Valin is my Self MOC and is the mascot of my brand.
LORE:
Valin is one of six Matoran created in an alternate dimension (Dimension 217) by Mata Nui at the end of the 2010 G1 Bionicle storyline in 0 AR (After Reformation). Originally created as an Onu-Matoran, he had natural night vision and increased physical strength. However, due to being created by Mata Nui and embued by the Kanohi Ignika, he also had very limited elemental powers of Earth, allowing him to manipulate the earth around him, but he could not absorb or create earth like a Toa could. He named himself Valin after mishearing a word that was in a passing conversation by the Toa Nuva, saying that Mata Nui fought valiently.
He and the five other Matoran that Mata Nui created were found briefly after their creation by the Toa Nuva after vowing to give up their Toa energy for a new generation of Toa since they fulfilled their destiny in waking Mata Nui from his sleep. Valin went with Onua Nuva and created the mining city near the Black Spike Mountains in a valley with a series of caves by the name of Georidge. Valin then became a prospector and miner for the city. However, after milennia of listening to Onua, now a Turaga, told him stories of what happened in the Time Before Time. Valin from there became an archivist, working closely with Tehutti and Onepu on recording many historical works, including working with his friend Voltara, a Ga-Matoran also created by Mata Nui with him, on the origins of the Great Beings, who are considered to be cosmic beings, once unknowable. However, due to technological advances, can now be oberved further.
Valin lived mostly peacefully in his home city for milennia, he occasionally got himself into trouble, mostly self-inflicted. Neither he, nor the local law enforcement, nor Turaga Onua could figure out why he got himself into trouble so frequently. In the year 3000 AR he was approached by Turaga Onua and was informed that six Makuta somehow survived the energy storms in Karda Nui which he thought wiped the last of the Makuta species out, sans Miserix. Onua tasked Valin to find his friends, as well as the six Nuva Stones that Onua and the rest of the Toa Nuva laid out for the next generation of Toa.
Valin set off to find the six Nuva Stones that have been hidden for the last few thousand years. He eventually met up with his friends Konini and Voltara after finding his Nuva Stone. With their help, they found half of the stones. From there they met up with the other three Matoran created by Mata Nui, Elihu, Hadron, and Zuph, where the latter had already found one stone themselves.
On their way to Elihu’s home city of Glacia the six Matoran were ambushed by dark cloaked figures and were stripped of their old masks and given new ones, therefore stripping their identity. Valin was visited by a shadowy figure while bound in chains so he couldn’t use his elemental powers. He learned that this shadowy figure was a Makuta, one that escaped the Karda Nui energy storms. The Makuta wanted something from Valin specifically. After reaching through Valin’s consciousness with his mask power, the Makuta found Valin’s inner darkness and found that it was different from the rest of the Matoran he has examined. The Makuta brought Valin to the Po-Matoran, Ahkmou, who has embraced his inner darkness and an antidermis-like substance was leaking off of him and smeared all over his Noble Rau. He became the leader of a cult known as The Children of Teridax and he told Valin that his inner darkness was that of Makuta Teridax himself and that it needed to be extracted so that he and the rest of the Makuta could revive Teridax and take over rule of the planet and spread his influence to the rest of the galaxy. Valin resisted, but was met by other cultists pinning him down so Ahkmou could painfully extract Teridax’s darkness which had been embedded in Valin for 3000 years and was the cause for his trouble.
Valin was bailed out by his friends and was able to revive him. He spent a few days in a coma where he began speaking with his inner darkness in night terrors and dreams. upon awakening he saw his friends Voltara and Konini were beside him in a hospital in Voltara’s home village of Endsmyth. Valin and his friends slowly made their way to the spaceport city of Awatea to meet up with Elihu, Hadron, and Zuph when they had gotten the last of the Nuva Stones they needed.
Upon arriving to the city, being greeted by Turaga Pohatu, they found out that the Suva alone wasn’t powerful enough to charge the stones and transform them into Toa. They also needed the power of the Kanohi Ignika to supercharge the Suva and the Nuva Stones to initiate the transformation. With the help of the Order of Mata Nui member, Axonn, they were about to retrieve the mask, but a dark cloud stole it right in front of them. The Makuta had stolen the mask. Valin ran after the dark mass but was stopped by Voltara, saying they needed to stick together and make a plan. Zuph lead them to a nearby cave system where a dark ritual lead by Ahkmou and the Av-Matoran Gavla, who has also given into her inner darkness and has a similar complexion to Ahkmou.
The Children of Teridax succeeded in resurrecting Teridax, which gave the six Matoran and Axonn a pit in their stomachs. Elihu was able to steal the mask where Axonn fended off the cultists and the Makuta the best he could. The Matoran made it to the center of Awatea, where the Suva was located. The Makuta were firing bolts of shadow energy at them, hitting the Suva they needed. When the Matoran got to the Suva, the Kanohi Ignika generated a force field around the six Matoran and the Suva. They placed the mask in the center and the six Nuva Stones into each slot and they transformed into Toa. However, due to the damage the Suva endured and the power of the Kanohi Ignika, it short-circuited and caused their elements to change. In Valin’s case, his element changed from Earth to Gravity. Locking his Earth elemental powers, but gaining gravity powers. Now that they were Toa, Valin and his friends, along with Axonn and Turaga Pohatu, fled Awatea, leaving the Makuta claim of the city. Now the heroes are in hiding, learning how their elemental pwoers work and waiting for the right moment to take back Spherus Magna for the good of all Matoran and Agori. But will his inner darkness, now manifesting as a sinister shadow form take him before he accomplishes his goals?
POSESSIONS AND POWERS:
Valin wears a reforged Great Mask of Emulation, which allows the user to analyze or copy any sapient being’s power.
Valin also wields an accretion blade, which he uses to futher focus his gravitational powers further, as well as his gravitic flux cannons on the back of his arms which he can use to launch a focused gravitic attack from medium range.
Later in the story Valin also obtains a necklace from the Order of Mata Nui, which allows him to control his shadow form and go in and out of it at will, but at a cost of his inner light needing to be temporarily sacrified, causing him to potentially lose control or become unstable.
Valin is a Toa of Gravity, which allows him to manipulate and generate gravitational fields. However, he cannot absorb his element. Valin also still has his elemental powers of Earth available to him, however, he has to unlock it again with the help of a close friend of his.
Valin’s fighting style is a melee to mid-range combat. He likes to be in the thick of the fight. When stripped of his weapon he uses his elemental powers to break the earth around him and manipulate it akin to an Earthbender in the Avatar universe.
In Valin’s shadow form (not seen here), he becomes nightmarish and feral. Increasing physical strength and endures most physical attacks, as well as access to shadow elemental powers which he can only use in this form. While in the shadow form, Valin’s inner light slowly deteriorates and will become irreversible if he isn’t careful.