The role of Rahi in the GSR world then and now
During the release of the first generation of Bionicle (2001-2010), Rahi were extremely interesting and rich invariety on the one hand and a very debatable topic qua their role in the general canon on the other. At this present moment we are left with an unsolved issue – in the modern canon, the existence of Rahi isn't justified by any means. They are just inhabitants of a fictional world that Makuta created from Viruses and Protodermis to inhabit the Matoran Universe and for personal reasons, e.g. to serve as guards. How the Matoran Universe's wellbeing was improved by this high population of creatures was never explained. It seems sometimes that the creation of Rahi was an end in and of itself for the insane Makuta, but explaining it bysaying that the Great Beings work in mysterious ways is too simple – which is why this question remains so prevalent in the general fan community. 
However, the Rahi were much more involved in the general internal structure of the GSR at first. I previously talked about that when I explained the original concept of Bionicle and how all living beings within the GSR were parts of one complex system that resembled the human body. If we are talking precisely about the role of the Rahi, then that was pretty clearly explained in Maku's document:
“The original concept for the Bionicle universe began with the destruction of a planet. The Great Beings planned to colonize a new world and to this end they created a biomechanical evacuation ship called Mata Nui to transport their civilization, which was held in suspended animation, to a safe haven elsewhere in the universe. Throughout the journey the ship was crewed by the Tohunga, who worked with Rahi to maintain the ship and its systems…”
This concept was also addressed in the early marketing descriptions of the Rahi. I talked about this when we touched upon the topic of the mask poisoning and the great Hunger but I will repeat it again – for clarity's sakeand to explore this topic to its fullest.
“In the time before time, the island of Mata Nui was a paradise to behold. Many great beasts, known as Rahi, worked in harmony with the Tohunga villagers. Then the Makuta came and cast a dark shadow across the land. The Makuta brought a great hunger to the Rahi, a hunger for the sacred Kanohi masks. And the Tohunga made stone carvings to warn of these awesome beasts.”
This text clearly suggests a special relationship between the Matoran and the 2001 Rahi, as if they were some kind of sacred animals and the Tohunga must handle them with the utmost respect. Cooperation between the Rahi and Tohunga fits very nicely into the concept of Mata Nui as an evacuation ship.
Sadly enough, retcons from 2004 onward removed this specific aspect from the Rahi. Of course, many of them are still domesticated by the Matoran, but the expansion of the Universe rendered this concept optional. Now, most of the Rahi are just wild beasts, punching bags for the Toa during their adventures. Don’t even get me started on those Rahi that are so dangerous that they are just portrayed as being purely evil, like, for example the Visorak – which completely destroys any concept of a symbiotic relationship there might have been at some point. If we further develop the original 2001 concepts we can conclude that the Rahi were more like living vehicles for the Matoran – just in the Flintstone sort of way. Instead of carts, bulldozers and the like, Tohunga just used the Rahi, reaching a certain point of harmony with them. This excellently develops the idea of this biomechanical world where even the technology seems to be alive.
Protodermis and Biodermis
The next topic that will shine light upon the concept of Rahi breeding is Protodermis and its original 2001 version. Yes, even Protodermis had its analogue in the early stages of Bionicle – and the differences aren't purely cosmetic.
Originally, Protodermis was called Biodermis, which is shown by the early game files. The game also had some lines of dialogue, cut from the final product. Maku, btw, recently found the explanation for why the name had to be changed – Greg himself answered that in 2008:
“No, it's not a legally approved name. It was rejected.”
The reason is that Biodermis was apparently already copyrighted. Look it up on Google, if you want.
As for the descriptions of this earlier Protodermis analogue I will refer to a small part of a bigger dialogue during the meeting of the Guild Captains:
CAPTAIN OF THE MINING GUILD: “Turaga, the mining guilds have hit an underground rock layer that they cannot break through. We fear the protodermis will run out if we cannot continue our digging!”
TURAGA WHENUA: “How far does it run?”
CAPTAIN OF THE MINING GUILD: “Shaft 3 and Shaft 8 have ceased protodermis mining because they cannot break through this rock layer.”
TURAGA WHENUA: “That's the entire mining area!”
CAPTAIN OF THE MINING GUILD: “Yes, Turaga, for all we know, the strata extends beneath all of Mata Nui, except perhaps the Mangai volcano.”
TURAGA WHENUA: “Are you certain there is no soft spot to dig through, Captain?”
CAPTAIN OF THE MINING GUILD: “We've been over every inch of the surface. There are no fractures, no fault lines, nothing!”
TURAGA WHENUA: “How much remains of the surface deposits?”
CAPTAIN OF THE MINING GUILD: “They are running out. We may have to look elsewhere for more protodermis. Like Ta-Wahi, or Po-Wahi.”
TURAGA WHENUA: “What is this layer made out of?”
CAPTAIN OF THE MINING GUILD: “Our prospectors believe it to be rock, but it has higher organic levels than any mineral composite we've seen.”
TURAGA WHENUA: “Organic?”
CAPTAIN OF THE MINING GUILD: “Yes. It seems to have more in common with an Ussal Crab shell than any normal stone strata.”
TURAGA WHENUA: “Strange. I wonder what we will find if we break through?”
CAPTAIN OF THE MINING GUILD: “Turaga, I must have more men and more machines if we are to know. You must allocate more resources to the mining guilds!”
TURAGA WHENUA: “Captain, I am doing everything I can. No one wants to see the protodermis run out. But Onu-Koro has many problems right now.”
For those who didn't get what exactly the impenetrable layer of matter was referring to: they just dug all the way through to the face of the GSR. Yeah, the great mine of Onu-Koro went so deep that they dug through the whole island and landed on the face, and remained completely unaware of what they had discovered. Even for us it remained a great mystery, up until 2008.
We also should take note of some unique properties that this early Protodermis had, which are described in the dialogue:
“The organics level in it is higher than in any other mineral.” A really interesting clarification, that explains why exactly it was called BIOdermis and gives us some neat parallels towards the main idea of the Biological Chronicle and its main metallic logotype, so loved by Christian Faber. The 2004 – 2010 Protodermis wasn't a mineral with a high organics concentration, it just changed its form and could be hard, metallic, organic, energized and so forth. A totally different thing from 2001 – 2003 Protodermis. In one of the dialogues Turaga Whenua describes it as the “Stuff of life” and Faber – "the living Metal, a mysterious substance for the entirety of the story.”
The captain of the Mining Guild draws a parallel between the Biodermis and the shell of an Ussal Crab. The model itself doesn't have any kind of shell, but we understand that he means its outer layer – referring to how all creatures in this world are made out of Biodermis.
And while we are still talking about this topic I would like to talk about another instance of it appearing – the 2002 plot, when the Toa became the Toa Nuva. The aesthetic of a futuristic metal is in every promo, in the canisters and in the visual style of that year. In the later Greg Farshtey canon the Toa fall into Energized Protodermis, which is a unique form of Protodermis. But, as we know, there wasn't a distinction of Protodermis into 53728 different kinds before 2004. If we read the Lexicon from the official website then we can see that the Protodermis just works as a catalyst for whatever process transformed the Toa in those tubes. So, that means that the Protodermis itself doesn't give the Toa great power; but can do that if combined with a certain system or mechanism that uses Protodermis. The fact that this is some kind of special system designed to improve the Toa is further shown by the mysterious appearance of the Nuva Cube and the Nuva Symbols that are, de facto, the source of their new powers.
“A vital, mysterious substance that provides the catalyst for the transformation of the Toa into the Toa Nuva. It is also mined in Onu-Koro, and sometimes used as currency.”
And finally, the most important piece of dialogue from the game that returns us towards the main topic of this whole article. This line is attributed to another character, the head of the Trading Guild:
“They make goods and livestock from the protodermis. Without it they cannot trade for stone! We will lose that market.”
Yes, the “livestock” part of the dialogue was redacted in later versions of the game, but the fact remains – the Tohunga themselves, without any Makuta or viruses, made Rahi from Protodermis so they could work alongside them for the greatness of Mata Nui.
The Biodermis Forge
And now a bit more about the beautiful birthing process of the Rahi. It is time to talk about that, we are not kids anymore. But in order to do so we first need to take a deep dive into the deleted materials of the game. Let's talk about all of it in order.
Do you see the small hut behind the Ga-Koran? Does anything look weird? And does it bother you that the windows are glowing but the entrance, despite lacking a door, is dark? The thing is, the sprite that was supposed to represent the glowing -clickable- entrance was removed from the screen, so you cannot enter. But if we are clever and manage to force our way in we see that it…
…is a Biodermis Smith! Of course, this location wasn't finished – these Hafu lookalikes are the placeholders, and the interior is rather rough, like it was with the secret lair of the Seventh Tohunga Tribe. Here, a couple of characters known as the Biodermis Smiths are creating a new Maha and Husi for trading with Po-Koro, exactly what the leader of the Trading Guild was talking about. Inside, we can either quit the forge or go and talk to the left smith.
Sadly enough, the text files with his dialogue were never added (if they ever even existed at some point), but taking what we have into account we can make several assumptions:
Tohunga made mostly small, friendly Rahi like Ussal crabs, Husi and Maha (maybe even Kewa Birds but we don't have any confirmation of that assumption).
It seems like the creation of big set Rahi titans, like Tarakava or Muaka wasn't within the Matoran's capabilities and they were originally created by the Great Beings. That's why the Matoran respected these "Great Beasts" so much in my eyes.
Deleted quest
Besides unrealized locations and characters we have a couple of unique items that are connected to the forge and the mysterious deleted quest that was associated with it. Information about these items are taken from TCRF. The items themselves we can find independently in the video game files. They weren't deleted, just not used:
biodermis/BIO-DERMIS – the only item in the game with a numerical value. The picture consists of some pieces of the Maha model. The commentary from Templar Games for this item describes it as raw material that the players should bring to the Biodermis forge in order to create Rahi. You can get the biodermis on the Great Market through bartering.
“If I recall, the Biodermis Smith was supposed to sell you blueprints for various small animals that you could build if you had collected the right pieces. Sort of a LEGO Pokemon, gotta build em all! I forget exactly what purpose the creations were to have in-game. There was plenty of stuff like that we had to leave out due to tight deadline constraints.”
pBook_Goat/BUILDING PLAN BOOKLET – Maha building instructions. It can be assumed that it would be found/traded and together with a certain quantity of Biodermis given to the Biodermis Smith so he could create a Maha. Theoretically, various instructions could give access to pdf instructions for various Rahi.
The lost Bestiary
It is quite interesting that in the dialogue background with the Smith we can see a picture of the Ussal Crab from the 2002 Master Builder Set. The thing is that this set was to be released in the autumn of 2001, but in a slightly different form.
On the Mask of Destiny website we have some interesting news for 2001. It pertains to the cancelled Master Builder Book, written by Alexander Skinnerton (whose name is oddly similar to Alastair Swinnerton, though according to Maku's conversations he wasn't the writer of the book) that should've been released in the autumn of 2001, but something went wrong.
The peculiarities of this book are that it had 100 pieces included with it which could be used to build 12 different Rahi models. This does not directly match the Master Builder Set, which has 102 pieces and 15 different Rahi, but one can assume that they hastily created another three Pokemon beasts. Also Maku has drawn my attention to the fact that the Master Builder Set contains the 2001 black rubber bands while all the 2002 sets should have the new, sturdier white ones.
Why did I bring this up in the first place? Because I saw a certain parallel between a book with the instructions and lore about certain Rahi and the lost instructions of the Biodermis Smiths that they use to create small Rahi. It could be that the Smiths themselves would have later received the nickname of Master Builders, which would be an incredibly nice reference. Imagine yourselves as small kids that buy a whole Rahi bestiary in order to become a true Master Builder like "those robots from my favorite online adventure game!" It is sad that neither the quest nor the book ever received a release.
Rahi fusions
Another funny and weird method of creating new Rahi. If we remember, 2001 Rahi always have an alternate model - one big new Rahi that could be created from two boxed Rahi. Weirdly, in the expanded LOMN glossary the description of the Kuma-Nui says the following:
"When Kane-Ra and Muaka are combined they form this giant rat-like creature..."
It should be noted that this is the only such description of a Kuma-Nui. However, a similar event happens in the Kathy Hapka book from 2003, Tale of the Toa. The book has a scene where two Manas fuse to form one big creature (probably Mana Ko) which doesn't get referred to by name. Judging by these weird moments we can assume that some sorts of giant Rahi are nothing else than fusions of smaller ones. It makes some sense, since the description at the beginning of this article mentions the Matoran revering the Rahi as the Great Beasts - why wouldn't they have a similar reverence for a Tarakava-Nui or a Nui-Kopen? Maybe it is because they are even more legendary than the normal beasts and are formed from two great creatures? Their descriptions don't contradict this at all – Kuma-Nui, for example, is considered to be one of the mightiest Rahi on the whole of Mata Nui.
In general, I can believe that two Tarakava would form a Tarakava-Nui, Muaka + Kane-Ra = Kuma-Nui, Manas = Mana Ko and Nui-Rama = Nui-Kopen, but why two Nui-Jaga scorpions would form a giant Kahu bird is still a mystery to me. But then again, a fusion between a tiger and a bull forms a giant rat...?
Another interesting thing was found by Maku. In MNOG, a scorpion and a bird for the Po-Koro chapter were depicted on a great telescope. Was this a reference to the Kahu combo model?
Some of these combo-models are the leaders amongst other Great Beasts. For example, if we look at the collectible card game – Search for the Masks, Mana Ko are the leaders of the Manas – which is also alluded to in this LoMN cutscene. It also says that other Rahi have no leaders. However, the MNOG appearance of the Nui-Kopen holding the stolen Lewa mask in its claws gives it the appearance of a mother-leader for the Nui-Rama, which is funny considering how the 2005 Rahi encyclopedia describes them as mortal enemies.
Rahi and their offspring
A weird concept for a world that is predominantly inhabited by biomechanical beings. Besides that, the creators themselves referenced multiple times how neither the Rahi nor the Tohunga can reproduce. But 2001 had several instances of Saffire Games and Templar Games trying to incorporate the possibility of Rahi having children.
Take, for example, the Taku. In modern canon they are nothing but small ducks, but the Tales of the Tohunga game shows them as small helpless chickens waiting for a snack in the form of Turaga Matau. In the game booklet they are described as "eaglets" while the bigger Goko-Kahu (also known as Kewa) are shown as mother-falcon and it's just grabbing whatever it can to feed its young (Turaga, giant boulders or Takua himself, for example).
“He cried out in dismay, realizing that he had just ejected a baby Taku out of its nest. Without thought, he flung one arm upward through the air in the direction of the falling chick.”
It is a lot more complicated with Templar Games and their sixth chapter, which focuses on Le-Koro. In the earliest versions of this chapter scenario the Kahu show up as the main enemies instead of the Nui-Rama, building a giant nest and kidnapping the Tohunga to bring them there. Then Tohunga themselves use domesticated Kahu as weapons against those that serve the Makuta.
The first questions start with the name, since Kahu is the name of that big Nui-Jaga combo model that made it into the final game. However, in the concept art that is labeled Kahu we see their smaller version – the Goko-Kahu. This isn't too weird since it probably just meant that the Goko-Kahu are a subspecies of the original Kahu – meaning that you can describe them both with the name they share. Kofo-Jaga and Nui-Jaga, Tarakava and Tarakava-Nui or Fikou and Fikou-Nui also look like good examples of subspecies. A lot more questions are raised by another moment in the game.
The same scenario has an episode when Takua and Kongu are inside the Kahu nest but suffer a crash.
“When the Visitor awakens, he is imprisoned in a gooey, metallic cell, somewhere inside the Hive. Matau, Tamaru and Kongu are also here. Kahu eggs are all around, and Matau fears that they will someday be food for the larvae.”
Birds having larvae? This is a strange description that only makes sense when we replace the Kahu with the Nui-Rama. This gives me reason to suspect that in this particular instance two different versions of the scenario got mixed up – an earlier one and a later one. The first one is clearly inspired by the TotT game because it plays out in a similar fashion – the evil birds kidnap the Turaga and other citizens and drag them to their nest as food for their chicks, probably Taku. However, the evil Kahu got later replaced with the Nui-Rama and their larvae but until the end of production they were still called Kahu (as was Takua, who was still called George until the end of 2001). At least, this sounds like a probable explanation for the name confusion to me.
But then the question remains – what exactly were the Nui-Rama larvae and what could they have looked like if the idea wasn't thrown out of the window? If we follow the logic that the Taku are the chicks of Kahu birds then the larvae should've been existing models. Peri made an educated guess that these larvae were Electric Bugs, the only Rahi of the hive that didn't have any direct connection to it. But from this perspective they make a lot more sense.
This way we can build up and classify whole Rahi families. For example, Taku, Goko-Kahu and Kahu (the big combo-model) – are one, while the Electric Bugs, Nui-Rama and Nui-Kopen (another big combo-model leader, if we follow the logic described in the previous paragraph) – another.
You are just a Toy
In conclusion I would like to give you some food for thought.
It is funny to find out that the original Bionicle concept is soaked in this whole idea of them being colorful toy robots. Is it bad? If we compare this to the somber and serious Faber concept art – then, yes, the toy part only harms the general atmosphere. But as a part of some concrete form of media (as, for example, a flash-powered point and click game) these cute little references not only are in place, they even work as a self-parody of sorts. And Bionicle loves those, right?
Kaita are a fun way to sell toys in the form of "Buy a lot – build a cool and big one", the search for Kanohi – a collectible "collect-them-all" element, Rahi are small helpers for the Tohunga that can be built using the instruction manual from the pieces you already have and the design sheets used by the Rahi Master Builders are a book that you can buy in the shop at any time.
Even Makuta himself is nothing more than the living concept of playing with Lego bricks. Swinnerton describes the first Makuta image as something more akin to the dark side of the Force. Is he a character at all or just a power of nature is left unclear (however Swinnerton himself is sure of the fact that he is more of a “living idea” than an actual character). This concept is one we meet in MNOG, demonstrating to us the dichotomy of creation and destruction between Mata Nui and Makuta, the latter one calling himself Nothing.
“I bore you. For I am Nothing. And out of Nothing, you came. And it is into Nothing that you will go.”
Gordon Klimes from Templar Studios imagines Makuta as a symbolical destroyer aspect of playing with Lego. You have to build something, and then destroy it to create something new. Makuta is nothing else but the vortex of pieces on the floor that all Lego creations are born from and will always return to. A simple and beautiful idea that rises above the setting and the lore and reminding us that finally we are just working with a construction toy and a material for creating something new, while the lore is nothing more but a world and rules in it and not a clear and untouchable storyline.
Original
Special thanks to my friend Frozen Death for the translation, and a big thanks to Maku for editing. I also highly recommend Maku's document that includes a lot of useful information about early Bionicle lore.
The role of Rahi in the GSR world then and now
During the release of the first generation of Bionicle (2001-2010), Rahi were extremely interesting and rich invariety on the one hand and a very debatable topic qua their role in the general canon on the other. At this present moment we are left with an unsolved issue – in the modern canon, the existence of Rahi isn't justified by any means. They are just inhabitants of a fictional world that Makuta created from Viruses and Protodermis to inhabit the Matoran Universe and for personal reasons, e.g. to serve as guards. How the Matoran Universe's wellbeing was improved by this high population of creatures was never explained. It seems sometimes that the creation of Rahi was an end in and of itself for the insane Makuta, but explaining it bysaying that the Great Beings work in mysterious ways is too simple – which is why this question remains so prevalent in the general fan community.
However, the Rahi were much more involved in the general internal structure of the GSR at first. I previously talked about that when I explained the original concept of Bionicle and how all living beings within the GSR were parts of one complex system that resembled the human body. If we are talking precisely about the role of the Rahi, then that was pretty clearly explained in Maku's document:
“The original concept for the Bionicle universe began with the destruction of a planet. The Great Beings planned to colonize a new world and to this end they created a biomechanical evacuation ship called Mata Nui to transport their civilization, which was held in suspended animation, to a safe haven elsewhere in the universe. Throughout the journey the ship was crewed by the Tohunga, who worked with Rahi to maintain the ship and its systems…”
“In the time before time, the island of Mata Nui was a paradise to behold. Many great beasts, known as Rahi, worked in harmony with the Tohunga villagers. Then the Makuta came and cast a dark shadow across the land. The Makuta brought a great hunger to the Rahi, a hunger for the sacred Kanohi masks. And the Tohunga made stone carvings to warn of these awesome beasts.”
This text clearly suggests a special relationship between the Matoran and the 2001 Rahi, as if they were some kind of sacred animals and the Tohunga must handle them with the utmost respect. Cooperation between the Rahi and Tohunga fits very nicely into the concept of Mata Nui as an evacuation ship.
Protodermis and Biodermis
The next topic that will shine light upon the concept of Rahi breeding is Protodermis and its original 2001 version. Yes, even Protodermis had its analogue in the early stages of Bionicle – and the differences aren't purely cosmetic.
Originally, Protodermis was called Biodermis, which is shown by the early game files. The game also had some lines of dialogue, cut from the final product. Maku, btw, recently found the explanation for why the name had to be changed – Greg himself answered that in 2008:
“No, it's not a legally approved name. It was rejected.”
The reason is that Biodermis was apparently already copyrighted. Look it up on Google, if you want.
The reason is that Biodermis was apparently already copyrighted. Look it up on Google, if you want.
As for the descriptions of this earlier Protodermis analogue I will refer to a small part of a bigger dialogue during the meeting of the Guild Captains:
CAPTAIN OF THE MINING GUILD: “Turaga, the mining guilds have hit an underground rock layer that they cannot break through. We fear the protodermis will run out if we cannot continue our digging!”
TURAGA WHENUA: “How far does it run?”
CAPTAIN OF THE MINING GUILD: “Shaft 3 and Shaft 8 have ceased protodermis mining because they cannot break through this rock layer.”
TURAGA WHENUA: “That's the entire mining area!”
CAPTAIN OF THE MINING GUILD: “Yes, Turaga, for all we know, the strata extends beneath all of Mata Nui, except perhaps the Mangai volcano.”
TURAGA WHENUA: “Are you certain there is no soft spot to dig through, Captain?”
CAPTAIN OF THE MINING GUILD: “We've been over every inch of the surface. There are no fractures, no fault lines, nothing!”
TURAGA WHENUA: “How much remains of the surface deposits?”
CAPTAIN OF THE MINING GUILD: “They are running out. We may have to look elsewhere for more protodermis. Like Ta-Wahi, or Po-Wahi.”
TURAGA WHENUA: “What is this layer made out of?”
CAPTAIN OF THE MINING GUILD: “Our prospectors believe it to be rock, but it has higher organic levels than any mineral composite we've seen.”
TURAGA WHENUA: “Organic?”
CAPTAIN OF THE MINING GUILD: “Yes. It seems to have more in common with an Ussal Crab shell than any normal stone strata.”
TURAGA WHENUA: “Strange. I wonder what we will find if we break through?”
CAPTAIN OF THE MINING GUILD: “Turaga, I must have more men and more machines if we are to know. You must allocate more resources to the mining guilds!”
TURAGA WHENUA: “Captain, I am doing everything I can. No one wants to see the protodermis run out. But Onu-Koro has many problems right now.”
For those who didn't get what exactly the impenetrable layer of matter was referring to: they just dug all the way through to the face of the GSR. Yeah, the great mine of Onu-Koro went so deep that they dug through the whole island and landed on the face, and remained completely unaware of what they had discovered. Even for us it remained a great mystery, up until 2008.
We also should take note of some unique properties that this early Protodermis had, which are described in the dialogue:
“The organics level in it is higher than in any other mineral.” A really interesting clarification, that explains why exactly it was called BIOdermis and gives us some neat parallels towards the main idea of the Biological Chronicle and its main metallic logotype, so loved by Christian Faber. The 2004 – 2010 Protodermis wasn't a mineral with a high organics concentration, it just changed its form and could be hard, metallic, organic, energized and so forth. A totally different thing from 2001 – 2003 Protodermis. In one of the dialogues Turaga Whenua describes it as the “Stuff of life” and Faber – "the living Metal, a mysterious substance for the entirety of the story.”
The captain of the Mining Guild draws a parallel between the Biodermis and the shell of an Ussal Crab. The model itself doesn't have any kind of shell, but we understand that he means its outer layer – referring to how all creatures in this world are made out of Biodermis.
And while we are still talking about this topic I would like to talk about another instance of it appearing – the 2002 plot, when the Toa became the Toa Nuva. The aesthetic of a futuristic metal is in every promo, in the canisters and in the visual style of that year. In the later Greg Farshtey canon the Toa fall into Energized Protodermis, which is a unique form of Protodermis. But, as we know, there wasn't a distinction of Protodermis into 53728 different kinds before 2004. If we read the Lexicon from the official website then we can see that the Protodermis just works as a catalyst for whatever process transformed the Toa in those tubes. So, that means that the Protodermis itself doesn't give the Toa great power; but can do that if combined with a certain system or mechanism that uses Protodermis. The fact that this is some kind of special system designed to improve the Toa is further shown by the mysterious appearance of the Nuva Cube and the Nuva Symbols that are, de facto, the source of their new powers.
“A vital, mysterious substance that provides the catalyst for the transformation of the Toa into the Toa Nuva. It is also mined in Onu-Koro, and sometimes used as currency.”
And finally, the most important piece of dialogue from the game that returns us towards the main topic of this whole article. This line is attributed to another character, the head of the Trading Guild:
“They make goods and livestock from the protodermis. Without it they cannot trade for stone! We will lose that market.”
Yes, the “livestock” part of the dialogue was redacted in later versions of the game, but the fact remains – the Tohunga themselves, without any Makuta or viruses, made Rahi from Protodermis so they could work alongside them for the greatness of Mata Nui.
The Biodermis Forge
And now a bit more about the beautiful birthing process of the Rahi. It is time to talk about that, we are not kids anymore. But in order to do so we first need to take a deep dive into the deleted materials of the game. Let's talk about all of it in order.
Do you see the small hut behind the Ga-Koran? Does anything look weird? And does it bother you that the windows are glowing but the entrance, despite lacking a door, is dark? The thing is, the sprite that was supposed to represent the glowing -clickable- entrance was removed from the screen, so you cannot enter. But if we are clever and manage to force our way in we see that it…
Sadly enough, the text files with his dialogue were never added (if they ever even existed at some point), but taking what we have into account we can make several assumptions:
Tohunga made mostly small, friendly Rahi like Ussal crabs, Husi and Maha (maybe even Kewa Birds but we don't have any confirmation of that assumption).
It seems like the creation of big set Rahi titans, like Tarakava or Muaka wasn't within the Matoran's capabilities and they were originally created by the Great Beings. That's why the Matoran respected these "Great Beasts" so much in my eyes.
Deleted quest
biodermis/BIO-DERMIS – the only item in the game with a numerical value. The picture consists of some pieces of the Maha model. The commentary from Templar Games for this item describes it as raw material that the players should bring to the Biodermis forge in order to create Rahi. You can get the biodermis on the Great Market through bartering.
“If I recall, the Biodermis Smith was supposed to sell you blueprints for various small animals that you could build if you had collected the right pieces. Sort of a LEGO Pokemon, gotta build em all! I forget exactly what purpose the creations were to have in-game. There was plenty of stuff like that we had to leave out due to tight deadline constraints.”
pBook_Goat/BUILDING PLAN BOOKLET – Maha building instructions. It can be assumed that it would be found/traded and together with a certain quantity of Biodermis given to the Biodermis Smith so he could create a Maha. Theoretically, various instructions could give access to pdf instructions for various Rahi.
The lost Bestiary
It is quite interesting that in the dialogue background with the Smith we can see a picture of the Ussal Crab from the 2002 Master Builder Set. The thing is that this set was to be released in the autumn of 2001, but in a slightly different form.
On the Mask of Destiny website we have some interesting news for 2001. It pertains to the cancelled Master Builder Book, written by Alexander Skinnerton (whose name is oddly similar to Alastair Swinnerton, though according to Maku's conversations he wasn't the writer of the book) that should've been released in the autumn of 2001, but something went wrong.
The peculiarities of this book are that it had 100 pieces included with it which could be used to build 12 different Rahi models. This does not directly match the Master Builder Set, which has 102 pieces and 15 different Rahi, but one can assume that they hastily created another three Pokemon beasts. Also Maku has drawn my attention to the fact that the Master Builder Set contains the 2001 black rubber bands while all the 2002 sets should have the new, sturdier white ones.
Why did I bring this up in the first place? Because I saw a certain parallel between a book with the instructions and lore about certain Rahi and the lost instructions of the Biodermis Smiths that they use to create small Rahi. It could be that the Smiths themselves would have later received the nickname of Master Builders, which would be an incredibly nice reference. Imagine yourselves as small kids that buy a whole Rahi bestiary in order to become a true Master Builder like "those robots from my favorite online adventure game!" It is sad that neither the quest nor the book ever received a release.
Rahi fusions
Another funny and weird method of creating new Rahi. If we remember, 2001 Rahi always have an alternate model - one big new Rahi that could be created from two boxed Rahi. Weirdly, in the expanded LOMN glossary the description of the Kuma-Nui says the following:
"When Kane-Ra and Muaka are combined they form this giant rat-like creature..."
It should be noted that this is the only such description of a Kuma-Nui. However, a similar event happens in the Kathy Hapka book from 2003, Tale of the Toa. The book has a scene where two Manas fuse to form one big creature (probably Mana Ko) which doesn't get referred to by name. Judging by these weird moments we can assume that some sorts of giant Rahi are nothing else than fusions of smaller ones. It makes some sense, since the description at the beginning of this article mentions the Matoran revering the Rahi as the Great Beasts - why wouldn't they have a similar reverence for a Tarakava-Nui or a Nui-Kopen? Maybe it is because they are even more legendary than the normal beasts and are formed from two great creatures? Their descriptions don't contradict this at all – Kuma-Nui, for example, is considered to be one of the mightiest Rahi on the whole of Mata Nui.
In general, I can believe that two Tarakava would form a Tarakava-Nui, Muaka + Kane-Ra = Kuma-Nui, Manas = Mana Ko and Nui-Rama = Nui-Kopen, but why two Nui-Jaga scorpions would form a giant Kahu bird is still a mystery to me. But then again, a fusion between a tiger and a bull forms a giant rat...?
Another interesting thing was found by Maku. In MNOG, a scorpion and a bird for the Po-Koro chapter were depicted on a great telescope. Was this a reference to the Kahu combo model?
Some of these combo-models are the leaders amongst other Great Beasts. For example, if we look at the collectible card game – Search for the Masks, Mana Ko are the leaders of the Manas – which is also alluded to in this LoMN cutscene. It also says that other Rahi have no leaders. However, the MNOG appearance of the Nui-Kopen holding the stolen Lewa mask in its claws gives it the appearance of a mother-leader for the Nui-Rama, which is funny considering how the 2005 Rahi encyclopedia describes them as mortal enemies.
Rahi and their offspring
A weird concept for a world that is predominantly inhabited by biomechanical beings. Besides that, the creators themselves referenced multiple times how neither the Rahi nor the Tohunga can reproduce. But 2001 had several instances of Saffire Games and Templar Games trying to incorporate the possibility of Rahi having children.
Take, for example, the Taku. In modern canon they are nothing but small ducks, but the Tales of the Tohunga game shows them as small helpless chickens waiting for a snack in the form of Turaga Matau. In the game booklet they are described as "eaglets" while the bigger Goko-Kahu (also known as Kewa) are shown as mother-falcon and it's just grabbing whatever it can to feed its young (Turaga, giant boulders or Takua himself, for example).
“He cried out in dismay, realizing that he had just ejected a baby Taku out of its nest. Without thought, he flung one arm upward through the air in the direction of the falling chick.”
It is a lot more complicated with Templar Games and their sixth chapter, which focuses on Le-Koro. In the earliest versions of this chapter scenario the Kahu show up as the main enemies instead of the Nui-Rama, building a giant nest and kidnapping the Tohunga to bring them there. Then Tohunga themselves use domesticated Kahu as weapons against those that serve the Makuta.
The first questions start with the name, since Kahu is the name of that big Nui-Jaga combo model that made it into the final game. However, in the concept art that is labeled Kahu we see their smaller version – the Goko-Kahu. This isn't too weird since it probably just meant that the Goko-Kahu are a subspecies of the original Kahu – meaning that you can describe them both with the name they share. Kofo-Jaga and Nui-Jaga, Tarakava and Tarakava-Nui or Fikou and Fikou-Nui also look like good examples of subspecies. A lot more questions are raised by another moment in the game.
The same scenario has an episode when Takua and Kongu are inside the Kahu nest but suffer a crash.
“When the Visitor awakens, he is imprisoned in a gooey, metallic cell, somewhere inside the Hive. Matau, Tamaru and Kongu are also here. Kahu eggs are all around, and Matau fears that they will someday be food for the larvae.”
“When the Visitor awakens, he is imprisoned in a gooey, metallic cell, somewhere inside the Hive. Matau, Tamaru and Kongu are also here. Kahu eggs are all around, and Matau fears that they will someday be food for the larvae.”
Birds having larvae? This is a strange description that only makes sense when we replace the Kahu with the Nui-Rama. This gives me reason to suspect that in this particular instance two different versions of the scenario got mixed up – an earlier one and a later one. The first one is clearly inspired by the TotT game because it plays out in a similar fashion – the evil birds kidnap the Turaga and other citizens and drag them to their nest as food for their chicks, probably Taku. However, the evil Kahu got later replaced with the Nui-Rama and their larvae but until the end of production they were still called Kahu (as was Takua, who was still called George until the end of 2001). At least, this sounds like a probable explanation for the name confusion to me.
But then the question remains – what exactly were the Nui-Rama larvae and what could they have looked like if the idea wasn't thrown out of the window? If we follow the logic that the Taku are the chicks of Kahu birds then the larvae should've been existing models. Peri made an educated guess that these larvae were Electric Bugs, the only Rahi of the hive that didn't have any direct connection to it. But from this perspective they make a lot more sense.
This way we can build up and classify whole Rahi families. For example, Taku, Goko-Kahu and Kahu (the big combo-model) – are one, while the Electric Bugs, Nui-Rama and Nui-Kopen (another big combo-model leader, if we follow the logic described in the previous paragraph) – another.
You are just a Toy
In conclusion I would like to give you some food for thought.
It is funny to find out that the original Bionicle concept is soaked in this whole idea of them being colorful toy robots. Is it bad? If we compare this to the somber and serious Faber concept art – then, yes, the toy part only harms the general atmosphere. But as a part of some concrete form of media (as, for example, a flash-powered point and click game) these cute little references not only are in place, they even work as a self-parody of sorts. And Bionicle loves those, right?
Kaita are a fun way to sell toys in the form of "Buy a lot – build a cool and big one", the search for Kanohi – a collectible "collect-them-all" element, Rahi are small helpers for the Tohunga that can be built using the instruction manual from the pieces you already have and the design sheets used by the Rahi Master Builders are a book that you can buy in the shop at any time.
Even Makuta himself is nothing more than the living concept of playing with Lego bricks. Swinnerton describes the first Makuta image as something more akin to the dark side of the Force. Is he a character at all or just a power of nature is left unclear (however Swinnerton himself is sure of the fact that he is more of a “living idea” than an actual character). This concept is one we meet in MNOG, demonstrating to us the dichotomy of creation and destruction between Mata Nui and Makuta, the latter one calling himself Nothing.
“I bore you. For I am Nothing. And out of Nothing, you came. And it is into Nothing that you will go.”
Gordon Klimes from Templar Studios imagines Makuta as a symbolical destroyer aspect of playing with Lego. You have to build something, and then destroy it to create something new. Makuta is nothing else but the vortex of pieces on the floor that all Lego creations are born from and will always return to. A simple and beautiful idea that rises above the setting and the lore and reminding us that finally we are just working with a construction toy and a material for creating something new, while the lore is nothing more but a world and rules in it and not a clear and untouchable storyline.
Original
Special thanks to my friend Frozen Death for the translation, and a big thanks to Maku for editing. I also highly recommend Maku's document that includes a lot of useful information about early Bionicle lore.
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