A “Part 2” of this moc
(More images here)
Pronunciation: NEHR-ihks
Bio:
In the first year of the Post-Reformation of Spherus Magna, one Vortixx - a Lieutenant Matriarch of the Tatsaari Clan named Nerix - found herself torn between entrenched loyalty to a Head Matriarch who had given her purpose in being, and growing unease with their clan’s cooperation with the Great Being Velika.
Most of the old Vortixx clans, those technocratic landholding elites of Xia, had quickly dissolved upon their migration to the new world now stripped of their homeland and networks of power. But the Tatsaari emerged onto Spherus Magna uniquely intact, in no small part due to the leadership of their immensely resourceful but volatile Head Matriarch, Dexa, who had been in secret contact with Velika shortly before the end of the Matoran Universe. Now the time had come to enact their end of the bargain with the Great Being and serve as his technological and industrial arm in a plan to retake the planet under the fog of recent chaos, in exchange for a share in the future authority.
Velika for his part sought to emulate a new Great Spirit that he might control and even subsume in order to reassert control over the Progenitors - the enigmatic semi-sentient reproductive machines which generated most protoderman species during their time in the Matoran Universe. They remained stubbornly linked to the dormant Mata Nui after the Reformation, and their programming and transcendant material nature, as with the original Great Spirit, was far beyond access through conventional computing. Knowing the original technology was lost, Velika planned to use the collective sentience he had once triggered in the protoderman peoples to create a single instance of a neuro-linked thoughtform of a template Transcendant AI that could seed a new Great Spirit for these means. With the integration of the Progenitors and his transfiguration into the second Great Spirit, Velika planned to direct the communally linked sentience of a new generation of protodermans to strike quickly at the fledgling societies of the Reformation and establish his own order on Spherus Magna before all others.
Prompted by their reunion with Lewa, the present Toa Mata led an expanded investigation continuing from the earlier murders of Karzahni and Tren Krom that led them eventually to the doorstep of Nerix and the Tatsaari. By this time, the Tatsaari were situated in an old underground Great Beings laboratory disguised on the surface as a small settlement. Their preoccupation was the development of a new line of weapons for Velika’s future forces utilizing the last reserves of Energized Protodermis he had given them, as well as probing their species’ Progenitor which they had secretly moved out of Xia. In the same way select Turaga were entrusted sacred access to the Matoran Progenitors, the Matriarchs of the current Leading Clan of Xia were given authority to commune with theirs on behalf of the species. That Leading Clan was now the Tatsaari.
Preempting the mounting suspicions of the investigative coalition, Nerix personally led them into ambushes and kept them captive awaiting further orders from the Head Matriarch, Dexa. It was during this time that Nerix’s doubts over the full consequence of her clan’s actions and her hesitation in accomodating Dexa’s increasingly sadistic tendencies caught the attention of one of her captives, a Zanite named Kagron. The Zanites, once ostracized exiles of Xia, were a martial, spiritually zealous offshoot of Vortixx marked by their newly transformed armors taking on the hues of the six primordial Matoran elements. They had come to be known to the Toa Mata during their shared clandestine struggle against Teridax’s reign, and they were joined now in Tahu’s investigation after a failed assassination attempt on their leader was linked to the previous murders. Kagron bonded for a time with the Lieutenant Matriarch, sharing his eccentric Zanite beliefs and challenging much of Nerix’s own about her own path. And while Nerix would later choose to betray Kagron’s growing trust, her encounter with him would continue to agonize the conflicted lieutenant.
In light of the Zanite’s recontextualizing words, Nerix was pushed over the edge after an incident with the now reconfigured Vortixx Progenitor when she was made to coldly execute one of its newly born Vortixx struggling to decouple his sentience from Velika’s. After this, she chose to finally defect from the Tatsaari and almost gave her life to pass critical information to the Toa and Zanites in their final conflict with Velika. In the aftermath, Nerix would throw off her most cherished possessions - a pair of cordite sapphire earrings given to her by Dexa as a mark of their old friendship - and seek out Kagron to beg his forgiveness and join the Zanites under his tutelage.
Over the next two centuries, Nerix would achieve an amount of distinction for her work in the border territories east of the new Zanite homeland on Spherus Magna and in the third century would be made commander of an elite unit known as an Ordimat. Nerix’s 10th Ordimat Unit would spearhead the Zanite investigation into the reemergence of Energized Protodermis in the eastern plains and go on to play a central role in the chaotic, world shaping events of the 3rd century Post-Reformation…
Like all initiates into Zanite society Nerix would be endowed with an Avichron, the spiritual construct from which Zanite powers were derived. Its mark would be the characteristic transformation of a Vortixx’s original black armor into one of six elemental “paths” mirroring the six primordial matoran elements, although the nature of their power was not physically elemental itself. Instead, it arose out of the transcendent interplay of non-static light and shadow which Zanites believed begot material actualization into the universe. The Avichron was the spiritual construct by which one might artificially induce this phenomenon and the Zanites harnessed this to deadly effect by actualizing their own intent to kill. The elemental themes of their new armor then reflected one of six latent paths paralleled by the six primordial elements by which this transformation occurred. While their claim that Mata Nui himself bestowed the first Avichron to their eponymous founder Zanyin is dubious to most, the abilities granted by the Avichron were apparent. Upon receiving her Avichron, Nerix’s transformation had aligned her to the Ice Path and her armor subsequently was changed to a white color, like her mentor Kagron. As with all Zanites, Nerix would over time integrate heavier armor onto her body as well.
Her weapon of choice and the conduit of her Avichronic abilities is a uniquely Zanite weapon known as an arc blade, a heavy hybrid of sword and polearm. It’s greatly extended handle allows grips to freely alternate between that of blade and staff, and its fighting style similarly follows such alternating. Although its range and unconventional sweeping fighting style are heralded, its weight and awkward balance make it a niche weapon considered not worth the energy to master by any but a rare few. Nerix would prove herself to be one of those rare few.
In addition to this, she also carried a standard Zanite field knife as a side arm for close quarters engagement.
By the middle of the third century, Nerix was also frequently seen carrying an ornamental smoking pipe, a gift from the nomadic Ouscurii glatorian in the eastern plains given in appreciation for her Ordimat unit’s role in diffusing an intertribal war that began with her team’s investigation into the reemergence of Energized Protodermis. Ordimat 10’s bond with the Ouscurri would prove pivotal in the future events of the third century.
Studio:
I’m adding a new studio file for an updated build that reflects tweaks I’ve made in the past year that look like the above render. All the real photos here on the other hand are the old version taken a year ago, but I’ll keep its studio file here anyway for, idk, sentimental reasons or something. Maybe someone likes the old version better.
Both feature purple colored 3L bars in the upper legs that are substituted for 2L 3mm hoses (part 75c02)
Both also require: the latest Biopack and part 44847 by TheNinjaWhippet
