List of Battlestar Galactica (reimagining) locations
Encyclopedia
The reimagined science fiction
television series Battlestar Galactica
presents various locations, spaceborne and planetary.
planet Hestia
at Hestia's lagrange points
. The climate on Aerilon is mild with reliable seasons. Rains are plentiful enough that fresh water is readily available from wells and catch basins, despite the lack of rivers and lakes. The land masses of Aerilon are in terperate zones. There are few inland waterways, such as the Euclid River, and the shorelines are almost exclusively rocky bluffs, or, near the equator, mangrove
swamps. The seas are hostile and it has no useful harbors. The land masses are open and rolling with very little variation. The capitol is Gaoth (Irish for "wind"), founded on a prairie on intersecting cattle trails, and is the home of the University of Aerilon. Promethea
is a mining town at the edge of the badlands. It is the homeworld of Dr. Gaius Baltar, the most famous scientist in the Twelve Colonies at the time of the Cylon attack; however, Baltar had long since left Aerilon and moved to Caprica, the capital world of the Twelve Colonies. Aerilon is depicted as being one of the poorer, more backward colonies.
and the Twelve Colonies
. The planet appears first in the episode "The Passage
". It has an abundance of primitive plant life in the form of waterborne algae which the refugee fleet stop to harvest for food. There is also an immense desert region where the fleet sets up a temporary base camp.
The Temple of Five is discovered located beneath its surface by Chief Galen Tyrol
, who finds himself mysteriously drawn to the location, not knowing that he was a Kobol-era biological Cylon. It is later believed to have been a temporary colony of the Thirteenth Tribe of Kobol on their voyage to Earth, some 4,000 years ago. The Eye of Jupiter artifact is located within the Temple of Five which offers another clue to finding Earth. The planet, temple and artifact are featured in the sacred texts.
The fleet's stay at the planet is cut short when the world is destroyed after the blue giant star the planet is orbiting goes nova
. After the nova explosion, the young nebula it creates looks similar to the more distant Ionian Nebula, located 13,000 light years away. Acting on a hunch that the Eye of Jupiter is a "road sign", Admiral William Adama
sets course for the Ionian Nebula hoping it will lead to Earth.
. At the center of the island is the town of Heim facing a harbor, with a population of 25,000. A few individuals live outside Heim
, maintaining solar panels and windmills for power and hydroponic facilities for food. Since there is virtually no wood, most structures are made from tin or stone. The unnamed representative from Aquarion voted for Tom Zarek
for vice president during the first election after the holocaust.
of the Battlestar Valkyrie, under orders from Admiral Corman, sent a fighter pilot nickamed "Bulldog" over the armistice line in a Stealthstar, one year before the Destruction of the Colonies. Bulldog's mission was to spy on the Cylons, but his fighter was detected and Adama chose to destroy Bulldog's fighter and kill his own pilot rather than have the Cylons discover the nature of Bulldog's mission. Adama later came to see this incident as the starting point of the Second Cylon War, and suffers guilty feelings because of it.
so that humans and Cylons could meet once a year in a neutral location to continue their peace accords.
Over a period of 40 years the colonies annually sent a representative, while the Cylons never once showed up for the meeting. Their only time to make an appearance was to destroy the station, a prelude to invasion. The station was fired upon by a Basestar, which dwarfed the space station in size. It was the first attack of the Cylon invasion, which lead to the destruction of the Twelve Colonies.
planet Hestia
at Hestia's lagrange points
. Canceron has two great landmasses both have beaches, large cities, fertile plains and in the far north very tall mountain ranges. The climate has warm southern beaches, hot and steamy in the inland south, highly temperate and farming friendly in the north, with the frigid Ruby Ridge mountains with the Kor Yaz (Turkish for "summer corps") high altitude glacier. Canceron is also known for its vast mineral deposits of coal, iron and silver. The capital is Hades in the Great Valley and was the site of growing immigration. Hades has a security zone for powerful people called "New Hades". The third city is Mangala
, a former trading port, known for fine art and museums. Mangala is the site of poor settlers who live in makeshift shanties that extend to the very edge of seaside cliffs. The resort town of Psammos
is known throughout the colonies for its five-star hotels, casinos and pristine beaches.
". After the loss of two ships, the Carina and Adriatic, the survivors of those vessels made Camp Oil Slick their permanent home which had been renamed "Dogsville".
Caprica City was both a planetary and later a federal capital
of the Twelve Colonies after the "Articles of Colonization" were signed soon after the First Cylon War started. The city replaced the previous Colonial Capital, Boskirk on Virgon. As depicted in both the original and re-imagined television series it was a very large city, with a population over seven million. It was also extremely beautiful, with many graceful skyscrapers, and is located on the shores of a large ocean or sea. As a result, Caprica became the cultural, scientific, and technological capital of the Colonies, and was regarded as the first planet of the colonies. The city has two business districts: a highly futuristic one with glittering metal skyscrapers where transportation is by hovercar, called the City Center; and a less futuristic district called the Government Center Plaza, with transportation in cars just like those on Earth. It has a large open space called Orpheus Park
and the Caprica Buccaneers play at Atlas Arena
. The city was completely destroyed by the Cylons in the Destruction of the Twelve Colonies and then rebuilt by the Cylons. In Battlestar Galactica: The Plan
, the effects of the Cylon nuclear attack on Caprica City are briefly seen. Many of the scenes for the television series were filmed in Vancouver
, British Columbia
, Canada
.
at a distance of .16 light year from binary barycenter to binary barycenter. Kobol is located 2000 light years away. The second pair is "Helios Delta" and "Helios Gamma", orbiting the barycenter at 70 astronomical units. The gas giant Ragnar (moon: Sigurd
) orbits the binary systems Helios Delta and Helios Gamma about the barycenter at 110 astronomical units.
In the Battlestar Galactica video game
, published in 2003, just prior to the release of the reimagined series, the colonies were in one star system called "Cyrannus". The name "Cyrannus" was used in the original series episode "The Long Patrol"
, but was used by the character Starbuck
as the name of the galaxy, not a single star system, although as with most SF shows of that era, much of the terminology used is obscure and self-contradictory. It appears as if the authors were themselves frequently unclear as to what the difference between a solar system and a galaxy was, though "star system" could refer to a cluster of stars that were in relatively close proximity to each other. The name "Cyrannus" has not been used in the reimagined series.
In the 1978 series, the Colonies were very obviously set in a binary star system, and distinguished between "Inner" and "Outer" colonies. "Inner" colonies orbited the primary star in the system, and "Outer" colonies orbited the other one, though both appeared to be G2 class stars
from what little information was visible onscreen. The inner colonies - including Virgon, Sagitaria and Caprica - were attacked first. By the time the Galactica arrived, the Cylons were already launching their first wave against the outer colonies.
In the novelization of the pilot for the 1978 series, the Twelve Colonies are referred to as "The Twelve Colonies of the Three Suns".
" as they traversed a dangerous star cluster. Most of Dogsville's residents are refugees from the Colonies
of Picon and Sagittaron.
In the episode "The Woman King
", a doctor named Michael Robert was discovered murdering the Sagittarons in Dogsville for whom he had a deep hatred.
In the episode "Maelstrom
", Starbuck
visited Yolanda Breen, an oracle living in Dogsville.
, is the legendary planet where the "lost" Thirteenth Tribe of Kobol supposedly settled. When Earth is finally reached at the end of the episode "Revelations
", the surface is shown briefly as a radioactive wasteland filled with ruins of a destroyed civilization.
In "Sometimes a Great Notion
", it is revealed that the Thirteenth Tribe consisted of humanoid and mechanical cylons of a type previously unknown. It is also revealed that the final five cylons had lived there 2000 years in the past, when an apparent nuclear war devastated the planet.
", it is revealed that the Thirteenth Tribe's "Earth" is a different planet from the Earth that orbits Sol
. Head-Baltar
refers to the Thirteenth Tribe's Earth as the real Earth. In the series finale, Starbuck eventually leads the fleet to a planet that appears as the true Earth and they first land on the continent of Africa
.
Advancing ahead in time 150,000 years to New York City
, a pedestrian (played by Ronald D. Moore
) is shown reading a magazine which the cover shows Hera as the Mitochondrial Eve
and humanity are her descendants (who are a mixture of native Earth human, Colonial human, and humanoid Cylon due to the Colonial humans and humanoid Cylons interbreeding with the native Earth human population). Head-Six
and Head-Baltar
discuss the fate of humanity being destroyed by their technology as all having happened before—like it did on Kobol
, The Thirteenth Tribe's Earth, and The Twelve Colonies—but Head-Six refutes this grim prophecy for new Earth
.
" as a place where Gaius Baltar
used to sit alone as a boy to watch fish swim upstream.
. It leads the way to the Tomb of Athena. Within the show, it is said that Athena jumped to her death in despair over the exodus of the tribes here. It is also said that the leaders of the Twelve Tribes of Kobol passed the pass on their way off-planet.
where President Roslin begins her search for the Tomb of Athena in "Home, part I
". Named after the departure spot of a great galleon ship which was prophesied in the scriptures as taking the founders of the 13 colonies to their destiny.
for desert), which lies in the shadow of the vast Gramada Mountains (in Romanian
"gramada" means large pile) on the western coast. Between the Gramadas and the desert is the barren 10000 feet (3 km) high plateau called the Spatiu Gol ("spatiu" is Romanian
for "space" and "gol" is Romanian
for empty: Empty Space), which slopes down into farmland. The east coast is the site of the capital Oranu, which has both temples and high-rise buildings, offset by holy statuary. Illumini, the religious center, features more sacred artwork, and was built around an enormous pantheon complex, in which every deity in the Sacred Scrolls is represented. It is a twin planet of Caprica and shares its star system with Picon. Gemenon was one of the poorer colonies. The Gemenese were religious fundamentalist known for their literal interpretations of the Sacred Scrolls. Most of the population of Gemenon were apparently very strongly opposed to the federal laws legalizing abortion, as it was seen as "an abomination in the eyes of the gods". Before the First Cylon War, Gemenon was also home to the Kobol Colleges and a monotheistic cult called "The Soldiers of the One". Events in the prequel series Caprica
reveal how The Soldiers of the One influence the creation of a monotheistic Cylon God.
Helios
Spectral Class G2V, Mass 1.0. Planets: Icarus, Picon, Caprica & Gemenon (binary planets orbiting a barycenter), Tauron (moon: Minos), the Erebos asteroid belt, the gas giant Zeus (74 moons, including Hebe and Nike), and Persephone.
is the third largest planet of all the Twelve Colonies
and is a gas giant in the Helios Beta star system. It measures 75,000 km at its equator and has 29 moons, the largest being Isis
and Euboea
.
has a planetary diameter of 42000 kilometres (26,097.7 mi) and it is the smallest gas giant in all of the colonies. It has 17 moons, the largest of which are Athea
and Kronos
which share an orbit.
recorded by the people of Kobol
4000 years ago. The nebula closely resembles the Eye of Jupiter supernova event in the episode "Rapture
" that resulted when the star the Algae Planet orbited exploded. Felix Gaeta
noted similarities in the remnant patterns and believes the Eye of Jupiter is a marker that points toward the Ionian Nebula; another clue to finding Earth.
A massive battle takes place inside the Nebula between the Battlestar Galactica and 4 Cylon Basestars. 1,700 civilians are killed when the civilian
ship Pyxis is destroyed, with Space Park and Astral Queen heavily damaged (episode "He That Believeth in Me
").
The Ionian Nebula is 13,000 light years from the Algae Planet.
NGC 2440
resembles the Ionian Nebula and is 4000 light-years from Earth.
hangar bay and run by a civilian bartender named Joe. Joe's Bar made its first appearance in the episode "Taking a Break from All Your Worries
".
", by Raptor
ECO Lt. Crashdown
. His pilot, Boomer discovers water here, however she had to fight her Cylon programming before she could divulge the find. Crashdown gets the name from a former girlfriend who was killed during the Second Cylon War attack, however Boomer disregards the name in her official report to Galactica.
, and were said to live with the Gods. At some point, however, the people of Kobol became corrupt, decadent, and brutal, even practicing human sacrifice rituals. As a result, the Gods of Kobol cast out the thirteen human tribes living with them. Twelve of the tribes settled on the Twelve Colonies, the thirteenth tribe went in another direction and settled on Earth.
.
(French for "light"), located inland on one of the major rivers, and is the site of massive castles and churches. The second city is Hedon
, home to the most exclusive beach resort on Leonis, and is the site of the Grand Casino and the Hedon Film Festival.
and Pandrosus
. Libran is a tropical planet that is either raining or cloudy, similar to Scorpia. The clouds do shield its inhabitants from the sun Helios Gamma, which Libran orbits a little too close to, and when the skies are clear, Librans go inside to minimize their risk of contracting skin cancer. Libran is described as a teeming green ball of life due to its landmasses consisting of hundreds of small marshy islands, with larger islands having impenetrable bogs and impassible jungles. The main landmass is a dense and spectacular rainforest ringed by mangroves and swamps at its edges. In the center of the continent is the capital Themis
, home of the Supreme Hall of Justice. It was home to the Inter-colonial court and was known for its courthouses and lawyers.
, astro-number M8, is seen in the skymap for the home of the thirteenth tribe, as depicted in the Tomb of Athena.
.
.
's claimed birthplace.
(See above). Although physically seen only once, in the expedition to the Tomb of Athena, it has since featured prominently in the dreams and visions of several characters. These visions of the opera house are closely tied to the fate of Hera Agathon, a child of great religious significance to the Cylons. In the series finale, the events taking place in the Opera House repeat themselves in the CIC of the Galactica.
is a gas giant planet with a 51,000 km planetary diameter, with three planetary rings and 14 moons. It is believed to be a former rogue planet that dislodged former Helios Gamma resident Ragnar from its orbit. It is located in the Helios Gamma star system, along with Sagittaron, Scorpia and Libran.
was once a habitable planet in the Helios Beta star system that is the site of a Colonial military research station. Efforts to kobolform the dry planet, which lost its atmosphere into space, have been unsuccessful.
is believed to be an escaped moon of the gas giant Zeus, and had a thin atmosphere of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide, and is the smallest planet in the four star systems.
Flats on New Caprica is the site chosen by the Cylons for the mass execution of 200 suspected insurgents.
personal assistant to President of the Colonies Laura Roslin
was from Picon.
is the second largest planet in all of the Twelve Colonies
's star systems and is a gas giant that orbits both the Helios Gamma and Helios Delta star systems, having been dislodged from its former orbit in the Helios Gamma system by the planet Ophion. During the "Miniseries
", then-Commander Adama
takes the Galactica there for supplies and weapons from the Ragnar Anchorage, which was in low orbit around the planet. Ragnar's natural radiation was discovered to be damaging to the Cylons, who avoided the planet and allowed the refugee fleet to hide here temporarily before fleeing the system. Ragnar's atmosphere is mined for its plentiful hydrocarbons that are used at the weapons depot that orbits it.
technology and cloaked ships residing within the storm. When the Cylons launch their attack on the Twelve Colonies
, the Battlestar Galactica
was without any munitions for her main and point-defence
batteries, having dumped them as part of her decommissioning ceremonies prior to the battle. Colonel Saul Tigh
determined that Ragnar Anchorage offers the best opportunity for re-arming the ship, based on its listing in an old directory of military supply depots.
While at Ragnar Anchorage, Galactica obtained enough munitions to completely re-arm her guns, and she also collected a number of Class-D warheads (the capabilities of which are not described but presumably are very powerful weapons, possibly nuclear). Her crew also encountered the Leoben Conoy
Cylon model, posing as an arms trader, who eventually gave the Colonials their first discovery of humanoid Cylon infiltrators. Galactica is joined by a civilian convoy of survivors gathered by President Laura Roslin
. When they arrive, then-Commander William Adama
was persuaded to alter his original plan to send Galactica into a suicidal fight against the Cylons into one of exodus from the Colonies to save the last of humanity.
Galactica protected the civilian fleet as they made an FTL jumps from Ragnar towards the Promar Sector, well beyond the "Red Line" of charted space, never to return to the solar system of the Colonies in an effort to escape the Cylons. Soon after the battle, the Cylons dock at the station to retrieve the Cylon agent Aaron Doral, who was exiled at the station on the orders of Commander Saul Tigh
.
, which runs through the capital Tawa
, which is 1,000 miles inland near the confluence of two tributaries which flow into the Acheron. A few miles offshore from the Acheron river delta is an active volcano. It is the homeworld of Petty Officer Anastasia Dualla
, Sister Clarice Willow and Tom Zarek
, who was elected Vice President of the remaining colonial survivors after the Second Cylon War on the planet "New Caprica". Zarek, who had been imprisoned for twenty years after he blew up a government building, would be able to regain citizenship once the sentence was completed under Sagittaron law. In the reimagined series Sagittaron is depicted as being one of the poorer, more backward colonies. The citizens are religious traditionalists, therefore they do not believe in medicine, distrust doctors and instead use prayer and herbal remedies. Due to hostility from the other colonies, Sagittarons have chosen not to serve in the Colonial Military with some exceptions. On Sagittaron, it is illegal to sing, play, participate in public displays of affection and do a multitude of other things. In fact, the mere mention of these activities is considered an offense, so visitors from other colonies with more liberal cultures are advised to consult local law for specific information on colony etiquette. Sagittarons are also known to wear soma
braids which they believe bring them good health.
, which is a mile high in a bowl shaped valley in the Guardian Mountains, and is cooler than other Scorpian cities, such as Argentum. Celeste is also the location of the Colonial Stock Market
. Scorpia has a half ring that surrounds the planet, resembling a coiled scorpions tail. As mentioned in Battlestar Galactica: The Plan
one of the characters stated that Scorpia has jungles near the equator, that gradually rise into rugged mountains that progress both north and south of the equator, with unexplored polar regions. Scorpia has a rather low class reputation as being a planet with loose morals, with prostitution widely practiced and has a low priced tourism destination called Argentum Bay, catering to 18 to 22 year olds seeking to celebrate Vernal Break.
.
of Kobol
. It is known throughout the Four Systems as "The Old Colony". The climate of Tauron is dry and mostly arid. Tauron is in the Helios Alpha star system, and shares its star system with Picon, Caprica, and Gemenon. The surface of Tauron is rocky, with reddish land and is often subject to the baking heat of the sun, violent storms, or clouds from wildfires. No forests or mountains, just blue water, red soil and massive grasslands. The oldest city on Tauron is Minos
near the Great Tauron Plain. The capital is Hypathia, a costal city and the largest on Tauron. Olympia is a wealthy suburb of Hypathia, located in a lush fern forest above the sea. The high tech economy on Tauron is largely fueled by mining the Erebos asteroid belt, where mining operations have been conducted for hundreds of years. Tauron is the ancestral home of the Adama family
. It was also the home of Helena Cain
. Approximately thirty years before the First Cylon War, a civil war occurs on Tauron between the resistance fighters, called the Ha'la'tha and the governing body called the Heraclitus
, and Taurons had gained their independence from Virgon and Leonian domination 850 years earlier still. Tauron society is portrayed as more interested in justice than mercy, and the use of tattoos publicly displays the identity and adversity the individual has experienced. Duty to ethnic identity is seen as an admirable trait and that all Taurons have a duty to other Taurons. The Taurons are heard occasionally speaking a separate language resembling Ancient Greek
.
In pre-war Caprican society, Taurons are victims of racism on nearly every level, and are often referred to by the pejorative “dirt-eater”.
The Temple of Five was originally called the Temple of Hopes, as stated by Ellen Tigh in the episode "No Exit". According to Ellen, it was a place of worship and rest, built by the thirteenth tribe, on its way to earth. The 5 original cylon models found it on their way back from earth to the twelve colonies. The appearance of the final five cylons in visions by the number 3 D'Anna Biers has been as yet unexplained. Even Ellen Tigh did not know why this occurred but believes it to be by the hand of God.
The temple was constructed 4000 years prior to the supernova by the five priests of "Him whose name must not be spoken", a "heretical" sect of the colonial religion.
is a planet in the Helios Gamma star system, along with Sagittaron, Scorpia and Libran. It is uninhabitable due to its sulphur dioxide atmosphere.
Athena is a deity among the Lords of Kobol whose tomb is located on the mythical planet Kobol
, which is the world where the ancient scriptures say mankind originated. According to legend within the series, Athena threw herself off a mountain due to sorrow about mankind's departure from Kobol aboard the galleon.
Once the refugee fleet discovers a planet containing ancient ruins, President Roslin
declares they have found Kobol. She leads an expedition to find the legendary tomb along with the Arrow of Apollo artifact, which according to scriptures, will "point" the way to Earth
, the "lost" 13th colony of mankind.
The tomb is eventually found in the side of a mountain where numerous artifacts are discovered. Inside, the group finds the statue of Sagittarius
and places the arrow in his bow. This sets off a chain of events that seals the tomb's door, and seemingly "transports" the expedition to a grassy hill surrounded by megaliths engraved with zodiac symbols representing each world of the Twelve Colonies. The group realizes the room is a starmap which gives the positions of celestial objects from the viewpoint of someone actually standing on Earth itself.
Upon recognizing the distant nebula
cloud, M8, Commander Adama
gets his bearings and believes by navigating toward the cloud, the fleet should eventually find Earth.
The original series analogue of the Tomb of Athena is the Tomb of the Ninth Lord of Kobol.
", before learning she is a biological Cylon, Sharon "Boomer" Valerii claims that she was from Troy, as opposed to being from Aerilon (indicating it was another planet), and that her family was lost in an unspecified disaster that happened there. Gaius Baltar
says in the same episode that Valerii has a slight trace of an Aerilon accent, and he was familiar with the "disaster" which destroyed the mining colony. Boomer repeats in denial that she is human and was born "on" Troy when she goes to the Cylon Basestar
in "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 2" and finds the Cylon copies of herself.
, home to a minority group called the Celtons. The capital is Boskirk, the former federal capital of the Colonies for a thousand years, until a few centuries ago when the Colonial Capitol became Caprica City in the Helios Alpha star system. It is also where a major battle occurred during the Destruction of the Twelve Colonies. The human forces above the planet lost the battle; and the colony was destroyed by the Cylons. Other cities on Virgon are Bloustad (Dutch for "blue city"), a beach town, an hour from Boskirk, and Hadrian
in the south is a mining community. The climate of Virgon is notable for its singular blueness. Not only are the seas blue, but its plant life contains oils that evaporate in sunlight and cast a bluish tinge in the air. Quantities of anthracene
, a substance that emits a blue glow when exposed to UV light, near the surface provide a bluish hue. Virgon's climate is temperate in the north, but variable and less pleasant in the south.
is the largest planet in all of the Four Systems, and is a gas giant measuring more than 153,000 km at its equator. It has 74 moons, including Nike
and Hebe
which both have atmospheres. Constant electrical storms in the upper atmosphere on the dark side creates a rippling aurora
effect that can be seen with the naked eye. It is in the Helios Alpha star system.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television series Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)
Battlestar Galactica is an American military science fiction television series, and part of the Battlestar Galactica franchise. The show was developed by Ronald D. Moore as a re-imagining of the 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series created by Glen A. Larson...
presents various locations, spaceborne and planetary.
Aerilon
Aerilon is one of three habitable planets in the Helios Delta star system, along with Aquarion and Canceron, and is one of the Twelve Colonies. It is known throughout the Four Systems as "Foodbasket of the Colonies" after large amounts of cultivation. The planet was settled by the Aries tribe of Kobol. Aerilon was primarily an agricultural world, despite poor soil quality. Aerilon and its twin Canceron are two planets that orbit the sun Helios Delta along with the gas giantGas giant
A gas giant is a large planet that is not primarily composed of rock or other solid matter. There are four gas giants in the Solar System: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune...
planet Hestia
Hestia
In Greek mythology Hestia , first daughter of Cronus and Rhea , is the virgin goddess of the hearth, architecture, and of the right ordering of domesticity and the family. She received the first offering at every sacrifice in the household. In the public domain, the hearth of the prytaneum...
at Hestia's lagrange points
Lagrangian point
The Lagrangian points are the five positions in an orbital configuration where a small object affected only by gravity can theoretically be stationary relative to two larger objects...
. The climate on Aerilon is mild with reliable seasons. Rains are plentiful enough that fresh water is readily available from wells and catch basins, despite the lack of rivers and lakes. The land masses of Aerilon are in terperate zones. There are few inland waterways, such as the Euclid River, and the shorelines are almost exclusively rocky bluffs, or, near the equator, mangrove
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
swamps. The seas are hostile and it has no useful harbors. The land masses are open and rolling with very little variation. The capitol is Gaoth (Irish for "wind"), founded on a prairie on intersecting cattle trails, and is the home of the University of Aerilon. Promethea
Promethea
Promethea is a comic book series created by Alan Moore, J. H. Williams III and Mick Gray, published by America's Best Comics/WildStorm....
is a mining town at the edge of the badlands. It is the homeworld of Dr. Gaius Baltar, the most famous scientist in the Twelve Colonies at the time of the Cylon attack; however, Baltar had long since left Aerilon and moved to Caprica, the capital world of the Twelve Colonies. Aerilon is depicted as being one of the poorer, more backward colonies.
Algae Planet
The so-called Algae Planet is a ringed, terrestrial planet located on the far side of a young nebulous star cluster from KobolKobol
Kobol is the name of a planet in the fictional Battlestar Galactica universe.Within the context of both Battlestar Galactica stories, Kobol is the birthplace and original home of humanity, from which the civilization departed and formed the Twelve Colonies on other worlds...
and the Twelve Colonies
Twelve Colonies
The Twelve Colonies of Man are fictional locations that constitute the principal human civilization in the original Battlestar Galactica television series, the "reimagined" series of the same name in 2004, and in the prequel series, Caprica...
. The planet appears first in the episode "The Passage
The Passage (Battlestar Galactica)
"The Passage" is the tenth episode of the third season from the science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica. It aired on December 8, 2006.- Plot :...
". It has an abundance of primitive plant life in the form of waterborne algae which the refugee fleet stop to harvest for food. There is also an immense desert region where the fleet sets up a temporary base camp.
The Temple of Five is discovered located beneath its surface by Chief Galen Tyrol
Galen Tyrol
Galen Tyrol is a character on the television series Battlestar Galactica. Tyrol is responsible for the maintenance of the Vipers and Raptors aboard Battlestar Galactica...
, who finds himself mysteriously drawn to the location, not knowing that he was a Kobol-era biological Cylon. It is later believed to have been a temporary colony of the Thirteenth Tribe of Kobol on their voyage to Earth, some 4,000 years ago. The Eye of Jupiter artifact is located within the Temple of Five which offers another clue to finding Earth. The planet, temple and artifact are featured in the sacred texts.
The fleet's stay at the planet is cut short when the world is destroyed after the blue giant star the planet is orbiting goes nova
Nova
A nova is a cataclysmic nuclear explosion in a star caused by the accretion of hydrogen on to the surface of a white dwarf star, which ignites and starts nuclear fusion in a runaway manner...
. After the nova explosion, the young nebula it creates looks similar to the more distant Ionian Nebula, located 13,000 light years away. Acting on a hunch that the Eye of Jupiter is a "road sign", Admiral William Adama
William Adama
William "Bill" Adama is a fictional character portrayed by Edward James Olmos in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series...
sets course for the Ionian Nebula hoping it will lead to Earth.
- Filming location: Kamloops, British ColumbiaBritish ColumbiaBritish Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
(outdoor sequences)
Aquarion
Aquarion is one of the Twelve Colonies, settled by the Aquarius tribe of Kobol, and is one of three habitable planets in the Helios Delta star system, along with Aerilon and Canceron. It is known throughout the Four Systems as "The Ice Colony". Aquarion features brackish, frigid seas and a small research colony on a tiny crescent shaped continent called Kryos (Greek for "cold"), which has volcanoes at each end of the island. Aquarion vegetation consists of moss and is a volcanic tephraTephra
200px|thumb|right|Tephra horizons in south-central [[Iceland]]. The thick and light coloured layer at center of the photo is [[rhyolitic]] tephra from [[Hekla]]....
. At the center of the island is the town of Heim facing a harbor, with a population of 25,000. A few individuals live outside Heim
Heim
Heim is the German equivalent of the English word home. It is a common German and Norwegian suffix in place names , and may refer to:* Heim, Norway, a village and former municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county...
, maintaining solar panels and windmills for power and hydroponic facilities for food. Since there is virtually no wood, most structures are made from tin or stone. The unnamed representative from Aquarion voted for Tom Zarek
Tom Zarek
Thomas "Tom" Zarek is the name of a fictional character on the Syfy series Battlestar Galactica. He is played by Richard Hatch, who had previously portrayed Captain Apollo, a character on the original Battlestar Galactica series of the late 1970s....
for vice president during the first election after the holocaust.
Armistice Line
The Armistice Line demarcates the border between Colonial Space of the Twelve Colonies and Cylon Space. It was agreed to at the end of the First Cylon War. Crossing the line by either side is considered an act of war. Commander William AdamaWilliam Adama
William "Bill" Adama is a fictional character portrayed by Edward James Olmos in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series...
of the Battlestar Valkyrie, under orders from Admiral Corman, sent a fighter pilot nickamed "Bulldog" over the armistice line in a Stealthstar, one year before the Destruction of the Colonies. Bulldog's mission was to spy on the Cylons, but his fighter was detected and Adama chose to destroy Bulldog's fighter and kill his own pilot rather than have the Cylons discover the nature of Bulldog's mission. Adama later came to see this incident as the starting point of the Second Cylon War, and suffers guilty feelings because of it.
Armistice Station
The Armistice Station was a diplomatic space station that appears in the opening of the miniseries. The station was constructed by humans after the Cylon WarCylon War
The Cylon War is a fictional interstellar war that occurred in the Battlestar Galactica universe. Both the original 1978 Battlestar Galactica movie and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica miniseries are set shortly after that conflict....
so that humans and Cylons could meet once a year in a neutral location to continue their peace accords.
Over a period of 40 years the colonies annually sent a representative, while the Cylons never once showed up for the meeting. Their only time to make an appearance was to destroy the station, a prelude to invasion. The station was fired upon by a Basestar, which dwarfed the space station in size. It was the first attack of the Cylon invasion, which lead to the destruction of the Twelve Colonies.
Breeders Canyon
Breeders Canyon on New Caprica is a river valley some distance from New Caprica City, chosen by the insurgents as the place to meet Galactica's Raptor team led by Sharon Agathon.Canceron
Canceron was a planet settled by the Cancer tribe of Kobol, and is one of the Twelve Colonies. It is known throughout the Four Systems as "The Largest Democracy", having maintained a constitutional democracy for over 1,000 years. Canceron and its twin Aerilon are two planets that orbit the sun Helios Delta along with the gas giantGas giant
A gas giant is a large planet that is not primarily composed of rock or other solid matter. There are four gas giants in the Solar System: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune...
planet Hestia
Hestia
In Greek mythology Hestia , first daughter of Cronus and Rhea , is the virgin goddess of the hearth, architecture, and of the right ordering of domesticity and the family. She received the first offering at every sacrifice in the household. In the public domain, the hearth of the prytaneum...
at Hestia's lagrange points
Lagrangian point
The Lagrangian points are the five positions in an orbital configuration where a small object affected only by gravity can theoretically be stationary relative to two larger objects...
. Canceron has two great landmasses both have beaches, large cities, fertile plains and in the far north very tall mountain ranges. The climate has warm southern beaches, hot and steamy in the inland south, highly temperate and farming friendly in the north, with the frigid Ruby Ridge mountains with the Kor Yaz (Turkish for "summer corps") high altitude glacier. Canceron is also known for its vast mineral deposits of coal, iron and silver. The capital is Hades in the Great Valley and was the site of growing immigration. Hades has a security zone for powerful people called "New Hades". The third city is Mangala
Mangala
In Jyotish astrology, Mangala is the name for Mars, the red planet. Mars is also called Angaraka In Jyotish astrology, Mangala (Devanagari: मंगल) is the name for Mars, the red planet. Mars is also called Angaraka In Jyotish astrology, Mangala (Devanagari: मंगल) is the name for Mars, the red...
, a former trading port, known for fine art and museums. Mangala is the site of poor settlers who live in makeshift shanties that extend to the very edge of seaside cliffs. The resort town of Psammos
Psammite
Psammite is a general term for sandstone. It is equivalent to the Latin-derived term arenite. Also, it is commonly used in various publications to describe a metamorphosed sedimentary rock with a dominantly sandstone protolith. In Europe, this term was formerly used for a fine-grained, fissile,...
is known throughout the colonies for its five-star hotels, casinos and pristine beaches.
Camp Oil Slick
Camp Oil Slick was the codename given to the temporary refugee camp made aboard the Galactica in the unused museum hangar during the episode "The PassageThe Passage (Battlestar Galactica)
"The Passage" is the tenth episode of the third season from the science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica. It aired on December 8, 2006.- Plot :...
". After the loss of two ships, the Carina and Adriatic, the survivors of those vessels made Camp Oil Slick their permanent home which had been renamed "Dogsville".
Caprica
Caprica is an Earth-like planet settled by the Capricorn tribe of Kobol. Caprica is in the Helios Alpha star system, and has a twin planet called Gemenon that is only 493000 kilometres (306,336.8 mi) away. The twin planets share a mutual orbit where each planet trades places with the other every 28.2 days. Caprica also shares its star system with Picon and Tauron. It is known throughout the Four Systems as the "Capital of the Colonies"Caprica City was both a planetary and later a federal capital
Federal government
The federal government is the common government of a federation. The structure of federal governments varies from institution to institution. Based on a broad definition of a basic federal political system, there are two or more levels of government that exist within an established territory and...
of the Twelve Colonies after the "Articles of Colonization" were signed soon after the First Cylon War started. The city replaced the previous Colonial Capital, Boskirk on Virgon. As depicted in both the original and re-imagined television series it was a very large city, with a population over seven million. It was also extremely beautiful, with many graceful skyscrapers, and is located on the shores of a large ocean or sea. As a result, Caprica became the cultural, scientific, and technological capital of the Colonies, and was regarded as the first planet of the colonies. The city has two business districts: a highly futuristic one with glittering metal skyscrapers where transportation is by hovercar, called the City Center; and a less futuristic district called the Government Center Plaza, with transportation in cars just like those on Earth. It has a large open space called Orpheus Park
Orpheus
Orpheus was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music; his attempt to retrieve his wife from the underworld; and his death at the hands of those who...
and the Caprica Buccaneers play at Atlas Arena
Atlas
An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a map of Earth or a region of Earth, but there are atlases of the other planets in the Solar System. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats...
. The city was completely destroyed by the Cylons in the Destruction of the Twelve Colonies and then rebuilt by the Cylons. In Battlestar Galactica: The Plan
Battlestar Galactica: The Plan
Battlestar Galactica: The Plan is a made for television movie set in the reimagined version of the fictional Battlestar Galactica universe. It consists of newly filmed material as well as a compilation of footage from the TV series and miniseries....
, the effects of the Cylon nuclear attack on Caprica City are briefly seen. Many of the scenes for the television series were filmed in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
- Filming location: Mostly at Simon Fraser UniversitySimon Fraser UniversitySimon Fraser University is a Canadian public research university in British Columbia with its main campus on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, and satellite campuses in Vancouver and Surrey. The main campus in Burnaby, located from downtown Vancouver, was established in 1965 and has more than 34,000...
in Burnaby, British Columbia.
The Colony
The Colony was an extremely large space station, many times larger than even a Cylon basestar. It had an organic appearance with at least six radial arms emitting from a large, central hub. The station was built by the Cylons as their base of operations following the conclusion of the First Cylon War. It was here that the mechanical Cylons and the Final Five collaborated on the creation of the other humanoid models. It may be analogous to the occasionally mentioned 'Cylon homeworld'. Cavil moved the Colony just prior to the Cylon Civil War, from its former location to a more secure area located deep inside the accretion disk of a black hole. The gravity well means that the only safe position where a ship could jump into the system is only one kilometer above the Colony. The Colony appeared to be defended by several basestars and Cylon Raiders of both contemporary design and from the First Cylon War. According to Ronald D. Moore's podcast, the Final Five's original, sublight ship was located in the heart of the Colony and the rest of the station was built around it.Cylon homeworld
The Cylon homeworld was a planet colonized by Cylons following the First Cylon War. It was the location of the Cylon Colony until the Cylon Civil War.Cyrannus Star System
In the re-imagined series, the Cyrannus Star System is two pairs of binary stars, "Helios Alpha" and "Helios Beta" that orbit a common barycenterBarycentric coordinates (astronomy)
In astronomy, barycentric coordinates are non-rotating coordinates with origin at the center of mass of two or more bodies.The barycenter is the point between two objects where they balance each other. For example, it is the center of mass where two or more celestial bodies orbit each other...
at a distance of .16 light year from binary barycenter to binary barycenter. Kobol is located 2000 light years away. The second pair is "Helios Delta" and "Helios Gamma", orbiting the barycenter at 70 astronomical units. The gas giant Ragnar (moon: Sigurd
Sigurd
Sigurd is a legendary hero of Norse mythology, as well as the central character in the Völsunga saga. The earliest extant representations for his legend come in pictorial form from seven runestones in Sweden and most notably the Ramsund carving Sigurd (Old Norse: Sigurðr) is a legendary hero of...
) orbits the binary systems Helios Delta and Helios Gamma about the barycenter at 110 astronomical units.
In the Battlestar Galactica video game
Battlestar Galactica (video game)
A number of video games have been released based on the various incarnations of the Battlestar Galactica franchise.-"Space Battle" & "Space Attack":...
, published in 2003, just prior to the release of the reimagined series, the colonies were in one star system called "Cyrannus". The name "Cyrannus" was used in the original series episode "The Long Patrol"
The Long Patrol (Battlestar Galactica)
"The Long Patrol" is an episode of the original Battlestar Galactica television series.-Plot synopsis:The Galactica leads the fleet through a void of asteroid dust into another galaxy, leaving the galaxy in which the Twelve Colonies once existed...
, but was used by the character Starbuck
Lieutenant Starbuck
Lieutenant Starbuck of the Colonial Service, played by Dirk Benedict, is a fictional character in the 1978 science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica. Starbuck is a Viper starfighter pilot, gambler, womanizer and smoker of "fumerellos," or cigars. He is involved with Lieutenant Athena...
as the name of the galaxy, not a single star system, although as with most SF shows of that era, much of the terminology used is obscure and self-contradictory. It appears as if the authors were themselves frequently unclear as to what the difference between a solar system and a galaxy was, though "star system" could refer to a cluster of stars that were in relatively close proximity to each other. The name "Cyrannus" has not been used in the reimagined series.
In the 1978 series, the Colonies were very obviously set in a binary star system, and distinguished between "Inner" and "Outer" colonies. "Inner" colonies orbited the primary star in the system, and "Outer" colonies orbited the other one, though both appeared to be G2 class stars
Stellar classification
In astronomy, stellar classification is a classification of stars based on their spectral characteristics. The spectral class of a star is a designated class of a star describing the ionization of its chromosphere, what atomic excitations are most prominent in the light, giving an objective measure...
from what little information was visible onscreen. The inner colonies - including Virgon, Sagitaria and Caprica - were attacked first. By the time the Galactica arrived, the Cylons were already launching their first wave against the outer colonies.
In the novelization of the pilot for the 1978 series, the Twelve Colonies are referred to as "The Twelve Colonies of the Three Suns".
Delphi
Delphi was a major city on the planet of Caprica. It contains the Museum of the Colonies. This Museum contained the Arrow of Apollo, an ancient artifact which could supposedly point the way to the mythical planet of Earth, home of the lost thirteenth colony. Like Caprica City, Delphi's human population was totally exterminated by the Cylons in their attack on Caprica; however, the Museum building survived the attack, as does the Arrow of Apollo artifact.- Filming location: Koerner Library, University of British ColumbiaUniversity of British ColumbiaThe University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
, VancouverVancouverVancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British ColumbiaBritish ColumbiaBritish Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
(Cylon base)
Delphi Museum of the Colonies
The Museum of the Colonies is located in the city of Delphi on the planet Caprica. It contains various artifacts, including the Arrow of Apollo.Dogsville
Dogsville was the makeshift "town" established aboard Galactica in the unused museum hangar. Formerly "Camp Oil Slick", Dogsville's residents were survivors of the ships Adriatic, and Carina which were lost in the episode "The PassageThe Passage (Battlestar Galactica)
"The Passage" is the tenth episode of the third season from the science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica. It aired on December 8, 2006.- Plot :...
" as they traversed a dangerous star cluster. Most of Dogsville's residents are refugees from the Colonies
Twelve Colonies
The Twelve Colonies of Man are fictional locations that constitute the principal human civilization in the original Battlestar Galactica television series, the "reimagined" series of the same name in 2004, and in the prequel series, Caprica...
of Picon and Sagittaron.
In the episode "The Woman King
The Woman King
"The Woman King" is the fourteenth episode of the third season from the science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica.- Plot :...
", a doctor named Michael Robert was discovered murdering the Sagittarons in Dogsville for whom he had a deep hatred.
In the episode "Maelstrom
Maelstrom (Battlestar Galactica)
"Maelstrom" is the seventeenth episode of the third season from the science fiction television series, Battlestar Galactica.-Plot:Survivor Count: 41,400...
", Starbuck
Kara Thrace
Kara Thrace is a fictional character in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica franchise. Played by Katee Sackhoff, she is a revised version of Lieutenant Starbuck from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series...
visited Yolanda Breen, an oracle living in Dogsville.
Earth
There are two planets referred to as Earth in the Battlestar Galactica series.Earth of the Thirteenth Tribe
This Earth, according to the sacred scripture of the Twelve ColoniesTwelve Colonies
The Twelve Colonies of Man are fictional locations that constitute the principal human civilization in the original Battlestar Galactica television series, the "reimagined" series of the same name in 2004, and in the prequel series, Caprica...
, is the legendary planet where the "lost" Thirteenth Tribe of Kobol supposedly settled. When Earth is finally reached at the end of the episode "Revelations
Revelations (Battlestar Galactica)
"Revelations" is the tenth episode in the fourth season of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica. It first aired on television in the United States on June 13, 2008. The episode serves as the mid-season finale of the fourth season, with the concluding episodes of the series airing after a hiatus...
", the surface is shown briefly as a radioactive wasteland filled with ruins of a destroyed civilization.
In "Sometimes a Great Notion
Sometimes a Great Notion (Battlestar Galactica)
"Sometimes a Great Notion" is the thirteenth episode in the fourth season of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica. It aired on television on SCI FI and Space in the United States and Canada respectively on January 16, 2009 and on Sky One in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2009...
", it is revealed that the Thirteenth Tribe consisted of humanoid and mechanical cylons of a type previously unknown. It is also revealed that the final five cylons had lived there 2000 years in the past, when an apparent nuclear war devastated the planet.
Earth of the Colonial Refugees
This Earth is the final destination of the refugees from the Twelve Colonies. In the series finale episode "Daybreak, Part IIDaybreak (Battlestar Galactica)
"Daybreak" is the two-part series finale of the reimagined science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica, and are the 74th and 75th episodes overall. The episodes aired on the U.S. Sci Fi Channel and SPACE in Canada respectively on March 13 and March 20, 2009. The second part is...
", it is revealed that the Thirteenth Tribe's "Earth" is a different planet from the Earth that orbits Sol
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
. Head-Baltar
Gaius Baltar
Gaius Baltar is a fictional character in the TV series Battlestar Galactica played by James Callis, a reimagining of Count Baltar from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series...
refers to the Thirteenth Tribe's Earth as the real Earth. In the series finale, Starbuck eventually leads the fleet to a planet that appears as the true Earth and they first land on the continent of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
.
Advancing ahead in time 150,000 years to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, a pedestrian (played by Ronald D. Moore
Ronald D. Moore
Ronald Dowl Moore is an American screenwriter and television producer best known for his work on Star Trek and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica miniseries and television series, for which he won a Peabody Award for creative excellence in 2005 and an Emmy Award in 2008.-Early life and...
) is shown reading a magazine which the cover shows Hera as the Mitochondrial Eve
Mitochondrial Eve
In the field of human genetics, Mitochondrial Eve refers to the matrilineal "MRCA" . In other words, she was the woman from whom all living humans today descend, on their mother's side, and through the mothers of those mothers and so on, back until all lines converge on one person...
and humanity are her descendants (who are a mixture of native Earth human, Colonial human, and humanoid Cylon due to the Colonial humans and humanoid Cylons interbreeding with the native Earth human population). Head-Six
Number Six (Battlestar Galactica)
Number Six is a family of fictional characters from the reimagined science fiction television series, Battlestar Galactica. She is portrayed by Canadian actress and model Tricia Helfer. Of the twelve known Cylon models, she is the sixth of the "Significant Seven"...
and Head-Baltar
Gaius Baltar
Gaius Baltar is a fictional character in the TV series Battlestar Galactica played by James Callis, a reimagining of Count Baltar from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series...
discuss the fate of humanity being destroyed by their technology as all having happened before—like it did on Kobol
Kobol
Kobol is the name of a planet in the fictional Battlestar Galactica universe.Within the context of both Battlestar Galactica stories, Kobol is the birthplace and original home of humanity, from which the civilization departed and formed the Twelve Colonies on other worlds...
, The Thirteenth Tribe's Earth, and The Twelve Colonies—but Head-Six refutes this grim prophecy for new Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
.
Euclid River
A river possibly located on Aerilon. It was mentioned in "Home, part IHome (Battlestar Galactica)
"Home" is a two-part episode of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series. Part 1 aired originally on the Sci Fi Channel on August 19, 2005, and Part 2 aired on August 26, 2005....
" as a place where Gaius Baltar
Gaius Baltar
Gaius Baltar is a fictional character in the TV series Battlestar Galactica played by James Callis, a reimagining of Count Baltar from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series...
used to sit alone as a boy to watch fish swim upstream.
Eye of Jupiter
The Eye of Jupiter is an alcove inside the Temple of Five, where the mosaic Eye of Jupiter is located. A skylight in the ceiling allowed a natural shaft of light to fall on the mosaic. The design of the mosaic is based on the Eye of Jupiter supernova.Gates of Hera
The Gates of Hera is a mountain pass between two peaks on the planet KobolKobol
Kobol is the name of a planet in the fictional Battlestar Galactica universe.Within the context of both Battlestar Galactica stories, Kobol is the birthplace and original home of humanity, from which the civilization departed and formed the Twelve Colonies on other worlds...
. It leads the way to the Tomb of Athena. Within the show, it is said that Athena jumped to her death in despair over the exodus of the tribes here. It is also said that the leaders of the Twelve Tribes of Kobol passed the pass on their way off-planet.
- Filming location: The Lions, twin mountain peaks overlooking VancouverVancouverVancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British ColumbiaBritish ColumbiaBritish Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
.
Galleon Meadow
Location on KobolKobol
Kobol is the name of a planet in the fictional Battlestar Galactica universe.Within the context of both Battlestar Galactica stories, Kobol is the birthplace and original home of humanity, from which the civilization departed and formed the Twelve Colonies on other worlds...
where President Roslin begins her search for the Tomb of Athena in "Home, part I
Home (Battlestar Galactica)
"Home" is a two-part episode of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series. Part 1 aired originally on the Sci Fi Channel on August 19, 2005, and Part 2 aired on August 26, 2005....
". Named after the departure spot of a great galleon ship which was prophesied in the scriptures as taking the founders of the 13 colonies to their destiny.
Gemenon
Gemenon is the planet where the Gemini tribe of Kobol settled, it is one of the Twelve Colonies. It is known throughout the Four Systems as "The First Colony". Gemenon is in the Helios Alpha star system, has a twin planet called Caprica that is only 493000 kilometres (306,336.8 mi) away and together share a mutual orbit where each planet trades places with the other every 28.2 days. Gemenon also shares its star system with Picon and Tauron. Gemenon's largest land mass is the Pustiu Desert ("pustiu" is RomanianRomanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
for desert), which lies in the shadow of the vast Gramada Mountains (in Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
"gramada" means large pile) on the western coast. Between the Gramadas and the desert is the barren 10000 feet (3 km) high plateau called the Spatiu Gol ("spatiu" is Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
for "space" and "gol" is Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
for empty: Empty Space), which slopes down into farmland. The east coast is the site of the capital Oranu, which has both temples and high-rise buildings, offset by holy statuary. Illumini, the religious center, features more sacred artwork, and was built around an enormous pantheon complex, in which every deity in the Sacred Scrolls is represented. It is a twin planet of Caprica and shares its star system with Picon. Gemenon was one of the poorer colonies. The Gemenese were religious fundamentalist known for their literal interpretations of the Sacred Scrolls. Most of the population of Gemenon were apparently very strongly opposed to the federal laws legalizing abortion, as it was seen as "an abomination in the eyes of the gods". Before the First Cylon War, Gemenon was also home to the Kobol Colleges and a monotheistic cult called "The Soldiers of the One". Events in the prequel series Caprica
Caprica (TV series)
Caprica is a science fiction drama television series. It is a spin-off prequel of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, taking place about 58 years prior to the events of Battlestar Galactica. Caprica shows how humanity first created the robotic Cylons who would later plot to destroy humans in...
reveal how The Soldiers of the One influence the creation of a monotheistic Cylon God.
HeliosHeliosHelios was the personification of the Sun in Greek mythology. Homer often calls him simply Titan or Hyperion, while Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn separate him as a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia or Euryphaessa and brother of the goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn...
Alpha
Spectral Class G2V, Mass 1.0. Planets: Icarus, Picon, Caprica & Gemenon (binary planets orbiting a barycenter), Tauron (moon: Minos), the Erebos asteroid belt, the gas giant Zeus (74 moons, including Hebe and Nike), and Persephone.Helios Beta
Spectral Class K1V, Mass 0.79. Planets: Troy, Leonis, the Ouranos asteroid belt, Virgon (moon: Hibernia), the gas giant Hera (29 moons, including Iris and Euboea), and Pallas.Helios Delta
Spectral Class K2V, Mass 0.74. Planets: Phoebe, the Aeolus asteroid belt, the gas giant Hestia (17 moons, including binaries Rhea and Kronos) with Canceron & Aerilon at Hestia's L4 and L5, Aquaria, and Styx.Helios Gamma
Spectral Class G9V, Mass 0.89. Planets: Thanatos, the Acheron asteroid belt, Scorpia, Saggitaron, Libran (moons: Herse and Pandrossos), and the gas giant Ophion (14 moons).Hera
HeraHera
Hera was the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon of Greek mythology and religion. Her chief function was as the goddess of women and marriage. Her counterpart in the religion of ancient Rome was Juno. The cow and the peacock were sacred to her...
is the third largest planet of all the Twelve Colonies
Twelve Colonies
The Twelve Colonies of Man are fictional locations that constitute the principal human civilization in the original Battlestar Galactica television series, the "reimagined" series of the same name in 2004, and in the prequel series, Caprica...
and is a gas giant in the Helios Beta star system. It measures 75,000 km at its equator and has 29 moons, the largest being Isis
Isis
Isis or in original more likely Aset is a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic...
and Euboea
Euboea
Euboea is the second largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. The narrow Euripus Strait separates it from Boeotia in mainland Greece. In general outline it is a long and narrow, seahorse-shaped island; it is about long, and varies in breadth from to...
.
Hestia
A ringed gas giant in the Helios Delta Star system. HestiaHestia
In Greek mythology Hestia , first daughter of Cronus and Rhea , is the virgin goddess of the hearth, architecture, and of the right ordering of domesticity and the family. She received the first offering at every sacrifice in the household. In the public domain, the hearth of the prytaneum...
has a planetary diameter of 42000 kilometres (26,097.7 mi) and it is the smallest gas giant in all of the colonies. It has 17 moons, the largest of which are Athea
Athea
Athea suffered severe flooding in the summer of 2008 with residences sustaining serious damage especially along the river Galey. Athea National School also incured minor damage.-Landscape:...
and Kronos
Cronus
In Greek mythology, Cronus or Kronos was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans, divine descendants of Gaia, the earth, and Uranus, the sky...
which share an orbit.
Ionian Nebula
The Ionian Nebula is a supernova remnantSupernova remnant
A supernova remnant is the structure resulting from the explosion of a star in a supernova. The supernova remnant is bounded by an expanding shock wave, and consists of ejected material expanding from the explosion, and the interstellar material it sweeps up and shocks along the way.There are two...
recorded by the people of Kobol
Kobol
Kobol is the name of a planet in the fictional Battlestar Galactica universe.Within the context of both Battlestar Galactica stories, Kobol is the birthplace and original home of humanity, from which the civilization departed and formed the Twelve Colonies on other worlds...
4000 years ago. The nebula closely resembles the Eye of Jupiter supernova event in the episode "Rapture
Rapture (Battlestar Galactica)
"Rapture" is the twelfth episode of the third season from the science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica. Aired on January 21, 2007, this episode marks the return of regular broadcasting after the Christmas mid-season hiatus.-Plot:...
" that resulted when the star the Algae Planet orbited exploded. Felix Gaeta
Felix Gaeta
Lieutenant Junior Grade Felix Gaeta is a fictional character on Battlestar Galactica played by Alessandro Juliani.- Character overview in his early career :...
noted similarities in the remnant patterns and believes the Eye of Jupiter is a marker that points toward the Ionian Nebula; another clue to finding Earth.
A massive battle takes place inside the Nebula between the Battlestar Galactica and 4 Cylon Basestars. 1,700 civilians are killed when the civilian
Civilian
A civilian under international humanitarian law is a person who is not a member of his or her country's armed forces or other militia. Civilians are distinct from combatants. They are afforded a degree of legal protection from the effects of war and military occupation...
ship Pyxis is destroyed, with Space Park and Astral Queen heavily damaged (episode "He That Believeth in Me
He That Believeth in Me
"He That Believeth in Me" is the third episode in the fourth season of the reimagined science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica...
").
The Ionian Nebula is 13,000 light years from the Algae Planet.
NGC 2440
NGC 2440
NGC 2440 is a planetary nebula, one of many in our galaxy. Its central star, HD62166, is possibly the hottest known white dwarf. The nebula is situated in the Puppis constellation.It was discovered by William Herschel on March 4, 1790...
resembles the Ionian Nebula and is 4000 light-years from Earth.
Joe's Bar
A makeshift tavern constructed in Galactica'sBattlestar Galactica (ship)
The Battlestar Galactica is a space battleship in the original and re-imagined science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica.The Twelve Colonies of Man in the original television series built a number of Battlestars during their thousand-year war with the Cylons, whose battleships are...
hangar bay and run by a civilian bartender named Joe. Joe's Bar made its first appearance in the episode "Taking a Break from All Your Worries
Taking a Break from All Your Worries
"Taking a Break From All Your Worries" is the thirteenth episode of the third season from the science fiction television series, Battlestar Galactica. The title is a line from the Cheers theme song, "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" "Taking a Break From All Your Worries" is the thirteenth episode...
".
Kimiko
Kimiko was the name given in passing dialog to an icy planet in the episode "WaterWater (Battlestar Galactica)
"Water" is the second episode of season 1 of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series.-Plot:As President Laura Roslin makes a ceremonial visit to the Galactica, several explosions occur in the battlestar's potable water tanks, venting the bulk of its vital water stores into space...
", by Raptor
Colonial Raptor
The Raptor is a multipurpose military spacecraft featured in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. According to producer Ronald D. Moore, the Raptor is analogous to the U.S. Navy's EA-6B Prowler.-Description:...
ECO Lt. Crashdown
Lt. Crashdown
Alex Quartararo is a fictional character in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series, portrayed by Samuel Witwer...
. His pilot, Boomer discovers water here, however she had to fight her Cylon programming before she could divulge the find. Crashdown gets the name from a former girlfriend who was killed during the Second Cylon War attack, however Boomer disregards the name in her official report to Galactica.
Kobol
Kobol is the "mother planet" where all humans supposedly developed. At one time the planet was wealthy and advanced; it was ruled over by the Lords of KobolLords of Kobol
The Lords of Kobol are deities featured in the fictional universe of Battlestar Galactica. The Lords of Kobol are worshiped by the humans of the Twelve Colonies...
, and were said to live with the Gods. At some point, however, the people of Kobol became corrupt, decadent, and brutal, even practicing human sacrifice rituals. As a result, the Gods of Kobol cast out the thirteen human tribes living with them. Twelve of the tribes settled on the Twelve Colonies, the thirteenth tribe went in another direction and settled on Earth.
- Filming location: Widgeon Slough, the largest freshwater marsh in the Pinecone Burke Provincial ParkPinecone Burke Provincial ParkPinecone Burke Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. It extends from the southwest corner of Garibaldi Provincial Park, west of Pitt Lake and Pitt River to include Burke Mountain in the City of Coquitlam. Most of the park is unserviced wilderness with very rough trails...
, Port Coquitlam, British ColumbiaPort Coquitlam, British ColumbiaPort Coquitlam is a city in British Columbia, Canada. Located 27 km east of Vancouver, it sits at the confluence of the Fraser River and the Pitt River. Coquitlam borders it on the north, the Coquitlam River borders it on the west, and the cities of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows lie across the Pitt...
Kobol College
Kobol College is a college on Gemenon, and is the claimed educational background of Aaron DoralAaron Doral
Aaron Doral is a fictional character from the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series.Doral is a humanoid Cylon who first appeared as a civilian public relations specialist aboard Galactica just prior to the Cylon attack on the Colonies. Through conversation with the Cylon agent Number Six, Dr...
.
Leonis
Leonis is one of the Twelve Colonies. The planet was settled by the Leo tribe of Kobol. It is known throughout the Four Systems as "The Heart of the Colonies". Leonis is the largest planet of all the colonies, and is one of only two habitable planets in the Helios Beta star system, the other being longtime rival Virgon. In the past the two empires on Virgon and Leonis were at odds with each other. Virgon shares the Ouranos asteroid belt border with Leonis where mining operations have been conducted for hundreds of years by both planets. Leonis has always been a center of education and industry, and despite colonial integration has managed to retain its traditional language, Leonese and cultural traditions. Due to a near-vertical planetary axis, seasonal changes on Leonis are mild and predictable. The beaches are predictably sunny, with cool mornings and evenings year-round. The two major land masses are entirely in temperate zones both north and south of the equator. Leonis has verdant, rolling plains which are the site of farming and winemaking. Leonis has ski resorts that are the envy of the colonies as well as equally luxurious sandy beaches. The capital is LuminereLumière
-Characters:*Lumière , one of the two main characters of the 2002 anime series Kiddy Grade*Lumiere, a character in the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast-Places:*Lumière, a restaurant in Vancouver, Canada...
(French for "light"), located inland on one of the major rivers, and is the site of massive castles and churches. The second city is Hedon
Hedon
Hedon is a small town and civil parish in Holderness in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately east of Hull city centre. It lies to the north of the A1033 road at the crossroads of the B1240 and B1362 roads....
, home to the most exclusive beach resort on Leonis, and is the site of the Grand Casino and the Hedon Film Festival.
Libran
Libran is one of the Twelve Colonies. The planet was settled by the Libra tribe of Kobol. It is known throughout the Four Systems as "The Colony of Justice". It is located in the Helios Gamma star system, along with Sagittaron and Scorpia, and has two moons HerseHerse
Herse is a figure in Greek mythology, daughter of Cecrops, sister to Aglauros and Pandrosos.According to Apollodorus, when Hephaestus unsuccessfully attempted to rape Athena, she wiped his semen off her leg with wool and threw it on the ground, impregnating Gaia...
and Pandrosus
Pandrosus
Pandrosus was a figure in Greek mythology, and a daughter of Cecrops, sister to Herse and Aglauros....
. Libran is a tropical planet that is either raining or cloudy, similar to Scorpia. The clouds do shield its inhabitants from the sun Helios Gamma, which Libran orbits a little too close to, and when the skies are clear, Librans go inside to minimize their risk of contracting skin cancer. Libran is described as a teeming green ball of life due to its landmasses consisting of hundreds of small marshy islands, with larger islands having impenetrable bogs and impassible jungles. The main landmass is a dense and spectacular rainforest ringed by mangroves and swamps at its edges. In the center of the continent is the capital Themis
Themis
Themis is an ancient Greek Titaness. She is described as "of good counsel", and is the embodiment of divine order, law, and custom. Themis means "divine law" rather than human ordinance, literally "that which is put in place", from the verb τίθημι, títhēmi, "to put"...
, home of the Supreme Hall of Justice. It was home to the Inter-colonial court and was known for its courthouses and lawyers.
Lion's Head Nebula
A beacon was left by the thirteenth tribe here, near a pair of pulsars, one red, one blue. The beacon was accidentally contaminated by a virus, causing fatal illnesses in the Cylons.M8
Lagoon NebulaLagoon Nebula
The Lagoon Nebula is a giant interstellar cloud in the constellation Sagittarius. It is classified as an emission nebula and as an H II region....
, astro-number M8, is seen in the skymap for the home of the thirteenth tribe, as depicted in the Tomb of Athena.
Memorial Hallway
Memorial Hallway is the name given to the length of corridor aboard Galactica that is filled with thousands of photos of people lost during the Cylon sneak attack on the Twelve ColoniesTwelve Colonies
The Twelve Colonies of Man are fictional locations that constitute the principal human civilization in the original Battlestar Galactica television series, the "reimagined" series of the same name in 2004, and in the prequel series, Caprica...
.
New Caprica
New Caprica is a barely habitable planet in the midst of a nebula. It was briefly settled by humans of the refugee fleet of the Twelve Colonies. After a year, the Cylons discovered the settlement and dominated it for a few months. The human settlers on New Caprica built their new homes in a dry river bed near the equator; the planet's wet, damp, and dreary climate caused the river bed to turn to mud. Additionally, the damp and chilly climate led some colonists to develop flu and pneumonia type illnesses.New Caprica City, New Caprica
New Caprica City is the capital of the planet New Caprica; it is not to be confused with the violent V-world game "New Cap City" from CapricaCaprica (TV series)
Caprica is a science fiction drama television series. It is a spin-off prequel of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, taking place about 58 years prior to the events of Battlestar Galactica. Caprica shows how humanity first created the robotic Cylons who would later plot to destroy humans in...
.
- Filming location: RichmondRichmond, British ColumbiaRichmond is a coastal city, incorporated in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Part of Metro Vancouver, its neighbouring communities are Vancouver and Burnaby to the north, New Westminster to the east, and Delta to the south, while the Strait of Georgia forms its western border...
, British ColumbiaBritish ColumbiaBritish Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
Oasis
Oasis is a city outside Caprica City. It is Aaron DoralAaron Doral
Aaron Doral is a fictional character from the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series.Doral is a humanoid Cylon who first appeared as a civilian public relations specialist aboard Galactica just prior to the Cylon attack on the Colonies. Through conversation with the Cylon agent Number Six, Dr...
's claimed birthplace.
Opera house
The opera house is an ancient ruin on the planet KobolKobol
Kobol is the name of a planet in the fictional Battlestar Galactica universe.Within the context of both Battlestar Galactica stories, Kobol is the birthplace and original home of humanity, from which the civilization departed and formed the Twelve Colonies on other worlds...
(See above). Although physically seen only once, in the expedition to the Tomb of Athena, it has since featured prominently in the dreams and visions of several characters. These visions of the opera house are closely tied to the fate of Hera Agathon, a child of great religious significance to the Cylons. In the series finale, the events taking place in the Opera House repeat themselves in the CIC of the Galactica.
- Filming location: The Orpheum Theatre, Vancouver, British ColumbiaBritish ColumbiaBritish Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
Ophion
OphionOphion
In some versions of Greek mythology, Ophion , also called Ophioneus ruled the world with Eurynome before the two of them were cast down by Cronus and Rhea.-Sources:...
is a gas giant planet with a 51,000 km planetary diameter, with three planetary rings and 14 moons. It is believed to be a former rogue planet that dislodged former Helios Gamma resident Ragnar from its orbit. It is located in the Helios Gamma star system, along with Sagittaron, Scorpia and Libran.
Pallas
PallasPALLAS
This article is about the research group. See Pallas for other uses of this word.PALLAS stands for Parallel Applications, Libraries, Languages, Algorithms, and Systems. It is a research group in of the at , led by...
was once a habitable planet in the Helios Beta star system that is the site of a Colonial military research station. Efforts to kobolform the dry planet, which lost its atmosphere into space, have been unsuccessful.
Persephone
A dwarf planet in the Helios Alpha star system with a planetary diameter of 1,100 km, PersephonePersephone
In Greek mythology, Persephone , also called Kore , is the daughter of Zeus and the harvest-goddess Demeter, and queen of the underworld; she was abducted by Hades, the god-king of the underworld....
is believed to be an escaped moon of the gas giant Zeus, and had a thin atmosphere of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide, and is the smallest planet in the four star systems.
Pergamus Flats
PergamusPergamus
In Greek mythology, Pergamus was the son of the warrior Neoptolemus and Andromache.In the Bible, Pergamus was quoted as an Asian kingdom where an unknown being from the Book of Revelation sends a message to the seven churches of Asia...
Flats on New Caprica is the site chosen by the Cylons for the mass execution of 200 suspected insurgents.
Picon
Picon was originally the home of the Virgon tribe, but was later colonized by the Pisces tribe of Kobol; it is one of the Twelve Colonies, and is a neighbor of other Helios Alpha star system planets Caprica, Tauron, and Gemenon. It is known throughout the Four Systems as "The Ocean Colony" The surface of Picon is 75% covered by a turquoise-colored ocean and is well known through the Four Systems for its harbors. Picon is generally colder, greener and cloudier than Caprica, but is known for its strikingly beautiful warm months, and Colonial visitors to Picon are encouraged to take advantage of the pleasant Picon summer. The capitol is Queenstown, which originally grew as a fishing village around the scenic Penrose harbor. Perkinston, the location of the Colonial Fleet Headquarters, is another Picon city also known for its harbor and manufacturing. It is considered to be one of the more advanced and wealthier colonies. Like the other eleven colonies, the civilizations on Picon were destroyed by the Cylons in the Destruction of the Twelve Colonies. Billy KeikeyaBilly Keikeya
Billy Keikeya is a fictional character in the miniseries and television remake of Battlestar Galactica. He is portrayed by Paul Campbell. Billy appeared until late in the second season, at which point he was killed by terrorists. Paul Campbell has said that his character was killed because he had...
personal assistant to President of the Colonies Laura Roslin
Laura Roslin
Her first actions include organizing all FTL-capable ships together and convincing Commander William Adama to abandon a retaliatory attack on the Cylons. President Roslin and Billy Keikeya, her aide/press secretary/chief of staff, establish a working office space aboard her transport, renamed...
was from Picon.
Prolmar Sector
The Prolmar Sector is far beyond the Red Line and outside the Home Star System. It is the first jump destination that the refugee fleet runs to.Ragnar
RagnarRagnarök
In Norse mythology, Ragnarök is a series of future events, including a great battle foretold to ultimately result in the death of a number of major figures , the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water...
is the second largest planet in all of the Twelve Colonies
Twelve Colonies
The Twelve Colonies of Man are fictional locations that constitute the principal human civilization in the original Battlestar Galactica television series, the "reimagined" series of the same name in 2004, and in the prequel series, Caprica...
's star systems and is a gas giant that orbits both the Helios Gamma and Helios Delta star systems, having been dislodged from its former orbit in the Helios Gamma system by the planet Ophion. During the "Miniseries
Battlestar Galactica (TV miniseries)
Battlestar Galactica is a three-hour miniseries written and produced by Ronald D. Moore and directed by Michael Rymer. It was the first part of the Battlestar Galactica reimagining based on the 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series, and served as a backdoor pilot for the 2004 television series...
", then-Commander Adama
William Adama
William "Bill" Adama is a fictional character portrayed by Edward James Olmos in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series...
takes the Galactica there for supplies and weapons from the Ragnar Anchorage, which was in low orbit around the planet. Ragnar's natural radiation was discovered to be damaging to the Cylons, who avoided the planet and allowed the refugee fleet to hide here temporarily before fleeing the system. Ragnar's atmosphere is mined for its plentiful hydrocarbons that are used at the weapons depot that orbits it.
Ragnar Anchorage
Ragnar Anchorage is a Colonial munitions depot suspended in the upper atmosphere of the gas giant Ragnar. The Colonial Fleet learned that the atmosphere of the planet Ragnar emitted a kind of radiation that adversely affected CylonCylon (Battlestar Galactica)
The Cylons are a cybernetic civilization at war with the Twelve Colonies of humanity in the Battlestar Galactica science fiction franchise, in the original 1978 and 1980 series, the 2004 reimagining, as well as the spin-off prequel series, Caprica...
technology and cloaked ships residing within the storm. When the Cylons launch their attack on the Twelve Colonies
Twelve Colonies
The Twelve Colonies of Man are fictional locations that constitute the principal human civilization in the original Battlestar Galactica television series, the "reimagined" series of the same name in 2004, and in the prequel series, Caprica...
, the Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica (ship)
The Battlestar Galactica is a space battleship in the original and re-imagined science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica.The Twelve Colonies of Man in the original television series built a number of Battlestars during their thousand-year war with the Cylons, whose battleships are...
was without any munitions for her main and point-defence
Point-defence
Point-defence is the defence of a single object or a limited area, e.g. a ship, building or an airfield, now usually against air attacks and guided missiles...
batteries, having dumped them as part of her decommissioning ceremonies prior to the battle. Colonel Saul Tigh
Saul Tigh
Saul Tigh is a fictional character on Battlestar Galactica played by Michael Hogan. The character was named Paul Tigh in early scripts, and was renamed due to legal issues, according to producer Ronald D. Moore. He is one of the main characters of the show.-Overview and personality:Saul Tigh is a...
determined that Ragnar Anchorage offers the best opportunity for re-arming the ship, based on its listing in an old directory of military supply depots.
While at Ragnar Anchorage, Galactica obtained enough munitions to completely re-arm her guns, and she also collected a number of Class-D warheads (the capabilities of which are not described but presumably are very powerful weapons, possibly nuclear). Her crew also encountered the Leoben Conoy
Leoben Conoy
Leoben Conoy is a fictional character portrayed by Callum Keith Rennie appearing in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series....
Cylon model, posing as an arms trader, who eventually gave the Colonials their first discovery of humanoid Cylon infiltrators. Galactica is joined by a civilian convoy of survivors gathered by President Laura Roslin
Laura Roslin
Her first actions include organizing all FTL-capable ships together and convincing Commander William Adama to abandon a retaliatory attack on the Cylons. President Roslin and Billy Keikeya, her aide/press secretary/chief of staff, establish a working office space aboard her transport, renamed...
. When they arrive, then-Commander William Adama
William Adama
William "Bill" Adama is a fictional character portrayed by Edward James Olmos in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series...
was persuaded to alter his original plan to send Galactica into a suicidal fight against the Cylons into one of exodus from the Colonies to save the last of humanity.
Galactica protected the civilian fleet as they made an FTL jumps from Ragnar towards the Promar Sector, well beyond the "Red Line" of charted space, never to return to the solar system of the Colonies in an effort to escape the Cylons. Soon after the battle, the Cylons dock at the station to retrieve the Cylon agent Aaron Doral, who was exiled at the station on the orders of Commander Saul Tigh
Saul Tigh
Saul Tigh is a fictional character on Battlestar Galactica played by Michael Hogan. The character was named Paul Tigh in early scripts, and was renamed due to legal issues, according to producer Ronald D. Moore. He is one of the main characters of the show.-Overview and personality:Saul Tigh is a...
.
Red Line
The Red Line is the safety limit of FTL travel for the Twelve Colonies. A ship jumping beyond this line risks running into unknown navigational hazards or going off course due to compound errors in its jump calculation.Riverwalk Market
Riverwalk Market is an open-air market in Caprica City on the colony of Caprica. It appears in the mini-series, and is the location where Caprica Six kills a baby.Sagittaron
Sagittaron is one of the Twelve Colonies. The planet was settled by the Sagittarius tribe of Kobol. It is known throughout the Four Systems as "The Lone Colony" due to the territorial wars between the old empires of Virgon and Leonis, having been dominated and exploited by both empires separately. It is located in the Helios Gamma star system, along with Scorpia and Libran. The climate of Sagittaron is agreeable in the valleys, but difficult in most of the mountain trails, which often become impassible in the winter. Isolation is therefore an accepted part of life in much of Sagittaron. Sagittaron is a mountainous planet with hundreds of isolated fertile valleys. It has one very large river, called the AcheronAcheron
The Acheron is a river located in the Epirus region of northwest Greece. It flows into the Ionian Sea in Ammoudia, near Parga.-In mythology:...
, which runs through the capital Tawa
Tawa
Tawa may refer to:*Tava, an Indian cooking implement*Tawa , after which the New Zealand suburb is named*A early variation on the name of the Ottawa tribe*Tawa , a solar deity in Pueblo mythology; see also List of solar deities...
, which is 1,000 miles inland near the confluence of two tributaries which flow into the Acheron. A few miles offshore from the Acheron river delta is an active volcano. It is the homeworld of Petty Officer Anastasia Dualla
Anastasia Dualla
Anastasia "Dee" Dualla, portrayed by Kandyse McClure, is a fictional character in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica.-Character history:...
, Sister Clarice Willow and Tom Zarek
Tom Zarek
Thomas "Tom" Zarek is the name of a fictional character on the Syfy series Battlestar Galactica. He is played by Richard Hatch, who had previously portrayed Captain Apollo, a character on the original Battlestar Galactica series of the late 1970s....
, who was elected Vice President of the remaining colonial survivors after the Second Cylon War on the planet "New Caprica". Zarek, who had been imprisoned for twenty years after he blew up a government building, would be able to regain citizenship once the sentence was completed under Sagittaron law. In the reimagined series Sagittaron is depicted as being one of the poorer, more backward colonies. The citizens are religious traditionalists, therefore they do not believe in medicine, distrust doctors and instead use prayer and herbal remedies. Due to hostility from the other colonies, Sagittarons have chosen not to serve in the Colonial Military with some exceptions. On Sagittaron, it is illegal to sing, play, participate in public displays of affection and do a multitude of other things. In fact, the mere mention of these activities is considered an offense, so visitors from other colonies with more liberal cultures are advised to consult local law for specific information on colony etiquette. Sagittarons are also known to wear soma
Soma
Soma , or Haoma , from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma-, was a ritual drink of importance among the early Indo-Iranians, and the subsequent Vedic and greater Persian cultures. It is frequently mentioned in the Rigveda, whose Soma Mandala contains 114 hymns, many praising its energizing qualities...
braids which they believe bring them good health.
Scorpia
Scorpia is one of the Twelve Colonies. It is known throughout the Four Systems as the "Playground of the Colonies". The planet was settled by the Scorpio tribe of Kobol. Scorpia has tropical weather complete with hurricanes, similar to the planet Libran. It is located in the Helios Gamma star system, along with Sagittaron and Libran. Due to its close proximity to the Acheron asteroid belt, it is the site of the Colonial Military Scorpion Shipyards. The temperate areas are hotter than they should be due to the heat that remains trapped in Scorpia's cities. The capital city is CelesteCeleste
- People :* Celeste Holm , US actress* Madame Céleste , French dancer and actress* Celeste , American former pornographic actress* Dick Celeste , governor of Ohio from 1983 to 1991...
, which is a mile high in a bowl shaped valley in the Guardian Mountains, and is cooler than other Scorpian cities, such as Argentum. Celeste is also the location of the Colonial Stock Market
Stock market
A stock market or equity market is a public entity for the trading of company stock and derivatives at an agreed price; these are securities listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately.The size of the world stock market was estimated at about $36.6 trillion...
. Scorpia has a half ring that surrounds the planet, resembling a coiled scorpions tail. As mentioned in Battlestar Galactica: The Plan
Battlestar Galactica: The Plan
Battlestar Galactica: The Plan is a made for television movie set in the reimagined version of the fictional Battlestar Galactica universe. It consists of newly filmed material as well as a compilation of footage from the TV series and miniseries....
one of the characters stated that Scorpia has jungles near the equator, that gradually rise into rugged mountains that progress both north and south of the equator, with unexplored polar regions. Scorpia has a rather low class reputation as being a planet with loose morals, with prostitution widely practiced and has a low priced tourism destination called Argentum Bay, catering to 18 to 22 year olds seeking to celebrate Vernal Break.
Scorpion Fleet Shipyards
The Scorpion Fleet Shipyards was one of the Colonial Fleet's shipyards, where ships are overhauled. The shipyard was destroyed in the attack on the 12 Colonies. It is here that the Battlestar Pegasus was berthed for refit and overhaul. Five other ships also berthed at the shipyard were destroyed as well, including two BattlestarsBattlestar (reimagining)
A battlestar is a space battleship in the reimagined science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica. The reimagined series' battlestars, as well as the series' other visual effects were designed and created by Zoic Studios for Battlestar Galactica.The battlestars Galactica, Atlantia,...
.
Tauron
Tauron is one of the Twelve ColoniesTwelve Colonies
The Twelve Colonies of Man are fictional locations that constitute the principal human civilization in the original Battlestar Galactica television series, the "reimagined" series of the same name in 2004, and in the prequel series, Caprica...
of Kobol
Kobol
Kobol is the name of a planet in the fictional Battlestar Galactica universe.Within the context of both Battlestar Galactica stories, Kobol is the birthplace and original home of humanity, from which the civilization departed and formed the Twelve Colonies on other worlds...
. It is known throughout the Four Systems as "The Old Colony". The climate of Tauron is dry and mostly arid. Tauron is in the Helios Alpha star system, and shares its star system with Picon, Caprica, and Gemenon. The surface of Tauron is rocky, with reddish land and is often subject to the baking heat of the sun, violent storms, or clouds from wildfires. No forests or mountains, just blue water, red soil and massive grasslands. The oldest city on Tauron is Minos
Minos
In Greek mythology, Minos was a king of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. Every year he made King Aegeus pick seven men and seven women to go to Daedalus' creation, the labyrinth, to be eaten by The Minotaur. After his death, Minos became a judge of the dead in Hades. The Minoan civilization of Crete...
near the Great Tauron Plain. The capital is Hypathia, a costal city and the largest on Tauron. Olympia is a wealthy suburb of Hypathia, located in a lush fern forest above the sea. The high tech economy on Tauron is largely fueled by mining the Erebos asteroid belt, where mining operations have been conducted for hundreds of years. Tauron is the ancestral home of the Adama family
Adama Family
In the fictional Battlestar Galactica universe, the Adama family is the family of Commander Adama, commander of the Battlestar Galactica, and they are some of the core characters of the series...
. It was also the home of Helena Cain
Helena Cain
Admiral Helena Cain is a fictional character in the reimagined science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica, portrayed by Michelle Forbes.-Youth:...
. Approximately thirty years before the First Cylon War, a civil war occurs on Tauron between the resistance fighters, called the Ha'la'tha and the governing body called the Heraclitus
Heraclitus
Heraclitus of Ephesus was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, a native of the Greek city Ephesus, Ionia, on the coast of Asia Minor. He was of distinguished parentage. Little is known about his early life and education, but he regarded himself as self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom...
, and Taurons had gained their independence from Virgon and Leonian domination 850 years earlier still. Tauron society is portrayed as more interested in justice than mercy, and the use of tattoos publicly displays the identity and adversity the individual has experienced. Duty to ethnic identity is seen as an admirable trait and that all Taurons have a duty to other Taurons. The Taurons are heard occasionally speaking a separate language resembling Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
.
In pre-war Caprican society, Taurons are victims of racism on nearly every level, and are often referred to by the pejorative “dirt-eater”.
Temple of Five
The Temple of Five is a place mentioned in the sacred texts. It contains the Eye of Jupiter, and is located on an algae covered planet (Algae Planet) in orbit around a blue giant star on the far side of a young nebulous star cluster from Kobol and the Twelve Colonies. The temple is destroyed by a supernova explosion, revealing that the "eye" is actually the star itself as it goes nova. The machinery inside the temple is actually to create a holographic interface with "the chosen one" as the star novas.The Temple of Five was originally called the Temple of Hopes, as stated by Ellen Tigh in the episode "No Exit". According to Ellen, it was a place of worship and rest, built by the thirteenth tribe, on its way to earth. The 5 original cylon models found it on their way back from earth to the twelve colonies. The appearance of the final five cylons in visions by the number 3 D'Anna Biers has been as yet unexplained. Even Ellen Tigh did not know why this occurred but believes it to be by the hand of God.
The temple was constructed 4000 years prior to the supernova by the five priests of "Him whose name must not be spoken", a "heretical" sect of the colonial religion.
Thanatos
ThanatosThanatos
In Greek mythology, Thanatos was the daemon personification of death. He was a minor figure in Greek mythology, often referred to but rarely appearing in person...
is a planet in the Helios Gamma star system, along with Sagittaron, Scorpia and Libran. It is uninhabitable due to its sulphur dioxide atmosphere.
Tomb of Athena
Kobol
Kobol is the name of a planet in the fictional Battlestar Galactica universe.Within the context of both Battlestar Galactica stories, Kobol is the birthplace and original home of humanity, from which the civilization departed and formed the Twelve Colonies on other worlds...
, which is the world where the ancient scriptures say mankind originated. According to legend within the series, Athena threw herself off a mountain due to sorrow about mankind's departure from Kobol aboard the galleon.
Once the refugee fleet discovers a planet containing ancient ruins, President Roslin
Laura Roslin
Her first actions include organizing all FTL-capable ships together and convincing Commander William Adama to abandon a retaliatory attack on the Cylons. President Roslin and Billy Keikeya, her aide/press secretary/chief of staff, establish a working office space aboard her transport, renamed...
declares they have found Kobol. She leads an expedition to find the legendary tomb along with the Arrow of Apollo artifact, which according to scriptures, will "point" the way to Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
, the "lost" 13th colony of mankind.
The tomb is eventually found in the side of a mountain where numerous artifacts are discovered. Inside, the group finds the statue of Sagittarius
Sagittarius (astrology)
Sagittarius is the ninth astrological sign in the Zodiac, which spans the zodiac between the 240th and 269th degree of celestial longitude...
and places the arrow in his bow. This sets off a chain of events that seals the tomb's door, and seemingly "transports" the expedition to a grassy hill surrounded by megaliths engraved with zodiac symbols representing each world of the Twelve Colonies. The group realizes the room is a starmap which gives the positions of celestial objects from the viewpoint of someone actually standing on Earth itself.
Upon recognizing the distant nebula
Nebula
A nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas, helium gas and other ionized gases...
cloud, M8, Commander Adama
William Adama
William "Bill" Adama is a fictional character portrayed by Edward James Olmos in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series...
gets his bearings and believes by navigating toward the cloud, the fleet should eventually find Earth.
The original series analogue of the Tomb of Athena is the Tomb of the Ninth Lord of Kobol.
Troy
Troy is a small planet in the Helios Beta star system, mined by the inhabitants of the planets Virgon and Leonis. Troy is not identified as a colony but rather a mining possession. According to dialog in "Flesh and BoneFlesh and Bone (Battlestar Galactica)
"Flesh and Bone" is the eighth episode of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series.-Plot:President Roslin sees a copy of Leoben Conoy, a duplicate of the Cylon that Commander Adama encountered on Ragnar Anchorage, in a dream. Soon afterwards, a copy of this Cylon is caught aboard the...
", before learning she is a biological Cylon, Sharon "Boomer" Valerii claims that she was from Troy, as opposed to being from Aerilon (indicating it was another planet), and that her family was lost in an unspecified disaster that happened there. Gaius Baltar
Gaius Baltar
Gaius Baltar is a fictional character in the TV series Battlestar Galactica played by James Callis, a reimagining of Count Baltar from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series...
says in the same episode that Valerii has a slight trace of an Aerilon accent, and he was familiar with the "disaster" which destroyed the mining colony. Boomer repeats in denial that she is human and was born "on" Troy when she goes to the Cylon Basestar
Cylon Basestar
The Basestar is the capital ship of the Cylons in the 1978 science fiction television series and movie Battlestar Galactica along with its re-imagining in the 2003 miniseries and 2004 television series.- Battlestar Galactica :...
in "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 2" and finds the Cylon copies of herself.
Virgon
Virgon is the planet where the Virgo tribe of Kobol settled. It is considered to be one of the wealthiest and most advanced colonies. It is known throughout the Four Systems as "Imperial Virgon" and more recently as "The Blue Colony". Virgon is one of only two habitable planets in the Helios Beta star system, the other being longtime rival Leonis. In the past the two empires on Virgon and Leonis were at odds with each other. Virgon shares the Ouranos asteroid belt border with Leonis where mining operations have been conducted for hundreds of years by both planets, and has one habitable moon HiberniaHibernia
Hibernia is the Classical Latin name for the island of Ireland. The name Hibernia was taken from Greek geographical accounts. During his exploration of northwest Europe , Pytheas of Massilia called the island Ierne . In his book Geographia Hibernia is the Classical Latin name for the island of...
, home to a minority group called the Celtons. The capital is Boskirk, the former federal capital of the Colonies for a thousand years, until a few centuries ago when the Colonial Capitol became Caprica City in the Helios Alpha star system. It is also where a major battle occurred during the Destruction of the Twelve Colonies. The human forces above the planet lost the battle; and the colony was destroyed by the Cylons. Other cities on Virgon are Bloustad (Dutch for "blue city"), a beach town, an hour from Boskirk, and Hadrian
Hadrian
Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...
in the south is a mining community. The climate of Virgon is notable for its singular blueness. Not only are the seas blue, but its plant life contains oils that evaporate in sunlight and cast a bluish tinge in the air. Quantities of anthracene
Anthracene
Anthracene is a solid polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon consisting of three fused benzene rings. It is a component of coal-tar. Anthracene is used in the production of the red dye alizarin and other dyes...
, a substance that emits a blue glow when exposed to UV light, near the surface provide a bluish hue. Virgon's climate is temperate in the north, but variable and less pleasant in the south.
Zeus
ZeusZeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
is the largest planet in all of the Four Systems, and is a gas giant measuring more than 153,000 km at its equator. It has 74 moons, including Nike
Nike (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Nike was a goddess who personified victory, also known as the Winged Goddess of Victory. The Roman equivalent was Victoria. Depending upon the time of various myths, she was described as the daughter of Pallas and Styx and the sister of Kratos , Bia , and Zelus...
and Hebe
Hebe (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Hēbē is the goddess of youth . She is the daughter of Zeus and Hera. Hebe was the cupbearer for the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus, serving their nectar and ambrosia, until she was married to Heracles ; her successor was the young Trojan prince Ganymede...
which both have atmospheres. Constant electrical storms in the upper atmosphere on the dark side creates a rippling aurora
Aurora
Aurora most commonly refers to:*Aurora , a glow in the sky seen at polar latitudes*Aurora , the goddess of the dawn in Roman mythologyAurora may also refer to:-Literature:*Aurora , a superheroine in the Marvel Universe...
effect that can be seen with the naked eye. It is in the Helios Alpha star system.