#gyraci

[mocsbylexan]

The Toa Magna (And Friends)

“I know it’s a crazy idea. To think that if we have the nerve to just step up and do it, we can conquer evil and save the world. To think that a handful of people can be the crucial factor that makes all the difference, when everything seems so hopeless. But the even crazier thing is it works. You of all people should know that. You said your name was Balta, right? And your friend sulking in the corner over there is Dalu. I know about you two. Toa Kongu told me. You’re already heroes; you and your friends beat the odds and saved the world when you were just matoran. And now you’re toa! Think of what we could accomplish if we all worked together. The Makuta Nuva will never know what hit him!” - Pyla, Glatorian of New Tesara and Leader of the Toa Magna

“What is a toa team? That question was once easy to answer, back before the Great Rejoining. But now I’m not so sure. Things are more complicated. Like those Glatorian that have elemental powers. They claim Mata Nui himself called them toa. Are they a toa team? We call them the Toa Glatoria, but ask someone if they’re actually toa and you’re bound to start an argument. Does a toa team have to be all toa? What about the glatorian and agori? And the matoran... there are thousands of admirable matoran warriors who have always been a crucial part of our society despite going unnoticed and unthanked. Just look at Kapura and the Ta-Koro Guard. Since the rejoining I have even seen warriors of Stelt and Zakaz, peoples that used to disgust me, fight passionately and honorably to protect the law, culture, and freedom of our new world. Dare we call them toa? I think that one day soon there will be a toa team that will redefine the meaning of that term. One that will make us truly consider what being a Toa entails at its very core, apart from the body and the powers. A toa team for the new world, for all the people of the new world, or at least a start to getting there. And when that team appears, I will name them the Toa Magna.” - Turaga Dume’s secret journal

***

Things were rapidly going wrong in Bara Magna. Makuta Onezu Nuva’s grip over the southeast was growing ever wider and stronger, and even the desperate emergency plan put into motion by Turaga Pohatu had somehow gone awry. Tanma had not arrived at Faxon Koro as planned. Rahaga Kafes was distraught.

But perhaps destiny was still on the side of light. In this darkest of hours, fate had gathered in and around Faxon Koro a small group of beings: some weary, disillusioned veteran heroes; some driven and reckless youngsters; many, in some strange way, both at the same time. All of them more powerful than anyone suspected, least of all themselves. All of them unsettled at what was happening to their people. All of them lost and unsure of what to do... except, perhaps, the young Glatorian from New Tesara. She had a fire inside her. She could unite them.

With her help, Kafes organized one last stand. They created a team. An unlikely crew to be sure, but one that somehow gave Kafes more reassurance than she had had in years. It was a sign. Mata Nui was with them. The team’s mission? Find out what happened to the Toa Avohkii. Bring them back. And strike at Onezu when and where he would never expect it.

As they set off on their journey, not even the most optimistic among them understand how crucial they will be in the days ahead. Or how deep the bonds they forge with each other will be. Now, they are simply a group of people looking to help. But they will go down in legend as the first true toa team of the new age. The Toa Magna.

Team Roster (*honorary toa magna and member of the reformed VNRT)

Pyla of the Jungle Tribe - team leader, warrior, and morale booster

Balta, Toa of Fire - deputy leader and warrior

*Garan - deputy leader and strategist

*Kazi - strategist

Irex, Toa Hordika of Air - scout and air support

*Piruk - scout, warrior, and spy

Dalu, Toa of Water - primary offensive warrior

Gyraci - primary defensive warrior and combat expert

Buruka - mascot, pet, and annoyance

***

THEY’RE HERE! MY INCREDIBLY SELF-INDULGENT TOA TEAM!

*confetti*

Once again, I shove in all of the voyatoran just because I can. In all seriousness though, I really did want to include Garan, Kazi, and Piruk in the story, and Buruka’s just fun to throw in there too, but really the core toa team here is the toa and glatorian. Also, fun fact, this whole project (by which I mean both the ROO story and the blog) was basically all started when I came up with the character concept for Gyraci of all people. The whole story and all the characters I built (original or not) grew out of thinking about who he would be and how he would interact with people. Not that he’s, like, the star of the show or anything (if I had to choose a protagonist for ROO at this point it would be either Dalu or Tanma), but I did just want to acknowledge that he was the catalyst for everything I’ve done with this story and this blog.

And with that... this concludes all of the MOCs I was planning to post related to this weird little story I’ve been doing. I don’t really know if this is end of ROO content on this blog or not... I’d like to come back to it and maybe actually WRITE SOMETHING at some point, and maybe someday I’ll come up with more ideas for characters to build and add to it. But at this point in time I’ve gone through all of the character ideas I had, and I have other original MOCing content I wanna post for a while.

Thank you so much to everyone who’s followed me since I started posting.  I’ll make an update post probably sometime in the middle of this next week about what’s next for the blog. Hope to see you guys there!

[mocsbylexan]

Gyraci

"Thank you, that’s very kind. But I’d just disappoint you.”

***

What does it mean to be a warrior when at heart you long for peace?

This is the question that plagues Gyraci. He was once a glatorian, about the same age as Gresh, so he is still considered young by Bara Magna standards. Like Gresh, he spent a long time in training as a glatorian for the Ice Tribe. He eventually came to be known as a prodigy in the art of combat. While all glatorian are skilled fighters, few studied swordplay as carefully and ardently as Gyraci did. He pored over the old books of technique from before the shattering left by Certavus after his passing, and he mastered every one. He could best almost any opponent in a duel while he was still a rookie, and with more speed and grace than glatorian twice his age.

But glatorian did not merely duel. In the harshness of the wastelands, they also had a duty to protect their villagers from attack. As a test in the final days before their induction as a full-fledged glatorian, Gyraci and some of his fellow trainees were tasked with defending a supply caravan crossing the desert, carrying food, water, and exsidian from Tesara to Iconox. Part of Iconox’s reward for a won arena battle.

In the middle of the desert wastes, a swarm of Bone Hunters attacked the Caravan. Gyraci prepared to cut them down... and all of a sudden, he could not lift his sword. This wasn’t the arena any more; he would have to kill these hunters or they would kill him. Was this one caravan really worth killing and dying over? All he could do was hide behind his shield as the bone hunters fell upon him and his friends. For his whole life he had studied to become one of the best warriors in his tribe, but up to this point all of that training had been so sterile and academic. The brutality of actual combat made his heart falter and his stomach turn.

Thankfully, no one died that day. But because of Gyraci’s hesitation, the supplies were lost and many of his fellow warriors wounded. Once the shining star of Iconox’s glatorian trainees, Gyraci was branded as a coward and stripped of his title and his future as an arena warrior. Though he was not banished, Gyraci could feel that he was not liked in Iconox any more. He wandered off into a self-imposed exile. He had a lot of thinking to do anyway.

Gyraci still wanders among the Matagori. He’s made his living taking small jobs here or there, but he has nothing to his name but his sword and shieldstaff, and no real skills except those he is unwilling to use. He wonders on many things. On his cowardice, on death, on the way of the warrior. He wonders especially why he became a warrior in the first place. These new people, the matoran... their religion speaks so much of destiny. What is Gyraci’s destiny? What destined him to study the art of combat, if the very idea of practicing it now sickens him? Could it be that someday, he will find a cause worth fighting for?

***

It’s a new MOC for ROO. YEET.

This was the guy that was giving me writing troubles for so long. I knew the basic kind of backstory I wanted him to have, but I was struggling with really articulating it. And I’m still not sure I’m entirely in love with his name.

That being said I think he’s one of my favorite ROO mocs visuals-wise. I feel like torsos are always the most boring thing about my mid-sized MOCs cause I don’t know how to make good custom torsos and I always end up just defaulting to a standard set build. But with Gyraci, even if he is just an Inika build underneath I was able to give him some really unique armor. I was gonna make him more normally proportioned, but he ended up with this bulky, rounded look around his torso that I think is actually pretty cool. Kinda like the knights from Fire Emblem. If there’s anything that really discontents me with him it’s his upper arms. His weapons were VERY loosely inspired by the ones T’Challa uses in the duel scenes in Black Panther.