It’s been pretty obvious at least since Prophet Velen showed up in BC that one or more devs at Blizzard is a big fan of Babylon 5. Either that same person is still there, or we have some new ones, as I spotted several B5 references in Oribos:
- Kah-Delen (Delenn)
- Kah-Sher (Sheridan, with the added benefit of sounding like Kosh)
- Roh-Avonavi (Avonavi is Ivanova backwards)
There’s also Tal-Inara, who is likely a Firefly reference. Anyone else spot others?
But getting back to Babylon 5, I’m going to make a detailed prediction about future storylines and park it here so I can point back to it in future if I’m right. (If I’m not, then I’ll actually be kind of glad, but here goes.)
In B5, there was a season-long event called the Shadow War. Humans, Minbari (space elves), and other species were caught up in a conflict between two very ancient powers known as the First Ones. The First Ones included the Shadows (purply-black spiderish things) and the Vorlons (glowing beings sometimes worshiped as divine, whose natural speech includes musical tones). There are also the First Born, who are even older than the First Ones. The First Ones have conflicting ideas about the best way to shepherd the so-called “younger races,” with the Vorlons favoring order and the Shadows favoring conflict and chaos.
Is any of this sounding familiar yet?
https://babylon5.fandom.com/wiki/First_Ones
The series starts out making it look like the Vorlons are pure good and the Shadows are pure evil, but by the end of the Shadow War, the main hero (Sheridan) is disgusted with both of them. He tells them that neither group is actually helping the younger races with their guidance and says they should, essentially, just take a hike and let humans and the rest fend for themselves. And the First Ones are humbled and do just that.
We can all see the signs that Blizzard is setting us up for a “Light as a threat” expansion. We can see that they’re transitioning from Light being good and Shadow/Void being evil to treating them both as neutral. I predict they’re going to follow the Shadow War broadly beat for beat, and it will end with a similar speech from one or more leaders of Azeroth.
I hope I’m wrong, because it would be nice to see something actually original. But right now, I can see that they’re absolutely setting up all the pieces for this to happen. And all those B5 names in Oribos can’t be a coincidence. So consider this my official prediction for an expansion or three down the road.
