“"I was there, at the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind. It began in the Earth year 2257 with the founding of the last of the Babylon stations . . ."
- – Emperor Mollari II, 2278 (From: The Chronicles Of Londo Mollari)
The Third Age, sometimes referred to as the Third Age of mankind is the period of galactic civilisation following the departure of the last of the First Ones in 2260.
The term was coined by John Sheridan following the Battle of Coriana VI and the end of the Shadow War. He characterised the first age as being the time when the races began in chaos and too primitive to make their own decisions then and the second when they were manipulated by forces that thought they knew what was best for them. The third age therefore being the time when the Younger Races could stand on their own, take responsibility for themselves and "make their own magic".[1] The period is however recognised to have truly begun in 2257 with the founding of Babylon 5, though none knew it at the time.[2][3]
Apocrypha
| The following is based on The Mongoose Publishing RPG books and contradicts canon sources. |
Mongoose Publishing produced a sourcebook called "Darkness and Light: The Vorlon and Shadow factbook" written by Gareth Hanrahan that puts details on the ages a race passes through since primitive beginnings to the transcendant stage of the First Ones.
Ages of a Race:
There are five distinct ages in the lifetime of a species. During the First Age, the race is limited to the world it was born on and has no direct experience of other intelligences. It is a child race, primitive and unenlightened, incapable of hyperspace travel. Only a handful of races survive childhood – most wipe themselves out through war, disease or pollution before reaching the Second Age.
In the Second Age of a race, it goes to the stars and falls under the infl uence of other, older species. There is no way to escape this influence; the elder races exert a cultural and technological pull that is as vast as the gravitational pull of a black hole. Even isolated races cannot escape the influence of their elders – the values, beliefs and actions of an elder race reverberate through the galaxy. Elder races walk like giants; the Younger Races can only scurry and hide or try to ride out the hurricane of their elders’ passage.
A race that fails to leave its Second Age becomes a servitor race, dependant on and beholden to an older race. The Drakh, for example, are an ancient race but never passed into their Third Age and were therefore thralls to the Shadows even until their end.The Minbari, too, were largely stuck in their Second Age and were bordering on servants to the Vorlons but were able to step beyond thanks to Human vigour.
In the Third Age of a race, it rejects the teachings and infl uence of the elders who manipulated it during its Second Age. It accepts its own destiny as a spacefaring race and learns to stand on its own. This decision is incredibly diffi cult – the galaxy is so vast and ancient that it is very seductive and easy for a race to defer to its elders, who are vastly more powerful and wise. To step out of the shadows of the elders and stand naked before the cold, pitiless stars requires great courage.
During the Third Age, the technological knowledge of the species grows and grows, now that it is freed of the shackles placed on it by the elders. The Vorlons said that Second Age Humanity was ‘not ready for immortality’ but there is no one to say ‘no’ to a Third Age species. They can do as they wish, create what they wish. Like the First Age, the race runs the risk of destroying itself with its new wonders. This can be a physical destruction – a race could wipe itself out in a war fought with organic spaceships and hyperspace detonators instead of nuclear bombs or sharp rocks – or a cultural one.
For a race to pass through the Third Age, it must redefine itself. It is now so removed from its primitive roots so as to be an entirely different species. A Third Age race like Humanity might start as organic creatures travelling between the stars in metal boxes, but might end the Age as immortal beings who exist as matrices of energy and thought, lattices in the intersection of hyperspace and realspace, who travel in living vessels that have the power to move the very stars. This cultural change is wrenchingly diffi cult and most races retreat from it. The Tal-Kona’sha, for example, are a failed Third Age race. They rejected the Vorlons and Shadows but failed to pass into their Fourth Age. Instead, they now exist in an artifi cial, virtual paradise within their computer systems, every one of them a god of its own synthetic reality. The impending death of their sun may push the Tal-Kona’sha into a Fourth Age but this is increasingly unlikely.
Should a race go through the diffi cult cultural transition into a Fourth Age race, it finds itself deeply, deeply changed. It has integrated the technological revolution of the Third Age. In some regards, there are no more worlds to conquer, as a Fourth Age race has the capacity to reshape the galaxy according to its will. If the people of that race wished, they could wrap Dyson spheres around every star, travel through time, create new species as playthings, open rifts to other dimensions… they are as gods.
The only thing that can oppose a Fourth Age race is another Fourth Age race… and itself. If the cultural change is not strong enough, if the race’s transformation at the end of its Third Age is not deep-seated and complete enough, then it will simply begin to fade. When a race can fulfi l all the dreams it had when it was young, when it has perfect technology, perfect government, perfect life, perfect everything… and nothing left to exist for, then it just dies off. At best, it degenerates, becoming a race of alien monsters who use lesser races for their pleasure, becoming cultural and emotional voyeurs. The Centauri are likely destined for this fate; they may be able to enter their own Third Age but they were a dying people even in Humanity’s Second Age, so are unlikely to be able to navigate into their Fourth.
During a Fourth Age, a race is one of the elder races who manipulates the lesser races, deliberately or by the sheer force of their existence. In the absence of full-fl edged Fourth Age races, then Third Age races fill the gap.
Not all races enter a Fifth Age. In our galaxy, only three races have ever done so – the Speakers were on the verge of it, while the Vorlons and Shadows existed in it for millions of years. During the Fifth Age, a race takes on the burden of being guardians of the galaxy, shepherding the lesser races through their Second Ages and guiding them out to the stars.
And if there is a Sixth Age for a race, it lies out there, beyond the Rim.