Image: The Great Siege of Artakha
Background Information
Mata Nui (idea by @Bokarda):
was the creator/father of the Great Beings. Together with his sons they created a world, Matoran, Rahi, and the six Nuva (elemental gods) to manage the elements of the world. His ambitious sons created a being without his knowledge, Annona, that unfortunately took upon their darkest traits. He battled the creature and managed to imprison it in the solar system’s star but at the cost of most of his strength. His sons than attacked him but he refused fight back and was put into a deep sleep that was mistaken for death.
His sons then took his powers but found them to be too powerful for them to handle. They therefore created four masks to channel the powers:
• The Mask of Creation
• The Mask of Control
• The Mask of Alternate Futures
• The Mask of Time
The last of which remained tied to Mata Nui.
After some time, the brothers regretted their action and respectfully buried their father in a coffin upon the world they had all created. The coffin became the island of Artakha on which the Matoran and Rahi were set to live.
Mask of Time:
Mata Nui’s powers over time are keeping him alive in the Well of Time in a paused or rather slowed state until he can be awakened.
The Mask of Time is directly connected to the well’s functioning and thus every time the mask is used and obliterated, the well’s functioning weakens. Since Mata Nui used his powers to lock away Annona, the power holding her also weakens…
(The Mask of Time draws its power from the well, each time it’s used the source is drained).
Annona (idea by @Bokarda):
Annona is the evil artificial Nuva, of Shadow. Most powerful of the Brothers’ creations. The embodiment of destruction, chaos, and secrecy. Possesses an innate connection to darkness and shadow.
The Spawn of Annona
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Marendar (idea by @Bokarda):
Marendar (The Void Hunter) clandestine offspring and servant to Annona. Immune to elemental energy and mental-based powers. Able to track elemental energy and siphon it from source. -
Morbuzakh (idea by @Bokarda):
Morbuzakh offspring and servant to Annona. Comprised of a black-green swarm of arboreal and tentacle-like appendages. Capable of self-replication through seed pods; possesses hive-mind. Possesses anti-venomous properties within blood. Empowered/healed by heat and fire; damaged/weakened by cold and ice. -
Skrall:
Skrall, sami humanoid beings spawned from mutated seed pods produced by Morbuzakh after absorbing Marendar.
Umarak:
Umarak (The Shadowed One | The Hunter | The Destroyer) Leader of the Dark Hunters. Umarak is one of the few remaining Kal. Wears the Mask of Shadows. Able to use shadow to create clones, teleport through, and generate kinetic blasts.
He is just a background character in the first two story arcs. After the Karzahni arc, he becomes the main antagonist trying to “bring back” Annona.
Annona the Shadowed One (Annona, Umarak, and Brutaka Merged into one entity)
Story Arc Three - Plot Outline:
•The prison of Annona has weakened through the use/shattering of the Mask of Time. Annona reaches out to Umarak telepathically who then devises a way to bring her “back”.
•Umarak hunts down Vezon and steals his mask, fusing it with his own to use its powers of fusion. He uses this new power to forcibly fuse with Brutaka to gain his powers of dimensional gates.
•Umarak travels to a remote mountain where he intends to open a portal to Annona.
•The Toa arrive at the opening of the portal.
•The story plays out so it seems like Umarak changed his mind and gets the Toas’ help but in the last moment he reveals he was just using them and merges with Annona to become “Annona the Shadowed One”. A battle ensues with the Toa suffering a defeat.
• The spawn of Annona awaken.
•The Nuva guide the Toa to the prison of Ekimu. Ekimu explains Annona and creates new armor for them. Ekimu tries to manipulate the Toa to free him but fails and is left in his prison.
•…Build up filler…
• Marendar arrives on the island and seeks out Morbuzakh.
• Marendar finds the shriveled form of Morbuzakh in the ice of Ihu.
• The Toa encounter Marendar for the first time. They quickly learn that their elemental powers have no effect on him save for Voriki’s and ultimately lose this battle.
• Marendar travels to the island’s major volcano.
• Marendar arrives at the volcano and “plants” Morbuzakh which begins to grow rapidly.
•Annona the Shadowed One finds the entrance to the Well of Time.
• Morbuzakh cuts off the mouth of the volcano with its size and grows out like a tree. The lava from the volcano is being pumped through the creature’s trunk to its appendages which creates a black cloud that plunges the island into darkness.
• The Great Siege of Artakha begins. The Ihuans attack Morbuzakh with their ice to weaken the creature. The other tribes, except fire, attack at the roots of the giant plant.
• The Mangaians attack Morburzakh from Mangai to no effect.
• Morbuzakh absorbs Marendar into itself.
• Morbuzakh releases seed pods, mutated with the aspects of Marendar, that rain down on the island and open on impact to reveal the Skrall.
• Voriki, the matoran, and the remaining Kal all join forces to combat the new threat while the other Toa go after Annona the Shadowed One.
•Annona the Shadowed One intends to destroy the well to kill Mata Nui.
•All Toa through time come and fight in a Final battle (except Voriki). Annona is scattered into oblivion across time and space. All Toas’ physical bodies are destroyed and their energies become one with the Nuva. Mata Nui is revived.
• Being directly linked to Annona, Morbuzakh’s main core crumbles down upon the volcano while its appendages disintegrate into black dust. The Skrall in turn, turn to a substance similar to volcanic rock, some disintegrating and others left standing as statues.
• A blinding white light explodes up from Well of Time consuming the island. The light shatters the darkness and disintegrates any remaining trace of Annona and her spawn.
The light is Mata Nui the Nuva of Light.
• The matoran, now unified, work together to rebuild their homes and live in peace under the protection and guidance of the Nuva and new Turaga Voriki.
The Great Siege of Artakha (Idea by @Bokarda):(WIP)
Morbuzakh was seen growing from the volcano and spreading its appendages across the sky carrying with them a black cloud that shadowed the land below in darkness. The Toa inform the Ihuans of the creature’s potential weakness being cold because they saw it was found in the the ice of Ihu, small and shriveled, by Marendar. The Ihuans begin to organize their forces while the Toa evacuate the other tribes to Ihu.
…
The Ihuans go out across the obsidian plain to the Vacano first, to weaken Morbuzakh with their ice powers. This is immediately followed by Voriki, some Kal, and the other tribes’ matoran attacking to try and destroy the plant’s roots (Mangaians specifically only using weapons). Morbuzakh makes a noise like a creaking tree that can only be described as a groan of pain.
Morbuzakh then absorbs Marendar. The combining powers allow Morbuzakh to no longer be harmed by the ice attacks but rather empowered by them.
All looks well for the Artakhan army until a single pod falls from the looming appendages high above. The pod bursts open on impact, revealing a Matoran-sized Warrior-caste Skrall. A small group of Ihuan soldiers go to try to kill it, only for the Skrall to kill them outright save one who has the elemental energy drained from his/her body, strengthening the Skrall. Then, the other pods begin to fall.
The United Artakhan Army is forced to fight with only their weapons (because their elemental powers prove useless against these new foes), with the Kal acting as vanguards.
…
The battle ends when Annona the Shadowed One is killed in the Well of Time which consequently killed all her spawn because they were directly connected to her life force. The colossal “trunk” of the now lifeless Morburzakh begins to crumble down upon and into the volcano while its “branches” turn to a black dust that falls on the wind. The Skrall turn to a volcanic rock like substance, some disintegrating under their own weight and others left standing like statues.
This is directly followed by a blinding white light rising like a spire from the Well of Time and spreading across the entire island. The armies of Artakhan are forced to shield their eyes as the light grows closer. As the light travels it disintegrates all the remains of the spawn of Annona. After the light dissipates, the matoran and Kal open their eyes to the cleansed world and cry out in victory.
The Final Battle:
The final battle takes place in the Well of Time located in the heart of Mata Nui, a place filled with bridges suspended above and ending with portals to different parts of time and space. Annona the Shadowed One has found the well and intends to use it to wreak revenge on Mata Nui which would ultimately destroy the island and all life on it. * The Nuva were given foresight of this event by Mata Nui and have planned for the day accordingly. Just before the moment of Annona’s victory, every Toa throughout all of time come through the portals and attack the Shadowed One. Annona is ultimately consumed by the light created by the combining of all the elements and collapses into the time pool portal below, scattering into oblivion. The Toa all become truly one with the Nuva and explode with elemental energy, reviving Mata Nui. Mata Nui however chooses to be a life force like the Nuva, returning to his body would be fatal to the island, and is known as the Nuva of Light. **
*Annona is there to destroy the well to prevent Mata Nui from being “un-paused” and thus kill him (in other words, pull the plug on the life support). In doing so, it would send a temporal pulse through his body consequently obliterating the entire island into time and space. It would just appear throughout time as a super nova far off and would be taken for granted.
**The Toa are sent to the well after they complete the tasks they were originally transformed for. Once in the well, all the Toa would rally to stop Annona ultimately combining the elements’ power. The combined elements’ power would force Annona off the bridge down through the pool below scattering here atoms through time while also reviving Mata Nui. The power would also consume the Toas’ physical forms and their energies would return to the times at the moment they were taken from, through the portals, to unite with the Nuva.
This idea was formed predominantly by @Bokarda and I over in his Kal topic comment section.
Comments, criticism, ideas, suggestions, and thoughts are all welcome.
