#transformers worldbuilding

[keferon]

A bit more of my headcanons~

Previous post about the general differences in construction.

Also thank you @fizziepop for sponsoring my space obsession💙

Some additional notes under the cut because I oversimplified everything and I want to specify at least some things:)

Flying like a plane part - Soviets managed to build a replica of the Buran Shuttle that was made for training. And it turns out if you upgrade a shuttle with enough powerful engines it can fly like a really awkward plane. Wow. The video of it flying

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The thrusters part. Those are placed at the tail part and also on the "snout".

These holes are thrusters. The space loaf can sneeze haha (You can google "RCS in shuttles" for more info)

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Gravitational Slingshot explained a bit more. I described it waaay to simply but to be fair. You don’t need to know that much about orbital mechanics in order to write fics. Unless you want to explain them to all your readers every time

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[berracids]

One of the many things that cybertronians admire about humans is their ability to mimic animal sounds around them without the need to record them like they do.

For instance right now my friend uses me as free labor to mimic for her the sounds of the hissing, growling, screeching and screaming of a few cats/lynxes, hyena laughters, snakes hissing, cawing of crows and ravens, and others animals for horror animation projects of her. (I may stutter and stammer but I guess that makes up for it?)

So it's just funny trying to mess with your bots by mimicking those sounds around them to scare or confuse them, for example replicating the howl of a wounded animal as they stomp around and cause them to jump out of their plating thinking they killed a poor organic life (just don't try it with Optimus because he will actually cry about it)

Or worse tricking them into thinking you are morphing into a cryptid creature with your human features almost entirely replaced with animalistic ones after using realistic make up and you try to hiss, growl and bare your teeth at them making them reboot their systems thinking that you got in the crossfire of some weird experiment.

Please just tell them that you are messing with them their sparks aren't as strong as their metal frames.

[paleo-horror]

One thing I lowkey want to see in future TF media is a more nuanced take on Unicron, kind of like the decepticons in the first season of Earthspark (until they threw that out the window in s2)

The dynamic between him and Primus. Chaos vs order. 'Good' vs 'evil'. But what if there was more to it than that?

(This is going to be a long one so strap in)

Imagine, at the beginning of time, Primus makes the first transformers and sacrifices his body to give them a world to live on. They are strong, immortal, and created 'perfect'. Unicron wishes for a people of his own, but he doesn't want a perfect being. Despite being able to change form, transformers cannot evolve. So, Unicron leaves to find his people among the stars. For thousands of years he drifts aimlessly, half dreaming, as debris and space dust cling to him. Eventually, he is lost under the planet that has formed around him. His body crumbles and spreads with time, untill there are traces of him in everything. He wakes up now and then, watching the surface above change from desolate rock to a cradle of life.

It begins small, microscopic even, but slowly, over millions of years it evolves.

Ages pass, and despite the abundance of life, nothing resembling people. That is untill one day one creature catches his attention. They are unremarkable at first, just like any other animal. Unlike his brother's children, they are small and weak with no natural defences. But, despite this, they fight tooth and nail to survive. At first, they make crude tools to help them hunt for fuel, then comes language and culture.

He weeps with joy when the first cave painting is made.

The centuries pass, and despite keeping himself hidden, a bond between him and his people grow. They call themselves Humans and are everthing he ever wanted. Weak yet strong, kind yet cruel, and every other wonderfull contradiction that ever exsisted, they are truly the children of Unicron the chaos bringer.

One day however his worst fear comes true.

His brother's creations had found them. He is first made aware of their arrival too late. The amount of pain and fear that pours though their bond rouses him from his slumbering state. Cybertronians, in their state of stagnation, has brought their war to Earth. It fills him with a rage he has never felt the like before and he summons powers he hasn't used in millions of years. He lets out a roar loud enough for the whole galaxy to hear.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY CHILDREN

[autobotdecepticonpeacekeeper]

Cybertronian Colloquialisms - Primes Edition

So we've all heard "By the AllSpark!" or "What in the Pit?" or "Oh Primus" in our TF media. However, I feel like TF writers are missing out on the goldmine that is colloquialisms invoking the different Primes. So, here is a small collection of such colloquialisms, and please, feel free to add more if you have any of your own you use.

"Primus below!" - Exclamation similar to "God above!", invoking the fact that Primus is the core of Cybertron.

"Vector give me patience" - Often paired with "because if Prima gives me strength, I'm going to need bail money." The go-to for when somebot if getting on your last nerves.

"To Alchemist!" - A popular drinking toast, to thank Alchemist Prime for inventing high grade.

"The Three Below" - Refers to Solus, Onyx, and Micronus, the three Primes who formed the Well of AllSparks

"Maximum Blessings on you" - a stealth insult/curse from some dialects, where "Maximum" and "Maximo's" are nearly indistinguishable. As Liege Maximo was the Prime of Lies and Trickery, it's a fitting way to wish someone ill.

“Solus’s slag pit” - Used for something incredible, awful, and incredibly awful. Often used to refer to the latest high society fashion mess.

"Find peace or take it up with the Fallen." - In other words, calm down or screw off.

“As you say, my Liege” - A condescending remark towards a person who’s attempting to lie, cheat or mislead.

Again, if you have any primal colloquialisms you use for your fics, reblog and share them with the rest of us.

[bringmethepeculiar]

What I would give to see a a transformers mini-series that is just slice-of-life for the average citizen back on Cybertron.

Like, literally just random people, no one from the main roster. And they go about their lives, getting caught in traffic, hearing about the tension between two rebel factions on the news, doing their function, just living on Cybertron and showing us what simple life used to be like for a robotic alien race.

Each episode ends with each random person we get introduced to being hinted to either join the Autobot rebellion, the Decepticons, to go Neutral, or to uphold the Functionist society Cybertron lives in. Then snap cut to who they ended up becoming during the war.

[tracklessreason]

I like to imagine there's a lot of lost literature surrounding sparklings. Its just been so long since it was really safe to have one, no one has learned how to handle them in billions of years, and now they've forgotten what to really...do with them.

You've got bots trying to give high grade energon to literal infants ("Its high grade, I think that makes it better for them"), thinking sparklings are broken when their alarms go off and repeatedly taking them to very tired medics who keep having to repeat that that loud beeping is telling you the kid needs attention, not a tune up.

I'm such a sucker for very plain domestic situations being turned into all-hands-on-deck debacles out of sheer unawareness of how to handle normal life after eons of war.

[folkhundr]

thinking about the idea of declawing cybertronians who have claws (angst)

Flight frames having sharp claws to help them interact with objects more delicately, and it translates to their every day usage of objects; datapads from Vos are thinner and more sensitive to the smallest of touches because it's built for the tips of claws instead of blunt digits. Their claws are thinner, sharper, perfect to get into the seams of armor when preening.

Starscream having sharp claws, while Skyfire has duller ones.

Declawed bots have heavier hands. The tips of their digits are cut off and often they struggle with depth perception and sensitivity and press down on things far harder than they should, just so they know they're touching something.

Sentinel declawed Cinderhymn the second he got scratched over something small.

Cinder still struggles with feeling anything in the tips of his digits, and always slams doors when he doesn't mean to, or his hands shake and tremble when he focused and tries to be more gentle.

[the-star-nomad]

The Cybertronian lifecycle is somewhat similar to that of a Human, in that they emerge small and get bigger and smarter as time goes by, eventually reaching maturity. And that’s pretty much where the similarities end.

Cybertronian culture before the war was VERY different from that of a modern human culture, predominantly in terms of their drastically different attitude towards work. A Functionist society emphasised the importance of one’s ’Function’ as was dictated by one’s alt mode, and as a result, a typical Cybertronian’s ‘childhood’ is comparatively much shorter than a humans. This difference is only further emphasised by how Cybertronians develop.

To maximise efficiency, 99% of protoforms are scooped out of a Hotspot prematurely, where they are promptly incubated in specialised facilities until they reach around 1000 cycles of age. A reason they are removed from the Hotspot so early is to allow the hotspot to begin the process of forming a new cybertronian almost immediately instead of waiting for the protoform to mature fully while still inside which takes up time and resources. Juvenile Cybertronians or ‘Sparklings’ are able to begin their function much sooner than if they were allowed to fully form, the only difference being that they are considerably smaller than their fully developed counterparts, but this is considered a sacrifice worth making as sparklings grow rapidly and would soon reach their full size whilst already on the job.

If a sparkling is lucky, an older bot of the same function will take them under their wing and ‘train’ them on how to do perform their function more efficiently. If a sparkling is not so lucky… well, they learn through experience. And some experiences are more traumatic than others.

In the Sparkling Care Facilities they are put through basic education (only higher tier functions go through higher education) where they learn how to socialise and interact with others. This 1000 cycle period often defines a Sparkling’s personality.

The nanoklik these babies are able to transform, they get a coat of paint, a pat on the head and a shove out of the door with a ‘Have a good shift!’ called after them.

There are Reasons that Functionism led to a revolution happening…