PART ONE
The Babylon 5 galaxy is peopled by many races, (some are described below), but the major races that really call the shots in this power game are The Shadows, The Vorlon Empire, The Earth Alliance, The Minbari Federation, The Centauri Republic and The Narn Regime.
Note: Information on the races that follows, was gathered from the Babylon
5 Reference, The Babylon 5 FAQ list and The Babylon 5 Encyclopedia, with additional ideas from a few other sites.
URL's for these sites can can be found on the front page of this site.
To make it easier to read and download, the Races are divided into two
sections. The major races are on this page, and the minor
races have their own page.
The Minbari are native to the planet Minbar, and structurally and skeletally similar to humans, though with some variations such as the horn growth around the head, a more obvious spinal structure, a different blood type and have only one lung. Minbari are born without the "horny crest" that eventually grows from the back of the skull, and gradually grows forward with age over the ears which are mounted below the bone section and behind the mandible, lower than where they are on humans.
The Minbari have no tolerance for alcohol, being driven to psychotic impulses and violent rages, this little known fact was used by Marcus Cole to help establish his credentials with Delenn. Minbari are omnivorous, although the religious caste are largely vegetarian.
Minbari don't perspire, but rather secrete some sort of fluid while they sleep, the exact purpose of which is unclear. Minbari can live 200 to 250 Earth years, although the latter portion of that in a "somnolent state", the norm is around 120. Like many of the other races they have blood with differing types.
Their cultural interests are primarily the attainment of perfection, whether mental, physical, spiritual or emotional. Technology is transitory, merely a means to an end, moreover, absolute self sacrificing service to others is the most noble goal. Their society is built in a highly ordered and regimented manner, as can be seen from one of their sayings; "understanding is not required, only obedience".
Physically their culture consists of a strict clan structure, of which there are five main divisions, each clan having representatives in each of the castes, of which there are three; Warrior, Religious and Worker.
Each of the castes undertakes a specific role in society; the Worker caste is responsible for construction and maintainance of the Minbari Federation's infrastructure. The Warrior caste it's defense and the Religious caste is responsible for spiritual care and intellectual development, being the teachers, priests and artists of the people.Each of the castes and clans is self governing, but is answerable to the Grey Council on more serious matters.
Minbari don't bathe, but rather use a chemical compound that strips away the outer epidermal layer in an act symbolic of rebirth. There are three basic languages: Len'au, Feek, and Audronado (the language of the Priestly caste), also referred to as "light", "dark" and "grey", which are further broken down into 97 dialects and sub-tongues.
The results of courtship are largely determined by the female, who watches over her intended while he sleeps to watch for his true face that is revealed while asleep, if she likes what is revealed she may stay a further two nights to complete the ritual, otherwise she is free to go. Should the male insist that she stay, which is considered highly improper, she can leave while he sleeps, and then cut off his access to her family.
The Minbari believe that sleeping in the horizontal is tempting death, as a result of which their beds are built at a slight inclination. Minbari humor is based around the failure to achieve emotional and spiritual enlightenment.
[Right: Logo of the Minbari Federation] The Minbari Federation is the political organization of the Minbari people which is governed by the Grey Council, an organization made up of three members from each caste, and a central leader known as the Chosen One.
The Greatest of all Minbari, Dukhat, was the leader before his death in 2245, an event that precipitated the Earth-Minbari War, and the position remained vacant until 2259 when Delenn was offered the position, but declined it, at which point Jenimer was nominated to the role. The Grey Council live on a Minbari space cruiser which is in orbit of the planet, but also may change its position in space, so that its position is not always known to the Minbari. The Capitol city of the Minbari is Yedor
The second "major" interstellar civilization contacted by humanity, with regard to level of resources, the number of worlds involved, etc. and had been spacefaring much longer than the Centauri. They are the oldest species that humanity has had extended relations with, and the most advanced with regard to technological level with the exception of the First Ones. They had just begun to venture out into interstellar space, when they encounted a race that they called the Shadows, and began a fight that they seemed destined to loose until the arrival of a stranger aboard a space station.
This stranger, known as Valen, also introduced them to powerful allies known as the Vorlons. Prior to this point there was killing of Minbari by Minbari in what later became known as "the dark times" with three warring castes (Worker, Warrior, and Religious), which Valen united to form the Grey Council, giving the maligned worker caste equal status for the first time, subdued the warrior caste and became known as the Minbari's greatest spiritual leader. Since that time, and the Minbari have been in space for well over a thousand years, they have pretty much stuck with that rule; it is their greatest taboo. Once the three sides were integrated, the warrior caste mainly contented itself with external threats.
The Minbari have telepaths, although it is considered a rare gift and those with the gift usually offer their skills to others as a service for which they are amply rewarded. Some Minbari appear to have other powers as well, such as being able to identify when they are being scanned and they may be able to "see" the soul, although these skills may be restricted to members of the Grey Council.
Religion
[Right: Logo of The Religious Caste]
The Minbari as a whole are deeply religious, placing considerable importance not in a God or Gods, but in souls, which they believe leave the body at death and merge with the souls of other dead Minbari to be recycled into later generations, in this way, as individuals advance their own souls so the Minbari as a whole advance. Souls can only be perceived via the physical bodies they inhabit, but the real soul is something only dimly related to the body, a projection of a fraction of the universe's own consciousness seeking to discover meaning.Because each generation is reborn in the next, no Minbari has killed another for almost a thousand years. Indeed the given reason for their surrender at the Battle of the Line was based on this belief - they discovered that Minbari souls were going to the humans and Minbari do not kill Minbari. In the temple, a member of the religious caste must spend a year learning to appreciate laughter.
The Minbari have magneto-gravitation control, albeit in limited ways. They have also been developing hybrid Vorlon-Minbari technology, the White Star being the first example of this.
Their technology is far in excess of that of Earth and is possibly beyond that of the Centauri too; their ships could not be locked onto by the Earth Alliance's XB7 tracking systems during the Earth-Minbari War, although Earth has caught up slightly since then.
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The homeworld of an apparently aggressive race of the same name, orbiting approximately every 14.5 months around a red-giant star located 12.2 light years from Babylon 5 and three days in hyperspace from Centauri Prime, which gives a coppery sheen to the landscape and foliage. The Narn day appears to be about 31 Earth hours long.
Although Narns appear reptilian, they are actually marsupials, with the father being the pouchling carrier. They have red, glowing eyes (and may be more sensitive to light in that range). They appear stronger than humans in the same gravity. 50-60 (Earth) years old is early middle aged for the Narn, who live to around 200 years old.
Initially a peaceful, agrarian culture, however after a century of domination and exploitation by the Centauri Republic, they are now intense warriors and aggressive nationalists, keeping aliens as slaves and maintaining an "assassin's guild" (the Thenta Makur).
Much of modern Narn authority seems to be based on one's fighting prowess and a system of dominance and submission. Certain forms of clan agreements are sealed with sex, the refusal of which is a terrible insult, often resulting in a "Blood Oath", or Shon'Kar. They will sell weapons and technology to anyone who can afford them, and send along "advisors" and trainers where needed.
Narn society is a very intricate webbing of clans, families, circles, cartels, trading organizations, information spheres, financial districts, tribes, domains, communities...etc. Each Clan has "Elders" which may be a form of ancestor worship. There is also a kinial system of family obligation, family debts and honor being very important to the Narn.
Owing to the harshness of life for a pouchling, with many not living past their first decade, Narn tradition dictates that they be given a temporary name for the first ten years of their life, choosing a new name from their chosen faith on their tenth birthday.
Until October 2259 the political organization of the Narn was the Kha'Ri, or council, but after the conclusion of the Narn-Centauri War the shattered planet was briefly run by a "Provisional Government" under the dominion of the Centauri Republic. With the withdrawal of the Centauri occupational army the Narn began to rebuild the Kha'Ri, but their government is still in some turmoil.
The Narn government was one of the first to recognise the independence of Mars Colony, opening a consulate there soon after the Earth Alliance joined the Interstellar Alliance, an event not without controversy amid the humans.
"They came to our world over a thousand of your years ago, long before we went to the stars ourselves. They set up a base on one of our southern continents. They took little interest in us. G'Quan believed they were engaged in a war, far outside our own world, centered on a planet known as Z'ha'dum".A thousand years ago when they were a peaceful agrarian culture, the Narn homeworld was used as a supply depot for a group of Shadows, it is from this contact that G'Quan learned of them;
The Narn fought a long war of attrition to release themselves from the Centauri Republic who had enslaved them for almost a century from 2110, in what Ambassador G'Kar described as a "reign of terror" during which the Centauri forces tried to demoralize the Narn through such methods as extensive bombing campaigns of their largest cities, resulting in many of the Narn inhabitants spending a considerable amount of time living in bomb shelters.
After the formation of the Narn Regime, the Narn became obsessed with gaining technology, starting with that of the retreating Centauri forces and soon became arms dealers, supplying the Earth Alliance during the Earth-Minbari War and later the Raiders operating around Babylon 5.
The Narn then used the revenue gained from these ventures to finance the construction of their own space fleets for use in the expansion of their sphere of influence, enabling them to rapidly annex several worlds, including that of the Tuchanq. In 2258 there was a famine along the "Southern Frontier" caused by the Centauri stripping of the resources of the Narn homeworld. Their freedom was lost at the end of 2259 when, aided by the Shadows and using illegal mass drivers, they were once again conquered by the Centauri Republic, leaving sufficient particulate matter in the air to cool the world noticeably and take several years to drift back to the ground.
The Narn used to have telepaths, known as "nar fereeki" (literally "mind walkers"), until a thousand years ago, but they and their families were all but exterminated by the Shadows, until the few remaining telepaths, led by G'Quan, drove the Shadows away.
The genes for telepathy amongst those that remained were too weak to allow the Narn to breed natural telepaths and at the time the necessary genetic skill to induce it artificially were far beyond them, but their abilities can still be unlocked, briefly, by the narcotic known as dust.
Narn faith ranges from atheism to fervent belief, G'Quan and G'Lon are two of the larger belief systems, G'Lon is the oldest of the modern Narn faiths, G'Quan was a prophet around a thousand years ago, a third major religious figure, G'Ston predates G'Quan by around 500 years.
Narn technology was primitive until they first encountered the Centauri, from which point they acquired through various, and often dubious, means as much technology as they could in a frantic game of catch-up. By the inception of the Babylon Project they were on a similar level to that of the Earth Alliance, although possibly slightly lower, understandable since both races had some access to Centauri technology and the Narn supplied the Earth Alliance during the Earth-Minbari War.
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Outwardly human in appearance, Centauri male genitalia consist of six prehensile tentacles, known as "tentisticularites", that extend from the hip area and can reach up to a meter and half in length. Females have six corresponding slots at the base of the spine, three per side, each penetration representing a higher level of intimacy.
Their blood types have never been successfully synthesized by human xenobiologists, and no major arteries are present in the wrists. They have two hearts, one either side of the sternum, the larger right heart being a large muscle purely to pump the blood, while the smaller and more delicate left heart fulfills a dual role; an additional pump and purification, similar to the human kidney. The Centauri lifespan is typically 150 years or so, sometimes longer.
Centauri society is a very indulgent one, with jewelry and ornamentation being very popular. The males wear their hair in a style resembling a peacock's plume, as a measure of status; the larger and more expansive the fan, the higher their position in society whereas female Centauri are mainly bald except for a ponytail at the base of the skull.
Status in the Centauri Republic is largely hereditary, with senior members of the Noble Houses being at the top of the social ladder. The Centauri are a very decadent race with heavy emphasis placed upon family honor and tradition with arranged marriages common, especially among the elite. Marriages are somber affairs in Centauri culture, so that the married couple's life afterward can only be better, funerals on the other hand are joyous occasions.
If a Centauri's family history contains scandalous behavior, knowledge of this behavior can remove the Centauri concerned from high positions or could topple entire governments. A person convicted of treason is executed and has all their property confiscated, which ruins their family.
Once a year, the Centauri celebrate a "Festival of Life", a celebration that originated during the Centauri/Xon conflict. There is a ritual of ascension, celebrating the anniversary of a Centauri's entry in to public life, the 30th being a major event where gifts are given to the guest of honor, and to wear shoes is a serious insult.
There is a major focus on opera and dueling, with the Kora Predo duel, or Marago, being the primary means of settling a dispute of honor.
[Right: Seal of the Centauri Republic] Although it is called a "Republic" it is governed by an Emperor and a Senate-like body called the Centaurum, when the first Emperor assumed the throne, he consulted with three Technomages and received their blessing.
The Centauri were once very powerful and controlled much of what is now inhabited space, but now their power is fading and they are very much a power in decline, consisting of "twelve star systems, thirty worlds, and some tourist attractions" including Davo and Ragesh 3. Poison was once a traditional political tool for gaining power in the old days of the Centauri Republic.
For a millennium the Centauri were a major force in the galaxy, and in 2151 became the first extraterrestrial race to be encountered by mankind, they were sufficiently human in appearance that they initially pretended that we were a forgotten colony of theirs, until DNA testing proved otherwise.
Despite this the Centauri were considerably more generous than they were with the Narn, leasing mankind use of their jump gates and providing us with access to information that permitted over a century of progress in less than a single Earth year. In return for all of this, all that the Centauri requested were cultural stuff in return…music, art, philosophy, literature…"native" trinkets that could be resold for more money back on Centauri Prime, probably at a large profit given the highly decadent society, with such "trinkets" being very popular.
However the Centauri Republic was by this time in decline, due to a combination of laziness and a war of attrition with the Narn their Empire reduced in stature until only twelve worlds and a few tourist attractions remained a little over a century later.
At this point the Shadows returned and through their interaction with Londo Mollari the Centauri Republic was increasing in size and influence once more, firstly retaking Narn space and then continuing into the worlds of the Drazi, Pak'ma'ra and beyond.
John Sheridan had a brief glimpse of the near future of Centauri Prime when he was flung forwards almost two decades in time after his time stabilizer was damaged during his theft of Babylon 4, where an aged Emperor Londo Mollari showed him a glimpse of a city that had been devastated by allies of the Shadows as a result of their defeat at the hands of the forces united by John Sheridan and then flung into a cell where he met a future version of Delenn.
Later on they were shown Londo Mollari's "keeper", an ally of the Shadows who monitored everything that Londo, and probably other important Centauri did. Before he released Sheridan and Delenn, he begged them and their allies to help save the Centauri people from their fate. As the pair were escorted to Londo's waiting ship Londo deliberately sacrificed himself to G'Kar to prevent his keeper from alerting the others, strangling each other to death when the keeper awoke, thus clearing the way for Vir Cotto to become Emperor, fulfilling Lady Morella's prophecy.
Some Centauri seem to possess an ability to see the future, and are often able to glimpse their own deaths sometimes even down to the time and place. Many "seers" are able to glimpse important moments in a persons future. The Centauri are known to have telepaths, four of whom, having been raised together from birth, assist the Emperor, two remaining with him at all times, two remaining in the Imperial Palace, enabling a permanent link with Centauri Prime. The Centauri, like most races, make use of telepaths in their military, and have done so for over three centuries.
The Centauri have a pantheon consisting of over 70 gods including: Venzen, God of Food; Ilarus, Goddess of Luck and Patron of Gamblers; Morgoth, God of the Underworld, and Protector of Front Doors; Li the Goddess of Passion; Ruterian; Zoog; the Great Maker, not to mention a host of deified Emperors, most of which stem from the time of the wars with the Xon.
The Centauri share their belief of the Great Maker with the Ikarrans and a number of worlds conquered by the Centauri in the past, who have adopted Centauri religious customs. The Centauri do not have a Savior figure equivalent to Valen or G'Quan. The Centauri believe in a variety of afterlives.
Perhaps the most advanced of all the younger races, like the Minbari they possess limited magneto-gravitation control and have been in space for almost as long as the Minbari have, establishing a vast empire before letting it decay into decadence. Despite this decay and lack of recent innovation however the Centauri's technology is still in considerable advance of almost all of the other races in every area, such was their huge advance during their golden age, and their military spacefleet is one of the largest and most powerful known.
Having shared much of their technology with the Earth Alliance they are not immune to attack by Earth Alliance forces, one of their Primus Battlecruisers being totally obliterated by the defensive systems of Babylon 5.
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A "creature of darkness" with a spidery form such as the multi-eyed being awakened by the Icarus' crew at Z'ha'dum. They are capable of rendering themselves invisible in normal light, although they are still detectable at the outer reaches of the visible spectrum, and appear to be able to interpenetrate normal matter at will. Their means of communication, at least to their emissary Morden, is a high pitched scritching sound on the edge of human perception.
They also have several types of servants or affiliated races such as the "Soldier of Darkness", a large two "horned", or antlered, biped brought to Babylon 5 aboard the Copernicus that shares many of the traits of the Shadows themselves, including the ability to become invisible, "possess" living matter and feed off of those that they are part of, consuming internal organs and life force, a process that leaves a psychic rapport with their victim.
There is also a form that appears similar to the Streibs in general build with a very heavy bone structure, that has been interacting with members of Psi Corps, the remains of one such creature, although badly damaged by self inflicted acid, were recovered from a transport carrying telepathic blips and presented to Dr. Stephen Franklin for an autopsy.
Largely unknown, but like the Vorlons they prefer to work through others, placing an agent, Morden, on Babylon 5 who they used to manipulate the Centauri Republic's Ambassador to Babylon 5, Londo Mollari, into escalating military actions between the Centauri and Narn until the Narn Regime was compelled into declaring war against the Centauri Republic during 2259.
Similar tactics were also in play throughout the non-aligned worlds, weakening all of the races involved in savage in-fighting before the Shadows began their own attack after a period of gathering their forces on the edge of Centauri space. A similar strategy to that employed a thousand years earlier in the last war during which they were driven back by a coalition that also included the Minbari and the Vorlons.
The Shadows appear to be keen to promote the development of other races, but where the Vorlons appear to intervene indirectly as "Lords of Order" the Shadows are more "Lords of Chaos", using periodic warfare to force a sudden technological development amongst the younger races, believing that strength comes through conflicts, even though some races may become extinct as a result.
Unknown, but based for "security reasons" beneath the surface of Z'ha'dum for several centuries.
The Shadows, a term used as an alternative for their actually 10,000 character name, are an ancient and very powerful legendary race, one of the very first to evolve, which once nearly ruled known space, but during the 13th century were pushed back to Z'ha'dum, their homeworld on the rim, by the First Ones with whom they have fought for a million years as their understanding and respect of each others beliefs broke down.
For a thousand years they lay dormant until reawakened by a survey expedition sent by the Earth Alliance, at which point they began to slowly rebuild and regroup their forces, preparing to once again try and accomplish their goals of forcing rapid technological development amongst other races.
Highly likely to have developed powerful telepathic and telekinetic powers as they caused severe anxiety in Talia Winters when they inadvertently met. However suitably powerful telepaths can cause a disruption in the cybernetic link between their warships and their living cores, resulting in their requirement for telepathic cores that have been supplied by Psi Corps
Unknown.
Very advanced and with an organic base that is virtually impervious to damage by Narn level technology, requiring three heavy cruisers to inflict some damage and the destruction of a vortex generator, with the massive energies involved to destroy one of their larger ships.
Their offensive capability is equally advanced, their primary weapon being a formidable directional energy beam that is just as effective against spacecraft as installations on a planetary surface and is capable of slicing the largest Narn capital ships cleanly apart in one shot, although they have a lesser effect against more advanced technologies, barely inflicting a flesh wound on a Vorlon Cruiser.
The Shadows appear to have a vastly higher degree of understanding of the mechanics of hyperspace in comparison with the other races, smoothly moving between the two sets of dimension without the need for a specific jump point although there is a residual shimmering effect, they also have a capability to disrupt a jump point, preventing its use by other vessels, a technique used to destroy the remnants of the Narn fleet at Gorash 7.
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Largely unknown. Vorlons have DNA, blood with a "blue cell count" and some sort of crystalline structure, breathing an atmosphere containing methane, sulphur and carbon dioxide, which is "pretty thick stuff" according to Dr. Benjamin Kyle, however Vorlons are also non-corporeal, which could imply that Kyle's measurements were an illusion generated in the same way as their psionic projection.
In its natural state a Vorlon is a diaphanous and free floating creature apparently made of light with no rigid structure, similar in appearance to a jellyfish, around which float a considerable number of independent dots of light and are capable of flight and very rapid movement when in their natural state and environment.
This non-corporeal state also allows them to "break off" a part of their consciousness and place it in other beings so that they can travel unobserved, however while Kosh had no difficulty placing part of himself in John Sheridan, Lyta Alexander, a telepath, was modified to allow her to better carry a Vorlon.
On Babylon 5 their representatives, Kosh and later Ulkesh were encased in heavily armored encounter suits preventing them from being recognized, but apparently not from being poisoned by florazyne. They speak in musical tones, which are translated by the flashing device on their encounter suits.
Unknown. Vorlons are very secretive, controlling vast areas of space located around eight days in hyperspace from Babylon 5, but permitting very little contact, to the extent that the first three Earth Alliance exploration vessels into Vorlon space all met with "accidents", and when questioned about this the Vorlon's merely apologized and suggested "no more expeditions", presumably a similar stance was taken with the numerous Centauri expeditions, which met a similar fate.
It is known however that art and science are closely allied and that their writing resembles a combination of punctuation marks, while their architecture resembles a collection of towers, spires and disks.
[Shown at right is the Logo of the Vorlon Empire] Their political organization is known as the Vorlon Empire, which is governed by the Vorlon High Command.
The Vorlons are one of the oldest races in the galaxy, collectively known as the First Ones, and are amongst the last of the older races who have not yet passed beyond the veil. Over millions of years they have established their Empire across a vast area of space, or perhaps just occupied what was left vacant by the departure of the other First Ones, while at the same time battling with the Shadows, their last battle being fought around a millennia ago when together with the Minbari and a few other races they drove the Shadows back to their homeworld, Z'ha'dum.
Vorlons appear to have a distrust of telepaths, although they allegedly have them, and according to Justin were in fact responsible for the creation of telepaths on a hundred worlds for use as cannon fodder in their struggles against the Shadows, presumably having discovered the weakness in the control mechanism of the Shadows' ships.
Vorlons appear to have other powers as well, such as being able to detect when they are being scanned telepathically, the ability to generate intense sound waves and both an energy field that can deflect PPG fire and energy blasts to use against opponents, although use of such capabilities, and being seen "each according to their kind" is tiring to them.
Arguably they are religion for many worlds, having nurtured many of the younger races in the galaxy and conditioning those races to perceive Vorlons as a mythological being from their religious history.
To Drazi they are seen as Droshalla, to the Minbari they are Valeria and they are seen as G'Lan by the Narn. The common factor that all races have is that they are perceived as winged beings of light with a diaphanous tail instead of legs, with the exception of the Centauri, or maybe just their ambassador, for Londo Mollari could not see anything.
The Vorlons possess some suitably advanced and very sophisticated technology closely linked with their arts most, if not all of which, is organic in nature. They use tight beam rather than broadband communications, maintaining an aura of fear and mystery they seem keen to promote.
Their technology, as could be expected is far in advance of the other races, only the Shadows and Walkers of Sigma 957 demonstrating comparable levels of expertise, a Vorlon Cruiser can survive an impact from the beam weapon of a Shadow Warship with minor damage, but both the other races demonstrate more expertise with hyperspace transitions, although the Vorlons are far more advanced than other races, being capable of using a hyperspace distortion field to create a pocket in which to hide their ships within the realms of hyperspace.
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