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Published:
2026-01-10
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2026-01-10
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Cybertronian Units of Time

Summary:

As anyone who was looked at the wiki page can tell you, the units of time used in Transformers are... messy at best. I have created a more cohesive calendar with strict units for my own use and wanted to share it, in hopes someone else might find it helpful, as well as having it accessible for self-reference.

Notes:

Hello! The first chapter consists of the guide itself, while chapter two is mostly rambling about how I came up with it.

Chapter 1: Cybertronian Units of Time

Chapter Text

UNITS

Nanoklik- Equivalent to almost exactly one Earth second.

           Tick-another word for nanoklik.

Klik-Equivalent to 72 nanokliks, or 1.2 Earth minutes.

Breem-Equivalent to 6 kliks, or 7.2 Earth minutes.

Joor-Equivalent to 72 kliks, 12 breem, or 1.44 Earth hours.

          Groon-Another word for Joor.

Arc-Equivalent to 2 joor, 144 kliks, 24 breem, or 2.88 Earth hours.

Orn-Equivalent to 24 joor, 12 arcs, or 1.44 Earth days.

Chord-Equivalent to 12 orn, or 2.5 Earth weeks.

Quartex-Equivalent to 3 chords, or 1.7 Earth months.

Trimara-Equivalent to 4 quartex, or 12 chords.

Cycle-Equivalent to 3 trimara, 12 quartex, or 1.7 Earth years.

Rotation-Equivalent to 4 cycles, or 6.8 Earth years.

Vorn-Equivalent to 12 rotations, or 82 Earth years.

 

IN USE

There are ‘archaic’ and ‘modern’ time measures, though by the time of the Autobot-Decepticon war both sets are very, very old. Notably, the breem is older than the klik (nanoklik, introduced with the klik itself, has since become more popular than tick for the second-equivalent due to klik and tick sounding confusingly similar), arcs are older than joors (groon and joor were both put forward as competing names for the unit, and joor has mostly won out, but groon remains in common use), and trimara are older than quartex or cycles. The ‘modern’ time measures were created in an attempt to add more specificity to measurement, originally for scientific and historical purposes.

Very old historical documents will be given time and date in the format Tick X, Breem Y, Arc Z of Orn X, Chord Y, Trimara Z, Rotation R, Vorn Q.

Modern documents give time and date as Nanoklik X, Klik Y, Joor Z of Orn X, Chord Y, Quartex Z, Cycle R, Rotation Q, Vorn W. More complex but also involves smaller numbers, so generally considered a win.

Arcs, Orns, Chords, and Rotations have names-in the old format they were named after the original 13 Primes, minus the 13th whose name is unknown.1 The thirteen are considered to have blessed the times given their name, and the orns where all four can match up, especially the arc in question, are holidays, even in the modern day. Historically, the Trimara were named with the same scheme. After the quartex’s introduction, you also have the Growing chord, the Constant chord, and the Decaying chord of each. The nanoklik, klik, joor, quartex and vorn are numbered. 

The modern trimara are named for the moons-Artemis, Diana, and Selene.2 Each experiences the closest point of its orbit during their named trimara.

Most planetary anniversaries and holidays are usually celebrated each rotation. Personal anniversaries tend to be /rotation for younger cybertronians, and /vorn for older ones.

 

 

  1. In my own continuity soup, consists of the Covenant 13, minus Alpha Trion and Liege Maximo, who are replaced with Epistemus Prime and Solomus Prime. Both Alpha Trion and Liege Maximo still exist, but neither are Primes and thus neither has a day/week/etc. named after them.
  2. I can’t find any canon unique names for the moons, so I chose these based on the fact that they are referred to as Luna-1, Luna-2, and Luna-3. Open to suggestions, honestly!