Neroon

"I was born warrior caste. Now I see the calling of my heart is RELIGIOUS. The war is OVER! LISTEN TO HER! LISTEN..."

- Neroon's last words.

Neroon is a Minbari character in the Babylon 5 television series. He was first introduced in the episode Legacies.

Born in the early 23rd century, Neroon became a member of the warrior caste. By the time of the Earth-Minbari war he was second in command to the warrior-priest Brammer. During the war Neroon estimated that he was responsible for the deaths of 50,000 humans. When the Minbari stood down at the Battle of the Line before annihilating humanity, Brammer obeyed the Grey Council's orders to cease fire, and Neroon as his first officer did the same.

Brammer would later die while away from Minbar. Neroon and the caste elders decided to ignore Brammer's wishes for a simple funeral, and took his body to every Minbari outpost, colony, and community in known space. It was during this Neroon first came to Babylon 5. Minbari Ambassador Delenn, knowing Brammer never wanted this show, stole Brammer's body and had it cremated. Delenn later told him the truth of what had happened, and ordered him to apologize to Jeffrey Sinclair for his behavior after Brammer's body disappeared. Neroon came to respect Sinclair, believing that maybe they did the right thing in allowing humanity to live. He also noted that Sinclair talked very much like a Minbari (not realizing that Sinclair would later travel back in time to become the Minbari religious leader Valen).

The following year, Neroon was appointed to the Grey Council, upsetting the balance as there were now four warrior caste members on the council instead of the normal three of each caste. He was there in 2260 when Delenn broke the council when the Shadows began moving again.

Later that year, after Sinclair had traveled back in time, Neroon became convinced that Delenn must not succeed Sinclair as Entil'zha of the Anla'Shok. He traveled to B5 to stop her. Willing to do violence against Delenn, he was stopped from interfering by Marcus Cole. Seeing the human willing to sacrifice himself, and quoting Valen Neroon realized how wrong he had been, and allowed Delenn to become Entil'zha.

In 2261 the power vacuum left by the dissolution of the Grey Council led to war between the religious and warrior castes. Neroon and Delenn met on her ship to try to work out a peace settlement. Delenn proposed a plan in which Neroon would steal the religious caste's war plans. Agreeing to her plan, Neroon left with the religious caste's plans. This gave the warrior caste a military advantage over the religious caste.

Delenn soon announced that the Religious Caste was surrendering to the Warrior Caste. As they had planned, Neroon arranged for the surrender ceremony to be at the Temple of Varenni. Prior to Valen's reforms, the temple had been used by Minbari castes to select their rulers. The temple had a device known as the Starfire Wheel that would consume a person unless they stepped out of the wheel, with the idea being that a leader had to be willing to die for his caste before they would be permitted to rule. While being broadcast over the entire planet, Delenn demanded the warrior leader Shakiri step with her into the Starfire Wheel to determine if the Warrior Caste is indeed fit to rule. Shakiri refused at first, until Neroon pointed out that everyone was watching. Once inside, Shakiri panicked and jumped out of the wheel, not willing to sacrifice himself.

Delenn remained inside the wheel as it began to consume her. Neroon, who had thought she would leave after Shakiri did, entered the circle to save her life. Picking up Delenn and handing her to Lennier he remained inside the wheel. The energy of the wheel began to consume him. During the last moments of his life Neroon converted to the religious caste. He declared that the war was over, and to listen to Delenn. A few seconds later the Starfire Wheel reached its peak intensity and vaporized Neroon.

A few days later Delenn reestablished the Grey Council. She reformed the council so that the workers would have a majority of the seats on the council. Delenn left the leader's spot empty in memory of Neroon, saying that it would one day be filled by the one to come.