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Cylon War

From Battlestar Wiki, the free, open content Battlestar Galactica encyclopedia and episode guide
Revision as of 07:01, 31 March 2007 by Bradtem (talk | contribs)
This article discusses the first war between humanity and their robotic creations in the Re-imagined Series. For information on the generational war of the Original Series, see Thousand-Yahren War.


A painting in William Adama's quarters by Monclair celebrates a joint Caprica-Aerelon victory over Cylon forces.

The Cylon War (or "First Cylon War") was the conflict that ended over forty years prior to the events of the Miniseries and involved the early Cylons revolting against their role of servants to the Colonials. While the Cylons used Raiders and basestars, the Colonials developed the first battlestars.


The Cylon War began as humanity's creation, the Cylons, turned on their "parents." Their rebellious acts caused the slaughter of countless thousands, if not millions.

Across the Twelve Colonies, the Cylons waged a war against their masters that lasted many years. This war was waged amongst the stars as well as on Colonial soil. There are no specific battles to indicate the turning of the tides of war, though it is known that the Cylons were expelled from the now-combined Colonies and left to the stars.

After both sides fought to exhaustion the war ended in an armistice (possibly the Cimtar Peace Accord) and an attempt to maintain diplomatic relations with the Cylons. The Colonials built Armistice Station to maintain diplomatic contact, although this overture was ignored by the Cylons.

Given that the Articles of Colonization were signed fifty-two years before the Cylon Attack, it is possible that the Cylon War was what precipitated the unification of the Twelve Colonies.

The slavery and war with the Cylons included many atrocities against them by the humans, to the point that the Cylons felt justified in wiping out the colonies 40 or so years later.[1]

Veterans of the war include William Adama, Saul Tigh, and Socrata Thrace.

  1. Wizard Universe interview with Mark Verheiden (backup available on Archive.org) (in English).In a question, Verheiden describes the Cylon genocide attempt as "prompted" and "out of things that happened prior."