Editing House of Kobol (TOS-RH)

{{Separate continuity|universe=TOS|cont=Richard Hatch Novelizations}}{{Disambiguation|House of Kobol|for the canonical counterpart of this subject}}

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

== Origins on Parnassus ==

The House of Kobol originated on the planet [[Parnassus (TOS-RH)|Parnassus]], the birthplace of all humanity.<ref name="ARM54">{{cite book/RH|1|54}}</ref> 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.<ref name="ARM54" /> The priests who led this family became known as the Lords of Kobol.<ref name="ARM54" />

The Lords spent every moment improving themselves through concentration, meditation, and inner vision.<ref name="ARM54" /> Over long millennia, they developed mental abilities far superior to those of other humans, with their chief powers being clairvoyance and telepathy.<ref name="ARM54" /> 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.<ref name="ARM54" />

As overpopulation threatened to destroy Parnassus, humanity developed interstellar travel and established outposts and colonies far and wide.<ref name="ARM55" /> 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 (planet) (TOS-RH)|Cylon]], who were savage and antagonistic but posed no threat due to their lack of technology.<ref name="ARM55" />

== Migration to Kobol ==

The Lords of the House of Kobol were the first to realize that Parnassus's star would go nova.<ref name="ARM55" /> 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.<ref name="ARM55" />

On Kobol, the Lords' private writings discuss an "advancement to the light," an elevation or evolution that has never been explained in greater detail.<ref name="ARM55" /> 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.<ref name="ARM55" /> Some of these worlds, including [[Earth (TOS-RH)|Earth]], already had sentient life whose evolution could be influenced.<ref name="ARM55" />

After only mere centuries on Kobol, the growing population began to squabble just as the people of Parnassus had done before them.<ref name="ARM56" /> The Lords, having perfected space travel during their solitude, made a radical decision: they left.<ref name="ARM56" /> 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.<ref name="ARM56" /> Their goal remained to improve themselves and humanity as a whole, with legends implying they might have gone to Earth.<ref name="ARM56" />

== 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.<ref name="ARM152" /> When censured by the other Lords, this man broke ranks and eventually founded his own dynasty.<ref name="ARM152" /> 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 (TOS-RH)|House of Iblis]].<ref name="ARM152" />

[[Count Iblis (TOS-RH)|Iblis]] eventually left Kobol, bringing all his followers with him to commit such horrors that the Lords were forbidden to discuss them.<ref name="ARM152" /> 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.<ref name="RES173">{{cite book/RH|3|173}}</ref> 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.<ref name="RES173" />

== 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.<ref name="ARM56" /> 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.<ref name="ARM56" />

The descendants of the House of Kobol retained the bloodline's extraordinary characteristics. [[Adama (TOS-RH)|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.<ref name="ARM56" /> 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.<ref name="ARM54" />

Pure-blooded descendants include Adama, whose parents were descended from the original Kobollians in a direct line, making his children [[Apollo (TOS-RH)|Apollo]], [[Athena (TOS-RH)|Athena]], and [[Zac (TOS-RH)|Zac]] bearers of that ancient blood.<ref name="ARM54" /> [[Troy (TOS-RH)|Troy]] is also of pure Kobollian blood, though it is uncertain whether he knows his heritage.<ref name="ARM54" /> Aboard ''[[Galactica (TOS-RH)|Galactica]]'', only a handful of others carry this bloodline.<ref name="ARM54" />

== 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.<ref name="ARM151" /> This is science, not magic—a real, physical legacy that allows pure-blooded Kobollians to transcend ordinary human limitations.<ref name="ARM151" />

When pure-blooded Kobollians die, their molecular structure is accelerated and transported to join the Lords of Kobol.<ref name="ARM150" /> 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.<ref name="ARM151" /> 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.<ref name="ARM151" />

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.<ref name="ARM21">{{cite book/RH|1|21}}</ref> This sensitivity made Adama a better commander and more compassionate leader, though it was described as a gift that was not necessarily a pleasure.<ref name="ARM21" />

== Cultural and Religious Significance ==

The Books of the Lords of Kobol remain the philosophy by which humanity wishes it had the fortitude to live.<ref name="ARM150" /> These texts represent the wisdom accumulated over millennia and continue to guide Colonial society generations after the Lords' departure.<ref name="ARM150" /> The Lords are still worshipped throughout the colonies, and their influence remains foundational to human civilization.<ref name="ARM150" />

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.<ref name="ARM57">{{cite book/RH|1|57}}</ref> For pure-blooded Kobollians like Apollo, however, the phrase takes on profound significance once they learn the truth of their heritage.<ref name="ARM57" />

On [[Caprica (TOS-RH)|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.<ref name="ARM54" /> [[Dalton (TOS-RH)|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.<ref name="ARM32">{{cite book/RH|1|32}}</ref>

== The Sanctuary ==

A Kobollian sanctuary was built into the design of ''[[Galactica (TOS-RH)|Galactica]]'' when she was first constructed more than five hundred yahren before the [[Great Betrayal (TOS-RH)|Great Betrayal]].<ref name="ARM56" /> This was done without the knowledge of the other colonies, as it was determined that there should be a Kobollian sanctuary aboard ship.<ref name="ARM56" /> The sanctuary served as a place where pure-blooded Kobollians could practice the meditation and concentration techniques necessary to access their inherited mental abilities.<ref name="ARM56" />

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.<ref name="ARM52">{{cite book/RH|1|52}}</ref> 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.<ref name="ARM52" />

The sanctuary contained a unique computer system, more than five centuries old yet light years ahead of other systems aboard ''Galactica''.<ref name="ARM52" /> 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.<ref name="ARM53">{{cite book/RH|1|53}}</ref> 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.<ref name="ARM52" />

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."<ref name="ARM52" />

== 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.<ref name="WAR78">{{cite book/RH|2|78}}</ref> Apollo believed that if he could follow the path of the Thirteenth Tribe, he might somehow achieve this goal.<ref name="WAR78" /> 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.<ref name="WAR78" />

== 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.<ref name="RES99">{{cite book/RH|3|99}}</ref> Their sacred records and accumulated wisdom are preserved in crystal cities built by the ancient Kobollians to house the last generation of their people.<ref name="RES99" />

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.<ref name="ARM150" /> They sought the presence humans call God, though this quest had proven fruitless even after millennia of searching.<ref name="ARM150" />

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.<ref name="ARM150" /> 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.<ref name="ARM56" />

== See Also ==

* [[Lords of Kobol (TOS-RH)|Lords of Kobol]]
* [[Thirteenth Tribe (TOS-RH)|Thirteenth Tribe]]
* [[Kobollians (TOS-RH)|Kobollians]]
* [[House of Iblis (TOS-RH)|House of Iblis]]
* [[Count Iblis (TOS-RH)|Count Iblis]]
* [[Parnassus (TOS-RH)|Parnassus]]
* [[Kobol (TOS-RH)|Kobol]]
* [[Sanctuary (TOS-RH)|Sanctuary]]
* [[Ships of Light (TOS-RH)|Ships of Light]]
* [[Apollo (TOS-RH)|Apollo]]
* [[Adama (TOS-RH)|Adama]]

== References ==

<references />

[[Category:Organizations]]
[[Category:Organizations (TOS)]]
[[Category:Lords of Kobol]]
[[Category:Thirteenth Tribe]]
[[Category:Kobollians]]
[[Category:Caprica]]
[[Category:Colonial History]]
[[Category:Colonial History (TOS)]]
[[Category:Richard Hatch Novelizations]]