Dark Hunters

This mysterious organization has been an enemy of Toa since ancient times. They will do any dirty work for anyone willing to pay their high prices, or simply for their own benefit. Their specialty is killing Toa, but they commonly steal valuable or powerful objects. Any type of being can become a Dark Hunter; most members are unique creatures with their own peculiar abilities.

History

The organization was founded in the distant past by the Shadowed One, along with another Hunter known as "Ancient". The Dark Hunters were once friendly toward the Brotherhood of Makuta, often trading or lending services. About three thousand years before the time of the Toa Metru, the Dark Hunters attempted to use Metru Nui as a base of operations. When Turaga Dume refused to allow this, the Shadowed One invaded the city and laid siege to the Coliseum. Dume issued a call for help, and Toa flocked to Metru Nui's defense. The Dark Hunter War, as it was called, was eventually ended when a reinforcement of several hundred Toa ambushed the enemy forces. The Shadowed One then agreed to withdraw from Metru Nui.

Long afterward, shortly after the ruin of Metru Nui, the Shadowed One journeyed there to learn what had become of his agents Nidhiki and Krekka. While searching, the Mask of Time came into his hands. However, Makuta was also in Metru Nui, and he attempted to seize the mask. To make a long story short, neither of them ended up with the legendary Mask of Time, and Makuta dealt the Shadowed One a sound defeat. Ever since, the Dark Hunters have been at war with the Brotherhood of Makuta.

More recently, six Dark Hunters deserted the organization and took the name of Piraka. This broke several rules, which are punishable by death. Dark Hunters are currently waiting near Voya Nui, planning to kill the Piraka and take the Mask of Life if they ever make it off the island.

Members

The Dark Hunters employ the services of many varied beings. A few of them are listed here.

The Shadowed One

Leader of the Dark Hunters, his true name has been forgotten. He rules by fear, brutally injuring or even killing unruly members. The staff he carries shoots crystalline protodermis, and his eyebeams disintegrate whatever they strike. His headquarters are on an island, where he has a fortress, storerooms, and training grounds for his agents.

Sentrakh

Sentrakh is the Shadowed One's personal bodyguard. His power of molecular transmutation can turn objects into solid protodermis, crystal, gas, or almost anything else. He can create illusions and fields of darkness, and his Rhotuka has the power of dematerialization. Sentrakh is practically an automaton, serving his master with little thought of his own. This is a result of some experiments the Shadowed One performed on him.

Voporak

The being called Voporak was once a member of Sidorak's species. In fact, he was the leader of Sidorak's clan. When their island was invaded by the Brotherhood of Makuta, Sidorak betrayed him to the invaders. The leader was captured and turned into Voporak, a being designed to seek out the prophecied Mask of Time, if it ever came into being. Voporak could sense the use of the Vahi, no matter how far away it was, and track down its user. He also had a limited power of bending time. Any object that came into contact with him would age thousands of years in a few seconds.

Voporak was given to the Dark Hunters as part of one of many deals between the Shadowed One and the Brotherhood of Makuta. When Vakama made the Mask of Time and used it against Makuta, Voporak traveled to Metru Nui. He found Vakama just as the Toa recovered his creation from the ocean where it had fallen. Seizing the mask, Voporak brought it to his master the Shadowed One. But Makuta had also come to Metru Nui in search of the mask. In the ensuing battle, Voporak was defeated along with the Shadowed One. However, he is thought to still be alive, and probably searching for the Vahi after Tahu's use of it against the Bohrok-Kal.

Nidhiki

This insectoid Dark Hunter has a surprising history. He was actually once a Toa, a member of Lhikan's team. During the Dark Hunter War, Nidhiki lost hope and agreed to betray Metru Nui and his brother Toa. He led the force of Toa into an ambush in a Po-Metru canyon. Unknown to Nidhiki and the Dark Hunters, the plot had been discovered, and several hundred more Toa had reinforced Metru Nui and were surrounding the Dark Hunter ambush forces. With no way of escape, the Dark Hunters surrendered and were allowed to leave Metru Nui. Nidhiki was banished with them.

Nidhiki was unhappy as a Dark Hunter. The others treated him as untrustworthy, and he hated being sent on missions with a less than bright Dark Hunter called Krekka. When Roodaka, one of Makuta's lieutenants, came asking for training, Nidhiki made a deal to escape with her. But Roodaka betrayed him to the Shadowed One and mutated him into an insectoid being in exchange for her training. In his new hideous form, Nidhiki had no choice but to remain a Dark Hunter. For some time, he carried out missions and trained other Dark Hunters, including Vezok.

One day, Turaga Dume surprisingly asked the Shadowed One to send Dark Hunters to capture Toa Lhikan. Nidhiki and Krekka were sent to Metru Nui, and eventually succeeded in capturing Nidhiki's former teammate. But Lhikan had managed to create six new Toa. The Dark Hunters, at Dume's orders, spent some time trying to eliminate these Toa Metru. Unfortunately for Nidhiki and Krekka, Dume turned out to be Makuta in disguise. While transforming, he absorbed the Dark Hunters into his substance in order to create a new, powerful form for himself.

Krekka

This hulking one-eyed being is probably the only one who got into the Dark Hunter organization while failing the intelligence requirement. He was usually partnered with Nidhiki, and accompanied him on a mission to steal a new type of launcher. The Dark Hunters developed the weapon into the zamor launchers carried by the Piraka.

Krekka went with Nidhiki to Metru Nui, and helped capture Lhikan and fight the Toa Metru. Drawn into Makuta's power vortex with Nidhiki, he met the same fate of being sacrificed to the master of shadows' ambitions.

Lariska

This ambitious female Dark Hunter dislikes working under the Shadowed One's rule. She once tried to steal payment from him. As punishment, one of her arms was removed and replaced with a mechanical appendage. Lariska prefers to practice on live targets, and plots to seize control from the Shadowed One someday.

The Piraka

These six beings of the same species served the Dark Hunters for several thousand years. They abruptly deserted about the time of Makuta's defeat by Takanuva, and began calling themselves Piraka, "thieves and murderers." They have an exhibit of their own.