History and the Technomages (Spoilers)

[frulad]

I just finished the Technomage trilogy of books last week and a question has been nagging me ever since...

If the Technomages were developed as a weapon during the last Shadow War a thousand years ago, how come the Minbari don't remember them or make any reference to them? Wouldn't the Minbari have regarded the `mages the same as the majority of Vorlons did- as vary dangerous and that they should be destroyed. When the gathered at Babylon 5, wouldn't Delenn have had a serious fit?

At first I thought it was perhaps that the Shadows didn't get to deploy the Mages in the war, but why would you hold a powerful weapon like that back? And if the Shadows did hold them back for part of the war (An Ace up their sleeve if you will...) then wouldn't they have at least used them when the tide of the war turned against them? It wouldn't make sense to just let a superweapon sit around while you're getting your butt handed to you by your enemies...

/forums/images/icons/confused.gif

 

[Loadhan]

Maybe the Shadows started developing them in the last war but hadn't fully developed in time. The best anology is that in WWII both the Germans and the US (and others) were trying to make atomic weapons; both failed to develop them before the war between those two nations ended. American only finally produced two shortly after V-E Day to use in the war against the Japanese. The Shadows might have started to develop Techno-mages during the war - maybe even after they started loosing - but weren't finished in time. Plus the Shadows know they never stay around long, that they always go back into their little hiding holes after "kicking down the ant hills". The development of the techno-mages might have been in response to the Vorlon-made telepaths coming into the war.

Another possibility, is the Shadows did not want the Minbari or anyone else to know the connection. They knew they'd sleep for a long time (not sure if they had any idea when they'd come out to play again) but could allow some of their most powerful servents of chaos to run free through out known space during the intermission with no being the wiser.

Didn't Londo say the first Centauri emperor was blessed by a techno-mage? If that story is true, that would mean the first Centauri emperor (presumably of a unified Centauri people) was less than a thousand years ago. I always got the impression the Centauri liked to make claims that their dynasty and traditions were much older than that, heh. Londo does say - when giving the urn to Sheriden to give to his child in years to come - that the first Centauri palace was built two thousand years ago. That could be for a different ruling body or he could have been lying since the whole thing was concocted by the Drakh anyway.

 

[Galahad]

I got the impression that their order received the tech just after the Shadow War, and that it was given on the premise that a favour would be called upon by the shadows in the future.

If everyone else was aware of what the technomages were, it would hardly be a secret contained within the Circle.

There were probably only a few technomages around 1000 years ago, as far as we know it was only Wierden's race at that point. The Shadows probably planned to build their number significantly enough to influence the next war, in response to the hammering they got from telepaths.

The question I have is, if Shadows put telepaths in their ships as countermeasures to telepathic attack, what countermeasures would the vorlons have against the technomages?

 

[RW7427]

I read the Technomage trilogy, but I never really gave this subject much thought. Just the fact that mage tech was connected to the Shadows floored me.

 

[jnk5y]

spoilers coming up

Weirden race was the only one in the beginning to be mages and they eventually killed eachother. I think mages were more like troublemakers during the absence of the shadows. They were so full of anger from their tech that they went around tormenting races like the centauri. I think they did that for a while but eventually learned to control themselves sorta and became a ? mark for both the shadows and vorlons.