Quill

This article is about the ancient artifact. For the evil purple marker, see Deskcepticon.

Stop snarking about my magic pen and look at my insane spectacles!

The Quill is an artifact of the Thirteen original Transformers and one of the most powerful items in creation. Though it appears no more than a simple writing stylus scaled to Transformer hands, it has the power to change the future of the Universe itself. When used together with the Covenant of Primus, the Quill has a limited ability to literally write new events into the future. This is not a power to be used lightly, and the future is a strange and mutable thing, so the changes written by the Quill do not always last. Still, it is an object of immense potency that must be guarded carefully, something Alpha Trion sees to by keeping it secret even from his closest allies.

Fiction

The Covenant of Primus

This pen and ink book are enchanted with magic. They're so powerful, I can do more than just write people's stories... I can change them.

Alpha Trion had the Quill in his possession when he visited Vector Sigma in the hope that the computer would give him the Matrix of Leadership. Instead, Vector Sigma gave the Badge of Vector Prime, an artifact that reacted with Trion's copy of the Covenant and his Quill, creating a new and mostly indecipherable passage calling for the reawakening of the Thirteenth Prime. The Covenant of Primus

Aligned novels

The young librarian Orion Pax presumed Alpha Trion had simply become eccentric because he used a stylus and book as his interface. Exodus

Ask Vector Prime

Vector Prime identified Simon Furman as a wielder of the Quill, which allowed him to cheat death as the need arose. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/10

Beast Wars: Uprising

Overshoot had a vision given to him by the Oracle of Alpha Trion wielding the Quill. Cultural Appropriation

After his ship and crew were shot down on an unknown planet, the Commandron Astral Knight swore by the Quill to get them all home safely. The Inexorable March

Toys

Age of the Primes

"Pick it up, Soundwave."

• The Thirteen Alpha Trion (Voyager Class, 2025)

• TakaraTomy ID number: AOTP-20
• TakaraTomy release date: 2025 December 27
• Known designers: Mark Maher (Hasbro), Shogo Hasui (TakaraTomy)

Released as part of the third wave of Age of the Primes Voyagers, "The Thirteen Alpha Trion" features the first physical representation of the Quill in the form of a 5 mm compatible feathery pen based on the Covenant of Primus artwork, complete with a paired Covenant of Primus accessory for action-packed note-taking adventures. The Quill can be stored on tabs on Trion's shield.

• Designer commentary on Age of the Primes Alpha Trion from Mark Maher on Instagram
• Machine translation of Alpha Trion's TakaraTomy bio

Notes

• The Quill being both maddeningly vague and ridiculously powerful in its actual capabilities—which earned it its fair share of fandom mockery when it was first introduced—is likely why it has yet to be actually used in a story outside of background lore.