Gemenon: the First Colony
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.
Gemenon was one of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, the worlds settled by the humans who left Kobol, and by the time of the Fall the most religious of them, known for the religious fundamentalism of its people. Its neighbour Caprica was the Colonies' wealthy centre, while Gemenon was one of the poorer worlds. (Battlestar Galactica, "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I"; Battlestar Galactica, "Scattered"; Battlestar Galactica, "Dirty Hands")
History#
Gemenon was one of the twelve worlds founded by the tribes that left Kobol, and its people kept a reputation for faith that the other Colonials sometimes found extreme. The prequel series Caprica, set more than fifty years before the Fall, shows Gemenon as a stronghold of the Colonial religion and also the home of the Soldiers of the One, a monotheist group that worshipped a single god. (Battlestar Galactica, "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I"; Battlestar Galactica, "Scattered"; Caprica)
Gemenon was counted among the poorer of the Twelve Colonies. When the Cylons attacked, Gemenon was hit like every other colony: Cylon forces struck one of its cities as ships lifted off packed with refugees. (Battlestar Galactica, "Dirty Hands"; Battlestar Galactica: The Plan)
Culture#
Gemenon had its own language, Old Gemenese, by then old enough that few used it. The Cylon agent Gina Inviere took her surname from it: inviere means resurrection. The Kobol Colleges, a seat of learning mentioned in the miniseries, were also on Gemenon. (Battlestar Galactica: Razor; Battlestar Galactica, miniseries)
Frequently asked questions
- What is Gemenon in Battlestar Galactica?
- Gemenon was one of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, the worlds settled by the humans who left Kobol. Its people, the Gemenese, were known as the most religious of the Colonials.
- Why was Gemenon the most religious colony?
- The show never gives a full history, but the Gemenese were known for their religious fundamentalism, and the prequel series Caprica shows Gemenon as home to the monotheist group the Soldiers of the One.
- Was Gemenon a rich colony?
- No. It was counted among the poorer colonies.
- What happened to Gemenon in the Fall?
- Gemenon was attacked along with the rest of the Colonies. The Plan shows Cylon forces striking a Gemenese city as ships took off with refugees.
- What was Old Gemenese?
- Old Gemenese was an old language of the colony. Gina Inviere's surname comes from it and means resurrection.
Gallery




Images via Battlestar Wiki
Sources
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica (miniseries), Miniseries (2003)
- EpisodeKobol's Last Gleaming, Part I, Season 1, Episode 12 (2005)
- EpisodeScattered, Season 2, Episode 1 (2005)
- EpisodeDirty Hands, Season 3, Episode 16 (2007)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica: Razor, Television film (2007)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica: The Plan, Television film (2009)
- EpisodeCaprica, Television series (2010)
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry

Caprica: the Colonial capital
Caprica was the richest of the Twelve Colonies, seat of the Colonial government, and the world where the Cylons were built. The Cylon attack destroyed it.

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.

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.
Also in Reimagined Series
The red moon: where Starbuck was shot down and flew a Raider home
The red moon is a lifeless, waterless world orbiting a gas giant many jumps from the Twelve Colonies. Weeks after the Fall, Kara Thrace ejected into its frozen carbon dioxide atmosphere, then got off it by gutting the Cylon Raider she had shot down and flying it back into space.

Aerilon
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.

Aquaria
Aquaria was a cold, sparsely populated ocean world and one of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. Official guides describe it as a former research outpost that grew into a frontier colony governed by direct democracy.
Mentioned in25 entries
Aerilon
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.
Barnabas Greeley
Barnabas Greeley was a Caprican Monotheist and a cell commander of the Soldiers of the One. He defied the organisation's Caprican leadership with a campaign of unsanctioned violence, and was eventually executed by his own organisation for it.
Battlestar Galactica Timeline: every major event from Kobol to the arrival on Earth
The Reimagined Series chronology in order, from the exodus from Kobol and the death of the first Earth to the Fall of the Twelve Colonies and the fleet's arrival 150,000 years ago. A shorter section at the end covers the separate 1978 series and Galactica 1980.
Ben Stark
Ben Stark was a Caprican student and Monotheist drawn into the Soldiers of the One. He carried out the suicide bombing of a Caprica City Maglev train, an attack that killed his girlfriend Zoe Graystone and many other passengers.
Caprica: the Colonial capital
Caprica was the richest of the Twelve Colonies, seat of the Colonial government, and the world where the Cylons were built. The Cylon attack destroyed it.
Clarice Willow
Sister Clarice Willow was a secret Monotheist and the leader of the Soldiers of the One on Caprica, who sought to use Zoe Graystone's avatar program for a mass killing she called Apotheosis.
Cybele: the freighter that fled Gemenon
The Cybele was a Colonial freighter that survived the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. Escaping Gemenon in the opening hours of the attack, it joined the fleet that gathered near Caprica and carried among its passengers a hidden humanoid Cylon.
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.
Cyrannus: the Colonies' four suns
Four stars in a double binary, Helios Alpha through Delta, holding all Twelve Colonies. Refugees from Kobol settled them two thousand years back.
Gemenon Liner 1701
Gemenon Liner 1701 was a civilian cruiser operated by Gemenon Liners and the namesake of her type. After the Fall she drifted powerless until Colonial One found her and her passengers were rescued.
Gemenon Traveler
The Gemenon Traveler was a bulk cargo vessel that escaped the Fall of the Twelve Colonies as part of the Fleet. She is best remembered as the ship aboard which the Cylon infiltrator Leoben Conoy was found, interrogated, and finally ejected into space.
Giana O'Neill: the deck hand who survived the Fall
Giana O'Neill was a human refugee who survived the Fall of the Twelve Colonies by winning a lottery seat aboard a Raptor. She enlisted in the Colonial Fleet as a deck hand and was later reunited in the fleet with the husband she had believed lost, unaware that he was a humanoid Cylon.
+ 13 more
Get new articles in your inbox
No spam. New lore drops, canon conflicts, and deep dives only when they’re worth reading.
Some links on Lore Fortress are affiliate links. If you buy through them we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.