Great Cataclysm The Great Cataclysm was a major event within the storyline of LEGO BIONICLE franchise . It is the collective name given to a series of natural disasters that occurred one thousand years before the storyline ' s " present day " , when that universe ' s guardian , the Great Spirit Mata Nui , fell unconscious ( to be more exact , when Makuta caused him to fall asleep ) . Much of the storyline revolves around the Great Cataclysm , its consequences , and the attempts to repair the damage caused by it . Background . Sometime in the distant past , the Brotherhood of Makuta was once an organization dedicated to serving the Great Spirit Mata Nui , and protecting the Matoran people . However , the Brotherhood eventually became corrupt , and believed that they could protect the Matoran best by dominating them . At least one member , the Makuta over the city of Metru Nui , was also jealous of the reverence that the people gave Mata Nui . Makuta ' s plan , supported by the rest of the Brotherhood , was to attack Mata Nui with such force that the Great Spirit would eventually slip into eternal sleep , giving Makuta the freedom to take the his place as the Matoran ' s object of admiration . What Makuta " probably " did not know was that such an attack could eventually prove fatal to Mata Nui , and therefore the universe , but he went ahead with it anyway . Makuta launched this attack in the wake of his bodyguards , the Toa Hagah , rebelling against him ; before the Brotherhood ' s corruption could be exposed any further . The Disasters . Mata Nui would linger , badly injured , for three hundred years afterward before lapsing into unconsciousness . As this happened , without his intervention to prevent them , a number of natural disasters struck at once , all over the world . . . Metru Nui . The city of Metru Nui was hit by an earthquake and an eclipse of both of its " suns " ( the city is underground , and both of the holes where sunlight showed through the surface were blocked ) . As a result , the city was reduced to ruins and nearly all of the Rahi beasts kept in the city ' s Archives were freed . The Makuta over the region , the one that had made the initial attack , however , had planned for this . About a year and a half before the disasters struck , he kidnapped and impersonated the city ' s leader , Turaga Dume . In this position , he ordered that all routes out of the city be closed and sent the Toa who protected the city out on missions from which they never returned . About a month before Mata Nui ' s fall , Makuta had all the Matoran put into stasis in Matoran Spheres , either by force through his Morbuzakh plant monster or the Vahki , or on " Dume ' s " order . The plan was that in the spheres , they would forget all about the Great Spirit that they revered ; and Makuta would then become their savior by waking them from their endless sleep . While this plan almost succeeded , the Toa Metru rescued the spheres and woke the Matoran inside , sparing them from Makuta ' s lies . It was originally thought that Makuta ' s actions at this time were what caused the Great Spirit to fall asleep , and only later revealed that the actual attack came three hundred years earlier . Mata Nui . On the planet ' s surface above Metru Nui , energized protodermis leaked out and turned barren rock into a lush tropical island . The Toa Metru soon discovered this island and named it " Mata Nui " , in honour of the Great Spirit , and it became a refuge for the Matoran of Metru Nui . Voya Nui . To the south of Metru Nui , a chunk of land broke off from an underground continent and " rocketed up " to the surface ; this would land on the water and become the floating island of Voya Nui , stranding all who lived there . Voya Nui later floated north over the location of the Pit , and the city of Mahri Nui broke off and sank , anchoring the island in place . The Pit . The cavern where the Order of Mata Nui had banished the world ' s most vile beings , called the Pit , flooded and allowed the inhabitants to escape to the surrounding sea . However , the Cataclysm also did something to the water , making it mutagenic and turning all surviving prisoners into waterbreathers ; thereby confining them to the ocean . Voya Nui later floated into this area , and its major city of Mahri Nui sank into the criminal - infested waters . Also , the original Hydraxon died in this catastrophe . Karda Nui . The underground continent that Voya Nui broke from rested on top of another cavern , the " universe core " . With Voya Nui breaking through the " ceiling " to the ocean above , there is now a waterfall pouring down into the core and creating a swamp . In response to Mata Nui ' s falling asleep , six Toa Canisters containing the Toa Mata were launched from an unknown location so that the Toa could go and begin the task of waking Mata Nui up again . Restoration . Though Mata Nui still sleeps , all is not lost . The following tasks are ones known to be necessary to restore damage caused in the Great Cataclysm : One of the most immediate matters in the wake of the Cataclysm was that the Matoran in Metru Nui had to be evacuated safely out of danger . Fortunately , while Mata Nui was still awake he sent six Matoran on the path to become the Toa Metru who would do the job . But it was not an easy task : Makuta had summoned the Visorak hordes to invade Metru Nui , and Toa Vakama ' s overconfidence led the team to be mutated into half - beast Toa Hordika . However , in the end , the Toa were cured of their mutation and the Matoran were safely relocated to the tropical island of Mata Nui ( named in honor of the sleeping Great Spirit ) . Turaga Dume has recently discovered that the attack on Mata Nui was more severe than had ever been expected , and the Great Spirit is dying . If he should die , than the universe would die with him in a matter of days . To prevent this , Dume sent the Toa Nuva to the island of Voya Nui , where the Mask of Life was hidden ; only this could restore Mata Nui ' s life energies . But the Nuva were captured by a group of Piraka who wanted the mask for personal profit , and a new team of Toa Inika were instead empowered to claim the mask . The Inika are now pursuing the Mask of Life down to Mahri Nui , where it has been claimed by Barraki warlords . the mask reacted to their touch and sent a burst of light towards the stone cord where the Toa Inika were traveling from , changing their forms to breath in the Pit . They managed to retrieve the mask and its carrier , Toa Matoro , swam towards the Universal Core . He then heard the mask telling him to put it on . And so , he and the Ignika became one , restoring Mata Nui to full health when he was about to die . Several lands damaged and altered in the Cataclysm will need to be restored to their pre - Cataclysm state : Mata Nui : The tropical island needs to be restored to the bare rock it once was . Foreseeing the need to do this eventually , swarms of Bohrok drones were nested below the island and programmed with this very objective . Unfortunately , Makuta had activated them early , while the Matoran were living there . They were stopped by the Toa Mata , and their failsafes ( elite Bohrok called Bohrok - Kal ) were defeated by this same team after they had become Toa Nuva . Now that the island is uninhabited , the Toa Nuva have reactivated the swarms so they can complete their task in peace . Metru Nui : The City of Legends will need to be restored to proper working order . While its population lived on Mata Nui for a thousand years , Turaga Dume , the Rahaga , and Keetongu worked together to repair what they could . Eventually , Toa Takanuva defeated Makuta and reopened the path between Mata Nui and Metru Nui , allowing the Matoran to return and begin the large - scale restoration efforts . Voya Nui : According to Makuta , the island of Voya Nui will need to return southward to its original place in the underground continent . He claims that cutting it loose from its anchor of Mahri Nui will be sufficient to cause this , but that doing so will doom the Matoran living in both places . Besides the actions taken above , the Staff of Artakha ' s power to repair has been used on the entire world , thereby fixing most of the damage . However , its power could not breach the shields of the " universe core " , so it still requires repair . Finally , the cause of the Cataclysm will need to be addressed - Mata Nui ' s coma . This task is known to fall to the Toa Mata ( now the Toa Nuva ) , though how is unknown . When the Cataclysm first occurred , the Mata entered a set of Toa Canisters and were launched from Daxia with the destination of Metru Nui . Anticipating that the city might be occupied by enemy forces , the intention was to use the island of Mata Nui as a landing point ( as the path between these two locations was fairly unknown and therefore less likely to be guarded ) . However , the canisters malfunctioned and drifted aimlessly for a thousand years until Takua sent a beacon from Mata Nui ; during which time the Toa Mata lost their memories of their lives before entering the canisters . They would have to do a number of tasks that were placed on a scroll in the Great Temple . They had to unleashed the Bohrok swarms on Mata Nui , retrieve the Staff of Artahka ( see both above ) , quell a fury of volcanoes , steal the Heart of the Visorak and take measurements of the Red Star . Their final task was to return to Karda Nui for unknown reasons .