The Shadow Consortium

Described by Emperor Cartagia
WARNING: Spoilers through Season 4 ahead.

The Shadows are a most misunderstood race. They have been called evil, death incarnate, the bane of the galaxy, etc. But in reality, all they want to do is to give us what we want. I find them rather pleasant chaps, myself, after all, they DID help me with my plan to become a God!
The Shadows, whose real name is over ten thousand letters long and unpronouncable by any "younger" races, are one of the mysterious races known as the "First Ones". That is to say, they are millions of years ahead of any of the races that we know today such as us Centauri, Humans, Minbari, Narns, Brakiri, etc, both in evolutionary and technological terms. They use organic technology. Few things are more creepily majestic than a Shadow ship in full flight. The ONLY thing that can safely bring down a Shadow vessel is a telepath; they evidently can block the ship's thought waves and cause it to crash. The Shadows also sometimes USE telepaths as pilots for their ships. The pilot of a Shadow ship melds with it and enters into a sort of symbiotic relationship with it. They CANNOT be freed once they have been bonded without the pilot and the ship both going insane.
They are rather insect-like in their normal appearance, but hardly anyone can see them. This is because they have technology not only to keep themselves invisible, but to zap in and out of hyperspace AT WILL. Pretty impressive, eh? They also cannot talk to us directly. Not only is their language totally incomprehensible to us, but their voices sound like the most horrible, high-pitched SCREAM you have ever heard, both in your ears and in your very mind. If you could hear "pain", that's what a Shadow's voice sounds like.
So, obviously, they need to operate through others. These others are called "Shadow-Thralls", which is a rather melodramatic term for simple business associates. The most famous one was the late Mr. Morden, first name unknown, who was originally the doctor on the Icarus. Also on board the ship Anna Sheridan, John Sheridan's (presumed dead) wife, who became the second most famous of the Shadow's humanoid operatives.
A Shadow Thrall is...adjusted...in some way that lets them talk to and see the Shadows without being hurt, but it also does something to their personalities and I think it probably involves some kind of mind control. The Shadows are...efficient...when it comes to keeping their hold on things.
The Shadows have just one question to ask of everyone they meet: "What do you want?" They ask this because they want to help that person GET what they want. Then the person will be in debt to them and forced to help out with the Shadows' goals, whether they want to or not. It's not QUITE the same thing as making a deal with the devil. Actually, the Shadows vs. their ancient enemy, the Vorlons, is not so much a battle between good and evil as it is a battle between ORDER and CHAOS. The Shadows represent Chaos, or as they like to call it, "change". They prefer to cause the races to war against each other to see who is the strongest. This way, the ones that win become stronger and better and evolve, and as for the ones who loose...well, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, can you? (What IS an "omelet", anyway? Strange expressions these Earthers have...)
Their home planet is Za'ha'dum, where that idiot Sheridan (John) blew up their main building with a White Star on self-destruct and then jumped into a hole and was rescued by some annoying mystical gleep named Lorien. But the Shadows do not live there anymore. Like all the other First Ones, they have gone "Beyond the Rim".
However, they had powerful allies...and THEIR influence is only beginning...


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