The Council of Thirteen

[Brown Globule]

I know there is no direct indication of this, but I thought the Yeerk empire was dismantled due to the Andalites allowing the Yeerks to cease their parasitic lifestyle and become nothlits. During the battle for Earth, the Yeerk forces were given an ultimatum: resist and die or surrender and become nothlits. Most accepted, though others chose to fight and were subsequently destroyed. The solution was simple and effective, thus, why not implement it with other Yeerk forces? Cassie's insight must have been more far-reaching than just a way to save Earth, but to save entire races from obliterating each other.

[Galladerotom]

The council of thirteen I think is actually just above the vissers not the elite. Only one of these individuals is the emperor and they have the greatest authority. I'm not sure exactly if the other individuals are just there as decoys.

[Adrian Malacoda]

I'm not sure exactly if the other individuals are just there as decoys.

If I recall correctly, Edriss 562 wonders if that Councilor who was on her side was the Emperor and that "his opinion was the only one that really mattered." Let me confirm...

Here it is. Visser, p. 62:

Was Garoff himself the Emperor? Was he the only judge that mattered here? Or was he just a mouthpiece for the real power?

So yeah, the council is just there to hide the real big cheese.

[Chad32]

I always thought of the other Council members as advisors, though the Emperor had the final say. Though they could also just be there to hide him, and possibly help make it look like there was more than one guy running everything. Some people have more faith in a group than they do an individual.

[JFalcon]

If I recall in Visser some of the council members were missing when the verdict was finally read, and Visser One assumed they'd had "quite the debate" or something like that. That some of them disappeared might indeed mean that they were advisors who were overrulled and did the hologram version of storming out of the room, i.e. pressing the "off" button, or disagreed with their Emperor too vhemently and were executed  (which I find less likely because that would make it far too easy to dispatch the real emperor unless the guards were also aware of who was who) either way if Visser One thinks there was a debate at all it suggest the council members other than the emperor had some level of say in matters, even if it was just giving advice.

[voodooqueen126]

The yeerks also had the Mak, Sstram and Nahara. These are never seen, perhaps they have small populations, are weak or breath Methane.

[Azguard]

Yes voodooqueen. You do make a good point.

I think the Andalite problem could have been one thing: politics. You know how they are. Delay of decision, argument, moral struggles, economics, political correctness, finance, everything. the whole lot of it.

and like JFalcon, I had always thought the Yeerk Empire to be rebels who took off from the planet as soon as they saw an opportunity.

However, JFalcon, you hinted at an interesting possibility. Perhaps, the reason why, and this is purely dreamily hypothetical, the Yeerk Empire was broken apart from within by a mix of Yeerk Peace Movement groups, Taxxon rebellion, propoganda, and Andalite spies. This could explain a few things.

1. the lethargic response of the Andalites. They weren't fighting the Yeerks head on. They were planning and acting sabotage from within.

2. This could also explain the arrogance, pride, and stand-offish-ness of the Andalite and especially Andalite military. They have secrets to protect.

3. The behind the scenes damage would be unknown to the Animorphs and thus, a legitimate excuse for why nothing was mentioned in the series.

[voodooqueen126]

I don't think the Andalites are subtle enough to do the proxy war thing, sure it worked for Russians in Vietnam and the Americans in the Afghan Soviet Conflict, but infiltrating the yeerks would be even harder than infiltrating Russia and Andalites often seem to arrogant to fund guerrilla warfare on other planets (biggest example-the non-supportive way the Andalites behaved in the Hork-Bajir Chronicles).

[Azguard]

true, but maybe they're colletively secretive enough to fool us? haha

[Bustercloud]

A large amount of Yeerks were on earth, along with a number of bug fighters, a blade ship, and some fdkfjd whats the term they used, the mother ships ones. Not a large force, but they did have a lot of yeerks themselves.

The yeerks got their tails handed to them in the whole shark telepathic incident.(don't remember race name)
The Andalites had just beat them in another system correct?
The Taxxons has just revolted, taking a world away from them and straining resources
The Hork-Bajir world would probably be mined down and running low on resources, plus all the additional damage the animorphs did there.
Most of their tops leaders had died. Vissors 1-4 in the books definitely. some of the council of thirteen probably died, but no proof.

 So they lost or were very diminished on their strongest worlds. Because of the need for strong leadership, but lots of more yeerks needed, it'd be only the weakest and dumbest yeerks breeding. So each new generation would be worse than before. Their space forces had been defeated at one of the brief mentioned worlds, and their main invasion force was defeated at earth.

 Not much would be left. enough to continue on certainly, enough to fight and cause problems. But after that it'd be short work to fly around zapping them all.

[Azguard]

I wonder how many got away...

[voodooqueen126]

the thing with Yeerk nothlits joining the human race would've significantly added to earth's already large population. it could also help a lot by sending 5 yeerk nothlits off to say Rwanda they could significantly help the host country's economy. We would probably start learning from the yeerks (especially weapons which the andalites refused to trade) as well yeerks contributing much to psychology and psychiatry.

[Azguard]

how many Yeerks do you think were in the Empire? rough estimate?

[Chad32]

Less than 6-7 billion after ~30 years of war.

Likely in the millions. Maybe even low millions.

[Azguard]

 that's what I'm guessing, and I don't think the Andalites are in the billions either.