Herald, Covenant, Schism, Paradox
| The name or term "Herald" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Herald (disambiguation). |
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 A graphic designer's worst nightmare. | |||||||||||||
| "Herald", "Covenant", "Schism", "Paradox" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | 3H Productions | ||||||||||||
| First published | July 28, 2000 (BotCon 2000) | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | July 28-30, 2000 | ||||||||||||
| Script | Simon Furman | ||||||||||||
| Illustrations | Lee Sullivan | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 (via Universe) | ||||||||||||
Many players draw closer as Point Omega, the end of everything, comes.
Synopsis
Covenant
On Protos, Leonicus enjoys the sunrise. He is eventually forced to return to the Sanctuary, where he sees his fellow members of the Covenant go on with their daily lives, sealed away from the Universe for millennia in preparation for Point Omega, or Shokaract. He is soon met with the Chronarchitect, who struggles to create a physical presence and warns Leonicus of an upcoming disaster. In a booming voice, The Chronarchitect tells Leonicus to "return to the beginning".
The Convenant convene in a zemstvo to discuss the Chronarchitect's foreboding words. They recall that the last time the Chronarchtiect appeared was in 2005, when Optimus Prime died and the ownership of the Creation Matrix was in flux. For that event, they had readied for war, but the Matrix passed to Hot Rod, who used it to destroy Unicron and the Covenant went unneeded. Now, they again worry of the Grand Plan of their creator, Primus, and the impeding Point Omega.
Leonicus reviews the Covenant's origins. In the beginning, a new universe was reborn from the ashes of the old. In this old universe, gods existed. One of them, Unicron, became a devourer, consuming the entire universe, other gods included. His task done, he slept in the void. Life still clinged on, spontaneously creating a new universe and a positive counterpart to Unicron—Primus. The two mighty titans' battles devastated the universe, and so Primus concocted a plan: he would distract Unicron on the mental plane and trap their physical essences in metal asteroids. To test his tactic, he imprinted part of his lifeforce into Protos, creating life out of the dead moon. Twelve were born with sparks of Primus's essence—the Covenant. Satisfied that he could reshape his future metal prison to create life, Primus tasked the Covenant with observation and maintaining the Grand Plan, especially for Point Omega. The Covenant observed the evolution of the Transformer race and waited for the time when they would be called upon.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Covenant | Gods | Others |
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Schism
A victim of a devastating battle, the Cub, lies dying. This was supposed to be his Ko-tu ceremony, the end of which meant that he had become a Herald of Shokaract, like his brother, Cataclysm.
The Cub, after being granted power by Shokaract, was sent into the ruined Badlands as part of his initiation ceremony. He was to hunt down and prove himself against the Maximals and Predacons who still resisted Shokaract's absolute rule. Each pre-Herald was assigned an "alpha target" to take down; the Cub's was the legendary Veteran. The Cub eventually discovered his target, but his would-be victim deftly overcame the attacks and struck back. The Cub was defeated. Tired of war and death, the Veteran spared the Cub.
The Cub's body is looked upon by the Veteran and Sandstorm. Sandstorm had suggested that the Veteran merge his spark with the Cub's. Through this, they could access the Cub's memories and discover knowledge to help in the battle with Shokaract. The Cub, due to his failure to kill the Veteran, was put in combat with Cataclysm to restore his honor. The battle was ridiculously skewered, resulting in Cataclysm ripping his brother apart. After some reflection, the Veteran consents to Sandstorm's plan.
On Protos, it has been 200 years since the Chronarchitect's warning. Leonicus muses on the rise of Shokaract, known as the alternate name of Point Omega, and the sending of four members of the Covenant to find the cause of Point Omega. Only three have returned.
The Cub refuses to allow himself to be "possessed" by the Veteran. Nevertheless, the merge occurs and Windrazor is born.
In the Empire Room at the Royal Palace at Corumkan, Cataclysm prepares to enter a transwarp portal to the past, on Earth. He has been assigned to discover Antagony's fate after her journey to find the tracking device that would reveal the location of the Dark Essence. As he enters, Windrazor crashes into the room. Cataclysm recognizes his brother, but it is too late, as he has begun transportation.
In the Badlands, Sandstorm gathers a force of rebel Transformers. He reflects on Windrazor's revelation of Cataclysm's mission and tells his force of their destination: J'nwan.
Windrazor charges into Cataclysm and the two battle in the quantum tunnel leading to the past. Cataclysm is pulled into overspace, where his constituent particles disperse. Windrazor, on the other hand, ends up on a strange planet. Immediately, he sees a dragon rising out of a volcano. Windrazor realizes he is on prehistoric Earth, during the Beast Wars.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
Notes
- There are two mildly differing versions of the story "Herald", one published in the 1999 four-parter, the other published as illustrated prequel to the 2000 comic. Some details found in one of the versions are absent from the other, and vice versa, such as information Megatron "borrowed" the mind-drill from Tarantulas, a description of Cataclysm's Ko-tu and the extent of Antagony's revenge on him.
- Botcon.com presents "Herald" as chapter 4 of Reaching the Omega Point. The Botcon 2000 comic's presentation places it (more sensibly) as a prequel.
