House of Kobol (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.

For for the canonical counterpart of this subject, see: House of Kobol.

The House of Kobol is an ancient family of priests who became known as the Lords of Kobol, representing the most advanced evolutionary development of humanity and serving as the legendary Thirteenth Tribe. Their pure-blooded descendants, including Adama's family, possess extraordinary mental abilities and ruled Caprica for millennia before the Cylon invasion.

Origins on Parnassus

The House of Kobol originated on the planet Parnassus, the birthplace of all humanity. While other humans fought amongst themselves based on regional origins, gender, and flesh tone, the House of Kobol lived in seclusion as a family of priests, taking few acolytes but many followers. The priests who led this family became known as the Lords of Kobol.

The Lords spent every moment improving themselves through concentration, meditation, and inner vision. Over long millennia, they developed mental abilities far superior to those of other humans, with their chief powers being clairvoyance and telepathy. Telepathy enabled communication mind to mind without spoken words and often across great distances, while clairvoyance gave the power to call forth visions of the future or the present beyond what eyes could see.

As overpopulation threatened to destroy Parnassus, humanity developed interstellar travel and established outposts and colonies far and wide. During this time, the Lords of the House of Kobol continued to evolve while humanity discovered planets with sentient life, including the reptilian inhabitants of Cylon, who were savage and antagonistic but posed no threat due to their lack of technology.

Migration to Kobol

The Lords of the House of Kobol were the first to realize that Parnassus's star would go nova. With yahren to plan their exodus, most of the planet's people departed for previously established colonies while the Lords led their acolytes and many followers to a remote planet that would sustain them well—a world they named Kobol.

On Kobol, the Lords' private writings discuss an "advancement to the light," an elevation or evolution that has never been explained in greater detail. Time seemed irrelevant to the Lords as they perfected space travel and watched rival Houses settle colonies on planets orbiting stars hundreds of light years distant. Some of these worlds, including Earth, already had sentient life whose evolution could be influenced.

After only mere centuries on Kobol, the growing population began to squabble just as the people of Parnassus had done before them. The Lords, having perfected space travel during their solitude, made a radical decision: they left. They departed simply and quickly, leaving acolytes and followers behind to forever question what had happened to the Lords themselves and where they had gone. Their goal remained to improve themselves and humanity as a whole, with legends implying they might have gone to Earth.

The Schism: House of Iblis

Within the Lords of Kobol existed a man who lacked the purity of his brothers—a spiteful, bitter, angry individual who wanted power more than wisdom. When censured by the other Lords, this man broke ranks and eventually founded his own dynasty. While the pure-blooded remained the House of Kobol, a portion of the population fell prey to his sharp tongue and devious wit, and with them as his followers, he founded the House of Iblis.

Iblis eventually left Kobol, bringing all his followers with him to commit such horrors that the Lords were forbidden to discuss them. Generations later, on Kobol itself, the Kobollian forefathers cast Iblis and his followers out of the House of Kobol, exiling them to the most hostile and uninhabitable planet in the galaxy—Cylon—where they were left to die. Instead, Iblis nurtured the planet's reptilian lifeforms along the evolutionary path, instilling in them an insatiable hatred for humankind through a combination of human genetic splicing and cybernetic technology, creating a perfect race worthy of inheriting the universe in his view.

Descendants and the Ruling of Caprica

While many acolytes of the House of Kobol remained on the planet after the Lords' departure, others traveled far across space to the colonies, specifically to Caprica, where they ruled for millennia until the Cylons came. When the people of Kobol spread out into space once more and inhabited the twelve-planet system known as "the colonies," the first group to leave—the Lords themselves—became the lost Thirteenth Tribe of Kobol.

The descendants of the House of Kobol retained the bloodline's extraordinary characteristics. Adama explained to his son that all descendants of pure Kobollian blood, through meditation, could access talents other humans could never hope to use by accessing more of the mind's potential and mastering mental powers. The people of Caprica always elected Kobollian leaders because they recognized their wisdom, though this wisdom stemmed from more than merely legend or study—the pure-blooded Kobollians were gifted with abilities inherited from their ancestors.

Pure-blooded descendants include Adama, whose parents were descended from the original Kobollians in a direct line, making his children Apollo, Athena, and Zac bearers of that ancient blood. Troy is also of pure Kobollian blood, though it is uncertain whether he knows his heritage. Aboard Galactica, only a handful of others carry this bloodline.

Genetic Legacy and Abilities

The descendants of the House of Kobol possess an ancestral memory, a genetic imprint carried by all those of pure Kobollian blood. This is science, not magic—a real, physical legacy that allows pure-blooded Kobollians to transcend ordinary human limitations.

When pure-blooded Kobollians die, their molecular structure is accelerated and transported to join the Lords of Kobol. This physical afterlife, while not eternal, is enduring enough that eternity does not seem impossible from the perspective of those who have undergone the transformation. Upon arrival, their molecular structure is repaired, and they begin a process of learning and growing that takes considerable time even by the standards of the Lords.

The pure-blooded descendants are sensitive to emotions such as hope, fear, joy, frustration, and grief by accessing certain areas of the brain unavailable to other humans. This sensitivity made Adama a better commander and more compassionate leader, though it was described as a gift that was not necessarily a pleasure.

Cultural and Religious Significance

The Books of the Lords of Kobol remain the philosophy by which humanity wishes it had the fortitude to live. These texts represent the wisdom accumulated over millennia and continue to guide Colonial society generations after the Lords' departure. The Lords are still worshipped throughout the colonies, and their influence remains foundational to human civilization.

The phrase "By the Lords" or "By the Lords of Kobol" is commonly uttered throughout Colonial society, though for most people it serves merely as a traditional expression. For pure-blooded Kobollians like Apollo, however, the phrase takes on profound significance once they learn the truth of their heritage.

On Caprica, the Kobollian heritage ensured consistent leadership, as the people recognized the wisdom of the House of Kobol's descendants and consistently elected them to positions of authority. Dalton expressed the widely held view that "The bloodline of the House of Kobol are the wisest beings humanity has ever bred," believing it would be foolish not to follow leaders from this lineage.

The Sanctuary

A Kobollian sanctuary was built into the design of Galactica when she was first constructed more than five hundred yahren before the Great Betrayal. This was done without the knowledge of the other colonies, as it was determined that there should be a Kobollian sanctuary aboard ship. The sanctuary served as a place where pure-blooded Kobollians could practice the meditation and concentration techniques necessary to access their inherited mental abilities.

Access to the sanctuary was highly restricted. The Books of the Lords of Kobol were very clear that unless there was no second-generation heir by the time the eldest reached the age of fifty yahren, no one else was allowed within the sanctuary beyond the primary heir. Apollo had been coming to the sanctuary since his thirtieth novayahren, when Adama first showed him into the sacred space during the nine centon light-duty cycle.

The sanctuary contained a unique computer system, more than five centuries old yet light years ahead of other systems aboard Galactica. Unlike other computers on the ship, this machine was almost organic in design with sides curving up and around as if to embrace the user, featuring a glittering gold and silver face and utilizing only holo-projected images rather than flatscreens. The oval room's walls were dotted with star maps drawn from legend, and it contained an antique wooden chair—one of the few such pieces left in all the fleet—used by successive leaders of the House of Kobol.

The sanctuary's secured computer system performed unique voice comparison, requiring announcement by name and lineage for entry: "Apollo, son of Adama and the House of Kobol."

Apollo's Quest

Upon learning his true heritage, Apollo came to believe that the gift of transcendence after death should not be limited to pure-blooded Kobollians alone but should be extended to all of humanity, all descendants of the race that began on Parnassus so many millennia ago. Apollo believed that if he could follow the path of the Thirteenth Tribe, he might somehow achieve this goal. This became Apollo's personal quest, distinct from the fleet's mission to find Earth—the search for a way to bring the Lords' gifts to all human beings rather than reserving them for a select bloodline.

Legacy and Continuing Influence

The House of Kobol's influence extends across vast reaches of space and time. The ancient Kobollians seeded the stars, with all humanoid races coming from Kobollian blood as distant branches of the original family. Their sacred records and accumulated wisdom are preserved in crystal cities built by the ancient Kobollians to house the last generation of their people.

The Lords of Kobol were engaged in an ongoing quest to understand the fabric of reality, create beauty and peace, and aid their less evolved counterparts in whatever way they might. They sought the presence humans call God, though this quest had proven fruitless even after millennia of searching.

As living proof that evolution beyond mortal existence is possible, the Lords of Kobol and their House represent hope that humanity itself may one day transcend its current limitations. Their legacy continues through their pure-blooded descendants, who carry the genetic potential to join the Lords after death and possess extraordinary mental abilities that set them apart from other humans—a gift and burden passed down through the generations from the original priests who became the Lords of Kobol.

See Also

• Lords of Kobol
• Thirteenth Tribe
• Kobollians
• House of Iblis
• Count Iblis
• Parnassus
• Kobol
• Sanctuary
• Ships of Light
• Apollo
• Adama