Blade Burrower: The Tunnelling Rahi of Metru Nui

Blade BurrowersBlade BurrowersThe tunneling Rahi engineered by Makuta Mutran for the Barraki Kalmah, gifted with deliberately shortened lifespans, and later discovered to have outlived their expiration date while carving an unreadable map beneath their warlord's ruined fortress. were powerful, mysterious, and dangerous RahiRahiThe Rahi were the biomechanical wildlife of the Matoran Universe, built largely by the Brotherhood of Makuta, ranging from background fauna to engineered war beasts. best known for their compulsion to dig. When enough of them gathered, they tunnelled endlessly through the earth in a fixed pattern, including beneath Metru NuiMetru NuiThe city beneath Mata Nui functions as the Great Spirit's brain, housing the Matoran whose labor keeps the god alive.. No one who tried to understand that behaviour, not MutranMutranMutran is a Makuta of the Brotherhood of Makuta who serves as the Makuta of Voya Nui and is among the most prolific Rahi creators within the organization. Hailing from the Southern Islands, he wears the Great Shelek and commands the powers of Shadow and Silence alongside the full range of Kraata abilities, wielding a Shadow Blade, Shadow Spear, and Tridax Pod in combat. who created them nor the Rahaga who tracked them, was ever able to explain it. (BIONICLE: Rahi Beasts; The Mutran Chronicles)

Origins and the League of Six Kingdoms#

The Blade BurrowersBlade BurrowersThe tunneling Rahi engineered by Makuta Mutran for the Barraki Kalmah, gifted with deliberately shortened lifespans, and later discovered to have outlived their expiration date while carving an unreadable map beneath their warlord's ruined fortress. were one of the many RahiRahiThe Rahi were the biomechanical wildlife of the Matoran Universe, built largely by the Brotherhood of Makuta, ranging from background fauna to engineered war beasts. species created by MutranMutranMutran is a Makuta of the Brotherhood of Makuta who serves as the Makuta of Voya Nui and is among the most prolific Rahi creators within the organization. Hailing from the Southern Islands, he wears the Great Shelek and commands the powers of Shadow and Silence alongside the full range of Kraata abilities, wielding a Shadow Blade, Shadow Spear, and Tridax Pod in combat., and he gave them their name. (The Mutran Chronicles)

The species was put to use by the BarrakiThe BarrakiSix warlords who built an empire spanning most of the Matoran Universe, fell to a Brotherhood strike, and spent millennia imprisoned in the Pit. warlord KalmahKalmahA red-and-black Barraki warlord of the League of Six Kingdoms, imprisoned in the Pit and mutated into permanent aquatic form. during his reign in the League of Six KingdomsLeague of Six KingdomsThe League of Six Kingdoms was an alliance composed of various species, with ties to Xia and many other islands. Connected to both the Order of Mata Nui and the Brotherhood of Makuta, the League included Pridak among its ranks, and its members collectively held several powers of unknown scope. Its stated objective was the overthrow of Mata Nui.. KalmahKalmahA red-and-black Barraki warlord of the League of Six Kingdoms, imprisoned in the Pit and mutated into permanent aquatic form. never showed MutranMutranMutran is a Makuta of the Brotherhood of Makuta who serves as the Makuta of Voya Nui and is among the most prolific Rahi creators within the organization. Hailing from the Southern Islands, he wears the Great Shelek and commands the powers of Shadow and Silence alongside the full range of Kraata abilities, wielding a Shadow Blade, Shadow Spear, and Tridax Pod in combat. the respect he felt a MakutaMakuta: species, title, and TeridaxMakuta means three things in the Matoran Universe: the Antidermis species Mata Nui created, the Brotherhood rank, and most often Teridax himself. was due, so every RahiRahiThe Rahi were the biomechanical wildlife of the Matoran Universe, built largely by the Brotherhood of Makuta, ranging from background fauna to engineered war beasts. MutranMutranMutran is a Makuta of the Brotherhood of Makuta who serves as the Makuta of Voya Nui and is among the most prolific Rahi creators within the organization. Hailing from the Southern Islands, he wears the Great Shelek and commands the powers of Shadow and Silence alongside the full range of Kraata abilities, wielding a Shadow Blade, Shadow Spear, and Tridax Pod in combat. sent him, Burrowers included, was built to live no more than three days. When the League fell, MutranMutranMutran is a Makuta of the Brotherhood of Makuta who serves as the Makuta of Voya Nui and is among the most prolific Rahi creators within the organization. Hailing from the Southern Islands, he wears the Great Shelek and commands the powers of Shadow and Silence alongside the full range of Kraata abilities, wielding a Shadow Blade, Shadow Spear, and Tridax Pod in combat. searched the remains of KalmahKalmahA red-and-black Barraki warlord of the League of Six Kingdoms, imprisoned in the Pit and mutated into permanent aquatic form.'s fortress and found a carving showing that some Burrowers had survived past their expiration, and that KalmahKalmahA red-and-black Barraki warlord of the League of Six Kingdoms, imprisoned in the Pit and mutated into permanent aquatic form. believed their tunnels formed a map. MutranMutranMutran is a Makuta of the Brotherhood of Makuta who serves as the Makuta of Voya Nui and is among the most prolific Rahi creators within the organization. Hailing from the Southern Islands, he wears the Great Shelek and commands the powers of Shadow and Silence alongside the full range of Kraata abilities, wielding a Shadow Blade, Shadow Spear, and Tridax Pod in combat. could not match the shape to any land he knew, and even forced a captured ToaToa (2001)Biomechanical heroes bonded to elemental powers and masks. Not born, but chosen and transformed. wearing a Kanohi RauKanohi RauThe Kanohi Rau allowed its wearer to comprehend foreign written and spoken languages, and was most associated with Turaga Nokama. to attempt to speak with the RahiRahiThe Rahi were the biomechanical wildlife of the Matoran Universe, built largely by the Brotherhood of Makuta, ranging from background fauna to engineered war beasts., without success. Later, the Rahaga BomongaBomongaBomonga was the Toa Hagah of Earth, mutated by Roodaka into a Rahaga, later restored to Toa form and resettled on Spherus Magna. tried to follow a population of Blade Burrowers through Metru NuiMetru NuiThe city beneath Mata Nui functions as the Great Spirit's brain, housing the Matoran whose labor keeps the god alive. to map their tunnel patterns, and failed as well. (The Mutran Chronicles; BIONICLE: Rahi Beasts)

Abilities and behavior#

Using their strong claws, Blade Burrowers dug tunnels endlessly when they gathered in sufficient numbers, and they did so in a specific, repeating pattern. In the ArchivesThe Archives of Metru NuiThe Archives of Onu-Metru were the central repository of Matoran knowledge and Rahi specimens, maintained by the Archivist Corps beneath the city's surface. of Metru NuiMetru NuiThe city beneath Mata Nui functions as the Great Spirit's brain, housing the Matoran whose labor keeps the god alive., Archivists would sometimes mistake these passages for parts of the Archives themselves, wander down them, and never be seen again. (BIONICLE: Rahi Beasts)

The RahiRahiThe Rahi were the biomechanical wildlife of the Matoran Universe, built largely by the Brotherhood of Makuta, ranging from background fauna to engineered war beasts. had very poor eyesight and did not rely on it to hunt. Instead they tracked prey by smell. When food in the ArchivesThe Archives of Metru NuiThe Archives of Onu-Metru were the central repository of Matoran knowledge and Rahi specimens, maintained by the Archivist Corps beneath the city's surface. ran low, they ventured up to the surface and caused massive destruction in their search for something to eat. Their long, club-like tails were a hazard to anything nearby, swung about to knock others over and send them scattering, which only multiplied the chaos. While the VahkiVahkiMetru Nui's mechanical law enforcement squads, designed to maintain rigid order but ultimately undermined by chaos beyond their programming. were still active, they moved to force any raging Blade Burrower into a holding container as quickly as possible to limit the damage. (BIONICLE: Rahi Beasts)

The most curious detail of the creatures lay in their tunnels: two long curved tunnels running north and south with smaller ones between them, the same pattern repeated over and over. The Burrowers themselves did not know why they built it, only that they must. Writer Greg Farshtey later said, outside the stories, that the pattern was the symbol of the Three Virtues of Unity, Duty, and Destiny. (The Mutran Chronicles)