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.
Why were all the suspects of the Aequitas trials constructed cold? Was this really a coincidence or was Tyrest right all along?
Dear Trial Trainee,
That certainly is an interesting correlation.
It is also worth noting how many criminals who could have been judged by Aequitas weren't.
I begin to wonder, did Tyrest really discover that all who had been judged by his computer were Constructed Cold, or did he create it to justify his own prejudices?
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.
So I’ve seen some people bring up the notion of Megatron encountering Starscream in the Functionalist Universe, which is certainly something that I’d be interested in seeing, but there is the issue of the fact that all the constructed cold bots were exiled from Cybertron at some point in the past. Furthermore, if it turns out that Starscream is younger than Megatron, which seems likely, the ripple effects of Megatron’s non-existence may mean that Starscream as we know him never came into existence in the Functionalist Universe in the first place. The younger Starscream is compared to Megatron, the more likely Megatron’s non-existence is to of had some impact on the processes leading up to his birth. Starscream’s spark may exist in the Functionalist Universe, but it may have been placed in an entirely different frame. Or maybe Starscream’s spark exists and was placed in a similar enough frame, but he never ended up taking on the name Starscream, so there’s no way of distinguishing him as Starscream out of all the other Seeker frames.
I think that in itself could make an interesting story however - Megatron ends up encountering some cold constructed bots who were exiled from Cybertron, either because he leaves or they return. A bunch of them resemble Seekers and Megatron is able to figure out they were built in the same region Starscream originated from around the same time he came into existence, so Megatron realises that one of them could very well have Starscream’s spark. So instead of having confusing emotional hang ups about a single alternative universe Starscream, Megatron has to deal with having issues with this whole troupe of potential alternative universe Starscreams.
It would be interesting if the Seekers, while similar enough to their original universe counterparts to be recognisable, were to have some notable difference in the Functionalist Universe. Like, perhaps they’re all helicopters instead of jets, or maybe they’re all she’s instead of he’s. We saw a few she-bots in the Functionalist Universe, who may have just been instances of the few outlying she-bots that existed on Cybertron in the original universe, or it may be that something happened in the Functionalist Universe to make she-bots more ubiquitous. If that’s the case, whoever built the Seekers might have decided to make them all she-bots instead of he-bots. Alternatively, given that rights for cold constructed bots were clearly getting worse and worse in the Functionalist Universe, maybe by the time the Seekers were built cold constructs weren’t referred to as “he” or “she” at all, but as “it”.
Perhaps when the cold constructs eventually got exiled they came across some of the long lost colonies in their search for energon and were given asylum. The Seekers may have found themselves on Camius and decided to become “she’s” instead of “it’s” in honour of the Mistress of Flame and her Prime, who gave them sanctuary. Maybe after accepting the cold constructs, a number of whom were built for war, Caminus’s destiny redirects from becoming a struggling little resource-scarce world to a military power preparing to reclaim Cybertron and its plentiful energon, with the Seekers as the Mistress of Flame’s aerial vanguard. Maybe when Megatron encounters them, he can’t shake the feeling that one of them in particular reminds him of Starscream, but he’ll never actually know for sure if she’s Starscream’s counterpart.
Basically what I’m saying is this one way they could introduce IDW Slipstream.
