Hau

"Immediately, a strange feeling overwhelmed him. As if a cushion of strength had settled in around him, protecting him from all harm."

- Narration, BIONICLE Chronicles 1: Tale of the Toa

The Kanohi Hau was the Mask of Shielding. It gave its user the power to protect themself from any attack that they were aware of, but was useless against ambush or mental attacks. The Noble Hau acts the same as the Great version, but provides a weaker shield and has a shorter duration of power.

Hau were carved out of a mixture of Growth and Regeneration Kanoka on Metru Nui.

Example Usages

 * Great: In the Mata Nui Online Game, Onua used his to shield himself from an attack made by Lewa while he was infected.
 * Noble: Turaga Lhikan used his Hau to shield himself from Teridax's shadow hand in BIONICLE 2: Legends of Metru Nui. However, the shield was quickly overwhelmed by the Makuta's power, and broke.

Worn During Transformation

 * Lhikan - Primary mask; he wore a variant which changed with him, its changes reflect his own - from Powerless as Matoran to Great Mangai, and then from Great Mangai to Noble. After his death, his Hau was given to Jaller as a replacement for his own destroyed Kanohi; because Jaller was still a Matoran at the time, its power was never used.

Powerless

 * Various Rahi - (Infected) Formerly; all since uninfected.
 * Kumo
 * Lumi
 * Marka
 * Pekka
 * Zemya
 * Matoran Gaardus - Formerly; replaced with a Great Hau after his transformation by the Nynrah Ghosts.
 * Radiak - As an Av-Matoran; later replaced with powerless Jutlin as a Shadow Matoran. Since reverted to Hau.

Great

 * The Toa Mata - Formerly; exchanged for Golden Kanohi.
 * Tahu - Restored to primary mask; his original mask had become a Hau Nuva during the 2002-2003 storyline
 * Lewa - Former secondary mask
 * Pohatu - Former secondary mask
 * Gali - Former secondary mask
 * Kopaka - Former secondary mask
 * Onua - Former secondary mask
 * Gaardus - After his transformation.

Noble

 * Jaller - Formerly; eventually given to Karzahni. Kanohi later recovered by Tahu Nuva.

Set Info
The Hau was first released in three 2001 sets: A Great Hau Ta  was included with Tahu, a yellow one served as Jala's mask in the McDonald's promotional set, and two hand-painted, infected ones were released with the Muaka and Kane-Ra set. It was also released in the other elements of the Toa, Hau Le,  Hau Ga ,  Hau Ko ,  Hau Onu  and  Hau Po , and it was possible to find any of them in the supplementary Kanohi Packs, which included two randomly-selected masks. It was also possible to get a hand-painted infected one like that released with the Muaka set, though this was extremely rare.

A chrome silver Hau was released in the BIONICLE Power Pack, a set exclusive to Universal stores.

In 2002, a similar mask pack to the 2001 version was released, containing two similarly random masks in silver and gold, as well as three Krana of 96 possible types. From this it was possible to get the Hau in either gold or silver.

One year after, Jaller's yellow Hau reappeared in the Jaller and Gukko set. An old dark gray Hau appears in both versions of the 2003 Takanuva set (8596 and 10201), and in the BIONICLE 500 Piece Kit set.

In the following year, the Hau was released again, this time in gold in the Lhikan and Kikanalo set. This time, however, the mask was redesigned to be elongated and more ornate, making it consistent with the Metru Nui aesthetic used at the time.

Six years later, a new version of the Hau was released in red and gold with a revamped and scaled-down version of the original Tahu in the BIONICLE Stars sets of 2010. This version was slightly smaller than its previous incarnations, but much closer to the original 2001 design.

Trivia

 * The Hau was a symbol of the Great Spirit Mata Nui.
 * It is arguably the most well-known and recognized Kanohi in the original series. It had also made a cameo appearance at Ekimu's Forge in the reboot.
 * When Makuta first confronted the Toa Mata, he appeared in the form of an infected Matoran wearing an infected Great Hau; the subsequent form he took to battle them was nothing but the infected Hau on its own floating at the center of a void formed by swirling black body parts and tentacles of shadow.
 * In the 'City of Silver' Pocket Dimension, a mysterious entity appeared in the form of a giant transparent Hau.
 * In the "Dark Mirror" alternate universe, Makuta Teridax wore a Hau that appeared infected since his Kraahkan had been taken from him.

Hau