There was a discussion on Reddit quite a while ago about making individual projects based on Bionicle, but not within the Bionicle universe so they can be released independently of Lego, in part as a result of the Bionicle: Masks Of Power incidents. I guess I've been doing a bit of that. I've never been fully comfortable writing fully Bionicle fiction tbh, something doesn't jive about it for me, so I've never produced a proper fanfic work that wasn't "Bionicle, but a bit weird".
I'm working them into the Pick-n-Mix Comix universe, though, slowly and a little at a time. It's weird, because I keep wanting to write about Bionicle species like Matoran and Vortixx because the names are so similar (Bionicle's lore-crafting has always been a direct influence on my own, especially now that I'm working with alien fantasy races like the Dragoreans, Dreenok, Braxanites, Rusidrans, Byrennians, etc...), but I have to refer back to my own, original species and concepts for it because it's not set in the Great Spirit Robot or on any of the exterior planets at all.
And obviously, I don't own Bionicle, so I wouldn't be able to fully market or brand any of it at all, or publish it as my own thing whatsoever.
Getting across exactly what I want to achieve with it is the hardest part; making it similar enough that it gives me the same vibes, but differentiated enough that it has its own identity. In large part because of its origins as a toyline's gimmick story, I'll never fully be able to replicate large swaths of the spirit of the lore, but I still like working it in where I can with my own thing.
I'm working on a storyline at the moment about a pair of Mechosians called Tumohl and Hepni, and I think that's the best introduction to this branch of the Pick-n-Mix Comix world because they're the most "Matoran-like", and Mechos Megrod where they were created is in many ways inspired by Metru Nui and the industrial vibes of the GSR as a whole.
If you're interested, I have some lore-dumps about the world of Mechos Megrod under the cut, because there's not much else to do with it at the moment. I've been working hard on polishing up chapters for the webserials Sable's Journey, Grace Morgan & The Offering Of Markor, and the upcoming Common Grounds: The Graveyard Café as part of @grimshawcycle today, and I guess lore-dumping about worldbuilding is how I relax.
Also, it's 810nicle Day and, since I don't have anything genuinely Bionicle to contribute, I might as well do this instead. (Most of the core ideas were me trying to retroactively adapt what was supposed to be an AU for Bionicle fanfics based around a set of Great Being OCs representing the six core elements of Metru Nui and Mata Nui anyway, and I could never figure out how that worked in Bionicle terms, so I figured — why not bring them into the Pick-n-Mix Comix fold instead?)
Mechos Megrod is a city built by and for Mechosians. Like Metru Nui, it's an industrial, urban center where every Mechosian is separated by specific "type" and given a specific role to play and purpose in the ongoing functions of the city, although their types are only partially elemental in the way we're familiar with from the Matoran Universe. Also, like the Great Spirit Robot, Mechos Megrod is spaceborne — it is functionally an artificial asteroid, a star station built to contain the city of the Mechosians and everything they need to sustain themselves in the harshness of the Chasm of Stars, the "secondary world" space opera/alien fantasy setting for some corners of the Pick-n-Mix Comix universe beyond the Other Realms (where story cycles like @grimshawcycle are set).
It's not the only spaceborne colony in the Chasm, but it's the only one populated by Mechosians, who are ultimately a very specific type of socialoid; artificial beings that can either spawn naturally from in-universe lucidite crystals becoming the seed crystals for biogenetic crystal particles called georine or be spawned artificially in "lattice tanks", as in the case of the Mechosians by default. In either case, georine comprises their interlacing bodies and joints, supplemented by handcrafted fabrics and dermorium armor (or sometimes argosium, if they're desperate or not allied with Mechos Megrod for one reason or another), and it's from these lattice tanks at Mechos Megrod that new Mechosian-native socialoids are born.
The complex and function of Mechos Megrod was originally assembled by a socialoid called Karu-Nisi, remembered today as an ancient heroic figure, a mythological idea who brought naturally-spawned socialoids together from across the Chasm for the purpose of creating one singular world where all socialoids could belong. The Chasm is a world of flesh and breath and blood and torment, where aliens of all species fight and battle each other, and in this world, crystalline beings like socialoids are thought of more like resources than as distinct beings of their own — in building Mechos Megrod and the Mechosian society, Karu-Nisi sought to give the Chasm's socialoids a sense of belonging and internal respect for themselves, away from the fleshiness and inherent organicness of the worlds they more than likely spawned on.
For instance, Khofu — an Olmopran socialoid, born on a desert world surrounded by Olmopra's native humans, the elephantine Lephrall, and constant remnants of the once-king, the Dragorean lord Balurkar. Few other socialoids were known to Olmopra at the time, and Khofu became assistant to Balurkar, but in time, the world moved on. Mechosians — and all socialoids — live as long as natural crystals otherwise do, so long as their lattice bodies stay intact, so Khofu outlived countless generations of Olmoprans and Lephrall, and personally witnessed the fall of King Balurkar in the dragon's final days.
Mechos Megrod gave Khofu a home, if he wanted one — where he wouldn't have to witness the flesh-strewn wither and die, but instead be surrounded by the crystalline matrices of his own fellow socialoid kind.
But there are more. To construct the Mechosian society, Karu-Nisi chose six crucial socialoids, the Silastra Maheri, to lead the six Mechosian "types" to which all Mechosians are assigned, as well as watch over the six regions the city would ultimately be divided into:
Silastra Bohdoh, of the Boh-Mechosians, who function as cleaners and custodians of Mechos Megrod, and call the Closets of Bohdoh their home in Boh-Nisi.
Silastra Akantai, of the Ak-Mechosians, who keep the knowledge and lore not just of their own socialoid history but of the Chasm of Stars as a whole, sequestered as they are in the Libraries of Akantai in Ak-Nisi.
Silastra Nihua, of the Ni-Mechosians, who work in the Nihua Power Cores at the heart of the city, and keep the mechanical engines and drives of the city alive from Ni-Nisi.
Silastra Mataku, of the Mat-Mechosians, who build, rebuild, and maintain all a socialoid might see in Mechos Megrod, and are all members of the mobile Mataku Building Society, headquartered in Mat-Nisi.
Silastra Ivahai, of the Iva-Mechosians, who watch the stars for visions of the future, and visit with fellow socialoids at the Parlors of the Future in Iva-Nisi to fortune-tell as they wish.
Silastra Kanoha, of the Ka-Mechosians, who craft and forge the dermorium armor each Mechosian wears, working all day in the Kanoha Armorwells in Ka-Nisi.
These six, the Silastra Maheri, are one of the more obvious areas of Bionicle influence, as they're actually a direct inclusion/adaptation of the six Great Beings from my aforementioned themed AU. In fact, using my experience from crafting the Mechosians, I can probably translate them back into a more-functional, "official" Bionicle AU and explore that side of them just as well; but in any case, I do have some concern over their inclusion into Mechosian lore, as the names were directly taken from either Bionicle stuff proper, or, in the case of Akantai and Ivahai (and, I think, Nihua), @outofgloom's Matoric Language work because they were supposed to represent specific Great Beings who, in this AU, were responsible for specific aspects of the Great Spirit Robot:
Bohdoh created the Bohrok and was associated with the Onu-Matoran of Metru-Nui.
Ivahai was a seer who foresaw the Great Cataclysm and called for various failsafes such as the Bohrok to be created (becoming associated with the Ko-Matoran and the Knowledge Towers of Ko-Metru along the way).
Mataku was the designer of the Great Spirit Robot and creator of the Matoran overall, in turn giving his name to the idea of the Great Spirit Mata Nui and becoming patron of the Po‐Matoran and the carvers of Po-Metru.
Nihua was the creator of the Red Star, where Matoran are created and which once served as a power source for the Great Spirit Robot in this AU until it's torn out during the Great Cataclysm; as an engineer, Nihua became patron of the engineers of Le-Metru and the Le-Matoran overall.
Akantai, the keeper of history and knowledge. As with the Mechosian version, this Great Being original concept was the first known chronicler, who wrote down Ivahai's prophecies, recorded the designs of his fellow Great Beings, and became patron of the teachers of Ga-Metru and the Ga-Matoran overall.
Kanoha, creator of the Kanohi masks worn by Mataku's Matoran, as well as the kanoka discs thrown in Metru-Nui. As such, Kanoha became the patron of the Ta-Matoran forgers of Ta-Metru, like Vakama would one day become.
I never quite figured out what to do with them in this AU, and I ended up with about three different fan-universes for my various Bionicle lore and storylines over time, so I'll admit they're a bit of an awkward inclusion. Especially in the cases of Kanoha and Bohdoh, whose names are so directly drawn from preexisting Bionicle lore from Lego themselves (the Bohrok and the Kanohi/kanoka discs) that they basically make no sense at all when separated from their origins this much.
So, I might change them for Mechosians. I might not. They're minor players in the main Mechosian storylines anyway, but crucial for establishing the divisions and purposes of Mechosian society in general. Also, if @outofgloom turns out not to be comfortable with me co-opting some of their Matoric words for a project that isn't even Bionicle-related anymore, it's probably best to change them than leave them as they are; I haven't asked, as this is the first time I'm posting about this lore outside of my original fan-blog where I made a few posts regarding the AU several years ago, quite a different theme over there than here...
In any case, individual Mechosian stories are fun to plot out. I have a Bionicle OC named Toa Sozonis from one fic meant to explore the idea, whom I've adapted as a Braxanite socialoid who gets destroyed by a Braxanite human named Arzel Toron (who then impersonates Sozonis as a "fake Sozonis"); Sozonis is then "reborn" in Mechos Megrod, as the lattice-keepers known as Kesran are able to pull the residual consciousnesses of fallen socialoids from throughout the Chasm of Stars to Mechos Megrod and "resurrect" them there in brand new bodies spawned for the purpose of rendering them new members of the Mechosian society.
And there's Tumohl and Hepni, as I mentioned. Tumohl is a Mechosian of Knowledge who discovers Hepni was resurrected from an Olmopran socialoid, which is strange because it was believed that Khofu was the only known Olmopran socialoid, and so Tumohl goes on a semi-illicit quest to figure out what the heck is actually going on and what happened to Hepni before her resurrection in Mechos Megrod.
I've already included a set of Bionicle MOCs I made once upon a time, for a currently-unproduced story called The Ghosts Of Desolation, into Pick-n-Mix Comix lore in the earliest webserial I started working on, Escape To Prolune, where they're known as the Desolators and consist of the animal-themed "protocoids" Vespulis, Azurea, Tamulon, Varanus, Sarctis, and Atraxis the Acromanther (but I need to adjust the narrative and retcon the lore from that one, in order to explain the current idea that naturally-spawning socialoids often take themes from the environment they spawn in, which wasn't even close to being an idea when I started working on Escape To Prolune earlier this year).
I think this all has a lot of potential, and still needs a lot of work, but info-dumping helps and pleases me greatly! Even if this wasn't completely Bionicle-related, I'm happy to post about something Bionicle inspired me to make, and reference some of my once-intended Bionicle projects (Adventures Of Toa Sozonis and Ghosts Of Desolation, respectively) along the way.
Check out my AO3 page for Pick-n-Mix Comix, maybe follow some of my story cycle blogs like @braxaniterising or @grimshawcycle if you want (or my original Bionicle fan-blog @inthetimebeforetime), and leave a like or comment if you wanna learn more, if you like piña coladas, or if you wanna pal around in the universe/liked the lore you learned.
Especially if you were able to get through this massive, massive essay about the whole thing. 😆
Whitemare prepares to throw another stick of material toward whatever it is she feels needs a more destructive force this time, as though tossing a firework or a percussive flare.
Whitemare is a ghostly figure haunting the Hinterlands who often appears as a phantom horse, dressed in all-white rags, and is commonly associated with acts of mischief, destruction, and ecoterrorism against unethical oil wells, anti-ecological development projects, and more.
A being of indeterminate gender, they often appear in the Cattlemancer's stories throughout his legacy, as well as a few tales of their own as the history progresses. For instance, here they are, preparing to toss some anti-construction material at an environmentally-unfriendly construction project.
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This is the first post featuring a non-CM character where the non-CM character is actually from within the Cattlemancer's own lore this time. The others have been crossed over with other corners of the Inglenook universe.
This was one of the earlier characters I associated with the Cattlemancer's recurring cast, and I didn't really intend for him to be such a Ghost Rider/Moon Knight total buffazoid, but I don't exactly mind it either.
It's a little late, but here's what I ended up doing for @yeehawgust after I found out it's a thing that exists: this shot of the Cattlemancer, riding his unicorn steed called the Silver Stallion. My original caption was, [reminder to fill this back in later because my only copy of it was on AO3, which is malfunctioning right now].
He's basically just a cowboy and a cattle-wrangler who wields a wand and a whip-lasso instead of a gun or anything else. There's also been many different iterations of the Cattlemancer since the late 1800s, but this is the one who's been active from the 40s or so on through to the 70s, at least, and no one knows how he looks the way he does but presumably it's a glamour or some sort of ancient elven ritual or otherworldly curse. (He eats well and doesn't worry too much, but takes things as seriously as he reasonably can, so it all works out.)
Blast from the past! Let's start this page off with last year's Yeehawgust prompts. It won't all be Yeehawgust, there'll be stories on here too, but it's coming up so I figured it'd be worthwhile to post last year's from Instagram. I was still developing the Cattlemancer as a character, as well as the whole of @picknmixpresents lore, so I just did some quick (and sometimes not so quick) minis in Hero Forge.
As it turns out, my original planned caption was:
On the back of the Silver Stallion, the Cattlemancer rides onward toward his foes — his victory — his magical wrastlin' in the Hinterlands of Inglenook.
Yeehawgust 2024, Day 8 — Prancin' In The Moonlight
In the years following the 'Lonum Wars, superhero and war vet Moonshine wandered, processing the trauma left behind by her actions in the realm of Carillon. While she would eventually end up in the parallel world of Spotlight City, it left her plenty of time to have at least a few adventures — including this team-up with the Cattlemancer, where you can see Moonshine's "Supermoon" form charging up, ready to channel the full force of the moon's gravitational waves on her targets and enemies — plus a bit of shippy text, because these two inspired me after getting this all ready to post.
This is in the 70s, so it's years before Moonshine would end up in Spotlight City, where she (in the 80s) teams up with a long-running hero character of mine: the Sunbearer Solar Girl. I'll have to post about her sometime, they're super cool and she's existed since at least 2012, so going 12 years on already.
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I make comics from HeroForge scenes sometimes, so I figured, why not go ahead and adapt the text I dropped on the last post into one. So it goes. I wasn't expecting to ship these two, but neither were they, so these things happen.
An unexpected ship between the Cattlemancer and Moonshine was the subject of day 8 last year, as evidenced by the third paragraph, which was posted along with the captioned "comic" shown here. I just think they're neat.
This was my post for @yeehawgust Day 2, Greener Pastures. It's just the Cattlemancer as a Green Lantern, assuming the ring could somehow enter the Other Realms or would for some reason. I don't have a lot of green-themed characters, so this seemed appropriate.
For this one, I just decided to do a totally non-canon depiction of what the Cattlemancer might look like as a Green Lantern. It's not canonically possible unless DC hires me (hire me DC), but it was a fun idea regardless.
Inspired by a meme on r/HeroForgeMinis about characters meeting their future selves. Thought it would make a good premise for a mini comic strip in what might be this new series.
It's based on Eastern European sounds primarily, with heavy elements inspired by Latin, Old English, Proto-Indo-European, and Turkic.
It has a modular Germanic-style system of word construction. I'm really happy about this one.
It can be written phonetically, using Mezhon runes in many different methods, a syllabary to account for over 15000 possible syllables (still developing that one, but it's been my dream to produce a hangul-style syllabary for this for quite a while), or "Dragorean Diacritics", where it's just an alphabet but some of the vowels are specially-marked to help with pronunciation, be displayed on in-universe props and display pieces (in the background and such, you know), and not drift too far into IPA territory. (I have an IPA chart too, it's just not useful for in-universe purposes or casual, everyday writing for a wide variety of obvious reasons.)
I'm working on the basic document which lays down canonical features and facts about how the language is spoken and operates. It's primarily a spoken language, so writing about it is hard, but I get to use my other fascination for stateside languages and dip into how historical sociologists document indigenous American languages, especially Algonquin from the northeast interior and coastal regions, to figure all that stuff out.
Star Wars, in Dragorean, is called Ŭжár Kōnūmŭ, or in APS (Akthorian Phonetic Standard), Azhar Konuma. For whatever reason, yes, there will be translations.
