PART TWO
The Races of Babylon 5. The races in this section can be looked upon as the minor races, as they tend to have a more background role as far as the storyline is concerned. Some of the races in this section e.g. the Drazi, would hotly contest that statement.
Drazi are recognizable by their scaly dark-purple or greenish-black heads and are often to be found where there is a fight, usually at the center of it, or at least nearby. There are five distinct sub-species of Drazi, which became a united race following a great war at the dawn of their civilization.
Drazi are a somewhat militant and violent member race of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds and Interstellar Alliance, with around 4,000 of their people on Babylon 5, many of which carry punch daggers with poisoned tips, and are quick to become aroused should they feel cheated or insulted.
Their society is group orientated with a high degree of rivalry between the various groupings such as family, military unit, business ties and so on, with a Drazi's status determined by how well he or she serves the various groups to which they belong. Drazi value their freedom highly and react badly if they feel that they are being confined or given orders from a source other than their own chain of command.
While the Drazi are non-discriminate of an individual gender, their culture has become male dominated by default rather than design as the majority of Drazi females tend towards a more family orientated role.
The Drazi people are governed by a council of five known as the Shadak, members of which are selected every five Drazi years in a ritualistic struggle between two randomly selected sides, the green and the purple. The winner of which decides who shall represent the five Drazi races. Power below that of the Shadak falls to a bureaucracy consisting of numerous committees, each handling different aspects of Drazi society and responsible for making recommendations to the Shadak.
The Drazi civilization is around 3,000 years old, having come into being following the internecine conflict between the five Drazi races on Zhabar that now forms the basis of their method of determining the members of their ruling council, the Shadak. To this day the Drazi have maintained their strict warrior tradition, with compulsory military service for its people, and despite their warlike nature, which has caused problems at times, are not xenophobic, and have been respected members of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds since the early 2240's, with particularly close ties with the Hyach who they have been trading partners with for over a thousand years.
Until the formation of the Interstellar Alliance the Drazi had been profiting quite handsomely by backing raiders to plunder the resources of worlds bordering the Drazi Freehold, splitting the take fifty-fifty, until such actions were discovered and halted through the actions of the White Star fleet at Enphilia and a confrontation in the council chambers of Babylon 5.
No information is available on this aspect of the Drazi, but some slight evidence would suggest that they may have Psi abilities (season 5).
Drazi are pantheistic, having three primary faiths, Thrazda, Kri Maru and Chayar, but also many minor gods and patron saints such as Shokalla, which they duly make statues of, although these are generally considered worthless by the other races. There is often rivalry between the adherents of different faiths.
The Drazi have been a space faring race for some time, having interstellar travel since the time when Earth was just entering into its industrial revolution and as befits such a warlike race they have superb weaponry and space technology, their very capable capital ships, SunHawks, are fast and highly maneuverable while their Sky Serpent fighters rate amongst the best the the League of Non-Aligned Worlds.
The Drazi are also extremely adept at the science of solar power generation, the majority of their industrial complexes such as the Fendamir Research Colony, the most important factories and labs of the Drazi Freehold's military and industrial capacity, running almost exclusively on energy gathered from the local star.
A nocturnal alien race within the League of Non-Aligned Worlds
Before the rise to power of the Krona, the Brakiri society was largely male dominated, although that has now changed significantly, with much more opportunity for females to rise to positions of power and prosperity within the corporate structure of the Krona.
The Brakiri culture is brutally commercial, everything is geared towards business, economy, success and a healthy corporate profit as the bottom line. The main goal of any Brakiri is to rise to the top in his chosen commercial endeavor, something that is pursued through every facet of existence, with marriages made with an eye toward business status, profit being taken as a measure of self-worth and ruthlessness taken for granted.
The Brakiri are governed by the Krona, a syndicracy formed from about 500 corporate appointees who represent the various facets of the Brakiri economy, the primary goal of which is to see that Brakiri business accomplishes it goals and that the planet prospers as a result.
Brakiri civilization has existed for about two thousand years, most of which time has been spent under the control of the Krona who designed a system designed to maximize profit and gain for the planet as a whole and make it a business center for the galaxy.
The plan met with some success, Brakos did indeed prosper, but the wealth went into the hands of the Krona, creating a small upper class and a rigid corporate structure that made advancement almost impossible. As a result of this the huge middle and lower classes of the civilization were left frustrated and unable to progress to a higher status leading to the formation of the Chadis, criminal brotherhoods that control those below the corporate level.
With violence and corruption lurking in every dark corner, many Brakiri have left Brakos in an attempt to escape the constant struggle for personal power.
The Brakiri had the dubious honor, on 24th July 2260, of becoming the first race to be openly attacked by the Shadows in the resumption of hostilities, having formed an alliance with them believing it to be for their benefit like many of the non-aligned races. Desperate for help they turned to their neighbors for assistance, all of whom refused to become involved unless the so far neutral Gaim, the most powerful race native to the area, also joined in the conflict, which they were only convinced to do after John Sheridan managed to convince Kosh to send a Vorlon strike force to dive back the Shadows.
Their ambassador to Babylon 5, Lethke Zum Bartrado, was later to repay the assistance that Sheridan gained for his people by warning Delenn about the plans of other Non-aligned ambassadors to stir up anti-Minbari feeling, targeted at Delenn, while they believed that John Sheridan has died at Z'ha'dum and that Delenn was trying to get them to attempt a rescue, knowing that they would be killed in the attempt.
Unknown.
The Brakiri have many religious beliefs, the most popular of which is Derchalia, along with several pantheistic, technological and animistic religions, although religion tends to be used a tool of government on Brakos.
The Brakiri hold the comet as a sacred symbol, representing death, a symbology arising from the sole comet in their star system that returns once every two hundred years heralding the festival known as the "Day of the Dead".
Brakiri technology is fairly low, having only had interstellar flight since around 2100, but are quite adept at technologies relating to communications, transport and security.
Their ships consist of a three layer central fuselage, each containing several decks, positioned one above the other and joined together at the front and rear, narrow edge lowermost. At the rear of the ship are four wings, two horizontally mounted at the lower level of the fuselage that appear to have end mounted weapon systems, a similar sized ventral fin and a larger dorsal fin, giving a frontal cross section of an inverted crucifix.
Physically they are of a similar size to a Minbari Sharlin class war cruiser, although there is less bulk in the main fuselage and they pack a much less powerful punch.
[RETURN]
The Hyach are most easily distinguished by a marked division of their bald skulls at the rear. A sub-species of the Hyach, the now extinct Hyach-Doh, did possess facial hair in roughly the same locations as humans.
Family life and parenting are very important to the Hyach, being closely linked with the prime tenet of their single religion, "to continue the cycle anew", as such, marriages are carefully arranged by the elders of the families involved considering firstly love, and then performing a very careful scan of family history to judge compatibility before a year long engagement while more discussion takes place. If the elders approve then a formal marriage is carried out and celebrated.
They are not noted for being travelers, those few Hyach seen off-world are usually where they are for a reason, be it trade, exploration, diplomacy or whatever, the typical Hyach preferring the company of his own kind, or somewhat paradoxically the aggressive Drazi with whom they have traded for over a thousand years. The Drazi are extended an extra degree of friendship by the Hyach, and are the only alien race permitted to reside on Shri-Shraba, although others may visit.
The Hyach consider culture to be vulgar, preferring a system of trade or credit, but when off world use gemstones as a form of currency that while worthless due to their abundance on Shri-Shraba, are rare and valuable elsewhere.
Hyach tend toward very low tables, but do not sit on the floor, instead using low stools and chairs upon which they sit cross legged.
The Hyach are ruled by their elders, age being the mark of authority and experience, the foremost ruler being the Ssshba, the eldest of all, who is advised by the local elders for each of almost a thousand local districts on the Hyach home world of Shri-Shraba. Power struggles are rare, and in the main the Hyach government is a highly stable and effective one.
The Hyach civilization has existed for over 7,000 years and has remained a very peaceful, and simple and yet at the same time is terrifically complex as the Hyach have a profound sense of history and tradition with rules of order numbering in the thousands that cover every situation conceivable to the Hyach mind and every facet of life has time-honored rituals which have remained without significant changes for 4,000 years.
The last significant upheaval for the Hyach was the extermination of the Hyach-Doh, an evolutionary off-shoot of the Hyach race, during Earth's thirteenth century. Unfortunately for the Hyach, they were later to realize that the interbreeding with the Hyach-Doh was essential for their survival, but their shame at committing genocide on such a scale prevented them from seeking the outside help that they would require to determine if a solution to their problem existed.
As part of their concealment of this fact nearly all records of their history prior to the event have been destroyed, with only the conclusions written into the updated histories. Only when their history was discovered by Dr. Stephen Franklin did they begin to come to terms with the truth and consider the possibility of seeking help, although by that point their population growth was down by twenty percent.
Despite having interstellar flight for as long as some races have had civilizations the Hyach have not expanded beyond their star system other than in exploration, even within their own system the only work on other planets is via remote controlled and automatic mining equipment which is extensively exploiting the available resources.
The Hyach consider telepathic ability to be perfectly normal, and do not assign it any particular distinction in their society.
The Hyach only have one religion; the worship of Oshi-ta is the only religion on Shri-Shraba, although there have been and are a few fringe cults, none of these has acquired enough support to have any significant and lasting effect on Hyach culture.
Hyach technology is highly advanced, despite outward appearances and their lack of colonies and simple life-style, being particularly adept in the areas of computing, genetic engineering, agriculture, medicine, robotics, communications and exploration.
While they have no interest in military conquest the Hyach do have formidable weaponry and ships backed up by some brilliant tacticians, and while a peaceful people can be strong and fierce when the need arises.
[RETURN]
The three fingered Pak'ma'ra are carrion eaters, the eating of which is seen as a measure of their cultures' superiority over others. Tentacles by their mouths are used to secure food and move it towards their mouths which contain beak-life teeth - because of this arrangement they cannot speak English and so must employ a translation unit. They are capable of seeing into the ultraviolet spectrum also require their own, species specific, toilet facilities.
Early explorers thought that the Pak'ma'ra possessed a hive mind, although this was a misunderstanding arising from the way that their culture functions, they do exhibit a hive mentality however, and a similar belief that they were telepathic within their own species is belied by their very complex spoken language, although they have no written language.
Pak'ma'ra are incorrectly believed to be capable of eating and digesting anything at all, but are in fact unable to consume fish and prefer not to eat things that have not been dead for at least five days. In addition barium reacts violently with their digestive system causing violent vomiting.
The Pak'ma'ra civilization had existed almost unchanged for two millennia, at which point a growing curiosity arising from contact with other races prompted the Pak'ma'ra to send large numbers of delegates out to the stars, to observe and report back on what they saw so that new concepts might be gradually incorporated into Pak'ma'ra culture. As this occurred only recently, near the end of the 22nd century, and is still in progress what long term effects this will have on their culture is at present unclear.
Pak'ma'ra are loners, spending much of their lives alone, or perhaps with a nish'ka, and live in natural habitats such as caves or grottoes, collections of which might be considered to form a village.
To other races the Pak'ma'ra are seen as slow, greedy and selfish, and as a result of their smell and refusal to eat anything not five days dead often ignore them, a fact that made the Pak'ma'ra Rangers ideal candidates for use as couriers.
No formal governmental structure exists, the Pak'ma'ra have a saying which roughly translates as "Pak'ma'ra, all same, all different" which is a philosophy essential to understanding their social structure. The Pak'ma'ra are individualists with no concept of a leader or ruler, any member of the race who wishes to do a thing can do so as all are the same, but decisions can only be made when they have been debated by all the different Pak'ma'ra, an event that occurs every five years when every Pak'ma'ra journeys to a vast plain on Melat to share and debate the information gathered by each individual.
This process is also undertaken at a lower level, with gatherings of local Pak'ma'ra taking place when the work to be done is debated and assigned to specific Pak'ma'ra who will perform that task diligently until it has been completed and then rest and meditate until the next such meeting.
There is no guarantee at these meetings that any Pak'ma'ra will be reassigned to undertake the same tasks again, indeed it is more likely that those tasks will be assigned to another. It is possible to form treaties with the Pak'ma'ra however, as through dealing with specific groupings among the Pak'ma'ra it is possible to obtain what pass for treaties that will be honored by which ever Pak'ma'ra is assigned that role when their tasks are reassigned.
The only major upheaval for two millennia has been the discovery that they are not alone in the universe, an event that caused a major upheaval in their understanding of things, the result of the long debate that ensued was a new task to be added to their lives; that of Discovery.
The Pak'ma'ra have since joined the League of Non-Aligned Worlds and established a presence on Babylon 5, later becoming a member of the Interstellar Alliance. As Pak'ma'ra space borders on that of the Abbai Matriarchate and of the Centauri Republic, they fell prey to the expansionist aims of the Centauri once the Narn-Centauri War was concluded,
Unknown.
The Pak'ma'ra have one fundamental belief that is unchanging "Pak'ma'ra are the chosen of God". They come together every few months and sing - something that no one knew of for a very long time - as part of their religious festivals. According to Londo Mollari, who with Vir Cotto accidentally overhead them singing on Babylon 5, "if god could sing, he would sing with that voice".
The Pak'ma'ra are not a particularly advanced race, and concentrated most of their technology, based on crystalline power sources similar to that used by the Centauri and Minbari, on transportation and communication.
Following contact with other races ranged weaponry became a priority, for although the Pak'ma'ra have no expansionist aims they do recognize a need for defense, their ships, while not particularly maneuverable are surprisingly fast and heavily armed with quite heavy weapons.
Pak'ma'ra ground defenses are even deadlier and the rugged terrain and dense atmosphere of their home planet make invasion unlikely for any but the most powerful race.
[RETURN]
The Abbai have a vaguely amphibious appearance, earning them the nick name "fishheads". They quite possibly do not have a keen sense of smell, as they are quite happy to be quartered next to the Pak'ma'ra on Babylon 5, also their neighbors in space.
The society of the Abbai is a model of tolerance and respect, and although there is a 5:1 ratio of females to males they are considered as equals in all areas except government, however most Abbai males prefer academic, scientific or artistic pursuits over politics anyway.
There are few cities on the Abbai worlds of Ssumssha and Tavita as they prefer to live in smaller settlements, most of which are built around water and entirely aquatic villages are not uncommon. Abbai have been accepted in training as Rangers.
The Abbai government is dominated by females, it being the one area of their culture where their men are not permitted to participate, and is led by a Natar who rules for life with the guidance of the Marti, an advisory council selected by public election every three years.
All other positions of power are similarly occupied by female Abbai, a situation that has been in existence for over four millennia.
The Abbai civilization has been in existence for around six thousand years and they long ago eradicated poverty and inequity from their culture.
Unknown.
There are sixteen distinct religions on Ssumssha, all bar one of which worship such natural elements as stone, plants, mountains and so on, the only exception to this being the religion Kolai which holds the concepts of logic and knowledge to be sacred.
The most popular belief is Oulai, the worship of wind and water. The Abbai are very tolerant of religion, which they prize highly, and no rivalry exists between the various beliefs.
The Abbai have been in space for a long time, discovering the principles of interstellar space flight while Earth was in the process of the Renaissance, but their primary areas of technological expertise are in the fields of agriculture, particularly hydroponics, medicine, communication systems, and computer software.
They have not expanded beyond their own star system, establishing a single colony on Tavita and constructing extensive orbital facilities around the two gas giants, Abba VII and Abba VIII. The Abbai are a very peaceful race with no intentions of conquest, but do understand the need for defense, their colonies being protected by extensive, but non-lethal reactive weapon systems that can withstand most assaults and also have established alliances with other worlds through which they can muster defenders, or in the worst case hire mercenaries.
[RETURN]
The Llort are a subterranean race that physically share quite a lot in appearance with the Cascor, with a scaled head similar to an armadillo's, presumably as a defense against collapsing tunnels in their case.
The Llort live in maze like burrows that form their villages, towns and cities beneath the hellish surface of Vartas, their home world. They are best known for their tendency to collect anything just to have it, a peculiar quirk that has earned them the reputation of thieves amongst other races, although the concept is alien to the Llort themselves as the theft is not for gain and the item is often valueless, having been taken merely because it caught the attention of the Llort involved. This theft is automatic if a Llort thinks it can be accomplished without problems, and a Llort caught taking an item from another will hand it back without a thought, and in the case of the victim being another Llort the matter will simply be dropped.
The majority of Llort belong to the lower and middle class, constantly switching back and forth depending on the current faction in power. While the upper classes are largely immune to the factionalism owing to the stability that is offered by their wealth, the most popular occupation for Llort is in the military, the demand for soldiers being continuous as the various factions battle for power. Despite this the Llort interact reasonably well with other races, and individually can be quite amicable, although they are prone to become fierce should they be angered.
The Llort government is a highly volatile feudal system, with the Llort who deems him or herself the most powerful at the time assigning themselves the title of Mi-Ma-Ti who theoretically wields supreme power over the whole of Vartas, although as the Mi-Ma-Ti's power is based on a volatile bed of fragile allegiances this position is tenuous to say the least.
That the Llort actually have a civilization and history is considered a miracle by many observers from other races, their culture came into being while Earth was in middle of the dark ages, and has been a story of rivalry and conflict ever since as factions are borne, rise to power and ultimately fall to the ambitions of yet another faction in an endless cycle.
Unknown.
Llorts only have one religious icon, that of Morta, although there are three branches of faith, individual Llort generally following the branch that the most powerful faction in their area follow.
Typical of the chaotic Llort culture, if the balance of power shifts to a faction which follows another branch of faith, then the Llorts in that area will convert to a new belief without a second thought, often changing faiths several times as different factions rise and fall, and seem to regard religion merely as a power bloc to be changed when convenient.
Despite their warring nature the Llort are quite low tech, their constant internal rivalries preventing all attempts at colonizing other worlds in their own star system, let alone in others. Although they obtained the capability for interstellar flight from another race in the middle of the 22nd century.
Surprisingly for such a warlike race their military technology is also low, with cumbersome ships with weapons barely adequate for the task in hand, in fact the only areas where they have some expertise lies where the technologies are those suited to their underground habitats.
[RETURN]
The Vree are a small, but tough race, their anatomy consisting almost entirely of cartilage and muscle covered in a uniform grey skin, with two large black eyes and a small nose and mouth set in their large bald heads. The Vree are noted primarily for their "questionable" eating habits.
Mainstream Vree society, below the level of the all powerful Guilds, falls into various sub-groupings based on belief, race and family, each of which governs how a Vree enters into a Guild; by social group preference, randomly, by choice, or even if they should form their own.
The capitalistic Vree are a highly competitive race who advance through their society by making a larger profit than the previous year, and no rules exist to say what can, or cannot, be done to acquire that profit.
The Vree have a more relaxed view of marriage than the similarly materialistic Brakiri, although not by much as they are only permitted to marry members of their own Guild or those with which an alliance exists.
Like their deity, Albendazel, the Vree are a race given to wild humour, taking great pleasure in playing practical jokes upon each other and other races.
The Vree are governed by a number of Guilds, the Grandmasters from the most powerful of which form the High Council of the Ventuki Conglomerate, while the masters of the lower ranked guilds form a Low Council, a Guild's status and position being determined by its net financial worth. The most powerful Guild in the Ventuki Conglomerate, the Merchant/Adventurers, is the one who has made treaties with the League of Non-Aligned Worlds and the Interstellar Alliance, it was also their fleet that participated in the Shadow War.
Other powerful Vree Guilds are the Scientists, the Smiths, and the Entertainers, all of which are close allies of the Merchant/Adventurers Guild. Vree Guilds are pretty much autonomous and self regulating, it is only on very large projects, those which take more than a third of their annual budget, that need to be voted on by the Council, and even then a no vote of two thirds is required to overturn the Guild's request.
A similar situation exists should the Low Council wish to overturn a decision of the High Council, the net worth of the those wishing to oppose the decision must exceed that of the sponsor in the High Council.
Despite their internal rivalries and the fact that several of the Guilds possess their own armed forces and space fleets, the Vree have never actually engaged in an internal shooting war, this is in fact considered a bad craft and marketing technique, unlike with the similarly corporate minded Brakiri, to whom warfare is merely another business tactic.
The closest they came was in the Great Trade War which occurred when the wife of a member of the Tacticians Guild was forced to divorce her husband by the Artists Guild to which she belonged, this is also known as the "Romeo and Juliet War" by humans.
Unknown.
There are several religions on Vreetan, but the most popular deity is Albendazel, a hermaphrodite trickster.
The Vree have had the capability for interstellar spaceflight since the end of Earth's 20th century, and the Merchant/Adventurers Guild immediately set out to survey other worlds, encountering the Earth soon after and to this day are still highly amused by the degree of impact that their routine survey had and still has upon the culture of that world.
Over the centuries they have shown little interest in expansion, only curiosity for what is out there, colonising only three worlds, Photikar and Deruzala in their own, and Alzeral in a neighboring system. Owing to their highly competitive nature the Vree have progressed quite rapidly in many areas of research, their technology level being near the middle of the races in the Interstellar Alliance, their Xill Cruisers, built at Photikar, being powerful ships in their class.
[RETURN]
The Gaim no longer have a set biology, other than that necessary to survive in the thick atmosphere of their homeworld, N'chak'fah. Instead the Gaim have the science of genetic manipulation down to a fine art and specifically breed Gaim for the task that they will perform The classic example of this is the "ambassador class" Gaim, which was bred to be bipedal as the Gaim Queens had noted the fact that this was the most common form for other races to take, despite being a departure from the "normal" Gaim.
Physically the Gaim ambassadors speak through a translation device with a glowing sphere, and are insectile in appearance, with two slender antennae sprouting from the bridge of their short proboscis, two large compound eyes and have a mouth surrounded by four smaller mandibles for drawing in food.
Gaim society is highly task orientated, with the Queens at the apex, and numerous task specific variants of the Gaim beneath with individual Gaim range from very intelligent, completely autonomous, multi-talented advisors to the Queen down to the non-intelligent bio-mechanical worker drones who perform the menial labor tasks and even the Queens themselves are engineered by their predecessors. As each Gaim is designed to perform a specific task there is no possibility of promotion in Gaim society, although the Gaim are bred to feel rewards or punishments in the form of chemical stimulation of pleasure and fear respectively. In human terms, the Gaim are probably a "hive" culture, most likely similar to our ants in social structure.
The Gaim political structure is a matriarchy ruled by a group of six Queens, collectively entitled the Gaim Intelligence, each Queen having control over a specific area of N'chak'fah. As loyalty to a specific Queen is genetically encoded, both the possibilities of rebellion and disobedience are impossible without external chemical stimulation, and even then only on the lower classes of drone.
Owing to the almost impenetrable atmosphere of N'chak'fah the Gaim remained ignorant of the other races, or even astronomy, instead the six Queens spent their time in personal rivalries and open warfare with each other. As a result of the years of genetic manipulation to create ever superior warrior drones, the Gaim warriors are the fiercest, toughest soldiers among the known races, and like all Gaim, they're genetically engineered for specific military tasks, many of which are now hired out as mercenary advisors and infantry.
All this was to change when an attempted invasion by the Narn Regime was driven off by the combined might of the Gaim warriors and the turbulent nature of the N'chak'fah atmosphere opened the minds of the Queens to the possibilities of space travel and interstellar trade, combined with the pitfalls of isolationism. Setting aside their personal conflicts for the first time in recorded history, the Queens met and formulated a new class of Gaim from their collective DNA, the Ambassador, to facilitate this new requirement.
The Gaim do not possess telepathy, although they are aware of the concept of "Mind Talking" following encounters with other races, but have not as yet manipulated their genetic material to include the trait.
Unknown.
As might be expected, the Gaim are undisputed leaders in the biological sciences, especially genetics as not only do the Queens manipulate Gaim genetic material, they can produce drones to manipulate alien genetic material. The top imports from N'chak'fah are biological computers, drugs, and bio-weaponry. The Gaim hardware industry however is primitive, and the bulk of their fleet consists of ships acquired from other races, such as Markab scavenge picked up on the open market and obsolete Brakiri freighters, but they are currently investing heavily in up-to-date warships and more critically the infrastructure necessary for native orbital ship yards.
[RETURN]
Biology
Nothing is known about the biology of this race, except that they live to great age. They claim to be immortal, although this is unlikely. The Soul Hunter in "River of Souls" claims that he is young - a mere four thousand years old. The most outstanding feature of a Soul Hunter is the third "eye" in the middle of the forehead, which seems to be able to see the souls of others, particularly as death approaches. They are about two meters high, and are very strong. The other characteristic is a somewhat enlarged head.
The Soul Hunters wander around the galaxy in search of death, to preserve the souls of "leaders, thinkers, poets, dreamers and blessed lunatics". They do not believe in an after-life, but believe it is their duty to find and preserve the noblest souls in the galaxy. Because of this, they believe that they are only acting for the greater good.
The "saved" souls are stored in special transparent globes, and the owners of these collections regard the captured souls as their "children" - they even talk to them and never travel without them. As well as having their own collections hidden in their ships, they also store the captured souls in "whisper galleries" - enormous halls in which the souls appear to be able to communicate with each other. Soul Hunters never capture each other's souls, as they believe themselves to be unworthy of preservation.
Very little is known of their history, except that they are a very old life-form. Nothing at all is known of their Home-world, if indeed they have one. The Minbari name for them is Shagh-toth. Although humans don't seem to know of their existence, some of them may have visited Earth at times in the past. Most of the races that know them, also fear them.
In 2245, a group of Soul Hunters witnessed the tragic first contact between Humans and the MInbari which led to the death of Dukhat. Three Soul Hunter craft arrived to take the soul of Dukhat, the Minbari succeeded in destroying two of the vessels, but the third succeeded in penetrating the War Cruiser's defenses. The Minbari created a living wall to protect the soul of Dukhat and succeeded in stopping the Soul Hunter from imprisoning Dukhat's soul. It is thought that this is the first and only time anyone has succeeded in stopping a Soul Hunter from achieving his objective.
The Soul Hunters have made at least one tragic mistake, when they were drawn to Ralga, a world whose inhabitants were about to "die" en masse. The Soul Hunters placed all 1 billion Ralgans in a large soul globe. However they were terribly wrong about the impending mass extinction, as the race was about to transcend its physical form and become a pure energy form. Over the course of the ten thousand years that their souls have been imprisoned, half have gone insane.
Form of government unknown.
Little is known of Soul Hunter technology, apart from the fact that they use single person ships, approximately 50 meters in length, and armed with weapons that seem to be about equal to those used by the Minbari. There ships are not easily destroyed, although the Minbari managed to destroy two of them following the death of Dukhat, as they tried to protect his soul from being captured by the Soul Hunters.
Soul Hunters can board a target vessel by using an "Inferno Shield" - the Soul Hunter craft creates some kind of energy barrier around their vessels which allows their ships to burn through the hull of any ship. Hull breaches also do not appear to be a problem, as the Soul Hunter vessel is able to somehow knit the burn passage back together as they move further into a target vessel.
|RETURN||TOP||THE RACES PART 1||MAIN NAV||HOME|