The Kanohi Iden

The KanohiKanohiMasks that grant powers and sustain life, they're the most vital artifact in the Matoran Universe. Iden, or Mask of Spirit, allowed its wearer to project their spirit free of their body, granting invisibility to most beings and the ability to inhabit hostless forms. Its only known bearer was MatoroMatoroA quiet Ko-Matoran translator who became a Toa Inika and then a Toa Mahri, Matoro gave his life with the Mask of Life to restore Mata Nui., Toa of IceToa of IceThe warrior role for guardians of the Ice element, typically drawn from Ko-Matoran, with the option to ascend to Turaga status. of the Toa InikaToa Inika and Toa MahriSix ordinary Matoran transformed by lightning from the Red Star into heroes who ultimately revived the Great Spirit itself., who used it on Voya NuiVoya NuiAn island born from catastrophe and hiding the universe's most powerful artifact, Voya Nui was everything Bionicle 2006 promised: danger, mystery, and a race against time. and in the search for the Mask of Life. (BIONICLE: Encyclopedia Updated; BIONICLE Legends 3: Power Play)

Function#

The KanohiKanohiMasks that grant powers and sustain life, they're the most vital artifact in the Matoran Universe. Iden operated through a clean separation of spirit and body. When activated, the wearer's spirit detached completely, leaving the physical form motionless and unresponsive. The spirit moved independently at great speed and through obstacles, incorporeal and invisible to almost all observers. Only those wearing the Kanohi EldaKanohi EldaThe Elda is the Kanohi Mask of Detection, which reveals hidden beings and tracks the Mask of Life. Hahli wore it as a Toa Inika., the Mask of Detection, or the Rode, the Mask of Truth, could perceive and speak with a free-floating spirit. (BIONICLE: Encyclopedia Updated; BIONICLE Legends 3: Power Play; BIONICLE: Makuta's Guide to the Universe)

The mask imposed strict limitations on the projected spirit. It could not use the wearer's Elemental Powers, which needed spirit and body together. The body left behind went limp and defenceless. Greg Farshtey later added that if the body was killed, the spirit would eventually fade away with nowhere to return, and that destroying or removing the mask would force the spirit back. (BIONICLE: Encyclopedia Updated)

The writer's later comments also describe a way round the elemental restriction. A spirit that entered a body lacking its own spirit, or a self-powered robot, could take control of that form, and if the spirit belonged to a Toa, the host body gained the spirit's Elemental Powers. None of this is shown in the books. (BIONICLE: Encyclopedia Updated)

Matoro and the Mahri Nui campaign#

MatoroMatoroA quiet Ko-Matoran translator who became a Toa Inika and then a Toa Mahri, Matoro gave his life with the Mask of Life to restore Mata Nui.'s uses of the KanohiKanohiMasks that grant powers and sustain life, they're the most vital artifact in the Matoran Universe. Iden on Voya NuiVoya NuiAn island born from catastrophe and hiding the universe's most powerful artifact, Voya Nui was everything Bionicle 2006 promised: danger, mystery, and a race against time. are the main recorded applications of the mask. He had worn a powerless Iden as a Matoran, and it became an organic Great Iden when he turned into a Toa of IceToa of IceThe warrior role for guardians of the Ice element, typically drawn from Ko-Matoran, with the option to ascend to Turaga status. of the Toa Inika. In 'BIONICLE Legends 3: Power Play' he released his spirit while his body stayed behind. (BIONICLE Legends 3: Power Play; BIONICLE: Encyclopedia Updated)

The episode produced one of the few direct in-team observations of the Iden in action. HahliHahliA Ga-Matoran scholar who rose to become Chronicler of Mata Nui, then Toa Inika, then Toa Mahri of Water during the final crises of the Matoran Universe. could see MatoroMatoroA quiet Ko-Matoran translator who became a Toa Inika and then a Toa Mahri, Matoro gave his life with the Mask of Life to restore Mata Nui.'s spirit floating apart from his body, because her own mask was the Kanohi Elda, the Mask of Detection, one of the two masks that can perceive an Iden user. In 'BIONICLE Legends 5: Inferno', Matoro used the Iden again to watch over Hahli as she tried to retrieve the Ignika underwater. (BIONICLE Legends 3: Power Play; BIONICLE Legends 5: Inferno)

No other bearer of the Iden is recorded. The mask's mix of bodily vulnerability and inability to use elemental power made it a scout's tool rather than a fighter's. When MatoroMatoroA quiet Ko-Matoran translator who became a Toa Inika and then a Toa Mahri, Matoro gave his life with the Mask of Life to restore Mata Nui. became a Toa MahriToa Mahri: The Toa Who Saved the UniverseThe Toa Mahri were the water breathing form of the sixth Toa team, transformed by the Mask of Life on the way down to the drowned city of Mahri Nui. They fought the Barraki for the mask and recovered it at the cost of one of their own., his Iden changed into the Kanohi Tryna, and it was in that form that he later used the IgnikaThe Mask of Life (Kanohi Ignika), explainedA failsafe forged by the Great Beings to recharge a god. It curses everyone who touches it, and by the end of Bionicle it had learned how to be a hero. to save 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.. (BIONICLE Legends 7: Prisoners of the Pit; BIONICLE Legends 8: Downfall)

Perception and detection#

The Iden's projection was invisible and undetectable to almost all beings. Only wearers of the Kanohi EldaKanohi EldaThe Elda is the Kanohi Mask of Detection, which reveals hidden beings and tracks the Mask of Life. Hahli wore it as a Toa Inika. or Rode could sense a projected spirit. To them a released spirit could be seen and spoken to. (BIONICLE Legends 3: Power Play; BIONICLE: Makuta's Guide to the Universe)

The arrangement created reliable conditions for surveillance. A spirit could enter a room without alerting any standard observer, while the body lay motionless in a hidden location and the spirit listened to conversation. The risk was the body. Left limp and defenceless, it was at the mercy of anyone who found it, which is why the mask suited a watcher with friends nearby. (BIONICLE: Encyclopedia Updated)

Possession and power transfer#

The Iden permitted possession of certain bodies, specifically living forms that lacked spirits of their own and self-powered mechanical bodies. This rests on Greg Farshtey's answers to fans rather than the published story. By that account, a Toa's elemental powers were tied to the spirit rather than the body, so a Toa of IceToa of IceThe warrior role for guardians of the Ice element, typically drawn from Ko-Matoran, with the option to ascend to Turaga status. inhabiting a robot would bring Ice with him, though using elemental power in a body not built for it could be dangerous. (BIONICLE: Encyclopedia Updated)

No possession by an Iden user ever happens in the story, so these rules were never tested on the page. (BIONICLE: Encyclopedia Updated)

Legacy#

Spirits apart from bodies became a recurring idea in the story. TeridaxTeridaxTeridax orchestrated a thousand-year scheme that ended with him occupying the Great Spirit Robot itself before his death on Bara Magna., whose essence could live apart from his armour, tried to possess MatoroMatoroA quiet Ko-Matoran translator who became a Toa Inika and then a Toa Mahri, Matoro gave his life with the Mask of Life to restore Mata Nui.'s body in the Cord, and later took over 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.'s, though by other means than the Iden. (BIONICLE: Encyclopedia Updated; BIONICLE Legends 11: The Final Battle)

The mask's properties are set out in 'BIONICLEBIONICLE: Matoran AdventuresA 2002 GBA platformer where you play as one of six Matoran fighting Bohrok across Mata Nui's islands.: Encyclopedia Updated' and 'Makuta's Guide to the Universe' and shown in MatoroMatoroA quiet Ko-Matoran translator who became a Toa Inika and then a Toa Mahri, Matoro gave his life with the Mask of Life to restore Mata Nui.'s uses in the Legends books. Much of the finer detail, though, comes from the writer's later answers. (BIONICLE: Encyclopedia Updated; BIONICLE: Makuta's Guide to the Universe)