Colony Worlds.

History

The Cybertronian colonies were founded during the Age of Expansion. By Codexa's account, the colonies owed themselves to the efforts of Cybertron's various Titans who fought, sometimes sacrificial, wars of genocide against rival alien powers and species for their planets. The Change In Your Nature Part Five Colonists travelled to their new worlds in Ark-class vessels, their voyages escorted by Titans. Escape Part One Parties that existed "behind the barrier of quintessence" sought to silence Cybertron's expansion. Abducting the Cybertronian explorer Exarchon, the aliens warped him into a warlord and sent him against his species. War's End Part Three The subsequent War of the Threefold Spark that Exarchon unleashed on Cybertron brought an end to the prosperous age of colonization.
Under the terms of the post-war Nominus Edict, new colonies were only to be founded if the Senate had come to a unanimous agreement on the subject. Orion Pax: Free Fall Senator Megatron heavily criticized this aspect of the Edict, feeling it had been passed only so as to avoid the risk of antagonizing alien races. The World In Your Eyes Part Five Before he was due to replace Codexa as the chief archivist, Orion Pax desired to leave Cybertron for "a kilocycle or three" and visit the colonies. Orion Pax: Free Fall This walkabout ultimately convinced Orion to go into politics instead of following in his mentor's footsteps.
Rare colonies established despite the Edict included Mayalx, a dreary asteroid that hosted an energon production and transmission station which the Constructicons had found themselves banished to, Constructicons Rising, Part 1 and Probat, a protectorate, still inhabited by its native species, that hosted an energon production facility. Having a low opinion of the Reversionist faction, Brainstorm felt that the lot of them ought to be shipped off to the most remote colony. The World In Your Eyes Part Four In teaching Rubble about the world, Bumblebee informed him that, while Cybertron was largely a peaceful world, violence between Transformers existed on colony planets. The World In Your Eyes Part Two Among such violent acts was heads being bashed in from multiple traumatic impacts, something Ratchet noted when he examined Rubble's corpse, the newborn having died from such injuries. While this was happening, Sentinel Prime was on a tour of the colonies with his inner retinue, along with some alien ambassadors, but, upon hearing of the chaos on Cybertron, cut his tour short.

Gaian Colonies

The world of Beasts, where Cybertronians transform mostly into bio-organic entities.

Maximals

Arising from the ashes of the Great War, the Maximals are the descendants (at least in part) of the Autobots, controlling Cybertron under the Pax Cybertronia. The Maximals and their counterpart race the Predacons both owe their origins to the Great Upgrade, which provided the downsized, fuel-efficient bodies that became the hallmark of the successor factions.
In many ways, the Maximals share traits with their Autobot ancestors; primarily a "civilian" race, the Maximals are committed to upholding the peaceful, democratic values of their forebears. All this said, they aren't perfect: they still have their jerks, and Maximal science has occasionally resulted in the odd unethical scientific horrors.
The most distinctive factor of both Maximal and Predacon physiology is their development of pseudo-organic beast modes, allowing both sides to adopt alternate modes that blend in seamlessly with the organic lifeforms found elsewhere in the universe. This technology, an offshoot of earlier Pretender tech, sheathes a beast mode in an artificial organic skin, integrating its natural instincts directly into the Maximal form.
When Maximals take on beast modes, they tend to select mammals, birds or fish, although this is not a hard-and-fast rule. Occasionally, Maximals might choose to become insects, reptiles, or dinosaurs.
The Maximal activation code is "Maximize".