to the wise and mighty Vector: is Primus known only to the Cybertronians? Or do other mechanoraces (Ammonites, Junkions and such) revere him as well?
Dear Godly Generality,
In realities where Primus incarnates as a planet, he is known to many species:
Lithonians aware of Cybertronian spiritual beliefs refer to him using epithets such as "Diamond Marble" or "Holy Gemstone".
The Junkions have incorporated Primus into their own syncretic pantheon, alongside other spiritual figures such as Weirrall, Thor, Frijoles, and ALF.
The Ammonites considered Primus to be a lesser god in comparison to their deity Quadrus, roughly four times the size of Cybertron and able to combine with other planets.
The Mecannibals allude to Primus in their discussions of the afterlife, as "The Big Buffet in the Sky".
Dear Vector Prime, has anyone ever considered stopping, or at least stalling, the threat of Unicron by revealing his location to the Mecannibals?
Dear Enemy Engager,
One time, Swindle tried to do so. General Gullet simply responded by saying, "We're not that stupid," and went back to pouring arsenic sauce on the unfortunate Combaticon.
Story, Art - Jessica Segaard
Consultant Dude - Invid
deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk
wada sez: The girl in the first panel is a “self-cameo” for Jessica Segaard. Her sibling, Invid, had some input on the strip, and posted a commentary explaining the story; I’ve mirrored it below.
I talk somewhat frequently about Transformers, but I haven't mentioned that the large, active fan community has embarked on a project called Transformers Mosaic. It features fan artists and writers creating small pieces exploring characters and moments in the Transformers multiverse (warning-site currently down).
Why wait until now?
Because my sister's Mosaic, "Conquest," went up today.
A few people have expressed confusion (on comments pages where it was posted) as to the time period and continuity of the piece, so I think I'll provide a bit of commentary.
Yes, that's more-or-less G1 Megatron. It's kinda mixed continuity. See, in various continuities, Megatron is a gladiator. In other (similar but unrelated) continuities, early Cybertron was ruled by the Quintessons (the tentacle thing, although most Quints don't look like that), and they had Transformers fight in gladatorial combat for their own (and here, their paying customers') amusement.
This is not set in post-Beast Machines continuity. The Mechannibal (the huge demonic thing) in the crowd is a G1 creature, and the three crowd members who resemble Beast Machines protagonists are actually just crowd fillers, used because Sis wanted something easy to draw that would amuse people and fit in a bit. (Note that the one that resembles Black Arachnia is actually wearing clothes which aren't part of the original character model.) The others are mostly just random alienish things. There is an exception, if you look closely. (The one in the middle at the bottom of the second panel.)
And Megs is "holding tentacles" with the Quint because it's the referee, and is declaring him the winner. Because he totally just killed some guys.
(And once again, I put "self-promotion" in the tags, even though this isn't mine, though I was credited as "consultant." Funny how I do that.)
-Signing off.
Since your species lives so much longer than most organic life, has there ever been an instance of invasive organic species escaping onto Cybertron and evolving into new forms within one cybertronian lifetime?
Dear Cladistically Curious,
Yes; Cosmic Rust and Mecannibals alike first started as harmless interstellar bacteria that we hardly noticed.
There are some hardliners on our world who wish for Cybertron to be "organic free". Their arguments usually boil down to "Sure, things are fine now, but in 3 million years who knows what you're going to get!" I often counter with the fact that we observed homo sapiens evolving for the last 9 million or so years and they are sometimes welcome visitors to our world. My opponents, however, see humans as proving the exact opposite, as they tend to accelerate our timelines from the scale of millions of years to, well, years.
wada sez: Melissa “Wayward Martian” DeHaan is the creator of Insecticomics, a classic photocomic which I have yet to get around to reading. This comic is set squarely in Marvel continuity, referencing two of Bob Budiansky’s best stories. Firstly, “the boss” is none other than Lord High Governor Straxus, and Bombshell complains about the smelting pool; these all debuting in issue #17. Meanwhile, the red monsters are Mecannibals, stars of the two-part story from issues #52-53. Melissa gives them spherical disguised forms in the earlier panels. She also gives Shrapnel his speech quirk from the cartoon, where he echoes the last words in each sentence. Finally, Kickback is seen springing around like a grasshopper. Seriously, though, look at the presentation of this strip, done up to look like a scan of an old copy of a late-era Marvel UK comic, right down to the credit byline! See below for a Japanese translation by Barricade 643.
Vector Prime, can you tell us the origins of the Mecannibals and how common they are in the multiverse? And are they the top of the robotic food chain, or is there a worse metal munching predator out there? I'm hoping they're as bad as it gets.
Dear Mecannibal Master,
Of all the myriad races in the galaxy, I feel that the Ferrophagii are perhaps the most unfairly judged—feared by other mechanoids, and despised by organic lifeforms, they are a secretive race who have largely shied away from the galactic community, leaving its worst members to taint the opinions of others.
While we Cybertronians can subsist upon energon, Nucleon, and other efficient fuel sources, some crucial flaw in Ferrophage biology means that these fuels are not compatible with their systems. Instead, they must rely on primitive mechanical analogues to the organic digestive system—a trait that has stymied their evolutionary and social development by a significant degree. While most species eventually reach some kind of unified planetary government before developing space travel, the Ferrophagii have divided their planet into a series of hives and sub-hives, who alternately cooperate and squabble to secure food and territory under the authority of their reigning Master Mouth.
Where they came from is a mystery, even to me: their homeworld is marked by the scars of some prior civilization, and I suspect that the earliest Ferrophagii cut their metaphorical teeth upon the detritus of their fallen cities. Having long ago exhausted most of their planetside food sources, however, the Ferrophagii now compete with one another for the vast mineral wealth of their local asteroid belts. Dedicated teams of scouts and harvesters regularly tow the largest and densest planetoids into orbit around their homeworld, providing great feasts to celebrate the glory of their respective hives.
It is worth noting, however, that the savage “Mecannibals” you know are not quite representative of the race of a whole. Many Ferrophagii are driven by hunger, it is true—but the majority are able to keep their instincts in check. However, rogue individuals or sometimes entire hives might travel offworld specifically to sample the “forbidden tastes” of other mechanical lifeforms, and in doing so have earned the species its unflattering nickname.
