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.

Kobol is the second homeworld of humanity after the destruction of Parnassus and the ancestral world of the Twelve Colonies.

History

Settlement

Following the destruction of Parnassus, the Lords of Kobol led their acolytes and many followers to a remote planet which would sustain them from the fruits of the land. This planet became known as Kobol, named after the House of Kobol itself.

However, mere centuries after settlement, the growing population began to squabble just as the people of Parnassus had done. The Lords of Kobol, having spent much of their solitude perfecting space travel, made a radical decision to leave the planet. They departed simply and quickly, leaving acolytes and followers behind to forever question what had happened to the Lords themselves. Their goal was to improve themselves and humanity as a whole, with legends implying they might have gone to Earth.

When the people of Kobol spread out into space once more, inhabiting the twelve-planet system called the Colonies, the first group to leave became the lost Thirteenth Tribe of Kobol. While many of the acolytes of the House of Kobol remained on the planet, others traveled far across space to the Colonies, specifically to Caprica, where they ruled. The pure-blooded descendants of the House of Kobol ruled Caprica for millennia, until the Cylons came.

Ancient City

The ancient Kobollians built an underground mirror city beneath the surface to house the last generation of its people and preserve their sacred records. This city contained all the information and wisdom of the ancients. The city was a smaller, mirror image of the one that stood above on the surface, with soaring towers and crenellated structures. The cavern walls and ceiling glowed with an eerie phosphorescence, as if some mineral or naturally-occurring moss gave out a vaguely-green, diffuse light.

Destruction by the Cylons

Kobol was devastated by the Cylons over a thousand yahren before the Battle of Cimtar. The surface was left in ruins, with rusted wreckage of downed Viper fighters scattered throughout the cracked and broken city streets. Great weeds and vegetation reclaimed the planet. Shattered buildings leaned against those still upright, and the great presidium lay buckled and tossed at crazy angles, bearing painted messages of "PEACE!" and "GODS HAVE MERCY ON US" from the doomed populace.

Even the ancient pyramids did not escape the relentless brunt of the Cylon attack. Great, broken stones lay scattered everywhere, and the pyramids themselves were heavily damaged, jutting up like rotten teeth.

Geography

Surface

The surface of Kobol featured ancient pyramids ringed by wilderness. A large pyramid was surrounded by several smaller ones, forming a site of great spiritual significance. The landscape was characterized by rock, stone, and sand where the vegetation dropped away around the pyramid sites.

Underground City

The underground mirror city was accessed through concealed entrances within the pyramids. Stone staircases spiraled downward from the pyramid temples, carved from colossal pillars of stone that stretched from the depths to the roof of the cavern.

The city itself spread and sprawled outward and spiraled upward within a gigantic cavern. Its buildings were made of the same light-emitting stone as the cavern walls, creating a phosphorescent glow throughout the underground metropolis. The roof of the cavern was almost lost in the distance. Trees and close-cropped shrubbery lined the sides of long, shallow reflecting pools of clear water, and avions nested in the trees and perched on window sills and rooftops.

At the heart of the city stood the presidium, located in a recessed well with arborial growths flourishing in stone pots arranged in terraced steps forming a graceful hemisphere.

The Caretakers

Following the Cylon destruction of Kobol, a group called the caretakers survived in the underground city for succeeding generations. Led by Segis and her servant Talen, these robed figures were the descendants of those who stayed behind when the last humans left for the stars many millennia earlier.

The caretakers claimed to be a distant branch of the Kobollian race, as all humanoid races came from Kobollian blood. They were protected by a unique defensive shield that surrounded the underground city, keeping them safe and undetected from the Cylons.

Return of the Fleet

Approximately eighteen yahren after the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, the Fleet returned to Kobol under unusual circumstances. Segis appeared via holographic transmission to all ships, welcoming them to Kobol. The caretakers claimed they had remotely input coordinates through quantum space to bring the fleet to Kobol rather than their originally intended destination, which would have been overrun by Cylons.

Commander Apollo had visited Kobol before with his father Adama nearly twenty yahren earlier. During the fleet's return, he explored the pyramids again, finding the temple easily and locating the sigils carved into the base of stone that would open the secret door. Inside the pyramid's deepest chambers, he found the same temple where Adama had once spoken to him about their heritage.

The caretakers showed the fleet ancient texts inscribed in stone, which were translated with the assistance of Uriah from Cerberus, the fleet's archives ship. The writings were confirmed as genuine, inscribed many millennia ago. These texts prophesied the return of the Colonials and stated that a great commander would lead humanity into final battle with the Cylons and reclaim the Colonies.

Commander Cain advocated for the fleet to remain on Kobol, seeing it as an ideal location from which to rebuild and reclaim their homeland. The underground city appeared to offer everything needed for survival, including protection from Cylon detection.

Ceremonies

A funeral ceremony was held in one of Kobol's temple chambers for Starbuck. During the ceremony, an eerie light filled the chamber from nowhere and everywhere at once, bouncing in geometric shapes off the symbols and sigils on the walls before striking Starbuck's head. Apollo had witnessed the same phenomenon during his previous visit with Adama, suggesting a connection to those of pure Kobollian blood.

Following the funeral service, Starbuck's body was placed in his favorite Scarlet Viper, and the fighter was launched from Galactica.

Final Destruction

Kobol was ultimately destroyed completely when Count Iblis, working with the Cylons and Chitain, attempted to annihilate the fleet. The planet's surface shuddered and rippled before collapsing inward upon itself as the incredible network of underground caverns and passageways crumbled. Buildings on the surface screamed and twisted as their bedrock vanished. Huge volcanoes thrust themselves up through the face of Kobol, and a fissure as large as the city itself opened and swallowed all that remained. The pyramids flung themselves apart layer by layer, exposing their ancient secrets before they too were consumed.

The planet's core exploded in a force like a mini-nova, spreading out in an ever-widening ring that vaporized space-borne Cylon and Chitain fighters and destroyed the attacking basestar. From the fiery heart of the destroyed world, three Light Ships rose like phoenixes and soared away into space.

Significance

Kobol held immense spiritual and historical significance as the ancestral world of the Colonials. It was considered a hallowed and haunted place, the cradle of life for humanity after Parnassus. The planet contained the sacred records of the ancient Kobollians and served as the focal point for understanding humanity's origins and destiny.

Commander Apollo viewed Kobol as central to understanding the nature of the Lords of the House of Kobol and the true purpose of the Thirteenth Tribe. The sanctuary aboard Galactica was built into the ship's design more than five hundred yahren ago without the knowledge of the other colonies, determined to preserve a Kobollian sanctuary aboard ship as a connection to this heritage.

References

 

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