#side note: early Cybertronian visits via Elsewhere were the basis of the automata and giant myths of the ancient worlds

[witchofthesouls]

I've been twisting this idea in my head for a while.

So assuming that Cyberton had Yore/Fae/Magic at some point but don't in modern day, what do you think wiped them out? Was it just a natural consequence of the loss of wild spaces- the seas drying, the forests and plains and marshes being dessicated by natural disasters? Intentionally by way of Prima's Forceful Guiding Hand? Quintassons desires for a world to more readily be defined and controlled?

In my mind, it was a bit of all of the above. One dominoing into the other until it became too much and the Cybertonian version of Elsewhere collapsed on itself. But that would pose a potential for them to still exist on the Colonies, no matter how reduced.

I kinda talked about it already.

Personal take, especially since TFP did had line about magic and science from Solus' Forge, it's a combination of all that, plus more.

Prima established the city-states as the beacon of civilization and progress as it's by 'birthright' as the first to be and 'rule of strength/might.' He is the Eldest Sun, formed by Primus' own Light. The absolute God-king.

Of course, Primus still had Unicron to provide a check, so Megatronus rose immediately to life from Prima's very own shadow. Primes aren't meant to stand alone, and Prima needed someone who was capable of stopping him, no matter the cost.

Despite the personal writings by the Prime of Light, Prima and Megatronus operated as joint rulers as no one else was able to withstand their combined strength. When they stood together, nothing could budge them.

Basically, a lot of things went down to sow distrust, a tragic dirge of miscommunication, and connecting the wrong dots that led to the Prinal Wars. After it decimated the Primes to the remaining Prima, Alpha Trion, and Alchemist, Prima went far more extreme, even ignoring any and all advice by Alchemist who had to take on a more moderate capacity as he singlehandedly assumed the role of the bridge between the Primes and their mortal kin. Alchemist, unfortunately, didn't have the strength to challenge Prima directly. Not on his own, especially since Alpha Trion is one of the more passive siblings and won't stand against the Eldest's new goals as Alpha is deeply tied to the Quill and saw no point in recorrecting things if the far future painted a better prospect after all the misfortunes that would come.

Prima essentially laid waste to very cycles of renewal that was supposed to revitalize Cybertron in an attempt to call back Megatronus, and the Quintessons took advantage of that to completely break the more fantastical power elements via 'standardization' as they messed with the Well of Allsparks and strip the planet into the what modern Cybertronians know as the Wastelands.

Prima was the one that started the processes to drain the oceans, harvest the volcanoes, excavate the mountains, wetlands dried by reroute, forests cut, desert mined, and grasslands turned to ash as Prima tamed nature to search for his twin. After Prima's disappearance, Alpha Trion gave up as well after the Quintessons messed the Well and Megatronus never returned.

Before Cybertron functioned as a gateway to Elsewhere due to the connection between Primus, Unicron, and Gaea. So the Wilders did have tales of strange beings and stranger places... but after the combined feats between Prima, the Quintessons, and early Golden Age had long stripped the planet's capability to sustain those gateways. (It's also why the connection to reestablish space bridges to the Colonies failed.)

The Colonies would have began to flee from the Guiding/Forceful Hand under Prima, so the potential gateways still exist with them (attested by how some of their people would disappear if they wander too far) but the means to truly navigate them, much like communicating with Titans, space-bridge repair, and the rearing of magic talent, had been lost to time as each world deals with their own crises.