Protocairns were one of the most bizarre creatures ever seen on Metru Nui. Perhaps the only thing stranger than behavior was their rumored origin story. According to legend, the Protocairns were once a small group of villagers from another land who willingly exposed themselves to energized protodermis and were transformed into monstrous amphibious beasts. Every hundred years or so since then, Protocairns would appear on the shores of various islands and wreak enormous destruction, disintegrating large portions of coastline. After a short time of this, the Protocairns would die, and their bodies would fuse together, forming new land in place of what they destroyed. While they lived, they were extremely difficult to stop. In recent centuries, Vahki squads had had success in driving them away in Metru Nui.1
Notes
According to legend, the protocairns were once a small group of villagers from another land who willingly exposed themselves to energized protodermis. They were transformed into monstrous, amphibious beasts. Every hundred years or so since then, protocairns appeared on the shores of various islands and wreaked enormous destruction, actually disintegrating large portions of the coastline. After a short time, the protocairns died and their bodies fused together, forming new land in place of the old they destroyed.2
Their Rhotuka had a sort of a "short-circuit" power – it temporarily blocked the signals between the mind and the body in a target, causing an opponent to collapse.3
Out-of-universe
"Protocairn" is the singular form of the name, and "Protocairns" is the plural.4