Cylon History

For information on the Original Series Cylons, see Cylons (TOS).

Part of the series on The Cylons (Re-imagined Series)

History Culture & Religion Religion Models Humanoid Cylons Spacecraft Psychology Tactics

Over 52 years prior to the destruction of the Colonies, the humans of the Twelve Colonies reveled in their advanced technology, from which came their most unique creation, the Cylons, a race of sentient machines.

Ancient Cylons

An early generation of humanoid Cylons that originated from Kobol colonized the Earth. With them there was also a distinct model of robotic Cylon, or which only the buried helmet has been seen. Roughly 2000 years ago, Earth's civilization was wiped out by nuclear attacks from an unknown source. There were only five known survivors, who would come to be known as the Final Five. These survivors were researchers involved in the recent rediscovery of resurrection technology, who anticipated the attack and resurrected aboard a ship which they had prepared. They then began the long sublight journey to the Twelve Colonies in order to prevent the Cylon War.

First Cylons in the Twelve Colonies

The first Cylons in the Twelve Colonies were created by Daniel Graystone, a brilliant Caprican computer scientist .

Spoiler follows, highlight to read.

Graystone's daughter Zoe died in a suicide bombing. After learning that his daughter uploaded her personality into an online avatar before her death, Graystone decided to recreate Zoe as a robot, using technology stolen from his Tauron competitor, Tomas Vergis with the help of his wife Amanda and Joseph Adama, whose wife and daughter also died in the same explosion. Zoe-A, the holographic avatar, was downloaded into a robot brain, and thus became Zoe-R, the first cybernetic life-form node, or Cylon. Graystone also created a Cylon version of Tamara Adama, but her father was appalled by it, and decided to repent his actions.

Cylons were being constructed for the purpose of performing tasks no human desired to do. The Cylons were used in hazardous work, including wars between the colonies (before the Articles of Colonization, most or all colonies were sovereign states).

The Cylon War

Then the day came when the servants turned against their masters, and the Cylon War began. Humans responded by unifying their Colonies into a federal republic (with the Articles of Colonization) and building battlestars and military craft such as the one-manned Viper fighter (Miniseries) and the workhorse, multi-function craft called the Raptor to combat the Cylons (Razor Flashbacks). To date, no reason has been offered as to how or why the Cylons rebelled.

The war lasted twelve-and-a-half years, with the Colonies, such as Tauron, close to a fall. However, an armistice was declared, resulting in the the Cylons departure from the Colonial worlds in search of a home of their own.

The Transition

During the Cylon War, Cylons secretly made the first steps in the development of new models of Cylons that were organic in nature and essentially identical to humans. The first step in their evolution from pure machines to organic beings was known as the "Hybrid". Other hybrids were later created to control baseships before the experiments were abandoned (Razor).

Before they were able to develope independant humanoid models, the Final Five arrived, offering to assist them in developing organic models and provide them with resurrection technology if they would stop their war against the colonies.

The first of these organic models was John, later known as Number One and Brother Cavil, patterned and named after Ellen's father. He assisted in the developement of the other seven models. John, jealous over the attention Ellen paid to Daniel, the original Number Seven, contaminating the amniotic fluid in which the Number Seven copies were being grown and corrupting the model's genetic formula, the fate of Daniel prototype is unknown. Bitter over the limitations of his organic body and obsessed with vengeance against humanity, Cavil then killed the Final Five and boxed them, later resurrecting them with false memories and sending them to the twelve colonies. It can be inferred that he is responsible for programming the other six models to not think of the Final Five. (No Exit)

At some point, the Cylons revised the original Cylon robotic soldier, the sentient Cylon Centurion Model 0005, into a more agile and dangerous version. Unlike the original version, however, the new Centurion is mechanically inhibited from being fully self-aware, as the humanoid Cylons wanted to prevent these updated creations from forming an intra-Cylon uprising that mirrored their war with the humans (Exodus, Part I).

Returning Home

The Cylons, realizing that the Colonial forces would likely too strong to engage in a direct military action, devise an elaborate plan to infiltrate the Colonial ships' operating system software, leaving a backdoor that could be exploited to disable any Colonial ship with its own programming. The plan is successful; the Colonial Fleet is destroyed, the Colonies themselves subjected to nuclear bombardment, and humanity is all but wiped out, except for a handful of survivors on the Colonies in outlying areas as well as caravan of space-dwelling humans that eventually escape the Colonial star system.

The Cylons continue to pursue the remnants of the Colonies, believing that humans will always seek vengeance against them (Exodus, Part II).

The Faith and Reproduction

Main article: Cylon Religion

The Cylons follow the monotheistic religion of the Thirteenth Tribe, which was programmed into them by the Final Five (No Exit). Among other tenets, their faith calls for the Cylons to reproduce biologically as part of their mandate to replace humanity. However, Cylon-Cylon reproduction was believed to be impossible, so, after the destruction of the Colonies, the Cylons occupy many of the worlds, killing any surviving humans they find, or pressing them into service in farms, centers that harvest genetic material and fertilize human women with Cylon DNA in the hopes of creating Cylon-human hybrid children. The farms, however, prove to be unsuccessful, so the Cylons attempt to emotionally bond a humanoid Cylon with a human, hoping that love would generate the desired result (The Farm).

The experiment is successful, but is soon out of the Cylons' control for a time. The conception and birth of a Cylon-human hybrid, Hera Agathon, the child of a rebellious Number Eight and Karl Agathon is born in the safety of the Colonial Fleet.

Mixed Successes

The Cylons almost succeed in sending the Colonials into chaos when one agent nearly succeeds in killing Commander William Adama (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II). For reasons unknown, the Cylons do not press their tactical advantage at Kobol, either underestimating Kobol's importance to the Colonials and their search for information on the path to Earth.

Cylon forces continue to track and attack the Colonials for months, keeping what few humanoid Cylons in the human fleet reinforced with a Resurrection Ship, used to resurrect the consciousnesses of killed agents and gain vital intelligence on the humans. Complicating their plans, the Colonials gain sufficient water and fuel resources ("Water", "The Hand of God") and reunite with a second battlestar, Pegasus (which had conducted hit-and-run operations against Cylon installations and forces before discovering Galactica). The Cylons suffer a major setback when the Colonial battlestars combine for an offensive action that all but destroys a Cylon fleet, including a Resurrection Ship. Without the Resurrection Ship, the Cylon battle tactic changes for a time to ambushes and traps ("Scar", "The Captain's Hand").

Benevolent Dictators

Two humanoid Cylons, both "Heroes of the Cylon" for their undercover work among the Colonials, but now influenced by their affection for humanity, convince the Cylon majority for a time that the genocide and occupation of the Colonies was wrong. With this change in philosophy, the Cylons abandon the Colonies and go out in search of the Colonials.

The Colonials elude the Cylons for over a year by finding a hidden habitable world and colonizing it. They escape detection as the planet is located inside a nebula that masks its presence, but a nuclear detonation within the Colonial fleet leaves a marker for the Cylons to follow. The Cylons later find New Caprica and, in overwhelming numbers, make themselves as "caretakers" of the trapped colonists, occupying the colony and forcing the humans to surrender under the threat of annihilation (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II).

For approximately 138 days, the Colonials are subject to Cylon rule. The Cylons ostensibly want to cooperate with the humans and even help them in some areas such as agriculture, medicine and power generation. However, they also severely restrict many freedoms which leads to a human resistance movement that strikes back violently. The Cylons in turn increase their oppression, arresting, torturing and killing hundreds of people. Eventually Galactica and Pegasus, which escaped New Caprica as the Cylon fleet arrived, manage to rescue the approximately 38,000 humans on New Caprica, but at great cost. This ends the experiment in human/Cylon relations and some models are more determined than ever to deal with mankind once and for all (Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance through "Exodus, Part II")

The Race to Earth

Main article: Earth (RDM)

The Cylons abandon New Caprica as well, retrieving the Cylon-hybrid baby from the planet by happenstance, and turn their attention to the same objective as the Colonials: finding Earth. Using Gaius Baltar's research (who resides with the Cylon fleet at the time), the Cylon locate the Lion's Head Nebula. A scouting basestar finds an ancient beacon in the area, reinforcing that the Thirteenth Tribe did pass through the area on their way to Earth. But the Cylon scout ship meets with disaster; the probe is contaminated with a pathogen that, while benign to humans, infects, deactivates or kills all Cylons, their ships, and their entities (Torn).

The Cylon fleet, which also includes a second Resurrection Ship, abandons the scouts and cuts off further communication, believing that the virus can replicate through their resurrection process. The Cylon scout ship eventually self-destructs and the Cylons manage to prevent the infection from spreading, although, unknown to the Cylons, the Colonials gain a critical biological warfare option (A Measure of Salvation).

The Number Three units exhibit strange behavior in attempting to ascertain the identities of the Final Five Cylon models, as they have seen in visions prior to a model being resurrected. At the algae planet, while the Cylon majority attempt to gain information on the location of Earth by way of the Eye of Jupiter, the Threes' ulterior motive to seek knowledge of the final five so disturbs the collective status quo and command consensus of the Cylon majority to the point where all Three models are boxed for their aberrant behavior (Rapture)

The Final Five

Main article: Final Five

Unknown to either the Cylon or Colonial commanders and leaders, four Colonials exhibit strange behavior that ultimately brings them to come to the discovery that they are Cylons. Saul Tigh, Galen Tyrol, Samuel Anders and Tory Foster are the only crewmembers that can hear a strange melody that draws them to meet each other in a room on Galactica, shortly after the Fleet arrives at the Ionian nebula. The nature of these particular Cylon models, especially given Saul Tigh's existence as a decorated veteran of the Cylon War, is unclear and likely fundamentally different from other humanoid Cylons.

During the ensuing battle, one Raider identifies Anders as a Cylon, which causes all Raiders to break off the battle and forces the Cylon fleet to retreat. Because of this, a Number One decides to lobotomize the Raiders to prevent such insubordination in the future. This decision is opposed by a faction, led by Natalie, who advocates the search for the Final Five and desires to unbox Number Three and hear what she has to say about her discovery at the Temple of Five. The disagreement between them leads to a violent conflict between the humanoid models.

The Parent Trap

In the Re-imagined Series, an Oedipus theme exists between the creations (Cylons) turning on their creators (Colonials). The humanoid Cylons themselves draw the analogy of children murdering their parents:

"But parents have to die. It's the only way children come into their own."

• Number Six: "Humanity's children are returning home... today." (Miniseries)
• Number Five: "But parents have to die. It's the only way children come into their own." (Bastille Day)

In Greek mythology, Oedipus was the tragic character of Sophocles' play Oedipus Rex. Without realizing it until much later, Oedipus murdered his father Laius, married his mother Jocasta, and had several children with her, as the Cylons have been trying to do in the farms.

Also, a Six once refers to Sharon Valerii as "little sister" and Cavils are sometimes called "brother" by each other and by Number Three, implying that all humanoid Cylons see each other as siblings.

Notes

• The retaliatory nature of sentient machines against humanity is a popular theme in science fiction.
• On September 20, 2007, Battlestar Galactica writer and producer Bradley Thompson revealed that Ron D. Moore's script for the pilot of Caprica has a character coin the term "Cylon", saying, "A cybernetic life-form node, a Cylon." But as Caprica has yet to go into production, there is yet no "official" definition.