What exactly is the Void Scepter? I noticed there was a reference to Mortilus sharing it with The Fallen.
Dear Scepter Stymied,
The Scepter of All Voids was one of the many relics forged for the Primes by Solus—in this case, for Mortilus. The intended use of the weapon was to contain the very essence of Death, with Mortilus intending to use it to wound Unicron. But when Mortilus was busy recuperating from battle, or otherwise occupied, he would lend it to others—and on most occasions, it would fall into our brother's hands.
Before his fall from the light, he was probably the greatest warrior among our number. In the Void Scepter, he found the perfect weapon, using it to drive Unicron back during several of our battles. Once Solus forged the Requiem Blaster for him, though, the Scepter fell out of his favor, and rarely left Mortilus' possession.
It wasn't until after Unicron had been sealed away, and the next generation of Transformers was born, that we discovered the Void Scepter had another function: namely, that it could control the sparks of those who feared death. We Thirteen, with our eternal sparks, were immune... but the same could not be said for the mortals with whom we now shared Cybertron.
We felt that the Scepter should be sealed away, to protect the free will of the people—but one amongst us disagreed. He believed our war against Unicron had left us weakened, that there were renegades spreading lies about us, questioning the will of Primus, threatening the planet's future. We thought he was jumping at shadows, though after all this time, one cannot help but wonder if his concerns were wholly sincere to begin with...
Regardless... when Mortilus, for the first time, refused to yield the Scepter to him, something changed. Something in that argument made him capable of fratricide. When the rest of us learned of what had happened, and set out to avenge our kin, he used the Scepter to raise armies against us. So it was, that in his jealousy over this power, he brought about the fall of the Primes.
This is why the Scepter is also known as the Command Staff—as it can enslave armies, or even titans. After he was felled, the Void Scepter was sealed away by Solus. My siblings and I have done all that we can to prevent its power from ever being used again—but regretfully, lesser copies have been created in its image.
Even more Minicons! I don't think I've ever handled the original Blaster Team? I think their theming is a bit better than the other two, since the Saber Team is just different planes, the Shield Team is different cars, but the Blaster Team feels more comprehensive, being a transport vehicle, a shuttle, and a satellite. They look a bit better as a group because of it.
The Good: It's got a firing missile! When was the last time you saw that? These guys have pretty good robot modes, not having much looseness, but they also have pretty interesting posability. Not-Skyblast has two sets of knees on each side of its legs, and Not-Astroscape has very specific jointage so its legs can split open while also having knees as a robot. There's some very clever stuff going on.
Their Blaster Mode is also quite solid, yet it has a bit more give in different transformation areas to allow for alterations for different robots. (It's how I got it to work on Optimus' shoulder.) The handle is also designed to lock into two different positions to allow for most any robot to hold it, which is a big improvement over the Shield Team.
The Bad: The vehicles might look nice, but they don't always lock together the most solidly. The robots also have just enough posability to look good in certain poses, but do lack a few essential things that would have really helped, but also might have made the Blaster a mess to work with.
Overall, while it's not perfect, it might be my favorite of these weapon sets? It's also neat to just have a small armada of Minicons. I'm really hoping they do a Not-Perceptor. Seeing them do a combining robot like this would be super cool.
TFMR Worldbuilding: Four “Artifacts” And What They Do In Order To Keep Cybertronians From Setting Their Own Bumpers On Radioactive Fire
Short Version: Allsparks makes Cybertroniankind. Matrix micromanages Cybertroniankind so they don’t do stupid stuff. Vector Sigma records everything Cybertronian does. If everything turns into dumpster fire, Requiem Blaster erases everything so things can start again from the beginning.
Long version:
Artifact no.1 - Allspark
Allspark is a mass of infinite energy. With the energy, it creates things. More precisely, it creates Cybertronian life.
The problem is that Allspark has no self-restraint. Without supervision from Matrix, it creates all kinds of weird things like Predacons, Sparkeaters, and Terrorcons. Such random creations sometimes prove themselves to be beneficial to the survival of the timeline, almost all of them often becomes the cause of ultimate doom.
Interaction example:
Matrix: 13,427,56 timelines ended in Terrorcon apocalypse. 42,592 timelines suffered apocalyptic Predacon turf wars. Allspark, I really don’t think you should throw any of those in this timeline!
Allspark: Aw.
Matrix: But I might need some of those Triple changers in the near future though. Also, could you add extra batch of Spacecrafts for the next two millennia? Cybertronians are about to build extraterrestrial colonies.
Allspark: Sure, whatever.
Also, it is true that deceased one’s spark returns to Allspark. To be more specific, the energy from the extinguished spark returns to Allspark. It does not keep any memories of the deceased spark or even information about what kind of person this spark used to be. that’s Vector Sigma’s job
Artifact No.2 - Vector Sigma
Vector Sigma is a passive entity. It only observes and records what happens within the timeline. Not even the tiniest detail slips past its watch. It’s like Santa Claus. It knows what kind of deeds each and every people have done, but it does not judge if the deeds are good or bad.
Vector Sigma also has records of every single deceased Cybertronian. It keeps their memories and personalities. Theoretically, it is possible to bring back a dead spark with combined power of Vector Sigma and Allspark.
The one downside of Vector Sigma is that it only knows about things that already happened. It can give information about what had happened in the past, but it does not give any predictions about future. That’s Matrix’s job.
Also, Vector Sigma is where all the unused blueprints for the Cybertronian species are stored in.
Interaction example:
Allspark: Hey, I made a thing. Can I submit the blueprint?
Vector Sigma: Sure. is it another Predacon sub-species?
Allspark: More like a Terrorcon that is also a Sparkeater.
Allspark: And a beastformer.
Vector Sigma: Well, sure. I don’t think Matrix is going to let you create more of them anytime soon, but whatever. it looks cool.
Allspark: Thanks!
Artifact no.3 - Matrix
Matrix is the artifact that is most actively involved in Cybertronian’s life. It is mostly passive, but it immediately springs to action when there’s a crisis that could endanger the timeline.
It chooses one Cybertronian who is willing to sacrifice themselves for greater cause, and makes them do whatever it takes to avoid the crisis. These Cybertronians are called “Prime”. Usually, Primes ended up becoming the ruler figure or head of a government system because of the wisdom from the Matrix. Also, being in power makes pulling the strings easier most of the times. However, there are times when Primes are better stay hidden in order to carry out the Matrix’s will.
When not in crisis, Primes become the spying eye for Matrix.This way, Matrix gets to know the current situation of the timeline and detect possible crisis that could be coming ahead.
Matrix has ability to access the information stored within Vector Sigma. By comparing the current scenario and scenarios from all the past doomed timelines that are similar to current one, Matrix is able to share its “Wisdom” with the Prime.
Interaction example:
Matrix: Hmmm.... The corrupt Council just announced the new anti-warframe policy. As if the Council itself wasn’t a headache already, now we have warframes being danger to the Cybertronians on top of that! Vector, has there been any timelines like this? and how did they go?
Vector Sigma: Timeline 49444b6c6d616f is where you had the Prime take down the Council first. There were multiple dead Primes, but the Cybertronians have successfully united to overthrow the Council. Then it immediately led to the Doomesday Scenario #319, where the Council members pull Requiem Blaster’s trigger because they didn’t like to hear their subjects say NO to them.
Matrix: And what about the other way round?
Vector Sigma: You’ve done the opposite at Timeline 5446416d617962653f. Prime became the Senate’s advocate, and the Warframes were exiled to another colony planet. They stayed separated for a very long time. You’ve chosen many more Primes from both sides to resolve this issue, but things eventually escalated to Doomesday Scenario #4444: Cybertronian civil war.
Matrix: How long did it take from the incident to final hour?
Vector Sigma: Timeline 49444b6c6d616f? about few years. They shot the blaster as soon as the protesters entered the Council building. Timeline 5446416d617962653f, on the other hand, took about three and a quarter billion years, with additional four million for war time.
Matrix: I see.... so should either of the scenarios repeat, the latter would have more factors to work with that could easily alter the outcome.
Matrix: Erectimus Prime, listen. I know you really want to support the warframes and blow up the Council, but at this moment taking extreme measures will only make everything worse. Pretend that you follow the Council for now, and wait for next instruction.
Artifact no.4 - Requiem Blaster
It’s the ultimate eraser for the timeline that went haywire. Without it, the other Artifacts would be forced to move forward in a doomed universe where they can’t do anything for indefinite amount of time. It’s the most powerful weapon in the universe and whatever higher dimension that the Artifacts reside, but it can only be activated by Cybertronians.
This artifact works in the most ridiculous and mysterious ways that not even fellow artifacts can fully understand. For majority of the times, it hides its existence from Cybertronians. Then, when something really messed up starts to happen, a legend about “really powerful weapon that can destroy all” suddenly begin to pop up. Then, when enough hostility and insecurity had built up within society that someone actually seek for this weapon, it reveals itself. Normally, Cybertronians would hesitate to pull the trigger because of the legends that comes with it. However, once they have lost enough of their slag to actually fire this weapon....
Funny thing is that the physical form that exists within the universe is actually just a flare gun. The only purpose it does is to summon a much bigger BANG. As a safety measure, there are also some conditions that needs to be met in order to fire this weapon. The one who fires this weapon should have serious intention to kill someone, and they should be fully aware that they are about to commit mass destruction.
Also, this weapon auto-activates when last Cybertronian’s spark is extinguished.
When the blaster finishes its job, the time starts again from certain point in timeline. However, it does not actually start until Allspark creates the first Cybertronian of that timeline.
