A brief guide to morphing.
How Morphing Works
Morphing was originally developed as a spying technology for use in the war against the Yeerks. The way it works is that one must first come into contact with a living creature, then acquire its DNA by concentrating on that creature, which will usually put the creature into a calming trance for approximately a minute. On rare occasion the creature will not go into a trance at all. Once the target creature is acquired, that DNA is saved, and Elfangor is able to morph into that creature at any time in the future with adequate concentration.
When morphing an animal, you take on its instincts, which can be either a good thing or a bad thing. For example, if you morph a bird, that bird will already know how to fly, although you can modify how you fly once you learn to control the morph. (Like the difference between flying a small four-seater airplane and flying a fighter craft.) But in the case of animals that are obsessed with food - either obtaining it or not becoming it - you will have a more difficult time of controlling that morph.
Physical injury can be healed by morphing or demorphing, as the case may be. The body will not retain damage that is not integrated into the DNA. For this reason, birth defects and diseases that alter DNA would be transferred and retained in a morph.
While it is not possible to create chimeras through combining the DNA of various species acquired, the merging of DNA is possible when restricted within a species, so as to create a unique creature that is not simply the replicated version of a single creature. Creating such a morph is called a Frolis Maneuver.
There is one important rule for morphing: do not remain within morph for longer than two (Earth) hours. Doing so will trap you within that form indefinitely. Those who are trapped in morph are referred to as a nothlit. (Note: There are two occasions within canon where the Ellimist has allowed nothlits to become morph-capable again. Once is when he changed Elfangor back from human to Andalite.)
A Note on Thought-Speak
Andalites naturally communicate via thought-speak, as they have no mouths. This ability to speak with their minds remains with them when they morph into different creatures, but even a being who does not naturally communicate with thought-speak may utilize it while in morph.
Thought-speak may be broadcast openly, or aimed only at specified individuals. The distance at which thought-speak can be "heard" varies, much like vocal speech.
In canon, thought-speak is indicated with html brackets.
Elfangor's Morphs
In Canon:
Djabala - A small six-legged creature native to the Andalite home world. Arisths morph these creatures to pass the morphing proficiency test during basic training.
Kafit - A six-winged creature and one of only three species of bird on the Andalite home world. They have razor-sharp beaks. Arisths often morph these creatures for fun.
Taxxon - A sentient race of 10-foot long millipede-like creatures. They hold the upper third of their bodies aloft and can operate basic controls with several pairs of clawed appendages. Their mouths are like that of lampreys, and they have four compound eyes situated upon stalks around the mouth. Taxxons live with an all-encompassing, insatiable hunger, and when they sense blood, they are driven into a feeding frenzy. It is so extreme that they will eat comrades or even themselves if injured. Elfangor morphed a Taxxon once and has sworn off ever using that morph again because the experience was so traumatic.
Human - Elfangor acquired bits of DNA from several humans and combined them in a Frolis Maneuver to create a unique human morph for himself. In canon, he morphed human only once and deliberately remained in morph past the two hour limit.
In Kannagara:
Gyrfalcon - He decided that he needed a less conspicuous avian morph.
Cougar - He simply wanted to acquire the large cat, but it decided that it wanted him for lunch. (This seems to be a regular problem for him...) He managed to acquire the animal, but ultimately had to slay it in order to defend himself. This occurred just prior to his drinking outing with Marco and Matt.
Unicorn - During the purity event, he acquired and morphed Marco's unicorn.
Hare - Acquired during Matt's morphing lessons.
Dolphin - Acquired during the Sakura Matsuri, while hanging out at the beach.
Kitten - Acquired at the end of some god-scrolled sex-swap nonsense.
Wolf - Again, due to almost becoming lunch.
In Scorched:
TBA
Morphing was originally developed as a spying technology for use in the war against the Yeerks. The way it works is that one must first come into contact with a living creature, then acquire its DNA by concentrating on that creature, which will usually put the creature into a calming trance for approximately a minute. On rare occasion the creature will not go into a trance at all. Once the target creature is acquired, that DNA is saved, and Elfangor is able to morph into that creature at any time in the future with adequate concentration.
When morphing an animal, you take on its instincts, which can be either a good thing or a bad thing. For example, if you morph a bird, that bird will already know how to fly, although you can modify how you fly once you learn to control the morph. (Like the difference between flying a small four-seater airplane and flying a fighter craft.) But in the case of animals that are obsessed with food - either obtaining it or not becoming it - you will have a more difficult time of controlling that morph.
Physical injury can be healed by morphing or demorphing, as the case may be. The body will not retain damage that is not integrated into the DNA. For this reason, birth defects and diseases that alter DNA would be transferred and retained in a morph.
While it is not possible to create chimeras through combining the DNA of various species acquired, the merging of DNA is possible when restricted within a species, so as to create a unique creature that is not simply the replicated version of a single creature. Creating such a morph is called a Frolis Maneuver.
There is one important rule for morphing: do not remain within morph for longer than two (Earth) hours. Doing so will trap you within that form indefinitely. Those who are trapped in morph are referred to as a nothlit. (Note: There are two occasions within canon where the Ellimist has allowed nothlits to become morph-capable again. Once is when he changed Elfangor back from human to Andalite.)
A Note on Thought-Speak
Andalites naturally communicate via thought-speak, as they have no mouths. This ability to speak with their minds remains with them when they morph into different creatures, but even a being who does not naturally communicate with thought-speak may utilize it while in morph.
Thought-speak may be broadcast openly, or aimed only at specified individuals. The distance at which thought-speak can be "heard" varies, much like vocal speech.
In canon, thought-speak is indicated with html brackets.
Elfangor's Morphs
In Canon:
Djabala - A small six-legged creature native to the Andalite home world. Arisths morph these creatures to pass the morphing proficiency test during basic training.
Kafit - A six-winged creature and one of only three species of bird on the Andalite home world. They have razor-sharp beaks. Arisths often morph these creatures for fun.
Taxxon - A sentient race of 10-foot long millipede-like creatures. They hold the upper third of their bodies aloft and can operate basic controls with several pairs of clawed appendages. Their mouths are like that of lampreys, and they have four compound eyes situated upon stalks around the mouth. Taxxons live with an all-encompassing, insatiable hunger, and when they sense blood, they are driven into a feeding frenzy. It is so extreme that they will eat comrades or even themselves if injured. Elfangor morphed a Taxxon once and has sworn off ever using that morph again because the experience was so traumatic.
Human - Elfangor acquired bits of DNA from several humans and combined them in a Frolis Maneuver to create a unique human morph for himself. In canon, he morphed human only once and deliberately remained in morph past the two hour limit.
In Kannagara:
Gyrfalcon - He decided that he needed a less conspicuous avian morph.
Cougar - He simply wanted to acquire the large cat, but it decided that it wanted him for lunch. (This seems to be a regular problem for him...) He managed to acquire the animal, but ultimately had to slay it in order to defend himself. This occurred just prior to his drinking outing with Marco and Matt.
Unicorn - During the purity event, he acquired and morphed Marco's unicorn.
Hare - Acquired during Matt's morphing lessons.
Dolphin - Acquired during the Sakura Matsuri, while hanging out at the beach.
Kitten - Acquired at the end of some god-scrolled sex-swap nonsense.
Wolf - Again, due to almost becoming lunch.
In Scorched:
TBA