Athenia

That is not a planet; it's a piece of stale cheese... in outer space... somehow?

The planet Athenia (アセニア Asenia) was first seen as an unusual, irregular planetary body, resembling nothing so much as a chunk of rock. By the year 2010, however, it had been completely terraformed into a spherical world. It possesses no particularly strange or unusual geographical features, decorated with grassy fields, rivers and mountains, though after terraforming, its sky is a reddish-purple. It does not appear to have any sentient native lifeforms.

Fiction

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

Athenia played home to the first Galactic Olympics in the year 2005, with many visiting humans, Transformers and alien races of all shapes and sizes in attendance. Unfortunately, the peaceful event was interrupted by an attack by the Quintessons, who kidnapped Ultra Magnus, Kup and Spike Witwicky. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1

The Headmasters cartoon

Ahhh... Now that is more like it.

Following the extermination of the Hate Plague and the disappearance into hiding of the Decepticons, the Autobots were able to turn their attention to spreading their peaceful influence through space. The first planet they colonised was Athenia, establishing it as a secondary defense headquarters, with the intent of terraforming it into a second Cybertron. By the year 2011, the planet had been reconstructed from its original form into a spherical body, with two metallic moons, and was part of a space bridge network linked to Cybertron and Earth. The sudden reappearance of the Decepticons put further refurbishments to the planet on hold, and Athenia became a major base of operations in the ensuing conflict. Although the majority of their early campaigns targeted Cybertron, the Decepticons also recognised the importance of Athenia to the Autobot cause, and at one point attempted to destroy the planet with a metal-warping meteor.

The Autobot base amidst the landscape of Athenia.

Following the decimation of Cybertron in a plasma energy explosion, Athenia became the main headquarters for the Autobot resistance, now led by Headmaster commander Fortress. It proved particularly safe against Decepticon attacks, and was left largely unmolested for the remainder of the Headmasters' conflict, although its connection to Earth was severed when Sixshot destroyed the space bridge on Earth, causing feedback that blew up the receptor on Athenia.

Super-God Masterforce Master File

With the final defeat of the Decepticons on Earth, the war shifted into a space-based conflict, involving exchanges between the Autobots on Athenia and the Decepticons on Chaar. These battles became known as the Master Wars, so named for the important role the super-science of the planet Master played in them. With the space bridge destroyed, transit between Athenia and Earth was highly limited, necessitating the employment of humans as Godmasters and Headmaster Juniors on Earth. Master File No, 1

Super-God Masterforce comic

In the midst of the Masterforce War on Earth, the Trainbots arrived to transport the Godmasters and Headmaster Juniors to Athenia, where Fortress handed the mantle of Supreme Commander over to Ginrai, and the Earth and space-based Autobots established a "united universe federation". During the ceremony, the combined forces of the Earth and space’s Decepticons attacked, but were repelled by the power of Super Ginrai. The Battle Begins! The United Earth-Space Troops

Animated

Athenia is part of the Autobot Commonwealth. Team Athenia might be stationed there. Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac II

Alternity

When Megatron successfully shattered the gestalt higher-dimensional entities the Autobots had begun, the Autobots went on a counter-offensive that resulted in Megatron's defeat and the ascension of the Planicrons in place of the Alternity. However, this sadly meant that the members of the now defunct Alternity had to return to their own worlds to watch for any further troubles. The place chosen for their final meeting was Athenia, where Optimus Prime (one of them, anyway) gave a stirring speech to look forward to the future. Alternation

Notes

• Athenia was not named in the original English series of the episode. Its name was created for the Japanese dub of the episode—the Olympics... Greece... Athens... Athenia, y'get it?

Foreign names

• English: Sydneya (Omni Productions dub)