The Minbari are a peace-loving
and highly evolved race. They are the oldest of the major
younger races. Their society is based on the teachings
and prophesies of Valen, a religious leader who lived a
thousand years earlier. The Minbari are technologically
more evolved than the other younger races, but their
morals are also more advanced than the morals of many
other races - for example no Minbari killed another
Minbari in the thousand years between Valen's reign and
the civil war of 2261.
The Minbari culture values honesty and serving others,
and forbids lying except to save someone else's life or
honour.
Appearance:
In broad strokes very human like. The most
obvious difference is the external bonecrest on the back
of their skull and their ears which are smaller and
situated lower than human ears. The Minbari are stronger
than humans and have longer life spans (they can easily
reach the age of 140).
The Minbari cannot drink alcohol because it causes them
fits of paranoia and homicidal rage.
Many of the Minbari, i.e. those who have ascended from
Valen, have some human DNA in their genes.
 
Planet:
The Minbari homeworld is the seventh planet from
their sun and nearly one fourth of it is covered in ice.
The planet is rich with crystal formations and many of
the cities have actually been built straight inside these
formations.
 
Society:
The Minbari society is based on three castes -
worker, warrior and religious. Within the castes there
are clans, which then are divided into families. The
Minbari speak three languages - Lenn-ah, Fik and Adrenato
- depending on what caste they belong to.
There are many rituals and ceremonies in the every day
life of a Minbari and discarding them would bring great
shame not only to the individual himself, but also to his
family, clan and caste.
Government:
The highest power is held by the Grey Council
which has of nine members (known as 'Satai') and a leader.
In order to detach itself from the mundane world the Grey
Council is permanently situated on a spaceship. The
Council was originally founded by Valen who ordered that
it must have three members from each cast - a balance
that was broken in 2259 when Delenn of the religious
caste was replaced by Neroon of the warrior caste. Valen
foresaw how Delenn would break the council in 2260, but
not the war that followed. After the short but bloody
civil war in 2261, Delenn reformed the Council giving
five seats to the worker caste and only two to warrior
and religious castes.
The Grey Council has not had a leader since Dukhat was
killed in the first contact between humans and Minbari.
Delenn was offered leadership in 2258, but she refused it
and when restoring the Council in 2261 she did not name a
leader but left the place empty to honour Neroon who had
died during the civil war.
Religion:
All Minbari profess the same religion, but the
religious activity itself is left to the religious caste.
The Minbari do not believe in individual god or gods, but
the base of their religion is that all souls are a part
of the universe which is trying to understand itself by
manifesting in their form. Without the body the soul
cannot be perceived, but the soul is not a part of the
body, merely a reflection on its surface.
Valen, the greatest religious icon in the Minbari culture
appeared during the penultimate Shadow War bringing with
him a spacestation that helped the Minbari defeat the
Shadows. For a thousand years the Minbari followed his
teachings and prophecies believing him to be a Minbari
not born of a Minbari. In reality Valen was just Jeffrey
Sinclair who had travelled back in time and used a
triluminary to transform himself into a Minbari.
Telepathy:
The Minbari have telepaths and they are held in
great respect. Telepaths are expected to serve the
society, to use their talent help others, and in return
the society offers them a living.
History:
Somewhere during the 13th century (Earth time), soon
after achieving interstellar travel, the Minbari became
involved in the raging Shadow War. They led the alliance
against the Shadows, but there were disagreements among
the Warriors that soon began to weaken the alliance. When
the Shadows managed to destroy an important Minbari base
the alliance was left without a center of operations and
almost all hope of winning the war was lost. The tables
were turned when Babylon 4 and Jeff Sinclair (who had
metamorphosed into a Minbari with the help of a
triluminary) travelled back in time. Sinclair, now
calling himself Valen, contacted the Vorlons and then
took the Minbari under his command. With the Vorlons,
Babylon 4 and Valen on their side the Minbari and their
allies managed to drive the Shadows back to Z'ha'dum and
destroy two thirds of their forces. During the next
hundred years Valen made several changes in the Minbari
society: he created both the Grey Council and the Rangers
and wrote the prophesies and teachings that would form
the Minbari culture. He also influenced the Minbari on a
deeper level when he married and thus had children with
some human-DNA. Some Minbari also believe that his
transformation triggered the migration of Minbari souls
into human bodies.
The next contact the Minbari had with humans was at
the eve of the last Shadow War as the Grey Council, on
its way to Z'ha'dum, encountered the EAS Prometheus. As a
sign of respect the Minbari vessel approached with its
gun ports open, but the humans misinterpreted the gesture
and in the following firefight the Minbari leader Dukhat
was killed. As a revenge the Minbari tried to annihilate
the entire human race in a holy war. Being thousands of
years more advanced than humans the Minbari had no
trouble in keeping the upper hand throughout the war. One
by one they destroyed human colonies and outposts on
their way towards Earth itself. During the Battle of the
Line, as the Minbari easily went through Earth's last
line of defence, the Grey Council abducted Jeff Sinclair,
one of the soldiers protecting the planet. When
interrogating and examining him they discovered that
Minbari souls were reborn in human bodies - this
explained the decrease in Minbari population that had
been going on for the last thousand years. As the humans
were then at least partly human, and as the soul
inhabiting Sinclair's body was the soul of none other
than Valen himself, the Council immediately ordered their
forces to surrender. To avoid a scandal, the truth about
the surrender was never told to public and because of
this, most of the warrior caste disapproved the surrender.
For example, one of the war leaders, Sineval, took his
own life rather than surrendered.
After the war humans and Minbari co-operated in the
founding of the Babylon Stations. One of their conditions
was though that Sinclair would be the commander of the
station (this way Satai Delenn, who became their
ambassador on Babylon 5, was able to make sure that he
didn't remember what had happened during Battle of the
Line). Later Sinclair was transferred to Minbar where he
was given the leadership of the Rangers and in the end he
travelled back in time to save the Minbari in the
previous Shadow War.
In 2259, after a thousand years of peace, trouble
began brewing between the castes once again. Relations
between the warrior caste and the religious caste were
deteriorating because of the shift in the balance of
power in the Grey Council (Delenn of the religious caste
was replaced by Neroon of the warrior caste). In secret
from the warrior caste the religious caste began
constructing the whitestar fleet, restored the Rangers
back to their former glory and took part in the Shadow
War alongside other races. When the Grey Council refused
to take actions against the Shadows, Delenn made true one
of Valen's prophecies by dismantling the Grey Council.
This vacuum of power shook the Minbari society so deeply
that Neroon was ready to break the thousand years of
peace by killing Delenn.
Then again, the peace didn't last much longer anyway.
During the following year the warrior caste took
advantage of the disunion in the society to gain more
power by attempting to create a warriors' council that
would replace the Grey Council. There had been
disagreements between the two castes ever since the Earth-Minbari
war (warrior caste considered the surrender dishonourable),
but the proverbial straw that broke the camels back was
the new military power, namely the Rangers and the
whitestar fleet, that the religious caste had gained. To
revenge this the warriors began persecuting the religious
caste - for example, in one remote city near the northern
polar cap all religious Minbari were driven out of their
homes and into the wilderness, and not all of them
survived back to civilisation. In early 2261 the
persecution led to an open war between the castes. After
the brief but bloody battles the religious caste, led by
their de facto leader Delenn, surrendered. This surrender
didn't mean giving the power to the warriors, though.
Delenn challenged Shakiri, the leader of the warriors, to
step into the Starfire Wheel where caste wars had been
settled before Valen. The caste of the one who would last
longer and thus sacrifice himself for his caste would win.
As Delenn had suspected, the cowardly Shakiri didn't want
to die, but stepped down. Delenn, who was prepared to
die, was saved by Neroon, who took her place and
announced that although he was born warrior caste, the
calling of his heart was religious. In the name of the
religious caste Delenn then formed the new Grey Council
giving most of the power to the worker caste.
Led by Delenn, the Minbari joined the army of aliens
that supported Sheridan during Earth’s civil war.
Minbar was also one of the first governments to join the
Interstellar Alliance, and the Alliance headquarters were
eventually situated in the Minbari city Tuzenor.
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