The Taelons are an alien species from the Meruva Galaxy. They are descendants of the Atavus. Though the Taelons can take physical form, they are beings of energy. In their natural state, they appeared complex webs of energy arranged in an elongated humanoid shape.
The Taelons are very different from human beings. They were genderless, with pronouns such as he or she neither applying, although most Taelons adopted the pronoun "he" rather than "it". Taelons were also known to not express their emotions though facial or vocal tones- instead, they 'blushed', that is, the energy lines that made up their natural form pulsed in a pattern associated with their current mood. Due to their energy-based natural form, Taelons also could not be harmed the way a human would, being largely immune to small arms fire, slashing and piercing damage, and blunt force trauma, although the were vulnerable to energy-based or -infused weapons and implements.
Taelons assumed a human "facade", where they assumed a skin tone and ears. When not in this form, they appeared as glowing blue and red veins surrounded by a transparent humanoid shell. While a facade was up, strong emotions or stress could cause a Taelon to momentarily drop their facade; this was referred to as a "blush", that being the closest equivalent in human physiology . When a Taelon took on human DNA, he would also blush into the face of the human donor's face. This happened to Rho'ha and Zo'or. Zo'or claimed that he used his facade to make humans comfortable, and thus, easier to manipulate. Whether a Taelon took assumed this facade or not depended on personal preference and how often the individual Taelon interacted with humans. Da'an, who was almost always in the presence of humans, came to prefer his facade almost all of the time, while Quo'on only assumed his facade when in a room full of humans. As interaction with humans became frequent enough to the point where humans boarded the mothership on a daily basis, almost all remaining Taelons assumed their facades most of the time.
Taelons were also known for their advanced biotechnology. The most common examples were living ships employed by the Taelons, as well as Skrills used by Companion protectors. In addition, the Taelons could 'grow' their buildings. The Taelon headquarters as Washington, D.C, appeared organic, and the building housing William Boone's office had the appearance of a creature attached to a human building.
Taelons were bound by a psychic commonality. Da'an explained that no Taelon could feel truly alone. It was possible for psychically gifted humans to invade this commonality. Separating a Taelon from the commonality resulted in that Taelon reverting to an Atavus.
Notable Taelons[]
Behind the Scenes[]
- All of the Taelons were played by women, wearing makeup and prosthetics to supply an androgynous appearance. In English, all Taelons were referred to with the male pronoun (acknowledged in the first episode as being simply a matter of convenience).
- As the series progressed, there was a marked decrease in the appearances of the Taelons' true forms and the "blush" that was originally the only signal of a change in emotion. In-universe, this can be explained as the Taelons behaving more like humans as time goes on; from a production standpoint, keeping them in human form was cheaper.
- Early episodes suggest that the jumpsuits worn by the Taelons were part of their facades, as they disappeared when the Taelons dropped them. About halfway through the first season, the jumpsuits remained intact when they dropped their facades, suggesting they were actual clothes.