Functionist Council
The Functionist Council are the twelve Cybertronians who regulate functionism: the social practice/religious belief that a Transformer's class and job should be dependent on their alt mode. From their headquarters, the Council discuss any changes and oversee the Grand Cybertronian Taxonomy that explains how everyone fits into the social order.
This power is definitely not abused. (Look, just nod and agree, I think they're watching)
Members
- One-of-Twelve: Convener
- Two-of-Twelve: Auditor
- Three-of-Twelve: Authenticator
- Four-of-Twelve: Moderator
- Five-of-Twelve: Enumerator
- Six-of-Twelve: Enactor
- Seven-of-Twelve: Curator
- Eight-of-Twelve: Disseminator
- Nine-of-Twelve: Inquisitor
- Ten-of-Twelve: Evaluator
- Eleven-of-Twelve: Mediator
- Twelve-of-Twelve: Castigator
Fiction
IDW Generation 1 continuity
Under the Council's edicts, the rare Transformers were the elite and the most ubiquitous were the disposable class (Few of the D-class had rights until Dominus Ambus challenged the system.) Before & After "Every shape has its purpose", they claimed How to Say Goodbye and Mean It, and this meant you had to do the job that your alt-mode 'implied'. The Council sold this as the best for everyone's peace of mind, asking who'd want medical care from an artillery Transformer or if workers would feel comfortable mining with a data stick. This was defended as part of the Guiding Hand's grand plan. Births, Deaths, and Interventions If you were an "outlier" with abilities that had nothing to do with an alt mode? Better make sure the Council never heard about you. Patternism For a time, the Council were even quietly pulling the Senate's strings. Oh, and empurata? Their idea. Stet
If you were intellectual class you could be alt-mode exempt. Post Hoc If you performed a service that really made the Council happy, you were declared alt-mode exempt by them (as happened to Senator Momus). A Functionist Calls
Rung was a major threat to the Functionist Council as he didn't turn into anything they could identify. After a barrage of tests, they gave up, put "Ornament" in the Taxonomy, and told him to wear a fake wheel so as to "reassure" people. Little Victories
Another major threat was when Whirl switched jobs from soldier to watchmaker, thanks to a moderate Functionary. The Council arranged for him to be an example, all with their hands cleaned: they'd arrange for the mob to smash up Whirl's workshop under the pretense of a protection rocket, and for the Senate (still under their control) to find an excuse to put him through empurata so he could never make watches again. Stet
They were a particular bugbear of Megatron, who wrote that the Council had pulled the Taxonomy out of their arse and were using it to keep Cybertronians divided and stratified. This message spread wildly on Cybertron: many Transformers, especially the manual class, had become sick of alt mode segregation. Births, Deaths, and Interventions Patternism The first Decepticon activists were arrested outside the Council's building in Iacon. Post Hoc
Despite all that power and influence, the growing secularism on Cybertron was threatening their position and they knew it. (It's probably not a coincidence that when the Senate killed two Decepticons so they could 'solve' the murder, the killers were framed as pro-Functionists. Patternism) This meant that when the Senate discovered a spark hot spot in the shape of a hand in 1st cycle 502, specifically the legendary hand of Primus that shaped the planet, they covered it up for fear that the Council would seize on it as proof of Primus. They knew that given the chance, the Functionists would stage a takeover and bring back hardline functionism. All Our Parlous Yesterdays
The Functionist Council survived into Zeta Prime's reign, issuing datapads that helped body-transplanted Cybertronians adjust to their new forms. Omega's Conundrum They eventually met their end during the Great War The Custom-Made Now and in the present day, their main contribution was when Rewind ironically repeated their slogan to defend his choice to stay a memory stick. How to Say Goodbye and Mean It
The Functionist Universe
Template:Notecmn When Brainstorm altered the timeline, he created a Cybertron where the Functionist Council had slowly but surely conquered the planet: the intellectual class outlawed, the Senate overthrown, the "knock-offs" deported, dissidents turned into flatheads with no ability to speak, and Functionary enforcers on every corner. Obsolescence chips planted in everyone's head so that when their theoconomists agreed an alt-mode had no further use, the Council could issue a "mass recall". At their peak, they wiped out the memory sticks (despite the theoconomist rulings) so nobody could use stored data against them and began having everyone's optics turned into cameras so that everyone would be watching everyone forever. The Custom-Made Now
Notes
- In "The Custom-Made Now", they have a floating base: The Cog. When this was built (and if it existed in the regular time) isn't yet known. In "Shadowplay", they just had a building.
- All of the councilors have the same bodyshape and blank, one-optic heads. This is interesting after we learned they created empurata, where a troublemaker's head is replaced by a blank, one-optic block.
- Most ironically, despite the fact that they judge other Cybertronians based solely on what their alt-modes are, the councilors do not even have alt-modes. Not that pre-war hypocrisy was a rare thing.
