Mata Nui (Being)

Mata Nui also known as the Great Spirit and the Great Spirit Mata Nui, was the guardian of the Bionicle universe.

History
Mata Nui after being awakened was responsible for the creation of several races. He created the Makuta species, using a greenish-black energy that he molded into a living body. The Makuta would then create the Brotherhood of Makuta, whom became known as the brothers of Mata Nui, to create Rahi and plant life for the universe. 5,000 years after the Makuta's creation, he also created six new species. Sometime later, he chose one of each species to maintain order. These six became the Barraki, who each possessed large armies and allied together into the League of Six Kingdoms. Unfortunately, both organizations did not remain loyal to him for long.

Soon, the League of Six Kingdoms were consumed by power, lust, and domination. They used their power to conquer the entire Matoran Universe, except for select islands whose locations were unknown like Daxia and Artakha, and Metru Nui. Inevitably, they sought to overthrow the Great Spirit and seize Metru Nui, and were defeated by a Brotherhood and Toa army led by Makuta Teridax. Following the Barraki's capture, the League dissolved, leaving a power vacuum which led to the Metru Nui Civil War. The war had dire results for Mata Nui, as once 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 universe would only have three days before ending. Islands on the surface would not be affected, but the entire underground 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.

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 * Mata Nui looks similar to a Toa.