Fanfic / Klaanon

This brainchild of a Finnish Bionicle forum originated as a text based role playing game, but quickly cascaded into a massive multi-author fanfiction epic with a complex plot, an enormous cast of characters and a tight update schedule. The story is unfortunately only currently available in Finnish. It can be read on its own website.

Klaanon tells the story of an organization called Bio-Clan, a group of war refugees, retired adventurers and all sorts of outcasts. Led by Toa Tawa, the members of Bio-Clan seek to live in peace, but their island is attacked by the evil Alliance. Once so beautiful forests are turning into battle zone, as the Alliance, a coalition of united enemies of Bio-Clan start conquering the island. But the plot thickens as mysterious Avde enters the playing field, and the chase for the fragments of an Ancient Artifact and a powerful weapon called Nimda begins.

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Klaanon provides examples of:

• Action Duo: Most obviously Same and Bladis, with Same handling the close quarters and Bladis the cover fire. To an extent, also Matoro and Umbra.
• Affably Evil:
  • ZMA may be vile and despicable, but unmannered he certainly isn't.
  • Avde. He is manipulative and devilish, but hasn't spoken a single lie, probably.
• Affectionate Parody: The story never gives up an opportunity to poke fun of some of the more weirder aspects of Bionicle, although sometimes occasional Take Thats are thrown around.
• Ancient Tomb: Many of Nimda shards have been hidden into ancient tombs.

• Alien Geometries: The insides of the Workshop don't work with basic Earth logic. Or any logic, actually.
• All There in the Manual: When the Klaanon Wiki started, some of its pages were mostly knowledge that wasn't addressed within the story itself, like characters' backgrounds, equipment etc.
• Anachronic Order: While the timeline is mostly rather straightforward, flashbacks and time jumps are very constant and common.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: The POV of the story changes a whole lot, as there is no clear main protagonist.

• Arc Number: The repeating appearances of 6 were initially parodic in nature, as every group in the Bionicle universe seems to automatically have six members. However, recent events considered there might be something more sinister behind this.
• Arc Words: "The mind is the most powerful weapon."
• Artificial Limbs: They're everywhere. Everywhere!
• Author Avatar: Given how it started as a text-RPG, it's kind of inevitable to have these. However, most of the self-inserts seem to be limited to the creator's username and a few similar characteristics. Some have barely any resemblance.

• The Blank: The Marionette has no face. Neither do Makuta Abzumo's engineers.
• Bond One-Liner: More than we can count.
  • "Time to seal the grave, iron bastard."
  • Lampshaded with Guardian, who couldn't come up with one.
  • Done again with Matoro and Suga, who mock each other's one-liners.
• Beneath the Earth: The Workshop
• Big Damn Heroes
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Ath-Koro, anyone? "NIMDA! NIMDA!"
• Breather Episode: While most of the characters are fighting dark forces Snowie and Kepe walk around the island of Bio-Clan and gather information from the island's past.
• Canon Immigrant: Killjoy's characterization was created well before Klaanon started.
  • Some of the Amates' characterizations were based on their author's chilhood Bionicle mocs.
• Captured by Cannibals: Snowie and Kepe. Or actually captured to be fed to the cannibals.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Given the number of writers with their own styles, this happens quite often. Most of them are generally minded on switching between comendy and drama.
• Ceiling Cling: Matoro and the harpoon.
• The Chessmaster: There are some examples on both sides.
• Chess Motif: In the game Avde and Zorak are playing, it would appear that white represents Bio-Clan and black the Alliance. Some characters have specific confirmed roles.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Makuta Abzumo enjoys this way too much. Most notably with Gekko.
  • Also, what appeared to be scientific research by ZMA on Makuta Nui turns swiftly into this.
• Combat Medic: Kupe, a Toa-warrior who is also a surgeon. And a magic healer.
• Cool Boat: SS Ironwing, the flagship of the Nazorak Empire is a floating fortress.
• Cool Plane: Bio-Clan's very own Fleet consists of steampunk planes and zeppelins armed with machineguns.
• Cool Old Guy: So much that almost every Turaga in the story is one. Turaga Niddi and Turaga Bakmei are very straight examples, and The Oracle is by description quite old for a Matoran, but still an effective warrior monk.
• Cliffhanger: The story is told with separately published chapters. Cliffhangers ensue.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Goddamn everyone. You'd be hard-pressed to find even one character that doesn't have an outlandish quirk.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Anything with Turaga Bakmei. That man gives no mercy.
• Darker and Edgier: Bionicle had the restriction of being a children's series. Klaanon doesn't. The violence is much more brutal, the universe is portrayed in darker, more realistic ways and veterans of the Zakazian Civil War can be seen drinking to their misery. Luckily the story doesn't go all the way into grimdark and still manages to retain a sense of humor and lightheartedness.
• Dark Is Evil: Both played straight and completely subverted. There are evil and completely despicable characters with Shadow as their element, but Makuta Nui is right in the dark and one of the heroes.
• Deadly Gas: In Zorak's factory; but the gas breaks the doors to save the heroes.
• Death Seeker: Colonel 437's greatest wish is to die in the glory of battle.
• Deconstruction: This to Bionicle itself. When it's not a Reconstruction or an Affectionate Parody. For example, The story examines how Skakdis' genetic alterations to bloodthirsty warriors and centuries spanning conflict would do to its society, the after-effects of Toa-Dark Hunter war, how something as evil and eldritch as the Makuta would affect people and why Zyglaks hate Matorans (and pretty much everyone else) as much as they do. All of this tend to paint Skakdis and Zyglaks a more sympathetic light, in contrast to how the canon portrays them as Always Chaotic Evil.

• Doesn't Like Guns: Considering the high level of technology, this seems to be the only Watsionian reason why so many of the characters fight with swords and spears instead of firearms.
• Eldritch Abomination: The writers love this. Avde's true form is very much portrayed as one. The Makuta are this under all of their charming chessmaster facade, and there's even a rare heroic example in the form of Makuta Nui.
  • And to drive this really, really home, some of the Zyglak worship Rhak'elakk, which is basically a tentacled Elder God with a single truth-seeing eye.

• Every Scar Has a Story: Or more like every prosthethic bodypart has a story.

• Faux Affably Evil: Makuta Abzumo may be the biggest monster in-story, but he also gets some of the best lines.
• Fed to the Beast: Tongu and Suga in an obscure scene at the Nazorak hives. Also the Troller at one of the temples of Nimda.
• Flamethrower Backfire: Guardian shoots plasma ray right into Purifier's flamethrower cannon arm.
• Gambit Pileup: Avde and ZMA are manipulating both the Alliance and the Clan's leaders to do their dirty bidding, but meanwhile Avde is also manipulating ZMA and ZMA is manipulating Avde. Avde apparently has some kind of a deal with Ämkoo, but so does General 001. Several Alliance leaders are also using each other, as Gagegudder is working with Avde behind General 001's back and Abzumo is manipulating 001 himself by withholding information. But none of the other Alliance leaders actually know what General 001 wants by conquering the Clan's island - so it's possible he's manipulating them back! Meanwhile Zairyh has manipulated Makuta Abzumo to hand over the shard of Nimda so he may manipulate Kapura to help him kill Jouera, the Dark Hunter Purifier has manipulated Saraji to betray the Clan and join his side, the Oracle is spinning his own web on the behalf of the Holy Mother and the unseen traitor in Clan's ranks might just be manipulating all of the moderators and other traitor candidates in a big old game of cat and mouse.
• The Ghost: Avde's mysterious employer hasn't been seen yet. Or they have, but we just failed to notice them.

• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: The admins fill this exceptionally well.
  • The Cynic: Guardian
  • The Optimist: Tawa
  • The Realist: Visokki
  • The Apathetic: Ämkoo
  • Also the Metru Nui team after Black Hand II:
    • The Cynic: Kapura
    • The Optimist: Matoro
    • The Realist: Deleva
    • The Conflicted: Umbra
• Gotta Catch Them All
  • The entirety of the main plot that centers around the hunt for the six shards of Nimda, around the universe.
  • Purifier and the hunt for the Arch Krana.
• Glory Days: Matoro and Umbra seem to miss their advenurous pasts. And Metorak about his own action and murder-packed past...
• Grim Up North: The Island of Bio-Clan is harsher and colder in the north. That is also from where the invasion of the Alliance begins.
• Guarding the Portal: The Workshop is not only a storage, but also a mysterious dimension under the Bio-Clan fortress.

• Healing Factor: Matoro has a healing stone in his armor.
  • This is also one of Make's natural abilities.
• Hell Is That Noise: Ravens...
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Nimda is a Kanohi.
• I Call It "Vera": Old Turaga Niddi has a shotgun with nickname. It's Verak.
  • Gattas's assault rifle is called Mr. Shell.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: The Christmas episode was a cascade of these, but even it trembles in front of the unending arm and hand puns of the battle against the Blue Hands.
  Bladis: A hand as a gun will never beat... A ''HAND''GUN!
• Indy Ploy: Matoro's basic plan of action is usually to fire a harpoon at a direction and hope something good happens.
• Instant Knots: Matoro's harpoon again, and every single time.
• Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: There are always three to six, often completely unrelated plotlines unfolding in front of the reader at the exact same time. Any plot may influence any other plot without much warning, and the timeline isn't completely linear. And a lot of times the significance of a long-running side-plot is only revealed in its finale. When combined with the fact that the story is absurdly huge, keeping up with the plot can be a bit challenging at times.
• Kick the Dog:
  • First Lieutenant 955 did kill an island folks whose only action in the story wast to host a karaoke contest. He also nearly killed Snowie and Kepe, pretty much the only good guys who don't fight.
  • Makuta Abzumo: Goddamn everyone.
• Killed Off for Real: First Lieutenant 955, the old General Lieutenant 003, Zyxax, Alinnel
• Knight of Cerebus: When characters like Avde, Puppets, Feterras, Purifier, or Abzumo make an appearance, stuff usually gets very chilling.
• La Résistance: The Zyglak's might count as this for the Bio-Clan. They are the comrades in arms being all guerilla and stuff. It's their island also.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Suprisingly well and interestingly averted. Given how much inside hype there is within the project's writers these days, promotional material, mostly posters, created for single or bigger chapters tend to be kept well restrained, not including any info about them outside of slight hints, but anything that gives even a slight hint about chaters' stories themselves are usually kept hidden until good part of readers have read them.
• Lava Pit: The temple of Epsilon, one of the fragments of Nimda, was filled with lava.
• Leave No Witnesses: First Lieutenant 955 had been ordered to kill everyone in Ath-Koro.
• Lighter and Softer: Where it counts. It's very, very rare when something can be both this and Darker and Edgier. Some of Klaanon's trademark goofy humor and silliness like riding a biomechanical tapir into battle could never have made it into the main Bionicle storyline.
• Mexican Standoff: When a bunch of Bio-Clan members are taken to the Nazorak's flagship SS Ironwing, everybody starts pointing guns at everybody. The Bar Brawl in the Dead Ruki also starts as one of these.
• Monumental Damage: Zorak's factory at Nynrah is exploded with a sea mine.
• Must Have Caffeine:
  • Ämkoo, the mysterious and super powerful shadowy katana warrior, is a coffee addict.
  • Manu, the insane demi-god and brilliant scientist, sure enjoys his cup of tea and some nice organ music.
• Neck Snap: Moderator Same does this to a pilot of a crashlanded Nazorak bomber.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ämkoo and Snowie only found a fragment of Nimda so that The Marionette could steal it.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Snowie's flashbacks with torture and Guardian, argument and Domek, and evil Skakdi and a cigar do leave some questions to be answered.
  • Turaga Niddi is a living and breathing Noodle Incident.
• Obviously Evil: The Nazorak Empire. Fascist roaches are not the good guys.
  • Which part of "The Crimson Man" or "Deep Laughter" sounds exceptionally trustworthy?
• Older Than They Look: Or whatever is the case with half-robot lego warriors. But you can't really tell how old somebody is by just looking at then, or that is the case with most of the characters, at least.
• Opening Narration
• Our Angels Are Different: The story takes the already present angelic motif of the Makuta race and runs with it. More than once they are described as "Mata Nui's fallen angels". Makuta Abzumo's terrifying airship of doom is even called "The Archangel".
• Playing with Syringes: The Nazoraks are trying to create a better version of themselves.
• Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Multiple examples. Some Nazorak officers, namely Colonel 437, are there just for the action sequences, and then there are the personal nemeses of some characters. But considering that the whole purpose of Klaanon was to create something huge from separate fanfics, it is only natural. Considering that, it is rather marvelous how the many, many characters, including villains, have been incorporated into the main plot, and you can never know which character will go from irrelevant to very, very important.
• Put on a Bus: When the project was more of free-for-all role playing game, there were even more writers with their own OC:s, but after they left, some of those characters were retaken into the story by it's current crew, while other characters were just given this treatment.
• Putting on the Reich: The Nazorak Empire is humanoid cockroaches following Nazi creed. Let's put that on the table right now.
• Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: Multiple examples, most obviously Guardian, who can be rather rough around the edges, and extremely polite Zorak von Maxitrillian Arstein VIII.

• The Reveal: What is Nimda, after all? Answer: A Kanohi mask.

• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Tawa's pet Ussal Crab, Nöpö, is possibly the most innocent little thing imaginable.
• Rule of Drama: BIONICLE has been portrayed as a story with creatures who can bend elements to their will and some that have power to BLOW UP WHOLE ISLANDS, and has also included lots of it's own in-universe firearms. In Klaanon, however, all that stuff has been toned down greatly, because with stuff like that a conflict of militaristic humanoid cockroaches trying to siege contor of a small island from an organization which have more than one of aforementioned walking nuclear bombs at their troops would probably be kinda boring, woudn't it?
• Running Gag:
  • First and foremost: Why is it always six?
  • The nazorak bomb team who's been waiting 'forever' for that one bomb to explode.
  • Killjoy's television got broken by Matoro and he's sure as hell not going to stop reminding about that.
  • The narrator doesn't seem to get enough of Harkel's moustache.
  • Guardian's hopeless inability with oneliners.
  • The increasingly ridiculous war birds of the Brotherhood of Ämkoo.
  • Captain Notfun and his storyline don't make any goddamn sense no matter how drunk the reader is.
  • The Tapir. (Snork.)
• Scare Chord: All over Aft-Amana.
• Sky Pirate: Ghekula and Taku.
• Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror: Like, all the time.
• Sliding Scale of Free Will vs. Fate: A big theme around Nimda.
• Superpower Lottery: Toa Kapura's mask is an unstable activator of basically random elemental powers.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Whenever Killjoy, Bladis, or Gagegudder's troops are present, this is almost guaranteed,
• Talking in Your Dreams: Avde has a habit of getting into other people's heads, mostly during dreams. Sometimes, it's just literal head-getting.

• Temple of Doom: The temple of at least two fragments of Nimda have been totally unpleasant to visit.
• Training the Peaceful Villagers: Bladis is trying to make an army out of ordinary Bio-Clan members.

• We Have Reserves: Pretty much the ultimate example with the Nazorak Empire. Many of their battle strategies are really suicidal. What makes this especially sickening is that the backbone of their army consist of children, even if they are quickly matured.
• Wham Episode: The Night Horror arc is widely regarded to be the moment when everything took a turn to hell. Later, The Zyglak's revolution in red, the reveal of Nimda's true form, Ämkoo's Face–Heel Turn.
  • The Prophet's Realm and Black Hand II, FULL FUCKING STOP.
  • The long-awaited Aft-Amana, and of course the Metru Nui plotline's finale, The White Hand trilogy.
  • Red Shift, especially its part three, Setheus.
• Wham Line: Again, numerous, but probably the first one came from Makuta Abzumo.
  Didn't little Manu tell you that we are old buddies? Didn't little Manu tell you that we created the Nazork? Didn't he tell you... anything?
• What Measure Is A Nonhuman: A very central theme, with multiple characters representing anomalies and freaks in the Matoran Universe.
• Will Not Tell a Lie: Avde never lies, or at least he keeps claiming that.

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