urgh. quintessons.
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Avalon
Glamorgan-IV territory, Earth, 120007916 CE
The brisk morning air gently breezed over Liege Maximo’s armor as he sat at the edge of a high white cliff, staring out over the tranquil sea. The sky overhead was obscured by a blanket of grey clouds, thinning in some places and allowing shafts of light from Sol to fall upon the rippling water. All was calm, the only sounds being the gentle crashing of waves on the rocks at the base of the cliff and the rustling of the wind through the green grass.
Earth looked much different from when Liege had seen it last, well over a hundred twenty million years ago now. Beneath the grass, the remnants of an old concrete road lingered. Further back away from the cliff, by where his ship Present Memory was landed, the rusted hulks of assault vehicles and the hollowed-out shells of powered armor were half-buried in the dark soil. A great war had been fought here some fifteen thousand years before- a war which had nearly destroyed Earth and human civilization. Liege was intimately familiar with that kind of war- how it swept over a world like fire and burned its cities to ash. How a people could lose themselves in its frenzy and indiscriminately slaughter each other, all pretenses of righteousness and justice (or even vengeance) slipping away in the bloodshed.
Liege Maximo had been foolish in his youth, to think that there could have been any victor in such a war as that. He was wiser now, but he knew that he had learned this lesson far too late. It saddened him to see that the humans had made the same mistakes he had. But like him, they had learned, and for the last fifteen millennia humanity and its planets had known peace.
I suppose we’re in good company, he thought. Perhaps now they’ll be-
A pattering of footsteps interrupted his thoughts, and Liege turned to look behind him. Over his shoulder, he saw a human woman jogging along a worn path. The woman took notice of Liege- for really, a cybertronian was hard to miss- and she abruptly stopped. “Oh!” she said, surprised to see the Prime of Lies on her morning run. “Uhm… good morning.”
“Good morning,” Liege echoed, raising an armored hand in greeting. “Don’t mind me, please. I’m just… sightseeing.”
The human woman nodded, appearing to find this a reasonable explanation for his presence. “Picked a good spot for it, you did,” she said approvingly. “Not many come by this place, believe it or not; nice to see someone else with an appreciation for natural beauty.”
Liege laughed. “Yes, indeed. Yours is a beautiful planet, but many of your people take it for granted.”
To his surprise, the human woman stepped off the jogging trail and approached him. He’d been too friendly- the “your people” remark didn’t have the same affect these days, disappointingly. His talent for discouraging unwanted company had diminished.
“Shouldn’t you return to your exercise human?” he said. “As I understand it, your bodies require a great deal of maintenance to remain in good form.”
“I run this stretch five days a week.” the woman waved her hand dismissively and took a seat by him. “Missing one won’t kill me. Besides, it’s not every day you see Liege Maximo on your morning run.”
This human was clearly persistent, unfortunately. If knowledge of his identity wouldn’t deter her, than nothing he said would. Liege closed his eyes and steeled himself in preparation to have an actual conversation. Opening his eyes again, he looked down at the woman, who had sat down on his left side. The breeze gently blew through the curls in her auburn hair, causing it to quiver. She looked back up at him and said:
“So, I take it Cybertron doesn’t have anything like this.”
“No,” Liege answered, shaking his head. “Cliffs and grass aplenty- biomechanical grass, of course- but no oceans. The weather isn’t so lively either- there’s rarely a cloudy day on Cybertron.”
“Now that is a shame,” the woman proclaimed. A moment of silence passed between them, during which both Liege and the human turned their gaze to the ocean. But then she spoke again:
“I’m Margaret, by the way,” she said. “I know your name; only fair that you know mine, I think.”
“A pleasure, Margaret,” Liege replied. “I didn’t realize I was a subject of conversation among the human species.”
“Are you kidding?” said Margaret. “Most people learn cybertronian history in school- the parts that coincide with ours, at least. I took a course once about how you and the other Primes influenced old human mythologies.”
“Yes, your ancestors did have some peculiar perceptions of us.” Liege grinned, his mind dredging up ancient memories of time spent on Earth back when humans were just beginning to shape iron into weapons and armor. “For some reason, the idea that a giant with indestructible skin was simply a cybernetic being from another planet seemed far too outlandish to them. Not sure how they could’ve mistaken me for a mischievous deity living in the clouds, but I have to admit I took some pleasure in playing god.”
Margaret laughed, and Liege continued. “To be honest, I’m saddened your species isn’t so gullible anymore. After a hundred twenty million years locked in a stasis pod, I was looking forward to coming to Earth and making you all my servants, catering to my every whim. I’d have you performing sacrifices and everything. Blood rituals, chants- I had it all worked out. Would’ve been fun for everyone.”
Both he and Margaret broke into laughter, reeling back and cackling for a good half-minute. As their hoots and guffaws echoed around them, it occurred to Liege that he could’ve just up and left if he truly didn’t want this woman’s company. Perhaps a part of him wanted someone to talk with after all- living on a tiny island on Astrum, he rarely got visitors. He thought he didn’t mind the isolation, but perhaps he also wouldn’t mind some meaningful interaction with the outside world every now and then.
“I’m-… I’m sure-… I’m sure it would’ve been a riot,” Margaret wheezed, her laughter beginning to subside. “But lucky for us, the idea of cybernetic beings from another planet isn’t so far-fetched anymore.”
“Yes, your species has come a long way, hasn’t it?” Liege said, smiling. “I remember back when you all thought your planet was flat, and that plagues were caused by malevolent spirits. Why, I vividly recall saying to Prima that this was obviously a backward, degenerate race that would destroy itself within a millennia or two. I mean, why bother with such a moronic people?”
“Ouch.” Margaret winced “A hundred twenty million years later, and that still hurts.”
“Hmph. Well, it shows you what I knew,” Liege continued. “a hundred twenty million years later, here you are as a respectable interstellar civilization, and I spent most of that time shut away in a pod on some backwater colony.”
“You certainly missed the mark there,” Margaret agreed. “But then again, I suppose we did used to be a pretty rotten people a long time ago. Bigotry, wars, inquisitions- I have to wonder: what did the other Primes see in us back then?”
Liege looked back out over the ocean, peering into its depths as his memory went further back in time. One thing his people had learned about these great bodies of liquid was that great secrets could be hidden within them. Secrets which, maybe one day, could be revealed, when the time was right. After the young and foolish had grown, and become wiser.
“I suppose… I suppose they saw potential in you,” Liege said after a moment’s pause. “That, in spite of what you were then, there was a possibility that- after a time, perhaps- you could become a wiser, gentler, better people.”
Margaret nodded slowly, sitting cross-legged on the grass. “I do appreciate the vote of confidence,” she said. “Nice of them to give us a chance- to see that potential to be better instead of writing us off. Kinda like what they did with you, maybe?”
Taken aback, Liege straightens his back and fixes the woman with a perplexed stare. Seeing his reaction, Margaret continued:
“You nearly destroyed your own civilization, right? That ‘War of the Primes’ or whatever it was. The other Primes could’ve executed you for that- and I don’t think anybody would have held it against them- but instead they put you in stasis. Maybe they thought you could become better after a time, too.”
The crashing of the waves and the murmur of the wind were the only sounds for a long time as Liege Maximo and Margaret, the former despot and the human, were silent. Ghosts of old wars lingered in their minds and in the world around them, memories and relics from times which had long-since passed. The past would always be with them, the once-proud tyrant and the descendent of barbarians, but now they lived in a brighter present. And somewhere far beneath the sea, an even greater future awaited them.
“My compatriots did always have a most aggravating and persistent sense of optimism,” Liege Maximo sighed.
As always, comments and constructive criticism are encouraged and requested.
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The Equinox Saber
In many interpretations of the cybertronian faith, Primus and Unicron are two parts of a larger whole: avatars of a cycle of creation and destruction, life and death, light and darkness, which drives the universe. This duality is embodied in a weapon forged in universe TGA-77.8913.44444: when both the Star Saber and the Dark Star Saber were destroyed in a great battle, an artificer from Astrum salvaged their remains and remade them into a single blade. Naming the new weapon the Equinox Saber, this nameless craftswoman had no idea that her work would change her universe forever.
The Equinox Saber eclipsed both of its components in power, and a skilled wielder could apply its energies with finesse enough to sunder fleets of warships in one strike, or unleash them in a great blast which could shatter a planet’s crust and ignite its atmosphere. Powers from across the universe coveted the weapon, and wars have been waged across the cosmos to obtain it. Over the course of many millions of years, the Equinox Saber has been wielded by heroes and villains, and every sort of character in between. It has been an instrument of righteousness and a weapon of terror in equal measure. Many times has it been lost in the rubble of some war or another, lying dormant for years or even centuries before being discovered again and once more becoming the object of the universe’s avarice.
The Equinox Saber was a large dual-edged sword, its blade from interwoven bands of black and white metal inscribed with the written language of Ancient Cybertron. Its hilt was grey and inlaid with silver filigree, along with crystalline shards of Energon and Dark Energon. When a wielder called upon its power, the Equinox Saber’s blade would glow, and great tendrils of blue and purple energy would radiate from it. The sword reportedly felt lighter than air, and its blade never dulled.
The sword was last seen some twenty thousand years ago, when Ironclad, the last Knight of Cybertron, wielded it against the tyrant Dominus Prime, a warlord from another dimension who’d come to claim the weapon for himself. Dominus carried with him his timeline’s own version of the Star Saber, enhanced somehow with unknown technologies and black magic. He and Ironclad dueled over the remains of Cybertron, its core destroyed in a long-ago war and collapsed into an unstable wormhole. The battle was long and spectacular, even in a universe which had grown accustomed to such things. Dominus Prime matched Ironclad for every strike, and at the duel’s climax he split the Equinox Saber in two down its middle, slicing off Ironclad’s arm as he did so. This caused a great explosion of metaphysical energy which destroyed the planetary fragment on which Dominus Prime and Ironclad were standing, and both halves of the Equinox Saber fell into the wormhole below. No part of the sword has been seen since, though Aevum’s Temporal Guard has an entire task force devoted to scouring the multiverse for them. If the Equinox Saber is ever recovered, it is likely for the best that it be destroyed.
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Sentinel Prime
Born Infinitus on the planet Caelum, the bot who would become Sentinel Prime gave up his original name to become Sentinel Zeta of the Simfur Temple Guard. During the Dire Wraith Conflict, when the Wraiths attacked Caelum, all Sentinels save Zeta were killed trying to repel the invaders. Alone and with only his Primax Blade and shield, Zeta was nonetheless determined to keep the Simfur Temple from falling into enemy hands, and in a grueling hours-long melee, he single-handedly repelled the Dire Wraith force. His unwavering conviction and fortitude made him a hero across the Imperium of Cybertron, and earned him the intrigue of Septimus Prime and the favor of the Matrix of Leadership. Septimus took Zeta under his tutelage, and in the year 100013410 CE , Zeta succeeded Septimus and became Sentinel Prime, the 1,316th Matrix-bearer.
Following the brief recovery period after the end of the Dire Wraith Conflict, Sentinel Prime mostly upheld the then-current status quo of cybertronian society, with no grand agendas or sweeping reforms to speak of. Sentinel was known for his deep compassion for his people, but was often accused of being ignorant to the social conflicts brewing under his reign; such as the animosities rising between the different social castes of the cybertronian populace, and the rise of anti-organic and xenophobic political platforms and fringe groups. Some historians contend that Sentinel was aware of the flaws in old Imperium-era society, but did not do enough to properly address and remedy them in spite of his good intentions
The burgeoning social tensions reached a tipping point at Megatron’s establishment of the Decepticons, who plunged the Imperium of Cybertron head-first into the Great War. Sentinel Prime quickly committed the armed forces to quelling Megatron and his fellow insurgents, but the Decepticons had managed to build themselves into an effective military and political power to match them. Those close to Sentinel said he became morose as he realized war was inevitable, and blamed himself for Megatron’s rise to power and the hatred that fueled it. He withdrew from the public eye and kept to himself in private chambers within the Primal Basilica, only leaving when his council was sought for the ongoing war effort.
Just twenty years into the Great War, Sentinel Prime vanished mere days before the Decepticon Empire’s first assault on Iacon. There is nothing in the historical record to suggest what happened to him: whether he was killed, fled into exile, or befell some other fate- he simply vanished without a trace. It was around this time, also, that the location of the Tomb of the Primes became lost, and the presence of the Matrix of Leadership within its chambers suggests that it had been removed from Sentinel’s person at some point. It is unknown if these events are related to one another.
Since the re-discovery of the Tomb of the Primes and subsequent explorations of its labyrinthine necropolis, it has been determined that Sentinel’s body is not among those of his fellow Matrix-bearers, leaving him as only the second Prime to not be interred in the Hydrax Plateau. This has only added to his mysterious legacy.
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The Quintessons
Hailing from deep within the extradimensional non-spaces of transwarp, the quintessons are an enigmatic race of cyborgs who live outside of space and time. Ageless and powerful beyond our comprehension, the quintessons think themselves superior to spacetime-bound life, and view themselves as curators of the multiverse. For reasons which have never been fully explained, the quintessons feel the need to travel the multiverse and judge which timelines are worthy of existence- those realities which do not meet their unknowable standards are destroyed. All life is exterminated or added into the quintesson collective as slaves or vassals, stars are extinguished, and reality itself is somehow unraveled into a nothingness more profound than even empty space.
Quintesson culture seems to be entirely built around this process of evaluating and destroying universes. Every starship is built for combat, all personnel are armed, and barely any attempt is made at diplomacy with other species. Spacetime-bound lifeforms are required to submit to their occupation, or be destroyed. Quintessons adhere to the will of an entity they call the Imperial Magistrate- xenoanthropologists have deduced that this figure is a collective intelligence of some kind, to which most, if not all quintessons are connected. The quintessons also utilize slaves and conscripts in their invasions, taken from peoples they have conquered in other timelines, or from civilizations which have allowed themselves to be dominated to avoid annihilation. The quintessons view these vassals as expendable, and utilize them as such in war.
Perhaps the most horrific part of a quintesson invasion is the creation of a Judge: a being made by a figure known as the Appointer with the purpose of determining the fate of a particular timeline. The Appointer creates a new Judge in each universe to which it is summoned, and this Judge is then often destroyed when it has delivered its verdict. Once the quintessons have established a foothold in a given universe, they determine what they believe to be the five most technologically and culturally advanced civilizations within that reality. Tens of thousands, sometimes even millions of people are abducted from each of these unlucky chosen species, and are then used to create the Judge. The Appointer digitizes the neural networks of the chosen in a process which usually destroys most organic brains, and weaves these minds together into a single consciousness. The bodies are broken down and used, along with quintesson cybernetics, to create the Judge’s physical form. This is the quintessons’ idea of a “just” trial: as it was created from inhabitants of the target universe, they believe that the Judge has the necessary context by which to make a “fair” assessment of that universe’s worth. If the Judge decides to spare the target universe, then the quintessons will leave; but it seems as though Judges are rarely so merciful.
It is impossible to assign a general uniform appearance to the quintessons, as the pervasiveness of genetic and cybernetic augmentation within their society has turned them into a race with no one defining silhouette, and no one genome. Many have thus argued that the quintessons should be considered as a collective of species- indeed, many may have once been spacetime-bound lifeforms who were assimilated into this collective. There are some common features, however: biological and cybernetic components are often black and red in color, featuring veins or conduits which glow blue, orange, or crimson. Many quintessons have a head that rotates inside an armored cradle, and is adorned with five faces. These faces often indicate the emotional state of the individual, and limbs and extremities also often come in multiples of five. A quintesson’s integrated weapons can be biological or technological, ranging from the mundane claws and kinetic firearms to bizarre instruments which manipulate exotic matter and warp reality to devastating effect. Some quintessons are vaguely humanoid in size and shape, while others are positively eldritch in form and dwarf even cybertronians.
TGA-Prime is notable for being the first universe to successfully repel a quintesson invasion: to date, the quintessons have tried on four separate occasions to subjugate TGA-Prime, but each attempt has failed. The four Quintesson Wars saw almost all of the Milky Way galaxy joining together to defeat their common enemy, and it was in the Fourth War that humanity made a name for itself among the stars by playing a pivotal role in destroying the last of the quintessons’ footholds in the galaxy in 3359 CE. The quintessons have not made an appearance since, but the universe is infinitely vast- the collective may have simply reallocated their efforts to other galaxies and regions beyond the Milky Way. It is unlikely that they are gone for good.
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Humanity
Humanity first drew interest from the galactic community in the year 484 CE, when the Knights of Cybertron discovered Earth (though independent cybertronian explorers may have made contact with humanity long before then). Over the next thousand years or so, Ancient Cybertron maintained a mostly covert presence among human civilizations all over the world, sworn not to interfere with their natural evolution. Despite this, however, there is evidence to suggest that ancient humans the world over were occasionally aware of their extraterrestrial observers, and that exchanges of culture took place sporadically over the centuries. Many minor deities, monsters, and local folktales may in fact be misremembered encounters between ancient humans and cybertronians.
The ancient cybertronians wrote highly of humans, in spite of the brutality and many atrocities they must have witnessed as they studied them. Whatever their primitive or violent nature, the ancients seemed to find in humanity a kindred spirit: they were both young species then, with much to learn about themselves and the universe, but they had the potential to become something greater with time. Mystics wrote of shared destinies and intertwined fates, though these prophecies seemed to be dashed as the Knights of Cybertron left Earth to fight in the War of the Primes in 1530. By 1947, cybertron and humanity were entirely isolated from each other, and would not meet again until the year 1984. Thirty-seven years may have been no time at all for a species as long-lived as cybertronians, but much had changed on Earth by then.
Humanity and Cybertron, both now aware of each other’s existence, became fast allies. While the Imperium of Cybertron was still reluctant to meddle in human affairs, they nonetheless had a profound impact on human civilization. The realization that there was an entire community of other intelligent species out in the cosmos inspired humans to do away with their old international grudges and ideological conflicts. The Cold War came to a swift end in 1986, and a kind of world peace was achieved as the human race devoted itself to raising quality of life for all peoples, developing sustainable technologies, and furthering space exploration. Humanity developed transwarp technology in 2007, and expansion into the solar system and beyond began in earnest shortly after.
By 2121, humanity had organized itself under the banner of the United Human Polities, an international government made to present a unified front to the rest of the galactic community while preserving human civilization’s many national and cultural identities. Nations now laid claim not just to land on Earth, but to entire star systems as well. Over the ages, though, these identities have changed greatly. Cultures have diffused or merged to form new societies that are at once vaguely familiar and largely unrecognizable to the 21st Century observer. The UHP was inducted into the Federation of Allied Species in 3359 after their heroic actions in the Fourth Quintesson War, and later came to the Autobots’ aid in the war against the Decepticons. When the Allied Species moved to exile Cybertron after the Great War, the UHP was the lone dissenting vote. It was after this that the long era of peace between humans began to come apart, with multiple interstellar conflicts culminating in the Final War in 11992907.
No-one can be sure when exactly the Final War started, who started it, or why, but it swept through human space like a wildfire, and the fighting was no more intense than in the Sol system. The urban sprawls of the Kuiper and asteroid belts were reduced to rubble, cities on the moons of Saturn and Jupiter were raized, Mars’s ecosystem was so thoroughly ravaged that the planet essentially returned to its ancient pre-terraforming state, and Earth was consumed by a nanotech weapon called the Red Plague. Earth’s destruction heralded the end of the war: united in mourning the loss of humanity’s homeworld, the surviving nations allied against the Red Plague’s creators, the Orion Technoarchy, and thoroughly obliterated them. These nations then declared to never again take up arms against each other, and began the arduous task of rebuilding the UHP.
Roughly 15000 years later, humanity has largely recovered from the Final War. The resettlement of the Sol system is well underway, and true to their ancestor’s word, armed conflict has not occurred since between nations. When the New Imperium of Cybertron returned from exile in 120002917, the UHP was more than eager to renew the bonds of fellowship between them and their oldest friends. Today, humans and cybertronians are each other’s most steadfast allies and greatest advocates.
Humans are the most genetically and phenotypically diverse organic species known to exist in the Milky Way galaxy, so any attempt at a uniform description should best be kept somewhat vague. It can be said that humans greatly resemble nebulons in their size and shape, though with greater muscle mass and bone density, on average, and without the technicolor skin tones. Humans and nebulons are, in fact, almost eerily similar anatomically and physiologically- human-nebulon couples can even produce healthy, but sterile offspring. Human values and beliefs are also difficult to generalize, what with their insistence on maintaining several distinct cultural identities. Perhaps it could be said, then, that humans place great importance on self-determination, and celebrate diversity while at the same time valuing commonality as a foundation for relationships- whether those relationships be personal, diplomatic, or otherwise.
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The Covenant of Primus
The Covenant of Primus is a series of texts which serve as the holy book of the cybertronian faith. It is at once a quasi-historical tome, a legendarium of cybertronian myths and folktales, and a collection of prophecies divined in the First Golden Age by Optimus Prime and the Vector Sigma supercomputer. The Covenant’s history is as old as Cybertron itself, if not older.
The first Covenant was given to Alpha Trion by Primus when the original thirteen Primes were created. Descriptions of the original Covenant are sparse; surviving records from the First Golden Age say that it was some sort of trans-dimensional computer that stored data in a holographic plane beyond the physical universe. Scholars on Aevum speculate that this realm exists separate from space and time, and that all permutations of the original Covenant throughout the multiverse are connected to it, and thus to each other as well. The original Covenant contained a complete record of cybertronian history from Cybertron’s formation to the present day. Every action of every second was recorded, and the original Covenant continuously updated itself in kind. Alpha Trion was tasked with safeguarding the original Covenant so that the Thirteen and their fellow cybertronians would always have a history to draw upon, and Primus also gave to him a device called the Quill. With the Quill, one could write into the Covenant’s database, and those contributions would translate to alterations of the timeline. The havoc that wanton use of the Quill could bring deterred Alpha Trion from ever using it at all- as far as is known, at least. The original Covenant also contained many bizarre artifacts and enigmas: passages written in unknown languages, bizarre rhymes and riddles, and ominous ramblings, to name just a few. Alpha Trion could never discern the true meaning of these mysterious entries.
The second iteration of the Covenant was written by Beta Maxx, Alpha Trion’s minicon companion, and distributed among the masses. More of a spiritual guide than a historical document, this version of the Covenant embellished upon the Thirteen’s early lives, and mythicized the eons of battle between their armies and Unicron’s legions. It conveyed to the still-young civilization the beliefs that would become the pillars of cybertronian society, encouraging them to work together, value and protect all forms of life, and to fight evil. This version of the Covenant also contained prophecies recorded by Optimus Prime and Vector Sigma, gleaned from the Allspark and the Matrix of Leadership. There has been much scholarly debate over these prophecies, mostly concerning which- if any- have come to pass, or whether any of them are even legitimate.
The third and most recent iteration of The Covenant of Primus was made after the War of the Primes, expanding upon the second with new chapters detailing the rise of Golden Age Cybertron, the founding of the first seven colonies, Liege Maximo’s betrayal, and the War of the Primes. Most importantly, the Knights of Cybertron used this book to enforce their conspiracy to hide themselves and the Prime Colonies- it was written that the Thirteen all killed each other in their fight atop the Hydrax Plateau, and that the Knights mysteriously disappeared in 1947 CE. This new Covenant was written in Neocybex, the new language being deliberately constructed to prevent future generations from understanding any surviving records which could disprove the conspiracy.
Since the reunification of the colonies and the formation of the New Imperium of Cybertron, a new edition of The Covenant of Primus is being written- one that tells a more truthful account of cybertronian history. Alpha Trion’s Covenant has been missing since the end of the War of the Primes- the Knights of Cybertron have long thought that it was entrusted to the people of Sophos, but recently it has been discovered that the book has never been on that planet. It is theorized that the original Covenant and the Quill may have been secretly left on Cybertron, like the Matrix of Leadership, but their current whereabouts are unknown. Many explorers have gone out into the galaxy in search of them. The rediscovery of the original Covenant would finally unravel the last mysteries that persist in cybertronian history- or, in the wrong hands, the damage the Quill’s time-altering powers could do could be immeasurable.
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The table of contents has been fully updated- a link to it can be found in the original post. The timeline also has received an update. Highlights include, but may not be limited to:
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Other Inhabitants of the Milky Way Galaxy
Sometimes it can feel like cybertronians and humans (and occasionally the quintessons) are the main players on the interstellar stage. While theirs are certainly storied histories, they share the galaxy with many other civilizations. Below are just a few of the neighbors to the New Imperium and the UHP.
Dire Wraiths
The Dire Wraiths are a hostile species native to an uncharted region of the Milky Way ominously named the Dark Nebula. It is unexplored because of its being the Wraiths’ home- no-one else has ever ventured into the nebula and returned. In eons past, the Dire Wraiths would leave the Dark Nebula to attack other species and conquer their worlds, but they were chased back into their region of space and haven’t been seen since.
The Wraiths are an organic species: bipedal, reptilian, and possessing four arms and naturally-growing blades of bone protruding from their scales. They have six narrow eyes- three on either side of their head- and wide jaws packed with fangs. Their technology is advanced, though a good amount of it has come from other species that they have either conquered or attempted to conquer. Wraiths also have the ability to infect other life-forms with their cells, spreading them like a virus and effectively mutating the victims into more Dire Wraiths. These converts have many of the same traits and abilities of their original selves, but their minds are overwritten with a new personality. It is unlikely that this is a naturally-evolved ability, though whether the Wraiths use it chiefly as a biological weapon or a means of reproduction is unclear. Not even mechanical life-forms are immune to the infection, though the resulting hybrids created from such fusions are often grotesque.
The Dire Wraiths attacked the Imperium of Cybertron in 100013400 CE, laying siege to its outer colonies. They were swiftly repelled, however, and they were then beat back into the Dark Nebula by an interspecies organization called the Solstar Order. What the Dire Wraiths have been up to since, is anyone’s guess.
Rock Lords
The Rock Lords are bipedal crustaceans native to the planet Quartex, named for their rugged and durable shells that resemble formations of volcanic rock. Theirs used to be a society of conquerors, subjugating other species and picking their worlds’ clean of natural resources, but a chance encounter with the Knights of Cybertron in 37400 BCE made them see the error of their ways (at the point of the Star Saber). Retreating to their home system, the Rock Lords restructured their society and made reparations to the civilizations they had conquered. The Rock Lords further redeemed themselves in the Third Quintesson War, fighting alongside the Federation of Allied Species against the quintessons. These days, they mostly keep to themselves, and aren’t in the minds of the rest of interstellar society all that much.
Nebulons
The Nebulon Republics are one of the oldest civilizations alive today in the Milky Way Galaxy, having already achieved advanced interstellar travel by the time they made First Contact with the Imperium of Cybertron in 39500 BCE. Their homeworld, Nebulos, features harsh environments and enormous predatory organisms, so ancient nebulons quickly learned that they needed to band together in order to survive.
Nebulons are humanoids, and physically weak in comparison to most other species. Perhaps to compensate for this, their civilization is highly technologically advanced. Powered exosuits are commonplace in civilian and military sectors, and cybernetic enhancement is a widespread cultural practice. They have long been allies of the cybertronians, and the two species have frequently exchanged technology in their time together. The spirit of cooperation that was fostered among their ancestors continues to influence their dealings with other species: they seek coexistence with others when at all possible, and commit themselves to preserving mutually-beneficial partnerships with longtime allies.
Mikesu
The mikesu are a relatively young civilization- they have “only” achieved interstellar travel within the last twenty million years, but they have done well for themselves in that time. They’re remarkably similar to humans in appearance- from the neck down, at least. They’re distinguishable from homo sapiens through their leaner musculatures, vertically-oriented pupils, and feline-like ears atop their heads. Junkions and humans with a particular obsession with certain facets of popular media seem to have a bizarre affinity for the mikesu, which most mikesu have learned to begrudgingly tolerate. They hail from the planet Godbless, so named because their creation myth tells that the planet was made habitable by their supreme deity as a show of good will.
The mikesu are a hardy people, taking to the stars with great vigor. They can often be found on space stations or civilian fleets, or acting as scouts on planetary exploration missions. On the whole, they are an amiable sort; though individual temperaments can vary, as with any civilization.
Lithonians
The lithonians are a race of artificial intelligences hailing from the planet Lithone. Unlike cybertronians (to whom they are frequently compared), lithonians are purely software-based organisms; the mechanical bodies they frequently inhabit are merely constructs that they can transfer their consciousnesses to and from with ease. They were created some eighteen million years ago by an unknown organic race, who all perished in some mysterious calamity that swept through their modest collection of worlds. The lithonians aren’t the most social of civilizations- most of them just want to be left alone, and to leave others alone. Some are more adventurous, though, and download themselves into hardy Excursion Chassis to explore the galaxy and interact with other cultures.
Vok
Technically, the vok do not live in the Milky Way galaxy- or in the physical universe at all. They’re an incorporeal race of energy beings who come from another plane of existence, though they seem to have a strange interest in the people and goings-on of the Milky Way. They’re known to conduct bizarre experiments on planets uninhabited by intelligent life, setting up biomechanical machines on their surfaces and altering the local flora and fauna. What purposes these experiments serve are unknown, but they violate a litany of ethics doctrines established by the Federation of Allied Species. Because of the vok’s trans-dimensional nature, however, punishing them directly for their transgressions is… difficult. It seems the Allied Species must be content with dismantling their technology wherever and whenever they find it. The vok never seem to put up much of a fight whenever their experiments are compromised; they simply salvage what they can and relocate elsewhere. They have never directly threatened an intelligent civilization, as far as anyone can tell, but they are still regarded with suspicion by most, and officially considered hostile by the Allied Species.
Thraal and A'ovan
Any discussion on the thraal cannot be held without mentioning the a’ovan; and any discussion on the a’ovan cannot be held without mentioning the thraal. Long before cybertronians became as proficient as they are in interstellar warfare, the thraal and a’ovan peoples were already masters of the craft- having honed their skills against each other for ages. The thraal are the more militaristic of the two species, but both civilizations claim that it was the other that started the conflict. Their most recent war came to an end some two-thousand years ago, after they decimated many of each others’ star systems with superluminal weapons. They live together now on their remaining worlds, and there is great hope that this alliance will be permanent.
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I see what you did there.
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They have caused a ruckus a time or four.
Well yes,buuuuuut…
There’s also the case of,y’know…
Also when was the last time the quintessons invaded?
Who was prime then?
Did that prime fight them?
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The last time the quintessons invaded was in 3355 CE. The Prime back then was Nova (Nova Prime, not @MaxinePrimal’s human character), and he definitely was on the front lines fighting the invasion force. Nova Prime was a dictator (kinda odd how the Matrix missed that, I guess, but even pieces of robot gods make mistakes), and after the Fourth Quintesson War, he was deposed in an uprising.
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Aight. Its time for what you’ve wanted harpoon…
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Time for what?
Just watch your messages.
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mysterious…
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Indeed…
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love that guy
and a black mark on the reputation of all Angelicons.
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