#ikir

With no other choice, and the island already ravaged, the Elemental Deities combined their strengths. With their pooled power, they created new land, a new island, and hurled it over Umarak, burying his entire essence beneath a newly-forged Okoto that laid atop the old one. Trapped beneath the weight of this new world, the darkness struggled and heaved, occasionally causing earthquakes, but in response the Elemental Deities merely added to this new island, stacking more foundations upon it until Umarak’s thrashing ceased, or at the very least escaped notice. Every now and then he’d summon forth a huge burst of energy to rattle the lands, and the people of Okoto would know these earthquakes as the struggles of The Darkness Below.

As a new generation of Okotans colonized the new surface, Umarak wasted away in the ruins of the old island below. Still, he refused to give up, and he was clever- So he changed tactics. Instead of trying to burst through the entire island at once, he decided to instead carefully, precisely, pinpoint and concentrate his darkness into one area. This threaded shadow would needle its way carefully, painstakingly, through the foundations and crust above, drilling through the earth and stone until it finally pierced the surface, allowing an opening for Umarak to unleash his shadows through.

It was a gradual, painstaking process. The results were imperfect- The farther his shadow strayed from his main essence, the weaker it got, until only a tiny pinprick of his power seeped into the deeply-grown roots of an ancient tree, infecting it with darkness. This tree continued to feed on Umarak’s shadow, becoming a physical, yet separate, vessel for his mind and power to operate through.

One day, a relentless, merciless hunter shot his quarry, a deer, through with an enchanted arrow. This arrow pierced through the deer and pinned itself into the cursed tree that Umarak had infected, pooling its energies into the vessel. Using the power of the arrow’s enchantment, Umarak forged his wooden vessel into a humanoid form, capable of independent movement, and became Umarak the Hunter.

Umarak broke his feet free from its roots, severing himself from his shadow. While he still maintained an inherent connection to The Darkness Below, he could only reliably maintain and function with his power from within this vessel, which sustained him with its magic. Otherwise, any darkness that attempted to breach the surface from below would become too negligible to make a difference.

Umarak slayed the hunter who had given him form, critical of their mindless killing, and as a gesture of kindness gave life back to that deer before it could die. Donning the hunter’s tools and absorbing his knowledge and skills, Umarak formulated a new, clever plan to free himself and defeat the Elemental Deities, his enemies, once and for all.

His current form, while powerful, was still no match for even one of the Elemental Deities. But Umarak realized that by utilizing clever ambushes, escapes, and guerilla tactics, he could slowly yet surely wittle down the Elemental Deities’ power by stealing it. Creating constructs of metal and shadow with the power of void named Shadow Traps, Umarak used his pack of fanged, mawed hounds to relentlessly chase the Elemental Deities. He would strike quickly, suddenly, and with his Shadow Traps drain permanently just the tiniest portion of the Elemental Deities’ life force. That life force in turn would be contained within a Shadow Trap, which amongst others containing elemental energy would be stored in a hidden cache from any deity’s eyes.

Umarak would repeat this process, over and over, again and again, gradually chipping off pieces of the Elemental Deities’ power. At first the six merely regarded him as an annoyance, but Umarak’s perseverance began to pay off. The change and loss was gradual enough that by the time the Deities realized they were getting weaker, Umarak in turn was getting stronger. He became more accustomed to his form, learned how to better strategize and use tools, and figured out how the Elemental Deities thought and operated. He predicted their every move, hunting and chasing them at every opportunity, never once relenting unless to hide for the timebeing.

When the Great Cataclysm occurred, the Elemental Deities were left dazed enough for Umarak to seize large portions of their power. Even more weakened, the Elemental Deities attempted to fight back, but found Umarak’s trickery, swiftness, and shadow-travel to make him an impossible opponent to strike. Inevitably, despite any pride, they began to fear every encounter with Umarak, knowing they’d lose another part of themselves to him, and began to run.

And so the chase, the hunt, began. Over the centuries, Umarak continued whittling away at the Elemental Deities’ souls, and with the Great Cataclysm having placed all other Deities in a coma, the Elemental Entities had no allies to turn to for protection. All the while, Umarak’s cache of Shadow Traps continued to gestate with the elemental energy they’d absorbed, digesting and formulating it into crystalline bodies of pure elemental energy.

Umarak’s plan from there was simple- He’d drain the Elemental Deities until they were either eradicated or too weak to fight back. With their stolen power, he’d reforge the energy he’d seized into a horde of Elemental Beasts, who in turn would use the same energy that built his island prison to destroy it. The Elemental Beasts would lay waste to Okoto, razing it, tearing away at the foundations until nothing was left but barren rock, and then even less. And with his earthen prison shaved away, The Darkness Below could finally burst free and Umarak could reunite his full power, freed, with no one to stop him from spreading his shadows.

Umarak’s hunt continued successfully in the passing centuries, until the Elemental Deities became the most minor echoes of their former power, barely shadows of their old selves. However, they too managed to learn from Umarak’s tactics, and though they gre weaker over time, they also became harder for him to track down and pin down. All the while, the Elemental Deities searched for Umarak’s hidden cache of their lost power, hoping to one day reclaim it, even as they devised ways to destroy Umarak’s vessel on Okoto.

When Skull Spiders besieged Okoto’s inhabitants, neither Umarak nor the Elemental Deities paid any mind to the incident. They knew full and well the nature of the swarm from a glance and considered it inconsequential. Makuta, in turn, attempted to make an ally of either Umarak or the Elemental Deities, but both saw him as providing no help or not being trustworthy, and ignored him.

This would change following the Arrival of the Toa, and the commencement of the Okotan-Brotherhood wars. As Ekimu the Mask Maker returned and began changing Okoto back to its old ways of its Creation Era, the Brotherhood in turn began experimenting in new venues of Life energy. And as the conflict increased, inevitably, Umarak and the Elemental Deities were noticed and caught in the crossfire.

Both sides desperately needed an ally, an advantage over the other, and while the Okotans were certainly wary of Umarak, no side could afford to be choosers. With the introduction of his Energy Leeches, organic creatures that could drain and store Life energy, Makuta finally won over Umarak’s alliance. In exchange for supplying him with armies and Energy Leeches to better track down and drain the Elemental Deities, Umarak would, from time to time, provide assistance in various Brotherhood operations. With his experience and ancient power of shadow, Umarak proved to be a terrifying challenge to even all six Toa united.

As the war unraveled, it soon came to light that Makuta had another reason for desiring Umarak’s alliance- He himself was after the Elemental Deities as well, in this case for their knowledge of the Mask of Control. Makuta knew that after the Great Cataclysm had caused the Mask of Control to disappear, the Elemental Deities stumbled across the ancient, powerful artifact, and had hidden it away themselves. Makuta needed the Mask of Control to unite the scattered fragments of his soul, and with his alliance with Umarak, the Hunter would not only absorb the Elemental Deities entirely but also their knowledge.

Eventually, Umarak managed to decipher the location of the Mask of Control by hijacking Ketar’s mind, tracking it down the Labyrinth of Deception, also known in ancient names as the Skrall. With a team of Brotherhood forces, Umarak descended into the Labyrinth of Deception and succeeded in acquiring the Mask of Control. However, upon reporting back to Makuta, the Mask Hoarder made his intentions to turn Umarak into a pawn quite clear.

Betrayed, Umarak in turn rejected Makuta’s claims and donned the Mask of Control, only to be possessed by the mask’s power and a portion of Makuta’s soul that had been trapped inside since the Great Cataclysm. The Mask of Control’s ancient powers rendered Umarak a slave to Makuta’s mind, who in turn inhabited Umarak’s body and mutated its vessel into a hulking, beastial caricature of itself. Now armed with both the powers of shadow, as well as those of Makuta and the Mask of Control, Umarak the Destroyer departed to raze Okoto. He awakened the Elemental Beasts, unleashing them upon the island to tear apart the foundations with help from the Brotherhood of Makuta’s forces. As the island’s surface was torn apart, The Darkness Below began to thrash and awaken, even bursting through portions of the surface, tendrils of itself emerging and lashing about.

At the same time, Umarak gathered at the summit of the Elemental Beast cache and began using the Mask of Control to draw and gather the scattered fragments of Makuta’s soul, eventually uniting them into his body and granting the Mask Hoarder a proper, physical form for the first time in centuries.

With his sudden increase in strength, Umarak the Destroyer easily fought off the Toa, who had combined with Elemental Deities into Kaita fusions. However, the tides would be turned when Ekimu the Mask Maker would arrive, having fused the energies of the damaged Mask of Creation with his own soul to become a Toa of Creation. More powerful than ever, Ekimu’s support melded with the Toa Kaitas’, and Ekimu was able to use his Hammer of Power to tear the Mask of Control from Umarak’s face. Freed of Makuta’s possession, Umarak painfully reverted his vessel back to its original form, even as Ekimu donned the Mask of Control, using the power it had spread through the Elemental Beasts to shatter them.

All at once, the lost energy of the Elemental Deities returned to them, gathering into a single spot as they reformed back to their true power. The weakened Umarak, in turn, could only help but gaze upwards in despair as the fully-empowered Elemental Deities visited centuries of retribution upon him, crashing down and burning his form with pure energy. Umarak’s vessel dissipated, his essence severed from The Darkness Below as it retreated and crystallized into a drained Mask of Shadows. The Darkness Below ceased its thrashing as it sank back beneath Okoto, which was in turn repaired of its damages by the Elemental Deities.