Liege Maximo

Liege Maximo is one of the Thirteen original Primes and the manipulator.

History
Liege was among the Thirteen created by Primus to battle and defeat Unicron and witnessed the activation of the Well of Allsparks.

The Covenant of Primus
Maximo was the talker, the manipulative one who could bend words and thoughts much more easily than metal. His silvered tongue was capable of the most eloquent charm and he soon learned how to pitch whatever line he was selling to the person in question, tailoring his language and methods to exactly match their desires or to feed their suspicions. He was often watchful and quiet, absorbing, calculating. He had a knack for instantly understanding where the nuts and bolts of a person were hidden, where their secret switches lay. He was made to triumph with schemes where outright conflict failed or to avoid conflict by maneuvering in advance. His diplomacy was favored by a general likeable quality that made his sympathy feel very genuine - and Alpha Trion believed that it was. He threw himself wholeheartedly into any role he thought would work, becoming instantly convincing to himself.

The power these skills gave him over others, most of whom were naive at this point, was incalculably immense. The other Primes were not ready for someone as many-faced as he could be. He realized this with characteristic speed and from the outset began crafting himself a hidden path to power, directly beneath the nose of Prima, who couldn't even imagine such plots.

Maximo's artifact was the Liegian Darts, which were actual darts, filled with toxins of all kinds, which he could deploy to disrupt others, but the real darts were his words and his thoughts, their barbs and effects unsurpassed by any mere physical object.

In the final battle that tore the Thirteen apart, Liege Maximo was literally torn apart and had his head blown off by The Fallen. Most of his body parts were dumped into the tomb his brothers built from srcap and spare parts which was later buried deep in their city.

Transformers Prime
Late in the Great War, the tomb which held his remains was raided by Megatron and Dreadwing to acquire his arm. Knock Out subsequently attached the arm in place of Megatron's right arm, allowing Megatron to wield the Forge of Solus Prime. He continued to utilize this arm for some time afterwards, until Optimus Prime severed it using the Star Saber when Megatron threatened Earth.

His arm was presumably destroyed when the Omega Lock exploded.

Trivia

 * It is revealed in the Covenant of Primus that the unknown Prime arm Megatron used in order to use the Forge of Solus Prime belonged to Liege Maximo.
 * Despite his body not being seen onscreen, it was very dusty when Dreadwing opened it's tomb.
 * Despite his arm being shown, Liege Maximo's name was never said in the show.
 * Optimus was shocked to see Megatron using his arm, though he did not mention who it belonged to.
 * Liege Maximo has differing fates depending on various books:
 * In Transformers: Exiles, it is revealed that Liege Maximo fled Cybertron and was hunted down and captured by Alchemist Prime.
 * In Transformers: The Covenant of Primus, it is claimed that Maximo died on Cybertron, with his tomb later being raided by Megatron and Dreadwing
 * Liege Maximo's form in this continuity is reminiscent of the Marvel Comics villain Loki, with whom Maximo shares a number of character traits.
 * Liege Maximo's coloration varies in the series to the official artwork of him; this may be a result of The Covenant and Prime being produced largely independently of each other. Similarly, Alpha Trion's appearance in Prime doesn't match his Covenant artwork.
 * The way he is portrayed in the novels and the Covenant are almost complete opposites. While in both he schemed for control in the novels he is presented as Megatronus' second and nowhere near as much of a threat. Most modern Cybertronians do not even know his name and he was considered a wanna be rather than the very real threat that was the Fallen. While in the Covenant he is very much a threat being able to divide and destroy the Primes by words alone.
 * Many fans postulate that due to his attitude, Starscream is a descendant of Liege Maximo.