General Questions [Questions]

The cult does have other members, but the six Rahaga-named Matoran are the key members. They become the Rahkshi because they were the six who were in the volcano using the Mask of Time. Since the mask is too powerful to be used by Matoran, it backfired and froze the island. This reaction caused them to mutate.

Also, it is likely that they were already mutating somewhat, due to their elements becoming slowly corrupted from Makuta’s influence. Then the mask backfire just forced it in full.

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Yeah, but I already knew that. What I’m trying to ask is why are they the key members? Why were they the only ones who went into the volcano?

Because Norik chose them. Each one had certain traits that he found useful, compared to the other members. The cast never really went into detail on the specific traits, but I could see it being traits that oppose the Toa, since the Elemental Lords choose Matoran with similar traits to the first Toa.

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We answered a bunch of these questions on the podcast and we’ll answer some more this next one, but there are a few I wanted to address here:

Good question, but no. So, culturally, the region and the elements are tied together, hence an Inhuan is from the Region of Ice and is a Matoran of Ice. No matter where they live, they still share that heritage. The sense of heritage and culture is stronger with Matoran due to their elemental powers.

Not sure about using Ta-Matoran or Ko-Matoran. I’ll have to check on that. They made better sense when they were used for all of the regions/races/characters.

The child would be either one element or the other, depending on the parents. My personal headcannon was that the closer they are to a region, the more likely that child is going to be that element (so if a Nahoan married a Mangaian, if they were in Mangaia, they were more likely to have all Mangaian children). The last time we talked about it there was a bit of a discussion about it, though.

I love this because you actually think Ven’s name is Venathen when he’s just parodying my intro :joy:

Never say never, but I think putting self-inserts is a little too soon. We would probably design Matoran minifigure designs for our own OCs, though that’s probably as far as we would go.

They are not one nation, but they aren’t separate either. They were made with the intention of being a united island once, but the regions separated and made their own culture and now they’re essentially different nations. We’re calling it the Civil War because 1. It is supposed to be a reimagining of the Matoran Civil War from G1 and 2. It is impling that these regions are supposed to be united, and they’re going away from that.

The Mask of Time was created to basically be an “undo” button for the Brothers as they were creating the island.

The three Brothers stole their power from their “father”, Mata Nui, but that will never be touched upon in the current story and thus is far removed from canon.

The calender stuff is interesting, we’ll have to bring it up.

That is basically it, yes. If there is to be a new Toa team, it will be after the deaths of our current ones.

Whenever a Toa dies, another child is born without elemental powers. Not having elemental powers is the “mark” of someone who has been chosen by the gods just in case. There have been many Matoran before Narmoto in Mangaia who lived and died without elemental powers and who never became Toa.

If worst came to worst, the Elemental Gods could try and tweak the destinies of the Matoran to be roughly around the samish age, but it’s not an exact science. Most of the chosen Matoran are born staggered to prevent a total loss.

Finally, it must be noted that the Gods aren’t completely bound to these rules. The first Toa did have elemental powers as Matoran. They’ve bonded with “non-chosen” Matoran once, and they can do it again if need be. But the Gods are picky and tend to choose Matoran from birth.

Toa do not give up their power, they just die and a new Matoran is “chosen” by the Gods from birth. I would probably say that they tend to die a little on the younger side, due to the stress of the elemental abilities on the body, though some have managed to live to be very old.

And I do not believe we were going to have Turaga exist, except maybe as a cutural elder role.

No, that hasn’t been decided yet.

Norik chooses them to represent the regions. They were all brought into the Cult for one thing or another. The reigning belief is, of course, that life is terrible and that they need something or someone to make it better. That someone turns out to be Makuta.

Norik chooses them, and he is aware of the Toa, so some (like Iruni) are calculated chess moves.

Generally, nobody important. There will be important people connected to the Brotherhood, they will be seen in the Civil War arc.

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Thank you so much for answering! This clears up a lot!

Um… I’m sorry to um… rain on the parade… but I chose Venathen as a name because I thought it um… sounded more Matoran-like… So, I’m happy you at least found it funny, even if it was intentional.

Thank you so much for a reply.
With this I can confirm several of the answers.
I will just follows rules based on this world, for most.

This is really helpful.

I may be completely wrong on this, and if so I apologize, but weren’t the Rahkshi active before the Toa returned? Did Norik just know what powerless matoran meant, and select the Rahkshi accordingly as a contengency? Or were they specifically made Rahkshi after the matoran became Toa?

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They transformed into Rahkshi with the island freeze, just like the Toa. But Norik did have them already chosen (as Matoran) for a good while prior. They were just preparing for the Makuta revival plan during that time, and probably weren’t expecting the Toa to ever become a thing.

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I mean like in the sense of Iruini being chosen as the antithesis to Lewa.

Another question, did Norik know about becoming the Rahkshi?

Probably not. The way the cast has described it, the change was due to the mask backfiring. They would have fully expected it to work, so the mutation would have been unexpected. It would lead to some character development for them, similar to the Toa having to live with their new bodies.

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Oh, okay, I thought Makuta caused the transformation (which he kind of helped like how we discussed earlier). Thanks for clearing that up!

The question the still remains, did Norik knew about the powerless matoran being chosen for Toa?
This implies he did, otherwise why would he chose some of the more relatively new members to help on the crux of the plan?

Just finished watching the recent podcast.
Clarifying some things:

This was the main reason for most of the science based questions. Electrolysis in the water for breathable oxygen. Well, it is a lot.

Second, the lava type and eruption questions are related. In the sense that the type of lava determines the type of volcanic eruption that occurs. Some of them are not violent, more like underground water spilling out. So no ash death like Pompeii, also, some allow for the creation of lava lakes, and so on.

Granted, this is going deeper than necessary in most cases.

Q: How do the Rahkshi know their new names? How do they know they have become “the Rahkshi”?

Pitch: The Rahkshi are mythical monsters that are said to have lived on Artakha. They are used as a spooky story that is told to naughty children.

Q: How does biological food nourish mechanical beings?

How does reproduction work with purely mechanical beings?

Really, how do purely mechanical beings such as Matorans (At least I believe TTV said they are not bio-mechanical anymore) acquire enough nutrition to stay alive? Do they even need to eat?

How does producing offspring even work? Is there a mechanical version of sperm and eggs? Are the embryos constructed by small nanobots inside the womb? Where do they get the synthetic material to construct it?

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Q: Do Rahi have variations in hide/fur/shell colour?
Q: If not major variations such as blue, green or purple, what about shades?

Idea: I’m looking at Rahi, more specifically, Gukko birds and wondering if I could make one in shades of blue or green with a Kanaen rider.

Q: Are Rahi also biomechanical and if so to what percentage?

Pitch: The Rahi can vary from no biomechanical components to a maximum of 50% biomechanics.

Q: Would the Rahkshi seek to disrupt trade or supplying between the regions or cities or attempt to steal Rahi used in transport?

Idea/Pitch: This is for research for a set design and I was wondering if I could incorporate the set within the story.

Any answers to these questions would be great.

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@AntrozT6 I don’t remember if they said they aren’t biomechanical brings anyonore or not, but even if they aren’t, they need energy somehow. Perhaps they have artificial stomachs to break down food.

@Kardax With the whole Rahkshi blocking trade, the island is kind of frozen when the Rahkshi mutate, so they kind of would have to find the Rahi near the time fragments. The sets do not have to be canon (just look at the Lone Ranger sets), as @Sokoda ‘s sets definitely are not but TTV really likes them (so do I for that matter)

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On the topic of food and reproduction:

Stomachs don’t really fix the problem. You can’t really convert biological tissue into an energy that can be used by machines. That’s why computers don’t eat, that’s why electricity isn’t produced by machines consuming animals.

Proteins and polysaccharides wouldn’t be a sufficient source of energy for a machine, and certainly wouldn’t be able to construct a completely new one (Ie. a baby) because metals are not made of those components.

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However, Rahi are edible, and they are at least part mechanical, and could be a good supply

On Food,
As of Brainstorm 14, mot living organisms on the island have exoskeletons. Hence why the have armor plating.
On a tangent, I would rather have them be like the Tyranids in Warhammer 40k with both endo and exoskeletons.
They did say that organisms are more biological than mechanical, making a comment on how Barraki “binge” eating was frowned upon. They also said that they are living organisms with a skeletal structure so dense it resembles metal. Or something like that. So for all intents and purposes they are living organisms that grow metallic skeletons. They have muscles I think.

I have to say though, with this, the whole animation of Toa assembling themselves on G1 Y1 dies. It was such an unexplored zone in Bionicle.

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Ok I see, my design revolves around using transport Gukko and I’m wondering if I can incorporate a Rahkshi minifig into it, but I’m not certain of the canonical story and I would rather this set aligned with it.

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