Post by Pearl Forrester on Feb 12, 2013 11:59:55 GMT -5
This is a listing of various terms, events and other tidbits of information that might be useful for players to know. More posts will be added as the need expands.
FUNCTIONISM:
The belief that a Cybertronian's status was determined not only by the utility of their alt-mode, but also it's scarcity. The more unique an alt-mode was, the higher a Cybertronian could climb in society, and vice versa. At one point, Cybertronians who transformed into memory sticks were so common, they were considered a "disposable class" and treated as little more than slaves. Functionists often have a religious underlining to their beliefs, accepting that a forged alt-mode is the will of "Adaptus" (a mythologized Alchemist Prime), the god of forms and contemporary of Primus himself.
Elsewhere on Cybertron, though, it was acceptable to defy Adaptus and undergo full-body retrofitting to change alt-modes permanently...provided you had enough credits. For a more modest fee, Relinquishment Clinics offered "body tourism", using sparkswap technology to let Cybertronians temporarily try out a different alt-modes from a "donor".
Functionism labelled and categorized citizens by something beyond their control, and so it inevitably prompted a negative response. The Militant Monoform Movement, who rejected Adaptus and their transformation cogs, may have arisen as a direct response to the dictates of functionism.
TRIORIAN GUARD:
A detachment of multi-terrain Triple Changers that serve as the personal guard of the Cybertronian Senate and are tasked with the protection of the Primal Basilica where they have orders to kill suspected trouble makers on sight.
VAMPARC RIBBON:
The vamparc ribbon is a weapon invented by Jhiaxus. Though they use up a lot of energy, what makes vamparcs special is their ability to drain energon straight from an enemy Transformer's body and use it as ammunition. They may overload if they're not fired quickly enough or absorb too much energon at once.
RELIQUISHMENT CLINIC:
Prior to the Great War, full scale re-engineering was a service only available to the elite Cybertronian classes. As such, the general masses were fixed in their alt-modes and unable to change them. At this time, these clinics were run by commercial enterprises and charged fees as high as 5,000 shanix to make use of a patented Sparkswap Technology to transfer a Spark into a vacant bodyshell. These bodyshells were from donors which allowed clients to experience life in a completely different alt-mode. Ratchet disliked the clinics as he felt that they were a nasty form of body tourism.
The clinics were one of many facilities used as a cover for the Institute, a sinister government brainwashing facility. Poor robots from the Dead End went in to sell their bodies for money, and came out thinking new thoughts.
Following the dissolution of the ruling government and the outbreak of the Transformers' war, most clinics ceased operation. As the corrosion of war without end wore on Cybertron's populace, the few remaining clinics began offering a new service for those who wished to escape the conflict but could not leave the planet: assisted suicide.
THE INSTITUTE:
Before the Great War, The Institute was a rumor whose very existence was, to many, suspect. How could there actually be a laboratory dedicated to rewriting Transformers' minds - dabbling in the forbidden science known as "shadowplay"? But for many, it is a name whispered in fearful tones - the kind of place where out-of-line mechs might get 'disappeared' to, to have their loyalty coefficient brought back into lockstep with the desires of the Senate. Rational-minded Transformers dismiss the entire notion as nothing more than a hallucination of the paranoid. But those rational minds might want to reconsider...
An acquaintance of Orion Pax within the Senate feared that Orion could get sent to The Institute as punishment for interrupting a Senate session. Around the same time, Chromedome likewise noted that dissenters from the official government line were likely to get sent to The Institute. Though Prowl dismissed the entire notion of The Institute with a derisive phht, Chromedome was fascinated by the idea of place, regardless of whether or not it was real. The rational-minded Rung, meanwhile, regarded Red Alert's mentions of the Institute as a sure sign of paranoia. (He didn't know that Red Alert may have been a victim of the Institute...)
While on a mission to track down a murderer, Chromedome and Prowl made their way into a supposed Relinquishment Clinic. Once inside, the duo were shocked to find much more than mere bodyswapping going on. They found an entire laboratory complex below the clinic, filled with technicians working on dozens of Transformer brains. It was immediately obvious to Chromedome that they were in fact inside the fabled Institute. Hacking the lab's computer, Chromedome found a list of thousands of names organized by "threat level". What neither they nor their superiors realized was that the very name "the Institute" was sleight of hand: it made people think there was just one, not a whole network! In time, every Relinquishment Clinic would turn out to have an Institute under it and that was only part of it. Senator Shockwave would be a victim of the Institute, deliberately turned into an emotionless husk as an act of petty revenge.
EMPURATA:
Empurata is an old tradition on pre-war Cybertron. A tradition of removing the damn heads and hands of criminals and installing new faceless, fingerless replacements so everyone knows to shun them.
When Whirl's combat prowess caught the attention of the Senate, he was pushed into joining the Elite Guard. When the 'bot tried to resist his orders, they used empurata to... persuade him otherwise. This is part of the reason why he's such a bitter mess: when he sold out the Senate to Ultra Magnus, the reason he gave was "I want my hands back".
During the Clampdown, amputee support groups called on the Senate to ban the practice but the Senate responded that it was only used on criminals who deserve it. At the same time they were saying that, the Institute was 'working' on the crusading Senator Shockwave and performed empurata on him solely out of spite.
FUNCTIONISM:
The belief that a Cybertronian's status was determined not only by the utility of their alt-mode, but also it's scarcity. The more unique an alt-mode was, the higher a Cybertronian could climb in society, and vice versa. At one point, Cybertronians who transformed into memory sticks were so common, they were considered a "disposable class" and treated as little more than slaves. Functionists often have a religious underlining to their beliefs, accepting that a forged alt-mode is the will of "Adaptus" (a mythologized Alchemist Prime), the god of forms and contemporary of Primus himself.
Elsewhere on Cybertron, though, it was acceptable to defy Adaptus and undergo full-body retrofitting to change alt-modes permanently...provided you had enough credits. For a more modest fee, Relinquishment Clinics offered "body tourism", using sparkswap technology to let Cybertronians temporarily try out a different alt-modes from a "donor".
Functionism labelled and categorized citizens by something beyond their control, and so it inevitably prompted a negative response. The Militant Monoform Movement, who rejected Adaptus and their transformation cogs, may have arisen as a direct response to the dictates of functionism.
TRIORIAN GUARD:
A detachment of multi-terrain Triple Changers that serve as the personal guard of the Cybertronian Senate and are tasked with the protection of the Primal Basilica where they have orders to kill suspected trouble makers on sight.
VAMPARC RIBBON:
The vamparc ribbon is a weapon invented by Jhiaxus. Though they use up a lot of energy, what makes vamparcs special is their ability to drain energon straight from an enemy Transformer's body and use it as ammunition. They may overload if they're not fired quickly enough or absorb too much energon at once.
RELIQUISHMENT CLINIC:
Prior to the Great War, full scale re-engineering was a service only available to the elite Cybertronian classes. As such, the general masses were fixed in their alt-modes and unable to change them. At this time, these clinics were run by commercial enterprises and charged fees as high as 5,000 shanix to make use of a patented Sparkswap Technology to transfer a Spark into a vacant bodyshell. These bodyshells were from donors which allowed clients to experience life in a completely different alt-mode. Ratchet disliked the clinics as he felt that they were a nasty form of body tourism.
The clinics were one of many facilities used as a cover for the Institute, a sinister government brainwashing facility. Poor robots from the Dead End went in to sell their bodies for money, and came out thinking new thoughts.
Following the dissolution of the ruling government and the outbreak of the Transformers' war, most clinics ceased operation. As the corrosion of war without end wore on Cybertron's populace, the few remaining clinics began offering a new service for those who wished to escape the conflict but could not leave the planet: assisted suicide.
THE INSTITUTE:
Before the Great War, The Institute was a rumor whose very existence was, to many, suspect. How could there actually be a laboratory dedicated to rewriting Transformers' minds - dabbling in the forbidden science known as "shadowplay"? But for many, it is a name whispered in fearful tones - the kind of place where out-of-line mechs might get 'disappeared' to, to have their loyalty coefficient brought back into lockstep with the desires of the Senate. Rational-minded Transformers dismiss the entire notion as nothing more than a hallucination of the paranoid. But those rational minds might want to reconsider...
An acquaintance of Orion Pax within the Senate feared that Orion could get sent to The Institute as punishment for interrupting a Senate session. Around the same time, Chromedome likewise noted that dissenters from the official government line were likely to get sent to The Institute. Though Prowl dismissed the entire notion of The Institute with a derisive phht, Chromedome was fascinated by the idea of place, regardless of whether or not it was real. The rational-minded Rung, meanwhile, regarded Red Alert's mentions of the Institute as a sure sign of paranoia. (He didn't know that Red Alert may have been a victim of the Institute...)
While on a mission to track down a murderer, Chromedome and Prowl made their way into a supposed Relinquishment Clinic. Once inside, the duo were shocked to find much more than mere bodyswapping going on. They found an entire laboratory complex below the clinic, filled with technicians working on dozens of Transformer brains. It was immediately obvious to Chromedome that they were in fact inside the fabled Institute. Hacking the lab's computer, Chromedome found a list of thousands of names organized by "threat level". What neither they nor their superiors realized was that the very name "the Institute" was sleight of hand: it made people think there was just one, not a whole network! In time, every Relinquishment Clinic would turn out to have an Institute under it and that was only part of it. Senator Shockwave would be a victim of the Institute, deliberately turned into an emotionless husk as an act of petty revenge.
EMPURATA:
Empurata is an old tradition on pre-war Cybertron. A tradition of removing the damn heads and hands of criminals and installing new faceless, fingerless replacements so everyone knows to shun them.
When Whirl's combat prowess caught the attention of the Senate, he was pushed into joining the Elite Guard. When the 'bot tried to resist his orders, they used empurata to... persuade him otherwise. This is part of the reason why he's such a bitter mess: when he sold out the Senate to Ultra Magnus, the reason he gave was "I want my hands back".
During the Clampdown, amputee support groups called on the Senate to ban the practice but the Senate responded that it was only used on criminals who deserve it. At the same time they were saying that, the Institute was 'working' on the crusading Senator Shockwave and performed empurata on him solely out of spite.