I am loath the post this entire quote, but I believe it suggests some interesting possibilities
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR> There are races billions of years older than ours. They once walked among the stars like giants, built huge empires and fought great wars.
In this galaxy, early sentients were diverse and different. Lorien and some others were born as beings of energy, immortal and immaterial. They were the first to attain sentience, explore, learn and eventually teach.
Not a billion years had passed when new races appeared and developed starflight. On a remote world on the Rim, curious and communicative insects solved the mysteries of life and death, grew their first ships and learned to travel in hyperspace. Elsewhere, squid-like creatures swimming in a dense atmosphere started wondering about what lay above and outside. They too had soon built ships and left to explore.
And somewhere, the last of natural energy beings appeared. They were not immortal, needing constant replenishment to survive and grow. Their ancestors were efficient predators, and so were their offspring. They quickly developed societies, intellect and sentience. But they never got along with others, disgusted and annoyed by beings of matter.
As their culture developed, they chose a path distinctive only for them. While the Shadows learned to exploit hyperspace, the Hand wandered into other dimensions. While the Shadows learned to build massive fleets in a moment, the Hand perfected telepathy for defense and attack, control and communication.
Seeing only beings of matter around them and generally disillusioned with their neighbours (who didn't help it by being prejudiced and trying to invade often) the Hand chose isolation. When their territory was attacked during another squabble of neighbouring First Ones, they finally lost balance and deemed others unworthy. They would conquer the galaxy for themselves.
And they almost did, for nobody but the Sigma walkers could match their ability of dimensional travel. Nobody except the First One could match their telepathic abilities. One opponent fell or fled after another, until they finally stumbled upon the Shadows. This race had always enjoyed developing weapons and fighting.
Facing an enemy capable of controlling their strongest minds, the Shadows made a tentative alliance with Lorien. In exchange for protecting their homeworld, they promised to oppose, return and not stop until the Hand was defeated.
They learned to integrate their own minds with technology to gain immunity from telepathic intrusion. Since then, every attempt to scan a Shadow has ended in extreme discomfort or insanity.
Leaving their homeworld to Lorien's custody, they spread and retreated, disappeared and faked a defeat. While retreating, they sowed all suitable planets with nanomachines programmed to build a new fleet. This fleet would be sentient mind, a mind run by machines, a huge neural network of ships and computers, immune to telepathy and beyond any attempt of prediction.
After a few years, the Shadows returned to their homeworld, set up the original Eye and told the fleet to awaken. Ships started appearing from unknown and uninhabited planets, gathering, communicating and searching their masters. The fleet soon organized itself and established lines of command, and the first Shadow War began without anyone knowing it.
The Hand found their power crumbling and their existance threatened. For them, Shadow fleets were slow, but uncontrollable and indestructible. Every planet they reached, they also destroyed. After last attempts at resistance, the Hand retreated to another dimension, leaving the hostile world of matter behind. Their ways of return were cut off, their jump gates destroyed. Only a few cities went undetected, and these had none. But a few did have communications facilities...
...which somebody, a few billion years later, found and activated. Having learned of the departure of First Ones, the Hand decided to force its way back into their home dimension, and take the galaxy which rightfully belonged to them.
Using their excellent telepathic abilities and knowledge of psychology, they quickly "converted" the beings who found their city... into doubtless followers. They would instruct and help them... to build a jump gate for their return.
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as I said, it does suggest some interesting possibilities that do have a strangely JMS type of twist. Also, if The Hand of God, The Hand of Destruction are what they seem to be than JMS would have to already have a way to fit them into the existing continuity.
To me this just seems kinda like something he would do, even if it isnt right on, this theory may be way off what JMS has in mind, but it is a good example of how to fit The Hand in. Now just imagine the possibilities if the dimension the hand had been banished to was thirdspace and the ThirdSpace Aliens had been influenced by some chance encounter with The Hand...
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Who do you Serve and Who do you Trust?