Sonitous

"Swords are overrated these days. If you'd like to suggest otherwise, why don't you have a go at my shield and see how far that gets you? I'm sorry in advance for any earache you may receive."

- Sonitous

Sonitous is a wandering Toa of Sonics.

Matoran
Originally native to a settlement in the northern region of the Northern Continent, Sonitous worked as the village's sentinel, keeping watch for threats from Rahi or any other dangers. Roughly 2,900 years ago, Sonitous' village had been forced to enlist the services of the Dark Hunters to protect their village from persistent Rahi attacks, a deal which initially ran smoothly.

However, after the contract concluded, the Shadowed One had his agents continually harass the De-Matoran into paying for their protection. This all changed when a wandering veteran of the Toa/Dark Hunter War arrived, who proceeded to chase the Hunters off and transform Sonitous into a Toa.

Toa
Not long after his transformation, Sonitous left his village after he joined a Toa team as its sixth member. Although he was originally treated as the rookie of the team, Sonitous eventually managed to become its deputy leader. During one mission, however, the team were brought into conflict with a massive Tunnel Stalker that had been mutated by Hordika Venom. Though they managed to defeat beast, the Stalker succeeded killing two of their number, including the team's leader. This tragedy resulted in a deep divide forming between the surviving Toa, and eventually resulted in Sonitous quitting the team and going solo.

On his own, Sonitous became a wanderer, righting whatever wrongs he came across and occasionally doing battle against agents of the Dark Hunters and Brotherhood of Makuta. Although he embarked on a number of adventures, many of them remain unknown, with the ones that are being spread by Matoran who saw him in action. Among the many tales surrounding him, he was said to have aided a Toa team in defending their island from a Frostelus attack, raided a convoy delivering weapons to the Brotherhood and had a battle with a Kralhi that lasted for three days before he was able to destroy it.

Frequently, Sonitous travelled to his destinations via Matoran trading vessels, often offering to protect their ships in exchange for safe passage. Because of the increased security Toa offered, most Matoran were more than happy to let Sonitous travel with them. At some point after the Great Cataclysm, Sonitous fought Makuta Antroz, a fight Sonitous barely managed to escape with his life.

More recently, Sonitous was enlisted by the Order of Mata Nui to fight for them when they declared war on the Brotherhood. For most of the war, Sonitous fought on the front lines of the Battle of Nynrah, primarily because of the strength of the Makuta's army there. Sonitous was part of the first wave that attacked the island, only to be met with the full strength of the Brotherhood's forces. Sonitous was present when the Order finally succeeded in forcing though Brotherhood off Nynrah, though badly injured by Rahkshi Kaita Vo during the Makuta's retreat. By the time he had fully recovered, Makuta Teridax had taken control of Mata Nui's body and assumed control of the Matoran Universe.

During Teridax's reign, Sonitous joined up with a ragtag group of Dark Hunters, Matoran and fellow Toa. Despite its loose structure, the team managed to successfully operated on its own for a time, surviving primarily by relying on hit-and-run tactics, and whilst most of their attacks were small in scale, they did succeed in taking down a number of Exo-Toa patrols. Eventually, they joined up with a larger resistance in order to better combat Makuta and his oppressive regime.

Sonitous, along with the surviving residents of the Matoran Universe, migrated to Spherus Magna from the Great Spirit Robot, which had been crippled as a result of a battle.

Toa Empire Alternate Universe
In a different reality, Sonitous never became a Toa, and instead found himself working as the representative of his settlement after the Toa Empire arrived and turned it into an outpost. When the Toa began using the villagers as the equivalent of slave labor, Sonitous escaped and traveled to Metru Nui, where he joined the resistance group led by Pohatu against Toa Tuyet. During the final battle against the Empire at the Coliseum, Sonitous was electrocuted to death by a Toa of Lightning.

The Kingdom Alternate Universe
In this alternate universe, Sonitous was one of the Toa helped the many species of the Matoran Universe migrate to the island of Mata Nui. When the Makuta attempted to migrate, Sonitous was one of the Toa who helped in repelling them, though was eventually killed when a group of Rahkshi managed to get through.

Abilities and Traits
Sonitous is mild-mannered and a bit quirky, though he is extremely focused and level-headed when in battle or carrying out his duty. He prefers to think his way through a problem, hence his focus on defensive combat. Although he works very efficiently in groups, he often prefers to strike on his own, partially out of fear that any team he works with may suffer a similar tragedy to the that split apart his original Toa team.

As a Toa of Sonics, Sonitous is able to create, control and absorb sound. This allows him to create sound waves or concentrated beams of sound, use sonic waves to disrupt a structure's integrity, and absorb all of the sound in an area to create a field of silence.

Mask and Tools
Sonitous wears the Kanohi Arthron, the Great Mask of Sonar, allows him to sense the movement and positions of targets through echolocation.

In combat, Sonitous wields the Echo Shield as his primary Toa tool. The Shield is semi-sentient, and when Sonitous wishes to, it can reflect the sounds around it and focus them on a specific target at a determinable pitch and velocity. Effectively, it echoes any sounds in the surrounding environment and channels them onto a specific target. This shield is also used as a heavy-melee weapon.

Trivia

 * Sonitous is 's favourite Toa character.
 * Sonitous' name is derived from the Latin word Sonitus, meaning noise. This was meant to reflect his relation to the element of Sonics. The word his name is based off is also rather ironic, seeing how the De-Matoran despise loud noises.
 * Although it was considered, a MOC for Sonitous shall not be created, due to the fact that the Kanohi Arthron does not come in a variation that correlates to the colour scheme of a Toa of Sonics.