Aerilon

Colors and symbol of Aerilon

Note: some of the information below is taken from Beyond Caprica: A Visitor's Pocket Guide to the Twelve Colonies

Aerilon is primarily an agricultural world, known as the "food basket" of the Twelve Colonies.

Despite this, Aerilon is considered to be one of the poorest Colonies ^{(TRS: "Dirty Hands")}. Its capital city is Gaoth.

Government

Aerilon's government provides little or no support for health care, education, or other social infrastructure services. However, Aerilonians accept police with broad powers to detain, imprison, and torture suspects.

Economy

Although Aerilon's soil is not very fertile and requires intensive cultivation to achieve plentiful harvests, it is primarily an agricultural world. The capital, Gaoth, started as a prairie town on intersecting cattle trails. Aerilon also has tylium mines, and Promethea, one of the larger cities on the planet, was founded as a mining town on the edge of a region known as the Badlands (Blood and Chrome, deleted scenes).

History

Fifteen people died when President Richard Adar, for reasons unexplained, sent the Marines to Aerilon ^{(TRS: "Water")}.

Culture

While imprisoned on Galactica, Gaius Baltar talks extensively about Aerilon, confirming that it, not Caprica, was his birth world. He imitates the speech mannerisms of a stereotypical native, a farmer who likes to work with his hands, and "go down to the pub for a pint" and have a fight at the end of the night. In doing this, Baltar puts on a strong raspy "Aerilon" accent ^{(TRS: "Dirty Hands")}.

Likewise, the musical and visual arts of Aerilon are informed by simple, harsh agrarian and working-class sensibilities.

Education

Aerilon's prime educational institution, the University of Aerilon, is located in Gaoth. It is known for producing artisans, such as writer Mark Bailey whose works became well-known in YR42 (The Caprican: "The Bottom Five Backtalk Guests").

Its rival, the Promethea Agricultural and Mechanical (A&M), is based in the mining boomtown of Promethea (Blood and Chrome, deleted scenes).

Other

The only visual depiction of Aerilon.

• The professional Pyramid team from Aerilon played against the Caprica Buccaneers in one of the last games before the Cylon attack. They apparently won ^{(TRS: "Resistance", "Resistance")}.
• A photo of a grief-stricken soldier staring out at the ruins of Aerilon's capital hangs behind President Roslin's desk and on the bulkhead of a pilot ready room on Galactica. The pilots touch the photo for luck and in a sign of respect as they leave the room. This photo of Aerilon gives viewers one of the few visual depictions of life on a colony other than Caprica.
• Aerilon Crystal table salt is used by Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson in the Salt Line Ceremony ^{(TRS: "Exodus, Part I")}.
• Several of the Colonies' greatest artists, writers, and political leaders came from the planet, although their fame was almost always achieved after leaving Aerilon.

Natives

Pre-First Cylon War

• Julius Baltar
• Coker Fasjovik, Colonial flight officer during the Cylon War ^{(TRS: "Blood and Chrome")}.
• Mark Bailey
• Saul Tigh

Post-First Cylon War

• Gaius Baltar
• Alisander Asiel, Aerilon's representative to the Quorum of Twelve ^{(TRS: "Colonial Day")}.
• Sekou Hamilton, presumed; editor of the Aerilon Gazette ^{(TRS: "Colonial Day")}.
• Socinus, presumed; the zodiac sign of Aries is tattooed on his arm (TRS: "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I," deleted scene).

Publications

• Aerilon Gazette

Locations

• Cuffle's Breath Wash
• Euclid River
• Promethea
• Gaoth

Notes

• The spelling of this colony is sometimes inconsistent in the Re-imagined Series' official cast and crew notes and episode content, in the same way that the Original Series had inconsistent spellings of "Centurion" and "Centurian". The colony is spelled "Aerilon" in the episodes "Home, Part I" and "The Son Also Rises" in official Colonial documentation, as well as placards from "Colonial Day" and various Season 4 episodes. Further research into this has lead Battlestar Wiki to choose the more prevalent spelling that appears on various props in the series, as well as spellings from the scripts: "Aerilon".
• Socrata Thrace and Galen Tyrol pronounce the name as "Air-lon," while Baltar pronounces it "Air-e-lon".