Unreliable Narrator

IC: Reliable Narrator | Kumu Peninsula

Korruhn recorded a half truth in his cartographer's journal. The dark force that walked him through the rain and the snow and the fetid waters of the swamps did not speak the entire journey, save once. She spoke to learn the nature of the dark rites stored within Korruhn’s flesh, and then said nothing more. Her host, by contrast, spoke little but made music with his little squeezebox along the road.

Grime, the matoran freed by Drukarus, walked so quickly at times Korruhn had trouble keeping up once he found his own autonomy returned at their arrival in the Kumu Peninsula. He occasionally stopped to point at a particular landmark and comment. One particular moment remained in Korruhn’s memory;

“See the rock over there? The tall one with the grass growing around it? Yes, that one just to the right of where you’re pointing. That’s where I died.”

Now it was a month past. Each night they heard the voice that demanded more, but more of what Miserix did not deign to comment. Perhaps she did not know. Grime certainly did not, no matter how many times Korruhn asked. Rain pattered across the black stones of a dark land that belonged, by any historical record, leagues away to the south. Now the Kumu Islets were here, having crawled up onto the very southern edge of Zakaz like a parasite. The wind howled with the sound of a thousand decayed aspects, lost of all sanity or ability to interact with the physical world.

As Korruhn placed his hand against the dark stone of the sealed doorway to the strange monument before him, Grime played a small tune on his squeezebox while seated around the fire at the bottom of the steps. The fire let out a sharp crack as it consumed a bit of tree sap. It broke Korruhn’s concentration, but he felt something in the door coming alive before the distraction. 

“The Mangaia,” Grime said, drawing Korruhn’s gaze back towards the fire. When he looked back he saw the three eyes of Miserix crawling across Grime’s mask, and the voice was hers once more. “Do you know of it?”

OOC: @Crimson Jester

 

IC: Reliable Narrator | Spiriah’s Labyrinth 

The stoney pit, in the darkest depths of the labyrinth, was heavily guarded by others of Marrow’s clan. They let him approach, and he didn’t need sight to feel the great power living deep inside the pit. He knew not to fall into the pit -- he would be lost forever if he did. 

“Speak,” said a mesi warrior. This particular warrior carried themselves on all fours, their body overly laden with the underground fungi that commonly found its way onto the bodies of the mesi. It was the voice of Spiriah that spoke through the warrior, deep and hoarse. 

@Nato the Traveler

IC: Reliable Narrator | Fire Suva (some point during the time skip)

The cooled lava rock island rested between two flowing rivers of molten lava, the current moving towards the East. In this way, the island separated a northern section of molten lava and a southern section of molten lava. The heat flowed upwards. It was a dry heat, the very moisture in the air being wicked away by the glow of the fiery lava.

Once they reached the island via a bridge of petrified wood, Ollem and Mahrika fully explored the building that housed the suva, taking care in noting all the things that might be linked. Having solved multiple puzzles designed by the Builders by now, the duo had a good sense that patterns happened for a reason, and that these strange puzzles seemed to be a way to test those who would access the technology, boons, and wisdom of the Builders.

The building was one story tall and built as a large, one roomed dome. Ash lay on the top of the dome in thick piles, like the soft packed snow of winter in Ko-Metru. Three doorways placed equally around the temple provided access to the interior. The doors themselves had long ago been pilfered, leaving only the holes in the masonry where door hinges were once attached. Above each doorway was a sculpture of a rahi’s head. The Northern doorway, for one of the doorways faced a true cardinal direction, was the snarling face of a muaka. Its four largest teeth, Mahrika noted, were made of a red soapstone. Moving clockwise around the building Ollem saw the next sculpture: the head of an Artakha Bull. He remembered the head from the Archives in Onu-Metru. Rumor had it the Artakha Bulls were far smarter than matoran gave them credit, but it was hard to tell when matoran kept them in stasis on display. He noticed the statue’s two horns had once been painted a cream color, although most of the paint flaked off over time in the heat. The third rahi head statue was of a furnace salamander. It’s open mouth showed a long tongue made of a dark green stone. Furnace salamanders were large rahi seen often in Ta-Metru, sometimes caught and kept by mask makers as useful pets. Turaga Dume had a fire salamander, although it was rarely seen at public gatherings in the Coliseum. It always seemed to be getting progressively larger in a sideways direction.

Inside the domed building the heat of the landscape felt even more oppressive. Without a strong wind to keep the air fresh in the space, the inside of the suva temple was thick and difficult to breath. The Suva itself sat in the center. Atop it were three concentric rings, each inside the other. The center-most ring was a dark red in color, and the middle ring a cream color, and the outermost ring a dark black iron with the littlest bits of green mineral flecks forged in it. These three rings all had a single raised nub on them, easily found by placing a hand and running it across each ring's surface. All three rings could be turned clockwise and counterclockwise. The two matoran also noticed that ash covered most of the suva, but recent handprints were around the rings on the suva’s top. Along with the handprints, a small and hastily extinguished campfire was pushed up against one wall. A black line of smoke curled up the wall where the fire had licked the stones. Propped against the wall was a sword, still in its scabbard. It looked forgotten, as it rested next to a bedroll that had been patched with multiple different scraps of blanket. The blade was made of an azure colored glass, like the ocean caught in a single moment and forged into a sword. For the two matoran the weapon seemed a greatsword, but in reality it could have been easily wielded in one hand by any other taller being.

OOC: @Burnmad, @Harvali, you should have everything you need in this post to solve the puzzle of the suva of Fire. Please send any questions to me as a PM.

I'll get you both the description of the puzzle in a single post. You will be able to solve it with all the information provided in that 1 post.

Flavor is good!

@Crimson Jester, Korruhn approved. I see you made the requested changes.

@Kal the Guardian, your MCs are approved for play with the changes made. Do note you have committed to a large roster, with 3 PCs and 10 MCs.

@The UltimoScorp, Katrin is approved with the following note: I see you've attached a Google document that contains some of her martial arts techniques. As long as these "techniques" stay within the limits Kat observed in Rebirth I am okay with them in a general sense.

@Crimson Jester, I am unsure of when Korruhn learned the Rite of Desecration and I thought he was a toa of gravity after Turaga Dume transforming him in Escapement. Other than those two points the profile for Korruhn looks good to go.

@Nato the Traveler, Xaril is approved. Do note you are beginning to have a larger roster, with 2 PCs and 4 MCs.

 

Also, @Harvali, I recommend not worrying about trying to fill the timeskip with a bunch of stuff. It can be easier to just use a timeskip to get into a position of beginning new things. 

@Kal the Guardian, that's a cool conceptualization. Thanks for sharing! 

Spiriah's Labyrinth is the "underhive". The shifting sands have exposed it to the surface world. 

@Kal the GuardianGuardianGuardianGuardian

Sorilax, Viltia, and Cravious approved.  As a note, please explain how "detail oriented" is a flaw in the profile. Being "detail oriented" is a term often used on resumes as a strength in many industries. 

Additionally, does Cravious have fully mechanical hands? The only mention I noted was the replacement prosthetics for detailed work. 

For your MCs with vision powers, please provide a link or a description of what the vision power does. Please also explain what the kraata power does, or provide a link. It's very helpful, since I cannot remember what spellbinder vision does, or if it's even canon or custom. Their profiles are not approved until these changes are made. 

It's not a requirement to provide a profile for your settlement, as settlements are often amorphous in some details between posts, but it's nice to have a place to see all the details you prefer having represented. 

 

I'll look into it. Thanks. 

To provide an explanation of how it *should* work: 

- Players were unhappy with having to agree to a quest immediately, saying it was too restrictive in feedback responses, so this portion was removed for player satisfaction. You may choose to honor previous commitments. 

-The kraata of a desecrated, even newly so, should correlate to most advanced completed for an aspect. Please note, this is specific to aspects desecrating followers as opposed to a desecration by a non-aspect with void sickness and a Nalgene bottle of antidermis. 

@Harvali, Mahrika is also approved. Also, how do I pronounce her name? I've always read her sort of as "'murica". Is the I more pronounced like an E?

8 hours ago, Nato the Traveler said:

On behalf of the players involved in the underground crew at the end of last game, did we end up saving Takadox? 

No, the rahi got away. I'll be writing a bit for a it when I make a post as a summation, but I'm happy to share that player knowledge now. 

8 hours ago, Kal the Guardian said:

Oh dear. So apparently I've been reading the Desecration Taboo wrong this entire time. I thought I had just misread the new version, but it turns out the old version is the same.

I was under the assumption that if an Aspect has finished his 5th Grand Wish step and he Desecrates someone new, they get a stage 5 Kraata. That's even what is approved this game with Caedast's profile:

But in going over the Desecration Taboo, it says "In return, the you transform the heartlight into any one first stage Kraata of the 42 known kraata powers and grafts it to the target."

And I can't find anything that says otherwise or gives an exception.

If an Aspect that has finished his 5th Grand Wish step Desecrates someone new, will they receive a stage 1 Kraata?

I believe the rules you are looking for should be found in the Aspects of Makuta sections under Playable Breeds, along with the Rite of Desecration in Expansion 3.  It should say the newly desecrated gets a desecration kraata at the correct milestone level of the aspect. Let me know if it doesn't!

1 hour ago, Conway said:

Quick desecration question: with Parnassus' desecration at the end of Rebirth, do I need to remove one of their three powers (shadow, fear, ability to use Rites and Taboos) and replace it with their new Kraata power?

Thanks!

No. The rite of desecration in expansion 3 should help in determining what you need to do for his profile. 

 

@Harvali, I'll look into it.

@BULiK, the lizard says to approve Knichou. 

Knichou approved. 

@Toru NuiNui, your 5 PCs are approved. 

@Kal the Guardian and @Nato the Traveler, thanks for catching the issues with Minion Character rules. Equipment was added in because that got cut accidentally in the transfer from the document to the web version. You'd think that after two months I'd have caught all the errors in the copy, but here we are. 

To clarify, there are 3 roles for Minion Characters: Crew, Guard, and Quest Giver. An MC has one of these three roles. Please see the rules topic regarding changing a Minion Character's role. It sounds like you're wanting to make Circuit a Quest Giver, as she works a non-combat oriented occupation and offers opportunities for characters to help in upgrading the village's technology (I see you, Quick Travel Jetpack).  

You're right it should be lizard. Thanks. 

Six Kingdoms: Apocalypse -- Gameplay Topic (IC)

 

The stars are falling. They fall to the sands of the Time Between Time without a trace, and the sands of the island drain like sand draining from an hourglass. A band of stars remains, a bright line in the sky that can be seen faintly even in the light of day. At night, those living in the Time Between Time begin to remember. They toss and they turn, they feel the fear, and they know the nightmares have always been there. Only the skakdi sleep peacefully, chosen and loved by Irnakk in the volcanic center of Irnakk's Tooth.

And each night a star falls.

And each night the world echoes with a single word: 

"More."

 

Introduction

Welcome, gathered friends, to Six Kingdoms: Apocalypse, the final game in the Six Kingdoms RPG trilogy.

Apocalypse will run for six months, from January through June of 2021.

One month, the most favored amount of time in the post-game survey for Rebirth, has occurred between the events of Rebirth and the beginning of Apocalypse. While a month may feel like a long time, this period of time between games is a way to help you start fresh in a new game. It is not a way to gain free power-ups without writing them, and it is not a way to accomplish things without writing about them:

• Any actions you take must at least be briefly described in your first post.
  • writing, "we went from the wastes to the Ash Barrens, stopping by the wark skak garage on the way" is acceptable. 
  • writing later in the game, "oh hey remember when we went to the suva, attuned to it, and are now fighting the boss of the region? Yeah let's use the power-up we got" is unacceptable.
• You are welcome to write about resolving any immediate actions of your character that would logically have occurred during the span of a month.
  • These actions must not need GM approval in order to be completed.
• You may have traveled to any location you were en route to at the end of Rebirth.

 

Synopsis of Prior Events

Escapement: 

The League of Six Kingdoms and the last remaining bastion of matoran civilization fight over the city of Metru-Nui and the very principles of the Great Spirit: Unity, Duty, and Destiny. In the end, both lose and Mata-Nui is awakened by rogue elements within the League itself. The Great Spirit Robot's head is decapitated by an asteroid, and it plummets with the city of Metru-Nui and all combatants inside through time and space to...

Rebirth: 

... the Time Between Time, a place where old and new are merging, and nothing is exactly as it seems. The island looks like Mata-Nui, but is called Zakaz. An ancient race escaped after the arrival of the skakdi, but none of ark-saved matoran and League warriors who arrive remember their collective past. Dark beings, the antithesis of the builders known as aspects of makuta, seek followers in their selfish desires for achieving grand wishes. The Skakdi of this new land follow Irnakk, the Great Spirit of Nightmares, who wells within the central volcano known as Irnakk's Tooth. The Builders who remain hide in terror, afraid of the genocidal wrath of Irnakk's Prized warriors. The refugees from the GSR brave a new world at war, and find the secrets to their past hidden away in ancient suvas and Elemental Ruins that are overseen by a malign AI known as The Administrator. In Unlocking the Elemental Temples, NUVA is discovered, titanic machines known as Kaita ACRs embodying lesser spirits are unleashed, and great kaiju are born from the volcano with dark rites taught to skakdi by Irnakk.

But sometimes the past and the future are the same, and that vicious ouraborus of time brings us to...

Apocalypse.

 

Locations

The majority of Apocalypse takes place in the Time Between Time, a proverbial planar eye in a hurricane of unraveling timelines and disintegrating futures. A long long time ago a civilization known as the Builders lived on the island of Tren-Nui, where they worshiped a being known as Tren Krom. It was from the Time Between Time that the great Ark, AKA Great Spirit Robot (GSR), departed to escape a fate worse than death itself: Irnakk, the god of nightmares and his monstrous, rite-born, kaiju.

Now, gathered friends, we return to the Time Between Time to tell one last story... 

The Time Between Time*

*This map of the Time Between Time is current as of 05/18/2021

The Hidden Valley of Kini-Nui

• Temple of Kini-Nui
  • The Makoki Wall
  • Far Shore Rift
  • Amaja Circle
  • The Mangaia
• Tombs of the Lords of Elements
• Kini-Koro

Among the mountains between Spiriah’s Labyrinth to the North and the Fau Swamp to the South rests a valley hidden from the violence of the world beyond. A lake of silver protodermis rests in the center of the valley, and floating on this lake is the sacred temple of Kini-Nui. A long floating bridge connects the temple of Kini-Nui to the lakeshore. There are several religious sites at Kini-Nui: 

Makoki Wall: a wall of prophecy and warnings written in the sealed mouth titanic matoran skull. In the center of the wall is a circular depression where the six Makoki Stones once formed the Great Makoki Stone, connecting the planes in the Time Between Time.

Far Shore Rift: a circular machine once used to implant the powers of kanoka disks into creatures now rests in the Kini-Nui partially disassembled. In the center of the machine is a rift to the Far Shore, a place within the multiverse where the multiverse confirms itself. Those who pass through the rift go on a Far Shore Adventure (see the expansion in the rules), and return with many rewards. The matoran scholar Nuju waits by the rift, offering commentary and urging travelers to enter the Far Shore in search of a Makoki Stone.

Amaja Circle: at the opposite end of Kini-Nui is a raised tower with a sandpit and a ring of seats at the top. This is the Amaja circle, where stories and legends are told with the use of colored stones placed in the sand pit to represent the heroes and villains of legend.

Suva Kaita: in the center of Kini-Nui is a Suva designed specifically for storing the equipment used by Kaita ACRs. When a puzzle involving the suva kaita is solved, it slowly descends into the earth to reveal a great spiraling stairway down into darkness.

The Mangaia: locked away by the suva kaita puzzle and deep below the protodermis lake and the temple of Kini-Nui is the Mangaia, a room of shadow and death. All is dark in the Mangaia, and a great door swallows the souls of those who pass through. This is a deadly place, and only the very brave or the very foolish attempt to walk the path of prophecy through the doorway of death.

When the NUVA process is completed in an elemental temple, a permanent teleportation portal opens between the temple’s final room and the forest surrounding the lake in the Hidden Valley. So far, portals to and from the Elemental Temples of Ice and Stone exist. These portals exist as glowing rainbow mirrors of energy floating in the forests. The world on the other side of the portal is murky. The faintest sounds of what is occurring on the other side echo over.

In the hillsides ringing the temple of Kini-Nui are six sealed doorways that gladly suck the life from those who offer it. Only a NUVA has enough power to offer for one door to open at the cost of their life. These six doorways are the seals that bind the Lords of Elements, ancient ACRs embodying the great Kaita warriors of the ancient Builders. Behind each door is one Kaita ACR, waiting for the day to be revived and piloted in war once more.

Kini-Koro is a new settlement on the island of Zakaz in the Time Between Time. The refugees who lived in the village of Metru-Koro during Rebirth picked up and moved in search of a safer home after the constant threats. They used the opened teleportation gate in the Elemental Temple Ruins of Ice to travel quickly inland, discovering a verdant valley nestled among the surrounding mountains. They settled in the Hidden Valley surrounding the ancient temple of Kini-Nui, and they named their new village Kini-Koro. A matoran named Vulimai is the leader of Kini-Koro, and the village seeks to rebuild peacefully after the events of the Cataclysm.

 

Spiriah’s Labyrinth (NW portion of the Island)

• Spiriah’s Labyrinth (boneyard)
  • Elemental Temple of Earth
• Suva of Earth

The sinking sands and falling rain revealed a network of carved tunnels running deep into the earth beneath the deserts and plains west of the mountains. The tunnels run through the skeletons of ancient, right born monsters and the destroyed armor of uncounted ACRs. Cracked mud and dirt shroud the uppermost tunnels from sunlight, but Mesi who normally cannot stand the sight of the sun have begun to crawl out into the open air of day. The elder aspect Spiriah is searching for something, and his religious warriors follow his command.

In the center of Spiriah’s Labyrinth is Elemental Temple of Earth, a ruin built in the center of an underground saltwater lake and connected to the rest of the tunnels of the Mesi by a dangerously old rope bridge. The Mesi have a small camp stationed at the ruins, dedicated to collecting rubbings of the hieroglyphs inside for their aspect god.

Hidden in the roots of the mountain reaches nearly flattened by the arrival of the Great Skull, the suva of earth is accessible from a small tunnel in the hillside. A single large purple amethyst growing from the ground marks the entrance to a tunnel that takes explorers down into the earth. Mesi tunnels cross the pathway to the suva of Earth, making the trek dangerous in and of itself.

 

The Great Skull (Large left circle on the map)

• Metru-Nui
  • Coliseum
  • Fringe Districts
• Toxic Bay

The great skull of Mata-Nui has been sinking as waters flooded the cavity where the city of Metru-Nui still stands and the ocean floor beneath it shudders. The only remaining strip of the once proud City of Legends above is the Coliseum, and the fringe district built into the inside of the skull’s eyes and nasal cavities by the League of Six Kingdoms.

The Fringe District, a whole metru built after the arrival on the island of Zakaz, is a district of survival and industry. Buildings are secured into the metal of the Great Skull, providing commanding views of the outside world while also remaining hidden. A working protodermis chute runs from the Coliseum to a station in the Fringe District. League warriors and civilians work to recover lost technology from the sunken Metrus, bringing their findings back to the Fringe or the Coliseum.

Surrounding the Great Skull of Mata-Nui is a bay of defiled Energetic Protodermis created by the Great Skull’s impact. It shimmers like an oil spill, and a sulphuric mist off gasses day and night. The waters curse whatever it touches, mutating or killing whatever falls beneath its surface. An unknown force keeps the defiled waters from spreading further than the bay and the coast.

 

The Northern Wastes and the Rivers of Loss (North and Northeastern portion of the island)

• Tobduk Koro
  • Elemental Ruins of Stone
• Suva of Stone
• Fort Nektann
• Warskak Garage

At Spiriah’s command the Northern Wastes began to sink, the sands slipping into the earth to reveal caverns and pathways carved in Shagrak’s wake over the centuries. Where Mesi once walked safely in the cover of darkness, sunlight now shines.

Two villages exist in what’s left of the desert: Tobduk-Koro to the Northwest built by a group of refugees around the Elemental Ruins of Stone, and Fort Nektann to the Northeast built by the warskaks on the foundations of an ancient fortress of the Builders. 

Tobduk-Koro, led by the matoran Kanohi, has become a modest township despite the hardships of the sinking sands, and the populace is well integrated and diverse. 

The elemental Ruins of Stone sit in the cliffside in the middle of Tobduk-Koro, and the villagers often spent the hottest parts of the day inside the temple reading the hieroglyphs, visiting the lake in Kini-Nui, or speaking with the AI caretaker of the temple known as the Administrator.

Fort Nektann, run by the skakdi Barius, is the base of the warskak raiders, whose livelihood depends on stealing from traveling caravans. The leader of the warskaks, Barius, inherited the position by killing the old chieftain and turning him into a tahtorak monster that roams the island carving destruction in its path.

The Warskaks have a small garage, one of their stolen holdings, at the southernmost point in the deserts, just on the edge of the Ash Barrens with a solid view of Irnakk’s Tooth. The garage was stolen from a matoran while she was away assisting the refugee settlement of Po-Koro recover from a warskak raid.

Spiriah’s domain has revealed itself throughout the mountain ranges that form the natural border of the sandy northern desert. The sands have also drained from the western side of the desert, revealing a network of tunnels carved by Shagrak over the many centuries that lead deep into the earth. The shrieking cries of Shagrak echoes through these caverns, as do the echoes of her spawn.

 

Metru-Koro and the Relic Fields (West side of the island)

• Metru-Koro (ruins of)
• Elemental Temple Ruins of Ice
• Suva of Ice
• Relic Fields
  • Hafu's Statue

On the Southeast edge of the bay rests the ruins of an abandoned refugee settlement called simply Metru-Koro. It was establised by Turaga Sans in the week after the Cataclysm in Rebirth, and became a place of significant conflict between the Refugees, the remnants of the League, and even the Mesi. At the end of the settlement's occupation it was led by Vulimai, Captain of the Guard. It had no geographical defenses, no significantly stable water supply, no cover from view, and the greatest number of refugees who wanted to return to the Great Skull and rebuild matoran civilization. It was built during the first week of their arrival on Zakaz, and those who lived there relocated to the settlement of Kini-Koro in the Hidden Valley.

A few hours walk South from the toxic bay along the Western coast of Zakaz is the Elemental Temple Ruins of Ice. It is a stone ziggurat in three tiers that reaches high into the sky. It’s exterior is covered in a slick coating of black ice, and pools of melted ice gather at the bottom of the temple. Herds of wild mahi are often seen drinking from the pools.

Ko-Pou is a tiny settlement built next to the Elemental Temple Ruins of Ice. It is mostly a medical ward and small garrison where some of the mutated villagers from Kini-Koro are being treated as a cure is being researched. Ko-Pou is under the political jurisdiction of the village of Kini-Koro.

To the West of Metru-Koro is the suva of Ice, a two story structure that sits atop an icy hilltop. It never gets warm enough to melt the frost covering the grass here.

The fields between the Elemental Temple of Ice and the Suva of Ice contain many structures that have appeared overnight. They flickered in and out of existence for a week, until fully arriving as structures covered in ivy and graffiti. The pillars for a broken protodermis chute system run through the fields, and several abandoned knowledge towers melt under the glaring light of the sun. The civilians in Metru-Koro have begun to call the fields where these buildings appeared the Relic Fields, although if they are a relic of the past or the relic of a future lost to time is impossible to say.

Between two of the flickering knowledge towers in the Relic Fields is one of Hafu's Statues.

Ash Barrens and Mi-Kiri, the Aqua Sphere (East side of the island)

• Irnakk’s Tooth
• Forest of Ash
• Elemental Temple of Fire
• Suva of Fire
• Mi-Kiri, the Aqua Sphere
• Elemental Temple of Water
• Suva of Water
• Great Telescope

Irnakk's Tooth is the central large volcano on the island of Zakaz in the Time Between Time. It is from this volcano that the great monsters of Irnakk's making crawl into the Time Between Time to ravage the island of Zakaz with destruction. Where in the far past the Forge of the Heartsflame stood, a testament to the incredible inventiveness of the Builders, now the Nightmare walk and Irnakk's dark domain exist in the volcano's heart. To enter Irnakk's Tooth, take the Nightmare Walk through through the door marked by cairns of skakdi skulls halfway up the volcano's mountainside. 

The lava flows from Irnakk’s Tooth have spread, swallowing up what was once the bay where the Riggers lived. Other older portions have fallen into the sea, disappearing beneath the waves. The Riggers have moved further out into the bay, and many have left for safer waters around the island coast. 

The Elemental Temple of Fire sits in the Forest of Ash, where the petrified trees are covered in white ash that looks almost like snow. It is a large three tiered Ziggurat with a bronze gong at the top. While the inside puzzles have been solved, it still holds the opportunity of the NUVA transformation.

Between two lava rivers in the middle of the Ash Barrens is the Suva of Fire. It is a single story circular structure with three doorways leading in and a suva at its center. 

Flying ever present just above the cloud layer over the eastern coast is Mi-Kiri, the Aqua Sphere. The life-giving waters that made anything they touched young have stopped flowing after the arrival of Barraki Ehlek. A floating fortress, once a vahki hive, orbits Mi-Kiri.

In the lava-filled bay where the Riggers once lived lies the Elemental Ruins of Water, hidden behind a great stone Mask of Waterbreathing carved into a prominent waterfall.

On an island in the middle of the bay, so far out of the reach of the cooling lava flows, is a single story circular tower. Inside the tower is a passageway to a grotto containing the Suva of Water.

The Great Telescope sits on a tiny island-like sandbar off the Eastern coast of Zakaz, and a stone bridge connects the coastal cliffs with the ancient observatory. The Great Telescope itself is a copper device, green with age, and salt encrusts most of its turning gears. It rests on a large pedestal. There are a series of carved panels along the pedestal, which tell the story of the Builders escaping the Time Between Time in their Ark.

 

Fau Swamps and the Kumu Peninsula (Southern side of the island)

• Fau Swamp
  • Le-Metru Nuva
  • Suva of Air
  • Elemental Ruins of Air
• Kumu Peninsula
  • The Caldera
  • Aspect Shrines

The toxic marshes leading to the Fau Swamp sank underneath the island during a large quake after the rising of the Kaita ACRs from their tombs of the Elemental Lords. Splitting the island of Zakaz into almost two separate islands as salt-water rushed in, now the Fau Swamp covers the entirety of the southern half of Zakaz. The massive jungle ecosystem sits in a marsh of polluted waters and defiled Energetic Protodermis. Plants and rahi alike mutate rapidly during their own lives, absorbing the poisons of a world defiled after the arrival of Irnakk.

The refugee village of Le-Metru Nuva is hidden in the Fau Swamp. Started by Sorilax and a group of refugees from the Great Skull, Le-Metru Nuva has grown into a village of industry.

The Suva of Air is a single story tower hidden in the Fau Swamps. 

The Elemental Ruins of Air, sometimes called the Grand Temple, is the regional Ziggurat that contains not only the solved puzzled of the Administrator but the unsolved NUVA device waiting at its heart.

The Kumu Islets became the Kumu Peninsula. No one saw it coming, and no one knew it could, but suddenly the very islands themselves floated from the distant south to crawl onto the mainland like strange creatures of obsidian and basalt. The ancient temples of the aspects now exist on the mainland of Zakaz in the Time Between Time.

The Caldera, a massive depression in a ring of obsidian and basalt, is the traditional meeting ground of aspects. A green pool of antidermis bubbles in the center of the caldera, and it is from this pool of antidermis that aspects emerge and return.

In the dark shrines and monuments to ancient powers are sealed doorways marked with the symbols of taboo rites. Strangely, the do not offer the knowledge of the symbol, but instead seem all to willing to receive it.

 

NPC Villains

In Apocalypse, many villains work to achieve their own goals. Many villains are leaders of factions. This section provides some information on these villains and their goals. You may choose to work towards achieving these goals with them, or you may choose to try and stop villains from achieving their goals. Whatever your choice, your actions impact not only you but the rest of the game as well. As villains are introduced and they reveal their goal it will be recorded here!

 

Misc. Notes

Hello all, please notify GMs via a comment in the OOC topic if there is something in this initial post that seems really weird -- like a missing paragraph or something. We've been working around the clock to get this all up in time, and some things may have slipped between the cracks.

@Unreliable Narrator is only human after all, we think...

 

OLD MAPS:

These are a good reference for looking back to see what may have been discovered or changed over the course of the game. They are presented chronologically, with the oldest being first.

@Harvali Feel free to begin posting your characters in the appropriate topic for approval. GMs will approve characters after all rules expansions are added.

@Nato the Traveler the gameplay topic (once posted) will answer your question directly. 

 

EDIT: all 7 current expansions of the rules have been added to the Rules and Character Creation topic. You may fully submit all character profiles, and GMs will begin the approval process.

Character Creation topic is live. The core rules are up, and expansions (all 7) will be added throughout the rest of my day -- I need lunch first though!

Edit: we've received reports of skakdi's third "miscellaneous" power having been removed. It was not our intention to nerf skakdi and we will look into this. 

Six Kingdoms Player's Guide

How to Use This Guide

Welcome to the Six Kingdoms Role-Playing Game (RPG)! We’re excited to have you join us! The Six Kingdoms Player’s Guide (SKPG) is your resource for everything you need to create a character, join a faction, and get started playing the current Six Kingdoms game. The SKPG is a living document, meaning it can be edited and altered by Game Masters at any time to assist with clarification regarding the rules of the game, to add new rules, or to remove rules found to be unfair or just plain bad for the game as a whole. Any changes will be noted in the "Reasons for Edit" section at the bottom of this post. Please note “you” and “player” are used interchangeably. The SKPG is broken down into the following sections:

• How to Play
  • Game Masters (GM)
  • The Reliable Narrator
  • How to Post
  • Conduct
    • Player Honor
    • “Autohits” and Combat
    • Resolving Conflict
    • Reporting Conduct
    • Three Strike System
• Character Creation
  • Introduction/How to Use This Section
  • The Yes of Character Creation
  • The No of Character Creation
  • Kinds of Characters
    • Player Characters
      • PC Profile Template
    • Minion Characters
      • Minion Roles
      • MC Profile Template
    • Non-Player Characters
  • How to Update Your Characters
    • Porting Characters
  • Six Kingdoms Playable Breeds
    • Common Canon Breeds
      • Matoran
        • Matoran
        • Toa
        • Turaga
      • Skakdi
        • GSR Skakdi
        • Irnakk's Prized
      • Titans
      • Vortixx
      • Zyglak
    • Six Kingdoms Unique Breeds
      • Aspects of Makuta
        • Grand Wish
          • Creating a Grand Wish
        • Ascension Perks
        • Host Possession
    • Custom Breeds 
      • Custom Breed Requests
      • List of Approved Custom Breeds
  • Factions
    • Aspects of Makuta
    • Builders
    • Mesi
    • Order of Mata Nui
    • Refugees
    • Riggers
    • The League (Formerly The League of Six Kingdoms)
    • Untethered
    • Zakazian
    • Warskaks
• Expansions
• #1 ACRs and Vehicles
• #2 Settlements
• #3 Taboos
• #4 NUVA and NUVA Proxima
• #5 Suva System
• #6 Rites of Irnakk
• #7 Far Shore Adventures
• #8 Kaita ACRs, Amaja Circles, and More (read: misc.)
• Terms
• Resources

How to Play

Six Kingdoms is a Text Based Roleplaying Game (TBRPG), played though individual character posts. In the rawest form, you play SKRPGs by writing prose centered on your character’s perspective and then post the prose to the appropriate In Character (IC) topic. Other players then respond with their own characters, creating collaboratively written scenes, acts, and stories. You can learn more about the specifics of playing TBRPGs on BZPower by viewing the following links:

• RPG Forum Rules
• BZPRPG Rules (New Player Guide + Master Rules)
• Friar Tuck’s Common Sense Guide

 

Game Masters (GM)

In SKRPGs, there are Players and Game Masters (GMs). You are a player. Players create characters and play the game. They build stories together and go on adventures. 

Game Masters maintain the game in all its other functions (including writing these rules). They are responsible for creating a framework of play, official locations, and an overarching narrative to interact with during each game. Please keep in mind that while GMs create and maintain many plots in a given game, there is not a single “official” plot of SKRPGS. Instead, it is through the interweaving of everyone’s stories that the common narrative is found. Your GMs for SKRPGs are as follows:

• Head GM: @Unreliable Narrator
• World Design, Back End, Conduct Resolution GM: @Vezok's Friend
• Conduct Resolution, Live Operations GM: @Eyru

You can tag a GM in the OOC topic if you need assistance. Please keep in mind: GMs are volunteers and have final say in decision making.

 

The Reliable Narrator 

When interacting with the game, you may find your character is responded to by the Reliable Narrator. This is a GM describing the actions of your character and the responses to them by the rest of the world. Examples of the Reliable Narrator include descriptions of new locations your characters enter, rising tension, or sudden commentaries on events to shed new light on the story. The Reliable Narrator is similar to the descriptive narration performed by GMs in more standard table-top roleplaying games. (e.g. Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Fate Core)

 

How to Post

Once you have created a character, and that character has been approved in the Six Kingdoms Character Profiles topic by a Game Master, you can start playing the game. Like many "Play By Post" RPG games on BZPower, we use a system of Out Of Character (OOC) and In Character (IC) tags to notify readers whether we’re writing from the author’s perspective or from a given characters’ perspective. 

You make a post ‘In Character’ (IC) by using the following format:

• IC: (character’s name) | (character’s present location)

Write your post after the above heading, and then submit your post in the appropriate IC gameplay topic. Using this format helps other players understand who you are writing, where they are, and how to best respond to you with their own characters. Remember to follow forum rules about double posting, and give others time to respond.

Sometimes you’ll want to make notes in your posts that are not from the perspective of your character. Anything you write from your own perspective as the player is an ‘Out Of Character’ (OOC) comment. To post an OOC comment, simply use the following format:

• OOC: (your comments here)

A helpful way to make sure all players are on the same page in a given scene is to tag them! You can tag a player as an OOC comment in your posts by using the @ symbol followed by the appropriate username. For example, if you wanted to tag someone, you’d do the following:

• OOC: @UnreliableNarrator

Some players enjoy using colored text to distinguish between characters. While colored text is perfectly acceptable, please remember to include the IC and OOC headings. If you choose to use colored text, please choose a color that is easily readable and remember some people may be unable to distinguish or read the color you’ve chosen.

Please be patient between posts, allowing everyone else involved in the scene a chance to reply before continuing. The main focus of this game is a compelling narrative written together. This places more power in the hands of the players: you may describe the environments as you see fit, as long as pre-established in-game descriptions by other players, the GM, or Bionicle canon is not broken. By contributing our individual ideas, we create a beautiful living world together.

 

Conduct

Please see the general rules, common sense guide, and BZPRPG rules of play. We will abide by those rules and guidelines unless stated otherwise here. By joining a Six Kingdoms game, you consent to abide by all site, forum, and game specific rules. You consent to have your username publicly listed if banned, and you agree to act with integrity and respect in any area of the Six Kingdoms community (both on BZPower and off).

 

Player Honor

Players are expected to act honorably both while playing and while interacting with other players. GMs will believe you have actually randomly rolled on a table when asked to do so. GMs will believe you are acting in good faith until your actions show otherwise. 

Acting dishonorably by breaking game rules, site and forum rules, using rules loopholes to abuse other players, or other circumstances of poor sportsmanship is grounds for receiving conduct action. 

 

Autohits and Combat

An autohit in SKRPGs is defined as: “any action that negatively impacts a character or their property without the permission of the player who owns that character.”

• “I pat them on the shoulder and say ‘nice job’ after our characters complete setting up a tent.” is not an autohit. 
• “I steal their canteen and throw it into the sea while they’re asleep.” is an autohit.

A GM may autohit in these circumstances: 

• Facilitating in resolving a dispute between players. 
• Reminding players their characters are in a dangerous situation if players stop engaging with the world as a living and breathing system. 
• When an Environmental Effect or other game-changing effect takes place and affects all characters in a region.

If players are engaging in player-vs-player (PVP) combat, they will assume their character is already dead for the narrative purposes of the story. They will not engage in actions they are uncomfortable placing their character in. Do not make the “biggest, meanest skakdi of them all” for PVP if you refuse to let your character be hurt or die because “they’re the best.” If a GM observes this behavior they will ask you to shift gears and return to a collaborative mindset. Noncompliance with a GM’s request may result in conduct action.

 

Resolving Conflict

While this is a cooperative game, we expect there to be occasions where players disagree on how the story should go. That's fine and normal. Usually, disagreements can and should be resolved amiably between players.

However, if players cannot come to an agreement, any or all of the GMs will step in to facilitate a resolution. When this happens, all players are expected to listen to the GMs, abide by their decision, and alter their posts or characters as requested. Refusing to do so is grounds for receiving conduct action.

 

Reporting Conduct

If you see someone breaking game rules, or if you have conduct-related issues, please send a PM using the BZPower PM System to all three GMs with the subject line "Conduct Report: (Your Conduct Issue Here)". In the body of your PM, please briefly describe the issue you experienced, the players involved, and a link if possible to the post(s) in question. The GMs will review and respond as appropriate.

If you see content that breaks BZPower’s site-wide rules, please use the ‘Report’ button.

 

Three Strike System

Players are expected to know and abide by the rules of conduct listed above. By joining a Six Kingdoms game, you consent to abide by all site, forum, and game specific rules. You also consent to abide by the decisions of the GMs.

Breaking the rules of conduct is grounds for receiving conduct action. SKRPGs use a three-strike system, where one instance of rule-breaking behaviour is grounds for receiving one strike. Strikes are given at the GMs’ discretion. If a player receives three strikes, they are immediately banned from the game. Their username is publicly blacklisted, and players do not have to interact with their characters.

 

Character Creation

This chapter is all about creating a character! 

All Bionicle species in Six Kingdoms—with the exception of Aspects of Makuta—are collectively referred to as protoderms. Their organic tissues and inorganic structures are all made of the incredible material known as protodermis. In Six Kingdoms, the distinction between a matoran, a skakdi, and a zyglak is that they are each a different breed of protoderm.

The established lore of the world points to protoderms being about 80% inorganic and 20% organic. That said, we follow the “Bonkle Theorem” for characters during play (see Terms).

This chapter is broken down into the following sections:

• (Table of Contents Forthcoming)

 

The “Yes” of Character Creation

Here’s what you can do when creating a character:

All canon Bionicle protoderm breeds are playable unless mentioned in The “No” of Character Creation. You may also submit a custom breed to play as, but it must be approved by the GMs before playing.

The world of Six Kingdoms is canonically a world of moral relativism. Your character may believe in a true good or a true evil (we even encourage it), but the game as a whole does not function in that manner.  

• Kanohi are not moral or amoral in this alternate universe. They are tools. Some tools are more feared than others based on famous users or cultural stigma.

All elements are available for play. Think about how your character’s element would be viewed by those around them. For example, the inhabitants of the Great Spirit Robot (GSR), are terrified of the element of shadow and may view those who use it as evil beings.

• All beings are lightly resistant to psionic powers. Attempts to use psionic powers requires player consent in the same way as any elemental power. This does not mean a character without valid reasons to do so can perpetually block psionic intrusion.

Player characters may have a personal vehicle, and any amount of technological items that fit the character narratively. For further information, please see the sections on Equipment and Vehicles.

At any time, three willing PCs or MCs of a similar breed (three matoran, three skakdi, three toa, etc.) of different elements may form a kaita. A kaita is a Lesser Spirit, and governs a domain of its cultural ethos. All three players may post as the kaita, but they can only post once per interaction or in combat. Do not use the advantage of multiple players to double post as a kaita. Kaita Fusions follow all the same rules as PCs and require an approved profile. GMs are actively watching for kaita fusion abuse. 

The ‘“No’” of Character Creation

Here’s what you can’t do when creating a character:

Legendary kanohi are banned unless GMs have given written approval for the use of a legendary kanohi. If other kanohi prove they are being abused in a way that destroys the overall player enjoyment, they will be added to this list, so play nice! The list of banned kanohi is as follows:

• Mask of Creation (currently exists, worn by Knichou, only 1 in existence)
• Mask of Time (Vahi)
• Mask of Life (Ignika)
• Mask of Dimension Travel (Olmak) (currently exists, only 1 in existence)
• Mask of Light (Avohkii)
• Mask of Shadows (Kraahkan)
• Gold Masks (must be unlocked via finding the in-game method)

The following breeds are unavailable for play:

• Makuta (Aspects of Makuta are the Six Kingdoms version)
• Rahkshi (please see the taboo on Rahkshi Creation as the only exception)
• Most Rahi
• Any breed GMs deem breaks the established setting of Six Kingdoms

The Order of Mata-Nui is a secretive society known to very few. To join the faction, find a recruiter and roleplay the rites of passage discovered in-game. You cannot start your character in the Order of Mata-Nui unless they were recruited in SK:E.

Nova blasts are banned, unless you message the GMs and explain why it’s absolutely necessary for plot reasons to blow up your character, and all the GMs say yes in writing.

Nuva characters are banned. NUVA and Nuva Proxima are character expansions that are incredibly rare. You must complete the in game rituals and have written approval of at least one GM to upgrade your character to NUVA or Nuva Proxima. Please see the section on NUVA for more details.

No one has what TV Tropes calls “plot armor”, including Non-Player Characters. Everyone has at least one weakness, and no one is invulnerable.

 

Kinds of Characters

There are three main kinds of characters in Six Kingdoms: Player/Plot Characters, Minion Characters, and Non-Player Characters.

You can play two kinds: Player Characters and Minion Characters.

 

Player/Plot Characters (PC)

The Player/Plot Characters (or PCs for short) are the active participants in the game. They go on adventures and make world-changing decisions. They lead, and are the heroes and villains of the world. 

You may have a total of five (5) PCs. If you have five and want to play a new character, consider transitioning one of your five PCs into being a Minion Character (see below).

 

PC Profile Template

• Name: please pick a name that sounds appropriate for the setting
• Breed: what breed of protoderm are they?
• Faction: where does their allegiance lie? 
• Brief Description: what’s their everyday or current appearance?
• Background/Occupation: what do they do, and where did they come from?
• Flaws: what are the character traits that hold them back? Where do they break?
  • At least one psychological issue they struggle with
  • At least one physical limitation
• Powers: what are they capable of? Stick to canon for what your character’s species can and cannot do.
  • One primary element/power
  • One secondary power (e.g. Masks)
  • Breed quirk(s)
• Equipment: what worldly goods do they possess?

 

For example, let’s take a character from Bionicle canon in 2001: Tahu. 

Tahu has control over the element of fire (primary element/power), the mask of shielding (secondary power), and heat resistance (breed quirk). Tahu also consumes nutrients in foods by absorbing them through his hands rather than eating them like a skakdi would (another breed quirk). 

Tahu’s psychological issue is being a rage-aholic. His community supports and validates his bursts by telling themselves, “he burns hot like fire.” Tahu’s physical limitation is he atrophied over time in the Toa canister and needs to rebuild his strength.

 

Minion Characters (MC)

Minion Characters (Minions or MCs for short) are a subgroup of characters who are reactive participants in the story. They follow the actions of PCs, having little to no agency of their own.

In a traditional game of D&D, these would be your non-player guards, merchants, farmers, scholars, artisans, and traveling quest givers. To encourage player agency, you are empowered to create Minion Characters to fulfill roles in larger settlements, gangs, vehicle crews, etc. All minions are able to defend themselves if pressed (it would be strange if they did not) and  can perform other actions in alignment within their specified role. You may create a total of ten Minions.

 

Minion Character Roles

Unlike PCs, MCs have a single role, and they are expected to stay within the boundaries of that role. Minions are supporting characters, which is why their role is limited. Please submit a request to a GM if you want to change an MC’s role, explaining briefly why the MC’s role should change and which role the MC should become. If approval is given by a GM, you may change the role. 

If a GM notices a repeated trend of an MC going beyond the boundaries of their role, the GM will reach out to kindly remind the owning player of the rules as a courtesy. This is not an official action, and a strike will not be given for the first instance. However, if the MC continues to stray beyond their role, conduct action may be taken.

You Minion is one of the following three roles:

• Crew: rarely stray from the vehicle they operate unless accompanying their captain (usually a PC). 
  • Crew operate vehicles, keep them in working order, and have full agency while aboard their vehicle. 
  • Crew may be assigned to one vehicle at a time.
• Fighter: either of a settlement or an individual, guards follow their orders to protect the location or person. 
  • Fighters act on the orders of their PC leader or sponsor. 
  • A fighter may be assigned to one PC or settlement at a time. 
  • A PC may have up to six fighters assigned to them.
• Quest Giver:
  • They provide various quests and tasks for PCs to accomplish. In this way, you can send others on fun adventures!
  • Most have an occupation in a settlement and their quests revolve around the need for industry-specific resources.

When in combat with a mixture of PCs and MCs, consider the following MC prioritization:

• MCs always fight other MCs first.
• MCs let PCs fight other PCs.
• MCs without a PC will first attempt to flee when fighting a PC without supporting MCs of their own.
• If MCs must fight a PC (fleeing or surrender are unavailable), the MCs must allow the PC to respond between each MC’s actions. In this way, a PC cannot be overwhelmed by a larger host of MCs.

 

MC Profile Template

• Name: please pick a name that sounds appropriate for the setting
• Breed: what breed of protoderm are they?
• Faction: where does their allegiance lie?
• Brief Description: what’s their everyday or current appearance?
• Role: crew, fighter, or quest giver (pick one)
• Flaw: Where do they break?
  • One serious physical or psychological limitation
• Powers: what are they capable of? Stick to canon for what your character’s species can and cannot do.
  • One Primary Power
  • One Secondary Power
• Breed quirk(s): what do they gain from their breed?
• Equipment: what are their worldly possessions?
  • Keep in mind Minions are supporting characters, not PCs.

 

Non-Player Characters (NPC)

A Non-Player Character (or NPC for short) is played by a GM to help facilitate a scene. Some NPCs are available for casual interaction in player postings without GM response, such as an unnamed shopkeeper or a warship slowly sailing in the background not requiring interaction. All NPCs exist without the need for a character profile.

NPCs, like PCs and MCs, have a desire to survive in the harsh realities of Six Kingdoms. They struggle, and work, and toil in the background of the story and create the playspace from a blank creative canvas. Killing off NPCs as if they are cannon fodder is considered a form of god-modding (see Six Kingdoms Rules of Play), and any attempts to harm or take the life of an NPC should be treated with the same respect and difficulty as with a PC or an MC.

NPCs of specific note—such as villains—have secret profiles! This means there is more to discover than initially provided, and it will be hinted at in the profile itself with the following text: “interact to discover.” To discover more about villains and significant NPCs in the game world, all you need to do is interact with them! Asking the right questions, performing quests, gaining an NPC’s favor or ire, or even attacking them will all possibly reveal more of an NPC’s profile.

 

How to Update Your Profiles

Perhaps you got a shiny new sword for your Toa PC, or maybe your Minion suffered a grievous injury. Here’s how to appropriately update your profiles:

Changes to PCs do not require GM approval unless the changes fundamentally alter the PC or are caused by an in-game power-up mechanic like NUVA or NUVA Proxima. If your changes require GM approval, please re-post your PC’s new profile for reapproval. If the changes do not require GM approval, you can edit them into the PC’s original profile. For example:

• Buying a new sword from a blacksmith does not require GM approval. You can edit the new piece of equipment into your PC’s original profile.
• Transforming due to contact with Energized Protodermis does require GM approval. You must re-post the changed profile for GM approval.

Changes to Minions do not require GM approval unless you want to change the MC’s role. For example:

• Getting injured in a fight does not require GM approval. You can edit the new description into your MC’s original profile.
• Changing your Guard Minion to a Crew Minion does require GM approval. Please submit a request to a GM, explaining briefly why the MC’s role should change and which role the MC should become.

Changes to NPCs are done by GMs. If the NPC is notable enough to have their own profile, any changes will be edited in at the earliest convenience.

 

Porting Characters

Characters from previous Six Kingdoms games who are unchanged do not require new approval. This is known as porting a character. If a character you are porting has changed since the last game they were played in, they are considered new characters and require approval.

 

Six Kingdoms Protoderm Breeds

This chapter lists all the breeds available for play in detail. It includes information that should be included in your profiles, as well as Six Kingdoms specific lore and backstory that will help you understand the characters you play and encounter. This chapter is broken down into the following sections:

• Common Canon Breeds
  • Matoran
    • Matoran
    • Toa
    • Turaga
  • Skakdi
    • GSR Skakdi
    • Irnakk's Prized
  • Titans
  • Vortixx
  • Zyglak
• Six Kingdoms Unique Breeds
  • Aspects of Makuta
    • Grand Wish
      • Creating a Grand Wish
    • Ascension Perks
    • Host Possession
• Custom Breeds 
  • Custom Breed Requests
  • List of Approved Custom Breeds

Common Canon Breeds

These are the playable protoderm breeds you can see in the canon Bionicle world. They are mostly similar to their depiction in canon, but there may be a few differences. 

 

Matoran

Matoran, toa, and turaga are holometabolous organisms that use their metamorphosis to justify their religious significance in the cosmos. They believe themselves to be the chosen people of the Great Spirit Mata Nui, and consequently matoran society viewed other breeds as lesser than themselves.

• Matoran undergo metamorphosis through exposure to dormant toa powers in a toa stone or similar object.
• Toa undergo metamorphosis into turaga by relinquishing the vast majority of their power to create a toa stone or similar object when they feel their destiny is complete.
• Turaga exist as the final natural form of the matoran life cycle. They live until mortally wounded.

 

Matoran

Matoran have an innate connection to a specific element. They cannot use that element in any significant way, but that connection manifests as a passive breed quirk. For example, Ta-matoran have an innate connection to the element of fire. This manifests as a passive resistance to heat.

Matoran do not have the mental strength necessary to use kanohi masks. However, they are dependent on wearing masks in order to function. If a Matoran removes their mask, they will grow weak and eventually become comatose.

• Primary power: none
• Secondary power: none
• Breed quirk: see this page for a list of matoran breed quirks. Choose the quirk that corresponds to your matoran’s element.

 

Toa

Toa, as the next stage in the matoran life cycle, are stronger and more powerful than matoran. Like matoran, toa are each affiliated with a specific element, and this connection manifests as a passive breed quirk. However, toa are also able to actively wield and control their element as their primary power.

Toa have the necessary mental strength to use kanohi masks. This is their secondary power. Like matoran, a toa must wear their mask in order to function properly. They will not become comatose if it is removed, but they will grow weak and lose access to much of their power.

• Primary power: control of one element.
• Secondary power: one approved great kanohi mask.
• Breed quirk: choose the matoran breed quirk that corresponds to your toa’s element.

 

Turaga

Turaga are the final stage in the matoran life cycle. They are slightly stronger than matoran, but much weaker than toa. They retain the ability to wield their elemental powers, but these powers are greatly reduced compared to a toa.

Turaga have the mental strength to use noble kanohi masks. They cannot use great kanohi. Like toa, they will grow weak if their mask is removed, and lose access to most of their power.

• Primary power: weak control of one element.
• Secondary power: one approved noble kanohi mask.
• Breed quirk: choose the matoran breed quirk that corresponds to your turaga’s element.

 

Skakdi

Skakdi are physically imposing creatures with sharp claws and large teeth. They are as strong as—if not stronger than—most toa. Each skakdi possesses an innate connection to a specific elemental power, but these powers can only be accessed by combining them with the powers of another skakdi. This is their passive breed quirk.

Skakdi possess vision powers such as laser vision or X-Ray vision. This is their primary power. Although they can physically wear kanohi masks, they cannot access their powers, and they do not require masks in order to function properly.

• Primary power: choose one vision power from this list, or submit a custom vision power.
• Secondary power: please submit a custom secondary power for approval. Consider something less powerful than the six "Piraka" had in Bionicle canon.
• Breed quirk: choose one element for your skakdi to be affiliated with, ability to chew food as opposed to absorbing it. You have latent element power, of the kind you chose, accessed through the consensual sharing of power with another skakdi through physical contact.

The skakdi in SKRPGs are split into two groups: skakdi native to the Great Spirit robot (GSR), and skakdi who followed Irnakk to the island of Tren-Nui, now called Zakaz.

 

GSR Skakdi

Due to international trade embargoes, the skakdi in the GSR constantly warred amongst themselves over their island’s limited resources. This led them to be seen by the rest of the universe as a fierce and war-mongering breed. In truth, the GSR skakdi are proud of their warrior heritage, and they take great pains to maintain the honor of their clans and tribes in the face of social injustice. GSR skakdi possess long spines that run from the back of their heads down their arms and neck.

 

Irnakk’s Prized

Some skakdi were already living on Zakaz when the GSR head landed. They worship Irnakk, and seek to prove themselves in the glory of combat. They are a proud and fierce people who believe that only the strong survive. Unlike GSR skakdi, Zakazian skakdi have frills along their spine or behind their heads instead of spines. These skakdi will often flare their frills when experiencing intense emotion. In battle, they collect the teeth of their enemies as it is tradition to inlay the legends of a hero on their teeth and pass them down from one generation to the next. Taking a skakdi’s teeth is a denial of their legacy.

• Skakdi-Xa: a variation of Irnakk's Prized are the Skakdi-Xa, skakdi who have bound themselves to the will of an aspect of makuta. Instead of submitting a custom secondary power, choose a stage one kraata power as your secondary power as if having been the target of the Rite of Desecration (see Expansion #3: Taboo Rites). As a note, it can be fun to reach out to a player with an aspect character to have an in-game aspect origin for your skakdi-xa.

 

Titans

There are many grand breeds who tower over others. They are often from the Southern Region of the Great Spirit Robot and have unknown heritage and culture. Some become stronger when consuming antidermis, and others have strange powers unknown to their Northern peers. Most titans are capable or using mask powers. All are known for their terrifying strength.

• Primary power: please submit a custom power for approval.
• Secondary power: one approved Kanohi Mask (Noble/Great)
• Breed quirk: terrifying strength

 

Vortixx

Hailing from the island of Xia, the vortixx are a culture of germaphobes and capitalist engineers. Their island is so polluted by industry that a cloud of smoke extends miles out into the surrounding seas. Most vortixx either stay inside their environmentally regulated buildings or wear protective equipment while working outside.

Vortixx culture is matriarchal, and places a great emphasis on an individual’s contribution to the collective. Feats to demonstrate an individual’s capability, such as climbing a very hungry mountain in the center of their island, are common rituals in Vortixx culture. 

STEM is big in vortixx society, as their chief exports are technological inventions. Vortixx have no innate powers, but they make up for the power gap by augmenting and arming themselves with unique and terrifying technology.

Primary power: vortixx are able to understand how most machinery functions just by looking at it.

Secondary power: one approved Kanohi Mask (Noble/Great)

Breed quirk: their affinity for technology has earned vortixx a cultural reputation of being technomancers, capable of whipping up strange machines from piles of e-waste.

 

Zyglak

Hunted and ostracized by matoran society, zyglak lived in small familial tribes on the outskirts of society. They were rarely seen in matoran civilization during the GSR era, and considered terrifying monsters -- or even rahi -- by most matoran. The League of Six Kingdoms highly valued zyglak warriors as shock troops and berserkers.

• Primary power: immune to all elemental effects of toa strength of weaker.
• Secondary power: submit a custom secondary power for approval.
• Breed quirk: zyglak secrete mucus that breaks down normal protodermis upon direct contact.

 

SKRPG Breeds

These playable breeds are unique to SKRPGs. They have no equivalent in the Bionicle canon.

 

Aspects of Makuta 

The Aspects of Makuta are a powerful breed of individualistic gaseous entities who originate from the Kumu Islets south of Zakaz. These dark beings wield the element of shadow and practice taboos of a world lost to time. They seek to accomplish a Grand Wish, and require desecrated followers to achieve their ends.

Unlike most other species in the game, Aspects are not protoderms. They are antiderms, and they are entirely made of a gaseous substance called antidermis. They are the awakened collective consciousness of nightmares, ill wishes, and dark desires that have managed to crawl into the Time Between Time from the Far Shore.

• Primary power: control of elemental shadow.
• Secondary power: pick a second stage kraata power from this table. This power is an innate power of your Aspect and will grow over time as your Aspect ascends through the narrative milestones of their Grand Wish.
• Breed quirk: Aspects have a Grand Wish and can perform the Rites of Desecration (see the Expansion on Taboo), but they cannot form kaita or access kanohi powers. They require either a suit of armor or a willing host to take solid form. They can acquire and use taboos.
• Psychological Issues: Aspects are fiercely independent, valuing their earned consciousness after rising from the liquid pools of antidermis in the Kumu Islets. They are manipulative, often selfish, and consider all other beings as possible vessels for them to assume solid form. All Aspects of Makuta desire a solid body as often as possible.
• Physical Limitation: Aspects exist as a sentient green gas and require either a suit of armor or a willing host to take solid form. Aspects may start the game with one suit of armor the same height as a toa. When in a gaseous form, Aspects cannot physically interact with their environment.

 

Grand Wish

All Aspects have a Grand Wish: something they wish to accomplish in the time they have before they rejoin the antidermis pools of the Kumu Islets and lose their sovereign identity. Achieving a grand wish is a massive undertaking, for all grand wishes change the very fabric of reality to accommodate the Aspect’s true desire. 

A grand wish has seven narrative milestones which must be accomplished by the Aspect and their desecrated followers. The first step for all Aspects is gaining a desecrated follower. Please submit your Aspect’s grand wish and the necessary narrative milestones to GMs for approval. If denied, GMs will work with you to craft narrative milestones. The Aspect may reveal each narrative milestone of their grand wish to their desecrated followers during the initial desecration rites either step by step or all at once. Each time a sequential narrative milestone is achieved, the desecrated follower’s kraata increases in power by one stage and their Aspect also grows in power by one stage.

 

Creating a Grand Wish

Explain the following: what is the grand wish, and why does the Aspect desire it to be completed in their lifetime? Next, explain the ascension process in seven easily identifiable narrative milestones that the followers of your Aspect will need to achieve. Below is an example of a Grand Wish and the ascension steps:

• What: The Aspect wishes to become a god. 
• Why: So that they may truly feeling in control of their own life and destiny
• How:
  • Desecrate a follower
  • Gain a village of worshipers who pray to the Aspect daily
  • Consume the power of a toa kaita
  • Desecrate a tahtorak
  • Use the heart of the tahtorak to build a grand vessel for the Aspect to live within
  • Consume the powers of another Aspect worthy of respect
  • Drink of the Lake of The Sun

 

Ascension Perks

As an Aspect progresses through their narrative milestones, their power grows according to these stages:

• 1st Milestone Completed: Telepathic audio communication with an individual desecrated follower currently on the same plane of existence. 
• 2nd Milestone Completed: Kraata power stage 3, see through the eyes of their desecrated on the same plane
• 3rd Milestone Completed: Kraata power stage 4, remotely possess their desecrated through shadow puppetry
• 4th Milestone Completed: Kraata power stage 5, teleport to one of their desecrated’s shadows.
• 5th Milestone Completed: Kraata power stage 6, teleport their desecrated to their shadow.
• 6th Milestone Completed: Kraata power stage 7, all previous ascension perks now work between planes
• 7th Milestone Completed: Grand Wish achieved, ascend to learn more

 

Host Possession

To possess a host, an Aspect must receive verbal or written consent from the host to house their gaseous essence. Once consent is given, the aspect can freely enter the body of the host in a creative manner. A possessed host can be played by both its original player and the player of the Aspect. Both players must communicate with each other about who will act at a given time. Since their respective characters share a body, players cannot double post by switching consciousnesses. Please do not violate this rule. 

When the Aspect is in control, the host's consciousness is dormant but aware of what the Aspect is doing. The host's consciousness cannot interact with the game world while the Aspect is in control. When the host is conscious, the Aspect is dormant and unable to interact with the world but knows what the host is doing. An Aspect may choose to leave a host they find unsuitable at any time. A single host may only be possessed by one Aspect at a time. A single Aspect may only possess a single host at a time.

 

Custom Breeds

Don’t see a character breed you want to play? You can request approval for one of your own making! Custom breeds allow for fun flexibility and creativity in bringing a unique character to the world of Six Kingdoms.

 

Custom Breed Requests

To submit a custom breed, send one Private Message to all GMs with the subject line “Custom Breed Approval Request: (your breed name here)”. Your Custom Breed Approval Request must contain the following information:

• Breed name
• Breed origin
• Brief description (what does the breed look like generally?)
• Character flaws: at least two character traits that players can reference when making a character of this breed type:
  • One psychological issue they struggle with
  • One physical limitation
• Powers: 
  • One primary element/power
  • One secondary power (e.g. masks)
  • One or more breed quirks
• A brief description (no more than a paragraph) on how this breed will encourage play among fellow players and provide something needed in SKRPGs.

After submitting your request, please wait patiently. The GMs will review your request and respond as soon as possible. They may request that you revise or rework your custom breed before it can be approved. If so, all requested revisions must be made and submitted as a reply in the Private Message thread. When all GMs approve the request, the breed will be added to the character creation topic and made available for play by all.

 

List of Custom Breeds

• Your Custom Breed Here.

 

Factions

This chapter introduces you to the various game factions. Factions are groups or alliances of multiple characters with common interests or goals. Factions provide a social identity for your character. All characters begin the game affiliated with at least one faction.

Some factions, like the League or the Refugees, can be joined by just about anyone. Other factions are secretive, requiring in-game tests to be completed in order to join their ranks. You can create your own faction by simply forming a group of characters with other players and giving that group a name and ethos.

 

List of Factions

• Aspects of Makuta
• Barraki (League of Six)
• Builders
• Irnakk’s Prized (also known as The Sleeping)
• Order of Mata Nui
• Refugees of Metru-Nui
• Untethered
• Zakazian Warbands

 

Aspects of Makuta

The Aspects of Makuta are powerful entities of shadow. Many secret themselves away from the rest of the world in the Kumu Islets, and slowly grow in power as they desecrate the natural population of Zakaz. Their faction goal is to raise one of their kind to the seventh stage of kraata power through repeated desecrations. Only at this final stage will an Aspect finally ascend and become whole. Playing an Aspect involves pursuing a Grand Wish, and researching and discovering new Taboo Rites to perform.

The Aspect faction goal is to see at least one Aspect achieve their Grand Wish and ascend.

 

Barraki (League of Six) 

This faction is what remains of the League of Six Kingdoms. After crash-landing on Zakaz, the Barraki took control of the city of Metru Nui. They live in the destroyed skull of the Great Spirit Robot, which they have turned into a stronghold, populated by the few soldiers and converted citizens who survived the crash. Pooling from their new and growing fortress is a large lake—a natural moat formed by the silver sea. Howling Untethered live in the lake and along its borders. The League is currently led by Aurax, who assassinated Pridak to accede to the throne. He maintains his rule through his personal army of vahki. 

The Barraki’s faction goals are to find the Mask of Creation and the fabled resting place of a time machine somewhere in the Zakazian landscape. 

 

Builders

The Builders were the original inhabitants of the island of Tren-Nui, now called Zakaz. They lived in elementally divided settlements. They followed the ways of Tren Krom, living in fear of the arrival of the end. The arrival of Irnakk, the Aqua Sphere, and the Administrator was the heralding event which prompted them to begin preparing the Ark for their people at the behest of the powerful aspect Mata Nui. To combat the violent kaiju that arose from the earth, the Builders forged mechs to protect and empower their kaita to even greater heights, using Great Disks as energy cores.

Builder society is divided into a strict caste system: matoran workers, toa soldiers, turaga elders, and aspect outcasts. The Aspects of Makuta lingered in the Kumu Islets, building great mausoleums and temples to their ever-growing grandeur and feeding off the social malcontent.

Thousands of years ago, when the Time Between Time shuddered and the skakdi arrived en masse along with other groups, the Builders completed their Ark and escaped. 

Few Builders remain on Zakaz in the present, so they have no current faction goals.

 

Order of Mata-Nui

The Order of Mata-Nui is a secretive society known to very few. They work to advance the will of Mata-Nui. To join the faction, find a recruiter and roleplay the rites of passage discovered in-game. You cannot start your character in the Order of Mata-Nui unless they were recruited in a previous game.

The Order’s faction goals are unknown.

 

Metru-Nui Refugees:

The remains of matoran civilization within the GSR fled after the crash, fracturing as large groups often do after an apocalypse. Small refugee camps formed across the island of Zakaz, and gradually evolved into self-sustaining villages. The main villages are Tobduk-Koro in the north, Metru-Koro in the center, and Le-Metru Nuva in the southern swamps.

The Refugees are not allegiant to any specific leader. Instead, they are fiercely loyal to their respective villages, and will fight for the survival of their new homes. Their culture is similar to matoran culture in the GSR: most still follow the Three Virtues and place great value in hard work, honesty, and dutifulness.

The Refugee faction goal is to survive Zakaz. Refugees want to build their villages stronger and better, and they want to explore the island to discover what secrets it may hold to help them do so.

 

Untethered

The Untethered are a horde of undead from the GSR that emerged onto Zakaz after the crash of Mata-Nui’s skull. After swimming through the silver sea, which mutated them beyond all recognition, they formed strange abyssal kaitas, and now roam the island seeking more life to assimilate.

The faction goals of the Untethered are unknown.

 

Zakazian Warbands

The Zakazian Warbands are clans of roving warriors who usually live on war rigs. They protect their hidden oases, and they fight to survive and accumulate territory and power. They recently learned the Rites of The Tahtorak from an elder Aspect, and race each other to find a worthy sacrifice to be fed to the Nightmare Pools in the dark caverns of the tallest mountain: Irnakk’s Tooth. 

The aspect Spiriah has also revealed two more rites of the skakdi: the Rite of the Zivon, and the Rite of the Kanohi Dragon.

The specific faction goals of each warband may differ, but the faction goals are generally to survive Zakaz, and to acquire power and territory through raids and battles.

The following are different pre-established warbands your character can be a part of, but feel free to create your own warband with friends!

 

Barius’s War Skaks

This large warband is currently led by the skakdi-xa Barius, who defeated the previous leader, Nektann, in single combat. After his victory, he fed Nektann to the fires of Irnakk’s Tooth and created a Tahtorak who now answers to his command. This warband has a permanent stronghold deep in the desert from which they stage raids on the less fortunate.

 

Mesi

The Mesi are a race of mutated, pale, often eyeless or otherwise deformed skakdi who live underground. The Mesi once worked in refineries below ground, and, over the centuries, have grown used to living underground. Moss and fungi grow on their backs, and their senses of smell and hearing are impeccable. They raid the surface of Zakaz at night, giving a howling and piercing shriek when they begin. They are led by the Elder Aspect Spiriah.

 

Riggers

The riggers are a warband that lived near the coastline in a semi-aquatic fortress. However, their fortress was destroyed by the Tahtorak Nektann, and they are now semi-nomadic. These pirates value the smokes from the mainland as a form of currency, and drive aquatic vehicles made from the scrap provided by the crashed GSR skull as well as other coastal wrecks.

 

Expansion #1: ACRs and Vehicles

This expansion to the base rules of play introduces Advanced Combat Rig, or ACRs, along with other vehicles (air, land, and sea).

 

ACRs

ACRs are personal mechs which come in all sorts of shapes, colors, and designs. They are unaffected by elemental attacks, as they have onboard elemental nullification technology. A character may own one ACR. A faction can own several ACRs, but each is limited to a single pilot.

 

How ACRs Work

All ACRs require a heartlight to function. Without a heartlight, an ACR is just an empty mechanical body without a consciousness/soul. Most heartlights are kept in cylindrical canisters and carried like keys by the ACR’s pilot. The exceptions to this rule are ACRs piloted by the salvaged neuro-core of a vahki. The vahki “brain” acts as an onboard AI and can operate independently of the owner. Only the Barraki faction has access to sentient ACRs at the beginning of the game. All other factions must find a vahki neuro-core. These are a limited resource.

Piloting is done via thought. Pilots sync their mind to the ACR via neural plugs implanted into their own bodies. This effectively makes the ACR an extension of their own body: their brain impulses are what make the ACR move. Due to the nature of the interface with the ACR, pilots do not have access to elemental abilities while plugged in.

ACRs are unaffected by elemental attacks, as they have onboard elemental nullification technology. However, they still take the physical damage of an elemental attack.

 

Design

An ACR’s size is limited roughly to between a canon Bionicle Boxor and an Exo-Toa. ACR shapes are as diverse as the pilots at the controls: bipedal, quadrupedal, tracked, hovering, and whatever else the pilot can imagine. You may display any patterns, heraldry, and weapons systems (see profile) that make sense for a desolate wasteland.

 

Weapons

It's tempting to strap a lot of dakka to your mech, but remember: this is a wasteland. Where did you get that many blasters, reasonably? Also remember: The more blinged-out your mech is, the more interested other wasteland dwellers will be in taking it from you. If you strap 10 Midak blasters to your mech, you can be sure a bunch of Skakdi will drop by during construction and ask you to share your toys—and they don't ask nicely. 

A good rule of thumb is to make your ACR roughly equivalent to a canon Exo Toa: high degree of protection, with one projectile launcher and one melee weapon.

 

ACR Profile Template

• Name of ACR: what do people call it?
• ACR’s Faction/Homebase:what faction does it belong to?
• Pilot of ACR: who is the pilot?
• Type of heartlight: what type of heartlight powers it?
• Physical Description: what does it look like?
• Onboard Weapons Systems Options (pick two):
• 1x Primary (+weakness)
• 1x Secondary (+weakness)
• 1x Melee (+weakness)
• 1x Shoulder mounted (+weakness)

 

Vehicles

Vehicles come in all shapes and sizes, and travel by air, land, or sea (and sometimes a combination). To gain ownership of a vehicle, please submit a Vehicle Profile for approval in the same way you would a character in the Character Profiles topic. Once approved by a GM, your vehicle is ready to be a part of your in-game story.

You may have up to a crew of five MCs per each PC aboard the airship, vehicle, or watercraft. The MCs follow their role and must be approved through the usual method. Currently, airships are smaller than the cargo airships of Metru-Nui and cannot go above the cloud line. Watercraft are not well built enough for extended deep sea voyages. Feel free to make it a personal quest to improve your ship through gameplay to break through these limitations.

 

Vehicle Profile Template

• Name of Vehicle: what do people call it?
• Vehicle’s Faction/Homebase: what faction does it belong to?
• Owner of Vehicle: who is the owner?
• Physical Description: what does it look like?
• Onboard Weapons/Defenses: For each weapons system or defensive system you must provide a physical weakness for that system. Each onboard system requires a minimum of one crew to operate.

 

Expansion 2: Settlements

This expansion explains how to make your own settlements. Settlements can be useful places for resting after a fight, engaging in social roleplay, and having some peaceful moments in a world at war. 

• Creating Settlements
• Settlement Challenges

 

Creating Settlements

Settlements are safe zones, free from the fear of natural disaster and the terrors of Zakaz. If you want to create a settlement where you can interact with others, it’s as simple as writing it. The best settlements involve multiple players, and act as safe zones for you and others to have social interaction without the fear of the world crashing down. You may not, however, write a settlement into existence as a Deus Ex Machina.

The leadership, cultures, and aligned faction of your settlement are yours to decide through gameplay in the IC topic. A settlement that gets big enough and popular enough among other players may even be added to the map/game description.

To advance your settlement in key areas, you’ll have to open up the door to a little danger and adventure. 

 

Settlement Challenges

If you want to significantly upgrade your settlement -- perhaps a college,  a new suva, a teleporter, or even the ability to forge Great Disks -- request a settlement challenge by tagging GMs, notifying them of what new technology you want to gain, and then GMs will begin the challenge. Some challenges will involve GMs providing a quest prompt in the OOC discussion topic. You and others write an adventure in the IC topic based on this prompt. When you complete the adventure, GMs will determine if it has been completed fairly. If yes, the technology is approved. If no, the GMs will provide additional information in the OOC discussion topic on how to continue. If the requested technology is deemed significant enough, the GMs will run a full encounter for your settlement to overcome. An example of a GM run settlement challenge is the fight for Le-Metru Nuva with the Untethered in Six Kingdoms: Rebirth. 

During any settlement challenge, your settlement is no longer considered a safe zone and GMs may lay waste to your settlement with wild abandon should they deem it appropriate. GMs may also play as NPCs and MCs that live in the settlement during a settlement challenge.

Once a settlement challenge has concluded your settlement is considered a safe zone again and GMs will no longer play MCs that live in the settlement.

 

Expansion 3: Taboos

This expansion to the base rules of play introduces the dark powers of the Aspects: Taboos. Taboos are like spells, and can be recorded, learned, and shared among those able to wield them. Only Aspects, being antiderms, start the game able to learn Taboos. Protoderm breeds must be touched by the Void in order to use them—but this may come with deadly side effects.

 

Void Sickness

Void Sickness is a physical flaw that may occur when protoderm breeds are physically exposed to Far Shore denizens and taboo rituals. Common ways Void Sickness may occur include using your own heartlight in a Desecration Rite, touching the defiled waters surrounding the head of the Great Spirit Robot, or going into the Far Shore itself. There are other, rarer and as of yet undiscovered, ways Void Sickness may occur. Void Sickness slowly corrupts and eats away at you, changing your concepts of morality, breaking your spirit, and eventually sucking you into the Far Shore. 

Characters who become afflicted with Void Sickness must have the following added to their profile:

• Void Sickness (Physical Flaw):
  • You may use, discover, and research taboo rites. 
  • Your sense of morality begins to shift. Choose and add one new Psychological Flaw to your profile that goes against your current sense of morality. For example, if you “believe everyone has good in them,” your new Psychological Flaw might be “I am distrustful of everyone’s intentions until proven wrong.”
  • Each time you enter the Far Shore, notify the GMs by tagging them in your post. GMs will roll a percentage die. On a result of 10 or lower, you are trapped in the Far Shore. If rescued, you return from the Far Shore as an Aspect of Makuta beginning your Grand Wish.

 

The Mangaia

Found underneath the temple of Kini-Nuva, the Mangaia—the word means “protector” in Maori—is an open doorway that drains beings of their life and power. The Mangaia is a deadly, spiraling pathway through death. Failing to complete the Mangaia’s path traps your soul forever where you stopped. Successful completion of the Mangaia’s path creates a prophecy, using the stanzas from each taboo in the order they were recited.

 

Acquiring Taboos

Some rites and rituals of the Aspects of Makuta are lost to the ruins of the world. Exploring temple ruins and researching goals through trial and error may unlock new perks and abilities for Aspects who have the knowledge.

 

Discovery 

Finding taboos through discovery is the simplest way to gain taboo rites. Symbols for Taboo Rites can be found in many locations. The most common place to find a symbol for a taboo rite is in elemental Temple Ruins and regional Suvas. Almost all puzzles presented by GMs have an alternative solution which reveals a symbol for a taboo rite.

Solving a taboo puzzle unlocks the knowledge of the ritual for your character if they are capable of understanding and using taboos.

If your character is unable to use taboos, they still learn the symbol of the taboo and can teach the symbol to others. In this way characters without the ability to use taboos can still acquire the knowledge and pass the knowledge on to those who can use taboos.

 

Research

If you want to create your own taboo, or if you want your character to discover taboos without solving puzzles, send a PM to all GMs with the Subject “Taboo Research Request for (your character’s name here)” and explain which taboo you want to research. GMs will review your request and work to provide a series of narrative milestones for you to accomplish in order to gain the taboo. 

If the taboo you are wanting is custom, GMs will also review and determine whether or not the custom taboo is approved for play. 

Submitting a request to research a taboo is not a guarantee GMs will approve a request. You must have express written approval from a GM as well as an approved set of narrative milestones to accomplish. You must accomplish all assigned narrative milestones with your character before gaining the taboo.

 

List of Taboo Rites

*updated taboo list as of 1/25/2021*

All currently known Taboos are listed below. Note that just because a Taboo is listed here does not mean it is common knowledge. Unless specified otherwise, only those beings who discover each Taboo are aware of its existence.

When reading these descriptions, please note that “you” and “Aspect” are used interchangeably to refer to the caster or wielder of the Taboo. “Target” or “creature” refers to the recipient of the Taboo’s effects.

 

Rites of Desecration

 

Rites of Elemental Alteration

 

Rites of Flaw Consumption

 

Rites of Gluttonous Desecration

 

Rites of Heartlight Forging

 

Rites of Infectious Kraata

 

Rites of Infectious Kraata Extraction

 

Kraata Sense 

 

Rites of Rahkshi

 

Taboo of Infected Mask Attunement

 

Rites of Star Swallowing

 

Rites of Tethered Bonds

Rites of Repose

Expansion #4: NUVA

Hidden in the six Elemental Temple Ruins is the opportunity to power-up your character into what is called a NUVA and a NUVA Proxima. Your character can receive the NUVA power-up by completing the final task in an Elemental Temple Ruin: activating the kanoka disk device by inserting the correct Great Kanoka Disk. This power-up is available for one character per Elemental Temple Ruin. You cannot start as a NUVA character in Six Kingdoms, and you must complete the required prerequisite in order to earn the NUVA power-up. Please note, if your character gains either NUVA or NUVA Proxima they cannot gain further NUVA or NUVA Proxima powers -- this is a one time power-up per character.

 

NUVA Power-Up:

Your PC can receive the NUVA power-up by completing the final task in an Elemental Temple Ruin: activating the kanoka disk device by inserting the correct Great Kanoka Disk. This power-up is available for one character per Elemental Temple Ruin. You cannot start as a NUVA character in Six Kingdoms, and you must complete the required prerequisite in order to earn the NUVA power-up. Please note, if your character gains either NUVA or NUVA Proxima they cannot gain further NUVA or NUVA Proxima powers -- this is a one time power-up per character.

 

NUVA Power-up Character Profile:

• Name: (Your name) NUVA
• Breed: (Your breed) NUVA
• Faction: Aspects, Barraki, Refugees, Zakazian, etc.
• Brief Description: what’s your everyday or current appearance
  • Your eye color is now gold.
  • You are physically stronger and slightly taller after the NUVA power-up.
  • As a one time occurrence as part of the NUVA power-up process, all prior physical injuries, diseases, and psychological effects (i.e. hypnosis) are cured/removed. All new injuries, diseases, and psychological effects after the NUVA power-up are treated as normal.
• Background/Occupation: what do you do, where did you come from
• Your background/occupation as usual here.
• Flaws: traits that hold you back, or where you break
  • Your current Physical and Psychological Flaws.
  • Additional NUVA Psychological Flaws:
    • Flawed Conscience: you pick two additional psychological flaws.
• Powers/Equipment: stick to canon to start for what your breed can and cannot do
• Breed Quirks:
  • Your current Breed Quirks
  • Additional NUVA Breed Quirks
    • You may wear kanohi masks and use their powers.
    • You may use your base element with similar power and control as a toa. Pick one element to be your base element if you did not have a base element before the NUVA power-up.
    • You may concentrate and fire a beam of energy with the same power type and strength as the Great Kanoka Disk used in your Nuva power-up at a target within your sight.
    • If you wore a mask at the time of your NUVA power-up it melted and fused to your face. You may still use its abilities as a breed quirk. If it was an infected mask it is no longer infected.
    • You may share your breed quirks with up to two other willing creatures within your line of sight and elemental range.  
    • You may be the target of your own breed quirks.
• Powers:
  • Your current powers
  • Additional NUVA powers:
    • You may share your element with up to two other willing creatures within your line of sight and elemental range.
    • Your elemental mastery is stronger than before, roughly halfway between an individual toa and an individual toa kaita (a toa kaita having the combined power of three toa).
    • You may place a portion of your elemental power into a pre-specified elemental effect that can be delayed to a time of your choosing. Until your pre-specified effect occurs, you can share your Elemental Power, Breed Quirks, and NUVA Kanohi with one less willing creature per elemental effect for a maximum of two delayed elemental effects.
    • You are a living key for a Kaita ACR and are its primary pilot. Your assigned Kaita ACR is the same element as the ruin where your Nuva transformation occurred. See your Kaita ACR’s profile for additional information.
• Equipment:
  • Pick a new Great Kanohi to wear as part of the NUVA power-up. The mask you pick cannot be Banned, Gold, Restricted, or Silver. You gain this Great Kanohi as part of the NUVA power-up and it is considered a NUVA Kanohi.
  • NUVA Kanohi: a NUVA Kanohi works like a normal Great Kanohi with the following differences: it’s made of a more organic material, and you may share its power with up to two other willing creatures within your line of sight and elemental range.

 

NUVA PROXIMA:

Nuva Proxima occurs as a side effect of the NUVA power-up in each Elemental Temple Ruin. The closest character to whoever receives the NUVA power-up receives the NUVA Proxima power-up. The Nuva Proxima power-up is available for one character per Elemental Temple Ruin. Your character cannot start as a Nuva Proxima. Nuva Proxima is only available as an in-game reward for completing the required prerequisites. Please note, if your character gains either NUVA or NUVA Proxima they cannot gain further NUVA or NUVA Proxima powers -- this is a one time power-up per character.

 

NUVA Proxima power-up Character Profile:

• Name: (Your name) NUVA Proxima
• Breed: (Your breed)
• Faction: Aspects, Barraki, Refugees, Zakazian, etc.
• Brief Description: what’s your everyday or current appearance
  • You are physically stronger and slightly taller after the NUVA Proxima power-up.
  • As a one time occurrence as part of the NUVA Proxima power-up process, all active psychological effects (i.e. hypnosis) are cured/removed. All new psychological effects after the NUVA Proxima power-up are treated as normal.
• Background/Occupation: what do you do, where did you come from
  • Your background/occupation as usual here.
• Flaws: your traits that hold you back, or where you break
  • Your current Physical and Psychological Flaws.
• Powers/Equipment: stick to canon to start for what your breed can and cannot do
• Breed Quirks:
  • Your current Breed Quirks
  • Additional NUVA Proxima Breed Quirks
    • You may wear kanohi masks and use their powers.
    • You may use your base element with similar power and control as a toa. Pick one element to be your base element if you did not have a base element before the NUVA power-up.
    • If you wore a mask at the time of your NUVA Proxima power-up it melted and fused to your face. You may still use its abilities as a breed quirk. If it was an infected mask it is no longer infected.
    • You may share your breed quirks with up to two other willing creatures within your line of sight and elemental range.  
    • You may be the target of your own breed quirks.
• Powers:
  • Your current powers
  • Additional NUVA Proxima powers:
    • Your elemental mastery is stronger than before, roughly halfway between an individual toa and an individual toa kaita (a toa kaita having the combined power of three toa).
    • You may share your element with up to two other willing creatures within your line of sight and elemental range.

 

Expansion #5: Suva System

Scattered around the island of Zakaz are puzzle shrines known as suvas. These sacred spaces were once places of prayer and reflection. They were also a place where mighty warriors stored their weapons and equipment. Suvas allow for telepathically switching the gear carried on one's person without having to physically collect it. Completing suva puzzles may very well be worth your while!

 

Suva Storage

A registered user of a suva may withdraw an item from a suva using their mind by depositing an equivalent item (mask for mask, etc.) from their person in a suva while within a suva’s regional range of 3 hexes on the world map. A registered user of a suva may add an item to a suva without having to withdraw something of equal type. A registered user is aware of the contents within the suva at all times while within range. More than one user may be registered with a suva. A user may be registered with only a single suva, and it should be noted on their character profile. Registering with a different suva temple ends any ongoing suva registrations elsewhere.

 

Suva Forging

Once enough kanohi have been stored inside a suva, a new purpose of suvas becomes revealed: fusing masks into silver and gold variations.

• Silver Kanohi: fuse three differently powered great masks together into one mask. Only one power can be used at a time.
• Gold Kanohi: fuse six differently powered great masks together into one mask. Only one power can be used at a time.

In order to access the ability to create silver and gold masks, visit the Administrator in the Elemental Temple Ruins. The Administrator will provide a quest which will unlock the ability to forge fused masks at one suva of your choice once completed.

 

Expansion #6: Irnakk’s Rites of the Kanohi Dragon, Tahtorak, and Zivon

*This section has been updated with changes provided through Expansion #8. Please see Expansion #8 for the rest of the expanion upon its release.*

 

The Great Spirit of Nightmares in Irnakk’s Tooth is able to create horrible monsters from the deceased cast into the volcano’s fires. These monsters are known as the Riteborn, and depending on the manner of death a kanohi dragon, tahtorak, or zivon will crawl from the volcano and into the Time Between Time. Your character begins again as a riteborn monster with only the abilities listed in the appropriate section for the monster and the following universal riteborn breed quirks:

• All Riteborn cause a special effect in the hex they occupy on the game map.
• If one of your characters is sacrificed to become a riteborn you must submit a new PC profile using the appropriate information below. You cannot make an MC profile for a riteborn, so if you have 5 PCs already you must demote one to an MC to have an open slot. All riteborn monsters require GM approval before being played.
• All riteborn are considered to be of a greater power level than a toa kaita.
• All riteborn must listen to and obey commands from their creator player. They cannot knowingly cause harm to their creator. A creator must be a PC or NPC and cannot be an MC.
• All riteborn are immune to any effect, attack, breed quirk, ability, or power that is cast or controlled by a creature or character that is not a Kaita or stronger. Suit up or start your mighty morphin’ party.
• All riteborn retain all psychological flaws they had in life.
• All riteborn find speaking to be incredibly difficult, usually reverting to simply roaring, screaming, or crying until they get what they want instead.

Please remember that this is a collaboratively written, story driven game, and that all players should be having fun when playing with each other. If you are having a dispute, please contact a GM for facilitation or resolution as per our rules on Conduct.

 

Rite of the Kanohi Dragon

 

Rite of the Tahtorak

 

Rite of the Zivon

 

Expansion #7: The Far Shore

This expansion to the base rules of play introduces an enigmatic new location: the Far Shore. The Far Shore is a location beyond the reality of the multiverse. It’s a realm where the universe verifies the resolution of all possible realities. Buildings fade in and out of focus and time, simultaneously decaying and being built. Stars and constellations swirl within everything. Colors of objects and locations blend and change, never quite settling on a permanent appearance. What matters most in this realm is your will. Rather than physics, the strength of one’s will can overcome all possibilities.

The Far Shore is inherently dangerous and unpredictable, especially for protoderm breeds. Exposure to the Far Shore or its denizens may result in Void Sickness, or other, worse fates. However, great powers and rare treasures await those brave and strong enough to weather the risks.

 

How to Use This Expansion

There are two solidified timelines within the Far Shore accessible via the portal in Kini-Nui. Your character must speak with Nuju near the portal for more information about his hunt for the Makoki Stones. Once your character has spoken to Nuju, they may enter the Far Shore.

Entering the Far Shore changes its reality, so each adventure in the Far Shore is completely different. Your adventure will be determined by a series of prompts. These prompts, randomly selected by Game Masters, will dictate the timeline, location, central conflict, and twist of your adventure. Players who have returned from an adventure in the opposite timeline may provide three optional prompts as well. 

You, and everyone else who entered the Far Shore with you, will use the combined prompts to construct a short adventure. As long as the core conflict is resolved, there is no minimum adventure length. GMs will determine if the story is fairly concluded in cases of obvious system abuse.

Tag a GM in the post where you enter the portal to the Far Shore. There are four parts of each adventure in the Far Shore determined by GM using random tables: 

• The Timeline: determines A or B
• The Element: determines the primary element of the region.
• The Conflict: determines what must be overcome
• The Twist: determines what complicates the resolution

These prompts are explained in further detail below. Once you have been assigned your prompts, it’s up to you and your friends to create the short adventure in the Far Shore! 

Need a suggestion on combining prompts? Feel free to contact a GM in the OOC topic if you need assistance.

 

Prompts

These prompts, randomly selected by GMs, will dictate the timeline, location, central conflict, and twist of your adventure. 

 

The Timeline

This fifty-fifty chance places you randomly in timeline A or timeline B. The same timeline can only be run twice in a row before the opposite timeline is automatically chosen. You are only able to interact with other PCs that entered at the same time as you and in the same timeline.

 

The Element

This table determines the primary elemental alignment of the region. You determine how this affects the region of the adventure. You and your fellow players decide the details of your adventure’s setting. Characters with the same element as the one rolled for the adventure gain a temporary boost to their elemental-based abilities during the adventure.

 

The Conflict

This table determines what must be overcome. There are a few core conflicts, which can be interpreted as you wish during your adventure, but they must be resolved to conclude your adventure. These conflicts are the six forms of conflict in Western literary fiction:

• Character vs Self
• Character vs Character
• Character vs Nature
• Character vs Supernatural
• Character vs Technology
• Character vs Society

The antagonizing force, or the villain, of your adventure in the Far Shore is based on this central conflict. You may choose how these conflicts are approached, explored, and resolved while keeping the final prompt in mind.

 

The Twist

This table determines what complicates the central conflict of your adventure in the Far Shore. This complication changes how you view the conflict, as well as perhaps how to resolve it. Work the twist into how you resolve the central conflict of your adventure. The twist will be chosen randomly from this list:

• Be careful what you wish for
• The cake is a lie
• Genuine Imposter
• The story that never was
• Yank the dog’s chain
• Random twist from TV Tropes

 

Optional Matoran Principles

You may pick up to three of the optional prompts associated with Matoran Principles from the respective timeline (A or B) below for your Far Shore Adventure. You gain one additional piece of random loot from the Far Shore Loot Table for each successfully incorporated optional prompt. Once one of the prompts for a timeline has been used, it will be crossed off the list and is no longer available.

Once all of the principles are used in a given timeline, the next adventure will be run by a GM and will guarantee the Far Shore Makoki Stone as a reward.

Timeline A

Timeline B

 

Ending Your Adventure:

Once the conflict is resolved, your adventure in the Far Shore comes to an end. Your characters travel through a portal back into the Time Between Time at the end of your adventure. They cannot bring anything from the Far Shore back to the Time Between Time except the loot they are awarded after the adventure. 

Tag a GM in your final post for the adventure. The GM will read the adventure to make sure all the required prompts were used. If everything is concluded properly, a Game Master will post in the OOC topic regarding your rewards. You will receive awesome loot equal to the number of PCs that participated plus the number of optional player prompts used.

 

 

Expansion #8: "A Hole Lotta Rules"

*This expansion will arrive soon! Some parts of this expansion are clarifications, alterations, or additions to older expansions and will be reflected in those sections.*

 

The Power Scale of Six Kingdoms

We’ve talked about the scale of power in Six Kingdoms for a while, but we’ve never had some sort of measurement. Behold, the Six Kingdoms power ranking scale:

 

Matoran/prey rahi → Most Breeds/predatory rahi → NUVA Proxima → NUVA → Kaita → Riteborn → Great Spirit → ?

 

Anything above a Kaita on the power scale is immune to effects from a source lower on the power scale. The gods do not fear the fists of mortals. Please note this scale is for general reference and is not an unbreakable rule. Consider it a guideline to help in understanding the relative power of your characters and those they interact with during a given scene. For example, a Riteborn is so powerful the entire hex it occupies on the game map experiences an effect.

You are probably used to playing characters in text-based RPGs that consider the second step of this power-scale ladder to be the maximum power limit. However, with Apocalypse being a game of collaborative story writing where we encourage you to rig fights for the drama of the story (or otherwise work together to have fun), the power ceiling has been pushed considerably higher. Aspects are capable of becoming a Great Spirit, depending on their Grand Wish, and any character can easily become a Riteborn. You might find eventually some of your characters require challenges beyond those of simple physical combats or feats of strength, and we encourage you to explore alternative forms of conflict to create enticing story beats for everyone to read!

 

Amaja Circles

Quote

 

“Great Builders, I am proud to announce you have reconnected me to the six elemental temples on this island. As part of my increased network stability, I have discovered a new room within each temple. Allow me to open it, but I warn you to be careful: it looks very much like an office,” said the Administrator as one of the walls within the final room of the temple began to shift and open up. There was no grinding of stone, no sounds of mortar being crumbled. In this suva world one wall simply changed.

Looking through the open triangular doorway you see a large circular room with a domed ceiling of stars and a round sand pit at its center. A small flight of stairs leads you down to the stone floor, which is warm underfoot. There are two tiers of tan sandstone bleachers ringing the perimeter of this space, providing ample room for a small village to hide during an emergency. The sand pit is an amaja circle -- a storytelling place of the builders. Set next to the amaja circle is an open chest with five carved gemstones of different colors. A sixth stone of porous igneous rock carved in a different and more angular style than the gemstones already rests in the center of the amaja circle.

The Administrator spoke again; “I believe the Builders used this place during times of danger, and in times of war. Perhaps it would be effective against those monsters made by the Great Spirit of Nightmares. I am still installing some of the necessary update patches, but it should be online and functioning shortly. I would recommend getting acquainted with the stones by the sand pit: they seem to affect the local environment outside this temple.”

 

 

Description

A new room is now available within each elemental temple ruin. These rooms automatically unlock as the Administrator discovers them in the wake up being fully online throughout all the elemental temple ruins.This room allows for characters to tactically assist the pilots of Kaita ACRs by applying certain effects to Rite-Born Kaiju within the elemental temple ruin’s range by placing one of the carved gemstones in the amaja circle with the igneous rock.

The amaja circle in the Kini-Nui temple operates the same as the amaja circles in the elemental temple ruins. For all intents and purposes it is identical to the new amaja circles.

 

Using Amaja Circles

Whenever a riteborn monster -- such as a kanohi dragon, tahtorak, or zivon -- enters the range of the elemental temple ruin the igneous rock in the center of the amaja circle will begin to glow with a red-hot flame. If a riteborn is vanquished while in the range of the elemental temple the igneous rock will crack and crumble into sand. It will reform into a new igneous rock if another riteborn enters the temple’s range.

Each amaja circle may have one effect active from the five carved gemstones stored next to it. Placing a gemstone in the amaja circle makes its corresponding effect occur in the immediate hex the temple is located within and all the immediately adjacent hexes as well (range not counting the start hex = 1 hex). The carved gemstones and their effects are:

• Muaka’s Eye: Stop riteborn from leaving their current hex
• Opal: Eliminate all riteborn environmental effects
• Emerald: Slow the movement of riteborn
• Amethyst: Weaken all riteborn
• Diamond: Force all riteborn to flee

These effects can be applied one at a time, and may be changed once per post by removing the active gemstone and placing a new gemstone in the amaja circle. Only the most recently placed gemstone’s effect is active. Placing multiple gemstones at once will result in no effects being active.

 

Kaita ACRs

Locked away for centuries in tombs throughout the Hidden Valley of Kini-Nui, six mighty kaita spirits manifest in the forms of towering machines. Kaita ACRs are both divinity and technology at once, revenant beings pledged to two tasks:

• Hunt and destroy all Riteborn monsters
• Hold back the coming of the dark

Each Kaita ACR has its own name, personality, and code of honor based upon a matoran principle. The six great Kaita ACRs are:

• Wairuha, Wisdom
• ???, Valor
• Malkuhuraia, Courage
• ???, Strategy
• ???, Prosperity
• ???, Willpower

WIth Kaita ACRs being living machines, they are as much NPCs as vehicles. If left alone to their own devices, a Kaita ACR may very well wander off to find a Riteborn to vanquish. A GM will notify you if this occurs, and will assume full control of your Kaita ACR as an NPC until you are able to recover it. A GM may assume direct control of your Kaita ACR as an NPC if all pilots are not unconscious or killed while piloting the Kaita ACR. 

 

Acquiring a Kaita ACR

All six Kaita ACRs are sealed within six tombs located around the Hidden Valley of Kini-Nui. The first six characters to attain the NUVA power-up are additionally rewarded with the opportunity to revive a Kaita ACR by pouring their energies into unsealing one of the Kaita ACR’s tombs. Tag GMs in your post approaching a door so they can roleplay this encounter appropriately. A random Kaita ACR is assigned upon successful completing of this encounter. As Kaita ACRs allow for up to three pilots at once, this reward is designed to be shared with others.

 

Playing a Kaita ACR

When playing a character that pilots a Kaita ACR, keep in mind the Kaita ACR has its own personality, goals, and principle it wants to follow. Kaita ACRs greatly desire hunting and destroying riteborn monsters. It’s what they were made for in a very literal sense. However, Kaita ACRs are not the same as PCs or MCs, and are considered living vehicles. Since Kaita ACRs are vehicles and not characters, they do not contribute to the number of rolls for Far Shore Adventure Rewards.

All Kaita ACRs seat between one and three pilots. A Kaita ACR will not start if their Primary NUVA Pilot is not onboard. All pilots in the Kaita ACR may post as the Kaita ACR. We recommend coordinating either through OOC comments or in private messages with your fellow players to come up with coordinated strategies. 

Kaita ACRs are alive, and are powered by the summoned lesser spirit of their namesake. The kaita is the ghost within the shell of the machine that is the Kaita ACR. Kaita ACRs do not normally speak. While Kaita ACRs are capable of speech, they refrain from doing so except in the rarest of circumstances (i.e. when their tomb is opened). The Primary pilot may speak and have the Kaita ACR repeat what they say, but this is not the same as when a kaita ACR’s spirit chooses to speak. While you may also hear with the Kaita ACR’s innate senses, Kaita ACRs do not have a radio-technology system onboard. These are ancient machines.

 

Description of Appearances

The towering Kaita ACRs are of an ancient and intricate design. Constructed of gleaming metal that does not rust or weaken over time, they are among the greatest work of an ancient race of Builders who sought to defend their home from the riteborn monsters forged by the Great Spirit of Nightmares, Irnakk, and his slumbering clan of skakdi known as Irnakk’s Prized. Each Kaita ACR stands 75 to 100 feet tall. Kaita ACRs do not wear kanohi masks, although their faces look like those of matoran or toa with the exception they have six eyes (rising up their forehead). Their base structure is a lanky bipedal skeleton with additional ceramic, glass, and protodermis plating covering essential systems. Each ACR is painted in the colors of its regional element, so the Kaita ACR of Air is painted green, the Kaita ACR of fire is painted red, etc.

Unlike conventional ACRs which require a heartlight to function, these ACRs draw their energy from the Great Disks merged in their primary NUVA pilot.

The cockpit of the Kaita ACR is accessed through a retractable seating hatch that is placed between the shoulder blades on the back of the ACR. The interior of the cockpit changes to suit the personality of the chosen NUVA Pilot in color, adornment, and physical controls. However, two additional seats are available for a total of three pilots.

GM Note: for additional inspiration regarding the physical appearance of Kaita ACRs, we recommend exploring the history and stories surrounding the following mechs: God Warriors (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind), EVAs (Neon Genesis Evangelion), and Jaegers (Pacific Rim).

 

Kaita ACR profiles

 

Suva Kaita

Location Description

The Suva Kaita is a large domed suva structure made of a silvery-grey protodermis material. It is the approximate height of a toa. The Suva Kaita is located in the center of the Kini-Nui temple in the Time Between Time.

The six Kaita ACRs found in their tombs throughout the Hidden Valley of Kini-Nui are attuned to the central suva within the Kini-Nui temple itself. This suva is known as the Suva Kaita, and can only be accessed by Kaita ACRs. The revenant machines store their riteborn monster slaying weapons in this ancient device. 

The Suva Kaita has the following exceptions to the normal rules of suvas:

• Increased Range: the Suva Kaita has a range of 2 hexes on the world map (not counting the hex it’s in)
• Only Kaita ACRs are able to access the contents of the Suva Kaita

 

Suva Kaita Puzzle

Hidden beneath the Suva Kaita is a spiraling staircase that descends far below the temple of Kini-Nui to a lightless room where the entry to the Mangaia can be found. To open this hidden passage, fill the surrounding six shrines with the six core elements (air, earth, fire, ice, stone, and water). The Suva Kaita will spiral down into the earth, and the stone stairs will slide out of their sockets in the opened hole. After a short period of time the suva kaita will spiral back up into its original position, trapping unexpecting adventurers below. This puzzle was originally solved in Rebrith by the aspect Sorilax, played by Kal the Guardian.

 

Inventory

Used exclusively to store the monster slaying weapons of undead divinities empowering hundred foot Kaita ACRs, the Suva Kaita is chock full of oversized tools designed to brutally incapacite riteborn monsters. These tools are made proportionately to the size of the Kaita ACRs that wield them, and they are capable of causing harm to riteborn monsters.

The following items are initially found in the Suva Kaita, and may be used, stored, and swapped freely by all Kaita ACRs within range. Talk with your fellow players to come up with advantageous combos for maximum monster slaying potential:

Two Handed Weapons

The two handed weapons stored within the Suva Kaita are forged not of protodermis, but of the raw elements themselves. For example, the great claymore of Wairuha is made of ice from a glacier, and radiates with chillding cold. A Kaita ACR may only wield a single two handed weapon at a time.

• Bident: conjure beams of water
• Chakram: Ignite target on hit
• Claymore: freeze target on hit
• Battle Axe with bill hook on the back: root target on hit
• War Club: stun target on hit 
• Kusarigama: bind target on hit

One handed melee weapons

These one handed melee weapons stored within the Suva Kaita provide buffs to the emotions or abilities of a Kaita ACR when used. They may be used in tandem with each other, on their own, or with a one handed shield.

• Kukri, your aggression is enhanced while using
• Garrote, your agility is enhance while using
• Flail, your endurance is enhanced while using

Shields

Two shields are currently available within the Suva Kaita. These shields are useful for protecting bystanders as well as yourself from the incredible power of a riteborn monster.

• Two handed Tower Shield (great for protecting allies)
• One handed round shield (for use with a one handed weapon)

Some ranged weapons

Not every solution can be resolved up close and personal. Sometimes you need a little extra reach. Luckily, the Builders were aware of the challenges of riteborn monsters and made several ranged weapons that are currently available within the Suva Kaita.

• Lance Launchers: this two handed heavy weapon conjures spiraling barbs of metal within its chamber and then hurls them towards targets. It’s main purpose is to skewer, pin, or pierce a Riteborn monster.
• Flame Belcher: this heavy flamethrower draws upon the elemental energy of the Kaita ACR’s pilots to conjure fireballs or create a continued steady flame.
• Rahi Grenade Launcher: this large weapon is designed to use rahi as ammunition for medium ranged projectile assaults. It’s design is similar to a large crossbow, with a padded bucket for a single rahi at a time of small to moderate size. 
• Foot Trap: a wicked tool designed to ensnare and root an unsuspecting Riteborn, causing severe damage to the monster’s leg. A foot trap can be thrown as an improvised projectile, or buried beneath terrain or an illusion.
• Net Launcher: this large rocket launcher-like tool is used to fire thick nets at incredible distances.

 

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Terms

• Protoderm(s): the living beings that inhabit the Bionicle world. Protoderms follows the “bonkle theorem”.
• Bonkle Theorem: all characters in the narrative are simultaneously every version of the spectrum between completely human with magic powers and completely robotic with magic powers. This allows for player comfort in avoiding details and a unified “anatomy”.
• Energized Protodermis (EP): A specialized kind of mutagenic protodermis containing destiny-altering powers.
  • Pure EP: changes, heals, improves
    • Has non-randomized effects
    • Please contact a GM once your character is exposed to Pure EP to collaborate on the possible changes.
  • Defiled EP: causes horribly toxic mutations and destroys
    • Has randomized effects (GM rolls)
    • Please contact a GM once your character is exposed to Defiled EP and they will roll for the effects.

 

GM NPC Profiles 

This section is where you can find the profiles for NPCs played by GMs. These use a similar profile format as PCs for clarity. Some information may be updated as it is revealed in-game.

• Administrator, AI of the Builders
• Axonn, guard of the Heartsflame
• Barraki Ehlek, United in Science
• Grime
• ???
• Kas
• Irnakk of the Pit, God of Nightmares
• MI-8919-07 "Mantax", Fractured Soul
• Miserix, Aspect of Birth
• Nektann, Tahtorak of Loss
• Spiriah, Aspect of Faith
• Takadox, Paranoid Traitor
• Tuakana, bound to Axonn
• Tuyet
• ???
• ???

Barraki Ehlek, United in Science

 

Bellicus "Kas" Kastus

 

"Grime"

 

Irnakk/Karzhani, The Great Spirit of Nightmares

 

MI-8919-07 "Mantax", Ghost in the Machine

 

Nuju, Siren of the Far Shore

 

Barraki Takadox

Approved Player Characters

This list shows most (or all) currently approved characters. GMs will work to keep this section updated monthly.

• EmperorWhenua: Caedast "Stannis", The Ambling Alp, Yumiwak, the Tactical Panda II, Leklo, Zai
• Harvali: Kanohi, Collector, Mahrika, Bode, Akva, Kardaka, the Big Bruiser, Sucordak,
• Tarn: Nale, Jutori, Korio Karashi, Triage, Rose
• Nato the Traveler: Marrow, the Reprisal, Opal, Hakkzan, Weaver, Xaril, Whisper, the Crimson Galleon, 3x Keerahk, Sidra NUVA, Wairuha
• Toru Nui: Tekmo, Waveahk, Ostrox, Ulkarr, NU-8020S, Achro, Navu, Enra, Gnabol, Klawne, Reckless, Lawfull, Obedient, Impressionable, Wayward
• BuLik: Knichou, Berys, Arnex, the Taku, Exuze
• Kal the Guardian: Sorilax, Viltia, Cravious, Debt Collector, Cube, Clash, Sagacious, Asperity, Voracious, Preceptor, Torch, Wing, Spark, Beruv, Circuit, Le-Metru Nuva, Krrench, Crushing Foot,
• Crimson Jester: Korruhn
• The UltimoScorp: Katrin of the Flame (original), Drokk, Katrin of the Flame NUVA Proxima
• ~Xemnas~: Aurax, the Marauder, Saybo, Whira, Kohara, Atamai NUVA, Malhukuraia
• Burnmad: Barius, Providence, Morangad, Ollem, Chimera
• Onaku: Okuo, Iradra, Arkius NUVA Proxima (original), Ardoku (original), Zadred, Ardoku, Arkius, Arkius NUVA Proxima (current)
• TL01 NUVA: Keitara
• Pokemonlover360: Kilo-M9 (original), Ysocla, Justice, Kilo-M9 NUVA 
• Conway: Irna, Parnassus, the Horizon's Call, Detsu,
• Sparticus147: Commander Vulimai, Sergeant Bronk, Twesh, Kini-Koro, Ko-Pou, Zak-Yak, Sala, Apex, Drukarus, Avagah, Kuini-Rama, Gore Fury, the Gadunka
• Keeper of Kraata: Skorm, Muaka V-5, IV
• Eyru (now a GM): Oreius, the Lapyx, Taja, Tuakana, Dar Poroka,
• Daniel the Finlander: Niidak
• Snelly: Skyra Daring, Vashni, Varian
• Norik Sigma: Zekev

Six Kingdoms: Apocalypse -- Discussion Topic (OOC)

Happy 2021, and welcome to the final game in the Six Kingdoms trilogy. It's been an absolute thrill the past year with Escapement and Rebirth. Now, let's find out what happens when all the chips are down!

 

How to Use This Topic:

This topic is where you can discuss Six Kingdoms games with other players (and the GMs) until the end of Apocalypse. Please remember to follow all site, forum, and topic rules in this topic. Please make sure to chat with friends about what stories you want to form together, be they faction quests or personal journeys.

Your GMs: @Unreliable Narrator, @Vezok's Friend, @Eyru

 

Other Topics Related to This Game:

• Sx Kingdoms: Apocalypse -- Gameplay Topic (IC)
• Six Kingdoms: Apocalypse -- Rules and Character Creation Topic

Once the topic Rules and Character Creation is posted you are able to begin creating characters. Once the Gameplay Topic (IC) is posted and your character profile is approved by GMs you are able to begin playing in Apocalypse. We look forward to playing with you all!

Good follow up question! The doors sealing the tombs of the Lords of Six Elements need a certain amount of energy from an individual to activate. The amount of energy required fully drains even a NUVA to the point of death. 

IC: Dume | Forge of the Heartsflame
He stood there for a long time screaming at the ceiling of the forge. At last Dume freed himself. His chest was tight with fury, and he felt the heat of his element in the fire and lava of the forge around him. He tried to be calm. He tried.
A dark shadow found him holding his head in his hands sitting on the steps leading to the sacred anvil. 
“Is it done?” The shadow asked.
“Yes,” Dume replied. He tried not to look back behind the anvil, towards the rolling lava and what he knew lay at its banks waiting to be used even after death. The chains and what they held under the cliffside of the forge jangled as a gust of air bubbled to the surface of the lava below.
“Then we must begin the next step in the ascension of your people.”
“We can’t,” Dume replied bitterly after a moment. “The disks, they’re gone. Someone came, claiming they needed them in the future.”
The shadow shifted. It did not speak. Dume understood. He felt it in his heartlight, the squirming of the shadow’s displeasure.
“A toa stole them,” Dume said bitterly, spitting the title out of his mouth like rotten meat. “He came right as they were finished. I couldn’t stop him. He was dishonorable. Very much like one of yours.”
“A toa?”
“Is there an Atamai among those who are ascending?”
“I believe there is. A matoran of some irrelevance. Should I?”
“No,” Dume said hastily, catching the shadow’s intention. “Maybe you shouldn’t. What would happen to the future we’re building if something happens to him before then? Wherever he came from, my people needed those Great Disks. He’s a bad omen of what’s to come, and now we must always watch him without interfering. What will happen to my people that drives them to pilfer their very past?”
“Yes, our people deserve to survive.”
“They are my people, and you are helping us survive. Never forget this. I am your Master, bound and blemished,” Dume said, standing to his full height on the steps before the shadow. His tattoos carried both the marks of kingship and the marks of heresy, and they seemed to crawl of their own accord across his chest in the firelight. “Who saved you from the Mangaia? I did. Who gave you a chance to redeem yourself? I did. Who wrote the codices that allow you to even consider existing on this island instead of slinking back to your sniveling cave in the Kumu Islets?”
“You did,” said the shadow.
“And who gave you the opportunity to regain even a miniscule amount of your power? I did. Now, remember your place. I am your master, and you are my shadow, and you will help me save my people.”
“Of course, Master.”
Dume descended the steps and moved to the edge of the forge, placing one hand on the wall where the heresy of his desperation was contained. Where could he possibly find six more martyrs? Those before had been their only hope. They had placed their tools in their suva before they came. After all, masks and tools were useless where they were going. An oath was sworn, a solemn vow to protect the people with their very last. Through it all Dume hid the true horror from them. He betrayed their legacy the moment they died. They knew nothing of the fate that awaited them after, and Dume did not wish to remember himself. He could barely consider the thought of six more lost because of his mistake. Perhaps he should be one of them? It would be honorable. 
Toa Dume no longer deserved an honorable death. He would serve his function as the pilot. A wry smile threatened to grow across his face. How much like the Administrator he sounded now. 
‘Six more. We need to find six more.” He felt the cuneiform with his fingers, noted the hieroglyphic stanzas, and considered the pain he’d caused and would continue to inflict. It was a worthy cause: survival was all that mattered. He would find six willing to fulfill the destiny of others. Someone would need to survive the apocalypse. 
“Are your fellow sorcerers ready to cast the rite?”
“Of memory? Yes, Tuakana and Caedast have already left the Islets. Sorilax will bend to their combined will. The others as well. Miserix has not answered the summons. Spiriah is their usual self: contradictory.”
“You mean he’s useless,” Dume said decidedly. He wished Spiriah was not the contrarian. His power would have been helpful in the weaving of the rite.
“No, not useless. Never underestimate an aspect. I believe Spiriah waits for our departure to further his own designs.”
“I don’t care who rules a ruined world. I care about my people. People I must once again cull. They should not have to remember this tragedy.
“They will not. The rite, once woven, is unbreakable -- even upon the weaver. Their only glimpse of memory will be nightmares, strange and distorted. At most, some may experience side effects.”
“Side effects? You did not mention this before.” Dume turned to look back from the wall at the shadow. It had not left the steps.
“Hallucinations,” the shadow replied. “Seeing creatures that are not there, hearing things that make no sound. We cannot remove the trauma of life, but we can blind those to it. It is the shadow that binds their memory they will see and nothing further.”
“Your rite,” Dume said slowly. “It works on the weaver? You mean you and the other aspects who will cast them?”
“Yes, it is quite explicit.” The shadow slithered closer, barely visible in the light of the forge.
“You will forget?” Dume stared sternly towards the shadow's source.
A pause. 
“Of course, Master.”

OOC: Thank you for playing Six Kingdoms: Rebirth. See you in the next game!
Please lock this topic, @Eyru.
 

I'm going to have to give you another question, because that's one I can't answer just yet (mega-spoilers).

Congrats on page 145! What's your other question?

Thanks for those wonderful words. <3 It means a lot.

For those who want to get their last post or two in -- now is the time. I will be making a final post for the topic in the next hour or two. After that point, please do not post in SKR's IC topic. 

IC: Rahi in the tunnel | Underground

Providence's shadows cut through the silver and yellow armor of the predatory rahi hunting alongside their tunnel. He shouted and worked his fury out on the beast, but it seemed to have little effect in actually dealing significant damage. Havok's ice punched small holes into the creature's armor as well. With all the attacks of those in the tunnel, and the sounds of their raised voices, the rahi began to retreat. While hungry, it did not want a fight, and its tongue was already wounded. 

OOC: rahi beginning to go away. Last chance if you want it. @Kal the Guardian, @Burnmad, @Sparticus147, @Nato the Traveler