WARNING! Spoilers ahead for Void Rivals #17TheEnergon Universehas revamped theTransformersfranchise in some exciting new ways, but Skybound’s new revelations concerning the origins of Cybertron will leave fans positively buzzing in the aftermath.
The latest issue ofVoid Rivalsfinally reveals the origins of the mysterious Zerta-Trion and her connection to the Sacred Ring, changing the landscape of the Energon Universe forever. Coming from the creative team of Robert Kirman, Lorenzo De Felici, Patricio Delpeche and Rus Wooton,Void Rivals#17 finally reveals theorigin of the Sacred Ring after almost two years of build-up.
Main character Solila has been on a quest, venturing deep within the Sacred Ring to find the mysterious Zerta-Trion during this story arc. Solila succeeds in her quest, finding a weakened Zerta-Trion and learning for the first time how the Sacred Ring came to be. Zerta tells Solila how she fought alongside the legendary hero Alpha-Trion to free Cybertron from the control of the Quintessons.
Transformers’ New Lore Changes Everything in the Energon Universe
Void RivalsFinally Answers the Mystery of Zerta-Trion
The Cybertronians’ victory against the Quintessons wasn’t permanent, however. Their former masters send aplanet-devouring giant known as Goliantto wipe out Cybertron entirely, leading Zerta to take extreme action to save her homeworld. Zerta lures Goliant away from her homeworld, sending him instead to feed upon a distant star. The giant feeds on his new meal for over a millennium, eventually turning the star into a black hole. While Zerta spares Cybertron, she winds up dooming another system of planets.In a last ditch effort to save the survivors, Zerta “influences” them to form the Sacred Ring.
Zerta-Trion reveals that her original name was Beta, Alpha-Trion’s partner from the original G1Transformerscontinuity who fought with a crossbow.
Zerta manages to “cloud” Goliant’s mind while he’s busy feeding on the star, splitting his essence andhiding it away amongst the two surviving races on the Sacred Ring: the Zertonians and Agorrians.The Sacred Ring also acts as a prison for Goliant, taking the energy the behemoth siphons away from the black hole and converting it into Energon. Zerta herself was badly wounded at some point early on, as the issue also reveals she is missing her lower torso, and therefore unable to escape from the deepest parts of the Sacred Ring.
Awakan Goliant, But For A Battle They Can Actually Win
Zerta warns Solila that the energy from the black hole is now almost entirely depleted. Which means that after so long containing Goliant, the prison will soon collapse and allow the planet-eater to escape. In order to prevent this disaster,Zerta wants theAgorrians and Zertonians to achieve “unity,”reversing the division of Goliant’s essence. If this should take place, then the process will awaken Goliant immediately. Still a crisis, but unleashing the being while still in a weakened state (and therefor able to be destroyed before achieving full power).
The plan makes sense, but Solila doubts that she will even be able to bring both peoples together, given the long-standing conflict between the Zertonians and Agorrians.Zerta then ominously promises to give Solila a new powerthat will allow her to bring about this unity… possibly whether the Zertonians and Agorrians agree to it or not.
Does This Energon Revelation Mean Zerta-Trion Can’t Be Trusted?
Her Account of Transformers’ History May Be Dubious
Zerta-Trion’s account of theSacred Ring’s creation answers several mysteries that have been building throughoutVoid Rivals. While readers previously learned the Zertonians and Agorrians had Cybertronian biology, Zerta’s confession that she“influenced”the ancestors of both races confirms their connection to the Transformers with absolute certainty.
Yet while many questions have been answered, the real question now is: can Zerta-Trion be trusted? Is her account of the Sacred Ring’s creation to be taken as the accurate account, or is she still acting as an unreliable narrator. If details are being withheld, could it be to make herself look better, or conceal some greater mystery?
Transformers Is About to Rewrite Its Origins With a Massive Lore Change
The preview for Void Rivals #17 teases the origin of the mysterious Zerta-Trion, which could change Transformers lore forever in the Energon Universe.
There are a few details in Zerta’s story that don’t exactly add up, most notablyher plan to free Goliant from his prison within the Sacred Ring. Zerta claims this on-the-surface questionable plan is to allow Goliant to be destroyed before he can achieve full strength, but the plan sounds shaky at best. After all, why risk achieving “unity” and freeing Goliant at all? Surely, there must be another way to defeat the planet-devourer without having to risk waking him first. Even if it’s well-meaning, Zerta’s plan to invite a direct battle with Goliant sounds tantamount to suicide, both for the Sacred Ring and all who would wage the battle.
Given theAutobot Springertold Darak and Solila in an earlier issue thatZerta-Trion had “rebelled against her brethren” to “forge a new path,” it would appear there is more to Zerta’s story than she is letting on.Goliant has been producing massive amounts of Energon in the millennia since the Sacred Ring’s creation, so fans have to wonder what Zerta-Trion has planned for that massive store of the precious resource. For all the questions answered about theTransformers’ new origins in theEnergon Universe, there are many more mysteries to be unveiled in the coming issues ofVoid Rivals.
Void Rivals#17is available now from Skybound Entertainment
Transformers (2023)
Optimus Prime was supposed to have led the Autobots to victory. Instead, the fate of Cybertron is unknown, and his allies have crash-landed far from home, alongside their enemies—the Decepticons. As these titanic forces renew their war on Earth, one thing is immediately clear: the planet will never be the same. New alliances are struck. Battle lines are redrawn. And humanity’s only hope of survival is Optimus Prime.
