Technomage

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The Technomages are a group of sentient beings from the fictional Babylon 5 universe. The technomages shown in the television series are primarily human, but in the "Technomage Trilogy" books, apprentices and mages of other races including Centauri are named. They are described as "using technology to create the appearance of magic". Galen, a Technomage, was a regular character on the spin-off series, Crusade.

Technomages may choose to establish a "place of power" for themselves, such as a particular planet. In doing so, they develop a strong connection with that place, and to some extent, a dependency on that connection.

Michael Ansara as Elric in Babylon 5
Michael Ansara as Elric in Babylon 5

Contents

[edit] Technomage Characters

Notable Technomages who have appeared on screen include.

[edit] Elric

Played by Michael Ansara, Galen's teacher as well as a friend of his father, and one of the mage Elders as of 2259. When a young Galen's technomage parents died in a starliner fire, Elric adopted Galen and began mentoring him as an apprentice. Elric was also the major technomage character from the original Babylon 5 series (appearing in the season 2 episode "The Geometry of Shadows") shown to be leading the Technomage order to a hiding place beyond the rim of the galaxy. Galen indicates later in Crusade (episode "The Long Road") that Elric died not long after reaching the hiding place, confirmed later in the Technomage Trilogy novels.

[edit] Galen

Played by Peter Woodward, a major character appearing throughout the Babylon 5 spin-off series Crusade, and the most powerful of the current remaining technomages. With the exception of the Babylon 5 season 2 episode "The Geometry of Shadows", the technomage stories in the B5/Crusade universe tend to be focused around Galen. Galen has "become one" with his tech by discovering the technomages' Shadow legacy (a fact known only to a handful of technomages), learning how to interact with his technology directly rather than through the complicated spell systems used by his fellow mages; while this knowledge makes him immensely powerful, it also makes him a very unsettling force to the mage leadership, as no other mage is nearly powerful enough to flay him (forcibly remove his implants). As of 2262, Galen is one of only two known mages (the other being Alwyn) to not be in the hiding place, choosing when it suits him to help John Sheridan, Matthew Gideon and the Excalibur crew in their quest to find a cure to the Drakh virus. In reality, Galen is primarily concerned with Shadow technology falling into the wrong hands - namely, both the Drakh and Earthforce Special Weapons Division - and understands that he may well be the only person alive capable of preventing it. In the year 2271 Galen contacts President Sheridan to warn him that the Earth will be destroyed in 30 years time unless Sheridan intervenes now.

Galen, Gideon and Alwyn
Galen, Gideon and Alwyn

[edit] Alwyn

Played by Edward Woodward (Peter Woodward's father). The only known surviving technomage to have stayed behind to fight the Shadows, Alwyn was a close friend of Galen's parents and became an uncle figure to Galen after their deaths. Boisterous, loud, rebellous, hard-drinking, gambling and womanizing, Alwyn takes great delight in being everything that a good technomage should not be - while simultaneously drawing both the ire and admiration of his fellow mages. When the technomages fled the galaxy in January 2259, Alwyn broke with the order in contempt of their decision to hide; he then began engaging a guerrilla campaign against the Shadows' minions, playing (alongside Galen, who left the hiding place to fight) a pivotal role in the outcome of the Shadow War. After the war, Alwyn returned to his place of power on Regula 4 (Crusade episode "The Long Road"), as of 2262 still disgusted that his fellow technomages refuse to come out of hiding.

[edit] Isabelle

Played by Sophie Ward, Galen's dead "love"; he makes it clear that their relationship was not a "marriage" as we would understand it, but they nevertheless shared an intensely deep emotional and sexual relationship. Galen blames himself for Isabelle's violent death at the hand of traitor technomages, a death that could possibly have been prevented had Galen used the Spell of Destruction against the explicit orders of the order Elders. Galen later hijacks the Excalibur in order to take Isabelle's ashes to the newly-located Well of Forever, a sacred place buried in hyperspace sought by Isabelle all her life. While this act has given Galen some closure, Isabelle's fate continues to torture Galen.

[edit] Wierden

A Technomage performing a spell on the series Babylon 5 (Episode:Geometry of Shadows).
A Technomage performing a spell on the series Babylon 5 (Episode:Geometry of Shadows).

Certainly the most notable Technomage in the universe's canon, the Taratimude Technomage who codified the Order's teachings one thousand years before the time of the 2259-2261 Shadow War. While Wierden is dogmatically held in the highest respect in the Order, Wierden's legacy is only partly based on true history - in many ways and for several reasons, historical revisionism has rendered the story of Wierden into little more than a fairy tale, and a significant amount of unflattering truth regarding Wierden has traditionally been held an extremely close secret by the mage Elders.

[edit] Others

Other notable mages include Kane, Gwynn, and Finian, who made appearances in Peter David's "Legions of Fire Trilogy", and Blaylock, Burrell, Carvin, Ing-Radi, Kell, Herazade, Elizar, and Razeel, who made appearances in the "Technomage Trilogy".

[edit] Origins

In the "Technomage Trilogy" of Babylon 5 novels, it is revealed that the technology in question consists of bio-technological implants, and that the process of installing the implants and adjusting to them is excruciatingly painful. The presence of these implants means that technomages are effectively cyborgs. Eventually it is also revealed that the technology was supplied by the Shadows who originally had plans to turn them into warriors of chaos and destruction. This was first done on young born race of similar age to the Minbari and were called the Taratimude who eventually became extinct but not before spreading the Technomage order to other races which included humans.

It appears that EarthForce black ops were attempting to create their own Technomages which was to have been expressly spelled out in the final episode of the first season of Crusade, but as the show was canceled after only 13 episodes it was never filmed. The unproduced script was available for licenced downloads on Bookface.Com until that site was closed, and copies are still available at many Science Fiction Conventions.

[edit] Technomage powers

Technomages are shown to have many different powers over the course of both Babylon 5 and Crusade. Such powers include being able to cast a shield around their bodies to absorb damage or contain atmosphere in hostile environments, hurl fireballs, generate holograms, cloak themselves, and establish real-time communication with another Technomage regardless of distance.

Through the course of the "Technomage Trilogy", Galen and Isabelle uncover several energetic, primal abilities that underlie the conventional mage abilities and relate to their connection with the Shadows. Isabelle discovered a spell that allows mages to intercept the communications sent to Shadow agents like Morden or the Drakh.

[edit] Technomage Quotes

[edit] Elric

  • "We are dreamers, shapers, singers, and makers. We study the mysteries of laser and circuit, crystal and scanner, holographic demons and invocations of equations. These are the tools we employ, and we know many things."
  • "Do not try the patience of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger." — This is an adaption of a statement by the Elf Gildor Inglorion in The Lord of the Rings: "Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger."[1]

[edit] Galen

  • "There's always hope...only because it's the one thing nobody's figured out how to kill yet."
  • "Everything is alive, in its way... Have you ever been in an empty house and felt an oppressiveness, a shadow on your soul...?"
  • "We all have something to hide. And we all have something to tell. And we all have a secret name. We all have a question...one question that unlocks our hearts."
  • "My order takes pride on knowing all that can be known and most of all the rest"
  • "Every techno-mage knows the fourteen words to make someone fall in love with you forever"

[edit] Technomage Avatar

  • "Our order says many things. It does a few of them. Believes in fewer still"

[edit] On Television

[edit] Babylon 5

[edit] Crusade

[edit] Babylon 5: The Memory of Shadows

The Memory of Shadows is the cancelled Babylon 5 movie that was intended to shoot in 2005, it would have featured Galen and a rival technomage Tyrell.

[edit] Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

[edit] In Books

[edit] Centauri Trilogy

[edit] Technomage Trilogy

[edit] Babylon 5 Role-Playing Game

[edit] References

  1. ^ J. R. R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings, Book One, Chapter III
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