Kabrua

KabruaKabruaKabrua led an organised Vorox society on Bota Magna, kept the speech and intelligence his desert kin had lost, and hunted a Toa expedition for sport. leads an organised society of VoroxVoroxThe warrior caste of the Sand Tribe, reduced to feral pack hunters in the wastes of Bara Magna after the collapse of their civilisation in the Core War. on 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., part of reformed Spherus MagnaSpherus MagnaA desert world of ancient conflict that became the merger point of the Matoran Universe and Bionicle's true endpoint.. He and his people kept the speech and intelligence that the VoroxVoroxThe warrior caste of the Sand Tribe, reduced to feral pack hunters in the wastes of Bara Magna after the collapse of their civilisation in the Core War. of Bara MagnaBara MagnaA desert world of tribal warfare and scarce resources, one of three landmasses that formed Spherus Magna. lost, and they carry weapons that were rare even during the Core WarThe Core War: the war that shattered a planetThe Core War was fought on Spherus Magna over Energized Protodermis. It ended in the Shattering, which tore the planet into three planetary fragments.. (The Yesterday Quest)

Origins on Bota Magna#

By the events of The Yesterday QuestThe Yesterday QuestThe unfinished post-Reformation serial that sent a hand-picked team of three Toa and the Glatorian Gelu into the unmapped jungles of Bota Magna to find the Great Beings, intercept the awakening of Marendar, and uncover the Great Being who had hidden inside the Matoran Universe for a hundred thousand years., KabruaKabruaKabrua led an organised Vorox society on Bota Magna, kept the speech and intelligence his desert kin had lost, and hunted a Toa expedition for sport. led a structured VoroxVoroxThe warrior caste of the Sand Tribe, reduced to feral pack hunters in the wastes of Bara Magna after the collapse of their civilisation in the Core War. society on 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., with its own city and soldiers armed with old but working ranged weapons that fired spheres of explosive force. The contrast with the VoroxVoroxThe warrior caste of the Sand Tribe, reduced to feral pack hunters in the wastes of Bara Magna after the collapse of their civilisation in the Core War. of Bara MagnaBara MagnaA desert world of tribal warfare and scarce resources, one of three landmasses that formed Spherus Magna. was sharp. GeluGeluGelu is a Glatorian of the Ice Tribe, native to Bota Magna, who formerly served as a secondary Glatorian for the city of Iconox. White and dark blue in color, he wields an Ice Slicer and a Thornax Launcher and resides on the reformed Spherus Magna. knew the desert Vorox as pack hunters that were not much better than beasts. Kabrua spoke perfect Agori and mocked the idea that his people communicated in grunts and screeches. (The Yesterday Quest)

The Shattering stranded Kabrua's people on 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.. In his own words, they found themselves trapped in what turned out to be a paradise, with plentiful food and water and little they wanted for. Because of that, he said, they never faced the challenges the desert Vorox did, nor failed at them so badly. (The Yesterday Quest)

Kabrua called the Bara Magna Vorox his southern brethren and spoke of their fall from glory. He felt a real kinship with them, and the way the other races had treated them made him angry. (The Yesterday Quest)

Leadership of the 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. VoroxVoroxThe warrior caste of the Sand Tribe, reduced to feral pack hunters in the wastes of Bara Magna after the collapse of their civilisation in the Core War.#

Kabrua introduced himself as the leader of his society. Gelu, watching him approach the net, took him for the alpha male, taller and stronger than the others. His Vorox used their weapons like professional soldiers. When he spoke to the captives, Kabrua said his people were suspicious of strangers at the best of times, and that the world would be a far safer place if beings who could create lightning or make objects move were dead. (The Yesterday Quest)

Gelu spotted the problem straight away. 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. had only rejoined Bara Magna a short while earlier, so how did Kabrua know what had happened to the Bara Magna Vorox? And the weapons his people carried had been rare even during the war. Gelu decided that information they shouldn't have, plus technology they shouldn't have, meant these Vorox might be in contact with a Great BeingThe Great BeingsScholar-inventors of Spherus Magna whose creations shaped the Matoran Universe and whose absence defined the conflicts that followed., or had at least found one of their lairs. (The Yesterday Quest)

Kabrua also had a savage streak. After the capture, the narrator says the gleam in his eye showed he was not so far from the savagery of his desert brothers after all, and he promised his people a feast that night and a hunt the next day. (The Yesterday Quest)

The Capture of the Toa Expedition#

GeluGeluGelu is a Glatorian of the Ice Tribe, native to Bota Magna, who formerly served as a secondary Glatorian for the city of Iconox. White and dark blue in color, he wields an Ice Slicer and a Thornax Launcher and resides on the reformed Spherus Magna. was guiding the Toa OrdeOrdeOrde is a blue and gold Toa of Psionics of the Matoran species who resides on Spherus Magna. He wields a mace and formerly served as a member of Orde's Toa Team., ChiaraChiaraChiara is a blue and white Toa and former Vo-Matoran who wields the element of Lightning and possesses the power of Stealth. She carries a spear and wears the Great Volitak, replacing the Powerless Volitak she wore as a Matoran, and serves as a Protector of Matoran on Bota Magna, Spherus Magna. and ZariaZariaZaria is a Toa of Iron and a former Fe-Matoran, distinguished by gunmetal gray and burnt orange armor. Armed with a staff, Zaria commands the elemental power of Iron and resides in the Bota Magna region of Spherus Magna. across 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. in search of the Great BeingsThe Great BeingsScholar-inventors of Spherus Magna whose creations shaped the Matoran Universe and whose absence defined the conflicts that followed. when the Vorox caught them in a net. Chiara burned through it with her lightning while Zaria tried to pull the Vorox weapons away with his power over metal. The Vorox opened fire, knocking Chiara unconscious and blasting a chunk of Zaria's shoulder armour away, and Gelu stopped Orde before he got himself shot as well. (The Yesterday Quest)

Blaming Gelu's kind for how the Vorox had been hunted and treated as monsters in the desert, Kabrua decided the captives would be the quarry in a hunt. The next morning they were freed at the edge of a forest and given a head start. Zaria and Chiara hid under a rocky outcrop to ambush the trackers while Gelu and Orde acted as bait, but the attack never came. Kabrua shouted that he saw only two of them, that the other two were hiding, and that he knew all about Toa power and how to shut it off. (The Yesterday Quest)

Orde found that his mind-reading had stopped working. Gelu worked out that Kabrua's device couldn't work at long range, since Chiara had used her power freely earlier, and that Kabrua had left two trackers behind with it to keep the hidden Toa powerless. Gelu and Orde escaped by wading into a river and climbing a tree above it, where Kabrua's party lost their trail. (The Yesterday Quest)

Sources of Knowledge and Equipment#

The biggest open question about Kabrua was how a supposedly isolated leader knew so much. He knew about the Bara Magna Vorox, he knew how Toa power worked, and his people had weapons Gelu had not seen since the Core War. Gelu reasoned that only someone with information from the Great Beings would know how to turn off a Toa. (The Yesterday Quest)

From the tree, Orde reached into Kabrua's mind as he passed below. He caught only a glimpse before Kabrua sensed the intrusion, but it was enough. One of the Great Beings had secretly transferred his spirit into one of the beings made to live inside the Great Spirit, and he was now on Spherus Magna, hidden among the arrivals from the Matoran universe. Gelu concluded that this hidden Great Being had given Kabrua his information. (The Yesterday Quest)

The serial doesn't name the Great Being or say why he armed Kabrua. Kabrua sensed the probe but didn't find the pair, and went off to search the far bank of the river. (The Yesterday Quest)

Position in the Wider Record#

Kabrua appears only in The Yesterday QuestThe Yesterday QuestThe unfinished post-Reformation serial that sent a hand-picked team of three Toa and the Glatorian Gelu into the unmapped jungles of Bota Magna to find the Great Beings, intercept the awakening of Marendar, and uncover the Great Being who had hidden inside the Matoran Universe for a hundred thousand years.. The serial stopped after its third chapter in February 2011 and was never finished, so the questions it raised about Kabrua's patron, his weapons and the fate of the captured Toa were left open. (The Yesterday Quest)

The contrast between Kabrua's people and the desert VoroxVoroxThe warrior caste of the Sand Tribe, reduced to feral pack hunters in the wastes of Bara Magna after the collapse of their civilisation in the Core War. of Bara MagnaBara MagnaA desert world of tribal warfare and scarce resources, one of three landmasses that formed Spherus Magna. is the clearest split within the species in the story. Kabrua put it down to circumstance: an easy life on Bota Magna against a hard one in the desert. What he planned beyond the hunt isn't on the record. (The Yesterday Quest)