J'nwan

At the Mountains of Magnus

J'nwan is the name given by the inhabitants of Cybertron to the region of their planet which intersects with a subspace fissure rotating through numerous pocket dimensions. Many don't believe it exists at all, writing it off as myth and ornate poetry, but it is very real and stranger than the legends say. The effect of this quantum flux in the local traumasphere is to produce a maddening landscape which seemingly ignores all logic and physics. Navigation is rendered nearly impossible, enormous objects and structures spring forth and vanish unpredictably, and the ultimate result of J'nwan's mere presence on unprepared minds is to destroy them utterly.

It is in this forbidding place that the Authority and countless other Transformers of legend have chosen to live out the rest of their existences. How, precisely, they have made themselves able to remain in J'nwan without succumbing to psychosis or death is unknown, though it is possible their hyperdeveloped mental bonds aid them. (Other, far more interesting theories, such as them all being mad anyhow or not being real at all, are at this point mere speculation.)

There are present within J'nwan certain obelisks of apparently non-Cybertronic origin; whether this means individuals from other dimensions intersected by the same subspace fissure dwell therein has yet to be revealed.

“	The translucent sun, setting on plains of eternity	”
—Famous "ornate prose" describing it, "Paradox"

Fiction

3H comics

While many Transformers didn't believe J'nwan existed, the invincible Predacon warlord Shokaract knew it did... and steered clear when he marched across the planet. Paradox

Rebel leader Sandstorm learned that one of the last Great War strongholds was deep in J'nwan, a place he referred to as "the most desolate part of Cybertron, cursed by Primus, and left well alone". Sandstorm's Predacon war journal

A party of rebels led by Sandstorm, seeking aid from their legendary heroes against Shokaract's plan, entered J'nwan. One by one they fell, destroyed by the very incomprehensible nature of J'nwan itself as it tore into their personal faiths and inner demons. Only Sandstorm, secretly the Covenant member Scorpius, possessed sufficient mental discipline to survive and even then barely. Climbing an impossibly high cliff which appeared from nowhere, Sandstorm ultimately was able to make contact with the Authority and his brethren, only to be rebuffed. When he left J'nwan, he found his departure made substantially easier than his entrance, which he attributed to some unknown assistance by the Authority. Paradox (In the end, several of the legendary heroes would change their mind and leave J'nwan to join the battle at Omega Point. Terminus)

Despite being a member of Primus's Covenant, Sandstorm/Scorpius was awestruck by the presence of the Authority and proved unable to understand the denizens' telepathic communications, "unable to make sense of the crush of mathematical imagery they used". Evidently something happened to them in there. Paradox

Ask Sideways

After hijacking Vector Prime's Axiom Nexus News column, known liar Sideways stated that he and Soundwave were blasted to J'nwan after being caught in the battle between Galvatron and Starscream. Ask Sideways, 2015/07/02

Notes

• "J'nwan" = "Gen One". Get it? Oh, that Furman, always the punster.
• J'nwan also appears in Furman's pseudocanonical story "The Last Days of Optimus Prime", where a tired Prime, questioning his place in the world where his old comrades are "long gone", searches out J'nwan and is welcomed by his old enemy Megatron. Here, J'nwan is implicitly a place where the old Transformers go to die: "There is a place, a stilled heartbeat away, where we go as mortal twilight gathers." Grimlock, shown as someone departed, who Prime "wish[es] to join", appears as a J'nwan member in "Terminus" (which Furman had written by then). And Optimus suddenly finds himself there without realising, remarking it's "the end", as if he's quietly slipped away into death.
• J'nwan got a shout-out in a Titan comic quiz.