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The Vorlon Empire is the sovereign political state of the Vorlon race.

Koshlight

The Vorlon Kosh.

Government

As with all things Vorlon, next to nothing was known by the Younger Races about the Empire's governmental structure. Other than the term "Vorlon High Command", no mention was ever made of a specific governing body or head of state, although it was known to have existed in one form or another for at least a million years. It was worth noting that representatives of the Empire seemed proficient at manipulating the bureaucratic structures and governmental systems of other states. Additionally, they seemed to have an ease of access when it comes to arranging bureaucratic details, such as governmental clearances and providing protection from the Psi Corps to Lyta Alexander.[1]

The Vorlons also seemed to have access to any amount of currency they needed to facilitate the practical needs of their goals such as providing housing and salary payments for Lyta Alexander while she worked as an aide to the Vorlon ambassador to Babylon 5. How the Vorlons generated revenue was unknown as they apparently didn't engage in trade or commerce with other races. The Vorlon government didn't seem to have a concept of fees, taxation or any other kind of economic structure within their culture as it was never discussed.  

Territory

White Star 9 at Vorlon Base

A Vorlon listening post

Vorlon space accounted for a significant stretch of the galaxy, though no expedition into this region by any race ever returned. At the time, the Vorlons claimed the expeditions had met with unfortunate accidents, and suggested no further missions be attempted.[2][3][4]

Shortly after the Vorlons' departure from the galaxy in 2261, a dozen or so ships were sent into their former territories by various governments. All of them were destroyed by the Vorlons' remaining auto-defense systems. Lyta Alexander believed that the Vorlons had decided that their homeworld was off-limits to the younger races until they were ready and had earned the right to go there, approximately a million years in the future.[5] That prediction would prove true when in 1,002,261, the Anla'shok evacuated the last records of humanity from Earth and relocated to the former Vorlon homeworld, renaming it "New Earth".[6]

Interstellar relations

Official contact between the younger races and the Empire was infrequent, with the first known contact with the Minbari occurring during the First Shadow War, along with the arrival of Valen and his great battle station.[7] Following the war, the Vorlons appeared to go back into seclusion and had no official contact with the Minbari until the 2240s, when Kosh Naranek and Ulkesh Naranek approached Chosen One Dukhat in secret. By this time, the Vorlons were thought of by most Minbari as almost mythical beings, consigned to ancient legends. During that period, it appeared that only Dukhat himself and Anla'Shok Na Lenonn were aware of the Vorlons' presence aboard the Grey Council ship Valen'Tha, a fact to which even the Council was not privy. Upon the death of Dukhat, Satai Delenn became the third person told of their presence. The Vorlons initiated contact with the Earth Alliance following the end of the Earth-Minbari War via remote transmission, and agreed to send a representative to Babylon 5. The arrival of Ambassador Kosh in 2257 became the first documented meeting between Humans and a Vorlon.[8]

Apocrypha

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

(the following is from the Babylon 5 the Roleplaying Game's sourcebook: Darkness and Light)

The Empire

Vorlon Fighters

Vorlon fleet.

At its peak, the Vorlon Empire controlled or dominated a vast part of the galaxy. With a billion ship warfleet, outposts scattered throughout the galaxy, and a splinter colony in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud. By the 23rd century, the Vorlon Empire occupied a volume of space smaller than one ten-thousandth of what it used to encompass. To give the burgeoning Younger Races space to grow, the Vorlons restricted themselves to a handful of worlds. The Vorlon Homeworld and a few colonies around the home system. Most of the outposts elsewhere have been completely abandoned or left to automated guardians. Unlike the Younger Races that normally use one or two worlds in a planetary system, the Vorlons use every planet in a system. Younger Races are limited by environment they can survive in and the resources they can utilize, not the Vorlons. They and their creations are equally at home in cold and heat, the densest atmosphere or a vacuum. Therefore every world in one of their systems is either inhabited by the Vorlons or used by them.

Defenses

Invaders and explorers find the borders of Vorlon space to be extremely difficult to navigate. Many ships become lost, they either are lost in hyperspace forever or end up in a Sargasso. Within the inner reaches of Vorlon hyperspace are the Sargassoes, special hyperspace folds. Which are highly difficult to detect, and if a ship ends up in one it's doomed. The only way out is if the ship can manipulate hyperspace (e.g. the ships of the Shadows and other First Ones) or if they have a matching key. Those caught in a Sargasso are usually put into suspended animation by the Vorlons, who later retrieve them if they need an agent or test subject. Other Sargassoes are purged of matter on a regular basis.

Defending Vorlon space are a network of Vorlon Defence Stations. Equipped with disruptors, the stations exist simultaneously in hyperspace and realspace. These stations are at the heart of special vortices, with weapon systems that are adapted to the chaotic swirl of the vortex around them. An enemy firing on the station must thread this labyrinth of energies to hit the defence station. Every planet has its own garrison of ships, though most of the ships are asleep at outer edges of the planetary systems. It is a fleet that numbers a billion ships, which was never decommissioned. If the Vorlons were to activate the whole fleet, it would dwarf the Shadows' fleet. Because each ship requires a Vorlon, and the Vorlon population is greatly reduced, most of the fleet slumbers. Only a fraction of the Vorlon warfleet is active, ready to defend the Vorlon systems. They are reinforced by Swarm Fleets, consisting of self-replicating self-aware ships that use the resources of gas giants. Some of the Vorlon systems have Jupiter-sized hives, disturb one and the swarm fleet becomes active.

The key worlds in the Vorlon Empire are booby-trapped to prevent their fall into the hands of either the Shadows or the Younger Races. A device is buried in their sun's core, which upon command will open up jump points. Which will cause the star to collapse and go supernova. The Vorlons have also installed a Jump Retreat System on some of their more established colonies. If activated, it will open a massive vortex, drawing the planet into a specially constructed tunnel in hyperspace and delivering it onto a stable orbit around a another star, one deeper within Vorlon space.

Sources

References

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