Dominus Ambus
- Dominus Ambus is an Autobot from the IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Grow a nice one and get ready for your time to shine
Scientist, explorer, philosopher, and more, Dominus Ambus is one of pre-war Cybertron's movers and shakers. He rocks the 'stache.
His spark-brother is Minimus Ambus.
Fiction
IDW Generation 1 continuity
Dominus Ambus of Ambustus Minor The Not Knowing authored a work called The Ascetic Cybertronian, in which he wrote, "Pleasure is a distraction from pursuit of truth." Omega's Conundrum
Before the war, Dominus spearheaded the movement to recognize the rights of the so-called "disposable class". He was inspired by his strong friendship with Rewind, whom he employed as a data receptacle. He would secretly give Rewind some of his own premium energon, instead of leaving him to feed off the cruder stuff society said he was supposed to use.
The two shared the closest of bonds and became Conjunx Endurae.Words Hang in the Air Together they went off searching for Luna 1, which they believed held a cure for cybercrosis. They returned empty-handed to find war had broken out, and they quickly chose to become Autobots.
Some time later, Dominus mysteriously vanished. Rewind began a lifelong quest to find his whereabouts. Before & After
The Necrobot's base of operations recorded Dominus as dead, but his name was also engraved on a monolith labelled "In Honor of the Disappeared". The Not Knowing
 Spoiler warning: Plot details for The Dying of the Light Part 4: At Close of Day follow. |
In the waning hours before the DJD planned on attacking the Necrobot's fortress, Rewind was having a look through the fortress' databanks. As Brainstorm was measuring Minimus Ambus for a new suit of armor (to replace the damaged Magnus armor), he explained that he was going to test the limits of Minimus' loadbearer capabilities. Minimus casually mentioned that he always could carry a heavier load than his brother Dominus. Rewind was surprised at the news, and insisted that Dominus was never a loadbearer. Minimus gently explained that Dominus was even more sensitive about his size than he, and always wore armor to hide his actual form. Shocked at the news that Dominus had kept his true appearance a secret, Rewind began going through the Grand Cybertronian Taxonomy in the database, pleased that it was an original copy, not one redone by the Functionists. Just before he got to altmode number 113, which was the altmode number for Dominus, Drift buzzed Rewind on their commlink and told Rewind to get down to the medibay at once-that something was going wrong with Chromedome's injecting of The Pet.
At the same time Dominus Ambus' altmode, a turbofox, came up on screen, Chromedome discovered that the turbofox everyone had thought was The Pet was actually a lobotomized and mutilated Dominus Ambus. As Rewind arrived in the medibay, Chromedome explained that Dominus had been the original Agent 113. He'd been found out by the DJD, and had his transformation cog removed and been lobotomized by the DJD as his punishment, forever trapped in his altmode. Chromedome set about repairing the damage done to Dominus' brain, at the cost of his own life. Rewind insisted that he stop, that Chromedome didn't need to continue if it meant his death. Determined to give Rewind his former love back, he continued, stating that if he pulled out now, it would shut down Dominus' mind. Chromedome was only stopped by Rewind slicing off his arm with Drift's sword, severing the connection to Dominus' mind, and presumably, killing him.
The Functionist Universe
In an alternate timeline where the Functionist Council had slowly but surely conquered Cybertron, Dominus failed to end the disposable class and could only pull strings to get Rewind upgraded from disposable to research assistant. He also removed Rewind's obsolence chip, ensuring he couldn't be "recalled" if the Council turned on memory sticks. The two acted against the monstrous dictatorship both secretly and verbally, which got Dominus turned into a "flathead": his head replaced with a computer screen that was Council property, given no voice and 'talking' with text so he couldn't express himself, and his face showing propaganda pop-ups at random moments. He continued to resist and reached out to his spark-brother Minimus Ambus, but the Council found him out.
In an act of supreme cruelty, the Council deleted Dominus's vocabulary so he only knew the simplest of words and "love" was not among them. His screen was then used to taunt Rewind and Minimus about their impending doom. The Custom-Made Now
Notes
- "Dominus" means "lord" or "master" in Latin, while "Ambus" appears to be derived from "ambulare", meaning "to walk".
- Members of the House Of Ambus all have those distinct 'taches.
- In "Into the Abyss" Ultra Magnus refers to the Ambus Test, a universally recognised question-set designed to detect sentience in mechanical lifeforms that was presumably named after Dominus.
