Maximal Elder

The Maximal Elders are the leaders of Cybertron during the Beast Era of the Generation 1 continuity family.

You can't see me!

_{This character has no official visual representation in any Transformers product or media... yet, at least.}

The Maximal Elders are the Maximals who lead the political and military fronts from planet Cybertron following the conclusion of the Great War. They allow the Predacons certain individual freedoms as their own faction, though in reality, they must answer to the Maximal Elders. The Maximal Elders aren't all sugar and rainbows, however, as they have greenlit several experiments of questionable ethics.

How the Council of Elders relates to the Maximal High Council remains to be seen. They may or may not be replaced by the Convoy Council in the distant future.

Fiction

Beast Wars cartoon

Not much is known about the Maximal Elders, including who the members are and how many exist. The Tripredacus Council is accused of kissing their skid-plates by Predacon radicals. The Agenda (Part 2) They apparently keep a tight hold on any and all information regarding the Great War and Earth, restricting access to it from the general populace. (The Predacons conversely have no such restrictions.) Possession The Elders also authorized the experimental Protoform X, and later its disposal. Bad Spark

There's also mention of a High Council, which may or may not be the same group, and who made the area of space around planet Earth off limits for unknown reasons. If they're separate bodies, the High Council possesses legislative powers but appears to be a lesser body to the Elders: the High Council are only mentioned in one episode and in that same story, Rhinox talks about "the Elders" sending help rather than the High Council. Deep Metal

Beast Machines cartoon

Sometime after conquering all of Cybertron with his Vehicon army and transformation virus, Megatron moved into the Council Citadel in the planetary capital of Cybertropolis, which had previously served as the capitol of the Council of Elders. Master of the House The Elders themselves presumably had their Sparks removed along with the rest of the population.

3H comics

Apelinq noted with disdain that, in the wake of the attacks that signaled the beginning of Megatron's conquest of Cybertron, the Maximal Elders at first attempted to ignore the problem, but as it became clear that the attacks were not simply random, isolated incidents, they became "all but immobilized, with blame and doubt being cast from one end of the command chain to another". Apelinq's War Journals

IDW Beast Wars comics

The Right Honourable Prowl, Ironhide, and Silverbolt are all Maximal Elders, and rule Cybertron. Beast Wars Sourcebook However, they're said to collectively be the Maximal Imperium rather than Council of Elders and they don't dwell in the Council Citadel. The Ascending #2

Notes

• Many fans assumed that Magnaboss might've filled the same role for the Maximals that the Tripredacus Council performed for the Predacons. Its three components' Generation 1-inspired names implies to some that these are the original Autobots in advisory roles. While they've not been shown as the Council itself, the idea of them being government figures has been used twice in the subsequent Beast Era comics: the Universe comic had Magnaboss as a member of the post-reformatting Maximal High Council, and the IDW Beast Wars comics had the Magnaboss trio as the ruling Maximal Imperium.