Shadow Warships
The living-piloted warships of the Shadows.
via Wikipedia: List of Babylon 5 episodes · see source
Shadow vessels are the warships of the Shadows, the ancient race opposed by the Vorlons, who are believed to have been the first to discover and manipulate hyperspace. The Shadows withdrew from their homeworld Z'ha'dum at the end of the Shadow War, after which their former servants the Drakh became the main antagonists of the late series and of Crusade.
Lore & Background
A Shadow vessel is steered by a living being wired in as its control centre: Anna Sheridan was used this way until 2260, when the Shadows sent her to Babylon 5 to lure John Sheridan to Z'ha'dum. In the episode "Ship of Tears" the Psi Corps was shown helping the Shadows prepare people for their battlecruisers with advanced cyber-technology. President Clark's forces found a Shadow vessel buried on Ganymede; Sheridan took the White Star there and destroyed it. Sheridan later found vulnerabilities in the Shadow vessels and learned to predict their objectives, which led to the Shadows' first major military defeat, and other races reconsidered their neutrality once the Vorlons had destroyed a small group of Shadow vessels. The Shadow vessels stationed on Centauri Prime were destroyed along with the island they stood on.
More in Psionics & Ancient Artifacts
Elsewhere in Babylon 5
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced