#cybertronian history

[azzg]

🔥 “EarthSpark Is Afraid of Its Own Lore”

Hypocrisy, Erasure, and What the Show Refuses to Face

“No one returns to Cybertron. No one names their ancestors. No one admits what they are.”

Transformers: EarthSpark pretends to be about new beginnings, family, and empathy — but at its core, it’s a show built on refusal:

Refusal to reckon with the past

Refusal to respect canon

Refusal to let characters be accountable

Refusal to tell the truth — even inside their own fiction

Let’s talk about what EarthSpark hides — and why that silence fractures everything it tries to build.

🌌 I. Elita One Was Ariel — Daughter of Alpha Trion

In G1 and extended lore, Elita One was once Ariel, rebuilt by Alpha Trion. She was part of Cybertron’s ancient legacy, a direct daughter of one of its spiritual leaders.

EarthSpark never mentions this. Not once.

Elita, who leads and protects, who speaks of nature and peace, has no past, no people, no self.

Instead of honoring her roots, the show gives her hollow lines about loving Earth and talking to trees — while ignoring her planet, her trauma, her legacy, and her link to one of Cybertron’s most powerful myths.

Elita isn’t silent because she’s at peace. She’s silent because the show erased what she was.

🪨 II. EarthSpark Avoids Cybertron Because It’s Afraid of Guilt

The characters never go back. Not even to visit.

Why?

Because Cybertron holds:

War crimes

Abandonment

Cultural death

Children left behind

Colonies forgotten

Souls erased

Returning would force Optimus, Elita, Bumblebee, and others to see what they’ve done — or what they failed to stop.

So they stay on Earth, pretend Earth is the future, and act like history never happened.

This isn’t hope. It’s cowardice disguised as healing.

🔮 III. Emberstone vs. Allspark — Are the Gods at War?

The show frames the Emberstone as a mystical, benevolent force — but never answers how it relates to the Allspark, the mythic source of Cybertronian life.

This raises disturbing questions:

If the Emberstone births Terrans… is it competing with the Allspark?

Would the Allspark see the Terrans as aberrations?

Could the Terrans be seen as apostate children — born of a rogue force, a rival god?

The show sidesteps this. But in doing so, it avoids the cosmic stakes it quietly created.

If the Terrans are not Allspark-born — are they truly Cybertronians? Or are they the start of something the Allspark would reject — or try to destroy?

🤖 IV. Nightshade and Sam — Who Gets To Be Seen?

Nightshade’s identity is celebrated — but not examined. Their approval of human nonbinary teen Sam feels safe, surface-level, and overly sanitized.

What would it look like if EarthSpark truly addressed:

The Terrans’ lack of gender or identity formation without others?

The trauma of not knowing who you are unless someone reflects you?

The fear that without the Malto kids, they would cease to exist?

Nightshade’s nonbinary identity deserves to be honored — but it also deserves to be written with complexity, pain, and power.

Instead, we get platitudes — not reflection.

And the show doesn’t even touch the deeper symbolic tension:

If Sam Witwicky — the mythic human from G1 — were in EarthSpark, he’d either be ignored, rewritten, or flattened into an ally archetype.

EarthSpark doesn’t explore humanity. It selects it — to make itself feel good.

💔 V. Everyone Is Too Proud or Too Numb to See Each Other

The adults — Optimus, Elita, Dot — do not question themselves. The kids assume the Terrans are just like them. No one asks what the Terrans need, what they are, or what they might become if left alone.

Empathy is preached — but critical thinking is absent.

Everyone feels, but no one sees. Everyone speaks of peace, but no one names the wounds they refuse to treat.

And so, the Terrans:

Become mirrors

Become tools

Become symbols

Symbols for hope. Symbols for new beginnings. Symbols for a peace that no one has earned — and no one knows how to protect.

🧵 Closing Thought

“EarthSpark hides from its own legacy. And in doing so, it forces its new children to carry the weight of lies it was too proud to face.”

Disclaimer: This post was written with the help of ChatGPT.

[tulliolamonster]

The hardest part of trying to write something about Cybertronian early history and religion that is at least semi canon compliant is that everything contradicts itself. Which is both extremely frustrating and very true to how real ancient historical and religious texts often function. Unfortunately.

[autoacafiles]

The Tale of the Dark Ages

"It has been twenty stellarcycles. More than two vorns since the Thirteen Primes, the Firstforged, turned arms against each other. Nobody has seen the Primes in years, and there has been a generation or two who earnestly believe them to be figures of myth. The realm of Iacon, the great towers, has become naught but a ruin, covered in ash and snow, roads that once led across the world now cracked and broken due to lack of maintenance, towers collapsing under the weight of our sins. We have ruined Cybertron, our home, for the sake of personal glory. Though we, the people of Iacon, persist and maintain our cultural balance, there's not much for us to claim as home but a broken temple and cracked ground. And every day, we get reports of Darklanders encroaching on our territory, Flockers stalking in the shadows of our city, and the Demons have claimed most of the ruin for their own barbarism.

If the rumors are true, an order of knights led by a Darklander, claiming to be the granddaughter of two of the Firstforged, have taken to fighting against the darkness. They shed the icons of their gods, coat their armors in sheens of silver and gold, and strike back with weapons glowing with power none have seen before... power erupting from their very sparks. Desperate measures have been taken by those that follow this so-called Septimus Prime, and other warlords have been waiting for them to slip up.

We cannot wait long enough. So we have taken desperate measures of our own. Young sparklings who have yet to truly live have been kidnapped in the night, lowborn kindlings sold so their scions can afford more energon for themselves, and drifters in need of purpose coerced into our service. And when the time comes and Septimus asks for our cooperation against the demon hordes, we will stand against them with our own knights. No need for glowing weaponry. No need for spark energy. They will stand with their old allegiances stamped boldly on their armor, their eyes aglow with the energy they need, and they will bring this world to order... Our warriors. The Primal Guardians. Our heroes." - Reforgis of Iacon, text recovered from an ancient ruin found in the depths of Lower Iacon.

What the people of Cybertron know of the Dark Ages that followed the Age of the Firstforged is a shadowy picture that you'd have to squint at to make anything out. A lot of old stories distorted by myth and legend, some artifacts that remain intact only by sheer luck, and very rarely a body that hadn't been eaten from the inside out by desperate scavengers or rusted to dust by the ages. As a result, the exact series of events that led to the fall of the Firstforged are not well known, nor anything from between their fall and the rise of modern Iacon and the establishment of the Age calendar. The cynical might say that the Iaconian government at the time would likely have either neglected to fully preserve the history of the Firstforged and Dark Ages from then due to personal ambitions, with some even going so far as to claim that they opted to bury the information outright in hopes to legitimize their perceived legacy as the stewards of the new world. As a result, scholars had to piece together what information they have or are able to glean from what few accounts remain. 

The most commonly accepted idea is that Megatronus, Prime of Destruction, struck down fellow Firstforged member Solus, Prime of Technology, and caused the rift between all the different members of the Firstforged, and thus the Schism is all Megatronus's fault. However, if you look closely at the details of this, then the chronology starts to look a little janky. Many accounts paint Solus and Megatronus as being close allies prior to this event and some even claim that the two often got intimately personal, so the change that would lead to Solus's death is kinda hard to track down. There are even some accounts of members of the Radiant Forges, Solus's tribesmen, fighting alongside the Darklanders against troops from the House of Light, even though most historical records recount them either allying with the House of Light or outright abandoning Cybertron. Some even say that while Solus is confirmed to have died before the Schism happened, the two events might not even be remotely connected.

Even more radical historians like to point out this discrepancy and claim that the Schism might've marked an end to the Age of the Firstforged, no event like it legitimately occurred that would justify calling something a new Age - not even the passing of the Matrix of Light, which these historians claim was never a legitimate claim to the seat of power that Prima himself once held. These historians boldly claim that the age of darkness that followed the Schism never truly ended, and it'd only be a matter of time before one of them revealed themselves to the population of Cybertron and usher in a new Golden Age for the commonwealth.

But this is considered naught but the ramblings of madmen who fail to recognize progress. Aside from Amalgus's involvement with the Combatron War, there has not been any evidence to suggest that any member of the Firstforged would make any return...

[transingthoseformers]

I've been thinking about cybertronians having long retractable tongues, thin but sensitive--- good for detecting impurities and quality of energon

This is exactly for what you think it is

[witchofthesouls]

Human eating something spicy: Good food

Cybertronian: You're actively burning and poisoning yourself. Stop eating that

Human: Mmm capsaicin

Cybertronian: I said stop eating that!

Chilis are too obvious and kind to them. Of course, the space aliens are highly concerned by spice challenges, especially with humans attempting to breed hotter, spicier peppers... as a fun hobby.

("Isn't capsaicin the active ingredient in pepper spray?" "Yes. But people enjoy eating spicy food.")

Cybertronians would be blown away by how much agriculture transformed human civilizations... as well as be boggled between humans' ability to endure extreme conditions, yet be so damn bodily fragile and inefficient.

Genetics have never looked so wild in the botanical community. Like yes, space alien, many vegetables are related. It's dependent on the area of concentration to painfully cultivate it for hundreds to thousands of years because some regions wanted something more leafy, while others focused on the pods or roots.

And yes, space alien, many cultivated foods had derived from poisonous origins. Animals (including humans) figured to circumvent it through evolutionary adaptations or utilizing methods to draw out the toxins.

Cybertronians can be impressed by how humans managed to figure that out in the countless preparation and cooking processes in different cuisines across various cultures... yet slap their helms because their funky, little squishy is having so many health issues because of the lack of Vitamin D or a Candida infection, so Cybertronians will unironically go "touch grass" with their assigned/favorite human.

(Cue confused Cybertronian noises when their human explains sunscreen and cancer.)

And fungi, like mushrooms, are a mindfuck within itself as a kingdom to both Cybertronians and humans.

This isn't delving into how other Earth organic species can't consume certain human foods due to toxicity, like dogs and chocolate.

[transformers-synergize]

What year does synergized take place?

There is no set year, but it takes place sort of in the mid-2000s, at least technology-wise for humans. Aesthetically, it's somewhat a mix of multiple decades.

I set the technology at the mid-2000s for two main reasons. One a lot of my inspirations for this project are shows/comics from around that time, and two, the major reason I don't want to write smart phones or modern type social media. I don't find it fun to write (mostly modern social media integration), and what is considered modern changes so fast. No matter how up-to-date I try to keep it, the nature of a long-term project like this, it will fall behind anyway, so why not set it slightly in the past where I already know we're human technology is at and will go...

I kinda got a light alt-history thing going on where no real-world brands, cities, or countries are name-dropped. It feels pretty close to our world, but occasionally, a character will mention something like "at least Earth only had one world War" or how theirs a town that and all the people living in it mysteriously all turned into solid metal like 300 years ago, also it just a tourist attraction you can just visit now or religions/holidays being lil different from the real-world ones, the vibes are definitely east coast America, and it is sorta set there but it is definitely not a 1 to 1 with the real world (sorta how Steven universe handled things)

[an-zastro]

(Potential spoilers for Lost Light?) (Rung rant ahead)

So I was going over Cybertronian mythology and history, (as one does), and came to a realization that Primus, Rung, is basically Adam.

Like

Do you see what I mean????

He is the first who with the Guiding Hand then sparked the hot spots,

But also not because they aren't human and it is completely different (so kinda Eve and Adam in one? He is Eve and Adam) but

Put in human terms and understanding, he is more like Adam then God, however to Cybertronian mythology and most religious sects it's the other way; he is God.

But a bit more “down-to-earth,” so less God, but that's our understanding of what a god is. Something omni-potent, all powerful, immortal. (and even that isn't really solid in our mythologies)

But also defined as the supreme ruler, the creator

Kinda fits more but still?????

In the true history of it, Rung is Adam.

Yet in the warped history of Cybertron, he is God.

History is twisted so Adam is God. Twisted enough that he becomes God. (Believe something enough it becomes true, right?)

Which, thinking about even more, is crazy. God is supposed to be this other-wordly, other-dimensional being that we just can't conceive completely. Can’t know completely. Rung, by Adaptus, can not be known, or remembered, completely. So in that way, he is more like a god. He was made more like a god by not being known. Not able to be known.

He is a quasi-god.

But not really. Or really??? It's all about perspective but how can you perceive something that in every sense can't be perceived. Can't be known. Can't be understood.

You can't name it. Can't categorize it. Him. Which adds even more support to what makes him a God.

Yet, who, if he is Adam, is God? While they do not need that role filled, as they do not abide by our rules and religions, what created Cybertron? What created him? Evolution? The natural universe? Quintessons??? Do they actually have a creator, a god-like entity????

Damn, I need to write a whole essay on this old man.

[spiritgenie]

Ok so like

Something ive always wondered and such

Canonically

How do cybertronians….reproduce or something like

Are they made? Do they do it asexually

Are they born straight already fully formed and such or is there a cycle and aging proccess

Is it vector sigma, the all spark?

Do they have a concept of children and parents, i feel like i could go so deep into this question, like some stuff im already thinking of

In transformers animated they have protoforms and prowl puts yogatrons spark into one which seems to revive him for a but but it basically has him look the same age

The all spark created so many new cybertronins

WHAT WERE THOSE SMALL THINGS MEGATRON TOOK CARE OF IN DARK OF THE MOON

the terrens in general

I honestly coyld go on but it it late and i am tired

[ask-a-bot]

Is... is soundwave jealous??? Is he your ex megs? Does he think you and Optimus are together?? You just gotta clear it up that you two are just friends :] because that's what you are right? I mean, you always say you are, you are in a totally platonic relationship.

I know what you are trying to do. I am unimpressed.

Megatron. I'd might as well do this here and now.

... What are you...? Why are you holding my servo?

Let's face it. We've been dancing around this for a while. I'd like... uh... hrrrgh! There's a reason I was waiting for you to make the move. You're better with words than I am.

Well, anyway, I'm just gonna say it. I'd like you to be my conjunx.

You... what?

Sparkmates. I want us to be sparkmates.

I thought you were happy with the status quo!

Well... I could be. If you are.

No. No, that is not what I meant. No, I...

Yes. Yes, I would like that too.

[mann-walter]

I know for a fact that a handful of reactionary Cybertronians would want to reinstall and/or even intensify the pre-war caste system. I know for a fact that some bots—not only older bots because, you know, there are just those youngsters that wish to return to the “old days” that they themselves definitely have never tasted—blame the war on the lower castes and their “barbarism”, “anarchism” or simply use the war as a display of the dangers of a free and egalitarian society, and spouting things like “Well, some bots are created for servitude, you know”.

I just know.

[noodleblade]

Do you have any favorite headcanon about cybertronians culture or "biology" you like or would want to use in your writing?

HMMMMMMMMM Interesting questions. Sorry for the ramble, I hope it makes sense but it really got me thinking. This became less headcanons and more just a rant fdkjvbefjvskndjnfjfdknvkjasvfn

As far as culture, I like leaning into what's been established a little.

Example: I like the fraught nature of Velocitron prioritizing speed and creating a system that revolves around it. I'm pretty sure the extent of it discussed is political, but I think it would also stem culturally (and maybe it is in the comics but I haven't gotten there yet).

Music having faster rhythms and beats, childhood games centered around racing, courting rituals based on showing off your speed or racing together.

And on the flip side, Velocitron does devalue slower, bulkier bots which creates this caste-type system. I like the idea of those mechs having their own culture, which is stemmed from their physicality but also their political situation of being outcasted.

Like, since Velocitron is all about who is the fastest, I think an interesting cultural attitude is created where you are constantly trying to be better than others, but if you are already limited being able to go fast, proving you are better isn't as important when society tells you differently. It shifts the value of the Importance of Self to the Importance of Community. That in itself creates a shift in culture.

Not to mention the ADA Compliance angle of there are areas of Velocitron that just have structures that allow for bigger, slower bots. I think I wrote something along the lines of Breakdown complaining that going to a convention medic on Velocitron as a bigger bot often ends up with misdiagnosed problems because they are so focused on the idea that you must be fast and smaller that they offer reformatting without looking at what the root of the problem is. (I know many fat people have this issue of doctors suggesting "losing weight" when addressing medical concerns without digging in deeper which is bullshit but aside from the point).

A SIDE THOUGHT: I would love to read (or maybe write???) Cybertronian folk stories/myths. I think that would be a fun avenue of culture to explore. It would be a way to delve into multiple aspects of culture and each city and colony would naturally have different ones or even rival ones. For example, taking the Velocitron culture into consideration, there could be conflicting folk stories alla a tortoise and hare situation. Speedy, conventional mechs would have a story framed around the "hare" being the winner where a slowly, bulkier mechs would have it framed around the "tortoise" being the winner. Idk i think that is so cool and interesting and gahhh.

BIOLOGY THOUGH x---x science was my worst subject in school already and i struggle with anything related to it. Writing such topics is a fun challenge but very difficult for me to broach, especially when we add mechanical components into it. I am writing a fic with the basis of scavenging the parts of deceased/offlined mechs and using them to rebuild another.

[tulliolamonster]

I know this would change with every continuity, but how would field archeology work on Cybertron? Are there predictable patterns in the ways parts of the planet shift that make things easier? Do they just not use stratigraphy at all? Are they, as a species, both long-lived and new enough that they can reliably find someone on the street and ask them what was going on at the beginning of time? Do they even have enough dirt to form layers

[bootlaceworm]

just a girl and her best friend who is a train

[transingthoseformers]

Watching Cowboys vs Aliens again is such a fever dream of a movie but from a Transformers perspective its hilarious!

Because imagine in TFP the kids find out some local history on how there'd be legends of cowboys and other ranchers and Native Americans one time keeping at bay 'invaders from the sky' that's elaborated at a small museum that's gets dismissed as a tourist trap. The drawings and other 'artifacts' from that time has Miko taking pictures so they can ask the Autobots at base if it was other Cybertronians behind this but no, that's not their glyphs.

Those were from QUINTESSONS, and that's leaving these bots stunned because how on earth did an even more primitive stage of these humans have the capacity to fight back?! (Bonus points if Jack finds out one of his ancestors were a part of that incident)

I can't say that I'm familiar with that movie, but the concept of Quintessons in Earth's history in a TFP context sounds like it has juicy juicy consequences and implications to it

[witchofthesouls]

What do the decepticon Seekers think of the Seeker Lennox family ? Do they know about annabell?

When the Decepticons find out because 1) someone will talk on their personal down time off the base, 2) the Autobots are finding raw Energon on the planet dirtball, and 3) even without Soundwave, it's not hard to decrypt human frequencies, it's the matter on finding the right one at the right moment. And being able to throw a lot of processing power to crack it.

(Or, in scenario number one, run a massive sweep to facially locate several members of N.E.S.T. and deliberately check into ones with either more social media presence or an outgoing lifestyle. With the prevalence of cameras and microphones, something will eventually pop in.)

As for the Decepticon Seekers, it basically amounts to "THE AUTOBOTS GOT A SLAGGING FEMME!?!?" and "NEST! THERE'S A NEST! THEY GOT A NEST! WITH LITTLE ONES!"

The conversation between Ironhide and Ratchet breeds true: the Decepticon Seekers would be careful on new engagements because of Sarah. To their knowledge, she's the only femme of their frame-type that's capable of breeding as she (and Will) have no negative health complications from long-term starvation or critical injuries.

And the fact they got a little femme, too?

The presence of the Lennox family may lead to schism within the 'con faction if Megatron makes the wrong choice about them.

(And they're eye-hustling Will as a sort of 'young buck.')

[whatudottu]

The inner struggles of a worldbuilding nerd: “Just because an alien species looks similar to an Earth animal doesn’t mean they’ll function the exact same as them, especially if said species is sapient, and assuming such is pretty biased and Earth-centric” vs. “Haha giving alien species based on Earth animals biology and behaviors similar to their respective animal and exploring how said biology and behaviors might influence their society and culture go brrr”

That's why you go to a mental randomiser and pick the weirdest shit you can and pair it with your selected species; case in point, my talpaedans = armadillos + ants headcanons!

I have certainly fallen into the pitfall of 'base a series of headcanons of alien that resembles an Earth animal USING the animal as a guide' but I am no stranger to making things alien (another I have are orishan = clam + cockroach headcanons). Heck, if I either can't think of an animal or an idea I had for a more animalistic alien may end up treading on bad ground, I pull out a random sociological thing humans have done. I mean I can't think about vulpimancers without thinking about politics, both on Vulpin and outside of it, discussing local matters to international matters to straight up intergalactic matters and the ethics of Null Void imprisonment (you cannot tell me all the vulpimancers in there were even given a trial let alone a fair one).

It's good to start with a base that has happened before - convergent evolution and everything, very good template to work from - and you can pick and mix whatever the heck you want to make your alien, well... alien-! Either you randomise the heck out of it, you have a very specific idea that would help expand the worldbuilding, or you just want to orchestrate how you can logic something out and connect the dots later, it's really fun to just ramble the shit out of alien biology.