Builder of Cybertron
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The Builders of Cybertron are venerated as the founders and honored elders of Cybertronian society. Too bad they completely don't deserve any of that.
Contents |
Fiction
Beast Wars: Uprising
The Builders of Cybertron have their roots in the dying days of the Great War. Isolated to their Allowed Zone by the more powerful Human Confederacy, the war continued apace until the mad Decepticon Thunderwing absorbed the Underbase and launched the Grand Mal against both sides. This dire threat necessitated a temporary truce between the Autobots and the non-insane Decepticons. Together, the joint force was able to disable the Grand Mal and kill Thunderwing. This team-up paved the way for future pan-factional cooperation and laid the foundations of the Builder social order. Not All Megatrons
With Cybertron's energon dwindling, the increasingly decrepit combatants realized that their massive Macromaster bodies had become far too fuel-consumptive to allow for prolonged activity. Over the centuries, surviving Cybertronians adapted to a sedentary lifestyle. Some could move via exo-walker, but the vast majority chose to hard-wire themselves into the planet's infrastructure to conserve fuel. Broken Windshields Head Games In their old cities like Tarn, they became part of the architecture, wired into place like gargoyles. Head Games
The smallest Autobots and Decepticons, most prominently the Micromasters and Mini-Cassettes, remained efficient enough to move around under their own power. Some Autobots and Decepticons chose to downsize into these smaller bodies, most prominently Hot Rod. Micro-Aggressions In a show of utterly petty jealousy, the Macromasters began to look down on the Micromasters for being able to move at all, dubbing them a menial class and refusing them a full share of energon rations. Micro-Aggressions Identity Politics
Hoping to give his dying race a future, Cerebros bargained with the humans for the energon matrix. He first created the Maximals as successors to the Autobots, named after Fortress Maximus. Realizing that the Decepticons also deserved a future, he soon created Predacons as their successors. He hoped that these new races would lead to peace, but the Autobots and Decepticons saw this as a way to continue the war! This soon changed from warfare into ritualized gladiatorial Games that their successors were forced to fight in. Broken Windshields Head Games The rank and file were kept in the dark as to the origin of their successor races. Identity Politics
Renaming themselves the Builders of Cybertron, they created the Builder Assembly as a new legislature to rule Cybertron, with only "proper" Autobots and Decepticons allowed to serve on it, with no Micromasters allowed. Identity Politics They secretly rigged the Games so that they could have endless amusement. When the Builders had enough sparks for gladiatorial fodder, they hid the Matrix inside a Maximal, Lio Convoy, and they employed him as a match-fixer, the "Guardian of Order". Outside of the Games, Cybertronian law was written by the Builder Assembly to micro-manage every aspect of their lives in order to conserve energon. The few Builder Micromasters were rated superior to the Maximals and Predacons, and the bulks above them. Cybertronian society would live forever with the Builders at the top. Broken Windshields
Cerebros decided this was the best outcome under the circumstances as it ensured that the Transformers could never leave their world and would no more spread themselves and their conflicts on alien worlds, as happened on Nebulos. Head Games Not all the Builders were happy with this outcome, however; Grimlock turned against his fellow Builders by illegally transferring his spark into a Maximal protoform and attempting to bomb the Assembly. Micro-Aggressions
This system would have continued indefinitely if not for Lio Convoy encountering the dissident Blackarachnia, who opened his eyes to the injustice of the caste-based society of Cybertron, where any Maximal or Predacon could be summoned to die in a Game or have rations cut for minor infractions of ridiculous laws. Thus, Lio Convoy sneaked a team of rebels into the 1924th Games at the Dodecahex Arena. While Blackarachnia's team seized control of Override's broadcasting equipment, Lio Convoy assassinated Supersonic, securing the attention of Cybertron. He publicly exposed the Builders' moral corruption, deeming them unworthy of ruling Cybertron and calling for a war for freedom. Thus, the Fourth Cybertronian War, the Grand Uprising, began. The immobile, exposed Builders were easy targets for mobs of angry Maximals and Predacons during the earliest riots, and many of them were ripped from their delicate life-support systems and left to die. Broken Windshields
The Builders called for all loyal Transformers to fight against the 'terrorists' led by Lio Convoy. Head Games Only a handful of Maximals and even fewer Predacons stayed loyal, however; most of the proto-formers opted to join the Resistance. Broken Windshields The Micromasters soon became the primary military arm of the Builder society. The Builder Assembly voted to activate the "Galva Contingency", which saw the creation of Galva Convoy: a clone of Lio Convoy who would use a duplicate energon matrix to raise a new army to put down the rebellion. Head Games Unfortunately, this process took far longer than Galva Convoy's handler Eject had anticipated; though Galva Convoy was willing to create a new race of Transformers to fight for the Builders, he claimed that he needed more time to master the energon matrix within. Not All Megatrons
As the Resistance gained steam, Maximal and Predacon soldiers took to capturing and lobotomizing mode-locked Builders, which they used as transports. Safe Spaces
Five years into the war, the Builders were quickly losing ground. Thanks to the fuel-efficient Beast Upgrade, which freed the Maximals and Predacons from energon cubes, the Builders could no longer cut off Resistance supply lines and starve out their troops as they were wont to do. Instead, they opted to utilize defensive scorched-earth tactics, punishing the Resistance for every inch of ground they gained. Cultural Appropriation Not even this tactic could forestall the Resistance advance, and after another year of fighting the Resistance and their splinter groups controlled two thirds of the planet. The Builders maintained control of Iacon and many other heavily fortified northern city-states. Safe Spaces
It was at this time that Galva Convoy finally announced his big breakthrough: the development of the "Vehicon", a new species of Transformer capable of assimilating Maximals and Predacons and transforming their bodies into more Vehicons. The Builder Assembly voted to infect a contingent of Micromaster troopers with a sample of the Vehicon virus and slip them behind enemy lines by retreating without their prior knowledge. The ruse worked, and numerous POW camps within the Resistance-held cities became ground zero for the Vehicon Apocalypse, a cataclysm that threatened to overrun the Resistance entirely. Safe Spaces Derailment
Unfortunately for the Builders, Galva Convoy had other plans: the influence of the incorporeal Lord Imperious Delirious had led him to conclude that everything on Cybertron — Maximal, Predacon, and Builder alike — would have to go if Cybertron were to be truly saved from the evils of free will. Maneuvering his troops into Iacon when the council voted to rescind General Order 66, Galva Convoy goaded the Assembly into exposing themselves and then assimilated all of them save Riker, effectively ending the hegemony of the Builders. When it became clear that the Vehicons had become a threat to Builder and proto-former alike, the Resistance joined forces with Hot Rod's Micromaster battalion and the Ex-Bots as they marched on Nova Cronum to take down the Grand Mal, headquarters of Delirious and his stooge. The Cybertronians ultimately triumphed, though the casualties were high.
When the war was declared over shortly afterwards, Blackarachnia estimated that there were fewer than ten thousand Builders left on the planet. Derailment The majority of survivors were relocated to Hexima, which became the de facto Builder capital. Hot Rod and Riker were chosen to represent their kind in the new Cybertronian Parliament. Derailment The Inexorable March
Notes
- During "Cultural Appropriation", a Micro-trailer is seen emblazoned with the proto-faction symbol first used by Shockwave in Dreamwave's works, ostensibly representing the combined Autobot-Decepticon force that is the Builders. In discussion on the Allspark Forums, writer Jim Sorenson stated it had been devised in the Uprising continuity by Hot Rod as a way of fostering cooperation, but hadn't really caught on.[1]
