Mio

A mio was the largest unit of distance in the three-tier measurement system used across the Matoran UniverseMatoran UniverseA civilization of biomechanical beings living inside a colossal robot, destroyed when Teridax seized control.. It was defined as one thousand kioKioThe middle unit of the three-tier Matoran measurement system, equal to one thousand bio and roughly 0.85 miles, used to measure cities, islands, and the reach of every long-range weapon in the universe., or one million bioBioThe smallest of the three Matoran measurement units, equal to the height of a standard Matoran and roughly 1.37 metres, from which every larger Matoran-Universe distance is built., and converted to roughly 850 miles or 1,370 kilometres in surface-world terms. No fourth unit was recorded above it, and none was required by the geography of the universe inside the Great Spirit RobotMatoran UniverseA civilization of biomechanical beings living inside a colossal robot, destroyed when Teridax seized control.. The mio was the unit at which the inhabitants described whole regions, ocean crossings, and the boundaries of the world they lived in.

The top of the three-tier ladder#

The mio sat at the top of the three-unit measurement system used across the Matoran UniverseMatoran UniverseA civilization of biomechanical beings living inside a colossal robot, destroyed when Teridax seized control.. The base of the ladder was the bioBioThe smallest of the three Matoran measurement units, equal to the height of a standard Matoran and roughly 1.37 metres, from which every larger Matoran-Universe distance is built., defined as roughly 4.5 feet or 1.37 metres and matched to the standing height of a standard MatoranMatoranThe most abundant species in the Matoran Universe, chosen by Mata Nui to inhabit and maintain his cosmic body.. The middle unit was the kioKioThe middle unit of the three-tier Matoran measurement system, equal to one thousand bio and roughly 0.85 miles, used to measure cities, islands, and the reach of every long-range weapon in the universe., defined as one thousand bio and converting to about 0.85 miles or 1.37 kilometres. The mio was defined as one thousand kio, and therefore as one million bio, with no irregular factors at any step.

The arithmetic was deliberate. The clean thousand-to-one scaling meant that any figure in kioKioThe middle unit of the three-tier Matoran measurement system, equal to one thousand bio and roughly 0.85 miles, used to measure cities, islands, and the reach of every long-range weapon in the universe. could be multiplied by a thousand to read in mio, and any figure in mio divided by a thousand to read in kioKioThe middle unit of the three-tier Matoran measurement system, equal to one thousand bio and roughly 0.85 miles, used to measure cities, islands, and the reach of every long-range weapon in the universe.. No intermediate unit was inserted between the two, and no fourth unit was inserted above the mio, because the geography of the universe never required one. The largest single working distance ever recorded inside the Matoran UniverseMatoran UniverseA civilization of biomechanical beings living inside a colossal robot, destroyed when Teridax seized control. sat well inside the range of a few mio in any direction, and a unit larger than the mio would have been a courtesy to scribes rather than a working tool.

The mio also gave the system its outer boundary in surface-world terms. One mio at 850 miles or 1,370 kilometres meant that any distance reported in mio was already at continental scale, and any distance reported as more than a small number of mio described the outer geography of the universe itself rather than the route between two settlements.

Conversions and equivalents#

A mio is equal to 4,500,000 imperial feet, 850 miles, or about 1,370 kilometres. By the same scaling, one mio is exactly 1,000 kioKioThe middle unit of the three-tier Matoran measurement system, equal to one thousand bio and roughly 0.85 miles, used to measure cities, islands, and the reach of every long-range weapon in the universe. (each at 1.37 kilometres) and exactly 1,000,000 bioBioThe smallest of the three Matoran measurement units, equal to the height of a standard Matoran and roughly 1.37 metres, from which every larger Matoran-Universe distance is built. (each at 1.37 metres). The conversion to imperial feet, at 4.5 million, is the largest single figure cited in the historical record for any single unit and gives a useful indication of why the mio was reserved for geography on the regional and continental scale rather than for cities, settlements, or patrol routes.

The clean ratios made the mio the only sensible unit for any measurement that would not fit comfortably in kioKioThe middle unit of the three-tier Matoran measurement system, equal to one thousand bio and roughly 0.85 miles, used to measure cities, islands, and the reach of every long-range weapon in the universe. without producing inconvenient four- or five-digit numbers. A coastline running several hundred kilometres along the southern edge of a continent would be described in mio. A submerged route from one MatoranMatoranThe most abundant species in the Matoran Universe, chosen by Mata Nui to inhabit and maintain his cosmic body. settlement on the Northern ContinentThe Northern ContinentBig enough that the Brotherhood needed multiple Makuta to watch it, the Northern Continent and its Tren Krom Peninsula gave the canon some of its most interesting smaller players. to another on the Southern ContinentThe Southern ContinentThe Southern Continent was a vast landmass beneath the Matoran Universe, scarred by Voya Nui's separation and held under Makuta Mutran's nominal dominion. would be described in mio. A figure that would have required a thousand or more in kioKioThe middle unit of the three-tier Matoran measurement system, equal to one thousand bio and roughly 0.85 miles, used to measure cities, islands, and the reach of every long-range weapon in the universe. was rewritten in mio for legibility, with no loss of precision because the ratio was exact rather than approximate.

When the mio came out#

The mio was the rarest of the three units in operational use, precisely because the geography of daily life inside the Matoran UniverseMatoran UniverseA civilization of biomechanical beings living inside a colossal robot, destroyed when Teridax seized control. seldom required it. A MatoranMatoranThe most abundant species in the Matoran Universe, chosen by Mata Nui to inhabit and maintain his cosmic body. crossing a MetruMetru NuiThe city beneath Mata Nui functions as the Great Spirit's brain, housing the Matoran whose labor keeps the god alive., a ToaToa (2001)Biomechanical heroes bonded to elemental powers and masks. Not born, but chosen and transformed. closing on an enemy fortress, a chronicler describing a patrol route, and a Brotherhood of MakutaThe Brotherhood of MakutaAn organization of Makuta created by Mata Nui to police his universe and build Rahi, later seized by Teridax and turned into the instrument of the Plan that overthrew the Great Spirit. commander coordinating troops within a single region were all working at scales best expressed in kioKioThe middle unit of the three-tier Matoran measurement system, equal to one thousand bio and roughly 0.85 miles, used to measure cities, islands, and the reach of every long-range weapon in the universe. rather than in mio. The mio only appeared when the figure being described had already passed the upper end of the kio's comfortable range.

The unit accordingly belonged to the operational records of Order of Mata NuiThe Order of Mata NuiThe covert organization founded by Helryx to serve the Great Spirit directly, operating in concealment from a fortress on Daxia and waging the open war against the Brotherhood of Makuta that decided the fate of the universe. operatives planning long-range insertions, of Brotherhood of MakutaThe Brotherhood of MakutaAn organization of Makuta created by Mata Nui to police his universe and build Rahi, later seized by Teridax and turned into the instrument of the Plan that overthrew the Great Spirit. strategists coordinating campaigns across multiple islands, of MatoranMatoranThe most abundant species in the Matoran Universe, chosen by Mata Nui to inhabit and maintain his cosmic body. cartographers describing the layout of the universe at the regional scale, and of ToaToa (2001)Biomechanical heroes bonded to elemental powers and masks. Not born, but chosen and transformed. teams briefed on missions that would carry them from one continent to another. The figures in those records read in single or low-double-digit mio rather than in the hundreds or thousands of kioKioThe middle unit of the three-tier Matoran measurement system, equal to one thousand bio and roughly 0.85 miles, used to measure cities, islands, and the reach of every long-range weapon in the universe. that the same distances would have produced under the smaller unit.

The mio also served as the unit of reference for the Endless OceanThe Silver SeaThe vast body of unrefined liquid Protodermis surrounding Metru Nui inside the Great Barrier dome of the Matoran Universe. that surrounded and connected the inhabited regions. The ocean's working distances, from one archipelago to the next and from a known landmark to a coordinated rendezvous, all sat in the mio's natural range. Without the mio, those figures would have been unwieldy in kioKioThe middle unit of the three-tier Matoran measurement system, equal to one thousand bio and roughly 0.85 miles, used to measure cities, islands, and the reach of every long-range weapon in the universe. and meaningless in bioBioThe smallest of the three Matoran measurement units, equal to the height of a standard Matoran and roughly 1.37 metres, from which every larger Matoran-Universe distance is built..

The mio as the outer scale of the universe#

The mio's most important property was that it bounded the universe. No fourth unit was recorded above it because no working distance inside the Matoran UniverseMatoran UniverseA civilization of biomechanical beings living inside a colossal robot, destroyed when Teridax seized control. ever required one. The Great Spirit RobotMatoran UniverseA civilization of biomechanical beings living inside a colossal robot, destroyed when Teridax seized control. was vast on the personal and the regional scales but finite in absolute extent, and the figures that described its internal geography, from the upper chambers near the head to the PitThe PitThe Order of Mata Nui's maximum-security underwater prison where the Barraki warlords were held until catastrophe broke their chains. and the southern reaches near the soles, all sat inside a span that the mio handled comfortably.

That bounded property had operational consequences. A figure quoted in mio carried an implicit signal that the speaker was describing the universe at the largest scale it ever needed to be described at, and the absence of a unit above the mio meant that any further increase in scale would have to be expressed in multiples of mio rather than in a new and unfamiliar word. The arrangement avoided unit inflation: no MatoranMatoranThe most abundant species in the Matoran Universe, chosen by Mata Nui to inhabit and maintain his cosmic body. scribe was tempted to invent a larger word to make a figure sound more impressive, because the largest legitimate figure was already a small number of mio, and no further word was available to inflate it with.

The mio also defined the upper edge of the audible, sensory, and weapon-range scales used elsewhere in the historical record. The most powerful documented radii of effect, including the 3,000-kioKioThe middle unit of the three-tier Matoran measurement system, equal to one thousand bio and roughly 0.85 miles, used to measure cities, islands, and the reach of every long-range weapon in the universe. radius of the Nui StoneNui StoneA red artifact that hunts Toa and drains their power within 3000 kio, sought by Tuyet in ancient Metru Nui to gain strength against enemies only she could see., sat well below the mio scale even at their largest, and the deliberate use of kioKioThe middle unit of the three-tier Matoran measurement system, equal to one thousand bio and roughly 0.85 miles, used to measure cities, islands, and the reach of every long-range weapon in the universe. rather than mio for those radii is itself an indication that the universe's most dangerous artefacts still operated within the range of a region rather than at the scale of the universe as a whole. The mio remained the unit for geography, and the kioKioThe middle unit of the three-tier Matoran measurement system, equal to one thousand bio and roughly 0.85 miles, used to measure cities, islands, and the reach of every long-range weapon in the universe. remained the unit for power, and the two never overlapped in the operational record.

Why the mio sat alone at the top#

The mio's solitary position at the top of the ladder reflected the working life of the Matoran UniverseMatoran UniverseA civilization of biomechanical beings living inside a colossal robot, destroyed when Teridax seized control.. The system needed a personal unit for the MatoranMatoranThe most abundant species in the Matoran Universe, chosen by Mata Nui to inhabit and maintain his cosmic body. themselves; that role was taken by the bioBioThe smallest of the three Matoran measurement units, equal to the height of a standard Matoran and roughly 1.37 metres, from which every larger Matoran-Universe distance is built.. It needed a working unit for cities, islands, and weapon ranges; that role was taken by the kioKioThe middle unit of the three-tier Matoran measurement system, equal to one thousand bio and roughly 0.85 miles, used to measure cities, islands, and the reach of every long-range weapon in the universe.. It needed a regional unit for the outer geography of the universe; that role was taken by the mio. No further unit was required because no further scale of working distance existed inside the Great Spirit RobotMatoran UniverseA civilization of biomechanical beings living inside a colossal robot, destroyed when Teridax seized control., and the MatoranMatoranThe most abundant species in the Matoran Universe, chosen by Mata Nui to inhabit and maintain his cosmic body. language did not generate words for measurements its speakers did not need.

The arrangement avoided the failure modes that troubled the surface-world equivalents. The clean thousand-to-one ratio with both kioKioThe middle unit of the three-tier Matoran measurement system, equal to one thousand bio and roughly 0.85 miles, used to measure cities, islands, and the reach of every long-range weapon in the universe. and bioBioThe smallest of the three Matoran measurement units, equal to the height of a standard Matoran and roughly 1.37 metres, from which every larger Matoran-Universe distance is built. removed the awkward conversions of imperial measurement, and the universality across species removed the bilingual translation overhead that bedevilled metric and imperial coexistence. The mio worked the same way for a Po-MatoranPo-MatoranThe Stone-element Matoran of Po-Metru and Po-Koro, carvers and quarry workers, the most athletic of the Matoran types and the population behind the Kohlii and Akilini circuits. cartographer as for a BrotherhoodThe Brotherhood of MakutaAn organization of Makuta created by Mata Nui to police his universe and build Rahi, later seized by Teridax and turned into the instrument of the Plan that overthrew the Great Spirit. field commander as for a ToaToa (2001)Biomechanical heroes bonded to elemental powers and masks. Not born, but chosen and transformed. team plotting a route between continents. That uniformity is the reason the mio, despite being the rarest of the three units in everyday use, was nevertheless the unit every record reached for the moment the figure grew too large to read cleanly in kioKioThe middle unit of the three-tier Matoran measurement system, equal to one thousand bio and roughly 0.85 miles, used to measure cities, islands, and the reach of every long-range weapon in the universe..