#spark types

I was reading through TF Wiki, as I often do, and this caught my eye:

An idea from the Binder of Revelation—which has not made it into any fiction, and has been evidenced only in the binder's profile page for Optimus Prime published in Transformers Vault—posits that individual Transformers possess a "polarity" that indicates which of the Thirteen they can trace their lineage to.

-From TF Wiki, here. 

This is a fascinating idea. 

We sort of see this on Caminus, with the Way of the Flame: “Camiens believe themselves to be descended from Solus Prime and that a fragment of her Spark exists within each of them.” (From here.)

In MTMTE, we see spark polarities are mentioned, with these being some of the possible options (from here): 

Ferrous + / - 

Isomeric + / -

Vitreous + / - 

We never see any mention of Primal Lineage relating specifically to spark polarity or type, as this idea seems to have either been cut entirely or just never got used, but we do know that spark types (in various ways and applications) do have some recurring significance. 

I’m not sure if there are just the three types of spark polarities that we hear about in MTMTE, but let’s assume that the negative and positive aspects make a total of six spark types out of the three central

That still doesn’t give us anywhere near the thirteen that would be required to correspond to the Primes (as in the Aligned Continuity/some of IDW, anyway), but it’s interesting to think about... 

We don’t know if the connection would be literal, as in a part of the Primal energy is with all descendants, or if it would be in practice more of a folklore-like cultural association, which we seem to see a fair amount of in Cybertronian lore. 

So, here are some of my personal guesses as to which Prime each known spark type may correlate to: 

Ferrous means containing iron. 

This could possibly be related to Solus Prime, creator and maker, as Cybertronian bodies are made of metals and metals (including iron) can be forged.

This could also be related to Liege Maximo; Iron is part of Cybertronian bodies as a core metal, and Liege is described as representing evil as a balance to good that can’t be gotten rid of. You can’t get rid of something that your body is made of.

Iron is often related to strength, bringing to mind the might of Megatronus/The Fallen as well. 

Isomeric may refer to isomers,  a chemistry term referring to one of at least two compounds that are the same element with the same number of atoms, but have different arrangements and properties. 

This could possibly be taken as a reference to Amalgamous Prime, who constantly changed shapes (but remained, at core, with a spark and we can assume never actually altered at his base most level). 

It could possibly also be Quintus Prime, who possessed an artifact which manipulated processes in base elements. 

Could also be Nexus Prime, as he was the first Combiner, following the concept of using the same parts but arranged differently. 

It could also refer to Adaptus, responsible for giving Cybertronians the ability to transform (different arrangements using the same parts)- Although Aadaptus is technically not a Prime. 

Vitreous has a couple relevant meanings; It could refer to a fluid or semi-fluid substance or appearance, or could refer to a glass like material or appearance. It refers medically to the fluid in the eye. 

This might be taken as a reference to Vector Prime, who sees through time and space. 

It may also refer to Onyx Prime, as polished black onyx can create a dark, glassy mirror-like surface. 

It could also possibly be Alpha Trion, who possesses insight through being the collective memory of the Primes. 

Other ideas:

-Alchemist Prime could relate to either Ferrous or Isomeric, as iron was related to alchemy historically, and chemistry is what alchemy turned into over time. 

-Micronus Prime could relate to either Isomeric or Vitreous, as he is known for his small size and isomers can be atomic, and his ability to cast predictions or have clarity of thought could be compared to a third eye-type concept, if Cybertronians have anything similar to that idea. 

-Prima and/or The Thirteenth Prime may be related to “special sparks”, such as point-one-percenters or bots with outlier abilities. 

The leader of Tarn, a Calidum named Dent, took notice and sent an envoy to talk to Beta, but she stood firm by her decision that the Frigus needed more rations and she would only let the Calidum return when Iacon agreed to give extra rations for Frigus. Iacon of course refused and Tarn was swamped by Praxian Calidum who had been displaced by the rebellion. Tarn quickly retaliated, informing Beta that if she didn’t back down a fight would ensue. She stood her ground and Tarn marched on Praxus, who had fortified their walls. The siege was unsuccessful, as the Tarn army was mainly Calidum and not suited for siege warfare. Angered Dent, who had renamed himself Violen Jiger, banished all the Frigus of Tarn. Meanwhile the other city states had taken notice and similar rebellions sprung up, Calidum and Frigus turning against each other all across the planet. One by one the city states sided with either until only a third of the planet remained unaligned. Not wanting to wait to see which side each city state would choose Praxus (now the Frigus capital) and Tarn (now the Calidum capital) decided they would take the city states. It is unclear which city attacked the neutrals first, but both did it independently of one another, not in retaliation to the other.   The war quickly took more than half the neutral zones and bitterly fought with one another for the remaining zones, which included Kaon and Iacon. During the fighting the Neutram, Vagus, Procul were forced into the war torn neutral zones, being accepted on neither side. A stalemate was reached near the half a million year mark of the war, both sides losing and gaining, but neither coming out on top of the other. It remained like that for two million years until something happened in the slums of Koan, a prime emerged. During the Quintesson War the entire dynasty of primes had been slaughtered and the matrix of leadership stolen and hidden in an unknown location. Somehow the matrix had found its way back to the true prime, who had been a Neutram named Custos, who became Guardian Prime.  

Genders vs Spark Types

Even though on Earth Cybertronians go by gendered pronouns they don’t actually have sex/gender, but are instead separated by spark types. There are two standard spark types, but a few other uncommon types and many sub-types. The two types are determined by temperature, hot (which humans associated with the male gender) and cold (which humans associated with the female gender). Cybertronians refer to each other by neutral pronouns, but refer to themselves by pronouns depending on spark type. This was due to the Spark War in which it was necessary to quickly identify one’s spark type to others.