Drakh

Drakh
Life-form Type	Bipedal Humanoid
Homeworld	Z'ha'dum
Lifespan	Unknown
Government	Drakh Entire

“

"They're a legend. The kind you would use to frighten small children at night."
"They were ruthless, savage, but extremely bright. A very bad combination. No one has seen them for centuries."

– Londo Mollari, 2261

The Drakh were a secretive race and one of many known to have been in the service of the Shadows.

Biology

The Drakh are a race of bipedal humanoids, distinguishable for their tough scale-like outer skin and two prominent crests that bend around towards the back of the skull. It's unknown to what extent the Drakh have been modified by their masters, but they are known to have a specialised pouch on the upper left side of the chest, used to nourish and bond with newborn keepers before they are implanted on a chosen host.

Drakh are known to have some degree of psi ability and have on occasion also been known to display some telekinetic abilities. The foremost manifestation of this being their ability to "commune" with the Drakh Entire. Using this ability they use can communicate with one another en masse, though it takes some effort and preparation to initiate and requires them all to 'agree' to the commune so it is far from instantaneous.

This ability also extends to the keepers which become part of the Entire when they are bonded to the nourishing pouch and thus in turn links the Drakh to those implanted with keepers. Through this bond they can directly look into the mind of a thrall, seeing their thoughts and memories. This however does not mean full control of a host's every move. The link is limited and the host can learn to hide things from the keeper. Nevertheless, they are able to use the link to inflict an enormous amount of pain which can be used to punish and condition an uncooperative thrall to obey.

Another manifestation of a Drakh's advanced mental abilities is a skill that allows them to pull a subject's mind into a kind of waking dream-state. Subtly warping and reshaping their perception of reality. In doing this they may attempt to confuse, frighten or trick a subject into revealing a truth. They may also be able to pick up on surface thoughts, though a strong enough mind - even one untrained in telepathic blocks - can hide their true intentions. This ability is fairly limited and seems to only be possible over short distances, possibly requiring line-of-sight and is nowhere near as invasive or powerful as the kind of scanning possible for the trained telepath of the Humans, Centauri or Minbari.

History

Their home for some time had been the Shadow homeworld of Z'ha'dum. After the Shadows left the galaxy with the remainder of the First Ones, Lyta Alexander triggered the planet's self destruct systems, the planet was destroyed. However, there was enough time for an evacuation, which allowed the Drakh to escape.

Soon afterwards, the Drakh began to influence the former enemies of the Shadows. They made contact with a member of the Minbari religious caste, to help sway the Minbari Civil War. They had also attached a keeper to Captain Jack, in an attempt to kill the leader of the Martian resistance during the Earth Alliance Civil War. Border raids began to pick up across shipping lanes, which helped John Sheridan forge the beginnings of the Interstellar Alliance.

They also began to influence the Centauri by attaching a Keeper to Regent Virini, allowing them to control his actions. The control over the Centauri was in retaliation against the actions the Centauri took when they destroyed the Shadow base on the island of Selini in order to stop the Vorlons from destroying their world.

Over the next year, the Drakh helped build up the Centauri military in secret without even the ministers of the Centaurum knowing about it. When the Interstellar Alliance found out about the purported Centauri attacks, the Narn and Drazi led an assault on Centauri Prime, causing severe damage to the entire planet. After this attack, Londo Mollari had a keeper attached to him and was crowned Emperor of the Centauri Republic.

In 2267 the Drakh led an attack on Earth. The new Interstellar Alliance ships Excalibur and Victory were successful in stopping the Death Cloud which the Drakh controlled, but were unable to stop the deadly plague from being released into the atmosphere. Due to the efforts of the Excalibur and others, a cure was found for the plague before all life on Earth was destroyed.

The Drakh maintained their control of the Centauri until late 2278, when Vir Cotto revealed their presence to all of Centauri Prime when he destroyed their Tower of Power. Shortly afterwards, the Drakh abandoned Centauri Prime, with the Centauri and Interstellar Alliance fleets in pursuit. The Alliance also provided telepaths to the Centauri to detect any keepers that may have been left behind on Centauri Prime.

Notable Individuals

• Counsellor L'shan
• Shiv'kala
• Drak'hul

Apocrypha

	The following is based on The Mongoose Publishing RPG books and contradicts canon sources.

Mongoose Publishing produced a sourcebook called "The Drakh" written by Gareth Hanrahan that puts details on the race. According to the factbook, the Drakh were an ancient species that pre-dated the Minbari by thousands of years where they unleashed a virus against a race of intergalactic scavengers during a previous Shadow War. The virus killed their enemies but spread across the galaxy which attracted the anger of the Vorlons who bombarded the Drakh homeworld, seemingly wiping out the species. However, the Drakhs act attracted the attention of the Shadows who took a small number of the race and placed them on a remote dying world of Draas in order to rebuild. There, they worshipped the Shadows and eventually developed space travel in order to find their gods after they departed the planet. Once in space, a Drakh called the Queen swore allegiance to the Shadows and the entire species became dedicated servants of the Shadows. By this point, the Drakh were an entirely space based society who lived a nomadic existence.

The different appearances of the Drakh were attributed to the heavy usage of biotechnology which created castes that were interchangeable by swapping augmentations. As such, the castes included Acolytes, Custodians, Scholars, Emissary, Priest and the Shunned. Similar to the Minbari, they possessed a number of clans which included:

• Dacu : considered an atavistic clan, they do not resort to cloning as other Drakh do and continue normal reproductive methods. They lack a dedicated space fleet and are considered abhorent by the Entire.
• Dum : the holiest of clans and said to be descended from the Queen, they were all killed when Z'ha'dum exploded.
• Ifrit : they are the smallest of the great clans and well known to be survivors, after the last Shadow War they began a covert conflict in the Minbari Protectorate.
• Kala : the most dedicated of priests to the Shadows and influential, they were responsible for subverting the Centauri after the last Shadow War.
• Kyne : considered mere custodians and were normally charged with maintenance of Shadow technology, they were considered to be cold and calculating amongst the Drakh. After the last Shadow War, they moved their Clanfleet to Narn/League space to orchestrate their own plans.
• Makal : a clan that remained on the second homeworld of Draas and after failing to keep their civilization, entered into stasis where they remained undisturbed.
• Rohr : once a powerful clan until the last Shadow War where they were massacred by the Vorlons, the Rohr Templeship was destroyed thus preventing them from cloning more of their kind and many in the Entire think of sacrificing this warrior clan for the greater good.
• Shan : the largest and most technological of the clans, they were said to have inflicted the Entire with feelings of vengeance against the younger races after the last Shadow War and were responsible for the attack on Earth.