Virakan

The Virakan, or the Tobduk's species, was the species native to the island Visorak until the Makuta overran it.

History
In the Prime Reality, the Virakan were the result of an effort by the Great Beings to create a new type of Toa, capable of wielding emotional energy as opposed to elemental energy. Unfortunately, the Great Beings were pressed for time, so their experiments were concluded quickly and the products of their studies were placed on an island named “Visorak”.

For their own sanity, the Virakan divided themselves into groups of similar emotions; anger types held their own village, love types their own, respect types theirs, joy types theirs—wherein they helped each other by stimulating those emotions in those like them. They were primarily divided in six tribes, although these were subdivided a few times. Although the civilization they carved for themselves was quite uneasy at first, they worked together as they could to build a strong nation.

As the finishing touches were being placed on a lasting peace, Makuta Chirox was looking for a civilization to test his new species of spider Rahi he’d developed. He decided that Visorak and its natives were insignificant to the Brotherhood of Makuta, but also a somewhat advanced civilization—the ideal sample for the universe as a whole. Tobduk’s village was the first fall, but the entire island quickly fell to the venom of the Makuta.

One Virakan escaped to the north with about a hundred of what remained of the Virakan (including Calbus); he was later renamed “Tobduk” or survivor. The remainder of the Virakan dispersed, some joining the Dark Hunters, others forming the hit squad known as the Kraawa Gang, and still others attacked the Brotherhood in the only ways they could. The Order of Mata Nui, interested in the power of the Virakan as well as their hatred for the Brotherhood, reached out and recruited as many as they could, including Tobduk. There they learned to hone their powers against the Makuta.

When the Great Spirit Robot was destroyed, all surviving Virakan escaped to Spherus Magna.

The Broken Order Universe
In the Broken Order Universe, the Virakan were developed similarly and likewise worked to stabilize their uneasy culture into a thriving civilization. When the Makuta developed the Visorak Hordes as a means of countering the Kritor military, they decided to secretly test it on the island of the Virakan. Communication was cut off to and from the island, and the Hordes were secretly unleashed on the island. Countless natives were wiped out, but roughly a hundred managed to escape to Bythrain, home of the only organization powerful enough to counter the Makuta; the Kritor Alliance.

King Kragator was furious at the news of Visorak’s fall. The island was the third in a series of Makuta power-plays (not that the Kritors hadn’t been making some of their own) including the Tren Krom Peninsula, and the Hapol Incident. The Virakan were quickly accepted into Kritor ranks. One of them in particular stood out for his military prowess, and Kragator renamed him “Tobduk” (which means “survivor”,) and eventually made him his right hand militarily and politically.

After a great deal of discussion, Kragator managed to convince Tobduk and the Virakan that recovering the Hordika and corpses of their old friends was more important than reclaiming the island itself. Kragator sent an emissary to Destral negotiating that, in return for Visorak as an island base, the Makuta would turn over dead/mutated Virakan as well as letting Kritors maintain their fleets in the “savage” Southern Islands. The Makuta agreed and peace was maintained.

The Virakan were dispersed throughout the Kritor military and served through the defeat of the Makuta League (wherein Tobduk extracted his revenge on the Makuta) until the defeat of the Kritor Empire at the hands of the Alignment in the Kritor/Makuta War. (Around this time, one named Betrel along with six others in his platoon found themselves in a labyrinth within an alternate dimension.) They were later forced into civilian life by the Alignment, but illegally offered their services as mercenaries or assassins like countless other former Kritors.

Abilities and Traits
Virakan are generally taller and stronger than average, usually standing anywhere from ten to eleven feet tall. Their most famous attribute is their ability to draw strength from emotional energy, be it within themselves or in those around them. The six basic emotions of the Virakan are love, joy, surprise, anger, sadness, and fear, although most have more specific emotion types. Virakan are able to wear and use Kanohi.

Known Members

 * Tobduk
 * Calbus
 * Betrel

Social Structure and Interactions
There are six primary tribes of Virakan; love (not including romantic love in most universes), joy, surprise, anger, sadness, and fear, and love. However, these are subdivided within themselves into secondary and tertiary emotions to better distinguish their powers.

In a similar fashion as Matoran have prefixes distinguishing between elements, Virakan have suffixes distinguishing between emotions. Fear types are Virakan-Tu. Anger types are Virakan-Ku. Sadness types are Virakan-Wy. Joy types are Virakan-Ha. Surprise types are Virakan-Wa. Love types are not canon.

(But when they are canon, they’re Virakan-Lo).

The six types avoid extended periods of interaction other types since it doesn’t end well for one party or the others (for example, if things turn out well, Anger types are upset; if things turn out badly, Joy types are upset). When they do interact, discussions are usually quick and decisions are speedily made. However, despite not wanting to hang around emotions beside their own, Virakan proudly see themselves as one race and work as much as possible to build up their shared nation.

Following the destruction of their homelands, the species as a whole became far more endangered, but joy, love, and surprise types found it far harder to survive than fear, anger, and sadness types, even to the point of near-extinction.

Trivia

 * Although Vorred's species remains undisclosed, popular opinion from fans dictates that he is a member of Tobduk's species. This belief has no standing in the story's canon, however.
 * The Fear and Anger suffixes are based on the cooresponding Rahkshi titles.
 * The basis for the six main emotional energy types can be found in the chart here.