Mata Nui (Being)

Mata Nui, meaning Great Spirit in the Matoran language, was the guardian of the Matoran Universe.

Creation and Early Life
Far into the unknown past, the Great Beings created Mata Nui as the foundations of a synthezoid, otherwise known as an android. Mata Nui's construction was taken over by the Matoran, who labored in darkness completely unaware of what they were doing. These Matoran created the Matoran Universe, whose lands and species would serve as essential functions to him. During this time, Tren Krom maintained the universe in the heart of Mata Nui, the cavernous Karda Nui.

By 100,000 years ago, Mata Nui was awakened. This was heralded by the exile of Tren Krom, who with the awakening of Mata Nui would no longer be necessary to the Matoran Universe. Meanwhile, the Great Beings created the Kanohi Ignika, a mask which could heal Mata Nui's life-force if required, and provided Artakha with the supplies needed to create the Toa Mata, whose destiny was a failsafe against the possibility of Mata Nui falling asleep.

With his awakening, Mata Nui provided the Matoran Universe with light, gravity, heat, and essential forces of nature, as the Matoran would now labor as unknowingly inside his body to continue his existence. Because of this, the Matoran venerated Mata Nui, and gave him his name, Mata Nui, which was the Matoran translation for the title, Great Spirit, as well as building statues and temples in his honor. Meanwhile, in Karda Nui, the Energy Storms began, which happened as long as Mata Nui was awakened.

Mata Nui was given several tasks by the Great Beings, including the observation of other worlds.

Creating the Makuta/Barraki
Shortly after his awakening, Mata Nui saw fit to create a new species, the Makuta. The Makuta formed the Brotherhood of Makuta, who became known as the brothers of Mata Nui and carried out his will of creating bio-mechanical Rahi and Plant Life to populate his universe.

Five thousand years later, he created six species, choosing one of each to withhold order. These six became warlords known as the Barraki and allied into the League of Six Kingdoms. However, the Barraki were not entirely loyal to Mata Nui. By 15,000 years later, they had conquered the known Matoran Universe in regions, and sought the overthrow of Mata Nui himself. This action prompted the Brotherhood of Makuta and the Toa to muster an army under Makuta Teridax and capture the Barraki and end the League's rule.



500 years later, a Matoran dispute arose in Metru Nui, escalating to the Matoran Civil War. With the loss of workers, this created dire results for Mata Nui. Even when Teridax ended the conflict, Mata Nui's life was endangered. Therefore, Toa Jovan and his team was dispatched to the Southern Continent to recover the Kanohi Ignika. They took the mask underground to Karda Nui, and, with a teammate's sacrifice, healed Mata Nui.

The Brotherhood's Rebellion
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 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

 * If Mata Nui would have ever died, the Matoran Universe would only have three days before the domes inside the Matoran Universe would fill with water with Mutagen in it, according to "The Kingdom" parellel universe.
 * During his slumber, Mata Nui was, 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 from inside Karda Nui.
 * Mata Nui was 40 million feet high.