The Dreaming Plague

The Dreaming Plague destroyed the Iron TribeThe Iron TribeAn entire civilization consumed by dream-hunger, leaving only scattered survivors who dared not reveal their origins. of Spherus MagnaSpherus MagnaA desert world of ancient conflict that became the merger point of the Matoran Universe and Bionicle's true endpoint.. Its victims stopped dreaming, then grew irritable, then violent, then mad, and then died. Only a handful of the tribe were immune, and the other tribes, afraid of catching it, turned the survivors away. Over a hundred thousand years later, SahmadSahmadA slaver, a survivor, and the only living memory of a people the Dreaming Plague erased before the Core War. learned that it was never a disease. (Sahmad's Tale)

Origin in the Bota Magna Mountains#

Long before the Core War and the Shattering, 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. and worked the mines. They sent their iron to the Fire TribeFire TribeThe master smiths of Bara Magna who forged tools for all tribes before the Shattering scattered them into conflict. for forging and got finished tools and weapons in return. Sahmad describes them as rough and coarse but honoured for their work. Apart from arguments with their mountain neighbours, the SkrallSkrallA black-armored warrior species from Spherus Magna that dominated northern Bara Magna under Tuma's rule., they had no conflicts with anyone. (Sahmad's Tale)

The first signs appeared in a few miners working on the outskirts of the tribe's land. They became distracted and quarrelsome and got worse by the day. Asked if they felt sick, they said no. The only odd thing they could report was that they had stopped dreaming, and most of the tribe laughed. (Sahmad's Tale)

Symptoms and Progression#

The laughter didn't last. The affected miners went from irritable to violent, and from violent to mad. As Sahmad puts it, dreams release the bad energies that build up in all of us, and without them the mind eventually tears itself apart. If you can't dream, your waking life becomes the nightmare. (Sahmad's Tale)

More and more of the tribe lost the ability to dream. Those furthest along died raving. Those newly struck were seized by horror, knowing what was coming. (Sahmad's Tale)

Spread Through the Iron Tribe and Tribal Response#

A few, Sahmad and Telluris among them, seemed immune, and none of them knew why. Others in the tribe began talking about finding out, even if it killed them, so the immune ones banded together and hid in a cave, ready to defend themselves against mad Agori who used to be their friends. (Sahmad's Tale)

The village leader appealed to the other tribes. The Skrall laughed, and the rest wouldn't even let him cross their borders. Nobody wanted the iron the tribe still dug, in case it carried the disease, and all trade stopped. (Sahmad's Tale)

One healthy Agori tried to join another tribe and was driven into the forest, where a beast killed him. For Sahmad, the lesson was simple: being iron tribe now carried a death sentence, and if the plague didn't get you, your old trading partners would. (Sahmad's Tale)

TellurisTellurisAn Iron Tribe scavenger and one of the few immune to the Dreaming Plague, reduced to solitary vengeance. suggested using minerals to recolour their armour so they could pass as members of some unknown tribe. Sahmad thought it was a stupid idea, went along with it anyway, and notes how well it worked. (Sahmad's Tale)

Mata Nui's guide, which simply calls it "the plague", dates it to about 103,000 years before its own time. (BIONICLE: Mata Nui's Guide to Bara Magna)

Sahmad's Immunity and the Long Aftermath#

The immune survivors waited until too few of their tribe were left to threaten them, then left. With nowhere to go, and none of them sure the others weren't carriers, they split up. (Sahmad's Tale)

Sahmad headed south and watched the Core War break out, laughing when Agori were killed by weapons made from iron his people had mined. When the Shattering came he was on Bara Magna, and he turned his hatred into a trade, capturing Agori and selling them to the Skrall. Telluris went his own way, robbing caravans in a war machine based on the Skopio. (Sahmad's Tale)

The stigma never faded. In Sahmad's day, showing you were iron tribe was an invitation to be shunned, mobbed or stoned. (Sahmad's Tale)

The Annona Revelation#

After the Battle of Bara Magna, Sahmad and Telluris met a talking snake in the desert: 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., the ice Agori that Mata Nui had turned into a serpent. Metus told them he had stopped dreaming. Sahmad heard himself say, "It's starting again." (Sahmad's Tale)

The three retraced Metus's route north from Roxtus. Near one of his camps Sahmad found a rough triangle carved into the earth. Then spiny red tentacles came up from beneath the soil and dragged Telluris, Metus and finally Sahmad underground. (Sahmad's Tale)

Below, Sahmad was trapped in illusions, then faced the Sisters of the Skrall speaking with one voice. Asked whether the plague had been an experiment, they answered that it was lunch. The being behind them, which later called itself AnnonaAnnonaA predatory entity older than the Great Beings, the dream-eater Annona fed on the minds of sentient life and ended the Iron Tribe before its banishment., explained that it had fed on the iron tribe's dreams and been satisfied for many years afterwards. It had existed before the Great Beings, tried to touch them with madness, and been forced to hide in the depths of Spherus Magna. (Sahmad's Tale)

The three escaped to the surface, but Annona came with them. Following it through a portal to a fortress on Aqua Magna, they watched it fight a golden being who makes dreams real. Telluris died charging it. Sahmad wounded it with a rock spike, then dreamed a dream in which no one could dream at all, which the golden being made real. Facing starvation, Annona asked for a deal: a dream of another world where it could feed. Sahmad dreamed that world, and filled it with beings just like Annona to feed on each other. (Sahmad's Tale)