On 24/02/2013 00:08, Jeffrey Kaplan wrote:
> Previously on rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated, wrrlykam said:
>
>> The Shadows wiped out those with Narns the telepath gene a thousand years
before. So they weren't using them at that point. If they used telepaths in
their ships then that would be a massive waste of 'components'. I vaguely
remember Garibaldi's head and neck areas being checked over after he went
missing?
>
> Yes.
>
>> Clearly Mundanes were the standard Shadow vessel components up to the
developments revealed in Ship of Tears
>
> I think what probably happened was in the prior cycle, only the Narn
> had telepaths of sufficient strength and numbers to be a threat, so it
> was easier for the Shadows to wipe them out.  Since that war, the
> Vorlons tinkered with the other races (they may have tinkered with the
> Narn first, way back then) as part of their weapons program, seeding
> telepathy in the Humans, Minbari, and others.
>
> We know from various places in the show and in the books that the
> Vorlons did tinker with Humans, and there was evidence once in the 5th
> season that they were still tinkering with other races at least through
> the time in the second and third seasons (Lyta's memories while having
> sex with Byron).
>
> This time around, there were too many races with telepaths for the
> Shadows to wipe them out, so instead they started to try to co-op them
> instead.
>

The other thing the Shadows did was invent the anti-telepath virus. 
This would have infected all the human telepaths, remove the antidote 
and they die.  The Shadows would have been able to destroy the antidote 
factories within minutes using their ships.  Bye bye human telepaths.

A suspicion that I have is that the anti-telepath virus can change 
species, in the same way that the Shadow virus used by the Drahk can. 
If so within 5 years all the telepaths in the galaxy would have been 
infected and killed.  A repeat of what probably happened to the Narn 
telepaths.

Andrew Swallow
--- SBBSecho 2.20-Win32
 * Origin: Time Warp of the Future BBS - Home of League 10 (1:340/400)