Tesudin

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Tesudin
Information
Species	Toa
Affiliation	Toa of Nynrah (formerly), Toa Powai (formerly; allied)
Occupation	Toa (formerly)
Element	Sonics
Kanohi	Great Zinn
Equipment	Melisma, Arrows, Blade
Status	Deceased
Location	Powai Nui
Homeland	Nynrah
Pronunciation	tes-su-din

Tesudin was a Toa of Sonics who resided on Nynrah. After the Nynrah Ghosts were attacked by the Brotherhood of Makuta, he fled the island and eventually ended up on Powai Nui, where he joined forces with the island's Toa team, the Toa Powai, helping them to defeat the hostile Wraith Syndicate in their invasion of the island.

History

Early History

Like many of his species, Tesudin assisted in the creation of the Matoran Universe the moment he was created in the form of a De-Matoran by the Great Beings. After the universe's construction was complete, Velika's tampering caused him and other Matoran to gain true sentience. Due to a glitch caused by this tampering, Tesudin's emotional capacities were even more expanded than those of other Matoran, rendering him the ability to feel what one could roughly call romantic attraction. Specifically, he began to discover that he could develop feelings for other female Matoran and Toa, especially Ga-Matoran. However, he paid little attention to these feelings for the time.

Tesudin then settled on an unknown island in the Matoran Universe, living among other De-Matoran. He later immigrated to Nynrah after hearing about the island from a foreign trader, who was talking about a revered group of Fe-Matoran crafters known as the Nynrah Ghosts. There, he became acquainted with the Po-Matoran Omakah, who would later emigrate to Powai Nui.

Nynrah

Following a failed experiment which resulted in the mutation of a Fe-Matoran into the entity who would later become known as "Phantom," the Nynrah Ghosts planned and announced to the rest of the island a different experiment meant to create Toa protectors who would stop foreigners from stealing the powerful weaponry they made. Tesudin volunteered and was successfully transformed into a Toa of Sonics. He assisted the two other new Toa, a Toa of Water botanist named Ringa and a conch-wielding Toa of Light, in defending the island from any potential threats. As he and Ringa worked together, they discovered that they had feelings for each other and soon began a romantic relationship.

When the Brotherhood of Makuta gave a group of Nynrah Ghosts the task of creating artificial Bohrok, the Nynrah Ghosts made the decision to sabotage their creations as a way of dissenting against the now-corrupted Brotherhood. Upon receiving these Bohrok, dubbed "Fohrok", the Brotherhood grew furious and coordinated an assault on the island to destroy the group of Ghosts and eliminate others who they believed may have had a hand in sabotage. During this attack, the Brotherhood servant Tetradon and Makuta Pretadix invaded the part of the island which Ringa and Tesudin were patrolling. While attempting to defend the island, Ringa was killed by Tetradon. Mortified and underpowered, Tesudin fled the island after learning that a select few of its inhabitants were to be exterminated.

Life as a Nomad

Becoming stricken by grief and depression, Tesudin aimlessly wandered the Matoran Universe, rarely showing himself to anyone and preferring to use his abilities to ensure nobody knew he was present. Unbeknownst to him, Tetradon and Pretadix began to follow him after their betrayal at the hands of Teridax. Pretadix used his mental abilities, which were enhanced by a serum Tetradon concocted, to manipulate his movements and decisions. It was during this time when the Toa of Sonics found himself on the Southern Island of Powai Nui.

While in Le-Powai, Tesudin observed a conversation between Dark Hunter "Alchemist" and Antharahk's experiment Phi. He was able to learn important information from them before he was spotted. After a short confrontation, he was allowed to retreat. While wandering away from the area where Phi and "Alchemist" were, Tesudin ran into a group of Matoran playing Otakini together. Originally going unnoticed, he was seen by a Ga-Matoran named Salvina when the Otakini disk flew through the bushes and hit him. She immediately began to interrogate him, and Tesudin decided it was time to reveal himself to the island's Matoran population. After answering her questions, Tesudin was taken on a tour through the lower Le-Powai villages. There, the Ga-Matoran explained the island's government to him and offered him hospitality in the village.

Allying with the Toa Powai

Salvina later left when she was invited to a meeting in Vo-Powai. She returned a couple of days later as a Toa of Water, accompanied by Toa of Ice Navahko and Toa of Air Lewok. After some discussion, Navahko noticed Ruthos and began chasing after him, however during the chase he broke his ankle. Because the communications systems were being used for a festival in Le-Powai, Tesudin showed Lewok how to use his Vehere to contact Maroona, the team's leader, and inform her about Navahko's situation.

When Maroona and the rest of the Toa arrived in Le-Powai, Tesudin attempted to avoid them. However, he was brought back by Salvina, where he only barely gained Maroona's trust. He also explained much about Tetradon to the Toa. The following morning, Maroona again questioned his trustworthiness but was interrupted when Omakah arrived, having stopped by to say hello to the Toa. When he noticed Tesudin, the Toa of Sonics signaled for him not to mention that the two knew each other until he was able to distract the other Toa and talk with him in private. Navahko also convinced Tesudin to train him in combat once his ankle had healed sufficiently.

Later, Tesudin was dragged along with the Toa to respond to sirens coming from the nearby town of Obodosara. The Wraith Syndicate, who had set off the sirens, confronted the Toa, and their leader Tetradon defeated all of the Toa in battle. While he attempted to leave, Tesudin, who had remained unseen, pierced Tetradon's chest with a fired arrow. Pretadix pulled the arrow out and used his Regeneration power to heal what would have been a fatal wound. Tetradon, recognizing the Toa, told him that "Ringa would never have wanted [him] to kill anyone," and left with the rest of his group, leaving Tesudin emotionally distressed. The Toa of Sonics then fled with Maroona and the rest of the Toa to Vo-Powai.

In Vo-Powai, Tesudin began training Navahko as promised once his ankle had healed enough. One of these sessions was interrupted by loud noises which temporarily damaged Tesudin's hearing. They discovered that these noises were coming from a fight between Phi and Corduk, which they assisted the latter in winning, resulting in Phi being rendered unconscious and captured. While Maroona was interrogating Tesudin about this fight, she managed to convince him to tell her about Ringa. Tesudin said that Maroona reminded her of the Toa of Water and subsequently the pain and guilt he felt about her loss. With this revealed to Maroona, the relationship between her and Tesudin began to improve as she realized the emotional pain she had unintentionally been causing him.

Hunting the Syndicate

Soon after this, however, Maroona had her mind was invaded by Pretadix and went into an enraged state when she attempted to use her Mask of Psychometry to discover the whereabouts of the Wraith Syndicate. Tesudin was forced to use his powers to render her unconscious to stop her insults against Corduk and Detras from furthering the conflict. After Maroona had recovered, the Toa regained their confidence and set off to find the remaining members of the Wraith Syndicate using Salvina's Canera, which Tesudin taught her how to use. They regrouped in Le-Powai and found the corpse of Tetradon, who had been killed by Pretadix in battle. They met with Ruthos, who allied with them and gave them information about Pretadix to assist them in confronting him.

Following a trail of clues, they were able to find Pretadix (now renamed to Hysterix) and "Alchemist" in Vo-Powai with a modified section of the Staff of Vortices. Hysterix was able to use it to transport "Alchemist" to the Kakkan Containment Organization (KCO) to steal the Mask Maker's Tool before he was stopped by the Toa. Tesudin stayed in Vo-Powai with Maroona, Detras, and Salvina while the remainder of the team were transported into KCO while the device was still active in order to stop "Alchemist". Tesudin fought against Hysterix with the other Toa, and while they were overall victorious as they destroyed the Makuta's body, Tesudin was struck by the Makuta with his Poison power. Several intensive medical examinations later, it was determined that there was no cure or antivenom on the island that could heal him and that his death was imminent. In his last days, he talked with Navahko in a "last training lesson," lending the broken Melisma to him and telling him something that he apparently wanted Detras to know. As expected, he later passed away peacefully and was buried in a currently unknown location.

Legacy

As the Toa Powai became more well-known across the island, word of Tesudin broke out. As Powai Nui's culture was rather isolationist and very skeptical of outsiders, the story of the foreigner visiting the island and sacrificing himself to save it became a divisive topic inciting yet another controversy about the island's foreign policy. Although his name would go down in the island's history books as a hero, he would lose popularity; by the time the Leskya-Powai War had subsided, he was talked very little outside of historian circles and the Toa Powai themselves.

Description

Forms

Picture	Form	Description
	Matoran	Tesudin's form as a De-Matoran
	Toa	Tesudin's form upon becoming a Toa of Sonics

Powers and Equipment

As a De-Matoran, Tesudin had dormant powers over the Element of Sonics, which manifested as sharper hearing. Upon becoming a Toa of Sonics, he gained full access to these powers, allowing him to create, manipulate, and absorb sound. using his abilities, he could generate a wide variety of sounds, and change sound in almost any way he pleased. He wore a Great Kanohi Zinn, the Mask of Scoping, which allowed him to magnify his vision and clearly see objects which were far away or that were microscopic.

Tesudin wielded a metallic bow which he named Melisma and carried up to three Protosteel arrows to fire from it. The upper limb of Melisma bore a blade, allowing it to be used in melee combat should he so choose. At full power, unassisted, the bow was powerful enough to send an arrow into the chest of Tetradon, who wore heavy Protosteel armor. With Elemental power added, the arrows it fired were nigh unstoppable. Tesudin stored another blade on his left hip, originally belonging to Ringa, which he used in any situation where his bow was compromised.

Tesudin had a mastery over his powers that few Toa of Sonics would ever achieve. He was able to fire an elementally charged arrow at a pine tree with such precision that it knocked all of the dead needles off of it and rebounded back into his open hand. To his disappointment, he miscalculated and ended up knocking exactly one living needle off of the tree by accident.

In battle, Tesudin's rational mindset did not go away. When he couldn't talk his way out of a conflict, he would prefer to keep it as short as possible. While in battle, he relied on his Elemental abilities to distract, throw off, or disorient his enemies. These distractions, while defaulting to explosion-like noises, could play off of an opponent's fears, worries, instincts, or issues if he knew them well enough and was not worried about his reputation with them. He always used the opportunities he reaped from this tactic to draw back his bow and hold his opponents back.

Strength:	9
Agility:	11
Resilience:	9
Mind:	12
Prowess:	13
Offense:	10
Defense:	10

Personality and Traits

Tesudin, like many of his element, was not very talkative. In many situations, he was reasonable and down-to-earth with others and would try to avoid conflict of any kind. The mysteriousness he tended to shroud himself in seemed to exist to stop those he trusted from getting caught up in his personal issues. If those he trusted scrutinized him, however, he was willing to make himself much more transparent while still keeping secret the things he always hid from others.

The fact that Maroona so heavily resembled Ringa caused conflict between her and Tesudin. With his insistence on keeping his past a secret and Maroona's troubles with empathy, it took some time before the two were finally able to sit down, open up to each other, and solve the problems creating friction between them.

After the truth about Ringa was revealed to him by Hysterix, Tesudin realized just how detrimental his guilt over her loss had been to him. In his last training lesson with Navahko, he told the Toa of Ice about this realization and instructed him to tell Detras to come to terms with his past, referring to the Toa of Fire's experience with the Foundry.

Appearances

• Against the Storm/Volume II - First appearance
• Against the Storm/Volume III
• Against the Storm/Volume IV
• Against the Storm/Volume V
• Against the Storm/Volume VI

Quotes

"A Toa’s abilities are among the most versatile in the whole universe. Their potential uses extend light years beyond defending the defenseless. My friend with the binoculars and the conch shell was able to save so many lives because she used her powers of light to see in pitch-black darkness, penetrate the fog and see over obstructions. She could see and detect, from miles away, things as minuscule as the beating of an insect’s wing, all through a clever use of her powers. Most impressively, she saved hundreds of Matoran hundreds of times without laying a single finger on a weapon."

―Tesudin to Navahko, Against the Storm/Volume III

"It must be a miracle that I was able to teach someone about what I have learned before I inevitably got myself killed."

―Tesudin to Navahko, Against the Storm/Volume VI

Trivia

• Tesudin's usage of a bow and arrows coincides with Ringa's name being derived from ringo (林檎), the Japanese word for apple, and the fact that he associated her with sweet-tasting fruits. Their relationship alludes to the historic feat of shooting an apple off of one's child's head, which in folklore has become associated with resistance against tyranny. This association is further alluded to by Tesudin's search for revenge against Tetradon, who was known for his tyrannical actions.

TOA POWAI (v|e)
LEADER	Navahko • Salve (deputy)
MEMBERS	Corduk • Detras • Lewok • Wreshi
ALLIES	KCO • Ranger's Guild • Tesudin†
ADVISOR	Maroona