something i was thinking abt at 1am was creators vs mentors, and i think for my cybertron creators are the guardians of cold constructs and mentors are the guardians of adopted hotspot/forged mecha. creators actually had a servo in your creation, but both creators and mentors fall under the category of (parental) guardians.
so if a cybertronian was created in an industrial warehouse/mass produced, they might have only mentor(s) who adopted them after their creation, or no mentors or creators.
cold cons could consider the machine that made them or even the operators of that machine as their creators, despite having nothing to do with them
a mech who was cold constructed personally by one or a few mecha but then given to/adopted by different mecha would have both creators and mentors.
also i like the idea that guardian/creation units can be any size. one kid and one guardian, five kids and three guardians, one kid and seven guardians, one guardian and seven kids, etc
cybertronains use c-1 for your oldest/leader among creators, c-2 for your second creator, and so on, to mimic the serial number sparklings get before they choose a name for themselves, like b-127. mentors use m-1, m-2, m-3, etc. c and m are the only letters not used by sparklings.
im sure some mentors and creators would name their sparklings themselves, but in this world it would be very few
the range of mental health for cold cons would be very vast in this world, depending entirely on who their creators were/how they were created. mass-produced but later adopted by loving mentors? probably pretty good. created individually with love and care and kept by those creators? amazing. stunning. created by individuals for one purpose and one purpose only, without mentors? yeahhh that doesn't sound healthy man. mass-produced by a machine and thrown into war? ohhh buddy,
There are multiple ways for new bots to come about in the GOTP AU, so today, we will be going into the frequency and (G-rated) details regarding them...
The Well of Allsparks
The Well of Allsparks in the most common method from which new cybertronians are born, about 70% of new bots entering registration come from this method. The frequency ebbs and flows week to week, but since Cybertron's revival, there hasn't been a full 7 days passing that some activity is seen. Guards are stationed at the well at all times, preventing vandalism, decepticons taking newborns immediately to be trained, and also to aid any newborns struggling to reach the surface.
Bots born from this method are typically born in the "mature" phase, their frames being the equivalent of their mid-teens to young adult. They are rounded up from the Well onto trains and then transported into the city for registration. It is also during registration that they are assigned a "guardian," an older bot that they live with and who takes the responsibility of teaching them all of the important skills of navigating life. (Keeping splitsparks/twins together under the same guardian is maintained as much as possible)
During this training period, the newborns receive their first alt mode and might start looking into potential occupations. They will often follow the occupation of their guardian, though this isn't always the case. This training period typically lasts about a year before they leave their guardian's home and start off on their own, though the bond between mentor and student tends to remain.
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Cold Construction
While still an active method of new cybertronians being born, "Cold Constructions" or CCs, are far less common and the practice is often frowned upon in post-revival Cybertron. It is often seen as a remnant of the caste system- the method of building a physical body and putting a spark in it- to make more workers in a certain workforce rather than letting the bot choose their path themselves.
It is mostly still practiced by lone sects and Decepticons looking to increase their ranks, and it can be hard for those bots to enter society should they choose to break away and forge their own path.
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Budding
Budding is another less common method of reproduction, which occurs instead in the frame of another living, active bot. All cybertronians, even those constructed cold, have the programming and capability to undergo this method, though CCs have been known to have a significantly harder time carrying the sparkling to term.
The process is asexual, requiring no mate or partner to engage. The exact details of how the programming is triggered is still under study, but it has been found that the Well of Allsparks sends out an energy signal that limits its activation on Cybertron's surface; why is unknown, but it does allow greater numbers of this method outside of its gravitational pull, especially on colonies lacking a sparking well of their own. (The planet of Telen is a great example)
The process begins with the parental bot's spark splitting off a tiny fragment of itself, called "The Ember" or "Starspark" by some. This triggers the parent's form to begin forming additional protomatter in preparation for forming the sparkling's frame. During this time, the parent will experience increased pressure under their armor, aches and limited range of motion, and will go through their normal rations of energon much quicker than normal. If the parent has a beast-mode, budding can also lead to them becoming stuck in their beast mode for the duration of the process, and the sparkling has a higher likelihood to inherit that beast-mode-capable frame.
The entire process usually lasts between 1-3 weeks, after which the tiny fragment will have formed a spark of its own and be enveloped by the additional protomatter, which the parent then expels. Within a few minutes, the protomatter will take on the physical form of the sparkling, and within an hour, the sparkling's processor will be developed enough to activate and the sparkling will begin to act on their own.
Budded sparklings (and the sparklings of our next method) represent the infant forms of their parent's form, and their level of development will vary depending on that form. (bot-mode sparklings will be like a newborn human, very dependent on their parent and will need constant watching after, while say, a deer-mode parent, will be able to stand and walk after their parent almost immediately)
Over time, the sparkling will forge their own protomatter as they grow, and most will be in their "mature" stage within 4 earth years.
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Spark-Trading
Spark-Trading starts off like Budding, but is typically seen in romantic couples. Because all bots possess the ability to carry, the "Passing" of the new spark is possible between partners.
One partner begins the process, but once the spark is stabilized, they are able to then pass the spark onto their partner's frame, allowing them to carry the sparkling the rest of the term (much like seahorses) The process of this requires the two parents' sparks to be in close proximity which requires them to be exposed, so it is typically a private affair, allowing their sparks' own gravitational pulls to mingle and allow one to pull the new spark into their own, before the process is triggered in the carrying partner. With the new spark's energy being fueled by two different sparks, this allows both parents to possess the inherited empathic link to the sparkling.
This process can also be performed with care to a surrogate, should neither parent be able to safely carry to term. However, the new spark's development must be slightly further to prevent the surrogate's own spark signature to bleed into the new spark.
As Cybertron went from strength to strength, stellar to interstellar, it soon became clear that the usual methods were not enough to make up the numbers. There had to be more workers available more readily to help build up newer colonies. This was when Arch Convoy, having newly inherited the Matrix, made a controversial decision. If the Allspark and its torches cannot produce enough sparks to expand to the stars... science would be needed to fill the gap.
Scientists began harvesting developing sparks from relatively isolated locations that would have likely sputtered out otherwise. They studied the spark's structure, analyzing their energy make up, the way their plasma-based designs ebbed and flowed. It was not the first attempt, for their predecessors had attempted similar experiments and ended up creating tiny stars they called Embers. But unlike their predecessors... they found the results they wanted.
Using a high-concentration energy accelerator, they found that at the right temperature, a cube of energon could be focused and refined into an artificial spark, nigh-identical to their naturally generated counterparts, except it was found that they actually lasted longer in an exposed environment and could be stored in photonic crystals. Further, they found that a basic body design with minimal cybermatter components would be forcefully reformatted into a true body for these artificial sparks upon installation, and that the Cybertronians that came from this creation could bypass previous stages of growth, instantaneously emerging with all the knowledge available to it and a ready willingness to venture forth and find out more.
Naturally, Cybertronians born of the Allspark were a bit skeptical of their artificially sparked counterparts, with the process earning the descriptive but distancing name of "cold construction" and those borne of it being considered children without childhoods. Many of the Cold Constructs were absentmindedly given jobs based on their body's basic design specs, including alt modes.
In another timeline, Cold Constructs would have likely chafed under the yoke of their Forged counterparts considering them barely above mindless drones, but things took a different track when Arch Convoy's ship, the Proudstar, was destroyed in its port, and the Age of Expansion violently gave way to its successor, the Age of Invasion. During that terrible event, many Cold Constructs ran in to help evacuate both their fellow workers and the Forged that were caught in the chaos. This was noted to be a major turning point in Cold Construct - Forged Relations, and as the war reached its conclusion, most people stopped caring about silly things like your spark forming from the planet or from a lab.
The Functionist Council were not most people. During the short time of Zeta Prime's reign, they snuck through several edicts that would affect newer generations of Cold Constructed bots, creating masses of miners under the control of the Resource Corporations that survived the Combatron War. And as they amassed power for themselves under Guard Convoy, they put the relationship between Cold Constructed and Forged mecha under some considerable strain.
And eventually... one bot on one side cracked under it.
And those that know the history of the Age of Heroes know the rest.
These days, the Forged and Constructed know better than to reveal their origins, for the beginning is irrelevant and the future is always approaching. There may come a time when such things can be talked about openly, but none know when for sure.
This part will go over all the different ways the Cybertronian race can make more Cybertronians and the next part will be more about the specifics on different Cybertronian species.
How sparks are made
Hot Spots - Sparks emerge from hot spots on cybertron, either on the planets face or a underground pocket, and are harvested to be cold constructed or Foraged depending on the spark type and the area they emerged. Sparks are only harvested by those the Senate has given the ok to, if there harvested by anyone else high punishment is given.
Spark Merging - The way Sparks are made when two or more cybertronians Spark Bond after interfacing. This way of reproduction is illegal because the Senate can’t keep track of everyone as easily. This form of reproduction is only used by upperclassmen and cybertronians who live outside the law an example being Insecticons.
Seekers are the main upperclassmen given the privilege of Spark Merging and only the best after all good soldiers breed better ones. This was also a way the Senate kept their millitary in check because if you were misbehaving you could kiss that possibility goodbye. This was also one of the safest groups to give the privilege too because if a Seekers Sparkling acted up they corrected it immediately, being able to have kin was a big thing so you couldn’t have them acting up.
The Senate went as far as removing the knowledge on how to reproduce by Spark bonding to not educating the masses that it was a thing that could be done, though the information still got around many still didn’t try out of fear of punishment and it being to risky to try to raise their own in a system where everyone was documented so a new face wouldn’t go unnoticed.
How body’s are made
Foraging - A spark is harvested from a Hot Spot and squished into protometal which will become it’s protoform. Kida like the way you flatten out then fold and squish play dough. The spark will heat up the surrounding protoform and this becomes the sparkchamber.
Cold Construction - sparks are taken from Hot Spots and put into pre made body’s with bits of protoform placed where there would be the T-cog and Brain Module so those can form essentially stealing their bitlit stages of life from them. After being put into a full grow body it takes a few days to for the newspark to make their T-Cog and Brain Module out of the given protoform and are immediately put into training for the jobs best suited for there alt mode which had been pre-determined. Cold Constructed bots are more likely to suffer from mental disorders because of the way they are essentially forced into adulthood.
Carrier - The Newspark’s protoform body is made inside the carriers incubation chamber and when the bitlit emerges they have a fully formed protoform. The carrier is not the more “female” looking bot but rather usually the bot with the more transfluid in their tanks. Carriers require constant feeding and transfluid donations to make the sparklings protoform. The sparkings Spark is housed by the carriers spark even able to crss to their other parents spark if spark bonding occurs again, not required , before returning. If the carrier is under intense emotional stress this can actually kill the newspark because it’s to much for them to handle so carriers need to be covered in affection especially in the beginning stages.
Cloning - Clones in my universe are mindless bots that are exact copies of each other, they don’t have a spark but they use production line bodies making them indistinguishable form those who are cold constructed. These are used mainly by the Decepticons as A war tactic, the enemy won't know if there shooting someone with a spark or just a drone and these also create create large intimidating numbers.
Honestly? No, you don't have to worry. You clarified perfectly. And I think you have a real good understanding of the concept. Though, I am curious... How would you have gone about the "True Form Starscream" thing? I often wonder how I would execute it myself. But I'd like to see your take. ^v^
tbh i probably wouldn’t have gone about it at all. i think it would be very hard to approach the “true form” concept without veering into unfortunate implications about constructed cold bots being lesser/broken.
With the whole 'true self' biz, I see it myself like fitting a triangle in a square hole. Picture it like a kid's puzzlebox - Primus knows his business, he knows what shapes should go in what holes, but normal Cybertronians? They don't have a clue. This leads to them shoving the wrong shapes into the wrong holes, no matter the consequence. In my head, that's what Scott was getting at; Starscream is not in a Starscream-shaped hole. If he was in that hole, he would feel more comfortable.
i’m sure that’s what she was shooting for, but i still think there are unavoidable, very bad implications. even if everything else about how i’m reading it is wrong, if it’s just that Cybertronians who were constructed cold are uncomfortable in their bodies...statements like “members of this oppressed class are not how they should be, and would be better off if they were not born as part of this class (not just because of how society treats them, but because it is inherently worse for them to be this way)” don’t exist in a vacuum.
i know i commented on this already but i just want to through out that the logic for the true selves is very...well, i've seen similar arguments for why trans people are Wrong and that doesn't sit right (on top of like, literally everything else)
i hadn’t been thinking of it from that angle, but yeah i can see where you’re coming from! there’s just...a lot of reasons this doesn’t sit right
