Planetperson

That gave me chuckle.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009 Seeing this blog again is a beautiful thing. Being off this website for a month was both an inconvenience and a delight. What resulted in the loss of forums, PMs, and blogging allowed room for a certain leisure time from my usual activities here. And although I haven't really spent the last month thinking of what to say at this time, I do have some important things to talk about - about my venturing into a new phase of my life, as well as the state of this blog and its Farshtey Feed in the near future. I won't start with that stuff right away. Actually, I'd like to take this opportunity to spread some good word about this Christian Zanier guy who illustrated the recent "Hydraxon's Tale" comic included in the Papercutz Graphic Novel #6 and will illustrate the upcoming Legends of Bara Magna this February. If you bought the Bionicle Graphic Novel #6: The Underwater City - which awesomely includes a print version of Ignition #6 - you already know that Zanier sets a whole new precedent for artistry in Bionicle comics. I was taken aback by his mastery over lighting, composition, and dynamism when I first read through the comic, and it warms my heart that the Bionicle series finally has an artist with an acute appreciation for the detail and accuracy that a Lego product warrants. I mean, he colors in those darn little red pins and makes them look good. I recommend that you pick this book up, and keep your heads up for Zanier's February release. I look through the pages of Sayger's work that is printed in the book beforehand, and I laugh. I mean, the guy was encouraged to pursue an abstract style, but Bionicle models are by nature anything but abstract. I was overjoyed when we got Leigh Gallagher and Ulises Arreola in 2008, and the style continued into this year with Pop Mhan. But I never thought we could get better than that. Kudos to Papercutz for making a truly excellent selection. Hey, you probably noticed that I changed my blog title again. So what once was "This Isn't Awkward At All/But expect to be" is now "I Am the Writer/You are the Reader." For the sake of clearing up any confusion. I've been in the midst of a few projects as well. For starters, I reached a point in July where I said, "What the heck, I'll make an entry for that Kyry contest." So I built this awesome little man, which you can see in my Brickshelf link at the bottom of this entry. I don't know what's really up with the German IDBM's contest with regard to the BZP hiatus, but I do want to give him a shot. The Core War short story contest has been on my mind as well. I have started a story, thought out a skeleton plot, and not been diligent in completing it. But what I've written so far has been a lot of fun. I'm going to make it good. With a deadline until the end of September, I think even I have a chance of finishing. There has been a third Bionicle-related thing I've been involved with during the hiatus. Just keep your ears open for that one, I guess. It'll reveal itself in time. No need to ask about it. And, well, that's the sparknotes version of the Bionicle part of my life for the last 30 days - eager to get back to the OGD (I realized how much I enjoy having it around) and to the routine of the Farshtey Feed. I bought a few sets, not the least of which would be Toa Mata Nui of the long-awaited gold Ignika. And now I get to talk about another part of my life. College. It was inevitable - I'm entering my first wonderful year of college. On Friday. There are two things I am certain about my coming years in college: A, that I will have enormously good times, and B, that I will have an enormously crowded schedule. Yup, you asked it. Will I have time for BZP, or won't I? I don't have an answer. How much leisure time I spend on my Bionicle hobby during college is really up to me. How much leisure time I will have is an issue that hinges upon my classes and professors, and I can't tell the future. But if I did have some sort of crystal ball, it would be the knowledge that I'm taking: Intro to Chem Intro to Engineering Calculus III Some good ol Latin I Phys Ed, for some reason And some seminar course that doesn't really matter Just ... give me a slap on the back and wish me the best, ladies and gentlemen. I am, in a way, leaving. But I am not vanishing. I will still be here - on the internet. I am going to be around BZP, for the sake of whoever cares that I am. Will I have time for Farshtey Feed updates? I certainly hope so. How much of an overlogged lifestyle can stop me from taking an hour or so of my week to publish the next entry? FF is simple - it doesn't take much time, nor is it very difficult. It's something I do. Maybe I'll simply get rid of the images to ease the process, if I must. In the worst-case scenario, I will ask if someone else would please take up the torch. But that shoudn't have to happen. I have every confidence I will be able to keep tabs on Bionicle news, thanks to BZP. I'll be around. But school will be tough. That's all of any update I have for now. I say goodbye to some friends and look forward to making new ones, and continue to mature into an adult human being. Thanks for reading! FF may not get an entry this Friday - so much is happening that day, all day. Goodbye! Links Kyry Gallery

Friday, July 17, 2009 It's a big one, complete with an entire "Core War" section. GLATORIAN • On Kiina's personality: "Brash. Energetic. Impatient. Loyal. Caring. Stubborn." • Gelu was aware that he had the potential to make First Glatorian but had no interest in the job. There is more money to be made as an escort than as a First Glatorian. • Iconox gets Gelu's preference if he has more than one client for his services. Most of the work he does is for them anyway, because they are shipping exsidian all over. • Ackar personally sees a lot of potential in Gresh. • Except for trainees, villages tend never to waste resources sheltering extra Glatorian species members who do not serve them. » Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «• On Strakk's banishment: "The official story is that Iconox had to postpone the decision due to the events of the movie. My assumption is they will revisit the matter later." BARA MAGNA • The Skrall targeted Tajun "because Tajun has the bulk of the water supply the other villages rely on. Choke that off and the other villages fall like dominoes." • Tesara consists of two villages with an arena between them and a lot of jungle growth. • Greg would assume that, like all of the other villages, Tajun is one large structure and a bunch of smaller shelters, all built around in this case an oasis. • Tesara, like Iconox, also did not exist prior to the Shattering. • Roxtus did exist beforehand, but who lived there before the Skrall remains a mystery. • On Telluris's dealings with the Skrall: "Yes, but nowhere near as often as Sahmad. Once in a blue moon, Telluris learns something out in the desert and trades the information, but that is very rare." • Dozens of Glatorian now populate Bara Magna, along with hundreds of Agori per tribe. • Zesk have not always had tails and once stood upright, although they always looked similar to one another. • Empire of the Skrall Chapter 6 takes place before Raid on Vulcanus. • The September comic will deal with the beginning of the movie, and the November comic will detail events after the movie plot. • In Comic 3, it is Fero who tries to attack Vastus from behind. SKRALL • "The female Skrall are, if anything, nastier than the males, but also more manipulating, where the males prefer to just go bash heads." • On Skrall procreation: "Well, we have not discussed at all how new life comes into being on this planet, but ... let's assume you are right for the moment. There are TONS of examples in nature of species where the males and females get together only to mate, and are actively hostile to each other the rest of the time (with the males actually becoming threats to their own children after they are born). The idea of romantic love -- or even like -- being necessary for procreation is a human conceit." • Skrall females naturally possess mental powers. • Rock Agori all wear identical helmets. MATORAN UNIVERSE • Teridax currently is still on Aqua Magna, and Greg does not intend for him to leave during this story year. • The Mata Nui robot is constructed out of metallic protodermis (not protosteel). • On the Mata Nui robot's ability to pull together fusing the pieces of Spherus Magna together again: "I would say not on its own, no." • Tren Krom was never able to swap bodies before because a being has to consent to it. Lewa was the first to be open to "anything." • A Makuta needed to be in physical contact with a being on whom it is using its teleportation power. CORE WAR • The following six items of background information on the Core War were provided by Greg Farshtey for BS01's contest: 1. The original discovery of the EP was in the ice EL's area, so they were defending it for much of the war. It was Ice Agori who made the discovery firsthand, and it was in the Northern Frost. 2. The final battle of the war saw the fire armies seize control of the EP spring. 3. The GBs released the baterra toward the end of the war. 4. Alliances between armies were basically made of sand ... everyone wanted the spring, no one wanted anyone else to have it, so no one worked together for very long. These alliances were made during the war, not prior to it. You had six groups, all after one thing -- Ice has it, everyone else wants it. So Fire and Jungle might make an alliance, one attacks from the south, one the north .. but if it looks like fire might get to the spring first, jungle suddenly turns on fire because they don't want fire getting it either. 5. The ice tribe lost control of the spring a few times during the war, but never for very long. And the fire tribe knew when they seized it they wouldn't be able to hold it for very long, so they rushed to tap its power despite warnings of what would happen. 6. Mostly deaths, and some transformations of animal life occurred as a result of contact with EP. The only really concerted effort to tap its power -- to basically drain and collect the EP -- was done by the fire tribe and precipitated the Shattering. • On the duration of the Core War: "I had originally said six months to a year for the war, but it may have been longer than that … Years, probably." • Only the Great Beings used the term "energized protodermis"; the regular people of the world would have referred to it with another name. • No one living on Spherus Magna ever discovered that the EP was a sapient entity during the Core War. • Spherus Magna did once have larger cities, though we don't know if they were as sophisticated as Metru Nui, since Metru Nui is basically a mechanical brain. • There was no movement for peace during the Core War among the combatants. • The Great Beings, however, were involved in pursuing a diplomatic solution. • The Great Beings never fielded an army in the Core War other than the baterra. • Probably hundreds of soldiers served for each tribe. • Future Glatorian of the same tribe would have been well-acquianted. • Ackar would most likely have led a squad during the war. • Surel would have been chosen by his battalion commander, not the Great Beings, to train and to lead the Iron Wolves into battle. Surel and his Iron Wolves, of course, fought as allies to the Ice Tribe. The Iron Wolves had been about prior to the war and had been wild creatures up to that point. • Certavus participated in the Core War and was loyal to his Ice Tribe. • Vastus regrets "Hurting the people he hurt." • Glatorian in the war had weapons with elemental powers, the charges of which have long ago run out. • Force blasters were occasionally used during the Core War, but they were used as vehicle-mounted weapons and never as handheld devices. • When the Fire Tribe wrested control of the spring, they likely held onto it for mere hours. The time elapsed between the final battle of the Core War and the Shattering itself was a matter of hours. • Many were injured or killed as a direct result of the Shattering. -Factions • On the Element Lords: "I would say you had six equally powered beings who didn't get along that great but worked together because they had to and overall did it well. When something came along that threatened to make one of them way more powerful than all the rest, it created problems." • Element Lords never personally confronted each other during the Core War. Prior to the war, on the other hand, they did meet a lot. • The Element Lord of Sand would have held Bara Magna as part of his domain. Bara Magna was the Sand Tribe's main area, because that was the major desert on the planet. There wasn't a lot of sand in other areas. • The Element Lord of Fire would have ruled the region around the Great Volcano. The Element Lord of Fire would have also held sway over the southern volcano near the Iron Canyon, hence the settlement of Vulcanus there. • The Element Lord of Jungle ruled the great jungles and forests of Spherus Magna. During the Core War, the jungle where Tesara now resides was not their central territory; they would have been anywhere there was jungle or forest, and there was a vast area of green some distance away from the desert on Bara Magna. While Tesara's jungle would technically have been under the Element Lord of Jungle's control, the locus of his power would been that vast forest that was located on a different part of the planet. • The Northern Frost and the realms of the Element Lord of Jungle now exist on the third chunk of Spherus Magna. This giant forest to the north of Bara Magna developed into part of the third planet and was the same forest that Mazeka and Vultraz visited in an alternate reality. • The Element Lord of Rock held the White Quartz and Black Spike Mountains. Although the Skrall held the White Quartz Mountains before the Shattering, most of the Skrall legions were in battle in the Black Spikes when the war ended, and remnants of the Ice Tribe had migrated south to the White Quartz during the war due to the battles centered in the Northern Frost. • The Water Tribe would have owned fleets of waterborne transport ships. • Greg believes Aqua Magna would have originally been south of Bara Magna. • The Element Lord of Water also ruled the River Dormus. • There were no aircraft involved in the war. • The terrain of the Northern Frost was mountainous. • Spherus Magna had polar ice caps. • The Element Lords were created by the Great Beings "Thousands of years before the Shattering." • Sahmad's tribe was wiped out before the Element Lords were created, which is why it is highly unlikely that an Element Lord was created for that tribe. • Therefore, the Element Lords were created sometime less than 103,000 years ago, but not by more than a thousand or so. • The Element Lords at this moment are not fighting over Energized Protodermis, but over something else.

A free novel? Lego is so kind to us. And Ameet seems to be a very eager partner. A novel at all? That alone is fantastic news. I'm reading Raid on Vulcanus right now and really like the "super chapter book" format. Novels set outside the Matoran universe feel different, in a good way. Has anyone considered serializing "The Crossing" in Enlgish or publishing an English release of those guidebooks?

Friday, July 10, 2009 BARA MAGNA • The Great Beings would have genetically modified the Vorox and Zesk simply for the sake of research. • There is a vehicle division in the Great Tournament. Pilots in vehicles fight other pilots with vehicles; they don't fight Glatorian or Agori without vehicles. • Greg's reason that Strakk has never won a tournament: "People who habitually cheat tend not to work as hard at building up their skills as people who do not." • On Gelu's heartless persona: "I think that's the impression he gives and how he would probably like to be, but if he was really that way all the way through, he would have abandoned Vulcanus to his fate. He obviously does care what other Glatorian think of him." • The Great Tournament consists of two divisions and produces two champions: one from Glatorian combat and one from the vehicle section. Agori are eligible to win the vehicle division. • Crotesius has won the Great Tournament vehicle division before. • Gelu usually gets paid half up from and half afterward when escorting a caravan. • The vehicle drivers would have participated in the Great Tournament, but the Skrall attack preempted the vehicle division matches. • Ackar fights Strakk in the arena in the movie. • The following have speaking roles in the movie: Mata Nui, Raanu, Berix, Metus, Kiina, Ackar, Strakk, Vastus, Tarix, Tuma, Gresh, and various unnamed Agori who are not sets. SPHERUS MAGNA • After the Shattering, the EP inside Spherus Magna most likely floated out into space and froze. • "Aqua Magna" means "Great Sea." • Greg tends to doubt that Sahmad's tribe had an Element Lord. • Greg does not consider Element Lords to have bodies entirely made up of their element. MATORAN UNIVERSE • Mata Nui's was instructed by the Great Beings was to go on a 100,000-year round-trip across the universe. Aqua Magna would have been near to Spherus Magna's original position when Mata Nui was forced to crash-land on it, meaning Mata Nui had been close to completing that circuit. • Mata Nui was not intended as a failsafe for the Great Beings to use in the case of a catastrophe like the Shattering. • Mata Nui was not supposed to bring something physical back from his journey, but rather some sort of knowledge. He had successfully acquired this knowledge and was returning to the remains of Spherus Magna with it. The knowledge which Mata Nui was sent to retrieve was not the information he collected by observing the various planets he visited.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009 The bomb has dropped. The world has stopped. Nothing will be the same again. I've changed my blog title. Old: You're Awesome/Don't Let the Title Fool You New: This Isn't Awkward At All/But expect it to be

After a while I got the feeling it was sort of uninviting in a snide sort of way. Hey, that's great to hear about the FF. They'll keep comin.

Sunday, July 5, 2009 Yes, I've really been wanting to change the title of this blog for a while now. It's old, it's stale, and it was never really that good. So I'll come up with something new. You'll see.

Friday, July 3, 2009 The Feed is back. Also, read the new comic here. GLATORIAN • There are occasionally vehicle matches between a Glatorian and an Agori, since skill in the vehicle is all that matters. • Greg: "Glatorian generally do not escort caravans on a regular basis. They do it if the caravan happens to be going the same place they are. If Vastus has a match in Tajun and the caravan is going from Tesara to Iconox, he goes to the match, not with the caravan, because fighting in the arena is his main job." • Greg, on the most skilled secondary Glatorian: "Probably Kiina or Gresh. Gelu is no longer a Glatorian and was okay when he was one, and Malum relied mainly on brute strength. Kiina has fought longer, but Gresh has more natural talent, so it evens out." • Greg: "Gelu probably could have been Prime Glatorian if he had applied himself, but he never much liked being a Glatorian so he didn't develop his skills the way he might have." • If Mata Nui's current body is damaged, he feels it. If he has a severe injury, the Ignika could regenerate it. If the body is damaged sufficiently, Mata Nui could be killed. • Greg thinks that Click would not feel blows when he acts as Mata Nui's shield, believing that he has no nervous system in that form. • All of the Glatorian we know of were associated with the same tribes during the Core War as they are now. • Greg: "Ackar is a veteran warrior who has seen a LOT of combat. He has fought long and hard for his village, but has reached a point where he's a little older and a little slower. But he keeps going because he feels he owes it to his village, even if they don't always appreciate him anymore." SPHERUS MAGNA • The Element Lord's power hungry ways were realized more after the EP surfaced. Prior to that, while the ELs did not always get along, they co-existed and they took care of their people. But the war they unleashed over the EP was incredibly destructive even before the planet shattered. • As referenced in the alternate reality visited in Brothers in Arms, there existed a southern mountain chain on Spherus Magna. • The Agori always organized themselves into element-based tribes. • The civilization on Spherus Magna was "very old." • All of the residents of Iconox originally lived up north before the Shattering. • Bara Magna, the endless ocean planet, and a third, unknown planet are the remnants of Spherus Magna. • The endless ocean planet is, in fact, named Aqua Magna, and it once existed as the Great Sea on Spherus Magna. • Greg, on the origin of Aqua Magna's organic birds: "Well, on our world, the albatross could fly for three years without landing ... and the SM birds are not birds from Earth. It's entirely possible they could breed in the air or in the water, incubate live young or lay aquatic eggs, and live on fish, therefore not having any reason to land. You don't get birds evolving without any land, but they came from a place where there was land, so that's not a problem." • The only living things on Aqua Magna are birds, fish and other sea creatures, and the inhabitants or natives of the Mata Nui robot. • The prototype Mata Nui robot was not designed with the same body cavities that support nanotech like the Matoran. SAHMAD AND TELLURIS • Sahmad's plague was a natural phenomenon afflicting that particular region; Sahmad and Telluris are simply surviors who did not catch the plague and die. • Sahmad captures Agori traders or anyone else traveling out in the desert. • Sahmad and Telluris do not know each other's whereabouts. • Sahmad does arena battles only with villages he has stolen Agori from, to give them a chance to "win them back." He also does not steal Rock Agori. • Greg: "Telluris is a little arrogent, sure of himself, and who wouldn't be with Skopio at your command? ... Telluris doesn't like anyone, including Sahmad." SKRALL • The Skrall have a good water supply, being close to the headwaters of the Skrall River, and hunt and forage for food. • Greg, on the Sisters of the Skrall: "They are, if anything, nastier than the males are, but they go about things in different ways and their goals are different. Tuma and the Skrall are pretty much "in your face" ... the women are subtle and more likely to manipulate into destroying yourself than attack your city by force of arms." • Branar is being illustrated for Papercutz Graphic Novel #8 and may be given a different secondary color to distinguish him in story from the warriors he rides with. • Greg is sure that Branar participated in the fall of Atero. MATORAN UNIVERSE • Toa were based on the look of Glatorian. • When Mata Nui was infected with the Makuta virus 1,300 years ago, he was aware of the attack but had lost the control to land somewhere safely due to the virus's effects. The Order of Mata Nui became aware of the Makuta's betrayal about the same time Mata Nui did, although they had never trusted them before, on the principle that power corrupts. • The inhabitants of the Red Star had no control over and were not responsible for the lightning which struck the Toa Inika. It is possible that some were aware when it happened. • The inhabitants of the Red Star are presumably made out of protodermis. • Greg, on Mata Nui's attitude toward Teridax: "No, I don't think he fears him. He fears for his people who are at Teridax's mercy, but he does not fear Teridax."

Ah well, it happens. If you could answer a question -- will any of the building instructions from older years be removed for the update?

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 I'm back home now. I guess I'll explain it again: I went the last nine days without an internet connection or television. Basically I was cut off from the media. And now I've come back to a world where celebs are dropping like flies. As if Bernie Mac wasn't shocking enough.

Friday, June 19, 2009 SPHERUS MAGNA • The Great Beings ruled the planet of Spherus Magna as a whole as a group; they did not have an overall leader among themselves nor did they break up responsibilities by region. • The following occurred in this chronological order: the creation of the Element Lords, Sahmad's plague 103,000 years ago, the creation of the Mata Nui prototype. BARA MAGNA • Everyone except the Vorox can and does use vehicles. • The Glatorian probably received their mechanical implants during the war. As for the others' implants, since the war, a number of equipment caches left behind by the GBs have been looted. • Agori in vehicles can participate in the Great Tournament. • Fero most likely received his Skrall-style sword as payment for captives. • Greg, on the traitor's motivations: "My feeling is that he/she figures the Skrall will win in the end and wants to be on the winning side." • There are Agori who live in the wastelands. • Explosive Thornax are used only once in a while in arena matches, and most often in vehicle combat. • Only some of the villages were in Bara Magna before the Shattering. Others, like Iconox, were not. • There are female Vorox, who are essential to tribe life. GLATORIAN • Both Ackar and Gresh are friends with Kiina and would trust her with their lives. • Greg, on Vulcanus-Malum relations: "I don't think they hate him, but they are angry at him for not being able to control himself and so costing them a Glatorian, and I think they fear him as well." • Raanu's two best trainees get killed in Raid on Vulcanus, which is why there is no replacement for Malum. • Ackar feels his fighting skills have eroded. • Gelu plays a large role in Raid on Vulcanus. • Perditus is a Vulcanus Glatorian, who has chosen to specialize in vehicle combat rather than vie to be a Prime or Second Glatorian. SKRALL • Female Skrall have pretty much always been shunned. They do not live anywhere near the desert and are not involved in the Bara Magna social system; they live in the northern regions of the Black Spikes. • Skrall who are found guilty of wrongdoing are generally executed to make an example. • There have never been female leader-class Skrall. • Tuma's green Skrall shield is an invention of the movie animators. MYSTERY TRIBE • Sahmad sometimes stays in Roxtus, he is not from Roxtus. He does not belong to any of the six known tribes. • Exclusive BS01 info from Greg: "Sahmad was a member of one of the tribes of Spherus Magna prior to the Shattering. Around 103,000 years ago, his tribe was decimated by a mysterious plague, and the few survivors were shunned by all other Agori for fear of carrying the disease. Following the Shattering, Sahmad was left stranded on Bara Magna, where he took up residence in the wilderness, all the while developing an increasing hatred for other Agori." • Sahmad is not the only survivor of his tribe, although very few remain. • Sahmad is a slaver, selling captured Agori to the Rock Tribe. • Telluris is an Agori of the same tribe as Sahmad. • Since the plague destroyed Sahmad's tribe, its Element Lords was most likely killed since he or she had no army. • Telluris's Skopio XV-1 was created before the Shattering. MATORAN UNIVERSE • Skakdi are carnivorous, though they don't need to be. They do it more to frighten others, who find actually eating with your mouth repulsive. • The extra 2007-themed comic will feature Hydraxon vs. Pridak. • Greg would guess the inhabitants of the Matoran universe are all aware that they are living inside Mata Nui's body, since they all heard Teridax's speech. • The amount of EP Mata Nui was sent out with in order to power himself was insignificant in comparison with the amount on Spherus Magna. GENERAL • Greg says he knows the US release date for The Legend Reborn to be September 15. • Tarix and Vastus briefly show up in the movie. The Skopio XV-1 vehicle does not show up, but the creature that inspired it does. Sahmad does not appear.

Thursday, June 18, 2009 So, I'm about to embark on my journey. But you know those hotels with wi-fi? I'll be waking up in one on Friday morning, so I guess the Feed's still on for this week. Next Friday, on the other hand, is still hopeless. Lol.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009 Not that it really matters, but in case it does, tomorrow I will be heading for the hills, so to speak, and will not be back until the end of June. I will have no TV, no XBOX, shoddy cell reception, and no internet access during this time. So the Farshtey Feed is off for two weeks. I will continue it as soon as I get back (that's gonna be a huge entry, am I right?). So that's all there really is to say. Me, gone, June 17-28...ish. Thanks. Bye.

Thanks.

Friday, June 12, 2009 ATTENTION: There will be NO Farshtey Feed entry next Friday. The Feed should resume the next Friday. SPHERUS MAGNA • Greg: "Spherus Magna broke up into three pieces. Since the desert known as Bara Magna makes up the largest portion of this chunk, the residents of that chunk call the entire place Bara Magna. Outside of the mountains to the north, there really isn't a lot there besides the desert." • The GBs knew what was going to happen to the planet as a result of the war before they started building Mata Nui. Mata Nui was a revisit of an old project of theirs that had been built using materials other than protodermis and EP. The giant machine parts on Bara Magna are the result of this. GLATORIAN • Greg: "Kiina is aggressive ... in our world, aggressive men are rewarded, aggressive women are often called names. Not much different on Bara Magna." "[Aggression is frowned on n]ot in the arena, but out of it, yes. Plus, Kiina's whole thing is that she wants off the planet, and after a while, people get tired of her going on about it." • Greg: "The Glatorian did, pre-Shattering, have some elemental weapons, but the "charges" on those weapons ran out long ago." • The soldiers trapped in the Forest of Blades are of the Glatorian species. SKRALL • It is possible that more leader Skrall could come into being. • Skrall have always been allied with the Rock Agori. • Female Skrall do not aid Skrall warriors, are not part of any chain of command, and are not even allowed in Roxtus. • Female Rock Agori are not forbidden from residing in the city as female Skrall are. • The absence of female Skrall in Roxtus is not an issue of sexism. The females don't want to be around the males anymore than the males want them around, and it's always been this way. Not really that much different from many species in our world, where the males and females do not spend any more time together than they absolutely have to. • Before the baterra attack, each leader Skrall commanded a legion. • During the Core War, the Element Lord of Rock commanded the tribe with leader Skrall acting as generals. • Greg, when asked if the female Skrall have adopted pacifism: "<--- rolling on the floor laughing ... oh, no." VEHICLES • The force blasters on the vehicles hit a target with explosive force. • The Kaxium V3 can function as two separate vehicles. ELEMENT LORDS • An Element Lord's elemental power is stronger than that of a Toa. Element Lords don't really have the need to do a nova blast, because they can achieve the same effects without draining all their energy. Greg: "As for time[-delay] blasts, I tend to doubt it, they are not that subtle." • Greg, on the Element Lords' physical strength: "Too soon to speculate on that. I don't, however, see the ELs as having much in the way of machine parts." • The Element Lords coexisted peacefully for ages before EP was discovered. MATORAN UNIVERSE • Greg: "I am not aware of krana changing color when they are on someone's face, only when they go from a Bohrok Va to a Bohrok." • Mata Nui did not invent the three virtues. They were part of the programming given to him by the GBs, most likely intended for his use. • Mata Nui had the ability to terraform planets. • Greg, on the use of EP in Mata Nui: "[The Great Beings] needed a power source more stable than the one they had tried using before. EP is not, by nature, unstable -- it's not explosive -- its effects are actually quite predictable in a way, transform or destroy, no middle ground." • Greg: "[A]fter 100,000 years of operation, perhaps the MN body is no longer so dependent on EP, or is capable of synthesizing its own. We know that research was being done on artificial EP in the Matoran universe." • Mata Nui's original body apparently has some sort of ejection system which Teridax used to fling the Ignika into space. • Greg, on the mention of Teridax using other Makuta to mass-produce Kraata in the guidebook: "t means that at the time the book was set -- just as Makuta took control and in the immediate aftermath -- there were still Makuta alive in the universe. There aren't now, other than Miserix, who can't be used for anything without him realizing he isn't really wall art." GENERAL • Spherus Magna is whole in the dimension Vezon is visiting. • The labyrinthine fortress Mazeka visited in an alternate dimension was not the same landmark known as the Valley of the Maze, nor was it in Bara Magna or the Black Spikes region. • Papercutz Graphic Novel #8 will contain three 25-page stories -- one on the Core War and Shattering, one on Malum's exile, and one on the Skrall's battles with the baterra.

My condolences for your loss, I wish you all the best. It is an odd experience to lose someone that close. This makes me seriously contemplate how I am going to experience my granparents' passing.

Yup, that's what it's for. You're welcome.

Greg hasn't exactly spelled it out either, but I know that an alternate reality is any state of your universe that exists on a different point in probability space (the fifth dimension) from the one you perceive to inhabit. An alternate reality is like a fine point, not a timeline enclosed upon itself. As the Great Beings put it, infinite realities exist alongside one's own. A pocket dimension, I would guess, is not this.

Monday, June 8, 2009 It's here! It's finally here! My project MNOLG: The Unofficial Soundtrack is completed and available for download. If you liked the music from the first MNOLG, this should definitely be worth your while. For the first time, all the disjointed audio clips from the MNOLG flash files and various CD material have been assembled into a 21-track compilation for your listening enjoyment. Visit the topic here.

What's the difference between traveling into an alternate timeline and traveling into a closet.

Friday, June 5, 2009 BARA MAGNA • Malum had a reason to try to kill Strakk in the arena. • Greg, on Vastus's paralyzing venom spear: "It's only an unfair advantage if he is allowed to use it in the arena, when his opponent has nothing to counter it. What weapons are allowed in a match is determined beforehand. So, for example, Vastus might be allowed to use the spear in a given match but not to trigger the venom." • In order to tame a Rock Steed a Bone Hunter must subdue it in single combat. • Greg, on the baterra's targets: "In general, Agori were not out fighting battles, and the baterra were focusing on armies on the move during the war. After the Shattering, some Agori did get victimized as the baterra were more likely to hit cities and settlements then." • The Great Beings were, essentially, scientist-kings, but they didn't want to be bothered with the day-to-day business of ruling. That is why they created the Element Lords, so they would be free to create and the ELs would handle the grunt work. • The point on Spherus Magna where EP was first seen was not in Bara Magna. • There is no EP on Bara Magna now. • Tarduk left Atero for Riddle of the Great Beings prior to seeing Gresh practice, because we know he was back to see Gresh practice before the tournament began. MATORAN UNIVERSE • The dimension to which Tuyet was taken for examination was a pocket dimension and not an alternate one.

Not on a wide laptop.

Is too wide.