Dear Vector Prime, Cybertronians have often referred to the creatures of Earth as “carbon-based lifeforms”. Does that mean you are not a carbon-based species?
Dear Composition Comprehended,
Indeed not, at least not in most universes; technoorganics are one of the major exceptions to the general rule. In some universes, where Cybertronians are constructed manually, we are built from elements you would be familiar with—nickel, iron, cobalt, and chromium, to name but a few. In others, the genetic material that helps dictate our bodies is made from a material that does not exist in your world, and likely never will; you might know it by a few names—"living metal", protomatter, or even the human-coined (and trademarked) "Transformium".
Historically, Cybertronians have had several terms for the metal of our bodies, not all of which translate cleanly into your tongue. Ono-Yoke was the word used by the Iaconian Tribes under the banner of Al-Primon Imhotep, while G'Ahx Oss, a Scientist King of the Budded Second Empire of the Liege Maxh y Mó, referred to it as "Budian Thurmanite"—a name he coined, derived from the Old Tetrahexian for "the Divine Shape".
