Vorlon
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The Vorlons are an ancient race from the science fiction series Babylon 5. Advanced, enigmatic and extremely reclusive, the Vorlons are more than a little frightening. They maintained only one representative, Ambassador Kosh, on the station. When in the presence of other races, Vorlons invariably cover themselves entirely with bulky encounter suits.
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Nature
It was common knowledge/speculation that the Vorlons are old, powerful and manipulative. All three points are understatements by orders of magnitude.
The Vorlon race is a member of the First Ones, the earliest beings to gain sentience, and its age and development reflect this. While almost all others of their kind left the galaxy for greener pastures, the Vorlons stayed behind to act as guardians and guides for younger races.
Unfortunately for all concerned, they were not the only one to do so. The Shadows took on the same mantle with a diametrically opposed philosophy. For untold amounts of time the histories of these two races have been interwined in a struggle for their protectees. In the conflict, the Vorlons represent Order. At their best, they act as architects, building alliances, encouraging the rule of law and inspiring cooperation. It is no accident that these qualities are associated with benevolence, especially given the Shadows' propensity to encourage mistrust, ambition, and warfare in order to foment Chaos. At their worst, especially when defied by persons or races they are shepherding, Vorlons enforce strict adherence to their rules and unquestioning obedience to their authority.
Vorlon philosophy is embodied by the question "Who are you?". Sometimes called "The Vorlon Question", it encourages introspection, patience, and places identity as the proper motivator over personal goals. "The Shadow Question", in contrast, is "What do you want?". Londo Mollari falls into this trap, failing to foresee the cost in death and destruction, to say nothing of its corruption on a personal level, of his lust for power and prestige.
By the time of the series, both the Vorlons and Shadows have long since lost sight of the original goal. Originally, the intent of both elder races was to encourage the growth of younger species through the competition of order and chaos. As they began "playing to win", the conflict metamorphosed into a bizarre game for ideological, rather than military, dominion. The Vorlons operate among the younger races, and often provide beneficial guidance to the main characters, but in the long run they cease to be seen as protegés and are treated as pawns. This shift in some ways was prompted by the death of the first Ambassador, Kosh Naranek, who eventually became willing to overcome his tendency to be aloof, insular, and controlling, in order to prompt the Vorlon fleet to attack the Shadows directly at the behest of Captain Sheridan. Unfortunately, this action gave the Shadows leave to attack him directly, and his successor would personify the worst tendencies of the species. It is possible that the loss of the first Kosh's moderating, even empathetic voice would allow the Vorlons to undertake their radical course of action later in the second war.
The race is usually identified on screen as the "Vorlon Empire" but there is very little known about the actual structure of Vorlon government; it is unknown whether Vorlon society is organized into anything that most races would recognize as an 'empire'.
Appearance
When in the company of aliens, Vorlons wear complex and intimidating encounter suits that completely conceal their physical form. The suits are tall, looming and ornate affairs apparently unique to each Vorlon, with one-'eyed' heads. Their speech is accompanied by an illumination of the suit's front and eerie background sounds, and is extremely terse. Suited Vorlons tend to give a haughty impression, observing rather than participating and saying only what suits them, when it suits them. Casual conversation with a Vorlon is a contradiction in terms.
The stated reason for the use of encounter suits – that they provide the specific environmental conditions their users need – is a front. The race is perfectly capable of functioning in an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere; even vacuum seems to have no ill effects. The point of the suits is to hide the Vorlons' forms, a tool very rarely used.
When extreme circumstances force a Vorlon to appear outside its encounter suit in the presence of others, observers will usually perceive it as a being of pure light. That many, if not all, of the younger races associate a white-clad, winged figure as a benevolent, supernatural guardian is a product of Vorlon manipulation. For example, a human would perceive the Archangel Michael, the Drazi perceive a being known as Dro'shalla, and so forth. These projections have not been witnessed speaking.
As an interesting side-note, Ambassador Londo Mollari of the Centauri Republic encountered an unsuited Vorlon and didn't see anything at all. Whether this was unique to him, or a trait of his race, was left unexplained by the series. One obvious possibility is his affiliation with the Shadows, though Peter David's book Out of Darkness indicates that Mollari just saw a very bright ball of energy.
It is only under very exceptional circumstances that a Vorlon abandons its illusion and shows its true form.
Physiology
A naked Vorlon is a remarkable and extremely dangerous thing to behold. The race has advanced to the point of abandoning their old bodies and becoming beings of energy or plasma. This shape is a bright, semi-translucent being with a number of tendrils. They are very nearly immortal (barring violence) and laugh at such things as gravity.
True Vorlons are seen only once in the series, as the second Vorlon ambassador to Babylon 5 is forcibly ejected from the station and the situation degenerates into a firefight. The specifics are left vague. A poisoning incident involving the first Vorlon ambassador indicates that Vorlons do possess a physical body of some sort, or a physical component to their energy form. J. Michael Straczynski confirms that the Vorlons are indeed physical beings capable of physically striking objects with their bodies. Also, two Shadows were able to kill a Vorlon, which suggests that their advantage in space combat is not reflected in melée. (Human PPGs were completely ineffective against a Vorlon. According to the Technomage Trilogy, Kosh let himself be killed by the Shadows for violating an unwritten law prohibiting direct attacks between Vorlons and Shadows.)
The episode 4-22, The Deconstruction of Falling Stars, says something for the theory that the race's original forms had only one eye.
Mental capabilities
Vorlons appear to be extremely powerful telepaths and telekinetics, or to possess equivalent abilities. They have at least enough finesse to leave sharp scratch wounds on human skin, and enough strength to ram an adult man against a wall and strangle him. Vorlons have also been known to tap into the minds of sleeping younger beings and communicate with them in this way. Their projected form – whether accomplished through telepathy or telekinesis or both – is quite a feat, and has been known to be taxing for them, especially when presented to multiple beings at once; Kosh, who was seen by the majority of races present at Babylon 5, had to recover for weeks.
As can be inferred from above, Vorlons do have emotions. Their intellectual capabilities can only be guessed at. They are capable of breaking off parts of themselves and storing them in other beings. No details are available, perhaps fortunately.
History
About year 1260
In 1260, the penultimate Shadow War raged between the Shadows and the combined forces of the Vorlons and Minbari. The exact date of the penultimate Shadow War is unclear, but it first began roughly one thousand years before the founding of the Babylon 5 station.
Years 2260-2261
The final Shadow War, which occurred one thousand years later in 2260, in which the Shadows battled the combined forces of Babylon 5, the Minbari Federation, the Narn Regime, the League of Non-Aligned Worlds, and the Rangers. The Vorlon Empire originally consented to aid this combined force. However, following the death of the Vorlon Ambassador Kosh Naranek at the hands of the Shadows and Captain John Sheridan's trip to Z'ha'dum, the Vorlons became convinced that the only way to stop the war was to destroy all the planets that had been touched by the Shadows. The Shadows decided to pursue the same policy following the destruction of one of their major cities. As a result, billions of sentients died when the two forces began destroying the planets influenced by the other. Given their history, this would of course have resulted in the complete extinction of the younger species.
Sheridan brought the two forces into direct contact at Corianna VI, and then launched a suicidal assault on both sides at once. An armada of allied ships and the remaining First Ones managed to stop the Vorlon planet killer, but more importantly demonstrated that the younger races were in open defiance against their "protectors". Faced with either letting them go or exterminating them completely, the Vorlons and Shadows finally stepped down and left the galaxy with the remaining First Ones to join the others beyond the rim.
After the Departure
After the Vorlons left the galaxy, their homeworld was left abandoned, but they left their defense systems on the planet operational. As a result, several expeditions to the planet were destroyed. The Vorlons also left a message with Lyta Alexander that the planet was not for the younger races. The Vorlon Homeworld was not to be theirs until they were ready; at least another million years.
Lyta Alexander was also left with other information as well. She was left with a command to activate the self-destruct systems on Z'ha'dum. When she did so after the Drakh looted the planet, the planet exploded. In the movie Thirdspace, she was able to give information on a new alien menace that was discovered in hyperspace, and to destroy that menace. When the Drakh used Shadow control pods to operate Centauri vessels during their war with the Alliance, Alexander was able to identify the devices as such due to information left with her.
Finally in 2262, it was revealed that the Vorlons had modified her to be a living telepathic superweapon - a doomsday machine to be used against the Shadows if the Vorlons lost the war. They made her into the most powerful human telepath in existence, with the possible exceptions of Jason Ironheart, who had already transformed into something similar to a First One; and Kevin Vacit, former Director of Psi Corps, who had carried a Vorlon fragment inside himself which, together with the unique abilities he had to begin with, resulted in him becoming even more capable than Lyta (as revealed in The Nautilus Coil).
One million years after the events of Babylon 5, the humans who had become First Ones in their own right left Earth for the last time after as yet unknown forces were artificially causing the sun to explode, thus taking most of the solar system with it. The future humans then left for what was called "New Earth." J. Michael Straczynski indicated that New Earth was in fact the old Vorlon homeworld. These future humans had evolved beyond the need for physical bodies. These humans used encounter suits very similar to the Vorlon encounter suit, and also used bioengineered organic ships.
Homeworld
Little is known of the Vorlon homeworld. Expeditions to their space don't come back.
Lyta Alexander is one of only two known humans to have visited the planet, and is not only sworn to silence, but noted that if she told others what she had seen, they wouldn't believe her anyway.
The environment in Ambassador Kosh's quarters may provide some insight into the conditions, or it might just be a part of the front.
Technology
Space vessels
Virtually invincible, Vorlon vessels are not only based on bioengineered organic technology but register as lifeforms and can act autonomously without pilots. The ships are almost sentient to a degree and possibly even telepathic, capable of singing to their masters and to others. A Vorlon ship is closely tied to its pilot, the death of whom will cause the ship to be so stricken with grief that it will commit suicide. Furthermore these organic ships are capable of regeneration; Ulkesh's ship was able to grow back after being reduced to pieces.
The immense Vorlon fleet includes "planet killers", several miles wide, that do exactly what their name implies. They also possess technology enabling them to "fold" portions of hyperspace in on themselves, creating areas in hyperspace where ships are undetectable to less advanced sensors. They can however be defeated by superior numbers, massed firepower, underhand tactics or rival First Ones.
Biotechnology
As usual, very little is known except that the race is extremely advanced, both technologically and biologically. The Vorlons have the ability to alter alien species to breathe in their native atmosphere and serve as receptacles for their spiritual forms. For example, Lyta Alexander had been physically altered to allow gills. On the other hand, gills appear to be something that even the Narn can create.
Later in the series, it is revealed that the Vorlons engineered the creation of telepaths in various alien species, as weapons in the next Shadow War. Some did occur naturally.
Lyta Alexander and Sebastian
Only two non-Vorlons are known to have ever gone into Vorlon Space and return. One is Lyta Alexander, Babylon 5's second commercial telepath. After being touched by the Vorlons, she travelled to the borders of Vorlon Space to find them again. When she was almost dead, she was picked up by the first Ambassador Kosh and taken to the Vorlon homeworld, from which she returned alive as the assistant to both of the Vorlon Ambassadors called Kosh.
The second is Sebastian, formerly known as Jack the Ripper, whom the Vorlons took from 19th century Earth in order to employ him as an Inquisitor.ru:Ворлон