CYBERTRONIAN CULTURE AND GEOGRAPHY: an overview (01)
CULTURE - gender, arts & fashion
Cybertronian culture has many aspects to it that are rather fluid. The ideas of gender, race, religion and expression are very dynamic for them when compared to organic species but are made rigid only due to their current governing authority. The culture varies from colony to colony but there are many common uniting ideas.
One such is the idea of gender. Now, according to canon, mech is actually a gender-neutral term but it has been used as a masculine equivalent while a fanon term āfemmeā exists for feminine. But these terms would not be sufficient to explain the elaborate idea of gender expression amongst the transformer kind. The idea of gender is a new one that emerged during the time of Nova Prime but it was one that most bots didnāt mind and actually thought was kind of cool. Until then, they sort of just existed in whatever they looked like. Cybertronians have their frames created randomly due to which the ratio of feminine looking and masculine appearing bots are near equal. But the idea of categorization and labels made it easier for bots to identify. There exists a spectrum of gender expression and the word bot is often used as a general term for Cybertronians. Until the Autobot-Decepticon war where the word āBotā was claimed by the Autobots, a term āmechaā was introduced.
Moving on to solely Cybertron.
The planet is very diverse with different cities that have their own accents, styles, celebrations, fashion and lingo. The city of Iacon is the capital and hence considered the more refined out of the rest of Cybertron. The upper north of Cybertron is mainly filled with technologically advanced megacities that most of the upper class of Cybertron lives in. Cities like Iacon, Vos and Harmonex are located there. Meanwhile, down south, there exist industrial cities with mines, refineries and factories where the lower classes toil in for energon scraps. This is just a general overview. This does not imply that Iacon doesnāt have a population of lower-caste bots. They do. Iacon and Vos have docks that are staffed with dock-workers and delivery bots. After all, the grandeur of the upper class mecha are brought to life through the sufferings of the lower classes. However, most of these lower class bots in the fancy cities usually dwell in its outskirts.
These radically different living conditions produce radically different cultures amongst the different classes. The upper castes of Cybertron have easy access to the arts. Various theatres where plays are held along with massive stages for musicians to perform are all across Northern Cybertron, especially Harmonex which is somewhat of the cultural capital of Cybertron.
The lower castes have no easy access to any of the old traditional works that their predecessors have left for them so they resort to making their own art, their creativity is likited by means. Many contemporary art forms and new styles of literature exist among dock workers, manual labourers, service bots and minersā each with their own take and personality to it. Music is often sung in unison as the dock workers of Iacon load and unload cargo or the factory workers of Kaon hit their hammers against metal in a rhythmic pace. They have no other pleasantries in life. Workers use their equipment and bang on various surfaces with different densities, creating sounds akin to that of drumsā music is often made this way. In the glassmaking factories, they use glass to make different tunes and pitches.
But many of the lower class arenāt built-in with language chips, especially after The Senate began mass producing mecha. Thereās only so much metal to make chips and modules so an unfortunate consequence is that most are illiterate in the lowest castes, especially in the miner class (this is an important thing to note). Mostly the older models have better skills in things other than just mining.
This takes us to a different form of self-expression other than literature and musicā fashion. Fashion amongst Cybertronians and most mechanical species revolves mainly around plating types, paints and accessories. Most of the lower-class mecha canāt afford the fancy accessories and paints but despite this, they make an effort to look good through servo-made accessories to hook on or stick on to their frame. Some use cheap dye to make their optics have different colours. Paints are usually stolen.
Meanwhile, the higher classes of bots go over the top with their sense of style. Fancy high tensile metal fibre mended into regal capes, plating with different textures that are coated in a variety of paints to make it really pop, accents and bioluminescent paints or dangling accessories to attack to their helm pieces; Cybertronians can be quite creative when it comes to modifying their frames fashionably, each revolving around individualistic style. There also exists plating textures where plating of a bot is made to look designer with different texture add ons, creating a new sensation when touched.
There are some unconventional styles in the realm of Cybertronian fashion that involve things like paints on their faceplates, it is a large part of Camien culture and religion though. Some are inspired from the sense of style in the colony worlds or foreign cultures, though it isnāt exactly encouraged and is generally looked down upon. Main-stream trends change depending on the cities.
Not to mention, different frame-classes often have different ways of accessorising due to the nature of their frame types and even different cultures.
However, most of Cybertron's rich fashion culture was wiped away when the war started. It was deemed to be impractical and as a show-off. It's one of Cybertron's many lost cultural aspects. However, remnants of this sense of style remain alive in colonies like Caminus and Eukaris.
2. GEOGRAPHY - cities -> part 1
The major cities of Cybertron include: Iacon, Harmonex, Kaon, Petrex, Tarn, Vos, Helex, Tesarus, Tetrahex, Praxus, Stanix, Polyhex, Nyon, Darkmount and Straxus. They are divided into North and South as stated beforeā Northern cities being mainly places of culture and scientific advancements and the cities down South being industrial factories that fuels and powers the scientific progress of Cybertron.
Northern cities include: Iacon, Harmonex, Polyhex, Stanix, Tetrahex, Vos, Petrex and Praxus.
Southern cities include: Tarn, Kaon, Helex, Straxus, Darkmount, Nyon and Tesarus.
Nyon lies in between the lines of North and South but is considered mainly an industrial city.
Each city is unique in its own right.
Iacon is the capital city, a cradle of scientific progress. It was once called Cyber City, a long, long time ago before the Primes. Iacon is the oldest city and where most of Cybertronās politically and religiously important structures standā such as the Senate building, the Primal Basillica and so on.
Vos is one of the most unique. Majority of its inhabitants are Seeker class warriors with the advantage of flight. This unique flight frame was developed because of the nature of Vossian terrain, high cliffs and steep mountains that go deep into chasms.
Darkmount is a military base, ground-based warrior frames set up their barracks. It was thriving during Novaās conquestsā docks and markets thriving with soldiers returning from their slaughter up in the stars. But after the era of conquest fell, it reverted to being nothing more than a military headquarters.
Kaon is the city of factories, it's the closest to Darkmount and during Novaās expansion, it produced tons of weapons and ammunitions to Darkmount. It remains as the weapons production capitol of Cybertron.
Tarn is primarily energon rich lands filled with mines. Most of its inhabitants are usually miners or low ranking military foot-soldiers. Tarn is, in a way, the metaphorical spark of Cybertronā majority of the planet's fuel originates from this area.
There exist minor settlements and towns like Yuss or Kalis but they are often overlooked and are left unchecked. However, during the Autobot-Decepticon Civil War, they served as vital strategic points for supply lines. Most of the village and rural life on Cybertron was turned extinct by the war. Bots began moving to larger cities in mass for better protection and opportunities.
