“The Caibera are a collective of insects and other creatures that have formed a symbiotic colony on Miraka Nui. It is believed the large walking Hive Lords were once stationary predatory plants that lured Nui Rama into it’s giant jaws to feed.

As the story goes, the Hive Lords were once known as Rama Traps, that had gradually developed to catch larger and larger prey to sustain themselves under poor soil conditions. At one point they had developed two “trunks” to support the weight of their prey, and were often seen bending around in an attempt to surprise a food source flying or walking by.

One day, a pack of Caibera were digging around the dry leaves for food, when one of the creatures attempted to snatch them off the ground. The Caibera responded by attacking its leg’s, and upon discovering they were too tough to chew through, started digging the creatures roots up to topple it over. As it turns out, they did the creature a favor; After thrashing about for a couple hours, it figured out how to walk on it’s spread out roots, eventually stumbling into a pond. There it’s roots could pull in the proper nourishment.

The Caibera hive had taken notice of this newly mobile threat and kept a constant watch on it. Eventually they realized it had stopped feeding on living creatures, even when Nui Rama would land right inside it’s jaws to feed on nectar. Realizing that proper care and nutrition pacified the plants, they began cultivating them into mobile forts.”

I designed this creature as part of a project to make a team of Titan characters. They were brought together in the traditions of the Toa teams, each boasting something physically unique instead of an element. I was actually aiming to make something with a wide circular mouth for the creatures to crawl out of, but it developed into this design. The back end actually houses a simple catapult designed to launch troops at opponents, though I cant seem to display this functionality very well.