#doradus

Blades: "I got you, Bee!"

Dear Beast Believer,

I've already spoken about that incarnation of Frostbite, I believe. As for the others…

Longhorn was once a Predacon by the name of Ramulus. Known as a stern loner, he had been abandoned by his fellow Predacons after he became injured in battle. Luckily, he was discovered by an Autobot medic named Ratchet, who treated him despite his enemy allegiance. Ramulus was moved by Ratchet's kindness, and decided to abandon the Predacon cause. He became a Maximal, and changed his name to Longhorn to match his change of heart.

As for Reptilion, he hails from a time period before the Cybertronian Civil Wars. As a Predacon scientist, he was a genius without peer who focused on studying monolithic Cybertronians such as Fortress Maximus. Obsessed with discovering their origins, he traveled far and wide in search of these Titans' origins, believing them to hail from a lost city from Cybertron's Golden Age known as Doradus. His only companion was his research companion, Springload, who transformed into a Predacon frog.

Reptilion and Springload both disappeared one solar cycle, and nothing was heard of them for some time. Eventually, one of them returned—Springload. He had clearly lost his senses, spouting nonsense that they had found Doradus and that Reptilion had been taken by "the great terrible beast". The Predacon Council of the time publicly refused to acknowledge Springload's story, but rumor has it that eons later, they used the data from his memory banks to construct their own titan: the Predacon fortress known as Scorponok.

This is the end. My only friend, the end.

Surprise

Yes, the them of this last ficlet is actually surprise.

Prowl hears the call in his spark. It's time to come home.

Backdrop: what’s your favorite place or setting in this AU?

I’ve actually answered this once before! I haven’t managed to draw any more of Simfur, whoops. Settings and backgrounds are not my strong suit 😬

But I can tell you about a different ancient city that rose after the sundering of Simfur. While the story of SNAP never actually visits this place, I think it’s important enough to at least mention. Tyrestis, later translated as Doradus, was the second greatest city of ancient Cybertron. It rose after the God War ended, trying to recreate the grandeur of Simfur and, uh, not quite succeeding.

In fact, that’s where the first version of functionism began. It’s actually better described as ratioism, but function by frametype, classification by size, and the concept of worthlessness outside of work began in Tyrestis society. It was an incredibly wealthy city, and very prosperous... for those who were rich. The servant, laborer, and slave castes were not so fortunate.

It didn’t have a particularly large territory, but the size of the city itself was enough to contain several million citizens. Very few Knights of Cybertron passed through Tyrestis despite its extensive temple network and heavily religious society. None of those ancient heroes seemed to trust it very much, especially as the original thirteen Primes began to disappear. This did not stop the religious culture at all, especially in later years when fanaticism took over. Cybertronian sacrifice became a common practice, with insurgents and blasphemers usually thrown to alloygators to be consumed. Alloygators are still linked to sacrifice in modern superstitions and are thought to drag their victims to the Well of Sparks, where they placidly swim with the dead.

It fell, eventually, partly because of its own bloated corruption, partly because people became dissatisfied and left for a less oppressive home, and partly from skirmishers and raids from nearby cultures chasing Tyrestis’ fabled wealth. The Maximal Empire rose soon after the twilight of the city, absorbing its territory into its borders, and the area is no more than ruins now. As Cybertronix evolved over the megavorns, it became better known as Doradus. Most people only know of it in the history books, its plundered remains somewhere in the crust of Cybertron near Vos.

Dear Titan Tracker,

In the reality of which you speak, the “War Titan” specialization was bestowed upon on not only the largest and most powerful Titans to be forged, but also those with the mental and physical fortitude to spearhead missions of conquest against those races who came into conflict with the Cybertronian empire—famous and infamous War Titans of the Age of Expansion include Iaconus, Vigilem, Waypoint, Nemesis, and Fortress Maximus, who burned planets and toppled empires in the name of Cybertronian supremacy.

Although War Titans were powerful fighters and almost unmatched on the battlefield, their status as “capital ships” meant that they operated alongside other Titan varieties. Versatile Guardian Titans—a smaller class of Titan that included Omega Supreme, Steelhaven, Xantium, and Axalon—filled a niche analogous to frigates as they escorted War Titans on long-range deployments to distant star systems. Nimble Patrol Titans like Chela and Lodestar rarely left planetary orbit, as their speed and maneuverability allowed them to intercept incoming threats like light warships or spaceborne debris.