Behind the Scenes of Crossroads

how it began

Crossroads before it even had a name started with my G2 Makuta being hung up in string for a week and suddenly I got a idea…what if I make a story out of this? so I began taking pictures and trying different angles, the first photo’s of ‘the Deal’ were heavily photo-shopped and ended up looking poorly made so I just used angles and motion blur to make effects. From that point onward I just made up the story as I went yeah I had an idea of how the story would go in my head but sometimes I had to change things if they didn’t work. Easily my biggest inspiration was the amazing webcomic on Tapas ‘A Better Place’ by Harry Bogosian, go check it out!

“What if…

…Karzahni took over the Matoran Unviverse instead of Teridax? how would the universe fare then?”

What if Makuta Teridax never won? the devil of the Matoran universe ruling over all in a reign of shadow?

Karzahni as the main villain

In canon lore, Karzahni is the unhinged ruler of the island also named Karzahni, where matoran who didn’t work as hard or had problems were sent to be ‘fixed’. While the mad tyrant had some moments in the story like his brief introduction in the early parts of the Voya Nui plot to his battle with Makuta Teridax. Afterwards the story team kind of forgot about the literal Satan of Bionicle and only brought him back just to have a midget demigod with shovels for hands kill him off. such a interesting character now at the bottom of a cliff never to be touched upon again…

Karzahni here is the literal God of the matoran universe, he took over before Teridax could and decided to turn all of Mata Nui’s islands into a super continent, kill off all the universe’s toa and enslave the entirity of it’s matoran population, his personality is even more unhinged and sadistic, but kept in reserve to a more casual and joking demeanor, like he’s already won and he doesn’t have any need to find a power or anything because he already has ultimate power. his character is based of various characters like Batman’s Joker or the infamous creepypasta, Sonic.exe…and in terms of his Season 2 redesign, Springtrap from FNAF (which I personally didn’t really like that much, way to bulky and too much going on, he was made using G2 Makuta’s parts and I had a head-canon that he remade his body using the parts of Makuta’s corpse or that it was made from the Amalgam, more on that later) his modified mask was designed with the intention of looking like a crown made from various trophies stitched together to his Kanohi Olisi, the Season 2 design makes the mask smaller and more rugged, it’s defining feature is the movable jaw that gave the already expressive mask more depth (unfortunately the jaw lost most of it’s friction over time and would just hang there like a rotting corpse)

The Amalgam and by extension, Godbourne King Karzahni at the beginning of Season 2 was a hastily put together mash of parts that was suppose to be Karzahni’s (The ‘real’ one) final form that only had a few panels of screen time before it was killed off in a very disappointing and anti-climatic manner. in general the reveal of Artakha being God-bourne King Karzahni in disguise was a good story beat that fell flat on it’s face when the true Karzahni was not getting enough screen time and that the fake was far more compelling that the true one ever was. (God-Emperor Karzahni is a favorite around the workplace even more popular than Sylus)

Makuta’s redemption arc and Ekimu’s death

G2 Makuta was initially suppose to be just a generic villain in the story a baddie that would harass the hero throughout the story until he would be killed off, Makuta is a reluctant servant to Karzahni, Makuta’s drive is not only to find freedom from his servitude but to also claim power from the mad god and defeat his brother Ekimu. but his goal changes when he has a encounter with Toa Helryx who gives him a change of heart that only shows when he finally acts to save Artakha from death, path that leads up to him rebelling against Karzahni and joining the heroes. Sadly he perished trying to protect Ekimu from Godbourne in the first Chapter of Season 2, Ekimu returning to Okoto with heavy grief in his heart over the loss of not just the world he swore to save but his brother as well whom he had finally made peace with.

In the Novel he already had his rebellion plan motion, to put it in action he needed to convince Artakha to build him a weapon that could defeat the mad god, it also put more emphasis on Ekimu and Makuta’s relationship with the statue scene. This version of Makuta was also temporarily brainwashed near the end of the Novel but was saved when Karzahni was laid low, breaking his hold over his mind. Unfortunately the ultimate cost of his freedom was the life of his brother, with a heavy heart he would return to Okoto with Ekimu’s body and lay it to rest once more in the temple of the Mask Makers. The death of his brother indirectly leading to Makuta to finally step out of the shadows and redeeming himself to the island’s residents.

Prophecy? what Prophecy?

Viewers early on may notice that the ‘Prophecy’ part of the was either removed or heavily altered, it was the original three season concept for Crossroads but it was later altered due to it no longer being relevant. The maker’s choice referring to Sylus being the one who created this adventure and how he had to be the one to finish it. The Demon Clock is Makuta Nepharus and his ability to alter time, and the third section was undefined for a long time before the Prophecy was scrapped altogether.

A grim end

Crossroads Season 1 Novel and Webcomic both have grim endings for the world that it takes place in. The world falling apart quite literally due to the loss of it’s god or by way of Eldritch cosmic space demon. Both ways end up being a cruel and bitter truth that even though the good may prevail over evil, what will it cost? this world like the real world isn’t always black and white morality.

Mending the fourth wall

4th wall breaks are common in Season 1 and they are mostly done by Karzahni which filtered the fourth wall breaks to one character since those can get annoying if done too often. Sylus only does this once.

Season 2 A new frontier

I think…therefore I am, The Marendar and the thought process that went with it

This was a interesting and difficult character to write, and at the same time fun to pose. The Marendar in Bionicle lore is a character that is described as a toa killer created by the great beings, after that it’s story was left unfinished

Nepharus, a mixed mess of ideas

Who is Makuta Nepharus? Originally he was a scrapped concept in Season 1 where the heroes had to fight Conjurer, a Dark Hunter who would have made a magic show in a attempt to stall Sylus and co. but due to a lack of correct parts this concept was removed and later reused in the novel.

Nepharus himself though is a Makuta possessing the body of Conjurer, he possesses time based powers that give him the advantage against most adversaries. The story starts after Conjurer escaped into The Cryptex using his waning magic supply and was too injured to continue living. The Makuta would show two sides that became blurred as the story progressed, one side wanted to create a ritual to reverse time and undo the events that led to Teridax’s rise to power in the canon universe, the other was as a protector of a small refugee village of matoran and agori

The many deaths of God Emperor Karzahni

Karzahni has died a total of three times in the story with his death in Season 4 being the last time that he’ll be coming back in the foreseeable future.

You dare strike a Wizard?!

Sylus’s orignal partner for Hunting Salvation was suppose to be Ancient but that was put aside for it to be Zerec Zeye instead, fortunately the idea of Ancient being in the story fit better as explaining how Zerec Zeye from Maniamac’s channel ended up here and also trying to keep him in character would be a little too complicated so Ancient was used as originally planned.

Season 3 The Crown of deception

Jewels to a Crown

The Crown of the Leviathan is a cult that was loosely referenced in Season 2 and left at that, Season 3 expands upon that concept by making them the main antagonists. the members and hierarchy are Hand, Eye, Judgement, Might, Voice and Will. These six members would be linked to the Leviathan’s power creating a invisible ‘crown shaped’ barrier around The Forever and the other universes under their control. As of the time that Crowned Dawn takes place they have no Will, the member being killed under mysterious circumstances…and introducing the sub-plot of the season, a murder mystery. Season 3 also marks the last time a Web-comic photo gallery that would be done for the story before we would be writing novels exclusively for the Caviks Trilogy.

You cannot destroy me for I am nothing…

Makuta Anvokhan is not actually one of my creations, he belongs to a friend of mine and i brought up the idea of putting some his characters into my story. If Karzahni is the straightforward in your face demon monster then Anvokhan is the subtle psychological horror aspect. He does not joke nor does he associate himself with the comedic beats of the story, he is cold and emotionless and he will kill you. you cannot him for he is nothing

Inspiration for the Forever

the Forever is a conglomeration of places from various parts of the multiverse stored in this pocket realm until they are needed by the Leviathan for it’s mega planet. the idea of what it would look like was inspired by a Skyrim mod ‘Carved Brink’ which had a entire space of landmasses floating in space and the goal was to reach the summit of the realm.

A Legendary Weapon

Tizonak, like the sword Excalibra, in the story was obviously inspired by another legendary sword in history Tizona although it’s history is less known than the Aurthurian tale of the Round Table’s blade of legend.

Season 4 A entirely new story of uncertainty

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Blueshift

GADGET; a returning yet new face

Sylus, toa of justice

Sylus was a old self-MOC (my own creation) that I had lying around and when I was making Crossroads in the start it lacked a central character, although Ekimu could have been the main character, trying to write a character based on what is already established in main lore without them being out of character is tricky, so inserting a entirely new character that could be shaped into whatever the story called for was what we went for

Sylus is a toa, or at least he calls himself that. his backstory is established as a matoran from the island of Stelt banished to the hellish realm of Karzahni where he is for years taken apart and put back together in such a way that he is left a broken unrecognizable shell of what he once was. only when the island’s ruler goes missing is when things start to look up for him, he finds a toa stone that had fallen out of the sky and becomes a toa, but his body is in such bad shape that when he transforms he has no powers or abilities, not even the ability to use his Kanohi mask. his travels take him to various places and eventually the island of Artakha be sheer coincidence and lead him to kit bashing the kanohi Olmak which he uses to travel through various realities until he debuts in Crossroads.

Sylus’s character is defined as a rogueish charmer of a character putting up a tough cocky act to hide his insecurities as a powerless coward who simply just wants to fit in among heroes, like the kid who wants to be like his favorite superhero but goes about it the wrong way due to his lack of knowledge. His disregard for the toa code (the unwritten rules of being a toa ie. act with honor, never kill sentient beings etc.) is because Sylus never stayed being part of a toa team long enough to truly understand or value the code, his tactics of striking from the dark and dirty tricks and dishonesty stem from his origin on Stelt, a crossroads for thieves and criminals, when he is revealed to be responsible for the events of Crossroads he is immediately painted as the true Villain of the story. He made a wish to Karzahni to have a Adventure at the expense of everyone living in that world. that happened before Chapter 1 like the deaths of Artakha and the corruption of The G2 toa, along with many other things that are not mentioned, only in the end did he step in to face his problems and save everyone did he redeem himself to the characters around him, but not the viewers. Sylus was never intended to be the selfish anti-hero or the misunderstood bad guy, he only does the things he does because it’s the only way he knows…

When designing Sylus’s mask, The kanohi Felwiin mask of Inertia I used a number of different masks from thingiverse and a Destiny STL file of the Felwinter’s Helm, using the grate part of the helmet to create the eye guard on the eye holes of the mask. the original beta version of the mask had a large hole in the front and a overhanging visor piece, it was scrapped in favor of the new model.

Novel and Web story

When I created the Novel edition of Karzahni’s world I wanted to make it much more action packed and story driven than the Web Comic which was severely limited by what I could do with a camera and I didn’t know how to do extensive Photoshop editing back then. The Novel starts very similar to the webcomic and that’s because it was originally suppose to be a almost exact retelling of the original but it became more interesting when I decided to take a drastically different direction that felt more like a completely new story then a retelling. The addition of Anvokhan to Season 1’s story and the chapter dedicated to his debut showed a example of the horror’s that would later be present through the story but not mentioned enough to be paid attention to. This was intentional to build up mystery and suspense.

Hero Factory and G2 bias

Hero Factory…where do I begin? it was a very one dimensional concept of good guys capture and lock up bad guys rinse and repeat, and I felt that the characters showing up in Crossroads should reflect that. The Novel and Webcomic prominently feature William Furno as a antagonistic role of rookie hero losing his home world and corrupted into a cold killer, alongside Rotor as a dim witted ‘brawn over brains’ brute that spoke with a fake Bostonian accent to sell his street thug personality.

G2 while in modern times today was actually not that bad in terms of products, but it was a victim of ‘dumbing-down’ that LEGO did in order to appeal to younger audiences.

Scrapped concepts

The entity inside the box-originally was a number of things before The Prodigal was a thing, firstly I was going to use Bekkom from Hearts of Vengeance. Then I was going to use Velika as the entity but ultimately the mysterious Prodigal of Salvation proved to be a better fit over all.

Why not a stop-motion like everyone else?

no YouTube account, and stop motion is hard…

Crimson Dynamo

Toa Dameta is the self MOC of my friend that I incorporated into the story originally as the ‘anti Sylus’ or more specifically the perfect counter to our protagonist. Until he reconsiders and joins the heroes to stop Karzahni once and for all.

Western or Woodland tour?

The premise for Hunting Salvation was inspired by old western movies and the concept of a lawless wasteland ruled by only the most ruthless and cunning. and at the same time, a underlying plot involving a magic ritual and the existence of ancient gods to kickstart the more serious aspect of the Leviathan trilogy

What’s life without a little treachery?

The Six houses in the Novel edition were intended to make the Cryptex seem less like a wasteland and more of a warzone for six different factions fighting for the resources the wastelands have to offer. The positioning of the six houses on the edges of the world also allows more focus on the main featured faction the Dark Hunters to have a neutral space to reside.

Mercenaries for hire

The Dark Hunters were a perfect fit for the wasteland theme that fit into the seasonal theme

Ancient is a veteran Dark Hunter who originally debut on this website as a three part photo

Through ice or sun or sea or by land

The run time of season 2 took place over the course of 2021 and later into 2022 ending at the start of fall. by the time of Febuary I took a trip to Cabo san lucas and decided to take photos there, which lead to the battle on the summit scene in a place that currently has a house over it. By the time I returned home I waited until somewhere in March to continue where I left off when the snow had melted enough to look like a different place.

Skakdi twins; better on paper than in person

Touraz and Izrahm are two Skakdi twins that ended up getting much better representation on the Novel than in the webcomic. Izrahm had a more developed model that used a custom head and spine, Touraz had no spine and used the wrong head due to a lack of compatible parts. the model’s for both of them were a mess and a rush job, the Novel versions of them do these two better justice.

The Leviathan and it’s obscure history

So little is known about the Leviathan

Quetanûl; cursed knight under a eternal black sun

Quetanul is a Character that was challenging to write and make, her body consists of mostly 3d printed custom parts. the original idea for Quetanûl was to be summoned from a portal by Nepharus as a legless floating witch created from the parts of the ritual. this form was inspired by the hive wizards from the Destiny franchise, this design was scrapped due to it being too similar to Anvokhan. Instead of a wizard what about a knight? I decided to change her into a warrior with a axe and heavy armor, this helped develop her into a distinct character from the rest of the Crown.

the end?

Karzahni’s world left to ruin, Nepharus’s ritual ended, The Leviathan banished from it’s own realm and left to the mercy of a new god. is this the end of Crossroads? yes and no, Crossroads was placed under new management once the Leviathan trilogy ended and the Caviks trilogy began.

What happens now?

Sylus’s forceful ejection into space does not mean he is dead, just in hibernation with the Tizonak protecting him from the brink of death he is effectively left to drift in space for all eternity knowing he had saved the universe from obliteration or damned it to a new era of suffering, as with season one a grim ending…but that’s not stopping him from coming back potentially…

The resistance; the last line of defense

C.A.V.I.K.S.