Speculation about the Initial Function of the Council of Thirteen

[TobiasMasonPark]

     In the Hork-Bajir chronicles--and elsewhere in the series, I'm sure-- it is said that before the Seerow came along, the Yeerks didn't have a written language, so why should we assume that they had a need for government? Yet we are told, in the Hork-Bajir chronicles, that the Council of Thirteen was an ancient government body.

     My question, then, is what you think the function of the council was before the Andalites arrived?

[Cloak]

Weren't there Native American tribes without written languages, but governments consisting of chieftans and the like? I have always assumed the reason they never had a written language was because in there natural state they are fundamentally blind.

Sure, they had the Gedds, but not all Yeerks had a host. And they would have no use for it in their natural forms, right? And they would have probably need a government, in this case the Council, to decide who go the hosts and what not.

Sorry if my reasoning is unclear.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     I don't know if Native American chieftains functioned like governments, but I don't know enough about them, so I am likely wrong. It occurs to me that governments are predicated on a written language. What I meant was that the Yeerks lacked do many things found in society, like a written language--or much culture--that it confused me as to what function the council would have. The fact that few Yeerks had host bodies and that even these were insufficient, along with the fact that parts of the Yeerk home world were out to kill the Yeerks--like the Varnarx--makes me question the effectiveness and purpose of the council of thirteen.

[Cloak]

Well, I didn't say it was effective.

In any case, it may have just be an overlooked inconsistency, but maybe my idea of government differs from yours. I considered chieftains and whatnot government, government of a primitive sort. I know it's a broad interpretation, but I see any time a species of reasonable sentience has individuals take on that kind of leadership role, isn't that the underlying principle of government? That's a sincere question, too, I'm by no means an expert.

Surely, there were clonflicts that needed to be resolved and the Yeerks couldn't really do it without a Council of Thirteen to call the shots. Again, this all conjecture by someone with a rather nominal knowledge on the subject, at best.

Perhaps the reason for the twelve others was because the paranoia of backstabbing and whatnot existed even with these ancient Yeerks? I would be surprised if it did not exist when human's earliest forms of government began to develop.

And they're blind, so the need for a written form of language wasn't exactly a high priority. Many cultures have oral traditions, and the advent of written language didn't come along until foreigners came, if I'm remembering my history right.

I dunno if that makes any sense, I did ramble on a bit.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     Ok. Then let's ask what role this council would have played. What conflicts could have arisen from these fee Yeerks inhabiting semi-sentient, physically unimpressive Gedds? Why would they need a governing body? Essentially, all the Yeerks need to survive is in their pools.

     The council is an oligarchy up until the declaration of the Empire, in which case the title of Emperor is created. The assassination paranoia, we can assume, comes only after the earth year 1966, and not earlier in the council's history.

     It is possible that Esplin is an unreliable narrator, and was exaggerating when he called them ancient.

[Cloak]

Perhaps they played a role in determining which three Yeerks would breed? Or is that too farfetched? It would be a way of getting rid of potential political threats while bolistering the population . . . perhaps not.

[NothingFromSomething]

No society works with anarchy, it's sort of that simple.  Their later conquering/expansive behavior during the Andalite war would give the impression they always had that potential, that nature, living inside of them, it just hadn't been able to break out in a practical sense until they upgraded from Gedds.

That whole hierarchy was likely already there among the non-host Yeerks in some form.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     Ok. Let's look at what role government forms in society. Keep in mind, I know next to nothing about government and politics, so much of what follows is general observations.

     Why is there a government? Because many believe that a society cannot function without some authority calling the shots. There's then economy, city planning, foreign relations and war planning, health care system, etc.

     Now, this could be due to the fact that we get almost nothing of Yeerk "society" prior to the Andalites' arrival, but as far as we know, the Yeerks have no need for any of this. The Yeerks, as I mentioned, aren't even on the highest part of their planet's good chain. Anarchy? There's barely a population outside the Yeerk pool to qualify as anarchy.

     

[Cloak]

But, and perhaps I'm wrong, there are actually several pools on the Yeerk homeworld (still wish their homeworld had an actual, canon name), so I'm still betting on a tribal aspect instead if anarchy, with each different pool being its own distinct tribe. Why else define themselves by the pool they came from? Then again that could be just like them saying "I'm from Chicago" or something.

Before they could infest Gedds, they probably weren't even aware of other pools, unless the Yeerk homeworld was really porous, I suppose. So they probably wouldn't have any need for managing foreign affairs until then.

Maybe the Council came about when they first infested Gedds? Because they needed to manage who could and could not have a Gedd host? Maybe they didn't really need a government before then? Because with the Gedds, they could travel between pools. Perhaps then questions of economy, foreign affairs, and such came into necessity?

[TobiasMasonPark]

But, and perhaps I'm wrong, there are actually several pools on the Yeerk homeworld (still wish their homeworld had an actual, canon name), so I'm still betting on a tribal aspect instead if anarchy, with each different pool being its own distinct tribe. Why else define themselves by the pool they came from? Then again that could be just like them saying "I'm from Chicago" or something.

Before they could infest Gedds, they probably weren't even aware of other pools, unless the Yeerk homeworld was really porous, I suppose. So they probably wouldn't have any need for managing foreign affairs until then.

Maybe the Council came about when they first infested Gedds? Because they needed to manage who could and could not have a Gedd host? Maybe they didn't really need a government before then? Because with the Gedds, they could travel between pools. Perhaps then questions of economy, foreign affairs, and such came into necessity?

     This is what I was fishing for :p

     I figure that mayhaps there are Thirteen major pools on the Yeerk home world--and one representative from each composed the council. Eventually, as has happens with governments, the council became more "corrupt," for lack of a better term, and start to, as CloakedFigure said, determine who could and could not have host bodies. I like this. If there are so few Gedds and too many Yeerks, that would pose the question of who could get a host, and how the council kept Yeerks in the pool from gaining a body.

     Was there a kind of early propaganda? Did they keep un
hosted Yeerks blissfully ignorant of the benefits of host bodies?

     Now that we maybe have some idea of the role the council played, my next question is what society did they build? Did they have "tribal," again for lack of a better term, huts to make up houses? Did they sleep in trees?

[TheWolfEmperor]

     I don't know if Native American chieftains functioned like governments

Chieftans were the leaders of their tribes and there were typically councils of sorts that determined things like planting, trading with neighbors, and warring with other tribes. I think it's a semantics thing in that case, as the tribal culture of the Natives was wildly different from the imperial culture of the European "visitors" who came to the shores of the Americas in the hopes of trading pie recipes.

We don't know much about the Yeerks and their sense of government or community before Seerow, since we only ever officially hear about them after the Andalites came. Temrash gives a brief accounting of life on the Yeerk home world before he dies, but how well you can trust his mental state and Jake's interpretation of it is up to the reader. But we do know that the Yeerks' first hosts were Gedds and that there was at least one predator whose name escapes me that evolved to extract and devour the Yeerks right out of their host bodies.

What kind of culture might have evolved as a result of this way of life? That predator (Varnarc? Varnax?) may have only existed in certain parts of the world. The Yeerks with an ideal section of the planet would have flourished. The Yeerks in parts of the world that had to deal with predators would have learned to defend themselves with crude weaponry, like the ones who attacked the Andalites in Hork-Bajir Chronicles. The ones who could defend themselves and keep the predators at bay would have had an advantage over the other Yeerks and would have traded on their ability to protect those weaker, shall we call them, tribes.

The Council of Thirteen might not have existed yet by name, but over the centuries there could well have been a governing body based on who could develop their host bodies to wield the mightiest cudgels.

In the Visser, Edriss tells the audience that the Council of Thirteen exists as a means of defending the Emperor. With thirteen potential targets, it would be difficult to know exactly who to kill. And only the council knows who among them is the Emperor. Again, this is all going on what Edriss reveals in Visser. So my guess is that The Council of Thirteen was officially coined after the war was well under way, so that the Andalites might not risk the resources and manpower to try to make an assassination attempt.

[Dalton]

I think it's a lot of guess work, but I do have a theory as to why the council of 13 probably did exist before the andalites came along.

Firstly, I think the #13 is completely arbitrary. I think K.A. Applegate choose it, because it is an unlucky number in America. You can find rational to make it fit from there, such as there being 13 major pools on the yeerk home world. I wouldn't tend to think that was the case, though. Besides a few debatable occasions, most advancements in early human history didn't happen in multiple places simultaneously. Typically, an idea is developed in one area and then spreads to other places, because people do what makes their life better and they'd try it out as the idea travels. I just can't see 13 yeerks randomly figuring out that they can climb into the heads of 13 gedd at the same time. I would think it was much more likely that one pool had one yeerk figure it out and then let the others know. Then they ended up traveling and discovering the other yeerk pools and exploring them, thus spreading the idea and causing other yeerks to attempt to capture hosts.

Basically, like one other posted stated, I think you could safely categorize a government as any group that takes charge of their people, have the means to enforce their orders, and are recognized to have authority. 13 yeerk hosts don't seem like a lot, but when you're the first governing group of your kind, it doesn't really matter how small time you are, because you're still the biggest governing body to ever exist on your planet. You can stop and think about what the actual word government means. Just looking at it, to me, it means someone who governs others. This could mean one person leading a small group of people, or a massive group governing a nation. It's just one of those words we hear and don't think about because our brain automatically snaps to what we "know" it means. It's like when you talk about your bike. Some peoples minds snap to bicycle and others snap to motor cycle.

In this instance, the reason the yeerks would need a government or council is because inhabiting the gedds give them power. Those in power, as the yeerks show throughout the series, want more power. They know there aren't enough bodies to go around. Being honest, human beings would be the same way. If there is a limited resource, be it entertainment, oil, or anything else. Most humans aren't content to take a turn and say, "Okay, I'll sit back until everyone else has had a turn." Even the honest people who might feel that way will get upset when someone else cheats and they'll be done with the concept.

The yeerks would be the same. With a limited number of bodies to control, they'd want to make sure they had access whenever they wanted it. They'd dole out extra access to their friends and others with whom they'd use it as a means of control. I could definitely see the council of 13 being made up of 13 different home world pool's representatives somewhere down the line. After the idea had spread around. The original pool probably wouldn't be able to control access to all the gedd, even if they'd had the foresight to do so. Still, it seems unlikely that once a power struggle began, that one or two pools wouldn't end up controlling all of the resources.

Additionally, there is the issue of them having to come back and bathe in the yeerk pool. It's been a while since I read the series, and someone can feel free to correct me, but I believe that they had to bathe in the yeerk pook regularly, even on the yeerk world, because they couldn't get the rays from their sun that they needed to survive when they were inside the hosts head. I think the difference between there and earth was that they had a special light set up above the pool on earth and any pool would be exposed to the suns rays on the yeerk world, but they still have to soak them up to live. This would cause them to be vulnerable. The gedd could run away, another yeerk could climb into the hosts, etc...

I feel like that was another driving force behind the need for a group. Each yeerk would need one or two allies to make sure their host remained and no other yeerk tried to use it. The initial group was probably the same as the current group of 13. They weren't friends but had a mutual interest in protecting each other's hosts and maintaining their groups power. They'd sr**w each other over if possible, but they'd be worried that betrayal might not be successful, leading to repercussion for them, or might lead to betrayal of them in the future, so there was a grudging alliance.

That pattern just continued into the present, adjusting for expanded control of the larger group. The reasons I mentioned above don't clash with any of the actions I remember the council or other yeerks displaying. Better hosts and assignments are doled out to yeerks that prove themselves. Some yeerks are even denied hosts when they fail. Access to the yeerk pools is another means that the governing body uses to control the subordinates.

[Shenmue654]

I just can't see 13 yeerks randomly figuring out that they can climb into the heads of 13 gedd at the same time.

Well, I don't have anything to say here except "Agriculture was independently developed by seven different cultures seven different times." And "Paper was developed at least three or four times in three or four places." Also, because parasitism is a pretty damn fundamental attribute of the Yeerk species, I suspect it's kind of like how nobody teaches your kid to talk. You may think you're doing that, but you're not--- All a kid needs to learn language is for somebody to talk in front of him for long enough at a very specific age, and for that kid to have senses that can differentiate between the spoken word and everything else.