Gaardus

Gaardus was a Ta-MatoranTa-MatoranThe Fire-element Matoran of Ta-Metru and Ta-Koro, forgers of masks and Kanoka, lava farmers, and the standing core of the Ta-Koro Guard during the war for Mata Nui. who, more than eighty thousand years before the fall of the Great Spirit RobotThe Great Spirit Robot, explainedBionicle's whole universe lives inside a 40-million-foot robot built by the Great Beings. Here is what it is, why it was built, and how it ended., was abducted from his koro by a band of exiled Nynrah GhostNynrah GhostsThe Nynrah Ghosts were Fe-Matoran weapons engineers from the island of Nynrah whose sabotage of Brotherhood war machines led to their near extinction. weaponsmiths and remade into a four-armed, four-legged, winged creature intended to serve as a living weapon. He escaped his creators, hunted every one of them down, died at least once and was returned to life by the Red StarRed StarThe Red Star was an orbiting facility that revived the dead and enabled the Great Spirit Robot's cosmic travels., and ended his recorded story as a hermit on the wooded shards 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.. His only on-page appearance occurred in The Powers That BeThe Spherus Magna Murders: The Hunt for the Power KillerA string of killings on the reunified Spherus Magna struck at the most powerful beings in the universe, drawing Kopaka and Pohatu into an investigation that led them to the Red Star., where he reluctantly teleported KopakaKopakaKopaka was the Toa Nuva of Ice, deputy commander of the Toa Mata, and one of the six warriors crafted on Artakha to defend the Matoran Universe. and PohatuPohatuPohatu was the Toa Mata and Toa Nuva of Stone, guardian of Po-Wahi, whose speed and steady humour anchored the team through every era of the Matoran Universe. aboard the Red StarRed StarThe Red Star was an orbiting facility that revived the dead and enabled the Great Spirit Robot's cosmic travels. and exposed the orbital's long-broken resurrection cycle to two of the Toa NuvaWho are the Toa Mata?Six warriors built to order by Artakha, stored in canisters, dropped into the ocean. This is the origin story of Bionicle's heroes and why their first week of work was entirely amnesiac. for the first time.

A Ta-Matoran taken from his koro#

Gaardus's earliest life was unremarkable by the standards of the Matoran universeThe Great Spirit Robot, explainedBionicle's whole universe lives inside a 40-million-foot robot built by the Great Beings. Here is what it is, why it was built, and how it ended.. He was a Ta-MatoranTa-MatoranThe Fire-element Matoran of Ta-Metru and Ta-Koro, forgers of masks and Kanoka, lava farmers, and the standing core of the Ta-Koro Guard during the war for Mata Nui., held a job, lived in a koro, and answered to whatever name his neighbours had used before the rest of his identity was stripped away. He gave KopakaKopakaKopaka was the Toa Nuva of Ice, deputy commander of the Toa Mata, and one of the six warriors crafted on Artakha to defend the Matoran Universe. and PohatuPohatuPohatu was the Toa Mata and Toa Nuva of Stone, guardian of Po-Wahi, whose speed and steady humour anchored the team through every era of the Matoran Universe. only the bones of that life when the two Toa NuvaWho are the Toa Mata?Six warriors built to order by Artakha, stored in canisters, dropped into the ocean. This is the origin story of Bionicle's heroes and why their first week of work was entirely amnesiac. finally captured him in the trees 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 he gave them no other name than the one he had carried before his abduction.

Over eighty thousand years before the events of The Powers That BeThe Spherus Magna Murders: The Hunt for the Power KillerA string of killings on the reunified Spherus Magna struck at the most powerful beings in the universe, drawing Kopaka and Pohatu into an investigation that led them to the Red Star., a small group of Nynrah GhostNynrah GhostsThe Nynrah Ghosts were Fe-Matoran weapons engineers from the island of Nynrah whose sabotage of Brotherhood war machines led to their near extinction. weaponsmiths approached the koro where Gaardus lived. They were exiles, cast out by the broader NynrahNynrahNynrah was a contested island in the Matoran Universe whose Fe-Matoran population produced the weapons engineers known as the Nynrah Ghosts. community for crimes their own people refused to describe. Their intention was the construction of a living weapon, a MatoranMatoranThe most abundant species in the Matoran Universe, chosen by Mata Nui to inhabit and maintain his cosmic body. reshaped into something that could be deployed in defence of NynrahNynrahNynrah was a contested island in the Matoran Universe whose Fe-Matoran population produced the weapons engineers known as the Nynrah Ghosts. without requiring an external operator. Gaardus, by whatever criterion the exiles had used, was the subject they took.

Of the transformation itself, almost no detail survives. The result was a creature with wings, two additional arms, an additional pair of legs, strength and sensory acuity well above MatoranMatoranThe most abundant species in the Matoran Universe, chosen by Mata Nui to inhabit and maintain his cosmic body. baseline, and a teleportation faculty keyed to places its body had stood before. The golden HauKanohiMasks that grant powers and sustain life, they're the most vital artifact in the Matoran Universe. he had worn remained on his face. The being who had once carried the mask did not.

The hunt of the Nynrah Ghosts#

The exiles, by Gaardus's own account, had underestimated him. He escaped their custody, and from that moment everything they had given him became an instrument turned against them. He hunted them across the Matoran universeThe Great Spirit Robot, explainedBionicle's whole universe lives inside a 40-million-foot robot built by the Great Beings. Here is what it is, why it was built, and how it ended.. He killed each of them in turn. He continued, by his telling, until not a single one of the Nynrah GhostNynrah GhostsThe Nynrah Ghosts were Fe-Matoran weapons engineers from the island of Nynrah whose sabotage of Brotherhood war machines led to their near extinction. exiles who had taken him remained alive.

PohatuPohatuPohatu was the Toa Mata and Toa Nuva of Stone, guardian of Po-Wahi, whose speed and steady humour anchored the team through every era of the Matoran Universe., listening to this account later, turned the questions over privately. What kind of MatoranMatoranThe most abundant species in the Matoran Universe, chosen by Mata Nui to inhabit and maintain his cosmic body. could mutate another so completely. How had the rest of NynrahNynrahNynrah was a contested island in the Matoran Universe whose Fe-Matoran population produced the weapons engineers known as the Nynrah Ghosts. permitted it. Gaardus spoke about his hunt without obvious emotion and offered no commentary on the morality of finishing it.

The killings ended the immediate threat. They did not end the rage. Gaardus left the migration routes used by other surviving MatoranMatoranThe most abundant species in the Matoran Universe, chosen by Mata Nui to inhabit and maintain his cosmic body. and went looking for the most peaceful place he could find.

The Red Star detour#

At some point during the long stretch between his hunt and the fall of 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., Gaardus died. The means and the circumstances were never recorded. What is recorded is that the Red StarRed StarThe Red Star was an orbiting facility that revived the dead and enabled the Great Spirit Robot's cosmic travels., the orbital resurrection facility built by the Great BeingsThe Great BeingsScholar-inventors of Spherus Magna whose creations shaped the Matoran Universe and whose absence defined the conflicts that followed. and tended by the KestoraKestoraThe Kestora are a species of purple and black beings associated with the Red Star and the City of Silver Pocket Dimension., recovered his remains under its standing protocol, repaired the damage in a hidden chamber, and teleported him back into the Matoran universeThe Great Spirit Robot, explainedBionicle's whole universe lives inside a 40-million-foot robot built by the Great Beings. Here is what it is, why it was built, and how it ended. at the conclusion of the cycle.

Something in that return broke the cycle for everyone who followed. After Gaardus had been sent home, the Red StarRed StarThe Red Star was an orbiting facility that revived the dead and enabled the Great Spirit Robot's cosmic travels.'s teleportation system failed to send any subsequent revival back. Beings who died were still received, still repaired, still restored to functioning bodies. They simply remained on the orbital. The KestoraKestoraThe Kestora are a species of purple and black beings associated with the Red Star and the City of Silver Pocket Dimension. tried again, repeatedly, by their own later admission, with results they described only as messes. Eventually they ceased the attempts. The orbital's population of trapped resurrected continued to grow.

The KestoraKestoraThe Kestora are a species of purple and black beings associated with the Red Star and the City of Silver Pocket Dimension. located the cause of the malfunction at the most recent successful return. They blamed Gaardus. Whether the blame was technically correct mattered less than the institutional consequence: Gaardus was, in the bookkeeping of the Red StarRed StarThe Red Star was an orbiting facility that revived the dead and enabled the Great Spirit Robot's cosmic travels.'s caretakers, the being on whose account the orbital had failed. He was not welcome back. He, in turn, had no interest in returning. He continued his life in the Matoran universeThe Great Spirit Robot, explainedBionicle's whole universe lives inside a 40-million-foot robot built by the Great Beings. Here is what it is, why it was built, and how it ended., and the next time he set foot on the orbital it would not be by choice.

Hermit on Bota Magna#

When TeridaxTeridaxTeridax orchestrated a thousand-year scheme that ended with him occupying the Great Spirit Robot itself before his death on Bara Magna. fell at the close of the Reign of ShadowsReign of ShadowsThe year Teridax ruled the Matoran Universe from inside Mata Nui's body, and the scattered resistance plots that ran against him until the Great Spirit returned from Bara Magna. and the Matoran universeThe Great Spirit Robot, explainedBionicle's whole universe lives inside a 40-million-foot robot built by the Great Beings. Here is what it is, why it was built, and how it ended. was rendered uninhabitable by the destruction of its host body, Gaardus evacuated along with the bulk of its surviving population. He did not settle anywhere the rebuilt MatoranMatoranThe most abundant species in the Matoran Universe, chosen by Mata Nui to inhabit and maintain his cosmic body. culture was visible. He carried on the policy he had set for himself after the hunt and chose the most peaceful place his new geography offered, a wooded zone in the shards 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. that had been rejoined to the rest of Spherus MagnaMata 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.. He hunted alone. He spoke to no one.

The peace he had sought repeatedly failed to hold. While Gaardus was perched in the trees one afternoon, Tren KromTren KromThe first purely organic creation of the Great Beings, exiled to a stone island after surrendering the core of the Matoran Universe to Mata Nui. appeared beneath him without warning. The ancient telepathic caretaker who had governed the universe before 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. was, in those days, restless and increasingly contacted on his own initiative. Gaardus prepared to attack the intruder. Tren KromTren KromThe first purely organic creation of the Great Beings, exiled to a stone island after surrendering the core of the Matoran Universe to Mata Nui.'s telepathic radiation, even unfocused, caused Gaardus immediate pain and aborted the assault. Before Gaardus could withdraw, a third figure arrived on the scene, and a sudden cyclonic wind tore Gaardus from his perch. He had no clear view of what followed. He registered only Tren KromTren KromThe first purely organic creation of the Great Beings, exiled to a stone island after surrendering the core of the Matoran Universe to Mata Nui.'s death by way of a final telepathic scream that carried into his mind, alongside one clear image: a Red StarRed StarThe Red Star was an orbiting facility that revived the dead and enabled the Great Spirit Robot's cosmic travels..

The encounter with Kopaka and Pohatu#

KopakaKopakaKopaka was the Toa Nuva of Ice, deputy commander of the Toa Mata, and one of the six warriors crafted on Artakha to defend the Matoran Universe. and PohatuPohatuPohatu was the Toa Mata and Toa Nuva of Stone, guardian of Po-Wahi, whose speed and steady humour anchored the team through every era of the Matoran Universe., trailing the murderer of Tren KromTren KromThe first purely organic creation of the Great Beings, exiled to a stone island after surrendering the core of the Matoran Universe to Mata Nui. through the same forest, registered the death-scream at the same instant. They identified scarlet remains scattered across hundreds of yards of ground and Gaardus moving among the upper branches at the perimeter. KopakaKopakaKopaka was the Toa Nuva of Ice, deputy commander of the Toa Mata, and one of the six warriors crafted on Artakha to defend the Matoran Universe. reacted by icing the wings out from under him. Gaardus fell. The two Toa NuvaWho are the Toa Mata?Six warriors built to order by Artakha, stored in canisters, dropped into the ocean. This is the origin story of Bionicle's heroes and why their first week of work was entirely amnesiac. advanced through the trees and stood over him as he shook the ice off and rose.

He told them, in the dispassionate way that had become his default register, who he had been and what had happened to him. KopakaKopakaKopaka was the Toa Nuva of Ice, deputy commander of the Toa Mata, and one of the six warriors crafted on Artakha to defend the Matoran Universe. heard the account with the directness for which he was known and asked, without softening the question, whether Gaardus had really been a MatoranMatoranThe most abundant species in the Matoran Universe, chosen by Mata Nui to inhabit and maintain his cosmic body.. Gaardus answered without claiming any honour in the description. He had been one. He no longer was.

The conversation turned to Tren KromTren KromThe first purely organic creation of the Great Beings, exiled to a stone island after surrendering the core of the Matoran Universe to Mata Nui.'s scream and the image embedded in it. Gaardus had received the same image. The ToaWho are the Toa Mata?Six warriors built to order by Artakha, stored in canisters, dropped into the ocean. This is the origin story of Bionicle's heroes and why their first week of work was entirely amnesiac. wanted to know how they could get to the Red StarRed StarThe Red Star was an orbiting facility that revived the dead and enabled the Great Spirit Robot's cosmic travels.. Gaardus admitted, with visible reluctance, that he could deliver them. His body had been built to hunt, and a hunter returned to ground rich in prey; any place he had once stood, he could return to. He had stood once, briefly, on the Red StarRed StarThe Red Star was an orbiting facility that revived the dead and enabled the Great Spirit Robot's cosmic travels.. He wrapped his wings around both Toa NuvaWho are the Toa Mata?Six warriors built to order by Artakha, stored in canisters, dropped into the ocean. This is the origin story of Bionicle's heroes and why their first week of work was entirely amnesiac. and teleported.

Return to the Red Star#

The three arrived inside a curved corridor of metal banding and organic tissue that PohatuPohatuPohatu was the Toa Mata and Toa Nuva of Stone, guardian of Po-Wahi, whose speed and steady humour anchored the team through every era of the Matoran Universe. likened to the anatomy of a giant. Three KestoraKestoraThe Kestora are a species of purple and black beings associated with the Red Star and the City of Silver Pocket Dimension. approached almost immediately, alarmed, armoured in purple and black. They recognised Gaardus on sight. The recognition was hostile. The KestoraKestoraThe Kestora are a species of purple and black beings associated with the Red Star and the City of Silver Pocket Dimension. accused Gaardus, in front of the Toa NuvaWho are the Toa Mata?Six warriors built to order by Artakha, stored in canisters, dropped into the ocean. This is the origin story of Bionicle's heroes and why their first week of work was entirely amnesiac., of being the reason the Red StarRed StarThe Red Star was an orbiting facility that revived the dead and enabled the Great Spirit Robot's cosmic travels. had ceased functioning, and Gaardus confirmed to KopakaKopakaKopaka was the Toa Nuva of Ice, deputy commander of the Toa Mata, and one of the six warriors crafted on Artakha to defend the Matoran Universe. and PohatuPohatuPohatu was the Toa Mata and Toa Nuva of Stone, guardian of Po-Wahi, whose speed and steady humour anchored the team through every era of the Matoran Universe. that this was the reason he had not wanted to come back. The KestoraKestoraThe Kestora are a species of purple and black beings associated with the Red Star and the City of Silver Pocket Dimension. produced weapons and began debating openly whether to dissect the three new arrivals for study.

PohatuPohatuPohatu was the Toa Mata and Toa Nuva of Stone, guardian of Po-Wahi, whose speed and steady humour anchored the team through every era of the Matoran Universe. disarmed the KestoraKestoraThe Kestora are a species of purple and black beings associated with the Red Star and the City of Silver Pocket Dimension. at speed. KopakaKopakaKopaka was the Toa Nuva of Ice, deputy commander of the Toa Mata, and one of the six warriors crafted on Artakha to defend the Matoran Universe. froze them solid out of frustration rather than lethal intent, with the explicit observation that they would thaw out in time. In the moment the Toa NuvaWho are the Toa Mata?Six warriors built to order by Artakha, stored in canisters, dropped into the ocean. This is the origin story of Bionicle's heroes and why their first week of work was entirely amnesiac. gained from the disarmament, Gaardus exercised the only piece of leverage that mattered to him. He teleported away. Where he went was not recorded. 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. was the obvious bet, and the trees he had occupied before Tren KromTren KromThe first purely organic creation of the Great Beings, exiled to a stone island after surrendering the core of the Matoran Universe to Mata Nui. had blundered into them were the obvious destination, but Gaardus offered no account of his exit and produced no further appearance in the surviving record.

KopakaKopakaKopaka was the Toa Nuva of Ice, deputy commander of the Toa Mata, and one of the six warriors crafted on Artakha to defend the Matoran Universe. and PohatuPohatuPohatu was the Toa Mata and Toa Nuva of Stone, guardian of Po-Wahi, whose speed and steady humour anchored the team through every era of the Matoran Universe. were left aboard the Red StarRed StarThe Red Star was an orbiting facility that revived the dead and enabled the Great Spirit Robot's cosmic travels. with no teleportation home. The two Toa NuvaWho are the Toa Mata?Six warriors built to order by Artakha, stored in canisters, dropped into the ocean. This is the origin story of Bionicle's heroes and why their first week of work was entirely amnesiac. were saved from the next wave of hostile inhabitants by an Onu-MatoranOnuaOnua was the Toa Mata and Toa Nuva of Earth, a quiet, deliberate warrior whose patience and underground mastery anchored his team across the Matoran Universe. named MavrahMavrahA Metru Nui Archivist who fled his city rather than let Turaga Dume cull his pet sea Rahi, drowned in a feeding frenzy a thousand years before the Great Cataclysm, and was rediscovered alive aboard the Red Star., believed drowned a thousand years earlier in the seas beneath Metru NuiMetru NuiThe city beneath Mata Nui functions as the Great Spirit's brain, housing the Matoran whose labor keeps the god alive., who explained in a hidden room that the orbital had been resurrecting the universe's dead for over a millennium and could no longer send any of them home.

Significance#

Gaardus's brief on-page life carried a weight disproportionate to the page count he occupied. He was the direct cause, in the KestoraKestoraThe Kestora are a species of purple and black beings associated with the Red Star and the City of Silver Pocket Dimension.'s accounting, of the failure that turned the Red StarRed StarThe Red Star was an orbiting facility that revived the dead and enabled the Great Spirit Robot's cosmic travels. into a sealed warehouse of resurrected dead, an outcome that defined the orbital's status across the entire final stretch of Matoran universeThe Great Spirit Robot, explainedBionicle's whole universe lives inside a 40-million-foot robot built by the Great Beings. Here is what it is, why it was built, and how it ended. history and surfaced as the central revelation of The Powers That BeThe Spherus Magna Murders: The Hunt for the Power KillerA string of killings on the reunified Spherus Magna struck at the most powerful beings in the universe, drawing Kopaka and Pohatu into an investigation that led them to the Red Star.. He was also the demonstration that the Nynrah GhostsNynrah GhostsThe Nynrah Ghosts were Fe-Matoran weapons engineers from the island of Nynrah whose sabotage of Brotherhood war machines led to their near extinction., at least in their exile faction, had succeeded in producing a working living weapon, complete with flight, teleportation, enhanced senses, and the independent will to use those capabilities against its makers.

What was done to him was done by a small criminal faction of his own broader trade, and the result followed him from the Matoran universeThe Great Spirit Robot, explainedBionicle's whole universe lives inside a 40-million-foot robot built by the Great Beings. Here is what it is, why it was built, and how it ended. to the Red StarRed StarThe Red Star was an orbiting facility that revived the dead and enabled the Great Spirit Robot's cosmic travels. to the reformed Spherus MagnaMata 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.. He had wanted to get away from the rage. It had followed him to the most peaceful place he could find.