Mor-Taxan
 The decaying remains of a Mor-Taxan while in possession of a human body. |
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| The decay process of a Mor-Taxan body is an exothermic reaction, their flesh becoming a horrible steamy mass of decomposing alien tissue. | |
Mor-Taxans are the extraterrestrial inhabitants of the fictional planet Mor-Tax, in the first season of the War of the Worlds television series. They are loosely based on the Martians from the 1953 film version of The War of the Worlds.
Mor-Taxan society is divided into three functional castes: ruling class, military, and scientists. The ruling class is represented on Earth by a triad called the Advocacy who oversee the invasion while their leaders known as the Council (never seen on screen) remain on Mor-Tax to supervise evacuation from their dying planet. The lower class belong mainly to so-called 'field units' who are undercover in human society while most of the scientists stay in Advocacy headquarters at Nevada desert to provide medical and engineering service.
A quote from the show which illustrates this class system is: There are thousands of us...but we are ruled by the three. (Quinn to Blackwood)
Apparently, Mor-Taxans love art, as evidence by renegade Quinn, whose works are very valuable among humans.
The Mor-Taxans possess some advanced technology; including old remains from previous invasions, and some devices which they created from parts found on Earth. Examples include:
The Mor-Taxans employ two known means of communication. One is verbal or phonetic, and is mainly a spoken language, though occasionally they emit more bestial and guttural sounds. The nature of their language is distinctly alien, but at times the observant listener can hear pieces of a human language. For example, in one episode, as the aliens are talking about our sun (via subtitles), the word sol or solar can be heard in correspondence. In other, craft is audible when discussing a ship. While this fictional language sounds inspired in part of African origin, what real human languages were amalgamated in it are unknown. It is of note, that when the aliens talk in human host bodies, there seems to be little distinction between their voices, both among each other and from those in their natural state. However, whereas their voices are mostly heard in more a high pitch, there are times when an aliens' voice is lower. The reasons for this, either within the show or behind-the-scenes, are unknown.
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