Shadow War
The Shadow War is a conflict that features in Babylon 5.
Contents |
History
Origin
The Shadow War was a series of wars that engulfed the Milky Way Galaxy and were caused by the ancient race of First Ones known as the Shadows.
A thousand years ago, the Shadows returned to their places of power and prepared to launch another war. While they made early gains, they had struck too quickly, before they were truly ready. The conflict drew in the Vorlons and numerous of the Younger Races, including the Minbari. In 1260, the major Minbari base of operations was destroyed, severely hampering their ability to project power. The outcome of the war was in doubt, with the Shadows likely to win or, if they did lose, preserve most of their forces. Suddenly, a mysterious Minbari appeared with a replacement station of alien design and the apparent support of the Vorlons. The Minbari accepted this miraculous reprieve and used it to secure victory. Valen tried to mend the problems between the three castes, who began to fight amongst themselves after their base had fallen. When the castes could not agree to work together, Valen formed the Anla'Shok, where no castes were recognized. The Anla'Shok became his fighting army. When the tide of the war turned in their favor, the castes desired to unite behind him. Valen then led the Minbari to victory against the Shadows. When the war was over the station was abandoned. Defeated, the Shadows scattered, burying their weapons and ships in secret places and returning to their primary world of Z'ha'dum to await their next opportunity. The victory was not total; the Shadows were able to recover sufficient strength to begin another war.
Several of the Younger Races, such as the Narn, who were not directly involved in the larger conflict, nevertheless were affected by the larger events in motion. As they gathered their forces, the Shadows set up bases scattered on many distant low-tech worlds. The Book of G'Quan tells of the events on Narn Homeworld where the Shadows had established a base on one of the southern continents, taking little interest in the native Narns. Their presence and the movement of their vessels prompted the Narn to send a small expeditionary fleet to follow the Shadow ships, confirming they were engaged in a war that threatened to overwhelm the very stars themselves. The Narn pilots followed the Shadow fleet to their homeworld, a planet located at the edge of known space. Reporting this information back, G'Quan and others committed acts of sabotage, bringing the Narn to the Shadows' attention. Learning there were telepaths among the population, the Shadows sent Soldiers of Darkness to wipe the telepaths out, lest they become a threat. However the last of the mindwalkers, led by G'Quan and with the support of G'Lan and a number of other Vorlons, drove the Shadows out, forcing them to abandon their base
Shadow War
The Shadows remained dormant, deep beneath Z'ha'dum for almost a thousand years since Valen's forces had forced them to retreat. In December 2256 some of them were awakened by the arrival of an automated probe controlled from the Icarus, an IPX explorer ship dispatched from Station Prime. In 2256 IPX, under contract from the Earthforce New Technologies Division, sent the science vessel Icarus to follow it and investigate, arriving at Z'ha'dum in January 2257. The recently awakened Shadows captured the crew shortly after they landed and offered the crew a chance to serve them. Those who refused —including Anna Sheridan — were turned into living 'CPUs' for the Shadow ships. Some small part of the crew did agree to serve the Shadows, including Mr. Morden. At the same time that the Shadows started to 'awaken', the Vorlons began to prepare for the coming war as well. Secretly, they made contact with the leader of the Minbari Grey Council, Dukhat, knowing that the humans were "the key" to this cycle of the great conflict with their nemesis. While it is possible (or even probable) that their interactions led to the Earth-Minbari War, it also indirectly led to the construction of both Babylon stations 4 and 5, critical for the previous and coming wars, respectively. The Minbari Anla'Shok — frowned upon as something of a joke by the Minbari Warrior Caste — continued to hold their faith in Valen's prophecies that the Shadows would soon return as the hour drew close, starting their own preparations. The first known direct act by agents of the Shadows came in 2254, when a series of Shadow Fighters attempted to plant a large fusion bomb on Babylon 4 in an attempt to destroy it, setting up an alternate timeline where without Valen and the station, the Shadows would come out of the last war far stronger losers, able to move much faster and harder, allowing in the destruction of Babylon 5 at the end of 2260. This attempt was foiled by the White Star 1, which came back in time from 2260, completing the time loop that sent both Babylon 4 and Valen back in time to win the last Shadow War.
In 2258, the Shadows made their first known indirect moves at interacting with the major Galactic powers, with Mr. Morden arriving on the Station as a representative of the Shadows, though he took great pains to only ever refer to the Shadows as his 'associates', leaving the identity of his backers a mystery. To this end, Morden visited the various alien Ambassadors and asked them the Shadows' infamous question: 'What do you want?'. Delenn, sensing the presence of the Shadows around him sent Morden away abruptly, taking his presence as a sign to begin her own preparations for the coming war, regardless of what the Grey Council thought. G'Kar, lacking a vision beyond simple revenge upon the Centauri, did not impress Morden or his 'associates'. Londo however, who dreamed of the Centauri becoming strong once again, regaining their power and place across the Galaxy, did. Morden and his Shadow minders were also briefly confronted by Kosh on this first visit to Babylon 5, but given the 'rules' between the Vorlons and the Shadows, it would appear that there were few real consequences to a short standoff between them, during which the Vorlon warned the Shadows that 'they are not for you'. The Shadows, however, did not back off, instead forging a strong alliance of convenience with Londo, doing him favors for no apparent price that caused his stature to rise dramatically back home. At the same time — probably from their interactions with Morden and the Icarus crew — the Shadows took a great deal of interest in humanity, having Morden establish a far more open dialog with certain factions in Earth including Morgan Clark and part of the Psi Corps, leading to the assassination of President Santiago and ascension of Clark to the Presidency of the Earth Alliance. By 2259, Earthforce had secretly built Shadow hybrid vessels, prototypes for merging Shadow and human warship technology.
Aftermath
Overview
In appearance, the Shadow War was a galactic conflict that was in reality fought between two races of First Ones namely the Vorlons and Shadows. This stemmed from their role as caretakers of the younger races though each differed in this duty per their own philosophies. The Vorlons were driven by principle of order whilst the Shadows acted under the principle of chaos.
Though they were devastating conflicts that dealt a great deal of damage across the galaxy, the Shadows Wars were never made to destroy life or conquer territory but rather to fulfil the Shadow's philosophy of evolution through conflict and chaos. By tearing down the foundations of civilization and forcing races to fight for their survival; the Shadows ensured that the strong survived and grew stronger while the weak were killed off.
Participants
- Kosh Naranek :
- Valen :
- Delenn :
- John Sheridan :
- Susan Ivanova :
- Londo Mollari :
- G'Kar :
- Lorien :
- Morden :
Notes
- The Shadow War was created by J. Michael Straczynski and featured in the setting of the Babylon 5 universe.
In other media
Other
Appearances
- Babylon 5:
External Links
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