Infrared

I would imagine that it would actually be "proto[matoran word for iron]." Probably something to the effect of "protofe[rest of word for Iron]" given that "Fe-" is its prefix.

I believe Tobduk is the second-in-command. When Helryx left Daxia during the war against the Brotherhood, Tobduk was placed in charge, and BS01 describes him as a "senior member" of the OoMN.

As an authorized Contest Judge, I have read and judged this entry:"Casualties" by toa jalokimI see problems with this entry.The corrections are mostly to fix minor grammatical mistakes and similar issues. The story itself is largely ready.

The following comes from an authorized Contest Judge: At least one inaccuracy or error has been found in your entry. After reading this judge post, you are authorized to edit your entry to fix these errors. After editing to fix these things, please post in the entry topic saying what you changed. Good job! The way you've described Nidhiki's lack of pain at the end is very telling of what is to come. There are some problems though, albeit mostly grammatical and technical ones. It looks like a lot, but don't worry; most of them are minor and can be fixed very quickly. It should be "like the monster he was now," since it starts with "When Nidhiki was bored." The actual term for the war is the "Toa/Dark Hunter War," and the day is the part of the title, so it should probably be "Toa/Dark Hunter War, Day 42." Italics would be good too ("Toa/Dark Hunter War, Day 42"), but I don't think they're really necessary. Or if you want to get creative, since the entry was from the middle of the war and the war might not have been named yet, it might be cool to have another name for it that combatants used (like "War for Metru Nui" or something). You don't have to do it, it's just something to consider. Also note that Toa-Dark Hunter War appears in the top paragraph too, so you should replace that with Toa/Dark Hunter War (since it's narration, you should call it that even if you choose another name for the actual journal entry). Ellipses can be confusing. Here, I think you should make "All" lowercase. It should be ("Yes, brother," I replied bitterly). I changed the ellipsis because it's sort of odd there, and I added a comma at the end of Nidhiki's speech. Also, "Brother" is normally lowercase in other media, so I made it lowercase here as well. It should be (There were two Toa willing to accompany us: one a Toa of Fire with a gold hue and a red Hau and the other a Toa of the Green wearing a blue Faxon.) The colon is better there because it indicates a list, and I took the quotation marks away from "the Green." Note that "the Green" with quotation marks around it appears a lot, so you should replace all of those too. Also, I would just stick with "the Green" (with "the" in lowercase and "Green" capitzliaed) and not "Plants" or "Plantlife/Plant Life" because that's the term they normally use in the Matoran Universe. "Team" should be "teams." It would be good to provide some background on how Nidhiki knew Primal. Something like "the Dark Hunter named Primal, who I had once encountered previously, standing guard," would work. It should be (The Toa of the Green and I went inside the outpost, only to find that there was nothing there.) "At the time" should be removed because you already established when they were fighting at the beginning of the sentence. "Dark Hunter" should be capitalized. It appears in lowercase elsewhere too, so be sure to capitalize it in those other places also. Zaktan calls Reidak and Hakann over, but he never indicates which one is which. It's possible that you could tell if you were actually there, but it'd make more sense to the reader if you changed their names to "the -armored Skakdi" or something similar. Similarly, nobody calls Zaktan by name, so Nidhiki wouldn't know him as anyone other than "the green-armored Skakdi," "the leader," or something similar. Thok makes more sense since Nidhiki says he recognizes him, but like Primal you might want to explain how Nidhiki knows his name. Reidak's Buzz Saw doesn't have a blunt end, since the other side is a drill. Also, since Nidhiki doesn't know the name of the weapon and the actual term for the type of weapon he's using is a buzz saw (without any capital letters), you should just change it to that. (The weapon does happen to be called the Buzz Saw, but since it is a buzz saw it's best to just call it that. ) Just an "Ow!" instead of "OWW!" would suffice. It should be (As soon as the Toa of Fire noticed I was coming, he shouted that he could hold them off while the Toa of Lightning would destroy the bomb.) I changed "fire-spitter" to "Toa of Fire" since fire-spitter is a Chutespeak term and Nidhiki didn't use Chutespeak. Fire-spitter is an exception to the rule in that non-Chutespeak users do use it at times, but I don't think Nidhiki would. Note that "fire-spitter" comes up in other places too, so you should remove those. I also added a comma to end the phrase "As soon as the Toa of Fire noticed I was coming." Finally, the Toa of Fire says that the Toa of Lightning will destroy the bomb, but in the end they don't; it might be good to revise his plan to reflect that. Should be ("Sure thing, I said while pointing to the Dark Hunter in charge. But I'll handle him!") (I fixed the things I mentioned above as well.) The spacing was odd so I combined it into one line, and I changed the wording of the narration to make what Nidhiki meant more clear. It's not entirely clear how much of Toa's insides are mechanical and how much are organic, so a term that's more general than "organs" might be better. You don't have to change it if you don't want to, though. As with "OOW!" above, a simple "No!" will suffice. It should be (I went to the Toa of Fire and said, "Its not your fault. Things like this are going to happen during a war. You need to learn to get used to it.") I fixed the spacing and capitalized "Fire." I don't know if there are other times when Toa's elements aren't capitalized, so it might be good to take a look and fix any you find. Also, "kid" is an odd term in this context, so I just removed it and didn't replace it with anything. The quote should end with a comma, not a period. "Bah" is odd in this context because it is written here and not spoken; "on the other hand" or something similar might be better. That sentence has an extra period at the end of it as well. Also, instead of capitalizing "ONE," it would be better to put it in italics. "If he was" should actually be "if he were" (it's a common mistake). Finally, in the last sentence, "He was just a soldier" is better with a semicolon at the end than a comma. Here's the modified paragraph (I also fixed the "Plant Life" point from above): (On the other hand, he probably would have said No, we cannot endanger the Matoran! Anyway, why would Lhikan care so much about one life out of one hundred? Is he surprised that someone was killed in a war? It wouldnt make sense if he were. In my opinion, you should only care about a death in a war if you lost someone important. This Toa of the Green, however, was not important. He was just a soldier; we have dozens of Toa who could take his place!) That last part of the sentence sounds weird to me; how about just "I went to the room where we strategized" instead?As I said above, it looks like a lot of corrections, but most of these are very easily fixed and shouldn't take too long at all. Good job and good luck in the contest!

Alright, thanks for the responses guys. I'd say the question's been answered, but it has made me wonder something else: How would the Matoran have foretold what was written upon the Ta-Wahi telescope when the prophecies were based upon the Red Star and it wasn't visible from the MU? I would imagine that this foresight would be connected to the MU's internal sky and not the sky as it was visible from space. One possibility, I suppose, would be that the GBs determined what the SM sky would look up to a certain period of time (in 100,000 years, many of our constellations will not be recognizable because of the stars' movement through the galaxy), found patterns in the stars that would be complete with one additional star (the RS) as time went on and connected this database to the MU so that the closer Matoran were to SM the better they could tell prophecies and the better they knew what they were supposed to do. Of course, this would be a highly lengthy and difficult process and is probably not what happened, but I'd be interested to hear any other theories.

Something interesting arose on BS01 that I thought might be useful: the inscription on the Mask of Light as it appeared in the movie novelization that, if canon (which it might not be), would shed some light on the Matoran language. "Mapaku una-kanokee wehnua-hakeeta ah-keelahe hanoni rahun-ahk toa-nak panokeeta makuta-tahkee ohnah-koo." Now, the Avohkii's inscription was written in an ancient dialect of Matoran, which calls into question how similar it is to the modern language (I imagine they could be as close as late Middle English is to modern English [more or less readable to an English speaker], but it could also be as far off as Old English is to modern English [vaguely similar, but takes more thought for an English speaker to understand]). As such, it shouldn't be taken as a definitive example of Matoran, but it does nonetheless have some noteworthy features: - "Whenua" is spelled "wehnua" (assuming they are the same word), indicating that names can have definitions and that either a spelling shift took place over time or "Whenua" is semi-translated as discussed previously - There is a heavy use of dashes, some of which connect new words to ones we already know, which could be a sign that more adjectives use dashes than the ones we have already seen This is, of course, not necessarily canon, as I stated above, but it does show that at least some thought was put into what Matoran looked like on C.A. Hapka's part if nobody else's (if this is actually what Nokama says in the movie, it might indicate that it was not just Hapka's idea).

IC: Arktizai The Toa of Ice placed a firm hand on Kordan's shoulder. "Kordan, stop." Arktizai once again offered his hand to the fallen Vortixx.

Who wrote the prophecies in the Sanctum? Could they perhaps have been written by the Matoran when they were on Metru Nui and transferred to the Sanctum after they arrived, or were the prophecies vague enough that they could have been written by the Matoran on Mata Nui when the villages were being founded (and their memories were hazy, making them think they were ancient), and their meanings could be gleaned from events as they took place?

(OOC: Arktizai to Le-Koro) IC: Arktizai Arktizai glared at Kordan and then focused upon Zahkon. Clearly something was up; Kordan, he imagined, would not simply attack the Vortixx on a whim. Perhaps Arktizai's distrust was warranted, after all. The Toa of Ice offered his hand to Zahkon. The Vortixx was clearly uncomfortable even prior to being knocked down; if he felt threatened it would only make him less likely to divulge the news he bore. "Continue."

I've started a Google Doc that combines the previous spreadsheets into one (I've added/changed a few definitions as well, but most remain the same). You can edit it by following this link (you don't have to sign in), but I do have some requests: - Add your display name when editing so we know who worked on it. - If a word does not have an etymology, mark its cell red as I have done previously. That way it is easy to find entries that need work. - Don't worry about alphabetizing the list, removing blank rows, etc. currently, just add new entries to the bottom and I'll format it later. - Google Docs has a chat feature that, as far as I am aware, cannot be disabled. Please respect BZPower's policies and do not use it. Thanks!

(Some of this is rehashing, but it might add a new perspective so you can skip the first two paragraphs if you want but feel free to read them as well.) I imagine that a lot of these pronunciation choices have been tailored for an English-speaking audiences, and don't necessarily represent how they would actually be pronounced in Matoran (they have been "half-translated," to use the term from before). I think a good example of this is the name "Orde." I don't know if Matoran has silent letters, but I think it's possible that in actuality it's either spelled "Ord" or it's pronounced "Orday." To think of this (and the "x" pronunciation issue) in real-world terms, look for example at people who speak French as their first language and who learn English later. French has no "hard th" sound (or, if you want to be technical, voiced dental fricative), which is used very commonly in English since it appears in the word "the" and in a lot of pronouns ("this," "that," etc.). This means that they pronounce the hard th sound like a "z," giving rise to pronunciations such as "ze" and "zis" because it's a sound they're used to making. Another example is loanwords; when foreign words are assimilated into a language, the structure of the word remains similar if not the same but the accent and pronunciation rules of the new language change the pronunciation a bit. Matoran might be like this, too: pronunciations have been optimized for English and maybe other Germanic languages, and if you said a Matoran word it might be recognizable to a Matoran, but it'd sound like a foreigner was saying it. Another possibility for "x" that hasn't been brought up is "zh," pronounced like the "j" in "Taj Mahal." That way, there would be Krana-Za and a Krana-Zha. Of course, a consistent "ks" is probably more likely, like in Greek where names like "Xanthias" are pronounced somewhat like "Ksantheeahs," but it's still something to consider. Also, I'd love to help out on the dictionary. I downloaded a search engine plugin a while ago that can find commonalities between words, but I need to populate it with words to search. Could that be of use? Finally, a question on pronunciation: would there be accents in Matoran? For example, would a Matoran from Metru Nui sound markedly different from one on the Southern Continent? (If there is enough interest, I might actually make a separate topic for this question, but I want to see its answer-ability first.)

I actually posted in the "Ask GregF a Question" topic regarding the meaning of the Toa Mata's names a while ago, but the question hasn't been answered yet. Hopefully Mr. Farshtey will be able to shed some light on that. Alright. Explain Helryx, since she actually was the first toa. Not that it's a bad idea, just saying. I probably could think of a reason, but it's your theory. For all we know Helryx could mean first. Like Gali, it could also mean "water" or something else related. After all, "mahri" means "ocean" and "garai" means "gravity" while "Ga-" and "Ba-" each mean "water" and "gravity," respectively.

The pictures of both the being Karzahni and his realm are from BIONICLE: World. It's also where images of many other locations, such as Artakha, Odina, and Destral originated.

IC: Arktizai "Just a Toa," Arktizai replied, making a point of his response. He was onto the Toa of Sonics' game, and was not planning on revealing any information about himself until the new Toa also did so. OOC: Tapio, I intended for it to be an arrow. It's my fault, though, I should've been more clear in my last post. (Rereading it I realize I never mentioned an arrow, just a "shot." It could have been an arrow or a blast of ice.) It doesn't really matter, though.

IC: Arktizai The Toa of Ice burst into the fray, watching as the Toa of Sonics stunned a Tarakava attacking both Hile and a yellow and black-armored Matoran. As the beast recovered from the blast, Arktizai fired a warning shot into the ground in front of it, hoping to stop its advance.

IC: Arktizai Arktizai squinted his eyes in the direction of the scream. Pausing for several seconds, he drew and loaded his bow. "Let's go."

This is saddening news indeed. BIONICLE.com remains my homepage to this day. I hope—trust, in fact—that the BIONICLE community will back up everything from the sites before they are gone. Much of that has been done already, of course; but it would be nice if someone copied the pages to create complete copies of the sites (minus accounts and so forth, naturally) as they are currently for viewing purposes (perhaps I would change that to my homepage). Despite this sad news, though, I would like to point out that this actually isn't the last nail in the coffin, as some have heralded it to be. If I recall, Binkmeister lost dominion over BIONICLEstory.com a while ago (or if that is incorrect, another similar situation arose) and consequently Greg has not been planning on releasing the serials there for some time. The closing of the websites makes it no less likely that the serials will continue. Similarly, the BIONICLE forums on the LEGO.com Message Boards were made subforums of the Classics forum some time ago, but they are still active and consequently BIONICLE still has a presence on the LEGO website. Hackneyed as it may sound, the fact is that the best way to perpetuate BIONICLE is by not letting developments such as these faze us and by continuing to hope for its return. Despite this, however, I am still greatly saddened. To be honest, as I think about the prospects of this my eyes are watering. Those times I spent in the gallery and building levels for others to play in the Mistika game will soon be over, and I can still find myself going back to check the standings in the Phantoka game. Anyway, my intent in posting this was to console those worried about BIONICLE's future and to state my feelings about the websites' closure without being overly dramatic. As I have obviously overstepped the latter, I should probably stop typing. RIP, BIONICLE.com. RIP, BIONICLEstory.com.

IC: Arktizai The Toa of Ice stared at the Toa of Sonics before him. Seems like there's something about this group that's just asking people to trail it. Something about the new Toa pleased Arktizai. Perhaps it was his wit; perhaps it was his brutal honesty; or perhaps it was because he reminded Arktizai of himself. But whatever the cause, ironically enough, the Toa of Ice could not help but trust him. Raising his head slightly, Arktizai spoke. There was a slight glimmer in his eyes as he did so, one of mischievousness and of guile. "Who are you?"

IC: Arktizai The Toa of Ice pondered his potential courses of action. Indeed, if he went to Le-Wahi he might have a chance, however, brief, to confront Korden; Ga-Wahi seemed to be filled with prying eyes. "Alright. Let's go." OOC: Arktizai to Le-Wahi

IC: Arktizai The Toa of Ice briefly considered Hile's words. "I do not doubt that deep inside he isn't evil, but now he is furthering Sixhand's motives, not his own. Once he's more comfortable in our company, he might help us. But we can't talk to him now, not until he understands us better and certainly not with those two around," he said, indicating toward the Skakdi and ... whatever the other one was. Korden called for Hile. Looking back at the Ko-Matoran, Arktizai finished his thoughts. "When we are on our own, keep asking him questions about his past and what we're doing here, and don't be afraid to divulge some information yourself. We need him to trust us before we can act." The Toa returned to the group. "My apologies, Korden. I was scolding Hile for disrupting the conversation."

IC: Arktizai "One of them threatened to kill me in Ko-Wahi, that Valuki character mentioned something about slavery in Onu-Koro, and here that Skakdi mentioned domination over the whole island. Why do you think they've been withholding so much information from us? It's because they know if we find out, we'll do our best to stop them." The Toa of Ice considered his options. "Do you think the Akiri would care? If they did, we'd certainly have a large force behind us."

IC: Arktizai Arktizai pulled Hile out of the others' hearing distance. "They are the villains. I only joined them to figure out what they're up to; and now, you're probably the only one among us I can trust. We need to stop them. Is there anybody you know that could help us?"

IC: Arktizai Arktizai lightly tapped Hile on the shoulder. "Could I have a moment?" he asked, glancing toward Kordan and the Skakdi with whom he was primarily discussing.

IC: Arktizai Despite his cold demeanor, Arktizai could not help but feel touched by Kordan's words. He was growing to believe that the Skakdi did have kindness in his heart, and that perhaps his preconceptions of him were inaccurate. This, combined with the innocence of the Ko-Matoran—Hile, was it?—put him in comparative ease; certainly he preferred the company of those two than the group that had gone to Le-Koro. All was not well, however. When they were in Onu-Koro, one of the beings they had met, Valuki, had mentioned something about a slaving operation. Could that be the true nature of Sixhand? A direct confrontation would be ineffective at this point and would have to wait. Similarly, talking to Hile about Sixhand would endanger the both of them. The only way to learn what was going on would be to continue on as part of the group. Arktizai remained silent.

OOC: Arktizai to Ga-WahiSorry for my inactivity. Arktizai was watching events unfold in the bar.