Bionicle G3 Reboot/Spiritual Successor Story Concept

[Merat Heridenz]

Hello there! This is my first post on this forum. I would like to present you my vision for a possible story behind a Bionicle G3 soft reboot or, alternatively, a spiritual successor to G1/G2/HF. I do not intend this to be anything beyond simple exercise of the mind, a venture into the realm of worldbuilding which I so much enjoy, so no project starting or whatever. I dearly hope I’m posting to the right forum.

Disclaimer: English is not my native language, so I’m sorry in advance for any mistakes or weird synthax/word choice.

The whole story takes place on a vast post-apocalyptic (although said apocalypse is quite distant) science fantasy world combining themes and influences from both G1 Mata Nui, Metru Nui and especially Bara Magna settings with inspiration from other media: from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Xenoblade Chronicles to Atlantis, Destiny and Warframe, as well as mix of various mythologies and cultures. 

In times long forgotten, our people, Matoran, were brought to this world by the great being of awesome power known now as The Vanished King. Seeking refuge from a shattering cataclysm that brought an end to our first home, the name of which has left our memory, we settled then lifeless plains and shores, aimed to forge a new life, a new beginning. Guided by the grace and creative power of The Vanished King, we built works of staggering beauty, molded landscapes and carved spirit and soul from lifeless matter, both creators of this new world and created by it. But no production of our hands and minds could overcome the Mata Magna, the Golden City, a true centerpiece of sciences, arts and industry upon the planet. At the bedrock of its wonder laid the Protodermis – mystical substance of great inner power and traces of sapience and will of its own. Mata Magna was the only place where Protodermis was mined from the depths, refined and worked to empower the most marvelous of city’s tools, devises and artifacts. Ordinary Matoran were insensitive to the influence of Protodermis, but Lords and Toa embraced great mystical powers from it – albeit at a high cost: not only is it addictive, but also should the inner strength and unity of one’s soul falter, Protodermis will destroy the mind and twist the body, mutating the unlucky wielder who the substance “deemed” unworthy into a monster known as Rakhshi, or Wrathful One in our ancient tongue.

There, in his Palace, The Vanished King took his residence and immersed himself in his creation, delegating the actual governing of the city to his prime creations, who would only much later call themselves his children, or Magna Lords. Six of them ruled the Mata Magna together, each inheriting and exercising an aspect of The Vanished King: Heart (Fire), Will (Ice), Mind (Earth), Soul (Wind), Wisdom (Water) and Life (Jungle/Nature). A knightly order of Toa, mighty warriors, upholders of peace and justice, was founded shortly thereafter, its purpose – protection of our people at all costs. It seemed as an eternity of peace and prosperity laid ahead.

But the light of those great old times was dimmed, and a grace was lost, because you cannot create light without first separating it from darkness, and you cannot create without holding back the hand that destroys. Thus, the Dark One, Makuta, was born: the last offspring of the Vanished King, a representation of Void, Darkness and Chaos. Such was the force of this being and eventual horror of its unwilling creator, that the Vanished King locked himself in his Palace and entered a state of seeming endless slumber.

Great shadow of fear and uncertainty fell upon Mata Magna. Lords and Matoran akin were left without guidance, uprooted and barren of grace. As for Toa, confusion and doubt took hold inside their hearts, its rusting pace kindled and hastened by the shadowy workings of Makuta, for the greatest winds he commanded were not those of land and seas, but of people’s hearts, their deepest fears and desires. Soon a voice emerged among the Toa, lamenting for the Greatest Crime, accusing Lords of imprisoning the King out of jealousy and lust for power. As some of Toa, stirred by Makuta without their knowledge, took over the city and stormed the Palace to free their King, others, still loyal to their cause and tenets of their Order, stood guard at the gates. The ensuring kinslaying battle shook the very core of the Golden City, as Makuta slithered his way deep into the Palace and struck the King with all his dark power and boiling hatred. Wounded, embroiled in pain, grief and rightful anger from witnessing the clash between Toa, the King released all his energetic essence into a mighty blast, destroying the foundations of Mata Magna and burying it deep beneath the ground with all its wonders and treasures. The Dark One was last seen buried with the city, locked in endless struggle with his dying creator. Lords and Matoran found themselves outside the now vanished city, safely teleported by unknown means with both their bodies and memories often grazed and broken.

And so the Shattering happened, and the Golden City once mighty turned into the Lost City, a nameholder in dusted folk tales and half-forgotten myths. Toa were now more, their Order disgraced and last remaining namesakes also vanished. Each Magna Lord took a piece of planet for their realm, casting away their initial purpose in favor of the mantle of godlike veneration from the Matoran, who, in turn, were falling into primitivity and superstition with every generation. Knowledge of the Lost City and its technological marvels was shunned upon or outright forbidden, for however mighty the Magna Lords were, they still felt beneath that their power was not all righteously claimed, and still great was their fear of Makuta.

For the evil that men do lives after them, and evil that gods to lives forever.

However, the demise of Mata Magna was not the only consequence of the Shattering. With all Protodermis mining facilities now defunct and knowledge of their construction and repair lost, newly established factions found themselves locked in a state of perpetual war for the remaining supplies and direct sources of Protodermis.

The six Magna Lords, each now wielding an Element, were not the only powerhouses upon the shattered world. The Hunting Horde, a ravaging force composed of outcasts once denied from entering the Golden City because of vile and dangerous tendencies. Its main backbone is formed by Bone Hunters – a cruel and savage, but also cunning and treacherous tribe, descendants of native inhabitants of the planet, changed by the melding power of Protodermis and workings of the Vanished King. The muscles of the Horde are reinforced by the Bone Breakers – imposing brutes, relatives but invariably subordinate to the Bone Hunters due to their low intellect and proneness to uncontrolled violence (they share a relationship very much like one between Tolkien’s orcs and trolls). Terrible spider-like creatures called Visorak and their scorpion-like cousins Scorporak have also aligned themselves with the Horde, the smartest and strongest ones even leading their own raiding bands, while their less fortunate kin serve as beasts of burden. But the most dangerous part of the Horde is its head, formed by the Bone Lord, whose position is won not by political disputes, but by a combination of violent victories on battlefield and in fighting pits, cunning intrigues and generous bribery.

Now in this dangerous but tempting world, full of mysteries and treasures waiting to be found and discovered, amidst the ruins of lost technology and dark spirits of magic, the last six Toa awaken. With only glimpses and broken shards of memory, they embark on a great search for the Lost City and ultimately their destinies. What use will the great powers make of such new and balance-shattering change to their world? Will they be able to reconnect and remake the world once broken?

 

So this is pretty much it – a preambule of my intended Bionicle G3 story concept. As you can all see, by replacing a handful of trademarking names and dropping callbacks and connections to G1 and G2 it could be readily repurposed into a spiritual successor of sorts, avoiding possible legal perils. As a G3 soft reboot setting, it has, IMO, pretty much all required ingredients of a successful dish: vast explorable world of Bara Magna, mythology, mysticism and mystery of G1 Mata Nui setting, urbanistic appeal and technological advancement of Metru Nui combined with treasure hunting and search for lost civilizations themes in form of the Lost City. Not everything I’ve came up with was included here: I have many additional, considerably less fleshed-out ideas about Toa, Piraka, Bohrok and other characters. For example, I envisioned Bohrok as a weapon race embodying the fused G1 concepts of original Bohroks (landscape removal mechanisms) and Barraki. Their purpose would be to destroy all of Vanished King’s (Mata Nui/Ekimu) creation, as they deem it failed and in dire need of a…well, let’s say, a radical reboot.

Toa team would most certainly consist of original characters, but I would very much like to reintroduce iconic familiar characters like Toa Mata or Toa Metru in some way (Turagas? Magna Lords?).

Each Elemental Nation/Tribe would comprise numerous outposts, villages and even cities, taking more inspiration from Agori tribes than from different Matoran "nations". They would be much more politically active, distrusting and even hostile to other tribes. Additionally, each Tribe would inhabit a distinct biome (underground for Earth, desert for Wind, because it just makes sense). The looks of inhabinants of this biomes would display traits for natural adaptation (e.g. aquatic Matoran would have amphibian and fish-like features and would probably require breathers like Mahri Nui natives). 

Makura in this incarnation would most closely resemble its predecessor from unused 2001 Bionicle story concepts: looking like a whirpwhool of disconnected, charred and broken set pieces engulfed by steaming darkness and smoke.

“'The void' above Makuta is indeed a swirling mass of lego pieces, though it's not supposed to be representative of his true form. Makuta is chaos and nihilism, Mata Nui is order and creativity.”

“For me Makuta represents the destructive aspect of playing with Lego. You would build something and then destroy it in order to build something new. Makuta is a maelstrom of swirling pieces, he represents the pile on the floor that all lego creations come from and will eventually return to.”

Source -  Gordon Klimes of Templar Studios

Ultimately, Makuta will be revealed to be as much a creation of Matoran and Toa as a creation of Mata Nui/The Vanished King, being a convenient scapegoat for the former and a mean of casting away all impurities like fear and hatred on a way towards perfection for the latter. In order to restore the unity of the world, they would need not to destroy Makuta with sheer force (which will be proven impossible anyway), but by accepting and conquering darkness within oneself. The theme of internal unity and peace vs resentment and blatant strife for perfection would be central to this story, as well as themes of creation/destruction dualism, losing and rediscovering one’s legacy, nature and value of history at a grand scale, almost like Dune and Foundation.

The ideal main media carrying this kind of story, for my opinion, would be and animated series in style of Transformers Prime and Clone Wars, with corresponding rating and matureness of topics, also developing in a direction sorta similar to that of both Avatar shows story-wise.

This is it. I hope you’ve enjoyed this rather long read. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask questions and do not hesitate to give me any sort of feedback, I’d really like that. Hope you all have a nice day!

Edited August 8, 2021 by Merat Heridenz

[confused piraka]

I'm trying this in 2022