Energon bloodline

Through their Energon bloodline, a Transformer is descended from one of the Thirteen.

Fiction

Aligned continuity family

In the distant prehistory of Cybertron, when the original Thirteen Primes concluded that their time as stewards of the planet had come to an end, they united their knowledge and power to ignite the Well of All Sparks, the fount of life from which the Transformer race would be born. Each of the Thirteen submitted their "patterns" to the Well—the blueprints of their very being—and thus, each new lifeform that emerged from the Well was shaped in accordance with the archetype that one or more of the Primes represented, both in mind and in body. The individual natures and personalities of each of the Thirteen were reflected in the 'bots that followed them; for instance, Megatron was born of the line of Megatronus, a passionate and resentful outsider, while all those descended from Solus Prime shared her specific data processing architecture (necessary to operate her Creation Lathe), a distinction that became the basis for the Cybertronian model of gender division. Additionally, the unique physical attributes of certain Primes also spawned whole sub-classes of Transformer life: Onyx Prime's descendants had beast modes, Micronus Prime's were Mini-Cons, Nexus Prime's patterns gave Transformers the potential to be combiners, and Amalgamous Prime's gave some the potential for greater-than-average transformation abilities. The Covenant of Primus

Age of the Primes promotional material

Every Transformer could be traced back to one of the original Thirteen. Known lineages include:

Prima Prime Red Alert

Vector Prime

Alpha Trion Slingshot Grimlock

Solus Prime Crasher

Micronus Prime Waspinator

Alchemist Prime

Nexus Prime Silverbolt

Onyx Prime Sky-Byte

Amalgamous Prime Air Raid Excellion

Quintus Prime Flatline

Liege Maximo Prime Sideways Venin

Megatronus Vortex

Star Optimus Prime Heatwave

Notes

• The concept of alignment to one of the Thirteen originates in the abandoned "polarity" idea featured in the Binder of Revelation, although that was a more complex system, owing to an individual having two polarities instead of one bloodline.
• Energon bloodlines are a thinly sketched gimmick of the Age of the Primes toyline representing an effort to tie the non-Prime toys into the line's central Thirteen motif in a manner analogous to the "Prime Master power" profile cards of 2018's Power of the Primes. The lateral packaging art, for Deluxe, Voyager, and Leader toys, is supposed to indicate which Prime the character is related to, though the art always shows three Primes.
• Assignment of Age of the Primes characters seems to be either based on a characteristic (being a combiner, a deceiver, etc.) or a reference to previous work (Optimus Prime being a mentor figure to Heatwave in Rescue Bots).