#Hehli | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

rebuiltbionicle · 5 years ago

Text

Kepita

An island in the Western Island Chain, in what was considered the northmost dome after Artakha sealed itself off. Kepita was the homeland of the Myuriahk species, a feature that rose Kepita to a level of renown it otherwise would not have had. Its history was one of political intrigue and conflict with the powers that were after the sullying of its reputation by a certain political figure.

Kepita’s foundations were laid by the Great Beings, and the island itself built by the Matoran. The Great Beings had no purpose for island; it was just another place for Matoran to inhabit. As Matoran began to populate the universe, Kepita was settled by populations of Ga, Vo, and Ce-Matoran. It was the smallest island in its dome, and was largely overlooked by shipping lanes except a few small time traders making a living dealing with the Kepitans.

Although Mata Nui trusted the Makuta implicitly, they were uncomfortable with the pool of Antidermis from whence the Makuta came, as well as with the Kraata that ended up in the wild growing stronger and stronger. A countermeasure was devised in the form of the Myuriahk; a species dedicated to metabolising antidermis and becoming stronger for it. Since the Myuriahk were a late addition to the universe, Mata Nui decided to place them somewhere somewhat obscure to avoid disturbing the social trends already setting in, and chose Kepita.

The introduction of the Myuriahk disturbed social trends anyway. They rapidly built up a city to inhabit instead of mere rural villages as the Matoran had. This required a great deal of resources shipped to the island from elsewhere, turning Kepita into a trade hub for some time. In return for resources, the Myuriahk leased out the island’s waters for commercial fishing, a move that lacked the consent of the Ga-Matoran and angered them significantly. The Myuriahk faced no consequences for this action and were able to settle themselves in a large coastal city on the island’s south eastern shore.

It was about at this time the rise of the Barraki came to Kepita. The oceanic armies of the Barraki Ehlek had conquered the sea around them, but paid no attention to the islands themselves. The Barraki Kalmah and Takadox began clashing over the dominance of the dome’s surface, though their fighting was focused on the islands of Ahraus and Hehli Nui to the east of Kepita. Takadox’s armies, pushing Kalmah out, attempted to seize it as an afterthought, and met near total destruction at the hands of the Myuriahk. Takadox moved to personally capture Kepita, though at this time Ehlek had grown distrustful of sharing his waters with Barraki on the surface (and vice versa) and Takadox found himself driven out of the dome with his holdings besieged by Ehlek’s surfacing armies. Kepita too faced invasion, and through the Myuriahk’s resistance it managed to hold out longer than the larger islands around it. Though suffering enormous casualties, Ehlek was able to break down the Myuriahk and force a (conditional) surrender. If further fighting had been deemed practical, Ehlek would have scattered the Myuriahk to the wind in vengeance.

The war left Kepita’s landscape in ruins, though with a temporary peace the Matoran (who had been hiding in the Myuriahk city) began to rebuild their lives and attempt to repair the environment. Kepita endured the reign of the League of Six Kingdoms without further incident. As part of the conditions of surrender, Ehlek’s official governor for the island was selected from the Myuriahk, and was a merchant by the name of Stonnr. The strength of the Myuriahk weighed heavily on Ehlek’s mind, and he saw little capacity to recruit them and so instead chose to placate them with all the resources they could want and to try and dissuade them from reproducing or spreading out to other islands.

After the fall of the Barraki, Stonnr wasted no time in attempting to set himself up as a successor for Ehlek. He rallied his fellow Myuriahk to the cause with nationalist rhetoric, about taking revenge for the sack of their island on the rest of Ehlek’s Kingdom and establishing their own. This won a great deal of support from the Myuriahk who suffered during the sieges, though resoundingly little from the Matoran. Stonnr was able to seize the entire dome quickly, and swallowing up confused League armies with the display of strength directed them into the Artakha dome (to the two non-Artakha islands), east onto the northern continent, and to the two domes southward, conquering four more islands there, including islands in the region of Destral.

Stonnr was without a doubt the strongest of the lesser barraki, and his kingdom lasted the longest of the League successor states. At its maximum extent, the Kepitan Kingdom ruled over thirteen entire islands, halves of two other islands, and the western coastline of the Northern Continent. Stonnr was forced to halt his advance as his forces grew thin. He pushed for the Myuriahk to build more of themselves, and to found colonies on the islands he had taken. This was focused mainly within Kepita’s dome and on the Northern Continent; most other colonies collapsed when the Kingdom did.

Stonnr’s reign was ruthless, pushing his people into churning out weapons, armour, food, and recruits for his armies. The Myuriahk were growing tired, and a few key leaflet distributions by the Brotherhood of Makuta led them to begin seeing Stonnr as an escaped Barraki collaborator putting his own personal glory above the well-being of his people. A rapid coup d'état led by a warrior named Brutaka killed Stonnr and dismantled his government. Brutaka reorganised Kepita’s government into a democratic communal model based upon Matoran societies and granted all of Stonnr’s colonies and conquests independence. This mostly achieved the peace the Makuta and Toa desired, however a great deal of military personnel mutinied and became pirates and mercenaries.

Brutaka held no interest in leading Kepita outside of reorganising its government and accepted a commission in the Brotherhood army. Shortly afterwards the Brotherhood assigned Makuta Thyrel to watch over Kepita. Due to its small size and population, Thyrel was also assigned to the island of Phuun to the north. Thyrel kept the Myuriahk docile to prevent another large conquest kingdom from emerging, though eyed them for recruits for the Brotherhood army.

The democratic Kepitan government managed to integrate Myuriahk and Matoran societies into a cohesive and cooperating whole, and extended a great deal of trade agreements as an attempt at reparations for its violent conquests of other land. There was however an increasing trend towards attempting to throw Kepita’s political weight around. Kepitan corporations began to corrode their democracy and came to dominate much of the economy of their dome and its neighbours. The island would butt its head into matters that did not concern it, such as the Continental War and demanding a seat in organisations distant and unrelated to Kepitan issues. This phase of Kepitan politics ended with a few riots that ended up banishing corporate rule from the island. Communal democracy returned to Kepita.

The next time Kepita was the seat of political intrigue was when Kepita and the Myuriahk colonies on the surrounding islands (which had come to dominate those islands) proposed forming a federation. The Brotherhood of Makuta immediately suspected a return of Stonnr’s Kingdom and attempted to dissuade the federating of the islands. The islands protested, insisting they were all democracies forming a unified democracy, and that this society wasn’t a Myuriahk Kingdom as Matoran were equal citizens on every island. The Matoran generally agreed, but not unanimously. They accused the Brotherhood of maintaining an order of disunited and isolated island nations so the Makuta could be rule from behind the scenes without competition. This accusation struck a nerve with the Brotherhood because it was essentially true.

The standoff eventually came to physical violence, and Makuta Thyrel was slain and their antidermis absorbed by a Myuriahk. The Brotherhood was shocked, and rumour quickly spread of the Myuriahk’s ability (Mata Nui had kept it hidden until such time as he needed them). The Myuriahk stood up with great confidence to the Brotherhood, which backed down and allowed the formation of the federation as appeasement. The Makuta considered sending the Visorak after Kepita, though figured an immediate attack on a dissident island might reveal the horde’s allegiance. Some decades later the horde attacked Phuun. The Myuriahk met them magnificently, but failed as all others had done before them.

The Great Cataclysm ravaged Kepita and the Federation. The Makuta immediately offered assistance, though the Federation had been growing suspicious of the Makuta and saw through their attempt to take economic control of the dome. The unity of the Federation was able to repair the cities of each dome fairly rapidly, though the Makuta made efforts to prevent aid to or from other domes. Nevertheless, the Federation was a major post-cataclysm economic power.

When the Order of Mata Nui came out of hiding to make war with the Brotherhood of Makuta, the Myuriahk were asked to fight against the Makuta alongside the other forces gathered by the Order. Many Myuriahk accepted, especially after the revelation of the Visorak’s allegiance. The Myuriahk were powerful fighters and were able to liberate many lands. The Makuta attempted to stir up fear of a return of Stonnr’s Kingdom, but after the Visorak revelation nothing was going to win them PR. The Myuriahk are forever honoured as heroes of the war.

Unfortunately, they had made such a name for themselves that one of the first acts of the Reign of Shadows was the destruction of Kepita. Volcanic fissures erupted beneath the island and the island was swallowed by the sea. The Myuriahk armies used by the Order were deployed far and wide and were easy enough to scatter. The Myuriahk colonies on Ahraus, Hehli Nui, and Phuun (resettled after the Visorak left) were occupied by War Rahi and defecting Skakdi. What was left of Kepita was dismantled with the rest of the Matoran Universe after it was evacuated.

...

Kepita conformed to no elemental Wahi, though some occasionally called it a Vo-Wahi due to the storms that frequented the island. It was mostly covered in temperate woodland. The coastline was predominantly cliffs, though with an expanse of level shoreline which became the site of the Myuriahk city. The beaches were predominantly gravel. The sea around Kepita was shallow and held a few coral reefs and seaweed forests. To the north of the island was an extinct (though never actually active) volcano.

Kepita was first populated by Matoran of the water, lightning, and psionic elements. The Ga-Matoran had several Ga-Koro floating over the waters at the shorelines, and around rivers near waterfalls, where they fished and gathered other oceanic resources. The Vo-Matoran congregated in a single large Vo-Koro to the west where he storms hit strongest, using the lightning to energise batteries to distribute. The Ce-Matoran for whatever reason were spread out individual huts across the forests, not gathering in a singular village. Though their element was associated with neither role, the Ce-Matoran were generally healers for the other Matoran and the custodians of nature. After the Myuriahk arrived all three kinds of Matoran could be found in the Myuriahk city.

The most notable denizens of Kepita were the Myuriahk species which Mata Nui created on the island. These beings were among the tallest Mata Nui ever created, each a ten-foot tall titan. They were humanoid like the Toa, though had an additional pair of diminutive arms emerging from the waist. Since biomechanicals are fairly modular, some Myuriahk had even more secondary arms, or none at all. They had the ability to absorb antidermis of any state and turn it into energy. They also each had a private power, such as elasticity or a limited elemental power, varying between individuals. They had immense strength and power, each Myuriahk being stronger than a small Toa team.

Despite their strength and history for a somewhat martial existence, the Myuriahk culture of their native dome was far more peaceful and refined than that. They preferred lives as scholars, philosophers, and artists. The practical benefit being that visiting their abodes was a wonderful opportunity to visit libraries, galleries, and museums. The downside was that they tended to get caught up in their own scholarliness and could become fairly arrogant on it. This is not a certain thing, but common enough that the Myuriahk have become self-conscious of it. That aside, Myuriahk are known as a pleasant people to deal with amongst the biomechical peoples.

#bionicle #bionicle rebuilt #locations

13 notes · View notes