Mersery

"Knowledge and wisdom are different things entirely: Knowledge is the knowing of facts and trivialities; wisdom is the ability to use that knowledge correctly."

- Mersery

Mersery is a time-sensitive Mersion scientist and a senior operative of the Order of Mata Nui.

Early life
A member of the Mersion species, Mersery aspired to become a scientist and scholar on his homeland of Versuva. During his younger days, Mersery's talents were noticed by Kulant, a prominent scholar, who subsequently recommended he be induced into the Great Academy, the finest learning institution on the entire island. On his first day, Mersery got lost and missed the inception ceremony, but also bumped into Herkain, a scientific prodigy whom he quickly befriended. In order to fund his education, Mersery worked as a lab assistant for Hyemeus alongside a Matoran named Zevrai.

During their time at the Academy, Mersery and Herkain would work, learn and study for a decade until they were chosen to take their final graduation tests for full-time scholarship, a test which if they passed, would make them the youngest graduates in the Academy's history. During one of their assignments together on Rahi study, they adopted and observed the nature of a Versuvian Glider Owl, who Mersery would go on to keep and name Terkla. Eventually, Mersery came to realize Herkain's feelings for him ran much deeper than he originally imagined.

However, Mersery's life radically changed when the Xevthian Empire arrived and successfully conquered Versuva, enslaving the Mersion race. Instead of entering slavery, Mersery was personally selected by High-King Alxor to become an engineer, and was forced to design and conceptualize new war of war for the Xevthian army.

As Alxor began preparing his forces for a final invasion on the northern lands, Mersery was able to escape Versuva. On behalf of his people, Mersery turned to the Hand of Artakha and begged them to repel Alxor. The Hand agreed, and with the help of Mersery himself, managed to defeat the Alxor's forces and capture the warlord.

After peace was restored Mersery return to his scientific studies at the Academy, specializing specifically in neuroscience by the time he graduated. Though he successfully became a Grand Scholar, he believed his skills could be put to better use, and Mersery instead went on to join the Hand of Artakha. This decision was frowned upon by many senior Mersions, who believed he was wasting his talents. Mersery served the Hand for at least one hundred years before it was disbanded, resulting in him returning to Versuva. Upon returning, Mersery took up residence in the city of Keadrah and resumed his scientific work; over time, his numerous scientific contributions led many to consider him one of the island's greatest scientists. Despite this, some of his peers looked down on him, accusing him of sauntering off to seek adventure whilst Versuva struggled to rebuild in the aftermath of the Xevthian invasion. During this time, Mersery would often appear as a lecturer and guest speaker at the Great Academy.

Mersery also played a key role in the disbanding of the Council of Eight after he was led to believe that the group had become inefficient in combating major social problems. During protests, Mersery cited the Council's previous handling of the Xevthian invasion as one of the many reasons why the group should not remain in power. The campaign eventually succeeded, and the Council was subsequently dissolved. Despite this, Mersery was fiercely critical of the decision to elect a single individual as the island's ruler, believing this made it easier for power to be abused.

Order of Mata Nui
Some time after the Hand's disbanding, Mersery was approached by Toa Helryx, who offered him a place among the newly-formed Order of Mata Nui, the successor of the Hand of Artakha. Despite being firmly established in Mersion society, Mersery accepted the offer, being among the first to join the group. Soon after, he made a name for himself as one of the Order's top scientists, becoming the group's most prominent neuroscientist. After a time, Mersery managed to gain a position as Helryx's chief scientific adviser. In his capacity as a scientist, Mersery frequently oversaw the experiments performed on new Order operatives to upgrade their abilities. Due to his lack of field experience, Mersery was seldom found outside the Order's various laboratories. On the occasions where he was sent into the field, Mersery often served as an envoy, relaying information directly from Helryx to other agents. In situations where direct involvement in an operation was expected, Mersery usually performed reconnaissance. In order to improve his efficiency as a field agent, he also received light weapons training from a fellow operative named Hydraxon.

Mersery was among the many Order scientists who modified Barraki Ehlek's aquatic race, hoping to create an army of soldiers capable of combating the Brotherhood of Makuta if they ever turned malevolent. Mersery himself assessed the species and recommended them for experimentation. However, this project was deemed unsuccessful, and Mersery was forced to withdraw from the experiment.

Roughly 60,000 years ago, Mersery was one of the Order members who helped remove a number of Av-Matoran from their homeland and relocate them throughout the universe, an action taken as a precaution in event of a corrupt Brotherhood of Makuta attempting to wipe out the Av-Matoran. Once done, Mata Nui erased this six-month period from the minds of all except Mersery and the rest of the Order. This event that would eventually become known as the Time Slip.

Several years later, Mersery worked with an Intellian scientist named Zardex in order to create a mutagenic compound that would allow the Order to enhance the abilities of normal Toa. The project's goal was to create a type of Toa that could survive in a wide variety of environments, effectively allowing the Order to create an army of super soldiers, should the need ever arise.

Although he worked closely with Zardex on the project, he was unable to attend the actual trial run due to his commitment to other projects. Following the disastrous turn of the testing, Mersery, as a specialist in neuroscience, felt a degree of responsibility for the creation of the Shados alter ego, believing he had not devoted his full attention to examining the potential side effects that such an experiment would have on the subject's mind. Not long after the project's culmination, Mersery recruited a Forgern named Gaarnax into the Order, whom he quickly befriended.

Shortly after the Order learned of Voparak's creation, a being who could sense fluctuations in the fabric of time, Mersery willingly volunteered to undergo a similar experiment so that the Order would have an operative capable of tracking down the Kanohi Vahi if it ever came into existence. Using information provided to them by Ancient regarding Voparak's transformation, the Order was able to refine the procedure used on Voporak and make it more stable. The project itself ended with mixed results, with Mersery successfully gaining the ability to sense fluctuations in time, though being unable to properly control it. Because of this, the Order fitted Mersery with a special armor forged by Artakha that both contained his powers and gave him better control over them. The experiment also resulted in Mersery's ability to manipulate elemental forces being substantially weakened.

Several years later, Mersery sensed large temporal distortion in the fabric of time. Curious as to what had been responsible for it, Mersery was instructed by Helryx to track down the source of the distortion. During his search, Mersery was brought into confrontation with a number assassins, who attempted to prevent him from finding the source. Despite their best efforts, Mersery managed to survive their attacks, and managed to locate the disruption's source on the island of Chrone. After coming across an ancient fortress, Mersery infiltrated it and came across several scientists performing some kind of time-based experiment. Deducing that they were responsible for the temporal disturbance, Mersery intervened and stopped the experiment.

After doing so, Mersery was confronted by Millennium, grand master of the Shadow of Ages, who attacked him for his interference. Surprisingly, Mersery defeated Millennium, prompting Millennium to offer him membership into his cult, which Mersery promptly turned down. Angered at his refusal, Millennium attempted to kill Mersery, though only found himself being aged by hundreds of years by the Mersion's time powers, which had reacted unusually to Mersery's proximity to the source of the disturbance. Weakened, and in no state to fight, Millennium vowed vengeance on Mersery, though was unable to stop him from escaping.

Upon returning to Daxia, Mersery attempted to open an investigation into the surviving records of the Shadow of Ages in order to learn more of their true motives. However, the inquiry was quickly closed down once the Order lost all detailed information regarding Millennium and his allies, and any attempt to relocate his island base of Chrone failed when the maps suggesting its location also mysteriously disappeared. This caused Mersery to postulate that Millennium was in possession of the type of technology that the Makuta used to teleport Destral.

Roughly 700 years ago, Mersery was sent to Zakaz to recover a Skakdi warlord named Freztrak. After successfully rescuing him, mere moments before his intended execution at the hands of a rival warlord named Nektann, Mersery brought Freztrak to Daxia where he recruited him into the Order of Mata Nui.

Not long after, Mersery returned to Zakaz to conduct water analysis tests on the giant lake at the center of the island, though was discovered by a group of Skakdi. Assuming he was trying to tamper with their water source, the group attacked and critically injured Mersery before he was able to flee. Upon returning to Daxia, Mersery had his armor modified and rebuilt in light of the damage it had sustained.

More recently, Mersery was assigned to monitor the Dark Hunters Voporak and Ancient as they hunted for the Kanohi Vahi. He was instructed to eliminate them should they discover that the mask was in Turaga Vakama's possession on Metru Nui, though upon hearing that the Dark Hunters had decided a raid on the island city would be pointless, Mersery was withdrawn from the mission.

War against the Brotherhood
During the war with the Brotherhood of Makuta, Mersery was sent back to Versuva in order gain the allegiance of his kind for the Order. Although it took some convincing, the ruler of Versuva eventually brightened to the idea, and began supporting the Order's war efforts.

Mersery was later teamed with another member of the Order, and together, the pair planted an explosive device on the isle of Artidax that was set to erupt once the Visorak arrived on the island. From there on, Mersery was mostly assigned to reconnaissance missions in Brotherhood territory, though was also seen attempting to drive off the Brotherhood's forces on Nynrah, where he briefly battled a Makuta named Dredzek. Although the Brotherhood managed to msintain a strong resistance, Mersery and the others eventually managed to force them off Nynrah. Mersery was later seen providing frontline support for the Order when they attacked the Brotherhood's forces on Destral.

Once his duties on Destral were complete, Mersery was sent on a mission far to the east of Zakaz to receive a delivery of weapons. He then traveled to Metru Nui, where he aided the Order in fortifying the island city for an imminent attack by the Brotherhood. After fortifications were completed, Mersery returned to Daxia, where he was said to be taking part in a top-secret experiment being performed in one of Daxia's underground laboratories.

Teridax's Reign
After Makuta Teridax took over Mata Nui's body, the Makuta leveled the Order's base on Daxia, killing many members of the Order. Despite this, Mersery managed to survive, and was later seen looking for a hidden cache of weapons with several other Order members somewhere south of Karzahni. However, a squadron of Rahkshi got there first, took the supplies and captured Mersery and his allies. Though he remained in captivity for some time, Mersery was able to fight his way out of imprisonment and make his way to Destral.

There, Mersery was seen trying to scavenge anything useful from the remains of the Makuta's fortress that could be used to fight Teridax's forces, though later departed. Mersery then returned to his homeland of Versuva so as to aid his kind in defending the island from a large army of Rahkshi. Despite the efforts of both Mersery and the inhabitants of Versuva, the island eventually fell before the Rahkshi, forcing Mersery to flee.

When Teridax was killed, the Matoran Universe was left in ruin, and so Mersery forcibly migrated to Spherus Magna, as did every other inhabitant. On the surface of the new world, Mersery witnessed the restoration of Spherus Magna, and the founding of the new civilization of the Matoran and the Agori.

Spherus Magna
Some time later, Mersery traveled to a newly constructed village on the outskirts of Bota Magna. After meeting the village Turaga, Feex, and agreeing to stay behind to oversee the completion of the village, Mersery decided to travel further into the nearby jungle to study its wildlife. However, Mersery was ambushed by a group of Skrall led by the elite warrior Tervok, who threatened to kill a captive Fire Agori named Falmed if he did not surrender. Though he managed to fight off most of Tervok's allies, Mersery was subdued and presented the ultimatum of either having Falmed's life taken, or be killed himself. Fortunately, the timely arrival of the fire Glatorian known as Flardrek allowed Mersery to counterattack and defeat Tervok, prompting his allies to abandon him.

Following a heated argument between Flardrek and Tervok, the Fire Glatorian decided to let Tervok live. Flardrek then had Falmed freed, before departing with Mersery. However, Tervok, unwilling to admit defeat, attempted to attack Mersery from behind, only to be swiftly repelled by the Mersion. They then returned to the nearby village, only to find under siege by a bounty hunter named Skorr. Despite his best efforts, Mersery was unable to defeat him, and the Zeverek impaled Mersery with his venom-coated tail stinger after revealing he knew Mersery's identity. The bounty hunter then decided to let Mersery live, feeling he would prove to be a worthy opponent in the future. Weakened by Skorr's venom, Mersery fell unconscious and then experienced a strange vision.

Mersery eventually regained consciousness to find himself being tended by Falmed. After the Agori explained the extent of Mersery's wounds, Flardrek beckoned him to examine a house on the outskirts of the village. Inside, Flardrek showed Mersery a previously unknown room, which had been hidden behind a stone wall built against a large, rocky outcropping. After examining the hidden chamber, Mersery and the others began speculating on what Skorr could have potentially stolen from it. Upon leaving the hut, Mersery and his allies came across Freztrak and Toa Soalaz, both of whom insisted they had important information to share.

After relating their tale, the group began discussing their past after Soalaz and Turaga Feex were reunited. Mersery then began devising a plan to track down Millennium and his allies, and after his strategy was met with approval, he decided to remain guard over the village whilst the others rested. During the night, Mersery was confronted by Freztrak, and after a brief discussion over their allegiances to the Order and the necessity to maintain their secrecy around the Agori, the Mersion returned to his sentinel duties.

Future
In a possible future, Mersery would go on to chase Millennium not only across Spherus Magna, but throughout dimensional space, and followed him through a number of different alternate universes, the timelines of a majority of these universes being out of sync with that of the prime reality. Mersery would travel and battle Millennium across multiple plains of existence, and was forced to leave a majority of his friends behind in order to protect Spherus Magna. Eventually, he would come to learn that his death was impending, and soon began entering a mild depression. After 100 years spent hunting down Millennium, an older, wounded version of Mersery arrived on a beach of the Spherus Magna of the prime reality, where he limped on to continue his search for Millennium.

In this future, however, Mersery was confronted by Velika, who was secretly a Great Being who previously murdered Tren Krom and Karzahni. Velika himself sought to kill him as part of his plan, which involved the deaths of some of the most powerful beings in the Matoran Universe. Too weak to resist, Mersery was helpless when Velika stabbed him repeatedly with a poison-tipped dagger. The wound proved too great for Mersery, and upon adding that to all his other wounds, he collapsed and died. It remains unknown if this future came to be true, and it remains possible this simply occurred in an alternative timeline.

The Kingdom Alternate Universe
In an alternative universe, Matoro failed to save Mata Nui in time, and Mersery and most of the surviving inhabitants of the Matoran Universe migrated to the island of Mata Nui. After the Kingdom of the Great Spirit was established, Nuju and Nuparu began working on a project for space travel in order to find new lands to populate.

This prompted Mersery to come forward and offer them his help as a special consultant. Despite his field of expertise having seemingly little relevance, Mersery's scientific propositions yielded surprising useful results for the project. Mersery also served as a correspondent for the team, frequently reporting the project's progress to Helryx, who sat on Turaga Takanuva's ruling council.

Illusions Alternate Universe
In the Illusions Reality, Versuva declared itself neutral in the Gidikan Proxy War. Mersery was called on by the Brotherhood of Makuta to work with them as a scientist and scholar. However, Mersery refused. He accepted a subsequent offer by the Order of Mata Nui. This caused the Brotherhood to ally themselves with the Reyktavian Empire, a force that wished to conquer Versuva and the surrounding Islands. Versuva was easily conquered by so vast a force. The Order, however, established A.S.G.A.R.D. and allowed Mersery to join. Mersery, who wished not work in spying and espionage, became head of the organization's scientific department. Soon, the espionage division had exploited the Reyktavian Empire and freed Versuva. Versuva, under the wish of the Order, remained neutral.

Abilities and Traits
Extremely intelligent and insightful, Mersery is highly respected by both his colleagues and friends, and is often looked up to as a mentor figure by newer Order operatives. He is surprisingly calm in times of danger, preferring to solve problems by applying reason and logic instead of brute force. Among his friends, Mersery has a soft-spoken and amiable personality tempered with a mild wit, and is noted for loving the thrill of discovery. When he was younger, Mersery was an intensely curious soul gifted with a highly incisive mind. However, he was also a scatterbrained youth who bounced from task to task and idea to idea, getting distracted and pulled in constantly new directions by everything around him. Whilst generally liked among his peers, Mersery was considered an eccentric, though he has significantly matured over time.

Masked beneath his warm surface is a secretive and even manipulative side. Mersery can be very pragmatic, and his occasionally analytical outlook has often led him to do whatever is necessary for the greater good. Nonetheless, Mersery remains a compassionate individual who never takes life without good cause. Because of his allegiances, Mersery has often been forced to keep secrets from others that have greatly burdened him, yet he remains extremely devoted to the Order's cause. Mersery also has a lust for knowledge, which has since translated into a lust for power, despite his good intentions. He secretly relishes the occasions where he can exercise his authority, much to his own personal shame.

Despite this, Mersery is a scientist at heart, and whilst passionate on all matters scientific, his true genius lies in neuroscience, with his restless mind thriving on the complex problems that arise in the field. As a scientist, Mersery prefers to conduct his work as ethically as possible, though his principles are not so rigid that he is unwilling to conduct morally challenging experiments when necessary. Despite his scholarly background, Mersery has a variety of other skills too. He is a capable physician and is also fluent in the language of flying Rahi, which he uses to communicate with his pet Terkla. Far from a sheltered academic, he is also a competent swordsman, though prefers to rely upon his raw telepathic abilities to get him through. Physically, Mersery has a lean build and stands around 8.5 feet tall (2.59 meters/2 bio).

Due to the experiments performed on him, Mersery can sense shifts and fluctuations in the fabric of time, and is capable tracking them down. This power is highly passive and always operates on a low level, and can cause headaches that temporarily dampen his telepathic powers. The strength of these headaches also depend on how powerful the fluctuation is. Although he can actively use this ability to try and detect fluctuations, this power also operates subconsciously when he is not actively using it; albeit, on an even lower level. As such, it would require a tremendous fluctuation to really catch his attention when he is not actively using his sensory abilities. This also means that this power cannot ever be 'deactivated,' as it is always functioning on either a conscious or subconscious level.

Like other members of his species, Mersery possesses keen night vision, immunity to Pit Mutagen, resistance to intense cold and powerful telepathic and telekinetic abilities. Also like other Mersions, he can manipulate an elemental force of his surroundings to a very limited extent, though following the Order's experiment, this power has been weakened to such a degree that it is virtually non-existant (to use it effectively would require all his concentration and willpower). Mersery also has the ability to manifest a Rhotuka with the ability to warp his target's perception of time by either accelerating it or slowing it down based on his whim.

Like all Order members, Mersery's mind is shielded against all forms of telepathy and mental assaults. Due to his sensitive eyesight, Mersery possesses a special ocular implant that filters out bright light, allowing him to see in daylight conditions.

Mask and Tools
Mersery originally wore the Kanohi Trezket, the Great Mask of Awareness, though later discarded it in favor of the Kanohi Makiti, the Great Mask of Shape-Shifting, which allows him to alter his form or impersonate any being he wants. It also grants him the ability to copy all the powers of the being he is disguising himself as.

Mersery wears a unique set of specialized armor made by Artakha, which is designed to stabilize and enhance his ability to sense time distortions. His physical appearance radically differentiates from that of the rest of his kind, due to the fact that he has rebuilt himself following a botched reconnaissance mission on Zakaz.

Mersery wields the Chronal Staff as his primary weapon, which he uses in melee combat to defend himself. The staff is also frequently used in Mersery's own scientific experiments.

Trivia

 * Mersery is Chicken Bond's primary Self-MOC.
 * A MOC of the same name was created by user.
 * The inspiration for Mersery was struck after his creator read a particular line from the fourth chapter of Reign of Shadows. Whilst reflecting on the secrecy of her imprisonment by Order, Toa Tuyet notes that: "This was an effort so secret that only the highest ranks in the Order knew about it." This subsequently motivated Chicken Bond to create a senior Order member who would know of Tuyet's survival.
 * Aspects of Mersery's personality were drawn from a number of other fictional characters, initially Professor Dumbledore from the Harry Potter book series, the Doctor from the British science-fiction television show Doctor Who (to a much lesser degree) and most prominently Mordin Solus from the Mass Effect game series. As with his other core characters, Mersery's creator has consciously tried to distance the character from his sources of inspiration.
 * Mersery's role as the Order's chief scientific advisor is a direct reference to the Third Doctor, who worked as the unpaid scientific advisor of the military organisation UNIT.
 * Since his creation, Mersery's time-based abilities have been gradually reduced in power to the point where they can no longer can be used in an offensive capacity. This was primarily due to his creator's fear that the character could potentially be overpowered.
 * Mersery was the winner of the annual Best Page of the Year competition in 2010.
 * Originally, Mersery's field of expertise was physics, though was later changed to chemistry. It was again changed to biology, and then specified as neuroscience.
 * His quote was suggested by user Toa Hydros.
 * Because Toa Hydros' version of Mersery was built before Chicken Bond's, his variation is used to represent Mersery's original form, prior to the reconstruction of his armour. The gap in time between the creation of both versions also explains why both bear little resemblance to each other.
 * In Quest for the Masks, a story serial written by, a Matoran character by the name of Mersery is introduced in Chapter 26. The character and his personality were intended to be a reference to both Mersery and his original creator.

Storyline Appearances

 * Evils Unbound
 * Journeys of Darkness (First Appearance)
 * The Curtain Descends

Non-Storyline Appearances

 * The Eternal Game
 * Dark Realities
 * Dark Future
 * Killcount
 * Dark Origins
 * The Dark Side (Mentioned Only)
 * Haunting in Shadows
 * Rising Shadows
 * Shattering
 * The Final Prophecy
 * Eternal Darkness
 * Quest for the Masks
 * The Nameless Toa
 * Survival of the Fittest: Season 3
 * On
 * Moonblade