Twelve Colonies

The Twelve Colonies of Kobol, often simply referred to as the Twelve Colonies, constituted the primary civilisation of humanity in a distant part of the galaxy. These twelve worlds — Aerilon, Aquaria, Canceron, Caprica, Gemenon, Leonis, Libran, Picon, Sagittaron, Scorpia, Tauron, and Virgon — were settled by the twelve tribes of humanity after their exodus from the mythical ancestral homeworld of Kobol. For over two millennia, these planets largely existed as independent states, often engaging in conflicts with one another.

Approximately 52 years before the devastating Cylon attack, the independent planetary states unified under the Articles of Colonisation to form the United Colonies of Kobol. This federal republic, governed by a President and a legislative Quorum of Twelve delegates (one from each colony), was established to better coordinate military and industrial efforts during the First Cylon War against their robotic creations. The Colonies were situated within the Cyrannus star system, a complex quaternary system featuring four stars.

The Twelve Colonies are central to the *Battlestar Galactica* narrative as their near-total annihilation by the Cylons marks the beginning of the human race's desperate flight. The Cylons launched a surprise nuclear attack, facilitated by a backdoor in Dr. Gaius Baltar's Command Navigation Program, which disabled the Colonial Fleet's defences. This genocidal campaign resulted in the deaths of billions and rendered the planets uninhabitable due to widespread radiation.

The destruction of the Colonies left fewer than 50,000 human survivors, who fled into deep space aboard a ragtag fleet of civilian ships, protected by the last surviving Battlestars, Galactica and Pegasus. Their subsequent journey in search of a new home, the fabled Earth, forms the core storyline of the franchise.