#exarchon

[prince-toffee]

An Exarchon-Controlled Deathsaurus, The End Is Nigh | Transformers: War's End (2022) | #4 | Cover A | Art by Jack Lawrence

[scarlettaagni]

an ambush of ghosts

Cyclonus standing over Provoke's dead body in the street. He stares at it and then kneels down to pick it up.

The chorus stand around behind him. He just barely begins to lift her up when they speak.

Provoke: What do you think you're doing?

He's startled, but controllingly drops any grip he had on the real Provoke's body. He whips around irritably.

"Who was that?"

He shoots looks across the gathering in indignant, outraged confusion.

Paragon is glaring silently.

"Who are you supposed to be?"

Provoke: Don't remember me? You were me up til now.

Gridlock: We're Cyclonus' friends. We are not your friends.

Exarchon: [reaching out] What is this...?

Highfire: Don't the fatal wounds make it obvious? We're hallucinations.

Exarchon: ... I see, he was mad the entire time. That explains it. But... why are you still here? I've done away with Cyclonus.

Highfire: We were actually wondering the same thing.

Grudge: I was just saying if he goes, we go with him. If it all went south. But then it went sideways.

Gridlock: Losing us broke his spark. And the war broke his brain. You may have usurped his spark, but you still got his brain. Least I think that's how we're still here.

Exarchon is uncomfortable but beginning to familiarize himself with the situation.

Exarchon grimly laughs. He's pissed but trying not to let it show.

Grudge: We're specters of Cyc's guilt. Maybe we're specters of your guilt now. Are you still Cybertronian enough to feel guilt?

Exarchon: Feh. I am beyond such pedestrian experience.

Highfire: You are the reason we all died. Forget guilt, do you even feel responsible?

Gridlock: What if we're Cyc's punishment? A nice lil' housewarming present for the new tenant.

He glowers.

Provoke: Oh, jokes? You got jokes? You think we're joking? You think we're doing a tight five right now, bluescreen?

Exarchon: Nobody speaks to me like that.

Provoke: I AM nobody, deadbolt, and I'll say what I like. How dare you. How DARE you. How dare a sentient oil stain like yourself put on such a proud face? You take that off RIGHT NOW!

Provoke: Why don't you take your slimy, overclocked junker caboose AND-

He impulsively swipes at her. His arm just phases through like smoke.

He turns his back to them, realizing they're just distractions. Huffs an angry laugh.

Provoke: Did you see that?! You guys saw that! He just tried to backhand me!

Gridlock: That's real low. Thought you were above all that.

Exarchon glares and doesn't dignify that with a response out of spite. He returns to picking up Provoke's body, hoisting it over his shoulder. He walks back to the med center.

Exarchon: Punishment, is that right? I can't do anything to you, but you cannot do anything to me.

Provoke: Keep telling yourself that. You'll find it's easy to forget.

Exarchon: You are all nothing. Less than nothing.

Grudge: Still talking to us, though, aintcha?

They follow and continue to chatter and jeer at him.

Exarchon has no reaction.

Grudge: Never been too big a fan of hand-me-downs, either. Don't feel to great to BE one, neither.

Gridlock: If you hate Cybertron enough to destroy it, why don't you just leave?

Grudge: Cybertron is doing a good job of hating AND destroying itself without you, you know.

Gridlock: Leave and go back to your new buddies. We won't miss you!

Highfire: I promise we won't.

Provoke: We never missed you. You should have stayed out there.

Paragon: You don't belong here.

Highfire: You can't ignore us forever.

Exarchon thinks "watch me" and tries to enter the center. He hesitates because she gets between him and the door.

He glares at her before he just walks through her.

The jeering continues as he walks down the hall to Provoke's room and dumps her body down by the wall.

Paragon: What did you do to Cyclonus? Where do usurped sparks go? What have you done with his spark? Look at me when I'm speaking to you.

Exarchon goes over to Ruckus' bed and lays out Cyclonus' belongings to see what to keep. The extendable sword, jointed but doesn't compromise the integrity of the blade? Interesting, they didn't have those in his day.

He scowls and returns to the desk.

Paragon: Look at me with his eyes and you answer me.

Exarchon: I am NOT others. Others become ME.

Grudge: Aha. Gotcha. Thought you were ignoring us.

The jeering increases over the hours as Exarchon resumes his research. it's harder and harder to put them out.

Provoke wraps her hands around his eyes. Exarchon can't see through them so he launches out of his chair, grabs a nearby canister and chucks it.

Exarchon screams, launches a black lightning strike of his spark at him, which goes through him and blows a small hole in the wall.

Grudge: Uh-oh, you made him mad.

Highfire: You're handling this worse than Cyc.

Gridlock: Yeah, it took cycles for him to start throwing things. He just tried to hide at first.

Exarchon: [huffing angrily against wall] This shell… is flawed.

Provoke: Oh, poor thing.

Highfire: Gotta make a change? So soon?

Gridlock: You came back from the dead, so I never had you pegged as a quitter. Comeback not happening?

Grudge: Fragging, squealing axle. It hasn't been ONE cycle. Need a body so bad? [slaps chest] Right here!

Grudge: Usurp me! Go on, do it! I dare you! Usurp me, you defragged, decaying, WORM-RIDDEN SHOVELWARE-

Exarchon growls at her, almost lunges but doesn't.

Grudge: [looks back at it] Wow, you're really stupid. What was that supposed to accomplish?

Gridlock: We're not real, remember? Did whoever change you suck your brains out?

Exarchon: I wasn't trying to usurp you, I was trying to SHUT YOU UP.

Gridlock: Ah, well, Cyclonus never figured out how to do that.

Grudge: And he had two megacycles to think about it. You got that sort of time?

Highfire: Got that sort of patience?

Provoke: We wouldn't stop, even for him.

Gridlock: Not even Froid could get it done. He's always talking about his four big failures. Was Cyc one?

Highfire: Maybe if you asked very nicely.

[everyone speaks over one another, some tangents]

He turns away from them, facing the wall Provoke's corpse is slumped by.

Exarchon: THERE WILL BE SILENCE!

Gridlock: What, you can be three people at once and can't handle a group discussion with just one? Not even for one cycle?

Grudge: One man handled it for two megacycles just fine. Sometimes he even liked it. Don't appreciate our company?

Provoke: Is this how you act when you can't kill, usurp, or scare somebody? It's pathetic.

Highfire: I can't believe we were ever scared of you.

Paragon: All you have is your special power, and technology. Without those, you can't scare anyone into doing your thinking for you. You're just a sad, little robot who takes the credit of others.

Grudge: I actually once looked up to you. I used to be embarrassed about it. Now I'm just ashamed.

Provoke: Scraps not worth feeding to rust worms.

Highfire: You left and we cheered. What did you really accomplish?

Provoke: A parasite reliant on those it despises.

Exarchon: Rich! Rich! RICH OF YOU TO SAY!

A Cyclonus hallucination is standing off to the side. Gray, intact. Eyes in shadow, not white and glowing like the others. Looks grim.

Nothing.

Exarchon: Oh, GOOD. ANOTHER one.

Exarchon: What sort of clever, biting commentary do YOU have?

Exarchon: Well, then? SPEAK!

No reaction.

Exarchon: LET'S HAVE IT!

Paragon cranes an arm around Cyclonus from behind, cupping his face.

Paragon: Not that you'd know, Cyc was never the chatty sort. He only spoke when he knew just what to say. I loved that about him. I'd tell him all the time.

Moves behind Cyclonus, cranes arms around him. Lays head against him.

Paragon peels off his mask, ripping like flesh, to show a scarred feminine mouth underneath.

Paragon: Of course, I loved it more when he did speak. I always told him how much I loved his voice.

Paragon: Are you still Cybertronian enough to feel love? [stands up straight, partially behind Cyclonus] Don't you remember what it was like?

Paragon: ... Don't you remember Peratrix?

Exarchon: [taken aback for once] How do you know that name?

Exarchon shouts that they are nothing, remnants of a mind long gone before he got rid of it.

Cyclonus: But you're still just talking to yourself.

Exarchon has had enough. He swats a machine away in a rage before collecting himself. The chorus continues to jeer him.

He approaches Kaskade's bed and his spark leaks out of Cyclonus' frame encroaching on her.

"Only a cycle. Pathetic."

"It's so easy when you can just leave it all behind, isn't it?"

Cyclonus' body slumps onto it and turns gray. A pause. Kaskade rises and yanks out the support cables. Glares over at him.

Grabs Cyclonus and tosses him over to Provoke's body.

"Rust together like you want."

Provoke is sitting up, Cyclonus leaning over onto her lap.

Exarchon collects Cyclonus' belongings and leaves with them.

END

displaced dialogue and story notes:

Exarchon intended to use Provoke/Cyclonus as an information feed to his two other bodies. not meant to be taking any action, up until he's learned all he's needed to know. a third body that sits idle and does not use up any brainpower aside from reading and understanding data. but once Ex is all caught up, their prowess as soldiers would come in handy

(Paragon) "Your pet Turmoil tore us apart."

(Exarchon) "Wasn't that Pyra Magna?"

(Paragon) "It was death that kept us apart. But Turmoil, on your orders, took me from him. We loved each other.

This first draft has it so Exarchon can't make it a day with the chorus, but on revisits, I would extend it to a whole several days of him ignoring them in favor of his news feed as they slowly whittle down his patience

Also thinking of a scene where a real person approaches the clinic and what would ordinarily be a nat20 for Exarchon to get him to turn away, turn into silencing a witness. Ex hasn't gotten used to ignoring the chorus so they deliberately set him off, plus Provoke's body being there is a big red flag so the guy, rightfully skeeved out, tries to book it and Exarchon kills him. He tries to shame the chorus for causing his death but they get on his case for being the one to actually do the deed and being unable to own up to his own actions. He, a thing that started a WAR, is lecturing THEM (who are, again, not real) on unnecessary death?

Exarchon pleading to the chorus (specifically Paragon) to understand what he's doing to Cybertron is for its own good and if they are in the same head as he is, then they'd know what's in store if he doesn't. Paragon then asks "If you're being forced to do this, then why are you enjoying it?" and that this must be what THEY told him to think, then "Why are you asking me for absolution? Are you... feeling guilty?" "Apologize to them, [gestures to the chorus] not me."

[thestitchesarchive]

not to treat some bullshit I made up like it's canon and has any gravitas at all (but that's exactly what I'm gonna do)

I'm getting Exarchon (and Peratrix...) vibes

for a lil context, this was an unrelated song from an ongoing-story song producer, who remastered it and made it connected to major villain responsible for everything bad in a domino way (and then occasionally making it worse on purpose), the song now implying before all that, he may have had a failed relationship. this is not his motive for villainy, it's just an unexpected facet the character never had before

omg kagamine len I know that guy

honestly I would've loved to get more Exarchon backstory in-canon, I mean we know he was probably kidnapped by Quintessons or something like that but other than that he's just the big bad who comes in and ruins everyone's day three times over. It's one of my biggest annoyances with IDW: not enough god damn lore!!!!

You know what, the continuity's been dead and buried since 2021, I can take this as canon, why the hell not. Man the consequences to losing lovers really is a spectrum, sometimes they make you hallucinate ghosts and sometimes you just destroy an entire planet's way of life (or a few, counting Neutronia). We have got to get these dramatic-ass robots better therapists mannnnn

Wait omg crazy idea based directly off the song, maybe it's the vibe you were going for, but: Exarchon got rejected by Peratrix > in his desolation he left Cybertron and tried to get as far away from the memories/emotions as he could > he went so far he got abducted and turned against his people > came back to Cybertron with the intent to destroy it, ran into Peratrix again there and purposefully usurped her body so that they could 'be together' (especially since morals would no longer be holding him back, he could just pretend while wearing her as a shell and idkkk) > though wearing her skin probably did nothing for him so she died for literally nothing and he, uh, I dunno if he feels regret or not but whatever it is is enough to stick with him for the rest of time. Yippee woohoo lore!

Side tangent: I just checked his tfwiki page and it says he was 'once a trusted and respected figure in Cybertronian society', so the plot thickens! Also doesn't state why he left Cybertron, so the above mentioned could probably be plausible unless I forgot something!

[morethanmeetstheass]

i never posted this to tumblr but this was the third and final cover i did for idw before the license change. im so proud of it and i was so honored to get hired by them for a THIRD COVER. absolutely buckwild.

getting to play with sunstorm (technically exarchon possessing him but whatever) was so fun. his colors play to my usual color palette so well. im glad that my run with idw went out with a bang

[bloodilymerry]

TF Fantasy AU: The Antagonists

Exarchon

Your Standard Evil Overlord 

Neutral Evil

Rumors say that Exarchon wasn’t always the power-hungry tyrant. That something infected him and twisted him into the monster he became. Is it true? Who knows? The matter remains that he left ruin, pain and destruction in his wake.

Certainly, his uncanny skill with mind-control spells was something unusual. He managed to amass quite the army of humans and orcs with spells. There had been several attempts to stop him, each ending in death for those making the attempt.

It was mostly pure luck that Cyclonus and the others managed to seal him - they caught him unawares after a battle. Exarchon still managed to kill most of them, before the binding spell sealed him away.

And now in the present, Galvatron undid the seal in the hopes of gaining a powerful follower. What he ended up is becoming Exarchon’s understudy. 

Galvatron

Tiefling

Spellblade

Chaotic evil

A descendant of Unicron (a powerful demon), Galvatron has more ambition than brains. He styles himself as the rival to Megatron (the other over-ambitious warlord), but doesn’t have the power-base or resources to challenge him.

Not the best boss to work under, either, with an explosive temper and a tendency to blame others for him mistakes, which does not help with his follower-shortage.

All of which leads him to the genius idea of unsealing Exarchon, which ends up with him now becoming Exarchon’s understudy.

Skywarp

Tiefling

Rogue

Chaotic evil

Based on IDW2, because peak version, with a nod to Earthspark (because there’s too many dudes already)

Teleporter. One of Exarchon’s lieutenants. The chaos maker. Girls just wanna have fun, you know?

Ended up sealed along with Exarchon, and so when Galvatron released him, he also released Skywarp. He is regretting this. A lot. 

Shockwave

Lich (formerly human)

Lawful evil

Used to serve Exarchon back when he was still alive, in the days of his misspent youth. Now he is sensible, mature and working for Megatron. Certainly there’s no temptation to relive his glory days with his old boss. But if Megatron so wishes, he will use his old connections and pretend to join Exarchon. Purely as a spy.

Or so he tells Megatron.

He is thrilled for his boss to have returned. Surely, this time around his glorious plans for conquest will go well. Shockwave is ready to server Exarchon - and he will naturally pass any information he has on Megatron.

Or so he tells Exarchon.

[askvectorprime]

Is there an Exarchon in the Malgus cluster?

Dear Threefold Threat,

According to popular history, Exarchon was a Malignus warlord during the Second Cybertronian War. Claiming to be blessed by the tripartite god Vion-Lenja-Igern, contemporary records claim that Exarchon had a mutant mitotic spark, which allowed him to split his consciousness between three separate bodies—and, indeed, to take over the bodies of others that he had subjugated in battle. This made him functionally immortal, as even if one of his bodies was destroyed, he had two more to continue to spread his will.

These days, the understanding among academics is different. Lancer—a professor of archaeometallurgy at Drouhard University—argues that there is little direct evidence for Exarchon's supposed powers, which do not line up well with the modern scientific understanding of mitotic sparks; instead, she posits that it is more likely that the idea of Exarchon's "threefold spark" was a shared fiction created by the Malignus leadership through the use of public performance, puppetry and sleight of servo. The idea of an "immortal warlord" would, of course, be extremely useful as propaganda for a faction that rarely, if ever, found themselves with the edge in their war against the Guardians.

[cherrytimemachine]

Since you guys liked it so much last time, here’s some more headcanons for the senators, with some extra worldbuilding sprinkled in

- Dai Atlas is the son of Nova Prime and the heir of Crystal City

- The Zodiac from Zone is the Allspark Crystal, and Dai Atlas is the keeper of the All Spark, in charge of protecting it from the factions and from the leader of the Herald of Unicron, Violen Jiger

- Exarchon serves as the High Chancellor of the senate, the first one in a long time to be able to tamper down the arguing on the chamber floor

- Exarchon is strange in that no one knows what he really believes in, he just sits back and watches the senators spin their webs with interest

- Sentinel once had a Ronald Reagan moment where he heard a gunshot during a speech and his automatic reply was, “missed me.”

- Shockwave is a total femboy and we all know it

- Shockwave is the middle child of the Wave House, and the only one of his siblings who doesn’t cover up their face or limit their speech

- Shockwave’s personality reflects that of his father, who was a boisterous celebrity known for his ability to get along with people

- Unbeknownst to anyone around him, even himself, Exarchon was originally the God of Change known as Adaptus, having been reborn after Primus defeated him in battle

- His behavior is a lot more understandable once you factor in his past life as Adaptus. He believed that societies progress through conflict, and he is fascinated by watching the ways in which other senators fight against each other for their own benefit

- Sentinel’s reputation in the Elite Guard caught Proteus’s attention and the senator offered him a well paying job as his personal body guard

- While there is a general who leads the Elite Guard, the Prime still takes rank over the general and is more often than not considered the true head of the Elite Guard

- Dai Atlas and Star Saber were childhood friends in fencing classes together. Nova Prime eventually pulled her son out of fencing and forced him to take part in martial arts to further his proclaimed destiny as the next disciple of Primus (specifically for the processor-over-matter technique)

- Even after he changed classes, Dai Atlas continued to see his friend Star Saber, who would come in after classes and they would hang out past school hours. Dai Atlas told his mom he was getting extra practice instead

- Despite generally being a huge bitch, Nova Prime is widely revered in Cybertronian society as one of the great leaders of her time (and yes, my Nova is a woman)

- The only person who would (quietly) disagree is her own son, who worked tirelessly for her time and attention, only for her to be really detached and never showing him the love he so desperately wanted. He was disappointed with this relationship until the day his mother disappeared, and afterwards he’d finally given up

- When Shockwave went missing, Dai Atlas and him were amica endura and had spark bonded platonically. During the empurata, Dai Atlas could feel the mental pain and suffering Shockwave was going through, and it overwhelmed him so much his spark cracked. He never told anyone about the cracks, and he would live out the rest of the war with them before telling anyone.

[transformers-villain-tournament]

Round 1 Match 18 Side 2

Spinister (Marvel G1)

Exarchon

Voting ended onMar 5, 2024