At the time period of Babylon 5, there are 5 major races and approximately 30 minor races (controlling only a few worlds each). The five major powers are, in order of when they discovered spaceflight, the Vorlon Empire, the Minbari Federation, the Centauri Republic, the Earth Alliance, and The Narn Regime.
The Vorlon empire... well, no one knows anything about the Vorlon empire. Any ships entering space they claim are never heard from again. No one has ever seen a living Vorlon. The Vorlon ambassador on Babylon 5 wears a space suit like device called an "Encounter suit" whenever he's in public, and he's still the only Vorlon anyone's ever met in person. The Minbari might know something, but they're only slightly less mysterious than the Vorlons.
The Minbari Federation is an old and extremely advanced race of three hereditary castes (with intermarriage); the worker caste, the warrior caste, and the religious caste. They mostly keep to themselves, but are less militant about it than the Vorlons. When an Earth exploration ship met a Minbari ship, the two ships attempted a peaceful first contact. Unfortunately, when the Minbari scanned the Earth Alliance ship, the scanning device shorted out the Human Hyperdrive, and the Humans thought they were being attacked and destroyed the unsuspecting Minbari ship. This escalated into the Earth/Minbari war and the Earth Alliance got absolutely massacred until, at the final battle for Earth, the Minbari suddenly surrendered, and no one ever figured out why. The Minbari look like hairless humanoids with bony ridges in place of hair; the shape of the bone is based on their caste.
The Centauri Republic were a vibrant, energetic race that quickly expanded into a large area, colonizing and conquering a large number of planets. Lacking any real opposition, though, they eventually grew decadent and stopped expanding, preferring to stay at home holding outlandish parties and drinking lots and lots of alcohol. Now the Centauri Republic is a shell of itself, with its Royal Court mostly bickering among themselves, often using assassins and spies. When a problem or dispute happens on its border, the court often simply turns the planet loose and abandons their claim, no longer caring about anything but their internal little games. The Centauri look pretty much exactly like humans as long as they keep their clothes on.
The Earth Alliance are, well, Humans. Though quite new as spacefaring people, the Earth Alliance have been very expansionist and are quickly becoming a great power in the universe, somewhat like the Centauri Empire at its height. Although the devastation of the Earth/Minbari war (Where the Minbari lost all of two ships to the EA's thousands) shook some patience and caution into the Earth Alliance for a bit, resulting in the construction of the Babylon stations, of late human pride has started to reassert itself and the Earth Alliance is trying to acquire all the advanced technology it can find, borrow, or steal in order to compete with the other races.
The Narn were a preindustrial people until the Centauri took over their planet. Using them as manual labor and household servants, the Centauri horribly exploited them and their planet, leaving it a strip-mined wasteland. As the Centauri empire fell into decadence, the Narn were able to stage a revolution and push the Centauri off their world. Stealing the technology the Centauri left behind, the Narn Regime was established as a spacefaring power and they are now aggressively expansionist, building up their power and making use of the Centauri's internal bickering to keep biting off planets. Though small for a great power, the Narn Regime is constructing a massive military and few doubt their goal is to punish the Centauri for their past wrongs. The Narn are hairless and have a scaly appearance, almost lizardlike, though they are humanoid in shape.
Of late there have been rumors of something else out there; stories of glimpses of strange ships in hyperspace, evidence of activity on old dead worlds, strange visions by seers and telepaths. But never any hard proof.
Those of the minor races who sent ambassadors to Babylon 5 are known collectively as the league of non-aligned worlds, and combined have roughly the power and influence of one of the great powers. A broad variety of races, many not even humanoid, I'm not going to try to describe them all.
Rule Clarification: You may send a copy of your role PM to anyone who you know you can trust that is listed in your role PM as being in the same faction. However, you may not copy it exactly with anyone else, including those who claim to be in the same faction but were not listed in your PM. You are allowed to paraphrase it to anyone.
We interrupt our regular evening schedule to bring you the following special program.
September 16, 2259.
The Interstellar Network News presents 36 Hours on Babylon 5. With your host Cynthia Torqueman. Reporting live, from the ISN News Center in Geneva.
Good evening, I'm Cynthia Torqueman. In the 100 or so years since humanity went to the stars, we've established outposts and colonies on over 2 dozen worlds, and 14 solar systems. Out of all of those far flung outposts only the Mars colony, plagued by scattered groups of separatists, who have used acts of terror to intimidate the Earth loyal majority, has proven more controversial than the Earth Alliance station Babylon 5. Located in the sector of space near Epsilon Eridani, designated neutral territory, Babylon 5 has defied the odds and continued to operate as a free port, a center for diplomacy, and a showpiece for the Earth Alliance Resources and Technologies division. From its highly publicized debut 3 years ago, recent polls indicate a growing dissatisfaction with the time, money, and effort consumed by this space-borne community.
So tonight, we take you to the center of the controversy. An ISN crew and I recently spent 36 hours aboard Babylon 5, asking hard questions, and on occasion, getting in a little over our heads. In the process of putting this report together, it didn't take us long to learn the most important rule of survival aboard Babylon 5: expect the unexpected.
----
Unless there is heavy inactivity, day one will end at 8:00 PM PST, Wednesday July 22.
Argh I hate this time zone stuff, it has got to be the most confusing part of Phalla for me.
I usually set my PA forum account to show the time of whatever zone I am playing a game in, but the PA account tells me that the time is 4:11 PM atm pacific time, whereas google and websites say it is 5:11 PM (summertime, I assume the forum number is without), what are we dealing with here, should I manually turn on summertime on the PA forum and then it will fit with what the host?
Help?
I mean I guess I could live without it but it makes the game much easier to know exactly what time I am dealing with .
Lady Eri believes we should abstain from early bandwagons on day one, as they tend to be difficult to reverse should Lady Eri or Lady Eri's colleagues find information or strange behavior on another.
Lady Eri believes we should abstain from early bandwagons on day one, as they tend to be difficult to reverse should Lady Eri or Lady Eri's colleagues find information or strange behavior on another.
Cantide, I have always really liked your sig pic. That is highly off-topic, unless I somehow wanted to use that as reasoning behind a vote of some sort... Not quite sure how I can make that logical jump.
!Lady Eri for talking suspiciously. I'm just now watching Babylon 5, but haven't seen anyone who talks in the third person - are we ganging up on some kind of in-the-context-of-mafia-'good guy' council we should be trying to protect instead of kill?
Cantide, I have always really liked your sig pic. That is highly off-topic, unless I somehow wanted to use that as reasoning behind a vote of some sort... Not quite sure how I can make that logical jump.
Thanks! If you want help tying this to the current discussion, I recommend pretending that Lady Eri hates Peanuts and voting her out for being a blockhead.
Posts
The Vorlon empire... well, no one knows anything about the Vorlon empire. Any ships entering space they claim are never heard from again. No one has ever seen a living Vorlon. The Vorlon ambassador on Babylon 5 wears a space suit like device called an "Encounter suit" whenever he's in public, and he's still the only Vorlon anyone's ever met in person. The Minbari might know something, but they're only slightly less mysterious than the Vorlons.
The Minbari Federation is an old and extremely advanced race of three hereditary castes (with intermarriage); the worker caste, the warrior caste, and the religious caste. They mostly keep to themselves, but are less militant about it than the Vorlons. When an Earth exploration ship met a Minbari ship, the two ships attempted a peaceful first contact. Unfortunately, when the Minbari scanned the Earth Alliance ship, the scanning device shorted out the Human Hyperdrive, and the Humans thought they were being attacked and destroyed the unsuspecting Minbari ship. This escalated into the Earth/Minbari war and the Earth Alliance got absolutely massacred until, at the final battle for Earth, the Minbari suddenly surrendered, and no one ever figured out why. The Minbari look like hairless humanoids with bony ridges in place of hair; the shape of the bone is based on their caste.
The Centauri Republic were a vibrant, energetic race that quickly expanded into a large area, colonizing and conquering a large number of planets. Lacking any real opposition, though, they eventually grew decadent and stopped expanding, preferring to stay at home holding outlandish parties and drinking lots and lots of alcohol. Now the Centauri Republic is a shell of itself, with its Royal Court mostly bickering among themselves, often using assassins and spies. When a problem or dispute happens on its border, the court often simply turns the planet loose and abandons their claim, no longer caring about anything but their internal little games. The Centauri look pretty much exactly like humans as long as they keep their clothes on.
The Earth Alliance are, well, Humans. Though quite new as spacefaring people, the Earth Alliance have been very expansionist and are quickly becoming a great power in the universe, somewhat like the Centauri Empire at its height. Although the devastation of the Earth/Minbari war (Where the Minbari lost all of two ships to the EA's thousands) shook some patience and caution into the Earth Alliance for a bit, resulting in the construction of the Babylon stations, of late human pride has started to reassert itself and the Earth Alliance is trying to acquire all the advanced technology it can find, borrow, or steal in order to compete with the other races.
The Narn were a preindustrial people until the Centauri took over their planet. Using them as manual labor and household servants, the Centauri horribly exploited them and their planet, leaving it a strip-mined wasteland. As the Centauri empire fell into decadence, the Narn were able to stage a revolution and push the Centauri off their world. Stealing the technology the Centauri left behind, the Narn Regime was established as a spacefaring power and they are now aggressively expansionist, building up their power and making use of the Centauri's internal bickering to keep biting off planets. Though small for a great power, the Narn Regime is constructing a massive military and few doubt their goal is to punish the Centauri for their past wrongs. The Narn are hairless and have a scaly appearance, almost lizardlike, though they are humanoid in shape.
Of late there have been rumors of something else out there; stories of glimpses of strange ships in hyperspace, evidence of activity on old dead worlds, strange visions by seers and telepaths. But never any hard proof.
Those of the minor races who sent ambassadors to Babylon 5 are known collectively as the league of non-aligned worlds, and combined have roughly the power and influence of one of the great powers. A broad variety of races, many not even humanoid, I'm not going to try to describe them all.
I'm still working on it a little, let me know if you want any additional columns added.
PSN: Corbius
Also, if you set up a proboard send me a link.
(Hulu) And Now for a Word, Season 2, Episode 15
We interrupt our regular evening schedule to bring you the following special program.
September 16, 2259.
The Interstellar Network News presents 36 Hours on Babylon 5. With your host Cynthia Torqueman. Reporting live, from the ISN News Center in Geneva.
Good evening, I'm Cynthia Torqueman. In the 100 or so years since humanity went to the stars, we've established outposts and colonies on over 2 dozen worlds, and 14 solar systems. Out of all of those far flung outposts only the Mars colony, plagued by scattered groups of separatists, who have used acts of terror to intimidate the Earth loyal majority, has proven more controversial than the Earth Alliance station Babylon 5. Located in the sector of space near Epsilon Eridani, designated neutral territory, Babylon 5 has defied the odds and continued to operate as a free port, a center for diplomacy, and a showpiece for the Earth Alliance Resources and Technologies division. From its highly publicized debut 3 years ago, recent polls indicate a growing dissatisfaction with the time, money, and effort consumed by this space-borne community.
So tonight, we take you to the center of the controversy. An ISN crew and I recently spent 36 hours aboard Babylon 5, asking hard questions, and on occasion, getting in a little over our heads. In the process of putting this report together, it didn't take us long to learn the most important rule of survival aboard Babylon 5: expect the unexpected.
----
Unless there is heavy inactivity, day one will end at 8:00 PM PST, Wednesday July 22.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
I usually set my PA forum account to show the time of whatever zone I am playing a game in, but the PA account tells me that the time is 4:11 PM atm pacific time, whereas google and websites say it is 5:11 PM (summertime, I assume the forum number is without), what are we dealing with here, should I manually turn on summertime on the PA forum and then it will fit with what the host?
Help?
I mean I guess I could live without it but it makes the game much easier to know exactly what time I am dealing with
Another Rule Clarification: abilities given to players will change over the course of the game. Some are told this in their PM, some are not.
Of course, I will almost certainly regret this stance later.
Lady Eri would like clarification.
Clearly a not-so-subtle cover for a decadent, tentacle-dicked hedonist. I'm on to you Jason Todd.
I suppose it could be a post restriction? Or mafia trying to make it look like they have a post restriction....
Anything is possible, Lady Eri believes more information is necessary.
Oh, the humanity
Thanks! If you want help tying this to the current discussion, I recommend pretending that Lady Eri hates Peanuts and voting her out for being a blockhead.
Crap. I think Lady Eri is Zathras.
EDIT: And thus we shouldn't vote her off.
http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/Zathras
"No one ever listens to Zathras. "Quite mad," they say. It is good that Zathras does not mind. He's even grown to like it. Oh, yes."
– Zathras