Origin
In the episode "...Different Destinations" the Peacekeepers are portrayed as having not always been the violent, predatory mercenaries they are in the present series timeline. Roughly 500 cycles ago, history recorded the bravery and self-sacrifice of a small detachment of Peacekeepers who gave their lives to defend innocent, unarmed nurses and children on the planet Jocacea.
Scorpius regularly argues that the Peacekeepers are essentially the only thing protecting the rest of the Milky Way Galaxy from being killed or enslaved by the Scarran Empire, which he thinks justifies their adoption of draconian measures.
In the Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars miniseries the tensions between the Scarrans and the Peacekeepers escalate into open conflict, due to Scorpius launching a pre-emptive strike against a Scarran battle-group.
In the ensuing conflict all Peacekeeper operations were presided over by Grand Chancellor Maryk, until he was assassinated (through poison) by Commandant Mele-on Grayza for suggesting a truce with the Scarrans. Grayza immediately took command of Maryk's fleet and launched an offensive against a Scarran armada that was attacking the last refuge of the Eidolons.
The Peacekeepers suffered defeat after defeat in the war, losing many systems under their control to the Scarran onslaught.
It is later revealed that the Eidelons created the Peacekeepers as their acolytes in order to maintain peace by using prehistoric humanoids (strongly hinted that they were humans) removed from a planet as a genetic base. With the disappearance of the Eidelons from the galaxy 12,000 cycles before the Farscape setting, they gradually transformed into the modern, militaristic Peacekeepers. Their home planet was described as being a "backwater planet on the outer spiral of the galaxy." It is quite possible that the Peacekeeper's original homeworld is Earth as they are so similar to humans and considering how far away and unknown Earth was before John Crichton entered the galactic scene.
Read more about this topic: Peacekeepers (Farscape)
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