Caminus (planet)
- Caminus is a Titan and eponymous planet from the IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Caminus was one of the Titans created by the Knights of Cybertron millions of years ago to act as a living ship. He eventually settled on an uninhabited moon of a gas giant, which in turn orbited a dwarf star. Since many of his systems were spread out and integrated into this new civilization, the inhabitants of the civilization he founded named their planet in his honor.
Cut off from Cybertron and stranded on their resource-poor world, the Camiens developed a culture of conservation and careful energy husbandry. Camien warriors rely on swords instead of using consumption-heavy ranged weaponry. Caminus would also give rise to the Cityspeakers, a tradition of communicating with dormant Titans.
Caminus also hosts a flourishing artistic and spiritual community, in spite of its straitened infrastructure. Chief among them is the Way of Flame, a religion that deifies Primus and the Thirteen, extoling Solus Prime as the spiritual progenitor of Caminus and the greatest of the Thirteen. This religion is headed by the Mistress of Flame, the spiritual leader of the planet. Most Camiens are fanatically devoted to the lineage of the Primes, viewing even modern Primes as gods to be worshipped and followed without question. But in the absence of any actual Prime to issue commands, the Forgefire Parliament oversees the colony. Even so, the Parliament is quick to default to the commands of the Mistress of Flame or a Prime should the opportunity arise.
The term for things relating to Caminus is Camien.
Fiction
IDW Generation 1 continuity
Millions of years ago, Caminus was the Titan of Solus Prime The Sum and Its Parts and the closest friend of the First Titan, Metroplex. A 'Bot and Her City During the First Cybertronian Civil War, he helped bring down the rogue titan Vigilem alongside Metroplex and Chela, and later banished Vigilem and his master Liege Maximo from Cybertron. Rubicon
Shortly afterwards, Caminus left Cybertron to travel to the stars and colonize a new world—like all other Colony Titans, Caminus contained a hot spot filled with unborn sparks. A 'Bot and Her City Before leaving his homeworld forever, Caminus bid his old friend Metroplex farewell. Windblade vol. 1 #4
Travelling through space, Caminus landed on a small moon which orbited a white dwarf and used his hot spot to create a new civilization of Cybertronians. Like the other colonies, and unlike Cybertron in late years, Caminus retained differentiated genders. The Camiens developed a religion (the Way of Flame) that deified Primus, the Thirteen Primes, and Solus Prime as chiefest among them. Camiens believed that they were descended from Solus and that they each possessed a portion of her spark. The Sum and Its Parts In order to ensure the colony's survival, Caminus allowed his body to be disassembled and spread across the planet's surface. It was during this time that cityspeakers started to learn how to read the brains of Titans in order to maintain contact with Caminus, and to paint their faces in honor of him. A 'Bot and Her City Windblade vol. 1 #4 New Sparks from Caminus' hot spot were nurtured in facilities like the Lighthouse, which also trained medical workers like blacksmiths. Bad Moon Rising
The colony grew to have an appreciation of the arts to such an extent that scientific fields such as medicine were considered secondary concerns. As a result of the dominant religion, Camiens were expected to find Amica Endurae within ten megacycles of their creation or become essentially persona non grata within society. The Frail Gaze
Detecting a Cybertronian beacon from the planet Antilla, Caminus sent a ship to make contact with their ancestors. When the delegates arrived at Antilla, they found the land was ruled by Onyx Prime who killed one of them while the other two fled back home. Surfeit of Primes
As the colony ran low on resources, the inhabitants of Caminus began adopting to a low-energy lifestyle. Most notably, their Sparks began running on a lower frequency to conserve energy; as a side effect, Camien bleed blue energon, as opposed to the purple of their Cybertronian ancestors. The Last Autobot This caused Camiens to eschew energy weapons in favour of melee ones, deeming the former as "wasteful". Windblade #3
Onyx Prime eventually tracked the two escapees back to Caminus and mounted an attack on Parvus Oppidum claiming Praesidia Magna's life. Ghost Stories The Mistress of Flame subsequently covered up the attack. Another Mine
In the mid-19th century, Caminus loaded a collection of protoforms onto a ship for unknown reasons. Given Caminus' isolation from the larger galaxy, they were ignorant of the hatred their Cybertronians ancestors had incurred and the ship was shot down by the Galactic Council when it unknowingly entered the Gray Area. Shining Armor #1
Some time in the recent past, Thunderclash visited Caminus in the hope of finding someone capable of healing Metroplex. The Camiens, running low on resources and hoping to establish a link with Cybertron, sent Windblade, Chromia and Nautica on this sacred task. A 'Bot and Her City Windblade vol. 1 #4
After the Enigma of Combination was delivered to Starscream, Cybertron's leader paid visits to both Wheeljack, who was repairing Superion, and Swindle, who tracked down the Stunticons and used the Enigma to reform and perfect the combination of the team into Menasor. In control of the gestalt, Swindle then had Menasor knock out Chromia and Ironhide, who were guarding Metroplex's now functional space bridge, and then opened a bridge to Caminus, intending to rob the planet of any resources. First Contact
Caminus himself attempted to alert his citizens, although the cityspeakers couldn't properly understand his garbled warnings. Unfortunately, Swindle quickly discovered that the planet didn't actually have any resources, even as Menasor rampaged through it. Easily overwhelming Caminus's security forces despite support from Chromia and Ironhide, the gestalt was only brought down when Superion arrived to subdue him.
Following the attack, Windblade met with the Forgefire Parliament in order to determine responsibility for the tragedy. As Cybertron was the cause of the attack, the Parliament decreed that Cybertron must make reparations, and demanded an explanation from Cybertron's official ruler, Starscream. Starscream complied, but diplomacy was interrupted by the arrival of Optimus Prime, who demonstrated his possession of (half of) the Matrix of Leadership before the Mistress of Flame and the assembled Camiens. As a living Prime holding an artifact of Solus Prime, Optimus was essentially a divinity to the residents of Caminus, and his authority quickly overshadowed Starscream's. The Sum and Its Parts Things quickly started to get tense with Optimus and the Mistress when the former refused to act the way he was 'supposed' to and values began to clash: the Camiens thought their elected governments were a flawed compromise because a Prime couldn't direct them while Optimus was subordinate to elected government. Meanwhile, a number of Cybertronians, primarily Decepticons, went to Caminus to help with disaster relief and said Decepticons were confused to find the Camiens were glad to see them.
Thanks to sneaky PR moves by Optimus, Starscream was forced to announce a Council of Worlds where Caminus and the Republic of Cybertron would both have an equal voice. The Possible Light The first meeting to arrange it fell into problems over how the Council would be governed when Windblade and Starscream were the only two representatives so far. The Camiens were happy to accept Optimus Prime as the tiebreaker, which Starscream wrote off because he knew the Camiens would always vote his way and give Prime de facto control—only he wanted Cybertron to have de facto control instead. The arrival of a Prowl-controlled Devastator on Caminus, trying to force Cybertron to cut ties with the planet, resulted in another bloody combiner fight on the poor planet and the first Council of Worlds decision: Prowl would be imprisoned on Caminus before facing trial for crimes under both planet's laws. Starscream followed this up by agreeing to station a combiner on the colony, increasing his control over it as feared. Mistakes and Mayhem
Prowl was clear that Caminus was going to be soft-conquered and Windblade and Optimus couldn't stop it, so he went with Plan B: arranging a Menasor breakout and an invasion of Decepticons into Caminus, believing a "better life" was there, which saw the space bridge damaged. Before the combiners were warped off Caminus, the locals were aghast that this was happening for a third damn time. You, Me, and the Universe
After the end of the "Combiner Wars", Caminus became a member of the Council of Worlds. All That Remains Many of its citizens chose to immigrate to Cybertron. Windblade vol. 2 #4 Following the annexation of Earth into the Council of Worlds, Optimus Prime and Aileron travelled to Caminus to meet with the Mistress of Flame. The Medium and the Message
When a swarm of undead Titans were detected on course for Cybertron, the sick and wounded were evacuated via spacebridge to Caminus. Ping In the aftermath, the Mistress of Flame attempted to have Chromia released into Camien custody. Starscream refused prompting the Mistress to ask for Swindle and the Stunticons instead as the two had yet to answer for their crimes against the colony. Heavy
Animated cartoon
Caminus was a robotic planet within the Autobot Commonwealth area of its galaxy. The Complete AllSpark Almanac
Titans Return marketing material
On Caminus, Blaster, Rewind, and Stripes battled Skullsmasher, Grax, and Rot-Gut, who were attempting to abscond with stolen codes. Titans Return: The Power of the Titan Masters
Combiner Wars cartoon
The brawling Computron and Menasor warped to Caminus via orbital space bridge. They fell onto the planet and caused mass destruction as they landed; though Menasor killed Computron, he himself was slain by Windblade. The Fall
Beast Wars: Uprising
The Book of Logos identified Caminus as one of seven colonies. Book of Logos
Notes
- Caminus's name is Latin for forge—an appropriate name.
- Caminus appears to be the moon of a gas giant.
