Shadow Warships

The most common type of Shadow vessel seen in the series is difficult to scale, as they are rarely in close proximity to an object of known size. Fans have speculated that there are more than one class of this design - each with a different size. Being organic, perhaps they grow as they get older; or otherwise experience slight increases or decreases in their size through time? In any event, they are relatively short , but as wide as most local warships are long. Most of this space is empty, as it is taken up by the "legs." A Shadow vessel would have much less internal volume than a warship belonging to one of the younger races of comparable size.

It is interesting to note that sometimes Shadow vessels are partially transparent.

Note how light can be seen through two of the "legs" and the remains of the space staion overhead can be partially seen through one of them. This is from The Coming of Shadows, and light can be seen through the vessels in at least two more scenes during the battle sequence. The reason for this is unknown.

They are some of the fastest vessels in this section of the galaxy, and can easily outrun a Whitestar. But how fast are they? In Shadow Dancing, Marcus and Ivonova detect a fleet of Shadow vessels approaching from 5000 kilometers. Marcus says after a commercial break that they are "less than twenty minutes from us." This indicates an average velocity on the order of 15,000 kilometers per hour at that particular time. The reason the Shadows entered normal space so far from their target is unknown. They have shown the capability of pinpoint jumps in combat (The Coming of Shadows).

Statements used to calculate Shadow velocity.

The Shadows have hundreds of these vessels. Presumably, each one has similar capabilities. They established a base on Centauri Prime during the last days of the war, landing these large warships over an entire continent. When Mollari destroyed the Shadow vessels on his planet, there were "over a hundred" present. Mollari predicted the arrival of the Shadows in a dream, and described "thousands" of warships, which blocked the sunlight from reaching the palace.

Scope of Shadow fleet.

In Into the Fire, the "Army of Light" destroyed at least one Shadow vessel with a thermonuclear device planted in an asteroid. These bombs were detonated by remote control when the First Ones got close to them. They were almost undetectable according to G'Kar, and made excellent ambush weapons. G'Kar stated that each one could release energy in the 500-600 megaton range.

G'Kar donates bombs to the Army of Light.

In The Hour of the Wolf, Vir tells Ivonova that the two bombs Sheridan used against the Shadows' city released 500 megatons apiece. This indicates that the bombs are more likely 500 megatons than 600.

Vir says the bombs had a yield of 500 megatons apiece.

When a bomb detonates, the energy released spreads in all directions. Most of the energy will never hit the target. You could hold one of these bombs in your lap when it detonated, and you would absorb less than half of the energy released. The rest of the energy would spread to the sides, up, in front of you, and some would slip between your legs. These bombs were not in contact with the vessels they destroyed. They were some distance away, decreasing the amount of energy that the vessels could have absorbed.

In this image, a Shadow warship is very close to an asteroid which contains a detonating 500 megaton nuclear bomb. This vessel was never seen again in one piece. Several pieces of debris traveling in the general direction of the camera can positively be identified as warship parts as opposed to fighters. The intact vessel was not anywhere to be seen as the light dimmed, nor did it fly out of the explosion, strongly suggesting that it was destroyed.

A generous upper limit of the frontal area of the ship is 1735 pixels. From the center of this circle to the center of the asteroid represents the radius of the expanding sphere of energy from the bomb's detonation. This sphere's surface area is 11310 pixels. Thus, the ship absorbed an upper limit of 15% of the bomb's total energy release, or around 378,000 terajoules, assuming a 600 megaton yield.

Of course, the circle is an overly generous factor to represent the frontal area of the ship, as it is not even close to being full of the vessel. Much of the energy will slip between the "legs" of the vessel, never to cause damage. Correcting for this provided an upper limit of 10% of the energy absorbed, or 250,000 terajoules. Again, this is generous, as only two dimensional measurements of the Shadow vessel can be taken from a digitized image. The ship did not have it's broadside facing the bomb exactly, so the estimate of 10% is slightly high. Also, the ship is closer to the camera than the asteroid, which exaggerates it's perceived size. Interestingly, the main body of the ship (without the "legs") absorbed an upper limit of 2% of the bomb's energy, or 50,000 terajoules.

Therefore 250,000 terajoules of energy (60 megatons) delivered in a fraction of a second can be considered the upper limit on Shadow warship defensive capabilities. Although the main body of the ship absorbed no more than 50,000 terajoules (12 megatons) and was sent spinning out of control and destroyed, it was not completely mutilated beyond recognition. This is a powerful testament to the strength of the hull on this type warship.

The object circled in black is the main body from a warship. The object circled in white could be either a fighter or more "legs" that have been blown off.

A Shadow vessel in proximity to a detonating bomb.

Without doubt the "legs" from a Shadow warship. They have been separated from the body, and are spinning away from the explosion in a direction one would expect from the ship seen above.

Debris from the explosion, as the light dims. The object circled in black resembles a Shadow warship's "legs." It is also traveling in the direction one would expect remains from the ship above to be traveling. These are not the same "legs" as seen in the image above, indicating that either one Shadow vessel was broken into several pieces, or that more than one vessel was fragmented. The object circled in white could be from a warship, but also resembles a fighter in some ways. Whichever the case, it is mutilated beyond positive identification.

Nukes destroy Shadow vessels ~900k

Nukes destroy Shadow vessel in high resolution for faster computers.

Mesh superimposed over object above provides supportive evidence to the statement that it is the main body of a warship.
This illustration kindly donated by William Lampi.
Analysis of debris arc

Londo Mollari destroyed over 100 Shadow warships (by his words to Morden), and the rest of the island of Celini with three bombs of unknown yield. Since the 500 megaton bombs were considered very powerful, even by the Minbari, it is doubtful these bombs were much more destructive.

Londo Mollari and Morden discuss the "over 100" Shadow vessels on Centauri Prime.

Prime Minister Mollari destroys the island of Celini, which was the temporary home of over 100 Shadow vessels.

In The Long, Twilight Struggle, three Narn heavy cruisers concentrated their forward weapons on one Shadow vessel. It was heavily damaged, with a piece of one "leg" being cut off. This suggests that Shadow defenses are no more than an order of magnitude higher than the weapons output from Narn warships. This warship continued to function, but the damage was severe - it had to be carried away by another warship. The second ship made physical contact with it, a blue haze illuminated both ships, and the joined ships disappeared into hyperspace.

Narn warships damage a Shadow warship.

The damaged vessel is carried away by another vessel.

In Walkabout, the Whitestar destroyed a Shadow vessel with a sustained, focused burst from it's most powerful weapon. This burst was several seconds in duration, taking 30 seconds of screen time with scene changes occurring during that time period. Later in the episode, a Narn heavy cruiser fired on a Shadow vessel, and along with the Whitestar's weapons at 60% power, destroyed the ship in a few seconds. This again suggests that the defenses are no more than an order of magnitude stronger than the weapons of the younger races, but that concentrated firepower for several seconds is required to cause significant damage.

Whitestar destroys a Shadow vessel that is being "jammed" by a telepath.

Narn Heavy Cruiser and the Whitestar destroy a Shadow vessel.

Usually, when Shadow vessels are hit, their armor changes color over the entire surface area of the ship. Occasionally this effect is not seen, but usually when there is telepathic interference. Some examples are the two ships destroyed in Walkabout, one by the Whitestar with Lyta's assistance, and the one destroyed by the Whitestar and a Narn heavy cruiser combined with assistance from Minbari telepaths; also several of the ships that received fire in Shadow Dancing.

A possibility exists that this is a defense mechanism that spreads a beam's energy over the entire surface area of the ship, so that the energy can be radiated away quickly. This would be an effective defense: it is better to allow the entire hull's temperature to be raised a few degrees than to allow a few square inches to be melted.

Whatever the nature of this defense mechanism, it is possibly nullified by telepathic interference. It is however, effective against powerful beam weapons and bombs up to a certain yield.

The "legs" are often the target of attacking vessels. On at least one occasion, a "leg" was broken off by high-energy weapons fire. The vessel continued to function, and possibly fight, but it had to be carried off the battlefield. It is unknown what actual function the "legs" serve, but they seem to be one of few weaknesses of the design.

Several ships attack a Shadow warship in Shadow Dancing. They all target the "legs." Note that the energy is not spread over the hull. There are telepaths attempting to "jam" the warships.

Shadow warships are superior in every meaningful way to any ship used by the young races. The first thing noticed by enemies in battle is the awesome firepower. A Shadow warship can easily slice capital warships in half with a 1-2 second burst from it's main weapon. This was the fate of several Narn heavy cruisers in The Long, Twilight Struggle.

The beam these ships fire has a very wide cross-section. The beam itself is as wide as a Narn fighter. This is unusual, as beams should be very coherent to be efficient.

The beam is more distant than the fighter in this image.

Just hit the fighter.

The beam is vaporizing a Narn fighter. The beam is almost exactly as wide as the fighter is.

The beam is about to contact another fighter.

The nature of this beam is unknown. With observation by the naked eye, the beam appears to have a purple core and an asymmetrical blue haze surrounding it. The purpose of this haze is not known. The beam appears to travel at lightspeed, or close to it.

In an image above, a Shadow beam turns a Narn fighter white-hot. If the fighter is vaporizing (as it appears), and the fighter represents on the order of 450 cubic meters of material, but is 75% air; the beam delivered at least 27 terajoules to the fighter assuming that it was made of iron. This energy delivery took place in a small fraction of a second.

Shadow and Vorlon vessel are on the same order of magnitude in defensive and offensive capabilities. Otherwise, one would not be much threat to the other. In Interludes and Examinations, a Shadow vessel fired on a Vorlon battleship. Minor damage only was done to the vessel. Since Shadow vessels are easily destroyed or heavily damaged by a 200,000 terajoule blast, and the Shadow beam only caused minor damage to the Vorlon ship; the beam likely delivered much less than 200,000 terajoules to the Vorlon ship.

Shadow beam strikes Vorlon battleship.

In Chrysalis, the Shadows attacked a well-defended Narn military base. Both the orbiting and planetary portions of the base were destroyed, including every building on the ground.

In this image, note that the buildings were very far apart. The little white dots in the image are explosions on the surface where these buildings were moments ago.

In a later episode, The Coming of Shadows, the Shadows attacked and completely destroyed another well-defended Narn military base on the ground and in space in short order.

Shadows attack Narn base in The Coming of Shadows
~7.4 megabytes

Shadows attack Narn base in The Coming of Shadows
High resolution for faster computers ~13.5 megabytes

Shadow beams can also cut Narn heavy cruisers in half in a couple of seconds. A Narn heavy cruiser is about 750 meters long. It is several decks thick as well. If we assume that the beam melts a 10 meter-wide strip through 5 decks, the entire length of the vessel; and that the vessel is made of iron and is filled with air ~95% of the volume; the beams must have melted around 5700 cubic meters of iron. This would require around 41 terajoules of energy (~10 kilotons - on the same order of magnitude as the Hiroshima bomb). The Shadows do this with relative ease and at very long range several times during the battle in The Long Twilight Struggle.

Shadow warship cuts Narn heavy cruiser in half.

The exact firepower of a "spider" is unknown. But it must be many times less than that of the planet killer. Otherwise, the planet killer would be superfluous. Thus, a Shadow warship must be unable to deliver energy on the order of 100 million megatons in a reasonable amount of time. Since the planet killer delivers this much energy in 10-12 hours, a warship has a strict upper limit of 12 million terawatts.

Shadow warships can also disrupt a hyperspace vortex and destroy starships attempting to escape. This is a decisive advantage over even the Vorlons, who must use a vortex to enter hyperspace. Several Narn heavy cruisers were destroyed this way; a victim of their own jump engines. The nature of this weapon is unknown, as is it's power.

Shadows destabilize Narn jump point.
BACK