Am I the only one who thinks it’s kinda weird that the Shadow Matoran in Karda Nui don’t have prefixes? All the other Matoran have prefixes to their names (e. g. fire Matoran were Ta-Matoran, light Matoran were Av-Matoran). So why not the Shadow Matoran? The Bionicle wiki says that the prefix for the element of shadow is Kra-. The term Kra-Matoran rolls of the tongue nicely, IMO. So why didn’t they ever use it?
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It was a retconn, added later. The Kra- prefix wasn’t introduced until after Bionicle had ended, or at at the point where shadow matoran were completely irrelevant. I don’t remember when precisely.
As for in-story, my guess is that shadow matoran were such an anomaly, and so rare, that most beings probably never even knew the prefix existed, let alone need to use it.
Also, may I suggest using Bioniclesector01 instead of bionicle wiki? It’s a vastly superior site in every single respect.
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Late response, but I do use Biosector01. Maybe I should’ve made my wording more clear in that regard, as both wikis tell of the Kra- prefix.
Also, I definitely buy the bit about Kra-Matoran being rare. But it makes me wonder-were there any in the beginning? Like, did the Great Beings put Kra-Matoran in the Great Spirit robot when they created it? I mean, there were Av-Matoran working in there, so what about Kra-Matoran? Were there any present in the robot?
I don’t believe so. How I understand it is that they are an anomaly, only existing under the circumstances that created the ones in Karda Nui. The Shadow Leeches were manufactured from kraata, and were a relatively new invention, and there is no other known creatures that can do what they do, outside of a few mutations, that happened AFTER the leeches were created. (I.e. Gorast’s stinger). In addition, it’s a prefix, it’s a part of the matoran language, anything shadow related may have this prefix. The Kraahkan for example, has the letters Kra at the front as well.
Also, according to BS01 the Shadow matoran were artificial.