Who wrote the Bionicle books? (in-universe)
When talking about the Bionicle books with fans, Greg Farshtey (the real world author) would sometimes take a page from J.R.R. Tolkien and say that the stories were actually texts from the Bionicle universe that he "translated" into English. Which got me thinking, if these were stories that were written in the Bionicle universe, who wrote them?
And I thought the cutest answer would be, it was the Chroniclers who wrote them! And the more I thought about it, the more I realized this theory works surprisingly well! There were 3 main Chroniclers (Takua, Hahli, and Kopeke) corresponding to the 3 series of Bionicle books (Chronicles, Adventures, and Legends)
Takua was Cathy Hapka, and the primary author of the Chronicles series, relating the adventures of the Toa Mata to the island of Mata Nui. In some cases it was implied that he was either there in background of the events, or simply heard of them from the Toa themselves during his many conversations with them. The exception was Tales of the Masks, written by Greg Farshtey Hahli. The Tales are included in the Chronicles as they take place during that time, though as they are the story of how the Turaga decided to reveal Metru Nui just before the Kohlii Tournament, they were only revealed and published after Takua ascended to the ranks of Toa, and are the first events she recorded. Mask of Light was also written by Takanuva as a final chronicle relating his own journey to find the Seventh Toa. It is often grouped with the Chronicles, though as he was no longer officially the Chronicler, it is sometimes considered separately.
Next is the Adventures, written by Hahli, translated by Greg Farshtey. You can really see the distinct writing styles between Hahli and Takua emerge here. She recorded the Adventures as she was canonically there for almost all of the Turaga's council sessions where they told the Toa Nuva.
The Legends series was written by Kopeke, who became Chronicler after it was discovered Hahli had also been transformed into a Toa. Kopeke learned of many of the events that took place second hand from Hahli, who canonically told him of the events in the Pit, and probably told him of the adventures on Voya Nui. Having been given his stories from the previous Chronicler, Kopeke's writing style is noted fro being highly similar Hahli's both written by Greg Farshtey. Kopeke also later learned of the events in Karda Nui when the Toa Nuva returned home. Much of these Legends had to be written in secret during the Reign of Shadows, as a hope to keep the stories of the Toa heroes alive during the dark times.
But then of course there are the Bara Magna books, and I believe these were recorded by Berix, who took on the role of Chronicler in Mata Nui's band of Glatorian in their adventures. After the Reformation, he worked closely with Kopeke to recount the events of the Battle of Bara Magna, leading to his style being heavily influenced by Kopeke's and Hahli's Farshtey styles.
And so there you have it! Those are the true authors of the Bionicle books in my headcanon! Let me know what you guys think about this
