2007 - Sea of Darkness

The Toa Inika and the revived Piraka chase after the Mask of Life, which eventually plunges into the bay encompassing Voya Nui. Receiving a clue about a city beneath the ocean and conversing with the recently freed Toa Nuva, the Inika descend through the stone cord that keeps Voya Nui afloat in the hope of reclaiming the Ignika, while the Toa Nuva begin a set of tasks for Mata Nui's reawakening. Neither group has any idea what the Ignika has in store for them…

Whilst travelling down the cord, the mask transforms the heroes into the water-breathing Toa Mahri - complete with new masks and weapons - for their mission for retrieve the Ignika from the ocean within a time limit of 24 hours.

The Ignika's descent ends in the underwater city of Mahri Nui, where it becomes a beacon of hope for the Matoran villagers as well as the Barraki; six former warlords sent to the Pit - a prison  with a seemingly bottomless chasm that sits on the lip of Mahri Nui - after their crimes as part of the League of Six Kingdoms. But after the Pit was damaged in the Great Cataclysm, they escaped into the ocean and were permanently mutated by its waters. 

Believing the mask can change them back into their original forms so they can rule the Kingdoms once again, the Barraki and their aquatic armies battle against the recently arrived Toa Mahri and gamble for possession of the Ignika. 

Matoro is later imprisoned in the Pit by a robotic Maxilos guard that reveals itself as Makuta Teridax, who possessed the robot after his essence followed the Toa through the stone cord. He informs Matoro that Mata Nui only can be saved if the Toa shatter the cord. Not trustful in the villan's words, Matoro relays the information to his team-mates. They agree and begin evacuating Matoran from both locations before proceeding to destroy the cord that sends Voya Nui plummeting into the ocean towards its original position, demolishing Mahri Nui in the process. 

But by the time the Toa retrieve the Ignika, Mata Nui dies. Believing there's still hope, the Toa battle the Barraki's armies while Matoro races towards a hole in the seabed with the mask before Voya Nui descends to close it. Once in, Matoro falls through a waterfall. He dons the Mask of Life and uses its powers to teleport the Toa Mahri to Metru Nui and turn them back into air-breathers, before the mask turns his body into pure energy that saves the Great Spirit. Meanwhile, the Maxilos body that Teridax inhabited is found badly damaged after a ferocious battle with the Barraki, and is so presumed dead. 

Mata Nui has been saved, but remains asleep.

2006 - Island of Doom

The Matoran Arrive back in the contravened city of Metru Nui for the first time in 1,000 years. As work to rebuild the city begins, the Toa Nuva and Turaga learn from the newly-awakened Turaga Dume that the Great Spirit Mata Nui is not only asleep, but dying. To save him, they must venture to the desolate island of Voya Nui and retrieve the Kanohi Ignika - the legendary Mask of Life. 

However, when the heroes arrive, they are quickly overpowered by the Piraka; a group of former Dark Hunters of the Skakdi species, who after raiding Makuta Teridax's lair beneath the island of Mata Nui, travelled to Voya Nui in search of the Ignika themselves. The Piraka posed as Toa on the island before enslaving nearly all of the native Matoran to harvest antidermis, a strange green substance that only the Piraka Zaktan knows the truth about...

When the Toa Nuva fail to return to Metru Nui, Jaller suspects the Turaga are harbouring more secrets and organises a protest for the Matoran to stop working in the hope of learning what happened to their protectors. In secret, Turaga Nokama reveals of Mata Nui's potential death and the Toa Nuva's mission and in response gathers five of the bravest Matoran he knows - Hahli, Kongu, Nuparu, Hewkii and Matoro - and with Takanuva, they prepare to travel to Voya Nui in search of their missing Toa.  But after Takanuva is forced to turn back, the Matoran arrive in the realm of the ancient tyrant Karzahni, where they are forced to wear organic masks in replacement of their own. 

The party eventually escape via Toa canisters heading to Voya Nui, but prior to arriving on the island, bolts of lighting from an object called the Red Star that orbits the planet transform the Matoran into Toa Inika; Toa with entwined lightning powers. With help from a small Matoran resistance force and the ancient being Axonn, the Inika battle the many guardians and challenges of the Ignika and chase the Piraka underground to the Chamber of the Mask of Life. 

Upon arriving, the Toa find the Skakdi already defeated by the mask's final guardians; the insane seventh Piraka Vezon that the Ignika has fused itself to and his spider-like steed Fenrakk. After the Inika defeat the duo, Vezon re-arises riding a Kardas Dragon. Another immense battle climaxes with the pair getting trapped in a stasis field. But as Matoro retrieves the Ignika, the Toa's adversaries unfreeze and the Kardas Dragon fires an energy blast that knocks the mask out of Matoro's hands and out of the chamber, heading towards the sea..

2005 - Web of Shadows

Upon the Toa Metru's return to Metru Nui, they found the city in ruins. In their absence, vicious spider-like Rahi called Visorak had overrun the city by creating poisonous webs and mutating various other Rahi while holding the sleeping Matoran captive. 

Under the command of their king, Sidorak, and his viceroy, the Vortixx Roodaka, the spiders captured and mutated the Toa into half-Toa, half-Rahi creatures nicknamed "Toa Hordika", before being rescued by the Rahaga; six small beings once Toa themselves, who explained that if the Toa wished to be changed back, they must seek the legendary Keetongu; a Rahi said to be an expert with poisons and antidotes. 

Putting their own problems aside, the Toa retrieved the Kanohi Mask of Light and built airships to transport the Matoran out of the Metru Nui. However, a guilt-ridden Vakama succumbed to his Rahi impulses and betrayed his fellow Toa by joining Sidorak and Roodaka, who made him leader of the Visorak hordes after kidnapping five of the Rahaga. Unknown to Sidorak, Roodaka had plans of her own to overthrow the horde King and accede all six Toa Hordika to rule the Visorak hordes for her, however, the treacherous Vortixx had yet even more schemes...

The remaining Toa and Rahaga changed priorities and searched for Keetongu. Finding the Rahi in Ko-Metru, the group enlisted his help and joined him in a battle against the Visorak at the Coliseum. During the conflict, Roodaka abandoned Sidorak in a fight against Keetongu, leaving the horde king to die at the hands of the Rahi, while Matau attempted to convince Vakama to re-join his team-mates by making him remember his destiny of rescuing the Matoran. 

Roodaka confronted the Toa Hordika and demanded their elemental powers. They fired their Rhotuka spinner weapons at her, but the action had little effect. After dispersing the Visorak, a rejuvenated Vakama also fired a spinner at her. This knocked Roodaka unconscious and unknowingly released Teridax from his protodermis prison that she had been carrying a shard of in her armor, before the Makuta teleported her away to safety.

After the battle, Keetongu restored the Toa Hordika back into their original forms so they could carry out the Great Rescue. The Toa Metru bided farewell to the Rahi and the Rahaga and set sail with the Matoran-loaded airships to the island above Metru Nui. 

On the voyage, the Toa noticed Teridax's empty protodermis prison cell and feared his return. Still willing to reclaim the Mask of Time, Vakama retrieved the Vahi from the protodermis sea during a battle between the Makuta and The Shadowed One; leader of the Dark Hunters. After, Vakama blackmailed the Makuta into giving the Matoran one year of peace on the tropical island by threatening to break the mask if Teridax broke his word. He agreed, and Vakama travelled on with his fellow Toa. 

Once ashore on the island, the Toa Metru sacrificed their powers to awaken the Matoran. Now Turaga, they christened the island "Mata Nui" after the Great Spirit and directed the amnesiac Matoran to building new homes, knowing the Makuta would return and that new prophesied Toa would arrive to fight him.

2004 - Legends of Metru Nui

As the Matoran prepare for the journey back to Metru Nui, the Turaga reveal age-old tales of how they themselves were once Toa 1,000 years ago in the last days of the city's golden age. 

Floating in a dome beneath the island of Mata Nui, Metru Nui was a busy city metropolis boasting state-of-the-art buildings and technology in which the Matoran worked and lived in peace under the leadership of Turaga Dume. However, the city's Toa guardians started to mysteriously disappear, leaving team leader Lhikan as its sole protector. 

Knowing there was danger, Lhikan sacrificed his Toa power into six Toa stones and handed them out to six Matoran from each Metru district - Vakama, Nokama, Matau, Whenua, Onewa and Nuju - before mercenaries known as The Dark Hunters captured him. The chosen Matoran headed to the Great Temple in Ga-Metru, where using the stones, transformed into the Toa Metru. 

Guided by strange visions from Vakama, the Toa gathered six Great Kanoka discs that could be used to defeat the Morbuzakh plant menace. However, when the Toa proclaimed their victory, Turaga Dume discredited them as criminals. Whenua, Onewa and Nuju were imprisoned, while Vakama, Nokama and Matau escaped as fugitives. After being chased across Metru Nui by two Dark Hunters and Vahki law enforcers, the Toa found each other again as well as Lhikan - now a Turaga as a result of his sacrifice - and the true Turaga Dume, asleep in a stasis pod. 

The Toa learnt that the Teridax, leader of the Brotherhood of Makuta, had been posing as Dume as part of his diabolical plan to overthrow the Great Spirit Mata Nui and become the Matoran's new leader. At the Coliseum, the Toa Metru confronted Teridax, who had already placed the Matoran in stasis pods and erased their memories. He subsequently cast Mata Nui into a deep slumber, triggering an event known as the Great Cataclysm that damaged much of the Matoran Universe. 

The Toa fled with as many Matoran pods as they could carry and headed towards a bright light coming from a crack in Metru Nui's dome created by the cataclysm. Teridax confronted them with the intention of obtaining the Mask of Time that Vakama had recently forged out of the Kanoka discs. The Toa of Fire clashed with the Makuta in a battle that ended with the loss of the mask and Lhikan's death. The Toa Metru eventually combined their elemental powers to seal Teridax in a prison of crystallized protodermis, before continuing on their journey.

The Toa Metru encountered new dangers in the Maze of Shadows before arriving on a mysterious tropical island that they saw fit as the Matoran's new home. After preparing it, they began the journey back to Metru Nui to collect the rest of the Matoran, who all remained in a deep sleep.

2003 - The Bohrok-Kal Strike / Mask of Light

Following the defeat of the Bahrag Queens and the Bohrok's return to their hives, the Toa Nuva return to their villages to help the Matoran in the rebuilding process after the damage the swarms caused. However, six new elite Bohrok, the Bohrok-Kal, have arrived on Mata Nui with the intention of releasing the Bahrag from their prison so they can unleash the swarms once again. 

The Kal each steal the Toa Nuva's symbol tablets that grant them their elemental powers, leaving the heroes greatly outmatched. Relying solely on their mask powers and combat skills, the Toa chase the Bohrok-Kal all over Mata Nui and eventually find them in the Bahrag's underground nest. The Kal defeat the Exo-Toa guards with ease before attempting to combine all six Nuva symbols to re-awake the Queens from their prison. 

Before the tablets join, Tahu unleashes a secret weapon; the Kanohi Vahi - the legendary Mask of Time - to slow down time around them so the Toa can retrieve their tablets. The Toa Nuva then use their connections to their symbols to feed energy into the elite Bohrok, making them believe that their power alone can cleanse Mata Nui. However, the Kal's powers soon run wild and eventually destroy them. 

Clean-up begins once again in the island's villages, even to the extent of creating a brand new Kolhii field in Ta-Koro. The Toa Nuva exit the nest, and after hiding their retrieved tablets at secret locations, enjoy a new time of peace on Mata Nui. But worse foes await the Toa and the Matoran…

Weeks later, Takua and fellow Matoran Jaller discover a great Kanohi mask hidden under their village of Ta-Koro. After playing in the Great Kohlii Tournament in the village's new field, they take it to the Turaga who confirm it is the Kanohi Avohkii - the Mask of Light - prophesied to be worn by a seventh Toa with the elemental power of Light who can defeat the Makuta for good and begin the process of reawakening Mata Nui. 

Learning of Takua and Jaller's mission to find the seventh Toa, Makuta unleashes his "sons"; six Rahkshi - robotic suits of armor powered by slug-like Kraata created from his essence - to track down and kill the herald before the seventh Toa can be found. The Toa Nuva battle the Rahkshi all over Mata Nui, who level the villages of Ta-Koro and Onu-Koro in their search for the herald. 

The Rahkshi find Takua and Jaller at Kini Nui as a final confrontation between the Makuta sons and the Toa endues, killing Jaller in its last moments. The death of his friend convinces Takua that he is the true herald. Donning the Avohkii, he transforms into Takanuva; the Toa of Light, and travels underground to Lair Mangai, followed by the rest of the Mata Nui populace. 

Takanuva confronts the Makuta and the pair dual in a game of Kohlii for the fate of Mata Nui. Claiming his victory, Takanuva attempts to take off the Makuta's Mask of Shadows, but they both fall into a pool of energized protodermis and re-emerge as the fused being Takutanuva.

Takutanuva lifts the gate to an underground city for the Toa, Turaga and Matoran enter and manages to revive Jaller, before the weight of the gate crushes him. The Turaga retrieve the intact Avohkii from his demise and use it to revive Takanuva, whereas the Makuta's fate is unknown. Preparing to journey to the city, the Turaga reveal its name as Metru Nui - the Matoran's original home - and go on to reveal that the Toa Nuva are not in fact the first Toa.

2002 - The Bohrok Swarms

After their battle with the Makuta, the Toa emerge from his lair victorious, only to discover that the villain has launched a new threat to the island of Mata Nui: the Bohrok Swarms; six breeds of robotic bug-like drones designed to "cleanse" the island to its former barren state.

The Bohrok rampage across Mata Nui and begin tearing down the regions of each village, forcing the Turaga and Matoran to flee. And while many Matoran are driven under the influence of the Bohrok's brain-like Krana controllers, others find new ways to retaliate against the swarms. 

The Toa begin to collect all eight varieties of Krana from each breed while engaging in combat with the Bohrok and later reunite to travel down to the swarm's underground nests. There, they place the Krana in niches located in each breed's hive, but this alone fails stop the swarms. The Toa later discover and don powerful, sentient robotic battle armor called Exo-Toa which lead them to the chamber of the true swarm commanders; the Bahrag twins Cahdok and Gahdok. While engaging in battle against the nest Queens, the Toa learn that the Exo-Toa are hampering their elemental powers, only after taking them off were they able to re-access them and trap the Bahrag in a cage of solid protodermis (a material created by all six Toa's elemental powers). 

On the surface, the swarms stop in mid-action, and the Matoran begin the process of rebuilding their villages using the Bohrok drones now that their Krana are powerless. The Toa's victory is short-lived when the ground beneath them opens up and plunges each of them into tubes filled with energized protodermis, transforming the heroes into...something new. The protodermis mutates the six Toa into more powerful beings with new armor, masks and weapons and creating the end result -  the Toa Nuva! 

Emerging from the tubes and returning to the surface, the Toa Nuva test their new abilities by combating one another. Their actions lead to anger amongst them and they all think it best to separate and return to their own villages.

2001 - Quest for the Masks

On the island paradise of Mata Nui, a shadow has fallen over the land. The villagers known as Matoran live in fear of The Makuta; an all-powerful being alleged to have cast the Great Spitit Mata Nui - the Matoran's god-like entity of which the island is named after - into a deep slumber. Now, the Makuta has taken control the Rahi, the island's wildlife, to serve him and relentlessly attack the Matoran and their villages. 

One Matoran, Takua - banished from his village due to his lack of work ethic - travels the island looking for stories to tell, earning him the nickname "The Chronicler". On one journey, he finds six ancient stones and brings them to Kini Nui (the centre of Mata Nui) where he joins them together and unknowingly triggers a beacon for six canisters floating in the ocean to wash up on the island's beaches. Once ashore, the canisters burst open to reveal six powerful beings; Tahu - Toa of Fire, Lewa - Toa of Air, Gali - Toa of Water, Onua - Toa of Earth, Kopaka - Toa of Ice and Pohatu - Toa of Stone. 

Carrying formidable tools to channel their elemental energies and donning great "Kanohi" masks of power, the Toa remember nothing of their former lives except their names. Prior to meeting each other, they rebuild themselves on the seashores and travel to one of the six villages on the island, where they learn of the Matoran's war against the Rahi. The Toa soon join the conflict, and with the aid of the Matoran and their Turaga leaders, begin searching for more Kanohi masks; each of which possess a different ability. 

Collecting six each, they exchange their masks for Golden Kanohi, and descend underground to face the Makuta. Prior to arriving at the villain's lair, the Toa form two Toa Kaita (giant beings created when Toa fuse together) to challenge the Makuta's Manas crabs, and battled dark manifestations of themselves dubbed 'Shadow Toa'. The Toa arrive at Lair Mangaia, where the Makuta appears in the form of a Matoran, before transforming into a swirling vortex of rusty machine parts and tentacles. The Toa battle Makuta and defeat him by combining their elemental powers on him. 

Triumphant, the heroes return to the surface, but Takua - who followed the Toa down - discovers a large hive of insect-like nests hidden away from the battle site, revealing a new threat to Mata Nui. He sees the nests begin to hatch, but quickly escapes back to the surface before he can learn more.