Gorlam Prime

Gorlam Prime is a planet in the same sector of space as the Benzuli Expanse cosmic anomaly. It has recently experienced a technological renaissance, with great leaps in science and an obvious transition from biological to mechanical lifeforms. This advancement has been rather sudden and unprecedented, happening at an unusual rate.

Deep below its surface, the planet houses a strange ocean-like anomaly that leads to the Dead Universe, along with ancient catacomb ruins from what appears to be another civilization.

IDW Generation 1 continuity
Around 600,000 years ago, one of the Regenesis missiles launched by Shockwave landed on Gorlam Prime. The mutated energon ore it was carrying penetrated an underground cavern, causing a localized decaying effect that allowed a portal to the Dead Universe, an alternate reality of unlife, to open beneath the planet's surface. Using this portal, which took the form of a silvery, liquid-metal ocean, the crew of Nova Prime's Ark-1, lost to the Dead Universe millions of years beforehand, were at last able to return to their home universe, and began a plan to merge the two. Nova's chief scientist Jhiaxus used Gorlam Prime as his staging base to plan this "Expansion", experimenting on its organic populace—converting them first into cyber-organic forms, and then fully-technological, transforming bodies that mades them resemble diminutive Cybertronians—intending to create a new form of life that could survive the merging of realities, which would serve as a template that all life in the universe would be reconfigured to match.

At one point, an injured Metrotitan arrived on Gorlam Prime, steered there through its self-generated space bridge by errant Decepticon Waspinator. Emerging beneath the planet's surface in close proximity to the portal, it transformed into its city mode, and remained there for millennia. Years later, upon discovering the city, Galvatron would mistakenly assume it to be the ruins of an ancient civilization connected to the Dead Universe,, while Hardhead believed that the buildings had been constructed by Jhiaxus out of sentiment. Jhiaxus himself, however, was evidently aware of the titan's true nature and kept it to himself until the time was right to exploit it.

Having long pondered the mystery of the fate of the Ark-1, Autobot detective Nightbeat was drawn to Gorlam Prime when some of the vessel's remains were discovered in an archaeological dig there. Attacked by Jhiaxus's small creations, he was herded toward the Dead Universe portal, where Jhiaxus wiped his memories and planted a control program within him, to be used at the right time. That time was not long in coming, after Nightbeat replayed personal recordings of his investigations he had archived on his ship, and became aware of his missing memories. Nightbeat returned to Gorlam Prime with Hardhead to watch his back, and discovered that the entire world had ground to a halt, its people and machines simply stopping in mid-stride—a chrysalis state that preceded their final evolutionary leap. Jhiaxus took control of Nightbeat, but Hardhead fulfilled his friend's wishes and killed him to free him, and was then herded through the portal to the Dead Universe by Jhiaxus's small creations.

Jhiaxus soon emerged through the portal to co-ordinate the detonation of the Nega-Cores that would merge the living and dead universes. There, he was caught unawares by his renegade creation Arcee, and attempted to escape through the portal, only to find his way barred by a now-undead Hardhead. This gave Arcee the opening she needed to kill him, but as Hardhead explained, the caverns beneath Gorlam Prime had becoming a border realm between the two dimensions in which nobody could truly die. That suited Arcee fine, as it meant she could spend eternity killing Jhiaxus over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

In time, the inhabitants of Gorlam Prime emerged from their stasis as completely mechanical beings. They no longer referred to their world as Gorlam Prime, instead calling it... Cybertron. The new, mechanical Gorlam Prime became one of the galaxy's pinnacles of cyber-organic life, but this only last for a few years, until the malevolent Dead Universe entity "D-Void" reached out through Gorlam Prime's portal and entranced the entire population of the planet. It lured every single one of them into the Dead Universe and feasted on their sparks, leaving the planet empty except for Arcee, Hardhead and a few half-dead former Dead Universe residents. Some time later, Galvatron returned to Gorlam Prime, revived the other Dead Universe Transformers, and investigated the missing population. After learning of D-Void and its plan to destroy them all, he destroyed the Dead Universe portal. As he began to raise an army to oppose D-Void, Gorlam Prime served as his headquarters, but the planet was eventually supplanted by Cybertron.

When Cybertron was reborn in conjunction with Galvatron's defeat, Ironhide and Jhiaxus had a vision of Gorlam Prime in the distant future. In this vision, set fifteen million years after the end of the war, Gorlam Prime was home to a peaceful, prosperous Autobot civilization. Intending to make this vision a reality but knowing it was impossible with Gorlam Prime the empty world it was now, Jhiaxus sought to use the chronally-unstable matter of the planet LV-117 to move Gorlam Prime through time. He also put his knowledge of the sleeping Metrotitan into action, recruiting the disenchanted Waspinator to his cause and luring Optimus Prime to Gorlam Prime. There, Waspinator—pretending to be another of Jhiaxus's victims—informed Prime of the Metrotitan's presence, and Prime used his power as the true bearer of the Matrix of Leadership to awaken it. Waspinator then showed his true colours, taking control of the Titan's space bridge and teleporting it away to Cybertron, leaving Prime and his group behind to face a much worse fate: the titan's transformation had destabilized the equilibrium of the cavern, and the decaying effect of Shockwave's Ore-2 began to spread. Prime and company escaped aboard Prime's ship, but Gorlam Prime was consumed.

The AllSpark Almanac
Gorlam Prime is a neutral, robotic planet within the Benzuli Expanse.

Classified novels
Ironhide took part in a battle in the Tangles on Gorlam Prime that resulted in a win for the Autobots.