My interpretation of this quote (I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it before) would be that the color rule doesn’t apply to the Steltian people i.e. the three races of Stelt.
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Ok, I uderstand now, thanks for clarifying 
I wouldn’t personally intepret it that way for few reasons:
- There are technically 4 races of Stelt - Sidorak’s ruling species, Matoran middle class, Krekka’s bruiser/laborer cast, Gladiator’s slave cast. Three of them might be specific to Stelt, but the Matoran are just as at home there as others - maybe even more from the native point of view, given they are higher in the Stelt’s cast system.
- The quote refers to a location, not to a race or species.
- The quote was stated in a time when MU worldbuilding was much more limited, so it is a much more general blanket statement about the rules for as of then unnamed location (Stelt).
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It’s been awhile since I’ve done biology, but if I remember correctly, it’s considered a different species if they cannot mate a produce a fertile offspring. For example, a horse and a donkey and produce a mule, but the mule will be sterile. Or lion and tiger can produce a liger (which is much larger than either parent), but the liger is always sterile.
So a skrall-glatorian hybrid could exist, and if we’re going by liger logic, possibly stronger than either of their parents, but will be sterile.
Ok, so from what I understand about the phylogenetic tree, we have the earliest common ancestor of the glatorian and agori, let’s call them agorian. That splits into agori and glatorian (as to why, maybe they were seperated by geography, then united later as seperate species, or perhaps millions of years of eugenics or caste seperation). The agori and glatorian then gather together into tribes, with their own cultures, but the same species, like different ethnicities. The skrall splinters off glatorian into their own species. Rock agori are still part of the species, probably because they still infrequently breed with the other agori… but the bone hunters splinter off from the rock tribe.
Yes, we know the vorox were genetically altered and later turned feral, but if they can still interbreed with glatorian, they are glatorian.
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Since it’s established that all Matoran who are sent to Karzahni have their masks replaced, that means that the masks that the Voya and Mahri Nui Matoran wear aren’t their original masks. So I’ve come up with a few ideas on what their original masks would have been.
I tried to pick masks that correlated to either their personality or their role since that’s more fun to me and it has precedence in the story (Tahu is protective so he has Shielding, Vakama is secretive so he has Concealment, etc.) There are also some Matoran I’m drawing blanks for, so suggestions and other ideas are welcome.
Without further ado:
Balta - Mask of Biomechanics, since he’s an inventor and good with machines.
Velika - Mask of Conjuring, since he’s also an inventor and also, y’know, a Great Being. (I did originally assign Biomechanics to him, but I feel that the Mask of Conjuring has a more “mysterious” look to it, which suits his true nature and knack for riddles.)
Dalu - Pakari, since she’s a tough gal.
Piruk - Huna or Volitak, since he’s a sneaky spy.
Garan - Akaku, since he’s a tactical thinker (mainly gave him this one for the look, fitting his calculating nature).
Kazi - no idea
Defilak - Mask of Adaptation, since he’s a trader and thus probably good at picking up dialects and traits (it is established that he picked up Chutespeak from Metru Nui). Alternate ideas: Rau or Emulation
Dekar - no idea. Maybe an Arthron, to go with him being a hunter? (I know he can’t use its power as a Matoran, but if he was a Toa it would be really helpful).
Sarda - no idea
Idris - no idea
(Left out Dezalk, Gar, Reysa, and Kyrehx since their current masks aren’t canonically known anyway).
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Mask of Speed, because he’s impatient
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I love this analysis. We actually have a Greg quote where he, in a roundabout way, implies that Glatorian and Skrall branched from a common ancestor, i.e. the Skrall did not diverge from the Glatorian. It’s a distinction, possibly without a difference, but good to consider.
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I suppose. I’m not an expert on biology, but I guess you’re right.
Just like how humans did not come from monkeys, but monkeys and humans come from a common ancestor.
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I dont know who started this rumour, but it isnt true. Humans come from dwarves, we were originally from jupiter, over time adjusting to Earth’s gravity made us taller.
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I would really appreciate it if you stopped talking about my failed trolling effort; I didn’t know they would appreciate losing so much muscle density and hitting their heads on doorways
Anyway, I had another headcanon which I guess is a minor one: There are a very large number of Ussal adaptations/deliberate modifications, with one example being the rock Ussal, all with different purposes in mind. Pewku is part of a rare type of Ussal bred specifically to be abnormally large, and over time she could grow as large as an airship, although this process would take hundreds of thousands of years.
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My idea for Velika is the Rau.
Greg has said previously that in The Kingdom alternate universe, Velika “likely” inhabited a Matoran whose prime universe version appeared in MNOG:
Chat with Greg Farshtey | Page 742 (thegreatarchives.com)
However, since Velika was extremely important to the success of the Matoran Resistance in the prime universe, and that universe only diverged afterwards, this suggests that Velika went through more-or-less the exact same journey in both universes, just in a different body. Therefore, if he was an MNOG Matoran living in Metru Nui in The Kingdom, then he must have also been living in Metru Nui in the prime universe.
Then, we know that pretty much every Metru Nui Matoran used one of twelve masks, and out of those 12, I would pick the Rau for purism reasons.
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We’ve talked here before about fun plot ideas for after Terry’s defeat. Here’s one that I know wouldn’t happen, but that’s why it’s a headcanon.
The Vahi is still a loose plot thread. I imagine that the heroes would need it to defeat someone. I love the idea that they discover the fabled “second half” of the Vahi among the GB’s blueprints, and try and build it themselves. But the first half was made from the “Great Disks.” Where are they going to find more of those? Planet Slizer!
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I mean that’s roughly Christian Faber’s G2 pitch.
Not exactly. Just have it set in the future, and time travel, and Hero Factory instead of slizers.
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Headcanon: the brows on the noble Mahiki represent HUD emitters and the wire to the mouth is for a microphone. These are built-in accessories for Matoran pilots so they can communicate with the control tower or other flight crew. Matau has these due to his copious time at the Moto Hub.
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That would have interesting implications.
The rest of the turaga be like, “we’ve read the unabomber manifesto, we’re now all primitivist”, and Matau, the contrarian troll that he is, keeps technology (well, technology that isn’t part of their biology).
And then you have Nuju being a radical primitivist literally voluntarily speaking only in unga bunga (he thinks the great beings should have never invented language).
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Vakama just goes to the Middle Ages and builds a castle in a volcano…
Now that makes me wonder… how did the Matoran build Ta-Koro? It’s shown several times that they can easily be melted by lava, so how did they build a bridge that can submerge itself in lava without issue?
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Ah, but you forget that Toa Metru had spent some time on the island before becoming Turaga, one time after arriving with the first five and second after the great rescue. They had plenty of time to use their Toa powers to do all the heavy lifting necessary for stuff like that.
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Ok, makes sense. The Ta-Koro bridge still seems like it would be the most complicated project for anyone there.
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Perhaps, but nothing Toa of fire, stone and earth working together couldn’t handle. Plus don’t forget Matoran have lava pumps, so at that point it becomes a water project.
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This theory came about as a result of me thinking “man, Makuta are so freaking OP” and then thinking “wait, why are a race of scientists and wildlife breeders given so many powers anyway?” Then I got to thinking about how Antidermis works, and before I knew it, I was here.
So, let’s establish what we know, and what doesn’t make sense. All of these are canon facts:
- Energized Protodermis is naturally occurring. Protodermis is synthetic, and Antidermis is a bi-product of it.
- Antidermis seems to have a mind of it’s own, based on Brutaka’s interaction with it.
- Despite the names, Energized Protodermis and regular Protodermis are seemingly unrelated – the GB’s made Protodermis before EP was discovered.
- The Makuta evolved past the point of needing physical bodies. However, this did not happen to any other MU inhabitants, even though many of them are older than the Makuta. Furthermore, neither Mata Nui nor the Great Beings expected this.
- One of the failsafes the Great Beings created – one of the few that actually worked like it was supposed to – was the Golden Armor, designed to destroy Antidermis.
So here’s the theory
The Great Beings are trying to create an all-powerful substance, and they manage to do something like that with Protodermis. What they don’t realize is that they’ve actually partially reverse-engineered Energized Protodermis, and split it into two component parts: the physical substance (Protodermis, which can emulate many natural elements) and the hive mind (Antidermis). [This hive mind is slightly different from the EP hive mind, due to it being synthetic and not natural, as well as being younger than EP is]
Some time later, EP is discovered. Raanu and Kyry bring a vial of the substance to the Great Beings, who study it and realize it is remarkably similar to their own Protodermis, and so they dub it “Energized” Protodermis. (note: it is never referred to as “Energized Protodermis” by the Bara Magnans, just “the mysterious silver liquid”)
So then the Creation of the Mata Nui Robot begins. The Great Beings decide to use all three substances in this robot, but they’re a bit wary of Antidermis, so while they do leave Mata Nui with instruction for creating the Makuta race, they also make imbue the Ignika with the plans for the Golden armor.
They were right to be suspicious. They haven’t realized this, but the Antidermis has the power to evolve by itself, in ways the GB’s do not foresee. Mata Nui makes the Makuta, and the Great Beings give them the power to make Rahkshi of various different types. Originally, Makuta do NOT have access to the Rahkshi powers themselves. However, some time between the creation of the Makuta and the rise of the League, the Makuta have their first evolution: they develop the ability to use all of the Rahkshi powers by themselves. This may be after Mata Nui ceases to pay attention to the MU and forms the office of the Barraki, so even he is unaware of it – so he doesn’t realize the Makuta can evolve.
Note: Mata Nui is not a scientist like the GBs. If the GBs knew about the Makuta evolving Rahkshi powers of their own, they might have guessed that the Makuta would eventually evolve in other ways, like not needing a physical body. However, Mata Nui is far less likely to make such a connection.
The Rahkshi do not evolve, because it takes time for an antidermic being to evolve to the point where it can exist as an energy form. Theoretically, if a Rahkshi were made in the early days of the Brotherhood, its kraata MIGHT have evolved to energy. It’s possible this has happened, and we just haven’t seen it since most Rahkshi don’t live that long.
Final note: in the Melding AU, Teridax does not have the ability to make a shadow hand, nor can his Kraata evolve into Shadow Kraata. Why is this? Well, same reason the Melding Teridax has different Rahkshi powers: in that universe, the Makuta were created on Spherus Magna and worked directly for the Great Beings. Therefore, the GBs could observe their evolution, and most likely influenced it to their liking.
This brings up an interesting possibility: The Makuta creation happened about 100,000 years ago, and their evolution to energy happened about 50,000 years ago. The Makuta may be due for their next big evolution. Shame they’re all dead, so we won’t get to see what happens next. Unless, of course, one of those original Makuta was still alive, like Miserix or something…
This also leads to the second part of this theory: the interaction of minds. Antidermis, like EP, has a sort of hive mind, that is split up across the various Makuta. These hive minds don’t play nice with the minds of Protodermic beings, or each other, so weird things happen.
- The Makuta eventually gain the ability to absorb other beings, dominating and destroying their minds. It is possible, however, for the second mind to fight back, which destroys both. This is what Matoro does in The Kingdom.
- If part of a Makuta’s essence is placed in a Matoran – say, via a Zamor sphere – the Matoran’s mind is suppressed but not destroyed. The Antidermis takes control, but it’s a very small part of the hive mind, it isn’t sure what to do, making the Matoran basically do whatever they are told to do.
- If someone hits that Matoran with a Zamor sphere filled with EP, however… well, even a small sphere of EP has a portion of the Energized Protodermis Entity’s mind, and these two hive minds do NOT like being in the same body. They fight, and just like with Matoro and Teridax in the Kingdom, both are destroyed in the end. This means that the Matoran are cured of the Antidermis effects, but they are also not transformed or destroyed by the EP.
- It IS possible for the minds of Protodermic and Antidermic beings to merge, but very rare. We see this with Takutanuva, who basically only existed because Makuta was weakened by the removal of his mask and couldn’t destroy Takanuva’s mind, and Takanuva was unwilling to violate the Toa code and destroy Makuta’s mind. (note: yes, the Kingdom AU Matoro does violate the Toa Code by killing Teridax. But at that point, can you really blame the poor guy?)
- Finally, Makuta can form Kaita with each other. They don’t do it very much, since they don’t like giving up their individuality, but they can.
- When Brutaka fell into the pool of Antidermis, he absorbed enough of it that the hive mind was able to merge with his. However, this portion of the hive mind had not turned evil like the Makuta had, so it allows Brutaka to share control (this doesn’t happen to the Voya Nui Matoran, since Teridax is used to dominating other wills, a portion of his portion of the hive mind does it automatically)
So there you have it. TLDR: the Antidermis is a synthetic form of the mind of EP, and the 42 Makuta powers were a result of an unforeseen evolution.
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I really like this theory. Particularly, I like the idea of Antidermis being a “version”/component of Energized Protodermis, as it more specifically explains the connection between Antidermis and Protodermis.
Also:
This could also explain why Tahu had to get rid of his Energized Protodermis-based Nuva powers before using the Golden Armor: he couldn’t have the Energized Protodermis-based powers and Antidermis-based powers at the same time.
I will admit, though, that there is a small hole in this theory in the fact that Teridax’s Antidermis was able to loosely control the Toa Nuva on Voya Nui.
Perhaps the Toa Inika’s immunity to the Antidermis could be worked in somehow?
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