In the years following Makuta’s awakening after the Great Cataclysm, he began studying into the very nature of the soul itself. His work as a Mask Maker alongside Ekimu had taught him that souls typically needed physical vessels in order to function; Otherwise, they would dissipate. It was the Masks of Power that acted as the necessary, physical interfaces needed to allow regular Okotans to control the life-force within them.
But Makuta was also well-aware of the Elemental Deities, as well as other Okotan gods; Beings of energy, incorporeal, who did not need to rely on a physical vessel to ground and contain them. Their very beings were fluid and able to master their own essence as a result of it, and it was this incorporeal nature that allowed Deities to fuse with the souls of hosts, creating a Kaita fusion.
Inevitably, Makuta desired to test his limits and see if he could create his own ‘gods’; After all, he was supposed to take his rightful place among them eventually. Thus, while many Masks of Power that he gathered were used to reactivate the Great Forge, or for other practical reasons… Makuta kept aside a few for the purpose of experimentation.
Makuta already knew it was possible to isolate the soul, and had already done so with pieces of his own life-force. One of his Forbidden Masks enabled a user to separate their soul from their own body and move beyond it, even if the connection between the two still existed. Thus, Makuta began to speculate; Was it possible for living beings to transcend their physical forms? To shed aside their material vessels, and ascend as their own souls become powerful enough to exist on their own, without anything solid or definable needed to ground them?
Makuta set to work experimenting on the concept of ‘ascension’, opting for Masks of Power; While they were far rarer than an Okotan, a Mask of Power also had more energy within its ‘soul’ than that of an Okotan’s, and was thus more viable for ascension than a mere mortal. After all, mortals could not warp reality the way a Mask of Power could, and many of them had abilities modeled directly after Okotan Deities, with their Mask-features designed after the very faces of said deities. By wearing a Mask of Power, an Okotan wore the ‘face’ of a deity and accessed a power identical, yet lesser, to theirs; One linked to their soul…
In essence, someone using a Mask of Power was comparable to a Kaita Fusion, just on a far smaller scale. By this logic, Makuta deduced that if he could accomplish this alone, then it was only a matter of time before he began to reach the ascension of an Okotan Deity, or at least something similar and adequate. Thus he conducted his first experiments with the simplest of Masks, Masks of Power that gave control over one of the six primordial elements; The Elemental Deities were the first gods to form, so it made sense that Masks of simpler elements would be the easiest to ascend.
Decades of experimentation yielded multiple failures, and several Masks of Power were destroyed and their energies released wastefully. Attempts to preserve the ‘soul’ of a Mask of Power required a physical vessel to actually contain it, which in turn marred the entire point of ascension to begin with.
But somewhere along the way, Makuta kept to his studies, and with his son Fenrakk providing a ready supply of life-energy with his Skull Spiders, he was finally able to devise something; A powerful artifact, an automaton capable of converting a Mask of Power, shattering its physical vessel, and with additional amounts of the appropriate Life Energy… This artifact could enable a Mask of Power to ascend into something else; A serpentine being of pure energy, of Power…
This entity was dubbed a Power Serpent, and as anticipated, it had retained the exact abilities it had as a Mask of Power, specifically those of Fire, but was now able to utilize them without requiring the grounding power of a user. This Power Serpent had an inferior mind, however; As Makuta had deduced, a being with a soul superior to that of an Okotan would naturally form sentience, but it seems that his experiments merely yielded an entity with the mere beginnings of sapience. Nevertheless, he knew that more life-energy to a soul typically meant a greater mind- Animals had weaker souls than Okotans, after all.
The solution would be more energy; And to remedy thisandcreate a being loyal to him, Makuta provided the necessary energy by bonding a portion of his own soul to the Power Serpent. This granted the Power Serpent a personality, and actual sapience; Developing a will of its own and self-awareness, it was already capable of speech and complex thought thanks to Makuta’s own memories. Triumphant, Makuta dubbed the progenitor of a planned line of Power Serpents, and the next of his own children, ‘Kratakal’.
After Kratakal’s creation, Makuta set to work on streamlining and perfecting the process of creating Power Serpents from Masks of Power. More Power Serpents came into being, each equipped with a certain level of sentience, able to understand commands and obey them, as well as strategize to an extent; But it might not have been proper to outright call them self-aware. Regardless, Makuta only needed one example of sapience to prove his capabilities, as completely obedient beings were more his forte when it came to the Brotherhood.
Initially, Makuta began crafting Power Serpents from just single-element Masks of Power, but inevitably he became more ambitious and began ascending more complex Masks. Masks of Strength and Speed were among the next, eventually followed by those such as Shielding, Stealth, Fusion, and so forth. Makuta debated sacrificing one of his Forbidden Masks to create a Power Serpent, but never got the chance;
Being a reflection of one aspect of his soul, Kratakal himself eventually grew rebellious and desired more for himself. After having been granted an impervious, bohrok body to enhance his own abilities, Kratakal eventually defected from the Brotherhood of Makuta, taking with him the artifact needed to convert Masks of Power into Power Serpents, as well as bringing the rest of his kind with him; Though lacking imagination and typically loyal to Makuta, Kratakal himself had inherited his father’s own charisma and utilized it well.
With control over all Power Serpents and the only effective means of creating them in his grasp, Kratakal travelled over to the island of Xia, bringing his brethren along with him. To spite Makuta and spread his own name, Kratakal renamed the Power Serpents after himself, rechristening them as ‘Kraata’. The Kraata and their fantastical powers and abilities were introduced to the Xians, and through collaboration and a few business deals, Kratakal himself ascended to eternal fame amongst all of Xia. Likewise, he somehow managed to figure out how to create more Kraata, despite not having access to other Masks of Power. Subsequent generations of Kraata were sold to various Xian corporations, and studies on them with information provided by Kratakal resulted in the invention of Exo-Toa technologies.
Makuta himself was deeply insulted and incensed at this appropriation of his creations, and the renaming of them struck him hard. The situation reminded him intimately of how he felt when people began to call his brother Ekimu the superior Mask Maker, making Makuta feel as if his own hard work and legacy was being taken from him…
As of now, at least hundreds of Kraata exist, with all of them present and operating on Xia. Kratakal commands control over the largest portion of these Kraata as the Lord of Kraata (or Lord of Power Serpents, as Makuta still insists on calling them). For the most part, he only uses his Kraata for mundane purposes, such as his films, reality TV shows, and so forth, but they also function as powerful body guards as well, and can be used to take out anyone the Rahkshi is displeased with.
Both for profit and also as deliberate spite towards Makuta, Kratakal has sold several Kraata to various Xian corporations and arms manufacturers, as well as the esteemed Nynrah Ghosts. Per his orders, Kraata sold to new owners become loyal to them, although it is not out of the question for Kratakal to re-induct a sold Kraata back into his army. Kraata are amongst the most expensive of any Xian product, costing at least millions for just one; And the more desired or rarer a certain power of Kraata is, the higher the price it’ll fetch.
While some Xians use their purchased Kraata for personal, individual reasons, the vast majority of those sold are utilized in warfare and combat, or else studied and experimented on my arms manufacturers and the Nynrah Ghosts. It was Kraata that were used to help the rogue Spiriah in his experiments on Life Energy, and in various regions of Zakaz they are regarded almost as terrifying, inexplicable entities by soldiers who encountered them in the battlefield. For others, however, they are a mere source of energy, only capable of basic loyalty like any AI, and often utilized in conjunction with an Exo-Toa model.
Kraata are generally about the length of a human arm, but this can vary. They are beings of pure, glowing energy, constantly emitting bright light, and they take serpentine forms that can weave through the air with ease. Along their length are spines and patterns, and each Kraata’s form ends in a narrow head. The exact appearance of a Kraata depends on the Mask of Power used for it; The detailed shape of their features and bodies bears resemblance to the original appearance of the Mask of Power they ascended from, and as a result a seasoned expert can immediately deduce the power of a Kraata just by its mere appearance alone. Additionally, the colors of a Kraata vary as well, being dependent on the Mask of Power they were born from; Some glow with a violet hue, while others are scarlet mixed with azure. The exact color, or combination of them, is dependent and selective to their original base form.
As mentioned before, the abilities of a Kraata are identical to the Mask of Power they were birthed from; A Kraata of Healing can mend most injuries, a Kraata of Strength can slam forward with incredible force, and a Kraata of Elasticity can stretch its soul impossibly far. Due to their incorporeal, spirit-like nature, Kraata do not require sustenance, nor do they produce waste; They simply exist indefinitely, levitating in place and floating around. Depending on their ability, a Kraata can tramist their Power through bolts of energy; Touching a Kraata can result in one being badly burned by the concentrated life-force they are comprised of.
Kraata are sentient, and like basic AI, can understand orders, formulate basic strategies, investigate when necessary, and so forth. Their sapience is questionable, but they clearly understand what others tell them to do, meaning their intelligence is at least indisputable. By default, Kraata are loyal to their creator; First Makuta, but eventually Kratakal. By Kratakal’s orders, they will acclimate to new owners as commanded and listen to them; And in turn, their new owners can have them obey another person, and so forth.
They have a basic understanding of authority and hierarchies and will listen to them without fail; Kraata lack fear or any emotions, it seems, nor do they seem to possess a will. The sole exception lies in their progenitor Kratakal, who has a portion of Makuta’s soul; And while Kraata typically do not betray their masters, it seems that Kratakal’s kinship with them, as well as his own charisma and possession of their original maker’s spirit –thus granting Kratakal a similar ‘presence’ to Makuta- allowed him to sway the Power Serpents over to his side.
