Great Cataclysm

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The Great Cataclysm a major event within the storyline of Lego Bionicle franchise. It is the collective name given to a series of natural disasters that occured one thousand years before the storyline's "present day", when that universe's guardian, the Great Spirit Mata Nui, fell unconscious. Much of the storyline revolves around the Great Cataclysm, its consequences, and the attempts to repair the damage caused by it.

Contents 1 Background 2 The Disasters 2.1 Metru Nui 2.2 Mata Nui 2.3 Voya Nui 2.4 The Pit 2.5 Elsewhere 3 The Aftereffects 4 References

[edit] Background

Sometime in the distant past, the Brotherhood of Makuta was once an organization dedicated to serving the Great Spirit Mata Nui, and protecting the Matoran people. However, the Brotherhood eventually became corrupt, and believed that they could protect the Matoran best by dominating them. At least one member, the Makuta over the city of Metru Nui, was also jealous of the reverence that the people gave Mata Nui.

Makuta's plan, supported by the rest of the Brotherhood, was to attack Mata Nui with such force that the Great Spirit would eventually slip into eternal sleep, giving Makuta the freedom to take the his place as the Matorans' object of admiration. What Makuta probably did not know was that such an attack could eventually prove fatal to Mata Nui, and therefore the universe, but he went ahead with it anyway.^[1]

[edit] The Disasters

Mata Nui would linger, badly injured, for three hundred years afterward. Without his intervention to prevent them, a number of natural disasters struck at once, all over the world...

[edit] Metru Nui

The city of Metru Nui was hit by an earthquake and an eclipse of both of its "suns" (the city is underground, and both of the holes where sunlight showed through the surface were blocked). As a result, the city was reduced to ruins and nearly all of the Rahi beasts kept in the city's Archives were freed.

The Makuta over the region, the one that had made the initial attack, however, had planned for this. About a year and a half before the disasters struck, he kidnapped and impersonated the city's leader, Turaga Dume. In this position, he ordered that all routes out of the city be closed and sent the Toa who protected the city out on missions from which they never returned.

About a month before Mata Nui's fall, Makuta had all the Matoran put into stasis in Matoran Spheres, either by force through his Morbuzakh plant monster or the Vahki, or on "Dume's" order. The plan was that in the spheres, they would forget all about the Great Spirit that they revered; and Makuta would then become their savior by waking them from their endless sleep. While this plan almost succeeded, the Toa Metru rescued the spheres and woke the Matoran inside, sparing them Makuta's lies.

It was originally thought that Makuta's actions at this time were what caused the Great Spirit to fall asleep, and only later revealed that the actual attack came three hundred years earlier.^[2]

[edit] Mata Nui

On the planet's surface above Metru Nui, energized protodermis leaked out and turned barren rock into a lush tropical island. The Toa Metru soon discovered this island and named it "Mata Nui", in honor of the Great Spirit, and it became a refuge for the Matoran of Metru Nui.

[edit] Voya Nui

To the south of Metru Nui, a chunk of land broke off from an underground continent and "rocketed up" to the surface; this would land on the water and become the floating island of Voya Nui, stranding all who lived there. It would later float over the location of the Pit (below).

[edit] The Pit

The cavern where the Order of Mata Nui had banished the world's most vile beings, called the Pit, flooded and allowed the inhabitants to escape to the surrounding sea (but no farther). Voya Nui later floated into this area, and part of its land (called "Mahri Nui") sank into the criminal-infested waters.^[3]

[edit] Elsewhere

In response to Mata Nui's falling asleep, six Toa Canisters containing the Toa Mata were launched from an unknown location so that the Toa could go and begin the task of waking Mata Nui up again.

[edit] The Aftereffects

While Mata Nui could not or would not prevent the devastating attack, he made sure that heroes would come to restore the worst of what was lost:

The most immediate matter was that the Matoran in Metru Nui had to be evacuated safely out of danger. Fortunately, Mata Nui's choices for Toa Metru did not fail him; though it was not an easy task: Makuta had summoned the Visorak hordes to invade Metru Nui, and Toa Vakama's overconfidence led the team to be mutated into half-beast Toa Hordika. However, in the end, the Toa were cured of their mutation and the Matoran were safely relocated to the tropical island above the city that the Toa had discovered and named "Mata Nui", in honor of the sleeping Great Spirit. Once there, the Toa Metru gave up their Toa power to wake the Matoran from their stasis, becoming Turaga. But their victory had come at a price - Makuta had been freed from his prison, and would certainly be back.

Another preparation made before the Cataclysm was that the Toa Mata entered Toa Canisters that would bring them to the island of Mata Nui, so they could begin the task of reawakening the Great Spirit. However, the canisters malfunctioned and were left drifting in the sea for a thousand years. In this time, Makuta indeed returned; enslaving the native Rahi wildlife and constantly having them attack the Matoran, in order to keep them near the safety of the villages and away from Metru Nui. Meanwhile, the real Turaga Dume, Keetongu, and the Rahaga (who had been allies of the Toa Hordika) stayed in Metru Nui and did what they could to begin restoring the city.

Eventually, a Matoran named Takua gathered the Toa Stones that the Toa Metru had once made, and bringing them together shot a beam of light into the sky that finally summoned the Toa Mata to the island. They would challenge both Makuta and the Bohrok swarms that he awakened; becoming Toa Nuva in the process.

However, defeating Makuta was not the Toa Nuva's destiny, that honor belonged to another. Takua discovered the Avohkii Mask of Light, an ancient Kanohi mask said to belong to the Toa of Light who would defeat the darkness. After a journey of self-discovery, Takua realized that he was the prophesized hero; he put on the mask and transformed into the Toa of Light, renaming himself Toa Takanuva. He went to challenge Makuta himself, and in the course of the battle the two fell into a pool of energized protodermis, emerging as a single being called Takutanuva. Takutanuva then reopened the gateway to Metru Nui, letting the Matoran return to their city home. Afterwards, Takutanuva was crushed by the giant gate; Takanuva was quickly revived but Makuta is presumed dead. However, Takanuva is not sure of the finality of Makuta's defeat; while fused with Makuta, he got the feeling that there were bigger plans at work, ones that the Matorans' return to Metru Nui will not stop...

Recently, Turaga Dume revealed that he has discovered that the attack on Mata Nui was indeed deadly, and the Great Spirit is in danger of dying. If Mata Nui were to die, the universe would die along with him. Dume has sent the Toa Nuva to Voya Nui to find the Ignika Mask of Life that could possibly save the Great Spirit's life, but they have run up against a group of Piraka ("thieves and murderers") who are also looking for the mask. But it seems that, again, it is not the Toa Nuva's destiny to claim the mask - six Matoran followed the Toa to Voya Nui to give their help, but they were struck by lightning from the mysterious Red Star and changed into Toa Inika.

However, Mata Nui was not the only one with backup plans; the Brotherhood of Makuta made some as well. According to records that Zaktan found, if the Matoran were able to escape Mata Nui then they would eventually join with Toa, and if the Toa could not be eliminated: let them win. Let them wake the Great Spirit. Even let a Makuta die, if that was what was needed. It would all only serve to help bring about the Brotherhood's ultimate victory...^[4]

[edit] References