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TRANSFORMERS BEYOND
LEGENDARIUM
Chapter VI
The Age of Origins (Cybertronian Dark Ages)
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The Age of Origins, also known as the Age of the Firstforged or the Cybertronian Dark Ages, is the earliest recorded epoch in Cybertron's history as following the Great Cataclysm, most of Cybertron's people, especially the second-generation Cybertronians, weren't properly organized and educated of the previous ages.
The leftover radiation from the extinction event has seep into the ground, causing many Cybertronians to suffer from memory loss. The fallout gives rise to the neurological condition known as "information creep." Stories about the Guiding Hand, the Covenant, and the Thirteen Primes were reduced to folktales, and very few bots believed if those events actually happened, leading to numerous alternate retellings and re-imaginings of the Cybertronian creation myth. Some stories say that Mortilus was the traitorous member of the Guiding Hand alongside Unicron instead of Adaptus, while others say that all eight gods were killed in the Theomachy and reunited in the afterlife to create the Afterspark and the Inferno, the Cybertronian equivalents of Heaven and Hell. A few tell the story that the Guiding Hand's original form as Daiakuron never existed, and that Primus created Cybertron and the other members of the pantheon before the Theomachy. One ridiculous notion says that the Guiding Hand weren't actually gods, but were in fact the very first lifeforms created from the AllSpark, predating both the Covenant and the Thirteen Primes.
As for the Maximals and the Predacons that once walked the ground of prehistoric Cybertron, there was very little information about them even before they became extinct. All that was left them were bones and stories passed down from one generation to another. Although several future Cybertronians would have beast-like appearances similar to the Maximals' and Predacons'.
The only things anyone was sure of was that the AllSpark was responsible of creating life, and that the Knights of Cybertron served the will of the Prime Lineage and were responsible of guarding the Creation Matrix until the next Prime was chosen. Cybertron was no longer united in this era, though all Cybertronians would occasionally come together to the call of the Prime against imminent threats.
Approx. 750 million stellar cycles ago:
With much of Cybertron's infrastructure left in ruins following the Great Cataclysm, the colonies permanently lose contact with the homeworld and each other. In their absence, the colonists begin to breed unique societal quirks within each world, producing various Cybertronian offshoots and different subcultures. The Junkions, Junkion's scrap-robot inhabitants who had the ability to repair themselves after critical injuries thanks to the planetoid's strange energies, begin building cities and structures entirely out of their planetoid's bountiful supplies of garbage and trash, and even create their own language "Talking TV" by listening to television and radio transmissions from across the galaxy, forming a stable and productive society. Caminus hosts a flourishing artistic and spiritual community that follows the Way of Flame, a religion that views the Thirteen Primes-and, by extension, all Primes-as deities. The Neutronians discover Amalgamous Prime's mythical Transformation Cog, changing the colony's entire population into omnicombinational shifters known as Mutacons. Titans, Megamasters, and Minicons co-existed on the massive ecumenopolis colony world of Gigantion, where they run enormous construction projects in peace, making the planet than it ever was before. On Lithone, the peaceful Lithonites create large mechanical cities drawing on the planet's geothermal power and turned their home into an intergalactic hub of science. The avian-like Ardurian Rocs have created their own communities aboard floating, self-sustaining space habitants across Arduria and its many moons. Situated in the most hostile region of the galaxy, Carcer is outfitted with extensive defensive systems as a planetary military outpost to defend themselves from alien threats, turning the colony into a citizen stratocracy. Prion would become the biggest hub of Minicons outside of the future Minicon settlements in the Hadean System-a world built by Minicons for Minicons. The inhabitants of Devisiun all have their sparks forged in pairs, twins who could Powerlinx with each other to create a larger, combined form.
The first survivors of the Great Cataclysm emerge from stasis lock within Cybertron's underground, discovering that their planet has been rendered virtually barren by the meteor showers and the solar storms that battered the surface. Freed from the depredations of the ancient Predacons and aided by the Knights of Cybertron, though, the Commandron tribes slowly but surely begin to rise to dominance. Among the first awakened is Azimuth, the future founder of the Patterner Movement.
Several Insecticon and Arachnicon hives colonize the great northwestern gulf of Cybertron. The gulf becomes known as the Web Lands and becomes a fearful place to the Theracons during the ages of hostilities between them and the Insecticon Hives.
Feral Insecticon swarms rise to dominate the southern Cybertronian wilderness.
Reconstruction of Theracon settlements including Crystal and Tyger Pax begins.
Approx. 745 million stellar cycles ago:
The thirteen major city-states of Cybertron are founded, consisting of Iacon, Nova Cronum, Polyhex, Uraya, Altihex, Ky-Alexia, Stanix, Kaon, Tarn, Styx (also known as Blaster City), Kalis, Simfur, and Praxus. Other Theracon cities and settlements such as Carpessa, Yuss, and Tetrahex begin to rise to power throughout the planet, many of which will become the hubs of the future metropolises of the Golden Age. The young civilization thrives, protected behind their cities' high defensive walls from the warlords, raiders, and feral creatures that rule the wilderness.
The city-states become hubs for the exchange of knowledge and ideas, giving the rise of many scientific and spiritual groups. The largest of these groups was the Patterner Movement founded by Azimuth, a cult of scientists and philosophers who logically studied the movement of the stars and believed that a truly ordered society was the only way to prevent another Great Cataclysm. In the far future, the benevolent ideals of the Patterners would be corrupted and twisted by religious fanatics and power-hungry zealots for their own purpose of gaining power over the people, setting up the foundation of Functionism.
There were also many groups who each believe their own version of the Cybertronian creation story and how the universe worked. The major two of these groups were the Reversionists, who worshipped the Guiding Hand, the Covenant, and the Primes as gods, and believed that each Cybertronian have a small piece of Primus within them and their sparks will reunite with their creator god after they die; and the Evolutionary Engineerists, who believed in the idea of "Atechnogenesis," a theory that Cybertron was once an organic planet that became mechanical through the naturally-occurring interaction of gears, levers, and pulleys. Other spiritual groups formed around this time included the First Church of Primus, the Neo-Primalists, the Adaptologists, the Clavis Aurea, the Matrix Templars, the Spectralists, the Followers of the Guiding Hand, the Unicron Truthers, the Fateweavers, the Brothers of the Ultimate Warrior, the Covenant of the Theomachy, the Disciples of the Thirteen, just to name a few.
Approx. 710 million stellar cycles ago:
Several Insecticon and Arachnicon swarms led by the Arachnicon Queen Shokaract gather to colonize the northwestern regions of the Sonic Canyons, forming their own settlement. They name their city-state Corumkan, first of the very cities on Cybertron that is entirely populated by Insecticons and Arachnicons. With its construction complete, Corumkan would live in isolation from the other city-states for eons to come.
Approx. 695 million stellar cycles ago:
The Knights of Cybertron, former vanguard force of the Thirteen Primes, remerge as a force to be reckoned with in Cybertron's populous northern hemisphere, allied with the churches of the Matrix Templars and armed with fleets of dormant Titan starships, uniting many fledging Theracon city-states into a benign theocratic order ruled from the now mythical Halls of Order in their capital stronghold of Axiom Nexus. They base the tenants of their society on the surviving scraps of teachings supposedly passed down to them by the Thirteen Primes in the distant past and worship the AllSpark, the Creation Matrix of Leadership, and Vector Sigma as the combined lifeforce of Primus. Few outside the Knights' empire are aware that the mighty weapons of the Knight Grandmasters are actually the legendary Artifacts of the Primes, guarded by the Knights since the fall of the Primes many eons ago.
Approx. 686 million stellar cycles ago:
The Hate Plague Crisis: The mysterious Hate Plague emerges on Cybertron, having ravaged thousands of worlds and managed to arrive on the Transformers' homeworld through panspermia. The plague induced hatred and destructive urges into whoever they contaminate, creating a trail of chaos and destruction across Cybertron only halted by the Knights of Cybertron's efforts to contain the infected. In order to stop the plague before it continues, Vegnis Prime unleashes the full power of sheer wisdom from within the Creation Matrix onto the plague, eradicating the plague but destroying himself in the process as his entire body is vaporized, leaving only the Creation Matrix. While the effects of the Hate Plague were reversed, only a small handful of spores remained. With no one wise enough to destroy the last remaining samples of the disease, the Knights of Cybertron placed the spores in a sealed vault that was then launched into space to orbit a local star.
Following Vegnis Prime's sacrifice, the Creation Matrix of Leadership is passed down to an analyst from the Patterner city-state of Stanix who would become Regulus Prime.
Approx. 675 million stellar cycles ago:
A Skyraider Air Commander named Ulchtar founds a splinter faction of Skyraiders known as the Seekers, an air exploration force and elite brotherhood of warriors. Under Ulchtar's leadership, the Seekers form their own city-state which they name Vos and quickly cement themselves as Cybertron's main air defense force as they defend the planet and the colonies from alien invaders. They also became stellar explorers, hunting down ancient relics and ruins for the betterment of Cybertron. The Seekers of Vos all rebuild their outer shells to resemble Ulchtar's, ostensibly to show strength through unity. After Ulchtar's death, his legendary rapier, the Crimson Tyrant, is passed down to future Air Commanders.
Approx. 662 million stellar cycles ago:
The Patterner Movement begins to spread across Cybertron from their capital city of Nova Cronum, banishing the superstition and unreason of the past with rationalism, logic and mathematical certainties. As their influence grows and spreads, the surface of the planet is reshaped and sculpted into an intricate map of the heavens, marking the motions of the heavenly bodies, the passage of time, the natures of the elements and a whole array of other mathematical, physical and chemical processes. As the Patterners spread, they forge links between the disparate populations, bringing contact between all manner of intellectual and practical pursuits that begin to interact and share their theories and expertise.
Approx. 654 million stellar cycles ago:
An offshoot of the Followers of the Guiding Hand retire to a life of asceticism in the heights of the Manganese Mountains near the city-state of K'th Kinsere, building a temple atop of the Vaulted Heights of K'th Kinsere. Over time, they become synonymous with their mountaintop sanctuary as the High Priests of K'th Kinsere.
Approx. 648 million stellar cycles ago:
A-3 and Alchemist Prime emerge from the Cybertronian wilderness into the Patterner city-state of Iacon in the far north, hiding their identities as Primes, now going by the names "Alpha Trion" and "Maccadam" respectively. The two former Primes quickly become prominent members of the Patterner council of Iacon. Alpha Trion petitions the council to create the Iacon Hall of Records as a center of knowledge and study.
Approx. 634 million stellar cycles ago:
A fearsome warrior sect known as the Dreads rise to prominence in the city-state of Thetacon, hired by politicians and warlords to assassinate high profile targets and infiltrate strongholds to steal ancient treasures for the highest bidder.
Approx. 625 million stellar cycles ago:
The charismatic yet malevolent Galvatron rises as a prominent warlord of the Polyhex Imperium, where he rules from his seat of power Darkmount, a massive fortress built around the caldera of a great magma plume welling up from the center of Cybertron. He draws a divergent sect of Patterners to his side in Polyhex, forming the Random: a cult utterly devoted to the study and reverence of Chaos and the rejection of Order. Over the following eons, the Random cult spreads throughout Cybertron at all levels of society and spawn the Ultracons: a paramilitary army that will pursue Galvatron's goals by military force.
Approx. 612 million stellar cycles ago:
A young knight-in-training named Cyclonus is drawn into the Random by Galvatron's dark charisma, betraying his fellow Knights of Cybertron by revealing the existence of the Artifacts of the Primes to his new master. Galvatron becomes obsessed with gaining the Artifacts and wielding their god-like power so that he might use their combined might to remake Cybertron in his own image.
Galvatron's Ultracons attack the Halls of Order in Axiom Nexus in an attempt to steal the Artifacts of the Primes, slaughtering many Knights and Matrix Templar warrior-priests that stood in their way. Though the assault is repulsed by the Knights, one of the Grandmasters, Sentius Nobilius, is slain and the artifact he was responsible of guarding, the Terminus Blade, is taken.
The Chaos Wars soon begin with the selection of Grandmaster Sovereign Ultimis by the Knights of Cybertron who declares an all-out crusade against the Random to reclaim the Terminus Blade from Galvatron.
Approx. 611 million stellar cycles ago:
Grandmaster Sovereign Ultimis strikes a friendship with Regulus Prime of the Patterners while hunting down the Hydra-like Random. It is the first time the Knights of Cybertron and the Patterner Movement have interacted due to their vastly different ideologies, but in Regulus, Ultimis is surprised to find a skilled strategic analyst whose aid to the Knights in their crusade is invaluable. With the first step taken, the Knights and the Patterners will continue to work more closely during the remainder of the Chaos Wars, developing a mutual respect if not always agreement.
Approx. 609 million stellar cycles ago:
Galvatron, having finally learned to tap the reality-warping powers of the Terminus Blade, uses the power of the Primes to transform part of the northern wilderness near the Polyhex Imperium into the Rad Zone, raising within it a mighty fortress he names Zarak Maximus.
Approx. 603 million stellar cycles ago:
Many of the Ultracons kill themselves in an insane attempt to incorporate radioactive elements into their bodies in an effort to make themselves more chaotic, taking many innocent civilians, Knights, and Patterners with them due to secondary exposure. Regulus Prime is sadly among the many casualties of the Ultracons' haphazard kamikaze attacks, and he is then succeeded by Amazon Prime, a battle-hardened warrioress from the city-state of Metrotitan.
Approx. 600 million stellar cycles ago:
Sovereign Ultimis and Amazon Prime finally confronts Galvatron as the Patterners create protective armor for their warriors and the Knights of Cybertron to enable them to survive in the Rad Zone, allowing them to besiege Zarak Maximus. During the battle, it is revealed that Galvatron gave Zarak Maximus life by infusing it with a spark as the living Ultracon fortress transforms into a dark mirror of the legendary Titan Fortress Maximus from ancient times. Amazon Prime enters Zarak Maximus and destroying the Dark Titan's spark from within, with his giant corpse slowly becoming part of the Rad Zone's natural geography, while Sovereign Ultimis battles the insane tyrant and emerges victorious. With the Terminus Blade taken back by the Knights and their leader beaten, the Ultracons end up defeated and the remaining Random cultists fade away into the shadowy corners of Cybertron, ending the Chaos Wars.
Galvatron and his surviving lieutenants-Cyclonus and Scourge-are placed in stasis pods in the catacombs beneath ancient Iacon where the Patterners agree to keep them imprisoned for as long as they rule Iacon.
Approx. 599 million stellar cycles ago:
Sovereign Ultimis becomes overall leader of the Knights of Cybertron and determines that their time, like the before time of the Thirteen Primes who trained them long ago, is coming to an end. Preparations are made to hand over power to the Patterner city-states and the Artifacts of the Primes are secretly turned over to Alpha Trion, who locks them away within the Iacon Hall of Records. The elder priests of the Matrix Templar Church are given the title as the guardians of the Creation Matrix of Leadership and they ignite the Matrix Flame via their ancient connection to the artifact.
Approx. 598 million stellar cycles ago:
The Knights of Cybertron depart their homeworld to spread their teachings to the stars aboard a fleet of Titans and are lost from Cybertronian history to fade into legend, leaving the Patterner Movement to guide the development of Cybertronian civilization. The Knights promise to one day return in Cybertron's desperate need of help but they mysteriously vanish from the face of the galaxy. Later evidence suggests that the Knights split into different clans during their voyage across the universe. The Patterners construct a capitol building known as the Acroplex in the city-state of Nyon in commemoration to the Knights of Cybertron and their many great deeds to the planet. In the Knights' absence, the relative order in the northern hemisphere fractures as warlords and cultists fill the power vacuum left by their departure, but the Patterners succeed in holding out against these threats and maintaining order within the developing city-states.
Approx. 580 million stellar cycles ago:
The Iaconian Nobility rises to power in the city-state of Iacon, ruled by the Matriarch and the Eminence Majestas. Members of the Nobility organized them into houses, considering them like families. Some of the most well known include House Sentinel, House Pax, House Ambus, and House Maximus. The Grand Imperium is constructed as a seat of government where the Patterner council and the Iaconian Nobility to discuss the everyday politics of Iacon from within its Primacy Auditorium.
Approx. 576 million stellar cycles ago:
In a massive construction project led by Rakesha, Ulchtar's successor as Air Commander of the Seekers, the golden Celestial Spires of Vos are raised heavenward as mirrors of the ancient Sacred Spires, from which legend holds the Thirteen Primes were spawned from. The tallest of the Spires houses the headquarters of the Seekers from here on out.
Approx. 568 million stellar cycles ago:
Amazon Prime founds an inter-city state competition known as the State Games in order to promote companionship between the city-states to prevent a repeat of the Chaos Wars. The first State Games is held in the Jekka Amphitheatre in the city-state of Tyrest.
Approx. 555 million stellar cycles ago:
A young and impressionable bot called Boltax arrives in Iacon and begins working at the Hall of Records where his clarity of intellect and dreams of bright futures for Cybertron attract the attention of Alpha Trion himself. Alpha Trion takes the young bot as his protégé.
Approx. 545 million stellar cycles ago:
Amazon Prime, feeling like her duties as Prime is at an end, passes the Creation Matrix to a worthy successor: the ruler of the young city-state of Iacon and a member of the ancient Iaconian Nobility, remaking him as Septimus Prime, allowing Amazon to retire peacefully in her home in Metrotitan. Septimus' possession of the Creation Matrix and its ancient power and wisdom marks him apart from the other leaders of Cybertron's city-states. Iacon, already known across the planet as the greatest of its city-states and a seat of learning, reason, and civilization without equal, becomes the heart of Septimus Prime's new Cybertronian Commonwealth, taking Crystal City's place as the planetary capital of Cybertron. Led by the new Prime, the Cybertronian Commonwealth begins tackling the warlords and feral tribes in Cybertron's hinterlands and spreading the values of Iacon to the other city-states.
Approx. 540 million stellar cycles ago:
Boltax meets Jhiaxus, Tallus, Decanus and Rokan in his travels as Alpha Trion's aide. The five become firm friends over the years, pooling their skills in their search for knowledge and wisdom.
Approx. 535 million stellar cycles ago:
With help from Alpha Trion and Maccadam, the Cybertronian Commonwealth secures peace with the local Insecticon/Arachnicon Hives in the northern wilderness, allowing Commonwealth miners, scientists and technicians access to the rich energon deposits in the depths of the Web Lands and beginning the long transformation of the region into the Sea of Lights.
Azimuth's Patterners and Galvatron's Random appeared in the Aligned continuity novel The Covenant of Primus, as part of the world-building surrounding Cybertron's pre-war history.
Ulchtar was the original name for Starscream, given to him by Marvel editors Jim Shooter and Denny O'Neil.
Regulus Prime and Amazon Prime are former Primes mentioned in the Transformers vs. G.I. Joe comic book.
Septimus Prime appeared in the IDW comics as the leader of a rival tribe killed by Megatronus Prime during ancient times.