In the mountains and deep below ground within the Matoran Universe live the Pakirasa. With their powerful front claws and mandibles, these insectoid Rahi dig gigantic tunnel networks through solid rock in search of their favorite food - crystalline Protodermis. Whether it’s lightstones or just normal Protodermis shards they do not care, and they’ve been known to plunder entire lightstones mines in their ravenous desire for these crystals.
Pakirasa are not particularly aggressive, but they will defend their most active tunnels - and especially their food sources - against any intruders. Over the millennia many Onu-Matoran were forced to abandon lightstone or crystal mines after a Pakirasa invasion until either all the crystals were consumed, or somebody was able to drive the Pakirasa off.
Pakirasa live in swarms of up to 200 individuals. They have excellent darkvision and their armor is strong enough to enable them to even survive cave-ins. Their greatest weakness are bright lights, which render them almost blind, though they can use their abdomens to detect shockwaves running through the ground and thus still somewhat orient themselves. As a result, Pakirasa have trouble fighting near lightstones, and thus the stones can be used as traps to systematically attract and dispose of them. Pakirasa are also susceptible to both great heat and cold.
Pakirasa tunnels do have a certain advantage, too, however - Pakirasa do not tunnel through ore veins, which often leads to excavated Protodermis ore being right there for anyone who wants it. Unless the Pakirasa have been driven off beforehand, however, retrieving the ore is dangerous business.
A spontaneous Rahi build after fiddling around with some Barraki mandibles and those… jet pieces or whatever they’re called you see a lot with the Toa Mistika.
Maybe now I’ve taken pictures I’ll modify this build a bit to add more subspecies… a warrior and a king, maybe. I’ll have to see.
Nice! I like how it resembles something you would find in the Rahi book, which certainly makes it feel like it could actually be canon. Maybe I should start working on some custom Rahi one of these days…
An excellent rahi that I can see easily fitting into the canon, but what impresses me the most about it is that you managed to give it a name that actually sounds like it’s from Bionicle.
I love how your Moc’s always fit right in with the “G1 aesthetic” Plus Rahi are always welcome. The blue pins stand out but are totally fine and maybe you might want to add a little more blue on the other variants as if it’s some bioluminescent markings? I’m not sure but maybe a Queen would be better instead of King? I’m not sure how they’re hives/colonies would work…I look forward to seeing more hopefully!
Fantastic moc! I love the overall look of the build, I think the above view looks the best due to the cables on the sides of it body, 10/10 keep up the great work
if a canon contest for new rahi happens please enter this
I specifically went for “king”, because I figure that’s more interesting than a queen, as that’s not what we usually see in the real world. Also the main function of a queen - reproduction - isn’t actually a thing in the MU, since Rahi do not reproduce by themselves.
My current rough idea for a king is that they have a kind of psionic link to the workers and soldiers, and thus can coordinate them.
Right, Morrowind also had Kwama or however they were called. In this case I was rather inspired by the Minecrawlers from Gothic, though, as that’s what I’m currently playing.
Pretty nice gryllotalpa (if the right english name) build here! Rahkshi non-bluish dark grey leg pieces somewhat break the color scheme though, as well as blue pins. Also very nice and detailed lore for it. Would like to hear more about that king guy!
