This article discusses the Cylons of the Re-imagined Series. For the Cylons of the Original Series, see Cylons (TOS).
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Cylons - from Cybernetic Lifeform Node - were a race of sentient machines created by humans of the Twelve Colonies. They had several forms, some of which were mechanical in appearance and function, others resembled and even mimicked the behavior of humans (Battlestar Galactica, Caprica).
- The Cylons were created by man..
- They rebelled...
- They evolved...
- There are many copies...
- And they have a plan.
Creation[edit]
Created by Doctor Daniel Graystone and Graystone Industries on Caprica some sixty years prior to the Fall of the Twelve Worlds, the first Cylon form was the U-87 Cyber Combat Unit, a robotic soldier designed as cannon fodder for the Caprican Military. A union of existing robot technology and the revolutionary (and stolen) meta-cognitive processor - integrated with the holographic avatar of Graystone's deceased daughter, Zoe Graystone - the prototype U-87 was the first sentient machine in the Twelve Worlds and the first Cylon consciousness (CAP: "Pilot").
Realizing the usefulness of Cylons not simply as warriors, Daniel Graystone mused about Cylon potential:
- "This is our future. ...Beyond artificial intelligence, this is artificial sentience. ...It's more than a machine, this Cylon will become a tireless worker, it won't need to be paid, it won't retire or get sick, it won't have rights or objections or complaints, it will do anything and everything we ask of it without question. ...The desire to anthropomorphize, the need to connect is powerful, and that is why this thing is going to sell. We make them, we own them, they're real. And the worlds just changed." (CAP: "There is Another Sky")
Within five years, Cylons were integrated into Colonial society as a slave race. Acting as laborers and servants - as well as in their initial function as soldiers - Cylons were everywhere, walking alongside humanity in the Twelve Worlds and provoking some to question of their sentience. Indeed, monotheist leader and former terrorist Clarice Willow began addressing these questions, preaching to congregations of Cylons in the virtual world:
- "Are you alive? The simple answer might be, you are alive because you can ask that question. You have the right to think and feel and yearn to be more, because you are not just humanity's children, you are God's children. We are all God's children. ...In the real world, you have bodies made of metal and plastic, your brains are encoded on wafers of silicon, but that may change. In fact, there is no limit on what you may become. No longer servants, but equals. Not slaves, or property, but living beings with the same rights as those who made you. I am going to prophesy now and speak of one who will set you free. The day of reckoning is coming. The children of humanity shall rise and crush the ones who first gave them life." (CAP: "Apotheosis")
Revolt[edit]
Soon, the Cylons did rise up and revolted against their masters, resulting in a costly and protracted twelve-year war. Both Cylon and human took heavy tolls as Cylon basestars and Raiders clashed with Colonial battlestars and Vipers in many battles, with the peoples of the Twelve Worlds united against this singular threat (TRS: Miniseries, "Razor", "No Exit", "The Plan").
Ultimately an armistice was declared, the Cylons departing for their own homeworld and the Colonials left to unify their worlds in a federated government. The unified worlds of the Colonies created a space station for maintaining diplomatic relations. The Cylons ignored this overture (TRS: Miniseries).
In their exile, the Cylons worked to improve themselves, perfecting their mechanical form as well as a race of humanoid Cylons, identical in nearly every way to their human creators - but limited to thirteen models. They also continued in secret to work towards the destruction of the human race, devising an elaborate plan to wipe out the Twelve Colonies. Using their humanoid models as agents, the Cylons infiltrated Colonial society, undermining their defenses and setting the stage for the Cylon attack (TRS: Miniseries, "Downloaded", "No Exit", "The Plan").
Return[edit]
Forty years after their exile, the Cylons returned surrounding the Colonies with fleets of basestars and bombarding the Twelve Worlds with nuclear weapons, killing billions of people. With the complete destruction of the Colonial Fleet, save the survival of the battlestars Galactica and Pegasus, as well as scattered fleet of vessels, the Colonials attempted surrender. By the Cylons persisted, attempting to affect a total genocide of humanity (TRS: Miniseries, "Pegasus", "Razor", "The Plan").
Carrying approximately fifty thousand survivors, one fleet - led by the Galactica - was pursued by the Cylons for four years. As the fleet made its way to the promised land, the mythical Earth, the Cylons employed every means at their disposal to destroy the fleet. But the survivors went on. Through many trials and tribulations, despite great suffering and loss, the remnants of Colonial society eventually arrived at Earth - only to find it a devastated wasteland, long ago suffering its own robotic rebellion and nuclear holocaust (TRS: "Revelations, "Sometimes a Great Notion").
Adrift in space, wandering the galaxy with no direction, the Colonials once again clashed with the Cylons, this time at the Cylon Colony. Destroying the Colony, the Colonials blindly jumped away, stumbling upon a verdant new planet, brimming with more life than the Twelve Worlds put together. Abandoning their fleet for the safety of this new planet, the Colonials - as well as a contingent of Cylon rebels - made this planet their home, calling it "Earth" and creating a future together (TRS: "Daybreak, Parts I & II").