The paladins were formerly the Toa Hagah team of Makuta Nihilix. They are a group who do not follow the Toa Code, and instead are sworn to the Paladin Codex. They wear special armors and weapons, and use unconventional fighting styles. Their goal is the defeat of the Teridax-led Brotherhood of Makuta and its restoration to its original purpose of producers of Rahi.

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When Makuta Teridax started rallying the Brotherhood for his own cause, not all of the Makuta joined him. Makuta Nihilix saw the path to destruction that was being laid, and sought to create a resistance that would bring the Brotherhood back to its original path.

Finding a like-minded individual in Makuta Krika, the two set a plan in motion that would preserve what the new brotherhood would need, and aid in defeating Teridax's group should they gain momentum.

Krika was to act as a mole in the splinter group, archiving the rahi viruses and hiding important artifacts and intelligence and feeding them to the resistance group.

Nihilix meanwhile worked carefully to remove all mentions of himself from historical records, before vanishing from Destral. He recruited a team of Toa Hagah to be the main body of the resistance, basing them on the far side of the universe on the island of Artidax, where he created some of the artifacts and rituals the Paladins would use, along with replacing the Toa Code with the Paladin Codex.

Things took a different direction though, as Teridax didn't organize a splinter group, but in one meeting took the entire brotherhood. In a stroke of luck, he assigned Krika to be Miserix’ executioner. In alignment with his role, he smuggled Miserix off of Destral to the one place where he thought he would be safe, Artidax.

They were unfortunately discovered by Makuta Ratoth en route during her inspection of her domain. A fight ensued to prevent Teridax from learning of Miserix's survival, at the end of which only Miserix, Krika and the paladin Akira were left standing, with Nihilix's armor destroyed and his essence forced to seek shelter in a battered exo-toa and leave to get a new armor forged.

After the battle, Krika locked Miserix on Artidax to keep him safe until the resistance rebuilt, and tasked Akira with taking the power rings of the fallen Paladins and finding and training new recruits. He then returned to Destral to his original task.

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The order was intended to have several groups that would take care of a part of the resistance's needs, headed by the council of grandmasters.

Inquisitors
Inquisitors are the order's elite duelists, dedicated to learning everything there is to know about the makuta and training to eliminate them. They were to be led by Makuta Nihilix himself. The group was otherwise composed of Toa only.

Knights
Where the Inquisitors were meant to fight the makuta, the Knights would have fought the rest of their armies, and as such trained to fight in and against larger groups. They were to be led by Toa Stratos and included any species, although mostly Toa and Matoran.

Keepers
Every large group needs infrastructure and funding, and that is what the Keepers did. Toa Raik directed this group of mostly Onu, Le and Po matoran.

Priests
The priests were a support group of healers, trainers, philosophers and psionics, acting in conjunction with the other groups, whether in battle or in personal issues. Lead by Toa Akira.

Seekers
The smallest group of all, Seekers were to be the Order's spies, headed by Makuta Krika.

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Power rings
A Paladin counterpart to the Toa Stone. The toa of the order immediately transferred their power to these special rings, to preserve their power in the likely case of their demise to raise a new generation of paladins. The rings are forged from protosteel and do not activate the transformation unless a ring of an active Paladin is nearby, a mechanic introduced to make sure they would be led to the order.

Armors
Nihilix created a virus that could be applied during a forging process that would transfer a slightly modified mask power into a set of armor, and another that any mask wearing species could take to be able to tap into the Armor's power, relieving the Paladins from their dependency on the masks. Some Paladins chose to don another mask, while others opted for a sturdier helmet.

Weaponry
Unlike the code following Toa, the Paladins equipped lethal weaponry, often made by rebuilding their toa tools. Oftentimes they would also bear a second item, such as a shield, ranged weapon or a tool made to focus elemental energy.

Viruses
As a group founded by makuta, the vault on Artidax was stocked with various augmenting viruses that can be used for an advantage in battle, like temporary sense overdrive or flight.

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Artidax fortress
The base of the order, abandoned save for Miserix being locked up in the crypts, still holds many secrets.
Pool of energized protodermis
Any base frequented by a makuta has to have some. Intended for use in rahi creation, it has been used by the Master keeper to experiment with transforming masks and weapons as well.

Rahi virus vault
With the energized protodermis available, the true makuta kept with their original task and created rahi in their free time. Over time they stocked up on viruses to create the most helpful species.

Maskforge
The sanctum of the Keepers, the large forge served not only to forge new masks, but also the Paladin armors and weapons.

Suva Nui
The holy place of the order, used for gatherings of the Priests. It was designed to keep an example of every known mask, and every Paladin toa could connect to it.

Mata Nui
Before Akira's defeat, she hid some Paladin artifacts on the island.
Power rings: Hidden in the villages for destined Matoran to be found.
Codex map: Hidden by Akira in Whenua's archive.
Codex copy: Hidden by Akira on an uninhabited islet in Onu-Wahi
Kanoka discs: Akira hid several Kanoka on Mata Nui for later use, either as projectiles or to be used in mask forging.
Armor virus vials: Anticipating some matoran would find the Power rings, Akira hid a few sets of armor virus vials that would allow them to forge a mask power into their gear and use the enhanced armor.

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Makuta Nihilix: Grandmaster, Master inquisitor. Alive, but unaccounted for, within the Matoran Universe.

Makuta Krika: Grandmaster, Master seeker. Alive, acting as a makuta faithful to Teridax.

Toa Akira: Grandmaster by succession, Master priest. Alive but inactive on Mata Nui.

Akira lived in the center of the southern continent for her entire life as a matoran. She was working as a messenger and carrier, operating a small boat drawn by rahi to ferry goods over rivers.

At that point, her life was pretty uneventful, until one day a team of Toa appeared in one of the ports seeking transport to her homeland. They were happy to ride with her and shared much of their stories with her, igniting a passion for adventure within the matoran.

As a thanks for her assistance and company, one of the Toa gave her a pretty polished gemstone.

She has never seen those Toa again in person, but one day, the toa that gave her the gem appeared in her dream, telling her that they have achieved their destiny and saying goodbye. The next morning, Akira woke up transformed to a toa.

Gobsmacked with the change, she spent an entire week contemplating why she was chosen, and what her destiny would be. A resolution came when a turaga passed by. She was shocked to see the toa that appeared to her, transformed.

Over the next few weeks, the turaga stayed with her, teaching her how to use her new powers, both physically and ethically. An opportunity to prove what she was made of finally arrived with a dark hunter raid on one of the ports.

Akira joined the couple of toa already there, Stratos and Raik, and together they drove the two hunters off with little damage to the port.

The trio didn't stay together as a permanent team, each one of them instead choosing a part of the large continent to watch over, banding together to confront the largest threats.

As time progressed, Akira became a renowned and accomplished Toa, but she grew frustrated over having to deal with the same assailants over and over, as no prison seemed to hold them for long, and the Toa Code forbade her from killing them to deal with them permanently.

It was then that Makuta Nihilix arrived to her village, looking for her. They talked for many days, with him explaining what he felt was going on in the brotherhood, and why he had a need for her. It took some persuasion, but finally, Akira realized that what the Makuta proposed was exactly what she wanted to do. On the third day, she became the first of Nihilix's Hagah, directing him to Stratos and Raik as potential recruits.

As new toa arrived to the area over time to ensure it was defended, the original trio packed up their bags and left for the far south per their new master's instructions to build a grand fortress on Artidax and start recruiting and training volunteer Toa and Matoran.

Akira has founded the Priests, a support leg of the order. She has trained with Stratos and Nihilix to expand her own usefulness, but her main focus remained preparing new recruits for life as part of the order, and supporting the Knights and Inquisitors in battle. As such, she studied and taught medicine, psychology and basics for new Toa such as mask and elemental power controls.

The Paladins barely found their first batch of Matoran and some stray Toa recruits when the forces of Makuta Ratoth attacked. Akira fought with the others, carving a nasty swathe in the Makuta's forces. However, there were too many, and one by one her old comrades fell. Raik was shattered by Ratoth, and even Nihilix fell to her talons. That was when mortally wounded Stratos sacrificed herself, summoning a weak nova with her remaining power, succeeding in destroying most of the Brotherhood forces, including Ratoth hersel.

After the battle, only Akira and Krika were left standing, with the Priest having to do her best to repair the dents in the Makuta's armor before he met the same fate as Nihilix.

With the order almost destroyed, Krika tasked Akira to leave the base to build the order anew. She has travelled all across the universe, but she never levered any toa to join them, although with some she found understanding and a promise of aid if she needed it.

She reached Metru-Nui and finally her recruitment gained some traction, as many of the matoran were afraid when the Toa Mangai started disappearing and the promise of fresh start on an island far away was appealing.

All of this was rendered naught as Teridax caused the Great Cataclysm, and the Matoran who were willing to join Akira lost all memories of her.

Akira thought about helping the Toa Metru in their task, but with a great deal of self loathing, she stayed hidden, as it was not her task and revealing her existence to Teridax might have jeopardized the chance for the Order to ever reconstruct.

Following the great ships to Mata Nui, she got through before Teridax sealed the path and made Mangaia his lair. She was not unnoticed however, and soon she was facing the Makuta's rahi, as Vakama's cease fire didn't apply to her.
Before her final stand, she launched the power rings containing the fallen Paladins’ Toa Power to all regions of Mata Nui, hoping that Destiny will lead the next Paladins to them, as well as hiding her copy of the Codex on one of the small islands in Onu-Wahi, and a map to it in Turaga Whenua's library.
She was confronted by an overwhelming force of Rahi soon after, and was knocked off of a cliff in <LOCATION TBD>. She survived the fall and started to heal thanks to her healing armor, but she fell into a coma from lack of energy, the tide slowly burying her in the sand of the beach.