Howler (Animorphs)

The first page illustration of The Attack, with David Mattingly's depiction of a Howler in the lower right corner. See also Romas Kukalis's art of a Howler here.

Howlers, or Crayak's Children, are the alien shock troops of the nearly omnipotent Crayak, in the sci-fi book series Animorphs.

Biology

Howlers possess cracked black skin that resembles hardened lava; beneath the black, in the cracks and creases of the flesh, are bright, red lines. Humanoid in appearance, their bodies are split in two at the waist, and the two halves tethered together by elastic skin; this bearing allows them to turn their upper body all the way around and keep themselves in the fight permanently, even when thrown away. They have large, expressionless, robin's-egg-blue eyes that have the ability to make out major organs within their prey. The Howlers are fast learners and can easily adapt; when the Animorphs escape them using insect morphs, they counter by releasing insect poison into the room during a subsequent attack.

Their most fearsome weapon is the howl that gives them their name. The howl is modulated to affect the complex, intelligent brains of sentient beings, and will almost instantly disorient and cripple those who hear it. Howlers are very fast, extremely resilient and highly talented at combat. In The Attack, a single Howler was capable of fighting all six of the Animorphs in their primary battle morphs to a stalemate. Their super-fast regenerative abilities allow them to quickly overcome even the worst physical damage. The Howlers operate as a hive-mind; the experiences of any one Howler are shared amongst all of them, so that every single one may become the best possible combatant.

Behavior and Evolution

Being the tools of Crayak, this race's sole purpose is to travel through the universe and destroy peaceful civilizations. But while Howlers may seem brutal in their killings, the Animorphs discover that they are not a race of purely evil beings (a philosophical point of K. A. Applegate's), for they are in fact unaware of the severity of their actions; they seem to be unaware that the people they are killing are actually real, sentient beings capable of feeling emotions or pain. The Howler mind is, in fact, similar to the dolphin mind in its playfulness. The Howler collective memory means that any experiences of victorious combat are shared throughout the race, but it will also share any experience of defeat among them, something Crayak cannot allow, which is why no Howler has memory of ever having lost a battle; Crayak does not allow those memories to poison the collective pool. The species is manufactured, and a Howler lives for only three years of its childhood before dying.

Howlers in Animorphs

The Howlers are mentioned in the tenth book in the Animorphs series, The Android, when the Chee Erek King explains that it was the Howlers who destroyed the Chee's creators, the ancient, dog-like Pemalite race. The creatures are first featured in book twenty-six, The Attack, when Crayak and the Ellimist have a contest between seven of the species and the Animorphs, along with Erek when the Ellimist sought to protect a race called the Iskoort, who would play a vital role in the future. In the fight, Jake manages to defeat one Howler by tricking it into falling off a cliff – subsequently acquiring it during the fall – and the Animorphs subsequently manage to download their own memories into a Howler using Iskoort technology, causing the Howler to realize that humans and other species are, in fact, sentient beings with feelings and emotions. Crayak quickly destroyed the infected Howlers, to keep this information from reaching the collective memory. However, a single memory ended up getting through; a memory of Cassie and Jake kissing. The Ellimist informs the Animorphs that this, in effect, destroys the Howlers as a threat, as a memory of love makes them useless to Crayak. For Jake's role in this, Crayak has great hatred of him, and has worked harder to destroy him than the other Animorphs.

The Howlers are known to have wiped out several species, including the Nostnavay, Graffen's Children and most notably, the Pemalites. They can, in effect, be seen as the opposite of the Pemalites---who were created by the Ellimist to spread life---though both species, interestingly, are noted for wanting nothing more than to have fun.