That is not a planet; it's a piece of stale cheese... in outer space... somehow?

The planetAthenia was first seen as an unusual, irregular planetary body, resembling nothing so much as a chunk of rock. By the year 2011, however, it had been completely terraformed into a spherical world. It possesses no particularly strange or unusual geographical features, decorated with grassy fields, rivers and mountains, though after terraforming, its sky is a reddish-purple. It does not appear to have any sentient native lifeforms.

Fiction

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

Athenia played home to the firstGalactic Olympics in the year 2005, with many visiting humans, Transformers and alien races of all shapes and sizes in attendance. Unfortunately, the peaceful event was interrupted by an attack by theQuintessons, who kidnappedUltra Magnus,Kup andSpike Witwicky. Suspecting the Decepticons responsible, Autobot leaderRodimus Prime ordered the planet be quarantined until further notice.

OnceBlaster andOutback found the location of the Decepticons' new residence, the planetChaar, they contacted Rodimus on Athenia and informed him of Chaar's coordinates. Rodimus then hadPerceptor examine the remains of one of theassailants from the earlier attack before he andGrimlock departed Athenia for Chaar.Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1

The Headmasters cartoon

Ahhh... Now that is more like it.

Following the extermination of theHate Plague and the disappearance into hiding of theDecepticons, theAutobots were able to turn their attention to spreading their peaceful influence through space. The first planet they colonised was Athenia, establishing it as a secondary defense headquarters, with the intent of terraforming it into a secondCybertron. By the year 2011, the planet had been reconstructed from its original form into a spherical body, with two metallic moons, and was part of aspace bridge network linked to Cybertron andEarth. The sudden reappearance of the Decepticons put further refurbishments to the planet on hold, and Athenia became a major base of operations in the ensuing conflict. Although the majority of their early campaigns targeted Cybertron, the Decepticons also recognised the importance of Athenia to the Autobot cause, and at one point attempted to destroy the planet with ametal-warping meteor.

The Autobot base amidst the landscape of Athenia.

Following the decimation of Cybertron in aplasma energy explosion, Athenia became the main headquarters for the Autobot resistance, now led byHeadmaster commanderFortress. It proved particularly safe against Decepticon attacks, and was left largely unmolested for the remainder of the Headmasters' conflict, although its connection to Earth was severed whenSixshot destroyed the space bridge on Earth, causing feedback that blew up the receptor on Athenia.

Super-God Masterforce Master File

With the final defeat of the Decepticons on Earth, the war shifted into a space-based conflict, involving exchanges between the Autobots on Athenia and the Decepticons onChaar. These battles became known as theMaster Wars, so named for the important role the super-science of the planetMaster played in them. With the space bridge destroyed, transit between Athenia and Earth was highly limited, necessitating the employment of humans asGodmasters andHeadmaster Juniors on Earth.The Headmasters Now!!

Super-God Masterforce manga

In the midst of theMasterforce War on Earth, the Trainbots arrived to transport the Godmasters and Headmaster Juniors to Athenia, where Fortress handed the mantle ofSupreme Commander over toGinrai, and the Earth and space-based Autobots established a "united universe federation". During the ceremony, the combined forces of the Earth and space's Decepticons attacked, but were repelled by the power of Super Ginrai.The Battle Begins! The Earth-Space Alliance Army

Legends comic

When the Autobots suspectedFlip Sides of being a Decepticon spy, they had her andBlaster captured and brought to Athenia for questioning.Bonus Edition Vol. 27

Animated cartoon

Athenia is part of theAutobot Commonwealth.Team Athenia might be stationed there.The AllSpark Almanac II

Alternity

WhenMegatron successfully shattered the gestalt higher-dimensional entities the Autobots had begun, the Autobots went on a counter-offensive that resulted in Megatron's defeat and the ascension of thePlanicrons in place of theAlternity. However, this sadly meant that the members of the now-defunct Alternity had to return to their own worlds to watch for any further troubles. The place chosen for their final meeting was Athenia, whereOptimus Prime (one of them, anyway) gave a stirring speech to look forward to the future.Alternation

Knights of Unicron

The Galactic Games Stadium, located on the Athenia Outpost, was the seventh venue for theKnights of Unicron on their 2014 "Till All Are One" tour.Knights of Unicron

2005 IDW continuity

A mission toBouvetoya remindedSky Lynx of a previous outing to Athenia.The Nothing Man In the post-war era, a transport from Athenia arrived atIacon Spaceport 1 on Cybertron.Lagrange

Of Masters and Mayhem

The Autobots maintained a secret outpost on Athenia where they constructed their last hope for the war effort. The base was attacked byCounterpunch and razed to the ground, killing the staff but not before they managed to transmit footage of the attack toAutobot High Command who locked Punch up as a traitor.

Years later, when Counterpunch had been rebuilt onParadron, he remembered the slaughter of Athenia among his many jumbled memories.The Truth We Make

Notes

• Athenia is not named in "Five Faces of Darkness", but the designation is present in production materials, such as the episode's script.^[1] The Japanese dub of the episode includes a text caption naming Athenia on screen.
• Athenia's name is a reference to Athens, Greece, birthplace of theOlympics.
• Floro Dery's original production artwork for Athenia is wildly different than the giant cheese wedge that made it to screen. The planet was originally globular with buildings so large they spanned horizons and bridges that connected the planet to its four moons. By comparison, the giant cheese wedge seems moderatelyless preposterous.^[2]

Foreign names

• Japanese:Athenia (アセニアAsenia)
• English:Sydneya (Omni Productions dub)
• Italian:Asenia (The Headmasters dub)

References