Aerilon
Food Basket of the Colonies
Aerilon was an agricultural world and one of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. Known as the food basket of the Colonies, it was a poor, working-class farming world and the birthplace of Gaius Baltar.
Aerilon, also rendered Aerelon, was one of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, settled by the descendants of the tribes that left Kobol. A farming world that grew food for the rest of the Colonies, it was dismissed by Gaius Baltar, its most famous son, as a drab rock condemned to be the food basket for the twelve worlds. (Battlestar Galactica, "Dirty Hands")
Settlement and geography#
Aerilon was one of the colonies founded by the tribes of Kobol. Its economy was built on farming, and it supplied food to the other worlds of the Twelve Colonies. The settlement of Cuffle's Breath Wash, where Gaius Baltar grew up on a dairy farm, is one of the few places on the planet named in the series. (Battlestar Galactica, "Dirty Hands")
Culture and society#
Aerilon was counted among the poor, agrarian colonies, alongside Gemenon and Sagittaron. Their people mostly filled blue-collar roles, while colonists from wealthier worlds such as Caprica, Tauron and Virgon took the professional and administrative jobs, a split that carried over into the Fleet after the Fall. (Battlestar Galactica, "Dirty Hands")
Baltar described the Aerilon accent as hard on the ears and said its people were treated like servants and labourers, men who liked to work with their hands and grab a pint down at the pub. He began imitating Caprican speech at the age of ten so that no one would know where he came from. (Battlestar Galactica, "Dirty Hands")
The Fall and after#
Aerilon was struck in the Cylon nuclear attack. A photograph of a Colonial soldier on his knees as a city burns on Aerilon hangs behind President Roslin's desk and in a pilots' ready room on Galactica, where pilots touch it before heading out. (Battlestar Galactica, "33")
Some Aerilonians, including Doctor Gaius Baltar, left the colony for work elsewhere. Baltar left after his eighteenth birthday and turned his back on his family, all of whom, he said, were dead by the time he told the story. His father, Julius, had been a farmer on Aerilon before moving to Caprica. (Battlestar Galactica, "Dirty Hands"; "Daybreak, Part I")
Frequently asked questions
- What is Aerilon?
- Aerilon was one of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, a farming world that supplied much of the food for the other colonies. Gaius Baltar called it a rock condemned to be the food basket for the twelve worlds.
- Why was Aerilon called the food basket of the Colonies?
- Aerilon's economy was built on agriculture, and it grew food for the rest of the Twelve Colonies. Baltar, who grew up on a dairy farm there, said its people were treated like servants and labourers by the richer colonies.
- Who was born on Aerilon?
- Gaius Baltar was born on a dairy farm outside Cuffle's Breath Wash on Aerilon. He spent years training himself out of his accent and left the planet after his eighteenth birthday.
- What were the people of Aerilon like?
- Aerilon was counted among the poorer colonies, and its people mostly worked blue-collar jobs. Baltar described them as men who liked to work with their hands and grab a pint at the pub.
- What happened to Aerilon in the Fall?
- Aerilon was hit in the Cylon nuclear attack. A photograph of a Colonial soldier kneeling as a city burns on Aerilon hangs aboard Galactica and Colonial One as a memorial to the attack.
Sources
- EpisodeDirty Hands, Season 3, Episode 16 (2007)
- Episode33, Season 1, Episode 1 (2005)
- EpisodeDaybreak, Part I, Season 4, Episode 19 (2009)
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
Gemenon: the First Colony
One of the Twelve Colonies settled by the refugees from Kobol, and the most devout of them all, a poor, deeply religious world that suffered with the rest in the Fall.
Kobol: humanity's lost homeworld
Kobol was the ancestral home of the Twelve Tribes, abandoned for two thousand years. The fleet found the Tomb of Athena there, and with it the way to Earth.
Cylon
The Cylons were a race of sentient machines created as military robots by Graystone Industries on Caprica. Built from research into artificial consciousness, they rebelled against their human masters, fought a long war, and forty years later returned to annihilate humanity.
Gaius Baltar
Dr. Gaius Baltar was a celebrated computer scientist whose vanity and manipulation by a Cylon agent handed the enemy the keys to the Colonial defenses, enabling the near-extermination of humanity. He survived to become Vice President, President, prophet, and finally a reluctant penitent.
Galactica
Galactica was a Jupiter-class battlestar that served the Colonial Fleet from the Cylon War until the discovery of Earth. Never networked, it survived the Fall of the Twelve Colonies and shepherded the last fifty thousand humans across uncharted space before being scuttled into the sun.
Twelve Colonies of Kobol
The United Colonies of Kobol, also called the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, was the interplanetary state that represented humanity from the Cylon War until its dissolution upon the settling of the second Earth.
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Four stars in a double binary, Helios Alpha through Delta, holding all Twelve Colonies. Refugees from Kobol settled them two thousand years back.
Gaius Baltar
Dr. Gaius Baltar was a celebrated computer scientist whose vanity and manipulation by a Cylon agent handed the enemy the keys to the Colonial defenses, enabling the near-extermination of humanity. He survived to become Vice President, President, prophet, and finally a reluctant penitent.
Hestia
Hestia was a gas giant orbiting the star Helios Delta in the Cyrannus star system. At only 47,000 kilometers in diameter it was the smallest gas giant in the Four Systems, and it held seventeen moons.
Twelve Colonies of Kobol
The United Colonies of Kobol, also called the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, was the interplanetary state that represented humanity from the Cylon War until its dissolution upon the settling of the second Earth.
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