War of the Primes

The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

The first true civil war in Cybertronian history, the Age of Primes came to a bitter end with the War of the Primes. More of a series of skirmishes than a full-on war like the later Great War, the War of the Primes saw the Primes turn on each other after an extended period of distrust, suspicion, jealousy, and manipulation. It was followed by the Age of Evolution.

Fiction

The Covenant of Primus

Before the War

In the beginning, Primus fought an endless conflict with Unicron, with neither side achieving true victory. With prior attempts to defeat Unicron failing, Primus created the Thirteen, who were imbued with facets of Primus and Unicron's natures and abilities, which would allow for new strategies to combat the Chaos Bringer. Immediately following their creation, the Thirteen split into three groups:

• Warriors:
  • Prima
  • Vector Prime
  • Megatronus
  • Onyx Prime
  • Amalgamous Prime
• Strategists:
  • Alpha Trion
  • Quintus Prime
  • Liege Maximo
  • Micronus Prime

• Free Agents
  • Alchemist Prime
  • Solus Prime
  • Nexus Prime
  • The Thirteenth Prime.

The Primes divided themselves long before encountering their common foe, with the earliest conflict emerging between the Primus-like Prima and the Unicron-like Megatronus. Yet their common goal of defeating Unicron, along with Thirteen's comforting words of "All Are One", kept them united. They trained together, practicing exercises and attack maneuvers, developing relationships with each other over time. As they looked for new ways to face Unicron, Megatronus requested Solus create the Requiem Blaster. While hesitant at first, Solus decided to trust Megatronus, a decision that would mark the beginning of a deeply intimate and loving relationship between the two Primes.

Eventually, the Primes went to battle against the Chaos Bringer, which was more hellish and grueling than they could have imagined. The Thirteen managed to defeat and expel the dark god, but not without severe physical and mental wounds. Time would heal the physical wounds, but the darkness of Unicron began to feed off of their differences, which would slowly develop throughout the Age of Primes. With Unicron's defeat, the Primes once again reorganized themselves into new cliques based on their interests and projects:

• Primes focused on developing civilization:
  • Prima
  • Vector Prime
  • Alpha Trion

• Primes focused on Energon mining, refining, and storing:
  • Megatronus
  • Liege Maximo
  • Amalgamous Prime

• Primes focused on creative interests:
  • Micronus Prime
  • Onyx Prime
  • Solus Prime
  • Nexus Prime

• Primes who traveled freely between cliques:
  • Alchemist Prime
  • Quintus Prime
  • Thirteen

Resentment continued to grow between Prima and Megatronus's respective groups, with Megatronus' group finding the first group bossy and controlling. One glimmer of joy existed during this time: the growing love between Megatronus and Solus, which delighted Thirteen, Onyx, and Micronus. And yet, jealousy burned within Megatronus as he watched Solus interact with the other Primes.

The cliques of the Primes led to secrets amongst them, such as Prima's opinions regarding the later Primes (Thirteen being an exception) as malicious or evil. While Alpha Trion attempted to dispute Prima's views by arguing Primus' inability to defeat Unicron on his own, Vector Prime sided with Prima, and Alpha Trion eventually remained quiet on the matter. Meanwhile, Liege Maximo would convertly work with Megatronus and Quintus on a secret Farm that would contain robotic beasts. Both secrets were the beginnings of the end for the Primes.

Fall of the Primes

The Truth Comes Out

Othello: 'Twas I that kill'd her.
Emilia: O, the more angel she, and you the blacker devil!

Megatronus would continue to struggle with his emotions when Liege Maximo discovered a chart created by Prima that identified which Primes were most like Unicron, and functioned as "Agents of Chaos". Megatronus would assault Prima, leading to a small fight between the two that fueled Alpha Trion's own dislike of Megatronus.

Maximo had a falling out with Solus when he requested the creation of armor.

Aligned books

Megatronus, known for being unyielding to his brothers Exodus, killed Solus Prime in a fit of rage and became known as The Fallen. While the exact reason for the murder is unknown, Solus did show some favor towards Nexus Prime, which had made Megatronus jealous. Vector Prime would later look at the War of the Primes in hindsight, and view Liege Maximo's actions as being more unforgivable than The Fallen's infamous crime. After the war, Alchemist Prime followed Liege Maximo across the galaxy, and possibly imprisoned him. Exiles

The Thirteen fell into myth and legends, with modern Cybertronians knowing the story of how their war made "enemies of brothers, murderers of lovers, heroes of the insignificant, and cowards of the mighty".Exodus

Prime cartoon

Liege Maximo eventually died and was placed in a tomb. Alpha/Omega

2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon

In the distant past, Megatronus killed Solus Prime. Battlegrounds, Part 2 He was eventually imprisoned in another dimension, and held both Earth and Cybertron responsible for his defeat. Battlegrounds, Part 1

See also

• First Cybertronian Civil War - The civil war fought among a different incarnation of the Covenant Thirteen in the 2005 IDW continuity, orchestrated by Onyx Prime.