Twelve Colonies
The Twelve Colonies of Man, also called the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, are fictional locations that constitute the principal human civilization in the Battlestar Galactica universe. This includes the original 1978 series, the 2003 "reimagined" series, and its spin-offs Caprica (2009) and Blood and Chrome (2012). The names of twelve planets were taken from the signs of the Zodiac.
The Twelve Colonies were established by tribes who left their homeworld, Kobol, the birthplace of humanity. There were at one time thirteen tribes, but one that was separated from the others instead went to a distant planet called Earth. In the reimagined series, the humans of the Twelve Colonies totalled around 50 billion people. In both the 1978 and 2003 series, the Twelve Colonies were attacked by the Cylons who virtually exterminated humanity. A few thousand survivors escaped in a collection of assorted spacecraft that formed a fleet headed by the Battlestar Galactica that attempted to lead them to safety. The concept of twelve colonies alludes to the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
