In the years following the Great Disruption, the Matoran of Metru Nui — but especially the crafters of Ta-Metru — were forcibly returned to work under extreme schedules, constant surveillance, and brutal discipline in order to undo the damage to the Great Spirit the civil war had caused. One such crafter, however — a recent Su-Matoran transplant to the City of Legends — saw the harm such policies were causing and began organizing for a general strike across the island. While he only sought better working conditions for his brothers, Dume and Makuta Teridax branded him a traitor to Mata Nui, had him arrested, and shipped him off to the Brotherhood’s black site prison without trial: Kra-Wahi.
Located on a barren spit of land in the barely populated eastern peninsula, Kra-Wahi was where the Makuta sent many of their political enemies to be forgotten before the Great Cataclysm. Consisting mostly of troublemaking and rebellious Matoran, the prisoners were subjected to cruel experiments by their Makuta overseer, vicious reprisals by the Suuvahk guards, and worst of all… the games.
In order to prevent the Matoran from uniting against them, the Makuta instituted gladiator-style fighting tournaments between the inmates. Winners received preferential treatment and improved living conditions (which led the other Matoran to view them as traitors), while losers were sealed into Matoran-spheres for weeks or months at a time. This often led to severe memory loss and cognitive degradation over time… which is exactly what became of the inmate the Makuta called Ro.
“Un-naming” was a common practice in Kra-Wahi, with prisoners not being allowed to use their given names… only their prisoner designations. And with memory loss extremely common, most of the inmates forgot who they were in very short order. However, many of them crafted their own identities to replace them… and Ro eventually took “Rode” as his new name, from the Matoran word for Truth.
He languished and fought in the prison for many centuries, until finally the Toa Nuva destroyed the prison and freed the inmates as part of their preparations to awaken the Great Spirit. That freedom was short lived, however, as Teridax’s victory soon made the entire universe a prison. All hope was not lost, however, and when one of the Toa fighting Makuta’s legions fell defending Rode and his companions, she passed her power on to the Su-Matoran, and he rose anew as a Toa of Plasma.
