Drakh
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The Drakh are a race from the fictional Babylon 5 universe. The Drakh were dark servants for the race of First Ones known as the Shadows.
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Biology
The Drakh's have scaly skin that is dark grey or green in appearance. The Drakh are heavy users of bio-technology - examples of this are the plague released on Earth, or Drakh Keepers.
The Drakh also have telepathic abilities, as do their keepers. As such, Drakh and keepers can communicate with other Drakh over long distances. When Drakh wish to communicate with each other, they enter into a process known as communing.
Keepers
The Drakh build and grow Keepers - sentient beings that connect to victims on a physical and neurological basis - that they use to control others. Most of the time the keeper does not directly control its victim. For a keeper that has been attached to a certain individual for a while, they can exert total control over the body for short periods of time. Rather, the keeper monitors the behavior of the individual. They can make it impossible for a person to move, or inflict varying levels of pain that can force an individual to bend to the Drakh's will.
In most cases a Keeper has to be physically attached to have any meaningful influence over a person. However if a Keeper is near a target for extended periods, they can use their telepathic abilities to establish a low level relationship with their target. This allows the Keeper to form a deeper relationship with the victim.
Keepers are very insidious creatures. They burrow deep into the neurological systems of the hosts. While the outer part of the host can be removed, there is always an interior part of the keeper that would grow back almost immediately. It is almost impossible to remove a keeper. The only known way to do so would be to either force or kill the Drakh that spawned the keeper. That is due to the fact that there is a symbiotic relationship between the Drakh and Keeper, and the Keeper cannot function without the Drakh who spawned it.
However, Keepers can be affected by the state of its victim. If the host drinks enough alcohol, it has been demonstrated that the Keeper would fall asleep and the host would regain control of him or herself for a short period of time. Likewise, if a victim is given a substance that induces sleep, the Keeper will also fall asleep. If the host's life becomes endangered, the Keeper's life is just as endangered. While the Keeper can disengage to avoid dying along with the host, it is a process that takes time - especially if it has been connected to its victim for a while. In that case, if the host dies the Keeper would die along with it. But the reverse is also true, an attempt to kill the Keeper would also kill the host.
Drakh Plague
About five years after the founding of the Interstellar Alliance, the Drakh released a plague on Earth. The plague was found to be built to adapt to a certain race, then once it had adapted fully activate and kill every member of the race that it could infect. Scientists discovered this process would take five years.
The newly built Excalibur was sent out to find a cure among alien ruins. At some point during the next five years, a cure was found. But the nature of the cure, along with when it was found has not yet been revealed.
Because of the plague, Earth had reexamined its policies regarding arrival or departure of individuals on Earth from other worlds. They left a quarantine in place in order to reduce the chances of another plague breaking out.
History
Prior to the Shadow War of the mid 23rd century, it had been several hundred years since the Drakh had last been seen. When the Shadows began their rise to power, the Drakh assisted them in much of their activities.
When the Shadows and the other remaining race of First Ones--the Vorlons--had decided to leave the galaxy to join the other First Ones, the Drakh were left behind. The Drakh lived on Z'ha'dum until the planet's destruction. When Lyta Alexander triggered the planet's self destruct systems, the planet was totally destroyed. Shortly before the explosion, a large fleet of ships was seen leaving Z'ha'dum by John Sheridan and his colleagues aboard the White Star. They did not know it was the Drakh.
Soon, the Drakh began attacking other races, especially those who had participated in the final battle against the Shadows. They had also begun seeking out contacts among other races. One contact they made was with a member of the Minbari religious caste who was unhappy with the turn of events on the homeworld. When the Drakh had found out Delenn was aboard, the Drakh betrayed the Minbari ships, and managed to destroy one of the Minbari vessels. However the Minbari turned the tables on the Drakh, and destroyed the nearby Drakh mothership.
Due to the reemergence of the Drakh in galactic affairs, John Sheridan convinced several worlds to allow the White Star fleet and the Rangers to patrol the borders of the various worlds. This helped reduce attacks on shipping, and also laid the foundations for what would eventually become the Interstellar Alliance.
The Drakh & Centauri Connection
Unknown to anyone at the time, the Drakh had made their way to Centauri Prime after leaving Z'ha'dum. This was keeping in Morden's final warning to Londo that even if the Shadows had lost the war, the servants of the Shadows would seek out the Centauri and make them pay for their actions. The Drakh attached a Keeper - a sentient being that was physically attached to a victim the Drakh wished to control - to the Centauri Regent.
As a result, the Centauri Regent came under the direct control of the Drakh. He was forced over the next year to do their bidding. The Regent soon began exhibiting strange changes in behavior. One such change was that he began drinking heavily, despite having carefully maintained sobriety throughout his life. Another such change was that he went to a guard one night and asked the guard to kill him.
In the year following the founding of the Interstellar Alliance, ships from Alliance member worlds began to find themselves under attack. At first, no one knew who was behind the attack; the attackers left no survivors. But through the efforts of Lennier and the Rangers, the Alliance discovered that Centauri vessels were behind the attack. What they did not know was that these ships were under remote control, and that most of the Centauri government did not even know about these ships.
The Alliance then blockaded Centauri Prime space. The Centauri fought back against the Alliance, causing a number of casualties on both sides. Eventually, several races attacked Centauri Prime, killing a number of Centauri and setting them firmly against the Alliance. The Alliance imposed heavy sanctions against the Centauri, which was exactly what the Drakh wanted.
During the Alliance attack, the Regent died. The Drakh decided to replace him with Londo Mollari. They forced Londo to consent to having a Keeper attached to him, otherwise they would have detonated fusion bombs on that world. They also forced him to give John Sheridan and Delenn a gift for their unborn baby - an urn with a keeper buried in the base.
Over the next 16 years, the Drakh molded the Centauri into an instrument to be used in their vengeance against the Alliance. When Sheridan's son David turned 16 Minbari years old, they gave him the urn. When he was alone with the urn, the keeper burst out and attached itself to David. Under the keeper's control, David stole a vessel and left for Centauri Prime.
Sheridan and Delenn soon arrived on Centauri Prime to rescue their son. They were captured by Centauri forces. Ambassador Vir Cotto blew up the Tower of Power, the main Drakh installation on that world - revealing the presence of the Drakh to all. Despite the Drakh killing millions of Centauri, Londo decided to stop cooperating with the Drakh. In a deal to secure the freedom of the Centauri people, Londo released Sheridan, David, and Delenn. He soon fought the former Narn ambassador G'Kar to the death, in order to keep the keeper from betraying him.
The Drakh abandoned Centauri Prime a short time later. The Alliance, realizing the Drakh played them for fools, joined forces with the Centauri in finding the Drakh and making sure they were no longer a threat to the galaxy. The Alliance also helped the newly proclaimed Emperor Vir Cotto in rebuilding Centauri Prime.
The Drakh & Earth
The Drakh had also turned their attentions towards Earth as well. During the fight against President Clark, a member of the Martian Resistance was found to have had a keeper on him. The Drakh had hoped to put this man, Duncan, in position to assassinate the Martian Resistance leadership. The plot failed when the external part of the Keeper was shot off. Duncan took off and killed himself before the Keeper could grow back and take control of him again.
About five years after the founding of the Alliance, the Drakh released a deadly plague on Earth. The plague was designed to activate after five years and kill all life on Earth. But due to the efforts of the Excalibur and others, a cure was found for the plague.
Current Status
The current status of the Drakh has not been revealed. After their presence on Centauri Prime was revealed, they left the world, with the Centauri and the Alliance in hot pursuit.