September 2015 Challenge: The Shadows-Vorlon Cold War

[Chick]

For over a half-million years, the Shadows and the Vorlons waged a cold war deep in space (so it was really cold, too). They did not attack each other, persuading instead the other races to do the fighting for them. This is the story of their war ....


### Latest WIP ###

ShadowsVorlonColdWar A.jpg

The galactic layout and the symbols are taken from the official Babylon 5 wiki. The story is as I saw it happen (well, ok, on TV).

I haven't done a space map yet, so I figured it was about time, and this is the granddaddy of all cold wars

Cheers,
Cornelia

[J.Edward]

YES!!! B5.
Who doesn't love Ancients?
Good choice Chick. Looks good so far.
The glow might be a bit strong.

[Diamond]

One of my favorite shows of all time. Londo and G'kar. Bester. The Grey Council. God I loved that show...

[snodsy]

Chick; I there a way to show the affiliations with the Shadows and Vorlons. I don't know who the shadows are from the map. I'm guessing white is the hot spots? Love the idea, nice start.

[Chick]

Chick; I there a way to show the affiliations with the Shadows and Vorlons. I don't know who the shadows are from the map. I'm guessing white is the hot spots? Love the idea, nice start.

Lots more to come, just really busy this week. My plan is to annotate all the interesting spots/events similarly to the one pointing to Z'ha'dum.

Right now, I'm working on (a) the overall look of the map, (b) compiling the list of things I want to annotate, (c) the look and layout of the annotation boxes, and (d) the small pictures and symbols that will be in the annotations to give affiliations, participants, antagonists, etc.

PS. The white represents the Vorlon Empire, including the two outliers.

[Chick]

Here is the latest update. Comments, critiques, ideas, suggestions, advice, and all other useful contributions gratefully accepted!

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ShadowsVorlonColdWar B.jpg

[fabio p]

I'm not a really a fan of the tv show, but I do love space sci-fi maps, and this one is coming along really nicely!
I love the small boxes, but I'm not particularly convinced by the font you chose to name the stars; it seems not to much "sci fi" to me.
A matter of tastes, maybe.
Keep up the good work!

[Chick]

Fabio p, based on your comment, I went looking for "sci fi fonts", and much to my surprise, I discovered there is actually a Babylon 5 font available. So of course that had to change!

I also decided the dotted lines were too big, so those are reduced now.

For those who are not familiar with the TV series Babylon 5, the backstory is that the Vorlons and the Shadows were ancient races, part of the First Ones, who were left behind to guide the younger races when the rest of the First Ones left the galaxy to cross The Rim. Eventually the Vorlons and Shadows came to disagree on how to guide, with the Vorlons preferring Order and Discipline and the Shadows preferring Chaos and Conflict. Instead of fighting each other, they spent a half-million years getting the other younger races to do their fighting for them, thus for them this was a "cold war".

### Latest WIP ###

ShadowsVorlonColdWar C.jpg

[Diamond]

Chick, this is looking really great. Good call on switching to the actual B5 font; I like the look of that much better.

I'm not a really a fan of the tv show

You're dead to me. Just kidding!

[Coriolis]

Great job with this! I love the show (though I haven't seen the various miniseries). I have two suggestions for you. The first is to find a way to incorporate images of hyperspace and/or jump gates, even if it's just one part of an image; they're an important part of the B5 universe. The second is to focus more on the the big guns of the Vorlons and Shadows themselves: the Planet-Killers. These things eradicated or blew away entire planets toward the end, and they might be worth including if you have the space.

Also, there's a bit of a hard edge to the yellow region between the "Narn Telepaths Killed" and "event.

Seriously, though, this map is awesome! I hope you upload it to the appropriate wikis at the conclusion of this challenge.