

During the Second Shadow War, the Fredamir Research Colony was one of many colonies and outposts to take in refugees from the Vorlon advance, including survivors from Ventauri III.

The Drazi are a very technologically advanced race, having developed interstellar flight around the Earth year 1400 and their weapons and space technology are extremely effective. A change was proposed to exempt other species but it was caught up in a committee for over 683 cycles (820 Earth Years). For example, the rules of combat for the selection of a new Shadak date back before contact with other races and so did not mention aliens. The slowness of this bureaucracy is legendary and it can take many years for anything to clear a Drazi committee. In addition to the Shadak is a vast bureaucracy of committees that handles the different aspects of Drazi society and are responsible for making recommendations to the Shadak. It was eventually defused when Earthforce Commander Susan Ivanova took the Green leader cloth, inadvertently becoming Green Leader and then ordered all the Green Drazi to the station quartermaster's office where they would all have their cloths dyed purple. The situation even affected Babylon 5 and its population of almost four thousand Drazi.

Once the news spread to the outer colonies and outpost, others followed suit.

However in 2259, the attacks turned lethal when the Greens on Zhabar started killing Purples. The contest of strength is supposed to be non-lethal, and the attacks usually stop once the opponent is beaten into unconsciousness. Tradition holds that this practice goes back to a time when the five branches of Drazi were melded into a united race through a great war, though the true source lies in seeds long ago planted by the Shadows. Whichever Drazi happens to draw the leader cloth becomes the leader of the given faction and all local Drazi of that colour will unquestionably follow that leader. Leadership of a given population is also random as in each barrel, two of the sashes (one of each colour) bear the mark of leadership, represented by a golden star. The sides are chosen randomly by all the Drazi in a given area blindly drawing either a green or a purple sash from a great barrel. The winning side, the one that proves itself the strongest, gets to select the new Shadak from within its ranks and the two sides become one again. Every five cycles the Shadak is dissolved and the entire Drazi race divides into two camps, Green and Purple, the two sides then spend an entire cycle fighting one another. Each member representing one of the five branches of the Drazi race. The central governing body of the Freehold is a council of five Drazi known as the Shadak.
