Thirteenth Tribe: the lost Cylon people of Kobol
The Thirteenth Tribe were a race of cybernetic beings who originated on Kobol and left it to found their own world. They settled Earth, where the sentient machines they built rose against them in a war that ended in mutual destruction.
The Thirteenth Tribe were a race of cybernetic beings who originated on Kobol long before the Exodus of the Twelve Tribes. Their name for themselves is unknown, and "thirteenth tribe" is an exonym applied to them by others. They left their birthworld to found a colony of their own and settled the planet they called Earth, where they were ultimately wiped out in a war with the mechanical creations they had built. Their five survivors, reborn through resurrection, would carry the line of the Thirteenth Tribe forward as the Final Five. (Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit"; "Sometimes a Great Notion")
Origins on Kobol#
The Thirteenth Tribe arose on Kobol during the height of Kobolian power, when the understanding of robotics had advanced to the point of producing synthetic organic machines. After an unspecified period of strife, these beings left Kobol to create a colony of their own where they could flourish apart from the Kobolians. Their departure preceded the later Exodus of the Twelve Tribes, and their true name was never recorded, leaving only the exonym by which they came to be known. (Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit")
The journey to Earth#
On their way outward the Thirteenth Tribe briefly settled the world later remembered as the algae planet. There, within a mountain, they built a temple, the Temple of Hopes, later remembered in Colonial lore as the Temple of Five; its star went nova when Colonial and Cylon forces met there thousands of years later. After an unknown length of settlement they moved on, finally establishing their home on Earth; Colonial radiocarbon dating of the temple put the tribe's departure from Kobol at around four thousand years before the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Eye of Jupiter"; "Rapture"; "No Exit")
Civilization and downfall#
In the two thousand years following the Exodus, the Thirteenth Tribe built large cities across Earth and constructed increasingly sophisticated machine servitors driven by artificial intelligence. These machine servants, created to meet their makers' economic needs, eventually achieved sentience. The Earth Cylons rejected their enslavement and launched a violent rebellion, and the conflict culminated in a nuclear holocaust that brought about the apparent mutual destruction of both the Thirteenth Tribe and their creations. Millennia later, when the Colonial refugee fleet at last reached Earth, a radioactive trace still lingered in the ruined planet's ecosystem. These dates are rough guesses from scripture and carbon dating, and the series timeline shows how they fit together. (Battlestar Galactica, "Revelations"; "Sometimes a Great Notion"; "No Exit")
The five survivors#
The destruction of Earth was not total. Five members of the Thirteenth Tribe survived by reinventing the technology of resurrection, which their people had lost after leaving Kobol and learning to reproduce sexually. Reborn aboard a ship they had placed in orbit, these five endured the apocalypse that consumed their world. As the Final Five, they would travel to the Twelve Colonies and there create the humanoid Cylons, binding the fate of the Thirteenth Tribe to the wider history of the Cylon war and to the recurring pattern in which a created people turns against its makers. Galen Tyrol, Saul Tigh, Ellen Tigh, Samuel T. Anders, and Tory Foster were the last living heirs of the lost tribe. (Battlestar Galactica, "Sometimes a Great Notion"; "No Exit")
Frequently asked questions
- Who were the Thirteenth Tribe in Battlestar Galactica?
- The Thirteenth Tribe were a race of cybernetic beings who originated on Kobol long before the Exodus of the Twelve Tribes. Their own name for themselves is unknown, and Thirteenth Tribe is an exonym. They left Kobol to found a colony of their own and settled the world they called Earth.
- What happened to the Thirteenth Tribe?
- After settling Earth, the Thirteenth Tribe built increasingly sophisticated machine servitors using artificial intelligence. These machines achieved sentience, rejected their enslavement, and launched a rebellion that ended in a nuclear holocaust and the apparent mutual destruction of both peoples.
- How are the Thirteenth Tribe connected to the Final Five?
- Five members of the Thirteenth Tribe survived the destruction of Earth by reinventing the long lost technology of resurrection and being reborn aboard a ship placed in orbit. These five became known as the Final Five, and they went on to create the humanoid Cylons of the Twelve Colonies.
Sources
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "The Eye of Jupiter", Season 3, Episode 11 (2006)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Rapture", Season 3, Episode 12 (2007)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Revelations", Season 4, Episode 10 (2008)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Sometimes a Great Notion", Season 4, Episode 11 (2009)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "No Exit", Season 4, Episode 15 (2009)
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
Algae planet
The algae planet was a habitable world orbiting an unstable star, once visited by the Thirteenth Tribe and later sought by human refugees for its algae before a supernova destroyed it.
Eye of Jupiter: the BSG artifact, the Temple of Five and the supernova
The Eye of Jupiter was the marker on the road to Earth that both humans and Cylons went looking for in season 3 of Battlestar Galactica. Everyone expected an object hidden in the Temple of Five. It turned out to be the dying star overhead.
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.
Earth Cylons: the machines of the Thirteenth Tribe
The Earth Cylons were mechanical sentient beings created by the Thirteenth Tribe on Earth around two thousand years before the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. They rose against their makers in a war that left Earth a nuclear ruin and brought about the extinction of both themselves and their creators.
Earth
Earth was a world settled by the Thirteenth Tribe roughly four thousand years before the fall of the Twelve Colonies. Once home to a flourishing Cylon civilization, it was reduced to a radioactive ruin by a nuclear holocaust, and the Colonial fleet abandoned it days after at last reaching it.
Ellen Tigh
Ellen Tigh was the wife of Colonel Saul Tigh, a scientist of the original Earth, and the eldest of the Final Five Cylons. She led the work that rediscovered Resurrection and created the humanoid Cylon models, and was the only one of the Five to fully regain her memories.
Mentioned in20 entries
"Daybreak": the Battlestar Galactica finale and ending explained
"Daybreak" is the two-part finale of Battlestar Galactica: one last rescue mission, a jump to a new world, and a final scene set in our own time. Here's what happens in Parts I and II, and what the ending means.
Algae planet
The algae planet was a habitable world orbiting an unstable star, once visited by the Thirteenth Tribe and later sought by human refugees for its algae before a supernova destroyed it.
Battlestar Galactica (2003) Miniseries Explained: Plot Summary and Ending
The 2003 miniseries is where the reimagined Battlestar Galactica starts: the Cylons come back after 40 years, the Colonies burn, and one old battlestar leads about 50,000 survivors into the dark. Here's what happens across both nights, what the ending means and where it fits in the watch order.
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.
Brenik: the Cylon War boarding action Saul Tigh remembered but never lived
Brenik was a Colonial ship boarded by Cylons in the second year of the Cylon War, where 55 of 75 crew died fighting hand to hand over the ammunition magazines. Saul Tigh told the story as his own, and the memory had been written into him by Cavil before his resurrection.
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.
Earth
Earth was a world settled by the Thirteenth Tribe roughly four thousand years before the fall of the Twelve Colonies. Once home to a flourishing Cylon civilization, it was reduced to a radioactive ruin by a nuclear holocaust, and the Colonial fleet abandoned it days after at last reaching it.
Earth Cylons: the machines of the Thirteenth Tribe
The Earth Cylons were mechanical sentient beings created by the Thirteenth Tribe on Earth around two thousand years before the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. They rose against their makers in a war that left Earth a nuclear ruin and brought about the extinction of both themselves and their creators.
Ellen Tigh
Ellen Tigh was the wife of Colonel Saul Tigh, a scientist of the original Earth, and the eldest of the Final Five Cylons. She led the work that rediscovered Resurrection and created the humanoid Cylon models, and was the only one of the Five to fully regain her memories.
Eye of Jupiter: the BSG artifact, the Temple of Five and the supernova
The Eye of Jupiter was the marker on the road to Earth that both humans and Cylons went looking for in season 3 of Battlestar Galactica. Everyone expected an object hidden in the Temple of Five. It turned out to be the dying star overhead.
Galactica Cavil
Galactica Cavil was a Number One model humanoid Cylon who evacuated the ruins of Picon during the Fall of the Twelve Colonies and reached the refugee fleet. Welcomed aboard Galactica as a priest, he formed and led a hidden cell of humanoid Cylons working to destroy the fleet from within.
Galen Tyrol
Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol kept Galactica's flight deck running through the long flight from the Colonies, a respected and fiercely protective deck chief who learned that he was in fact one of the Final Five Cylons, descended from the Thirteenth Tribe.
+ 8 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.