#irnakk

(Warning for psychological and physical horror imagery.)

An artificial toa nui forced together from severely injured toa. The idea was that the fusion would heal and replace missing body parts, and make the toa nui still powerful while easier to control, because the toa were not whole. The process has left the fusion still injured, however, because the toa are not wholly synchronized and are terrified at having been transformed and changed like this. The more upset they are, the less stable the fusion is. They cannot unfuse without risk of dying and / or brain death.

Or take that Dark Hunter who used to be two toa, forced to stay fused.

Are there any elements that cannot combine in one body?

What does it feel like to wield more than one own's element at the same time? To sense it around them?

You are bigger. Or is it you? This is your body, but it's also not, because it's not you. It's also you. There are others. You are bigger than before. You have more limbs. Somehow you know how to use them even though this particular you didn't exist before, and the others only had two arms and two legs each.

You have fused and something of your body - bodies? - seems to have been lost. Where is it?

They unfuse. Everybody or some or only one's body has taken on traits of the others. Does it scare them? Does it confuse them? Does it delight them? Does it hurt them?

They unfuse. They lost part of their body. Maybe from an injury. Maybe from nothing at all.

They unfuse. Things have added. More eyes. Their right elbow split, leading into two lower arms with hands.

They unfuse. They hear and feel and see and smell and taste double. Triple.

They unfuse. They cannot forget the sensations of discovering a whole other element they suddenly understood, only to have forgotten that understanding again. They've lost senses.

Who are you, when you don't have your own body anymore?

Who are you, when your body has been changed?

Who are you, when your body has merged with others?

Who are you, when others have left such marks on your body just by fusing with you?

Who are you, when your body can just morph and stretch and dissolve and reform like that?

Who are you, after you unfuse? Or if you never unfuse?

Irnakk the Nightmare

"Of course [he's] real! As real as a nightmare!"

Source

From a meta perspective, Greg only had a limited number of approved names to pull from, and with Bionicle no longer being funded, I imagine this list wouldn't update itself. I don't blame him for reusing names like Artakha or Tren Krom, which were originally introduced during the Mata Nui saga as the names of locations, before retconning them to also be based on actual characters. Constantly referring to the Golden-Skinned Being as such might've gotten old for Greg, understandably.

Not to mention; Irnakk and the GSB share a lot of similarities? Aside from their golden appearances, they're both fusions of the Piraka, from a set and story perspective; Irnakk is a combiner model, the GSB is made from all six. They both have power over dreams, and are revered by the Skakdi before being made real.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of MoCs use Irnakk's spine piece to create the GSB, and in general it's portrayed with a Skakdi spine; Yes, there are technically other people who went into its creation, but they're no-names who appeared out of nowhere for that scene. People mostly recognize the GSB as the culmination of the Piraka, who themselves encountered a fabrication of the mythical Irnakk on Voya Nui. Given Zaktan's whole encounter with Irnakk, it makes sense he and the rest would bring this legend to life a second time.

some Very Peculiar Lads

Using only parts from Vezok, Reidak, and Thok, I wanted to modify Irnakk to look a bit more intimidating in stature and scale. The body and head are unchanged, but I went to town reworking the limbs.

First up, I reworked the legs. The official model’s permanent squat always confused me, it added stability at the cost of making the legs a glorified kickstand. The ankles are a little bit flimsy at times, but it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make. The digitigrade leg design gives some serious height over the average Skakdi. As seen prior, I turned the Zamor sphere arm into a sort of crab claw with Thok’s Ice Gun and a Skakdi skull thumb (which articulates!) Quite proud of how elegant it is with so few connector parts to work with.

The major change was taking the weird Zamor rack and turning it into what I’m calling a catcher claw. Since Irnakk is meant to be a scary myth that can do all sorts of cryptid stuff, I figured a big claw meant to bind a victim before using his vision power or Zamor spheres. Nektann has been selected to demonstrate how that might look in action, and as you can tell by that side-by-side this Irnakk is TALL.

I took inspiration from Umarak the Destroyer and deathclaws from Fallout for the general shaping; I opted to translate the weapon from the korean piraka kaita to be his dual launcher staff to maintain the wave function.

Design philosophy aside, I'm really happy with how he turned out!