#cloud world

[underseappletree]

cloud world - .flow

[processes]

Aaron Morse (b. 1974), Cloud World (Shepard with Wildflowers), 2016

[askvectorprime]

What are the universal streams of Earthspark and Transformers One? With the Shrouding preventing the TransTech from plotting the multiverse, it falls on us fans to do so instead. That brings up a couple of questions. What exactly is the exact, precise definition of a universal cluster which we can use to checklist all future media to determine whether it’s a new cluster or not? You previously designated Cyberverse as Khathos cluster. All three use evergreen. Are they the same cluster?

Dear Continuity Codifier,

As you note, the actions of my brother Nexus have greatly limited the Transcendent Technomorphs' ability to map the universe. Since the Shroud fell, Axiom Nexus had only been able to concretely identify four new "pillar realities"; while consensus has labelled one of the four as Primax 623.14 Gamma, the other three—temporarily classified as 818.27 Alpha, 1122.11 Alpha, and 924.20 Delta—have yet to be conclusively named. As you say, stream 818.27 Alpha has tentatively been classified as part of the Khathos cluster; however, there are still many who argue it belongs as part of the Primax or Uniend clusters. Universe 1122.11 Alpha has been similarly argued to be part of the Primax, Uniend or Khathos clusters; among those who consider it to be part of its own cluster, proposed names include Gaius, Pentis, Ninmah, Onogo, and Dheghom. As for stream 924.20 Delta—well, it was detected so recently that there is nowhere near consensus on its placement or classification, with some scientists proposing it to be part of the Tyran cluster thanks to their near-identical levels of Lorenz-Ω electromagnetic force.

Of course, as I've mentioned before, the academic discourse surrounding universal streams is far from settled. In fact, in the aftermath of the Shroud, a significant corpus has come to believe that the terminology of "universal clusters", while once useful, has become redundant now that there are barely a Prime's dozen reality streams to keep track of. Some have proposed adopting the "spacetime" system of Cloud World to more precisely pinpoint spatio-temporal coordinates within these realities, while others have suggested entirely new systems that would "lump" universes together more broadly—though, of course, each of these approaches introduces its own difficulties that make me doubt that the current paradigm will be abandoned any time soon. The universal stream system may not be perfect, but it is functional, and I have my doubts that any replacement would have benefits outweighing the difficulties in completely overhauling the system from the ground up.

Ah, but I digress. You wanted to know how universal clusters are determined? Well, as I have illustrated, that is a complex and highly subjective process. Generally, TransTech scientists will log a reality stream's most fundamental traits—ranging from macro-scale aspects such as a high level of WY-att interference waves, to micro-scale details like the presence or absence of the AllSpark—and compare them to other, similar realities, grouping them by their most common shared traits. Thus, a reality in which the Mini-Cons were central to the Cybertronians' war, the power of Primus manifests through Cyber Keys, and the planet Xerxes is at least five parsecs off-course from impact with the Omicron Rift might be classed as part of the Aurex Cluster, and so on. These heuristics might strike you as rather arbitrary, and indeed there are one or two outspoken researchers to have come out of Axiom Nexus’ organic population, who are increasingly vocal in their criticism of the TransTechs’ classification system for its cybercentric framing of reality.

Ultimately, I think you are correct: it is up to you, not we Transformers, to determine how to categorize the multiverse in the way you find most useful. Surely you would be better served by a taxonomy that reflects more human-relevant concerns—perhaps distinguishing realities by whether or not the Federation of Western Europe was founded, or the number of Earth's moons?

[greenekangaroo]

So I finally got to pay it forward on the Cloud World server today, and I think I'm gonna keep doing it.

Long story short: when I started a random user- possibly a mod I'm still not sure- threw a really good set of diamond armor at me while I was afk so it wound up in my inventory. When I came back I was bewildered and barely got to thank them before they took off.

When you pay for a cloudworld rank- and as An Adult With A Job I was the first person to purchase the highest possible paid rank- you get access to a kit that you can basically refresh every two days. That kit has useful blocks and more importantly enchanted armor and tools.

Which is what I got from that random user that day. Their daily drop of enchanted armor, and a full set of diamond tools. It was a kind thing with no explanation and it made me feel included. I wanted to do that for someone else.

I forgot the tools, sadly, but there was a lottery happening at spawn which meant all the players online were there. INCLUDING rookie players I never see because I strive to be the equivalent of Cloud World's cryptid- you only see roo blurry and far away as they slip off to their island to cut down more spruce trees.

So I added a set of diamond armor to my inventory, picked one rookie who wasn't moving too much at random, and just started chucking armor at them.

Then I promptly did the shifty dance of acknowledgement and ran off to to the island portal, where I promptly disconnected because I need to make dinner.

May my legend grow.

[kazeharuhime]

Lesser Skypetal Flyona

A member of the Flyona family, Lesser Skypetals are distinguished by their leafy stems and lack of antennae-like stamen. Generally known as a wild version of the Sweetpetal Flyona, sweetener made from Lessser Skypetals is a lot less sweet, and generally takes more to boil down as its naturally sweet fluid is much more watery than its preferred counterpart. Still, a type of liorice can be made from boiling the stem and it is widely enjoyed, giving it one advantage over the more famous Sweetpetal.

[buddha-arena]

Maynard Dixon

“Cloud World”

1925

[askvectorprime]

Does MegaZarak exist in Viron 901.8 Alpha?

Dear Zarak Zoner,

The Megazarak of that reality is the Headmaster component of a titanic Predacon weapon known as Scorponok. He was designed to serve as a counter to the Emissary and the monolithic Autobot known as Fortress Maximus, but came up far shorter in terms of size and raw power. As a result, he has never seen deployment in battle, and currently serves as the seat of power for the Predacon Council.

Interestingly enough, they have a counterpart in several branches of the G1 World, where they are instead known by the names Sasorin and Magna Zarak. They are Destronger weapons from Cybertron's distant future.

[askvectorprime]

Dear Vector Prime, we may be past giving universal stream designations to parts of the multiverse, but what would you call universes like Cyberverse, BotBots, and the IDW comics since 2019?

Dear Nomenclature Nerd,

That rather depends on whom I was discussing them with! When speaking with my siblings and other beings in tune with the multiverse, I would refer to them with a set of higher-dimensional "coordinates" that most beings would be unable to comprehend. With more mundane Cybertronians such as the Protectors or my fellow Time Warriors, I would typically describe the universes by the events and deviations that characterise them, or use local terminology such as the spacetime designations of Cloud World. And, when speaking with humans such as yourself, I would do much as you have, and use the names of the media through which they were broadcasted to your reality!