The Twelve Colonies of Man included the colonies of:
Aeries
Caprica
Gemoni
Picon
Sagitaria
Scorpion
Taura
Virgon
The Twelve Colonies of Man are located in an unnamed multi-star system within the Cyranus Galaxy. The tactical navigation display in Core Command of Galactica (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.
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.
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.
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 Sectar, Eastern Alliance, Terra, Paradeen and Lunar Colonies.
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.
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 was said to be the world that led the technological renaissance among the Twelve Colonies of Man, rediscovering space flight along the way.
Many of the passengers about the freighter Gemini are from Gemoni. 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 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.
Starbuck and Boomer run across a blonde Taurus woman.
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.
Proteus is a prison planetoid established by the Colonies some 700 yahren prior to the Battle of Cimtar, where criminals (and their descendents) serve their time making munitions and ambrosa. When the munitions ran out, the prisoners continue to create ambrosa, believing that they were helping the Colonies in the war effort against the Cylons.
Prisoners are named for their crime (Embezzler, Forger, Adulteress, Assault) as well as a number for identification purposes. Descendents of the criminals inherit the name/crime of their parents but increment the number, which itself is placed on a colored armband.
The prisoners who originally were sentenced to the prison were known as the Original Sinner. The prison is overseen by the enforcers, who are descendents of the staff who were originally in charge of overseeing the Original Sinners.
Sectar is a planet in the Zeta Quadrant. Home to the native Borays as well as a small agro colony of humans called Serenity. Adama leads a mission to this planet hoping to trade an unmarked energizer in exchange for some agron seed, after two of the three agro ships in the fleet are destroyed by Cylon raiders.
Equellus is a low-tech planet in the Hatari Sector, similar in motif to the American West circa 1800s. Apollo crash lands on this planet after luring a Cylon task force away from the Fleet with false distress signals.
Prior to Apollo's landing on this planet, there was another battle with the Cylons some ten or more years prior, resulting in another Colonial Warrior named Martin crash-landing on Equellus. A Cylon Raider also crashed roughly nine yahrens prior, Equellus residents Lacerta, Marco, and Macy rescue a lone Cylon Centurion, Red-Eye, who terrorizes the residents on behalf of Lacerta, until Red-Eye is destroyed by Apollo.
The planet Terra is home to the Terran Nationalists and the Eastern Alliance. The Eastern Alliance would have eliminated the Nationalists in a nuclear attack if not for the intervention of Apollo and Galactica. Despite hopes that Galactica had finally reached its destination, it is revealed that Terra is not Earth.
Colonists from Terra founded the Lunar Colonies. Galactica first encounters "Earthlings" when they discover a ship from the Lunar Colonies. The people aboard were attempting to flee the influence of the Eastern Alliance by travelling to Paradeen
Paradeen is the destination of Michael, his traveling companion Sarah, and their four children, who are traveling in a primitive spaceship in a state of suspended animation. Galactica intercepts their ship, and word of their discovery spreads throughout the fleet with rumors that they are from Earth.
To avoid a riot, Apollo, Starbuck, and Cassiopeia escort the ship to its original destination of Paradeen. Michael later awakens to tell the group that they do not come from Earth, but from a planet named Terra, which is besieged in a civil war. Paradeen's population was destroyed by the Eastern Alliance. The Colonials are greeted by two androids that survived, named Hector and Vector
The Lunar colonies are settlements that were established by the Terrans. Among the known Lunar colonies are Lunar Seven (Greetings from Earth) and Lunar One (Experiment in Terra).
Lunar Seven is a Terran colony.
The atmospheric pressure on Lunar Seven is approximately one-fifth the standard pressure of the Twelve Colonies. The colonists selected for Lunar Seven were genetically altered to adapt them to the lower pressure.
Michael and Sarah Fowler and their children escape from here in the Lunar Avion after it is taken over by the Eastern Alliance
Lunar One is one of the Lunar colonies and is the site of a Terran Nationalist outpost that is destroyed by Eastern Alliance forces. Charlie Watts serves here during the fall, and is captured.
Carillon is the dimly lit home planet of the Ovions.
The resort on the surface of the planet is used by the inhabitants as a lure to kidnap people for the purpose of consuming them.
Carillon has rich tylium deposits, which the Ovions had hoped to trade to the Cylons in exchange for independence. An earlier expedition overseen by Baltar noted that Carillon had nothing of note, although these reports were later proven false by Commander Adama.
The tylium ends up leading to the destruction of the planet, when Starbuck and Apollo set fire to the tylium mines. The explosion of the planet destroys a Cylon basestar along with the Imperious Leader that is aboard.
The tylium-rich Carillon was first discovered by Colonials 178 yahren before the Battle of Cimtar, later settled by a human mining colony 58 yahren later. Since the soil is incapable of supporting crops, the settlers are dependent on supplies from outside sources. Despite this, the colony grew to 50,000 people 15 years after settlement.
Due to the intensification of the Thousand-Yahren War, supply lines became impossible to obtain and the colony was later abandoned, making way for the non-native Ovions to settle, mining the tylium for the Cylons.
Lianus vector is an area of space that contains Cimtar, an "old moon" which is the staging area for the Cylon ambush against the Colonial peace envoy.
Blue Flight, a Viper patrol from battlestar Galactica consisting of Captain Apollo and Lieutenant Zac, enter this region of space and happen across the thousands of Raiders and the two empty Cylon fuel tankers orbiting Cimtar on a routine patrol.
Cimtar is a small moon where Count Baltar arranges for a peace conference between the Cylon Empire and the Twelve Colonies, whose remaining battlestars gather in anticipation of the end of the Thousand-Yahren War. The signing never takes place. Baltar's guidance of President Adar is revealed as part of an elaborate plan by the Cylons to ambush the battlestars and their homeworlds.
Gamoray is a planet originally the center of power for the Delphian Empire, lying within a region of space the Cylons refer to as the Krillian Star System. According to the Colonials, Gamoray at one time time was inhabited by some 70 million beings.
Conquered by the Cylons sometime before the destruction of the Twelve Colonies, Gamoray became a Cylon regional capital city (complete with civilians), a base, and fuel dump located on the planet to project its imperial power throughout the star system (The Living Legend, Part I).
Gamoray is also the location of a space battle between Cylon forces and the Colonial battlestars Galactica and Pegasus. The attack by the Colonial forces is planned and executed by Pegasus Commander Cain after he joins the rag-tag fleet, having survived the Battle of Molecay, where Cain's battlestar had been presumed destroyed.
During the Battle of Gamoray, two basestars are destroyed -- but Pegasus herself is presumed loss.
Starbuck refers to the Twelve Colonies of Man as being in the "Cyrannus Galaxy".
Opinion is divided whether the Colonies lie in the same galaxy as Earth, which—given numerous references that the Earth sought after by the Colonials is our Earth—would have to be identical to our "Milky Way galaxy".
Opponents of such an identity can point to Commander Adama's clear statement , that Earth is located "In a galaxy similar to our own".
Proponents of the identity of the two galaxies argue that it is less improbable that the Fleet could traverse a large span of several thousand light-years within the Milky Way galaxy (which is approximately 100,000 light-years in diameter) than to make a journey from one galaxy to another (which implies a journey of two million light-years or more).
Note, however, that both explanations automatically assume that the "galaxy" term means the same thing to the Colonials as it does to us, i.e. a massive system of millions or billions of individual star systems orbiting a common center of mass. This is not necessarily the case (see e.g. micron and parsec). Statements such as "[Earth's] proximity to the sun provides the only climate in the galaxy comfortably able to support life as we know it" suggests a colonial "galaxy" may in fact be the same thing as a star/solar system. Thus the Cyrannus "galaxy" may in fact consist only of a handful of stars and planets orbiting each other, broadly similar to our own solar system.
In the spin-off series Galactica 1980, the Fleet reaches 30 years after the Battle of Cimtar. The Original Series does not define the nature of propulsion nor does it provide sufficient information to determine if intergalactic travel is in use.
The Krillian Star System is a portion of space originally held by the Delphian Empire prior to the Battle of Cimtar that devastated the Twelve Colonies.
This star system contains one known planet, Gamoray, which was slated to become an "outer capitol" for the Cylon Empire. This is also the star system that Pegasus stayed within, attacking the Cylon occupied planet to obtain fuel and needed supplies.
The Nova of Madagon is a spacial location lying somewhere between the Twelve Colonies and the planet Carillon. It is not actually a nova at all, but is a starfield of intense, blinding brightness; this "nova" also causes electronic equipment problems for smaller craft. The Straits of Madagon, a passage within this area of space, were mined by the Cylons, though these are cleared by a group of three Vipers lead by Captain Apollo.
The Straits of Madagon are a passage through the Nova of Madagon, and is one of the first destinations of Galactica and her new civilian Fleet after the Battle of Cimtar. The Cylons had mined the straits, but Apollo, Starbuck, and Boomer clear the mines in their Vipers, allowing the Fleet to pass through to Carillon.
When considering the Fleet's next stop, after their exodus from the Twelve Colonies, Sire Uri proposes that Borallus should be their place of resupply. According to Uri, whose argument is that Carillon is too far away, "everything we need is there".
Unfortunately, being a logical place to resupply, Adama states that a Cylon task force would undoubtedly be waiting for them there.
Borallus was one of the first worlds settled by the Colonials after their rediscovery of space travel. Borallus became a major agricultural source for the Colonies, exporting to the ever-growing Colonies and their population. From its agricultural roots, Borallus became a major space-port; thus becoming a prize for the Cylons, who took the planet to be the "home of the Cylon Supreme Star Force
The magnetic void is a space phenomenon which obscures stars and causes sensor malfunctions on ships. A ship can find itself easily lost within such a void due to these navigational hazards. A magnetic void was described in the Book of the Word during the exodus from Kobol. Adama finds the story useful in finding the planet, where he hopes to learn more about the path of the Thirteenth Tribe .
Kobol is the ancestral homeworld for humanity in the original Battlestar Galactica saga. An unexplained event or environmental catastrophe causes humanity to leave Kobol and settle on the planets that form their new homeworlds known as the Twelve Colonies.
The tombs of the Lords of Kobol as seen in the Original Series.
Kobol is located in a quadrant of space known to the Colonials as Epsilon Quadrant approximately one to three parsecs from its star.
Kobol was the mother world where mankind originated. An ecological or environmental disaster led to humanity's migration. During the migration, twelve tribes set out for the stars, but became lost in a starless void before stumbling into the worlds that would become the new Twelve Colonies of Man, while the Thirteenth Tribe headed for a world called "Earth."
Kobol is rediscovered by chance by Galactica. A team from the battlestar arrives among the ruins of Eden, the planet's largest city, seeking to enter the tomb of the Ninth Lord of Kobol in order to find clues as to the route taken by the Thirteenth Tribe. A Cylon attack ultimately prevents them from doing so.
Eden is an ancient, uninhabited city on the planet Kobol.
According to the Book of the Word, Eden was the largest city on the planet. Due to an ecological disaster that had caused the exodus from Kobol, Eden had become a desert, populated by ruins.
The structures of Eden are populated by pyramid structures (an architectural trait that is also apparent on Caprica). The Tomb of the Ninth Lord of Kobol is located within what remained of the city.
Commander Adama and two others explore Eden in hopes of finding information on the lost colony known as Earth. Eden is further damaged by a Cylon attack from Baltar's forces in the form of a Cylon Raider phalanx, as ordered by his cogitator Lucifer. This attack prevents Adama from gaining much information on Earth's whereabouts.
The tomb of the Ninth Lord of Kobol is located inside a large pyramid in the city of Eden on the planet Kobol. Its entrance is marked with an inscription that tells that the Ninth Lord of Kobol lies there in peace and promises death to those who enter it.
The Ninth Lord of Kobol was the last of the Lords of Kobol to have survived. Apparently, he survived long enough for a tomb to be built in his honor by the humans, who were apparently leaving due to an ecological disaster on Kobol. While much was never revealed about the Ninth Lord, the Colonials felt that his tomb held the location of Earth.
Despite the dire warnings, Adama enters the tomb, using his Quorum of Twelve medallion as a key. Serina and Apollo accompany him. A trap springs shortly after they enter, and the bones of tomb raiders in the trap reveal its deadly nature.
Adama again uses his medallion, this time to free them from the trap and continue. The next chamber appears to be the crypt, but they are interrupted by the entrance of Baltar through a different door. Apparently his amulet works as well. Baltar is taken back to the camp, and Adama remains trying to decipher the writings.
When Starbuck returns and tells the camp of the basestar that is just beyond sensor range, Apollo and Serina bring Baltar back to the tomb. It is then when the star of Kobol begins to shine again, reflecting off of Adama's amulet and causing the crypt to retract revealing a stairwell.
Baltar pries the lid off of the sarcophagus.
Baltar charges in first, followed by the others. Baltar manages to pry off the lid of the sarcophagus before Apollo can stop him, and grabs a scepter, activating a trap. A large stone block traps them in the tomb. Adama discovers that the inscriptions he was searching for, regarding the last days of Kobol and the exodus of the thirteenth tribe to Earth are on the walls of this room.
Shots from a Cylon Raider end up blowing a hole in the tomb, freeing them from the room but also destroying the writings and trapping Baltar under a large stone
The Epsilon Quadrant is the location of the magnetic void , as well as Kobol. The Battle at Galaxy's Edge takes place in an unnamed star system, located in the direction of Star Quadrant Epsilon seven mark four. It is in proximity of Otarsis Quadrant, where Galactica's probe lead by Lieutenant Boomer discovers a Cylon listening post. Epsilon Quadrant is also the location of Arcta .
Deathpoint Plateau is a hazardous location on Arcta due to constant di-ethene storms that reach death point. The expedition from Galactica is stuck on this plateau after the snowram's power cells are damaged, but are rescued due to Muffit and a group of Thetas.
Arcta is an ice planet that appears to have been uninhabited prior to the arrival of Dr. Ravashol. A brilliant scientist, Dr. Ravashol bred clones to assist him in his work, known as Theta class lifeforms. The Thetans have created large underground excavations for their small city, since the surface is unlivable, due to di-ethene storms on places like Deathpoint Plateau.
The Cylons later established a garrison on Arcta using Dr. Ravashol's technology to construct the Ravashol pulsar. The pulsar was later destroyed by a team from Galactica.
Otarsis Quadrant is an area of space in the Cyranus galaxy (The Long Patrol) consisting of at least three celestial bodies. Two appear to be planetoids, while one appears to be a satellite orbiting a green planet, which appear to orbit a star.
A Cylon listening post is located on the green planet, which Lieutenant Boomer refers to as an "asteroid".
Colonel Tigh considers the path through Otarsis to be a better route than the magnetic void detected by Patrol One, consisting of Starbuck and Apollo, in the neighboring Epsilon Quadrant.