The Twelve Colonies of Man included the colonies of:

Aeries

Caprica

Gemoni

Picon

Sagitaria

Scorpion

Taura

Virgon

Star System

The Twelve Colonies of Man are located in an unnamed multi-star system within the Cyranus Galaxy. The tactical navigation display on the Battlestar Galactica bridge (below) indicates there are four local star systems surrounded by 21 planets, including a number of worlds (e.g. Carillon) that are outside the Colonial sphere on influence. Caprica orbits a close double star.

History

The government of the Twelve Colonies first encountered the Cylons after the Colonials intervened to protect an alien race known as the Hasari from them. As a result, the Colonies have been at war with the alien Cylons for 1,000 yahren.

According to the Book of the Word, a religious text of the Kobollian faith, humanity began on a planet called Kobol.

After an ecological disaster purported to be created by technology, the tribes of humanity fled outward to the stars. Twelve tribes of Man eventually passed through a magnetic void and settled on a star system of 12 worlds, which would be later known as the Twelve Colonies of Man .A thirteenth tribe made another exodus to a planet known as Earth.

War

Recent battles in the Thousand Yahren War included the Battle of Cosmora Archipelago (with Commander Kronus, battlestar Rycon and the Fourth Fleet), the Battle of Caprica, and the Battle of Molecay (with the Fifth Fleet and battlestar Pegasus).

The Thousand Yahren War brutally ended with an elaborate Cylon sneak attack at the Battle of Cimtar, which destroys the last battlestar fleet, led by President Adar .

One surviving battlestar, Galactica, escapes destruction and is unable to ward off a simultaneous bombardment of the Twelve Colonies and its populace. Millions, perhaps billions of humans are killed. The survivors escape their worlds to follow Galactica in search of a safer haven.

Colonization

The planet of Paradeen, one of many worlds that may have had contact with the Thirteenth Tribe.

Several planets, moons and asteroid colonies throughout the portion of the galaxy familiar to the Colonials boasted small croppings of Colonials. Some who were well aware of the Colonies and the war with the Cylons, others knew nothing of them, such as Equellus and the tyrannical Eastern Alliance.

Culture

Each of the Twelve Colonies boasted its own race and dialect as to distinguish itself from the others.

Holidays

Armament Day: a day for celebrating the Colonial Military.

High Worship of the Sunstorm: a period where the Gemini are permitted to have contact with members of the opposite sex, which occurs every seven years as decreed by the Gemini's High Priests

The Colonies

Aeries

In "The Long Patrol", Robber and his family are from Aeries, and there is some suggestion other prisoners on Proteus may be Aerian as well, given their raspy Irish sounding accents which mirror that of Robbers'. Cassiopeia is familiar with the Aerian merchant code as her father was a trader fluent in such things, and may perhaps have been an Aeries himself.

The non-canonical Encyclopedia Galactica describes Aeries as a small, crowded world. Due to the population surpassing the ability of the planet herself, the Aerians created orbital space stations that were capable of handling the food needs for the colony. From this, they were able to develop special crops adapted to growth in weightless space. A subsquent technology was in the form of the Agro Ships, which were used to provide food for deep-space missions, prior to the invention of the lightspeed drives.

Caprica

Caprica was said to be the world that led the technological renaissance among the Twelve Colonies of Man, rediscovering space flight along the way.[5]

Gemoni

Many of the passengers about the freighter Gemini are from Gemoni[6]. The language of Gemoni is Gemonese (which Boomer can translate and Cassiopeia is able to speak fluently). Gemoni is home to the Otori Sect.

Sagitara

Sagitara was located at coordinates 1-2-6 and was, along with Virgon and Caprica, one of the Inner Colonies, first to be attacked. In the novelization, Adama stated that Sagitara had the most advanced defense system in the Colonies. President Adar hailed from Sagitara.

Taura

Starbuck and Boomer run across a blonde Taurus woman.[7] (Saga of a Star World).

Virgon

Virgon was located at coordinates 0-3-5 and was, along with Sagitara and Caprica, one of the three Inner Colonies. These were the first to be attacked and destroyed by the Cylon forces. .