This page is my attempt at creating a timeline for the reimagined BSG series and it's spin-off series Caprica. This timeline contains MAJOR SPOILERS for that universe. This is also a work in progress, and is not meant to be all encompassing.
All of this has happened before, and will happen again:
The planet Kobol is the birthplace of humanity.
There are 12 tribes of humans on Kobol.
The human beings build Cylons; robots that are enslaved.
War breaks out between humans and Cylons; Cylons can resurrect
through genetic memory transfer.
Cylons at some point take on human form and become known as the 13th Tribe of Kobol.
The 13th tribe departs Kobol for a planet they name Earth.
The Cylons on Earth eventually begin procreating and they stop resurrecting.
The humanoid Cylons on Earth build their own Centurions who are enslaved.
Five Cylons (Ellen Tigh, Saul Tigh, Galen Tyrol, Tory Foster & Sam Anders)
are warned about a coming nuclear destruction by Angels - informing them of
a coming Centurion rebellion.
The five tap back into the tech for resurrection so that when they die during the
coming destruction they will be downloaded into new bodies on a ship in orbit.
The Centurions & humanoid Cylons destroy each other; Earth is left a nuclear
wasteland.
The Final Five surviving Cylons begin a sub-light journey to Kobol to warn the
12 tribes to not make the same mistakes they did. The trip takes 2,000 years.
At some point, something happens on Kobol and the 12 tribes leave the planet,
forming colonies on different worlds: Aerilon, Aquaria, Canceron, Caprica, Gemenon,
Leonis, Libran, Picon, Sagittaron, Scorpia, Tauron & Virgon.
58 years before 'The Fall' of the colonies, 18 years before the arrival of the Final Five, on Caprica, Daniel Graystone creates new Centurion Cylons and the cycle begins again. These Centurion Cylons have a belief in 'the One True God' thanks to the first Cylon being a copy of Daniel's brilliant mono-theistic daughter Zoe.
10 years into the Colonial / Cylon war, William Adama serves onboard the Battlestar Galactica.
When the Final Five eventually track down the Colonies the Colonials are already at
war with the Cylon Centurions. The Centurions want to evolve into human form and
have been experimenting on humans with little success, though these experiments
have created the Hybrids. The Final Five cut a deal with the Cylons telling them if they
end the war with the humans The Five will give them the tech to create multiple copies
of humanoid Cylons. The Centurion Cylons sign an armistice with the Colonials.
The Cylons leave Colonial space and live at The Colony (a huge Cylon base ship) where
during 40 years of peace with the Colonials (whom they have no contact with) they develop
8 humanoid Cylon models:
01 John Cavil
02 Leoben Conoy
03 D'Anna Biers
04 Simon
05 Aaron Doral
06 Caprica / Shelly Godfrey / Gina Inviere / Natalie / Lida / Sonja
07 Daniel
08 Sharon "Boomer" Valerii / Sharon "Athena" Agathon
The Ones were named John after Ellen's father and created in his likeness. He was
treasured by the Five and assisted them in the creation of the other seven models.
John is an atheist & does not support the Cylon mono-theistic religion gleaned from the
Caprican Cylons & the Final Fives' Angelic visions; all other Cylons appear to share a mono-
theistic belief system. John doesn't understand his creators' love for humanity and resents
being created in their image; wishing to be a better machine. John also desires revenge
against the Colonials for their previous war and enslavement of the Caprican Cylons.
At some point John becomes jealous of Ellen's maternal favoritism of the Daniels and
sabotages the Sevens' genetic code and amniotic fluid, wiping out the entire line
permanently. John later traps the Final Five in a room, suffocates them, and boxes
them before they can be resurrected fully. Later, he obscures their original memories,
gives them false ones, and plants each of them among the humans in an effort to teach
them a lesson about their foolish appreciation for humanity. John also corrupts the
memories of the other six surviving models to remove the knowledge of the Final Five's
identities and programs them to not think about the matter, though they still know that
another 5 models are extant; none of them seem to remember the Daniels at all or
question the oddity of the missing number seven in their lineup.