Taxxon

The Taxxons are a fictional sentient race in the Animorphs book series by K.A. Applegate, one of the species conceptually created for the series. They resemble giant, 10-foot-long (3.0 m) centipedes, with the forward one-third portion of their body held erect. They move on many rows of needle-like legs and the legs give way to claws not unlike that of a lobster. The front/top of their bodies end in a mouth like a lamprey, ringed with many razor sharp teeth. The area around their mouths (on what passes for a "head" on these creatures) is ringed with four red bulbous compound eyes on stalks.

Overview

Taxxons have an insatiable hunger for flesh: when they sense blood, their urge to eat is so strong they even eat themselves if injured. They eat anything dead, nearly dead, or for that matter anything that won't kill them while they're eating it, though they will avoid trying to eat anything they feel could fight back, such as an Andalite. Taxxons are highly cannibalistic, and will quickly turn on each other at the first sign of weakness; this hunger is so strong that, when a Taxxon was once cut in half, it apparently started eating the severed half before death. Taxxon hunger comes from a built-in eating disorder; when morphing a Taxxon, Tobias notes that its hunger instinct is exaggerated by its sentience. The Taxxons are literally mad with hunger, out of an irrational fear of starvation. This may be because their planet, while apparently host to very large bodies of water (hence their mobility in aquatic environments - see below) is largely devoid of life; this may have resulted in the Taxxon hunger developing as an evolutionary advantage, taking the opportunity of any and all food the moment it becomes available. They apparently eliminate waste from their foods as an ooze excreted through their skin, at least in the case of eating dirt, which they do for digging. They are the second race the Yeerks enslaved, after the Hork-Bajir.

History

When the Yeerk Empire first discovered the Taxxon homeworld, they decided, rather than conquering the planet, to make the Taxxons a simple deal: in exchange for the Taxxons agreeing to become Controllers, the Taxxons would get an endless supply of new, exotic meats. Nearly all the Taxxons readily agreed. A small resistance movement of Taxxons did not join the Yeerks and apparently fought a guerrilla war with them for many years. This war makes up a part of The Andalite Chronicles. Near the end of the series all of the Taxxons on Earth chose to become large snakes and live in the Amazon, free of their uncontrollable hunger. The Taxxons that compose the Resistance are controlled by a sentient colony known as "The Living Hive", whom Arbron discovers in The Andalite Chronicles.

Intelligence

Taxxons are hunters and predators, but seem to have at least one large brain, which can be controlled by a Yeerk (Yeerks cannot usually infest multi-brained animals). They seem to speak a language, which is composed of sibilants. This language is obviously easy to understand for other controllers. Despite their nearly insatiable hunger, Taxxons have enough self-control to do simple tasks, and can fire Dracon beams with their pincers. Often it is Taxxons which cluster around Visser Three when he morphs into a monster, in order to rub off some of his loot. For most Taxxons it does not matter whether they are free or not, as long as they get enough food.

Role in the series

Taxxons are not regarded as very good hosts; their extreme hunger makes them nearly uncontrollable, even to the Yeerk inside their head. Taxxons are soft skinned and aren't very capable in close-quarters combat, since even the smallest injury results in the Taxxon being set upon by fellow Taxxon-Controllers. They are, however, good at flying ships, apparently possessing fast reflexes. They also have a keen sense of smell, have been used as trackers by the Yeerks, and are very fast and agile underwater. In # 15 they help Visser one (Marco's mom) with an underwater project. They are also very good at digging, though Tobias notes that this is actually just an extension of eating, as they simply devour dirt in huge quantities. At least two members on the Yeerk Council of Thirteen possess Taxxon hosts.

On their home world, the Taxxon live in sentient bumblebee structures. As far as is known, they possessed little or no technology before the Yeerks arrived on their planet.

Taxxons as morphs

Throughout the Animorph book series only five characters have morphed Taxxons. They are Alloran, Elfangor, Arbron (who got stuck in Taxxon morph), Tobias, and Ax. Taxxons are one of the hardest morphs to control, even harder to control than ants. Alloran, Elfangor and Arbron used the Taxxon morphs to infiltrate the Taxxon home world. Tobias and Ax used their Taxxon morphs to burrow into the Yeerk pool.