When the Quintessons were finally driven off world by the sacrifice of Excelsius, peace settled across the land. As city-states formed around the former manufacturing centers of the Quintessons, areas of specialization began to be seen in various cities, with some cities specializing in aerospace, others in power systems, etc. Vilnacron, on the other hand, became a sort of warehouse/trading center, facilitating the exchange of products from one city-state to another, while charging small routing fees. The city steady expanded through the Golden Age, becoming a place where people from all over Cybertron came to trade and to relax. Then tensions began to rise, as the differences between Straxus and Alpha Trion began to make themselves known. While Vilnacron, like the majority of Cybertronian cities, remained neutral in the debates in the beginning, over time the city began to take on a definite Decepticon leaning, prefering security for trade rather than freedom. When the Second Cybertronian War broke out, it took very little time for Vilnacron to drift into the Decepticon sphere of influence along with other cities near the spire of Darkmount, such as Polyhex and Ibex.
But the choice of Vilnacron turned out to be a two edged sword. With the Decepticons to protect its citizens, it enjoyed unparalled security, but with the loss of freedom of trade many of its warehouses and trading centers were forced to shut down for lack of business. Outlying areas of the city became increasingly darker and more dangerous, as survivors and scavengers from other less fortunate cities, both Decepticon, Autobot, and neutral migrated into the area, drawn by the prosperity of the inner city and by the fact that the Decepticons were forced to pull more and more troops from guarding the city to put them on the front lines. As the growing loss of energy resources became greater, Vilnacron like many other city-states gradually settled into a relatively stable but much much poorer relationship with the Decepticon Empire, still a loyal imperial city, but with an underlying disatisfaction among many of the poorer, less successful citizens. Then, in 2005...Unicron arrived.
The city of Vilnacron was devastated by Unicron's attack on Cybertron along with most of the surviving Decepticon cities. The once proud city-state lay in ruins, its energon reserves and business gone save for a few struggling entertainment areas. The Empire, forced to make quick choices to survive the tremendous loss of manpower and resources from Unicron's attack, and lacking a strong leader, retreated to Charr, leaving their cities to fend for themselves, save for vital Decepticon centers such as Darkmount. Those Vilnacronians lucky enough to be useful to the Empire or with the resources to go fled to surviving cities closer to Darkmount such as Polyhex, leaving the city to the scavengers and refugees unable to relocate. The Autobots, flush with their apparent rout of the Decepticons and already occupied with rebuilding their own city of Iacon and its environs, were unable to assist. For a time, the city tottered along like a barely functional corpse that hadn't yet realized it had died, attracting the lawless and chaotic to its streets. But over time, an odd new shadow goverment coalesced from the the remains of the city...
While spoke only in whispers, a criminal underground rose to seize the remaining reins of power in an iron fist, its leaders cloaked in secrecy, its methods ruthless and efficient, and led by a mysterious leader known only as the Shadowlord. An order of sorts was imposed on the still profitable areas of Vilnacron, breathing new energy into the failing heart of the city, in return for a reasonable share of the profits. Mech gangs began wearing an odd symbol never seen before, a sigil not Decepticon, not Autobots, but new, punishing those who displeased the lord of the city while allowing him to remain in the background, like a spider in his web. The city lived, in a faint semblance of its old self, past when many had believed it would at last die and become nothing more than another ruin like others dotting the cyberscape. The city waited for the return of the Empire....and then, Galvatron returned to Cybertron, leading the remainder of a seemingly revitalized Decepticon force. Hope stirred in the alleys and crumbling buildings of Vilnacron, for at last it seemed that their protectors had returned.
But the Decepticons had neither the time or energy to devote to a battered and useless cityscape, when they had larger concerns. The Decepticons reclaimed Darkmount, reactivating and rebuilding their fortress, then spreading their influence down into the neglected ruins of Polhex, but no further, consolidating their strength. This mattered little to the city of Vilnacron however....they had for far too long depended on the Decepticons as their protectors, and now were seemingly to be abandoned again, while the Autobots were far away and now had their own problems, caught offguard in the flush of apparent victory over the Decepticons by a powerful and disciplined return of their ancient enemies. Dissatisfaction grew among the survivors of Vilnacron, with bitterness growing among the survivors. And the Shadowlord, and his dark goverment waited, allowing the anger and sense of abandonment, until at last, when the Decepticons chose to rebuild a complete destroyed Polhex rather than the ruins of Vilnacron, that anger boiled over....and the Shadowlord acted at last.
A new flood of energon, long hoarded for this moment entered the city of Vilnacron, seemed to appear overnight, revitalizing the heart of the city with new found power not seen for many vorns by its citizens. The former Decepticon fortress that had guarded Vilnacron, abandoned and decayed, suddenly developed functional and effective weapons turrents; the symbol worn by the mech gangs, a great emerald robot head with a cobra-like hood, appearing on the great doors of the keep. And new leaders arose, seemingly from nowhere: Arachnis, and his lieutenant, Shrike, who called for citizens with needed skills to come to them, and put them to work revitalizing the center of the old city, setting in place defenses and tearing down old ruins to make way for spartan but serviceable living quarters. And the change was whispered across Cybertron, from transformer to transformer, that no longer would Vilnacron serve a master who ignored it and allowed its citizens to suffer...instead, Vilnacron would be free. The Free City of Vilnacron was born, with its leader, the Shadowlord residing in the old Decepticon fortress, now renamed the Shadowkeep, administering his city through Arachnis and Shrike. For the first time in many years, the citizens of the city worked together, hoping for a better world. But these changes were taken quite differently in other quarters...
The Decepticon Empire and its leader, Galvatron, viewed the succession of Vilnacron at first with distain. But as the city began to slowly recover, reopening long unused avenues of trade both offworld and on the planet, the Empire gradually recognized that Vilnacron was no longer a drain on resources, but was slowly becoming an asset, the revenues and energon from its trade providing a tempting addition to the Imperial reconquest of Cybertron. In addition, the rebel city greatly irked Galvatron for turning its back on its rightful rulers, especially after attempts by several Decepticon subcommanders to cow the citizens of the city met with iron resistance. At last, Galvatron consented to meet with the leader of Vilnacron, and passed through the doors of the Shadowkeep into the Great Hall of Vilnacron, where the Shadowlord sat on a throne cloaked in forcefields which distorted his image and voice, and directed the Shadowlord to return the city of Vilnacron to the Empire. The Shadowlord refused, telling the Decepticon leader that what the citizens of Vilnacron had built, they had built themselves, the Decepticon Empire had no right to take that result from them. To which, Galvatron delivered an ultimatum.
Galvatron decreed that the city of Vilnacron belonged to the Empire, and had belonged to it for eons. The Shadowlord would either surrender the city to its rightful rulers, or the Empire would grind it into dust beneath its armored heel. The Shadowlord considered this request, then answered with an odd response. "That which is the Decepticons shall be theirs again." Galvatron left, satisfied that the city was his once more. The Shadowlord immediately summoned his lieutenants, speaking with them within his throne room for some time, before they went out into the city, to do what was necessary, organizing the citizens for one final project within the city. When Galvatron returned but a few scant days later...he found nothing but empty streets and ruins once more. The Shadowkeep lay in ruins, destroyed by internal detonation charges, the city defenses gone, the remaining shops and recreation areas stood empty, for the only populace of Vilnacron now were the turbo rats...for the Shadowlord and his people were gone.
So began the exodus of Vilnacron. A caravan of those loyal to the Shadowlord travelled across Cybertron to the heights of the Quartzite Mountain, and built a camp to be their home while the City Watch searched for the end of their journey, a site for a new city to call their own where they would no longer fear oppression or involvement in a war they had no interest in. Rather than exposing themselves to possible Decepticon retaliation by searching across the surface of Cybertron, Arachnis led the Watch to delve deep into the maze of catacombs underground, seeking a secure place to build underground where it would be difficult for either of the factions to easily attack. It is not known precisely what was found, for only the high officers and the Shadowlord knew precisely of what the subterranean wanderings stumbled across, and that data they kept to themselves. All that the world outside knew is that one day, the Quartzite mountain erupted, molten metal flowing over the abandoned remains of the Vilnacronian camp, with only Arachnis present to greet those curious or concerned enough to investigate, answering questions of disasters with a small smile and the comment. "No. We did this. We will be back, in time." And for a time, the Shadowlord and his people vanished from the face of Cybertron...
The first notice of Vilnacron's return happened months later, when a previously nondescript area of the Razor Hills shimmered and vanished, revealing an armored dome nestled securely against the border between the hills and the desert-like plains to the north and east.
This was the entrance to the armoured underground city of New Vilnacron... and the rest, as they say, is history...
The movers and shakers of New Vilnacron...
Noteworthy citizens of New Vilnacron...