With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

TheLunarwolf · 2026-08-19T09:40:02+0100

Not that i think its the right answer but Darish Vol was an Old Sith Lord from the era of the first Exiles. Was one of the Lost tribes of Sith... Not that he would have gotten easily to the Milky Way, but earth is canonical to the Star Wars galaxy, so it's not outside the realm of possibility.

Darko · 2026-08-19T09:40:44+0100

BR549 said:
That'd be, primarily, the Vree. Who are 100% the classic "greys with saucers" aliens (their saucers have a really nasty cannon armament), who, IIRC, literally abducted humans from Earth for the yucks. Needless to say EarthGov finding out about this was less than amused.

Yep.

There was a funny scene where a human was sueing a Vree because the Vree's ancestor abducted the human's ancestor, so the human wanted the Vree to financially compensate the family.

BR549 said:
and that's before we get to Psi Corps. I'm sure Mr. Bester will be very, very interested in Paul...

They may not be too interested if it doesn't concern telepaths, but if they find out that the ring is thought-based then they may be interested.

Chaoswind · 2026-08-19T09:52:01+0100

Would Paul be aware of the table top game of Babylon 5?

If this is the show continuity then those memories should be gone by the rules @Mr Zoat usually uses. However Paul has shown extensive involvement with the tabletop mini figures scene so he may be working off with that data.

Mr Zoat · 2026-08-19T10:44:46+0100

RichardWhereat said:
Ah damn. Never watched this.

It's now available for free on YouTube.

GhostKing 666 said:
Prevent the assassination of Santiago and the rise of Clark, stopping the Earth Alliance Civil War before it can begin would be my first objective.

Nice idea, but... Clark was Vice President. He had already risen. Preventing the assassination wouldn't change all of the people who enabled it to happen. Remember, in the series they only found evidence that Clark was involved due to time travel data intercepts.

Chojin Patriarch said:
From the description, that's Security Chief Garibaldi. And man, if this Alt!Paul didn't have his memory of the setting flushed, he'd probably be geeking out right now...

No, Garibaldi is pure European as far as I know. This guy is the figure depicted on the Human Aide card in the Babylon 5 card game. And even early stage Garibaldi would be a lot more sceptical about a claim like that. And have slightly more hair.

Darko said:
They may not be too interested if it doesn't concern telepaths, but if they find out that the ring is thought-based then they may be interested.

Given that the SI has a bunch of other people in his head and Psi-Corps stated policy for telepaths with dissociative identity disorder is 'kill them', he should be less worried about them being interested in the ring and more about them deciding to tidy him up.

Chaoswind said:
Would Paul be aware of the table top game of Babylon 5?

If this is the show continuity then those memories should be gone by the rules @Mr Zoat usually uses. However Paul has shown extensive involvement with the tabletop mini figures scene so he may be working off with that data.

I'm not aware of a tabletop game. I think there was a fleet game, but I never played it.

Chaoswind · 2026-08-19T10:58:08+0100

Mr Zoat said:
I'm not aware of a tabletop game. I think there was a fleet game, but I never played it.

So this Paul has no info? Ouch.

Second rule, Paul usually spawns near a planet that has something that can be used to charge the orange ring, the norn stone, the ZPM (stargate), malthusian garbage, etc. Even Nazi earth Paul and Tallow dude from Future Batman had local options they failed to pursue, so what exactly would be a compatible charge station for the ring in B5?

I am guessing he woke up in the orbit of a not so random planet, however I am coming with no options from the top of my head that would have a compatible power source and a random shuttle he can just pick up and use.

Darko · 2026-08-19T11:38:17+0100

Chaoswind said:
Even Nazi earth Paul and Tallow dude from Future Batman had local options they failed to pursue

The Nazi Earth green power ring and lantern are being used by the Nazis, so no luck there.

The one that ended up in the DCAU didn't really have any options until Jevek showed up.

I know that Static can recharge rings, but since he's from the DCAU, that version of Paul would have forgotten about him, and there's no reason that he'd later learn about it, either because Stewart didn't put it in his report, or the Keague didn't want him to recharge the ring because of the risks.

Chaoswind said:
so what exactly would be a compatible charge station for the ring in B5?

I floated the idea that he may have gotten some Soul Hunters spirit stones, and Zoat left a like on that one, so it's most likely that.

Randomly Biased · 2026-08-19T12:26:21+0100

I just finished rewatch B5 last week. Legitimately my favorite TV show. Hope you end up writing more of it!

Ardy · 2026-08-19T12:33:45+0100

Mr Zoat said:
I'm not aware of a tabletop game. I think there was a fleet game, but I never played it.

Okay but there was that CCG the SI played a while back, I think with the imprisoned amazons since they were the only ones willing to learn the stupid rules before he decided to change them since Babylon V wasn't a thing on earth 16 so he could change them without issue

Chaoswind · 2026-08-19T13:14:06+0100

Ardy said:
Okay but there was that CCG the SI played a while back, I think with the imprisoned amazons since they were the only ones willing to learn the stupid rules before he decided to change them since Babylon V wasn't a thing on earth 16 so he could change them without issue

Oh that is true, so this Paul has the setting knowledge from a car game he liked to play or would that be considered show knowledge and also be purged?

The card game doesn't have timeline details, but does touch on the different factions and the struggle between Shadows and Vorlons.

Tzeentch · 2026-08-19T13:36:19+0100

Mr Zoat said:
"On behalf of the twenty-third century, welcome to Babylon Five."

YAY! One of my all time favorite Sci-fi settings!

Really hope this side-story is a long one!

Mr Zoat · 2026-08-19T13:41:44+0100

Chaoswind said:
The card game doesn't have timeline details, but does touch on the different factions and the struggle between Shadows and Vorlons.

Technically true, but when was the last time the Shadow War starting in one of your games?

Yog · 2026-08-19T15:06:10+0100

The funnier reaction from vorlons and shadows to Paul's ring would be "oh, great, an actual lantern! Maltusians sent someone. Here, these are the crises you get to resolve". Basically, recognising his authority as a lantern and dimping the whole heal of issues on him to resolve, as well as using him to arbitrate disputes.

Becasue both Shadows and Vorlons are civilized species and their wars are not yet at the total stage. They might still honor at least some political agreements from a xouple million years ago.

Mr Zoat · 2026-08-19T17:00:08+0100

Yog said:
The funnier reaction from vorlons and shadows to Paul's ring would be "oh, great, an actual lantern! Maltusians sent someone. Here, these are the crises you get to resolve". Basically, recognising his authority as a lantern and dimping the whole heal of issues on him to resolve, as well as using him to arbitrate disputes.

Becasue both Shadows and Vorlons are civilized species and their wars are not yet at the total stage. They might still honor at least some political agreements from a xouple million years ago.

Given that they stayed behind to guide the younger races while the First Ones left for the rim, I imagine they would frantically pretend that they were getting on just fine, no need to call your boss back.

Vaermina · 2026-08-19T17:47:21+0100

Darko said:
Power rings are bullshit.

Yeah, the First Ones may be more impressive than what was seen on the show, but that doesn't somehow mean that power rings will somehow become worthless as you're implying.

Heck, given the sheer power they have, it wouldn't surprise me if the Vorlons and Shadows are cautious around Paul because they think he's an agent of another First One group, and they don't want to get another party involved in their dispute.

Power Rings aren't bullshit, bullshit is being able to wave your hand and move yourself outside of time or cut off a part of the universe and collapse it into non-existence.

Which are things the technomages can do using their Shadow technology implants.

In concerns to the Vorlons.

The Core
The core of the Vorlon is the physical part of the Vorlon;
essentially, it is the Vorlon's body, although the term is of little
relevance. When seen, it resembles a being of glowing light,
with tentacles and surrounded by a fiery corona of energy.
Before the Vorlons transcended base matter and became
beings of energy, this core was an organic body (the product
of millions of years of evolution and genetic engineering, but
a recognisable body nonetheless).

The core is a crystalline structure, which contains the
intrusion of the Vorlon's soul into realspace. The core is
composed of four distinct sections. Firstly, there are external
manipulating tentacles, which are each composed of a siliconcarbide
gel, laced with a nanometre-scale grid of sensors and
energy effectors. Each of these tentacles is strong enough to
tear through the hull armour of a Sharlin-class warship, but
is also precise and gentle enough to manipulate brain tissue
without causing injury. For the majority of Vorlons, these
tentacles – and the entire core body – are largely redundant,
as few Vorlons have needed to manipulate matter directly for
millions of years.

As a note, every single Vorlon is a p15 telepath, there are no assumptions, they will know everything about him the moment they meet.

Mr Zoat said:
I'm not aware of a tabletop game. I think there was a fleet game, but I never played it.

Someone tell Mr Zoat to look up Wars of the Ancients and Darkness and Light, the Vorlon and Shadows fact book from the B5wars Vault.

Darko · 2026-08-19T18:48:25+0100

Vaermina said:
Power Rings aren't bullshit, bullshit is being able to wave your hand and move yourself outside of time or cut off a part of the universe and collapse it into non-existence.

Which are things the technomages can do using their Shadow technology implants

Yeah and guess what?

Power rings are able to do similar things and on a massive scale.

Vaermina said:
As a note, every single Vorlon is a p15 telepath, there are no assumptions, they will know everything about him the moment they meet

Did you forget about the other voices that were shown?

Of course you did.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that the Ralgans, who transcended, can protect him from that.

Vaermina · 2026-08-19T21:12:29+0100

Yog said:
The funnier reaction from vorlons and shadows to Paul's ring would be "oh, great, an actual lantern! Maltusians sent someone. Here, these are the crises you get to resolve". Basically, recognising his authority as a lantern and dimping the whole heal of issues on him to resolve, as well as using him to arbitrate disputes.

Becasue both Shadows and Vorlons are civilized species and their wars are not yet at the total stage. They might still honor at least some political agreements from a xouple million years ago.

Almost missed this, but I can give an answer as the rules of the Shadows and Vorlons are laid out in text in Darkness and Light.

The Rules Of Engagement

The Vorlons insisted on the rules being thoroughly and comprehensively defined. The Shadows chafed under any restrictions.
The resulting compromise was deeply flawed and ultimately doomed, but it did keep the two sides from destroying each
other and life in this galaxy.

Firstly, direct attacks on each other's worlds were forbidden. Their respective homeworlds were inviolate, as were any long established
colonies.

Secondly, direct attacks on the other race were forbidden. This only applied to campaigns of genocide, such as lethal
engineered viruses, psychic bombs and so on. Both Vorlons and Shadows would have to survive to the end of the Vigil. This
rule did not apply to individuals from either race, only to the race as a whole.

Thirdly, the young races had to have free will. It was within the power of both Vorlons and Shadows to control the Younger
Races utterly, either through sheer force of arms or by genetic tinkering to implant obedience compulsions. However, not
only would this ruin the development of the races they were supposed to guide, it would also devalue the clash of ideologies
between Vorlons and Shadows.

Fourthly, only the Shadows and Vorlons were allowed have direct contact with the Younger Races. While this had been
informally agreed upon earlier, it was now enshrined in the agreement between the two guardians. It was this clause that
caused the two to attack a race known as the Darsha 10,000 years after the start of the Vigil, and which allows the Vorlons
to break the rules of engagement when Lorien made contact with Sheridan.

So suggesting the Maltusians sent him would have the exact opposite effect and cause both the Vorlons and Shadows to take off the kid gloves and utterly destroy him for being a walking violation of their Rules of Engagement.

Darko said:
Yeah and guess what?

Power rings are able to do similar things and on a massive scale.

I'll wait while you show Zoat power rings doing what was described without creating a construct of some other machine.

Darko said:
Did you forget about the other voices that were shown?

Of course you did.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that the Ralgans, who transcended, can protect him from that.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you don't realize that's the equivalent of having a human baby protect someone from a guy driving around in a main battle tank.

I'm also going to guess that you don't realize that the Vorlons and Shadows aren't objectively rational actors.

Someone keeping a Vorlon out of their mind won't get a "I guess that's just the way it is", they will get their mind crushed because the Vorlon will take that as an affront to it's pride and force through the block. In fact, that's literally what we saw happen in canon the one time someone tried. And that was with Lita, the Vorlon's telepathic WMD.

Yog · 2026-08-19T21:30:31+0100

Vaermina said:
So suggesting the Maltusians sent him would have the exact opposite effect and cause both the Vorlons and Shadows to take off the kid gloves and utterly destroy him for being a walking violation of their Rules of Engagement.

By strict reading of the Rules, you are wrong. Paul is not from this galaxy or, indeed, universe. Thus, contacting him doesn't violate the Rules at all. And he is a member of one of the young races, thus he is allowed to contact them with no limitations. It's a loophole. It's a very obvious loophole exploitation. A blatant "yes, we are exploiting rules as written. Do you really eant to see this escalate further?" challenge.

Politically this can easily be read as Maltusians sending an informal notice that things are wrong, and that they are warning Vorlons and Shadows that they (Maltusians) are ready to interfere.

Edit: durther political analaysis of Paul being an orange lantern instead of a green one would suggest that maltusians are warning vorlons over shadows, and would support shadows if need be, since orange lanterns are closer to shadow ideology.

Basically, since B5 is very much a political drama, I expect Paul's appearance to be read as a multilayered deniable political message between First One factions by the active factions.

Edit2: and Paul not being from this universe would be noticeable to First Ones due to him not having a soul.

Vaermina · 2026-08-19T21:40:10+0100

Yog said:
By strict reading of the Rules, you are wrong. Paul is not from this galaxy or, indeed, universe. Thus, contacting him doesn't violate the Rules at all. And he is a member of one of the young races, thus he is allowed to contact them with no limitations. It's a loophole. It's a very obvious loophole exploitation. A blatant "yes, we are exploiting rules as written. Do you really eant to see this escalate further?" challenge.

A human from another universe is still a human, a first one from another universe is still a first one, the Vorlon's and Shadow's are monomaniacal when it comes to issues surrounding their duty.

They can't not be, to quote one of the sections on First One psychology.

The other side of the Vorlon personality is pride. To a degree,
each of the First Ones has insane hubris as a racial trait – it is
rare for a race to find a reason for living (the key to a successful
transition to a Fourth Age) and not be utterly convinced
that its way is superior to all other paths in existence. The
Vorlons take pride in their utter commitment to order, but
the Shadows are – they must be – equally committed to
the cause of chaos, as the Walkers are to exploration, the
Mindriders to communication and so on. Every First One
race is monomaniacal on some topic.

Darko · 2026-08-19T21:48:13+0100

Vaermina said:
So suggesting the Maltusians sent him would have the exact opposite effect and cause both the Vorlons and Shadows to take off the kid gloves and utterly destroy him for being a walking violation of their Rules of Engagement

Unless they, you know, try to take a more cautious approach since they don't know what the Maltusian, or whoever gave Paul a hyper-advanced piece of tech, are doing, and they don't want to potentially piss off an unknown power.

Vaermina said:
I'll wait while you show Zoat power rings doing what was described without creating a construct of some other machine

And that's different to what techno-mages do, how?

Techno-mages use technological implants.

Vaermina said:
I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you don't realize that's the equivalent of having a human baby protect someone from a guy driving around in a main battle tank.

I'm also going to guess that you don't realize that the Vorlons and Shadows aren't objectively rational actors.

Someone keeping a Vorlon out of their mind won't get a "I guess that's just the way it is", they will get their mind crushed because the Vorlon will take that as an affront to it's pride and force through the block. In fact, that's literally what we saw happen in canon the one time someone tried. And that was with Lita, the Vorlon's telepathic WMD

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that we've never seen the Vorlons take on a few thousand to a few billion transcendent beings.

Vaermina · 2026-08-19T22:40:01+0100

Darko said:
Unless they, you know, try to take a more cautious approach since they don't know what the Maltusian, or whoever gave Paul a hyper-advanced piece of tech, are doing, and they don't want to potentially piss off an unknown power.

The Vorlons and Shadows are literally incapable of working that way.

As I pointed out, they are monomaniacal.

Darko said:
And that's different to what techno-mages do, how?

Techno-mages use technological implants.

So no, you can't.

We're comparing the direct capabilities of one technology vs another, and Technomage implants can do everything Zoat power ring can do, and a lot more besides that. So you're argument that "power rings are bullshit" falls flat in the face of the Vorlons and Shadows having bigger bullshit. Especially when argument here boils down to "Power Rings can make stuff", well yes, so can technomages, their implants have energy effectors and nanotech generation.

Darko said:
I'm going to take a wild guess and say that we've never seen the Vorlons take on a few thousand to a few billion transcendent beings.

Actually we have, the Xu-Ha purge, and the Third Space War where the Vorlons fought beings a lot more powerful then a few members of a newly transcended second age species.

Darko · 2026-08-19T22:51:27+0100

Vaermina said:
The Vorlons and Shadows are literally incapable of working that way.

As I pointed out, they are monomaniacal

Except there are instances of them abandoning their monomaniacal nature.

Kosh actually helping them and when they left instead of continuing their ancient struggle.

Vaermina said:
So no, you can't.

We're comparing the direct capabilities of one technology vs another, and Technomage implants can do everything Zoat power ring can do, and a lot more besides that. So you're argument that "power rings are bullshit" falls flat in the face of the Vorlons and Shadows having bigger bullshit. Especially when argument here boils down to "Power Rings can make stuff", well yes, so can technomages, their implants have energy effectors and nanotech generation

Yeah, you're still not really convincing me that techno-mages can rival a power ring.

We've seen power rings be able to casually destroy warships like they're nothing just a few episodes ago. I kinda doubt techno-mages can casually do that, because if they could then a lot of events in both the books and other source material wouldn't have happened.

Not to mention the fact that the majority of techno-mages are leaving.

Vaermina said:
Actually we have, the Xu-Ha purge, and the Third Space War where the Vorlons fought beings a lot more powerful then a few members of a newly transcended second age species

The Xu-Ha required the help of the other First Ones to defeat, and the Vorlons had the advantage against the Thirdspace aliens because they understood the technology that was used to allow them to enter the universe, so they could shut it off.

Vaermina · 2026-08-20T00:03:20+0100

Darko said:
Except there are instances of them abandoning their monomaniacal nature.

Kosh actually helping them and when they left instead of continuing their ancient struggle.

Actually Kosh followed his monomanical nature to the very end.

Because Kosh is Kosh, and Kosh exists to teach and protect the younger races from things they aren't ready for.

And do you know what Kosh would see in Power Ring Paul? His people's worst fears for what the Techno-Mages could become. Because one firm part of Power Ring Paul's character is that he only looks at the short term and doesn't respect other ways of doing things.

Darko said:
Yeah, you're still not really convincing me that techno-mages can rival a power ring.

We've seen power rings be able to casually destroy warships like they're nothing just a few episodes ago. I kinda doubt techno-mages can casually do that, because if they could then a lot of events in both the books and other source material wouldn't have happened.

Not to mention the fact that the majority of techno-mages are leaving.

The Technomage Trilogy literally has Galen use the Spell of Destruction to destroy Shadow and Drakh ships...

And Technomage implants are basic Shadow technology, IE the stuff the Shadows gave to the younger races to cause Chaos. The stuff the Shadows have for themselves? It's stuff like a small rock that adjusts probability across entire planets.

Darko said:
The Xu-Ha required the help of the other First Ones to defeat, and the Vorlons had the advantage against the Thirdspace aliens because they understood the technology that was used to allow them to enter the universe, so they could shut it off.

The Xu-Ha were the most advanced race in the galaxy at the time and had an entire civilizations industrial production at their beck and call.

And no, the Thirdspace war involved a giant galaxy spanning war that went on for something like a hundred thousand years and involved 90% of the galaxy being wiped clean of life by self replicating robotic swarms.

Jankl · 2026-08-20T00:28:46+0100

Wait. Malthusians exist in the Babylon 5 universe? Or are you guys just making assumptions while fighting with eachother?

RoninSword · 2026-08-20T01:28:57+0100

I remember in one version of reality, at least one person had heard of Maltus but in whispers as a sort of higher power place with no knowledge of how to get there.
Presumably, the assumption here is that these Vorlons and co, having some form of dimensional technology, could have heard of maltusians even if they aren't in their reality.

Someguy Somewhere · 2026-08-20T01:41:50+0100

There was a brief comment from.....the west coast avengers guy with the axe? never can remember his name. despite being in a marvel 'verse he'd recognized the symbol and knew the name Maltus. At least in the WTR multiverse.

In actual Marvel/DC the cross overs are once again flying, so who knows what we'll end up with moving forwards. Storm was poking the source wall, Superman's hanging out with Spiderman again....interesting times.

BR549 · 2026-08-20T03:39:01+0100

Jankl said:
Wait. Malthusians exist in the Babylon 5 universe? Or are you guys just making assumptions while fighting with eachother?

We're operating on the not entirely off-base presumption that B5 Malthusians existed, were First Ones, and evolved into energy beings and left for the Rim a long time back like the vast majority of the other First Ones did.

GhostKing 666 · 2026-08-20T05:29:56+0100

Darko said:
Because Shadow tech was organic in nature, telepaths could take control of it.

It's kinda like one-part organic technology and one-part nanotechnology so seamlessly merged together that it's impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins. Kinda like the Technorganics that occasionally pop up in Transformers. The Mechanicus wish they had the Shadows's skill at merging "flesh" and "metal".

Darko said:
The First Ones aren't exactly the Ancients or the Q.

Q no, the Ancients are another story all together. The Ancients could do a handful of things the First Ones can do, and the First Ones could do a lot of things the Ancients couldn't do(if we want to joke about it, that includes true mass production and being able to fight wars, just look at this example of Vorlon industry).

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: Darkness and Light, Page 64

A million years ago, the core of Fiachra went dark and cold. Every piece of stone that had once made up the world was gone, converted into an organic factory. The world was now a semi-hollow sphere, a web of machinery with nothing at its heart. Fiachra's industry had consumed the entire planet, transforming into a machine world. The capacity of Fiachra cannot be underestimated – indeed, by the Younger Races, it can hardly be comprehended. Given sufficient raw materials, just one of its factory-islands could out produce the combined industrial capacity of all the Younger Races put together and it has thousands of such islands in its vast webwork...

It was connected through jump funnels to the hyperspace folds containing the Vorlon Planet Killers, but producing such titanic vessels required only a fraction of Fiachra's power.

The 'planet' is now made up of around ten thousand 'factory islands', each of which is a knot of organic processors and assemblers. These islands are connected by transport tubes and chains, which hold the islands together in a roughly spherical configuration. The inside of the sphere contains jump tunnels and gates to various locations in hyperspace, giving Fiachra more space within than it does without.

You put the Ancients and the Asgard into B5 and they'll just be more First One races with their own strengths and preferences.

BR549 said:
As mentioned, the Vorlons modified existing races for telepathy, but by and large it was convergent evolution. The First Ones didn't really go in for that; most of them set their sights on 'evolve into energy beings and leave for the Rim' (although not all, as the Walkers demonstrate, and Lorien (THE First One) of course).

First, the First Ones only "left for the Rim" at the conclusion of the last Shadow War. Before that that are still around, they just retracted to their core territories to give the Younger Races room to expand and live.

Second, while several First One races did turn themselves into energy beings, either naturally(and in the case of the Mindriders, before they even achieved spaceflight) or by specifically engineering themselves as such like the Vorlons, other First Ones notably didn't. The Shadows, the Torvalus and the Kirishiac Lords all prefer to keep material bodies.

Darko said:
Yeah, you're still not really convincing me that techno-mages can rival a power ring.

We've seen power rings be able to casually destroy warships like they're nothing just a few episodes ago. I kinda doubt techno-mages can casually do that, because if they could then a lot of events in both the books and other source material wouldn't have happened.

Not to mention the fact that the majority of techno-mages are leaving.

Since no one has posted a list of what Technomages can do, here you go.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 8

They were tasked with the most critical assignments, eclipsing even the Drakh in their importance. Their skills had risen to the point where they could subvert an entire world with ease; a fleet of enemy warships was a minor nuisance.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 2nd Edition: Drakh Page 40

Spells of command allow the Drakh to take control of other machines. In the war of a thousand years ago, the first Techno-Mages could defeat whole fleets by shutting off ships using the power of the tech. The Drakh Techno-Mages have not yet reached that level of proficiency, but they are learning quickly.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 9

They and their apprentices went off, delighting in starting wars and conquering their own little empires. Some empires stretched across an entire continent. Some stretched across an entire solar system. The techno-mage Neldonic's rule of the worlds of the Letal was one of the most successful, stretching across planets and lasting for almost 7 decades before he grew bored and made their sun go nova.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 9

Over a period of several years their relationship soured, each wanting to become the sole power behind the throne. Finally, their arguments erupted into violence. For 3 weeks, battle raged across the capital city, laying waste to blocks at a time. Fireballs, explosions, phantom troops, and all kinds of horrors spread throughout the cities. Finally, things went still as they finally destroyed each other in a massive otherworldly explosion. As the terrified residents poked their elegantly coiffured heads out of their dwellings, they took stock of their situation. Half of the city was levelled or burning, and tens of thousands of Centauri lay dead.

The Passing of the Technomages Book 1: Casting Shadows, Chapter 5

Galen had thought perhaps the sphere was a black hole, based on the distortion of time and space. Yet a black hole would have pulled them all toward it, and this did not. Some of the readings suggested a wormhole or jump point, yet those would have radiated energy, and the sphere did not. According to the data, the energy he had first sensed all around him had gathered itself in the membrane of the sphere. As the sphere formed, it seemed to seal itself off more and more from the surrounding hall. The images of Kell and Isabelle standing on the far side of the sphere, which had at first been visible through the sphere, had later been blocked by it. The light that had been contained within the spherical area when the spell was cast found it harder and harder to escape, so that the sphere seemed to darken. The reddening of the light suggested a Doppler shift, as if the sphere were moving rapidly away from them.

Just before Elric had interrupted the spell, the sphere had begun to fade and collapse. The energy readings had begun to drop back to a more normal range, as if the membrane and what was contained within it were simply vanishing.

Yet energy didn't simply disappear. It went elsewhere. As he thought about it, the fading was the last logical step in the sphere's process of sealing itself off. It had not only sealed itself off from the light and energy in the hall, but from the space and time in the hall. The sphere had pinched itself off into a separate universe.

Although he couldn't be sure, that would explain the fading, the return to normality. But why had the sphere begun to shrink at the end? The gravitational waves recorded by the sensor-pad indicated major instabilities. The universe created seemed inherently unstable, in a state of collapse.

The second term of the equation must be the one to stabilize the sphere, to make conditions within it consistent with those without, and to allow the passage of energy, space, and time in and out of the sphere. In the absence of that second term, the sphere tried to seal itself off from everything, and in so doing, destroyed itself.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 14

This spell of destruction was capable of destroying entire city blocks from a distance and hadn't been known in the order for centuries.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 14

Violating his oath, Galen destroyed the Shadow vessel with his spell of destruction, demonstrating much better control of the power than when he attempted it at his initiation.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 56

This spell draws the target area instantly into an unstable pocket universe of the mage's creation...
Otherwise, all matter—including stone, walls, metal, living flesh, and anything else unfortunate enough to be in the area—is annihilated when the pocket universe collapses a moment after its creation. A loud pop sounds as air rushes into the vacuum left behind...

With a spell of this power, a mage can tear down buildings, destroy starships, and wreak untold havoc on entire civilisations.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 2nd Edition: Drakh, Page 41

While the Drakh have attuned their tech for precisely this spell, it is still exceedingly dangerous to employ; it functions by slicing a sphere of space out of the universe for a moment, compacting its contents to nothingness.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 53

This spell causes an acidic rain to fall on an area from above. There must be a ceiling at least 20 feet high or this spell will not function.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 53

This spell produces a thick, glue-like blob of acid that resembles a softened chunk of gelatine approximately three inches in diameter. The acid causes no damage to flesh, so the mage can carry it without any ill effects. However, it melts through... metal... ignoring all hardness values. The mage can apply the blob directly to a desired object with a touch attack, or throw it against a distant target using a ranged touch attack. The acid can be used to destroy locks, penetrate metal barriers, slowly carve openings in metal obstructions such as walls or doors, or any other purpose the mage can envision.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 53

When this spell is cast, the mage holds forth his hands, and a greenish-coloured spray of acid shoots forth from his fingertips.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 54

The mage takes control of a flame occupying as much as... a five-foot cube). He can make
the fire expand... or go out completely. He can fan a small flame, such as that produced by a candle, into a raging inferno. A controlled fire will not expand... unless the mage specifically allows it to do so. If a mage doesn't have control of a fire, or releases control of a fire, it will either burn itself out or continue to grow depending on the availability of flammable materials nearby. Thus, a mage must be careful not to let
controlled fire get out of control!

To move or expand, a fire must have fuel; the techno-mage cannot, for example, march a flame across a smooth stone floor or through a waterfall...

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 54-55

A flame is produced at the mage's fingertip or in his open palm. The fire can be made to flicker like a candle or expand to a sphere the size of an orange. The techno-mage takes no damage while the flame is maintained. The fire can ignite fuels such as leaves, paper, and the like, and if so, the fire becomes its own entity that no longer requires maintenance.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 57

This spell produces a ball of flame that targets a location in space instead of a single creature. The flaming orb explodes upon reaching that spot,

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 55

The techno-mage freezes water vapour in the air nearby, producing a chunk of ice in his open palm. The ice can have any simple shape, such as a block or sphere, and can be either solid or in the form of a large snowball...

Create ice, and all elemental spells that employ this spell as a prerequisite, require at least a small quantity of water vapour in the nearby air to function properly. If the air is 100% dry, or no air is present at all, such spells cannot be cast.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 58

This spell causes heavy chunks of hail to drive down from above. There must be an open area at least 20 feet high above the target area for this spell to function properly.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 59

When this spell is cast, shards of bitterly cold ice burst forth from the mage's hand, extending outward in a conical shape to strike all targets within the affected range.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 59

One floor, wall, or ceiling in the affected area is suddenly coated with a one-inch thick layer of ice.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 59

Snow begins to fall in the affected area, appearing right out of thin air. The snow obscures sight beyond 5 feet, including lowlight vision but not other means of detection such as infrared imaging or radar.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 59

This spell causes a bolt of lightning to crackle forth from the mage's body to strike the designated target.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 61

When this spell is cast, an arc of flickering blue-white electricity springs forth from the mage's hand to the target, holding the victim in a coruscating nimbus of flickering energy. While the spell is maintained, the target cannot take any actions. It can see, hear, and experience everything around it, but may not move a muscle, even to speak. Autonomous body functions, such as breathing, continue normally. If the creature is in a balanced position, it can remain standing or seated; otherwise, it falls prone.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 61

This spell allows the mage to use his control of electricity and other energy sources to power any device he touches. This could be a computer, bionic body part, monitor, energy weapon, or anything else of Small size or less that operates using electrical power.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 56-57

Target: 100-foot radius sphere
Within the targeted zone, a strong wind quickly whips into a frenzy, driving shards of ice, blobs of burning napalm, and crackling thunderbolts in a whirling maelstrom of destruction.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 73

With this spell, the mage creates a sharp metallic dart that immediately flings itself at the chosen target...
This is similar to greater missile, but if the dart hits... it continues to force its way into the target's body...
This spell creates a cluster of missiles that swam into a 10-foot radius area selected by the mage.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 2nd Edition: Drakh Page 40

Dampen Power: The Drakh blocks the flow of energy through a device, disabling it.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 19

*...the apprentice techno-mage's blood becomes infused with nano-tech devices that provide extra healing and damage resistance benefits.

The mage receives a... bonus to... to resist all disease, poison, radiation, and other effects that can be potentially countered by nano-tech. This does not apply to effects that cause physical damage, such as fire or acid, which are simply healed normally... the techno-mage becomes permanently immune to
disease.

*Editor's Note: This passage had a number of gameplay mechanics included which were removed to only leave the essence of the effect without invoking numbers useful only to those playing the RPG. For the last bit, it requires the mage to have a good deal of experience before they become immune to disease altogether, level 9 in gameplay terms, but prior to that is resistant.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 24

*...a Great Healer is immune to the effects of all diseases, poisons and toxins... he is immune to the effects of thin atmospheres and automatically shifts all detrimental gravity effects one step towards 'Standard.'... the Great Healer is completely immune to radiation as long as exposure lasts only a few minutes—if he stands for hours in the midst of a nuclear reactor, he will still perish...

*Editor's Note: This passage had a number of gameplay mechanics included which were removed to only leave the essence of the effect without invoking numbers useful only to those playing the RPG.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 45

This is the most basic defensive spell. Lesser armour erects an faintly visible, glowing shield that protects the target's chest, back, and vitals from any physical (but not energy) attack. The shield extends about an inch off the skin and encloses any clothing worn... This is the most powerful version of the armour spells and protects the entire body, including all extremities.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 46

This spell infuses a single target with resistance to a particular type of elemental damage: fire, cold, acid, electricity, or sonic. The effect has a visible result depending on the type—fire resistance turns the target a sooty black colour, for example, while cold resistance does the opposite.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 49

This spell erects a glowing blue field that looks like a crisscrossed web of tightly woven energy fibres. The spell provides no inherent bonus to DV, but serves only to absorb incoming damage from attacks. The mage basically uses this shield to make himself virtually invulnerable for a short period of time.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 50

This shield surrounds the target with a faintly glowing screen that helps block any sort of attack, including melee, ranged, energy, elemental, and so on.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 51

Skin of Wood
When this spell is cast, the target is covered by a faintly pulsing brown glow that protects him from all forms of attack...

Skin of Bronze... Skin of Iron... Skin of Diamond...

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 46

This spell creates a five-foot diameter bubble of air that moves with the target item or creature... The bubble has no physical effect, and is harmless against anything it touches. Its sole purpose is to provide atmosphere for the subject. The bubble's air supply can sustain a single Medium-sized air-breathing creature for up to an hour, assuming the spell can be maintained that long. While the bubble is present, the subject will not be affected by poisonous vapours or gases in the area unless he directly enters their source, such as the square containing a gas grenade or the entrance to a sulphurous cave.

If used to travel underwater, the bubble must be maintained each round due to the pressure of the liquid forcing itself upon the outside. The maintenance cost doubles for each additional atmosphere's worth of pressure forced upon it (i.e., it doubles about once for every 100 feet of depth in an Earth-like ocean). If used in a vacuum, the bubble has a maintenance cost of 4 points per round, as the air within will attempt to escape rapidly.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 47

This spell erects a solid shield that blocks passage through two 5-foot squares. Small and larger creatures cannot enter the squares at all, as a glowing white screen of criss-crossed lines of force repulses them upon entry.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 51

This is the same as a small vehicular shield except that it can protect much larger craft, including small space vessels such as the mage's own ship. In addition, if the vehicle is of Gargantuan size or smaller, the mage need not be within the vehicle to maintain the spell.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 48

This spell causes the mage to temporarily become invisible to normal sight. To anyone watching, he simply seems to vanish, although the mage can voluntarily include a brief flash, puff of smoke, or sound effect if desired... This is similar to invisibility, but also conceals all other forms of radiation, such as infrared, ultraviolet, and even brain waves. The mage can still be tracked by scent or odour, however

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 87

This spell clears the target's mind of any stray thoughts and permits him to defend capably against mental intrusions

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 87-88

The target creature is cured of any blindness caused by bright lights, flashes, and other damage. It does not cure permanent blindness conditions such as those caused by birth defects or chronic diseases... The target creature is cured of any deafness caused by loud noise, changes in pressure, and other damage. It does not cure permanent deafness conditions such as those caused by birth defects or chronic diseases... The target creature is cured of any one disease in his system... If the disease has any after-effects, such as fatigue or ability score loss, those remain in effect... This spell affects only diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, and other foreign invaders. Chronic illnesses, wounds caused by damage to the mage's internal tech, and the like cannot be removed with this spell... The target creature is cured of any one poison in his system... The target creature is cured of one instance of radiation effects—whichever affected him most recently.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 90

When a body dies, the soul does not immediately depart for whatever comes next. Instead, it lingers unseen, as a sort of natural hedge in case the body's functions should suddenly restart. This gives doctors the necessary window of opportunity, prior to brain death, to bring a person back from the brink, and explains the stories of the 'tunnel of light' seen by many victims of near-death experiences. And, as Soul Hunters know well, the soul can be captured and stored during this period.

This window also gives a techno-mage healer a brief opportunity to keep the body alive and bind the soul into the body... When the spell is invoked, the body is stabilised and restored to life for as long as the mage can maintain the spell... If the creature's hit points are restored to –9 or better through this procedure, or through other medical procedures conducted simultaneously, the character has successfully been brought back to life. If the mage runs out of power points before this occurs, he has failed; the soul departs and the creature's life is irrevocably lost.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 92

This spell is the same as regeneration, but the limb or organ can be completely missing. The spell cannot restore limbs or organs that were never present (e.g., it cannot grow a hand for someone who was born without one).

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 60

This spell is similar to create sound, except the mage can duplicate more complex sounds, such as music or another person's voice. The mage must make the noises by moving his mouth, so he cannot speak or cast verbal spells while mimicking a sound.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 61

A sound-absorbing field surrounds the target creature or object, reducing its noise output to 5% of normal levels. Normal speech sounds like nothing at all, and shouting at the top of one's lungs produces little more than a whisper.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 62

The mage creates a visible, faintly glowing ball of concentrated sound that directly affects the nervous system of the target creature... This spell will affect constructs as well as most living beings, although energy creatures or those without nervous systems (or electronic impulses that serve the same purpose) ignore this spell.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 62

This is the same as mimic sound except that the mage creates the desired noises in another location instead of his own.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 19

...a techno-mage becomes able to employ an FTL network created and placed by the techno-mages in the distant past. This network allows a mage to use certain long-ranged spells to reach out all the way into deep space. The FTL network is normally used for communication, although some powerful mages employ it for other purposes. The FTL network is limited to only those areas the techno-mages have visited, which encompasses virtually all of known space. If a mage moves into a part of the galaxy (or beyond) that has never been surveyed by mages, he may find himself cut off from the rest of his order, and cannot employ spells using FTL components.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 21

Upon graduating to full mage status, a techno-mage earns his own personal ship, called a pinnace. The pinnace serves as his own unique transport shuttle and has a variety of special abilities. If a pinnace is destroyed, the mage must request a new one from the Kinetic Grimli at a cost of at least one favour and a month's waiting time.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 21

The place of power will be immobile, and taps into the natural energies of the planet he has selected as his home—geothermal power, magma vents, hydroelectricity, and the like.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 22

Unlike telepaths, who use their mental powers at the expense of fatigue and a gradual weakening of their bodies, techno-mages draw upon an inner reserve of energy that is collected and stored automatically by their tech... A mage expends power points when he casts spells. If he runs out out, he may trade 1 hit point and 1 point of subdual damage for 1 power point at any time, as a free action, so long as this expenditure does not cause him to fall unconscious. When he does this, the mage basically reaches deep inside himself, drawing from his body's own physical reserves.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 110

This difficult spell is used to imbue a magic item with its own power source. The item in question still tracks its own power needs, but it does not require energy from a mage or force of will. One power point is regenerated every hour.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 110

When this spell is used in the crafting of a magic item, the mage adds the ability to recharge the device through sheer force of will. Any individual capable of employing the item (i.e., anyone to whom it is attuned, or any mage) may recharge its batteries

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 12

When they investigated, a small tear in the fabric of hyperspace was found. Worse yet was the realisation that it was expanding... It was realised that this tear would continue growing until it was dozens of light-years in length, ripping a bloody swath through the galaxy... There was a slim chance that a group of mages, acting in concert, could close the rift. However, they might be swallowed up in the local release of energies and be killed...

The rift was now visible to planets for several light-years around, a massive sheet of boiling energy visible in the night sky, growing ever larger. Maju plunged his small ship into the rift, where nothing seemed to happen for several minutes. Then, a flash of energy exploded from his entry point and the rift collapsed in upon itself.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 64-66

This spell, and any of the others in this series, create quasi-real 'creatures' out of empty air. The illusion is perfect in every way, making the same sounds and acting the same way as a creature of its type would under normal circumstances. The beast even bleeds when wounded (as applicable) and dies if it suffers enough damage to kill it... This spell is like conjure gargantuan creature except that the beast created can be of Colossal size.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 69

This spell is similar to disguise, except that the created illusion includes texture, sound, and odour, and covers up to a Medium sized creature or object... With this spell, a mage could make anyone look like virtually anyone else, right down to individual hairs out of place
on the head.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 71

This spell creates a perfect duplicate of the target creature, which must be of Medium size or smaller... The illusion includes all sensory components (auditory, visual, etc.) and performs whatever actions the mage directs. If the illusion takes damage, it will 'bleed,' cry out in pain, and possibly even appear to 'die' in order to carry out the deception. The illusion interacts with real objects and engages in combat as described under the spell conjure small creature.

The duplicate cannot be distinguished from the original, but possesses only the mage's knowledge and skills, so it can still give itself away through its actions. Otherwise, it is a perfect deception that will fool not only viewers, but electronic equipment, thermal imaging, olfactory sensors, and even retinal scans or fingerprint analysers.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 74

This spell produces a nearly perfect illusion complete with visual, auditory, olfactory, and thermal components. The image can be controlled by the mage or set on a pre-programmed course of action, just as with greater phantom image.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 2nd Edition: Drakh Page 40

This spell allows the Techno-Mage to seize control of any complex machine, such as a computer, vehicle, spacecraft or even something like an artificial heart.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 66-67

Daemons are, simply put, computer programs that a mage can use to perform a variety of purposes. A mage can insert a lesser daemon into a computer by using any of that machine's normal input/output devices—e.g., a keyboard, voice commands, touch-screen, or even electronic impulses guided through a plug-in port. The mage then directs the daemon to perform any desired task in his stead. The mage is free to undertake other activities while the daemon goes to work—he can even leave the area if he wishes...

Most daemons take a visible form on a computer screen or other visual interface. For example, Arwyn's daemons usually have the shapes of actual devils (pitchforks and all), while Burell's favourite daemon looks like a bodybuilder with the face of John Sheridan. A mage can make a daemon look like anything he chooses, or can keep it invisible if he wishes. If it takes the form of a creature, it will react and respond to his commands, even carrying out an entire conversation if the mage so desires...

This is similar to conjure daemon, but the created program works five times as fast as the mage and earns a... bonus on all Computer Use checks.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 67-68

This difficult spell creates one simple, ordinary object of Diminutive size or smaller, such as a dagger, ring, or bullet. The item is permanent once formed and is relatively ordinary... To make the item, the mage draws random atoms out of the air and nearby solid objects, but not enough to cause any damage or other ill effects...

This spell is like minor creation, but the item created can be of Tiny size or smaller, and can be of several different materials, including composites. A mage could use this ability to make a silvered glass mirror, plastic cup, steel sword blade, synthetic sheet of paper, bandage, simple tool, or just about any other ordinary object. He may not create machines or electronic devices, such as credit chits, calculators, batteries, energy weapons, infrared goggles, or anything else of a high-tech nature.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 74

This spell is similar to minor repairs except it can fix advanced materials such as complex alloys and composites. It will still not work on highly advanced alien technologies, such as the skin of a Vorlon or Shadow vessel. Major repairs fixes breaks of Tiny size or smaller, so an item with a particularly large break (e.g., the wall of a hydroelectric dam cracked by a recent earthquake) can be fixed much more quickly with this spell than with minor repairs.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 68

The object touched soaks up all light within a 20-foot radius, plunging the entire area into darkness.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 71

The object touched begins to glow with a white light sufficient to produce bright light in a 20-foot radius and dim light for 20 feet beyond that zone. Once placed, the light spot remains in the same location on the object, which can be moved around normally.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 68

This spell alters the interior of any Tiny-sized or smaller container to reach into a pocket of space located 'somewhere else.' Mages are fond of explaining that such areas are located in alternate dimensions, but in fact, they are just secure places hidden nearby (e.g., the inside of a locked box or safe within the mage's quarters). As long as the mage remains within one mile of the pre-selected location, he can reach into the alteredcontainer to remove or add items whenever he wishes.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 72

This spell is similar to mage eye and mage ear, but an entire duplicate head is created. Using this head, the mage can see, hear, smell and taste at will from the head's location, and may activate or deactivate these senses at will as a free action. While using a 'remote' sense, the mage cannot use his 'real' one on his actual body.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 75

This spell creates a compulsion in the target creature to perform some activity stated by the mage. The mage may give any simple suggestion that takes no more than a single unbroken sentence to describe, such as 'You feel like you should let us through this locked door,' 'You think this would be a good time to
run a complete systems diagnostic,' or 'These aren't the droids you're looking for.'

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 76

This spell reduces the target creature's weight while improving their centre of gravity, providing them an improved sense of balance.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 76

This spell alters the effect of gravity on the target creature, shifting the ambient gravity level by one level in the direction selected by the mage.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 79

The surface touched provides the effects of normal gravity when any creature or object is in contact with the affected area. Thus, in zero-G conditions, a section of floor can be 'gravitised' to normal levels, allowing anyone standing there to ignore the normal penalties and checks required by weightlessness... Alternately, a section of wall or ceiling could be given full gravity, so that a person could stand sideways or even upside-down without ill effects.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 76

When the mage casts this spell, he temporarily accelerates himself to hyper-velocity, so that he appears to disappear and reappear in another spot within range. The mage is unable to think or act while performing this movement, so he must plan in advance to move to that spot without taking any other actions en route. (To him, the movement happens just as quickly as it does to any onlookers.) Thus, this is not teleportation—the mage must have an uninterrupted path to the desired spot, so he can't jump over large obstacles or across open space.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 77

The mage takes control of winds in his general vicinity. He can change the direction, strength, and severity of the air, whipping up a strong breeze where none exists, or calming winds so that he seems to stand in a quiet area while gusts blow all around. The mage can alter winds by up to 20 mph, so a wind of that strength could either be cancelled entirely or increased to up to 40 mph

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 78

This spell creates a quasi-real vehicle of any shape the mage desires... The vehicle can appear solid, remain ghostly and translucent, or be totally transparent at the caster's option.

The flying vehicle can fly at a speed of 90 feet per round (60 for weaknesses, 120 for primaries), manoeuvres at Average levels (Poor for weaknesses, Good for primaries), and holds up to 2,000 lb. of weight

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 82

This spell very briefly slows time in the mage's vicinity, allowing him to take two actions in rapid succession.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 83

This spell temporarily places the mage outside the normal flow of time, allowing him to take four complete rounds of actions (three for weak aptitudes, five for primaries) while no one else can act. The mage cannot move or otherwise affect any object or creature during the time stoppage, other than those items on his person at the time the spell was cast. Thus, he could not flip through a stack of papers unless he happened to be holding those papers when the spell activates... The mage can, however, employ any spells he wishes while time is stopped (they take effect as if cast on the round that time restarts), move through dangerous areas without suffering damage, place cameras without being observed, and so on.

When the spell resumes, the mage appears to simply blink into the new position. If desired, he can instead move back to his original location when the spell was cast, so that it looks like nothing happened.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 83

This is similar to attract, except the mage is under complete control of the object...The caster can make the object slide along the ground, flit about in midair, deliver itself to someone else, or yank itself
out of someone's hand... The mage can even make an attack with a telekinesis-affected object...

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 84

This is the same as telekinesis, except the affected item can be of Small size, and if used in combat is wielded as if by someone with a Strength 4 points higher than the mage (2 points higher for
weak aptitudes, 6 points for primaries) for damage purposes.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 84

The mage briefly warps the fabric of space, transporting himself and up to a light load of gear to any location within range that he can see. He must have direct line of sight to employ this spell.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 84

This is like teleport, except the mage can travel as far as he can see with the unaided eye.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 92-103

Spells of this school enhance the abilities of creatures. Although most such spells are designed for use on the caster, many can also be employed on others...

This spell improves the target's acrobatic skills... This spell improves the target's awareness... The subject's appearance and physical beauty make him seem much more appealing... The subject's thoughts become clearer and his mind sharper... This spell improves the target's flexibility... This spell provides the ability to see in the dark... This spell improves the target's ability to see through lies... This spell improves the target's ability to tell tall tales... The subject's body becomes tougher... The mage temporarily improves the physical structure of the target's body... The mage temporarily improves the target's nimbleness... The mage temporarily improves the mental faculties of the target... The subject's reasoning ability is greatly improved... This spell improves the strength of the target's legs... The subject's body becomes much stronger... This spell improves the dexterity of the target's hands... The subject's body becomes exceptionally limber... This spell improves the target's powers of observation... This spell gives the recipient additional skill in battle... This spell improves the target's hearing... This spell improves the target's vision... The mage improves the recipient's insight... This spell improves the target's ability to blend in and appear normal and unassuming... This spell improves the target's swimming abilities... This spell improves the pitch and timbre of the target's voice... This spell improves the steadiness of the target's hands and his ability to write clearly and accurately,

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 99

This spell allows the caster to receive a vision about a person, place or thing with which he is associated. During the casting, the mage enters a trance state and cannot maintain any other spells or perform any other actions, even to defend himself.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 100

This spell provides limited prescience to the target

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 2nd Edition: Drakh Page 40

Probability Control: Probability control allows the Techno-Mage to warp the flows of chance and chaos around a target.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 98

The mage alters probabilities in the target's favour.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 104

Next, the mage employs imbue spells to add powers to an item. Each imbue spell is cast individually, in any order desired by the mage. The imbue spell adds the power of another spell the mage knows, such as armour or create acid. The imbued spell must be in a school for which the mage has at least a standard aptitude.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: The Techno-Mages Fact Book Page 108

This enhancement can be used only on items that have but a single spell imbued upon them. The item in question can be smaller than Fine size, even down to the scale of a grain of dust for very simple items.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 2nd Edition: Drakh, Page 52

Memetic Virus: The memetic viruses are one of the more curious products of the Shadows' billion-year-old technology. It is a thought that leaps from mind to mind, an image that cannot be forgotten and which wreaks havoc in the minds of those who see it. The Techno-Mages speak proudly about knowing 'the fourteen words to make someone fall in love with you forever; seven words to make them go without pain, or to say goodbye to a friend who is dying.' The Shadows gave them those secrets and more, and they are encoded in the memetic viruses.

While the Drakh recovered some of the memetic viruses from Z'ha'dum, encoded in Shadow runes onto indestructible stone tablets, they have not yet managed to comprehend any of them or make use of them. The power of the memetic viruses is vast – with them, the Drakh could rewrite minds just by broadcasting a message, or speaking to a foe. The virus is just a few words or an image whose individual components are very simple, but when put together, their combined effect is tremendous.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 2nd Edition: Drakh Page 43

Thousands of tiny nodes are implanted into the Drakh's body, strengthening his immune system and boosting his healing rate. These are similar to the organelles used by the Techno-Mages, although the Drakh modification is not as potent.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 2nd Edition: Drakh Page 44

This powerful augmentation adds hundreds of tiny nodes throughout the Drakh's body. If the Drakh is injured, the nodes near the injury are activated, pumping painkilling drugs into the user's bloodstream and deploying microscopic robots to repair the damage. While the healing ability of the nodes is limited, this augmentation is capable of rapidly healing most forms of injury that would otherwise incapacitate the Drakh.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: Darkness and Light, Page 100

The Techno-Mages received their technology from the Shadows; for all their arcane power, they could never replicate these complex implants that enable the mages to use First One technology instinctively. The implants are grown on Z'ha'dum and in other Shadow strongholds by Drakh and Streib servants, then secretly supplied to the Techno-Mages of the line of Weirden.

The creation of the Techno-Mages was a significant investment for the Shadows, requiring that they compress many of their technologies down into a form that could be held within the body of a humanoid. Many of these nodes are actually organic memories that tell the nanotechnological assemblers and electromagnetic effectors how to perform the acts of wonder and chaos demanded of them by the Techno-Mages. The implants also exert a subtle pressure on the minds of the users, drawing them closer and closer to chaos.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 2nd Edition: Drakh Page 37

When the first Techno-Mages were created, the Shadows forbade the Drakh from joining their order, and this prohibition was obeyed for a thousand years. The Techno-Mages rebelled against the Shadows, but the Drakh continued to honour their compacts with the mages and kept supplying them with tech. Now, though, the Shadows are gone and the Techno-Mages have turned wholly against the darkness. The pacts are broken and the Drakh will never again bring chrysalises to the convocations of the mages.

The tech is still in the hands of the Drakh, though, and since the Shadows are gone, so too is their prohibition about using the tech themselves. There has always been an undercurrent of bitterness and jealousy in the Drakh psyche towards the Techno-Mages, and they began using the tech with what can only be described as glee.

And for completions sake and because the Shadows have the same implants as the Techno-Mages(if not better), here's everything on the Shadows.

While the other races desperately tried to hold back death, both for themselves and the Speakers, the Shadows embraced death. Death is a necessary part of evolution; the immortals are static, unchanging, and therefore eternally imperfect. The Shadows eschewed the technology of immortality used by the other First Ones, instead devoting their creative energies in other, stranger directions.

Long before the Vorlons had achieved transcendence into energy beings, the Shadows had become creatures of elemental darkness, merging the matter of their bodies with vacuum and nothingness in an incomprehensible fashion.

Unlike the complex nature of the Vorlons, Shadow biology is relatively simple. There is no divide of body and soul, as the Shadows do not have any immortal energy-patterns in hyperspace or any sort of consciousness preservation. While the Shadows are ageless, they are not immortal and virtually invincible like the Vorlons are.

They are throwbacks in other ways too. The last Vorlon was decanted from the amniotic tanks attached to the genetic looms two million years ago, but the Shadows retain their capacity for sexual reproduction. New Shadows are hatched just as they were when the race ﬁrst began. The race is nowhere near as well integrated with technology as the Vorlons are; while the Vorlons utilise their technology through thought alone, the Shadows need minions and control units to stir their creations into action

A Shadow is an insectoid creature that stands on six multi- jointed legs. Shadows have an upper body from which sprout two hooked claws, faintly like the claws of a preying mantis. The Shadow's head is surmounted by a crown of chitinous spikes and horns. Numerous yellow-red eyes glow in the wide expanse of the Shadow's face.

The two pincers are dangerous natural weapons; while the Shadows can carve cities up from orbit using their warships, they have not neglected their natural ﬁghting abilities, and the fractal-edged claws can cut through steel as if it was tissue paper. The claws are also surprisingly adept at precise manipulation; the edges of the claws are marked with minute protrusions and probes, allowing a Shadow to manipulate micro-sized objects with perfect ease and grace.

The four legs could be vestigial if the Shadows used their technology to its fullest; the Shadows are just as adept at ﬂight and negating gravity as the Vorlons and can indeed walk beyond gravity at will. However, the Shadows value the products of evolution more than the products of science, so they cling to the form they evolved into. Their carapaces have been augmented and strengthened immeasurably, of course, laced with synergic conﬁgurations of carbon and dense metals, making them virtually unbreakable.

While most of the Shadow's abdomen, thorax and upper body is taken up with the creature's efﬁcient organs (the Shadows have long since evolved beyond the need for distinct organs, so they are primarily composed of a spongy mass that is muscle, lung, digestive system and energy store all at once), they also have numerous technological implants. Relatively few of the Shadows' devices are physical, external artefacts; they prefer to merge servant and tool.

The Shadow's large head contains the creature's massive brain. The brain's structure is completely different to that of any other known race; it is not mammalian, nor reptile, nor insectoid, but is a coiled mass of black tissue. The thoughts of most races manifest as electrochemical signals leaping between crenulations in the grey matter, but the Shadows appear to think on a level that was at least two orders of magnitude lower down, meaning that the level of activity in a Shadow's brain is thousands of time greater than that of a less evolved creature.

The Shadows have considerably more senses than lesser creatures. Their multifaceted eyes can see the entire electromagnetic spectrum, while each pair of eyes had its own unique perceptive abilities. Legends spoke of the Shadows being able to look into the soul; with the creatures' abilities to see electrical activity in the brain and the ﬂow of quantum events, this may in fact be quite accurate.

The same legends spoke of the Shadows' incredible powers of stealth, how they were able to pass unseen even into the heart of their enemies' fortresses. While the Shadows are stealthy, this does not begin to describe the nature of the Shadows. Their ships give a clue – Shadow vessels are able to phase directly into hyperspace without needing a jump vortex. The Shadows have mastered this ability to such an extent that they existed in this 'phase space', in a sub-dimension similar to hyperspace. The Shadows can move in and out of phase space at will. While out of phase with normal space, a Shadow is immaterial, intangible, undetectable and quite possibly unreal.

In simple terms, the Shadows are capable of walking through solid objects and of being as solid or immaterial as they desire. Presumably, a Shadow can ﬂy by reducing its 'reality' until the gravity of realspace did not affect it, then moving in the masslessness of phase space. This ability is also used defensively – a Shadow struck by a blast from a weapon could twist away into phase space, dodging the blow by moving in a direction the energy could not go

The Shadows adopted the practice of entering long periods of hibernation millions of years ago. Permanent chaos means nothing, can achieve nothing. The Shadows love periods of chaos because they prove who can ride out the storm, who has grown strong during the periods of rest and respite. No creature, no race, no force can endure permanent chaos; everything would be swept away in such an eternal storm. Therefore, the Shadows act only rarely, trusting to their machines and servants to act in their absence.

During these hibernations, the Shadows slip into phase space in hidden places, waiting out the millennia as mere potential in the darkness. They return to reality when awoken.

The Shadows have been committed servants of chaos for their entire existence. The three principles of chaos have been the core of their civilisation since time immemorial. These principles are the Shadows' moral code, the operating commands given to their servants and machines, the guiding principles and ultimate goals of their very existence.

Chaos is the crucible that the Shadows choose to dwell in. It is in conﬂict that a creature's true nature becomes evident. Mere warfare is not enough to force true natures to emerge, however – that requires chaos. Societies and similar constructs coddle the individual, supporting the weak and holding back the strong. True, by working together, creatures can achieve more than they would achieve on their own, but all beings must stand alone at some point in their lives. Therefore, the Shadows inﬂict chaos by shattering all social constructs. They do not merely bring war, they deliberately try to disrupt established orders and societies to force creatures to stand alone. Ultimately, the Shadows seek to bring everything down to its foundations. In many ways, this is similar to the Vorlons' endless questioning of 'who are you?', stripping away layer upon layer of external, imposed identity and shields against the dark. However, while the Vorlons act through introspection, the Shadows take a more… active approach.

Chaos through warfare also applies to the Shadows themselves; during their long periods of hibernation, the creatures would retreat to phase space. Somehow, they are able to speak and interact in this sub-dimension and the slumbering Shadows are able to contest among themselves in some fashion, ﬁghting to decide which group of Shadows will rule in the next period of activity. Once this contest is over, the victorious Shadows rule unquestioned – the Shadows are utterly incapable of dissent or disloyalty in any meaningful fashion. The threat of destruction faced by the race early in its history, at the hands of the other First Ones or the Hand resulted in the Shadows inculcating loyalty to the cause into the genetics of their offspring

The second principle is the heart of what the lesser races would see as the Shadows' evil – it states that evolution and progress
must be accompanied by bloodshed, carnage, suffering and death. The Shadows could conceivably have attacked the Vorlon-created order of the Younger Races through other means, like giving the Younger Races advanced technologies as they did with the Techno-Mages, but this would have been meaningless according to the Shadows' philosophy. Advancement and death come hand in hand.

This philosophy means the Shadows support slavery and the use of lower life forms as tools and fodder for their machines; indeed, the victor is morally obliged to crush and use his defeated foes. The weak must be weeded out, burned out so their imperfections and failures are not continued or repeated in any way.

Perfection is an ideal, not a state; the Shadows can move closer and closer to perfection, but acknowledge they can never reach it (in contrast, the Vorlons are relatively sure they are perfect). Perfection can only be approached through victory, through the winning of conﬂict. By the Shadows' deﬁnition of conﬂict and warfare, this has to be victory over external foes and forces. This is one reason the rules of engagement irritated the Shadows so much – they were denied real, untrammelled warfare and so were prevented from having a 'real' victory; the Vorlons and the rules were seen as stiﬂing their progress towards perfection.

Perfection is deﬁned by the Shadows as 'being one with chaos'; a godly state where one's whims and desires are so forceful and overwhelming that nothing can stand against them. A universe where the Shadows had obtained 'perfection' would be a hellish one, for they would be forced by their own beliefs to inﬂict inﬁnite suffering on all other creatures.

The Shadow question of 'what do you want?' is an invitation, an invocation of the three principles. When a creature confesses its desires
and moves to obtain them,it becomes an agent of the three principles for it is entering into conﬂict with the external universe. Note that the Shadows deﬁnition of 'want' is predicted on external desires and objects; wanting to 'understand oneself' and similar inward-focused desires are alien and incomprehensible and therefore meaningless to the Shadows.

The Vorlons have their aspects, their psycho/political/cultural archetypes that pervade their natures. The Shadows are thousands of centuries older than the Vorlons and if they ever passed through a stage analogous to the aspects, it is now long behind them. The Shadows are not a hive mind – indeed, they ﬁercely maintain their individuality, speaking in high-density bursts of sound instead of using telepathy.

Despite this, it is nearly impossible to tell one Shadow from another. There may be clearly discernable differences between one Shadow and another but to an outsider they are identical in thought and belief. The Shadows have evolved to such a level of insight and clarity in the three principles that they can no longer deviate from them.

Through careful observation, the Vorlons were able to detect fractional shifts in Shadow tactics and policy, which may be the product of one faction or another coming into ascendance. These factions are theorised to correspond to each of the three principles but this is mere speculation

The Shadows do not use telepathy; not the direct mind-to-mind contact of the telepaths of the Younger Races nor the technological noetic speech of the Vorlons. Indeed, their minds are fortiﬁed against telepathy and any telepath unfortunate enough to look inside the thoughts of a Shadow suffers terrible feedback and psychic injury.

The Shadows' primary mode of communication is speech. Their language is a high-frequency sonic pulse, almost indistinguishable from static. Almost 90% of this speech is beyond the range of Human hearing. The remainder can be heard, but it sounds like bizarre chirps. The secondary channels of Shadow communication uses pulses of electrical energy; those near a speaking Shadow may ﬁnd themselves twitching and shivering, and electronic devices can fail or be momentarily disrupted by their presence.

While such communication would seem to be unthinkably primitive for such an advanced race, the Shadows have an advantage. They understand each other so well that they can convey a great deal of information with a simple word or gesture. If one Shadow moves its foreclaw subtly, the other Shadows present can notice and correctly interpret that gesture in the current context. This understanding is functionally as efﬁcient and effective as telepathy, while allowing the Shadows to retain their nature as individuals who can clash and ﬁght in accordance with the three principles.

The Shadows use radio, tachyon and similar media when communicating over interstellar distances. This does put the Shadows at something of a disadvantage, as their signals can in fact be detected and intercepted by comparatively primitive races; furthermore, they lack the instant communication of the Vorlons and other telepathic races. All the other Ancients used telepathy, seeing it as a great road that connects all life, but the Shadows stood outside this union.

The true name of the Shadows is 10,000 letters long. It is an acrostic, a code that describes the history of the Shadow race. Every few millennia, they sum up the total history of the species and add another letter or two.

Individual Shadows do not have names. Should they need to identify themselves uniquely, they speak the name of the Shadow race and place emphasis and inﬂection on speciﬁc parts of the name. Every Shadow's name is the name of darkness, but each one has their own unique perspective on that darkness.

The Shadows reproduce by laying eggs, just as they did early in the species' history. Any Shadow can start the biological process to convert itself into an egg-laying queen, although in general each Shadow colony has but a single queen. The eggs require an incubator; while the Shadows can construct artiﬁcial incubators, evolution through bloodshed means they prefer to use living beings as hosts. The infant Shadows are born with a vast genetic memory of Shadow philosophy, history and technology. Soon after hatching, the infants are upgraded with various artiﬁcial organs and other devices; they reach their full growth within ﬁve centuries. A Shadow queen can choose where the genetic material for her eggs comes from; she can produce eggs hermaphroditically or use one or all of the other Shadows present as genetic donors.

The Shadow population is in considerable ﬂux; unlike the Vorlons, who have maintained almost the same numbers for millennia, the number of Shadows changes constantly. The Shadows are capable of dying and are killed in great numbers by each other during times of internal conﬂict. At some points, most of the Shadows are hiding in phase space, with only a handful active in realspace. During other times, there are billions of Shadows in the galaxy. They outnumber the Vorlons several hundred times over, although population numbers are largely meaningless to species of such power.

As a race, the Shadows have become reactive as a rule; they have not fallen into the trap of stasis like the Vorlons have, but the Shadows rarely innovate now. Their technological progress has not stalled like that of the Vorlons, but is largely restricted to reﬁning their existing weapons instead of creating new ones. When stimulated, the Shadows are capable of innovating swiftly – they learned to integrate telepaths into their ships within a few weeks of ﬁrst encountering Human telepaths and they can create technological masterworks like the Eye or the death cloud (or the Drakh Plague) when necessary. However, they have little creativity left to them.

The Shadows have come to rely on 'inferior' species; their technology is maintained by the Drakh and Streib, their wars are fought by ships piloted by lesser beings, their tactics are guided and inﬂuenced by advisors like Morden and Justin. None of these servants are considered anywhere near the equals of the Shadows; they are pawns of their masters, but the Shadows still need their insight. For a race committed to evolution and to the breaking of hierarchies, the Shadows rely on their inferior servants far more than the Vorlons rely on theirs.

The Shadows 'sleep' most of the time – although their analogy of 'sleep' involves transiting into phase space, into a realm inaccessible and incomprehensible to other beings. Their servants can awaken them if needed, to complete some speciﬁc, necessary project, but normally the Shadows wait until some random event awakens them, like the Icarus landing on Z'ha'dum.

From the perspective of an outsider, the Shadows' lives seem bizarrely empty. They are an elder, advanced race, yet they do nothing except slumber and make preparation for war. The Shadows feel a fierce, overwhelming, exultant joy in victory. The Vorlons feel a dull pride in their accomplishments but they do not, cannot glory in them as the Shadows do.

The structure of the Shadow Dominion is something like a theocracy; all the Shadows and their servants are fanatical believers in this religion of chaos. It is reinforced on an endocrine level, as all the servants and agents of the darkness feel pleasure and intense joy when they fulfill the three principles.

And their industrial capacity.

Shadow Production

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: Darkness and Light, Page 6

These early Shadows lacked the advanced technology they would later possess and also lacked the seductive cunning they would use to divide and conquer. They made up for both these deficits with sheer numbers...

They met the Shadow armada in an epic battle in the galactic core. The battle was so nightmarish that accounts of it survive to this day, even though it took place millions of years ago,

In the core, the stars are so closely packed that they turn the night sky into a glaring actinic fi eld of white light. There is no darkness between the stars there – space is a hot, bright place. The alliance of the First Ones assembled there to battle the Shadows. There were so many black Shadow ships that they blotted out the light not merely of the local star, but of the entire galaxy. The alliance fleet was surrounded by darkness and in every part of that darkness was another ship of the seemingly infinite Shadow host. Building that armada consumed all of the resources of a dozen systems and its like would never be seen again.

The Shadows were defeated. They had superior technology and roughly equal numbers but the synergy of the other races, combined with the might of the Speakers' vessels, overwhelmed them. The Shadow armada wavered, broke and was defeated.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: Darkness and Light, Page 96

The Shadow technology of Seeding is the key to their tactic of burying their ships. While the Shadows do bury fullgrown ships to hide them from the Vorlons, they can also bury organic seedlings that slowly grow into full-sized vessels or structures. The cost of the technology being acquired is halved but it takes centuries to grow to full size.

Wormseed

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: Darkness and Light, Page 101

Wormseed is the Shadow equivalent of the Vorlons' swarm fleets. It resembles the Drakh Plague loosed on Earth, but is much more complex and powerful. Wormseed is designed to convert an entire planet into Shadow weapons. Nanotechnology would break biomass down into its constituent elements, turning the forests and seas into a thick sludge. Viruses mutate the animals into worker forms which harvest this planetary mulch, converting it into bio-organic machines that build more complex machines, who in turn build even more unlikely forms until the organic infrastructure is in place to build Shadow cruisers and other weapons. The planet is left a dead and empty hulk, as a million warships are born from its ruin.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: Darkness and Light, Page 107

Over 90% of the surface area of Shak'zor is covered in a mile-thick layer of organic technology. This
biomechanical landmass feeds on the decay of the once-rich Shak'zorian ecosystem, absorbing the fetid humus of a dying world to produce weapons and ships.

The Drakh have harvesting stations in orbit around the nightmare world; when Shak'zor's parasites are ready to birth their terrible offspring, the Drakh swoop down and act as midwives. Much of the Shadows' industry is located on Shak'zor, but the world is dying and soon the Shadows will have to move to another suitable planet...

Within 200 years, there will be nothing left on Shak'zor but bare and lifeless rock, and the skeletons of the world-eating machines.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 2nd Edition: Drakh 76

The planet, like its neighbour Shak'zor, was once a Shadow resource world. Millennia ago, the Shadows dropped wormseed – self-replicating biological machines – onto this once verdant world. The wormseed consumed and grew, transforming over two-thirds of Dac's surface into a nightmare landscape, where Shadow weapons and spacecraft grow from the ground like obscene fruit. Shak'zor was more suited to wormseed, and its entire landmass was covered with biomachines within a few years. The growth rate here on Dac was slower, and the dacu have retarded its growth to keep the machines from consuming their little fertile colony. Beneath the wormseed continents and the Drakh terraforming, it is still possible to catch the occasional glimpse of Dac as it was before the darkness; a pleasant if wet Earth-like world.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Fleet Age

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: Darkness and Light, Page 103

The Shadows grow new ships to replace their losses in recent wars, but most of the Shadow fleet is aeons old, constructed in ancient shipyards still haunted by the vessels they birthed.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Babylon 5 Wars: Wars of the Ancients Page 57

This was not always the case as, many millennia ago, the Shadows themselves piloted their vessels. These ships were much more powerful than those that the Shadows gave to their servant races.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

X'ha'dum

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: Darkness and Light, Page 106

X'ha'dum is a doomsday device, a base hidden in hyperspace within a dead world, capable of plunging the whole galaxy into chaos.

Within X'ha'dum's dark halls are the machines that make the fearsome death clouds, the Shadow version of the Vorlon planet killer. Sleeping in storage bays are nanotechnological plagues, insanity viruses, hyperspace bombs, telepathic weapons and worse horrors. Cloning banks that could decant a billion soldiers of darkness nestle next to nursery yards producing ships by the thousand. If the Shadows were ever destroyed, then X'ha'dum would have been their last, glorious hymn to chaos.

They would have set the galaxy on fire.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Factories in Humanoids

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: Darkness and Light, Page 122

The Shadows install an upgraded array of nano-factories and tools, allowing the technician to work under extreme conditions. The technician no longer needs tools of any sort to perform actions with the Technical skill. Furthermore, he does not need a computer console to interface with a computer within line of sight

And the Eye of Z'ha'dum

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: Darkness and Light, Page 83

The Eye of the Shadows was constructed 50,000 years ago. It was a biological computer system of surpassing complexity, capable of directing all of the Shadows' fleets. This was not a central control system – such centralisation runs counter to the Shadows' belief in chaos. Instead, the Eye functioned as an advisor and spy, telling the ships and Shadows when they needed to react and to force reactions.

The Eye was a construct greater than the Great Machine, more powerful than the machine world of Fiachra, more intelligent than any mind conceived of in the galaxy since the age of the Speakers. It looked into all the secret places, taking in whole spiral arms in a single glance.

Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game 1st Edition: Darkness and Light, Page 101

The Eye of the Shadows at Z'ha'dum is the single most complex machine in this age of the galaxy. It has guided the rise of the darkness for a hundred thousand years, orchestrating the movements of fire and shadow across a million stars. Like the Great Machine, the Eye can look backwards and forwards in time, delving into the possible futures to find the one most conducive to chaos and forced evolution. It guards the space around Z'ha'dum, spotting any vessels or powers moving within the Shadows' sphere of influence. It can speak to any Shadow or any vessel anywhere in the galaxy instantly, whispering to them in their minds and advising them of events.

Physically, the Eye is a network of organic computers. Its core is buried deep beneath the surface of Z'ha'dum, in a vast cavern once used as a tomb by the Speakers. Here sleeps Weirden, the founder of the Techno-Mages and thrall of the Eye. Here, the darkness is at its strongest. In orbit of Z'ha'dum is another node of the Eye, a hyperspatial sensor array more subtle and powerful than Human minds can comprehend. The gaze of the Eye extends for hundreds of thousands of light-years. It can look at a planet and discern the thought patterns of the inhabitants, even through the intervening gulf of space and the obscuring clouds of the atmosphere. The Eye of the Shadows knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men, and the Eye directs its forces to exploit it.

The Younger Races should be happy that the Shadows still use kid gloves when dealing with them.

Vaermina · 2026-08-20T05:50:40+0100

GhostKing 666 said:
You put the Ancients and the Asgard into B5 and they'll just be more First One races with their own strengths and preferences.

So many people never seemed to realize that the Shadows and Vorlons were massivly sandbagging.

Which is kind of hilarious given when the Alliance moved against Ulkesh he nearly tore Babylon 5 apart.

Hell, remember in the new movie when the Vorlons destroyed Earth by throwing the moon at it?

Mr Zoat · 2026-08-20T06:14:55+0100

27th September 2013
19:22 GMT -5

"Recognized, D zero one, Toyman."

Hiro strolls out of the construct zeta tube with his hands in his pockets, hesitating briefly when he notices that it is a construct and he hasn't come to one of the normal exits.

"Ah. Convenient." He makes eye contact with me. "You have the hats?"

I gesture to the work bench where the baseball hats sit, along with the tools necessary to dissect them. Hiro nods and walks closer, activating something in his coat to tighten the loose sleeves and run a sterilising field over his gloves.

"Have you done an analysis yourself?"

"Yes, but I don't necessarily understand what I'm looking at. My results are on the system."

He lowers his goggles and links them to the workshop's system. "Ah. What am I looking for?"

"Anything that might help us locate whoever built them. Any potential long term harm to the people exposed to it. Possible countermeasures and detection techniques."

He calls up an exploded view and starts examining a hat. "Does the League not already have those?"

"Sort of. Zeta tubes have build-in systems to detect mental alterations, and several Justice League members can detect things like that with their own abilities. And several Justice League members have learned techniques which make controlling their minds difficult. But just as for every form of attack there is a perfect defence, for every form of defence there is a perfect attack. And, of course, a technology or technique which is limited to a handful of people can't protect the entire world."

He magnifies the ward. "Is this an ofuda?"

"Something like that. It's intended to channel just enough magic to hide from power ring scans. It also causes the object to be hidden from certain forms of magic detection, but that isn't why it's become popular recently."

"I do not know magic. Is Hunter coming, too?"

"It's late at night in Britain. I've left him a note, but as far as I can tell it's completely standard. Tetch isn't a magician either."

"Do you know that it was made by the Mad Hatter?"

"Technically, no, but there are skin cells in there that match his D.N.A. so it seems like a safe bet. Plus it's a mind control hat. I'm not ignoring the possibility that it was someone else, it's just that it almost certainly was him."

"Mm."

"Should I leave you to it, or do you want someone to be impressed by your brilliance?"

"Do you know someone intelligent enough to understand it?"

"Who's your favourite Sivana?"

"Beautia."

Well, she's not Power Girl, but she's not far off I suppose. "Puberty hitting you already?"

"I like to be prepared. And the Justice League files on Georgia and Thaddeus Junior say that they are spending most of their time off-planet. Were you going to offer them a place here?"

"Oh goodness me, no. They've de facto joined NEMO, and that's probably the best place for them."

"But not for me?"

"You could just have bunkered up when the Anti-Life Broadcast happened. And you could have nuked Washington. You didn't. While I'd rather have given you a few years before approaching you… You'd already effectively joined the community. It made more sense to offer you support and guidance than expect you to go back to what you were doing before."

"I thought that we were selected by Batman."

"You were, but we could still have refused to teach you if we felt strongly enough about it."

"You don't follow Batman's orders?"

"Depends what you mean. This is a voluntary association, not an army. Batman isn't my commanding officer in the sense that I've sworn to follow the orders of my duly designated superiors. I follow his orders because of the personal respect I have for his abilities and accomplishments. I can't think of a situation that's likely to occur where I'd disobey his orders in the field, but if he was the sort of person to give unconscionable orders then I wouldn't be here. And he probably wouldn't be here."

"But if it did, you would."

"In theory. I'd probably ask for an explanation rather than outright refusing… And then check him for mental contamination."

"Zatanna told us about how you freed her father."

She-? I mean, I haven't asked her recently how she feels about it. I don't see any reason to constantly bring it up. On the other hand…

"In what context?"

"What I should do if I don't think that what I have been told to do is right."

"To b clear, I'm pretty sure I could have handled that whole thing better. And I think that's a.. bit heavy for your first week."

"I don't think that she gave me every detail. She just wanted to be sure that I would not just do whatever someone from the League told me to do just because they were a member of the League."

"That sort of situation is very rare. Because again, if it wasn't, I wouldn't be here now. So… Did you want to talk about that while you work?"

"No, I'm done." He deactivates the hologram and steps back. "The device is essentially combines Mad Hatter's normal mind control with a more conventional sonic hypnosis device. But that is a technology that other criminals have used before. Someone who has a hat placed on their head should have a few seconds to remove it before the hat is in full control, but wearing any sort of helmet would work to block the control system. The components are either generic or custom made, and there are no recent thefts of such components on the League's database."

"He either bought them legitimately, salvaged them from things no one is complaining about, or made them himself."

"Yes. You understand correctly."

"Guess we'll have to wait for the police to type up their interviews, then. Thank you."

"There is… One thing. The crystal used in the hypnosis array. That is not unique, but it is not how it is usually done. And it is not an approach he has used before. It may be worth investigating."

"No. I already know where he learned about that." I take a rune stone out of a pouch and move it closer to a hat. It glows faintly when it gets closer to the crystal.

"Magic?"

"Just a touch, to keep the whole thing going. A little magic added to something that nearly works can make it actually work, and that's usually far easier than making the whole thing purely magical."

Oh, Lonnie. What are you doing now?

Darko · 2026-08-20T06:23:19+0100

Mr Zoat said:
Zeta tubes have build-in systems

"built-in"

Mr Zoat said:
Tetch isn't a magician either."

But he could have learned how to create magic symbols, at least.

Mr Zoat said:
Who's your favourite Sivana?"

"Beautia."

Of course.

Though aside from great looks, she does have the distinction of being the most moral biological Sivana.

Mr Zoat said:
"Oh goodness me, no. They've de facto joined NEMO, and that's probably the best place for them."

"But not for me

You don't require supervision from a bunch of Lanterns and physical gods in case you do something reckless.

Mr Zoat said:
"You don't follow Batman's orders?"

"Depends what you mean. This is a voluntary association, not an army. Batman isn't my commanding officer in the sense that I've sworn to follow the orders of my duly designated superiors. I follow his orders because of the personal respect I have for his abilities and accomplishments. I can't think of a situation that's likely to occur where I'd disobey his orders in the field, but if he was the sort of person to give unconscionable orders then I wouldn't be here. And he probably wouldn't be here."

"But if it did, you would."

"In theory. I'd probably ask for an explanation rather than outright refusing… And then check him for mental contamination

Why do I feel that this is foreshadowing Batman giving a bad order.

Mr Zoat said:
The device is essentially combines Mad Hatter's normal mind control with a more conventional sonic hypnosis device. But that is a technology that other criminals have used before

Hmm, sonic hypnosis is Pied Pipers thing, so they either got his tech, or they expanded their roster.

With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

Making the rounds.

Connoisseur.

Lord of nonsense

Dedicated ragequitter

Lord of nonsense

Connoisseur.

Only Superficially RNG, Honest.

Versed in the lewd.

Lord of nonsense

Versed in the lewd.

Dedicated ragequitter

Know what you're doing yet?

Dedicated ragequitter

Well worn.

Connoisseur.

Well worn.

Know what you're doing yet?

Well worn.

Connoisseur.

Well worn.

Connoisseur.

Well worn.

Getting sticky.

Sky God

The Critical Fumbler

This is filth! FILTH!!

Know what you're doing yet?

Well worn.

Dedicated ragequitter

Connoisseur.

Users who are viewing this thread