Shadow (Babylon 5) - Z'ha'dum

Z'ha'dum

Z'ha'dum is the homeworld of the Shadows. No one leaves the same as they arrived. --Delenn

If you go to Z'ha'dum, you will die. — Kosh to John Sheridan

In the fictional Babylon 5 universe, Z'ha'dum was a world extremely important to the ancient, mysterious species known as the Shadows. Although a blasted, devastated world from which the Shadows were frequently driven over the eons, they kept coming back out of respect for Lorien—the first of the First Ones—who for a long time resided on the planet.

Because of their periodic presence on Z'ha'dum, the planet is often assumed to be the Shadows' homeworld, but it is unknown whether the species actually originated there, or if its importance to them is centered strictly on Lorien. Before undergoing her fundamental genetic change to become more human, Delenn confirms with Kosh that the Shadows have returned to Z'ha'dum, implying that the species is based elsewhere when not actively preparing to launch one of their periodic wars. There appears to be more than one place of power for the Shadows and their minions. According to Markab Ambassador Fashar: "When the darkness was defeated long ago, they scattered, hid themselves away in secret places."

According to Anna Sheridan in "Z'ha'dum", the Shadows believed they would die if anything Vorlon touched Z'ha'dum. It is not known whether this is true, merely an old superstition, or a way to separate and isolate Sheridan from his transportation. Many of them did die when Sheridan arrived with a piece of Kosh and detonated a pair of nuclear warheads that he had secretly smuggled onto the White Star (partially based on Vorlon technology) in a kamikaze attack. Additionally, Lyta's telepathy, enhanced by the Vorlons (and, indeed, genetically seeded by the Vorlons in the first place) later triggered the destruction of Z'ha'dum itself. However, it is unclear if her telepathic probing of Z'ha'dum merely alarmed the remaining residents, who then set self-destruct devices and fled, or if the probing of Vorlon-enhanced telepathy somehow automatically triggered the planet's destruction.