Zabernizm is one of my newer RPCs for a roleplay known as Legends of Bionicle: Reborn. He’s one of the villain characters, for which I’ll go into more details down below.
Background: When the Makuta were still trying to gain the Matoran’s favor, some suggested they integrate Kanohi into more Rahi, believing that the Matoran would like them more if they had masks. Some Rahi already had masks as Infection made it easier to have them do their will without need of Rahi Control, but this seemed like a good idea. As the Matoran continued to ignore the Makuta’s efforts, Equinox proposed that perhaps if the Rahi could use masks they could perform better tasks for the Matoran. To this end, Equinox created Zabernizm as a test run for Rahi using Kanohi.
This resulted in mix results as many Matoran were afraid of Zabernizm while many others gave constant demands for Rahi to do tasks. This eventually broke the friendly Zabernizm and he nearly beat several Matoran to death before being recalled. After this incident, Zabernizm was kept away from Matoran settlements and left as one of the Brotherhood’s lieutenants, mostly in charge of Rahi forces. Once the Brotherhood turned on the universe, Zabernizm was often seen in battle, either commanding hordes of Rahi or fighting Toa head on. Many of the raid missions in the Maze of Shadows are due to him, as Zabernizm releases another old or new experiment deemed too dangerous by the Makuta.
Personality: Zabernizm is a bully, loving to beat down on others who can do nothing about it. If he is unable to get his way, he’ll use his forces to do it for him. Hates Matoran as he finds him to be too needy and whiny, their constant requests and insults having broken him. Has a terrible habit of releasing Brotherhood projects onto Matoran populations to see what would happen.
Powers and Weapon: Zabernizm’s main power is the ability to give nearby Rahi, or infected ones under his control, the power of the masks they wear. This works regardless if the mask powerless or powered, but only for Rahi. Any Matoran or other beings in the area with powerless or powered masks are not granted the ability to use them when Zabernizm activates this power. If the Rahi in question has multiple masks, the power it receives increases.
Aside from this power, he has the ability to use Great and Nobel Kanohi himself, such as his Mask of Infection. The mask grants him the ability to infect masks and take control of those whom he infects. Most useful for more direct control and influence over Rahi. Though to control Rahi who don’t wear masks, he has a double-headed (one on each end) war spear that has the Rahkshi power of Rahi Control. Much like the Rahkshi staffs, the spear can allow him to fly.
Along with that spear, Zabernizm has his two blade-like stingers for his lower arms that are able to slice through trees and Toa’s limbs, as well as delivering venomous electric stings. While the venom in the stingers aren’t likely to kill most species, the ones in his mandible-fangs are strong enough to fell Toa. His tail has a built-in Kanoka launcher, almost exclusively tossing levitation disks. He stores extra along the back of his longer body. Zabernizm’s final weapon is his natural Rhotuka Launcher, which is in the same place as the Colony Drone. Its power can supercharge any Rahi or being it hits, giving them tons of energy and power for a short amount of time. This launcher can also allow him to fly should he ever lose his spear.
Despite his small size Zabernizm is as strong as Toa and swift as Kikanalo in a charge.
Design Commentary: When creating this character, I wanted something that wasn’t super threatening, but at least be a decent challenge. Since I also wanted Rahi to be more useful, I decided to make this lieutenant to be a support as well as leader for other Rahi. For which the first support Rahi that came to mind was the Colony Drone, and since I liked the Colony Drone design, I decided to go with its build. Along with adding the tail of Kinloka and two addition arms with stingers like the Niazesk. I was going to add more elements of the Niazesk, given they were Rahi used to control other Rahi, such as wings, but decided to give the spear flight power instead. His appearance description also has mandibles/fangs coming from his mask, much like what Niazesk has, but I was unable to add this to the build using the Colony Drone design. Which aside from the missing mandibles, Zabernizm is also missing extra Kanoka stored along the back of the lower body. Mostly because it didn’t look great with the current build I used.
Originally he wasn’t supposed to be this singular of a color scheme as he was going to have red just like the Colony Drone. However, I only had three of those red feet pieces, so I ended up removing red altogether. Aside from some exposed axles, for which I couldn’t find smaller ones to use at the time of building, the main issue is the blue half-pin on the lower body. Couldn’t think of a way to hide it with the armor piece I used.
