Leoric
Leoric is the leader of the Spectral Knights. Patient and diplomatic, Leoric takes his job as protector of Prysmos with the utmost severity. He possesses a mystical whip and the Lion Animal Totem, allowing him to transform into a mighty Prysmosian lion.
Fiction[edit | edit source]
Leoric was one of the knights recruited by Merklynn to be part of his Visionaries. However, when Darkstorm began to abuse his power, Leoric opposed him, causing the Visionaries to be split into two groups: Darkstorm's Darkling Lords and Leoric's Spectral Knights. Following the Trinary De-Alignment, however, these two enemy factions were forced to work together again for the good of all remaining Prysmosians. Schismatic 
After Merklynn summoned the city of New Prysmos to Cybertron, First Strike #6 Leoric took him out of Cybertronian custody and escorted him to a meeting of the Visionaries. At the meeting, Leoric opposed Virulina's belief that they should kill the Cybertronians and take the entire planet for themselves, reminding her that machines or not, they were still alive. Later, after arguing with her that they should start treating Merklynn like the criminal he was, Leoric and Virulina met with Cybertronian ambassadors Ironhide and Kup to discuss the terms under which the Prysmosians would be staying on the planet. Though Leoric tried to reason with her, he was unable to keep Virulina from storming out of the meeting when she grew tired of the terms the Cybertronians would keep them under. Now alone with Kup, he apologized to the elder Transformer for his fellow Visionary's behavior and promised that he and the others were committed to working together with them.
At their next meeting, Virulina revealed that the Prysmosian Talisman was now burrowing towards Cybertron's core, posing an existential threat to the planet's native population. Though Leoric assured Ironhide that the Visionaries had nothing to do with this, he couldn't stop the Autobot from flipping the table, giving Virulina the excuse to attack him. She instead ended up hitting Kup when he pushed Ironhide out of the way, her magic causing him to crumble to dust. Schismatic Leoric was horrified by Virulina's actions and followed her and Cindarr back to Merklynn's chamber, trying to reason with her. Upon arriving, Leoric realized that this was Merklynn's plan all along.
Fearing the war that would surely follow, Leoric called the Spectral Knights to a meeting at the Redoubt. Arzon suggested that Virulina's plan may have a point, but Leoric pointed out that none of the Knights signed up for an invasion, and that they had to be better than the Darkling Lords. As the rest of the Knights engaged the Lords, Leoric confronted Virulina and Merklynn. The two leaders battled using their animal forms, but Leoric ultimately fell to Merklynn's magic. The Spectral Knights retreated and ventured to Wheeljack's lab. Ironhide initially wanted to arrest them, but Leoric convinced the Autobot that they were here to help and that the only way to stop the Merklynn and the Darkling Lords was by working together. Cybertron No More
When Mortdred arrived, seeking to defect, Leoric reacted with healthy skepticism but saw an opportunity to assassinate Virulina. He conferred with Ironhide with his plan where both admitted a preference to frontal assaults as opposed to sneaking around but neither could pass up this opportunity. Wheeljack soon revealed his counter-wave bomb that, if detonated at Vector Sigma, could immunize Cybertron and its people against Prysmosian magic. Leoric then sent Arzon, Witterquick and Mortdred back into New Prysmos. Desperate Measures
Leoric stood with Ironhide as Wheeljack installed the anti-Talisman bomb into Quickswitch where he observed that the lack of communications from the strike team changed nothing for Cybertron's fate but what would become of Prysmos and her people was still in question. With Quickswitch ready to move out, a message came in from Cryotek who informed Leoric of his follies and what was transpiring in New Prysmos. Learning that Virulina was trying to accelerate the Talisman's progress, Leoric realized his mistake in leaving New Prysmos and headed back to the city while leaving Galadria in command. Good Men
Sneaking back into the city, Leoric and Cryotek quickly made amends before they freed Witterquick and rallied their former comrades back under the banner of the Spectral Knights. The group marched on Virulina only for the witch to summon the magically mutated Waspinator. Leoric responded by transforming into his lion form before Virulina lunged at him and applied an aging spell... only for it to affect her as well, as everything had been part of Merklynn's plan to eliminate both Spectral Knights and Darkling Lords. Before the mage could slay them, the battle at Cybertron's core resulted in Galadria casting a healing spell which surged through the planet and knocked Leoric unconscious.
Awakening a week later, with his youth restored, Leoric was rushed outside by Galadria to show that New Prysmos had not only been elevated to Cybertron's surface but was now surrounded by 100 square metres of lush Prysmosian farmland. More than content with this, Leoric made amends with Arzon before setting off to help his people rebuild. The Curtain
The new era proved short-lived however. Windblade and Ironhide returned only days later as Unicron began tearing into Cybertron. Informed of Shockwave's plans and the role that the Talisman had played in them, Leoric was inspired to use the device's magic to teleport the Cybertronian populace to Earth though he himself (along with the rest of his species) vanished after the teleportation, Road's End in spite of his own desire to join the fight against the Chaos Bringer. A World and a Future
Notes[edit | edit source]
- IDW Leoric was radically redesigned from his original incarnation, having gone from LARPing Burt Reynolds lookalike to a young black man with blonde dreadlocks.
- Despite the Visionaries not figuring into the event, a new G.I. Joe-style action figure of Leoric was included in a Revolution branded boxset put out by Hasbro at the San Diego Comic-Con 2017, where the first official announcement of the Visionaries' inclusion in the IDW Hasbro Universe was made. Presumably since his redesign hadn't been finalized at the time, this figure was based on the original, mustachioed white guy Leoric.
