Editing Civilizations in Babylon 5 (section)

==Pak'ma'ra==

The '''pak'ma'ra''' (the lower-case spelling is [[canon (basic principle)|canon]]ical<ref>''Babylon 5 Scripts: Volume 5, page 11.  Footnote 5''</ref>) were members of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds and are members of the Interstellar Alliance. For religious reasons, they are dedicated [[carrion]] eaters, partly because the pak'ma'ra consider themselves superior to other races. The pak'ma'ra are generally considered stupid and lazy by members of other races, who are also generally disgusted by their eating habits. They have the reputation for scavenging not only their food but also technologies.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.infinicorp.com/VEX/aliens/pakmara.htm | title=Voltayre's Encyclopedia Xenobiologica | accessdate=2006-10-07 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060513051635/http://www.infinicorp.com/VEX/aliens/pakmara.htm | archivedate=2006-05-13 }}</ref>

Loosely humanoid in form, the pak'ma'ra have tentacles around a mouth cavity containing an inflexible beak, somewhat reminiscent of the [[Illithid|mind flayers]] or [[Cthulhu]]. [[Michael Garibaldi]] describes them as resembling "an octopus that got run over by a truck."<ref name="B5-5x22">{{cite episode| title = [[Sleeping in Light]]| series = [[Babylon 5]]}}</ref> As this combination renders their mouths incapable of forming words in most other species' languages, they rely on [[machine translation]] for interspecies communication.  However, Durhan commented once that they ''refuse'' to learn any other language than their own.<ref name="B5-5x05">{{cite episode| title = [[Learning Curve (Babylon 5)|Learning Curve]]| series = [[Babylon 5]]}}</ref> They are capable of singing what several other races considered extremely beautiful music, but only do so on religious holidays.<ref name="B5-5x22"/>

Until its dissolution, the pak'ma'ra were members of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds, with an ambassador on Babylon 5. They then became members of the Interstellar Alliance. The pak'ma'ra took on the role as couriers for the ISA [[Ranger (Babylon 5)|Rangers]] because of the distaste other species had for them, and their tendency to be on every major world in numbers but be ignored.

The pak'ma'ra were one of the few other races to be susceptible to the [[Drafa Plague]], though, unlike the [[Civilizations in Babylon 5#Markab|Markab]], their numbers were not threatened by Second Outbreak in 2259.

In the final episode "[[Sleeping in Light]]", Vir Cotto remarks that he and Londo had once passed a group of pak'ma'ra who were singing in their quarters, and that,"It was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard." When it was over, even the ever-stoic Londo Mollari was moved to tears.