Cybertronian Cosmology (and attached plotbunnies)

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

I have, over the last several months, built up my own personal version of G1 TF-verse cosmology - i.e. Where the hell Primus and Unicron came from.

Okay, so there's already plenty of that in various canons, but one, I haven't read them, since they're mostly comic canon, and two, I find the whole Ultimate Good/Ultimate Evil dichotomy tiring, and wanted something a bit less polarised.


In the beginning, there was nothing. Then it went BOOM and there was... everything.

Well, there was energy, and lots of it.

The primordial universe was thick with loose energy and in that energy-rich environment developed the universe's first living creatures, creatures made of pure energy. These creature developed fast and became the first sentient species of the universe.

But their idyllic universe would not last, because the universe was growing and the energy environment the First Population were born in was changing.
They didn't notice it at first, but the thick environment of loose energy was slowly drying up, getting caught up in tiny micro-loops that were forming the subatomic particles of the universe's first matter - hydrogen.

It wasn't until the first stars began to burn that real worry started to spread in the First Population about how they were going to survive.

There were those who got angry, very angry, and wanted to find a way to tear it apart and restore the environment their kind had grow in, but There were scientists busy studying the micro-loops and the matter they were forming into, who eventually came to a conclusion that there was no way to stop this process.

In the midst of this were two brothers. One was a peaceable sort, the other fiery. The fiery one was one of the ones most angry over what was happening and would not calm, no matter how much his brother tried to calm him.

But elsewhere, other scientists had found a way to survive - if they drew energy to themselves and formed it into a high energy-bearing form of matter, they would be able to form matter-based forms that would be able to house them. With these forms they would have some stability from which they could draw on what free energy was left in the universe and sustain themselves.

One by one, that is what the First Population resorted to, even the angry ones eventually had to give in, or die. It was in this way that the First Population became the souls of living stellar objects - stars, planets, moons, meteors - all with a living core at their centres.

I should note here, back before I got into the Transformers fandom, I had Griever's mega-bunny, Guardianverse. One of G-verse's big premises was that the Lifestream has, when it's planet was dying, found a way to pack up as much of itself as possible and move to a new planet. The links between the four worlds of G-verse - FF4-world, Spira (FFX), Gaea (FFVII) and Terra (FFVIII) is that they are all life-stages of the same Lifestream, having picked up and moved planet when the old planet was too far gone. The way it moves? FFVII:DoC has the basic example - Omega Weapon is supposed to absorb the Lifestream and fly away to find a new world where it can start again. While Omega failed in DoC, another Omega Weapon eventually grew that would eventually carry out it's mission.

The problem with this was that I had a "Turtles all the way down" situation - where did it start? Where did the first world come from? The answer came when I invented the core of Primus' history as a dawn-of-the-universe energy being. That's what the Lifestream started as.

The only problem is that at the point of FF7 and FF8, I don't think the Lifestream has a single central sentience any more, but that's easy enough, the whole life-cycle of the planet's inhabitants is what killed the Lifestream's central intelligence.
The basic life-cycle of the Lifestream is thus: newly born life-forms have in them a small amount of lifestream energy. Over the course of their lives, they grow and develop more of that energy as the gather experiences and memories. When they die, that energy returns to the Planet - to the Lifestream - more than it was when it was issued. In this way, the Lifestream grows as it's inhabitants live and die.
But because that lifestream energy returns to the Lifestream full of that person's memories, skills and experiences, the original entity that the Lifestream used to be eventually got subsumed by all the memories of it's children and has been destroyed by what is basically multiple personality syndrome on a planetary scale. The Lifestream didn't exactly handle itself very well in that.
Now days, the Lifestream is governed by a council of spirits that exist within it - the Summons. They direct the Lifestream as much as they can, since they are pretty-much the only ones who really can.


The peaceable First Population member became the living core of a large metal-rich planet, but for a long time was all but dormant. The universe that had developed around him was a lonely place and his kindred had been scattered across the cosmos with no way of contacting each other in their new forms - at least no way that wouldn't take aeons to conduct even a short conversation.
He didn't start doing anything significant until a chance encounter with one of the "small races" - matter-based beings that had found ways to travel across the empty deeps of space.

So using what he gleaned from studying them as they stopped on his surface, he started reshaping his planet, eventually turning into a giant body akin to those of a Small Race he'd observed. By the time he was finished forming a basic body, he had used up all the inert rock of his planetary body, as well as all his original satellites (Cybertron's been through a few of them, it seems) and a nearby asteroid belt.

But even then, he wasn't finished, and set about making the first of a Small Race of his own - one that would be like miniature version of himself - robots that housed, supported and transported balls of sentient energy around, energy that came from the planet's own energy matrix.

And thus is how Primus brought into being the First Thirteen of Cybertron.

Oh, there were more after those first few - quite frankly the First Thirteen were the prototypes of the Cybertronian people... at least the first prototypes that survived. More would come once the basic faults were got rid of.
Somewhere along the way, one of the Thirteen turned against his creator and ran off into space. He was not heard from for a very long time.

But as the Cybertronian people developed, they gave name to their creator - Primus - and worshipped him as a god. Over time the facts of how everything started got muddled and mythologised and the general image of Primus held by most Cybertronians became something even greater than the reality of his true being. The idea that the Allspark was some dimension beyond the living universe took hold and the fact that the real Allspark was actually a piece of super-dense energon crystal at the centre of the planet was forgotten by most.

Encounters with Unicron got him a place in Cybertron's mythology, and the fact that the runaway of the First Thirteen had apparently copped onto the Planet Eater didn't go unnoticed either.

At the beginning, when the links between the Cybertronian people and Primus were still strong, the leaders of their world had to go through a test before they were declared Prime. They went to the Well of All Sparks - the entryway into the chamber at the centre of Cybertron, where the Allspark resided, and there their spark was drawn into the Allspark, deep into the inner layers. If they had the willpower to leave the Allspark again, and return to the outer World, they would become Prime and, because this trial of leadership meant the Prime was bonded to the Allspark, they would also gain the title of "Consort of Primus".

Later however, Primus found an easier way - he sent out a small piece of his innermost spark that was housed in a piece of high density energon crystal, which would act as the link between Primus and the serving Prime. It was also an easier method of linking Primes to their lord, and could act as a channel for Primus's own energy, in case of further encounters with Unicron, or other belligerent members of Primus's own race.

I should maybe take a moment to go into the conceptual structure of the Allspark.

The Allspark is, as I have mentioned, a large piece of super-dense energon crystal. It is about the size of a dwarf planet. This energon planetoid is held in place, inside a casing made of high density metal. This casing has only one opening into it, through which the main feeds to Vector Sigma (the CPU of Cybertron) - which manages all spark issuing - and all of the planet's sensory equipment feeds. This opening is what was originally named "the Well of All Sparks".

The Allspark's inner structure consists of four layers. The outermost layer is what is left of the inert rock that surrounded the Allspark before Primus started psycho-forming the original planet into a robotic body.
The next layer is is the Outer Allspark - almost all Cybertronian sparks come from this layer. It can also be referred to as the mantle of the Allspark.
The next layer in from that is the outer core of the Allspark - only sparks who would become 'divine servants' of Primus come from this layer. It is also the layer that the first Primes bonded themselves to in their testing to see if they were worthy of being Prime - before the Matrix of Leadership was created. Only the sparks of Primus's servants and Primes or Prime candidates ever came from or returned to this layer.
The innermost layer of the Allspark is the inner core. It is the precinct of Primus's innermost spark, alone. The only things to have ever been issued from here are Primus's remote avatars, and the energy structure that powers the Matrix of Leadership. The only thing to return to the inner core are the avatar sparks.

The layers that the Allspark has formed are influenced by the structure of Primus's spark, and the necessary self-protection he took to guard his inner psyche. The separation between the mantle - where the vast majority of sparks originate - and the inner core - where the central persona of Primus resides - keeps Primus from being flooded by the memories and personalities of his children, as they die. (Because of this, Primus never had the problem the Lifestream had - Primus had better management skillz.)

Anyway, Cybertronian life went on it's merry way, then the Quintessons came.

Oh, they were nice at first, but that soon disappeared and they attacked, and Cybertron was not prepared for them and fell to them, becoming their slaves. As a result, even more of Cybertron's history was lost.

The Quintessons took advantage of Cybertronian production to start building, sparking and selling Cybertronians off to the rest of the galaxy as merchandise. The Cybertronians were not happy, but the Quintessons had such a stranglehold on them they could do little.

Eventually, the Cybertronians got sick of it and fought back, eventually running the Quintessons off Cybertron and setting Cybertron wandering through the galaxy. Afterwards, the Matrix of Leadership is brought out of hiding and a new order in Cybertronian society is established, ushering in the Golden Age of Cybertron.

The Golden Age starts off nice and happy, but it doesn't stay so, as corruption slowly creeps in and the rich get richer, the poor get poorer and simple mechs in humble heavy labour jobs get abused and forced into being gladiators. Well, one of those gladiators got jack, started a revolution and brought the Golden Age to an end, didn't he?

And from the on, it all goes down in history...


And now for some extra notes!

Okay, first off - the Quintessons.

The above history is actually the second, when, for some reason I changed my mind about the general gist of the Quints' role in the creation of the Cybertronians. The earlier version had the same origins for Primus, but that he didn't actively build himself a planet-sized robot body - that happened when the Quints came along, liked the undeveloped Cybertron, and started building their factories for making transforming robot slaves.

The only issue with that version (the version that is closer to the original G1 animated continuity) is that it feels like Cybertron had [comparatively] very little history as a free planet, at peace. According to G1 animated times, the Golden Age only lasts 2 million years, and considering the TFs have lifespans that can potentially last millions of years, that doesn't seem very long.

On the other hand, going with Quint enslavement means there was possibly many millennia before the Quints came in which they did have peace - and other wars too.

But anyway, that's just me, changing my mind.


Omnicron

Now I finally get to the subject that prompted this post - Omnicron.

A plotbunny over on tf_bunny_farm made me think up the idea about Primus having normal mech-sized drones. That's what the remote avatars are - a special type of spark from the inner core of the Allspark that, when implanted in a newly constructed mech body waiting to be sparked, acts as a drone body through which Primus can interact with his children.

This idea was originally linked to an idea of Primus romancing Optimus Prime, through his remote-body of Ultra Magnus.

Another plotbunny posted to the Farm, not long after I had that idea got linked it it - the plotbunny was basically that Optimus Prime is not Cybertronian. Of course, since it was about Optimus, my Magnus muse pounced the idea, linked it to the Primus!Magnus idea and decided that Optimus is another member of the First Population, doing the same basic thing that Primus does and is using a remote body to explore and experience Cybertron.


Anyway, the basics are such:

Primus once had a best friend, back in the beginning, but lost track of him when everyone started having to make forms that would survive the Drought.

Said friend - who I call "Omnicron" for convenience, but really, he doesn't have a name since none of the Small Races knew enough about him to give him one, and his name amongst the First Population was just a certain energy wave pattern that is untranslatable into solid, matter-based concepts - built a matter-based body that was basically moderate-sized meteor, and started wandering the cosmos.

Somewhere along the line, a transforming robot crashed into him. It was alive long enough for him to ascertain that there was something vaguely familiar about the little energy being living at it's centre, before said energy being died, and it energy dissipating and flying off into space.

While sad that the little energy being had left, Omnicron keeps studying the metal body left behind and eventually works out a way to put a small piece of his own energy into it so he can remote-control it. He works out quickly that it has been damaged and guesses the departure of it's original owner was actually that owner's death (more sadness), and uses his own psycho-forming abilities to fix it up as best he can and get it functioning well enough to suit his needs.

He starts using that body as a way to blend in somewhat when he visits planets his encounters, though he finds out information that the people his borrowed body belong to are slaves across the galaxy. As he comes to understand the concept of slavery he decides to start helping these robots free themselves, becoming famous from world to world for his crusade.

But with his fame also comes danger, and his remote body becomes target for people who don't want him taking their slaves from them. This prompts him to start changing bodies frequently - usually asking permission first, if he can (because he's nice like that) and continuing on his travels, unhindered by those hunting him.

But his ultimate goal is to find the origin of these robots - to find their homeworld and maybe find out why their sparks are so curiously familiar to him. He follows what leads he gets from the slaves he helps get free, and carries on until he finally gets word of Cybertron itself.

So Omnicron sets off to find the metal world, slightly delayed by issues of it having wandered off from it's last known location, but finds it eventually. When he finally catches up with it, he sends his latest remote avatar in to look around, but the people on Cybertron are suspicious of outsiders and take him captive. Omnicron however has a quick solution to that, deserting his current remote body and finding a new one in a production factory building labour bots. It causes a minor upset in the production line, but Omnicron succeeds in taking up the life the humble labourer mech, Orion Pax.

Meanwhile, Primus not long beforehand finally got jack of all the stuff he has been getting back as his children died and returned to him (despite the separation between layers of the Allspark, the mantle is still a part of Primus's over-all energy structure, so Primus gets something of a fair idea of Cybertron just gleaning the memories of the dead, but occasionally needs to go out and see it first hand) and had decided to send out another remote avatar to see what current Cybertronian life is like, specifically ordering Vector Sigma assign the remote spark to an underclass body. The body the remote avatar was assigned to became known as Dion.

When the two of them end up in the same workplace, Orion and Dion are drawn to each other, quickly becoming friends. Neither of them really know why there is such a draw, and just dismiss it as part of the natural compatibility that made it easy for them to be friends. They would remain thinking as much (when either bothered to think about it) until after both are upgraded in the aftermath of one of the first Decepticon attacks of the Great War.

It is due to the fact that Orion almost died and now, with his upgrades, is candidate to be Prime, that Magnus - the rebuilt Dion - makes a move to push their relationship beyond just being friends.
When a spark that returns to the Allspark eventually dissolves back into the general mass of the Allspark mantle, and once it does, it can never be wholly retrieved - even by Primus. Almost losing Orion makes Primus realise how attached he has become to this friend he has made, and how he had nearly lost Orion to the natural action of his own outer mantle. As Magnus, he decides he will not let Optronix (Orion after upgrades but before becoming Prime) be lost to him, like had happened a few times in previous remote avatar lives, and makes a bid to gain Optronix's affections.

Said bid is taken exceptionally well by Optronix, who quite frankly had similar issues about losing Magnus to death - having become tired of all the friends he had made in his stellar wanderings and lost in the fight to free the Cybertronian slaves across the galaxy.

But the real revelation comes the first time they finally interface, Optimus (having some time in between finally become Prime) finally realises what exactly it was that has drawn him to Cybertron, and Magnus realises exactly what drew him to Orion in the first place - Omnicron had been subconsciously recognising that Cybertronian sparks originated from his best friend, and Primus was drawn to Omnicron's latest remote because he subconsciously recognised Orion Pax as being his best friend from way back in the beginning.

This seals the relationship between them, having both found their dearest friend again they swear never to allow themselves to be separated again. Omnicron has to be a bit careful though, being basically an energon-rich meteor would make his spark a target for both sides in the war, so he keeps his meteor as far away from Cybertron as he can keep it.



After the War

It is after the Autobots have finally won back Cybertron and reconstruction efforts are under way. But a lot of Autobots don't understand what the purpose of a lot of the work is for - at least to start with. Major internal machinery deep within the planet is been repair and refurbished, the planetary engines are being repaired, a number of surface areas are being totally demolished and cleared, energon is being stockpiled and exploration missions have been sent out to survey star systems.

The reasons for all this start leaking out - Primus himself has ordered it. The internal machinery being fixed is the planetary transformation systems, the demolitions are to clear away buildings that have been ill-placed and would obstruct planetary transformation, the engines are being repaired so the planet can be moved, energon being stocked to power the planet's systems, and star systems being surveyed for a place to move Cybertron to.

The biggest problem Cybertron has had when it comes to energon shortages is that it was no longer in a stable orbit around a star. The planet had plenty of energy collecting systems built into it, but most of them were ineffective without a decent source to draw that energy from.

Besides that, Primus has been discontent about the inability to use his own body - a situation brought into sharp relief by Unicron attacking the planet again (and inadvertently ending the Great War as a result). Primus quite simply believes that it would be best if his body was fully functional again, and the first stage of making it so is to fix the transformation systems and move himself into the orbit of a star that would act as a regular source of energy, for both Cybertron's internal systems and to supply his children with a regular source of energon again.

As the project is carried out, a nice system is found, with a good, stable star and some decent resources, like asteroid belts and planets that would make good mining sources.

In the end, the basic goals of the first stage of rebuilding Cybertron are achieved, and Primus can transform and move to his new home system. He takes Unicron's head with him, as Unicron's energy-form is still lurking within it and Primus wants to keep his wayward brother where he can keep his sensors on him, and Omnicron moves to the system to take up position as Cybertron's new second moon (they really go through moons, it seems).



The final Battle Over Omnicron

Of course, I don't imagine any of these efforts to go unchallenged by the Decepticons - in fact I imagine the 'Cons have repeatedly tried to interfere at every stage of the rebuilding.

I do however have one particular image in mind over the story of Omnicron:

The Decepticons find out about Omnicron's meteor and realise how rich a resource it could represent. They do not know however that the meteor is actually sentient, only that the Autobots are protecting it. The presumption is that the Autobot protection over it is so they have sole access to mine it for the crystal energon it contains.

So when the Decepticons try to steal it, there is a big showdown between them and the Autobots over it. The Decepticons however have the upper hand - they have managed to get systems set up on the meteor to move it (possibly space bridge equipment to transport it directly to Charr) and are just about to trigger it when Optimus pulls the final solution to save his meteor from being mined by avarice 'Cons - Omnicron removes his spark from the energon crystal of the meteor, and moves the total body of it to Cybertron, where he merges it with the Allspark - thereby merging with Primus and forever protected by his beloved's own outer body.

when the process of the merger settles (after sending every Cybertronian spark in the galaxy into raptures when the merger happened), they are not totally merged into one new being, but are still two distinct personalities sharing the physical structure of the Allspark.

The meteor's energon core is left totally depleted and therefore useless, and the future Cybertron race will forever be altered, as all new sparks will now be the combined children of Primus and Omnicron instead of Primus alone.



Leftovers

There's few things left, mainly the latest plotbunnies to pique Magnus-muse's interest, like in a recent post on the Bunny Farm there is a bunny about Primus having a son. Well the muse's take on it is that Magnus is Primus' son, having been implanted in Dion's body after the dying in the Decepticon attack on the docks.

I also have a great fondness for a plotbunny that has come up a couple of time about Cybertronian names. It is basically that Cybertronians have [at least] four names - their childhood public name, their adult public name, a nickname (or maybe even more than one) and their private name. The latest version of that to come up raised the idea of if someone knows another's True Name, they can control them.

Another recent post has a plotbunny about Ariel being a rich upperclass girl slumming it while she's being involved with Orion. Magnus-muse is eying that off.