This is my attempt at interpreting the Matoran Universe in a better way than that Makuta’s Guide to the Universe map which has a weird scale issue, does not depict the domes, and gives Mata Nui a pot belly.
My map attempts to make the universe far more broad and diverse like it’s been implied to be. Enough islands for a hundred Makuta to reasonably have a hundred assigned regions, enough for the Visorak to be rampaging for thousands of years without having wiped the universe clean of life, and so on. Artakha and Karzahni can now be reasonably hidden from the universe without disrupted major sea routes.
Fixing the scale was also important. Metru Nui is proper sized compared to the GSR, measured pixel for pixel, and Voya Nui makes far more sense than whatever was going on in MGttU. Destral is now small enough to be reasonably able to teleport everywhere without being a stupidly tight fit. Artakha and Odina are no longer so large they should be called the Eastern and Western Continents.
The islands are divided into three colours. Black are totally canon and depicted on the MGttU map, grey are ones I’ve added tto fill out the universe, and the light grey one are islands that have been destroyed which are canon but never depicted on a map (Artakha and Xia’s neighbours). The purple lines are teleportation-based sea gates, which are never even implied by canon but I feel it makes the universe make a bit more sense here and there.
This was made for my fanon altverse but I think this is around 99% canon compliant. The only thing that explicitly contradicts what’s been stated is that Artakha’s neighbours that it blew up aren’t connected to Artakha by landbridge. Also, it makes less sense for those islands to be destroyed given I envision the entire dome being sealed off.
I quite like this; the original map was SUCH a joke. I always imagined the islands would exist in a much more precise Great-barrier-ish framework than what you’ve got here, but that’s just personal preference, and I wouldn’t say there’s anything wrong with the more loose archipelago look necessarily. Good stuff!
I still don’t understand how Karzahni could have possibly impeded travel to Voya Nui without also impeding trade routes.
But other than that, this fixes a few things and it’s generally really good. I appreciate the heavy compliance to canon, too. I think even Greg was on record somewhere saying that the map in the book didn’t really turn out like he expected it too, and that it kind of should be taken as an approximation (it realistically can’t be rigidly accurate, otherwise the Southern Continent is literally too big to fit inside the robot. )
Given that it’s kind of a symbolic parallel to organs in the human body, I think I prefer the looser, messier, asymmetrical look, actually. If you’ve ever looked at human anatomy, everything is crammed in really tightly and efficiently, but not at all neatly.
Bluntly, most travel to Voya Nui makes little sense. The Toa Nuva and Piraka make sense: the former launched out to the surface in canisters, and the latter stole canisters from Mata Nui and just drifted south.
I think Jaller just heard “south” and decided to play it by ear, severely underestimating the scale of the Matoran Universe. If he hadn’t lucked out and found some sort of canister launcher in Karzahni, and if he hadn’t been inprisoned there, his team would probably have ended up lost on one of the continents.
Then you have the Dark Hunters and Karzahni and his Manas getting there. How did they do that? I can only assume they circled around Metru Nui and taking the same route the Toa Metru used during the Great Rescue. Probably panicking the Turaga with each passing.
Excellent map! I really appreciate the addition of the extra islands. It helps to flesh out the world and, as you said, makes it more realistic that there would be 100 regions for 100 Makuta, that the Visorak hadn’t conquered the whole universe, etc. And, holy cow, making Metru Nui pixel-for-pixel accurate scale is incredible! Seeing it in scale, I never would have thought it would be so small (I figured it’d take up much more of the dome). From that, I am curious if you measured out any of the other official islands, or at least could give a guestimate to the size of any of them? (No worries if didn’t/don’t want to, I imagine it’d be a pain in the butt!)
Ah Destiny, that fickle mistress
You know, that’s a good point I hadn’t really thought of before. The Dark Hunters I can buy going up through the Maze of Shadows unnoticed because it was, what, like 3 or 4 them, but Karzahni and his army of 100 Manas? Not a clue canonically. Maybe they’re just really good swimmers and swam up the waterfall
Can someone refresh my memory about which Dark Hunters went to Voya Nui? I don’t actually remember that happening, strangely.
Couldn’t find anything about it on BS01.
Is it ever explicitily stated that he brought the Manas from his own island?
Perhaps he went to Mangaia and “borrowed” Makuta’s.
Then again, how would he have gotten them across the ocean?
For that matter, how would he have even known to use the Maze of Shadows? He didn’t even know who Mata-Nui and Makuta were, so I’d have been surprised if he put that together.
Idk. Karzahni was just handled so weirdly by the story.
Amphibax, Kraata-Kal, and Sentrakh went to Voya Nui to spy on the Piraka according to Dark Hunters, while Ancient and Voporak went to Mata Nui due to Tahu’s use of the Vahi, partly according to Dark Hunters, and partly I assume through Greg answers. Interestingly, the former group was informed of the Piraka’s actions by Hakann (once again according to Dark Hunters), though that particular plot point never came up again.
