Crystal City
The Crystal City was famous for its elegance in construction, and the scientific minds that hail from it. It also has a habit of getting slagged by those who fail to recruit certain inhabitants.
Fiction
Generation 1 continuity family
The Transformers cartoon
Millions of years ago, the Crystal City was one of the most beautiful structures on all of Cybertron. It was built by the Constructicons and their then-teammate Hauler RoadHauler's toy bio and protected by a Guardian robot named Omega Supreme. Omega and the Constructicons were dear friends, although they didn't get to visit him and the city very often.
Tragically, the very Constructicons who created this masterpiece were responsible for its destruction. They were ambushed by Megatron and his Robosmasher, which turned them evil. Under his orders, they lured Omega Supreme away from the Crystal City with a false story of a nearby Decepticon attack. He was reluctant to leave his post, but took the Constructicons at their word when they promised to protect the city in his absence. Once he was gone, they razed the structure to the ground. The Secret of Omega Supreme
IDW Generation 1 continuity
The Crystal City originated millions of years ago as a small settlement built by an alliance between Alpha Trion, Solus Prime, Alchemist Prime, Nexus Prime and Vector Prime in a location said by Alpha Trion to be where Primus once delivered his Prime Pastoral. It came to be targeted by Megatronus in his conquest of Cybertron, prompting Onyx Prime and Liege Maximo to offer an alliance with the other five Primes to stand against Megatronus's hordes. The Crystal City was saved after peace was brokered between Onyx and Megatronus, and became the home of the eight Primes, who would soon grow to become the Thirteen. Origin Myths
Following the disappearance of the Primes in the First Cybertronian Civil War, the Crystal City had been hidden away underground where it was guarded by Omega Supreme, the only one who knew that Metrotitan slumbered beneath it. The lost city fell into legend and was believed to have been the home of Primus and his pantheon, the Guiding Hand. It was eventually rediscovered by Nova Prime, who raised it to the surface and made it a symbol of Cybertron's new Golden Age. By the end of Nova's rule, the Crystal City sustained heavy damage in a battle between Omega Supreme and Monstructor, causing it to be swallowed back into the depths of Cybertron. All Good Things Shortly before it was lost, Shockwave planted a seed of "Ore-14", a type of self-replicating energon, within the city. Shockwaves The wasteland left where the city had collapsed became known as the Rust Spot. An Uneventful Night Lagrange
Early in the Great War, a group of Cybertronians called the Circle of Light decided Cybertron's fate was sealed so they left the planet with a group of scientists, scholars and general pacifists. They settled on the planet Theophany and, to hide their existence from the expanding war, built a settlement underground and named it Crystal City after the old lost city. Drift #2 The city was founded on top of the very same Metrotitan, brought by Dai Atlas to serve as the new Crystal City's power source. You, Me, and Other Revelations
The Circle lived in isolation in their city until the arrival of Drift led to Braid and his slavers learning of their existence. Though Dai Atlas, leader of the Circle of Light, was hesitant about joining the fight, he ultimately raised Crystal City from beneath the earth and allowed the Circle to drive away the attackers. Drift #4 A short time later, Crystal City was attacked by Legislators sent by Chief Justice Tyrest to abduct the Circle of Light, who were able to bypass its defenses thanks to the treacherous Star Saber. Arm the Lonely The Circle fell, and by the time Drift returned the hidden city lay in ruins and its inhabitants had all been taken or recycled. As the crew of the Lost Light investigated what had happened, they discovered Metrotitan and helped him teleport home to Cybertron. You, Me, and Other Revelations
The resurrective properties of Ore-14 would restore any damage to the original Crystal City, allowing it to survive the reformatting of Cybertron that wiped all other cities off the map. Shockwaves Metrotitan wound up warping into its remains, causing his molecules to be physically enmeshed with those of the city. He was discovered by the local Cybertronians, who didn't recognize the city but were surprised that it had survived the reformatting. Unfortunately, the interaction between city's protons and the Titan's anti-protons was causing local reality to destabilize, leading to a massive explosion that completely wiped out both the Crystal City and the titan. All Good Things Unbeknownst to all but Shockwave, however, the Ore-14 kicked in again and was able to restore the city to perfect shape, and he soon returned there with Dreadwing to prepare for future plans. Shockwaves
Shockwave established the Crystal City as his headquarters, but was located by Soundwave who attacked him for abandoning the Decepticons. The effects of Ore-14 made it impossible for either side to die while in the city, however, and Soundwave retreated. Soundwaves Shockwave continued with his project by having a Titan infected with Ore-2 teleport into the Crystal City, where the two Ores mixed and turned it into a zombified "Necrotitan" that burst out of the city. Dark Dawn The next step of the plan was to bring Nova Prime and Galvatron over from the Dead Universe, so Shockwave reanimated Metalhawk and had him bring Megatron, whose body contained a space bridge, to the Crystal City. Into the Abyss At this point, the Autobots and Decepticons joined forces and invaded the Crystal City to put a stop to Shockwave. During the battle, Shockwave took control of the Necrotitan and collapsed the cavern, destroying the Ore-14 and sending the attackers fleeing. Finest Hour
As Shockwave continued to gather his various Ores for his master plan—collapsing all of space and time into Cybertron—a team of Autobots and Decepticons teleported into the Crystal City and fought their way through his allies. Black Planet Before he could enact his plan, Shockwave was made to realize what he had become and allowed himself to be killed, and the time machine integrated into his body collapsed into a singularity that swallowed the Crystal City. ...And the Damage Done The tiny singularity remained in the area, The World of Tomorrow wreaking havoc on the local atmosphere and turning the area corrosive, causing it to be dubbed the "Sea of Rust". Redemption It was naturally assumed the collapse of reality had finally destroyed the Crystal City, but it actually remained deep intact within the singularity, inhabited by Bumblebee, thought killed by Shockwave. Ghost Stories
Beast Wars: Uprising
Crystal City was located in Cybertron's southern hemisphere, southwest of Rodion. Safe Spaces Following the destruction of Master and the Targetmaster Extirpation, many Cyberdroid refugees moved to the city to try and start their lives anew. Trigger Warnings Silver Bolt used to be a professor at Drouhard University before joining the Maximal High Council. Derailment
On this fuel-starved Cybertron, Crystal City was one of the many cities afflicted by the planetary energy crisis. By the time that Stiletto visited the city with the Maximal Flying Corps, two-thirds of the crystals had already gone dark. Shortly after the onset of the Grand Uprising, a Resistance suicide bomber destroyed the entire city. Overshoot was upset to learn this, as he had hoped to move to Crystal City when his time in the Maximal Command Security Force was up. Burning Bridges The Targetmaster-in-hiding Twirl had also been hoping to move there to be with other Cyberdroids, but travelled to Iacon instead. Trigger Warnings
Cybertron
Downshift and his lifebond partner had planned to spend some time at the Crystal Cities for their honeymoon, but then Cybertron was evacuated. Downshift's Cyber Key Code text
Shattered Glass
Starscream was once one of the most brilliant scientific minds to hail from Crystal City, until Optimus Prime tried to recruit him into his evil Autobots. Starscream refused, and Prime had Crystal City destroyed while Starscream watched in horror. BotCon 2008 Starscream profile card
Animated cartoon
Ratchet once courted a girl from Crystal City who reminded him of Arcee. The AllSpark Almanac
Aligned continuity family
Aligned novels
Crystal City was the home of Cybertron's scientific elite. Shockwave worked there, as his innovations in stressed-crystal material allowed the large-scale usage of it in the city's construction. He was made to leave when his combination experiment, Bruticus Maximus, failed. Before the war, Soundwave sent Frenzy and Rumble to look for the Matrix of Leadership within the city. They overheard plans to reactivate Omega Supreme, Guardian of Cybertron's artifacts, as well as information on the Code Keys and the Plasma Energy Chamber that became useful during the final days of the war.
It was destroyed in the fourth offensive of the war, as Shockwave returned with a vengeance by unleashing his perfected combiner, Devastator. Devastator loomed over the Refracting Gardens and smashed open the wall, allowing the Decepticons to flood in. They took their time, smashing each and every object and piece of architecture. Watching on the Communication Grid, Alpha Trion remarked the dazzling display of light and colour as Crystal City collapsed was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Some scientists managed to get out of the underground laboratories, taking some of their research.
In the aftermath of the battle, Shockwave set up camp at Crystal City and reactivated Bruticus. The Geosynchronous Energon Bridge below the ruins also became of strategic importance in the war's final days. Transformers: Exodus
2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon
Vertebreak was once a member of Crystal City's science council, and studied surgical techniques from other civilizations. Unfortunately, he used this knowledge to advance his horrific cyber-grafting experiments, which got him kicked off the council and imprisoned. Some Body, Any Body
Games
Bot Shots Battle Game!
Crystal City was a floating city and one of the locations on Cybertron used as battle arena by jet-type Bot Shots. Bot Shots Battle Game!
Notes
Foreign names
- Japanese: Crystal City (クリスタルシティ Kurisutaru Shiti)
