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TRANSFORMERS BEYOND

LEGENDARIUM

Chapter II

The Age of the Primes

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For the longest time since the fall of the Covenant, there was only silence.

Then, after many eons, life reappeared on Cybertron.

Approx. 10 billion stellar cycles ago:

Deep within the core of Cybertron, Primus not only used the AllSpark to create his new creations, but also to construct relics that served conduits to its divine power in order for his Children to reproduce more of their kind. The first relic was the Plasma Energy Chamber, a reservoir of energy to give the new Children of Primus their physical bodies, while his first child Primon's new form as the life-giving supercomputer Vector Sigma provided each of them a thinking mind. Next was the Omega Lock, a massive device that can only be activated by the four Omega Keys in order to reawaken Primus's power if anything happened to the AllSpark.

The new Children of Primus would be spawned from great wells of cosmic energy called hot spots, which were spread across the planet's surface, all of them interconnected to the core. Unlike the Covenant, who were unique digital entities like their creator, nor the Primordials and the Trans-Organics who either were technorganic or organic creatures with natural cybernetic augmentations, the Cybertronians, also known as the Transformers, were entirely mechanical, humanoid robots with a variety of shapes and sizes. To set them apart from other robots, each of these new lifeforms would have "sparks," tiny pieces of Primus's lifeforce, which truly made them alive.

Primus designated the first thirteen Cybertronians that he created as great warriors who would unite and lead their people. With the AllSpark, he forges them by exuding thirteen towering spires of living metal from the surface of Cybertron on its north pole, with each of them glowing an unique polarity of energon. Not only they were constructed from the leftover remnants of the Primus Vanguard, they also possessed aspects from Primon and every member of the Guiding Hand and Covenant (even Unicron, Adaptus, and Scorpius) in order to better understand how the universe worked. They were Cybertron's first warriors, tasked with the responsibility to guard Unicron within the planet's core. They were the Children of Primus. They were the first leaders of Cybertron. They were the Thirteen Primes.

The first of the Thirteen is Prima "The First-Made," the very first Cybertronian and leader of the Primes. A pure and valiant warrior, he wielded the mighty Star Saber, a sword unlike any other as legend said that its blade was forged from the heart of a dying star.

The second is Vector Prime "The Interdimensional Traveler," the guardian of space and time. Capable of opening and sustaining warp gates to the farthest corners of existence, he is equipped with the Blades of Time: a pair of mystical swords that can open the ways to all dimensions of the multiverse.

The third is A-3 "The Voice of Memory," head recordskeeper of the Primes who was responsible for the preservation of historical events with the Covenant of Primus and the Quill to record the past, present, and future history of Cybertron. Primus bestowed upon him the honor as the guardian of Vector Sigma, the only one to bypass its security systems and activate the Master Computer with the mysterious Key to Vector Sigma.

The fourth is Solus Prime "The Builder," the blacksmith of the Primes and the first female Cybertronian. When he created her, Primus gifted her a brain module of unparalleled and unique capabilities, allowing her to utilize the Forge and the Creation Lathe to create many of the Primes' most powerful weapons and artifacts, along with a containment vessel for the AllSpark.

The fifth is Micronus Prime "The Catalyst," the first of the Minicons, small Cybertronians that are capable of powerlinxing with their larger "Guzzler" cousins to to impart extra abilities or greatly increase their strength. His relic is the Chimera Stone, which allowed him to powerlinx with his siblings to boost their power and also to copy their abilities for a time.

The sixth is Alchemist Prime "The Elemental," mystical master of the elements, upon who was bestowed the Lenses, which allowed him to see further and deeper than anyone than anyone, in both material and spiritual senses. Those who would later be born from his lineage would be the Outliers: Cybertronians who possess remarkable supernatural powers over the physical realm and the astral realm.

Seventh of the Primes is Nexus Prime "The Combiner," first and greatest of all Combiners, large beings who are capable of becoming several smaller beings by breaking themselves apart and then forming back together as one again. He was able to create more Combiners by unlocking the "combiner gene" in a certain group of Cybertronians thanks to his artifact: the Enigma of Combination, a mercurial instrument of as many shapes and parts as its bearer.

Onyx Prime "The Spiritual Warrior" is the eighth. He was the first Beastformer, Cybertronians who assumed alt-modes that resembled cybernetic animals rather than vehicles and other forms of machinery. A warrior heavily tuned to the spiritual world, he is bestowed with the three-faced Triptych Mask, which allowed him to see into other times and places, thoughts and dreams, and across the gulf of death to the realms beyond.

The ninth is Amalgamous Prime "The Shapeshifter," who was the first to be bestowed the power of transformation by Primus with the first Transformation Cog (T-Cog), which not only allowed him to assume any shape or form he can conceive without limitation. His T-Cog would become the basis for future cogs, allowing his fellow Cybertronians the ability to transform from robot mode to alt-mode and back. His lineage will be the Shifters: Cybertronians as skilled as transformation and adaptation as their progenitor.

The tenth is Quintus Prime "The Experimental Daydreamer," the scientist of the Primes. Primus gifted them a sliver of the AllSpark dubbed the Emberstone, which allowed them to create new lifeforms from inanimate materials. However, not all of their creations were a success, as they created the Quintessons, one of the most feared races in the entire universe...a mistake they had to live with for the rest of their life.

Eleven is Liege Maximo "The Manipulator," strategist and arch-manipulator of the Primes who cared for ensuring his people's prosperity. While his chosen weapons were the toxin-filled Liegan Darts, his most preferred weapon was his silver tongue which he used to sway others in his way of thinking.

Twelfth is Megatronus Prime "The Guardian of Entropy," darkest of all the Primes as he possessed ideas of order enforced with more direct, and sometimes questionable, violent means. Primus intentionally gifted him this mindset in order for him to understand Unicron if the time came for him to battle the Chaos-Bringer or enemies like him. His artifact was a weapon of untold destruction known as the Requiem Blaster, which can draw power from a supernova to destroy any living thing with a single shot, leaving zero chance at the target's survival.

The thirteenth and last Prime is the benevolent Judge of Primus: a lone wanderer whose true name is forever shrouded in mystery, only known to us as The Arisen "The Visionary." As the mediator of the Primes, he served as the voice of reason among his siblings when they quarrel. He was never given an artifact of his own, but he didn't mind this as he more preferred to utilize the lesser artifacts such as the Apex Armors: sets of battle armor that enhances the wearer's strength in a variety of situations and is impervious to any attack, and the Terminus Blade: a sword that was the Star Saber's only equal and counterforce as it allowed its user to bend the fabric of reality at their very whim.

Each member of the Thirteen wielded great cosmic powers as they possessed the abilities to move between dimensions, utilizing sarcophagi that bore each of their sigils as a means to facilitate these quantum jumps.

Before returning into hibernation as Cybertron's core to birth the rest of the Cybertronian race, Primus bestowed the Thirteen Primes a computer program encoded in a photonic crystal core filled with his life-giving powers and infinite wisdom called the Creation Matrix of Leadership, so that he may indirectly help and guide his creations in the future.

After their creation, the Thirteen witness the activation of Cybertron's first twelve hot spots, which birth the first true generation of Transformers. The first Transformer to emerge from these hot spots in the land that would one day become the planetary capital of Iacon is an enormous sentinel who the Primes took under their wing as their disciple and naming him "Autonomous Maximus". A giant among giants, Autonomous Maximus towered over all Cybertronians at the time as he stood in near silence and the depth of his own thoughts. While Autonomous Maximus was always seen as the Thirteen Primes' most staunch follower and servant, they nevertheless treated him as an equal. Later religions will name him as an unofficial "Fourteenth Prime", distinguished solely by his unique spark that allowed him to replicate the cosmic powers of the Primes, some say that he may even wield the very essence of Primus himself.

Together, the Primes and the first-generation Cybertronians went on a tough pilgrimage across the planet's harsh terrain, with Autonomous Maximus single-handily defending them from hostile void-born aliens of the Hadean System that would try to come down to harm his brethren. They ended their long journey at the western regions of Cybertron's northern hemisphere, where together they built a titanic fortress made out of shining refraction crystals known as Crystal City to commemorate Primus. Once the construction of Crystal City was complete, Prima delivers the Prime Pastoral to his people, where they celebrate the Cybertronians' first unification and it's believed that during this, Prima held the Creation Matrix in his hand and proclaimed, "We are one. This Creation Matrix shall represent our freedom and it shall be the right of all sentient beings."

Approx. 8 billion stellar cycles ago:

The Cybertronians live in contention under the rule of the Thirteen Primes and the protection of Autonomous Maximus until the distressing revelation that the AllSpark's power, while divine in nature, was not infinite. requiring suitable sources of energy in order to sustain its constant flow of Energon. In order to ensure Cybertron's survival, the Cybertronians are forced to sacrifice a large number of their kind's sparks once every ten millennia in order to recharge the AllSpark. Seemingly by the will of Primus, who no longer wishes see his Children kill themselves in order to live, the AllSpark answered the people's calls for a better solution. One day, before another sacrifice can be done, the AllSpark was able to rejuvenate itself by absorbing the leftover solar energies from a nearby supernova. After witnessing this event firsthand, the Primes knew what the artifact needed by harvesting the resources of other celestial bodies. Despite their great power, the Thirteen find themselves unable to reach other planets due to the short range of their quantum jumps. In response to their pleads, the AllSpark gives rise to a new generation of Cybertronians. These new creations were the Titans, city-sized Cybertronians of unspeakable power, "living starships" who are able to travel across vast stretches of space and settle planets on their own. All Titans possessed "Titansparks" which spanned multiple planes of existence, and shared a degree of "interconnectedness" that linked one Titan to the rest. Each member of the Thirteen won the allegiance of at least one Titan: Prima and Emissary, Vector Prime and Tempo, A-3 and Nemesis, Solus Prime and Caminus, Micronus Prime and Prion, Alchemist Prime and Metrobase, Nexus Prime and Devisiun, Onyx Prime and Chela, Amalgamous Prime and Navitas, Quintus Prime and Quintessa, Liege Maximo and Vigilem, Megatronus Prime and Trypticon, and The Arisen and Metroplex. The other Titans who didn't have a Prime as a partner such as Fortress Maximus, Skorponok, Metrotitan, Grand Maximus, Brave Maximus, Lodestar, Croaton, Iaconus, Hydratron, Citadel Secundus, Atlantis, Ogygia, Hyperborea, Lemuria, Terratronus, Stormbreak, Magnetar, Glaukopis, Tethys, Galevader, Scorpius, MetroMagnus, Obelazz, Neve, Igneous, Jormungandor, Astrum Tabula, and many more were all grouped together into a massive flotilla to protect Cybertron from any spaceborne threats.

This discovery results in the Cybertronians entering an era of colonization. Dozens of Titans, as well as hundreds of smaller colony ships using less efficient skip drivers (an older form of faster-than-light travel) are sent off into the cosmos, carrying thousands of Cybertronian passengers. The first colonization fleets begin settling on Cybertron's four moons Hecate, Artemis, Selene, and Cyberion, setting up first scientific outposts and then mining colonies on their surfaces. At these lunar mines, the Cybertronians create and utilize gigantic machines called Energon Harvesters to mine and convert other energy resources such as solar power and fossil fuels into energon, which is then delivered back to Cybertron through the Geosynchronous Energon Bridge to sustain the AllSpark. With the immense power of the Omega Lock, the Cybertronian colonists cyberformed the moons into mirror images of Cybertron. However, as they prepare to expand further into the stars, the Primes make an oath to never use the power of the Omega Lock to cyberform a life-bearing world. To help them in their efforts, the Primes and their followers use the combined power of Vector Sigma and the Plasma Energy Chamber to create two new Cybertronic races: the industrious Constructicons to build and maintain their nascent civilization on Cybertron and its colonies, and the inquisitive Skyraiders to accompany the Primes out into space in search of wonders.

Approx. 7 billion stellar cycles ago:

The Cybertronians continue their expansion, colonizing most of the celestial bodies within the Hadean System. They first traveled towards the sun, settling on Thrush, Tsathoggua, and barren Dread. Beyond Cybertron, they colonized Belegaer, jewel of the Hadean System, then on the volcanic planet Galleon, the terrestrial world of Thuvia, the wandering moon designated 221B, the ringed world of Aouda Fogg, and on the moons of the gas giant Thulsa Doom, and even the outermost planetoid, the cold comet of Botropolis.

Approx. 6 billion stellar cycles ago:

The Cybertronians begin to explore the galaxy around Cybertron, encountering numerous primitive alien lifeforms in the neighboring systems, many of whom worship them as gods, others viewing them as teachers and the bringers of civilization. However, they also encounter hostile alien species, with many wars were fought across the cosmos, with Headmasters: combiners between Minicons and normal-sized Cybertronians created by Micronus Prime and Nexus Prime, acting as much of the frontline infantry of the Primes' space armies. Eventually, all further plans of Cybertronian expansion ended due to growing isolationism.

Despite this, they've continued to prosper. These early days were the most peaceful the Cybertronian race would ever experience. Uncorrupted, the first Cybertronians were wholly benevolent. It was a prosperous age of no war, the only strife they knew of was competition with the void-born alien creatures in and outside the Hadean System, but even that was minimal and no ill will was held or kept. Their shining civilization was humble and small compared to the planet-spanning cities and empires of future eras, but for many eons, Cybertron knew almost perfect harmony, making great advances in education, medicine, and art. It was the closest Cybertron ever came to a true utopia. It was the only age that Primus truly felt joy...

...but sadly, it was not to last.

(Updated on 10/30/24)

My version of the Thirteen Primes are heavily based on their Aligned counterparts, with elements of IDW G1 2005-2018 and the Dynasty of Primes from Revenge of the Fallen.

I've also introduced Autonomous Maximus/The Last Autobot as the Primes' personal student and companion, with him as an unofficial "Fourteenth Prime".

Inspired by the ROTF counterparts, the Constructicons originally started out as servants for the original Primes. By the time we get into the Great War, the Constructicons we're better familiar with are one of several teams.

Skyraider was an alternate name for the Seekers in the Wings Universe, given before the name "Seeker" fully became an official term.