Annona

Annona is an ancient entity, older than the Great BeingsThe Great BeingsScholar-inventors of Spherus Magna whose creations shaped the Matoran Universe and whose absence defined the conflicts that followed., that feeds on the dreams of sleeping beings and leaves them to go mad. It hid underground for ages to avoid the Great Beings, wiped out the Iron TribeThe Iron TribeAn entire civilization consumed by dream-hunger, leaving only scattered survivors who dared not reveal their origins. in the Dreaming PlagueThe Dreaming PlagueAn entire Agori tribe lost the ability to dream, then lost their minds, then died. The cause was not a disease at all., and resurfaced on the reformed planet, where SahmadSahmadA slaver, a survivor, and the only living memory of a people the Dreaming Plague erased before the Core War. and the golden being finally got rid of it. Sahmad calls Annona "he", though the story never fixes its nature. (Sahmad's Tale)

Origins and Banishment Underground#

Annona existed before the Great Beings rose on the planet that would become Spherus MagnaSpherus MagnaA desert world of ancient conflict that became the merger point of the Matoran Universe and Bionicle's true endpoint.. It watched them in case they were a threat and at one point tried to drive them mad with its powers, but their minds were too alien. The Great Beings fed off its mind instead, taking its dreams as inspiration for their own creations, and Annona fled underground to avoid them. (Sahmad's Tale)

It stayed hidden for a very long time, afraid of the Great Beings. Only when they were gone from the planet did it dare to come back out. (Sahmad's Tale)

The Dreaming Plague#

The Iron Tribe lived in the mountains of Bota MagnaBota MagnaA verdant jungle moon separated from Spherus Magna for 100,000 years, then restored by Mata Nui himself at the climax of the Core War. long before the Core War and the Shattering, mining iron and sending it to the Fire TribeFire TribeThe master smiths of Bara Magna who forged tools for all tribes before the Shattering scattered them into conflict. to be forged. Without warning, miners on the edges of their land began to act strangely. They had stopped dreaming. (Sahmad's Tale)

The victims went from irritable to violent to mad, and in the end they died raving. The condition spread through the tribe like a disease. A few, including Sahmad and TellurisTellurisAn Iron Tribe scavenger and one of the few immune to the Dreaming Plague, reduced to solitary vengeance., seemed immune, and they hid from their former friends. The other tribes refused to help, closed their borders and stopped trading, fearing the iron carried the sickness, and a healthy iron tribe Agori who tried to join another tribe was driven into the forest and killed by a beast. (Sahmad's Tale)

Sahmad spent the rest of his life wanting to know what had caused it. When he finally faced Annona, it told him simply that it had been hungry, and when it hungers, it feeds. (Sahmad's Tale)

Interventions with the Sisters of the Skrall#

Annona also gave the female SkrallSkrallA black-armored warrior species from Spherus Magna that dominated northern Bara Magna under Tuma's rule. their psionic powers, expecting them to use them to destroy the males of their species. Instead, the females were driven out of Skrall society. They never knew the true source of their powers, and their legends credited the Great Being Angonce instead. (Sahmad's Tale; Empire of the Skrall)

When the Sisters of the SkrallSisters of the SkrallThe female Skrall faction, exiled from their males and armed with innate psionic powers that made them the true rulers of the Rock Tribe. later set out to find Angonce and gain even more power, Annona captured them and stripped away their wills. (Sahmad's Tale)

The Chamber Beneath Bara Magna#

After Mata NuiMata NuiBuilt by the Great Beings to restore Spherus Magna, Mata Nui sustained an entire civilisation inside his body, was deposed by Teridax, and reclaimed his purpose as a mortal on Bara Magna. turned MetusMetusMetus was a transformed Agori from Spherus Magna who worked as a Glatorian recruiter. Originally a member of the Ice Tribe, he later joined the Rock Tribe. White and ice blue in coloration, Metus wielded an Ice Axe and an Ice Shield. into a snake, Sahmad found him in the desert and learned that he too had stopped dreaming. Sahmad, Telluris and Metus went north to the place where the sickness had taken hold of Metus, looking for the cause. Tentacles burst from the ground and dragged Metus and Telluris under, and Sahmad stood on the spot and dared the creature to take him too. (Sahmad's Tale)

He woke in what looked like a healer's room in a peaceful future. A scarred, older KiinaKiinaKiina is a Glatorian of the Water Tribe who served as the secondary Glatorian for the village of Tajun on Spherus Magna. Colored in shades of dark and light blue, she wielded a Vapor Trident and a Thornax Launcher in combat. Following the reformation of Spherus Magna, she continued to reside on the restored world. told him he had slept for 750 years. Sahmad didn't believe a word: Kiina would never sit at his bedside except to stab him. The illusion soon fell apart. (Sahmad's Tale)

He woke a second time surrounded by iron tribe Agori speaking with one voice. The figures turned out to be the captive Sisters of the Skrall, and Annona spoke through them, then showed itself: a light like staring into the sun, leaving reddish afterimages of things too hideous to describe. Telluris and Metus, now somehow back on two legs, found him and the three escaped toward the surface, only to find that Annona had freed itself and was rising into the open air. (Sahmad's Tale)

Confrontation on Aqua Magna#

With the Great Beings gone, Annona was free at last, and it went looking for its next meal. Sahmad, Telluris and Metus leapt into its glowing sphere as it vanished and came out in the sea off Aqua MagnaAqua MagnaThe endless ocean where the Matoran Universe found refuge and Mata Nui made his final stand., below a fortress on the clifftops. (Sahmad's Tale)

The fortress belonged to the golden being, a twelve-foot giant with golden skin and a reptilian face, and its defenders were heavily armed SkakdiSkakdiA brutish warrior species from Zakaz whose pair-dependent elemental powers and moral void made them one of Bionicle's few irredeemable factions.. Annona held the warriors in illusions, fighting empty air, and moved on the fortress until the golden being came out to stop it. Annona mocked him as a pitiful amalgam of lesser races, bandits and thieves, among them one thought dead. (Sahmad's Tale)

The golden being drew spears of rock from the ground that pierced Annona and left it dying. But it then devoured the dreams of all the Skakdi at once, driving them mad, and tore itself free. Because the golden being makes dreams real, the warriors' insane dreams started coming to life, and his fortress began to melt. (Sahmad's Tale)

Banishment#

Telluris broke cover and charged Annona with a branch, and was killed. Sahmad broke off one of the rock spikes and drove it into one of Annona's joints. (Sahmad's Tale)

Then Sahmad saw the answer. Annona fed on the dreams of sleep, while the golden being took the dreams of the heart and made them real. Sahmad dreamed that no one on Spherus Magna, or on any world nearby, could dream, and the golden being made it so. With its food cut off, Annona begged for a bargain: it would leave them alone in exchange for a new world to feed on. (Sahmad's Tale)

The golden being agreed and gave his word that Sahmad would keep to it. Sahmad dreamed a lush green paradise, free for Annona to feed on, and filled it with a population of beings exactly like Annona. They would feed on each other, and within a year, none would be left. As Annona faded away into its new world, Sahmad told it, "Got you." Afterwards he and the golden being gave the world back its dreams. (Sahmad's Tale)

Powers and Appearance#

Annona's true form is a radiant red light, like a star with spined tentacles. When it first appeared to Sahmad it chilled the air around it, but after gorging on the Skakdi's dreams it blazed hot enough to burn anyone who came near. (Sahmad's Tale)

Its main power is eating the dreams of sleeping beings, which robs them of the release that dreams give and drives them to madness and death. It can also cast detailed illusions, take control of other minds and speak through them, teleport from one part of the planet to another, and grant psionic powers to others, as it did to the female Skrall. (Sahmad's Tale)