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TRANSFORMERS BEYOND
LEGENDARIUM
Chapter IV
The War of the Primes (The First Cybertronian Civil War)
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Approx. 4 billion stellar cycles ago:
Following their triumph over Unicron, the Thirteen Primes, with the aid of the Knights of Cybertron and their leader, the great Autonomous Maximus, as their vanguard force, begin to rebuild Cybertron from the devastation caused by Unicron and led its surviving people into a bold new era. Like the time before, this era was prosperous with even greater cities and technology, but it lacked the innocence of before. Due to their close proximity with Unicron, each of the Primes were corrupted by a touch of his darkness. They do realize this, but ignore the possible consequences, naively believing that their strong and pure sparks will eventually overcome the Chaos-Bringer's darkness. This slowly but surely leads to growing divisions within the ranks of the Thirteen Primes. It doesn't take long for the Primes to grow drunk on their own arrogance and begin to think themselves above all other lifeforms, even other Cybertronians: indeed, it soon becomes common belief that the Primes are so powerful that only a Prime can kill another Prime.
In the long ages following the Chaos-Bringer's defeat, the Primes each turned towards their own interest concerning post-Unicron Cybertronian society. Prima, Vector, and A-3 concerned themselves mostly with government and the planning of rules and order for a new community and civilization. The independently natured Megatronus, Liege Maximo, and Amalgamous focused on energon stores, mining, and refining, but were resentful of what they saw as the first group's bossy, controlling interference. Micronus, Onyx, Solus, and Nexus lacked interest in the politics of either group and concerned themselves largely with their own creative tasks. While Alchemist, Quintus, and The Arisen traveled freely between cliques, Maximo was the true emissary, always traveling and communicating between all groups and individuals with his natural beguiling charm.
Approx. 3.5 billion stellar cycles ago:
Megatronus Prime falls in love with Solus Prime, though at first does not return his romantic affections. Her deep friendship with Nexus, Onyx, and Amalgamous begins to fester jealously within Megatronus, fueling the hidden darkness within him. Despite the former's envy, the two would eventually deepen their mutual love for one another by becoming conjunx endura. This surprised the more distant and insular Primes like Prima, Vector, and A-3, but the later Primes (especially Onyx, Micronus, and Arisen) smiled on the idea and enjoyed seeing their friend Solus happy.
Approx. 3 billion stellar cycles ago:
The Unicron-taint within the Thirteen Primes begins to fester. Prima grows more detached from his siblings, considering himself, Vector Prime, and A-3, being the first created by Primus, as an united force of lawful good, and looked upon the other Primes (excluding The Arisen) as chaotic and potentially evil. Liege Maximo looked up to the stars with hunger, seeing planets and resources ripe for conquest and domination. Megatronus Prime took notice of his more beloved brethren and envied them for their glory, seeing himself as the mightiest amongst the Primes. Things get worse when Prima attempts to assert his authority over the other Primes in an attempt to bring them to an united purpose to stop their growing division, only succeeding in alienating Megatronus Prime, who refuses to bow down to his older brother. This has led to several arguments between the two, with it even going so far that in one confrontation, Prima had threatened to attack Megatronus with the Star Saber.
Approx. 2.7 billion stellar cycles ago:
As the Primes peacefully govern the Hadean System, Liege Maximo, who had become more manipulative and self-serving due to the Unicron-taint within him, advises Prima to spread Cybertron's "enlightenment" across the galaxy by conquering other worlds and shaping them in "Primus's image". Fleets of Titans, Skyraiders, and colony ships would then leave their star system to embark on millennia-long deep space voyages, intending to find and colonize distant worlds in an attempt at spreading Pax Cybertronia ("Peace on Cybertron") across the cosmos. These worlds include Arduria, Caminus, Prion, Lithone, Junkion, Carcer, Neutronia, Gigantion, Devisiun, Tsiehshi, Nijita, and Quintessa; many of them by then aggressively cyberformed by the Cybertronians' use of the Omega Lock, crushing the native organic populations in the process. Autonomous Maximus and the Knights of Cybertron question their masters' increasingly horrid actions, seeing how they disregard their own rule of never cyberforming a planet with life, but nevertheless remain loyal.
As they were fascinated by organic life and became increasingly disgusted by their actions, Micronus Prime, Onyx Prime, Quintus Prime, and The Arisen would separate themselves from their siblings' plans of expansion and live in seclusion on Cybertron or their colonies. While the Primes continue their galactic expansion, several of them including Vector Prime, A-3, Solus Prime, and Alchemist Prime slowly become disillusioned with their colonization missions.
During this time, Onyx Prime and his Titan Chela colonize a jungle planet that they dubbed "Eukaris", a safe haven where beastformers could exist free of prejudice and discrimination from their "standard-former" cousins. While most Cybertronian colonial civilizations aggressively cyberformed their new homes, the Eukarians peacefully coexisted with the planet's indigenous lifeforms.
Approx. 2.2 billion stellar cycles ago:
Urged on by Liege Maximo, Quintus Prime briefly comes out of seclusion to secretly begin experiments with the concepts of Cybertronic life based on the myriad of other lifeforms the Primes had discovered in the wider universe to see what limits of their kind's abilities might have.
Approx. 2 billion stellar cycles ago:
The Nine Primes attempt to colonize Antilla, a peaceful planet orbiting a black hole near the galactic center. Their efforts leads into a brutal war against the native Antillans, who were unable to match the power of their robotic invaders and their Titan fleets. As their world faced extinction, a team of desperate Antillan scientists construct and activate a doomsday weapon called the Lightning Bug, which siphons large amounts of psionic energy and unleashes it as a devastating force of raw power. The Lightning Bug's activation decimates much of the Antillan biosphere, destroying almost all forms of life on the planet's surface including the Cybertronian expeditionary force led by Amalgamous Prime. With the surface of Antilla left inhospitable, the surviving Antillans are then forced to live in domed cities and would gain a deep-seeded hatred for the Cybertronians that would last for the next 2 billion years.
Saddened by the death of their own, the Primes returned to Cybertron in defeat and mourned over the loss of Amalgamous Prime. Because of his death, the Primes were brought out of their supremacist phase, realizing that in spite of the immortality gifted to them by the AllSpark, they, like all other lifeforms, will die one day. Prima calls a Prime Moot at the Citadel of Light in Crystal City, where the remaining twelve Primes would reunite since their disbandment in their post-Unicron colonization efforts. As the Primes debate on what to do next, Megatronus Prime calls for the absolute destruction of the Antillan race to avenge their fallen brother. Prima refuses, having realized in his grief of Amalgamous' death that their actions of expanding Cybertron's influence and "enlighten the lesser races in the universe" has brought nothing but pain and sorrow across the cosmos, and plans to arrange peace talks with the Antillans and any other alien races that their colonization efforts had negatively affected. Enraged by Prima's pacifistic response, Megatronus stormed out of the meeting in anger, further dividing the Primes.
In the aftermath of the moot, Megatronus Prime secretly appeals to Solus Prime and their mutual love and trust to build for him a specialized Apex Armor called the Devil Z Armor (pronounced "Devil Zet") and a staff that allows its user to control rarified energon from their own spark at will known as the Void Scepter as defensive weapons in the possibility of future intergalactic conflict, believing that Prima's narrow-minded ideals of peace will bring nothing but leave Cybertron vulnerable to any potential enemy like Unicron or the Antillans. Following their meeting, Megatronus is then approached by Liege Maximo who takes him to Quintus Prime's laboratory complex outside of Crystal City where Quintus shows off their latest creations: the aggressive and bestial Horrorcons. The three intend to perfect the Horrorcons into living weapons that'll be used against any hostile alien threats to the prosperity of Cybertron and its colonies.
Seven months later, Quintus is able to successfully perfect the Horrorcons. Liege Maximo decides to put his true plans into motion by revealing to Megatronus that Solus had completed the Devil Z Armor and the Void Scepter months earlier but had been reluctant to give him such powerful weapons. Feeling betrayed, Megatronus confronts Solus in her workshop and an argument between the two ensues, ending with Megatronus, without thinking, killing Solus Prime with a blast from the Requiem Blaster. As she dies in Megatronus's arms, Solus tells him that despite everything, she still loves him before going offline. Her spark would then rise from her body, and melts its way underground to Cybertron's core to reunite with Primus, making way for the planet's greatest spark geyser that would be known as the Well of All Sparks.
Horrified at the results of his anger and jealously, Megatronus flees the scene of the crime to seek Liege Maximo's advice, only to discover his brother betraying him and Quintus to Prima, at which points the true extent of Maximo's betrayal becomes clear to him. Swearing vengeance, Megatronus Prime denounces his title as a Prime and forever takes up the name "The Fallen". He then flees Crystal City into Cybertron's empty plains, taking with him the Requiem Blaster, the Devil Z Armor, the Void Scepter, Quintus Prime, and the Horrorcons. The Fallen and Quintus take refuge in the western wilderness, where they construct a series of heavily-fortified fortresses known as the Darklands in preparation for possible conflict with the other Primes.
Discovering Solus' corpse in her workshop, the other Primes are quick to believe Maximo's version of events which points the finger firmly at Megatronus and Quintus, triggering what will become the First Cybertronian Civil War, first of the devastating Cybertronian Civil Wars. It would be the first, shortest, and most destructive war the Cybertronian race would ever experience, as it only lasted for barely one month, short even by human standards.
When the war began, Prima (urged on by the scheming Liege Maximo) has the Plasma Energy Chamber reactivated to create a new Cybertronic group to act as defenders and warriors to fight alongside the Primes and the Knights of Cybertron as a vanguard force against The Fallen's and Quintus's Horrorcon armies: the Protectobots. Meanwhile, The Fallen amasses his own loyal army of Constructicons, Skyraiders, and even a few members of the Knights of Cybertron, in the Darklands to fight for him in this war. He also gains the allegiance of several Titans, including his own partner Titan Trypticon.
In a matter of weeks, Prima's forces immediately overwhelmed The Fallen's, which were vastly outnumbered in the initial battles. As evidenced by the Battle of Night's Falling, where the bestial Horrorcon armies are crushed by the Protectobots and Quintus Prime is taken captive by the other Primes. With the Darklands overrun by his enemy, The Fallen and his remaining forces go into hiding in the further reaches of Cybertron's barren wilderness. Quintus Prime is then imprisoned within the planet's underground until the war is over and their fate can be decided by their remaining siblings.
After 2 weeks in hiding, The Fallen and his Horrorcon minions reemerge. During the Battle of the Monstrosity's Rampage, he unleashes Trypticon upon Crystal City in an attempt to end the war and eliminate all of his enemies with a single stroke. However, Trypticon is defeated by the combined efforts of the Knights of Cybertron and The Arisen's own partner Titan, Trypticon's eternal rival Metroplex.
Trypticon's higher functions are taken offline and his spark is placed in stasis lock. His dormant form is then buried underneath the Toraxxis Plains by Metroplex.
With Trypticon gone, The Fallen is forced to retreat into deep space aboard a small fleet of Titans along with his remaining loyalists.
In less than a week later, The Fallen once again returns. Much to the horror of the other Primes, The Fallen's lust for vengeance drives him to seek out Unicron's dormant form drifting in space, where he attempts to tap into the Chaos-Bringer's fossilized blood of Dark Energon to create a new army. He unwittingly triggers Unicron's sub-conscious mind in the process, allowing the Chaos-Bringer to reawaken. Unicron approached his former enemy with a compromise, telling him that in return for a new army, The Fallen must forever act as his herald responsible for spreading chaos and destruction across the universe in his name. While some say that The Fallen turned in the blink of an eye, it actually took an entire day and night for him to debate on this decision. But, nevertheless, it did happen as The Fallen realized that with the god-like powers of one of the Guiding Hand at his fingertips, he'll finally be able to prove himself as the one true Prime who'll eradicate the universe of the "infestation" that is all non-Cybertronian life and ensure his dominance over all others. And so, The Fallen's spark was infused with a chunk of Dark Energon from Unicron's own Anti-Spark, fueling his taint within his heart until he becomes insane with power and rage. With Dark Energon now running through his veins, The Fallen sought to use the power of the gods to destroy the entire universe and all of its lifeforms and rebuild it from a blank slate in his own image, his delusions mistaking it to be what his fallen lover Solus wanted to ensure everlasting peace. He then uses his new powers to reformat his remaining army of Constructicons, Skyraiders, Horrorcons, Knights, and Titans into power-hungry berserkers known as Terrorcons. After sending out The Fallen and his Terrorcons as a distraction for the Primes, Unicron journeys to the unfathomable outer limits of extragalactic space, where his presence won't be detected by Primus, beginning an eons-long process of reconstruction within the Chaos-Bringer's systems that will eventually bring him fully online. These events documented within the pages of the Covenant of Primus are the last we ever hear from Unicron, but the Primal Prophecies proclaim that the Chaos-Bringer will one day return, and only the hero known as The Arisen would sire a "chosen one" who'll slay the devil once and for all and bring peace to the universe, lighting their darkest hour.
At the Battle of the Weeping Crystals, with the Terrorcons under his command, The Fallen once again launches an attack on Crystal City. Though The Fallen would be driven off-world again, his Terrorcon armies managed to heavily devastate the Primes' forces. Not only that, but Onyx Prime was left crippled and close to death after battling The Fallen. The other Primes place Onyx into a state of suspended animation within his sarcophagus to retain his life support functions. This event redoubles the desire of the remaining Primes to see their former brother defeated and made to pay for his crimes.
Liege Maximo goes to his imprisoned sibling Quintus Prime within the depths of Cybertron and shows them the chaos being wrought by The Fallen and his Terrorcons as they cut a path of destruction across the universe, killing scores of innocent lifeforms and assimilating their technology, and leaving the dry husks of planets in their wake, only partially countered by the Primes, the Knights of Cybertron, and the Protectobots. Horrified at what they are shown, and believing Maximo is there on the behest of the other Primes, Quintus agrees to use their knowledge and skills to create a new army even more powerful than the Protectobots: the Combaticons.
However, it doesn't take long for the Primes to uncover Liege Maximo's treachery, when Quintus Prime accidentally reveals the existence of the Combaticons to a visiting A-3. Having believed Quintus nothing more than a misguided idealist, A-3 is able to piece together Maximo's schemes: his psychological maneuvering of Megatronus, and his part in the creation of the Horrorcons and now the Combaticons.
The Primes confront Liege Maximo, who admits his treachery, berating his siblings for their simple minds and parochial dreams, and claiming that he is the best of them and should be in charge, in which case they could truly be the gods they were created to be instead of bickering children. Seeing how he was utterly unrepentant for all the chaos he created, the other Primes decide to imprison Liege Maximo and his Combaticons within his Titan, Vigilem, whom the other Titans deem unworthy of remembrance and exile into space. A group of Protectobots served as Vigilem's crew, agreeing to keep the exiled Titan and his prisoners permanently interred before disappearing into deep space. Quintus Prime is then released from prison and agrees to help their siblings to stop The Fallen.
The Primes, along with the Knights of Cybertron and their Protectobot armies, hunt down The Fallen aboard their Titan starfleet with Prima's Titan Emissary as their spearhead. Their journey leads them to his next target: the third planet of an uncharted solar system located in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. According to the pages of the Covenant of Primus, this seemingly unimportant blue world wasn't given a true name by the ancient Cybertronians when they visited the planet long ago. Different accounts to these events refer to this planet as Arda, Gaia, Terra, Midgard, Erde-Tyrene, Urthha, or Energoa, but we now know it as the future cradle of life for humanity-Earth. Once the Primes made landfall, they made a great discovery on the surface: somehow the planet had accumulated an unusually high amount of Energon and Dark Energon, along with Angolmois Energy (a highly-energized yet unstable form of the aforementioned elements), during its formation, allowing the slow development of organic life. Not wishing to have their fallen brother to rid this young world's potential, the Primes made their final stand. In the subsequent Battle of the Pit's Yawning, the Protectobots meet The Fallen and his Terrorcon forces in the final engagement of the war. The Protectobots emerge victorious, though they are practically wiped out in the effort, and Nexus Prime is then slain by The Fallen with the Requiem Blaster. Prima and The Fallen clashed against one another with the Star Saber and the Void Scepter, the former trying to reason with his brother. But The Fallen was too far gone, as he battled against his brother, he claimed that the reason that Prima alienated from the other Primes was because he too was in love with Solus. While Prima tried to deny these claims, The Fallen took advantage of this distraction, proceeding to cut off Prima's arm wielding the Star Saber and then stab the Void Scepter into the first Prime's spark chamber, mortally wounding him. In his final breath, Prima passed down the Creation Matrix to The Arisen, who used its full power to trap The Fallen in eternal limbo within his sarcophagus, which is then cast out into the void never to be seen again. The Primes erase all evidence of their existence on ancient Earth, so their presence won't interfere with the evolution of the planet's future inhabitants, but Vector Prime notes both Earth's and Cybertron's destinies will be forever linked because of this.
The remaining Primes and their forces then return to Cybertron in the aftermath of their devastating and bloody conflict. Their hopes are shattered, their great dreams have come to nothing, and several of their number have been killed or lost. As the Primes mourn their losses, the Covenant of Primus decreed that the Age of the Primes was now over and that Vector Sigma will no longer be used to create Cybertronic life from the Plasma Energy Chamber. The remaining seven Primes are directed to remove themselves from the pages of history, leaving Cybertron to future generations. The Primes discuss the means of creating these future generations until they determine to activate the Well of All Sparks as a testament in honor of their fallen sister Solus Prime and her love for the Children they had created. The grievously wounded Onyx Prime volunteers to sacrifice his spark to activate the Well, as do Micronus and Arisen, whose grief over their losses in the war is the greatest among them all.
Before they undergo this, the Primes approach the AllSpark to speak to Primus, saying that they were unworthy of the life granted to them and that the universe has showed them the error of their ways and the untamable power within their sparks. The Primes imprint their coded signature within the AllSpark, hoping that it will create a leader for the future generations to come who will have knowledge of the rise and fall of the Thirteen, so that the mistakes of the past won't be repeated. They then turn over their Artifacts to the Knights of Cybertron, charging them to guard the powerful relics through the dark ages to come. Custody over the Creation Matrix of Leadership also fell into the Knights, who are then given the task of protecting it until the coming of a worthy successor.
Once all were accounted for, the Primes made their choices.
Micronus Prime, Onyx Prime, and The Arisen allow themselves to be absorbed by the Well of All Sparks and become one with Primus in the afterlife, so they could aid in the development of their people.
Vector Prime removes himself from history by retreating into the timestream, where he'll act as a guardian of the multiverse: watching and waiting for the return of either Unicron or The Fallen, using his position outside time to send visions and prophecies to a chosen few throughout history.
Quintus Prime leaves Cybertron for greener pastures in the hopes of discovering the wonders of existence and using their Emberstone to seed the universe with new life in reparation for the destruction of the First Cybertronian Civil War.
The Knights of Cybertron would entomb the bodies of Solus Prime, Nexus Prime, and Amalgamous Prime within a fortress called the Primal Basilica, which was built in their honor.
The Titan Emissary decides to memorialize his fallen master by interning Prima's body within himself, and setting off into space. It is believed that Emissary would bury his master on a faraway peaceful planet with lush grasslands and titanic mountains, which would become the future Cybertronian colony of Mons Prima, a purse world for the yet-to-be-formed Iaconian Nobility. Once Prima is laid to rest, Emissary once again departs into deep space until the day he is needed again.
The two remaining Primes-A-3 and Alchemist Prime-remain on Cybertron, purposefully falling into obscurity to protect and guide their new Children from afar until they are able to fulfill Primus's Grand Plan.
(Updated on 10/31/24)
The version of the Thirteen Prime's downfall is a mix of ROTF, Aligned, and IDW. I read the final issues of the Optimus Prime comic book back in the day, specifically when it was revealed that Onyx Prime was actually a time-displaced Shockwave who manipulated events in history to remake Cybertronian civilization in his own image. I thought it was an interesting plot twist back then, but after looking back into it and hearing other people's thoughts, it did nothing but give support to the concept of bastardizing the IDW Primes, with all the Primes before Optimus being shown to always be corrupt and militant (which is a bit convoluted when you think too hard) and framing the original Thirteen as ordinary Transformers who believed in their own hype instead of demigod paragons of virtue that they were depicted in other versions of their story. In this story, the Thirteen only become corrupt due to Unicron's machinations, which led to the First Cybertronian Civil War and the Primes do realize their mistakes in the end and try to repent. In future chapters, the Prime Lineage won't all be full-on assholes or pretenders to the throne, but they won't always be perfect.
The Cybertronic groups created by Vector Sigma and the Plasma Energy Chamber (Protectobots, Horrorcons, Terrorcons, and Combaticons) will become the namesakes for their modern incarnations.
The Fallen's Apex Armor, the Devil Z Armor, is named after the mysterious energy being Devil Z, leader of the Decepticons in the Japanese-exclusive anime Super-God Masterforce.
Angolmois Energy was introduced in the Japanese-exclusive animes Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo, with it being explained that it was the lifeblood of Unicron the Chaos-Bringer that spread across the universe following his destruction (This was before the introduction of Dark Energon, just so you know). It would be further explained in the Transformers Legends/Generations Select manga that Angolmois actually originated as a power source created by the Oracle (the G1 cartoon's version of Primus) and it would be taken from him by his pet turned traitorous scientist Primacron, who would use it to create Unicron.