Setting talk:Transformers

History proposal

I have a fluff proposal written out. The theory here is we play with the dates and names a bit. So that Optimus prime and Megatron are the latest in a long line of leaders. We use the somewhat fluxing nature of Galvatron (Who will be brought back by Unicron brainwashed and insane rather then having Megatron turn into him) in fluff as the old leader of the Decpticons, while we default to the leader before Optimus took over, Zeta Prime, to be the previous leader of the Autobots. The two famous leaders, Optimus and Megatron, took over just before the Horus Heresy. Additionally the fluff proposal below involves the Iron Warriors because, well, they're the only legion I can think of to spawn Warpsmiths in the years immediately following the Heresy. That matters because I think we can connect the daemon engines such as the Helldrake, Forgefiend and Maulerfiend and the wreckage of Transformers. Hell, we on this wiki call one of them a 'dinobot'. Anyway, consider this a rough draft of history during the Heresy for everyone to use, change or alter however they want.

While the Autobots claim that in the distant past the Transformers fought on holy Terra before even the Dark Age of Technology, a claim that even the Transformers often doubt, the first generally recognized contact between the Transformers and the political entity of the Imperium of Man occurred during the Great Crusade. As the Imperium expanded farther and farther from holy Terra and met farther flung human fragments and alien empires, they began to enter conflict with the Eldar more and more frequently.

When the Exodites fled the fall of their empire, they retreated to undeveloped wild worlds, but even further back, while Cybertron ran out of resources and descended into civil war, a number of Transformers fled the conflict retreating to uncivilized, undeveloped worlds where evolution and purposeful development would alter the Transformers into the Primals. When the Eldar fled to the same selection of worlds, they sometimes found the worlds occupied by the Transformers, or sometimes they did not, for if there is one thing the Transformers are good at it is disguise. Frequently, though, the Exodites and Primals met and came to an understanding,; both had fled a dying world, and both had sought a better life, or indeed any life, and the two species would come to share a number of worlds. As the Great Crusade rolled onward and began to enter into conflict with the Exodites, they also entered into conflict with the Primals, and more than once the Imperial army would be stymied by the strange ‘animal-like Wraithlords’ that fought alongside the Eldar.

While the Imperium expanded, the then-leaders of the Autobots and Decepticons, Zeta Prime and Galvatron, entered communication about what was to be done. By this point in time with Cybertron long lost the civil war had entered a ‘cool’ phase punctuated by little fighting. Both leaders were more concerned with the preservation of their endangered race than ideology, and the loss of the Primals was something neither would accept. So they both came to an agreement and, not for the first or last time, the Autobots and Decepticons worked together on the same side of a war. But to fight a war against such a massive power as the Imperium they would have to rally their forces. So in the darkness of city streets across the Imperium , countless vehicles slowly began to disappear as the Transformers began to gather their armies. As the Transformers gathered along a set of worlds it is believed the Emperor became aware of the gathering force; perhaps the Autobots' claim of fighting on Earth was true and he had experience with Transformers, or maybe his agents learned of the Transformers and made him aware of the hidden aliens. Regardless he knew of this gathering army and so he sent Perturabo and the Iron Warriors to destroy the Transformers.

Meanwhile the Transformers gathered and serious talk was made between Zeta Prime and Galvatron about possibly ending the war as Autobot and Decepticon fought side by side in small raids against the Imperium and alongside the Eldar. Not everybody was accepting of such a possibility, most vocally their seconds-in-command Orion Pax and Megatron, but still both would have obeyed their commanders. The decision was never made, as the Iron Warriors, alongside the Imperial army, attacked the Transformers's rallying point before they were fully gathered. The Iron Warriors were the correct choice for the assault, as the Transformers were unable to withstand a war of attrition and were slowly ground down. In the thick of the fighting the one thing that was constant was that Zeta Prime and Galvatron fought side by side, beating back every push of the Iron Warriors and Imperials together.

It was in the third week of the war that the war was lost. Zeta Prime was defeated by Perturabo when the Primarch personally lead an assault penetrating deep into the transformer lines, allowing him to meet and slay the prime in personal combat. Galvatron perished mere moments later, cut down in a withering storm of Lascannon fire. What happens next is bitterly contested between the Autobots and Decepticons. The Autobots claim the Decepticons fled at a critical moment, their leaders fallen but the Iron Hands were exposed, clustered around their leader; a single combined push could have overwhelmed the Imperium's agents of death, but the cowardly Decepticons fled and left the Autobots to bear the brunt of the Iron Warriors' renwed assault. The Decepticons, however, contest that the fight was pointless and that staying to fight was an ultimately suicidal waste of time, life, and energon. Regardless of the reasoning, Megatron's first order was “retreat”, leaving the Autobots to their fate. The Decepticons, however, were picked off in orbit and fared just as badly as the Autobots who fled later. This event could be considered the Transformers's equivalent to the massacre of Isstvan V. The civil war had been reignited, their numbers depleted, the Transformers scattered and the Primals would have no support from a united front. In many respects the Emperor's plan to end the Transformer threat was successful, but the aftermath of this war would reverberate for thousands of years to come.

While Megatron was the leader of the Decepticons, the Autobots fell into a crisis. To be the leader of the autobots the transformer had to be a Prime, to be a Prime one needed the Matrix of Leadership, which Perturabo had taken as a trophy. For years Orion Pax strategized, planning ways to regain the symbol of leadership, as much to gain it for himself as to keep the artifact out of Megaton’s hands. But when the Horus Heresy broke out the Autobots and Decepticons were torn. Chaos was unacceptable and if Horus was victorious the galaxy would suffer, and yet while the Iron Warriors had defeated the Transformers, that battle had been at the order of Emperor. Consulting with his commanders it was decided to strike out at the traitors, to help ensure the defeat of Chaos. Meanwhile, the Decepticons were locked in a state of in-fighting which occupied them during the civil war. Focusing on weakening the Iron Warriors, Orion carefully watched as, eventually, the imperials would win the war with the death of the archtraitor. As the traitors fell back, the Iron Warrior’s contingent was intercepted by the Autobots, who struck them while they were raiding a world for supplies, ambushing them on the ground. Knowing who he was fighting Peturabo used the Matrix of Leadership as bait to lead the Autobots toward him.

But Orion refused to take the bait and lead his forces to continue the Iron Warriors where ever they were vulnerable and unprepared and using speed to peel away, and above all else he used airpower to keep the Warriors grounded. As he contind to bombard the improvised fortifications, Orion eventually forced Perturabo to leave his hastily prepared but well-chosen ground and take to the field or be buried by artillery fire. It was then Orion led the Autobots into a direct assault on the Iron Warriors. While the autobots and iron warriors fought bolter to blaster, Orion and Perturabo directly clashed and dueled against each other. For many hours the two dueled until with one final blow Orion defeated Perturabo or so the Autobots claim, and if the Iron Warriors tell differently none have said to Imperial record keepers. That was the last battle Orion Pax fought for as he reclaimed the Matrix he became a Prime and gained a new name: Optimus Prime and he lead the Autobots to fall back, Iron Warriors greatly damaged and Autobots again united.

After the heresy both Autobot and Decepticon, though newly at war, had no reason to fight; Cyberton was still destroyed and so there was nothing to gain from fighting each other, or so they thought. Soon after the heresy rumors began to emerge, of signals bearing long forgotten codes and of once lost transmitters now broadcasting again, and rumors now exist of the warp returning that which may have been destroyed. The theory some of the Autobot warp experts have proposed is that Cyberton may never have been destroyed, and may have been drawn into the warp and sent forward in time, to this point in time. Now with battle lines redrawn, and the prize of Cybertron once more in play the transformers are again in active war with each other, and seeking out anything they think may lead them to their former home.

My Fluff/Setting Proposals

Moving this stuff over from the original Codex: Transformers talk page, so it's not cluttering the place up...

Okay, this is a topic that really interests me, so I'd be glad to weigh in with my suggestions, ideas, etc, if you'll have me.

First up, I'm not sure if mechanically enforcing an Autobots/Decepticons divide is a good idea. It's certainly flavorful, but it's hard to really enforce mechanically. Even using just G1 as the inspirationary base, there's the approach of "Autobots are cheaper and weaker whilst Decepticons are more expensive & elite" (Autobots being utility devices turned guerillas whilst Decepticons are military hardware), or the approach of "Autobots get more health & armor whilst Decepticons get better offensive gear" (similar logic to the above, plus Autobots are generally more compassionate than Decepticons). To say nothing of "only Decepticons get tanks, flyers and jetpack troops", which is show-lore accurate.

Not helping, of course, is that the canon tends to focus on Transformers as individual warriors, rather than as en-masse troop formations.

Given we have the Horus Heresy books as an example of how Big E fucked things up a lot, leading to the current crapsack state of the Imperium, I think it makes a lot of sense that the Emperor may have actually fought with the Autobots for whatever reason (most likely because the Autobots could see the Emperor was going down the path to become just another tyrannical dictator and tried to convince him to chill out). To avoid the obvious fandom rage, if Optimus and Emps did duke it out, I'd recommend that the Imperium and Cybertronians tell different versions of the story; Imperial propaganda is that the xenos abominable intelligence lost but escaped due to foul techno-sorcerery, whilst Cybertronian stories tell that the duel was fought to a draw, before Optimus gave up and left in disgust. Actually, that might be the version Autobots tell, while Decepticons have it that Megatron stepped in to save Optimus when the Emperor took advantage of Optimus's reluctance to fight with all his power, because "no fleshling scum was going to deny me my right" and drove the Emperor away, before leaving the humiliated Optimus to stew in his failure.

There's some rudimentary references to "psychic powers" throughout the multitudes of canon, but nothing concrete. Honestly, I think it makes more sense that such a role is generally filled by something analogous to Necron Crypteks; Cybertronian scientists who use their alien super-science to wreak havoc on their enemies. Hell, given some of the shit that showed up in the G1 cartoon and comics alone, that should be plenty scary.

That said, with Unicron as a nascent Chaos God, I could easily buy a "Children of Unicron" sub-codex which has a more chaotic feel, complete with psionic "Speakers/Prophets of Destruction", who draw upon Unicron's immense cognitive processors to fuel psionic attacks.

Although the Autobot vs. Decepticon divide is too iconic to give up, given the state of the 40kverse, I would argue that the two forces should be able to ally with each other as Desperate Allies. It happens more so in the G1 comics, but Autobots and Decepticons can and will work together to survive when the shit hits the fan - and where has more shit hit the fan than in 40K?

Naturally, some of the Big Names like Optimus and Megatron need to be statted, they're just too iconic, but still, given the nature of 40K, I'd suggest that lorewise they're no longer the "in your face" leaders of their respective factions. Most Cybertronians adamantly believe they're still out there, but they've become figures more of myth than of fact. Having one of them show up on the battlefield should be akin to having Grombrindal show up; the stuff of legend, and a moment of history.

Actually, to make it feel more like time has passed between G1 and "the present", we could re-organize the factions to reflect their "history". For example, Megatron and Optimus have, as I said, become mythical figures. Rodimus may have founded a "Council of Primes" that now tries to lead/coordinate the Autobots, whilst the Decepticons are split into three major factions (lead by Soundwave, Shockwave and Starscream, respectively) and incalucable minor warbands, with Galvatron being a maverick agent who technically shows up on the Decepticon's side, but tends to be a danger to everyone around him.

I'm actually not sure that Decepticons should have any Battle Brothers allegiances, except maybe with Necrons; they tend to hold all "fleshlings" in contempt, and I really can't see any reason why they'd approve of Dark Eldar just because of their sadistic hedonism. Yes, there are sadistic monsters in the Decepticons' ranks, but there are also Ork-ish battle-crazed brutes and cold pragmatists and even idealists who think that the Decepticon path of domination is essential for their race to survive. Which, let's face it, has a lot more credibility in 40K than anywhere else.

I'm guessing we're all of the same mind that "infiltrators", Cybertronians who can disguise themselves as an enemy vehicle - or soldier (Pretenders) - and then spring out behind enemy lines are too cheap to be used, yeah? Or does it make sense and seem fair, given they'll always be outnumbered and so need all the advantages they can get?

116.250.104.193 18:07, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

History Proposals

Just assorted ideas for notable events on the general transformers timeline. No direct order is given, for better flexibility. I'd like to propose an Emperor/Optimus/Megatron three-way battle and the suggestion that one of the Lost Legions fell because of a battle with the transformers, but I don't know how to propose them respectfully.

Pre-Heresy

• The Decepticons Fracture: With the mysterious disappearance of Megatron in his final battle with Optimus Prime, the Decepticons break into civil war, splintering into assorted feuding factions. Although small bands of rebels and renegades remain to this day, eventually, three figures rise to prominence, assembling the largest collections of Decepticon warriors to their respective causes; Soundwave, Shockwave and Starscream.

• The Founding of the Covenant of Primus: Initially, Ultra Magnus and Rodimus Prime share the role as new Supreme Autobot Commander between them, but they are forced to admit that they cannot run the entire army between them, especially as many smaller groups and subfactions are opposed to one, the other or both of them. The Covenant of Primus, a democratic council of Primes, is formed to serve as a mutual ground for assorted Autobot groups. Although the Autobots have splintered and are now more of a coalition of allied independent groups than the organized unity they once were, the sundering is peaceful and they remain far more united than the Decepticons - or even the Imperium! - can claim to be.

Post-Heresy

• The Massacre of Metabelus III: An Imperial colony-world is wiped out to the last by a Transformer invasion. In reality, they had disturbed an ancient Cybertronian weapon and unleashed the deadly Hate Plague, a pseudo-psionic contamination that drove the colony to self-destruct; the Transformers who attacked did so to keep the surviving "rage zombies" from potentially infecting the rest of the system with their madness.

• The Tainting of the Righteous Indignation: Transformer raiders assault an Imperial battle cruiser, the Righteous Indignation, broadcasting some alien signal. To the horror of the survivors, the Righteous Indignation goes renegade, killing its crew and attacking its former allies before fleeing with the raiders into deep space. When the vessel later returned, it demonstrated the same shapeshifting ability as the other Abominable Intelligences; the Mechanicus officially states that the vessel was enslaved and mutilated into one of the twisted entities, but the Inquisition has its suspicions that it may have been a transformer in stasis the whole time.

• The Shattering of Paradron: An attempt by the Imperium to reclaim the lost world of Paradron for humanity runs into conflict when one band of heathens refuse to accept the Emperor's Light. Sworn to the defense of the City of Light, they wield foul techno-sorceries to try and stymie the Imperial assault. When defeat is inevitable, all of the surviving heathens flee to their "holy city-god"... which transforms into a massive starship of alien nature and departs from the planet, fighting its way through the unprepared defense fleet in orbit and warping away. Paradron promptly explodes, annihilating the loyalists still on the surface and crippling the fleet.

• WAAAGH! Oilguzzla: An ambitious Big Mek leads a Waaagh! against a transformer colony-world, seeking to harvest the natives as the raw materials to build Morkanauts and Gargants. The colony survives only by unleashing ancient archeo-tech weapons from the Great War.

• The Tornetron Heresy: The Imperial World of Tornetron is wracked by heresy when a new subversive group, the Spark of Divinity, rises from amongst the underhive and spreads through the foundaries. Ordo Hereticus agents and Callidus Assassins learn all-too-late that the heresy is being promoted and led by Decepticon Pretenders allied to Starscream; their effort to subvert the world into providing resources to Starscream's forces thwarted, they instead lead the surviving heretics to flee their homeworld, being absorbed into Starscream's forces as Targetmasters, Powermasters and even Headmasters.

• The Cyber-Plague of Toxus II: The Adeptus Mechanicus retrieve objects from an ancient Cybertronian tomb and, fighting past their guardians, brings them to the Forge World of Toxus II for study. One item turns out to be a bio-weapons canister containing a sample of the hyper-corrosive ferrovirus known as Cosmic Rust; it leaks and rapidly infects the entire Forge World, destroying it utterly.

• The Solar Storm: A warband of Unicron-worshippers sweeps out of the stars and lays waste to multiple worlds as part of a rampage of destruction for destruction's sake.

• The Metal That Eats: Ravenous, cannibalistic Unicronites end their rampage by clashing with a Tyranid splinter-fleet.

• The Failed Cyrovia Crusade: An Imperial crusade of reclamation into the Cyrovia system on the galatic fringes is brutally crushed by Cybertronian forces, who have claimed the system as a harvesting and reproduction grounds.

• The Cargis VII Siege: Imperial Fists and Aurora Chapter Space Marines arrive along with the 34th Betic Centaurs and 55th Alphic Hydras to aid in the siege of the planet Cargis VII whose heretical Planetary Governor declared independence from the Imperium. The situation becomes dire due to the fact that the governor not only was found aided by the Iron Warriors, but also used an uncovered Cybertronian artefact that generated a forcefield around the capital. The shield proved indestructible and none of the Imperials could penetrate it. However a group of Autobots led by the ferocious Grimlock arrived to Cargis VII when they found out Iron Warriors were on the surface. Despite being powerful, with their numbers the Cybertronians would be overpowered by the defenses. An uneasy alliance is made between Grimlock and the Imperials and the Dinobot orders some of his band to assume the forms of the Land Raiders of the Space Marines. Although disgusted to ride inside the Transformers, the Imperials pass easily through the forcefield. Both factions massacre the governor and the Iron Warriors, the Imperials reclaim the planet, while Grimlock disappears with his Autobots along with the forcefield artefact before anyone notices.

Faction/Character Proposals

Any ideas for fleshing out Cybertronian civilisation that I managed to think up.

• Optimus Prime: Mythical leader of the Autobots, disappeared after a climatic battle with Megatron at the height of the Fourth Great War, which occupied the Cybertronians during the Horus Heresy. It's said that he occasionally appears to protect Autobots or even, on rarer occasions, humans (especially non-Imperials), Craftworld/Exodite Eldar or Tau, ala Grombrindal.

• Rodimus Prime: Symbolic leader of the Covenant of Primus, designated heir to Optimus Prime. A well-meaning but overworked and unsure leader who strives to keep the Autobots aligned and welcomes the opportunity to take to the field, feeling most alive when he's crushing the enemies of his people.

• Ultra Magnus: A slightly renegade Autobot warrior, who answers to no authority but Rodimus and Optimus. An aggressively militant protector of his people, he leads a constant personal crusade to defend the Autobots against all threats, with a particular hatred for Chaos, Orks, the Imperium, and the Eldar.

• Megatron: Mythical leader of the Decepticons, vanished after the aforementioned battle with Optimus Prime.

• Galvatron: The most deadly and charismatic of the Unicronian warlords, the sole authority figure they seem to recognize, making him a giant killer robot version of Archaon. Will ally with any other Cybertronian desperate enough to take his help, but mostly allies with Decepticon warbands, hoping to turn them to service to Unicron.

• Soundwave: Megatron's former right-hand mech and unflinchingly loyal to his master. He still believes Megatron lives and is determined to find him, leading a small but hardcore faction of loyalists. Their goal is to find Megatron and lead him back to his rightful place. Constantly picks fights with Autobot groups, as their dedication is to winning the Autobot/Decepticon war. Loosely allied with Shockwave's faction, but look down on him for his abandoning of the Great War.

• Shockwave: Former chief strategist of Megatron, Shockwave is driven by logic. He has turned the Decepticons to the cause of surviving and rebuilding their power base, earning the loyalty of the vast majority of Decepticons. He holds an unsteady peace with Soundwave; he needs Soundwave's fighting skills, but he considers prosecuting the war at this current state of affairs to be illogical.

• Starscream: The only Decepticon who advocates ending the Great War entirely arguing that the Cybertronians have allowed themselves to become too weak and scattered in this hostile galaxy. Though smallest of the major Decepticon factions, he is the most ready to ally with the Autobots and has even made tentative attempts at brokering peace. Determined to exploit any potential source of strength the galaxy offers; most willing to ally with organics as a result. Founds cults that provide fuel, healing and other resources to his forces. Makes heavy use of Pretenders and "Master-caste" transformers, given this focus on working with/exploiting organics.

Cybertronian naming debate

As great as it would be to include the "Generation 2" (or whatever it was called) faction based on the comics, I have to argue that we need a better name, since Cybertronian is also the original name for the Transformer species before they sundered themselves into Autobots and Decepticons, which leads to confusion.

• Noted. Changed name to Cyberform. Not much, but it differentiates between the faction and the species name.

Potential character idea?

I was checking out the TVTropes pages on the More Than Meets The Eye comic series, and a character called "The Necrobot" (real name Censere) came up. Long story short, he's a sort of Cybertronian reaper who has made it his life's function to catalogue the extinction of his own kind, documenting the passing of every transformer in existence until only he remains alive. He keeps a mausoleum-world covered with holo-monoliths depicting every transformer still alive in existence; when one dies, he shuts its projection down and changes it to record the cause of death. At the base of each holo-lith are glowing cyberflowers forged from the residual spark energies of every transformer that the individual named/depicted on the holo-lith was responsible for killing.

I just think that this idea is pretty cool, and could easily be reworked into a more... proactively deadly... character for the 40K version. Something like Asterion the Grim/Sanguinor for Transformers; he comes to battlefields to slaughter those organics who attack his people, but also to better record the deaths that follow.

What do folks think? Any potential?

I'd see him as a Transformer version of a Chaplain in addition to what you suggest. Go for it. - Ben (talk) 19:36, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

So, how exactly would this character work? That's the big problem here, the fluff is kind of easy to reach for, but how do we make him work, crunch-wise? QuietBrowser (talk) 01:38, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

Notable Transformers

Okay, first of all, I think we really need to discuss what Transformers we're going to make special characters and which ones we aren't. Because, let's face it, the Transformers canon is a mass of special snowflakes, so there's literally hundreds of characters we could try to make.

There's also the matter of if we're supposed to keep it to canon characters, even if obscure ones, or if we can invent new ones for a more 40K feel. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd love to see what we could do with Sunstorm (Seeker with a hyper-radioactive engine that means he kills organics with his presence, fatally melts Transformers, has superhuman abilities and a huge god complex) or the Necrobot (mentioned above), but there's also potential with the homebrew approach, too.

Then there's the query of "how greatly can we change the characters to fit the setting"? For example, could we get away with making Starscream not only a Pretender (given he was given a Pretender re-release in the toys and it was worked into the comics at some point), but giving him a history of killing Imperial Assassins to the point he's started collecting their gear as trophies?

Good idea. Also I'd be for Grimlock to eat people that piss him off like in some continuities (like a DEldar Archon that foolishly in his arrogance thought that he captured Grimlock, only for the Dinobot to rip out of his prison and bite off his upper half and then proceed to incinerate everything around him), or consider the Tau as complete wimps with the sole exception of Farsight. He and the hot-blooded anime hero would share something of a bizarre friendship. - Ben (talk) 22:43, 28 January 2016 (UTC)

Writefaggotry

If you guys would like the start making some writefaggotry for the setting that would be fantastic. If you guys have any suggestions I might even start writing them myself. Still, I highly suggest that you guys put in your own input and stories.--Hellsing612

Homebrewing?

So... now all of the official big-names have at least had a stab at being converted to 40K fluff, I have to ask; how much room is there in this project for completely homebrewed characters? Every new continuity adds its own characters, so, with the 40K universe being what it is, I think it makes sense that we should at least discuss ideas for characters unique to this continuity of the Transformers. QuietBrowser (talk) 18:17, 24 March 2016 (UTC)

That seems like a pretty good idea. I'm just afraid it'll turn into a hiss fit between people going "mai OhSee is bettah". Once we start talking about it that should the creative juices flowing.
Again, thanks to all those who have contributed. If we could start adding more images or even get some drawfaggotry in here that would be fantastic.