Ostrox

Ever since the formation of the League of Six Kingdoms, Ostrox served his master, Lord Mantax, with undying fervor as a warrior and as an intelligence operative.

Description
A broad-shouldered purple creature with glaring red eyes, Ostrox’s Toa-like form and power to use Kanohi allows him to pass off as a Toa from a distance, with the power of his Kanohi Mahiki completing the illusion. His skin is covered in burn scars ever since being at the wrong end of a Vohtarak’s Pain Rhotuka, though he doesn’t seem to mind. He is still a strong, imposing figure, though he does wear concealing robes and a hood so he can suddenly surprise people with them.

A cackling, giggling, cold-hearted monster, Ostrox believes himself above pretty much everything else around him, regarding it with amusement, thus why he sounds like he’s about to burst into laughter at any given second. Like most megalomaniacs, Ostrox suffers from a compulsive desire to gloat and monologue at times he really shouldn’t, often prone to spontaneous maniacal cackling, overly elaborate plans, and unnecessarily prolonging the suffering of his victims.

Ostrox possesses significant durability and physical power, as well as strong mental fortitude, able to keep up the illusions of his Great Kanohi Mahiki for long periods of time. Concealed behind his robes, Ostrox carries a rather sharp protosteel blade, a respirator device, and a Rhotuka Launcher that fires Confusion Rhotuka.

Background
Being an 'intelligence operative', Ostrox's history is hard to know for certain. Dead men and censored documents tell no tales. It is known, however, Ostrox served Mantax since the very formation of the League of Six Kingdoms, possibly even before.

In the final days of the war between Metru Nui and the League, Ostrox had been dispatched by Mantax to keep an eye on his fellow Barraki Carapar. The self-proclaimed "Lord of Horns" assigned Ostrox on a mission aboard the discreet merchant vessel the Ripple, commanded by Captain Tugarak, to extract the contents of a crashed Nynrah Ghost vessel on a remote island in the Silver Sea. During their voyage, their ship was attacked by another of unknown origin, seemingly crewed entirely by Visorak. A boarding Vohtarak struck Ostrox with a Rhotuka of Pain, causing him to writhe on the floor in agony, before the energy was washed off him by Toa of Twilight Skorm, who bathed in him in the waters of the Silver Sea when the battle died down. Ostrox did not seem that affected by the experience, but his entire body was left scarred by the burning pain.

When the Ripple reached its destination, most of the crew went ashore to investigate the Nynrah Ghost wreck, but due to his injuries sustained in the Visorak attack, Ostrox did not join them. He did, however, notice the change in the sky caused when the undead soldier Mazor acquired what Carapar was hoping they'd find - the mysterious "Krom Sphere" - as well as its reaction to Mazor's reanimated nature - every corpse littered on the island's beach became part of an undead horde, and similar effects were seen across the universe. Regardless, Mazor, the rest of the crew and the Sphere made it safely aboard the Ripple. But during the voyage to the Barraki Fortress, Ostrox took notice of Mazor's unusual obsession with the Sphere.

Upon their arrival, Mazor was instructed to bring the Sphere to the Barraki, but he procrastinated, seemingly entranced by the orb. Ostrox attempted to coax him into going, but the Zyglak Irna, who had accompanied them aboard the Ripple, jumped to his defense. After Mazor's meeting with the Barraki ended, Ostrox met with Mantax in private, expressing his concern over Mazor's fixation on the Sphere. Mantax ordered Ostrox to keep an eye on Mazor, as the Barraki began the invasion of Metru Nui.

Using a mass teleportation device hidden in Ko-Metru, the six Barraki and the bulk of their forces arrived in secret in the City of Legends. Pridak commanded Mazor take the Sphere into the tunnels beneath the city's Coliseum, with the traitorous Ko-Matoran who had helped them into the city, Nuju, to guide him. Ostrox followed Mazor, Nuju, and Irna - who was accompanying Mazor - into the Cortex, a labyrinth made of flesh hidden beneath the Coliseum, though Ostrox had to turn back briefly to retrieve a respirator so he could follow the three inside, as the Cortex was full of a poisonous gas.

After closing the distance between him and the three, Ostrox witnessed Nuju's death at the hands of a monstrous amalgamation that the Great Spirit Mata Nui was using as an avatar. Watching and listening from the shadows, Ostrox tried to attack the avatar using his Rhotuka of Confusion when Mata Nui tried to tempt Mazor into handing over the Sphere so he could reawaken, but it had no effect. The avatar tried to pull Ostrox closer, but Ostrox was too strong, and instead it pushed him away, barricading the makeshift entrance into the chamber using one of the silver Bohrok that maintained the Cortex to shut him out. Ostrox tried to find another way into the chamber, or something vital he could damage, but he didn't find what he was searching for.

What he did find, however, was the strange properties of the Cortex. He came across a beach within the labyrinth of flesh on which the Matoran version of Dume lay, and he was later joined by Irna. By then, it was too late. Mazor had given the Sphere to Mata Nui in exchange for the Destiny planned for him to be erased, as well as any memory of his existence. Honoring his part of the agreement, the Great Spirit removed Mazor from memory, meaning Irna no longer remembered her friend... but Ostrox's mental discipline and psionic resistance made him immune to this phenomenon, and could still remember everything about Mazor. Ostrox and Irna were able to escape the Cortex through the Matoran Dume's reasoning that it could take them wherever they wanted to go. In the process of their escape, the Great Spirit reawakened - only for his real form, the Matoran Universe, to be decapitated, due to millennia of meteors impacting against the neck, leaving it critically damaged. The head of the Great Spirit Robot, containing Metru Nui and all that lied within, crashed onto the island of Neo Zakaz, in the time before time. Ostrox swore vengeance on Mazor for his betrayal.