Voin

I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy. Come here, Squishy!

The octopus-like aliens known as the Voin are a fiercely individualistic race—an issue not helped by their strange culture and ethics, which makes the inner workings of their society something of a mystery to all but the most experienced Cybertronian diplomats. A mercantile race, the Voin place great value in the nature of transactions—to a Voin, everything can be interpreted as an exchange or potential deal. The Voin view life and death differently from other races; despite their odd, almost anarchic society that eschews leaders, Voin society, such as it is, does not value each individual Voin life. Paradoxically, however, some are held in very high regard by the collective... so woe betide anyone who accidentally harms the wrong Voin.

Though the Voin are a naturally aquatic race, individual Voin can operate on land by using "slaved organics" to act as their hands and feet, and directly control these genetically-engineered beings from floating bubbles of water. Although most Voin on Cybertron rely on ape-like beings, other varieties include large, cybernetically-augmented creatures used by Voin Asserters, specialist Voin committed to their race's tradition of retaliatory justice.

Fiction

2019 IDW continuity

I'd like to be under the sea, in an octopus's garden in the shade.

Cybertron's relationship with the Voin stretched back to the interwar years after the War of the Threefold Spark; during the reign of Nominus Prime, at least one Voin attended Bumblebee's forging in Iacon, and later snarled at Cliffjumper when the red 'bot emerged from the Pyramid and asked if it could mentor him. Wannabee, Part 2 By Sentinel Prime's era, Iacon's sprawling Xeno-Quarter included a large Voin community. The World In Your Eyes Part Five Despite their growing presence on Cybertron, the planet's Xeno-Relations division discouraged the average Cybertronian from prolonged interaction with a Voin—owing to the differing psychologies of the two species, an untrained individual ran the risk of inadvertently diverging sensitive information or making deals without their knowing. Xeno-Relations relied on trained specialists in order to facilitate constructive dialogues between the two species; Nautica, head of Xeno-Relations, had spent megacycles with the aliens in their native environment Nautica: Home and possessed a number of Voin contacts on Cybertron. The Change In Your Nature Part Two

At some point, a lone Voin ape escaped from its master and later trapped itself in a secluded region of the Cybertronian wilderness, a place where Cryak had gone immersant some years before. Its trailing neural cable somehow adsorbed Cryak's decaying spark; unable to die, both beings were bonded together and trapped in a strange limbo between life and death. I Have No Mouth And I Must Starscream

The Ascenticon visionary Termagax owned a dead Voin. The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Two In the years leading up to the Great War, Sentinel Prime included a number of Voin ambassadors within his diplomatic retinue, who accompanied him aboard the Titan Lodestar during the First Senator's tour of Cybertron's colony worlds. Nautica: Home

"Today's mission is for you all to go to the Brain Slug planet."
"What are we going to do there?"
"Just walk around not wearing a helmet."

Some Voin made a living as unlicensed scavengers, operating on the periphery of Cybertron's illegal black markets. The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Three One such Voin traded regularly with Headlock; The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Three while operating in the remote badlands beyond Iacon, it witnessed Brainstorm's murder. The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Five Shortly afterwards, the same Voin encountered the young Cybertronian Rubble before Windblade arrived and scared off the alien with her weapons. The World In Your Eyes Part One The Voin traded information on the murder to one of its compatriots; The Change In Your Nature Part Two but with the complex nature of Voin society a mystery to most Transformers, both Security Operations and the Ascenticons began searching for the mystery Voin in the hopes that it knew something about Brainstorm's death. The World In Your Eyes Part Two Unfortunately, the fragmented nature of Voin society made it hard for officer Prowl to work effectively with their community, The World In Your Eyes Part Three an issue compounded by the fact that all Voin looked alike. The World In Your Eyes Part Five

Although Prowl eventually determined that he would have to go outside the law in order to find the missing Voin, The World In Your Eyes Part Five it was the covert Ascenticon sympathizer Barricade who found a lead on the Voin's location after he went after Headlock. The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Three Rather than report his news to Prowl, however, he instead reported it to the Ascenticon senator Soundwave, who, in turn contacted Shockwave, leader of The Rise, to silence this potential witness. The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Five By pure coincidence, Rubble encountered the same Voin again while wandering through the Xeno-Quarter; hoping that he could make a difference to the ongoing investigation, the little Cybertronian pursued the alien deeper into the tangled streets of the district... but, by the time he'd caught up with it, Rise operative Quake had already found and murdered the alien. As soon as Quake noticed Rubble, he chased after the newborn and killed him, too. The World In Your Eyes Part Five During a subsequent autopsy on both Rubble and the murdered Voin, xenobiologist Greenlight noted that the alien had been crushed to death—an ultimately superfluous act of violence, she opined, as the creature had been effectively doomed the moment its sealed globe had fractured. The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part One

They have no freedom. They have no will. Th-th-th-th-these Kongs were bred to kill.

Upon learning everything that had occurred on Cybertron in her absence, Nautica worried about the effect it would have on Cybertron's Voin community, as some deaths meant more than others in their culture. Nautica: Home Her fears were proven correct; after speaking with one of her contacts and trading relevant political information, she received a secondhand account of Brainstorm's murder... and confirmation that the scavenger was an important member of their race, whose death would surely provoke a reaction. The Change In Your Nature Part Two Seeking revenge for the senseless murder of their kind, the Voin sent an asserter to Iacon's spaceport, intent on bringing the killer to justice and slaughtering every other Cybertronian that got in its way. The Change In Your Nature Part Four Hoping to smooth over fraying diplomatic relations, Prowl escorted the Voin to Sentinel Prime while Nautica tried to talk the angry alien down. All Fall Down Undeterred, the Voin continued to seek out Quake. Tremors

After the criminal had been arrested, and Sentinel Prime had turned his arrest into a public spectacle, the Asserter eluded Nautica and Road Rage, charging at Quake when Ascenticon supporters allowed him to escape custody. Confronting him in an alley, the Asserter unleashed all its firepower on Quake. Though one of its simian enforcers managed to cut off one of Quake's hands, this only shattered his bonds and freed his other appendage. Even in his crippled state, Quake's raw strength managed to overpower all of the Voin's monsters forcing the Asserter to turn its own weapons on the Cybertronian. With its weapons bouncing off Quake's armor, the Asserter was helpless as Quake reached through its forcefield and slammed its globe against the ground, crushing the Asserter to death in much the same manner as the one it had been sent to avenge. Prisoners

While on the trail of a "ghost" haunting the wilderness, Starscream stumbled across the stranded Voin ape; after briefly having his spark absorbed into the creature, however, he was able to outmaneuver his former mentor Cryak and sever their connection, dooming Cryak to an eternity alone in the wilderness. I Have No Mouth And I Must Starscream

Alternate future

In a dystopian future where Exarchon had conquered Cybertron, the planet's new ruler cut a deal with the Voin by selling many of his fellow Cybertronians into slavery. Those unlucky Cybertronians were forced to become mindless appendages for the aliens in place of their usual organic servants. Test Flight II

Games

Transformers Roleplaying Game

The Voin were a strange race of squid-like organics. Decepticon Directive

Notes

• The Voin are Brian Ruckley's favorite alien creation for the 2019 continuity.^[1]
• Had the continuity continued, the Voin would have been revealed to have a link to the Quintessons, though the specific nature of that connection was never developed beyond tying into the Voin's tendency to involve themselves in events and cause problems.^[2]

References