Virulina

Virulina is a Darkling Lord from the IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Virulina was once a follower of Darkstorm, but new worlds beget new challenges and the need for fresh leadership. In the wake of her ex-commander's passing, Virulina has stepped up as the next leader of the Darkling Lords, taking the soft-spoken Cindarr as an impromptu advisor in her schemes.

Ambitious, driven, and determined, Virulina balks at the prospect of eking out a subterranean life on a planet ruled by towering mechanoids. As far as she's concerned, Cybertron is hers to take and colonize, and though the Transformers might outnumber her people a thousand to one, a little Prysmosian magic might shift the fragile balance of power....

Fiction

IDW Generation 1 continuity family

On Prysmos, Virulina was a Darkling Lord and a follower of Darkstorm, eagerly spearheading the schism that split them off from the Spectral Knights. When Prysmos was destroyed due to the gravitational forces of the planet's three suns, she was one of the few survivors who fled the doomed world, leaving Darkstorm to his fate. Decades later, Merklynn recreated a portion of their homeworld beneath the surface of Cybertron, and Virulina and the other "Visionaries" took up residence in New Prysmos. A few weeks after arriving, she attended a meeting as the Visionaries debated what to do about the Cybertronians controlling the planet; Virulina being firmly in favor of annihilating them all in the name of Prysmosian sovereignty.

Arguing with Leoric as they left the meeting hall, they ran into Cybertronian representatives Kup and Ironhide, though opening diplomatic overtures went down poorly. At the negotiating table, Virulina eventually grew tired of the Cybertronian's terms, arguing that her people didn't need the authorization of the Council of Worlds to live their lives. After storming out of thhe room, she met with Cindarr, who passed on a rumor that one of the Cybertronians had been gravely wounded after exposure to a surge of Talisman energy.

At the next diplomatic meeting, a peeved Ironhide revealed news that the Talisman was now burrowing towards Vector Sigma at the core of the planet to complete its mission to remake Cybertron; when Virulina revealed that she knew that this would happen, Ironhide threw aside the table to get at her, prompting Virulina to deploy a magical spear. At the last second, Kup threw himself in her path, and the surge of energy intended for Ironhide disintegrated the old Autobot on the spot. Schismatic

Brandishing Kup's head as a trophy, Virulina and Cindarr went to free Merklynn from Cybertronian custody, learning that the old wizard had already used his own magic to disintegrate his guards. As a horrified Leoric watched, the three of them went off to address the assembled population of New Prysmos, announcing that their magic was particularly virulent against mechanical life and that, using their various arcane abilities, the Visionaries could conquer Cybertron and remake it. Virulina then led the Darkling Lords and several Spectral Knight defectors to destroy the pylons that projected the force field around their city, trouncing the Spectral Knights who stood against her genocidal ambitions, and, soon afterwards, using her shark totem form to defeat Leoric's lion shape. With Leoric in retreat and Merklynn by her side, Virulina was crowned chancellor of the city, and vowed to use their magic to drive the Cybertronians to extinction. Cybertron No More

Using her new political power, Virulina successfully swayed the remaining Spectral Knights over to her side, announcing that the rebirth of Prysmos would soon be at hand. Her words successfully swayed the majority of the Spectral Knights, and soon Cryotek and the other Knights swore fealty to her. As she reclined in her new throne room, her Darkling Lords presented their new prisoner Waspinator, captured in the recent coup; though Waspinator hoped to serve her as she made war against the population of Cybertron, Virulina had other ideas, and used her magic to remake him into a facsimile of the magically animated vehicles the Prysmosians had once used on their homeworld.

Shortly afetwards, Leoric, his group of Spectral Knight loyalists, and Mortdred attempted to infiltrate New Prysmos... only to encounter Virulina, now riding atop a magically twisted Waspinator. Desperate Measures