A warning: This story is based off an idea that is rather terrifying which is the Vorlons decided to rule the younger races instead of manipulating them subtly.
Summary: There were many choices made during the show Babylon 5 by the characters. Some choices went well, others poorly. The Vorlons made a choice long before the Babylon program was ever a thought. They chose to watch and to meddle with the genetics of the younger races. What if they chose differently? What if they chose to rule the younger races?
Prologue
Most races don't remember when they first came to their home worlds. They just seemed to always have been there. To rule, guide and to make sure that the people they presided over did not stray from the correct path. Several races accepted their rulers quietly; they were The Minbari, The Narn, and several of the league worlds. Others had protested, but gave in quickly to the gentle but firm rule they were the Centauri and the rest of the league worlds.
But one race vividly remembers the day that they had arrived. Only one race fought bitterly against their rule. One race had resisted for a couple of years against the rule of them. It actually surprised the ruling ones how spirited and willful that particular race of young ones was. The fact that they had battled them successfully in the first few years of rule was astounding; of course the other young races were much more obedient (in the ruling one's collective opinion). But, as always even that willful, passionate, and above all stubborn race had broken, and were quietly ruled. But the ruling one who had broken them was still on their planet and not another so as to make sure they never tried to rebel again. True, that particular race of young ones was the most strictly ruled, but that was for the greater good. It was that particular race who had asked for permission to build the Babylon stations. The other races did not need such permission, but again none of them had fought against their rule, and even successfully, though that had been several thousand years ago, the fire in that race had never quite gone out.
The ruling ones however did allow them to build the Babylon station, well stations as they did need the first one to be built for the shadow war nearly a thousand years ago. The ruling ones made sure that no younger race fought another as that would weaken both. The ruling ones told the younger races whom they ruled to call them Vorlons, which was what they called themselves. The younger races obeyed, and soon the first Babylon station was built. It was whisked off into the past at the proper time and the second Babylon station was built. That one stayed, as it was supposed to, in the present and the Commander was chosen. It was, of course the one who would become, in time, a leader in the fight against the shadows about a thousand years ago. The Vorlons decided to send an ambassador to the human Babylon station, for it was a crossroads and they could not let such a place go around unchecked, lest the humans, or earthers as the other younger races called them became rebellious.