The Tale of Codrex Magna is a fanfiction (loosely) based on the LEGO BIONICLE franchise, or more specifically, based on the numerous fan-sites and discussion boards
dedicated (at least inititally) to it.
In late 2009, as BIONICLE was in its death throes, an individual who called himself Wally Gudmunzsun founded a new BIONICLE forum, Codrex Magna. This marked the end of a long series of web-based shenanigans across BIONICLE fora, involving numerous renegade BIONICLE fans breaking off of larger fora and founding their own sites. Wally, along with his less personable duplicate account/alter ego, Maestro, is now in the process of telling the story of those shenanigans.
Beginning on BZPower, a small community of friends decided that BZP was too oppressive, bureaucratic, heavily-censored, and crowded for their tastes. Led by Zen “Slushie” Jorra and Maestro, serving as the technical supervisor, some twenty BZP members attempted to found BIONICLE Advanced Wars. After facing some technical difficulties, which discouraged them enough to abandon the idea for a time, they succeeded.
Zen Jorra and Maestro became co-administrators. Unfortunately, disagreements between members and heavy exploitation of the “free speech” BAW offered drove the site into chaos. In the confusion which followed, Maestro was fired and the majority of members stopped visiting.
Maestro created Codrex Magna, reinstating the no-swearing rule and inviting a few members from BAW he felt were not at fault for the site’s collapse. Although not without its own share of drama, Codrex Magna has remained a stable site for the past two years.
The Tale of Codrex Magna is much more interesting.
It’s set in the Outlands, a world where websites are incarnated as heavily-defended Fortresses in an otherwise barren and often dangerous place. Maestro is recruited by Wally, a completely separate character for story purposes, to found and moderate a new Fortress. Wally claims to have found an abandoned Fortress he wants to rebuild and reopen, and that he could use Maestro’s experience as an administrator. The two travel across the Outlands, taking in the sites of the internet and getting involved in conflicts between forumgoers which pose a serious risk to the safety of those involved.
Other notable characters include:
- Kaze Azure, the Forger, who isn’t based on any real-life individual or user account, but is essential for getting into the locked Fortress of Codrex Magna. Much more cheery and feminine than the archetypical female hacker.
- Overlord, a traveling mercenary who stalks after the main characters, hoping to catch them at their most vulnerable and steal their weapons — weapons he has a use of his own for.
- Kolenece Keykeeper Malevolence (KKM), one of the First Administrators who takes the form of a fish crow, and The Horoscope Man, Toggle, who meddle in the creation of Codrex Magna in order to do... something.
- The Mancers, the self-isolated members of a remote Fortress who possess Elemental Powers, and wait in the shadows, waiting for their chance to do... something. Led by the Biomancer, the Mage of Life.
Notable for its Continuity Porn and Creator In-Jokes.
Tropes:
- After the End: According to the
Word of Dante, the Outlands have suffered a society-shattering apocalypse, which would explain why the people have crowded into the Great Fortresses. This is never implied in the Tale itself, however. - Artifact Title: The Tale was originally captioned "As told by its caretaker and her guards", the "caretaker" most likely referring to Kaze, and her "guards" Wally and Maestro. That didn't turn out to capture the trio's relationship, and has since been changed.
- The Beast Master: The Arachnomancer has control over spiders.
- Blood Magic: Hemomancer.
- Blow You Away: The Ventimancer. Like the Pyromancer, fairly straightforward.
- Casting a Shadow: Umbramancer
- Chekhov's Gunman: The Man in the Turban at the Roaring Log, who turned out to be Overlord. Word of God revealed this much earlier than the revelation in-story, however.
- Continuity Porn: Oftentimes the descriptions of Fortresses will include subtle and not-so-subtle references to the website it's based upon. Overlaps with Creator In-Joke below.
- BZPower is called the Triple Fortress because it was once two separate websites, KanohiPower and BIONICLE Zone Community, which were joined — in the Outlands, the two Fortresses were joined by building a third Fortress to connect them.
- The Login Guards on Bricklink have parrot-like heads. Take a look at their banner.
- Creator In-Joke: Many.
- Wally uses a forged pass to get into BZPower — which identifies him as Overlord, Wally's old account.
- Wally's weird speech is based on misspellings he made in the chatbox. Of course,
some of those misspellings were intentional in the first place. - The Gunshipwreck is a reference to the love a Codrex Magna Member called ArtyFoul held for the Subspace Gunship of Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
- Deadpan Snarker: Maestro strays into this territory, especially on BAW.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The Mancers are expected to act a manner which corresponds with their element. If the Biomancer catches you Out of Character, there are consequences.
- Gotta Catch Them All: Overlord's quest.
- Elemental Powers: The Mancers are quite possibly a Deconstruction, as their powers are treated very literally, playing with [1].
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep":
- The Bartender of the Roaring Log is the most obvious example, as his name is never revealed, but a multitude of characters don't seem to have names at all...
- Aneroth and Slushie make references to Maestro's real name, Trakvan, but to everyone else, he's just Maestro.
- Overlord certainly qualifies, as do the General and the Librarian.
- All of the Mancers are referred to only by their Latin titles, or nicknames derived thereof.
- Exact Words: The Biomancer does not kill. He has other ways of dealing with his enemies.
- Green Thumb: Biomancer, although his personality strays far from the norm.
- An Ice Person: The Cryomancer comes close. Technically, the Mage of Ice would be the Glaciemancer; the Cryomancer very specifically controls cold, which extends his powers considerably; he can slow down moving objects and prevent himself and the other Mancers from aging through cryogenics.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Maestro's Sparrowhawk Katana, which can channel Administrator Power and contains a weapon fragment.
- Light 'em Up: Heliomancer
- Mind Screw:
- Expect anything involving KKM to go downhill, fast. He once held a conversation using only words he had heard recently, despite being fully capable of speech.
- Veritamancer's transformation into Vitamancer can also mess with your head.
- Necromancer: That's ''Vita''mancer, not Necromancer!
- The Omniscient Council of Vagueness:
- KKM and Toggle. See also Vagueness Is Coming below.
- The Mancers may also be this, although only if Biomancer let the others in on the plan; it's implied that he may not have.
- Playing with Fire: The ever-so-straightforward Pyromancer.
- Self-Deprecation: Consider that Maestro and Wally are one and the same. Now consider their dialogues.
- Take That!: Kex, a BZPower moderator who was quite unpopular among BAW members (including Wally), appears as a frustrated Stop Having Fun Guy who is quickly thwarted by Toggle and KKM.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Maestro doesn't react at all when a crow starts talking to him.
- Vagueness Is Coming: KKM and Toggle's conversation in Part the Fifth.
- Which Me?: Quite the unusual example. Although characters regularly travel between Fortresses (and thus, fora), accounts on different websites are usually (but not always) treated as separate characters. Overlord, the General, Maestro, and Wally are all accounts made by the author (in that order). Biomancer, Veritamancer and later Vitamancer were also created by the author, although only as characters, not as accounts.
