Temple
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A temple is a place of worship for the Lords of Kobol in the Re-imagined Series.
The tribes that formed the Twelve Colonies had many temples on their worlds. A logical presumption is that the remnants of humanity that comprise the Fleet had opened temples aboard their ships for worship after their homeworld temples are destroyed by the Cylon attack. Clergy such as Brothers, Sisters, priests, and oracles are presumed to be the central celebrants during formal services and hold counseling there. Colonials can also visit temple on their own for private worship.
Temples may be named after a specific Lord or Lords. A temple on New Caprica in which the police killed 23 people is formally known as the Temple of Artemis (TRS: "Collaborators").
New Caprica
On New Caprica, temples are created within tents. With the Cylon occupation of the planet, the human resistance uses a temple to hide what weapons they can gather in boxes that form an altar of a temple, knowing that the Cylons have respected the Colonials' sacred places and have not searched for weapons in temples.
A temple's altar may be decorated with stones, candles, tiny idols representing a Lord of Kobol, an piece of animal fur, and a dish containing polished stones, perhaps offerings to the gods from the meager resources that New Caprica provides. Temples were likely decorated more elaborately on the Twelve Colonies.
Nora Farmer repeatedly asks Tucker "Duck" Clellan to join her in temple in the hope for a child. Unfortunately, these hopes are dashed when the Cylons attack temple, killing Nora.
Sister Tivenan manages a temple on New Caprica, where she blesses the Tyrol's infant son Nicholas Tyrol at his dedication ceremony (TRS: "Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance").
Other temples
The descriptions of ancient Kobol tell of a Temple, located in the City of the Gods.
The Thirteenth Tribe created an expansive temple on an unnamed habitable planet known in the Sacred Scrolls as The Temple of Five. It is discovered mysteriously by Galen Tyrol, the son of a priest and an oracle (TRS: "The Eye of Jupiter").
A temple is made on Galactica herself after the Fall of the Colonies. This temple is created by Brother John Cavil and is used as a meeting place for other Cylons in the Fleet, where many of the initial attempts at disrupting the Fleet are planned (TRS: "The Plan", "Litmus", "Six Degrees of Separation"). Despite the Cylon connection, this temple is later re-appropriated by Colonial citizens and is used for Callandra Henderson Tyrol's funeral service, as well as later desecrated by Gaius Baltar and his religious group's harem (TRS: "Escape Velocity").
Notes
- On the real-world Earth, the word "temple" is derived from the Latin word templum (sacred place). The term is commonly used, formally and informally, by several religions as a name for their places of worship.
- In the United States, followers of Judaism speak of "going to temple" when attending services at their house of worship, the synogogue. Also, the faith of the LDS Church use "temple" as the name of their worship buildings, in contrast to the usage of the term "church" as the principal worship structure for other Christian faiths.
