satiating her curiosity. No, for that goal to be accomplished, the Vortixx needed him to feel comfortable enough to be honest with her, and that itself would require a certain amount of... tactfulness on her part. Flagging down the nearest server, she quickly produced a pouch containing an indiscernible amount of coin before glancing up at them and nodding slightly in her target's direction. "Bring our friend a drink, would you? Preferably something top-shelf," she said softly. "Put whatever's left towards my tab." Sensing that the weight was about right, the Skakdi proceeded to take off and do just that, leaving her with a wolfish grin on her face as her plan to break the ice was set into motion. And so begins our little game... one that I aim to win. OOC: Saffina open for interaction.

Anything else that needs to be changed before it's good to go?

No need to be so dour. Most of the profiles seem fine to me. That said, there's a few things I did want to discuss: I just wanted to clarify - in regards to its appearance and the way it's held, this weapon is basically just a regular old zamor launcher, but with two big, curved swords sticking out of it? Because... that doesn't really sound like something that would be a "nightmare in melee combat", except perhaps for the wielder. Even for a Vortixx, the weight of two sizeable swords and one gun all cobbled together isn't going to be an easy thing to wield one-handed, especially with the handguard hampering how much the wielder can adjust their grip. The functionality itself, I think I'm okay with. There are plenty of items in canon that can channel a user's elemental powers, and a few items that can drain or absorb energy, so a blade that can absorb a small amount of an attacker's energy and redirect it for a small number of shots isn't completely unfeasible. But the design just doesn't seem anywhere near as practical as you've made it out to be... Okay, while I understand that these are the component disks that a Mask Maker would melt down in order to forge a Kanohi Huna, I'm still not entirely sure how individually incorporating them into the pulley system is going to turn the entire airship invisible? I'm pretty sure that's not how Kanohi, Kanoka, or airships work. Canonicity issues aside, I'm loathe to approve a function that would let something that big, with that many guns, just disappear. Had I typed up a Matoran-sized character attempting to use, let's say, something along the lines of this effectively in battle, I would be inclined to agree. Seeing as to how the original Zamor Launchers created by the Nynrah Ghosts are proportionally around the same size and weight as a rifle-based weapon for them, and maybe a sawn-off shotgun for species around the size of a Toa, however, in relation to a Vortixx or another larger species, it would be more along the lines of the average handgun or pistol. Throw in the fact that most of these species also have an average strength level that plateaus just short of a Toa wearing a Pakari (as evidenced by Roodaka being capable of ripping a freaking Troller out of the ground by herself), and this becomes even less of an issue. That being said, the extra addition of the blades is also quite trivial when a character can effectively bench press something made out to be substantially larger than the hut of an average Matoran; in fact, it would be more likely for the wielder to potentially hurt themselves or accidently break their only method of self-defense by misjudging their own strength if it wasn't properly weighted or forged with the wielder's body type and power set in mind to begin with. The pages regarding both Kanohi and Kanoka state that Kanoka are actually combined/melted together into a new disk first, before being carved into masks, in which the process itself eats up a sizeable portion of the resulting disk's power, hence the existence of the three main (not counting Legendary) power levels associated with Kanohi. By that logic, not only do other types of disks outside of the main eight exist within the Matoran Universe, but these disk fusions would also need to contain the abilities of their specific Kanohi (i.e., the Disk of Time possessing similar powers to the Vahi) in order to potentially create a functioning mask at all. And since two-thirds of an airship's ability to operate relies on Levitation and Weight Increase Kanoka being struck up against the ship's interior, rigging up an additional system to do something similar should theoretically still remain possible. Since it's effectively using Concealment Disks (didn't know if we were actually calling them that, hence why the term didn't make it into the original profile) to render itself invisible, it also stands to reason that such a system would have to follow Huna rules as well, namely its shadow still remaining quite visible. If characters can pick up the fact that a group of beings contains one more shadow than it does bodies, then locating a shadow the size of an airship amongst one's current surroundings, even if they have to look out a window in order to do so, shouldn't pose that much of a problem.

Maybe there aren't any Light users allowed in the tournament because they're the villains of this universe. In a world with Teridax of all people still working with the Order of Mata Nui, anything's possible.

Character: Name: Saffina Species: Vortixx Gender: Female Powers: Vortixx-level strength and intelligence; potential to use Kanohi Gear: Elemental Attunement Sword - A Zamor Launcher-like device with a grip and handguard running parallel to the weapon's barrel and with two scimitar-styled blades emerging from the stock at either side, effectively resembling a weaponised tuning fork. While the device is a nightmare in melee combat by itself, capable of dishing out two wounds per swing or thrust, it's real power lies in it's ability to revert elemental attacks that make contact with it back into energy, which can then either be discharged back towards a foe in the form of blasts or simply absorbed before being channelled to increase its effectiveness at cutting through objects. There are a few downsides, however; first and foremost being that these are purely reactional abilities, which means they can only function if there is an initial elemental attack to absorb. Secondly, the weapon can only store up to three charges (meaning three elemental attacks absorbed) before its reserves need to be expended, and possessing a maximum capacity effectively renders it unable to take in anymore energy. Finally, in order to keep it properly functioning, any accumulated charges begin to automatically disperse themselves after a fairly short period of time, meaning that they cannot be retained for use in any future battles. It's hilt and handguard are also home to some small spikes and gems, but these are purely for decoration and possess little to no combat value whatsoever. Zyglakian Hide Armor - Armor primarily composed of treated (and heavily disinfected) Zyglak skin, adorned with various other Rahi pelts and more traditional armor plating. While nowhere near as effective as the ability of a living Zyglak, this does make it capable for her to shrug off most glancing elemental blows with relative ease. Personal Aircraft: The Crimson Takea Allegiance/Role: Herself and whatever crew she happens to be captaining over at any given point in time, though she has built herself up quite the reputation with the residents of Cliffside, and there's a rumor going around that she might even have some less than scrupulous contacts within Fe. Appearance: Saffina's natural colors consist of dark green and gunmetal, an oddity for her species, though her armor is mostly white with lime green accents. Her wide headress, consisting almost entirely of feathers and tassels, resembles the hood of a poisonous snake, and ends with a long braid intertwined with small, light blue crystals that extends all the way down to around her thighs. Her neck also appears to be slightly elongated, due to the rings she used to wear around it back in her youth deforming her clavicles, but has since stopped doing so after distancing herself from the majority of the Vortixx population. Personality: Being one who takes pride in her perfectionism, Saffina settles for nothing less than the best; she only takes on crew members she deems worthy of pulling their own weight, plans every job down to the most minute detail, and is usually long gone with her loot before any form of authority arrives to interfere with her business. A sky pirate and smuggler through and through, she's always on the lookout for her next big score, whether it be a profitable weapons shipment, much needed supplies she can off-load onto the highest bidder, or the occasional artifact from the pre-reformation days collecting dust in some long-forgotten ruin. One thing she absolutely does not tolerate (aside from disloyalty), however, is clichés; those who wish to board her ship best have their missing appendages replaced with viable prosthetics, and even uttering the phrase "arrr" is enough of a reason for her to toss you out of the cargo bay headfirst, preferably while still in mid-air. Bio: Orphaned at a young age on Xia, Saffina was nothing but trouble from the start. Turning to thievery just to survive, she soon ran afoul of the law and was put to work in prison, where she honed her skills working on experimental weaponry deemed too dangerous for the more prominent citizens to sully their hands with. Growing restless and longing for her freedom, she eventually fell in with a group of captured pirates, and, upon discovering that they were plotting to escape, immediately signed on to go with them in order to leave her former home behind her once and for all. Months spent taking note of the guard patrols, smuggling bits and scraps of technology back to her cell, and even starting a few unnecessary fights just to determine response times later had eventually all paid off, culminating in one of the largest breakouts in recorded history, one which she was sure would immediately lead to a grand life of adventure sailing amidst the Protodermis Sea. Unfortunately for her, however, the captain of the crew had other plans, and she was soon sold into slavery on the island of Stelt. Forced to fight in the arena for several years, she soon found herself being pitted against more and more difficult foes as her fighting technique continued to improve, one of which who wounded her severely despite the fact that she was still able to take his life fairly quickly. Knowing that this life wouldn't end for her unless she either did something about it or died trying, she began to formulate another plan to once again regain control over her own destiny, only to fall into a deep depression after being forced to spectate the most recent match of the combatant slated to be her next opponent. Thankfully though, this actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise; when their former owner walked by her cell, happily counting all of the money they just made from selling him off to some shady individuals in the dead of night and clearly not paying any attention to their surroundings, it only took a second for her to shove her arm through the bars and silently snap their neck, and another to retrieve their key and unlock the door. Events from then on are rather hazy, as she began to bury herself in a bottle soon afterwards. What she does remember, however, involves her and a few other escapees stealing a boat, and cutting a bloody, rage-induced swath of destruction up and down the coast. This eventually earned her a title amongst her former crew, one which she would eventually use to name her airship thousands of years later. And as for the captain who had betrayed her all those years ago... well, he eventually found out firsthand what it felt like to be disemboweled. After the mass exodus from the Matoran Universe, accounts detailing the rest of her life up until now begin to differ. Some say that she found herself in Fe, only to be enslaved once again before stowing away on a trading ship with other less fortunate individuals bound for New Atero when they were still trading with the other settlements of Bara Magna. Others tell the tale of her trying to settle down and live a peaceful life in Tesara, only for her overwhelming bloodlust to force her into resuming her life of piracy. Those who've had a few in them will even try to weave stories about her being one of the founders of Cliffside itself, though these accounts are most definitely false, wildly inaccurate, and are really only told to prevent people from getting in her way. Seeing as to how Saffina only concerns herself with the job at hand, however, the real truth, whatever it might be, may never be truly known entirely. Aircraft: Name: The Crimson Takea Model: Airship Weaponry: A Hammerhead-styled ram located on the bow, and broadside cannons on both port and starboard; usually armed with chain-shot forged from Weight Increase Kanoka. Customisation: Enlarge, Shrink, and Freeze combination disks integrated into the pulley system, allowing it to cloak as if under the effects of a Huna; reinforced armor and frame for when subtlety's no longer an option. Roughly half of the cargo bay has also been converted into a hanger of sorts for storing smaller ships as well. Appearance: Standard-ish Metru Nui airship appearance aside from the aforementioned changes, additional fins to keep up with the shark theme (two of which are positioned over the port and starboard hull entrances into the cargo bay), a mostly silver paint job with a few splashes of red mixed in for good measure to imitate the appearance of blood, and two rows of jagged plating attached to the underside of the bow to act as a set of stationary "teeth". Ugh. There goes my entire day... Didn't add a Kanohi for a number of reasons, mostly because her original MoC doesn't have one, and as recent evidence suggests, my chances of even seeing this get approved in the first place belong in the toilet with the rest of the #### anyway. Wasn't really sure about anything concerning the ship at all, so... whatever. Either way, I'm just glad that I can finally get some sleep now, especially since I'm already predicting that I'll be waking up to a six paragraph essay as to why nothing I just typed up is approvable. Yay...

Aside from the obvious suggestions of either centering the story around the beginning of Tuyet's conquest of Metru Nui, mostly to further expand upon the events leading up to her rule, or the aftermath of Takanuva's arrival, I suppose you could always take a page from the playbook of the original Star Wars trilogy and focus the narrative around the efforts of the resistance movement in the time frame between the former and shortly before the arrival of everyone's favorite Toa of Light. Mostly everything immediately predating the Toa Metru onwards didn't happen, including Teridax kickstarting The Great Cataclysm and the GSR crash-landing into Aqua Magna, so we weren't really given too many details about what was currently going on with the rest of the universe. That being said, you're essentially in the position to rewrite history as you see fit.

Technically, it doesn't; the suggestion of factions was mostly for backstory purposes, lore, and world-building, something which Aegis personally stated the RPG was currently lacking. As it stands right now, however, it's also the only potential concept I've seen so far that provides us with an actual reason as to why Matoran have even ventured out into space at all to begin with. Obviously, if Aegis ends up wanting to go down a different road with this, that's fine too, but he's still going to have to come up with an in-game reason for why the plot's set off world aside from simply wanting to create a game with that specific setting. And to address the player spread arguement, most people tend to write up multiple profiles within an RPG's lifetime, so if the majority of the playerbase possesses at least two characters each, then splitting people up suddenly isn't that big of a deal anymore. Effort's not really the issue here, unfortunately; eventually, people are going to just get bored with the concept of pirates in general (especially if they're the RPG's only form of antagonists) because humans are complex creatures that require multiple different forms of stimulation in order to prolong their attention spans. If every comic book created since the 1940s was centered around the adventures of Superman, and only the character of Superman, the entire medium as a whole would've become stale and repetitive very quickly. Most people who enjoy renaissance fairs likely don't spend the entirety of their free time at them, as they have other interests as well. If the science fiction genre soley consisted of Star Trek, well, it's safe to assume that you already know where I'm going with this. The overall point I'm trying to make here is that if you completely focus and center your plot around one specific archetype, and don't do anything new to constantly keep it fresh and interesting, the likelihood of people sticking around long enough to continuously give it the support it needs is going to be at an all-time low. Say what you want about Corpus, but the fact of the matter is that it's still mostly alive and kicking, despite the current absence of its original GM, and that's at least partially because the setting and the character species are so widely different from what's been introduced to the forum for the past two years, so it's effectively still considered to be uncharted territory. In short, what I'm basically trying to say is that there are more threats to us in real life aside from pirates, asteroids, and the potential lack of air, and any RPG that properly reflects this (i.e., not in a fashion that's borderline ridiculous) is really only going to benefit from doing so.

IC: Taranis and Tenjin - The Iron Mahi (Passenger Car) Upon noticing that their chances of subtly making their way towards the back of the train had effectively gone up in smoke, Taranis simply shook his head before turning towards his brother and revealing their plan of attack. "Remember "The Great Brouhaha?" Specifically the part before you decided to #### everything up?" "Of course I do, moron. Everything that made that job worthwhile was because of me." "Same concept," he said, gesturing towards the Toa of Sonics Kynaera was currently dealing with, the overeager passenger attempting to play hero, and his apparently nauseous sidekick who had barely bothered to do anything yet. "Different targets." Giving Dalyn enough time to pass them as she focused her efforts towards the Sentinels at their rear, the duo forced themselves into the aisle as they too readied their weapons and prepared for battle. Taking advantage of the sudden opening left by their teleporting comrade, Tenjin fired a quick blast of Impact Vision towards the Sentinel's position, attempting to catch them off-guard and make them slightly easier for the Ba-Toa to deal with. The De-Skakdi, on the other hand, leveled his Sonic Projector towards the direction of the other two before unleashing a continuous cluster of high-frequency sound waves, aiming to painfully disorient the pair and make them think twice about butting into matters that didn't concern them. OOC: That's Sorox and Datrox, by the way. Looks like the two of you will be fending off the Terror Twins for the duration of this fight.

We are still talking about a space setting here, right? Depending on the size of the station and the target vessel in question, not to mention the distance between the wreckage sites of the faction ships themselves and their intended targets, there's a very real possibility that members of the opposing factions might not even run into each other in the first place, aside from their initial disasterous encounter within the opening post. As for the pirates, the reason for their existence wasn't lost upon me; obviously they're supposed to be a threat entirely based around NPCs, but injecting a little additional variety in the GM's toolbox isn't necessarily a bad thing, either, as it can help alleviate the feeling of repetitiveness occasionally felt on both sides of the fence. Focusing more attention towards the plot is one thing, but there should also be at least some element of freedom put into place as well, otherwise people might just start feeling like they're being railroaded and begin to lose interest entirely. I'm not saying that every RPG in here needs to be the size of Skyrim or New Vegas with a bajillion different things to possibly do before it's projected to end, because that's just unrealistic, but if you don't give your players enough breathing room to create the memories they'll eventually look back on fondly, then there's no real reason to launch a new game to begin with, and you might as well just transform the concept into a Short Story or Epic.

Just my two cents, but maybe the planet the belt's surrounding could be the home of two major factions, locked in a bitter war over its natural resources, which caused a now defunct neutral faction to establish various mining outposts among the debris in a failed attempt to sustain themselves before it ultimately ended up dissolving and its territories were divided amongst the others. Fast forward a century or two later where the stations have been long thought destroyed by impacts with the surrounding debris, until they both suddenly end up detecting an encrypted transmission being played on a loop from the wreckage of a ship formerly belonging to said third party, stating that it had just departed from a previously unknown facility where the workers had "made a discovery that could potentially end all wars." Naturally, as both groups wish to get their hands on whatever this may end up being, they then send out expedition ships, only for the two to immediately open fire end up scuttling each other as they began to close in on their intended destination. Quickly realising that they're both now stranded and have lost their ability to contact their respective forces on the surface, they soon discover that they might not be as alone up there as they previously thought... Now as for what they could potentially run into, Silvan's NPC Pirates suggestion could potentially work here (though I suggest implementing them as much smaller, independent groups simply looking to make a profit, and not giving them one giant ship that they could potentially use to destroy the PC hub bases with), but I'm also thinking this could benefit from having some crazed, murderous former members of the third faction injected into it, and maybe some type of hostile extraterrestrial lifeforms (think something along the lines of Alien's Xenomorphs, Dead Space's Necromorphs, or the creature from The Thing) as well.

Like I said, I wanted to go last. I've just been waiting for everyone else to whip something up so Taranis and Tenjin could inevitably make their move.

IC: Verulas (Spectre) - Ga-Koro (Rooftops) Relieved that the sun was finally beginning to set, the Bo-Toa once again resumed his journey across the rooftops, hastening his way towards the docks in an effort to put the village behind him. He wasn't exactly thrilled about getting himself wet again, but taking a ship directly to Ko-Wahi was about as risky as trying to exit out the front gate, so he was left with little other choice. Too dangerous to wait around for the others. Hopefully, they'll take the hint and head back to the outpost when the client tells them that the job has already been completed. OOC: Verulas to Ko-Wahi.

Velika's essentially the Bionicle universe's living embodiment of carbon monoxide, though; killing people in general becomes super easy when they can't sense your presence in any way, shape, or form. I wouldn't go so far as to say that he doesn't necessarily belong here or anything, but had either Karzahni or Tren Krom seen him coming, those two encounters could've turned out quite differently.

Irnakk should also probably deserve an honorary mention at the very least, despite the fact that he only technically existed within the Zone of Nightmares. Considering the fact that he was an actual physical embodiment of fear, I'm a little surprised that he wasn't brought up already.

From a Matoran legend standpoint, I'd have to say Karzahni, brother of Artakha; his (unmutated) mask looks like an even more demonic version of something you'd see in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise and can trap you in your worst nightmares, he obviously got his medical degree from Victor Frankenstein, and he's pretty much the GSR's version of Krampus. The flaming chains, the backwards and utterly insane nature of his realm (i.e., volcanoes spewing ice and waterfalls of dust), the rocks turning whoever sat on them into statues, and the army of Manas Crabs were just icing on the cake. Tren Krom would probably be a close second, though.