What about the other Vissers?

[TobiasMasonPark]

     It always bugged me that we never got to see any other Vissers, aside from Vissers one through four, and a few sub-vissers. We hear about the Council of Thirteen once in Visser, and we meet the Inspector in#37, the Weakness. And I guess I don't exspect to see one visser each book, but a few different Vissers would have been nice.

     I also understand that there are forty-seven Vissers in the Yeerk Empire. But how many Sub-Vissers are there?

     I remember reading something about there being like...500.

     So would that mean that Sub-Visser One would be next in line for Visser, or would that go to Sub-Visser 48?

   

[NateSean]

Well you have to remember that the Yeerk Empire was spread very thin, trying to keep the Andalites guessing. They were only going to trust the highest ranking Vissers with the most crucial missions.

Remember, Visser One (The one controlling Marco's mother at the time) was in charge of the Leera invasion at the time. The Leerans would have been the biggest victory for the Yeerks, but they needed someone who could think on their feet. As soon as a Leeran read the mind of a Leeran-Controller things got tricky and Visser One was one of the few yeerks who had the skill to anticipate every possible difficulty that could arise.

They're not going to trust a guy like Visser Three with something that crucial. A guy who frequently kills people out of convenience and is so feared by his underlings that he doesn't notice the Animorphs are human beings for nearly three years. (Even when Jake morphs from flea to Tiger right in the middle of the Blade Ship's bridge. Any yeerk that didn't see that would have been jumped to Visser in a heartbeat if they traded the information with the Council.)

The Vissers are people who worked hard and struck major blows in favor of the Yeerk Empire. It makes sense that there are only forty-seven, because out of the billions of yeerks, only a handful of them are ambitious and intelligent enough to make the grade. Remember what Ax says of Visser Four in Elfanfor's Secret? A Yeerk doesn't get to be Visser by being stupid.

Sub-Vissers could number in the thousands. After all, they're basically the Front End Supervisors of the Yeerk Empire. They handle the minor grunt work like surveying planets, monitoring communications, etc.
They may be ambitious enough to make the grade to Visser, but they need to actually advance the Yeerk's cause as opposed to just serving a function in the whole machine.

Make sense?

[TobiasMasonPark]

     Yea, thanks for the response. I just thought it would have been nice to see some other Vissers. I always wondered what their hosts would be.

[Dameg]

I think the other Vissers must have been on other planets, other Pool Ships all around the galaxy, looking for new hosts and invading new planets... They couldn't be all on Earth. And all in their city. Even if they seem to show only one Pool on Earth, I always believed that there were smaller Pools in America and in other countries... Each Pool need its Visser, as I see it.

[Semeir-Cooraf-Armaheen]

I have a Visser Ten in a fanfic I'm slowly posting one part at a time. He's a pretty big douchebag the few times he's actually in a scene.

[Gafrash]

There was also this unspoken alliance and rivalry between the Vissers themselves. Was it Visser Four or Five who was meant to be in kahoots with Visser Three?
I reckon we could have seen more of Visser Two. I would have liked to have seen how the Yeerk strategist made it to a level above Visser Three, but below Visser One. What could he have accomplished?!

[NateSean]

There was also this unspoken alliance and rivalry between the Vissers themselves.

True. This was typical of the Yeerk culture. The Vissers were constantly trying to top each other. But the top ten Vissers would have to have been the most cunning and ruthless. Look at the constant rivalry between the old Visser One and Visser Three.[/quote]

Was it Visser Four or Five who was meant to be in kahoots with Visser Three

Visser Four was in charge of holding the Leera's only continent. And the Andalite captain aboard the Ascalon (I think that was the ship name) mentioned that Vissers Four and Three were good friends.

It's Visser Four that gets a hold of the Time Matrix, so after getting demoted to Sub Visser Rank it makes sense that he was on Earth as Visser Three would have had the clout to bring Four under his command.

I reckon we could have seen more of Visser Two. I would have liked to have seen how the Yeerk strategist made it to a level above Visser Three, but below Visser One. What could he have accomplished?!

It's entirely possible he was one of Visser Three's allies and when he made it to Visser One, he was able to get the council to promote the new Visser Two.

[Dameg]

I think that a lot of high rank Vissers did big things at the beginning of the war. Look, Visser 3 had his mind on the war still the beginning and on the Hork-Bajir planet. Visser 1 found the Earth decades before the Animorphs appeared. I think they took the best places, and then, for the other Yeerks, it's more difficult to take the places...

[TobiasMasonPark]

They couldn't be all on Earth.

     But they were at one point. Unless they gave Visser Two a human host while he was visiting Earth--which I don't see the reason for-- we can assume that Visser Two was also stationed on Earth, and given a very important human host. Visser One made regular appearances. And then, of course, Visser Four was sent to Earth.

Remember what Ax says of Visser Four in Elfanfor's Secret? A Yeerk doesn't get to be Visser by being stupid.

     Yea, but Visser Three eventually became very, very stupid. And Visser Four...only slightly below Esplin on the dumb scale.

     Any how, it's a good thing that I checked through the forums, otherwise I would have created a pointless thread. I was thinking these past few days about the whole "what other host bodies did the Vissers have" and was going to make a thread dedicated to speculation.

     One could assume that a majority of the Vissers have Hork-Bajir and Taxxon hosts, given that the Yeerks have successfully enslaved those races. The Council is mostly Hork-Bajir and Taxxon. The Inspector was a Garatron, and he was considered for the Council. And we know of at least two Vissers with human hosts (Visser Four doesn't count, as he was demoted). So that's two humans and an Andalite. I'd assume that human hosts are a minor phenomenon amongst the forty-seven Vissers--if not only because I think having most of them be humans would be boring.

     What do you guys think? Any Sstram? Any Nahara? Any Mak? Any Ognachic? I figure, especially in the latter case, having an uncommon host makes the Visser special in a way--Esplin played that up a lot in the series. And Edriss was obviously a being fan of humans, as we've seen.

     I don't know. Thoughts?

     1) Visser One: Human
     2) Visser Two: Human
     3) Visser Three/One: Andalite
     4) Visser Four: Human, but previous host is unknown--probably Hork-Bajir or Leeran

[NateSean]

No on the Ongachic, because Esplin said they were in accessible for infestation. The crew of that ship was jettisoned as the Yeerks made progress.

Temrash was vague about the Sstram and tha Mak. Years ago, I imagined one of the Council of Thirteen had a Makk body and tried to write what it would look like. But Temrash said that they "conquered" the Makk and the Sstram, not infested. We know the Yeerks can and do work with species that are unsuitable for infestation, mainly the Skrit Na, when it suits their purposes. Similarly, they could have enslaved another species in ways other than directly infesting them.

I imagine there are plenty of others that could have had original hosts. There were also horse controllers and some slated to be shark controllers.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     According to wiki, some of the Ongachic were taken, but since they were a nomadic race, it made absolute infestation impossible. So maybe they still have some of them?

     The race that was jettisoned, according to wiki, were the Hawjabran--the ones with their brain all over their bodies.

     But it's possible wiki got it wrong. If you can find a line from the books that says otherwise, I'll recant what I said here.

     What you said about the Mak and the Sstram is probably right. Still, a part of me can't help but wonder

[NateSean]

Actually, you're right, it was the Hawjabran. I don't have access to the books atm, so I'm fuzzier on some details.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     No worries. The only reason I knew was because I've spent the last few weeks looking up things on Animorphs on wiki, when I SHOULD be out looking for a job

     Edit: Actually, I was looking at some excerpts from the books, and according to the Capture (relaunch) Themrash says the Yeerks have conquered the Hork-Bajir, Mak, and Sstram. Now, we know that the Hork-Bajir are hosts, so maybe we can infer from Themrash's statement that enslaved and conquered are the same thing to them?

[NateSean]

     No worries. The only reason I knew was because I've spent the last few weeks looking up things on Animorphs on wiki, when I SHOULD be out looking for a job

There are only so many applications you can fill in a day. Don't beat yourself up for taking a day off from the search.

     

Edit: Now, we know that the Hork-Bajir are hosts, so maybe we can infer from Themrash's statement that enslaved and conquered are the same thing to them?

It's possible. So if we never see them as hosts, we can infer that they aren't as useful as Hork-Bajir or Taxxons. Since the first time the Animorphs see Gedds is on the the Pool Ship, we know there are hosts that aren't used in regular combat situations.

[MoppingBear]

They couldn't be all on Earth.

     But they were at one point. Unless they gave Visser Two a human host while he was visiting Earth--which I don't see the reason for-- we can assume that Visser Two was also stationed on Earth, and given a very important human host. Visser One made regular appearances. And then, of course, Visser Four was sent to Earth.

That is a faulty assumption.  Note that most species in the galaxy tend to number in the millions, not billions.  So yes, it is entirely possible that the yeerks ship human hosts to yeerks that have nothing to do with earth.  we have hork bajir and taxxons on earth, and its entire probably that at some point, a yeerk died, and its host body was given to a yeerk born on earth.  also, the yeerks were trying to engineer sharks to be infestable so they could use them on leera, so we know that they send hosts to other planets if it suits them.

yes its likely most vissers have hork bajir or taxxon hosts (though id put money on there being quite a few gedds) but its also entirely likely that a visser requested and was granted a human host even though they were on a blade ship around planet timbuktu and new little to nothing of earth.