Mata Nui (Being)

"I will return."

- Mata Nui, BIONICLE Legends 11: The Final Battle

Mata Nui also known as the Great Spirit and the Great Spirit Mata Nui, was the guardian of the Matoran Universe.

Creation and Early Life
During the stages of constructing of the Matoran Universe, Tren Krom maintained the Matoran Universe at Karda Nui. He was later exiled from his post by the Great Beings. Shortly afterwords, Mata Nui was awakened, now providing essential forces like light, heat, and gravity. To ensure his protection, the Great Beings provided the Kanohi Ignika to cure whatever would ail him. He was also protected by the Toa Mata, and discreetly, the Order of Mata Nui.

Creating the Makuta/Barraki
Roughly 100,000 years ago, Mata Nui saw fit to create a new species dubbed the Makuta. He used the liquid of the Makuta Pool and molded it into the living bodies of this new species. The Makuta were beings of Shadow, who were tasked with populating the Matoran Universe with Rahi and plant life. They formed the Brotherhood of Makuta, who soon carried out Mata Nui's will, along with protecting the Matoran. Five thousand years later, Mata Nui also created six new sapient species. Sometime later, he chose one of each species to withhold order within his new universe, Pridak, Takadox, Carapar, Mantax, Kalmah, and Ehlek. They formed the Barraki, who commanded armies and allied together into the League of Six Kingdoms.



Despite Mata Nui's intentions, both organizations were flawed subtly. By 15,000 years later, the League was influenced by the power they controlled. They conquered the entire Matoran Universe, dividing their lands into sixths for each Barraki to control. Inevitably, they sought the overthrow of their creator. This provoked the Brotherhood and the Toa to muster an army to defeat the League, and capture the Barraki. With the loss of their leaders, the League diminished, leaving a power vacuum. At the same time, Makuta Teridax, who was in charge of the army that defeated the League, began to believe their plot of rebellion could succeed if done by the Brotherhood.

In the end, the defeat of the League left dire results for Mata Nui. Without the League's order, the Metru Nui Civil War occurred. As a result, the Matoran took up arms and halting work, he suffered to the point of near-death. Fortunately, Jovan's Team was able to find the Kanohi Ignika in the Southern Continent, travel to Karda Nui, use the mask, and save his life.

Subsequently, Makuta Teridax had begun to formulate The Plan, a coup to overthrow the Great Spirit. The idea stemmed from an idea Teridax had following the Barraki's defeat, believing the League could not be the rulers of the Matoran Universe, but surely the Makuta could. After the Metru Nui Civil War, many Makuta had similar beliefs, as Makuta Miserix assigned regions for the Makuta to watch over. All over, the species became aware of complete devotion, veneration, and love for the Great Spirit, and yet none for the Makuta, despite all they had done for them.

This spawned jealousy, hatred, and anger toward him, until all the Makuta just wanted to see was the Great Spirit "humbled", as Teridax described once. Therefore, when Makuta Mutran had returned from a mission to investigate Tren Krom, he informed Teridax of information such as Mata Nui's actual form and characteristics, who used the information to overthrow Miserix, and fell the Great Spirit with a virus to make him fall asleep.

But Mata Nui did see the attack coming, and manipulated events to make sure things could be made right. When new Toa Metru were about to be chosen by Toa Lhikan shortly before the Cataclysm, Teridax wished to influence the choices to his advantage. Knowing this, Mata Nui and his Order falsified prophesies regarding the identities of the new Toa. Teridax believed these prophesies, and influenced Lhikan to choose others to become the new Toa. But as these "others" were fake to begin with, the ones that Teridax influenced Lhikan to choose were in fact the true destined Toa Metru. The Toa Nuva were sent to Voya Nui to find the Ignika, Mask of Life, that could heal Mata Nui. Six Matoran followed them determined to help, and were transformed into the Toa Inika. The Toa Inika got the mask, after several struggles against rogue Skakdi ex-Dark Hunters calling themselves Piraka, but it immediately flew away and plunged into the sea, heading for the undersea city of Mahri Nui that rested on top of the Pit, which it considered the most damaged place in the universe.

There, the mask was found by a Ga-Matoran named Kyrehx, who passed it on to a Po-Matoran named Dekar. The Barraki went after it as soon as they learned of it, and the waters of the Pit were slowly destroying it. The Toa Inika pursued it down to Mahri Nui through the stone cord linking Mahri Nui and Voya Nui. They encountered a tribe of Zyglak, and a giant venom eel cracked the cord and attacked them.

However, they became Toa Mahri, transformed by the mask. They had from that point around 24 hours to heal Mata Nui before he died, and three days after that till the entire underground Matoran universe was destroyed. Unfortunately, they failed, and shortly after the Toa Mahri recovered the Ignika and cut the Stone Cord in preparation for Mata Nui's awakening, he died, causing the Mask of Life to go dark (it did not, however, lose its powers--the darkness was purely symbolic). The universe then slowly began to die; then, after falling into Karda Nui, Matoro put on the Ignika. Matoro died, bringing Mata Nui back to life and the universe was saved, but he remained asleep and began having terrible nightmares.

After arriving in Karda Nui, the Toa Nuva discovered that there were six fragments of a keystone that told how to awaken Mata Nui. From the first three stones they acquired, they learned that the secret to reviving the Great Spirit was in the Swamp of Secrets.

Trivia

 * After Mata Nui's death, the Matoran Universe would only have three days before ending. The whole universe would be flooded.
 * Mata Nui was actually not hard to find. The trick was knowing you had found him.
 * Prior to his death and revival, Mata Nui was, at least on some level, aware of what was going on in the universe.
 * Before Mata Nui existed, the universe was kept in order by an entity called Tren Krom.
 * Mata Nui is about 40 million feet high, and a four-page poster of his physical form will be released in the November edition of Brickmaster. (This was revealed by Greg Farshtey in a Bionicle event in Willimantic, CT.)
 * Mata Nui looks similar to a Toa.