Millennia ago, the human race left its motherworld Kobol and inhabited planets in another region of space. Humanity thrived on these twelve colonies and built a wondrous civilization founded on the principles of their ancestors.
One thousand years ago, peace was shattered when the Colonies made contact with the Cylon Empire; a race of advanced beings who had replaced their living bodies with cybernetic ones. The Cylons hated the free thinking human race and launched a genocidal war that had only one objective: The annihilation of monkid.
In response, the human race constructed huge space fortresses called Battlestars and engaged the Cylons in a thousand year war. Later, a human race emissary named Baltar negotiated peace between his people and the Cylon Empire. Unknown to anyone, Baltar was working with the Cylons and cleverly maneuvered the human fleet away from its colonies. The Cylons launched the largest assault in the history of galactic warfare and the Colonies were completely destroyed. The only surviving battlestar, GALACTICA, led the handful of human survivors into space on a journey to find the lost thirteenth tribe and a planet called earth.