Functionist Universe

This universe becomes much funnier when you imagine "Onyx Prime" on some backwater world trying to find the iron butterfly he stepped on.

The Functionist Universe, universal stream designation Primax 1114.26 Gamma, was born as a divergent timeline from Primax 1005.19 Gamma, created when Perceptor tampered with the paradox locks of Brainstorm's time travel device.

In this universe, Megatron as he was known never came to exist, meaning that the Great War never occurred. His history-defining absence drastically changed the course of the timeline, creating a world where the Functionist Council had eliminated the Senate entirely and established a brutal theocracy. Thus, the entirety of Cybertron adhered to the fascist ideals of Functionism, where one's form defined their function. However, the entirety of other alien species in the universe were spared from becoming collateral damage in the Cybertronian civil war... temporarily.

There are no Autobots here, no Decepticons... just god-fearing councillors like you and a planet full of docile, deferential workers—slaves to their alt mode. Where your right to exist is dependent on what you turn into—and whether the Council has a use for you.{{#if:|{{{quote2}}}}}{{#if:Rewind sums it all up"Anomie"|Rewind sums it all up{{#if:"Anomie"|, "Anomie"|}}|}}

Fiction

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2005 IDW continuity

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Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed

Five million years ago, the Functionist Council and the Senate came to loggerheads over the use of Nova Prime's stockpile of frozen sparks to increase the planet's population. The Functionist Council deemed the practice heretical against the teaching of Adaptus. In response, the Senate sealed Vector Sigma behind a wall of impenetrable ununtrium. In turn, the Council gathered an army of devoted followers, seized the Matrix of Leadership, and executed Nominus Prime and the Senate for blasphemy. A World Misplaced Since ununtrium walls could be cut by ununtrium blades, the wall around Vector Sigma was little more than an inconvenience for the Functionists, but they left the supercomputer alone out of fear that their collective alternate mode was not needed to activate it. Regardless, the fall of the Senate heralded a new age for Cybertron: one of utter Functionist domination. Modes of Production

Under the new regime, the intellectual class was outlawed and all Transformers who had been constructed cold were "deported". From the Functionist Council's headquarters in the Cog, they determined which classes still had value and which were no longer useful. The Custom-Made Now Rung's existence alarmed them: as his alternate mode seemed to have no function, he was a living counterargument to Functionist doctrine. As such, they whisked him away to prison and experimented on him for millions of years in a desperate attempt to explain why Primus had created a Cybertronian who had no apparent purpose. Predestination: An Expert's Guide A World Misplaced

When a class was deemed obsolete, they were "recalled" by lethally detonating obsolescence chips that the Council had installed in the heads of every Cybertronian. The reasoning behind this mass murder of the populace was that "downsizing" was honoring the pursuit of the "perfect shape" and thus such things should be viewed as "acts of both sacrifice and pragmatism". At least some of these recalls were motivated by the fear the recalled classes had the ability to act against the Council, rather than loss of usefulness. Predestination: An Expert's Guide Any 'bot had the right to seek sanctuary in five Sacred Cities thought to belong to the Guiding Hand, as it would be heresy not to allow it, though the city councilor could easily refuse them sanctuary. A World Misplaced Rewind would later recall that the laser pointers had been recalled in 6th cycle, 351 in an event known as the Dark Dawn.

Round here we're carving out our names
Round here we all look the same
Round here we talk just like lions
But we sacrifice like lambs

Empurata continued to be practiced until it had reached a saturation point and the stigma surrounding it was dissipated. Going one step further, the Council began replacing heads with monitors that removed the victim's ability to speak, forcing them to instead rely on the words written on their monitor. Known as "flatheads," their faces were considered Council property and the Functionist Council could co-opt the screens to display their own messages of unity if the subject continued speaking out of turn or even remotely alter the victim's brain. Some Transformers would attempt to pose as higher-class citizens by attaching kibble to themselves to give the appearance of a more useful alt mode; as a result, the Council's functionaries began directly inspecting the transformation cogs of suspicious 'bots. By the present day, even animals were being added to the Grand Cybertronian Taxonomy. The Custom-Made Now

At some point, the Primal Vanguard, ever expanding and ever conscripting people, Modes of Production was sent to Luna 2 to fight the Black Box Consortia for control of the moon. During this time, Six-of-Twelve plotted to transform the moon into an interstellar recycling unit, stripping uninhabited worlds of minerals and teleporting the resources back to Cybertron so it could be expanded. After half a million years of fighting and after Six-of-Twelve had claimed to have abandoned his plan, the Council agreed to peace terms with the Consortia and claimed that they had given the moon to them, though it in fact remained Cybertronian property. While the Cybertronians were bitter about losing their moon, the Council began using the pretext of "no more need for space travel" to quarantine the planet so nobody could ever leave and stoke xenophobia on Cybertron. By the time that the Primal Vanguard returned to Cybertron, the long thought untouchable astro class had been recalled. The Custom-Made Now A World Misplaced Bad Moon Rising This Machine Kills Fascists

By the time the Council did this, the "willfully non-employed" had begun rebelling and formed the Anti-Vocationist League, rejecting alt modes altogether and rallying around the symbol of Rung, called "the Useless One", as a rebuke of Functionist ideology. The Council violently suppressed them and prevented their revolts from being broadcast to the populace. As part of their plan to now fully clamp down, the Council had all of the Vanguard soldiers' eyes replaced with new ones in transit that would allow the Council to watch the populace through them. When this test proved effective, they decided to roll this compulsory upgrade out to the rest of the population. Shortly thereafter, the Council ordered the data slugs recalled as their ability to store information could be used against their government. The Custom-Made Now

Meanwhile, in the other universe, Rewind found his memories being overwritten with ones from this timeline, a warning that someone was time travelling. He briefly tried to ensure the Functionist Universe did overwrite his own, because tens of billions of innocent aliens lived in this world, spared from the horrors of Decepticon genocide... but a rather selfish arse really wanted to stick it to the Functionists and ensured Megatron's existence so the Council would fall in their reality. The Custom-Made Now Predestination: An Expert's Guide

Well these demon days are so cold inside
It's so hard to live, and so to survive
You can't even trust the air you breathe

Over time, Councillor and 'Matrix-carrier' Six-of-Twelve had started to believe "Primus" was talking to him through the talisman, unaware that it was a fake. By this time, the Council had decided that aliens had no function and began preparing for a holy war of extermination, bending the rules of the GCT to allow for "recycling", transplanting sparks into different bodies so as to expand the construction and military classes. Unaware of the reason but disgusted by the blasphemy, Councilor Nine-of-Twelve defected, joining the Anti-Vocationist League and turning his city of Adaptica into a refuge for those deemed "obsolete" by the Council. He was able to block the obsolescence chip to prevent remote extermination of the refugees, with hundreds of thousands eventually coming to live in the city. While Nine-of-Twelve believed himself and his people safe due to the possibility of the Council needing the Key to Vector Sigma, he had been allowed to perform these acts by the rest of the Council, who intended to turn Luna 2 on Adaptica and the AVL. A World Misplaced Bad Moon Rising Modes of Production

Sometime after Nine's defection, a janitorial class worker, Sweep, happened to figure out Rung's purpose when he saw the 'bot coughing up photonic crystals; the same crystals Nova Prime had used to store sparks in for the cold construction process. Fearing that Rung was a Mortilus spawn sent to debase the will of Primus and destroy their system, One-of-Twelve decided to execute him, with Rung goading him so as to give the AVL a martyr to rally around, before the Council decided realized that Rung's existence was actually Primus's way of endorsing cold construction. Making ready for galactic conquest, the Council blackmailed Rung with Adaptica's destruction and forced him to produce thousands of crystals while they attempted to tap the Matrix for the required sparks. Discovering that the Matrix was a fake, they instead turned to Vector Sigma for the sparks necessary. As their plans neared completion, they found that the Key to Vector Sigma was unnecessary and that they could force Rung to produce more crystals. Predestination: An Expert's Guide Modes of Production

Go on, go on scream and cry
You're miles from where anyone will find you
This is nothing new, no television crew
They don't even put on the sirens

At the same time, a dozen Autobots formerly of the Lost Light arrived on the planet, thinking it their own Cybertron. Twelve-of-Twelve and a Functionary shock squad, with several captured and blinded protestors in tow, arrived to arrest them for trespassing in a social exclusion zone. Some Other Cybertron As it turned out, they had arrived on the eve of "Revelation Day", the day when the Council would announce what the Useless One was for. After encountering the Anti-Vocationist League and escaping the Functionaries, the castaways travelled to Adaptica, where they watched as the Council unveiled "Rung"'s supposed alternate mode: a gigantic drilling platform that would allow them to reach the sealed off Vector Sigma, thus 'proving' Primus had foreseen the Senate's plan and made Rung for it. Under cover of this dramatic broadcast, Luna 2 reentered Cybertronian airspace and positioned itself over Adaptica. A World Misplaced

What needs fixing is the system
Not shop windows down in Brixton
Riots on the television
You can't put us all in prison!
(OI!!!)

As Luna 2 began harvesting Adaptica, the Council announced their intent to tunnel down to Vector Sigma. Rodimus led a strike team to rescue Rung and engaged in battle with Six-of-Twelve, while Megatron took control from a shellshocked Nine-of-Twelve and began organising the Adapticans refugees into a defence force while the city was evacuated. Bad Moon Rising Rodimus found himself quickly subdued by the false Matrix, now incorporating an "agony beam" until Ratchet bluffed that he'd execute Rung, allowing them to escape back to the surface.

I said OI!!
What you lookin at
You little rich boy

Megatron's work against Luna 2 distracted it long enough that the bulk of refugees could flee while Rodimus' team hijacked the Cog where the native Rung filled them in on the Council's PR machinations and master plan. Modes of Production Though eager to return to his own universe, Rodimus's morals eventually won out and he opted to sacrifice his best route home by ramming the Cog into Luna 2, only for the Cog to be shot out of the sky by friendly fire.

At wit's end, Rung tried to stop the moon himself, using the forcibly installed mass-displacement generator to grow to a size large enough that he could physically attack. However, the strain this put on his joints, combined with the moon's own artillery, eventually claimed his life. In the end, it was Roller who beat the no-win scenario they found themselves in by suggesting that Luna 2 be teleported directly into the hollow Necroworld. Though the Autobots managed to abscond back to their native reality with the moon, Terminus had intentionally led Megatron to the wrong teleporter, willfully stranding both in the Functionist Universe.

I see your trials and tribulations
I hope they work out for you in the end
I hope you get everything that you pray for
I hope one day you get exactly what you paid for

To save face, the Council lied that the Black Box Consortia had attacked Adaptica and covered up their cold construction by fabricating a story of new hot spots appearing. Making the best of his situation, Megatron went on a speaking tour, using his charisma and experience to rally the AVL into an alliance of scattered yet autonomous cells preaching the message of "peace through empathy". As he pondered the stars above Nova Point, he was contacted by the native Orion Pax. This Machine Kills Fascists

With Luna 2 lost to them, the Council instead turned Cybertron itself into their instrument of destruction. The planet's lack of manoeuvrability proved an obstacle, with Megatron and the AVL managing to evacuate any targeted alien populations. In retaliation, the Council merged with Vector Sigma and gave the planet a robot mode in the likeness of Primus. Over the next few centuries, the Council went to war with Megatron before they passed into Megatron's native universe. The Return of the King

Ask Vector Prime

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Vector Prime was surprised when Primax 1114.26 Gamma suddenly popped fully formed into existence in the multiverse; the gradual formation of splinter timelines was a far more common phenomenon. He noted that although it was an unpleasant reality for Cybertronians, he had seen far worse. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/05/16

Notes

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Cosplayers, take note!
  • The Functionist Universe's universal stream designation, given in the Facebook edition of Ask Vector Prime, comes from the release date of "The Custom-Made Now", in which the universe debuted.
  • In the main timeline, naturally born female Transformers no longer exist on Cybertron, having vanished sometime after the end of the First Cybertronian Civil War and before the Golden Age. In this timeline, however, a handful of female-identifying Transformers exist, including Anode and a political dissident. The most likely explanation is that, like Anode, other Transformers voluntarily changed their appearance and/or gender expression as described in issue 8 of Lost Light; though how exactly they learned of gendered alien races—what with this version of Cybertron being forcibly cut off from its neighbor worlds—in the first place is unclear. It's also possible that some female Transformers may have been born on one of the colony worlds and subsequently emigrated to Cybertron before the Council quarantined their homeworld.
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