Narn

Narn has other uses. Please see Narn (disambiguation) for other meanings.

Narn
Homeworld	Narn
Lifespan	Around 100 Earth Years

Biology

Though somewhat reptilian in appearance, the Narn actually have more in common with Earth marsupials and felines than reptiles. As with many species, Narn sexual reproduction begins with a direct male-to-female mating in which the female carries the young (typically two or three children at a time) until birth. After which they are cared for by the male in an abdominal pouch for their first three months of life. From this process comes the terms "pouchling" and "pouchbrother/sister". In terms of appearance the Narn are humanoid, generally tall and of a stocky build; they are bald, with a yellow-orange complexion, mottled with brown and/or green spots. With their supple yet tough bone structure and thick skin, the Narn are considerably resilient against physical harm, a trait the Centauri "pain technicians" have tested to its limit.

Telepathy

At the time of the second Shadow War, there were no Narn telepaths, as according to legend all of the "Mindwalkers" were exterminated by the Shadows, a millennium previous. Biologically, the telepathic gene is present, but had since been too weak produce a natural telepath. This has led to several attempts by the Narn to buy the DNA of telepaths from other races which they hope to combine with their own and begin breeding Narn telepaths. In 2260 then Citizen G'Kar purchased a small quantity of Dust in hopes of using it as a weapon against the Centauri occupation, though a small sample was able the activate the dormant telepath gene, the result was unstable and with the intervention of the Psi Corps, the drugs were ceased before the purchase could take place. The Narn's perseverance finally paid off in 2262 when a group of Rogue Telepaths lead by Lyta Alexander agreed to supply the Narn Regime with DNA from as many telepaths as they wanted in exchange for an undisclosed, but extremely large sum of money, at least five deep-range starships and an agreement that the transaction be made in absolute secrecy.

Culture & Society

Narn society is based on the traditional family structure with Narn males and females mating one-to-one for life, with the female joining the male's family group. Narns were once a peaceful and agrarian people, though after a century of slavery under the Centauri, the once peaceful people had become bitter and hostile, turning more to their warrior traditions than they once did. Among those traditions is the Shon'Kar, a Narn blood oath sworn by a Narn against one who has wronged them or their family. An individual Narn is expected to not rest until the target of the Shon'Kar is dead. If the individual Narn fails, the rest of the family continues the Shon'Kar until the target is killed. Even before the Centauri occupation, life on Narn was hard and often very short, out of this grew the tradition of giving newborn pouchlings temporary names until the age of ten, when he or she decides which of their religions to follow and to choose their "true name" from that faith.

Food & Drink

The Narn have a delicacy on their planet called Breen, which is not unlike Earth's Swedish meatballs.

Religion

The Narn are a deeply spiritual and socially conservative people who have several major religions. Being a practical and pragmatic people, atheism is easily tolerated. Most Narn religions are based around a central prophet figure as most Narns believe that the words of these prophets are guides to the will of the higher powers of the universe. As such all Narn holy books are copied in every detail from the original, with every note and line drawn exactly with even the imperfections in the paper reproduced exactly as it was when the author hand wrote the first copy. The most prominent of Narn propets include G'Quan, G'Lan, Na'Kili and G'Ston.

G'Quan

One of Narn's more recent Prophets was G'Quan, who lived around 1260 (Earth calendar) in a time when Narn was being used as a base by the Shadows of which there are numerous mentions and diagrams in the Book of G'Quan. The symbol of the G'Quan religion is the G'Quan Eth plant and is used in a ritual observance that all followers of G'Quan must perform yearly during the Holy Days of G'Quann in which the faithful must burn the plant as incense when the sun rises behind the G'Quan mountain on Narn. This ritual must be done correctly or not at all.

G'Lan

G'Lan is the most ancient of all Narn prophets, dating back to before recorded history that it is uncertain when exactly his writings were first recorded. Such is the age of these writings that it is uncertain if G'Lan was a real Narn or a Vorlon that is said to have swooped down from the sky.

G'Kar

G'Kar is considered to be the newest prophet of Narn, his popularity drastically increasing after he returned from Centauri Prime unscathed. Unlike most prophets, G'Kar became a centre of cult worship in his own lifetime, much to his own distress. So disruptive was his presence on Babylon 5 in the latter half of 2262 and so great his frustration with the way his followers chose to interpret his words that he elected to leave and go out among the stars to explore the unknown. Such was his popularity that the Book of G'Kar, (which was appropriated without his consent) outsold the Book of G'Quan in just a few short months.

Government

The Narn government is a parliamentarian group called the Kha'Ri.

History

Ancient History

Little is know about Narn ancient history however, like many races in the galaxy, the Narns were one of those visited in the ancient past by the Vorlons, who left behind a legacy of genetic manipulation in the form of telepaths and the writings of the prophet G'Lan. Around the Earth Year 1260 the Shadows used one of Narn's southern continents as a base of operation during the First Shadow War. At that time the Narn were a relatively peaceful, technologically primitive agrarian civilisation and were mostly ignored by the Shadows, though the presence of telepaths provoked the Shadows and their dark servants into culling that part of the population. Eventually G'Quan lead the last remaining telepaths to drive the Shadows from Narn, never to return.

The Centauri Occupation

Around the Earth year 2109 Narn was again visited by offworlders, this time from the Centauri Republic. The Narn greeted the newcomers in peace but the Centauri seeing only a planet rich in resources populated by a primitive and technologically inferior species went about enslaving the Narn and strip mining the planet.

Although the Narns assert that they had space travel at this point, it was actually the Centauri that took the Narn with them to the stars. This fact may not have been common knowledge since the Minbari Federation did recognize the Narn claim that Ragesh III was a Narn colony prior to the Centauri invasion.

Through the course of a century the Narn resistance grew, reverse engineering captured Centauri technology and weapons and a planet-wide war of attrition the Centauri were originally driven from the Narn homeworld around the year 2210.

Freedom and Growing Hostility

Gaim First Contact

Shortly after gaining their freedom the newly established Narn Regime set about using what they had learned from the Centauri and began looking for opportunities and resources to exploit. One of the uncharted worlds they landed on was N'chak'fah, a mist shrouded world with promising natural resources and apparently no indigenous civilisation. Shortly after the first scouting party landed they were approach by what appeared to be very large insects. Taking them to be a potentially dangerous pest the Narn opened fire and killed the approaching alien lifeforms. Though they didn't realise it at the time, the Narn had just made first contact with the Gaim. Later when more Narns arrived to begin mining the planet, they were quickly overrun by swarms of Gaim warrior drones. Not expecting such vicious resistance, the Narns eventually retreated.

Dilgar Invasion

In 2229 the Dilgar invasion of the non-aligned sectors reached the Narn colony of Hilak VII. Most of the Narns who weren't killed outright became subject in War Master Jha'dur's infamous experiments. Despite this attack, the Narn Regime chose not to oppose the Dilgar directly and have even been accused of later collaborating with the invasion force.

Earth-Minbari War

In 2245 the Narn were quick to take advantage of the Centauri Republic's unwillingness to help the Earth Alliance in their conflict with the Minbari by agreeing to sell them some of the advanced weapons technologies they had acquired during the the Centauri occupation. The Minbari eventually found out about the weapons sales (most likely through the Centauri) and Satai Delenn of the Grey Council had Anla'Shok Na Lenonn instruct his Rangers make contact with the Narns, to use them as intermediaries to set up a secret meeting for peace negotiations. The Narn obliged and even offered the use of one of their cruisers to transport the Earth representative to the rendezvous at an old Earth listening post in the Epsilon System, with Ambassador G'Kar going along as interpretor. The meeting was a disaster as almost as soon as Lenonn met with the humans an unknown ship came through the local Jumpgate, destroying the Narn cruiser and opened fire on the listening post, killing Lenonn and stranding the others until the Minbari arrived. Though at the time each side assumed the culprit was a renegade faction of their own governments, it would come out much later that it was in fact a Centauri, sent by Ambassador Londo Mollari who having learned of the Narn mission to the Epsilon System assumed it was an arms shipment and was under orders to prevent the Narn from using the War to create closer ties with the Earth Alliance.

Last Best Hope For Peace

In 2257 the Narn agreed to be among the major races to send representatives to the newly completed Babylon Station. By 2258 the Narn became more and more aggressive in their ongoing expansion, going so far as to financing and supporting Raiders in the Euphrates Sector and retaking Ragesh 3, a colony which the Centauri had owned for over a century. At the time the Centauri seamed weak willed and unwilling to enter into open conflict at even this direct provocation, though the true reason was in Emperor Turhan's wish to reconcile with the Narns and apologise for his family's mistreatment of their planet and people.

Throuout the year, tensions between the Narn Regime and the began rise steadily, despite the efforts of Earth to mediate their many border and trade disputes. However, in late December events began to turn against that Narn when their colony in Quadrant 14 was mysteriously wiped out by an unknown enemy. Believing that none of the current race had either the will or the power to carry out a strike like this, not even the Centauri, Ambassador G'Kar set out to uncover the identity of the attacker. His investigations lead him to many dark and deserted worlds out on the Rim, discovering that something out there was on the move, leading him to the homeworld of the ancient dark enemy that had once come to Narn. Barley escaping with his life he returned to Babylon 5 and tried to warn the others of the coming danger, even going so far as to suggesting that this threat was so great that he believed the Narn and Centauri may have to work together in order to survive. Though even the Kha'Ri were sceptical regarding G'Kar's warnings, they agreed to have one of their cruisers to the region where G'Kar was attacked. The cruiser was destroyer as soon as it emerged from Hyperspace though the Kha'Ri believed it to be an accident with the jump engines and were unwilling to send another ship to investigate, G'Kar was convince that someone had warned the enemy they were coming.

The Narn-Centauri War

In 2259, after the destruction of the Narn outpost in Quadrant 37 was credited to the Centauri Republic the Narns officially declared War on their old enemy. The conflict would last six months with the Narns taking considerable losses from the onset, having never fought an open and total war and with the Centauri still possessing a technological edge they quickly began to loose ground. Eventually the Narn fleet was destroyed and their homeworld decimated and once more under Centauri occupation.

The Shadow War

In 2260, shortly before the Shadow War, Babylon 5 declared independence from Earth leaving the station under protected as they had to purge most of their security force. Citizen G'Kar, the last of the Kha'Ri still free, living under sanctuary offered the services of the free Narn on the station to join Station Security and later as part of the Babylon Treaty provided the last remaining Narn Cruiser to the defence of Babylon 5. This cruiser took part in one of the first coordinated strikes on a Shadow Fleet. The few Narn ships that had survived the Centauri joined John Sheridan's multi-race fleet that faced the Shadows and Vorlons at the Battle of Coriana VI. At the same time, the Centauri Emperor Cartagia died suddenly while visiting Narn, at Mollari's suggestion the Centauri withdrew from Narn space, leaving them free once again.

The Third Age

Shortly after the liberation of Narn, the Kha'Ri were re-established and due to G'Kar's influence they joined the new Interstellar Alliance. In 2262 when it is revealed that the Centauri are behind a number of attacks on Non-Aligned shipping the Alliance declares war. During this war, the Drazi and the Narn felt that President Sheridan's approach is too cautious and eager for revenge they attack the Centauri Homeworld. It was around this time that the Book of G'Kar was released and the cult of personality surrounding G'Kar became an ever growing religion in it's own right. Such was the outcry on Narn that the Kha'Ri insisted that G'Kar return home to lead or to give his official blessing to the government. He instead took off for the Rim to remove himself as a distraction to his people, leaving Ta'Lon as Ambassador to Babylon 5.