Thirteen (Transformers)

Concept history

It was originally revealed in the Botcon story "Covenant" that before going on to create the Transformer race, Primus experimented with a group of twelve robots known as the Covenant of Primus. Based on the zodiac, these twelve robots were: Leonicus (leader), Aries, Piscor, Libras, Scorpius, Aquator, Taurotron, Cancix, Geminator, Sagittarii, Virgol and Capricurn. They existed in secret, training for the Omega Point. The Omega Point was a potential event that Unicron would attack at a point that there was no Prime. After the Omega Point, time was reverted and the instance never happened in that timeline. "Ask Vector Prime" later indicated that the Covenant was preceded or followed by Primon, who in "Covenant" was listed as the first holder of the Matrix of Leadership, and that he and the Covenant later inspired Primus to create the Thirteen; however, it was also indicated that this history might have been fabricated by Liege Maximo.

In 2004, it was revealed in The Ultimate Guide that Primus later created a group of thirteen Transformers, each with special powers, to fight against Unicron. This is the basic, communal origin for Cybertron and the Transformers across many continuities. Although the 2009 movie has The Fallen as the main villain, it does not seem to follow the Primus creation story. Like Primus and Unicron, each of the thirteen are multiversal singularities - one entity throughout reality. During their first big battle against Unicron, many of the 13 were killed and the Fallen was drawn into a black hole, where he remained trapped in a lower dimensional level.

Alternately, in Revenge of the Fallen, the original Transformers formed the Dynasty of Primes, scattering throughout the galaxy looking for planets where they could build Sun Harvesters. They debuted in IDW Publishings' comics when they published Transformers: Destiny, a prequel comic to the film.

In the Exodus, Exiles and Retribution novel trilogy, the following of the Thirteen were mentioned - Prima, the Liege Maximo, Megatronus Prime, Solus Prime, Nexus Prime, and Amalgamous Prime. The book Transformers: The Covenant of Primus would shed further light on the concept of the Thirteen by introducing all thirteen members. It was later retconned that the Aligned continuity was separate from the rest of the Transformers multiverse when Optimus Prime was revealed to be the final member.

Less than a year later, the Transformers: Generation 1-based IDW Publishing comics story "The Crucible" established that many of the Prime Thirteen characters introduced in The Covenant of Primus had multiversal counterparts, and in this reality, the Thirteen existed as the third generation of Cybertronians rather than the first.

During the next year, The Complete AllSpark Almanac and the BotCon 2015 Facebook blog "Ask Vector Prime" revealed that there were both multiversal singularity and non-multiversal singularity versions of the Thirteen, and that the two iterations of the Thirteen were starting to blend together. Consequently, Vector Prime used the blog to officially introduce the members of the "Multiversal Thirteen" after a decade of being introduced as a concept. He would also introduce additional elements, such as histories of the Thirteen in certain universes and their interactions with humanity using holo-avatars that inspired the gods of Greek mythology: Prima became Zeus, Nexus Prime was Hera, Liege Maximo inspired Aphrodite, Solus was dubbed Hephaestus, Megatronus became Ares, Vector Prime was Hermes, and so on.

Primus creation story

According to Transformers lore, before the dawn of time, Order and Chaos existed within an extra-dimensional entity known as The One. To explore the fledgling universe, he created the astral being known as Unicron, and then subdivided him, creating his twin, Primus. Both brothers were multiversal singularities, unique in all realities, but where as Unicron could only exist in one universe at a time, moving between them at will, Primus existed simultaneously in all realities at once. It is suggested, in fact, that the two brothers embody the basic concepts of reality—good and evil, order and chaos—and that their continued existence is necessary for the stability of the multiverse. As Unicron and Primus ventured through the cosmos, it became apparent to Primus that Unicron was a corrupt being, and he eventually confronted the threat his sibling posed. In combat, Primus was no match for Unicron, and their feud threatened to destroy the universe. In cunning, however, Primus proved himself to be his brother's superior when he shifted their battle to the astral plane, and then back to the physical world once more, sacrificing most of his strength to manifest their essences within metallic planetoids, leaving them both trapped. It was with this act of sacrifice that Primus hoped to contain the evil force forever. Unfortunately, over time, Unicron learned to physically shape his prison into a giant metallic planet, and Primus followed suit, becoming the mechanical world of Cybertron.

When Unicron then learned to transform his planetary form even further, into a gigantic robot form, Primus could also, but adapted the idea, and created The Thirteen, a group of robotic beings that possessed the ability to change shape, like Unicron. The war between Unicron and Primus came to its seeming end during a climactic battle in which one of the Thirteen, Megatronus Prime, who would forever afterwards be known as The Fallen, betrayed Primus and became an acolyte of Unicron. The battle ended when the Fallen and Unicron were sucked into a black hole and disappeared from reality. With Unicron gone for now, Primus entered an eons-long slumber, preventing Unicron from detecting him through the mental link the brothers shared.

Retellings and Revisions

The Primus/Unicron backstory has evolved and been rewritten a number of times since it first originated in the Marvel Comics series. The version recounted above is the current iteration, which has slowly solidified across a wide swath of media (beginning around the time of Transformers: Armada). Before the Primus/Unicron mythos reached its present form it went through several distinct versions in the Marvel Generation 1 comics and elsewhere. In Beast Wars: Reborn, a text story set after the events of Beast Machines, a new character known as Logos Prime was introduced. Abducting Optimus Primal and Megatron, he let them wander his temple in the hopes that one of them would prove a worthy successor to his power. He was subsequently confronted by the arriving Vector Prime, who recognized Logos as a former comrade.

In that story, The Ancients (エンシェント Enshento) were the original clan of Transformers created by Primus before he became Cybertron, and possessed extraordinary powers over space and time. One of them, Logos Prime, lost sight of his objective and memory of him faded away. He would return under the name of Soundblaster, abducting Optimus Primal and Megatron so he could apparently appoint Megatron as his successor. Vector Prime was sent by Primus to stop the plot and was taken aback when confronted with his fellow Ancient who he thought lost. While Vector Prime and what remained of Logos Prime fought on the astral plane, Soundblaster revealed the Zeonomicon, the key to his power, and had Optimus and Megatron hunt it down on Animatron to decide who would inherit his power.

IDW Publishing - Movie

IDW Publishing would introduce two alternate versions of the story of the Thirteen Primes. The first was introduced in the Revenge of the Fallen comics which shows the original Transformers forming the Dynasty of Primes, beings that were created eons ago by the AllSpark. These thirteen beings were the first Cybertronians and had the ability to move between dimensions. They soon realized that the AllSpark's power, though vast, was not infinite, and required the energy of stars to be replenished. Once a nearby star went nova, the AllSpark created a worker race, the Transformers, who would assist the Dynasty in replenishing the AllSpark. One of the thirteen, later known as the Fallen, believed the AllSpark was talking to him and that it wanted him to harvest any sun, local lifeforms or no local lifeforms, rather than spend ages searching. He harvested the sun of a living world behind his brother's backs, only to be caught and told off. This didn't stop him and eventually, the Dynasty ruled that all seven of them would decide on the harvester's use. In response, the Fallen assembled his own army, the Decepticons, and deliberately built a harvester on Earth in order to draw his brothers into a trap. These Sun Harvesters, powered by the Matrix of Leadership, were capable of harvesting a sun's energy to produce Energon. A great battle erupted as the Fallen fought to gain the AllSpark's power for himself.

However, once he had destroyed his twelve brothers' sarcophagi, he still had to face the final survivor, Prima, who tricked him into running out of power and then used the remaining power in the Dynasty's corpses to imprison the Fallen in his own sarcophagus. The last Prime then built a tomb for the Matrix out of the corpses and sacrificed himself to close it. Knowledge of the thirteen faded, and the Dynasty of Primes became little more than a myth. Thousands of years later, the Science Division discovered the Fallen's sarcophagus and the remains of the other Twelve's sarcophagi. As the Fallen influenced Lord High Protector Megatron, the members of the Science Division, under the direction of their leader Optimus Prime, studied the remains of the other relics and discovered the symbol of the Primes. This was the first proof that they had found of the Dynasty, and what's more, the symbol was etched on the head of the Science Division's leader, and he was soon dubbed Optimus Prime by his fellow scientists. After the Autobots refused to follow Megatron's Decepticons, the term Prime came to denote Optimus as leader of the Autobots.

Aligned continuity

In the "Aligned continuity" (in which the storylines of media such as Transformers: War for Cybertron and Transformers: Prime take place), Alpha Trion recounts the creation of the Thirteen by Primus prior to his entering a state of slumber. Created to battle the evil Unicron, the Thirteen spent a considerable amount of time preparing for conflict with him. They succeeded in defeating him, but were stained with touches of his evil that later led to division. Following Solus Prime's murder at the hands of Megatronus, known from that time on as the Fallen, the group fractured, its members scattering. Prima, Alpha Trion, and Alchemist Prime were known to have remained on Cybertron, where they watched over the emerging Cybertronian race while dealing with threats like that posed by the original Predaking. Alpha Trion was the only one still remaining on Cybertron. The Matrix of Leadership was once the jewel in the hilt of Prima's Star Saber, and Sentinel Prime once bore the sigil of Vector Prime. Optimus meets with a holographic representation of Solus Prime, before meeting with Vector Prime in a pocket dimension created by said Prime, and later encounters Nexus Prime, who briefly gives him the Cyber Caliber so that he can battle Megatron's forces, who had come to briefly possess the Requiem Blaster.

Alpha Trion's chronicles in the Covenant are interspersed throughout the novel, detailing events occurring on Cybertron since the departure of Optimus and Megatron into deep space as they search for the All-Spark. He is also responsible for Nexus Prime's brief reappearance, sending one of his component bodies, an Autobot named Chaindrive, to meet with a number of others who then recombine into Nexus. After aiding the Autobots in battle, Nexus Prime takes back the Cyber Caliber and breaks back into his various components: Cannonspring, Chaindrive, Clocker, Mainspring, and Pinion. The five then scatter across space. By the time of Transformers: Prime, many of the Thirteen apparently have perished, though their respective artifacts and relics were protected by Alpha Trion during the War and eventually sent to Earth for the Autobots to find. An ensuing battle would take place on Earth for these Artifacts, and not long after Cybertron would be reborn. The Thirteen would subsequently play a role in Transformers: Robots in Disguise, in which many of them inhabit a mysterious place known as the Realm of the Primes. Here Optimus, following his sacrifice to restore Cybertron, would undergo training under the supervision of others of the Thirteen, while also making occasional contact with Bumblebee when the Primes deemed it critical. This training would eventually see Optimus sent to Earth to counter the arrival of the Fallen, receiving portions of the Sparks of six of the Thirteen to grant him additional power for the battle.

Following Megatronus' apparent destruction at the hands of Optimus and a team of Earth-based Autobots led by Bumblebee, the Thirteen would reclaim their power from him, leaving him somewhat weakened.

IDW Publishing - Generation 1

The second version was introduced in IDW Publishing's Transformers: Generation 1 comic continuity, which would introduce the Guiding Hand, five ancient deities created by Primus. They are featured in one of the more prominent myths regarding the creation of the planet Cybertron and its native people. Members included: Primus, the Light-giver and Life-giver; Mortilus, the Death-bringer; Solomus, Wisdom Incarnate; Epistemus, Knowledge Personified; and Adaptus, Blessed with an Infinity of Shapes. According to a religious story related by Cyclonus, the Guiding Hand were formed after the creation of the planet Cybertron when Primus the First Light stood forth on the miracle planet. At the time, he felt a nest of sparks within him and he split his essence into five other vessels. They became a remote but nurturing presence on early Cybertron and populated it with a gesture, thus creating the Transformer race. Under their reign came the First Golden Age of Cybertron which was shattered when Mortilus believed that the Guiding Hand should become a fist against the rest of the universe. As Mortilus stood against Primus, all of Cybertron became divided in a conflict that saw the planet shudder and its first moon being ripped asunder. The Death-bringer was ultimately destroyed in the struggle but the conflict left the remaining members of the Guiding Hand mortally wounded.

The Knights of Cybertron are fabled as the original children of Primus and the other four gods of the Guiding Hand, making them the original Cybertronians. Religion says that after the god, Mortilus, warred with the others ten million years ago, the early Transformers were rendered immortal and wise, and formed the Knights. After creating a paradise on their homeworld, they then left Cybertron to spread enlightenment throughout space.

After the departure of the Knights of Cybertron, the remaining Transformers formed the Thirteen Tribes: each united under a separate Prime, a warrior-leader who built a distinct civilisation. There was balance until Megatronus Prime, plotting with the Liege Maximo, betrayed Prima. A resulting civil war between the tribes tore the planet apart. Ten million years ago, Galvatron slew Nexus Prime after destroying his Headmasters, despite persistent rumors that a Prime could only be killed by another Prime. Said other Primes fled the planet for other worlds, with the exception of Alpha Trion. The war finally ended when Galvatron and Nova Major routed the bestial hordes of Onyx Prime and, with Trion's aid and blessing, united the tribes as one planet under Nova Prime. Only Galvatron and Trion were left aware of what had happened to the Thirteen until Shockwave learned about them and sent his ores off to where he thought the twelve had gone.

Transformers: Timelines

The Thirteen later massed as one of their number, Nexus Prime, attempted to safeguard creation by creating barriers that would separate the various reality streams in the multiverse from each other. Some came to help while others came to oppose, but he succeeded regardless, and the multiversal streams became more firmly differentiated, greatly hampering interdimensional travel and isolating worlds such as the Axiom Nexus. This event also caused the Thirteen's various manifestations across reality to be separated from each other, each Prime ceasing to be a multiversal singularity.

Members

In the fictional narrative of the Transformers universe, the Prime lineage began with the Thirteen Original Transformers created when the universe began by Primus to aid him in his battle against Unicron. They went on to become the foundation of life on Cybertron. The story concept of the Original Thirteen, as well as three of their members (Prima, Liege Maximo and The Fallen), were created by comic book writer Simon Furman.

Within the multiverse in which most Transformers fiction occurs, the Thirteen are multiversal singularities—across all the different universal streams, only one incarnation of each of the Thirteen exists, moving between worlds. Within the Aligned continuity family, which was once considered to be "separate" from the rest of the Transformers multiverse and consists of the television series Transformers: Prime and it's related media, each member of the Thirteen possess a special artifact of great power that is tied to their identity and role in Primus's plan. The following nine are members of the Thirteen in all incarnations:

Artifacts of the Primes

Created at the dawn of time by Primus to battle his ancient foe Unicron, the Thirteen original Transformers employed many powerful weapons and icons in their battles. Many of these wenndre crafted by Solus Prime, the smith of the Thirteen, while others were made by Primus himself. Many of the relics are re-imagined versions of the special abilities, relics, or combinations the Mini-Cons had the ability to form in Transformers: Armada. These artifacts include: the Star Saber, the Requiem Blaster, and the Skyboom Shield.

Homages to artifacts include the Dark Saber, an evil version of the Star Saber created in the comics when Galvatron made use of the Air Defense Mini-Con Team. This weapon was re-imagined as the "Dark Star Saber", a similar weapon featured in Transformers: Prime created by Megatron from Dark Energon using the Forge of Solus Prime. The Dark Star Saber also appeared as a weapon used by Nemesis Prime in Transformers: Devastation. The full list of known/referenced artifacts of the Thirteen include:

Films

In the Revenge of the Fallen film, there were only Seven Primes who were the first wielders of the Matrix and used it to power a Sun Harvester. After learning that Earth contained intelligent life, they refused to use it and The Fallen (voiced by Tony Todd) fought them over it. He was too powerful for them in battle so they stole it from him and sacrificed themselves to hide it. In present day, Sam Witwicky found the Matrix but it crumbled to dust in his hands. However, in a vision, the Dynasty gave it to him to wield as he proved worthy of it, telling him that the Matrix is something that must be earned not found. After being revived, Sam used it to resurrect Optimus, but The Fallen took it before it completely healed Optimus and used to power the Sun Harvester. After being powered up by Jetfire, Optimus kills the Fallen and destroys the harvester. The unnamed members of the Dynasty that appear in Sam's vision are voiced by Michael York, Kevin Michael Richardson and Robin Atkin Downes. In Age of Extinction, the new trilogy, it is confirmed there are 13 Primes with Optimus being the last one created.

Television

In Transformers: Prime, the following of the Thirteen were mentioned by name - Alpha Trion, Solus Prime and Megatronus Prime/The Fallen, while the whole team appears in a flashback in the episode "One Shall Rise, Part 1". Alpha Trion (voiced by George Takei) is the only member to eventually appear in the episode "Alpha/Omega" and even speak in a message to Optimus, and in "Rebellion", through the "Well of All Sparks." In the former episode, Liege Maximo would appear, having been long dead. His face was not seen, nor was he named, but his right arm was amputated by Megatron to use for himself to activate the Forge of Solus Prime to create the Dark Star Saber out of a chunk of Dark Energon to evenly match him with Optimus Prime who had recently obtained Prima's Star Saber. Technically, as it was later established that Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) was a member of the Thirteen, his presence as a main character in the series adds to the small list of appearances members of the team have made throughout the media.

In Transformers: Robots in Disguise (an animated sequel to Transformers: Prime), the Thirteen Primes are shown to reside in the Realm of the Primes which is where Optimus Prime is currently residing. In "Out of Focus," Micronus Prime (voiced by Adrian Pasdar) appears where he trains Optimus Prime as he prepares himself for an evil that would threaten both Cybertron and Earth. Micronus Prime used some generic Mini-Cons in his training. After some difficulty, Optimus Prime managed to pass Micronus Prime's training exercise. A number of members of the Thirteen Primes appear in "Battlegrounds, Part 1", including Vector Prime (voiced by Troy Baker), who expressed doubt in Optimus's readiness to battle Megatronus/The Fallen. Despite this, Micronous sends Optimus to Earth, presumably resurrecting him in the real world, where he arrives in time to battle Megatronus (voiced by Gil Gerard). After the Fallen is apparently killed, Optimus decides to stay with Bumblebee's Team on Earth at his request, though Optimus states that it will only be if he is his equal rather than leader. In "Overload, Part 1" Micronus appears again briefly to recover the additional power the Primes had provided to Optimus for his battle with Megatronus.