Shax was never originally the cockatrices' commander.
To be precise, the Shax who had led the cockatrice unit was not the current Shax. The previous Shax had been an evolved cockatrice just like the rest of the unit, and had been killed after losing to the Halphas Legion.
And so the dungeon master name 'Shax' passed down to the current Shax. Halphas bestowed the name Shax onto his daughter, the penguin, and Shax went on to command the cockatrices like her own soldiers, making her mark in battles across the board.
The cockatrice unit under her had no choice but to swear loyalty to Shax as their dungeon master. Shax herself commanded them capably enough, but she didn't know the fundamental truth.
That to the cockatrices, the penguin was the daughter of the one who killed the previous Shax.
If not for the system's stranglehold of dungeon master authority, the cockatrices would never have left Halphas's daughter, who had killed their parent figure, alone.
