The are many kinds of spirits. Some are regulated to certain plains, some move between them effortlessly. Some work for good or evil, but others are so ancient and elemental that they have no concept of either. The Roses are of the latter type. Where they came from is shrouded in legends and myths; what exactly they are is debatable. There are six of them (though there are rumors of a seventh) arranged around opposite ideas.
- Fate-Sienna
- Order-Cyan
- Honor-Emerald
- Defiance-White
- Chaos-Red
- Rage-Black
The Six Roses hold a wobbly balance between them (Fate opposes Defiance, Order opposes Chaos, Honor opposes Rage). Though keeping the balance in flux is necessary for the existence of life, there are times when it sways dangerously to one side or the other, decimating worlds and endangering the fabric of time. The Santun war was one of these times of critical imbalance.
The Scroll of the Roses
Most of what is known about the Roses comes from a scroll dropped by Seraphim in the General Discussion topic.
Translated, it reads: The Legend of Creation
In the Time Before Time, there were six Great Beings of unthinkable power.
Fate Order Honor Defiance Chaos Rage
Creation of the Maker?
These gods were brought into existence by Creation and each made what they thought was a perfect universe. All of the worlds were absorbed into a crystal by Creation who also took the gods themselves into it but Fate, Order and Honor, but Fate, Order and Honor forged a hero inside the crystal to defeat the evil and corrupt Creation. His name was Mata Nui. And he was given gifts from all the gods:
Spear, Wings, Fist, Armor, Sword, Eye,
With these holy weapons and and gifts Mata Nui sought Creation and spoke out to challenge him. Creation refused and Mata Nui used the gifts to pierce the heavens and shatter the crystal he was in, taking Creation's power from him and freeing all the gods. The Great Beings remade the universe making Mata Nui the first Great Spirit and giving him the Great virtues: Unity, Duty, Destiny
Powers
The Roses have enormous influence on the spiritual plane. They usually keep out of the physical world, though whether they do so because of lack of ability or willingly keep themselves from it is unknown. The Roses usually select proxies or champions to do their will.
Associations
Although their colors would suggest so, the Roses are not associated with the matoran universe elements whose colors coresspond to their own (the Rose of Chaos, despite being red, is actually associated with water.) Rather each rose is associated with two elements, once of which may or may not be one of the main six. The outliers are Fate (associated with two secondary elements: gravity and psionics) and Honor (associated with two primary elements: ice and stone).
The Roses consider plant life, light, and darkness "neutral" between them.
Known Children
There have so far been three types of Rose-children that have made appearances in the storyline.
- The Santun: The Children of the Red Rose, recently defeated and scattered among rumors of the Red Rose's death.
- The Vyshanakan: The Chidren of the White Rose, were though to have been driven extinct during the Santun War, but have recently returned.
- The Xuushuan: The Children of the Black Rose, Sha'i'tan is the only one currently living. The Xuushuan were considered highly volitile (even more so than the Santun, ironically), and the general consensus is that they devoured each other.