Bionicle in 19th century Earth

The year is 1865. Queen Victoria is ruler of England, which is at the time the most powerful country on Earth, The American Civil War is ending, the Matterhorn was first ascended, and Gregor Mendel formulated the concept of heredity. Also, all the islands of the Matoran Universe are placed in the Atlantic Ocean as of one year before the 2004 story. How does 19th century Earth react to this arrival. Is there a boom in scientific knowledge, or is there a massive war that ignites the globe? Well what do you think.

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It might go down in history as the first contact between humans and aliens.

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It’s simple: Britain adds Mata Nui to it’s glorious Empire. Rule Britannia!

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It depends if by “all the islands” you mean the entire GSR is dumped in the ocean. If that was the case there’d be a rise in sea level and it would probably take several weeks for its presence to be noticed. The island Mata Nui at that point (2004) is inhabited so I suppose one of the naval powers would investigate the island and the structures such as the kini nui. Maybe they would get inside and accidentally awaken the Bohrok! Voya Nui however…idk what the reaction to cobbled together robot islanders would be. Do we know how they even speak? I’ll need more time to think over how things would go down…

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They speak some kind of programming language that cannot be understood by the Agori, and the Agori speak a language that isn’t English. (It’s Agori).

So there would be no means of verbal communication.

(Unless, by an impossible coincidence, the “programming language” is English)

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I mean all the islands that are inside the GSR are now in the Atlantic ocean like Metru Nui and the Southern Continent for example.

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What an unexpected and bizarrely original topic, I love it. Was not expecting to wake up and see this question.

I don’t actually have anything to add yet, though. :stuck_out_tongue:
I’ll have to think about this one for a bit. Just wanted to complement you on your fantastic creativity, for now.

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The islands are in the ocean, so is there a GSR?

If not ter(ry)idax’s motivation goes out the window.

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Maybe instead, he wants to control… the planet? Queen Victoria? idk. :stuck_out_tongue:

I think the way the characters of the Bionicle Universe would react to us is just as interesting as how we’d react to them. (Which is why Spherus Magna would have been awesome to see more of before the line got ended)

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Well, certainly, any war that was to be fought against the MU would be lost. The first ironclad ships had only recently been produced and it took some years for Britain, France and the USA to implement the changes to their Navies. Naval power is a huge factor in such a situation as the one proposed, and Naval power is something that would undoubtedly be the primary focus of MU military factions. British naval philosophy is therefore something to consider; for many of the years spent in “splendid isolation”, the policy of retaining the freedom of independence in spite of the continental alliance system (Although the actual policy was most famous some years after 1865, it was still in effect at the time), the British worked to maintain the two power standard: the British Navy must be more powerful than the combined might of the second and third most powerful. Naval power is different than land power, of course; the strength of the Royal Navy in the late part of the 19th century meant that, in a possible war with France (their supposed rival, along with, funnily enough, considering the component nations of the triple entente, Russia), the much larger French army would be unable to cross to the British Isles, while Britain would be able to gobble up the entire overseas French Empire and choke her substantial maritime trade (as was done to Germany in 1914). This was clear to the French, as in the Fashoda crisis, and they were therefore determined not to go to war at that time with Britain. Naval power is much more all-or-nothing than land wars, and this is why it was so critical that the British beat the Germans in the Naval race in the years leading up to the Great War; if Germany were to have overcome the material disbalance in naval strength, the entire British Empire would have crumbled in a conflict.

I say all this, because this would also be clear to the inhabitants of the MU, who live in a world of Britains, essentially. The dominant naval power in a region is untouchable, no matter the size of any mainland land forces. MOreover, the dominant power would likely be able to destroy any potential challengers in the crib, as nelson did to the Danish fleet at Copenhagen.
As the year in the MU is 1002-1001 years before the reformation, the Brotherhood of Makuta are preparing for the disaster they are about to inflict upon the world. Their armies have been building. Makuta is Dume. We know the Brotherhood has a fleet; it was destroyed by Teridax in the siege of Metru Nui 1000 years later, yes, but it is also nigh-impossible to control the worlds without one. Makuta shut the sea gates to Metru Nui, as his goal was to separate it from the wider world. Stands to reason the Brotherhood planned to do this with other worlds too, and, again, this is done in an oceanic world with a powerful fleet. I would conclude, therefore, based upon intention and the vast resources at their disposal, that the Brotherhood has the most powerful fleet of any other faction–by a wide, wide margin. Worse, for the human race, the technological level of the BoM is beyond the capabilities of Modern militaries, let alone mid 19th century forces.
So. The islands appear gently in the Atlantic, one day, and the Mata-Nui-Robot disappears. This would put the MU in complete disarray; the very nature of their universe has changed entirely. Pan-Atlantic trade was bustling at this time; I think the British would be the first to discover the islands, and they’d do it quickly: they are quite large. This disturbing development would cause panic in Europe and the States (elsewhere too, but these are the relevant players), who would see that an undeniably more powerful peoples have appeared. The entente cordiale (French-British loose alliance, essentially) was formed in 1904 between THEE historic rivals, France and Britain, over mutual discomfort in colonial matters as well as the meteoric rise of Germany/German navy. For these reasons, I see a general European coalition (Austria, Russia, France, Britain, Prussia), perhaps a nominal American-European Coalition against the newcomers, but I imagine this would be discreet and after some interaction between the two mega-cultures. Surely the Europeans would make use of some technology from the Matoran universe, and I imagine they would chart and even settle some of the southern islands. I don’t think the Matoran would do the same; they’re incredibly ignorant of their own geography (hidden Karzahni, hidden Artahka, hidden Tren Krom, anyone?) and not a spreading peoples; the southern islands are unknown and unsettled, and Matoran are produced from machines, so they don’t multiply as humans do–though this is not for lack of ability. The Turaga operate the machines and they have what they see as the objective population margin required for the benefit of Mata Nui. This might change after their Earth escapade; who knows.
I don’t believe it would come to war, initially. The Europeans are now in the place of the people they colonized, and the rest of the world is in the same place they were in before colonization, though the potential colonizers are now aliens. I’m sure it would be clear to everyone that a war with these newcomers would be unwinnable—but, I think, this would not always be the case. If the MU doesn’t initiate a war with the humans, I see time as being on the Human’s side. humans can take advantage of the immense technological supremacy of the Matoran, and improve much more rapidly than in our timeline. Matoran, however, have been using basically the same tech for 100,000 years. Perhaps interacting with Humans might suffuse a human determination to evolve into the consciousness of some, but i don’t really see that happening in a general sense.
The Brotherhood of Makuta is a huge factor, then. Their plan will be thrown somewhat (though, if you remember, Teridax intended only at this time to take control of Metru Nui, not the GSR), but is actually still accomplishable and might proceed. A belligerent BoM would destroy humanity, if it wanted to. Humans can make any political coalition they want to, but they won’t stand a single chance in a million years. So a major question that, surprisingly, went unanswered in the lore, is the question of the BoM’s intent for the rest of the universe—it doesn’t seem they were put into spheres. If they subjugate it traditionally, Matoran and Vortixx and Steltians etc would likely flee outworld if they can, which would bring the Bom’s ire into the human world (maybe humans should start looking for a kid to turn into Takanuva, hue hue hue). Even with Matoran support, I don’t think the humans would play a large part in any conflict and would want to expel the refugees as quickly as possible (like Canada turned the Jews back to Nazi Europe) when the Visorak start to show up. Makuta are very arrogant; they show disdain for weak Matoran and “weak” Toa, yet their entire ideology is bent on the subjugation of these peoples so that their egos can be satisfied. Humans are even weaker, but this probably won’t save them in the long run. However, the incredibly, ridiculously slow mobilization of the BoM might! Humans are incredibly adaptive (it’s our whole evolutionary MO) and fast moving in the industrial era. Makuta have never had to deal with anything like this, and their plans are formed over tens of thousands of years. They would be long-outdated by the time to execute arrived, and they might not even have the capacity to notice; 1000 years passes in the blink of an eye to a Makuta, but Humans will have changed to an unbelievable degree by 3020, for better or for worse.
That’s the crux of it. Can humans gain an advantage before the BoM swallows the earth? if they can, I think there’s potential to beat the MU with its own tech.
There’s lots of other things to consider, in other arenas such as philosophy (what do these AI say about mind-body dualism and what does destiny say about free will), but I won’t address my stance on those topics—I’ve rambled for long enough. Great question, by the way!

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Thank you for coming to this Ted talk :stuck_out_tongue:

That sounds pretty accurate tho

Lol, pretty much… wrote this to put off studying for finals, so it had to be a full Ted talk!

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Funny:

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The Americans would have utterly lost if it was not for the French intervening on the war in their behalf. Washington didn’t have much of a professional army until Von Struben and French generals put discipline into their troops.

So no, it was not some peasants. It was an actual political crisis.

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Lets not also forget the Spanish, various Native American tribes, the Dutch and the Sultanate of Mysore(Siege of Negapatam - Wikipedia).

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One word: Chaos

So, in other words, the British sealed their own fate by not treating Dr. Franklin good enough for him to not want to secede from the empire?

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I guess. Still makes the meme utterly incorrect.

Okay, so a question:

What if instead of finding an island paradise to ruin, a bunch Brits accidentaly fished out a carnister, open it and reliease a bunch of metal skeleton parts that connect to each other and create a horryfing mechanical creature that is hostile towards them?

(yeah, basically one random Toa Mata vs a British ship crew)

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depends on which toa mata you’re thinking of.