Allspark


 * The Allspark is the Transformer afterlife. It is also known as the Matrix.



The Allspark is the dimension/force/being that is the original source and ultimate destination of all Transformer life. Frequently it is glossed as the essence of Primus and shown to be made up of countless sparks moving in unison. "Where...all are one."

- Rhinox after travelling through the Allspark


 * Japanese name: Matrix Zone

Evolution
The concept of The Allspark as it now exists has evolved and coalesced over the course of almost all Transformer fiction since the line began. The specific concepts that evolved into "The Allspark" are traced below:

Generation 1 Cartoon
The Autobot Matrix of Leadership is a powerful, mysterious, and ancient vessel that contains the wisdom of all past Autobot leaders.

Marvel Comic
The Autobot Creation Matrix is a powerful and ancient vessel that contains the essence of the Transformers God Primus. All Transformers life-forces are said to be fragments of Primus' own.

Beast Wars
A Transformer's life-force is first described as a spark. This spark is said to come from "the Matrix" when a Transformer is born and return to it upon his death.

(NOTE: The exact nature of "the Matrix" referred to here is not established. The story editors had at first envisioned it as a mysterious facility on Cybertron, from which Maximal protoforms emerged, counterpart to the Predacon "Pit" facility. These concepts did not make it into the show in any form but were much later made canonical by the Razor's Edge fan club text story. Regardless of this later use, at the time and for years after, the Matrix to which Beast Wars referred was left an open question, and so its sequel Beast Machines took up the concept and ran with it where it chose...) 

Beast Machines
What was known as "the Matrix" in Beast Wars is first referred to as "the Allspark." It is defined as the dimension from which all Transformer sparks that exist, have existed, or ever will exist originate, existing there as a collective whole.

When a Transformer is "born," a single spark departs the Allspark and suffuses itself into the new Transformer body, giving it true life and soul. When the Transformer then reaches the end of its life, the spark departs its body and returns to the Allspark; all the knowledge that the Transformer acquired and all of its life experiences are contained with the spark, and they are added to the totality that is the Allspark.

(Note: The connection of the Allspark to Primus is not made explicit at this point but seems an obvious one to many fans).

Dreamwave
The Well of All Sparks exists on Cybertron and seems to have some connection to the mystical source of Transformer life.

The fictive foundation of Sparks and the Allspark laid down in the Beast Era material is taken up and brought together with all the past G1 material and the concept of Primus, to first form the idea of The Allspark as it has been known since.

Means of access
Applying the existence of the Allspark retroactively to previous continuities (as the Primus-singularity retcon allows. See his page for details on that) leads to a new interpretation of some existing artifacts.


 * Most prominently there are the Matrix of Leadership and the Creation Matrix, the legendary talismans carried by Autobot leaders in the Generation 1 cartoon and Marvel Comic respectively. The abilities of both these artifacts can be glossed as a result of their functioning as connections to the Allspark dimension.


 * Secondly, there is the mega-computer Vector Sigma, which, like the Matrix, endows new Transformers with life. In the Beast Era the most common method of communication with the Allspark via Vector Sigma involves the use of its shell program, the Oracle, which permits a "receptive spark" to commune directly with the collective intelligence of the Allspark. (Though in some material there is evidence that the Oracle has been subverted to serve Quintesson ends.) Prior to the Oracle's existance, Optimus Prime used the empty shell of the Matrix of Leadership to access what we would see as the Allspark through Vector Sigma and spoke directly to the dead Alpha Trion who had previously been shown to have merged with Vector Sigma AND to reside in the Matrix (a discrepancy at the time that is now rectified by the retcon application of the Allspark to the G1 cartoon).

Trivia

 * Writer and Beast Wars story editor Larry DiTillio intended for this spiritual plane to also be the location of the Vok Nebula and thus having the Vok be the source of all Beast Era sparks. However, this concept was ultimately not used. Considering that DiTillio considered the Vok to be the evolved form of the Swarm after absorbing the Creation Matrix energy from Optimus Prime, this still ties the source of sparks back to the lifeforce of Primus.