On Sunday, February 24, 2013 12:03:35 AM UTC-5, Andrew Swallow wrote:
> On 24/02/2013 00:08, Jeffrey Kaplan wrote:
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> > Previously on rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated, wrrlykam said:
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> >
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> >> The Shadows wiped out those with Narns the telepath gene a thousand ye=
ars before. So they weren't using them at that point. If they used telepath=
s in their ships then that would be a massive waste of 'components'. I vagu=
ely remember Garibaldi's head and neck areas being checked over after he we=
nt missing?
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> >
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> > Yes.
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> >> Clearly Mundanes were the standard Shadow vessel components up to the =
developments revealed in Ship of Tears
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> >
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> > I think what probably happened was in the prior cycle, only the Narn
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> > had telepaths of sufficient strength and numbers to be a threat, so it
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> > was easier for the Shadows to wipe them out.  Since that war, the
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> > Vorlons tinkered with the other races (they may have tinkered with the
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> > Narn first, way back then) as part of their weapons program, seeding
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> > telepathy in the Humans, Minbari, and others.
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> >
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> > We know from various places in the show and in the books that the
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> > Vorlons did tinker with Humans, and there was evidence once in the 5th
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> > season that they were still tinkering with other races at least through
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> > the time in the second and third seasons (Lyta's memories while having
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> > sex with Byron).
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> >
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> > This time around, there were too many races with telepaths for the
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> > Shadows to wipe them out, so instead they started to try to co-op them
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> > instead.
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> >
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> The other thing the Shadows did was invent the anti-telepath virus.=20
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> This would have infected all the human telepaths, remove the antidote=20
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> and they die.  The Shadows would have been able to destroy the antidote=
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> factories within minutes using their ships.  Bye bye human telepaths.
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> A suspicion that I have is that the anti-telepath virus can change=20
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> species, in the same way that the Shadow virus used by the Drahk can.=20
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> If so within 5 years all the telepaths in the galaxy would have been=20
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> infected and killed.  A repeat of what probably happened to the Narn=20
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> telepaths.
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> Andrew Swallow

A combination of that and the Narn Telepaths taking higher than average cas=
ualties in the war against the Shadows back in the day. They were the front=
 line fighters and as such would have taken a lot of the casualties, more s=
o as the Shadows surely targeted them as priority targets.=20

The Vorlons got this which was why they played some with modifying Telepath=
s from different races.
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