Tahu (2001)

"Great treasures are always found in the Lava."

- Tahu to Gali referring to himself in BIONICLE Legends 1: Island of Doom

Tahu was the Toa Mata of Fire on the island of Mata Nui. After his transformation through energized protodermis, he was transformed into a more powerful being known as a Toa Nuva.

Early days
Little is known about Tahu's past. He was created on Artakha with the other Toa Mata. His canister was built in the what a Matoran in the Realm of Karzahni called 'the world that feeds the world', which was later revealed to be Karda Nui. He was also trained by Hydraxon in the art of combat. During the Great Cataclysm, he and the other 5 Toa Mata were shot out of somewhere underground and into the ocean surrounding Mata Nui. He and the other Toa were supposed to land safely on Mata Nui almost immediately, but something went wrong. He ended up staying afloat along with the others in the ocean for 1,000 years.

Quest for the Masks
"Why - can't - I - REMEMBER?"

-Tahu, frustrated upon first appearing on Mata Nui

After Takua activated the Toa Stones, unwittingly summoning the Toa, Tahu washed upon shore. He was dissasembled, so he rebuilt himself. He then journeyed into Ta-Wahi, where he was caught in a Rahi Trap. He used his Fire Sword to cut his way out.

Vakama, the Turaga of Ta-Koro appeared. Vakama bowed before Tahu and apologized. He led Tahu to Ta-Koro and told him the Legend of Mata Nui. Vakama also mentioned others: Gali, Pohatu, Kopaka, Lewa, and Onua. Tahu met with the other Toa, and they decided to split up to search for the great Kanohi masks.

While searching for his Kanohi Akaku in Onu-Wahi, Tahu had to fight off a Kofo-Jaga swarm.

Tahu later ran into Gali, who was surrounded by Nui-Jaga. Tahu scared them away with fire. Gali did a back flip into the water and was knocked out cold. She washed up on shore and Tahu told her it was alright. Onua had called a meeting near the Kini-Nui.

The meeting was interupted by a volcano eruption. Onua and Lewa dug a trench to make the lava flow through it. Two Tarakava emerged behind Tahu, but Pohatu took them out with a large boulder. A downfall of sand appeared, and Tahu turned it to glass by using his power. Two Nui-Rama appeared, smashed the glass, swooped up Tahu, and dropped him. Tahu did not have the Miru, but luckily Onua caught him.

After the meeting, the Toa decided to work as a team. To get his Miru, which was underwater, the three Toa who had the Kanohi Kaukau had to get it for him.

After this, the Toa split back up, this time into two groups of three. Tahu, Gali and Onua went to Le-Wahi to find a Kanohi Kakama in a tree, and Tahu burnt the tree down, almost setting fire to the entire forest. This enraged Gali, and she stalked off.

Tahu was the last Toa to finish his mask collection, getting the Kanohi Kaukau from a Rahi on Mount Ihu.

The Toa went to Kini-Nui, where they received their golden masks.

Subsequently, the Chronicler Company arrived, and the Toa tasked them with defending the Kini-Nui from any more Rahi attacks while they were in Mangaia. They assembled the Makoki stones and descended.

When the Toa walked into Makuta's lair, they encountered the Manas, Makuta's guardians. They proved too strong to defeat alone, so the Toa fused into two Toa Kaita. Tahu, Onua, and Pohatu into Akamai and the other Toa into Wairuha. After quickly defeating the Manas in these forms, the Toa defused and headed into Makuta's lair.

They heard his voice, and he said that they would defeat themselves. Suddenly, a stranger that looked like Tahu attacked the Toa of Fire. Eventually, all of the Toa had shadow counterparts. They struggled against these, but Onua finally realized that they had to be destroyed by fighting a different Toa's counterpart, not your own. The Shadow Toa were quickly finished off.

Now the Toa were ready to fight Makuta. But all they found was a Matoran with a pitted mask and shadowy body. The Toa were surprised at his form, but Makuta quickly changed himself into a swirling vortex of parts that sprouted dark tentacles that knocked the Toa askew. The Toa quickly combined their powers and caught Makuta by surprise. Makuta left with the words: "You cannot destroy me, for I am Nothing."

They were teleported out of Makuta's lair.

Bohrok War
Makuta was defeated, but there was a rumble from the ground and a Ta-Matoran came running to the Toa. The Matoran was saying one word over and over again:

Bohrok.

The Toa took him to Ta-Koro, only to find it was being destroyed by strange insectlike creatures with elemental powers. They defeated the Bohrok and Vakama told the Toa about the Bohrok and that they had to collect all eight breeds of krana from all six breeds of Bohrok.

The Toa split up, each going to their home village. As they battled Bohrok and collected krana, they learned that the Bohrok were not really alive, just vehicles from the krana. Tahu learned through Kopaka that there was a Bohrok nest in Mount Ihu. Tahu wanted to charge right in, but Kopaka told him to wait for the other Toa. A little later, the other Toa met up with them and they descended into the nest. Tahu went into the heart of the Bohrok nest alone and was trapped. For a brief moment, his mask was replaced with a krana, but not long enough for him to be controlled by it. He heated the air, causing the central chamber to explode. He met up with the other Toa in a different chamber, only for the floor they were standing on to collapse as they fell to the bottom of the nest.

They found niches where the krana could fit, and, placing them in the niches, six chambers opened, each leading to an Exo-Toa suit of armor. Each Toa got into the armor. Tahu encountered Cahdok, the blue Bahrag queen. He drove her out of a tunnel and into the main chamber, as Kopaka did with Gahdok, the red queen. The Bahrag backed up against each other, and the Toa began to fight. But they could not use their elemental powers, and the Bahrag seemed to have a forcefield around them. They had all of the elemental powers, and the powers of illusions, so the Toa were losing quickly.

Tahu was the first to realize that the Exo-Toa armor was hindering their elemental powers, commanding the Toa to shed it. Then he somehow knew that the Toa had to surround the Bahrag and attack them as a group. They were trapped in a cage of protodermis just before they fell into tubes filled with energized protodermis, transforming them. Tahu dubbed their new forms "Toa Nuva".

Bohrok-Kal
With the Bohrok defeated, the Toa Nuva returned home and began to repair the damage done by the Bohrok. Each Toa had recieved a symbol at their respective Suva upon becoming Toa Nuva. Shortly after Tahu Nuva recieved his, Turaga Vakama gave Tahu the Vahi, Legendary Mask of Time.

At their first meeting as Toa Nuva, the Toa all got into a fight while showing off their new powers. They went their separate ways again, and returned home, only to all lose their elemental powers at about the same time as their symbols were stolen. They all met up again and decided to look for whoever had stolen their symbols.

When the Tahnok-Kal was escaping with Tahu Nuva's symbol, the Toa Nuva of Fire confronted him at the gates to Ta-Koro. When he tried to access his fire powers to stop the Bohrok-Kal, he was momentarily stunned by their absence. Tahnok-Kal took advantage of the delay to collapse the gateway above him, burying Tahu in a pile of rubble. By the time Tahu extricated himself, Tahnok-Kal had left. Tahu, Takua, and Jaller pursued the Tahnok-Kal, following his trail to Le-Wahi.

When in Le-Wahi, Lewa Nuva literally fell in on the group. He explained that his powers had disappeared as well, and joined the three in their pursuit of the Bohrok-Kal. The search led them next to Po-Wahi, where the two Bohrok-Kal they were observing met with another. This revelation led to the discovery of Pohatu, also powerless, encased in magnetized Mahi. The two Toa Nuva freed their ally, and he joined with them in the search. Their path led them all over Mata Nui, where the rest of the Toa Nuva, their powers also stolen, joined with them.

Eventually, they ran into six Bohrok-like creatures who could talk and had different powers. They called themselves Bohrok-Kal and claimed to be searching for the Bahrag. The Toa Nuva attempted to fight them, but were esentially helpless without their elemental powers. They were all rendered unconscious by a combination attack of Vacuum, Sonics, and Electricity.

When they awakened, the Toa Nuva discovered that the Bohrok-Kal have krana-kal as the Bohrok had krana and decide that they need the krana. They split up to get the krana-kal from the Bohrok-Kal, sure that when they are removed, the Bohrok-Kal would be rendered helpless.

Tahu tried to get Pahrak-Kal's krana-kal, but he was failing horribly. But Tahu wouldn't give up--he would have rather sacrificed himself. Jaller showed up and told him that he has no right to do so, and subsequently wrenched the krana-kal out of Pahrak-Kal. Unfortunately, a Gahlok Va quickly replaced it with a new one.

Later, Tahu met up with in Le-Wahi while searching for Kanohi Nuva. Lewa decided to be his guide through the jungle, and Tahu agreed. The Toa came to a swamp where Nuhvok-Kal had been earlier, as Tahu figured by trees blocking the path that were impossibly heavy.

Lewa got a plan to get a bunch of Le-Matoran to jump out from all directions and surprise Nuhvok-Kal. They got the Le-Matoran ready, and Tahu lured Nuhvok-Kal over by taunting him and then swinging on vines back to the swamp. The plan worked, but Nuhvok-Kal escaped.

Gali later summoned for Kopaka and Tahu to meet up with her to get their last three Kanohi Nuva in the Place of Shadow. Tahu and Kopaka were arguing the whole trip there, and for most of the way to the masks. After getting through several challenges, they reached the masks, out in the open. They took the masks, only for the ground to crumble underneath them, leading to a chamber far below with the other Toa Nuva and Turaga Vakama. They encountered a huge beast known as the Rahi Nui. With Vakama's help, they were able to beat the beast, after a struggle, and then combined the powers of the Miru Nuva and Kakama Nuva to fly out of the chamber. The Toa split up and began again the fight against the Bohrok-Kal.

Eventually, Tahu met up with Pohatu and Onua in Le-Wahi, and they had a disturbing discovery that they refused to tell him until they met up with the others. Soon enough, Kopaka, Gali and Lewa arrived and told of how they had formed a Toa Kaita Nuva, Wairuha Nuva, to defeat Kohrak-Kal, Lehvak-Kal, and Gahlok-Kal, but they formed their own Kaita and beat Wairuha Nuva easily. Pohatu and Onua told of their discovery: they had defeated Tahnok-Kal and removed its krana-kal, but the krana-kal said they were too late, that the Bahrag had already been found.

So the Toa Nuva descended into the Bohrok nest. The Toa got Lewa to levitate down first. He saw the Bohrok-Kal fighting the Exo-Toa on auto-pilot, and the Bahrag in a large floating cube with spaces to put in the Toa's symbols. The Toa went down into the Bahrag's chamber, hoping the Kanohi Nuva masks they had found would be enough. Once down there, Tahu revealed to the others how Vakama had given him the Vahi. Unfortunately, the Vahi didn't work and the Bohrok-Kal became invulnerable as they drew so close to the end of their mission.

Then Gali had an idea--to channel their power through their symbols and into the Bohrok-Kal. The Bohrok-Kal became arrogant with their newfound power, beginning to think they would not need to awaken the Bahrag. But the power kept coming, and eventually an overload of power destroyed each Bohrok-Kal. The Toa Nuva, their elemental powers returned to them, returned to their villages for a period of peace and prosperity.

Mask of Light
After the Bohrok-Kal were defeated, a new era of peace rose upon Mata Nui. Koli was re-invented, and became Kolhii. This sport became so popular, the Turaga chose two Matoran to represent their Koro. The Ta-Koro team was Jaller and Takua.

The day of the first Kolhii game in the Ta-Koro stadium came. Just before the game, Tahu was in the Lava Falls of Ta-Wahi when he saw Takua about to be killed by a giant lava wave. Tahu saved him with his Kanohi Hau Nuva and sent Takua and Jaller off to the Kolhii game.

Ga-Koro won the game, and at the end, a mask fell out of Takua's pack, the Avohkii, Mask of Light. It shone when it touched Takua, but he tilted it with foot so the mask shone all the rays on Jaller. Thus, everyone assumed he was the Herald of the Mask. Turaga Nokama translated some ancient text on the mask (which looked like normal Matoran text in the Mask of Light movie), saying that it would belong to a Seventh Toa who had to be found by Jaller and Takua. They set out on a quest to find the Seventh Toa.

While they were searching, a new threat, Rahkshi, attacked Ta-Koro. Gali had followed them from the Kini Nui there. The two Toa tried to fight off the three Rahkshi, but they lost, and Tahu was poisoned by Rahkshi Lerahk. Ta-Koro was destroyed, falling into the lava.

Tahu became more and more aggressive, due to the poison spreading through his system. It took the combined effort of Lewa, Kopaka, and Gali to heal him, but they were successful.

Tahu and the other Toa finally defeated the Rahkshi in the end, and were ordered to stay behind to watch over the Matoran as Takanuva, the new Toa of Light, went to fight Makuta. When Takanuva summoned the Matoran, the Toa Nuva went with them and were witness to the Kolhii match between Makuta and Takanuva.

Makuta and Takanuva fused into Takutanuva, who opened the door to Metru Nui. The Toa Nuva and Takanuva were left at peace for the next couple of weeks, during which they listened to the Turaga's tales of Metru Nui.

Return To Metru Nui
After learning from Turaga Dume that Mata Nui was dying, the Toa Nuva were sent to the island of Voya Nui to find the Ignika Mask of Life. Dume lead them to a chamber and showed them six canisters that will take them to Voya Nui, or as the stars also call it, "the daggers of death".

Quest for the Mask of Life
The Toa Nuva washed up on shore on Voya Nui. There, however, they ran afoul of the Piraka and were defeated. Stripped of their masks and tools, they were going to be dumped into the volcano, but when it began erupting, the Piraka left them at the edge and ran away.

The Toa Nuva awoke in time to save themselves, but were ambushed by the few free Matoran on Voya Nui. Axonn interrupted the battle by establishing that the Toa Nuva were indeed Toa. The new allies inflitrated the Piraka's base and recovered their tools and masks. Just as they were about to attack the Piraka, however, Zaktan made a deal with Brutaka and Brutaka defeated them all with a single blow.

The Matoran escaped, but the Toa Nuva were chained to a wall and enslaved to the antidermis, which slowly drained them of their life source. The Matoran returned and saved the Toa Nuva, and the Toa Nuva met up with the newly transformed Toa Inika.

After some contemplation, the Toa Nuva decided that the Toa Inika were destined to save Mata Nui's life and they let the Toa Inika go on. They promised them that they would be waiting for them on Metru Nui.

After the Toa Inika left, Tahu admitted to Axonn that he had lied. They were going on another secret mission, with a sidetrack to gain back Lhikan's old mask, which Jaller had been wearing until it was taken from him in the land of Karzahni.

New Mission
Tahu traveled with the other Toa Nuva to fulfill the Preparation Scroll. Their first task was to awaken the Bahrag and start the cleansing of Mata Nui. Tahu himself could not carry out the order to do it, and Onua had to say it for him. The next task was to retrieve the Staff of Artakha, that was possibly being held on the island of Odina. Tahu and the other Toa Nuva encountered The Shadowed One who asked them to kill Roodaka if he helped him find the staff. Tahu said yes, but later revealed to Gali that he had other plans. He and the other Toa went to Xia and found Roodaka. They also had her change the Rahaga back into Toa Hagah. Then, with the Staff of Artahka gone and taken by the Makuta Icarax, Tahu claimed that they would get the staff even if they had to take it from a Makuta's dead hands.

Later, Tahu and his team journeyed to the realm of Karzahni, where all the Toa but Gali was defeated. After the realm was destroyed by a Nova Blast unleashed by Gali, Tahu was revived and then journeyed with Kopaka to a chain of islands to the south of the Matoran Universe where they needed to stop several active volcanoes. Sometime after (unknown if before or after destroying the volcanoes) he was brought by Botar to Daxia where he saw assisted the restoration of the universe through the Staff of Artakha.

A few days after Mata Nui had died and been revived by Matoro, the Toa Nuva traveled to the realm of Artakha for their final mission on the scroll. There they were given adaptive armor by Artakha himself, and he sent them to the Universe Core.

Personality
"Enough of this bickering. We will accomplish nothing by standing here and having a debate. The decision is made - we split into small groups. It's the best of both worlds, can't you see that?"

-Tahu upon meeting the other 5 Toa Mata

"Fire never surrenders. If it cannot burn through, it burns around. Block its path and it sends sparks through the air, to begin the blaze anew somewhere else. Fire always finds a way."

-Tahu Nuva to Gali Nuva

Tahu was the leader and the fiercest of the six Toa, and the most feared. His flaming temper could make him hotheaded and irrational at times. He had the least patience of the Toa and jumped into a situation without thinking, which could get him, and the other Toa, in trouble! He was, however, very brave and fiercely protective of his friends.

Tools, Powers, and Abilities
"Power... I have such power. The power of fire. Of heat and flame. But where does it come from? What is it for?"

-Tahu's thoughts when he first discovered his power over fire.

Tahu was a Toa of Fire, and therefore could command fire with his will, withstand extreme heat, create structures from fire, heat the air around him or suck the heat inside himself, emit blasts of fire at enemies, create fire, and melt many substances. He didn't work well near, in, or under water.

Tahu's main Kanohi mask was the Hau mask of shielding, which could shield against any known attack. It did not work against ambushes or surprising blows.

Tahu carried a Fire Sword as a Toa Mata, and as a Toa Nuva, carried two Magma Swords which could be connected together to form a lavaboard. These tools were used to focus Tahu's innate powers.

Tahu carried a Nynrah Ghost Blaster.

Toa Mistika
Tahu, Gali and Onua will go to the Swamp of Secrets to battle the Makuta Gorast, Krika, and Bitil.

Quotes
"Chronicler, sightseeing are you?"

- Tahu to Takua, in Bionicle: Mask of Light, the movie

Tahu