I was playing Destiny 2 the other day and I was running around the moon fighting the Hive. As I continued I thought “wouldn’t it be cool if I made a Bionicle horde enemy inspired by the Hive and write it into my fanon?” Well now here we are. I plan on updating this topic with new variations as time goes on. The Hive only has 6(?) different variations, but my Swarm will get as many as I make.
Below are dropdowns for each variant, it includes a picture, backstory, and build overview.
Amongst the ruins of the Matoran Universe, the Lurkers haunt what remains of the old world. Byproducts of mutagen exposure, they migrated into Karda Nui at an unknown time and burrowed into the cavern roof, sleeping, until that fateful day when Makuta was destroyed. After the destruction of the MU these creatures awoke, ravaging what remained of Karda Nui and eventually haunting the ruins of Metru Nui.
When designing the Lurker, I immediately had a Hive Thrall in my mind. I tried to capture the same feel while making it feel unique and original. I also wanted to use the Scarox head piece somehow and I think I did rather well with that.
Out of all the horrific creatures of the Swarm, none is as ruthless and formidable as the Butcher. Serving as the staunch defenders of their hive, Butchers wield a chitin cleaver and exoshield, both able to withstand blows from protosteel weaponry and even elemental attacks. They evolved to have one eye instead of multiple. While this seems like a disadvantage the one eye forces them to focus on one thing at a time, improving their concentration in battle and making them a formidable creature to duel.
The Butcher was quite obviously based off of a Hive Knight. The head was the hardest part, deciding how to make a unique custom head that fit three eyes was challenging. Eventually I settled on one eyeball and used a tan Huna instead. The torso is a metru torso with a “Vehicle, Brush Holder for Street Sweeper with Tow Ball Socket” according to Bricklink. I chose this piece because it added some nice upper body bulk and had a tow ball connection for the head (which also uses a tow ball piece for the neck).
When the air stinks of carrion and disease, The Defiler is not far behind. The Defiler is a one of a kind creature, handcrafter by the Hivemind to carry out one task, to assimilate and destroy Toa. The Defiler is the only Swarm creature to make out of the MU, set on plaguing the planet with its virulent presence. And plague the planet it has, numerous rahi and animals have already succumbed to this disease incarnate, rotting and swelling up with vile blisters that violently explode into infectious bile. Fortunately no sentient lifeform has made contact with The Defiler, though a few eyewitness reports claim to have seen a tall rancid creature with tentacles protruding from its chest, slaughtering and assimilating the wildlife. If The Defiler is not stopped, it will pave the way to the Swarms conquering of Spherus Magna.
The Defiler predates the Swarm as far as its build goes. It was inspired by Nidus from Warframe and I built it last year(?). However its old backstory was trash and it was kind of useless in my current story so I decided to add it to the swarm. The highlight here is the Radiak mask shoulder pads and the opening and closing head.
Backstory: Long ago before the GSR crashed on Aqua Magna, these fools were actually a hive minded crustacean species feeding off of dead sea life and sea flora, meaning they are fully organic. However when the GSR crashed, these creatures were drawn to the mutagen leaking from Karda Nui for some reason. They began to grow bigger and evolve, eventually supplying it to the rest of the Swarm, seeing it as the future to their species survival. They ended up burrowing into the cavern roof of Karda Nui, digging elaborate tunnels like ants and ended up hibernating for almost 100,000 years. However, after the destruction of the MU, the Swarm has awoken, and has left their holes and tunnels to prowl the old world. They visit island after island, ruin after ruin, to ravage, destroy, and kill anything they come across. They use what they take to further their evolution, eventually creating their own synthetic protosteel from chitin and a modified version of the mutagen which is used for shields and weapons. The mainly haunt Metru Nui’s ruins, working their way deep into the city and slowly converting it into a hive. Should they find a way out of the MU, Spherus Magna would be consumed in a storm of chitin and ichor.
Since I can brainstorm only so many new variants, feel free to make suggestions and come up with new variants (this also means you can build your own and post it down below and I’ll have a look). I’ll build anything you give me so long as it fits within the Swarms theme and aesthetic. Once I have enough I plan on making different “broods”, i.e. the swarm creatures with different color schemes, weapons, and armor arrangements.