Thirteen Tribes

Template:Factions The Thirteen Tribes are various groupings of Transformer that inhabited the planet of Cybertron with each being led by one of the Thirteen.

Named tribes include the Darklanders.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

Following the departure of the Knights of Cybertron, Cybertronian society devolved into a primitive, tribal, society overseen by various Primes and warlords. Five of these Primes, Solus, Vector, Nexus, Alchemist Prime, and Alpha Trion joined forces to lay the foundations of Crystal City. Their nascent kingdom was threatened by the approach of Megatronus and his Darklander army forcing the quintet to ally with Liege Maximo and "Onyx Prime" to fight off their foe before it was discovered that Onyx and Megatronus were old friends and a truce was ratified between the eight Primes. Template:Storylink The alliance drew the attention of five more Primes across Cybertron who joined the alliance, creating the Thirteen Primes. Template:Storylink Though the tribes were nominally one, prejudices still existed between them, as did their loyalty to the Prime who initially commanded them. Template:Storylink

The manipulations of Liege Maximo and Megatronus's murder of Solus Prime eventually caused the First Cybertronian Civil War, undoing the alliance between the Thirteen and pitting the tribes against each other once more. Template:Storylink When the conflict came to a close, all the Primes, save for Alpha Trion, had mysteriously vanished (possibly due to Galvatron killing Nexus Prime in a scarily short fight). Trion took the opportunity to do away with tribalism forever and arranged it so that Nova Major would become Cybertron's sole ruler now that the reign of the Primes had ended. Template:Storylink

Notes

• The Diaclona Tribe are another named group of Cybertronians from the days of the Thirteen, but whether they were ruled by a Prime was never stated.