How did Mahri Nui get its water?

[Toa of Italy]

It suddenly came to me that Mahri Nui Matoran had no way of getting fresh water. They were surrounded by the liquid, but it was all sea water and we know from Island of Doom that Matoran need fresh water to survive, just like us:

 

 

 

Garan sighed and looked out at the ocean in the distance. So much water, and none that we can drink. If only -

 

So how did they do it? Does anyone have a theory about it?

[NuvaTube]

MATA NUI I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT O_O

 

Umm...hmm...

 

Well, to start with, I always found it insanely improbably that they would have survived long enough to get to some air bubbles that would stick in the first place...So this is just something else :L

 

Don't they need liquid Protodermis? It can't be fresh H20 (normal water) right?

 

If they can drink normal water, I would guess perhaps they could just boil sea water and re-condense it getting rid of the salt? Something like that anyway.

 

If they have to have Liquid Protodermis, which I suspect is the case given the importance of the Protodermis Lake on Voya Nui (especially in VNOG, though that's non-canon), then things become pretty difficult. There would be no sources of liquid Protodermis anywhere, except maybe the Rahi. I can only imagine that there may have been Rahi that produced Protodermis that they could use or change into a drinkable form, or maybe they just extracted fresh Protodermis from Rahi bodies?

 

I really don't know Italy...this is a really good question! Let's wait until Bones gets here, he's good at finding viable plot excuses XD

Edited January 12, 2014 by NuvaTube

[Taipu1]

I'd guess they can drink non-protodermic water, as the matoran on the island of Mata-Nui survived just fine. The pit mutagen is probably what made the water surrounding Voya-Nui undrinkable, but the Mahri-Nui inhabitants were mutated by it, and so probably no longer had a signicant need to drink anymore.

[Omega12]

They probably had some invention to desalinate the water. Another option is that, those who didn't developed gills, absorbed water through their biological parts.

[bonesiii]

Greg confirmed they can drink normal water.

 

Any of the ideas so far might work. My first thought was a desalination still too.

 

You know, though, another simple option may be a well. The bubble keeps salt/mutagenic water out of the air part, but doesn't extend into the rock and earth. Maybe enough water seeps through cracks in the rock and dirt filters out both the mutagen and the salt, and then a normal well near the center of each of the large bubbles might produce fresh, unmutagenic water?

 

Or maybe the Voyatoran drop water bottles for them. (J/k)

[Dralcax]

Well, they could drink liquid proto. I'm guessing they have some way to turn other kinds of protodermis into liquid proto.

[NuvaTube]

Greg confirmed they can drink normal water.

 

Any of the ideas so far might work. My first thought was a desalination still too.

 

You know, though, another simple option may be a well. The bubble keeps salt/mutagenic water out of the air part, but doesn't extend into the rock and earth. Maybe enough water seeps through cracks in the rock and dirt filters out both the mutagen and the salt, and then a normal well near the center of each of the large bubbles might produce fresh, unmutagenic water?

 

Or maybe the Voyatoran drop water bottles for them. (J/k)

 

It's really interesting that they can drink normal water. It's cool that their Protodermic biology is compatable with at least that bit of normal matter. I'm surprised too, that the GB's would make their creations so adaptable: they were never meant to operate outside the MU, after all.

[Chro]

It leaked in through the plot holes

[bonesiii]

It's really interesting that they can drink normal water. It's cool that their Protodermic biology is compatable with at least that bit of normal matter. I'm surprised too, that the GB's would make their creations so adaptable: they were never meant to operate outside the MU, after all.

Well, it might just be a natural side effect of whatever the protowater does, which appears to mimic what normal water does for us, since they also couldn't handle salt water. In that case the GBs wouldn't necessarily have to imagine them surviving outside for it to work by virtue of real water behaving the same way.

 

However, it's not quite accurate to say "never meant." They did design the Toa-izing beam on the Red Star in case Matoran were living outside the robot and needed to become Toa (presumably to solve a problem that led to them being on the outside). The GBs planned for many contingencies, and it seems a simple consideration to make sure the Matoran could survive outside the robot in an SM-like environment if need be for various contingencies. It's only in the "assuming everything goes as planned" plan that they're "not meant" to go outside; they might be meant to go outside "if certain problems happen."

[You just lost the game]

I don't remember ever hearing that the seas in the Matoran universe were made up of salt water.

Even if it was or wasn't, I'm sure they'd have some way to filter out the stuff they couldn't drink.

[NuvaTube]

I don't remember ever hearing that the seas in the Matoran universe were made up of salt water.

Even if it was or wasn't, I'm sure they'd have some way to filter out the stuff they couldn't drink.

You are right, water in the MU is not salt water it is liquid Protodermis. Ga-Matoran implies that this might have some impurities, but in principle, it should be drinkable for Matoran. On Aqua Magna we had normal salt water though.

 

Oh, I was wondering about Nokama in Voyage of Fear...When she got to Aqua Magnan oceans, she noticed that the water tasted salty. But, did the book use the word "salty" to describe something that Nokama recognised, or to describe a taste that the reader would recognise? I'm just wondering if there could be a ProtoSalt in the MU which would allow Matoran to recognise and compare tastes of normal matter is all

[Just A Dot]

It leaked in through the plot holes

This is the best post I have ever seen on BZPower.

[Mel]

You are right, water in the MU is not salt water it is liquid Protodermis. Ga-Matoran implies that this might have some impurities, but in principle, it should be drinkable for Matoran. On Aqua Magna we had normal salt water though.

 

Oh, I was wondering about Nokama in Voyage of Fear...When she got to Aqua Magnan oceans, she noticed that the water tasted salty. But, did the book use the word "salty" to describe something that Nokama recognised, or to describe a taste that the reader would recognise? I'm just wondering if there could be a ProtoSalt in the MU which would allow Matoran to recognise and compare tastes of normal matter is all

 

 

I think the adjective used was "bitter" not salty, but it still might mean the same thing.