Title: The Koiverse Encyclopedia - Planets & Moons
Author: Koi Lungfish
Disclaimer: Based on characters and situations from The Transformers ((c)
1986 Hasbro, Ltd). Used without permission. Text (c) 2005-2006, Koi Lung Fish (Mark of
Lung. All Rights Reserved.)
Subject: A dictionary of terms, places and things from the Koiverse. Some of these things are canon and have been given expanded definitions; most of them are my creations. If you would like to use one of my terms, please ask first [or at least credit me]; if you're not sure if a term is canon or fan-created, feel free to ask.
Homestar
[general]:
The star around which Cybertron orbited until late in the Third War. Homestar is larger and older than Earth's Sun, and gives off less visible light but more heat; this, along with Cybertron's industrial smog, was the cause of the planet's characteristically golden skies and permanent heat-shimmer during the Golden Age. Homestar was originally orbited by fourteen planets. From the innermost outwards, they were:
Lautek ["bright planet"] - a small planetoid with a high metal content. Exploited by Cybertronians in the mid Golden Age, and towed into Cybertronian orbit in the late Golden Age to become Seventhmoon.
Darvek ["fast planet"] - second-largest of the four inner planets. Exploited by Cybertronians in the early Golden Age, and towed into Cybertronian orbit in the late Golden Age to become Ninthmoon.
Viviek ["small planet"] - the smallest of the inner planetoids. Exploited by Cybertronians in the mid Golden Age, and towed into Cybertronian orbit in the late Golden Age to become Sixthmoon.
Unludiek ["low-above-the-horizon planet"] - the largest of the inner planetoids. Exploited by Cybertronians in the mid Golden Age, and towed into Cybertronian orbit in the late Golden Age to become Tenthmoon, where it was completely cyberformed. After the Oblivicus Incident, Unludiek became an independent planet again, in an orbit between its original position and Cybertron's. It was recolonized by neutrals, neutralists and Autobots who had been left behind when Cybertron was blown out of Homestar's system. According to the final contact between Cybertron and Unludiek, the planet is now the centre of a peaceful quasi-Autobot federation of Homestar's remaining planets.
Cybertron.
Moons of Cybertron - The five natural and seven unnatural bodies orbiting Cybertron.
Firstmoon - the largest and highest-orbiting of Cybertron's natural moons, with a diameter more than twice that of Earth. There is geotechnic evidence that Firstmoon was originally part of Cybertron's rocky core before the planet solidified. Ancient art found in deep caverns on this moon suggest a link to the myth of the good creatures. During the mid-late Golden Age, Firstmoon was heavily populated by citizens of Kaon. After the start of the Third War, space travel was interrupted, and once the Decepticons invaded Kaon, the large civilian population suffered from terrible energon shortages. Once the War reached the satellite bodies, Firstmoon changed hands several times, being used by both sides to gravity-bomb opposing positions on Cybertron's surface. After the Recommunication, Firstmoon was retaken by the Autobots and used as a centre of operations. Firstmoon was later eaten by Unicron.
Secondmoon - the smallest, lowest and fastest-orbiting of Cybertron's natural moons. During the Golden Age, it was mostly used as a satellite relay station. During the Third War, it changed hands several times, being used mostly as a listening post and launch point for orbital drop troops. After the Recommunication, Secondmoon was retaken by the Autobots and used as a listening post. Secondmoon was later detonated whilst Unicron was eating it.
Thirdmoon - the second-largest and slowest-orbiting of Cybertron's natural moons. During the Golden Age, it had a sizable civilian population and several major cities. During the Third War, it was not considered of great tactical significance as it was too easily attacked Firstmoon, Fourthmoon and Fifthmoon. After the Oblivicus Incident, it was shaken loose from Cybertron's gravity and left behind. Final contect with Unludiek confirms it has been towed into orbit around Chanusiac.
Fourthmoon - the second-smallest of Cybertron's moons. During the Golden Age, it had a small but rich civilian population. During the Third War, Fourthmoon tried to remain neutral, but was invaded by Decepticons and its population slaughtered. It remained in mostly Decepticon hands until energon shortages forced its abandonment. Fourthmoon is the only of Cybertron's natural moons still in orbit.
Fifthmoon - the second-highest orbiting of Cybertron's moons. During the Golden Age, it was the site for many stellar research laboratories and exploration launching structures. Early in the Third War, the Autobots were invited to secure it, and it mostly remained in Autobot hands until the Decepticons reconstructed it into the super-heavy cruiser The Oblivion, after which it was destroyed.
Sixthmoon to Tenthmoon - Cybertron's five secondary moons. Sixthmoon through Tenthmoon were originally Homestar's innermost planets; small rocky bodies with high metal content that were exploited by Cybertronians during the early Golden Age but were inhospitably to prolonged inhabitance. Due to the increasing shortage of space on Cybertron in the mid-late Golden Age, the five planets were towed out of position and placed in orbit around Cybertron, allowing them to the cyberformed and colonized. Ninthmoon is the exception in that it was once a comet, captured in the same way.
Sixthmoon - the smallest of the secondary moons, during the early Third War, many neutralists colonized Sixthmoon, reactivated its movement thrusters and emigrated out of Cybertron's star system. It has not been relocated since.
Seventhmoon - the second-smallest of the secondary moons, Seventhmoon moved in a low orbit that took it directly over Cybertron's north pole and the city of Iacon. Because of this, it was considered to be of great strategic importance, to the point where, in order to keep it from Decepticon hands, the Autobots blew it up. The meteor shower caused by its destruction severely damaged a part of Kaon.
Eighthmoon - highest-orbiting of the secondary moons, during the Third War was mainly held by the Decepticons and used for the construction of spacecraft. Eighthmoon was stripped of all usable material during the construction of The Oblivion to such an extent that it collapsed. The field of debris left by Eighthmoon is the most easily-identifiable marker of Cybertron's original position around Homestar.
Ninthmoon - originally a comet, Ninthmoon was once the largest of Cybertron's moons bar Firstmoon, but millennia of exploitation of its deposits of water-ice for fuel have reduced it to a ball of rock smaller than Secondmoon. During the Golden Age, it was inhabited mostly by water-miners. During the Third War, it became the site of fierce competition for its valuable fuel content. After the last of the water had been removed, the Decepticons towed it into deeper space and rammed it into one of Homestar's outer planets, destroying Ninthmoon and several million Autobots on the planet struck.
Tenthmoon - the largest of the secondary moons, and the second-largest of all Cybertron's moons. Tenthmoon was the last of the inner planets to be towed into Cybertron's orbit, and was still sparsely inhabited when the Third War began. It became a major haven and refuge for civilians fleeing the War, and asked Kaon for protection from the Decepticons. After the fall of Kaon, the Autobots sent troops to guard the civilians, but, thinking they were being invaded, the civilians stampeded the Autobots and destroyed them and their ships. After the elevation of Optimus Prime to supreme leader of the Autobots, many civilians left Tenthmoon to join the Autobot army. The remainder constructed ships and relocated to the outer planets. Tenthmoon was never fully claimed by either Autobots or Decepticons, remaining a warzone unto itself. During the Oblivicus Incident, it was flung free from Cybertron's gravity. Last reports from observatories on Cybertron indicated that it had resumed a stable orbit around Homestar, not far from its original position, and that it had been recolonized by the few Autobots and neutral civilians left behind on Homestar's outer planets.
Eleventhmoon - an entirely artificial construction. First constructed as a small orbital city in the late Golden Age, it continued to expand to the point of being larger than Seventhmoon. When the Third War started, Eleventhmoon's inhabitants removed themselves to Utoyr'dauzez, Homestar's outermost planet. The Decepticons claimed Eleventhmoon and continued to enlarge it as a spacecraft construction and space-defence base, to the point where it was Cybertron's fifth-largest orbital body. After the Oblivicus Incident, unable to maintain the base but unwilling to abandon or destroy it, the Decepticons maneuvered Eleventhmoon into the Rift and lodged it there. Its surface has since been colonized by neutrals, but it remains offline and secured.
Twelfthmoon - Unicron's head. Also called Uglymoon.
Chanusiac ["green world"] - a planet three times the size of Venus, with a warm climate, small ice-caps and small ocean bodies. Most of Chanusiac is covered in thick jungle; the majority of life on this world is six-legged, amphibious and no more than ten feet in length. Chanusiac was the centre of much attention during the Brass Age, when it was speculated that the Builders may have come from or retreated to this planet. The first Cybertronian spaceflights outside of Cybertronian space visited Chanusiac and found it uninhabited by sentient beings. During the Golden Age, many research stations were set up, and the planet's fossil fuels and mineral/metal resources were extracted. Explorers and researchers discovered that Chanusiac had once been home to a race of six-legged amphibious sentients, known to the Cybertronians as Chanusians, who had abandoned the planet and left Homestar's system long before Cybertronians had come into being. As Cybertron became more open to xenorganic visitation, Chanusiac was firmly claimed in order to prevent xenorganics founding colonies, although sections of the planet were opened to xenorganic research and tourism. During the Third War, the planet was mostly ignored, as its usable resources were long gone, and there was little to no strategic value seen in a planet containing only carbon-based plants and squishy creatures. This led to the planet's minor colonization by neutrals, who soon found the planet's organic covering distasteful and left. Chanusiac has been almost entirely abandoned since, although there persist rumours of a battalion of Autobot soldiers who became lost in the equatorial jungle and are still there, trying to find their way home.
Paisuviac ["red world"] - a planet with a diameter twice that of Earth, with a thick, heavy atmosphere and corrosive oceans, comprised mostly of bromine, chlorine and sulphur. Apart from some bacteria-like organisms living around volcanic cones, the planet was lifeless. Paisuviac was the first planet colonized by the Cybertronians, who found its corrosive oceans, greenhouse atmosphere and acidic rain comfortingly homelike. From the mid-Brass Age onwards, Paisuviac had an ever-increasing Cybertronian population. As Cybertron became increasingly overpopulated in the mid-late Golden Age, more and more Cybertronians migrated to Paisuviac, which was by this point almost entirely cyberformed. After the start of the Third War, many hundreds of thousands of refugees arrived on Paisuviac, plunging the planet into an energy crisis similar to the one that had brought war to Cybertron. This led to conflict, this time between Primordialist and Sigmite factions. The Decepticons sold arms to both sides, allowing them to exhaust themselves before moving in and claiming the planet as part of their empire. Paisuviac was the main theatre of war off Cybertron, and the Autobot and Decepticon armies fighting here were drawn from the armies of Cybertron. Parts of the planet changed hands many times, but Paisuviac was never entirely conquered by either side. After the Oblivicus Incident, the Decepticons on Paisuviac attempted to build planetary jets and send the planet into space after Cybertron. This plan failing, they abandoned the world and returned to Cybertron. Last contact with Unludiek indicates that Paisuviac is now the centre of population for the remaining Autobots in Homestar's system.
Sasusiac ["blue world"] - a planet with a diameter five times of that of Earth, with a thin but turbulent atmosphere of mainly helium and oxygen, heavy gravity, large ice-caps and almost entirely covered in helium/oxygen oceans. Sasusiac sustained organic life, mostly unicellular or soft-bodied creatures similar to sea cucumbers and jellyfish, most of which respired oxygen in the ocean's lower layer before rising through the helium layer to absorb sunlight. After eliminating Chanusiac from their calculations for the origins of the Builders, Cybertronians of the Brass Age believed that the Builders may have evolved on Sasusiac. Exploration of the planet proved otherwise. Apart from a few ancient Chanusian outposts, no evidence of sentient life was found there. During the Golden Age, some desultory colonization attempts were launched by the Legascions, who found that their altforms, designed for Cybertron's Mercury Sea, did not work well on Sasusiac's helium oceans. The planet was abandoned apart from floating solar energy farms until the Third War, when the Decepticons attempted to extract the oxygen from the lower level of the oceans for fuel. This was a difficult process, as the gravity and liquid pressure made it difficult for the Decepticons to operate, and Autobot attacks soon drove them off. Sasusiac remained uninhabited after this, although final contact between Cybertron and Unludiek, the remaining Cybertronians suspect that a species of sentient giant jellyfish may have recently evolved there.
Lanyavak ["huge gas giant"] - the largest planet in Homestar's system, half as big again as Jupiter. Lanyavak is a reasonably standard gas giant. It was exploited for liquid gases during the Golden Age, especially hydrogen, and mining stations were so populous that it was possible for the planet to declare independence from Cybertron in the late Golden Age. This required Cybertron to pay Lanyavak for the liquid gasses required to make fuel, worsening the fuel crisis. At the start of the Third War, the Polyhexian government sent a small fleet of ships - seven, their entire space force at the time - to claim Lanyavak mining stations. The Decepticons seized four mining stations, helping to fuel the Decepticon war effort. More and more Decepticons were sent to Lanyavak, in sufficient numbers to convert seized mining stations into functional military bases and factories. Iacon offered to assist Lanyavak in driving out the Decepticons if it would sell its gasses cheaper, which was refused. By the time Optimus Prime was elevated to supreme leader of the Autobots, the Decepticons had claimed more than three-quarters of Lanyavak and had joined the mining stations together in an equator-ringing superstation. Lanyavak's equator remained Decepticon territory until the Oblivicus Incident, although Autobot and Kaonic forces were able to construct mining stations in the northern and southern regions to fuel their own war-efforts. After the Oblivicus Incident, the Decepticons conducted a swift program of massive extractions, before breaking up the equatorial ring and sending them through space to Cybertron. This influx of tens of thousands of Lanyavakian Decepticons helped tip the balance against the Autobots on Cybertron.
Kragavak ["stormy gas giant"] - a gas giant similar in size to Jupiter, although having a far more violently turbulent atmosphere. This stormy atmosphere made it hard to exploit the liquid gasses of Kragavak, as was done on Lanyavak. It was not until the Decepticons had a very firm grip on Lanyavak that the Autobots made strenuous efforts to exploit Kragavak. Decepticon forces were sent to prevent this. This increase in exploration of Kragavak revealed that a xenorganic race, who had been on unfriendly terms with Cybertron during the Golden Age at the best of times, had colonized the planet. Autobot and Decepticon forces united to drive the xenorganics from Homestar's system, after which Kragavak was mined under a rough truce, with Decepticon and Autobot forces clashing over prime resources and conflict mostly reduced to frontier skirmishing and patrol encounters. In the mid Third War, Decepticon interest in Kragavak increased, and attempts were made to extract large amounts of its liquid metal core. Autobot efforts to prevent this culminated in the sabotage of the Decepticons' major leeching station, which exploded to catastrophic results for the Decepticons. The Oblivicus Incident followed shortly afterwards, and the Decepticons abandoned Kragavak to the Autobots. Last contact with Unludiek confirms that the remaining Autobots had abandoned Lanyavak and combined resources with the neutrals to mine Kragavak.
Nauvavak ["ice giant"] - Homestar's only ice giant, Nauvavak was first colonized in the late Brass Age, and has been continually exploited for its frozen gas resources ever since. During the Golden Age, the small civilian population expanded to some few millions. During the Third War, the Decepticons did not arrive on Nauvavak until after Lanyavak was secured, and found the native Nauvavakian Cybertronians had gone over to the Autobots wholesale, and mounted a strong armed resistance. Even with Autobot reinforcements from Cybertron aiding the Nauvavakians, the Decepticons were able to secure several important sites as stronghold-mines. Fighting continued on the planet throughout the War, with the Nauvavakians retaining a strong common identity above and beyond their Autobot loyalties. After the Oblivicus Incident, the Decepticons detonated massive charges around their bases, blowing millions of tons of frozen gases into space. Using their mineshafts as rocket cones, the Decepticons were able to guide these artificial comets to Cybertron, bringing much-needed fuel supplies to their army and further reinforcing the army already increased by the Lanyavakian Decepticons. The Nauvavakian Autobots considered this something of a victory, and last contact with Unludiek confirms that the planet is now peacefully populated and the major fuel source for the Homestar system federation.
Nauvedez ["ice planet"] - a small frozen ball of rock and hydrogen somewhat smaller than Mars, Nauvedez attracted no interest from Cybertronians until the late Golden Age, when cities were raised to house the population overflow from Cybertron, Firstmoon, Thirdmoon, Tenthmoon and Paisuviac. Its frozen hydrogen resources were mined to provide fuel, but the cities were not well thought planned and settlement plans were hurried. Major riots broke out, and during the chaos the population fell under the sway of a Mechanite demagogue, who claimed that the energon shortages were punishment from the Builders. Now under this theocratic control, Nauvedez effectively ceded from Cybertronian government, and, when the Third War started, declared war against all sides. Nobody paid much attention until the Nauvedezians launched almost their entire population on home-built ships with the intent of invading Cybertron. The Nauvedezians chose to make planetfall in northern Polyhex, believing it to be the ideal place from which to assault everyone, and were driven out by the massive Decepticon forces garrisoned there. They then entered Iacon, where the Autobots offered them succour and support. This split the Nauvedezians, with a large number of their less-zealous troops losing their will to fight, whilst a hardened core who attempted to invade Iacon. This action was squelched firmly by Autobot general Ultra Magnus, who then negotiated with the remaining Nauvedezians, who joined the Autobot forces. Last contact with Unludiek confirms the planet is now abandoned.
Isniac ["night planet"] - an even smaller ball of rock than Nauvedez, with even fewer resources. The planet has been almost entirely ignored throughout Cybertronian history, although it became a staging point for the Gnarlocs in their later campaigns. This led to the joint decision by Optimus Prime and Megatron to blow the planet to pieces. It is now a smear of debris and ice.
Utoyr'dauzez ["look up at the stars"] - even smaller than Isniac, and with no resources to speak of, Utoyr was first colonized in the mid-Brass Age as a stellar research position and listening post. During the Second War, communication between Utoyr and Cybertron was severed, and the Utoyrians found it necessary to send their few ships to Nauvedez for resources. This led to the construction of a small but serviceable industrial base, the construction of new Cybertronians, and once started the population growth did not stop. During the Golden Age, Utoyr presented itself to Cybertron as an ideal launching station for interstellar exploration and research as well as a first line of defence against the xenos, and received considerable material funding. By the mid-Golden Age, Utoyr had been not only cyberformed but was twice its original size. At the beginning of the Third War, Utoyr declared itself neutral, although it accepted the population of Eleventhmoon. As their material funding was now badly reduced, the Utoyrians chose to follow the example of the population of Sixthmoon and moved the entire planet to a nearby solar system. As the War continued to expand, Utoyr continued to move from star to star, accepting neutral refugees as it went. Final contact with Unludiek confirmed that Utoyr was en route back to Homestar's system, with the intent of putting it orbit around Chanusiac.