The most powerful races of the Babylon 5 universe were the Vorlons and the Shadows. These two races existed for billions of years and posessed technology so advanced that it appeared to be almost magical.

Tacticly speaking, the most important aspects of Vorlon and Shadow technology was their shield, armor and weapons capabilities, which was supposed to be far in excess of those of the other races in their universe. Contained herein is an evaluation of the afformentioned subjects.

1.) WEAPONS

Shadow and Vorlon weapons were the most impressive means of destrucive power to be found in the Babylon 5 universe and, while the number of times the Vorlons used their weapons was few, the Shadow's were seen using theirs with fightening regularity. Probably the most noteworth incident representing the awsome power of the Shadow's weapons, was their attack on the Narn fleet at Gorash VII and their attack on the Narn Colony in Quadrant 14. As such, we will take you step-by-step through both ncidents, and review/analize what happened.

	One of the very first demonstrations of the impressive capabilities of the Shadow Death-Ray was during the Narn battle over Gorash VII. In this episode we saw the Shadow Death-Ray slice Narn G'Quan class Heavy Cruisers in half, vaporize the entire engine section of Heavy Cruisers.
	One scene in particular showed two Narn G'Quan class Heavy Cruisers being sliced in half. To determine the effectiveness of the Shadow weapon, I made detailed measurements of the G'Quan model by Nadab Göksu, which is a very precise reproduction.
	At a total length of 1,400 meters the bridge section of the G'Quan came to 30 meters along the y-axis, with an estimated armor thickness of no more than 3.5 meters. Length of the bridge, in the center, was approximately 25 meters along the z-axis.
	Next measurements were done on the landing bay its self. The bay on the top and bottom, which appears to be nothing but solid metal, came to 2.5 meters thick along the y-axis an top and bottom and 3.8 meters thick where the upper bay meets the lower bay. Total length along the z-axis came to about 252 meters.
	Next came measurements on the G'Quan's center body. The center body came to be 207 meters along the z-axis. and 105 meters along the y-axis with an estimated 5 meters of armor on top of that.
	Next item to be measured was the center globe at the heart of the G'Quan. This sphere is believed to be either the G'Quan's main reactor or its main fuel tank. For the sake of argument, I'm going to assume that the sphere is hollow with no more than 10 meters of armor.
	The reactor its self was 115 meters in diameter. This gives it a total volume of 796,328.2 cubic meters but, as it is probably hollow with an internal volume of 523,598.7 cubic meters the actual volume of armor is likely 272,729.5 cubic meters.
	Last item to be measured was the engine housing of the G'Quan. At this section curves I had to break my estimate into three sections. From back to front, before the curve begins the armor thickness on the engines is 16 meters along the y-axis, all the way around.
	The interior of the engine is 45 meters in height across the y-axis. Total length of the engine, before the curve begins, is 232 meters along the z-axis.
	Next was the curved area. As before we have armor thickness of 16 meters and 45 meter diameter along the engine's interior, with a length of 100 meters.
	Lastly, with the 16 meters and 45 meter figure remaining consistent through the last third of the G'Quan's engines, which stretches along a final stretch of 170 meters along the z-axis to join with the hull of the G'Quan.
	There is some miscellaneous equipments, armor and constructs along the hull, but we'll forget about all those and go with the tangible sections I was able to measure as, obviously, there is some room for error given that this is a replica of the original model and not the original its self.
	Now, if we use solid Iron for the G'Quan's armor which has a density of 7,874 kg/m^3 and for the hull area we also use Iron but use the classic 400 kg/m^3 figure - the relative density of an automobile - to estimate the ship's wispy interior and unarmored sections.
	As the beam that struck the G'Quans are estimated to be roughly 20 meters thick, the total volume vaporized by the Shadow Death-Ray would have been 4,211,816,279.6 kilograms.
	Vapor point for Iron is 7,800,089.3 joules per kilogram of Iron. This means that the whole of the volume vaporized by the Shadow Death-Ray would have required 3.2*10^16 joule to vaporize. This now brings us into the question of time.
	It takes 42 frames to kill the first G'Quan in the sequence of images featured left, and only 28 frames to kill second G'Quan featured just above the G'Quan in the foreground. *Click to watch a video clip.
	The second G'Quan offers slightly better information, because the Shadow vessel that destroyed that ship did so from directly behind the G'Quan #2 where as the Shadow vessel that destroyed G'Quan #1 was attacking from below.
	This being the case, we'll use the destruction of G'Quan #2. Within the time frame of 28 frames in PAL video format, where 25 frames equal one second, the total time in this frame is 1.072 seconds.
	This means the Shadow weapon demonstrated a level of destruction equaling 3.06*10^16 joule, when adjusting for the time required to destroy the G'Quan; to slice the Narn ship in half.
	As the Shadow beam went right through the G'Quan and did not appear to be impeded in any way it must be more powerful than the low-end estimates featured above.
	This being the case the Shadow's beam is, likely, an order of magnitude greater than what was seen. This would bump up the Shadow beam's low-end destructive capability to 3.0*10^17 joule.

	Near the Centauri border, the unsuspecing base is about to be attacked by forces of the Shadows. Due to the fact we know very little about this planet, we assume that due to it's red color it is primarily composed of Irons, similar to Mars. Note that the base is much larger than 1.4km Narn Heavy Cruiser, seen docked with the orbiting station.
	Forces of the Shadows, consisting of three Battle-Crabs, jump out of Hyperspace and proceede to attack the Narn Base. Their first strike is devistating, all but ignoring the fighters and instead attacking the base, effectivly knocking out early warning systems and any semblance of command structure.
	Raking arcross the Narn base, which would appear to be no less than 1,600 meterers relitive to the docked 1,400 meter long Heavy Cruiser, the surface explodes and errups in a brilliant flash, suggesting that the beam is vaporizing the matterials comprising the base. It is still debated whether this base was built into an existing asteroid or was a totally artificial construct, as such we will not use this scene to determine the weapons output.
	Still, while not a usable scene to determine the yeild of Shadow weapons, we can clearly see that the entire arm of the Narn base has been totally blown away, the Narn Heavy Cruiser destroyed as well.
	Narn fighters bravely fight on, but they are no match for the Shadows and, while trying to protect the sizable colony on the surface below, the trio of Shadow vessels pen in the remaining Narn forces and cut them to ribons.
	With the Narn's defenses broken, the Shadows move in on the planet. The first Battle-Crab to move into targetting position opens fire!
	First Shadow vessel strikes the Narn colony with ease and precission. Area around the cliff side base glows, and the impact of the beam is immidately followed by sparks, the beam striking the surface and burning through the planet's crust.
	Soon the first Battle-Crab's attack on the surface is joined by her sister ships, the Shadows determined to make sure that the entire colony is destroyed. There will be survivors, but very few and all records will be destroyed with the destruction of the base and colony.
	Finally the third Battle Crab joins the attack on the Colony. By this time the first Shadow vessel has discontinued her attack, after 0.8 seconds of sustained weapons fire. Note the large plumes of smoke and glowing ash around each point where the Shadow's weapons have hit the surface.
	Immidately after the first Shadow vessel ceases fire, the whole of the platue which the Narn colony rests, explodes in a violect erruption. Second Shadow vessel also discontinues fire, the third's beam still digging then rounding to follow the cliff face to destroy anything at the bottom of the cliffs around the colony.
	Running clean-up ops., the last Shadow vessel destroyed any/all of the surrounding area around the colony. Total attack on the Narn colony lasted between 1.9 to 2.0 seconds - no longer.
	Ceasing fire, the Shadows turn and begin to leave, the flames from the destroyed colony plainly vissible from high orbit. The Narn base, colony, and all records have been destroyed.
	The Shadows begin their exit of the system, but not before firing upon the ruins of the Narn orbiting space dock one last time... presumidly they detected life signs or possibly residual power signatures and wanted to make sure everything is dead. Once they make this final strike the Shadows dissapear and phase back into Hyperspace.
	What remains is rubble. The Narn orbiting base has been obliterated. The Narn Colony, vaporized. According to the script as written by J. Michael Straczynski, the beam penetrated all the way through to the mantle, causing a plume of lava to come spewing out, similar to what is seen on the Jupiter moon of Io.

As we do not know the size of the Narn planet, the geological compesition of the planet or how thick the crust was, we will use Earth as our basis for comparision.

Given the dimensions of the scene, we can easily match the curve of the Narn planet to that of the Earth herself. Using the size comparison above, you can see that, from orbit, we would have easily been able to see the fires of the destroyed colony. As a matter of fact, if we used the base of the plume to determine the approximate diameter of the blast zone, the maw of the newly formed volcano would have streatched from Chesapeake Bay to Charlottesville - making the destroyed area no less than 210 kilometers in diameter.

Despite the apparent massive area destroyed, we will limit our figures to only that which the Shadow weapons were seen doing, not the final effect for their attack. If the Narn planet in Quadrant 14 was like Earth, than we will assume that the average crust thickness is roughly 40,000 meters.

If the diameter of the energy blast was a conservative 20 meters (as shown in the image to left), which appears to be the average total beam width from a Shadow vessel, than the beam would have destroyed 12,566,370.6 cubic meters of rock in less than one second.

Now, for expediency we will use Iron exclusively as our resistant medium. My choice of Iron over Silicon (as used in previous figures) is due to a friend having brought to my attention that the planet's appearce would suggest that it, at first glance, consists of Iron due to it's redish, Mars like tint.

Given that Iron has a density of some 7,870 kg/m³, the total volume vaporized by the Shadow's Death-Ray would have been 98,897,336,735 kilograms. As the Shadow weapon vaporized nearly 100 billion kilograms of Iron in 0.8 seconds, and knowing that it takes some 7,845,085.6 Joules to vaporize one kilogram of Iron, the Shadow weapon must have produced a beam no less than 9.69*10¹⁷ watt, or nearly 1 million terawatts in power. This figure is very close to the figures seen with regards to the Narn fleet during the "Battle of Gorash VII."

This is, as I stated, a LOW-end estimate of the Shadow weapon's power, as we do not know the exact compesition of the planet's surface, or the exact diameter of the energy beams fired on the planet or how far the beam had to drill in order to reach the mantel. As such, we can assume that the upper limit for Shadow and Vorlon weapons is NO less than 1*10¹⁸ watt per discharge.