Cylon Empire (TOS-RH)

This article has a separate continuity. This article is in the Richard Hatch Novelizations separate continuity, which is related to the Original Series. Be sure that your contributions to this article reflect the characters and events specific to this continuity only.

The Cylon Empire is a vast interstellar power built upon the foundation of the original reptilian Cylon race and transformed through millennia of genetic manipulation and technological advancement. The Empire's primary directive, instilled by its creator Count Iblis, is the complete extermination of humanity.

Origins and History

Ancient Beginnings

The Cylon Empire traces its origins to the planet Cylon, a dank, mist-enshrouded world covered in vegetation and swamp. The original inhabitants were a truculent, warlike race of sentient reptilian creatures, characterized by their dark green-black scales and red eyes. These beings dwelt in the swamps and insect-ridden filth of their homeworld, from which they would eventually rise to become the scourge of the galaxy.

Many millennia ago, an outsider visited the planet Cylon. This being, filled with anger and savagery that the native Cylons admired, was known as Count Iblis. Iblis introduced technology to the reptilian race, keeping them in his debt and fear for decades. During this time, he experimented extensively with the Cylons, promising to make them the fiercest, most perfect warriors the universe had ever seen, vowing that they would become conquerors.

Genetic Transformation

According to history or myth, there were many generations of Cylons before the forms familiar to humanity came into being. Over time, Iblis artificially evolved the Cylon race into a bipedal form to make better use of the technology he had introduced. Human DNA was used for this purpose, introducing his own genetic material into the Cylon genetic structure.

However, Iblis harbored a profound hatred for all of humanity. It became his goal that the Cylons should have, as their primary edict, the extermination of humankind. He attempted to breed human instincts out of his Cylon mutants, beginning a cloning process from pure genetic material that made Cylon females unnecessary, resulting in their eventual extinction. He also introduced the cybernetic implants that became part of every Cylon Centurion. Eventually, the Cylons could feel no emotions with the exception of hate.

Rebellion Against Iblis

Predictably, the Cylons turned upon their creator. They destroyed Iblis's human body, leaving his brain under their control. However, the Count proved more resilient and unpredictable than anticipated. Although his brain remained slaved to the Cylons, Iblis's mind and consciousness continued to evolve until he could project his esoteric body through space and time. Having escaped the remains of his physical embodiment, Iblis became even more powerful, freed from the tyranny of flesh. He continued to meddle in the Cylons' affairs and the evolution of many other races.

Structure and Government

The Imperious Leader

The Cylon Empire is ruled absolutely by the Imperious Leader, who resides in chambers located at the exact center of base stars. The Leader's chamber is a dark room at the end of a dark corridor, featuring a platform that stands nine steps high. At the center of this platform sits the High Seat of power, from which the Imperious Leader oversees all things. The pedestal is marked and studded with hundreds of sharp points that cut the very light they reflect, while torches burn in the corners, throwing fitful light and dancing shadows.

Each Imperious Leader has a specific reign equivalent in human terms to three-quarters of a century, though Cylons do not recognize the passage of time in such linear terms. The Cylon lifespan is extraordinarily long, exceeding two centuries. Each Imperious Leader personally chooses his own successor from the ranks of cogitators. This process is logical, as Imperious Leaders are the only Cylons possessing a third brain.

The third brain is awarded and implanted, granting what Cylon belief holds to be the capacity for limitless knowledge. This third brain allows the Imperious Leader to elevate above mundane and prosaic matters of facts, enabling him to deal in abstracts. The process by which a two-brained cogitator is selected to make the transition to ultimate power is methodical and deliberately complicated. An Imperious Leader is always kept in preparation on the Cylon homeworld should the reigning leader die or be destroyed.

Hierarchy and Command Structure

The Cylon hierarchy consists of three distinct castes based on neurological complexity. At the bottom are Centurions, who possess only a single brain functioning as the body's guidance system. Centurions are not completely mindless but are almost helpless without constant guidance from the Imperious Leader. They function essentially as a hive mind, responsive to the Imperious Leader's commands.

The middle caste consists of cogitators, Cylons who possess two brains. The first brain serves as the body's guidance system ensuring efficiency of task, while the second brain contains skills for analyzing and interpreting facts. Working in tandem, these two brains enable cogitators to rise to executive officer positions and serve as diplomats, advisors, and strategic thinkers.

At the apex of the hierarchy sits the Imperious Leader with his three brains, wielding absolute authority over the Empire.

Military Assets

Base Stars

The primary capital ships of the Cylon Empire are base stars, massive warships equivalent to Colonial battlestars. A base star is an enormous structure shaped like a rounded pyramid at the bottom, with an identical inverse pyramid at the top, so that the peaks meet in the middle at the central core or shaft of the ship. Four launch and landing bays are spaced equally around the top portion of the base star.

The central core chamber connects the top and bottom halves of the vessel and houses communications facilities, with the bridge located in the lower part of the base star and the command chamber in the upper section. This core column represents a vulnerable point in base star design; when struck at battle speed with sufficient force and explosive payload, it can trigger a catastrophic chain reaction that destroys the entire vessel.

Starfighters

Cylon starfighters, known as Raiders, are deployed from base stars to engage enemy forces. Dark Raiders represent a specialized variant of these fighters. The Empire demonstrates remarkable capacity to replace losses, with Raider numbers seemingly replenished quickly despite heavy casualties.

Outposts and Infrastructure

The Cylon Empire maintains numerous outposts throughout the galaxy, including facilities in remote systems such as Ochoa in the Binary 13 system. These outposts serve as forward operating bases, manufacturing centers, and detention facilities. Spires jutting from the swamps on the Cylon homeworld serve as major structures, with the tallest housing the Imperious Leader's chambers.

Technological Capabilities

The Cylon Empire possesses advanced technology originally introduced by Iblis. This includes sophisticated genetic engineering capabilities used to create new generations of Cylons, cybernetic implantation systems, and cloning technology that rendered Cylon females extinct.

Centurions are equipped with cybernetically-enhanced brains, sophisticated armor plating, and horizontal visual scanner screens displaying a small red light that blinks back and forth. The Empire has developed improved Centurion designs featuring enhanced combat capabilities and Human Logic Function brain implants modeled after human neural patterns.

The Cylons also possess phasing technology that allows ships to subtly phase out of conventional reality, rendering them invisible to normal detection methods. This technology, though originally Cylon in development, shares characteristics with the far more advanced systems employed by the Lords of Kobol.

Xenophobic Nature and Alliances

The Cylon Empire is profoundly xenophobic, typically refusing to allow other races to operate on equal terms. However, circumstances have occasionally forced the Empire into temporary alliances. Most notably, the Cylons formed an alliance with the Chitain, a relationship unusual in that it appeared to be one of equals rather than commanders and subordinates. This alliance combined Cylon mechanical efficiency with Chitain bio-organic weapon systems, producing hybrid base stars that merged the cold Cylon aesthetic with technorganic Chitain weapons arrays.

Civil War

The Cylon Empire was eventually torn apart by civil war between factions representing different evolutionary philosophies. The conflict emerged when a faction of Cylons sought to purge all human DNA from their species, desiring to return to their pure reptilian roots. These rebels, driven by an overwhelming desire to eliminate every trace of human genetic material, rejected the hybrid nature that Iblis had imposed upon their race.

The movement toward more reptilian Cylons meant that the reptilian brain would become predominant over the machine logic that had been the driving force of the First Cylon Empire. The new reptilian Cylons were driven primarily by the emotion of hatred, behaving like narrow and bigoted beings despite reptiles naturally carrying no such emotional burden.

The rebels went to extraordinary lengths to create their own three-brained leader, a difficult procedure requiring stolen technology and heavy equipment used in secret. For the first time in Cylon history, two three-brained Cylons existed simultaneously. The rebels called their master Alpha Leader, while some sarcastically referred to the original Imperious Leader as Omega Leader, intending him to be the last of his kind.

The civil war raged across the Cylon homeworld itself, with attacks from the sky tearing apart the capital city. The pure reptilian Cylons employed horrific bio-mechanical weapons including pale-green pulsating sacs of liquid flesh with metal arms that extracted human DNA from victims through spinal columns, leaving desiccated mummies behind. The Imperious Leader launched counter-attacks using silver ships equipped with force fields, but both sides suffered tremendous losses.

Single-brained Centurions found themselves mechanically trapped by whichever programming they received regarding allegiance, some serving the original Imperious Leader while others followed Alpha Leader. The three-brained Imperious Leader was viewed by the rebels as a greater enemy than any humans, representing the last shreds of Iblis's influence that needed to be wiped from the cosmos.

Strategic Objectives

The Cylon Empire's primary strategic objective remains the complete extermination of humanity, a directive embedded in their very nature by Iblis. This mission drives virtually all Empire activities, from the pursuit of the Colonial fleet to the maintenance of outposts throughout the galaxy.

The Empire demonstrates remarkable persistence in tracking and engaging human survivors, deploying vast armadas described as countless warships, endless and numberless as grains of sand. The Cylons' ability to rapidly reinforce their numbers and replace losses through unknown means, possibly involving circumvention of conventional space travel or teleportation technology, makes them a perpetual threat.

Relationship with Count Iblis

Despite the Cylons' rebellion against their creator, Count Iblis continues to exert influence over the Empire. The Imperious Leader has been observed communicating with a swirling, oily black maelstrom floating in the air within his chamber, through which Iblis maintains contact. The darkness addressed the Imperious Leader as "Iblis," revealing a deeper connection between the Empire's ruler and its ancient creator.

To cogitators, the only Cylons capable of sophisticated conversation, Iblis was widely considered a myth. However, his continued existence and interference in Cylon affairs demonstrates that he remains a force to be reckoned with, having transcended physical limitations to meddle in the destiny of his creations.

The Imperious Leader has concluded that it is time for the Cylons to go their own way, free of Iblis's meddlings and interference, ready to write their destiny in flame and blood across the stars. However, achieving true independence from their creator proves to be one of the Empire's greatest challenges.

Territory and Expansion

The Cylon Empire maintains presence across multiple galactic quadrants, including significant forces in the Cyranus galaxy. The Empire's territory encompasses the Cylon homeworld and numerous outposts, with base stars positioned throughout known space. The Empire's expansion continues despite ongoing conflicts, with construction of new outposts and the steady build-up of military forces in regions where human presence has been detected.

Following the destruction of the Twelve Colonies, the Cylon Empire has focused substantial resources on hunting down and destroying the surviving Colonial fleet, deploying multiple base stars and countless Raiders in pursuit.