Cylon History
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Over 52 years prior to the destruction of the Colonies, the humans of the Twelve Colonies reveled in their advanced technology, from which came their most unique creation, the Cylons. A race of intelligent machines, the Cylons were constructed for the purpose of performing tasks no human desired to do. The Cylons were used in hazardous work, including wars between the colonies (before the Articles of Colonization, most or all colonies were sovereign states).
The Cylon War
Then the day came when the servants turned against their masters, and the Cylon War began. Humans responded by unifying their Colonies into a federal republic (with the Articles of Colonization) and building battlestars and fighter craft named Vipers to combat the Cylons. To date, no reason has been offered as to how or why the Cylons rebelled.
The war lasted nearly 12 years, with the Colonies close to a fall. But an armistice was declared, and the Cylons departed the Colonial worlds in search of a home of their own.
Returning Home
While absent from human observation during the armistice, Cylons eventually evolved or created new models of Cylons that were organic in nature and essentially identical to humans. The evolution is most likely a result of learning capabilities incorporated into the early Cylons. Without examining for very specific biological characteristics, it is nearly impossible to determine the difference between a humanoid Cylon and a human (Miniseries).
As well, the Cylon revised the original Cylon robotic soldier, the sentient Cylon Centurion Model 0005, into a more agile and dangerous version. Unlike the original version, however, the new Centurion is not sentient by design, as the humanoid Cylons wanted to prevent these updated creations from forming an intra-Cylon uprising that mirrored their war with the humans (Exodus, Part I).
The Cylons, realizing that the Colonial forces would likely too strong to engage in a direct military action, devise an elaborate plan to infiltrate the Colonial ships' operating system software, leaving a backdoor that could be exploited to disable any Colonial ship with its own programming. The plan is successful; the Colonial Fleet is destroyed, the Colonies themselves subjected to nuclear bombardment, and humanity is all by wiped out, except for a handful of survivors on the Colonies in outlying areas as well as caravan of spaceborne humans that eventually escape the Colonial star system.
The Cylon design continued to use silica pathways as part of their design. This technology is vulnerable to a specific type of radiation found at Ragnar Anchorage, and reveals to the Colonials the existence of the humanoid Cylons (Miniseries).
Cylon forces that engage Galactica at Ragnar are able, thanks to prior Cylon infiltration on the Olympic Carrier, to drive and hound the Colonials for five consecutive days after the Battle of Ragnar Anchorage, losing their tracking advantage after the Carrier is discovered as the tracked ship and destroyed (33).
The Cylons now follow a monotheistic religion of their own devising. Among other tenets, their faith calls for the Cylons to reproduce biologically as part of their mandate to replace humanity. However, Cylon-Cylon reproduction was impossible, so, after the destruction of the Colonies, the Cylons occupy many of the worlds, killing any surviving humans they find, or pressing them into service in Farms, centers that harvested genetic material and fertilized humans with Cylon DNA in the hopes of creating Cylon-human hybrid children (The Farm). The Farms have been, to date, unsuccessful, so the Cylons attempted to emotionally bond a humanoid Cylon with a human, hoping that love would generate the desired result.
The experiment was successful, but is soon out of the Cylon's control for a time. The conception and birth of a Cylon-human hybrid, Hera Agathon, the child of a rebellious Number Eight and Lt. Karl "Helo" Agathon was born in the safety of the Colonial fleet.
Mixed Successes
The Cylons almost succeed in sending the Colonials into chaos when one agent nearly succeeds in killing Commander William Adama (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II). For reasons unknown, the Cylons do not press their tactical advantage at Kobol, either underestimating Kobol's importance to the Colonials and their search for information on the path to Earth.
Cylon forces continued to track and attack the Colonial fleet for months, keeping what few Cylon agents in the human fleet reinforced with a Resurrection Ship, used to resurrect the consciousnesses of killed agents and gain vital intelligence on the humans. Complicating their plans, the Colonials gain sufficient water and fuel resources ("Water," "The Hand of God") and reunite with a second battlestar, Pegasus (which had conducted hit-and-run operations against Cylon installations and forces before discovering Galactica). The Cylons suffer a major setback when the Colonial battlestars combine for an offensive action that all but destroys a Cylon fleet, including a Resurrection Ship. Without the Resurrection Ship, the Cylon battle tactic changes for a time to ambushes and traps ("Scar," "The Captain's Hand").
Benevolent Dictators
Two Cylon agents, both heroes in the Cylon ranks for their work in the fall of the Colonies but now influenced by their affection for humanity, manage to convince the Cylon majority for a time that the genocide and occupation of the Colonies was wrong. With this strange change in philosophy (the Cylons normally work in a collective, collaborative fashion that resemble the behavior of a bee colony more than a republic or democracy), the Cylons abandon the Colonies and go out in search of the Colonials.
The Colonials elude the Cylons for over a year by finding a hidden habitable world and colonizing it. The Colonials escape detection as the planet was located inside a nebula that masked its presence, but a nuclear detonation within the Colonial fleet left a marker for the Cylons to follow. The Cylons later find New Caprica and, in overwhelming numbers, make themselves as "caretakers" of the trapped colonists, occupying the colony and forcing the Colonials to surrender any weapons or resistance.
For approximately 138 days, the Colonials are subject to Cylon rule. But Galactica and Pegasus, which escaped New Caprica as the Cylon fleet arrived, devise a plan to rescue the approximately 38,000 humans on New Caprica. After retrieving the needed launch keys back from Cylon lockup, Galactica goes at the attempt alone, initially, in the final battle. While the old battlestar succeeding in allowing the New Caprican colonists to escape, is nearly destroyed itself where it not for Pegasus's entry into the fray. The advanced battlestar draws fire away from Galactica long enough for it to escape, then sacrifices itself, severely damaging one basestar and destroying at least two others as the battlestar and its remains collide with the Cylon attackers.
The Race to Earth
The Cylons abandon New Caprica as well, retrieving the Cylon-hybrid baby from the planet by happenstance, and turn their attention to the same objective as the Colonials: finding Earth. Using Gaius Baltar's research (who resides with the Cylon fleet at the time), the Cylon locate the Lion's Head Nebula. A scouting basestar finds an ancient probe in the area, reinforcing that the Thirteenth Tribe did pass through the area on their way to Earth. But the Cylon scout ship meets with disaster; the probe is contaminated with a virus that, while benign to humans, infects, deactivates or kills all Cylons, their ships, and their entities (Torn).
Other Cylons in the area discover that the pathogen has a bioelectric component that, should an infected agent be resurrected, could infect and kill all Cylons that are networked together. The Cylon fleet, which also includes a second Resurrection Ship, abandons the scouts and cuts off further communication. The Cylon scout ship eventually self-destructs and the Cylons manage to prevent the infection from spreading, although, unknown to the Cylons, the Colonials gain a critical biological warfare option (A Measure of Salvation).
Baltar and one erratic Number Three copy continue their search for Earth and gather information on a planet from an unlikely source, a Hybrid on one basestar. Matters become stranger when the Cylons encounter the Colonial fleet at a planet where the Colonials where harvesting foodstuffs. Instead of attacking the humans, the Cylons ask to meet the Colonial command. The Cylons offer the human fleet a chance to escape in exchange for leaving the planet. The Colonials, whose planet-based team has strangely discovered a temple left there Thirteenth Tribe, the Temple of Five, refuse. Both sides want to retrieve an artifact called the Eye of Jupiter, which may give new clues to Earth. Admiral William Adama threatens nuclear destruction of the Temple if the Cylons attempt to land there.
Unknown to the Colonials, a Cylon Centurion force has already landed on the planet and is preparing to engage the handful of Colonials on the surface. When the Cylons overtly send several Heavy Raiders towards the surface, the Colonials activate their nuclear arsenal in preparation for destroying the Temple (The Eye of Jupiter).
The Parent Trap
In the Re-imagined Series, an Oedipus theme exists between the creations (Cylons) turning on their creators (Colonials). The humanoid Cylons themselves draw the analogy of children murdering their parents:
- Miniseries: Number Six: "Humanity's children are returning home... today."
- "Bastille Day": Number Five: "But parents have to die. It's the only way children come into their own."
In Greek mythology, Oedipus was the tragic character of Sophocles' play Oedipus Rex. Without realizing it until much later, Oedipus murdered his father Laius, married his mother Jocasta, and had several children with her, as the Cylons have been trying to do in the Farms.
Also, a Six once referred to Sharon Valerii as "little sister" and one Cavil called another "brother", implying that all Cylon agents see each other as siblings.