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Ancient Cybertronians
Unicron
The god of chaos. Once, him and his brother Primus were tasked with exploring the universe. But they came into conflict when Unicron's creations of stars and planets clashed with Primus' vision of order. Eventually, Unicron was defeated by the creations of his brother, the Thirteen Primes, and locked into his altmode.
- Cain and Abel: The Abel to Primus' Cain.
- The Dreaded: Cybertronians still fear him as "The Chaos Bringer" and the mere mention of his name can make them flinch. Understandable, since, if his appearance in Volume 1 is any indication, he still carries a grudge against Cybertronians for being his brother Primus' creations.
- God of Chaos: He is this as the counterpart to his brother Primus, who is the god of order.
- Wild Card: As the god of chaos, Unicron himself is neither good nor bad and it's impossible to say what his end goals are, if he even has them. His brief appearance in Volume 1 tells us pretty much nothing of his intentions.
Primus
The ancient creator of Cybertron and the Thirteen Primes. After defeating his brother Unicron with the help of his children, the aforementioned Primes, he soon found himself dissatisfied with the universe, deeming it too unruly for his tastes. He proceeded to eradicate everything that didn't adhere to his sense of order. The Thirteen Primes eventually rebelled against him, when he murdered Prima, their leader, for refusing to commit genocide on an "imperfect" species. Luckily, the surviving Primes managed to defeat him and banished him into Cybertron's core, where he remained trapped until an archivist named Orion Pax was accidentally thrown into it.
- Abusive Parent: He killed Prima, his first creation, for the crime of not wanting to commit genocide, and would have done the same to the rest of his children, had they not fought back and locked him away.
- Control Freak: Primus' desire for order is pretty much just him loathing anything he cannot directly control. His conflict with Unicron started because Unicron created stars and planets to populate Primus's vast nothingness, which Primus took offense to. Long after Unicron was locked away, Primus killed his first creation Prima for disobeying him and not "deleting" a planet Primus had dubbed too chaotic. He still seeks to impose his perfect order on the universe in the present.
- God Is Evil: He's the creator god of all Cybertronians, which usually would make him a case of God Is Good. But he's so utterly obsessed with order and perfection that living up to his standards is practically impossible. And those who don't live up to his standards die.
- God of Order: A malevolent example. Primus valued, and still values, order above everything else and sees anything beyond it as a threat to be eradicated or "deleted", as he puts it.
- I Did What I Had to Do: How he justifies killing the first Prime to Orion Pax in "One Shall Rise", claiming that the growing disorder within the Thirteen Primes was threatening his perfect universe and would have plunged it into chaos eventually.
- Laser-Guided Karma: He had his brother Unicron locked away in his altmode, when Unicron's chaos kept disturbing his perfect, orderly universe. The Thirteen Primes proceed to do the same to him once his perfectionism grows out of control.
- The Man Behind the Man: He is the one who turned Orion Pax into Optimus Prime, after the Matrix of Leadership had already rejected him.
- Manipulative Bastard: Took advantage of Orion Pax' emotional turmoil after his fight with Megatron to talk him into becoming his vessel and promising Orion to override the Matrix of Leadership to make him a true Prime if he aided him.
- Mythology Gag: When talking to Orion Pax, he assumes a smaller holo-form that fans of the IDW Transformers comic run may find familiar...
- Never My Fault: He thinks the Primes rebelling against him was due to them having been corrupted by Unicron's chaos, as opposed to them simply fighting back after he made it clear he had no qualms "deleting" them if they didn't follow his wishes.
- "Not So Different" Remark: In "One Shall Rise", when Orion refuses to listen to him because he killed the first Prime, Primus points out that they're technically both Prime-killers, seeing as Orion murdered Sentinel Prime himself. When Orion tries to justify himself by saying he did it for the good of Cybertron, Primus further insists that this makes Orion no different from him, since he himself killed Prima to save his perfect universe from chaos.
- Offing the Offspring: His murder of Prima.
The Thirteen Primes
The first Cybertronians. They were originally created by Primus in order to end the stalemate between him and his brother Unicron. With the help of the Star Saber, they managed to subdue their creator's enemy and locked him into his altmode. However, without Unicron to keep Primus in check, Primus soon started to see imperfection and disorder anywhere, including his creations. He eventually murdered Prima, the leader and oldest among them, causing the surviving Primes (sans Optronix) to rise up against him and lock him into his altmode, just like they had done to Unicron.
- Adaptational Heroism:
- The Fallen, a.k.a Megatronus in this universe was never driven mad by Liege Maximo's scheming. Instead, he was the first one of the Thirteen to realize Primus' perfectionism had gone out of control and posed a danger to the universe. He was also the first to rebel by running away from Primus and ended up being the one to defeat his creator by locking him in planet-mode using the Matrix.
- Liege Maximo apparently never conspired against the other Primes in this universe and so didn't cause the fall of Megatronus and the death of Solus Prime. In fact, he seems to have taken on Alpha Trion's role as the wise curator of Cybertron's archives.
- Ambiguous Situation: There's a heavy implication that Optimus Prime might be a reincarnation of Optronix, the sole Prime to remain loyal to Primus even after Prima's murder. Optronix' appearance in a flashback is very similar to Optimus' upgraded body and he is shown to be killed by Megatronus, who is himself implied to have some connection to Megatron.
- The Blacksmith: Solus Prime had this role, as the original owner of the eponymous Forge of Solus Prime. She created both the Star Saber and Vector Sigma, as well as the Matrix of Leadership.
- The Dog Bites Back: All of the Primes but Optronix rose up against Primus after he killed their leader Prima.
- Gender Flip: What little we see of Onyx Prime seems to indicate that they are female in this continuity while they were male in the original lore.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Megatronus was the one to ultimately lock Primus into his planet-mode for good, but received heavy injuries in the process that ended up taking his life.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Primus murdering Prima proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back for the rest of the Thirteen (sans Optronix), leading to them turning on their creator.
- Undying Loyalty: Optronix remained completely loyal to Primus, even after Primus murdered Prima, and stood against the remaining Thirteen when they started rebelling against their creator.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Quintus Prime originally created the Quintessons to be allies to Cybertron. It didn't quite work out.
Quintessons
Deseeus
A Quintesson Judge who once ruled over Cybertron with an iron fist.
- Fantastic Racism: Him and the other Quintessons view mechanoid races as mere things and servants.
- The Man Behind the Man: Volume 2 reveals that he's Arcee's and Cliffjumper's current employer.
- Not Quite Dead: Is believed to have been slain by Sentinel Prime, though the fact that he's the employer of Arcee and Cliffjumper proves otherwise.
Aquarius
A Quintesson Judge and scientist who became sympathetic toward the Cybertronians after discovering they were sentient.
- Ambiguous Situation: Claims that when he was still a Judge, his laws were fair and just. Shockwave finds that hard to believe and given what we've seen of Deseeus' rule the bar for "just" here is incredibly low.
- Defector from Decadence: He turned on the other Judges after they dismissed his discovery that the machines they governed over were fully sentient.
- I Am Legion: Aquarius always refers to himself as "we". While all the faces have their own personality they seem to collectively view themselves as Aquarius the Judge.
- Innocently Insensitive. Well-intentioned he might be, but Aquarius' dialogue with Shockwave shows he still has a bit of prejuidice against machines within him. He doesn't address Shockwave by name until the latter calls him out on it and at first insists on being the one to lead the Cybertronians' rebellion against the other Quintessons as if the mere fact that he's not a machine would make him more qualified than the rebellion's actual leadership.
- Multiple Headcase: As is traditional for Quintesson Judges, Aquarius has five different faces, each with its own personality. Downplayed in that the faces usually agree on what to do, just not how or why they want to do it.Shockwave: Well then, what are you? And what do you want?"Aquarius: "We are Aquarius, we want harmony— (changes face) We want science! Discovery- (changes face) We want revenge! Damn their eyes- (changes face) All we want is peace!"
- Soul Brotha: One of his faces uses lingo like "you dig?" and "groove with" and seems more affable and down to earth compared to the science-obsessed face or the still mildly condescending politician and happy faces.
- Token Heroic Orc: So far he's the only Quintesson Judge showing anything resembling sympathy toward a mechanoid species.
