“Another of The Shadowed One’s “little pets”, only this time it really is. Assassin is like a shallows cat with poison for spittle and none of the charm.”
“Assassin”, real name Jarrokh, is the last of a species of feline rahi created by Makuta Mutran. They were originally introduced as “house pets” for the rich, wealthy and less morally scrupulous characters in the Matoran Universe, such as the Steltian Aristocracy.
This species were far more intelligent than they were made out to be, and while sold to different “owners”, still acted with total loyalty to their creators. After several notable enemies of the Brotherhood of Makuta were found dead, a connection was made between the murders and these so-called pets, which were nearly all killed.
Jarrokh belonged to Makuta Antroz, and though he was also a member of the BoM, paranoia was spreading through the upper echelons of Xia’s society, where they lived. Feeling betrayed by the Brotherhood, Jarrokh made a hasty escape and set off to sea in one of Antroz’s boats.
Adrift on the inner sea for days, Jarrokh’s boat eventually washed up on Stelt. Unfortunately its species were known there too and there was a bounty on them. Not long after arriving on the island a starving Jarrokh was ambushed by a couple of Dark Hunters. In the fight, Jarrokh revealed the true extent of its power and completely drained the energy of one of its attackers with its tentacles.
As the other hunter attemted to flee, Jarrokh bore down on him and drained his energy too. “Guardian”, watching from afar and believing himself to be hidden, was surprised when Jarrokh got up onto its hind legs and looked right at him.
Realising he was dealing with a creature far more powerful than a mere beast, “Guardian” attempted to bargain with Jarrokh, offering more chances to feed if he joined the Dark Hunters. Jarrokh, replying through a chilling, telepathic voice, accepted.
Once on Odina, Jarrokh was found to be perfect for solo assassination missions, and was given the name “Assassin”… this had much to do with the fact that Jarrokh had little care for any hunter he was partnered with. Since Jarrokh gained energy from its kills, it endeavoured to kill all the targets itself, even if it was more appropriate to let its partner kill, or not to kill at all. Its favourite targets were toa.
“Assassin” stayed with the Dark Hunters, even after they migrated out of the Matoran Universe onto Spherus Magna - though after The Shadowed One died and a newcomer called The Baron took over, Jarrokh left for some unknown reason and disappeared into the endless forests of Bota Magna.
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“Assassin” here was made back in 2013 and was originally meant to be an entry for the Elemental Bionicle Contest 2013 run by my friends Phos and CallanLOF. The idea was to make a rahi with Arsenic as an element. I ended up not entering though, since Jarrokh became far too complicated and time consuming of a build.
Inspiration for Jarrokh comes from several sources, including another certain pokemon, the Displacer Beast from D&D, the Muaka and some other random bits, including some old WW2 track bikes to get the look of the treaded form with valves and stuff all over. Plus just trying to make him as freaky and weird as I could.
Jarrokh’s lower body is able to transform and lock together into the tracked form to resemble the other catlike rahi of the Matoran Universe. In this form, it acts more like a “dumb rahi” and may even be more comfortable moving about like that, but the humanoid form poses far better
It has no mouth, since it gets all the sustenance it needs through the barbed ends at the end of its tentacles and communicates through telepathy.
The torso is a variant on my standard male body design as well, just flipped 90 degrees and lengthened a bit.
Legs are a bit wobbly. Fixed it by using old-school black half-pins where the tracks join the rest of the leg, but still a little iffy if posed oddly.