The Iron Tribe

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., hundreds of generations before the main events of the BIONICLEBIONICLE: Matoran AdventuresA 2002 GBA platformer where you play as one of six Matoran fighting Bohrok across Mata Nui's islands. story. They were AgoriAgoriThe villager species of Bara Magna, organised by tribe and settlement, who governed their villages and arranged the Glatorian arena system. and GlatorianGlatorianTribal warriors of Spherus Magna who settled disputes through arena combat, until the Skrall conquest enslaved most of them. who mined and worked iron, trading their tools with the neighboring Fire TribeFire TribeThe master smiths of Bara Magna who forged tools for all tribes before the Shattering scattered them into conflict.. The tribe was quiet, hardworking, unremarkable. Then 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. arrived.

The Dream-Eater's Hunger#

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. was not a weapon or a plague in the traditional sense. It was a creature, living and vast, that fed on the dreams of sentient beings. In SahmadSahmadA slaver, a survivor, and the only living memory of a people the Dreaming Plague erased before the Core War.'s account from "Sahmad's TaleSahmad and the Hunt for Annona: The Iron Tribe Slaver's Last PursuitThe last survivor of the Iron Tribe tracked the dream-eater Annona across Bara Magna and onto Aqua Magna, ending the entity that had ended his people.," the tribe before the catastrophe was rough and coarse, but honored for their hard work and treated like any other AgoriAgoriThe villager species of Bara Magna, organised by tribe and settlement, who governed their villages and arranged the Glatorian arena system.. Iron tribe members lived a life full of hard, honest work. They had disputes with the SkrallSkrallA black-armored warrior species from Spherus Magna that dominated northern Bara Magna under Tuma's rule. to the south but no sense that extinction waited in the mountains.

When 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. descended on the tribe and consumed their collective dreams, the result was immediate and total. The psychological impact of that theft broke them. Some died. The rest went mad.

Survivors and Stigma#

A handful of Iron Tribe members endured. Rather than rebuild, they did something desperate. One of them, TellurisTellurisAn Iron Tribe scavenger and one of the few immune to the Dreaming Plague, reduced to solitary vengeance., discovered that minerals could alter the color of armor and helmets. By changing their appearance, Iron Tribe survivors attempted to pass as members of other tribes and start new lives.

It didn't work. The stigma was too strong. Even if no one could identify them by sight, other tribes were terrified of the plague spreading. A survivor who revealed themselves was hunted. SahmadSahmadA slaver, a survivor, and the only living memory of a people the Dreaming Plague erased before the Core War. describes this period with bitterness: "Being a member of the iron tribe now carried a death sentence. If the plague didn't claim you, your one-time trading partners would." The trauma of the Iron Tribe was compounded by the cruelty of those around them.

By the time SahmadSahmadA slaver, a survivor, and the only living memory of a people the Dreaming Plague erased before the Core War. narrates the story, the Iron Tribe is extinct. SahmadSahmadA slaver, a survivor, and the only living memory of a people the Dreaming Plague erased before the Core War. himself is one of the few left, still disguised, still alone. His search for the truth about 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. becomes an obsession, a need to make meaning from the wreckage.

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Compiled from primary sources by Lore Fortress editorial. Reviewed by Joe Garratt, Editor-in-Chief.