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[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder: The Ellimist]]
!The Ellimist
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anellimist_1531.gif]]
[[caption-width-right:300: Yes, that's right! [[ComicallyMissingThePoint The Ellimist has been that little icon telling us to watch the TV series the entire time!]]]]
-> '''Debut:''' Animorphs #7: ''The Stranger'' (1997)
->''We watched the rise of other species throughout the galaxy. Helped at times, when we could. We wanted companions. We wanted to learn. We imagined a galaxy filled with millions of sentient species, each with its own science and art, its own beauty.''
\\\\
An AllPowerfulBystander, the Ellimist is a being so powerful he can directly manipulate the fabric of space-time, rewrite history, [[TimeTravel travel through time]] and cross between dimensions. He ultimately wants the Animorphs to prevail and save Earth, but he is bound by the rules of the nebulous [[CosmicChessGame Game]], which prevents him from offering direct assistance unless it's in a BargainWithHeaven.
----
* AllPowerfulBystander: Not technically all-powerful, but so close as to make little difference from human perspectives. It's eventually revealed he has justified reasons to use such indirect and roundabout methods: he can't get fully involved without Crayak doing the same, and the last time they went all-out against each other, the results were nothing short of catastrophic.
* AscendedFanboy: InUniverse; as a mortal, he was [[spoiler:of a race called the Ketrans and enjoyed playing complex simulation games where he helped lesser races grow by indirect assistance. Now that he's powerful enough, he's doing the exact same thing for real.]]
* AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler:He became the Ellimist when his bio-mechanical body of a small fleet of spaceships was drawn into a black hole while some remained in real space and the rest was still in Z-Space, thereby causing him to exist in multiple dimensions at once.]]
* BalanceOfGoodAndEvil: {{Justified}}; if he oversteps the boundaries too much, then his EvilCounterpart will strike back.
* BigGood: The most powerful known being in the universe (second if you count the one who exiled Crayak) and dedicated to spreading and preserving sentient life.
* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler:It turns out that he was behind at least four of the kids becoming Animorphs]].
* CompleteImmortality: At least unless the entire universe were destroyed, too.
* CosmicEntity: Lives within/beyond the normal bounds of space-time.
* CreativeSterility: Not him, but rather he uses this to defeat [[TheAssimilator Father]] in his [[WasOnceAMan mortal days]]. Father was a carnivorous parasitic seaweed-like creature that joins with his prey and absorbs memories. Once the Ketrans made the mistake of visiting Father's planet, everyone on board was killed and assimilated into Father, ''except'' Ellimist who was the SoleSurvivor, whom Father kept alive as a game partner to prevent boredom. Due to his wealth of knowledge, Father always won their games, ''until'' he introduced a game of creativity: music. Father could only mimic and copy what he saw, but Ellimist was able to create on his own.
* EnemyMine: After a low-level Yeerk's Controller is able to get his hands on [[TimeyWimeyBall the Time Matrix]] and [[MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight change history for the worse]], the Ellimist is forced to call a temporary truce with Crayak to give the Animorphs the power they need to stop the newly-ascended Visser Four.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: His real name is [[spoiler:''Toomin''; "Ellimist" was basically his screen name when he was a Ketran gamer.]]
* ExactWords: One of his favorite methods of LoopholeAbuse, as described below, is using this trope. For example, he promises Tobias that he'll give him back his human form if he agrees to help form the Free Hork-Bajir Colony. When Tobias does, the Ellimist restores his morphing power, then rewinds time to give him the chance to acquire his old self as a morph, thus fulfilling the terms of their deal (he never said that he'd ''permanently'' turn Tobias back into a human, only that he'd get his ''human form'' back).
** In ''Elfangor's Secret'', Crayak only agrees to the EnemyMine described above on the condition that "one of the Animorphs" dies during their trip through time. The Ellimist agrees, and sure enough, Jake is killed. But during the rest of the adventure, the other Animorphs discover that they're somehow able to come back after being grievously injured or torn apart. They realize that the deal stated that "''one'' of them" would die--and now that Jake has, the others are functionally immortal, as the Ellimist chose to interpret Crayak's words literally so that ''only'' one of them would die.
* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Usually, he appears as an AmbiguouslyHuman old man; once he appeared as a geeky girl from their school.
* GodlikeGamer: A literal example. He enjoyed playing his species' equivalent of video games before becoming a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien and AscendingToAHigherPlaneOfExistence. Ironically, the one time we see him playing a video game, he loses. It's become a meme in the fandom that "[[https://64.media.tumblr.com/986752f07647a64bc10393ca74371501/tumblr_oqfxe6rmG51ryi2xfo1_540.png God is a gamer]]" is canon.
* GodsHandsAreTied: If he interferes too directly, Crayak will respond in kind, and the last time they fought each other head-to-head it caused galactic-level devastation.
* GrandpaGod: His most common form is the "Saintly Old Man" guise as seen on this page.
* GreaterScopeParagon: The Ellimist is a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien who is willing to help the heroes, but only does so in incomplete or misleading ways, hence why another species familiar with him, the Andalites, has their word for Ellimist mean "trickster". It eventually turns out the reason why he doesn't help the heroes more actively is because [[GreaterScopeVillain there is another being just as powerful as he is, the malevolent Crayak]]. As the last time the two battled each other at full strength resulted in galactic disaster, the Ellimist and Crayak are under an agreement to never directly battle each other again and instead duel through guiding species and heroes of their choice, like a cosmic game of chess.
* GreenAesop: In his first appearance he portrays himself as something of a space conservationist, telling the kids that free humans will be ExtinctInTheFuture and that he wants to take the Animorphs, their families and a selection of other humans off-planet to a world where they will be safe (a preserve according to Cassie, though Tobias more uncharitably calls it a zoo). [[spoiler:As it turns out, he actually doesn't want to take the kids off-world at all, and the space conservationist story is just a LeaveYourQuestTest while he engages in a bit of his trademark LoopholeAbuse and hopes one of them is smart enough to figure it out]].
* IAmLegion: Throughout most of his appearances, he refers to himself in the plural, making it unclear if he is a singular entity or part of a collective, or even a race of creatures like him. [[spoiler:It is eventually revealed he is a singular individual who absorbed millions of minds in a freak incident, explaining his predilection for referring to himself in the plural]].
* ImmortalGenius: A CosmicEntity that never ages and likely can't be killed without destroying the entire universe as well. Not only is he virtually omniscient across time and space, but having been alive for millions of years, he's also a wellspring of information on subjects that most species have long forgotten. On top of playing an incredibly complicated game with Crayak for the fate of the universe, he also engineered an entire race to further his goals and created the legendary Time Matrix at some point in the distant past. [[spoiler: Indeed, it's revealed he first achieved immortality by drawing upon the knowledge he acquired from Father to create a unique starship that could preserve his aging body, upgrading himself over the centuries until he [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence transcended physical existence altogether]].]]
* LastOfHisKind: He is the last surviving member of [[spoiler:the Ketran race. By the time the series proper begins, he is the last Ketran only in mind, as his original Ketran body was destroyed in a black hole when he ascended.]]
* LeaveYourQuestTest: He gives one to the Animorphs in ''The Stranger''.
* LittleMissAlmighty: One of the forms he appeared before the group in.
* LivingShip: During his Third Life.
* LoopholeAbuse: He's forbidden to interfere directly except when he makes a deal with Crayak, but gets around it by sneakily arranging for them to realize things on their own that they wouldn't have without him. This is actually the defining trait of him in his first appearance, where he shows the Animorphs a vision of a BadFuture, and a background event clues them in to the location of the Yeerk Kandrona in the present.
* ManipulativeBastard: He might be the BigGood of the series, more or less, but GoodIsNotNice. And he's not above guilt trips, the above Loophole Abuse, and just metaphorically twisting the arms of his pawns to get what he wants out of them. Elfangor and Tobias in particular are among those hardest leaned on by him.
* MillionToOneChance: [[spoiler:His evolution from Ketran gamer to demigod is due to a series of freak accidents, each more improbable than the last.]]
* MysteriousBacker: He tries to help the heroes, but he is either too roundabout in his methods to really gain their trust or too caught up in his game with Crayak to help at all.
** [[spoiler:The last ''Megamorphs'' heavily implies that the team basically exists because he arranged things from behind the scenes, including the {{Contrived Coincidence}}s of getting members who were already unknowingly connected to the conflict in some way.]]
* OverlyLongName: His official name (which really only applied during his First Life) is [[spoiler: Azure Level, Seven Spar, Extension Two, Down-Messenger, Forty-one.]]
* PetTheDog: [[GodsHandsAreTied He can't intercede]] to prevent [[spoiler:Rachel's]] death but the framing device of ''The Ellimist Chronicles'' is him recounting his life story to comfort [[spoiler:her]] in the moments before [[spoiler:her]] death.
* PointyEars: In his favored form.
* RealityWarper: He can pretty much do anything.
* RecurringCharacter: He appears in a handful of books, but his influence is felt in many more.
* StarfishAlien: We never get a clear description of what Ketrans look like. We only know that they have wings, quills, arms, pods instead of feet, docking talons, and live on gravity defying crystals.
** OurAngelsAreDifferent: The vague description of the Ketrans is somewhat reminiscent of the description of Cherubim from the Book of Ezekiel (a winged HumanoidAbomination with a bestial head and feet). Given that the Ellimist is essentially a god, this may have been intentional.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: At one point, Rachel comments he's advanced compared to humans in the sense that humans are more advanced than cows. He would probably argue that it's not quite that extreme, though.
* TimeStandsStill: His general m.o. if he wants to talk with you.
* WhatIfGodWasOneOfUs: In ''The Ellimist Chronicles'', he places part of his essence into the body of an Andalite and lives among early Andalites in order to reconnect with his sense of mortality.
* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm: Though he arguably doesn't have one anymore. He usually manifests an AmbiguouslyHuman old man (as shown in the picture). In ''The Andalite Chronicles'', he ''does'' allow Elfangor to see his true form, but Elfangor can only describe it in really vague terms.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Crayak]]
!Crayak
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/crayak_v2_by_mrsinister616_on_deviantart.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Crayak" by [[https://www.deviantart.com/mrsinister616 mrsinister616]] ]]
-> '''Debut:''' Animorphs #6: ''The Capture'' (1997, unnamed), #26: ''The Attack'' (1999, full appearance)
->''I will cleanse this galaxy of all life. Then, when no sentient thing is left alive, I will kill you, Ellimist. That's my game. Shall we play?''
\\\\
Foreshadowed early on, the Crayak remains a mystery until halfway through the series, when the Ellimist reveals his story. A being of power equal to the Ellimist but with very different goals, the Crayak is a malevolent being chased from his home galaxy by the one power in the universe that can defeat him. He seeks extinction on a galactic scale, and eventually the ability to control all of space-time as his own.
----
* AllPowerfulBystander: Like the Ellimist, he is not truly all-powerful, but he is so close, it makes little difference from a human perspective.
* ArchEnemy:
** To the Ellimist, with the two of them having warred with each other for millennia due to their opposing goals, Ellimist wishing to sustain life and Crayak wishing to eradicate it.
** To Jake, with Crayak developing a burning hatred for the boy ever since he destroyed Crayak's creation, the Howlers, a race he primarily used to end other species. Ever since, Crayak has tried over and over to murder Jake through indirect means.
* AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Much like the Ellimist, he found a way into the fabric of space and time.
* BadBoss: Towards the Drode. Though the Drode serves loyally, Crayak is fully prepared to let Rachel annihilate him if it means securing her loyalty. He's also stated through implicit reasoning to have annihilated all Howlers who [[AlwaysABiggerFish lost]] or were exposed to ideas that might make them less murderous before those memories could taint the racial pool and diminish their effectiveness as his allegedly unstoppable slaughter-machine shock troops.
* BadassBoast: Brags to Rachel that while there are many [[MasterOfIllusion masters of illusion]] in the universe, only he is a [[RealityWarper master of reality]]. This isn't exactly true, since the Ellimist can do anything he can do, but he gets points for chutzpha.
* BizarreAlienLimbs: As with the Ellimist, Crayak's original biological form is somewhat ill-defined, being described only as a cycloptid creature "evolved for the surface, or perhaps even for a subterranean life". Aside from the eye, his only firmly described features are massive, muscled limbs that no wings could ever lift.
* TheChessmaster: Implied; after all, he's good enough to take on the Ellimist in a CosmicChessGame.
* ChekhovsGunman: He first appears as a bizarre, ominous hallucination when the Yeerk in Jake's head dies. It turns out that briefly seeing past life and death allowed Jake to glimpse Crayak.
* CompleteImmortality: Like the Ellimist, he has transcended the boundaries of life and death and is no longer possible to kill, or even harm, in any tangible sense.
* TheCorrupter: He plays this role to Rachel, tempting her with god-like power in exchange for murdering Jake.
* {{Cyclops}}: Even before ascending, Crayak's original form was a monstrous, one-eyed creature.
* DiabolusExMachina: He has no OriginStory beyond "He was kicked out of another galaxy by an [[AlwaysABiggerFish even more powerful super-being]]". Even in ''The Ellimist Chronicles", which gives the Ellimist's OriginStory, Crayak just shows up in his planetoid/spaceship about half way through with no explanation.
* DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans: According to the Ellimist, he wants to fill the universe with "conflict, pain, and terror", apparently for its own sake. The closest he gets to an ideological motive is that he wants there to be a single surviving MasterRace which has dominated, consumed, or absorbed all others for him to dominate and rule over like a god, and a universe of constant, horrific violence and brutality serves to accelerate that end, but it's also made abundantly clear [[{{Sadist}} that he enjoys the pain and suffering of others for their own sake as well]].
* EarlyBirdCameo: Jake has a vision of him early in the series as Tom's former Yeerk is dying in his head, but has no idea what he's looking at until significantly later.
* EarthShatteringKaboom: He actually tried to destroy Earth once, at some point during the Mesozoic era. Thanks to the newly-ascended Ellimist, the attempt failed.
* EldritchAbomination: He has the appearance of a giant red eye and even without being an OmnicidalManiac, he looks pretty terrifying.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: In ''Megamorphs Three'', a Yeerk using a Controller named John Berryman is able to locate the Time Matrix, and he uses it to [[MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight change history]] so that the Yeerks can more easily invade. Crayak, for all his omnicidal tendencies, views this as cheating in the Game (one of the decided rules was that alternate realities are out of play) and agrees to a [[EnemyMine temporary truce]] with the Ellimist to fix things. It's [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] in that Crayak still uses the opportunity to try to permanently kill Jake, but he was still willing to let the others fix the problem so that the Game would remain fair.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: His attempts to sway Rachel to his service in ''The Return'' are fairly limp, and mostly reliant on the hope that she'll go DrunkOnTheDarkSide. When she doesn't, he takes his cosmic ball and leaves in a huff. [[spoiler:On the other hand, the offer he extends through the Drode remains open until the end of the series, and it's anyone's guess if she fulfilled it.]]
* EvilCounterpart: To the Ellimist.
* EvilGloating: The Drode's first appearance in ''The Exposed'' was half following the rules of the Game and giving the Animorphs one hint to keep things fair. The other half was Crayak indulging in this, by proxy.
* EvilIsNotWellLit: When the Ellimist first meets him, he had a moveable planetoid he uses as a spaceship, which is described as "dark and gloomy".
* EvilMentor: Tries to become this to Rachel. It doesn't work, though the curiously-worded nature of his offer to her spawned more than a few fan theories about [[spoiler:her final fate]].
* EvilIsPetty: After ''The Attack'', he spends most of his remaining appearances coming up with ways to punish Jake for what he did to the Howlers.
* EvilSoundsDeep: If you're unfortunate enough to meet him in person, his voice feels like being shaken apart at the atomic level.
* {{Expy}}: He's explicitly based on [[Literature/LordOfTheRings Sauron]], as ''Creator/KaApplegate'' is a big fan of ''Creator/JRRTolkien.''
* FacelessEye: His appearance is a giant blood-red eye.
* FateWorseThanDeath: He is unsatisfied with watching the universe as a passive observer and would choose his own destruction over that fate.
* ForTheEvulz: He massacres species and enjoys the suffering and torment of others because, hey, it's something to do. When he and the Ellimist first acquire their near-omnipotent powers, the Ellimist suggests that, since they're incapable of killing each other now without collapsing space-time and killing ''everything'' including themselves, and can just undo any damage the other does to the galaxy if they don't, they could call a truce and just watch the advance of evolution. Crayak refuses because he finds the idea boring.
* GiantEyeOfDoom: His appearance is described as being a giant blood-red eye and considering he is evil incarnate definitely fits this trope to a T.
* GodOfEvil: He comes across as this, especially since, unlike the Ellimist, his backstory is never revealed. Additionally, the author admitted to modeling him after personifications of 'pure evil' such as Sauron from ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''.
* GreaterScopeVillain: The ultimate evil in the series who has been responsible for everything occurring. The Yeerks taking over other species was his doing in a great big game with Ellimist.
* HerosEvilPredecessor: When the Ellimist first meets him he's brand new to the cosmic god wannabe game, while Crayak has apparently already been doing it for some time, and indeed delights in running circles around the Ellimist with cruel SadisticChoice scenarios until Toomin finally has enough and decides to TakeAThirdOption. And in a narrative sense, he actually debuts a book before the Ellimist himself, though he is unnamed in it.
* ILied: To [[spoiler:David]]. He promises him revenge against Rachel, but merely uses him as a tool against her.
* ImmortalGenius: He's been around for almost as long as the Ellimist, has more or less the same strengths and limitations, [[spoiler: even a fairly similar backstory, complete with his first body being preserved inside a starship]]. He's used his intellect to create monsters, tempt unsuspecting victims into Faustian bargains, and [[TheSocialDarwinist plot the creation of a universe built on an especially brutal form of social darwinism]].
* KarmaHoudini: Being a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien, he is far too powerful for the Animorphs or the Andalites to do anything to punish him. It's possible the Ellimist will manage to destroy him someday, however.
* LeaveYourQuestTest: Playing up his role as the Ellimist's EvilCounterpart, Crayak extends Jake an offer to alter history so he never met Elfangor. [[spoiler:Jake accepts this offer, and it's the basis for ''Megamorphs'' #4.]]
* LivingShip: He first appears to the Ellimist as this.
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: When the Ellimist first explains his modus operandi to the Animorphs, one of them compares him to a Nazi. Ellimist admits the comparison is partially correct, but cautions that Crayak has very different views of absolute power and no particular attachment to any one race.
* NoIndoorVoice: Similar to Visser Three, he communicates with a form of thought-speech. Jake describes it as sounding like he's screaming at the top of his lungs.
* NoodleIncident: The only clue we get about his backstory is he was kicked out of another galaxy by a being more powerful than even him or the Ellimist. Who said being was and why they banished him are never explained.
* NothingIsScarier: When he first appears on-page, twenty books and nearly two years before he is given any kind of explanation, Jake doesn't know what to make of him, and even expects to have nightmares about him. (At the time, the memory of the Yeerk in his head dying is too fresh, but he's having recurring nightmares about Crayak by ''The Attack''.)
* OmnicidalManiac: "I play the game of ''genocide''..."
* PlagueMaster: In ''The Ellimist Chronicles,'' he makes an entire race starve by creating a parasite that eats all their crops.
* PlotHole: Unlike with the Ellimist, it's never explained how he went from just a really powerful alien to a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien. The Ellimist Chronicles just say he [[HandWave found a way to "follow" the Ellimist into near-omnipotence]].
* RealityWarper: For example, he rewrote history in the last ''Megamorphs'' book.
* RecurringCharacter: Though his presence is often felt, the Crayak himself only personally appears in ''The Attack'', ''The Return'' and ''The Ellimist Chronicles''.
* SadisticChoice: When he first met the Ellimist he put him through various scenarios where he faced the doom of multiple planets and had a way to save one or another, but never both or all.
* SatanicArchetype: He both a pseudo GodOfEvil and (due to the rules of The Game) mostly just tempts people to do evil rather than working directly. His (rather vague) backstory about an even more powerful being exiling him is pretty obviously based on the story of Satan being banished from Heaven.
* TheSocialDarwinist: His goal is to pit race against race, species against species, the winner growing stronger with each engagement, until only one species is left, whom he will then dominate and have revere him as a god.
* SomeoneHasToDie: He agrees to help the Animorphs follow Visser Four through time in ''Megamorphs'' #3. In return, he demands that one of their number must die. [[spoiler:Jake ends up biting the bullet, but thanks to some TimeTravel LoopholeAbuse, it doesn't stick.]]
* SoreLoser: He ''really'' doesn't take it well when the Animorphs defeat his Howlers. In fact, he spends the ''entire rest of the series'' trying to kill Jake as revenge for it.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: He had super-advanced technology even before ascending to near-godhood.
* SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum: Essentially threatens this to get Ellimist to agree to their CosmicChessGame arrangement; he doesn't ''want'' to force a fight within the fabric of space-time itself that would ensure his own destruction, but would do so if the only other option was eternity as a passive observer.
* TalkingInYourDreams: He appears to both Jake and Rachel in dreams.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: The Drode]]
!The Drode
-> '''Debut:''' Animorphs #27: ''The Exposed'' (1999)
->''Yes, yes, oh yes. Mustn't upset the balance. Not directly, anyway. But! Create problems? Yes. Create opportunities? Yes. Play the wild card? Of course.''
\\\\
An alien being who resembles a humanoid dinosaur, he serves Crayak and acts as his representative. He has incredible powers, presumably a gift from his master. The series' weirdest points are usually his doing.
----
* BeastWithAHumanFace: His body is similar to that of a therapod dinosaur, but his face is oddly humanoid.
* BreakingSpeech: His first appearance in ''The Exposed'' has him pop out of nowhere and snarkily pick the Animorphs apart one by one.
* DealWithTheDevil: [[spoiler: Implied, but not confirmed. See LastOfHisKind below.]] He also pitches one to Rachel that remains one of the great unanswered questions in the series.
* TheDragon: To Crayak.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Is absolutely enraged that the Pemalites and Chee would choose to be {{actual pacifist}}s.
-->And you wonder why Crayak destroyed the Pemalites. What tedious creatures they were. Pacifist androids! What is the ''point'' of machines that cannot kill? They could have ruled the galaxy with their Chee as warriors!
* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: He likes to joke, but...
* EvilSoundsDeep: [[InvertedTrope Inverted,]] as his voice is specifically described as "high, shrill, grating."
* EvilMentor: Tries really hard to become one to Rachel.
* ExactWords: "Your cousin's life is your key to salvation in the arms of Crayak." [[spoiler:Notice he never specifies which cousin he meant.]]
* FromASingleCell: He can regenerate, possibly from any wound. [[spoiler:Rachel rips his head off in ''The Return'' to no effect.]]
* GigglingVillain: He's prone to giggling when he thinks he has the upper hand, particularly in ''The Return''.
* InLoveWithYourCarnage: Enjoys Rachel's penchant for violence.
* LastOfHisKind: [[spoiler:It's implied that he sold out his entire species so he could become Crayak's right-hand man.]]
* LoopholeAbuse: Like his master, he is bound by the rules of The Game. That doesn't stop him from bending the rules to achieve the outcome he desires.
* ManipulativeBastard: In his debut appearance he pulls the strings of the Animorphs, the Chee, and the Yeerks, all in hopes of punishing the Animorphs for their recent victory over Crayak's Howlers.
* MouthOfSauron: Since Crayak rarely appears in the flesh, the Drode frequently does his talking for him.
* OutGambitted: [[spoiler:In his first appearance, thanks to the timely intervention of Erek.]]
* OutsideContextProblem: The Ellimist doesn't have any kind of herald, so the reveal that Crayak ''does'' was one that [[DidntSeeThatComing none of the Animorphs ever saw coming]].
* RealityWarper: Shares this power with Crayak.
* RecurringCharacter: He appears in ''The Exposed'', the last two ''Megamorphs'' books, and ''The Return''.
* SmugSnake: Despite all his cosmic power, he's really nothing more than Crayak's errand boy, and as Crayak demonstrates in ''The Return'', he's more than willing to replace the Drode at any time.
* TeleportersAndTransporters: Having a fraction of his master's RealityWarper power, he can appear and reappear wherever and whenever he wants.
* TermsOfEndangerment: He refers to Rachel as "Rachel of the dark heart."
* ThouShaltNotKill: One of the rules of the Game he is bound by, much to his disdain. This has {{loophole|Abuse}}s, though -- while he can't take life ''directly'', he can maneuver victims into scenarios where someone else will kill them, as he tried to do with the Animorphs and the Yeerks. He is also capable of setting the Chee to self-destruct, revealing that some variant of WhatMeasureIsANonHuman (or What Measure is a Non-Organic) is at play.
* WildCard: His name literally means "wild card."
[[/folder]]
[[folder: The One]]
!The One
-> '''Debut:''' Animorphs #54: ''The Beginning'' (2001)
->''You have done well to come this far. You have come to find your friend. But the Andalite is part of me now. As you will soon be.''
\\\\
A DiabolusExNihilo that shows up in the last few pages of the final book. He gathers the remnants of the shattered Yeerk Empire under his aegis and plots to [[TheAssimilator assimilate]] the Animorphs into his being. The book ends with the Animorphs ramming his ship and the outcome of the conflict is never revealed.
----
* TheAssimilator: Apparently assimilates a lot of beings, [[spoiler:including Ax]].
* BodyHorror: It's revealed he's inflicted it on his captive [[spoiler:Ax]].
* BolivianArmyEnding: "[[spoiler:Ram the Blade ship]]."
* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Implied. Two of the four forms he shows the Animorphs are mechanical creatures.
* DiabolusExMachina[=/=]DiabolusExNihilo: Just when it looks like the war is finally over for the Animorphs, out like an evil space jack-in-the box pops this thing.
* GenericDoomsdayVillain: What exactly does the One want? Why does it assimilate beings when it seems plenty powerful on its own? Where is it even going? Good luck figuring any of that out, it's just there for two pages of generic villainy.
* AGodAmI: To the point where Yeerks start worshiping him.
* GreaterScopeVillain: The leader of the Yeerk survivors and the final enemy faced by the Animorphs.
* LightIsNotGood: He appears to the Animorphs heralded by "searing light."
* MinorMajorCharacter: His only appearance covers all of ''four pages''.
* NoMouth: Subverted in nightmarish fashion. See BodyHorror above.
* PathOfInspiration: Hinted at. The Yeerk remnants he leads worship him as a god and his lieutenant, Efflit One-Three-One-Eight, carries himself in a manner more befitting a HighPriest than a ship's captain.
* TheRemnant: He leads it.
* SpaceElves: One of his forms is described as a "sweet, feminine, almost elfin visage."
* MindProbe: Apparently, since he instantly knows that the Animorphs are hiding on their ship.
* TooManyMouths: One too many, given that he gives a horrifying, red-rimmed mouth to [[spoiler:Ax]].
* UnseenEvil: We never see his true face and he is described by Marco as "every corruption and every evil."
* UnroboticReveal: When it first shows itself to Jake and company it has a mechanical face, but this quickly dissolves into the "sweet elfin visage" mentioned above before revealing what is apparently its newest face, [[spoiler:Ax]].
* WalkingSpoiler: He literally shows up within the last few pages of the final book with no build-up.
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder: The Ellimist]]
!The Ellimist
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anellimist_1531.gif]]
[[caption-width-right:300: Yes, that's right! [[ComicallyMissingThePoint The Ellimist has been that little icon telling us to watch the TV series the entire time!]]]]
-> '''Debut:''' Animorphs #7: ''The Stranger'' (1997)
->''We watched the rise of other species throughout the galaxy. Helped at times, when we could. We wanted companions. We wanted to learn. We imagined a galaxy filled with millions of sentient species, each with its own science and art, its own beauty.''
\\\\
An AllPowerfulBystander, the Ellimist is a being so powerful he can directly manipulate the fabric of space-time, rewrite history, [[TimeTravel travel through time]] and cross between dimensions. He ultimately wants the Animorphs to prevail and save Earth, but he is bound by the rules of the nebulous [[CosmicChessGame Game]], which prevents him from offering direct assistance unless it's in a BargainWithHeaven.
----
* AllPowerfulBystander: Not technically all-powerful, but so close as to make little difference from human perspectives. It's eventually revealed he has justified reasons to use such indirect and roundabout methods: he can't get fully involved without Crayak doing the same, and the last time they went all-out against each other, the results were nothing short of catastrophic.
* AscendedFanboy: InUniverse; as a mortal, he was [[spoiler:of a race called the Ketrans and enjoyed playing complex simulation games where he helped lesser races grow by indirect assistance. Now that he's powerful enough, he's doing the exact same thing for real.]]
* AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler:He became the Ellimist when his bio-mechanical body of a small fleet of spaceships was drawn into a black hole while some remained in real space and the rest was still in Z-Space, thereby causing him to exist in multiple dimensions at once.]]
* BalanceOfGoodAndEvil: {{Justified}}; if he oversteps the boundaries too much, then his EvilCounterpart will strike back.
* BigGood: The most powerful known being in the universe (second if you count the one who exiled Crayak) and dedicated to spreading and preserving sentient life.
* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler:It turns out that he was behind at least four of the kids becoming Animorphs]].
* CompleteImmortality: At least unless the entire universe were destroyed, too.
* CosmicEntity: Lives within/beyond the normal bounds of space-time.
* CreativeSterility: Not him, but rather he uses this to defeat [[TheAssimilator Father]] in his [[WasOnceAMan mortal days]]. Father was a carnivorous parasitic seaweed-like creature that joins with his prey and absorbs memories. Once the Ketrans made the mistake of visiting Father's planet, everyone on board was killed and assimilated into Father, ''except'' Ellimist who was the SoleSurvivor, whom Father kept alive as a game partner to prevent boredom. Due to his wealth of knowledge, Father always won their games, ''until'' he introduced a game of creativity: music. Father could only mimic and copy what he saw, but Ellimist was able to create on his own.
* EnemyMine: After a low-level Yeerk's Controller is able to get his hands on [[TimeyWimeyBall the Time Matrix]] and [[MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight change history for the worse]], the Ellimist is forced to call a temporary truce with Crayak to give the Animorphs the power they need to stop the newly-ascended Visser Four.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: His real name is [[spoiler:''Toomin''; "Ellimist" was basically his screen name when he was a Ketran gamer.]]
* ExactWords: One of his favorite methods of LoopholeAbuse, as described below, is using this trope. For example, he promises Tobias that he'll give him back his human form if he agrees to help form the Free Hork-Bajir Colony. When Tobias does, the Ellimist restores his morphing power, then rewinds time to give him the chance to acquire his old self as a morph, thus fulfilling the terms of their deal (he never said that he'd ''permanently'' turn Tobias back into a human, only that he'd get his ''human form'' back).
** In ''Elfangor's Secret'', Crayak only agrees to the EnemyMine described above on the condition that "one of the Animorphs" dies during their trip through time. The Ellimist agrees, and sure enough, Jake is killed. But during the rest of the adventure, the other Animorphs discover that they're somehow able to come back after being grievously injured or torn apart. They realize that the deal stated that "''one'' of them" would die--and now that Jake has, the others are functionally immortal, as the Ellimist chose to interpret Crayak's words literally so that ''only'' one of them would die.
* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Usually, he appears as an AmbiguouslyHuman old man; once he appeared as a geeky girl from their school.
* GodlikeGamer: A literal example. He enjoyed playing his species' equivalent of video games before becoming a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien and AscendingToAHigherPlaneOfExistence. Ironically, the one time we see him playing a video game, he loses. It's become a meme in the fandom that "[[https://64.media.tumblr.com/986752f07647a64bc10393ca74371501/tumblr_oqfxe6rmG51ryi2xfo1_540.png God is a gamer]]" is canon.
* GodsHandsAreTied: If he interferes too directly, Crayak will respond in kind, and the last time they fought each other head-to-head it caused galactic-level devastation.
* GrandpaGod: His most common form is the "Saintly Old Man" guise as seen on this page.
* GreaterScopeParagon: The Ellimist is a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien who is willing to help the heroes, but only does so in incomplete or misleading ways, hence why another species familiar with him, the Andalites, has their word for Ellimist mean "trickster". It eventually turns out the reason why he doesn't help the heroes more actively is because [[GreaterScopeVillain there is another being just as powerful as he is, the malevolent Crayak]]. As the last time the two battled each other at full strength resulted in galactic disaster, the Ellimist and Crayak are under an agreement to never directly battle each other again and instead duel through guiding species and heroes of their choice, like a cosmic game of chess.
* GreenAesop: In his first appearance he portrays himself as something of a space conservationist, telling the kids that free humans will be ExtinctInTheFuture and that he wants to take the Animorphs, their families and a selection of other humans off-planet to a world where they will be safe (a preserve according to Cassie, though Tobias more uncharitably calls it a zoo). [[spoiler:As it turns out, he actually doesn't want to take the kids off-world at all, and the space conservationist story is just a LeaveYourQuestTest while he engages in a bit of his trademark LoopholeAbuse and hopes one of them is smart enough to figure it out]].
* IAmLegion: Throughout most of his appearances, he refers to himself in the plural, making it unclear if he is a singular entity or part of a collective, or even a race of creatures like him. [[spoiler:It is eventually revealed he is a singular individual who absorbed millions of minds in a freak incident, explaining his predilection for referring to himself in the plural]].
* ImmortalGenius: A CosmicEntity that never ages and likely can't be killed without destroying the entire universe as well. Not only is he virtually omniscient across time and space, but having been alive for millions of years, he's also a wellspring of information on subjects that most species have long forgotten. On top of playing an incredibly complicated game with Crayak for the fate of the universe, he also engineered an entire race to further his goals and created the legendary Time Matrix at some point in the distant past. [[spoiler: Indeed, it's revealed he first achieved immortality by drawing upon the knowledge he acquired from Father to create a unique starship that could preserve his aging body, upgrading himself over the centuries until he [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence transcended physical existence altogether]].]]
* LastOfHisKind: He is the last surviving member of [[spoiler:the Ketran race. By the time the series proper begins, he is the last Ketran only in mind, as his original Ketran body was destroyed in a black hole when he ascended.]]
* LeaveYourQuestTest: He gives one to the Animorphs in ''The Stranger''.
* LittleMissAlmighty: One of the forms he appeared before the group in.
* LivingShip: During his Third Life.
* LoopholeAbuse: He's forbidden to interfere directly except when he makes a deal with Crayak, but gets around it by sneakily arranging for them to realize things on their own that they wouldn't have without him. This is actually the defining trait of him in his first appearance, where he shows the Animorphs a vision of a BadFuture, and a background event clues them in to the location of the Yeerk Kandrona in the present.
* ManipulativeBastard: He might be the BigGood of the series, more or less, but GoodIsNotNice. And he's not above guilt trips, the above Loophole Abuse, and just metaphorically twisting the arms of his pawns to get what he wants out of them. Elfangor and Tobias in particular are among those hardest leaned on by him.
* MillionToOneChance: [[spoiler:His evolution from Ketran gamer to demigod is due to a series of freak accidents, each more improbable than the last.]]
* MysteriousBacker: He tries to help the heroes, but he is either too roundabout in his methods to really gain their trust or too caught up in his game with Crayak to help at all.
** [[spoiler:The last ''Megamorphs'' heavily implies that the team basically exists because he arranged things from behind the scenes, including the {{Contrived Coincidence}}s of getting members who were already unknowingly connected to the conflict in some way.]]
* OverlyLongName: His official name (which really only applied during his First Life) is [[spoiler: Azure Level, Seven Spar, Extension Two, Down-Messenger, Forty-one.]]
* PetTheDog: [[GodsHandsAreTied He can't intercede]] to prevent [[spoiler:Rachel's]] death but the framing device of ''The Ellimist Chronicles'' is him recounting his life story to comfort [[spoiler:her]] in the moments before [[spoiler:her]] death.
* PointyEars: In his favored form.
* RealityWarper: He can pretty much do anything.
* RecurringCharacter: He appears in a handful of books, but his influence is felt in many more.
* StarfishAlien: We never get a clear description of what Ketrans look like. We only know that they have wings, quills, arms, pods instead of feet, docking talons, and live on gravity defying crystals.
** OurAngelsAreDifferent: The vague description of the Ketrans is somewhat reminiscent of the description of Cherubim from the Book of Ezekiel (a winged HumanoidAbomination with a bestial head and feet). Given that the Ellimist is essentially a god, this may have been intentional.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: At one point, Rachel comments he's advanced compared to humans in the sense that humans are more advanced than cows. He would probably argue that it's not quite that extreme, though.
* TimeStandsStill: His general m.o. if he wants to talk with you.
* WhatIfGodWasOneOfUs: In ''The Ellimist Chronicles'', he places part of his essence into the body of an Andalite and lives among early Andalites in order to reconnect with his sense of mortality.
* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm: Though he arguably doesn't have one anymore. He usually manifests an AmbiguouslyHuman old man (as shown in the picture). In ''The Andalite Chronicles'', he ''does'' allow Elfangor to see his true form, but Elfangor can only describe it in really vague terms.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Crayak]]
!Crayak
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/crayak_v2_by_mrsinister616_on_deviantart.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Crayak" by [[https://www.deviantart.com/mrsinister616 mrsinister616]] ]]
-> '''Debut:''' Animorphs #6: ''The Capture'' (1997, unnamed), #26: ''The Attack'' (1999, full appearance)
->''I will cleanse this galaxy of all life. Then, when no sentient thing is left alive, I will kill you, Ellimist. That's my game. Shall we play?''
\\\\
Foreshadowed early on, the Crayak remains a mystery until halfway through the series, when the Ellimist reveals his story. A being of power equal to the Ellimist but with very different goals, the Crayak is a malevolent being chased from his home galaxy by the one power in the universe that can defeat him. He seeks extinction on a galactic scale, and eventually the ability to control all of space-time as his own.
----
* AllPowerfulBystander: Like the Ellimist, he is not truly all-powerful, but he is so close, it makes little difference from a human perspective.
* ArchEnemy:
** To the Ellimist, with the two of them having warred with each other for millennia due to their opposing goals, Ellimist wishing to sustain life and Crayak wishing to eradicate it.
** To Jake, with Crayak developing a burning hatred for the boy ever since he destroyed Crayak's creation, the Howlers, a race he primarily used to end other species. Ever since, Crayak has tried over and over to murder Jake through indirect means.
* AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Much like the Ellimist, he found a way into the fabric of space and time.
* BadBoss: Towards the Drode. Though the Drode serves loyally, Crayak is fully prepared to let Rachel annihilate him if it means securing her loyalty. He's also stated through implicit reasoning to have annihilated all Howlers who [[AlwaysABiggerFish lost]] or were exposed to ideas that might make them less murderous before those memories could taint the racial pool and diminish their effectiveness as his allegedly unstoppable slaughter-machine shock troops.
* BadassBoast: Brags to Rachel that while there are many [[MasterOfIllusion masters of illusion]] in the universe, only he is a [[RealityWarper master of reality]]. This isn't exactly true, since the Ellimist can do anything he can do, but he gets points for chutzpha.
* BizarreAlienLimbs: As with the Ellimist, Crayak's original biological form is somewhat ill-defined, being described only as a cycloptid creature "evolved for the surface, or perhaps even for a subterranean life". Aside from the eye, his only firmly described features are massive, muscled limbs that no wings could ever lift.
* TheChessmaster: Implied; after all, he's good enough to take on the Ellimist in a CosmicChessGame.
* ChekhovsGunman: He first appears as a bizarre, ominous hallucination when the Yeerk in Jake's head dies. It turns out that briefly seeing past life and death allowed Jake to glimpse Crayak.
* CompleteImmortality: Like the Ellimist, he has transcended the boundaries of life and death and is no longer possible to kill, or even harm, in any tangible sense.
* TheCorrupter: He plays this role to Rachel, tempting her with god-like power in exchange for murdering Jake.
* {{Cyclops}}: Even before ascending, Crayak's original form was a monstrous, one-eyed creature.
* DiabolusExMachina: He has no OriginStory beyond "He was kicked out of another galaxy by an [[AlwaysABiggerFish even more powerful super-being]]". Even in ''The Ellimist Chronicles", which gives the Ellimist's OriginStory, Crayak just shows up in his planetoid/spaceship about half way through with no explanation.
* DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans: According to the Ellimist, he wants to fill the universe with "conflict, pain, and terror", apparently for its own sake. The closest he gets to an ideological motive is that he wants there to be a single surviving MasterRace which has dominated, consumed, or absorbed all others for him to dominate and rule over like a god, and a universe of constant, horrific violence and brutality serves to accelerate that end, but it's also made abundantly clear [[{{Sadist}} that he enjoys the pain and suffering of others for their own sake as well]].
* EarlyBirdCameo: Jake has a vision of him early in the series as Tom's former Yeerk is dying in his head, but has no idea what he's looking at until significantly later.
* EarthShatteringKaboom: He actually tried to destroy Earth once, at some point during the Mesozoic era. Thanks to the newly-ascended Ellimist, the attempt failed.
* EldritchAbomination: He has the appearance of a giant red eye and even without being an OmnicidalManiac, he looks pretty terrifying.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: In ''Megamorphs Three'', a Yeerk using a Controller named John Berryman is able to locate the Time Matrix, and he uses it to [[MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight change history]] so that the Yeerks can more easily invade. Crayak, for all his omnicidal tendencies, views this as cheating in the Game (one of the decided rules was that alternate realities are out of play) and agrees to a [[EnemyMine temporary truce]] with the Ellimist to fix things. It's [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] in that Crayak still uses the opportunity to try to permanently kill Jake, but he was still willing to let the others fix the problem so that the Game would remain fair.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: His attempts to sway Rachel to his service in ''The Return'' are fairly limp, and mostly reliant on the hope that she'll go DrunkOnTheDarkSide. When she doesn't, he takes his cosmic ball and leaves in a huff. [[spoiler:On the other hand, the offer he extends through the Drode remains open until the end of the series, and it's anyone's guess if she fulfilled it.]]
* EvilCounterpart: To the Ellimist.
* EvilGloating: The Drode's first appearance in ''The Exposed'' was half following the rules of the Game and giving the Animorphs one hint to keep things fair. The other half was Crayak indulging in this, by proxy.
* EvilIsNotWellLit: When the Ellimist first meets him, he had a moveable planetoid he uses as a spaceship, which is described as "dark and gloomy".
* EvilMentor: Tries to become this to Rachel. It doesn't work, though the curiously-worded nature of his offer to her spawned more than a few fan theories about [[spoiler:her final fate]].
* EvilIsPetty: After ''The Attack'', he spends most of his remaining appearances coming up with ways to punish Jake for what he did to the Howlers.
* EvilSoundsDeep: If you're unfortunate enough to meet him in person, his voice feels like being shaken apart at the atomic level.
* {{Expy}}: He's explicitly based on [[Literature/LordOfTheRings Sauron]], as ''Creator/KaApplegate'' is a big fan of ''Creator/JRRTolkien.''
* FacelessEye: His appearance is a giant blood-red eye.
* FateWorseThanDeath: He is unsatisfied with watching the universe as a passive observer and would choose his own destruction over that fate.
* ForTheEvulz: He massacres species and enjoys the suffering and torment of others because, hey, it's something to do. When he and the Ellimist first acquire their near-omnipotent powers, the Ellimist suggests that, since they're incapable of killing each other now without collapsing space-time and killing ''everything'' including themselves, and can just undo any damage the other does to the galaxy if they don't, they could call a truce and just watch the advance of evolution. Crayak refuses because he finds the idea boring.
* GiantEyeOfDoom: His appearance is described as being a giant blood-red eye and considering he is evil incarnate definitely fits this trope to a T.
* GodOfEvil: He comes across as this, especially since, unlike the Ellimist, his backstory is never revealed. Additionally, the author admitted to modeling him after personifications of 'pure evil' such as Sauron from ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''.
* GreaterScopeVillain: The ultimate evil in the series who has been responsible for everything occurring. The Yeerks taking over other species was his doing in a great big game with Ellimist.
* HerosEvilPredecessor: When the Ellimist first meets him he's brand new to the cosmic god wannabe game, while Crayak has apparently already been doing it for some time, and indeed delights in running circles around the Ellimist with cruel SadisticChoice scenarios until Toomin finally has enough and decides to TakeAThirdOption. And in a narrative sense, he actually debuts a book before the Ellimist himself, though he is unnamed in it.
* ILied: To [[spoiler:David]]. He promises him revenge against Rachel, but merely uses him as a tool against her.
* ImmortalGenius: He's been around for almost as long as the Ellimist, has more or less the same strengths and limitations, [[spoiler: even a fairly similar backstory, complete with his first body being preserved inside a starship]]. He's used his intellect to create monsters, tempt unsuspecting victims into Faustian bargains, and [[TheSocialDarwinist plot the creation of a universe built on an especially brutal form of social darwinism]].
* KarmaHoudini: Being a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien, he is far too powerful for the Animorphs or the Andalites to do anything to punish him. It's possible the Ellimist will manage to destroy him someday, however.
* LeaveYourQuestTest: Playing up his role as the Ellimist's EvilCounterpart, Crayak extends Jake an offer to alter history so he never met Elfangor. [[spoiler:Jake accepts this offer, and it's the basis for ''Megamorphs'' #4.]]
* LivingShip: He first appears to the Ellimist as this.
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: When the Ellimist first explains his modus operandi to the Animorphs, one of them compares him to a Nazi. Ellimist admits the comparison is partially correct, but cautions that Crayak has very different views of absolute power and no particular attachment to any one race.
* NoIndoorVoice: Similar to Visser Three, he communicates with a form of thought-speech. Jake describes it as sounding like he's screaming at the top of his lungs.
* NoodleIncident: The only clue we get about his backstory is he was kicked out of another galaxy by a being more powerful than even him or the Ellimist. Who said being was and why they banished him are never explained.
* NothingIsScarier: When he first appears on-page, twenty books and nearly two years before he is given any kind of explanation, Jake doesn't know what to make of him, and even expects to have nightmares about him. (At the time, the memory of the Yeerk in his head dying is too fresh, but he's having recurring nightmares about Crayak by ''The Attack''.)
* OmnicidalManiac: "I play the game of ''genocide''..."
* PlagueMaster: In ''The Ellimist Chronicles,'' he makes an entire race starve by creating a parasite that eats all their crops.
* PlotHole: Unlike with the Ellimist, it's never explained how he went from just a really powerful alien to a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien. The Ellimist Chronicles just say he [[HandWave found a way to "follow" the Ellimist into near-omnipotence]].
* RealityWarper: For example, he rewrote history in the last ''Megamorphs'' book.
* RecurringCharacter: Though his presence is often felt, the Crayak himself only personally appears in ''The Attack'', ''The Return'' and ''The Ellimist Chronicles''.
* SadisticChoice: When he first met the Ellimist he put him through various scenarios where he faced the doom of multiple planets and had a way to save one or another, but never both or all.
* SatanicArchetype: He both a pseudo GodOfEvil and (due to the rules of The Game) mostly just tempts people to do evil rather than working directly. His (rather vague) backstory about an even more powerful being exiling him is pretty obviously based on the story of Satan being banished from Heaven.
* TheSocialDarwinist: His goal is to pit race against race, species against species, the winner growing stronger with each engagement, until only one species is left, whom he will then dominate and have revere him as a god.
* SomeoneHasToDie: He agrees to help the Animorphs follow Visser Four through time in ''Megamorphs'' #3. In return, he demands that one of their number must die. [[spoiler:Jake ends up biting the bullet, but thanks to some TimeTravel LoopholeAbuse, it doesn't stick.]]
* SoreLoser: He ''really'' doesn't take it well when the Animorphs defeat his Howlers. In fact, he spends the ''entire rest of the series'' trying to kill Jake as revenge for it.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: He had super-advanced technology even before ascending to near-godhood.
* SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum: Essentially threatens this to get Ellimist to agree to their CosmicChessGame arrangement; he doesn't ''want'' to force a fight within the fabric of space-time itself that would ensure his own destruction, but would do so if the only other option was eternity as a passive observer.
* TalkingInYourDreams: He appears to both Jake and Rachel in dreams.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: The Drode]]
!The Drode
-> '''Debut:''' Animorphs #27: ''The Exposed'' (1999)
->''Yes, yes, oh yes. Mustn't upset the balance. Not directly, anyway. But! Create problems? Yes. Create opportunities? Yes. Play the wild card? Of course.''
\\\\
An alien being who resembles a humanoid dinosaur, he serves Crayak and acts as his representative. He has incredible powers, presumably a gift from his master. The series' weirdest points are usually his doing.
----
* BeastWithAHumanFace: His body is similar to that of a therapod dinosaur, but his face is oddly humanoid.
* BreakingSpeech: His first appearance in ''The Exposed'' has him pop out of nowhere and snarkily pick the Animorphs apart one by one.
* DealWithTheDevil: [[spoiler: Implied, but not confirmed. See LastOfHisKind below.]] He also pitches one to Rachel that remains one of the great unanswered questions in the series.
* TheDragon: To Crayak.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Is absolutely enraged that the Pemalites and Chee would choose to be {{actual pacifist}}s.
-->And you wonder why Crayak destroyed the Pemalites. What tedious creatures they were. Pacifist androids! What is the ''point'' of machines that cannot kill? They could have ruled the galaxy with their Chee as warriors!
* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: He likes to joke, but...
* EvilSoundsDeep: [[InvertedTrope Inverted,]] as his voice is specifically described as "high, shrill, grating."
* EvilMentor: Tries really hard to become one to Rachel.
* ExactWords: "Your cousin's life is your key to salvation in the arms of Crayak." [[spoiler:Notice he never specifies which cousin he meant.]]
* FromASingleCell: He can regenerate, possibly from any wound. [[spoiler:Rachel rips his head off in ''The Return'' to no effect.]]
* GigglingVillain: He's prone to giggling when he thinks he has the upper hand, particularly in ''The Return''.
* InLoveWithYourCarnage: Enjoys Rachel's penchant for violence.
* LastOfHisKind: [[spoiler:It's implied that he sold out his entire species so he could become Crayak's right-hand man.]]
* LoopholeAbuse: Like his master, he is bound by the rules of The Game. That doesn't stop him from bending the rules to achieve the outcome he desires.
* ManipulativeBastard: In his debut appearance he pulls the strings of the Animorphs, the Chee, and the Yeerks, all in hopes of punishing the Animorphs for their recent victory over Crayak's Howlers.
* MouthOfSauron: Since Crayak rarely appears in the flesh, the Drode frequently does his talking for him.
* OutGambitted: [[spoiler:In his first appearance, thanks to the timely intervention of Erek.]]
* OutsideContextProblem: The Ellimist doesn't have any kind of herald, so the reveal that Crayak ''does'' was one that [[DidntSeeThatComing none of the Animorphs ever saw coming]].
* RealityWarper: Shares this power with Crayak.
* RecurringCharacter: He appears in ''The Exposed'', the last two ''Megamorphs'' books, and ''The Return''.
* SmugSnake: Despite all his cosmic power, he's really nothing more than Crayak's errand boy, and as Crayak demonstrates in ''The Return'', he's more than willing to replace the Drode at any time.
* TeleportersAndTransporters: Having a fraction of his master's RealityWarper power, he can appear and reappear wherever and whenever he wants.
* TermsOfEndangerment: He refers to Rachel as "Rachel of the dark heart."
* ThouShaltNotKill: One of the rules of the Game he is bound by, much to his disdain. This has {{loophole|Abuse}}s, though -- while he can't take life ''directly'', he can maneuver victims into scenarios where someone else will kill them, as he tried to do with the Animorphs and the Yeerks. He is also capable of setting the Chee to self-destruct, revealing that some variant of WhatMeasureIsANonHuman (or What Measure is a Non-Organic) is at play.
* WildCard: His name literally means "wild card."
[[/folder]]
[[folder: The One]]
!The One
-> '''Debut:''' Animorphs #54: ''The Beginning'' (2001)
->''You have done well to come this far. You have come to find your friend. But the Andalite is part of me now. As you will soon be.''
\\\\
A DiabolusExNihilo that shows up in the last few pages of the final book. He gathers the remnants of the shattered Yeerk Empire under his aegis and plots to [[TheAssimilator assimilate]] the Animorphs into his being. The book ends with the Animorphs ramming his ship and the outcome of the conflict is never revealed.
----
* TheAssimilator: Apparently assimilates a lot of beings, [[spoiler:including Ax]].
* BodyHorror: It's revealed he's inflicted it on his captive [[spoiler:Ax]].
* BolivianArmyEnding: "[[spoiler:Ram the Blade ship]]."
* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Implied. Two of the four forms he shows the Animorphs are mechanical creatures.
* DiabolusExMachina[=/=]DiabolusExNihilo: Just when it looks like the war is finally over for the Animorphs, out like an evil space jack-in-the box pops this thing.
* GenericDoomsdayVillain: What exactly does the One want? Why does it assimilate beings when it seems plenty powerful on its own? Where is it even going? Good luck figuring any of that out, it's just there for two pages of generic villainy.
* AGodAmI: To the point where Yeerks start worshiping him.
* GreaterScopeVillain: The leader of the Yeerk survivors and the final enemy faced by the Animorphs.
* LightIsNotGood: He appears to the Animorphs heralded by "searing light."
* MinorMajorCharacter: His only appearance covers all of ''four pages''.
* NoMouth: Subverted in nightmarish fashion. See BodyHorror above.
* PathOfInspiration: Hinted at. The Yeerk remnants he leads worship him as a god and his lieutenant, Efflit One-Three-One-Eight, carries himself in a manner more befitting a HighPriest than a ship's captain.
* TheRemnant: He leads it.
* SpaceElves: One of his forms is described as a "sweet, feminine, almost elfin visage."
* MindProbe: Apparently, since he instantly knows that the Animorphs are hiding on their ship.
* TooManyMouths: One too many, given that he gives a horrifying, red-rimmed mouth to [[spoiler:Ax]].
* UnseenEvil: We never see his true face and he is described by Marco as "every corruption and every evil."
* UnroboticReveal: When it first shows itself to Jake and company it has a mechanical face, but this quickly dissolves into the "sweet elfin visage" mentioned above before revealing what is apparently its newest face, [[spoiler:Ax]].
* WalkingSpoiler: He literally shows up within the last few pages of the final book with no build-up.
[[/folder]]
----
to:
[[folder: The Ellimist]]
!The Ellimist
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anellimist_1531.gif]]
[[caption-width-right:300: Yes, that's right! [[ComicallyMissingThePoint The Ellimist has been that little icon telling us to watch the TV series the entire time!]]]]
-> '''Debut:''' Animorphs #7: ''The Stranger'' (1997)
->''We watched the rise of other species throughout the galaxy. Helped at times, when we could. We wanted companions. We wanted to learn. We imagined a galaxy filled with millions of sentient species, each with its own science and art, its own beauty.''
\\\\
An AllPowerfulBystander, the Ellimist is a being so powerful he can directly manipulate the fabric of space-time, rewrite history, [[TimeTravel travel through time]] and cross between dimensions. He ultimately wants the Animorphs to prevail and save Earth, but he is bound by the rules of the nebulous [[CosmicChessGame Game]], which prevents him from offering direct assistance unless it's in a BargainWithHeaven.
----
* AllPowerfulBystander: Not technically all-powerful, but so close as to make little difference from human perspectives. It's eventually revealed he has justified reasons to use such indirect and roundabout methods: he can't get fully involved without Crayak doing the same, and the last time they went all-out against each other, the results were nothing short of catastrophic.
* AscendedFanboy: InUniverse; as a mortal, he was [[spoiler:of a race called the Ketrans and enjoyed playing complex simulation games where he helped lesser races grow by indirect assistance. Now that he's powerful enough, he's doing the exact same thing for real.]]
* AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler:He became the Ellimist when his bio-mechanical body of a small fleet of spaceships was drawn into a black hole while some remained in real space and the rest was still in Z-Space, thereby causing him to exist in multiple dimensions at once.]]
* BalanceOfGoodAndEvil: {{Justified}}; if he oversteps the boundaries too much, then his EvilCounterpart will strike back.
* BigGood: The most powerful known being in the universe (second if you count the one who exiled Crayak) and dedicated to spreading and preserving sentient life.
* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler:It turns out that he was behind at least four of the kids becoming Animorphs]].
* CompleteImmortality: At least unless the entire universe were destroyed, too.
* CosmicEntity: Lives within/beyond the normal bounds of space-time.
* CreativeSterility: Not him, but rather he uses this to defeat [[TheAssimilator Father]] in his [[WasOnceAMan mortal days]]. Father was a carnivorous parasitic seaweed-like creature that joins with his prey and absorbs memories. Once the Ketrans made the mistake of visiting Father's planet, everyone on board was killed and assimilated into Father, ''except'' Ellimist who was the SoleSurvivor, whom Father kept alive as a game partner to prevent boredom. Due to his wealth of knowledge, Father always won their games, ''until'' he introduced a game of creativity: music. Father could only mimic and copy what he saw, but Ellimist was able to create on his own.
* EnemyMine: After a low-level Yeerk's Controller is able to get his hands on [[TimeyWimeyBall the Time Matrix]] and [[MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight change history for the worse]], the Ellimist is forced to call a temporary truce with Crayak to give the Animorphs the power they need to stop the newly-ascended Visser Four.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: His real name is [[spoiler:''Toomin''; "Ellimist" was basically his screen name when he was a Ketran gamer.]]
* ExactWords: One of his favorite methods of LoopholeAbuse, as described below, is using this trope. For example, he promises Tobias that he'll give him back his human form if he agrees to help form the Free Hork-Bajir Colony. When Tobias does, the Ellimist restores his morphing power, then rewinds time to give him the chance to acquire his old self as a morph, thus fulfilling the terms of their deal (he never said that he'd ''permanently'' turn Tobias back into a human, only that he'd get his ''human form'' back).
** In ''Elfangor's Secret'', Crayak only agrees to the EnemyMine described above on the condition that "one of the Animorphs" dies during their trip through time. The Ellimist agrees, and sure enough, Jake is killed. But during the rest of the adventure, the other Animorphs discover that they're somehow able to come back after being grievously injured or torn apart. They realize that the deal stated that "''one'' of them" would die--and now that Jake has, the others are functionally immortal, as the Ellimist chose to interpret Crayak's words literally so that ''only'' one of them would die.
* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Usually, he appears as an AmbiguouslyHuman old man; once he appeared as a geeky girl from their school.
* GodlikeGamer: A literal example. He enjoyed playing his species' equivalent of video games before becoming a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien and AscendingToAHigherPlaneOfExistence. Ironically, the one time we see him playing a video game, he loses. It's become a meme in the fandom that "[[https://64.media.tumblr.com/986752f07647a64bc10393ca74371501/tumblr_oqfxe6rmG51ryi2xfo1_540.png God is a gamer]]" is canon.
* GodsHandsAreTied: If he interferes too directly, Crayak will respond in kind, and the last time they fought each other head-to-head it caused galactic-level devastation.
* GrandpaGod: His most common form is the "Saintly Old Man" guise as seen on this page.
* GreaterScopeParagon: The Ellimist is a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien who is willing to help the heroes, but only does so in incomplete or misleading ways, hence why another species familiar with him, the Andalites, has their word for Ellimist mean "trickster". It eventually turns out the reason why he doesn't help the heroes more actively is because [[GreaterScopeVillain there is another being just as powerful as he is, the malevolent Crayak]]. As the last time the two battled each other at full strength resulted in galactic disaster, the Ellimist and Crayak are under an agreement to never directly battle each other again and instead duel through guiding species and heroes of their choice, like a cosmic game of chess.
* GreenAesop: In his first appearance he portrays himself as something of a space conservationist, telling the kids that free humans will be ExtinctInTheFuture and that he wants to take the Animorphs, their families and a selection of other humans off-planet to a world where they will be safe (a preserve according to Cassie, though Tobias more uncharitably calls it a zoo). [[spoiler:As it turns out, he actually doesn't want to take the kids off-world at all, and the space conservationist story is just a LeaveYourQuestTest while he engages in a bit of his trademark LoopholeAbuse and hopes one of them is smart enough to figure it out]].
* IAmLegion: Throughout most of his appearances, he refers to himself in the plural, making it unclear if he is a singular entity or part of a collective, or even a race of creatures like him. [[spoiler:It is eventually revealed he is a singular individual who absorbed millions of minds in a freak incident, explaining his predilection for referring to himself in the plural]].
* ImmortalGenius: A CosmicEntity that never ages and likely can't be killed without destroying the entire universe as well. Not only is he virtually omniscient across time and space, but having been alive for millions of years, he's also a wellspring of information on subjects that most species have long forgotten. On top of playing an incredibly complicated game with Crayak for the fate of the universe, he also engineered an entire race to further his goals and created the legendary Time Matrix at some point in the distant past. [[spoiler: Indeed, it's revealed he first achieved immortality by drawing upon the knowledge he acquired from Father to create a unique starship that could preserve his aging body, upgrading himself over the centuries until he [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence transcended physical existence altogether]].]]
* LastOfHisKind: He is the last surviving member of [[spoiler:the Ketran race. By the time the series proper begins, he is the last Ketran only in mind, as his original Ketran body was destroyed in a black hole when he ascended.]]
* LeaveYourQuestTest: He gives one to the Animorphs in ''The Stranger''.
* LittleMissAlmighty: One of the forms he appeared before the group in.
* LivingShip: During his Third Life.
* LoopholeAbuse: He's forbidden to interfere directly except when he makes a deal with Crayak, but gets around it by sneakily arranging for them to realize things on their own that they wouldn't have without him. This is actually the defining trait of him in his first appearance, where he shows the Animorphs a vision of a BadFuture, and a background event clues them in to the location of the Yeerk Kandrona in the present.
* ManipulativeBastard: He might be the BigGood of the series, more or less, but GoodIsNotNice. And he's not above guilt trips, the above Loophole Abuse, and just metaphorically twisting the arms of his pawns to get what he wants out of them. Elfangor and Tobias in particular are among those hardest leaned on by him.
* MillionToOneChance: [[spoiler:His evolution from Ketran gamer to demigod is due to a series of freak accidents, each more improbable than the last.]]
* MysteriousBacker: He tries to help the heroes, but he is either too roundabout in his methods to really gain their trust or too caught up in his game with Crayak to help at all.
** [[spoiler:The last ''Megamorphs'' heavily implies that the team basically exists because he arranged things from behind the scenes, including the {{Contrived Coincidence}}s of getting members who were already unknowingly connected to the conflict in some way.]]
* OverlyLongName: His official name (which really only applied during his First Life) is [[spoiler: Azure Level, Seven Spar, Extension Two, Down-Messenger, Forty-one.]]
* PetTheDog: [[GodsHandsAreTied He can't intercede]] to prevent [[spoiler:Rachel's]] death but the framing device of ''The Ellimist Chronicles'' is him recounting his life story to comfort [[spoiler:her]] in the moments before [[spoiler:her]] death.
* PointyEars: In his favored form.
* RealityWarper: He can pretty much do anything.
* RecurringCharacter: He appears in a handful of books, but his influence is felt in many more.
* StarfishAlien: We never get a clear description of what Ketrans look like. We only know that they have wings, quills, arms, pods instead of feet, docking talons, and live on gravity defying crystals.
** OurAngelsAreDifferent: The vague description of the Ketrans is somewhat reminiscent of the description of Cherubim from the Book of Ezekiel (a winged HumanoidAbomination with a bestial head and feet). Given that the Ellimist is essentially a god, this may have been intentional.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: At one point, Rachel comments he's advanced compared to humans in the sense that humans are more advanced than cows. He would probably argue that it's not quite that extreme, though.
* TimeStandsStill: His general m.o. if he wants to talk with you.
* WhatIfGodWasOneOfUs: In ''The Ellimist Chronicles'', he places part of his essence into the body of an Andalite and lives among early Andalites in order to reconnect with his sense of mortality.
* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm: Though he arguably doesn't have one anymore. He usually manifests an AmbiguouslyHuman old man (as shown in the picture). In ''The Andalite Chronicles'', he ''does'' allow Elfangor to see his true form, but Elfangor can only describe it in really vague terms.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Crayak]]
!Crayak
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/crayak_v2_by_mrsinister616_on_deviantart.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Crayak" by [[https://www.deviantart.com/mrsinister616 mrsinister616]] ]]
-> '''Debut:''' Animorphs #6: ''The Capture'' (1997, unnamed), #26: ''The Attack'' (1999, full appearance)
->''I will cleanse this galaxy of all life. Then, when no sentient thing is left alive, I will kill you, Ellimist. That's my game. Shall we play?''
\\\\
Foreshadowed early on, the Crayak remains a mystery until halfway through the series, when the Ellimist reveals his story. A being of power equal to the Ellimist but with very different goals, the Crayak is a malevolent being chased from his home galaxy by the one power in the universe that can defeat him. He seeks extinction on a galactic scale, and eventually the ability to control all of space-time as his own.
----
* AllPowerfulBystander: Like the Ellimist, he is not truly all-powerful, but he is so close, it makes little difference from a human perspective.
* ArchEnemy:
** To the Ellimist, with the two of them having warred with each other for millennia due to their opposing goals, Ellimist wishing to sustain life and Crayak wishing to eradicate it.
** To Jake, with Crayak developing a burning hatred for the boy ever since he destroyed Crayak's creation, the Howlers, a race he primarily used to end other species. Ever since, Crayak has tried over and over to murder Jake through indirect means.
* AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Much like the Ellimist, he found a way into the fabric of space and time.
* BadBoss: Towards the Drode. Though the Drode serves loyally, Crayak is fully prepared to let Rachel annihilate him if it means securing her loyalty. He's also stated through implicit reasoning to have annihilated all Howlers who [[AlwaysABiggerFish lost]] or were exposed to ideas that might make them less murderous before those memories could taint the racial pool and diminish their effectiveness as his allegedly unstoppable slaughter-machine shock troops.
* BadassBoast: Brags to Rachel that while there are many [[MasterOfIllusion masters of illusion]] in the universe, only he is a [[RealityWarper master of reality]]. This isn't exactly true, since the Ellimist can do anything he can do, but he gets points for chutzpha.
* BizarreAlienLimbs: As with the Ellimist, Crayak's original biological form is somewhat ill-defined, being described only as a cycloptid creature "evolved for the surface, or perhaps even for a subterranean life". Aside from the eye, his only firmly described features are massive, muscled limbs that no wings could ever lift.
* TheChessmaster: Implied; after all, he's good enough to take on the Ellimist in a CosmicChessGame.
* ChekhovsGunman: He first appears as a bizarre, ominous hallucination when the Yeerk in Jake's head dies. It turns out that briefly seeing past life and death allowed Jake to glimpse Crayak.
* CompleteImmortality: Like the Ellimist, he has transcended the boundaries of life and death and is no longer possible to kill, or even harm, in any tangible sense.
* TheCorrupter: He plays this role to Rachel, tempting her with god-like power in exchange for murdering Jake.
* {{Cyclops}}: Even before ascending, Crayak's original form was a monstrous, one-eyed creature.
* DiabolusExMachina: He has no OriginStory beyond "He was kicked out of another galaxy by an [[AlwaysABiggerFish even more powerful super-being]]". Even in ''The Ellimist Chronicles", which gives the Ellimist's OriginStory, Crayak just shows up in his planetoid/spaceship about half way through with no explanation.
* DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans: According to the Ellimist, he wants to fill the universe with "conflict, pain, and terror", apparently for its own sake. The closest he gets to an ideological motive is that he wants there to be a single surviving MasterRace which has dominated, consumed, or absorbed all others for him to dominate and rule over like a god, and a universe of constant, horrific violence and brutality serves to accelerate that end, but it's also made abundantly clear [[{{Sadist}} that he enjoys the pain and suffering of others for their own sake as well]].
* EarlyBirdCameo: Jake has a vision of him early in the series as Tom's former Yeerk is dying in his head, but has no idea what he's looking at until significantly later.
* EarthShatteringKaboom: He actually tried to destroy Earth once, at some point during the Mesozoic era. Thanks to the newly-ascended Ellimist, the attempt failed.
* EldritchAbomination: He has the appearance of a giant red eye and even without being an OmnicidalManiac, he looks pretty terrifying.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: In ''Megamorphs Three'', a Yeerk using a Controller named John Berryman is able to locate the Time Matrix, and he uses it to [[MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight change history]] so that the Yeerks can more easily invade. Crayak, for all his omnicidal tendencies, views this as cheating in the Game (one of the decided rules was that alternate realities are out of play) and agrees to a [[EnemyMine temporary truce]] with the Ellimist to fix things. It's [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] in that Crayak still uses the opportunity to try to permanently kill Jake, but he was still willing to let the others fix the problem so that the Game would remain fair.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: His attempts to sway Rachel to his service in ''The Return'' are fairly limp, and mostly reliant on the hope that she'll go DrunkOnTheDarkSide. When she doesn't, he takes his cosmic ball and leaves in a huff. [[spoiler:On the other hand, the offer he extends through the Drode remains open until the end of the series, and it's anyone's guess if she fulfilled it.]]
* EvilCounterpart: To the Ellimist.
* EvilGloating: The Drode's first appearance in ''The Exposed'' was half following the rules of the Game and giving the Animorphs one hint to keep things fair. The other half was Crayak indulging in this, by proxy.
* EvilIsNotWellLit: When the Ellimist first meets him, he had a moveable planetoid he uses as a spaceship, which is described as "dark and gloomy".
* EvilMentor: Tries to become this to Rachel. It doesn't work, though the curiously-worded nature of his offer to her spawned more than a few fan theories about [[spoiler:her final fate]].
* EvilIsPetty: After ''The Attack'', he spends most of his remaining appearances coming up with ways to punish Jake for what he did to the Howlers.
* EvilSoundsDeep: If you're unfortunate enough to meet him in person, his voice feels like being shaken apart at the atomic level.
* {{Expy}}: He's explicitly based on [[Literature/LordOfTheRings Sauron]], as ''Creator/KaApplegate'' is a big fan of ''Creator/JRRTolkien.''
* FacelessEye: His appearance is a giant blood-red eye.
* FateWorseThanDeath: He is unsatisfied with watching the universe as a passive observer and would choose his own destruction over that fate.
* ForTheEvulz: He massacres species and enjoys the suffering and torment of others because, hey, it's something to do. When he and the Ellimist first acquire their near-omnipotent powers, the Ellimist suggests that, since they're incapable of killing each other now without collapsing space-time and killing ''everything'' including themselves, and can just undo any damage the other does to the galaxy if they don't, they could call a truce and just watch the advance of evolution. Crayak refuses because he finds the idea boring.
* GiantEyeOfDoom: His appearance is described as being a giant blood-red eye and considering he is evil incarnate definitely fits this trope to a T.
* GodOfEvil: He comes across as this, especially since, unlike the Ellimist, his backstory is never revealed. Additionally, the author admitted to modeling him after personifications of 'pure evil' such as Sauron from ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''.
* GreaterScopeVillain: The ultimate evil in the series who has been responsible for everything occurring. The Yeerks taking over other species was his doing in a great big game with Ellimist.
* HerosEvilPredecessor: When the Ellimist first meets him he's brand new to the cosmic god wannabe game, while Crayak has apparently already been doing it for some time, and indeed delights in running circles around the Ellimist with cruel SadisticChoice scenarios until Toomin finally has enough and decides to TakeAThirdOption. And in a narrative sense, he actually debuts a book before the Ellimist himself, though he is unnamed in it.
* ILied: To [[spoiler:David]]. He promises him revenge against Rachel, but merely uses him as a tool against her.
* ImmortalGenius: He's been around for almost as long as the Ellimist, has more or less the same strengths and limitations, [[spoiler: even a fairly similar backstory, complete with his first body being preserved inside a starship]]. He's used his intellect to create monsters, tempt unsuspecting victims into Faustian bargains, and [[TheSocialDarwinist plot the creation of a universe built on an especially brutal form of social darwinism]].
* KarmaHoudini: Being a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien, he is far too powerful for the Animorphs or the Andalites to do anything to punish him. It's possible the Ellimist will manage to destroy him someday, however.
* LeaveYourQuestTest: Playing up his role as the Ellimist's EvilCounterpart, Crayak extends Jake an offer to alter history so he never met Elfangor. [[spoiler:Jake accepts this offer, and it's the basis for ''Megamorphs'' #4.]]
* LivingShip: He first appears to the Ellimist as this.
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: When the Ellimist first explains his modus operandi to the Animorphs, one of them compares him to a Nazi. Ellimist admits the comparison is partially correct, but cautions that Crayak has very different views of absolute power and no particular attachment to any one race.
* NoIndoorVoice: Similar to Visser Three, he communicates with a form of thought-speech. Jake describes it as sounding like he's screaming at the top of his lungs.
* NoodleIncident: The only clue we get about his backstory is he was kicked out of another galaxy by a being more powerful than even him or the Ellimist. Who said being was and why they banished him are never explained.
* NothingIsScarier: When he first appears on-page, twenty books and nearly two years before he is given any kind of explanation, Jake doesn't know what to make of him, and even expects to have nightmares about him. (At the time, the memory of the Yeerk in his head dying is too fresh, but he's having recurring nightmares about Crayak by ''The Attack''.)
* OmnicidalManiac: "I play the game of ''genocide''..."
* PlagueMaster: In ''The Ellimist Chronicles,'' he makes an entire race starve by creating a parasite that eats all their crops.
* PlotHole: Unlike with the Ellimist, it's never explained how he went from just a really powerful alien to a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien. The Ellimist Chronicles just say he [[HandWave found a way to "follow" the Ellimist into near-omnipotence]].
* RealityWarper: For example, he rewrote history in the last ''Megamorphs'' book.
* RecurringCharacter: Though his presence is often felt, the Crayak himself only personally appears in ''The Attack'', ''The Return'' and ''The Ellimist Chronicles''.
* SadisticChoice: When he first met the Ellimist he put him through various scenarios where he faced the doom of multiple planets and had a way to save one or another, but never both or all.
* SatanicArchetype: He both a pseudo GodOfEvil and (due to the rules of The Game) mostly just tempts people to do evil rather than working directly. His (rather vague) backstory about an even more powerful being exiling him is pretty obviously based on the story of Satan being banished from Heaven.
* TheSocialDarwinist: His goal is to pit race against race, species against species, the winner growing stronger with each engagement, until only one species is left, whom he will then dominate and have revere him as a god.
* SomeoneHasToDie: He agrees to help the Animorphs follow Visser Four through time in ''Megamorphs'' #3. In return, he demands that one of their number must die. [[spoiler:Jake ends up biting the bullet, but thanks to some TimeTravel LoopholeAbuse, it doesn't stick.]]
* SoreLoser: He ''really'' doesn't take it well when the Animorphs defeat his Howlers. In fact, he spends the ''entire rest of the series'' trying to kill Jake as revenge for it.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: He had super-advanced technology even before ascending to near-godhood.
* SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum: Essentially threatens this to get Ellimist to agree to their CosmicChessGame arrangement; he doesn't ''want'' to force a fight within the fabric of space-time itself that would ensure his own destruction, but would do so if the only other option was eternity as a passive observer.
* TalkingInYourDreams: He appears to both Jake and Rachel in dreams.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: The Drode]]
!The Drode
-> '''Debut:''' Animorphs #27: ''The Exposed'' (1999)
->''Yes, yes, oh yes. Mustn't upset the balance. Not directly, anyway. But! Create problems? Yes. Create opportunities? Yes. Play the wild card? Of course.''
\\\\
An alien being who resembles a humanoid dinosaur, he serves Crayak and acts as his representative. He has incredible powers, presumably a gift from his master. The series' weirdest points are usually his doing.
----
* BeastWithAHumanFace: His body is similar to that of a therapod dinosaur, but his face is oddly humanoid.
* BreakingSpeech: His first appearance in ''The Exposed'' has him pop out of nowhere and snarkily pick the Animorphs apart one by one.
* DealWithTheDevil: [[spoiler: Implied, but not confirmed. See LastOfHisKind below.]] He also pitches one to Rachel that remains one of the great unanswered questions in the series.
* TheDragon: To Crayak.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Is absolutely enraged that the Pemalites and Chee would choose to be {{actual pacifist}}s.
-->And you wonder why Crayak destroyed the Pemalites. What tedious creatures they were. Pacifist androids! What is the ''point'' of machines that cannot kill? They could have ruled the galaxy with their Chee as warriors!
* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: He likes to joke, but...
* EvilSoundsDeep: [[InvertedTrope Inverted,]] as his voice is specifically described as "high, shrill, grating."
* EvilMentor: Tries really hard to become one to Rachel.
* ExactWords: "Your cousin's life is your key to salvation in the arms of Crayak." [[spoiler:Notice he never specifies which cousin he meant.]]
* FromASingleCell: He can regenerate, possibly from any wound. [[spoiler:Rachel rips his head off in ''The Return'' to no effect.]]
* GigglingVillain: He's prone to giggling when he thinks he has the upper hand, particularly in ''The Return''.
* InLoveWithYourCarnage: Enjoys Rachel's penchant for violence.
* LastOfHisKind: [[spoiler:It's implied that he sold out his entire species so he could become Crayak's right-hand man.]]
* LoopholeAbuse: Like his master, he is bound by the rules of The Game. That doesn't stop him from bending the rules to achieve the outcome he desires.
* ManipulativeBastard: In his debut appearance he pulls the strings of the Animorphs, the Chee, and the Yeerks, all in hopes of punishing the Animorphs for their recent victory over Crayak's Howlers.
* MouthOfSauron: Since Crayak rarely appears in the flesh, the Drode frequently does his talking for him.
* OutGambitted: [[spoiler:In his first appearance, thanks to the timely intervention of Erek.]]
* OutsideContextProblem: The Ellimist doesn't have any kind of herald, so the reveal that Crayak ''does'' was one that [[DidntSeeThatComing none of the Animorphs ever saw coming]].
* RealityWarper: Shares this power with Crayak.
* RecurringCharacter: He appears in ''The Exposed'', the last two ''Megamorphs'' books, and ''The Return''.
* SmugSnake: Despite all his cosmic power, he's really nothing more than Crayak's errand boy, and as Crayak demonstrates in ''The Return'', he's more than willing to replace the Drode at any time.
* TeleportersAndTransporters: Having a fraction of his master's RealityWarper power, he can appear and reappear wherever and whenever he wants.
* TermsOfEndangerment: He refers to Rachel as "Rachel of the dark heart."
* ThouShaltNotKill: One of the rules of the Game he is bound by, much to his disdain. This has {{loophole|Abuse}}s, though -- while he can't take life ''directly'', he can maneuver victims into scenarios where someone else will kill them, as he tried to do with the Animorphs and the Yeerks. He is also capable of setting the Chee to self-destruct, revealing that some variant of WhatMeasureIsANonHuman (or What Measure is a Non-Organic) is at play.
* WildCard: His name literally means "wild card."
[[/folder]]
[[folder: The One]]
!The One
-> '''Debut:''' Animorphs #54: ''The Beginning'' (2001)
->''You have done well to come this far. You have come to find your friend. But the Andalite is part of me now. As you will soon be.''
\\\\
A DiabolusExNihilo that shows up in the last few pages of the final book. He gathers the remnants of the shattered Yeerk Empire under his aegis and plots to [[TheAssimilator assimilate]] the Animorphs into his being. The book ends with the Animorphs ramming his ship and the outcome of the conflict is never revealed.
----
* TheAssimilator: Apparently assimilates a lot of beings, [[spoiler:including Ax]].
* BodyHorror: It's revealed he's inflicted it on his captive [[spoiler:Ax]].
* BolivianArmyEnding: "[[spoiler:Ram the Blade ship]]."
* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Implied. Two of the four forms he shows the Animorphs are mechanical creatures.
* DiabolusExMachina[=/=]DiabolusExNihilo: Just when it looks like the war is finally over for the Animorphs, out like an evil space jack-in-the box pops this thing.
* GenericDoomsdayVillain: What exactly does the One want? Why does it assimilate beings when it seems plenty powerful on its own? Where is it even going? Good luck figuring any of that out, it's just there for two pages of generic villainy.
* AGodAmI: To the point where Yeerks start worshiping him.
* GreaterScopeVillain: The leader of the Yeerk survivors and the final enemy faced by the Animorphs.
* LightIsNotGood: He appears to the Animorphs heralded by "searing light."
* MinorMajorCharacter: His only appearance covers all of ''four pages''.
* NoMouth: Subverted in nightmarish fashion. See BodyHorror above.
* PathOfInspiration: Hinted at. The Yeerk remnants he leads worship him as a god and his lieutenant, Efflit One-Three-One-Eight, carries himself in a manner more befitting a HighPriest than a ship's captain.
* TheRemnant: He leads it.
* SpaceElves: One of his forms is described as a "sweet, feminine, almost elfin visage."
* MindProbe: Apparently, since he instantly knows that the Animorphs are hiding on their ship.
* TooManyMouths: One too many, given that he gives a horrifying, red-rimmed mouth to [[spoiler:Ax]].
* UnseenEvil: We never see his true face and he is described by Marco as "every corruption and every evil."
* UnroboticReveal: When it first shows itself to Jake and company it has a mechanical face, but this quickly dissolves into the "sweet elfin visage" mentioned above before revealing what is apparently its newest face, [[spoiler:Ax]].
* WalkingSpoiler: He literally shows up within the last few pages of the final book with no build-up.
[[/folder]]
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[[center:[-[[Characters/{{Animorphs}} Main Character Index]] | [[Characters/AnimorphsAnimorphs The Animorphs]] | [[Characters/AnimorphsYeerkEmpire Yeerk Empire]] | [[Characters/AnimorphsAndalites Andalites]] | [[Characters/AnimorphsTheHighestPowers The Highest Powers]] | [[Characters/AnimorphsEveryoneElse Everyone else]]-]]]
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* EvilIsPetty: After ''The Attack'', he spends most of his time coming up with ways to punish Jake for what he did to the Howlers.
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* EvilIsPetty: After ''The Attack'', he spends most of his time remaining appearances coming up with ways to punish Jake for what he did to the Howlers.
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* DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans: According to the Ellimist, he wants to fill the universe with "conflict, pain, and terror", apparently for its own sake. The closest he gets to an ideological motive is that he wants there to be a single surviving MasterRace which has dominated, consumed, or absorbed all others for him to dominate and rule over like a god, and a universe of constant, horrific violence and brutality serves to accelerate that end, but it's also made abundantly clear [[TheSadist that he enjoys the pain and suffering of others for their own sake as well]].
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* DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans: According to the Ellimist, he wants to fill the universe with "conflict, pain, and terror", apparently for its own sake. The closest he gets to an ideological motive is that he wants there to be a single surviving MasterRace which has dominated, consumed, or absorbed all others for him to dominate and rule over like a god, and a universe of constant, horrific violence and brutality serves to accelerate that end, but it's also made abundantly clear [[TheSadist [[{{Sadist}} that he enjoys the pain and suffering of others for their own sake as well]].
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* BadBoss: Towards the Drode. Though the Drode serves loyally, Crayak is fully prepared to let Rachel annihilate him if it means securing her loyalty.
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* BadBoss: Towards the Drode. Though the Drode serves loyally, Crayak is fully prepared to let Rachel annihilate him if it means securing her loyalty. He's also stated through implicit reasoning to have annihilated all Howlers who [[AlwaysABiggerFish lost]] or were exposed to ideas that might make them less murderous before those memories could taint the racial pool and diminish their effectiveness as his allegedly unstoppable slaughter-machine shock troops.
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* DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans: According to the Ellimist, he wants to fill the universe with "conflict, pain, and terror", apparently for its own sake.
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* DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans: According to the Ellimist, he wants to fill the universe with "conflict, pain, and terror", apparently for its own sake. The closest he gets to an ideological motive is that he wants there to be a single surviving MasterRace which has dominated, consumed, or absorbed all others for him to dominate and rule over like a god, and a universe of constant, horrific violence and brutality serves to accelerate that end, but it's also made abundantly clear [[TheSadist that he enjoys the pain and suffering of others for their own sake as well]].
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* SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum: Essentially threatens this to get Ellimist to agree to their CosmicChessGame arrangement; he doesn't ''want'' to force a fight within the fabric of space-time itself that would ensure his own destruction, but would do so if the only other option was eternity as a passive observer.
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* CreativeSterility: Not him, but rather he uses this to defeat [[TheAssimilator Father]] in his [[WasOnceAMan mortal days]]. Father was a carnivorous parasitic seaweed-like creature that joins with his prey and absorbs memories. Once the Ketrans made the mistake of visiting Father's planet, everyone on board was killed and assimilated into Father, ''except'' Ellimist who was the SoleSurvivor, whom Father kept alive as a game partner to prevent boredom. Due to his wealth of knowledge, Father always won their games, ''until'' he introduced a game of creativity, music. Father could only mimic and copy what he saw, but Ellimist was able to create on his own.
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* CreativeSterility: Not him, but rather he uses this to defeat [[TheAssimilator Father]] in his [[WasOnceAMan mortal days]]. Father was a carnivorous parasitic seaweed-like creature that joins with his prey and absorbs memories. Once the Ketrans made the mistake of visiting Father's planet, everyone on board was killed and assimilated into Father, ''except'' Ellimist who was the SoleSurvivor, whom Father kept alive as a game partner to prevent boredom. Due to his wealth of knowledge, Father always won their games, ''until'' he introduced a game of creativity, creativity: music. Father could only mimic and copy what he saw, but Ellimist was able to create on his own.
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* CreativeSterility: Not him, but rather he uses this to defeat [[TheAssimilator Father]] in his [[WasOnceAMan mortal days]]. Father was a carnivorous parasitic seaweed like creature that joins with his prey and absorbs memories. Once the Ketrans made the mistake of visiting Father's planet, everyone on board was killed and assimilated into Father, ''everyone'' but Ellimist who was the SoleSurvivor, who Father kept alive as a game partner to prevent boredom. Due to his wealth of knowledge, Father always won games, ''until'' he introduced a game of creativity, music. Father could only mimic and copy what he saw, but Ellimist was able to create on his own.
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* CreativeSterility: Not him, but rather he uses this to defeat [[TheAssimilator Father]] in his [[WasOnceAMan mortal days]]. Father was a carnivorous parasitic seaweed like seaweed-like creature that joins with his prey and absorbs memories. Once the Ketrans made the mistake of visiting Father's planet, everyone on board was killed and assimilated into Father, ''everyone'' but ''except'' Ellimist who was the SoleSurvivor, who whom Father kept alive as a game partner to prevent boredom. Due to his wealth of knowledge, Father always won their games, ''until'' he introduced a game of creativity, music. Father could only mimic and copy what he saw, but Ellimist was able to create on his own.
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* EarthShatteringKaboom: He actually tried to destroy Earth once, long before any kind of life had evolved yet on it. Thanks to the newly-ascended Ellimist, the attempt failed.
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* EarthShatteringKaboom: He actually tried to destroy Earth once, long before any kind of life had evolved yet on it.at some point during the Mesozoic era. Thanks to the newly-ascended Ellimist, the attempt failed.
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* DiabolusExMachina: Just when it looks like the war is finally over for the Animorphs, out like an evil space jack-in-the box pops this thing.
* DiabolusExNihilo: He literally shows up within the last few pages of the final book with no build-up.
* DiabolusExNihilo: He literally shows up within the last few pages of the final book with no build-up.
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* DiabolusExMachina: DiabolusExMachina[=/=]DiabolusExNihilo: Just when it looks like the war is finally over for the Animorphs, out like an evil space jack-in-the box pops this thing.
* DiabolusExNihilo: He literally shows up within the last few pages of the final book with no build-up.thing.
* DiabolusExNihilo: He literally shows up within the last few pages of the final book with no build-up.
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* WalkingSpoiler: He literally shows up within the last few pages of the final book with no build-up.
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* EvilSoundsDeep: [[InvertedTrope inverted,]] as his voice is specifically described as "high, shrill, grating."
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* EvilSoundsDeep: [[InvertedTrope inverted,]] Inverted,]] as his voice is specifically described as "high, shrill, grating."
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* EvilSoundsDeep: [[Inverted inverted,]] as his voice is specifically described as "high, shrill, (and), grating."
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* EvilSoundsDeep: [[Inverted [[InvertedTrope inverted,]] as his voice is specifically described as "high, shrill, (and), grating."
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* BeastWithAHumanFace: His body is similar to that of a therapod dinosaur, but his face is oddly humanoid.
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* EvilSoundsDeep: [[Inverted inverted,]] as his voice is specifically described as "high, shrill, (and), grating."
