Editing Babylon 5 (section)

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[[File:Babylon 5 Cast.jpg|thumb|right|400px|The greatest roleplay group ever assembled.]]

Some '''SPOILERS''' ahead, don't read if you want to see the series
* '''Babylon 5''' - The protags.  The station command staff and their allies.  Initially part of Earthforce but circumstances force them to secede later on.
* '''Earth Alliance''' - Surprisingly Earth are not the good guys in this show (and, for current viewer, sometimes an hillarious futuristics outlook on aesthetics and technology from 90s).  A decade prior to the show, Earth beat up a regional bully in the Dilgar War which won them a lot of friends, but then picked a fight with the Minbari and realized they'd kicked a sleeping dragon.  Over the course of the series Earth becomes increasingly isolationist, under the leadership of a paranoid dictator.  Earthforce ships tend to be giant [[METAL_BOXES|metal boxes]] covered in guns and thrusters with gravity-ring segments because they don't have gravity tech.
* '''The League of Non-Aligned Worlds''' - A motley collection of alien states (space <strike>Balkans</strike> European Union, kind of), most of whom had been pushed around by the Dilgar until Earth went to bat for them.  Generally the only thing the League can agree to do is continue bickering among themselves, and most major players keep kicking them around to support their agendas, but not too hard, as they can be a torn in the side if they put their mind into.
* '''Minbari''' - The closest thing this series has to [[noblebright]] (with a big dose of Lawful Stupid and, with the military caste, Blood Knights).  The Minbari are a monastic, caste society that was fiercely isolationist until the war with Earth.  They're allied with the Vorlons and their ships were shamelessly ripped off by Games Workshop for the Eldar Corsairs.  The Minbari almost used exterminatus on Earth but stopped themselves for reasons.  
* '''The Rangers''' - An organization dedicated to fighting the Shadows; originally composed of Minbari but eventually boosted with human volunteers and survivors rescued from colonies hit by the Shadows. So Lord of the Rings Rangers, in Spaacee!
* '''Narn''' - Space [[lizardmen]], with the "never again" attitude of the Bajorans and the honor-warrior schtick of the Klingons.  The Narn were occupied by the Centauri prior to the show, and drove them out through decades of resistance.  A great power, but undeniably the weakest of the powers, akin to Austria in WW1 or Italy in WW2. Their foreign policy is basically "FUCK THE CENTAURI!"
* '''Centauri''' - Caligula's Rome in space, with the fashion sense of Napoleonic Europe. Or a mash-up of all European colonialism.  Almost literally and unironically.  Enslaved the Narn for a while, might do it again for the hell of it. [[wat|Also their men have have six prehensile Penises]].
*'''Raiders''' - A bunch of human space pirates which provided a minor threat to Babylon 5 in the first half of season 1 before the real villains showed up.
* '''Vorlons''' - Super-enigmatic energy beings.  Really old.  Likes telepaths and turning other races into pawns (and they are only that to them). If responding to anyone, if bothering to, never gives a  straight answer to question, talking in koan-like bullshit (some times only to mess around with you).
* '''Shadows''' - Invisible, maybe-energy spider beings.  Really, REALLY old.  Likes fomenting war and turning other races into pawns (see Vorlons).  Their ships take [[edgy]] grimdark to the max by being 100% black spikes. The Lord of the Ring Sauron in Space, but an entire race, sweet dreams...

The Vorlons and Shadows are ancient races, embodying and championing the precepts of lawful neutral and chaotic neutral respectively.  The Vorlons go around turning races in to telepaths, and every now and then the Shadows appear out of nowhere like a [[Black Crusade]] and start encouraging everyone to go to war, weeding out the weak.  They've tolerated each other doing this for a loooong time, despite having the power to annihilate each other and virtually everyone else many times over; like America and the USSR they're content to let their pawns fight endlessly, intervening directly on occasion but only showing their full might when it became clear the protags were onto the game and trying to end it for good.