Bionicle Umbra: the Light-Speed Guardian of the Mask of Life

Umbra is the guardian of the Kanohi Ignika, the Mask of LifeThe 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., in BIONICLE's 2006 story. The Great BeingsThe Great BeingsScholar-inventors of Spherus Magna whose creations shaped the Matoran Universe and whose absence defined the conflicts that followed. created him more than 100,000 years ago as the first being ever charged with protecting the mask, and they posted him on the stairwayStaircase to the IgnikaThe Staircase to the Ignika was the path the Great Beings built beneath Voya Nui to guard the Kanohi Ignika, a descent of a rumored 777 steps broken by chambers of nightmares, sacrifice, and lethal guardians. that runs down to it beneath the island of Voya Nui. He's a warrior of light who can turn himself into a beam of light, and anyone who wants the mask has to get past him first. (BIONICLE Ignition 5: In Final Battle; BIONICLE: Encyclopedia Updated; BIONICLE Legends 5: Inferno)

Who Umbra is#

Umbra was built for one job. The Great Beings forged the Mask of Life and hid it in a chamber deep under what became Voya Nui, and the guide books record Umbra as the first guardian they ever created for it, older than the Order of Mata Nui guards AxonnAxonnAxonn served as an arbitrator under the Hand of Artakha and later as an Order of Mata Nui agent, guarding the Kanohi Ignika on Voya Nui for thousands of years. and BrutakaBrutakaBrutaka guarded the Kanohi Ignika on Voya Nui, betrayed the Order during the Piraka incursion, was mutated in the Pit, and later led the Order's strike team to free Miserix. who later watched the surface. He waits partway down the long descent, beyond the Chamber of Death and ahead of the Lava Chamber GateLava Chamber GateAn ancient stone gate inside Mount Valmai that guarded the final approach to the Chamber of Life and collapsed during the Toa Inika's pursuit of the Piraka., with the giant Protodax for company. (BIONICLE: Encyclopedia Updated; BIONICLE: Makuta's Guide to the Universe; BIONICLE Legends 5: Inferno)

He doesn't care who you are. In Inferno he explains that the Protodax are left to deal with stray beasts that wander down that far, but anyone with heart and spirit is his to destroy, and he'd rather they died with honour at his hand. When 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. asks how a mask could be worth so many lives, he turns it back on her: if she doesn't know what it's worth, why is she there? (BIONICLE Legends 5: Inferno)

Before the Inika, only one group is known to have claimed the mask: a Toa team led by JovanJovanJovan led the Toa team that retrieved the Kanohi Ignika during the Great Disruption, then served as Turaga over the population that became Voya Nui., long before. They used it and then brought it back, and Umbra went back to waiting. (BIONICLE: Encyclopedia Updated)

Umbra's powers and weapons#

Umbra's powers are all about light. His big trick is changing his body into a beam of light, which makes him almost impossible to hit and lets him strike at blinding speed. He carries a laser lance that fires bolts of energy and has a Rhotuka launcher built in, and his spinners create projections of hard light. (BIONICLE: Encyclopedia Updated; BIONICLE Ignition 4: A Cold Light Dawns)

On his feet he wears skates that let him move at tremendous speed, and in both the book and the comic he rides them along the cavern walls and ceiling as easily as the floor. He wears a mask shaped like a Ruru. For a being made of light, the name is a joke of sorts: umbra is the Latin word for shadow. (BIONICLE Legends 5: Inferno; BIONICLE Ignition 4: A Cold Light Dawns; BIONICLE: Makuta's Guide to the Universe)

Umbra versus the Toa Inika#

The Toa InikaToa Inika: six Matoran struck by lightningSix Matoran of Metru Nui chased the Toa Nuva to Voya Nui and were struck by lightning from the red star. That strike made them the Toa Inika. met Umbra after 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. passed the test in the Chamber of Death. They were already fighting the Protodax when Umbra drove the beasts away and took the Toa on himself. His speed was too much for them. He stripped them of their weapons before they could react. (BIONICLE Legends 5: Inferno)

Matoro turned the fight. In Inferno he first used his ice power to make Umbra slip and crash. Umbra came back as a beam of light, so Matoro coated the cave walls with ice until they shone like mirrors, and Nuparu drew Umbra into them. The light-form ricocheted from wall to wall until Umbra was knocked out cold. (BIONICLE Legends 5: Inferno)

The comic BIONICLE Ignition 4: A Cold Light Dawns tells it more briefly. Umbra turns into light, Nuparu flies upward with his Kanohi KadinKanohi KadinThe Kadin granted its wearer self-powered flight, and served Toa Inika Nuparu through the Voya Nui campaign. to draw him off, and Matoro throws up a single mirror of ice. Umbra hits it, shoots back across the chamber and crashes, unconscious. Both versions agree on the point that matters: the Inika couldn't outfight him, so they made his speed beat him. (BIONICLE Ignition 4: A Cold Light Dawns)

What happened to Umbra afterwards#

The Inika left Umbra behind and went on to the Chamber of Life, where Matoro became the mask's new guardian. The mask then fled into the sea, and Umbra's post was guarding an empty chamber. In the serial Into the Darkness, Teridax muses that Axonn, Brutaka and Umbra, the mask's noble guardians, never understood that the thing they protected could also bring total destruction. (BIONICLE Legends 5: Inferno; Into the Darkness)

By the end of 2007, Axonn was telling the Toa Mahri that Voya Nui would soon return to its original home in the south. The printed story never comes back to Umbra after that. (BIONICLE Legends 8: Downfall)

Is Umbra the guardian of the Mask of Light?#

No, though it's an easy mix-up. The Mask of Light is the Avohkii, the 2003 mask from the film BIONICLE: Mask of Light, which TakuaTakuaAn Av-Matoran hidden on Mata Nui as a Ta-Matoran, who gathered the Toa Stones, served as Chronicler, and ultimately accepted the Avohkii to become Takanuva, the Toa of Light. pulled from a lava stream and which turned him into TakanuvaTakanuvaHidden among the Ta-Matoran as Takua, the disguised Av-Matoran who became Takanuva was the sole Toa of Light produced in the Matoran Universe's full history.. It had been hidden inside a booby-trapped stone totem, with no guardian in sight. Umbra belongs to the 2006 story about the Mask of Life, which was told in books and comics, not on film, so he doesn't appear in Mask of Light, Legends of Metru Nui or Web of Shadows. (BIONICLE: Mask of Light; BIONICLE Legends 5: Inferno)