Cities, polities and regions of Cybertron: Aligned edition

[yvannairie]

After a few days of pretty intense individual scrutiny, I figured it would be a good to pull back a little and collate what I know and what I've already figured out about the geopolitics of Cybertron so I don't have to go back to the wiki every time it happens, and it'll also probably be a good jumping off point for other people or whatever.

Unfortunately there isn't a way to make this as generic as I'd like since the history and politics change with every canon (and also rarely are they kept consistent as writers just kinda come up with their own shit) so this is going to be focused on my interpretation of Aligned, specifically drawing from the novels and Prime, as well as using material created for the WFC. I've said elsewhere but I take a kind of... anthropological approach to the stuff I add to the worldbuilding, so where my sources contradict each other, I try to figure out why the contradiction exists and whether it has significance.

My primary resource is... my memory, as well as TFWiki, so factual errors aren't only likely, they're also pretty unavoidable :'D I'll try to come back to fix any mistakes, but the point of this post isn't to be comprehensive, it's mostly a self-reminder.

Anyway.

First things first, I base my geographical assumptions about the planet pretty much wholly on the Exodus novels, the High Moon game design documents and this map from the Transformers Vault, which I've understood to be the canonical map of the planet during the events of the games/the backstory of Prime:

There are also a few places that are in the games that aren't on the map that I keep in mind while writing, but I'll point them out when they become relevant to consideration.

I broadly consider Cybertron to have four "regions of interest":

1. The northern hemisphere of influence, starting from the north pole and covering the regions controlled by Iacon and Nova Cronum, and bordered by Kalis, Tagan (also spelled "Tagon", but when polities have multiple names available I just use the one I think sounds nicer) and Altihex, as well as the north end of the Manganese Mountains.

2. The Torus State area or the regions controlled by the Tri-Torus states of Polyhex, Uraya and Kalis, as well as Altihex and Tagan Heights. It is bordered by the Mithric Sea in the west and the Sea of Rust in the east.

3. The "badlands" of Cybertron, from the Sonic Canyons to the Unicron eject site, bordering Kaon in the south and Tagan in the north, including Hydrax Plateau and the area controlled by Stanix, as well as the non-polity regions of Slaughter City and Blaster City.

4. The southern hemisphere of influence, starting from Simfur at the south pole and covering the areas controlled by Kaon, Tarn and Praxus. The local influence extends also to the southern borders of Polyhex and Uraya, but in the east the enviromental barriers of the Sonic Canyons and the Hydrax plateau prevent it.

None of the regions are subservient to other, however, the northern regions have a much stronger political influence and are less affected by the politics of other regions mostly due to the presence of the political and religious capital of Iacon at their border. The further south you go, the more blurred the "borders" between polities become, and the less strict control over their own regions the various polities have. All the polities and city-states are broadly independent, but only Vos is considered truly autonomous, and it holds a much higher degree of influence over its region compared to other polities that ultimately fall under the mandate of the Cybertronian senate.

Iacon is best known for housing the senate and the High Council of Cybertron, was broadly considered the "capital" of the planet while Cybertron still had offworld colonies. It also holds the fortress of Decagon, which is the main control center of Cyberton's military operations, as well as the Hall of Records. Iacon also held the Academy of Sciences, broadly considered the most prestigious university on the planet, although Iacon's sister city, Nova Cronum, was also held in high regard as the real sanctum of intellect and learning.

Bordering Iacon is Kalis, the bulkwark of the north and an important trade settlement. Kalis housed the fusion reactors and Energon refineries and was the primary energy provider for the northern city-states, and thus played an important strategic role during the war, being the "gate" to Iacon that allowed the city to remain unconquered for the majority of the war. Kalis, along with Uraya and Polyhex formed the "Tri-Torus Loop", which is the primary land route through which goods and materials moved between the regions of Cybetron, putting them in a strong economic position.

Polyhex is also the home of the Cybetronian satellite command center, and the location of the reconnaissance and military development cabinet of Cybetron's defence forces. Polyhex, along with Iacon, and Stanix in the east, housed one of the root nodes of the Cybertronian DataNet, and acted as the cornerstones of the planetary communications grid. Stanix also houses Fort Scyk, the cabinet of the Cybetronian land forces.

The third important fortress city is Vos, which I've already spent a fair amount of time talking about, but to recap Vos is the nexus of all air transportation on Cybetron, the cabinet of the Cybertronian Air Forces, and also has its own universities and research laboratories. It's the most independent of the city-states, because it's also an energy provider for the region. To the west of Vos lies Tarn -- an industrial city and an important local transportation center. (Tarn also probably houses a regiment of the land forces because of the unpredictable politics of Vos.) Even further west lies Praxus -- the home city of many a military mech and enforcer, and presumably where the Cybetron military academy is located.

(EDIT: Between Praxus and Tarn, there lies a region so completely decimated in the war even the name of the region has been lost, but apochrypally the area is called the ruins of Nyon.)

The final large city in the region is Kaon, another industrial and mining city like Tarn, but instead of getting into local competition to secure its political significance, Kaon houses the highly lucrative gladiatorial combat, which also diverts other political pressures away from the regions it controls. Kaon's regional influence is considerable, and it also effectively controls the nearby population centers of Slaughter City and Blaster City, which provide untested fighters for the official pit fights.

The other two significant developed regions are the Hydrax Plateau, which houses the old space port and the launch sites used for shuttles to offworld colonies and Tagan Heights, which is where the majority of goods manufacturing on Cybertron occurs. Due to the dispersed nature of their settlements, both of the regions are under the stewardship of other city-states -- Tagan, by the nearby polity of Altihex, while Hydrax is not seen as a highly valuable region after the discouragement of orbital development, and is effectively ungoverned.

Hydrax Plateau's general lack of political significance is further exacerbated by being surrounded by the Sea of Rust -- Cybertron's largest "ocean" of corrosive, ever-shifting sand -- and being bordered to the south by the Sonic Canyons, an area dominated by deep chasms going nearly to the core of the planet. WHile both of the regions are interesting in a geographical sense, they're not particularly economically developed as a result.

Similar interesting but undeveloped regions are the Well of Allsparks and the Unicron Eject Site, but this is more for their cultural and religious significance rather than poor development potential. Between the sites is Crystal City, a haven of natural sciences that tries to maintain neutrality in the geopolitics of the planet and focus on unbiased research. Titanium Turnpike connects Crystal City to Polyhex and the Torus state fairways, passing over the Mithric Sea. The region is cut off from Stanix by the Manganese Mountains.

In the south pole of the planet is the polity of Simfur, and the area is known for having a large number of well-preserved ruins, including a well-known temple of Primus. In the exact opposite pole, is the Six Lasers Over Cybertron, an amusement park that was built past the Golden Age, and was for its entire existence reserved for the entertainment of high caste mechs only.

Finally, after the abandonment of the colonies, the near and far orbits of Cybertron started to deteriorate from a lack of interest in developing them in favour of land and air routes, and are technically under no-one's stewardship. The most interesting things in the space between Cybertron and its moons is Trypticon Station and the surrounding asteroid field, but before the war it also mostly held interest to researchers and historians.

Cybertron also has multiple Metrotitans living on it, but after the end of the Golden Age, none have been seen, as the huge Cityformers have essentially fallen into stasis.