Theme Song: "Dwr Budr" - Orbital
Quote: "Victory issues from the skillful use of slight advantages."

Physical Description:

-Though he falls within the basic specs of a Tricon, Maolduin's physical structure is unlike any other Transformer. Other than a basic internal skeleton, central processors, some power and spark interface systems, and external armoring, he is made entirely of wires. These are no ordinary wires, however, for they are much more than mere electrical conduits. Molecularly engineered, they are his muscle fibers, nerves, sensors, cooling system, weapons, and more (most individual wires have special properties) all in one. Though he usually has these wires in very specific configurations (an arm, a jet engine, etc), he can exert concious control on each one, dissociating them into a mass of tenticles, or reforming them into completely new shapes (though configuring them into especially useful forms is difficult to do on the fly, which makes him mostly stay to his three main forms, except in dire circumstances, or messing around in private). He coined the term "Fibrocon" to refer to bots with his structure, though there have never been any others.

-Robot Mode: A thin, but solid bot of twelve feet, Maolduin looks to some like a technorganic Maximal with the paint job darkened and the organic portions dissolved in an acid bath. To others he looks like a walking medical diagram. Smooth, rounded, dark purple armor on his chest, shoulders, upper back, cranium, hips and knees break up dark metallic wire muscles. The finest wiring is in his hands and face, which are each made up of hundreds of wires of various widths. His hads are the easiest part to reform into other shapes, or tentacles, which he does often, with many useful results. His face is long, with a slightly crooked nose, and is humanoid, slightly handsome, and very sinister. Armour plates laced with wire create the appearance of a bald head, though overall the appearance is more like a human head with its skin removed. Wires hang off his chin to make a long goatee.
-Vehicle Mode: When he transforms, it does not appear mechanical, but rather his wires move around and reform, moving the non-wire portions with them. The armor plating from robot mode form the nose and front edge of the jet's wings, and the rest is wire. The overall shape is like that of an F-15, except that the engines are huge cylindrical tubes, one on each side, starting just behind and to the side of where the cockpit would be and ending at the plane's rear. The wires on the inside of this tube are specially adapted to create jet and magnetic ion propulsion. The wings, fins, and indeed the entire body of the jet can reform itself to be aerodynamically ideal for any flight situation. The jet is usually only about 10ft long, but can expand itself to hold cargo inside- this can include additional guns or bombs if he has access to them. He has had a few successful experiments wih hooking himself up to a transwarp drive, but it's incredibly taxing and he'd only do it again if he really had to.
-Alternate Mode: Maolduin's sort of "embryonic" mode, this is where his wires lose all structural organization and become just a sphere of tentacles surrounding a central mass. This is far more useful than it sounds. By tightening into a ball and using tiny movements and magnetic field manipulations, he can roll himself around at great speeds. By using some tentacles with magnetic or pointed ends he can walk around on walls and ceilings like a spider. If he settles into a clump, most bots will not see him, dismissing him as a pile of junk wiring. Finally, this mode is very dangerous in battle, where its quickness and versatility come in handy, not to mention that it has about a thousand arms to fight with, and even the highly trained martial artist will rarely know how to handle such a strange opponent.

Strength: 9
Speed: 9
Skill: 7
Stamina: 6
Intelligence: 10
Firepower: 7
Discipline: 8
Aim: 7

Specialties:
-Techno-Sorcery: A term he coined for an amalgamation of arts and sciences that are difficult to master and/or arcane, but in combination produce results bordering on the magical. These include mechanical and electrical engineering, programming, nanotechnology, high dimensional physics, study of ancient Cybertronian texts, telepathic abilities, and special spark properties. Gets offended if called a magician- things are only magic, he says, if you don't understand them.
-Political Strategy: Not quite a "master strategist", but smart and knowledgeable enough to be one of Megatron's closest advisors.

Abilities:
-Telekinesis, telepathy, extra-sensory perception, connection to Matrix/Allspark: These abilities are not natural to him, instead he achieved them after many stellar cycles of mental discipline and the aid of several complex devices of his own invention. As such, he is unable to use these abilitiies outside the confines of his lair, and even then he must be physically hooked up to his equipment.
-Master of Darkness: A slightly exagerrated term for his limited control over light. Using technology similar to a cloaking device, he is able to bend light to his will, but his system must manipulate every photon individually, so cloaking or holograms are too much of a strain for it. He uses this system almost constantly to harvest light for energy, thus creating a region around him that is just slightly darker than the surroundings. He can also create small but elaborate optical illusions, making a door appear where there is none, for instance. His ability to make illusions is almost nonexistent in daylight, and very powerful in the dark, where he can go so far as to create the illusion of glowing optics or fire. This is because the darker it is, the less photons he has to manipulate. (thus "master of darkness") The ability has a twenty foot radius, gradually dissipating at the edge of its range.
-Efficiency: His body architecture makes him 3 times as energy efficient as the next Tricon, and almost as efficient as the Maximals.
-Healing: Using nanotechnology, his wires are self sealing- cuts heal and cut off portions can be reattached just by coming back in contact with his body for a few clicks. The scarred wire, however, has very little functionality, and he must go to a CR chamber for real healing. This ability is just barely enough to compensate for the vulnerability of his wires, as they only have a thin, flexible armor plating.

Weapons:

All weapons are integrated into his wires, and are present in all modes. Specific positions of weapons not given for "koosh ball" mode, as they are irrelevant.

-Lasers: twenty small lasers, each is little more powerful than a laser scalpel (in fact that's one of their uses), but in combination very dangerous. Fire from the tips of wires. One at the tip of each finger, one in theback of each hand, eye lasers, three in each foot. in jet mode they are all twisted into one big multibarrel gun below the nose.
-Monomolecular Filaments: Almost the exact same sort as compose Final's hair, these have the same effect, cutting through just about anything except himself and Final (both have similar protective coatings). Arguement rages on and off about who stole the technology from who. There are about three hundred of these integrated into each arm. When not in use they are folded up into the arm. When unleashed they extend five feet past his arm's reach. unleashed from wing tips in jet mode
-Leeches: Eight wires, two in each arm and leg, can be extended and end in barbed suckers, which drain electrical energy out of their target like leeches. Can deplete the average bot in about 10 cycles. Unless Maolduin decides to let go, about the only quick way to remove them is to cut them. Extend from bottom in jet mode, where they ar also used to lift things.
-Shockers: The obvious weapon. About 10% of his wires are capable of giving an enemy a strong electrical shock on contact. Can onload his whole power store into the shockers in two clicks, but he doesn't, because that would be really dumb (though if that doesnt fry the opponent, nothing will). A favorite technique is the leech out his opponent's energy then shock him with it.
-Wire Strength: each wire has a "muscle" layer, a movement mechanismthat works molecularly in a mannet similar to muscle. This is what he uses to move his arms, legs, face, etc, but he can also treat each wire as a separate appendage. This gives him incredible dexterity, useful for all sorts of things, like strangling, grabbing, crushing.. One wire around your neck would be the equivelent of someone trying to strangle you with their pinky finger. However, he has hundreds of them. One of his fondest memories is the day he figured out how to convert his hand to a noose in under two clicks.

Equipment:
-Built In: Many of his wires, or wire tips, have special functions. These include data ports, scanners, cameras, microphones, nanoprobes, injectors, sample takers, radio antennas, and subspace pocket generators. He is also able to construct some tools out of his wires. A blade, for example, may be made by forming many small wires into a rigid plane with a monofilament at the edge.
-Lair: He lives in and maintains a large, extensive lair, with equipment dedicated to just about anything he's interested in. Remember Tarantulas' lab? Now imagine that he wasn't stuck on an uncivilized planet, and had all of Cybertron to gather equipment from. If there's a piece of equipment he wants for his lair but doesnt have, he'll either go find it or make one himself. Its centerpiece is Nimue, his telepathy/ESP/allspark-contacting device (or you could just think of it like Cerebro in xmen). He uses it by transforming to sphere mode and getting into a small spherical chamber, plugging almost all his wires into it. Using the device he can sense almost anything, almost anywhere (but not everything at once), communicate telepathically with anyone with such an ability, and, with great effort, do some simple, vague mind reading. Obviously he can't do anything in the physical world while he's in Nimue, and can only stay in for a megacycle or two per day, less if he's straining himself. Few besides he and Megatron know the location or contents of his lair, and not many even know of its existence.

Personality: Maolduin has many, many secrets, but does not seem extremely secretive, because though he has a bit of a mysterious aura (could be just the darkness that always surrounds him), he doesnt act like someone who has something to hide. Also, he's a very good liar. Though he spends a lot of time at his lair, and is given to silent pacing, he is not a hermit, or antisocial- to the contrary, he is very articulate. Though he will sometimes disagree with Megatron, he is unerringly loyal, seeming all the moreso because when he does disagree, he tells Megatron up front, cooly and rationally. Occaisionally Megatron will agree with his objection, but even if he doesn't, Maolduin follows his lord's will. His outlook on life is that of a medievalist, or a dark mage (though that isn't immediately apparent every time he opens his mouth, like, say, Airplague). He lives in an abstract world, and delights in the antique, the retrograde, the dead, and the dying. The halls of his lair are riddled with exquisitely rusted dead bots, displayed standing like suits of armor. Some he found in scrapyards, some are trophies. Delights in death and destruction on almost every level, always finding new aspects that fascinate him. Bots that find arrogance annoying tend to be annoyed by him. Some that have observed him long note that although he is at all times loyal and deferent to Megatron, his attitude is that he is in control at all times.

History: He shares his origins with the Tripredicus Council, though what those origins are is unknown. Spent his time before Megatron's rise as the head of one of the Council member's personal research division, a position he rose to due to his close bond to the Council and his reputation for unorthodox but brilliant technological solutions. Here he began his research into the strange telepathic abilities being displayed by some sparks, precisely because he knew his own spark to be incapable of such things. Was offworld when Megatron's virus hit, on a joint research project with the Nicomedians, an alien alliance that had been rivals with the Maximals. Stayed there until the Maximals took back Cybertron. He was greatly impressed and frightened by technorganics- using their attributes properly, they could potentially cause the downfall of both the alliance that had given him shelter and the still alive plans of the now dead Tripredicus Council. He was greatly relieved when Megatron regained power, but resolved that he could no longer stand idle. He travelled back to Cybertron, both to aid Megatron and to study the technorganics up close. Megatron was skeptical of a former Council ally, but slowly grew to trust Maolduin as he proved loyal. He never talks of his true motives for loyalty- by keeping Megatron in power, and the population of Cybertron low, it remains a galactic backwater, incapable of even being aware of the big picture, nevermind stopping it (what is the big picture? there might be more on this later, but for now it doesnt matter ad im leaving it open). He discovered the early work of Quantum on technorganics and continued it (by now he had replaced scientific techniques with his "techno-sorcery"), eventually devising a way to get most of the benefits of technorganics without the organic contamination- his Fibrocon technology.

Created By: Riboflavin