Maximal Elder

You can't see me!

_{This character has no official visual representation in any Transformers product or media... yet, at least.}

The Maximal Elders are the leaders of Cybertron during the Beast Era of the Generation 1 continuity family.

The Maximal High Council of Elders, or just Maximal Elders, are the Maximals who lead the political and military fronts from planet Cybertron following the conclusion of the Great War. They allow the Predacons certain individual freedoms as their own faction, though in reality, they must answer to the Maximal Elders. The Maximal Elders aren't all sugar and rainbows, however, as they have greenlit several experiments of questionable ethics.

How the Council of Elders relates to the Maximal Imperium remain to be seen. They may or may not be replaced by the Convoy Council in the distant future.

Fiction

Beast Wars cartoon

Not much is known about the Maximal Elders, including who the members are and how many exist. The Tripredacus Council is accused of kissing their skid-plates. They apparently keep a tight hold on any and all information regarding the Great War and Earth, restricting access to it from the general populace. (The Predacons conversely have no such restrictions.) They have also made the area of space around planet Earth off limits, for unknown reasons. The Elders also authorized the experimental Protoform X, and later its disposal.

There's also mention of a High Council, which may or may not be the same group. If it isn't, the High Council possesses legislative powers but appears to be a lesser body to the Elders.

Beast Machines cartoon

Sometime after conquering all of Cybertron with his Vehicon army and transformation virus, Megatron moved into the Council Citadel in the planetary capital of Cybertropolis, which had previously served as the capitol of the Maximal Elders and they pressumably had their Sparks removed.

3H comics

Apelinq noted with disdain that, in the wake of the attacks that signaled the beginning of Megatron's conquest of Cybertron, the Maximal Elders at first attempted to ignore the problem, but as it became clear that the attacks were not simply random, isolated incidents, they became "all but immobilized, with blame and doubt being cast from one end of the command chain to another".

IDW Beast Wars comics

The Right Honourable Prowl, Ironhide, and Silverbolt are all Maximal Elders, and rule Cybertron. Beast Wars Sourcebook However, they're said to collectively be the Maximal Imperium rather than Council of Elders and they don't dwell in the Council Citadel. The Ascending issue 2

Notes

• Many fans assumed that Magnaboss might've filled the same role for the Maximals that the Tripredacus Council performed for the Predacons. Its three components' Generation 1-inspired names implies to some that these are the original Autobots in advisory roles. While they've not been shown as the Council itself, the idea of them being government figures has been used twice in the subsequent Beast Era comics: the Universe comics had Magnaboss as a member of the post-reformatting Maximal High Council, and the IDW Beast Wars comic had the Magnaboss trio as the ruling Maximal Imperium.