Mortilus

Mortilus is aTransformerfrom theGeneration 1continuity family.

"You... rang?"

One of theGuiding Hand,Mortiluswas one of the first five Transformers born onCybertron,representing death in later mythologized accounts of the Guiding Hand. WhenAdaptusrebelled against his brothers, he unleashed hismemory-erasingweapon on the others, erasing their memories of themselves. As a result, Mortilus adopted the new persona ofCensereand dedicated himself to the recording of every Cybertronian death.

"Censere" himself would be mythologized as a muteNeutralknown as theNecrobot,who travels the battlefields of theGreat War,administering posthumous rites to fallen Cybertronians. They say that he can determine the cause of death just by letting his shadow fall on the corpse and that he has devoted his life to recording the fate of every last Transformer. Whether there is any truth to these stories is unknown to most, but they persist.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

First appearance:The Transformersvol. 1 #23(invoked);More than Meets the Eye#8

It’s tough to be a god!

Born at some point afterPrimus,Mortilus joined him,Epistemus,Solomus,andAdaptusto form theGuiding Hand,the first five Cybertronians, present for the ignition of thehot spotsacross Cybertron which would propagate future generations of the species.The UnrememberingIn this era, the Guiding Hand were said to have overseen the development of the Cybertronian species, developing the planet's earliest civilizations and guiding them towards a more enlightened existence.You, Me, and Other RevelationsThis utopian era would come to an end, however, when the ambitiousAdaptus,worried that their peaceful civilization would eventually grow stagnant, encouraged Cybertron to wage war against the galaxy; when the other members of the Guiding Hand refused, Adaptus instead made war againstthem,and the four allies were forced to put down the rebellion in an event that would be known as the "God War."Adaptus escaped aboardLuna 1and covered his escape by firing a powerfulelectromagnetic pulseon the planet to erase the memories of Cybertron's inhabitants, leaving them too confused and disoriented to pursue him.The Unremembering

I was Megatron before Mega was even a prefix!

Eventually, Cybertronian religions were able to reconstruct bits and pieces of the past, giving rise to various interpretations of the Guiding Hand and the God War that had torn them apart. In these imperfect histories, Mortilus was depicted as a death-bringer and the necessary corollary to life; notably, in every known permutation of the legend, it was the innocentMortiluswho was cast as the traitorous god whose ambitions had sparked the God War, with Adaptus remembered as a faithful steward of Primus.The UnrememberingYou, Me, and Other RevelationsOther legends stated that Mortilus's rebellion had spawned monsters to lay waste to Cybertron, birthing beasts such as theTitanTrypticon,The Illusion of Controlwhich Mortilus had supposedly raised and commanded using hisVoid Scepter,Salvationand that the God War ended when Mortilus had tricked and trapped every member of the Guiding Hand into giving up their physical form before he himself was struck down by Primus; by killing death, the Cybertronian race could live forever.You, Me, and Other RevelationsAt least one interpretation, put forth in theKeening Texts,held that Mortilus had been forgiven by the Guiding Hand in the next life, and created theAftersparkwhere thesparksof the departed could live forever.The God War

In modern Cybertronian theology, the legend of Mortilus occupied an unique spot in the Cybertronian pantheon: some individuals chose to worship him, as they would with other gods and deities,Twenty Plus Onewhile other individuals used his name as a curse; "spawn of Mortilus" was a popular term to denigrate others. Mortilus worship was often seen as a form of devil worship by some Cybertronians.Towards Peace

Death has a body like a model, the clothes of a poet and the smile of your best friend.

TherealMortilus, meanwhile, still unaware of his origins, had remained on Cybertron and becomeCensere of theHigh-Ceilinged Manifold,making his way into the world as a humble census office worker.The Not KnowingAt some point after the God War, presumably during the reign of theThirteenPrimes,he became friends with a co-worker namedTusk;when Tusk died, it went unreported, and Censere did not find out about it until years later. His friend's death moved Censere to begin a lifelong mission: chronicling the deaths of every Cybertronian. With the destruction of his hometown in the First Cybertronian Civil War, Censere relocated to a"scorched and forgotten" planetthat Tusk had told him about, where he set up a base of operations filled with complex machinery that allowed him to keep track of spark signatures, and quantum technology that let him teleport all around the universe to record every fatality. He transformed the blasted world on which he dwelled into a beautiful garden, filled with holographic statues of every living Cybertronian, which he would switch off when the Cybertronian died. Around the bases of the statues, he plantedflowerscrafted from the residual spark energy of whoever the statue's real-life counterpart was responsible for killing. When a Cybertronian went missing and he was unable to confirm their death, he recorded their name in a list of the "Disappeared."The Not KnowingHe also kept a dedicated journal filled with all manner of things, including the original, unedited version of theGrand Cybertronian Taxonomy.At Close of Day

Swearing an oath of non-interference, Censere eventually became a figure of myth and legend among Cybertronians, glimpsed on battlefields across the cosmos silently recording deaths. Dubbed the "Necrobot" by the religious and/or superstitious, he was also known as the "Gatekeeper", or the "Mute Neutral", and was believed to be an envoy ofPrimus,charged with ferrying departedsparksinto theafterlife.The Not KnowingConversely, skeptics likeRatchetdismissed his existence as a fairytale, attributing supposed sightings of him and his "portable apothecary" to visual glitches caused by freshly-constructed Cybertronians' senses "trying to run before [they] can walk", like theShimmeror seeingPrimus's face in a mushroom cloud.Twenty Plus OneTrailbreakershared his lack of belief, comparing stories of the Necrobot toSparkeatersand theSeething Moon.The Chaos of Warm Things

"Arthur Dent? ArthurPhilipDent? You're a jerk, a complete arsehole. "

For a time,Roadbusterthought Mortilus spoke to him, telling him to murder his cadets and sacrifice their remains to a pit for the Death-bringer to consume. This wholeaffairwas in fact part of a largerweb of deceit.Sins of the Wreckers #4

While on the planetClemency,itself littered with the bodies of dead (and occasionally not-so-dead) Transformers,Misfirewould periodically catch sight of what he believed was the Necrobot. He would then "chase it" for a few seconds before "losing sight of it" again, as observed byKrokwho was not himself a believer.Rules of DisengagementOne and a half years later, however, the Necrobot did indeed arrive on Clemency to addFlywheelsto his list of dead Cybertronians, which also included several members of theLost Lightcrew.Who's Afraid of the DJD?

A selection of the crew of theLost Lightvisited his planet of operations, the location of which was revealed by an info bullet fromAgent 113.Alarmed to see that multiple Transformers whose deaths he knew he had unambiguously recorded were alive and walking around in his garden, the Necrobot slammed the door to his complex shut, but when one such 'bot,Nightbeat,stood outside the door and refused to leave, Censere gave in to his curiosity and invited Nightbeat inside so he could explain his and the others' continued living (Nightbeat, he soon learned, had been revived by the properties of theDead Universe,while the others had never died—the deaths he had recorded were those of their quantum duplicates, created through aquantum generatoraccident). Censere went on to explain his true nature and how he carried out his work; though Nightbeat was dismayed by this revelation, having wanted to believe that the Necrobot was a mystic figure and proof that higher powers existed in the universe, Censere reminded him that his not being 'magic' did not mean theAftersparkdid not exist. Nightbeat criticized him for merely observing deaths and not attempting to help the dying.The Not Knowing

Thank you for your cooperation. Good night.

He would take Nightbeat's words to heart when he found one ofBrainstorm's time cases buried by Megatron. By linking it up to his teleport chamber, he was able to go back in time, recovering the Transformers on his list of the disappeared—therefore causing them to 'disappear' in the first place. The time traveling took its toll on the passengers, so he put them in artificially induced comas and disguised them as organics to keep them safe from other Cybertronians while they recovered. Occasionally, he would be glimpsed in these endeavors by others, spawning the legends of his portable apothecary.Do Not Go Gentle

Among those 'bots he rescued wereRoller,Wavelength,Syphon,Do Not Go GentleAnode,Fangry,andRapidfire.Some Other CybertronHe was halfway down the list when theDecepticon Justice Divisionshowed up, and he guessed that several of the 'bots he rescued were ontheir own list.Do Not Go Gentle

The DJD somehow learned of theLost Light's previous visit to Necroworld and decided to use a fabricated distress signal to lure the group back in order to maroon them, Tarn reasoning the Necrobot was the perfect bait.The Sun in FlightHowever, Censere altered the signal minutes after it was sent, turning it into a psychic bombardment of the intended recipients' worst fears in an attempt to warn them off. The DJD then butchered Censere and left his body with flowers stuffed in exit wounds for the Autobots to find.How Bright Their Frail DeedsWhile the Autobots were distracted with the ongoing siege, Censere, due to his great age, dissolved intosentio metallico.

Left behind was the key to his stasis pod room. After the Autobots discovered it, they were unable to use Censere's teleport chamber to escape for fear of leaving the "organics" to die.The Sun in FlightSeveral hours later, Rewind, having read through Censere's journal, discovered what he'd done with Brainstorm's time machine.Do Not Go Gentle

After Necroworld was taken over by Decepticons,Rapidfiretook to wearing Censere's discarded cape. When the Autobots arrived and afterRed Alertkilled Rapidfire in the ensuing battle, he couldn't help but try the Necrobot's cape on himself.Sardines

WhenTeam Rodimusfinally confronted the Grand Architect, they discovered he wasAdaptusand that theLost Lightcrew had managed to locate all five members of theGuiding Hand,being told that Censere was an alias adopted by Mortilus.The Return of the King

The Functionist Universe

After theFunctionist Councilworked out thatRungwas designed to producephotonic crystals,An Expert's Guidethey first thought him the spawn of Mortilus sent to frustrate Primus's will before theydecidedrealized that Rung was proof of Primus endorsing cold construction.Modes of Production

Ask Vector Prime

Vector Primespeculated that theDark Sparkcould have been a fragment of Mortilus, among other explanations.Ask Vector Prime, 2015/05/18He also noted thatMortilus Zaraksharing a name with a member of the Guiding Hand could be simple coincidence, or something far more sinister.Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/04

Following the splintering of theThirteen original Transformersinto infinite alternate selves across the multiverse, Mortilus was known to be a member of the group in some universal streams. During the group's time in ancient Greece, the holomatter avatar he employed inspired the myth of Hades, uncle ofHermes.He stayed in the Thirteen's ship parked underneath Earth's surface with his vassal, athree-headed dognamedBruticus.Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/08

Beast Wars: Uprising

Mortilus was a deity in Transformer religion, notable for his spiked carapace. His name was frequently used as a curse word.Derailment

2019 IDW continuity

During a raid on theSenatebuilding to rescue the Senators held prisoner,Grooverecited a prayer to Mortilus to help him focus. The lapse in concentration instead allowedBlitzwingto get the drop on his squad.Prime

AfterThunderclashhad publicly announced theWreckers' arrival onVelocitron,Aileronwondered if, among theories, Mortilus was punishing her.Tread & Circuits Part 1

King Grimlock

The Dinobots worshipped the Necrobot as their patron deity, hoping to please him by the manner of their deaths and by leaving him a string of enemy soldiers so long that his list ran out of data storage.Grimlock the Defender

Notes

• "Censere" is a Latin word meaning "to assess", also being the root of the English word "census".James Robertsgives the Transformer name's pronunciation to start like "centre" and rhyme with "hair".^[1]

Foreign names

• Japanese:Mortilus(モーティラスMōtirasu),Necrobot(ネクロボットNekurobotto)

References