Bionicle

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Bionicle is a setting and toyline created by the Lego company involving robots on an island, and it gets unendingly more complicated from that.

History

Despite always being a popular toy line among children, the Lego corporation in the late 90's was on the verge of bankruptcy. They had almost no licensed intellectual properties outside of Star Wars which only produced limited returns due to royalties, and leaned heavily on generic ideas like "knights" and "pirates". They were unsuccessful in obtaining the rights to make licensed sets and by all market projections would have been shut down by the 2000's.

Lego had previously had sets with larger pieces utilizing gears and gimmicks like a bendy arm to fire things or looking like a car under the name "Technic". Originally concieved as a voodoo theme by employees involved in marketing, Alastair Swinnerton worked with them on revising the concept over multiple drafts into a Polynesian-inspired story about biological technological chronicles, which inspired the name Bionicle. The end result was a VERY elaborate story which spanned multiple generations, full of plot hooks and creatures to make sets of. Bob Thompson lead the team that grouped the story by medium.

The first set, each of the six heroes the story focused on, was released with only mild advertising in North America in the 2000 Christmas season. It was an AMAZING success, earning the company more revenue than any line previously. Lego quickly scrambled to market it, making CG television commercials depicting each of the heroes as well as selling boxed sets containing a mask molded in the shape of each of the six but in each other's colors.

Lego Magazine began featuring an ongoing comic series written by Greg Farshtey that contained most of the lore for the series, and was later published by DC Comics as an ongoing series. The internet factored heavily in their promotion with early flash games, later Playstation 2 and Gameboy Advanced games being used as marketed advertising. Four movies and many shorts were made, and a few musicians made a career just writing music for Bionicle (Rob Zombie was even on board to create a song for Bionicle at one point). Podcasts and novels were also involved in some of the storytelling, although they were largely sidelined in favor of the visual mediums.

The Bionicle theme (which is what groupings of sets under a given, well, theme are called in Lego) continued through multiple generations until 2010 when it was ended in favor of the newer original lines including Ninjago. Like most companies in the late 2010's, Lego resurrected the Bionicle line in 2015 to cash in on nostalgia and start a new generation with a Lego addiction the same as the last. As of now, research indicates 85% of American children know about Bionicle and 45% own at least one set.

Setting

Bionicle, as stated above, is based in Polynesian folklore.

Most non-plant life in the setting is actually organic robots who can lose or replace their parts although they can feel pain and suffer fatal wounds, eat and thus most likely excrete, and have genders. Compared to a similar work, Transformers, Bionicle is closer to the organic side of things.

A long time ago, on a planet called Spherus Magna, a race of godlike creatures (who appear to be humans, although they are only ever shown in silhouette) called Great Beings lived in six tribes, although whether naturally from there or if they came from someplace else is not clear; they had to tame the planet early on. Great Beings were creators at heart, although they ruled over their creations and saw to it that balance was maintained. In time they chose six individuals from their creations to become the Element Lords who's sole task was to rule while the Great Beings created. This worked for thousands of years, during which the Great Beings attempted to build a giant race of robots with the prototype simply exploding.

Eventually however, a shift in power left the Elemental Lord of Ice with a spring of Energized Protodermis, a substance from the core of Spherus Magna which was used by the Great Beings to create life and if necessary destroy it as well. He refused to share it, and the Core War broke out with each Elemental Lord attempting to destroy the others.

Knowing what was to happen, the Great Beings created a race of tiny robots called Matoran who in turn built a giant robot called Mata Nui out of Protodermis. The Great Beings busied themselves creating artifacts which their robots could use called Kanohi masks, which grant various powers when worn. Without a Kanohi mask, a Matoran is almost defenseless. The Great Beings then made final efforts to stop the destruction caused by the Elemental Lords, who refused to see reason and fought against all creations the Great Beings made to attempt to control them. They also created many McGuffins, from the Mask of Light to a mysterious a device to basically kill all robots everywhere, all with the general idea "the solution to more potential for things to go wrong is more and more failsafes".

Eventually the planet was split in three during the Shattering. One planet which was one giant desert, and two moons with one being simply a giant ocean ball and another as one giant jungle which was half frozen. The lifeforms of Spherus Magnus retreated to the inside of an unbelievably large robot called the Great Spirit Robot, so enormous that his body contains continents floating on an ocean. The Great Beings retired to one of the moons to watch their work unfold, although one hid himself as a Matoran to live amongst them and see firsthand what they had wrought.

Mata Nui created robots called Makuta, who soon called themselves the Brotherhood of Makuta, lead by one of their number called Miserix. They protected the Matoran while Mata Nui attempted to restore Spherus Magnus to its former state, and to do this they were given the power to shape the various mechanical lifeforms of the planet into "Rahi" which were modified servants. The Brotherhood of Makuta was based in a giant mechanical city called Metru Nui, where the Matoran were relocated to. But the Matoran had begun to worship Mata Nui as their god, and a secret society called the Order of Mata Nui came about in their ranks. The Order chose the best of the Matoran to be elevated/upgraded into warriors called Toa which were patterned after ancient warriors called Toa Mata (more on them later).

Not long after Mata Nui created a race called the Barraki which were lead by the "League of Six Kingdoms". Barraki were designed to contain the numerous threats which the feral creations of the Great Beings had come to be, and spread quickly throughout the planet. They were instructed to never harm the Makuta, Matoran, or Metru Nui, and had a very uneasy alliance with the peoples that Mata Nui had created. As the Barraki grew more and more bold they coerced the robot peoples into aiding them in their plans to divide all of creation (other than Metru Nui) into six, one for each of the League. When it was discovered that the Barraki had grown bold enough to infiltrate Metru Nui while planning to kill Mata Nui himself, the Makuta finally declared war on them and formed an uneasy alliance with the Toa (who's origins he didn't know).

After the defeat of the Barraki, the Toa (armed in giant robots (yes, a robot within a robot) called "Exo-Toa") showed mercy to their race and trapped them rather than destroy them. Some among Makuta then began to plan to overthrow Mata Nui themselves while destroying all threats to Metru Nui (which increasingly became a police state). After a small war between two factions of Matoran over territory, the Makuta destroyed the combatants to the last in a spectacle for all Matoran to see. The Matoran, rather than be cowed, began to fear and hate the Makuta. Miserix responded by moving the Makuta further from the city, assigning his second-in-command Teridax to control Metru Nui itself from his skyfortress Mangaia. After a Makuta became aware of Teridax's own plan to destroy Mata Nui, the Brotherhood of the Makuta met to vote on the course of action. Miserix and the loyalists were in the minority, with Miserix sentenced to death but hidden instead by his executioners while the others had "accidents".

The Makuta became increasingly close to Mata Nui as they planned their betrayal, subjugating all beings they encountered to form their massive armies with only the Matoran still revering Mata Nui and the Great Beings. This last unattainable symbol, the love of the laborers, was what drove the Makuta to finally betray Mata Nui by poisoning him when he began to pull both the moons back together to restore Spherus Magna to its original state. He was forced into a comatose-like state although in the process the planet did reform, and before falling into catatonia Mata Nui used the restored prototype robot body to cripple Teridax. The Matoran rioted against the Makuta with their mythology coming to show Mata Nui as the creator of all, Makuta (as a singular being although they were actually referring to Teridax) as the Adversary, and were forced into mind-wipe chambers as a result. The Toa waged war against the Makuta to save their people, with both sides suffering grave losses.

The Matoran all fled the city of Metru Nui, leaving for another landmass within the Great Spirit Robot that they dubbed "Mata Nui" after their god (little did they know however that it was actually the mask of Mata Nui). Mata Nui (the continent) actually sits above Metru Nui, like a literal mask on Metru Nui. Teridax, known simply as "Makuta", waited in the dark while he watched his own plan to control all of creation unfold.

Mata Nui, like almost everything else in the Bionicle universe, is conveniently grouped into six dominant geographical features including coasts, jungles, volcanic areas, canyons, an expansive underground, and a snowy mountainous region. The Matoran quickly spread throughout them and lived short lives full of suffering (other than the rare occasions when they could gather to play sports of course) as they were constantly preyed on by Rahi. Each Matoran tribe is lead by a village elder called a Turaga. During the time before the shattering, the Great Beings had created two robots designed to look after the Matoran. Karzahni was the being who controlled the facility which repaired the ancient Matoran, and in time in their mythology he had become known as a master of some vague horrible underworld. The other being, Artakha, was created to construct the Matoran and to upgrade them as needed; in Matoran mythology he is seen as a brother to Karzahni and rules over a divine realm where evil cannot enter.

In time most of the knowledge of the ancient Matoran was lost to all but their seemingly immortal Turaga, save that Mata Nui is the loving creator, Makuta is his hated brother who forced him to sleep, Toa are ancient heroes of some kind, and that if you go out of the village without your Kanohi on a Rahi will eat you.

The franchise's story begins now. One day a traveling Matoran named Takua who was a storyteller unintentionally gathered six ancient stones and brought them to the heart of Mata Nui, called Kini Nui, which summoned six ancient canisters from the ocean to the island (these canisters are identical to the containers of the original toys and were intended to be used to play with). Each canister contained a fabled hero, called the Toa. They each burst from their canister in parts, and assembled themselves before setting off instinctively in search of their respective people. Each knew only how to speak and what their own name was.

In actuality, they were the very first of the Toa; the aforementioned Toa Mata, who were never Matoran. The Toa Mata were created by Artakha and trained by the first Matoran warrior, all as a contingency plan in case Mata Nui was ever vanquished.

• Tahu, Toa of fire. Wields a sword made of fire, generic red-headed leader guy. His tribe of Matoran are Ta-Matoran, and are a disciplined people. All Ta-Matoran are male.
• Gali, Toa of water. Has hooks for hands and can breath underwater, chill as fuck until you piss her off. Her tribe are the Ga-Matoran, an easy-going race of diplomats. All Ga-Matoran are female, and on Mata Nui are the ONLY females of the Matoran race.
• Lewa, Toa of air. Has a giant fucking axe, never shuts up and likely has ADD. His tribe is the Le-Matoran, who are a race of less-annoying Kendar. All Le-Matoran are male.
• Pohatu, Toa of stone. Has REALLY strong feet, same personality as Gali basically. His tribe is the Po-Matoran, who are realists. All Po-Matoran are male.
• Onua, Toa of earth. A tunneler with claws, the conscience of the Toa. His tribe is the Onu-Matoran, a race of historians. All Onu-Matoran are male.
• Kopaka, Toa of ice. Has a sword and a shield. A complete 2cool4school loner who only likes Pohatu and Gali. His tribe is Ka-Matoran, isolationists and dreamers. All Ko-Matoran are male.

The Toa initially fought against the Rahi, first gathering five masks each (the same as the others had, but in their color) which formed into a golden mask (looking like their own) which granted all the special powers of the masks at once, then gathering six Makoki stones to unlock the Makuta lair. There the six merged into two and fought Teridax's minions then split again and suffered through Teridax's trials until they could vanquish his body.

They then fought the Bohrok, old feral creations of the Great Beings who were controlled in a hivemind through masks in their heads called "Krana" (which when worn controlled the mind of the Toa or Matoran it was on). The Toa continued their gathering quests by collecting all six colors of the eight types of Krana to unlock the nest of the Bohrok and defeat the twin Bahrag, the minds of the Bohrok. The Toa Mata were mutated into a new form, Toa Nuva, during the fight. The final servants of the Bahrag, Bohrok-Kal, were freed when the Bahrag were defeated with the intent of freeing them in a contingency plan. The Toa temporarily lost their powers, fought amongst themselves, yadda yadda, used the Mask of Time to slow time and defeat them. No collecting shit this time though.

Takua, the Matoran who had initially summoned the Toa by mistake, discovered the Mask of Light and with the other main character Matoran (who had been the focus of the Matoran toys and online content) went on a quest to find the legendary seventh Toa while the Toa themselves fought Teridax's contingency plan of having been defeated (everyone seems to have one) called the Rahkshi, powerful anti-Toa controlled by Kraata masks. Takua was revealed to actually BE the seventh Toa, Takanuva, who merged with the corpse of Teridax and used the last of Teridax's power to resurrect fallen Matoran.

The Matoran leaders, the Turaga, then summoned the seven Toa to tell them of the history of Metru Nui and how they themselves were the Toa in the final days of the island. They informed them the seventh Matoran tribe, the Av-Matoran (who have both male and female members) still reside there. In the comics this resulted in things finally getting really clusterfucky and confusing as the story became layers of extremely long flashbacks, telling the story of Metru Nui. Really. If one was following the setting at this point, it was very confusing having the story shift from a flashback on a beach to a completely different setting with no context (revealed MUCH layer to be underneath the island, and featuring the Turaga when they were Toa) for a time that may have been longer than the story up until that point.

That's Great And All, What The Fuck Does This Have To Do With /tg/?

There have been many tabletop Bionicle games, an official RPG, multiple unofficial RPG's, and Bionicle is a popular subject for Quest Threads on /tg/.