The Nimbari – The Minbari from Babylon 5
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/Category:Nimbari
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Ione_Virga
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Sparck
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_5
The Nimbari are a race of purple-skinned humanoids found in the Spiral. They are native to Empyrea and mostly reside on the island of Neumia.
Known Nimbari include: Captain Thuria, Exemplar Commander, Giles, Helena Virga, Ione Virga, Justicar Poacher, Nimbari Exemplars, Nimbari Guards, Nimbari Justicars, Nimbari Technologists, Orlan, Praetor Drusilla, Romar, Sparck Virga, Syvar, Vanitus, Verrin, and the Water Keeper. Sparck and Ione Virga are the two Nimbari that your wizard has the most interaction with.
Ione Virga is the resident Storm scholar of the Arcanum. She takes over for Storm Wizards when they graduate Ravenwood. Also, she helps Wizards when they first enter the Arcanum with Baba Yaga.
Sparck, Ione’s brother, is a skilled engineer who originally hails from Empyrea. Sparck assists the Wizard in their quest to defeat the Bat, rescue Mellori, and ultimately halt Grandfather Spider’s plan.
Babylon 5 is an American space opera television series created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski. The series follows the human military staff and alien diplomats stationed on a space station, Babylon 5, built in the aftermath of several major inter-species wars as a neutral ground for galactic diplomacy and trade. Major plotlines included intra-race intrigue and upheaval, inter-race wars and their aftermaths, and embroilment in a millennial cyclic conflict between ancient races.
The main Babylon 5 story arc occurs between the years 2257 and 2262. The show depicts a future where Earth has a unified Earth government and has gained the technology for faster-than-light travel using “jump gates”, a kind of wormhole technology allowing transport through the alternate dimension of hyperspace. The Colonies within the Solar System and beyond make up the Earth Alliance, which has established contact with other spacefaring species. Ten years before the series is set, Earth barely escaped destruction by the technologically superior Minbari, who sought revenge after an Earth starship unwittingly killed their leader during first contact, only for them to unexpectedly surrender on the brink of victory. Earth has since established peaceful relationships with them and the Earth Alliance has become a significant and generally respected power within the galactic community.
The Minbari are an advanced race, who are a galactic superpower just like the Earth-Alliance. Their homeworld is the planet Minbar. Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski named the planet and race after the Islamic pulpit known as a minbar. They were one of the military forces of the younger races in the previous Shadow War (the Vorlons being the main force) which took place roughly in the Earth year 1260 A.D. The Minbari were completely defeated by the Shadows in this first war and on the verge of total extinction but were saved by the Earth Babylon 4 station. The Minbari Federation is a caste society, its people divided into worker, warrior, and religious castes.
Delenn, played by Mira Furlan is the Minbari ambassador to Babylon 5.
The current list of all the (known) Empyrea references can be found here.
Although I am well versed in Pop Culture references but I do not claim to have caught them all. Let me know your favorites in the comments and if I’ve missed one you caught, let me know so I can add it to the list.
Text for this article is excerpted from the linked wiki pages
Sparck and Ione Virga images are from Wizard101, and are copyright of KingsIsle Entertainment.
All Baylon 5 images are copyright Warner Bros Television.
Image usage qualifies as fair use under US copyright law.
Vulcan Stev's Database 