We all know that canonically six elemental gods were created by Makuta and Ekimu. However, a seventh tribe aligned with a different element came to exist. It is here that we start having problems.
Toa from the six “true” elements gain their powers from the elemental gods. However the seventh tribe was created not by Makuta, not by Ekimu; but by Karzhani. This implies several things. Karzhani was either able to create an entire Matoran tribe, which only Ekimu knew how, with an elemental god of thunder, which Makuta and Ekimu created together, or he made something else that looked like a matoran, elemental god, and matoran. There are also other possibilities, He could have modified existing Matoran and experimented with them, completely forgo an elemental god, so on.
From what I remember the seventh Toa, in the region was the original who fought against Makuta and Ekimu. This means she cannot die like an elf.
- Does this mean all the lightning tribe are like elves? Not dying until killed?
- Is their reproduction the same, similar or completely different from the “true” Matoran?
- What exactly is the lightning tribe?
- Does a lighting god exist?
- How does the lighting Toa system work?
- Did Karzhani leave his influence on the 7th tribe?
- Did we forget that Karzhani was imprisoned when he created the seventh tribe?
Karzhani’s role as the instigator raises so many questions I might add them to the general questions thread.
@RAKRONDEWL wrote a thread that address other related questions on his thread: (Insanity of Karzahni) And (the elemental gods, thoughts) [Worldbuilding][Pitch].
Here is my personal opinion on the matter.
Let start from the beginning, Karzhani’s obsession with knowledge is why he has the mas of alternative futures. Which sprouts more questions, like is he obsessed with all knowledge or just knowing the future? Does the mask allow him to know what his other alternates know? Do all alternate Karzhani have the same personality?Does the mask allow him to know what will happen without any knowledge on how it happens? Like he knows that X+Y=Z but does not know X+Y= Z because X+Y = T+R and T=Z-M and R=M. Lets ignore those for now.
I am going to assume that Karzhani’s mask allows him to know results without knowing the process behind it. Like he can know that placing oxygen next to a fire will create an explosion but is not aware that the explosion occurs due to the oxygen burning extremely quickly releasing heat extremely fast, which in turn created a massively fast expansion of the surrounding air, which is that explosion. Basically he knows how to build a car without knowing how a car works. He just follows the equivalent of an IKEA manual on how to build your car.
Second, I am assuming Karzhani was imprisoned before the matoran were created.
So here is some tentative answers tot he questions I brought.
Lightning tribe are like elves, however that is a flaw on their creation due to the interaction between the newly created element and knarzhani not understanding the underlying concepts behind matoran. This raises the question of why were matoran made mortal, which I can explain by it being an inbuilt safety mechanism from when they used to be Rahi, created by Makuta. Also, there is no evolution in this world, considering that Makuta is a control freak.
Karzhani, due to his mask, knows how to create Matoran, modifying existing Rahi. He knows how to create elements as a building block on the universe. However his understanding is poor so the species he picks has a strange interaction with his created element. Like when you mod minecraft and use two different mods, that have a strange interaction an might crash the game. This time what crashes is the lifespan tag on matoran.
He does not build a sentient elemental god, but he creates a Toa based for appearances sake, so the brothers won’t suspect something when they see the Toa from all elements except the lightning one.
Moving on from the tribe itself, we have the element of Lightning. Which also raises several question on itself.
- Did it exist before the lightning tribe existed?
- If it existed before, why did Ekimu ignore it?
- If it did not exist before, what where its effects upon its creation?
The easiest answer is to say it existed before, and Ekimu ignored it because it negatively influenced sentience the way he wanted it. Early experiments showed that matoran in this element had a tendency to be focused on one thing, rarely developed creatively and were quick to arrive to a conclusion, rarely changing or considering alternatives. It was also was to unpredictable on its influence on life. Making it hard to predict and control, so lightning elementally aligned living beings would die, not develop sentience or simply just not be elementally aligned. Karzhani saw a future where Ekimu created a lightning tribe by cahnce. used that template. Did not know that they were sterile but did not have a life span.
The other answer, has been explained somewhat. The introduction of a new element brought some chaos to the world as some storms appeared. Gods assumed it was because Makuta and Ekimu where fighting, Makuta was mad due to the chaos, got furious seeing the new matoran tribe. Ekimu was confused and furious someone imitated his work, blamed makuta for creating poorly made replicas.
This raises more question on the rules of the elements and how they influence the world.
TL:DR
Pitch:
Karzhani’s mask allows him to obtain knowledge but not help him understand. So he can know how to build a car, but does not know how a car works. Power provides him with a manual, not a physics course.
Lighting element is unstable either because it was created by Karzhani or because it was like that from creation.
Lightning element makes lightning Matoran have no lifespan but makes them infertile.