Grey Council

"I am Grey. I stand between the candle and the star. We are Grey. We stand between the darkness and the light."

- The greeting of the Grey Council

The Grey Council is the ruling body of the Minbari Federation in the Babylon 5  franchise.

The council originally was composed of nine members, with three members from each of the three castes, the Worker Caste, the Warrior Caste, and the Religious Caste. At times they would be led by a single individual. Members of the council were given the honorifc Satai.

Very little is known about the council outside of Minbari society, due to the reticence of Minbari to discuss the council with others. Even the names of the individual council members were often a closely guarded secret.

Original Council
The Grey Council was originally founded in the 13th century by the Minbari religious leader Valen after the conclusion of the First Shadow War. Having originally been a 23rd century human male named Jeffrey Sinclair, Valen gave a series of prophecies to the Grey Council regarding the Second Shadow War which would come to pass in the 23rd century.

With over 900 years of peace, the Grey Council became complacent, and then isolationist. During the disastrous first contact with humanity in which their leader Dukhat was killed, the council voted to go to warn with the humans, with Satai Delenn casting the deciding vote for war. Delenn would soon regret her decision, but the council was determined to go ahead with the war.

The war nearly resulted in the extermination of humanity. At the Battle of the Line the council decided to bring a human aboard to examine him and see if they should proceed with the final assault on Earth. That human was Jeffrey Sinclair. When the council scanned him with a triluminary - which had been keyed to respond to Valen's soul - they were horrified to discover that Sinclair not only had a Minbari soul, but he had the soul of Valen. Feeling that they were killing their own, the Minbari stopped the war and surrendered on the eve of victory.

Feeling that neither the Minbari nor humans were ready to learn the truth of why they stopped the war, the Grey Council kept their decision a secret. This would lead to a rift developing between the warriors and the religious castes over the next decade.

Interregnum
"The problems of others are not our concern"

- The council's reaction to the return of the Shadows.

When the Second Shadow War began, the Grey Council refused to give their support to John Sheridan and his resistance movement. Learning that the council was refusing to do anything about the return of the Shadows, Delenn went to demand answers. Confronting the council, she broke the council, as Valen said would happen. Five of the nine members followed her out to lead the Minbari people to take up an active war against the Shadows.

After the conclusion of the Second Shadow War, a dangerous power vacuum developed. Soon the warrior caste and religious caste were in open conflict. In order to heal the rift, the warrior Neroon stepped in to the Starfire Wheel. Converting to the religious caste in the final moments of his life, Neroon begged the people to listen to Delenn.

The New Council
Shortly after Neroon's sacrifice, Delenn re-established the council, calling the nine as Valen had did many years earlier. After calling two each from the religious and warrior castes, she then stopped and explained that now they would be doing something new. She then summoned five members of the worker caste.

Delenn explained that during everything that had happened, the worker caste had silently worked away to build the temples the religious prayed in, and the ships the warriors fought in. It was now their turn to lead the Minbari people, and that religion and war would assume their rightful place in service to the workers.