Before the war: The yeerks.

[Unknown User]

I have always had quite the curiosity about the yeerks and various other alien civilizations of the Aniverse. We are given so few details of Yeerk life pre-Andalite arrival, that I am rather curious to see what you guys think about it. I mean, obviously a few yeerks had Gedd hosts, and those Gedds could be used to build rudimentary structures, but at the same time it is implied that the yeerks really don't have technology. Obviously this is all speculation, but do you guys think that they had a system of government before the andalites arrived? Were yeerks split into tribes based on their yeerk pool? Do you think that they actively attempted to capture and infest other Gedds?

Let me know what y'all think.

[MoppingBear]

the council of 13 existed before the andalites appeared.  not sure about vissers/subvissers but that seems likely.

[Terenia]

Visser and SubVisser ranks came into existence just before the war on the Hork-Bajir world. Prior to Andalite interference the only governing body was the Council of Thirteen.

I imagine most of the pools operated individually, with the Council being the overarching government of the planet. Many pools were probably connected, but others were separated by land masses and would require the use of Gedd hosts to make contact. As such, there was probably a fairly wide variety of cultural practices between the pools.

[Chad32]

I imagine that the Yeerks evolved from a species that used some sort of control over hosts to get through their lives, and Geeds were the host of one of their stages. We have creatures on our planet like this, that control creatures to get from one body to another.

Though there hasn't been any mention of Yeerks going through stages, and I'm not sure how that would relate to getting out into the pool every three days.

[RYTX]

I would like to know something:
How the *** did the Yeerks learn math.

It's implied that by and large Yeerks have a good grasp on science and maths, Seerow saw them as intellectual equals, and even V3 has showed use of some delicate physics from time to time (see TAC). But how does a group of sensory deprived slugs with no tools figure that stuff out.
I don't think a gedd could physically be used in doing the proofs for some of it: I mean the gedds couldn't see stars, but in but even if they learned astrophysics from Seerow-well, they couldn't have learned it that fast is what I'm saying...

[NateSean]

Yeerk ambition is a rare trait among the species. The handful of Yeerks who got a good enough grasp on what Seerow was teaching them were likely the ones who orchestrated the attack on the Andalites in the first place.

There's probably a few Yeerks who were smart enough to grasp advanced mathematics, the same way we mere human beings started thinking in numbers and equations several thousand years ago.

[Chad32]

It's not too hard to figure out math. Even smart animals can do it.

[NateSean]

Basic math, yeah. But then you get into the high concept stuff like algebra and physics.

[MoppingBear]

I would like to know something:
How the *** did the Yeerks learn math.

It's implied that by and large Yeerks have a good grasp on science and maths, Seerow saw them as intellectual equals, and even V3 has showed use of some delicate physics from time to time (see TAC). But how does a group of sensory deprived slugs with no tools figure that stuff out.
I don't think a gedd could physically be used in doing the proofs for some of it: I mean the gedds couldn't see stars, but in but even if they learned astrophysics from Seerow-well, they couldn't have learned it that fast is what I'm saying...

seerow was as impressed by their learning of mathematics as you are, and THAT is why he was all for giving them technology, he thought if this was what they had achieved as blind slugs with no technology, think what they could do WITH technology.

[RYTX]

But that's still my point: how did they get there in the first place.
Seerow should up in the mid sixities, yet in the early 90's a future  V1 is talking to Kim about string theory.
In one or two generations they went from probably not being able to know the structure of atoms, to stuff that freshman physics still has to glaze over.
That's incredible.

And I disagree about the ambition thing.
Granted, we only see a few yeerks, but it really does seem standard procedure that they have a solid foundation in Z-space physics, biology, engineering etc.
Even if it started of stolen, that's still something that the whole race is now has that as basic education-again in 30 yrs or less

They already rival the Andalites, who have been around with eyes, hands, and some culture since the time of the dinosaurs.
To be at the stage where they can accept a tutor that spouses on about these things is very impressive.
Really it makes we wonder how neither race at least proposed making a symbiont before hand

[NateSean]

And I disagree about the ambition thing.

Which doesn't actually disprove my point. We see very clearly that some Yeerks don't want to fight. We see from the beginning that not every Yeerk is gung ho about the idea of holding a host. It's Esplin's desire for a host that leads him to becoming the resident Andalite expert and eventually becoming one of the first sub-vissers.

Visser One's ambition led her to discovering Earth and paving the way for an invasion that would have clinched the war for the Yeerks.

Aftran's ambition led to rallying the other Yeerks in a resistance.

But that's three Yeerks out of hundreds of milions of Yeerks spread across the galaxy. For every Esplin 9466, there's a Joe Everyman Yeerk who just wants to wake up, swim, eat, sleep and go back to bed again. No major conquests, no risking kandrona starvation to explore space. Just simple easy life.

You don't need every single Yeerk to understand Z-space to take the other Yeerks into it. Just a handful of Yeerks with the ability to grasp it and the acumen to do something about it will due. The other Yeerks are just muscle and target practice. A Yeerk doesn't need all that much ambition to stand guard at a Pool. They just have to know how to point a gun and occasionally raise an alarm.

[MoppingBear]

But that's still my point: how did they get there in the first place.
Seerow should up in the mid sixities, yet in the early 90's a future  V1 is talking to Kim about string theory.
In one or two generations they went from probably not being able to know the structure of atoms, to stuff that freshman physics still has to glaze over.
That's incredible.

And I disagree about the ambition thing.
Granted, we only see a few yeerks, but it really does seem standard procedure that they have a solid foundation in Z-space physics, biology, engineering etc.
Even if it started of stolen, that's still something that the whole race is now has that as basic education-again in 30 yrs or less

They already rival the Andalites, who have been around with eyes, hands, and some culture since the time of the dinosaurs.
To be at the stage where they can accept a tutor that spouses on about these things is very impressive.
Really it makes we wonder how neither race at least proposed making a symbiont before hand

well perhaps V1 has had a host who uderstood string theory really well?

[Tim Bruening]

I would like to know something:
How the *** did the Yeerks learn math.

It's implied that by and large Yeerks have a good grasp on science and maths, Seerow saw them as intellectual equals, and even V3 has showed use of some delicate physics from time to time (see TAC). But how does a group of sensory deprived slugs with no tools figure that stuff out.
I don't think a gedd could physically be used in doing the proofs for some of it: I mean the gedds couldn't see stars, but in but even if they learned astrophysics from Seerow-well, they couldn't have learned it that fast is what I'm saying...

seerow was as impressed by their learning of mathematics as you are, and THAT is why he was all for giving them technology, he thought if this was what they had achieved as blind slugs with no technology, think what they could do WITH technology.

Why didn't Seerow offer himself as a host for a Yeerk?