MNOG Chronicle – Chapter I – Lhii the Surfer

Instead of the preamble 

I would like to dedicate the first article of this series to who perhaps might be the most mysterious Tohunga on the entirety of Mata Nui. He is not known by a lot of people, but his history kept on changing, twisting and turning throughout the entirety of G1 and even after its cancellation. While some of us were buying Piraka and forcing our parents to purchase battery pack after battery pack for some godforsaken purpose, the true fans were reading the small tidbits released about this mysterious character. And today, we will walk down their lonely road and become a bit more informed as a result. 

2001. Mata Nui Online Game 

The whole story begins when it should, when most of the current Bionicle fandom wasn’t even born, all the way back in 2001! It is February outside and the few Bionicle fans that have a free access to a computer are getting to play the second chapter of the Mata Nui Online Game (early, Mata Nui Adventure Game), completed with a new location – the fiery village of Ta-Koro. Compared to the cold weather outside, this is a welcome contrast. There, the little boys and girls at home could explore the mysterious world of Bionicle and that is also when our little friendly neighborhood lavasurfer gets first mentioned. In a small chamber located next to the gates we find our dearly beloved warrior Jala and this was his response when asked who he was:

”My name is Jala, captain of the guard and member of the clan of Lhii the Surfer.“

So, besides the familiar Guard we also have some kind of bizarre clan dedicated to some godforsaken no-name lavasurfer that we have never heard off. We never hear anything else, because that was the only time he was ever mentioned in game. However, the fuse of fan theories has been lit.

The only thing I can add is how surfing itself was mentioned by Turaga Vakama to be the domain that the Tohunga of Fire are the most capable in:

“Surely you still have the Board that I gave you, for that was a special gift.Lava Surfing is a difficult skill, and no Tohunga other than those that dwell in Ta-Koro have knowledge of it”.

Considering this, it makes sense that they would form their own little clan around it. It is interesting as well how in the 2006 rerelease of the game the phrase about the surfer clan was removed for unknown reasons, as well as all the Maori references. Considering the general surfdude aesthetic, it is not that surprising. Remarkably enough, this was only done to the English version of the game – the German version still has Jala talking about Lhii as if nothing happened. You can check it out yourself, if you want to. 

2001 — 2002. BIONICLE.com

Besides the MNOG reference the 2001, website gives us another juicy piece about Lhii in the Jala’s biography. It is said that: 

"The founder pf Jala's clan, Lhii, was once the greatest surfer Mata Nui has known since Tahu last walked upon the land."

Despite the fact that this was pretty obvious, now we have an official confirmation of the fact that Jala’s clan is named after Lhii because of his surfing skills. Secondary, the 2002 website gets a new section – the Dictionary – where you can find all the words of the Matoran language, alphabetically. And look who’s here…

Each single time this guy gets more and more epic. Wouldn’t be surprised if besides getting all the Ga-Korans he also halved the Manas population with a snap of his fingers and erupted the Mangai Vulcano with one percent of his willpower.

2005. BZPower

It was 2005. While all normal folks were waiting for the third Bionicle movie, jamming along to All Insane Kids, the guys from BZP already had questions about the canon so far. The question itself went something like this: 

Q: The Jaller’s Hau – is…a Great Mask/a Matoran Mask/Jaller is Lhikan reincarnated/and so forth. 

Because the answer was rather long and touched on many topics we are not interested in, I am only going to cite the part that mentions Lhii. 

“No, Jaller didn’t fuse with Lhikan and is not him. They are two totally different characters, with the only connection between them being that the Hau worn by Jaller is the same Hau worn by Lhikan. This idea originates with the 2001 concept about the legend of Lhii (the name that the Turaga used for Lhikan when he was just a Matoran that died ages ago) and who was the leader of Jallers clan. That way the Turaga wanted to remember Lhikan after his death.“ 

What a twist, right? Bob Thompson and Greg Farshtey decided to give the unexplored Matoran myth about legendary Lhii a second life and invented on its basis the beloved character of Lhikan who has died for our sins. Also, what did Greg say about origin of Lhikan’s name? 

“Lhikan is Lhii, we had to change the name for legal reasons. As for what his past was, I don’t have any info on that.”

According to Greg we can say that Lhikan is not a new character, but he is retconned old Lhii.

2006 — 2007. Bionicle Encyclopedia

But the retcons didn’t just stop at the introduction of Lhikan. After the final part of the Lhii Legend, Farshtey decided to put an even more final (finaller, ha!) point. In the second, updated, Bionicle Encyclopedia our surfer gets a separate description. 

It seems we can’t get more concrete. However, this begs the question – is Jaller the only member of the Lhii clan? If not, how did Vakama explain the connection between him and the other members of this clan? Using color (Jaller wasn’t the only yellow Ta-Matoran by any stretch), or was it because of the sick flips they could do on their surfboards? If Jaller was the only member of said clan, could this even be called a clan? Despite the fact that Greg tried to connect 2001 and 2004 using Lhikan, you can’t do it perfectly – some pieces would still be out of place, considering that originally Lhii was supposed to be an actual Tohunga with an actual cult built around him and not a mythic cover-up for a lost Toa. Especially considering that there were only six Toa back then. 

Tales of the Tohunga

Believe it or not, this strange story got another chapter. This time the honor was to the lore-searchers from BZPower who decided to muse around a couple of facts concerning the Ta-Koro lavasurfer. The thing is that in the article dedicated to Lhikan on BS01, in the part concerning Lhii there were new tidbits – namely his appearance. 

If you remember, his actual appearance wasn’t mentioned at any earlier part in the story. Of course, considering the color of Jaller’s mask it would be reasonable to assume that he would be yellow to some degree, but what for sources the author used while saying that he wore a Pakari is anybody’s guess. The thing is, that tidbit was written ages ago, during the forming of BS01 and so we don’t have any actual reliable sources. All we have is the word of someone who says they had a magazine with a strange yellow Tohunga in the “Quest for the Toa” character creator that was labeled Lhii. So, this question remained unanswered and we can only rely on the expertise of the article’s author. 

Epilogue

So, today we learned not only about the most mysterious character in MNOG but also his two different interpretations – 2001 and 2004 ones. For me, a person who respects the canon of 2001-2003 more than the post-2003 reimagining, it is of greater value to see Lhii in his earlier role – a great hero who has a whole elite clan of yellow-faced followers honoring tradition and learning the ancient art of lava surfing. Which one you like most is up to you to decide, while this foray into the Bionicle Legend has come to an end. 

Original

Special thanks to my friend Frozen Death for the translation from Russian, and a big thanks to Eddy and Maku for editing. I also highly recommend Maku's document that includes a lot of useful information about early Bionicle lore.