Editing Censere

:''Censere is a [[Transformer]] from the [[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW portion]] of the [[Generation 1 continuity family|Generation 1]] [[continuity family]].''

[[File:Censere nightbeat the not knowing.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|"You... rang?"]]
They say that a mute [[Neutral]] known as the '''Necrobot''' travels the battlefields of the [[Great War (G1)|Great War]], administering posthumous rites to fallen Cybertronians. They say that he can determine the cause of death just by letting his shadow fall on the corpse and that he has devoted his life to recording the fate of every last Transformer. Whether there is any truth to these stories is unknown to most, but they persist.

In truth, he is an ordinary Cybertronian more properly known as '''Censere''', who has dedicated himself to the recording of every Cybertronian death.

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==Fiction==
===IDW Generation 1 continuity===
[[File:Some Other Cyberton - Super Censere.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Come with him if you want to live.]]
'''Censere of the [[High-Ceilinged Manifold]]''' was a census office worker named in the ancient times before the [[First Cybertronian Civil War|war]] of the [[Thirteen Tribes]]. When he left the census office to retrain as a forensic pathologist, he drifted apart from a friend and co-worker named [[Tusk]]; when Tusk died, it went unreported, and Censere did not find out about it until years later. His friend's death moved Censere to begin a lifelong mission: chronicling the deaths of every Cybertronian. With the destruction of his hometown in the First Cybertronian Civil War, Censere relocated to a [[Necroworld|"scorched and forgotten" planet]] that Tusk had told him about, where he set up a base of operations filled with complex machinery that allowed him to keep track of spark signatures, and quantum technology that let him teleport all around the universe to record every fatality. He transformed the blasted world on which he dwelled into a beautiful garden, filled with holographic statues of every living Cybertronian, which he would switch off when the Cybertronian died. Around the bases of the statues, he planted flowers crafted from the residual spark energy of whoever the statue's real-life counterpart was responsible for killing. {{storylink|The Not Knowing}} He also kept a dedicated journal, filled with all manner of things, including the original, unedited version of the [[Grand Cybertronian Taxonomy]]. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 4: At Close of Day|At Close of Day}}

Swearing an oath of non-interference, Censere eventually became a figure of myth and legend among Cybertronians, glimpsed on battlefields across the cosmos silently recording deaths. Dubbed the "Necrobot" by the religious and/or superstitious, he was also known as the "Gatekeeper", or the "Mute Neutral", and was believed to be an envoy of [[Primus]], charged with ferrying departed [[spark]]s into the [[Transformer afterlife|afterlife]]. {{storylink|The Not Knowing}} Conversely, skeptics like [[Ratchet (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Ratchet]] dismissed his existence as a fairytale, attributing supposed sightings of him and his "portable apothecary" to visual glitches caused by freshly-constructed Cybertronians' senses "trying to run before [they] can walk", like the [[Shimmer]] or seeing [[Primus]]'s face in a mushroom cloud. {{storylink|Twenty Plus One}} [[Trailbreaker (G1)|Trailbreaker]] shared his lack of belief, comparing stories of the Necrobot to [[Sparkeater (creature)|Sparkeaters]] and the [[Moonbase One|Seething Moon]]. {{storylink|Liars, A to D Part 3: The Chaos of Warm Things|The Chaos of Warm Things}}

[[File:Scavengers2-Necrobot.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.34|"Arthur Dent? Arthur ''Philip'' Dent? You're a jerk, a complete arsehole."]]
While on the planet [[Clemency]], itself littered with the bodies of dead (and occasionally not-so-dead) Transformers, [[Misfire (G1)|Misfire]] would periodically catch sight of what he believed was the Necrobot. He would then "chase it" for a few seconds before "losing sight of it" again, as observed by [[Krok (G1)|Krok]] who was not himself a believer. {{storylink|Rules of Disengagement (issue)|Rules of Disengagement}} One and a half years later, however, the Necrobot did indeed arrive on Clemency to add [[Flywheels]] to his list of dead Cybertronians, which also included several members of the ''[[Lost Light]]'' crew. {{storylink|Scavengers (Part 2): Who's Afraid of the DJD?|Who's Afraid of the DJD?}} 

A selection of the crew of the ''[[Lost Light]]'' visited his planet of operations, the location of which was revealed by an info bullet from [[Dominus Ambus|Agent 113]]. Alarmed to see that multiple Transformers whose deaths he knew he had unambiguously recorded were alive and walking around in his garden, the Necrobot slammed the door to his complex shut, but when one such 'bot, Nightbeat, stood outside the door and refused to leave, Censere gave in to his curiosity and invited Nightbeat inside so he could explain his and the others' continued living (Nightbeat, he soon learned, had been revived by the properties of the [[Dead Universe]], while the others had never died - the deaths he had recorded were those of their quantum duplicates, created through a quantum generator accident). Censere went on to explain his true nature and how he carried out his work; though Nightbeat was dismayed by this revelation, having wanted to believe that the Necrobot was a mystic figure and proof that higher powers existed in the universe, Censere reminded him that his not being 'magic' did not mean the [[Transformer afterlife|Afterspark]] did not exist. {{storylink|The Not Knowing}}

[[File:DoNotGoGentle CenseresavesRoller.jpg|thumb|left|250px]]
He would take Nightbeat's words to heart when he found one of [[Brainstorm (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Brainstorm]]'s time cases buried by Megatron. By linking it up to his teleport chamber, he was able to go back in time, recovering the Transformers on his list of the disappeared. The time traveling took its toll on the passengers though, so he put them in comas and disguised them as organics to keep them safe from other Cybertronians. Occasionally, he would be glimpsed in these endeavors by others, spawning the legends of his portable apothecary. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}}

Among those he rescued were 'bots like [[Roller (IDW)|Roller]], [[Wavelength (G1)|Wavelength]], [[Syphon]], {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}} [[Anode]], [[Lug (IDW)|Lug]], [[Fangry (G1)|Fangry]], and [[Rapidfire]]. {{storylink|Dissolution Part 1: Some Other Cybertron|Some Other Cybertron}} He was halfway down the list when the [[Decepticon Justice Division]] showed up, and he guessed that several of the 'bots he rescued were on [[The List|their own list]]. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}}

The DJD somehow learned of the ''Lost Light''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s previous visit to Necroworld and decided to use a fabricated distress signal to lure the group back in order to maroon them, Tarn reasoning the Necrobot was the perfect bait. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 2: The Sun in Flight|The Sun in Flight}} However, Censere altered the signal minutes after it was sent, turning it into a psychic bombardment of the intended recipients' worst fears in an attempt to warn them off. The DJD then butchered Censere and left his body with flowers stuffed in exit wounds for the Autobots to find. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light: (1) How Bright Their Frail Deeds|How Bright Their Frail Deeds}} While the Autobots were distracted with the ongoing siege, Censere, due to his great age, dissolved into ''[[sentio metallico]]''.

Left behind was the key to his stasis pod room. After the Autobots discovered it, they were unable to use Censere's teleport chamber to escape for fear of leaving the "organics" to die. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 2: The Sun in Flight|The Sun in Flight}}

Several hours later, Rewind, having read through Censere's journal, discovered what he'd done with Brainstorm's time machine. {{storylink|The Dying of the Light Part 6: Do Not Go Gentle|Do Not Go Gentle}}





==Notes==
*In the individual-issue printing of "Who's Afraid of the DJD?", Misfire stated that "[Flywheels'] ludicrous search for the Necrobot ends unfulfilled", yet in the previous issue, it was Misfire who was looking for the Necrobot. James Roberts admitted that he'd confused the two Scavengers; in the trade, Misfire's "ludicrous search" line was cut out.<ref>[http://forum.idwpublishing.com/viewtopic.php?p=313133&highlight=#313133 Roberts on the correction at the IDW forums]</ref>
*"Censere" is a Latin word meaning "to assess" that is the root of the English word "census".

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Comic-only Transformers]]
[[Category:IDW Generation 1 legends]]
[[Category:IDW Generation 1 Transformers]]
[[Category:Neutrals]]