Kanohi

Artwork of Kanohi by @Onaku

A cross-wired Fe-Matoran who immigrated to Metru-Nui to escape the League. Over time he became a sort of mask-themed vigilante, before being dragged into the Taku Team’s adventures. After the Impact, he settled in Po-Koro.

## Prehistory

The Matoran known as Kanohi hailed from a remote island called Okoto, made up of jungles and marshes called Bo-Wahi and a village called Fe-Koro. The land was home to a number of Bo-Matoran and Fe-Matoran, along with a single Toa and one Turaga, The Fe-Matoran were miners and crafters, while the Bo-Matoran foraged, using hovercrafts and Volo Lutu Launchers to traverse the swamp. Kanohi had been a Fe-Matoran assigned the role of a mask maker for Fe-Koro, but he was only able to make the most basic of masks. Worse, his anxiety and guilt at his perceived failures eventually made him unable to make a single mask, instead wasting tons of Protodermis in broken masks. Finally Turaga Bomahri reassigned him to smaller tasks around the village, doing small errands like working as a courier. He began to obsess over these tasks, needing to be helpful to his people, while idolizing good Matoran like the Nynrah Ghosts and the Toa and Turaga.

Then everything changed when the League of Six Kingdoms attacked. The exact details of what happened are lost, but he fled with the few other survivors up north to Metru-Nui. As the League turned their attention to the grand metropolis the Fe-Matoran became terrified of the city falling to the League, as it was the last real refuge for Matoran in the known universe. He had to help the city. Convinced he was not worth of being a Toa, he used the fantastic technology of Metru-Nui to crudely upgrade a Volo Lutu Launcher, and began to grapple around the city, using regeneration disks to repair parts of the city damaged by the League. Wearing his broken masks as armor, he adopted the name Kanohi, though he did not properly undergo a Naming Day ceremony. He had some minor success at this, and what mechanical skill he had kept his grappling gun working.

## Escapement

One day while patrolling Onu-Metru, he stumbled onto a fight. After some momentary confusion he tried to report to Toa Stannis where he saw one of the fighters went to, grappling desperately to catch up. He collapsed, exhausted, and the Toa carried him off into an airship called the Taku. While recovering, Kanohi discovered he had stumbled into a group of real heroes, three Toa, and a Nynrah Ghost. A proper Fe-Matoran, one who could invent and really help the Matoran. Overwhelmed, he learned that they had just left the scene of a murder, where the Great inventor Nuparu had been killed. Kanohi was horrified that such a great Matoran had been killed, before learning that it may have been Turaga Dume who had the Onu-Matoran assassinated. How could a Turaga order a Matoran dead? His anxiety rising, Kanohi felt the need to help his fellow Matoran, to fix something, anything. To be useful and do his Duty.

Soon enough Kanohi had his chance as Knichou sent him and Toa Nale to repair one of the engines. After scrounging up some tools he repaired one of the engines, when a stranger appeared and tried to convince him to turn on the group. Overwhelmed by conflict and the realization that as Turaga Dume ruled Metru-Nui, Kanohi might now be a fugitive and would no longer be able to help the city, he had a panic attack. Breaking down he cowered in the corner, before feeling the ship shift unnaturally in the air. Sure he must have failed to fix the engine, he obsessively grappled to the engine to fix it, completely oblivious to the scene around him.

Eventually the situation was resolved, and Kanohi unloaded his fears and anxieties onto Toa Stannis. The wise Toa was reassuring for the moment, and Kanohi regrouped with the others as they landed in Po-Metru. From there Kanohi as assigned to fix the hull of the airship, only to find the sky was now a bright crimson. Despite the difficult lighting he got to work mending the hull as best he could, before asking Toa Stannis to explain why Turaga Dume would kill a Matoran, when he had once been chosen by Mata-Nui to be a hero. Kanohi didn’t fully understand the elderly Toa’s wisdom, but he felt a little better.

The Taku shortly thereafter flew to the Sculpture Fields, where the group needed to solve a puzzle involving a broken statue of Turaga Dume. Kanohi helped by using a regeneration disk to repair the statue, with support from Toa Stannis. Now briefly empowered by his work on the engine, the hull, and the statue, Kanohi began to offer ideas more eagerly to the group.

But mental illness doesn’t just vanish, and as a group of disk hunters reached the five travelers, Kanohi retreated to the Taku, grappling around to fix the hull. As he worked the others handed to the next part of the disk puzzle, and the Taku took off with Kanohi dangling off its side. Unable to grapple easily, he hung on the underside until the sky suddenly was eclipsed. After nearly falling he managed to climb into the airship, stumbling on the end of a conversation between Toa Nale and Knichou. Drained from dangling off the craft, Kanohi still managed to open the door, when he learn the now combined group had found two Great Disks.

Suddenly the realization that he had been away from the city proper too long sunk in. What if the city had already been overtaken by the League. What if he could have helped and failed to? Frantically he bounced between passengers both new and old, trying to come up with a plan.

Then things changed, as the group learned the device Nuparu had made for Turaga Dume was a way of empowering living things with the powers of disks. Given the recent hunts for the Great disks, it was clear they were being found to power the machine, perhaps to create an army of Matoran stronger than any Toa. Kanohi wasn’t fully sure how to feel about such a technology, if they were Matoran who believed in the three virtues, wouldn’t this be good? Or could Turaga Dume’s judgement not be trusted. The combined group agreed it wasn’t simple, but they needed to make their plans now.

With the brilliance of a Nynrah Ghost, Knichou got to work preparing to get to the device, taking Kanohi’s grappling gun and getting to work improving it, while informing the group present of their roles. Kanohi’s would be to grapple around the Coliseum and find Turaga Dume’s Office. Part of the plan required Kanohi to forge a firing pin from a Kanoka disk, a terrifying task. But through some effort he managed to succeed, possibly learning some new coping mechanisms in the process.

But when he gave the firing pin to Knichou, Kanohi was suddenly hit with a strange vision; of flooding islands and a red banner. When he came to Knichou had upgraded not only his grappling gun but Kanohi himself, implanting a grappling gun into each of his arms, and upgrading his mask to be able to better manage the strain of grappling. Deciding to tell the others the vision at a less urgent time, Kanohi grappled outside to practice, only to discover his worse fear was coming true, Metru-Nui had already been invaded.

Overcome with worry for the Matoran, Kanohi still helped the team locate where Dume’s office was, along with giving them some details on what was happening. Then he grappled away, moving on to try to keep as much as the city standing as he could and try to rescue any the Matoran in harm’s way. He used his disks to mend collapsing bridges, and slowed the destruction of buildings for the fleeing Matoran to escape.

After being exhausted he went to rest by the Colisuem, and attempted to pass on his vision to a Toa of Psionics, so she could inform Toa Stannis. As he waited he encountered a ‘Toa’ named Raz, who offered some unusual wisdom. During their conversation Kanohi realized that after seeing all the genocide and chaos, he could not believe in Mata-Nui, for Mata-Nui would have stopped this horror. He decided there that if they could not believe in Mata-Nui and destiny, they would have to believe in each other. Raz agreed, and Kanohi leapt back into the fray.

As Kanohi grappled Matoran to safety, pulling them away before they could be excited, catching them as they fell from skyscrapers, suddenly Le-Metru fell to the League. Kanohi struggled to help the fleeing Matoran escape that District, but several fell in the canal when some of the bridges broke. Kanohi mended the bridges, before taking two disks of freezing from Le-Matoran, and using them to create icebergs in the canal for Matoran to cling to.

He continued to save civilians, before rescuing a Ta-Matoran named Vakama as earthquakes hit Metru-Nui and the silver sea began to shift. Vakama gave him two powerful disks of regeneration, before they both witnessed a new vision of Mata-Nui dying. After Kanohi attempted to give Vakama a pep talk, he grappled away to try and rescue more Matoran as the universe died around them.

## Rebirth

After the Impact, Mata-Nui’s severed head had crashed onto a barren island known as Zakaz. Kanohi and Vakama had made their way to a refugee camp made by a Toa of Stone, home to about two hundred and thirty five refugees. For that Toa, they adopted the name Po-Koro for their village. The land was rough and plants were sparse, only the goat-like Mahi lived there. While there Kanohi gave up his disk launcher and his disks to a Ga-Matoran guard named Dalu to protect the camp, while Vakama had forged one of the powerful disks of regeneration he had given Kanohi into a collapsible staff with the power to regenerate objects. It was during the first week on Po-Koro that Kanohi finally underwent the rite of Naming Day and officially got the name Kanohi.

The refugee camp was fairly small, it’s main visitor was a Vortixx obsessed with friendship and getting enough power to own friendship shuttled goods to the barren Po-Koro on a salvaged Le-Metru hover bike. Toa Nale and Toa Arkius lived in Po-Koro too, Arkius hunting for the village while Nale was overwhelmed by depression. After Arkius left to go hunting, Kanohi was confused by Nale’s actions, trying to get her to go into the village, to mend huts and try to help. But she was barely responsive, and Kanohi was forced to realize that the Toa might not be perfect Heroes.

Kanohi soon discovered a Vo-Matoran named Voka had been attacked by a Skakdi, and left for dead. And without Nale to help, he would have to go alone. Luckily he encountered a few travelers, a medic named Pardehi, a Turaga Klawne, and a ’Toa’ called Ulkarr. He was stunned to learn Ulkarr and Klawne were natives of Zakaz, and the indigenous Matoran had been driven to extinction by the Skakdi. The group resolved to rescue Voka, and set off joined by Toa Nale.

As they traveled they shared the history of the Matoran Universe to Klawne and Ulkarr, and Klawne told them of the gods her people worshiped, like Tren-Krom and the Kaita. Kanohi admitted he struggled to believe in Mata-Nui now, and that he was currently holding onto unity to keep going.

They soon reached the spot where Voka had been lost, which had many Muaka scavenging Mahi killed one landslides. Kanohi acted as a distraction, grappling around to bait the Muaka while Klawne used her Huna to sneak through them and find the Vo-Matoran. Ulkarr used his power of shadows to smuggle the rest past the Rahi, before making the Muaka’s shadows come to life and attack their owners.

As he grappled about, Kanohi was seemingly assisted by a surprise Skakdi-Xa, who engaged the Muaka. At the same time he saw a smoke signal coming from Po-Koro, an emergency was hitting the refugee camp. But as the Muaka were defeated and Voka found, the Taku was spotted in the sky, heading to Po-Koro.

In the end Voka was saved, and the group split up. Pardehi, Kanohi, and Klawne headed to Metru-Koro with Voka, while Nale and Ulkarr went to help Po-Koro. As Kanohi arrived in Metru-Koro he marveled at its size, before spotting Toa Stannis. Kanohi was eager to catch up, before a Toa representing the League announced that the Turaga of Metru-Koro had antagonized the league and refused their talks of peace, so the Matoran had only two days to hand over the Mask of Creation, or they would be destroyed.

Toa Stannis teleported himself, Kanohi, and Klawne to Po-Koro to warn them. While he was there Kanohi found the village in ruins, Turaga Jovan traumatizes, and twenty five villagers dead, including Vakama. Horrified, Kanohi threw himself into mending everything he could in the village. As he worked he warned the village of the League’s warning, and the Taku and many of the defenders headed to help Metru-Koro.

Arkius remained behind to dig a refuge underground, while Stannis assigned Kanohi the role of leading Po-Koro. Arkius unfortunately learned something massive was burrowing underground, and no bunker would be safe. Still he discovered Protodermis ore, and Kanohi convinced Jovan to work on drawing it from the earth. At the same time the vigilante realized that the last thing he had of Vakama was an incomplete telescopic lens, and that this last gift could help him spy dangers to Po-Koro before they approached. Kanohi asked the Forge to make a few components for the lens, and he helped them in turn by trying to forge Kanoka from Protodermis, lightening their work load.

## Abilities, Weapons, and Traits

As a Fe-Matoran, Kanohi has enhanced physical endurance compared to other types of Matoran. After Knichou upgraded him, he now has thought-controlled grappling guns built into his arms, letting him grapple around the city with less risk of falling. Strangest of all he has recently experienced a strange vision, though whether it was a true prophecy or his mind breaking from all the strain remains to be unseen.

Kanohi is autistic and suffers from anxiety, He is black and orange, and dresses in an armor made from broken Kanohi masks. He wears a powerless Hau for his real mask, and it has been upgraded by Knichou to have a hub display, in order to help him better control his new grappling powers. Likewise it now has a short range radio built into it.

Kanohi currently has three disks of level one power, a disk of freezing, a disk of regeneration, and a disk of remove poison. He also carries the Kiril Staff, a red staff that can fold up into a disk with the image of a Noble Kiril engraved on it. The staff can regenerate inorganic objects it physically touches, though it is slightly less powerful than a Noble Kiril. He also used it to help him walk when he had a sprained leg.