Matoran of Metru-Nui

The Matoran of Metru-Nui is a civilization of influential Matoran who originally come from the island-cty of Metru-Nui in the now-uninhabitable artificial world of Ao, the Matoran Universe. Despite their name, they forged their current identity on the now-destroyed island of Mata-Nui (named after the deity Mata Nui), and so they will also call themselves the Matoran of Mata-Nui much to the dismay of other Matoran who were ignorant of the existence of the island for so long and think the name sounds like the Matoran of Metru-Nui view themselves as being a chosen superior people, which almost all of them soundly reject such a notion. For shorter word of phrase, the agori of Neateir have also dubbed these people the Lhii Civilization or Lhii People, named after their legends of an ancient matoran hero who surfed water and lava and fought monsters, sacrificing his life in a tense battle for their people (these legends admittedly being fabricated by turaga Vakama and is inspired by the life of his hero, the toa Lhikan).

Compared to other matoran cultures, or even other peoples from Ao, the civilization of the Matoran of Metru-Nui are very spiritual and openly worship Mata Nui, which is beyond the simple respect given by other Ao immigrants. They are a hardy people who constantly faced threats from hostile wildlife that were under the sway of Makuta Teridax for a thousand years as well as  fighting in the brief but apocalyptic Bohrok War. They also have created a loose pantheon of gods based on ancient Matoran myths with Mata Nui and Makuta at their center, and tell stories using stone carvings (and other things) and sand pits called Amaja Circles. A unique thing to this civilization is how they decorate their masks and exoskeletal plates as well as attachable armor in tribal designs, basing the designs either after tribal natural elements, creatures they think they connect themselves with or want to have the spirit of, or just plain artistic designs. They also like to carve into stone and build huge monolithic structures, but their time in rediscovering the technology of Metru-Nui allows them to make high-tech things as well. The scholars of Neala can only compare their structures to the couple remaining ruins of the ancient Larfeia that once inhabited their land, giving further proof that the Matoran were indeed designed by the Great Beings, as Mata Nui himself said.

After the destruction of Ao in the titanic Battle of Bara Magna, as with all the other inhabitants of Ao, the Matoran of Metru-Nui immigrated from their ruined island-city as part of a mass exodus onto Spherus Magna. after doing, half of them wanted to stay near their home and world, and so right outside the head of the corpse of their old world they founded Metru-Nuva, otherwise known as Neuropoils. The other half went west past Atero and helped the Nealite Kingdom construct a new capital city that would serve as a living promise to the now dormant Mata Nui, a combination of their respective peoples living in harmony, the new city named Aternea, or New Atero. After the Aternea Civil War that was orchestrated in a conspiracy by the Kult of Makuta, many fled the range of Aternea's power and went to the element Lords and the Barraki Empire, respectively. The Lhii People did not do this however, and have loyaly stayed in Aternea to follow the wishes of their god. There have since been a couple of small groups of matoran, some Metru-Nui ones in these parties, that have headed for the Sea of Liquid Sand and begun the construction of boats to go out into the ocean to find islands that would be better reminiscent of their old homes.

History
The Matoran of Ao have for millennia given respect to their Great Spirit Mata Nui, but they never worshiped him, only gave veneration. The Matoran who arrived on the island of Mata-Nui, named after the Great spirit in his honor by the former-Toa Metru, who then became Turaga, were guided by their Turaga and became spiritually attached to Mata Nui in the face of the torment brought upon them by the fallen 'brother' of Mata Nui, The Makuta (named Teridax unbeknownst to them and was but one of many). They would pray to Mata Nui, leave food offerings in places deemed holy, which only further annoyed the ever-jealous Makuta. The coming of the Toa, who were foreseen by Turaga Vakama, who would have visions of the future and can see signs in the fire, began a journey for the Matoran of Mata-Nui that would take them through mighty perils and after the duel between Makuta and Takua, ending with Makuta's death, they all immigrated to the island cit of Metru-Nui, which was revealed to them to be their original home but they all had suffered amnesia from it. It took time to adapt, but they reluctantly got used to their home and began repairing the damage it had taken during the Great Cataclysm and the Visorak Occupation that occurred thereafter. After a week, their toa (the Toa Nuva) left, then so too did the Toa of Light Takua and a group of matoran. They were largely defenseless, but thankfully nothing came to hurt them until Takua came back and had a confrontation with a Makuta named Icarax, but they were not aware of there being more of them so there was hysteria about the return of "The Makuta". The masses were calmed, but a few days later agents of a secret society, named the Order of Mata Nui, marched into their city and told them that the Makuta was coming, and so in fear they helped the Order members make their new home into a fortress with high walls. Soon, the dark island of Destral appeared off the shore of Metru-Nui, and the Siege of Metru-Nui raged as enemy boats and a couple of airships and the visorak spiders, rahkshi armored makuta-spawn, and sentient mechs stormed the island. The battle waged back and forth until it the forces of the Brotherhood of Makuta were winning, then the Toa Nuva, returning home from the epic Battle of Karda-Nui aboard vehicles crafted by the physical creator deity Artakha, used the vehicles to obliterate the forces of Destral and won the battle. The matoran rejoiced, and a grand celebration was to be held in Metru-Nui's Colosseum for their victory. But just as the celebrations began a bone-chilling wind blew in, and the stars rearranged themselves to form the face of the assumed dead Makuta Teridax, laughing at their confusion and revealed to them how he used the sacrifice of a toa named Matoro and the victory at Karda-Nui to overthrow Mata Nui as the Great Spirit and had exiled Mata Nui into space. The Toa in the Colosseum vowed that they would stop him, then Makuta teridax laughed again, and revealed how by taking over the 'throne' of the Great Spirit, he had actually become the universe: the Matoran Universe of Ao was actually the insides fo the body of the Great spirit Mata Nui, and jested how in order to fight him they would have to fight the ground they walked and the air they breathed.