Layout of The Archives

[The Swimming Beard]

What is the layout of the Metru Nui archives? I looked on BS01, but couldn't find anthing as to their overall layout.

[The Lorax]

I think the whole point of the Metru Nui Archives was that nobody knew the layout. They left room for mysteries and bits that had gone unused or forgotten. That way, it was so much more interesting because you didn't know everything about exactly hat was down there and where to find it.There was a whole section called the "Fikou web" because it was so criss-crossed and convoluted that nobody really knwe their way around it, and it was mostly avoided. If I remember correctly, this was the part where Krahka lived. She managed to hang out in there for millenia without anybody noticing. The rest of the archives wasn't quite this bad, but it was still very complicated.Think of a multi-level system extending under most of Metru Nui, put together like synapses connecting in a human brain. To look at it, you wouldn't see any rhyme or reason to the mass of interconnecting tunnels. It's so fiendishly complicated that it would look completely random. :)I realise this may not be very helpful to what you were asking, but the upshot is that, since there is no canon layout, anyone can make up their own piece of it / something that's down there / secret hideout for their own fanfiction and it won't contradict canon.

[Sumiki]

In addition to what The Lorax said ... I don't know if this is my own headcanon logic here or if it's confirmed in some way (pretty sure it's the latter), but I think the Archives did have some sort of layout at one time. After all, there were tours and Matoran seemed to know their way around. But, as with any institution, it outgrew its limits and had to expand - and since we're not talking about buildings in a grid pattern, as we're used to, the Onu-Matoran just dug out new rooms where they were needed. If you keep doing that - expanding without any plan, pattern, rhyme, or reason - you eventually end up with a jumbled mess, which is what the Archives are usually described as being.

Edited September 3, 2012 by Charles J. Guiteau

[Paleo]

After all, there were tours and Matoran seemed to know their way around. But, as with any institution, it outgrew its limits and had to expand - and since we're not talking about buildings in a grid pattern, as we're used to, the Onu-Matoran just dug out new rooms where they were needed. If you keep doing that - expanding without any plan, pattern, rhyme, or reason - you eventually end up with a jumbled mess, which is what the Archives are usually described as being.

The tours (from what I recall) barely entered in archives in any meaningful sense. They just showed off prominent exihibits, and only the Onu-Matoran scientists ever went any deeper. Certain areas were completely abandoned, and Rahi that broke out of stasis roamed around in those sections. As for a general idea of the layout, I always assumed it would be a beehive-like hexagonal patter in more traveled areas, and a prison complex with random tunnels connecting to that.

[Makuta Matata]

As far as I know, the upper levels were laid out like a museum, but the lower levels were more of a maze.

[Click]

Pretty much all we know is that usually the lower levels are for the more dangerous Rahi, and thus are rarely visited, especially because a lot of them have broken out by now.

[Paleo]

As far as I know, the upper levels were laid out like a museum, but the lower levels were more of a maze.

Pretty much all we know is that usually the lower levels are for the more dangerous Rahi, and thus are rarely visited, especially because a lot of them have broken out by now.

Both of you are correct. Also, in the future, I would recommend that people look at BS01 before posing a question.Here is some information from BS01 on the layout of the Archives:

Guided tours of the Archives were available and recommended, not only for their informative value on the different species of Rahi, but also because a visitor without an Onu-Matoran guide ran a great risk of getting lost. Visitors were allowed and welcomed in the Archives from one hour after suns' rise until exactly sunset.Some of the less dangerous exhibits were kept on public display, but the others were kept in the sub-levels that extended deep beneath Metru Nui. These contain the most dangerous exhibits in the archives. Access for any level below level five where the sublevels were contained was permitted for Archives personnel only, due to the number of dangerous creatures housed down below; some levels are so restricted that even Vahki were not permitted to enter. Many of the sub-levels are so deep that they descend below the Liquid Protodermis seas. Onu-Matoran sometimes played Kanoka Toss in these sub-levels in the deep darkness. The most dangerous of the sub-levels is the area known as the Fikou Web, where many Archivists have gotten lost and never found a way out. This level is also the former home of Krahka and many wild Rahkshi.

[The Swimming Beard]

Also, in the future, I would recommend that people look at BS01 before posing a question.Here is some information from BS01 on the layout of the Archives:

Guided tours of the Archives were available and recommended, not only for their informative value on the different species of Rahi, but also because a visitor without an Onu-Matoran guide ran a great risk of getting lost. Visitors were allowed and welcomed in the Archives from one hour after suns' rise until exactly sunset.Some of the less dangerous exhibits were kept on public display, but the others were kept in the sub-levels that extended deep beneath Metru Nui. These contain the most dangerous exhibits in the archives. Access for any level below level five where the sublevels were contained was permitted for Archives personnel only, due to the number of dangerous creatures housed down below; some levels are so restricted that even Vahki were not permitted to enter. Many of the sub-levels are so deep that they descend below the Liquid Protodermis seas. Onu-Matoran sometimes played Kanoka Toss in these sub-levels in the deep darkness. The most dangerous of the sub-levels is the area known as the Fikou Web, where many Archivists have gotten lost and never found a way out. This level is also the former home of Krahka and many wild Rahkshi.

Actually, I did look at BS01. My question mainly related to the actual shape of the archives, or is there was any pattern in the individual levels, neither of which are mentioned in that quote.

[Paleo]

Actually, I did look at BS01. My question mainly related to the actual shape of the archives, or is there was any pattern in the individual levels, neither of which are mentioned in that quote.

Another quote from BS01:

The Archives began aboveground, but continually expanded underground until they included the current span of the Archives, which extends beyond the coast of the city.

There is also a general trend toward entropy the lower you go. Edited September 3, 2012 by Mister Spock

[bonesiii]

I imagine there is a general square-grid arrangement to the hallways on the highest levels, but as you go down the tunnels follow old mining routes twisting and branching every which way, here and there an obscure branch connecting to another system's branch, perhaps with the locked areas being branching sections with only one way in; the 'root' hallway. Then below that the Fikou Web which would lack any semblance of a grid.Far as I know that's not canonically confirmed though.

Edited September 4, 2012 by bonesiii