The barrier of the realm of Karzahni

[Toa of Italy]

Once again, I'm creating a topic to deal with one of the many plot holes in G1 story. This time, I would like to discuss the barrier seen in BL2: Dark Destiny, the one the future Toa Inika encounter during their journey to Voya Nui and which separates them from Takanuva.

 

The facts are these: Takanuva, Jaller and his company are travelling south along the path that leads from the Metru Nui dome to the realm of Karzahni (though they don't actually know that and are just heading south, hoping to reach Voya Nui). At first, they go through a dark tunnel which devours all light, but eventually manage to pass through. Then they reach an archway, where an invisible barrier prevents Takanuva from passing through. The six Matoran do pass, but then discover that the barrier prevents them from going back. A first explanation is provided by an ancient carving Hahli has found in the vicinity:

 

 

Hahli studied the tablet for a few minutes. She started to say something, then stopped and gave it some more thought. "It's a warning," she reported. "It reads something like... 'This is a realm of shadow... of famine and plague and blight. ... This is a world of darkness... and there is no place for the light.'"

Nuparu nodded. "Of course. It makes sense now."

"To you, maybe," said Hewkii. "All I see is, whoever is in charge of attracting tourists here is doing a lousy job."

"I thought that tunnel we went through was just a natural phenomenon, something that doused lightstones. Now I'm wondering if maybe all illumination wasn't actually being devoured. And if that wasn't enough to send a bearer of light running home, we come here, where light is actively repelled."

"Okay, but what about us? Why can't we get back through?" asked Matoro. "We don't have the power of light; only Takanuva does."

"I think the answer to that one is frighteningly simple," said Nuparu. "Someone, or something, doesn't want us to leave."

 

The barrier isn't mentioned again in the storyline, unless I am mistaken. However, in 2007, the Toa Nuva visit Karzahni and meet the Matoran living there. Eventually, they manage to convince them to head to Metru Nui. However, the barrier should have barred their way. I asked GregF about this and he answered:

 

 

1) In the Toa Nuva Blog #7 the Toa Nuva persuade the Matoran of Karzahni to head for Metru Nui. But the Matoran can't leave because of the barrier that, as in BL2, doesn't let Matoran leave the realm. How will they do it?

1) Ah, but who put that barrier up? The Order of Mata Nui did, and since the Nuva are on OOMN business, the OOMN can lower the barrier to let them out.

 

Although the answer seems clear enough, there are some issues which still need solving.

 

1) When was the barrier put up? BIONICLE World states that, in the past, there were other access routes to Karzahni. Through one of them, the future tyrant shipped the first Matoran he had failed to repair to Voya Nui. This means that, in the past, travelling to and from Karzahni was possible by various routes; therefore, a barrier blocking one of them would have been useless.

We can therefore assume that the barrier was put up later, when the sea routes to Karzahni dried up, Karzahni became a true tyrant and his realm became "a world of darkness". The carving Hahli found would therefore be contemporary with the creation of the barrier. But this means that Karzahni had nothing to do with the creation of the barrier.

 

2)Why was the barrier put up? It may have been put up to prevent Av-Matoran from entering the realm of Karzahni. The only Av-Matoran who got inside, the Builder of Canisters, arrived there more or less when Mata Nui awoke for the first time, which was presumably before Karzahni became evil and mad.

 

But why did the barrier prevent Matoran from leaving? That is the fundamental issue. If Karzahni truly had nothing to do with the barrier, it means that it was the Order of Mata Nui which didn't want Matoran to escape. Why? Why did they keep them locked inside Karzahni for nearly 100 000 years? The barrier prevented only Matoran from leaving, since we know that at least some beings got in and/or out of Karzahni (among them the Dark Hunter Devastator, Makuta Icarax, the Manas and Karzahni himself (see here)). So why were the Matoran of Karzahni prevented by the Order of Mata Nui from escaping, only to be suddenly released when the Toa Nuva arrived?

 

[Gonel]

Oh boy.

 

 

I'm going to go against Greg.

 

Perhaps it wasn't the OOMN but actually Mata Nui who established the barrier years ago to prevent Matoran from leaving after he saw the disastrous effects of Karzahni in his realm* (thus the island was a realm of darkness before the barrier went up). However, this barrier prevented all Matoran from leaving because Mata Nui didn't want nonfunctional Matoran from leaving and fully functional Matoran weren't supposed to be there. Thus no more Matoran were allowed to leave.

 

However, the barrier began to decay as a side-effect of Mata Nui's dying, thus allowing the Matoran to abandon the island.

 

 

*And in doing so, represents another example of uneven/illogical distribution of his god-like powers despite his awareness of trouble within him.

Edited February 28, 2016 by The Hero Nuva Kaita Nui

[Mailli]

1) I don't see any problems. Yep, Karzahni has nothing to do with the creation of the barrier, and it was created after the sea routes dried up.

 

Perhaps the OoMN created the barrier to stop matoran escaping before they'd been fixed? (or to stop insane matoran from escaping?)

Because they were aware of the ineffectiveness of Karzahni's "repairs" and the value of Av-matoran for providing power to the MU, they made it so no beings of light could pass through. This means that no essential Av-matoran could be trapped or misrepaired.

 

2) Explained in the answer to part 1.

 

Either:

The barrier only lets matoran pass through who have been repaired by Karzahni. Jaller and company were given new masks, but perhaps this didn't qualify them as repaired.

The OoMN were aware of Karzahni's damage to matoran when repairing them, so they didn't want insane matoran returning to work only to cause more harm than before. 

[Rahkshi Lalonde]

okay but wasn't that barrier just a plotwall to keep Takanuva out of Voya Nui? o:

[fishers64]

1) I don't see any problems. Yep, Karzahni has nothing to do with the creation of the barrier, and it was created after the sea routes dried up.

 

Perhaps the OoMN created the barrier to stop matoran escaping before they'd been fixed? (or to stop insane matoran from escaping?)

Because they were aware of the ineffectiveness of Karzahni's "repairs" and the value of Av-matoran for providing power to the MU, they made it so no beings of light could pass through. This means that no essential Av-matoran could be trapped or misrepaired.

 

2) Explained in the answer to part 1.

 

Either:

The barrier only lets matoran pass through who have been repaired by Karzahni. Jaller and company were given new masks, but perhaps this didn't qualify them as repaired.

The OoMN were aware of Karzahni's damage to matoran when repairing them, so they didn't want insane matoran returning to work only to cause more harm than before. 

I'm pretty confident that this is the correct answer. 

[SPIRIT]

Maybe the Order's goal was to keep the Av-Matoran spread out?  During the Time Slip, they did a pretty good job of seeding Av-Matoran around the Matoran Universe in case they suddenly needed a Toa of Light (put on Avohkii in case of emergency).  Maybe there are multiple barriers like this to prevent the Av-Matoran from coming together and being an easy target for the Brotherhood to take out.