Solomus

Solomus is a Transformer from the Generation 1 continuity family.

"Holey Chief Justice, Batman!"

One of the fabled Guiding Hand, Solomus was one of the first five Cybertronians, known in legend as representing wisdom itself. When Adaptus rebelled against his brothers, he unleashed his electromagnetic weapon on the others, erasing their memories of themselves. As a result, Solomus adopted the new persona of Tyrest and became Cybertron's most esteemed lawmaker, taking his duty to be that of mitigating conflicts and providing a framework for the enforcement of order. But order is often just a reflection of chaos...

In some distortions of his true history, Solomus is known as Arrius.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

First appearance: Last Stand of the Wreckers #5

"So, seems neither of us can hit the other at five paces."

Born at some point after Primus, Solomus joined him, Epistemus, Mortilus, and Adaptus to form the Guiding Hand, the first five Cybertronians. When Adaptus sought to draw Cybertron into war with neighboring planets to push their race's evolution, the other four disagreed and the God War began. Adaptus escaped on Luna 1, firing his electromagnetic weapon on Cybertron to erase their memories before disappearing into space. Without knowledge of his true self or origins, Solomus became Tyrest, who, while still accomplished, was not afforded the respect and dignity a god would warrant. The Unremembering

One wonders if he's ever suggested that a protoform be cut in two...

In the wake of Adaptus's attack, Cybertronians would mythologize Solomus and the Guiding Hand. In one account, his origins were tied to Primus, the First Light. After creating Cybertron, he split his essence into five avatars consisting of himself, Solomus, Mortilus, Epistemus, and Adaptus. This pantheon of deities were the Guiding Hand, and Solomus was wisdom incarnate amongst them. Together, these gods guided Cybertronian civilization and helped bring about the first Golden Age. This ended when Mortilus shattered their union in his desire to strike against the universe. The conflict sparked by him caused Cybertron to shudder and ripped asunder its first moon. Before his destruction, Mortilus managed to entrap Solomus within a crystal prison, but the god managed to reshape its form to become the Matrix of Leadership, which also served as a connection to Vector Sigma, though his most important gift was wisdom to future generations of Transformers. You, Me, and Other Revelations

In another telling of story, known as the Keening Texts, four of the Guiding Hand receded from Cybertron before returning to combat Mortilus's macabre experiments in what became known as the "God War". Anticipating his fellows' return, Mortilus "reduced" Solomus to "a flash of thought—half impulse, half reaction" and locked him within a crystalline prison. Though the Guiding Hand's physical forms were destroyed by the God War, they were eventually reborn. Accepting Mortilus back into their ranks, the five pooled their resources and power to create the Afterspark where Cybertronians could live forever following their physical deaths. The God War

In the primitive age following the departure of the Knights of Cybertron but before the rise of the Thirteen, the region of Protohex worshipped Arrius as a god of wisdom and providence. Septimus Prime oversaw the Supplicants of Arrius, who used the god's name as an excuse for bloodsport before Megatronus slew them all. Once he had (frighteningly quickly) conquered Protohex, he decreed that Arrius would be known as Solomus, as he was known in the Darklands. Origin Myths

There was a shrine to Solomus, unimaginatively called "the Shrine to Solomus", in the Greater Iacon area. An Institute branch was based near it, in secret. Patternism

Don't mind me, just a robot Statue of Liberty screwing around with the Matrix...

During the Golden Age, Tyrest served as chief engineer under Nova Prime. House of Ambus Nova feared that the life-giving pulsewaves from Vector Sigma would eventually cease and, in order to ensure the continued growth of the Cybertronian race, charged Tyrest with finding a way to tap into the Matrix of Leadership and harnessing the power to bestow life the legends claimed it held. With a team of scientists at his command, Tyrest succeeded in his task, mass-producing generations' worth of sparks, until the Matrix apparently ran dry. It would be some time before Tyrest discovered that, in actuality, one of his team had had an attack of conscience and spirited the Matrix away, leaving a facsimile in its place. The Divided Self

When the Great War broke out, Tyrest made a name for himself by organizing the Exodus, working with Dai Atlas to help as many as twenty million neutrals leave Cybertron. Furthermore, he arranged for peace talks between Optimus Prime and Megatron in search of a "two city-state solution", but was evidently unsuccessful. His great legacy was the brokering of the Tyrest Accord, a treaty named in his honor designed to prevent Transformer technology falling into the hands of other races that both factions adhered to. The success of the treaty convinced Optimus to make him Chief Justice, though nobody was really surprised, given his earlier accomplishments. House of Ambus

The Tyrest Accord did mask one of Tyrest's other great accomplishments, however: Ultra Magnus. When this great Autobot passed away, Tyrest saw in his death the potential to create the legend of an immortal lawman. Creating a cover story that Magnus had merely faked his death, Tyrest fashioned the Magnus Armor in his image, which was worn by other Transformers who then took on Magnus's name and identity, serving Tyrest as the Duly Appointed Enforcer of his Accord, and creating the illusion that he was still alive. The Divided Self

"I'll become important later, don't worry."

In later years, one of Tyrest's notable actions was the appointment of a panel of Autobots to work on the Magnus Inquiry, an investigation regarding the origins of Gideon's Glue. Bullets Perhaps his most significant contribution to Autobot justice in the modern era, though, was the creation of the Aequitas computer, which was used in Autobot war criminal trials to calculate the guilt of the accused. House of Ambus He agreed that the trials would be kept secret until the war's end, and then there would be full disclosure. Last Stand of the Wreckers #5 However, as the trials progressed, Tyrest realized something: every single defendant was of the mass-produced generation of sparks he had brought into being ages before. Plagued by this revelation, Tyrest came to believe that, in bleeding the Matrix, he had perverted the forces of creation, and created a tainted subspecies predisposed to evil. The Divided Self A haunted Tyrest requested the trials be put on hold and he disappeared from the public eye shortly thereafter. House of Ambus

By the time of his disappearances, Tyrest was no longer an Autobot and was recognized as neutral by the Galactic Council. Because of this, he was suggested as the third party who should run Megatron's trial, but complications arose that prevented that from happening. Chaos Theory Part 1

You know, Pinocchio was content with a cricket on his shoulder, Chief Justice Fruit Loop.

Unbeknownst to anyone, Tyrest had withdrawn to Cybertron's lost moon, Luna 1. During the Aequitas trials, he had taken to drilling holes in his body in a form of self-flagellation to assuage his guilty conscience, and one day, when merely drilling into his armored skin proved insufficient, the increasingly unstable Tyrest drilled a hole straight into his brain. This act was accompanied by an "epiphany": the formerly non-religious Tyrest became convinced that Primus and the Knights of Cybertron were real, and believed he had discovered the location of the Cyberutopia where the Knights now dwelt. Working with Lockdown's Titan Hunters to salvage remains of Titans, he constructed a spacebridge that he believed would take him there, but concluded that he could not cross into paradise before absolving himself of his sins. To do this, he initiated the creation of a universal killswitch that, when triggered, would eliminate every Matrix-born spark in the cosmos.

While working on this plan, Tyrest continued overseeing law in the universe, constantly updating and revising his accord and enforcing it through his army of Legislator robots, who instinctively acted to apprehend and/or punish infractors wherever they found them. Tyrest had them abduct the entire Circle of Light from Theophany as test subjects for his killswitch. His attack was made possible by Star Saber, Tyrest's agent within the Circle, who lowered the city's defenses and allowed the Legislators to attack directly. Many of the survivors were cannibalized for material to replenish his army. The Divided Self

In the face of Tyrest's increasing instability, Autobot Special Operations dispatched Skids and Getaway to remove him, armed with a nudge gun that would convince him to resign. However, Tyrest's very instability let him pick up on the foreign thought, and he sent a number of Legislators to arrest the two under Section 19 (80) 4 of the Accord. Skids escaped, but Getaway was successfully captured. Arm the Lonely

When the then-current wearer of the Magnus Armor, Minimus Ambus, was fatally wounded, an automatic recall trigger in the armor transported it and its occupant to Tyrest on Luna 1, where Tyrest had another of his new allies, traitorous Autobot medic Pharma, heal Ambus's wounds. While Ambus was out, Tyrest read his journals and was disgusted to discover that his enforcer had become a public joke, and stripped him of his role, having already decided to replace him with Star Saber. Moreover, he also discovered that Skids had joined up with Magnus and the other Autobots of the Lost Light, and told Minimus he would be putting them to death for harboring a criminal. The Divided Self When they were brought before him, however, he announced they were to die for one for his new laws, "crimes against creation". House of Ambus Learning this, Ambus confronted Tyrest with his lies and demanded to know the full story. Tyrest told him the entire story, from the Matrixed sparks to the killswitch, and when Ambus protested, Tyrest had him preemptively executed. The Divided Self Tyrest later explained his reason for rescuing Pharma from Messatine: the medic was famous for being Forged and was therefore a perfect test subject for the universal killswitch, as the medic salivated over the machine.

As Rodimus's group confronted Tyrest in his control center the Chief Justice gloated over killing Minimus Ambus, he then proceeded to reveal his new "weapon of mass suggestion" by using it on the attackers. Taking the advantage Tyrest activated the killswitch and walked towards the portal to Cyberutopia, Arm the Lonely which, unknown to all present, was actually a portal into Adaptus's mind. The Return of the King Nevertheless, Tyrest was prevented from crossing over by Tailgate, who had merely been paralyzed by his Cybercrosis and not by Tyrest's weapon—he was then taken down by the (still alive) Minimus Ambus. After the killswitch was disabled, Tyrest tried to use Part 1, Section 1 of the Tyrest accord to turn the situation in his favor—but this plan was also stopped by Tailgate. This Calamitous Life

The comatose Tyrest was then taken prisoner by the Lost Lighters and kept under close guard, locked within his own medbay. However, after the Lost Light's departure, he escaped by using the recall trigger in his palm to teleport away. The Sound of Breaking Glass Tyrest didn't go very far—he materialized next to Luna 1's planetary thrusters, still grievously wounded and now depleted of energy. Fortunately, Adaptus, unknown to "Tyrest" and under the guise of the "Grand Architect", was nearby. He repaired Tyrest, both physically and mentally, and out of gratitude Tyrest joined his cause. Tyrest then became one of the Grand Architect's chief generals alongside Scorponok, though rather more devoted. Farsickness

Tyrest projected himself aboard the also-loyal Getaway's Lost Light to prod him to immediately kill the invading Team Rodimus as the Grand Architect's plans were approaching a critical juncture. Tyrest grew impatient enough to summon Scorponok to deal with the interlopers, but then abruptly teleported him away in the middle of battle so they could assist the Architect in the next phase of his plan. Getaway, not being one of the Architect's generals, was left to his fate. A Dance Before Dying Lūstrāre

FINISH HIM!

On the flagship Worldsweeper, Tyrest conversed with Scorponok regarding the mystery of the Architect's true identity and plans before the time came for the God Gun to fire. With "The Beast" still failing to show itself, Tyrest's scans picked up a massive energy surge in the other universe, causing Scorponok to rage that their machinations had only allowed the enemy passage into their universe. The Architect then ran onto the bridge where he unceremoniously murdered Scorponok and took command of the operations. Farsickness

After a fleet of warships had emerged from the portal, the enemy arrived, revealed to be the Cybertron of an alternate universe, transformed into the image of the mythologized Primus by that world's Functionist Council, though Tyrest found his attention seized by the Architect now wearing Pharma's body. When "Primus" began destroying the God Gun, Tyrest tried to rally his master, only to wind up accompanying him to the brig, where the Architect revealed to Team Rodimus that he was Adaptus. Though everyone doubted the claim, Adaptus verified it by identifying Tyrest as Solomus himself! The Return of the King

As world-shaking as this revelation was, it was overshadowed by Adaptus's claim that Rung was Primus. Solomus regained his memories in private while Primus and Adaptus explained the truth of the God War to Rodimus and the rest of the crew. Without warning, Solomus, in a vengeful fury, seized a weapon and fired at Adaptus. Unfortunately for him, Adaptus - despite his wounds - proved a better fighter, quickly severing his brother's recall trigger and burying his saw blade in Solomus's chest. This sadistic behavior roused Pharma's consciousness, distracting Adaptus and giving Solomus an opening to bore a hole directly into Adaptus's brain. The damage sustained by both primeval Cybertronians caused them to dissolve into inert sentio metallico. The Unremembering

Fun Publications

Solomus was a member of the Thirteen. Vector Prime fondly remembered his brother's kindness and wisdom. Vector found that he had competing, contradictory memories of universes in which Solomus was not a member of the Thirteen, including one in which he predated Vector's pantheon, and another in which he never existed at all. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/06/14 When Nexus Prime later used the Star Saber and Terminus Blade to obliterate multiversal singularities, the reason for these contradictory memories became clear, as Solomus and the other Thirteen were splintered into infinite unconnected alternate selves across the multiverse. Out of the One, Many

When questioned if Solomus was Alpha Trion and vice versa, Vector Prime enigmatically answered that his brother wore many faces, and answered to many names. Make of that what you will. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/01

Beast Wars: Uprising

Solomus was a deity worshipped by the Transformers. Steel Jaw sardonically noted that they were doing Solomus's work as they laid siege to Tesarus. Derailment

2019 IDW continuity

At the dawn of the Age of the Firstforged, Solomus envisioned a gleaming monument of the virtue and potential of the Cybertronian race. After he brought this idea to Solus Prime and Alchemist Prime, the two agreed to make his vision a reality, laying the foundations of Crystal City. A Dust of Crystals Later into the age, Solomus was trapped in the Great Lair of the turbofoxes, being rescued by Zarak Maximus and Halonix Maximus. A record of this adventure was among the knowledge contained within the Matrix of Leadership. Prime

Notes

• Solomus was named for the biblical king Solomon, who was noted for his wisdom.
• According to "Fisitron's Facts", a bonus page in the hardcover edition of Last Stand of the Wreckers, Tyrest was originally to be named Adjudicus. This was changed to make for a connection to the previously established Tyrest Accord. The Adjudicus name would later be reused in Lost Light #3.
• James Roberts gives the name "Tyrest" as pronounced like "tie-rest".^[1]
• Tyrest's wings, staff, spiked diadem, and robe cause him to resemble a Principality, a member of the highest order of the Third Sphere of angels in the Christian angelic hierarchy. More specifically, he resembles a Principality as they are depicted in the Shin Megami Tensei series of video games, down to the primarily green color scheme with gold and silver accents.
• Tyrest, along with his right-hand baddies Pharma and Star Saber, represent the three pillars of society (law, medicine, and religion, respectively) gone wrong.^[2]
• Though his alternate mode is never depicted, Tyrest transforms into a hypersonic jet.^[3]

Foreign names

• Japanese: Tyrest (ティレスト Tiresuto, タイレスト Tairesuto)

References