Thirteen

The Thirteen are the first Transformers created by Primus, in imitation of Unicron's transformation abilities. Rightfully huge and powerful multiversal singularities like their creator, each was designated a Prime,[1] and given an aspect of the multiverse to guide over, as well as manning Primus's physical form—planet Cybertron. But power corrupts, and many of the Primes betrayed one another—with one even siding with Unicron—until few remained, secretly aiding or manipulating the next generations of Transformers.

Conceptual History
Despite how often their importance is trumpeted, the fact of the matter is, the concept of the Thirteen hasn't actually been around that long, hasn't been related in much detail, and hasn't been presented in a very linear manner. The development of the concept is described in this section to minimize confusion; for details of their history and actions in specific bits of fiction, see below.

The very earliest seeds of the Thirteen can probably be found in material produced by 3H Productions for BotCon, most notably 2000's "Covenant". This story introduces the undeniably similar concept of the Covenant, a group of twelve zodiac-themed Transformers who are the first creations of Primus, created as a test-run for the Transformer race. Despite the basic similarity between the Covenant and the Thirteen, though, the two groups have not been connected, and those same stories by 3H would ultimately contradict the later lore of the Thirteen by introducing Primon, a Matrix-bearer who preceded Prima, which should not be possible. t was in the pages of 2004's Transformers: The Ultimate Guide that the mysterious "Thirteen Original Transformers" were first spoken of, and their basic origin was laid down: they were the first Transformers created by Primus to battle Unicron, and their number included Prima, the first Matrix bearer from the Marvel Comics series and The Fallen, an enigmatic servant of Unicron from Dreamwave Productions' 2003 comic, War Within: The Dark Ages. The book also noted that if Alignment had been published, the Liege Maximo, an ancient evil Cybertronian from the Generation 2 comics, would have been counted among them as well. Not surprisingly, it was the creator of all three of these characters, Simon Furman, who both wrote the guide and conceived the idea of the Thirteen[2], which was later taken and run with by Hasbro. While it was Furman who also created the Covenant, it is not yet known whether or not he was deliberately drawing upon his old idea when he introduced the Thirteen in this book.

The concept of the Thirteen quietly bubbled under for the next year, until another element was added with the introduction of Vector Prime in 2005's Cybertron series. Although presented merely as a very ancient Autobot in the original Japanese version of the Cybertron cartoon, Hasbro envisioned him as one of the Thirteen, and writer Forest Lee made this explicit in the first story produced for the Transformers Collectors' Club. This story also introduced the idea that all of the Thirteen were Primes, and that each had a specific function or purpose; Vector Prime's was stewardship of time, while a 2007 bio written for The Fallen's Titanium Series toy would later reveal he was the overseer of entropy.

While it was not immediately apparent, Hasbro had put a plan in motion for the Thirteen with the Collectors' Club comic: across the next five years, five separate robots were introduced who were gradually revealed to be components of a combiner, Nexus Prime, who was one of the Thirteen. During this five-year span, the subject of the Thirteen often came up at BotCon Q&A sessions, during which the idea of them being multiversal singularities solidified.

Also during this time, current Transformers comic license holders IDW Publishing spoke often of a potential comic book mini-series about the Thirteen to be written by Simon Furman, but this was eventually nixed, with Furman noting in 2009 that this was because it had "become more of a Hasbro thing than an IDW thing."[3] Hasbro's desire to control and fully conceptualize the story of the Thirteen was further made evident when, after Fun Publications' Nexus Prime story concluded in the same year, they effectively took "custody" of the character as part of their future plans. This control, however, was evidently not all-encompassing: also in 2009, the Fallen made a surprising appearance as the titular villain of the second-live action Transformers film, Revenge of the Fallen, where he was a member not of a group of thirteen, but only seven Primes. Hasbro's October 2009 online Q&A retroactively justified this by explaining that while all the Thirteen were Primes, only seven actually had the word "Prime" in their names.

Eventually, in 2010, the grand scope of the new Aligned continuity family became the "delivery method" for Hasbro's long-percolating tale of the Thirteen. The novel Transformers: Exodus revealed Alpha Trion to be one of the Thirteen, and although this proved a bit questionable, as he had previously been shown to have an alternate evil "Shattered Glass" self, which a multiversal singularity should not, it did confirm the earlier allegation that not all the Primes had "Prime" in their name. The novel also revealed the Fallen's real name to be "Megatronus", and his pre-Fallen design was revealed at BotCon 2010, along with new designs for Prima, Vector Prime, Alpha Trion and the Liege Maximo, the latter now officially canonized as a member of the group. A year later, at BotCon 2011, Solus Prime was also named and revealed, and it was explained that each of the Thirteen represented one aspect of the Transformer race, their ranks also including a beast-mode Transformer and a Mini-Con. Solus would later factor into the Transformers: Exiles novel, which also introduced Amalgamous Prime and Alchemist Prime. Right around this time, the story of the Thirteen finally made the leap to the small screen, when, after years of being consigned to fan-targeted comics and convention panels, their origin tale was told in the Transformers: Prime episode, "One Shall Rise, Part 1".

Finally, Hasbro announced a book version of the Covenant of Primus that would at last detail the story of all the Thirteen in the Aligned Continuity due for release in December 2013.

And that's the story... so far!

Members

 * Prima, the first Matrix-bearer and first Transformer born from Cybertron, leader of the Thirteen.[4] He was a warrior of light who used a Star Saber with the Matrix as its hilt.
 * Alpha Trion, the third and who can see the past, present, and future, and who holds the Covenant of Primus and the Quill. He maintains a close relationship with Primus through Vector Sigma.
 * Solus Prime, the fourth and a female weaponsmith.
 * Alchemist Prime, co-founder of Cybertronian civilization.
 * Amalgamous Prime, the trickster.
 * Liege Maximo, the manipulator.[5]
 * Megatronus, formerly the guardian of entropy and warrior of darkness, now a herald of Unicron known as The Fallen.
 * Micronus, the first Mini-Con.[6]
 * Nexus Prime, the first and greatest combiner, unpredictable, fascinated by change, and a lighthearted prankster.
 * Onyx, the first Transformer with a beast mode.[7]
 * Quintus Prime, the scientist.
 * Vector Prime, the guardian of space and time who spent most of his life outside the multiverse, observing it and occasionally stepping in to help.
 * The Thirteenth Prime, created last, and whose raised arm in greeting united the the Thirteen.