The Centauri and Why They Kick Major Galactic Booty

What are the Centauri, other than just humans with funny hairdos and fuzzy eyebrows? If they're supposed to be ALIENS, then what exactly are the differences between them and us?
LOTS! For starters, all Centauri have two hearts. Yes, you heard me, TWO, and they are evidently located in a different spot than on a human--somewhere in the upper middle of the chest, in about the same place we have the top of our ribcage. They have rather sharp canine teeth--not QUITE fangs, but definitely enough to give their smiles an unnervingly predatory look. They also have no major blood vessels in their wrists. This means that if a Centauri gets cut there, she will NOT bleed to death the way a human would. And when humans say things like "I'm so depressed I'm gonna go slit my wrists", it goes COMPLETELY over a Centauri's head, for, of course, the phrase "slit your wrists" doesn't have the same connotation of hopelessness to them that it does to us.
And speaking of "over their heads", it has often been wondered by many who watch B5 WHY half (the males) of an entire race would wear the same hideous hairdo for so long. Well....my theory is, and it has never been SAID mind you but there is PLENTY of evidence to back it up in the show--is that the Centauri male's hair-crest is NATURAL. You know like how some birds have a plume on top of their heads--a place where the feathers just NATURALLY stand straight up? Like a mamallian version of that. It's not a STYLE, it GROWS that way! And just like a bird's feathers, a Centauri's crest droops when they get badly hurt or very sick. Just check out this picture of poor Londo after G'Kar beat him up in Dust to Dust and you'll see what I mean. All the males HAVE crests (unless they have gone bald), but the height, width, etc. of the crest is determined by the Centauri's rank in society. Technically, you CAN wear it larger than your status would dictate, but then everyone would laugh at you and call you a pathetic loser. So peer pressure, rather than laws, keeps that rule enforced. The women all shave their heads bald, and most younger women leave a long ponytail but shave the rest of it. They also tend to wear fancy headbands or veils.
And then...there's the aspect in which they are REALLY alien--their...erm...equipment. Both genders have SIX...um...er...uhh....they have six. The males' "attributes" are six tentacles, three on each side of the body, in a vertical line somewhere around the waist area. They are folded over the stomach when not "in use" and can also be used to manipulate other small objects--such as when Londo used one of his to CHEAT AT POKER, believe it or not, in The Quality of Mercy.
Now, don't you feel inadequate, all you human guys out there? ;)
The females also have six...um...six of the feminine version, which are located at the small of the back, in two vertical rows of three each. The more....used...at a time, the more...erm...memorable the experience, shall we say. Just ONE won't cut it.
(Don't look at me, I've never SEEN any of this, I'm just repeating what I've been told...)
The funny thing is, despite all this, the Centauri don't seem to have a population problem. In fact, Centauri Prime has only 3 billion people, whereas EARTH had over 6 billion last time I checked! So they must be doing SOMETHING right...
They are basically human in appearance as long as they have their clothes ON (as you can see from the above picture), and while they mostly have Caucasian skin tones, darker ones DO exist, but seem to be rare. Their hair can be any colour in the Human hair-colour spectrum, with the brown-through-black range being the most dominant, but blondes and redheads are seen occasionally, too. Their eyes can be any shade that Human eyes can be, and the males have feathery, tufted eyebrows. (The females seem to pluck theirs down to tiny lines). Many of them have rather beaky noses, which helps reinforce the "birdlike" impression.
Another interesting difference between Centauri and Humans lies in their ESP-type abilities. Like the B5-universe version of Humans, Centauri also have telepaths, but unlike with the Humans, who have only had telepaths for about a hundred years, the Centauri appear to have had them from the beginning. Even more intriguing is their precognitive abilities. While true seers--those who can MAKE themselves see the future on cue--are rare, (and mostly female!) it seems that ALL Centauri have precognitive dreams every now and then. Most often about their death. Sometimes the dreams are very specific, showing not only how, but when and where. Even the most ordinary Joe Schmoe Centauri has a dream that tells the future at least once in his life.


So far, everything I have told you about them is just the physical part. But the thing that REALLY makes them cool is their culture.




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