A few things...
First the Nova question.
It is actually rather implausible that Omelos went nova judging from the in-game information - after all, the system is still in the jumpgate network, and that means the jumpgate and beacon have survived the stallar event that wiped out rhe Dilgar. What's more, the GG states the planet Omelos-III is also still there, just scorched clean of life.
All that means it can't have been a nova - a nova would have vaporized the whole system, planets and jumpgate included. So it must have been another stallar event - most likely a sequence of unusually strong solar flares that killed Omelos-III.
Then the "whodunnit" question:
It may of course be possible that someone did destabilize Omelos... but IMO it would be a example of "bad fluff". Let's face it, not everything is connected to the Shadow-Vorlon conflict, B5 is not a childrens show, shit happens here without the "usual badguys" being responsible.
And now the "why didn't they leave" question:
IMO that was best covered by the AoG history. The Dilgar tried to leave their planet - Dilgar style. That was what the whole invasion was all about - they went looking for a replacement world, but found none within their territory; they had a history of violence and conflict, and thus didn't even consider trying to put themselves in a position of weakness relocating to parts unknown without a powerful military to protect them, so they decided to engage in a war of aggression to conquer the resources they would need to create the military powerful enough to cover their relocation, and gain a replacement world with the same campaign. Only in the end they overreached, made overconfident by their early victories over the league races - they opened one front too many trying for the Markab, and got hit by the fresh fleets of Earthforce when their own lines were overstretched. Then they slowly got driven back to Omelos as more and more bottled-up league forces were relieved by the allied fleet and finally the Dilgars fleet was decisively defeated and the Dilgar imperium crushed. I doubt the allied forces tried to invade Omelos-III itself (they'd have taken too many losses unless they resorted to the same tactics the Dilgar used, something that would have been political suicide for any EA president and anathema to the Abbai), so they decided to make Omelos-III the Dilgars prison, not knowing that thus they would doom the race.
As for Shadows and their activities... While the main story staes they hibernated until woken up by the Icarus mission, many indications of shadow activity took place before that date. However... even while the Shadows were inactive they had someone "minding the store" - both the Drakh and "The Eye" were looking out for the Shadows interests. Still, I doubt that something major like the destabilization of a sun would have been done without the Shadows themselves supervising the process... and anyway, see above on that matter.
frobisher said:
Sheriden took over Sinclair's quarters, and Sinclair actually ran the Station for a longer period of time than Sheriden (just not screen time...).
Actually not.
- Remember, B5 was completed in mid-to-late 2256, went oficcially online in 2257 and lost Sinclair in late 2258/early 2259. Means a bit more then two, maybe two and a half years of B5 time.
- Sheridan started with 2259, and ran B5 until late 2261 when he became IA president and Lochley took over on B5 - means three years of Sheridan, one more then Sinclair had.
- Of courser, Lochley beats them both hands down as she'd still in command of B5 in "crusade time", 2267 - with no relief in sight; meaning at least six years (and counting) of running B5, more then both "J.S." had combined!
frobisher said:
Close enough. Though officially, Sinclair ran it longer as Sheriden was a deserter after his first 18 months in the position
Well... that is kinda cheesy as argument...
Of course, when we're talking cheesy arguments, one could always latch onto the formulation "ran the station" and argue that while someone else may have held official command, the one running the Station was actually Ivanova (and not only because she "...is God" :wink:
)
frobisher said:
And the Dark Elf - sorry Shadow Souled Minbari thing is inexcusable.
YES IT IS!!! Finally someone else noticed. I mean, I like Drow as much as anyone, but filing off the serial numbers and allpying the pattern to the Minbari (who already were suffering from "Elf-comparison syndrome") was Really inexcusable IMO.
I would have liked an "dissident clan" of Minbari that left their society because they just could not bear the changes Valen brought... but the two things that make the SS impossible to accept for me were the Shadow link (see above, I hate it when one bad guy is responsible for Everything - bad things get done without the one mastermind behind it too; especially in a "shades of grey" universe like B5...), and the black skin (Drow!).
Facit: Dark Knives good, Shadow Souled bad.
Greg Smith said:
I agree some of the stuff in the Minbari book doesn't ring true. Minbari killing a Vorlon with a bomb?
Actually if it were that, I could have accepted it; after all, a big enough nuke can kill vorlons. But was it that? Nooo... they HAD to make it so that the thing exploding was a vorlon starship, sent to show the Minbari how to gain spaceflight (a weak excuse - by now we have enough indications that vorlon tech would have been of little use to non-vorlons), and it blew up when "...it's engines ignited". Now, had it been destroyed by a nuke hidden under the landing pad (this is what I would have chosen for a story like that) - OK, but from the fluff it seems that either a minbari smuggled in a bomb powerful enough to blow up a vorlon ship (unlikely) or managed to sabotage the vorlon engines to blow up on liftoff (impossible).
Much worse of course was the "Minbari take an ancient vorlon defence shield and within hours "McGyver" it to shoot down a Vorlon starbase" thing... (though of course anyone who knows me will remember I always start screaming and ranting whenever younger races develop a sudden understanding of first one tech without spending a few millenia of research on it)
Greg Smith said:
The details of the last Shadow war don't quite agree with canon, IIRC.
True. Delenn said a few things about that on eon the show - how the B5-era shadow war followed the same patern as the Valens-era one. Thus there ought to have been a period of fostering strife before open attacks, followed by seemingly senseless and random hit-and-run strikes against anyone, and not the "attacks on colony worlds" (taking long enough for reinforcements to arrive) described there. Finally, Valen did not have the Minbari win alone agaist the Shadows - we know from the (decreed canon by JMS) comics that it was an alliance of races, most notably the Minbari and Tak'cha that fought the Shadows. (However, here we get another BG clash - the show says Shadows and Vorlons do NOT strike at each other directly, while the Factbook says the Vorlons "supported the MInbari directly" and the comics even show Vorlon vessels attacking Shadow ships... of course, the best way to fix that is to assume -as I do- that the Shadows had races fighting for them back then, and while the Vorlons never before "Interludes & Examinations" fought the Shadows directly in their game, there was nothing to stop them from attacking the Shadows allies just as the Shadows attacked the Vorlons allies...)
And just as bad is the "The Minbari enjoyed a period of relative peace for a thousand years after Valen..."
If that were the case, the Minbari could never have reached the reputation they had with the Centauri (see "In the Beginning, and read the matching book for Londo's thoughts in the "meeting" scene). AoG was smart (or had good advice) when they included the Garmak story (rivals of the early centauri who considered the Minbari "paper tigers" and tried to conquer them, only to be wiped out in return with the Centauri watching from the sidelines and forming a firm policy not to piss off the Minbari). Also, with that much peace it would have been extremely likely that the Minbari would have "forgotten how to bite".
...sigh...
Well, maybe some day in the future we'll get an "2nd Edition Minbari Factbook" with improved/corrected history and more visual goodies...
For now I will consider the supplement an collection of options subject to GM approal and exercise GM privilege in my campaigns to ignore the SS and adjust the history...