Okoto

	Okoto
	Island
Status	Intact
Inhabitants	Toa (formerly); Umarak (formerly); Okotans (Protectors); Elemental Creatures; Mask Makers (Ekimu); Skull Raiders (Skull Army)
Position	On the Great Sea

"A long time ago, on the mythical island of Okoto, all lived in harmony. It was a place of wonders and beautiful landscapes."
— Narrator, The Legend

Okoto is a large island located within a vast ocean known as the Great Sea.

History

The island of Okoto was formed millennia ago, imbued with the power of the Elements: Earth, Fire, Ice, Jungle, Stone, and Water, as well as Light and Shadow. When the island came into existence, Elemental Creatures were born that embodied its very essence, while Umarak was born from the shadows to hunt them. The Okotans eventually discovered that their jungle-covered land was divided into six regions where a particular element was stronger than the others, and named them after the Elemental Creatures.^[1]

For a long time, Okoto and its inhabitants enjoyed a time of relative peace. The Skull Raiders nearly conquered the island, but were forced underground by the Protectors and the Mask Makers.^[2]

The island was served by two Mask Makers, Makuta and Ekimu, who created Masks of Power for the people in order for them to reshape the island to fit their needs. They obeyed a sacred rule to never include more than one of the six elements in each mask, lest it become too powerful and dangerous. Ekimu's craftsmanship was exemplary, and his masks were greatly sought after by the people of Okoto.

Makuta grew jealous, and defied the sacred law to forge the Mask of Ultimate Power. However, upon donning the mask, he was corrupted by its power, and Okoto began to degrade. Ekimu confronted Makuta and knocked the mask from his face, unleashing a shockwave that spread throughout the island, degrading and transforming its landscape. The shockwave destroyed the island's great cities. The island's southern jungles, the City of the Mask Makers, and the Temple of Time were not affected by the shockwave because the island's mountain ranged protected them from the shockwave. The mask's destruction opened a rift to the Shadow Realm, which consumed Makuta and Capital City. Ekimu was cast into an endless sleep, and Makuta vanished, ending their benevolent reign. Their masks became dispersed across Okoto, anticipating the day when someone would discover them once more. The Protectors of the time retrieved the body of Ekimu and heard the Prophecy of Heroes whispered to them, foretelling the arrival of six heroes in a time of darkness. As a result of these events, Okoto's natural energy fields were disturbed, cities were destroyed, and much of the jungle that had once covered the entire island was replaced with barren regions.^[3]^[4]^[1]

Thousands of years later, Makuta's dark influence returned, and the Skull Army began to menace the island of Okoto, seeking Masks of Power. The current era's Protectors recited the Prophecy of Heroes in the Temple of Time and summoned six Toa, who fell from the skies onto Okoto. With the aid of the Protectors, they journeyed through Okoto's treacherous wilds to locate the Golden Masks of Power. The Toa then navigated to the City of the Mask Makers to recover and awaken Ekimu, defeating the Skull Creatures along the way. They eventually succeeded in reviving Ekimu and defeating the Skull Creatures, and soon welcomed the other Okotans into the city.^[3]^[5]

The Toa and Ekimu were soon called upon to deal with the threat of the Skull Raiders, whom they discovered living in an ancient city while on a mission to rescue abducted children. The ensuing battle saw the destruction of the city, with the Skull Raiders and their leader Kulta buried in the collapsed cavern.^[2]

After receiving new armor and weapons from Ekimu, the Toa traveled to their respective regions in search of the Elemental Creatures and their Golden Masks of Unity. During this time, the ancient hunter, Umarak, and his Shadow Traps emerged in open alliance with Makuta, seeking to capture the Elemental Creatures so as to retrieve Makuta's Mask of Control. The Toa eventually joined forces with the Elemental Creatures and recovered their masks before making their way to the Labyrinth of Control off of Okoto's coast. Umarak followed them and recovered the Mask of Control before returning to Okoto, where he was transformed into Makuta's monstrous minion, the Destroyer. Umarak transformed the Shadow Traps into Elemental Beasts and sent them to ravage Okoto. While the Okotans and the Elemental Creatures fought the Shadow Horde at the City of the Mask Makers, the Toa and Ekimu followed Umarak to the Black Crater, where he created a portal to the Shadow Realm through which Makuta could return. However, the Toa merged their elements and sealed the portal, trapping Makuta and returning to the stars above.^[6]

Inhabitants

Elemental Creatures
Mask Makers
Okotans
- Protectors
Skull Raiders
- Skull Army
Toa (formerly)
Umarak (formerly)
- Shadow Spawn
- Shadow Traps
  - Elemental Beasts

Wildlife

Bat (unnamed) - A bat that can be found in the City of the Mask Makers
Bird (unnamed) - Multiple species of birds native to Okoto
Cattle (unnamed) - Bovine skeletons can be seen in the wastelands of the Region of Stone
Clam (unnamed) - A clam living in the Region of Water
Cliff Vulture - A bird native to the Region of Stone^[5]
Coral (unnamed) - An organism which forms reefs in the Region of Water
Dragonfly (unnamed) - A dragonfly native to the Region of Jungle
Deer (unnamed) - Unseen, but Lewa mentions stags when describing Umarak's horns^[7]
Firefly (unnamed) - Insect species found in Region of Jungle^[3]^[7]
Fish (unnamed) - Multiple species of fish living in the Region of Water
Giant Hawk (unnamed) - A species of hawk large enough to carry two Okotans or a Toa^[2]
Giant Snake (unnamed) - A large snake living in the caves under the City of the Mask Makers^[5]
Ice Eagle (unnamed) - A bird native to the Region of Ice
Scorpion (unnamed) - A scorpion living in the Region of Stone
Seagull (unnamed) - A bird living near the coast of the Region of Water
Skull Scorpion - A dangerous species of scorpions living on Okoto
Starfish (unnamed) - A starfish living on the bottom of the Region of Water
Tweeper - A species of bird once found in the area of the City of the Mask Makers^[8]
Wolf (unnamed) - A species of wolves native to the Region of Stone^[4]
Many unnamed dangerous creatures living in the Region of Jungle^[9]

Flora

Bonnotobo - A red apple-like fruit that grew on Okoto and was eaten by the Okotans^[10]
A species of jungle plant with broad yellow leaves, found near the City of the Mask Makers.^[11]

Landscape

In ancient times, Okoto was covered in jungle. Okoto is divided into six different regions by tall mountain chains. Each region is dominated by a certain element: Fire, Water, Ice, Earth, Jungle, and Stone. Following Battle of the Mask Makers, the geography of the island was drastically transformed by the elements.^[12] Each region was named for their respective Elemental Creature.^[13]

Umarak's lair is located somewhere in the mountain chains.^[14] The Temple of Time and City of the Mask Makers were both located on the border between the Region of Jungle and the Region of Water. Each of the regions contained many villages and cities, but many of the cities were destroyed by the blast that followed the Battle of the Mask Makers.^[12] The island's Capital City was formerly located in the Region of Stone. The Labyrinth of Control is located off the coast of the island.

The Skull Raiders' Underground City

The Skull Raiders' secret underground city was located in a ravine, in the mountains between the Region of Jungle and Region of Earth, near the Region of Stone. The ravine was created after Makuta's Betrayal. It had a lot of mist that was very hard to see. A large biomechanical hawk, which was possessed by a Skull Spider, has a nest in the ravine. The ravine also has many bones of biomechanical life-forms.

The chasm had a dark cave, which was a secret entrance that was closed by a mechanized stone door with fake cracks. After the cave was a tunnel, which was a trap by being rigged with a mechanism designed to knock intruders off their feet by turning into a tubular slide with smooth walls to send the intruders down to a black chamber. The chamber was much larger than the one in the cave's entrance. This chamber's walls were lined with tall, triangular doorways. One of the doorways, nearest to the tunnel, had the Skull Raiders' designs, runes, and jagged-looking writing, which contained the Skull Raiders' language, carved into the wall around it. This doorway also had a long corridor, where its walls had more carvings, that led to another cave with a gigantic chamber that contained the city. The secret entrance and trap were created by Kulta after he found a route out of the city’s cave.

The city had more than a dozen towering buildings made of black rock, and more structures were built into the chamber's walls. The walls were lined with many torches. The chamber's ceiling was high and domed, and made of gray rock. There was a structure that contained a coliseum, where multilevel spectator boxes, connected by an elaborated system of stairs and on stone columns, were arranged to form an oval to wrap around a central arena. The coliseum had an observation deck that overlooked the arena. There was a table made of polished stone, which was used to contain the Toa and Ekimu's weapons. There was a wall behind the platform that had a great mural of runes and sculptures, which had different sections. One of the sculptures looked like the Mask of Creation, which represented Ekimu, and another next to it the Mask of Control, which represented Makuta. The Skull Raiders spat at Ekimu's sculpture to show their hatred of him. Axato would use the mural to tell the Skull Raiders’ alliance with Makuta. The deck's floor had thick metal bars that protruded from its edges, moved like snakes, and formed separate cages to imprison people. The cages could be moved around. At the far side of the arena was a sliding wall that could reveal a stage made of volcanic rock. At the back of the stage was a winching device, which used a long metal chain and a pulley on the stage’s ceiling to raise or lower a cage above a wide lava pit. The cage was large enough to fit a Toa and two Okotan children.

There was another entrance that had a dark passage that led to the upper levels of the city. At the end of the passage was where one got a wide view of the city. After the passage was a footbridge that connected with an upper level of the coliseum. The upper level led to a corridor, which led to the top of a stairwell that overlooked the observation deck. Kulta would use this entrance to avoid the trap.

After Pohatu got his Golden Mask of Power, he passed the ravine to get to the City of the Mask Makers. After Ekimu reclaimed the City of the Mask Makers, Tahu and Lewa combined their elemental powers to get rid of the mist. Onua and Pohatu used their elemental powers to open the door to the cave. When Ekimu used Onua’s weapon called the Earthquake Hammer to throw Kulta to the city’s ceiling, this caused the ceiling to collapse onto the city, destroying it. Onua and Tahu destroyed the secret entrance to close it to prevent the Skull Raiders from coming out from it.^[2]

Above

At least two celestial bodies can be seen in the skies above Okoto. There are constellations that the six Toa were named after.^[1] A constellation of Makuta's Mask of Control was seen above Okoto while he was commanding the Skull Army.

Since the Toa have defeated Makuta and returned to their Elemental Stars, which can be seen in the night sky above.