Goa'uld: Difference between revisions

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A Goa'uld Symbiote

A Goa'uld Host's eyes glow

Summary

The Goa'uld are aquatic parasitic creatures which evolved into intelligent, but extremely evil, beings. A symbiote, as it is also known as, invades a host, usually human, through the back of the neck (some have been known to go through the front) and blends into the host's biological structure, attaching itself into the brain and thus gaining access to the host's knowledge and voluntary muscular system. The term "Goa'uld" is applied to both the symbiote itself and the blended host, since the host of a Goa'uld is prevented from exerting his own personality after the blending.

This article concentrates on the Goa'uld personalities, rather than on the symbiotes (covered in another article). To find out more information about each Goa'uld mentioned herein, use the links at the end of this article to read their more detailed biographical articles.

Stargate References

Stargate - The Movie

We learn of the parasitic nature of the Goa'uld when Daniel Jackson interpreted the pictorial story drawn on a wall in the old part of a temple on Abydos on his first mission there. This story told of how an alien being searched for a new host for his dying race and found the humans of Earth to be most suitable. This alien stole the identity of the god Ra of the ancient Egyptians of 10,000 years ago, forcing the ancient Egyptians into servitude. The young boy whom Ra took as a host remained his host for all of those thousands of years, his body sustained by the symbiote itself and the technology of the sarcophagus.

Ra

Daniel Jackson educated the Abydonians on the nature of their "god" and, as a result, they revolted, just as the people of Ancient Egypt had when they buried the stargate on Earth. Colonel Jack O'Neill and Daniel killed Ra with the bomb originally intended to destroy the Abydos stargate. As a result, the people of Abydos were freed and became Earth's first ally in the fight against the Goa'uld.

Seasons One Through Three

The next Goa'uld SG-1 encountered was Apophis, in the pilot, "Children of the Gods":

Apophis

Apophis came through the thought to be inactive stargate on Earth and captured a female sergeant. A violent battle was fought in the embarkation room, and casualties were suffered on both sides. The SGC learned about the nature of the Jaffa by examining the remains of one of Apophis' warriors.

They decided to return to Abydos and retrieve Dr. Daniel Jackson. Not long after they arrived, Apophis attacked Abydos and took Daniel's wife, Sha're, and her brother, Skaara, as prisoners. Major Ferretti saw the coordinates of the address to which Apophis escaped, so the SGC sent two teams after them.

When they arrive on the planet, later known as Chulak, SG-1, consisting of Col. Jack O'Neill, Daniel Jackson, and Capt. Samantha Carter, were captured. We learn that "Goa'uld" is an ancient Egyptian, Abydonian, or Chulakan term meaning "gods" when Skaara translated Apophis' First Prime Teal'c's announcement that some of the prisoners were to become hosts for the "children of the gods".

Fortunately, Teal'c realized that the humans of Earth had known freedom from enslavement to the Goa'uld and he decided to defy orders and save them and the rest of the prisoners. They made their escape and Teal'c was eventually accepted as the fourth member of SG-1.

We met three more Goa'uld in this mission: Amaunet, Apophis' queen who took Sha're as a host; Klorel, Apophis' son who took Skaara as a host; and an unnamed Goa'uld who took Major Charles Kawalsky as a host:

Amaunet

Klorel

Kawalsky's Goa'uld

The Goa'uld which had taken Kawalsky on Chulak was able to trick the SGC's surgeon, Dr. Warner, into believing that he had successfully extracted the symbtiote from Kawalsky. Unfortunately, in order to prevent the Goa'uld from killing more SGC personnel and escaping through the stargate, Kawalsky was killed (1.03 "The Enemy Within").

Apophis, Klorel and Amaunet escaped from Chulak.

SG-1 later met up with Apophis on the planet of the Nox (1.08 "The Nox"), but Apophis was removed from the planet before he could be captured for information leading to Sha're and Skaara.

In the episode, 1.13 "Fire And Water", SG-1 went to a planet, later called Oannes, where they believed that they witnessed Daniel Jackson being killed by fire. This incident was actually a false memory implanted by the Being of Oannes named Nem, who realized that Daniel knew about Babylon and recognized cuneiform writing. Nem was searching for the fate of his mate, Omoroca, and he felt that Daniel knew what it was. As it turns out, Omoroca had visited Earth during the Babylonian empire and attempted to keep the Goa'uld named Belus from enslaving the humans. Belus killed Omoroca, but Daniel assured Nem that her death was not in vain because the people of Egypt did revolt against the false gods and Earth was free. Nem let Daniel return to Earth to continue his search for his mate, Sha're. We later hear of the Goa'uld Marduk in Season Five and it is possible that this Marduk was the same Goa'uld as Belus.

The next Goa'uld encountered by the SGC was Hathor:

Hathor

Hathor had been in stasis in her sarcophagus in a Mayan temple and she was released when the archaeologists came upon her there. She was able to make it to Colorodo, sensing the stargate. Hathor attempted to take over Earth by drugging the men into submission and subjugating the women, but the plan backfired when Captain Samantha Carter and Dr. Janet Fraiser were able to lead a team of women to overcome their aggressor. Hathor was able to escape through the stargate to Chulak. Although extremely attractive, Hathor proved to be one of the most dangerous and evil of all of the Goa'uld. She raped Daniel Jackson for his DNA in order to make her subsequently-spawned Goa'uld larvae compatible with their future human hosts, and she attempted to transform Colonel Jack O'Neill into a Jaffa (1.14 "Hathor").

Even though the Goa'uld Nirrti is mentioned in the episode, 1.15 "Singularity", the SGC does not meet her face-to-face until a little later. It was discovered that Nirrti killed an entire population of the planet Hanka and all the members of SG-7, sparing only one little girl named Cassandra. Nirrti planted a bomb within Cassandra's heart to go off when she got near the naquadah of the stargate. It was intended that Cassandra be a Trojan Horse for Earth's destruction, but the SGC was able to discover the plan and thwart it.

Apophis led an attack on earth with Klorel at his side in the episodes, 1.22 "Within The Serpent's Grasp" and 2.01 "The Serpent's Lair Part 2", and even though SG-1 was successful at destroying their two motherships, Apophis and Klorel were able to escape. With the destruction of these two ships, Apophis' position was weakened and he attempted to improve himself by producing a new host. This new host was the human offspring of the host of Apophis and Sha're, but inherited the genetic memory of the Goa'uld. Such a child is called a Harsesis. Apophis sent his queen, Amaunet, to Sha're's homeworld Abydos to hide her there from the other System Lords who would hunt the child down and kill him. Daniel and Teal'c encountered Sha're on the planet and Daniel delivered the child with his own hands. Teal'c was successful at fooling Amaunet into thinking that the child was taken by Heru'ur, a known enemy of Apophis, but Daniel was able to give the child to Sha're's father, Kasuf, for safe-keeping in the episode, 2.09 "Secrets".

Heru'ur

An interesting twist in the Goa'uld story was the revealing of a same-specie enemy called the Tok'ra. The first Tok'ra met by the SGC, Jolinar of Malkshur, took Captain Samantha Carter as its new host at the moment its host died while Carter was giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Jolinar was attempting to evade a Goa'uld assassin, called an Ashrak, by taking different hosts and not revealing its presence. An Ashrak is a Goa'uld who has been specifically trained as an assassin and hired by the System Lords (2.01 "In The Line Of Duty"):

Ashrak

This particular Ashrak was killed in the embarkation room after he had attacked Carter/Jolinar and left them for dead. It was later revealed in the episode, 3.03 "Fair Game", that it was Cronus who had sent this Ashrak after Jolinar.

Apophis turned up again in SG-1's lives by calling them to his rescue in his escape attempt from Sokar, in the episode, 2.17 "Serpent's Song". Sokar had captured Apophis and was taking great delight in torturing him. The SGC took Apophis in when he asked for asylum, but after both the symbiote and host died, they sent him back through the stargate to Sokar because Sokar was attacking Earth with harmful radiation though the stargate in successive 38-minute intervals. The SGC was able to dial out between one of these attacks to send the body through and Sokar's attacks stopped.

Hathor later captured Jack, Daniel, and Carter, and left Teal'c for dead, in order to obtain up-to-date information on the power structure of the Goa'uld (2.22 "Out of Mind" and 3.01 "Into The Fire"). In her service were two Goa'uld, but one happened to be a Tok'ra spy. The Goa'uld who actually was serving Hathor posed as Major General Trofsky, a fake commander of the SGC of the "future":

Trofsky

Hathor had a very elaborate plan to get the information she wanted by making Jack, Daniel, and Carter think that they had been frozen in cryogenic chambers and recovered 79 years later. After Hathor's plan had been discovered, she decided to implant Jack with a mature symbiote and have him kill Daniel and Carter as his first act of loyalty:

Jack is implanted with Hathor's servant Goa'uld

Fortunately, the Tok'ra spy, Raully, was able to keep the symbiote from blending with Jack and kill it in the cryogenic chamber. Trofsky was killed in the rescue mission which freed Jack, Daniel, and Carter and Jack killed Hathor.

The Reetou were introduced in the episode, 2.20 "Show And Tell". They are an alien species which are 180 degrees out of phase with the humans of Earth, so they are invisible to the naked eye. The Reetou are enemies of the Goa'uld and there was a rebel force of them which believed that the only way to get rid of the Goa'uld was to eliminate all possible hosts. It was this extreme reasoning that led this group of Reetou to attempt to destroy Earth.

For a very brief moment, the life of the Goa'uld Seth was told in the episode, 3.02 "Seth":

Seth

He had been left behind on Earth when the stargate was buried in Egypt. From that time, he took on new hosts every few hundred years and started religious cults. Every time he moved, he'd slaughter all of his followers and establish his new cult somewhere else. Daniel Jackson was able to track down Seth in Washington state in the United States. They infiltrated his compound, saved his followers from certain death, and killed Seth in the process. His compound, loaded with Goa'uld technology, was destroyed after Seth had tried to kill everyone with a bomb.

Nirrti was one of three System Lords who came to the SGC to negotiate with the Asgard for conditions in the Protected Planets Treaty (3.02 "Fair Game"). We met two other System Lords at this meeting:

Nirrti

Cronus

Yu Huang Shang Ti

Lord Yu was the most amicable of the three. Nirrti attacked Cronus and tried to frame Teal'c for the incident. Because she used cloaking technology in the attack and had not disclosed this technology to the other System Lords, she was taken as a prisoner by Cronus. Earth was successfully placed in the Protected Planets Treaty and was able to keep their Stargate Program intact.

In the episode, 2.18 "Holiday", SG-1 encountered a very old man named Ma'chello. SG-1 discovered that Ma'chello was on top of the Goa'ulds' Most Wanted list because he invented several ingenius weapons to combat them. The Goa'uld had captured him, hoping to make him a host in order to preserve his knowledge, but he escaped. His Goa'uld-killing technology, spread about like World War II mine fields, was able to wipe out the Linvris, a group of nine minor Goa'uld who opposed the System Lords. The identity of these nine Goa'uld was never revealed (3.04 "Legacy").

In the episode, 3.10 "Forever In A Day", Amaunet was encountered for the final time as she steals the Harsesis and sends her trusted aide away with him, keeping him from the clutches of Heru'ur. When Daniel found Amaunet in the tent near the battlefield where other Abydonians had been captive, Amaunet tried to kill him using the ribbon device. While the link between the two was made through the device, Sha're was able to send a message to Daniel asking him to forgive Teal'c for killing her and for him to find the boy and keep him safe. Teal'c killed Sha're when he stopped Amaunet's attack on Daniel.

Viewers are given the privilege of seeing Sokar's face in the episodes, 3.12 "Jolinar's Memories Part 1" and 3.13 "The Devil You Know Part 2":

Sokar

Sokar took on the persona of the Devil and built for himself a prison on the moon Netu of the planet Delmak. Formerly an industrialized coloney, Netu was altered by Sokar to resemble Hell, including a tremendous amount of heat and fire. When Jacob Carter/Selmak were captured by Sokar, they were sent to Netu and tortured for information about the Tok'ra. Along with Martouf/Lantash, SG-1 went to Netu to free him. The facts that Goa'uld serve Goa'uld and that not every Goa'uld was a powerful System Lord were made very clear in these episodes, for we are introduced to two Goa'uld who served Sokar in his hellish prison camp, Bynarr and Na'onak:

Bynarr

Na'onak

Bynarr was the "Lord of Netu" and Na'onak served as his First Prime. Bynarr reported to Sokar. In a power struggle all their own, Na'onak killed Bynarr and took his place. He started an uprising among the prisoners to gain numbers to overthrow Sokar. Na'onak finally revealed that he was Apophis! Sokar had revived him in the sarcophagus after the SGC sent his body back and kept him as a slave, torturing him without mercy. Apophis, even with the healing powers of the sarcophagus and the symbiote itself, still bore scars on his face from his torment.

Sokar was killed when the ship he was on was destroyed when the moon Netu was made to explode. This allowed Apophis to take Sokar's domain and thrust himself into great power once more.

In the episode, 3.15 "Pretense", Heru'ur sent a battle group after Klorel, but the two motherships were destroyed when they entered Tollana's defense perimeter. Klorel's ship crashed on Tollana and through the injuries, Skaara was able to take control of his body long enough to ask the Tollan for help. The Tollan called SG-1 on behalf of Skaara to represent him in a trial known as a Triad in which it would be determined who would be given control of Skaara's body. For Klorel, the minor Goa'uld System Lord Zipacna answered the call:

Zipacna

A third, unbiased party was called into the Triad: Lya of the Nox. After much drama and the hearing of the arguments from both sides, Lya's vote was the deciding one. She chose to allow Skaara to have control of his body. The Tollan called the Tok'ra in to remove the symbiote from Skaara's body. They sent the symbiote to a planet under the control of the Goa'uld where a new host could be found for him. Skaara was free to return home to Aybdos.

SG-1 learned of the activities of a Goa'uld named Nefertum, son of Sekhmet, in the episode, 3.19 "New Ground". This Goa'uld transported people through the stargate years ago and a religion was born from it. Nefertum claimed to be the people's creator and placed them on the planet and this claim had the two major continents at war with each other: one side believing the creation story and the other side believing that they were brought through the stargate. Teal'c mentioned that he had done battle with Nefertum when he was in Apophis' service. Nefertum was an under-System Lord to Ra, but his current status or whereabouts were not revealed.

In the episode, 3.20 "Maternal Instinct", Apophis slaughtered hundreds of Jaffa in his search for the Harsesis on Chulak. SG-1 was one step ahead in locating the child on the planet Kheb and it was there that they met the extremely powerful Ascended Being Oma Desala. Daniel was able to keep his promise to Sha're that the boy would be safe by letting Oma take the child as her own.

The SGC learned of a new alien race who were enemies of the Goa'uld in the episode, 3.21 "Crystal Skull". These aliens were associated with Toltec and Aztec mythology and it was Nicholas Ballard, Daniel's grandfather, who had discovered them back in the 1970's when he came across a crystal skull in a temple in Belize which transported him to the aliens' planet. SG-1 happened upon this same planet and eventually, was able to reunite Nick with his "Giant Aliens". The aliens invited Nick to stay with them so that they could exchange culture and knowledge, after Daniel was able to answer the riddle, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," by stating that the Goa'uld were their enemies as well. The history of why the Goa'uld and the Giant Aliens were enemies was not revealed.

Seasons Four and Five

RECAP: Those Goa'uld still alive:

Apophis - Found to still be alive when he attacked Chulak in search of the Harsesis.
Cronus - One of the more powerful System Lords.
Heru'ur - Lost several motherships in his attempt to kill Klorel, son of his enemy, Apophis.
Klorel - The last time he was encounted, he was left without a host on a Goa'uld-controlled planet.
Nirrti - Under arrest with Cronus for daring to attempt assassination.
Yu Huang Shang Ti - One of the more powerful System Lords.
Zipacna - Was in league with Klorel.

When Teal'c is contacted by a priestess of Chulak named Shaun'auc, he was, at first, quite pleased to see his old love once more (4.04 "Crossroads"). But, she came to convince him that she had been able to turn her symbiote against his genetic tendencies of evil-doing and she wanted to gain access to the Tok'ra to add her symbiote to their dwindling numbers. The Goa'uld symbiote deceived her and once he was given a host, he killed her. The name of the host given to him by the Tok'ra was Hebron of Parabal. The name of the Goa'uld was Tanith:

Tanith

Teal'c was not allowed to exact revenge for the death of Shaun'auc. The Tok'ra said that they would allow Tanith to live as long as he was useful and then they would destroy him.

Through Tanith, the Tok'ra were able to learn that Apophis and Heru'ur were considering an alliance to defeat the rest of the System Lords. At this point, Apophis and Heru'ur were said to have the largest of the Goa'uld armies. They were going to meet on neutral ground in the Tobin System. The Tobin Civilization originated from Earth thousands of years ago and had been extinct for centuries, but one of their legacies was a large mine field in space. The Tok'ra enlisted the help of Daniel Jackson to decipher the Tobin's Phoenician writings found in a manual for the mines, and with that knowledge they would set off one of the mines to make Apophis think that Heru'ur was attacking him. With this strategy, the Tok'ra believed that the power would become more evenly balanced among the remaining System Lords, rather than giving power to one Goa'uld. The plan backfired when Apophis escaped after Heru'ur was killed, and Apophis was able to absorb Heru'ur's remaining forces into his own (4.13 "Serpent's Venom").

On an aside, it should be mentioned that while Jack, Daniel, and Carter were with Jacob Carter/Selmak in the Tobin System trying to reprogram the mine, Teal'c had gone to Chulak to gather more Rebel Jaffa. He was betrayed and taken into custody by a Goa'uld under Heru'ur's service, Terok:

Terok

Terok attempted to "save" Teal'c's soul by torturing him and getting him to admit that the Goa'uld are gods. Teal'c did not waiver and it was because of his strength that he was able to convince the Jaffa Rak'nor who had betrayed him on Chulak to realize that what he fought for was for the freedom of all Jaffa. Rak'nor helped Teal'c escape before Terok was able to hand Teal'c over to Apophis. He overtook Terok and sent him in Teal'c's stead. Most probably, Terok is dead.

Two more Goa'uld who took identities from Egyptian mythology were introduced in the episode, 4.14 "The Curse": Osiris and Isis. Osiris was the brother of Seth and Isis was Osiris' queen. They were discovered in canoptic jars, having been banished there by the other Goa'uld, in a shipment of Egyptian artifacts which had been sunken off of the coast of New Jersey, USA, but recently retrieved. During the study of these artifacts, the Osiris symbiote was released from his jar by Dr. Sarah Gardner and he took her as his new host. Dr. Gardner was an old lover and associate of Daniel Jackson's. It was discovered that the Isis symbiote died when the seal on her jar was broken in the shipwreck, but this information was not available to Osiris. Osiris killed Dr. Jordan, the lead archaeologist studying the artifacts, the curator of the artifacts, and the lab technician responsible for dating the artifacts, in the attempt to hide his tracks, but Daniel was close behind in identifying who was taken as his host. Before Daniel could do anything to prevent it, Osiris was able to take his hidden spaceship off of Earth, promising to make the rivers "run red with blood":

Osiris

Isis

SG-1's android counterparts created in the First Season episode, 1.19 "Tin Man", were going out on missions. As it turned out, they arrived on a planet named Juna which had been previously visited by SG-1. SG-1 had helped the people overthrow Heru'ur's Jaffa after Heru'ur was killed. They reassured them that there would be no more invasions if they buried their stargate, but Cronus invaded with his ships and evidently unburied the stargate. The androids of Daniel, Carter, and Teal'c were captured by Cronus, but Jack's android was able to evade capture. Daniel's android was the first to be destroyed, his execution witnessed by his teammates, Cronus, and a group of Juna's warriors. When Cronus saw that Daniel's android was a machine, he had the Carter and Teal'c androids taken to one of his scientists, Ja'din, for study. Ja'din was a Goa'uld in Cronus' service and she served not only as a scientist, but also as an interrogator:

Ja'din

The Carter android was able to trick Ja'din into activating the self-destruct mechanism on the remains of the Daniel android and with the resulting explosion, Ja'din was killed and the Carter android was able to escape. With the help of one of the local men, Jack's android was able to convince SG-1 to come and help the people free themselves once more. In the process, the remaining three androids were destroyed, but not before Teal'c's android was able to kill Cronus as revenge for Cronus' killing Teal'c's father (4.21 "Double Jeopardy").

The Tok'ra once again called the Tau'ri for help. They heard that SG-1 had captured Cronus' mothership on Juna and they wanted it to help them move their base, including a stargate. While the move was happening, Tanith escaped and was able to summon Apophis. This opportunity was too good to pass up, so the Tok'ra decided that they'd explode the sun to take out Apophis' fleet. The Tok'ra were successful at evacuating the base, but Tanith escaped. Jacob Carter/Selmak, with the help of Major Carter, sent the stargate out to destroy the sun using a wormhole established to the gravitational pull of a black hole. Apophis' fleet was destroyed, but he was able to escape the nova, as were SG-1. They were thrown four million lightyears from their home galaxy, where they were met by a ship of Replicators which invaded Apophis' and SG-1's vessels. Apophis' ship was destroyed, but he was able to get onboard SG-1's. The Replicators were able to send the ship back to Apophis' base and Apophis was destroyed when the ship crashed on the planet. SG-1 and Jacob escaped in one of the cargo ships (4.22 "Exodus Part 1" and 5.01 "Enemies Part 2"). This time, SG-1 was 99% sure that Apophis was indeed really dead (5.02 "Threshold").

Nirrti returned to the picture when it was discovered that Cassandra, the lone survivor of Hanka who was now the adoptive daughter of Dr. Janet Fraiser, was going through some genetic changes once she reached her 16th birthday. SG-1 tracked Nirrti down to make her correct the genetic manipulation, but in return for saving Cassandra's life, Nirrti was released (5.06 "Rite Of Passage").

A new Goa'uld was introduced in the episode, 5.08 "The Tomb": Marduk. He had been entombed in a sarcaphagus in a ziggurat discovered by a Russian team. The Russians asked SG-1's help because their team had not reported back and no one could get inside of the ziggurat. Daniel was able to decipher the code to get inside and it was soon discovered that the Goa'uld symbiote was on the loose, taking whatever kind of host it could, including the creature buried with him in the sarcophagus meant to eat him alive and he would always remain alive with the healing capability of the sarcophagus. The original Russian team had let out the creature, with the symbiote inside of it, when they opened the sarcophagus. The symbiote took one of the Russian team members, Major Vallarin, as its new host:

Marduk

Marduk was killed when SG-1 destroyed the ziggarut with all of their C-4 right after they left the ziggarut through transporter rings that Daniel discovered there.

Tanith returned to plague the team once more in the episode, 5.09 "Between Two Fires". He had aligned himself with a new System Lord, but he didn't reveal who that System Lord was. He attempted to gain new weapons from the Tollan and in the process, he destroyed them.

It was discovered that the Russians had retrieved a Jaffa with a very mature symbiote which was in need of a host on their second mission through their stargate. This symbiote was bought by a billionaire named Adrian Conrad, who was dying of a rare condition which affects the immune system and makes the body vulnerable. He was hoping to find a way to implant himself with the symbiote, allow it to cure him, and then remove it. That didn't work and the Goa'uld took him over. We never learn the name of the Goa'uld (5.11 "Desperate Measures"):

Adrian Conrad as a Goa'uld Host

This Goa'uld was captured by Colonel Frank Simmons of the NID. Simmons kept him in a safehouse in South Dakota, putting the Goa'uld in a heavily guarded cage. Theirs was a relationship based on who could outsmart whom and what promises could be uttered and then broken. The Goa'uld was helpful, however, by providing the information necessary to successfully retrieve Teal'c out of the stargate buffer when the wormhole prematurely disengaged after Teal'c killed Tanith in a ship which crashed into the stargate in the episode, 5.14 "48 Hours".

The next encounter with the Goa'uld revealed the power structure of the System Lords. After Apophis and Cronus were destroyed, there was a great deal of in-fighting among the remaining System Lords for their domains. When they realized that they were destroying themselves, they called a truce and decided to meet in a neutral setting to hold a summit to define a new order. The summit was attended by the seven most powerful System Lords. One of the System Lords was unnamed and another was Lord Yu. The other five System Lords were:

Ba'al	Bastet	Kali
Morrigan	Olokun

They discussed many issues, but one of the hottest topics of discussion was an unnamed adversary who was attacking them without revealing his identity. It wasn't until later that they discovered that Osiris was in league with this very ancient and thought to be dead Goa'uld: Anubis. Anubis was banished by the System Lords over a thousand years ago, and according to Osiris, the only System Lord remaining from that time was Yu. Anubis sent Osiris to the summit to request that he be voted back into the fold. In exchange, he promised to rid them of the Tok'ra and the Tau'ri. While the summit was taking place, Anubis had already sent Zipacna to destroy the Tok'ra base on Ravanna. That attack nearly wiped out the Tok'ra. Osiris said that before Anubis took his position with the System Lords, he would take care of the Tau'ri as well. All the System Lords at the summit, except for Yu, voted Anubis back in (5.15 "Summit Part 1" and 5.16 "Last Stand Part 2").

Anubis' method of getting rid of the Tau'ri and keeping the Asgard from intervening on their behalf was to attack the planet with an asteroid. This appeared to be a "natural" catastrophe, something the Asgard could do nothing about, according to the Protected Planets Treaty. SG-1 discovered that the asteroid contained naquadah after the Asgard said that they would not help, and by that time, they had to act on their own. They were able to send the asteroid through a hyperspace window through the Earth and ended up on the other side (5.17 "Failsafe").

A new Goa'uld was introduced in the episode, 5.18 "The Warrior". He disguised himself as a Rebel Jaffa named Kytano and acted as a charismatic leader under whom the Rebel Jaffa could organize. System Lord Yu revealed the imposter's identity to Teal'c and Teal'c challenged Kytano for his position of leadership. Kytano revealed his true identity as being the Goa'uld Imhotep. Teal'c killed him in the challenge.

Imhotep

Another minor Goa'uld was introduced in the episode, 5.20 "The Sentinel". We never see his face, but his name is given as Svarog. He was attempting to conquer the planet named Latona, but eventually, the planet's defense system kicked in and all the aggressors vanished, presumably killed.

In the episode, 5.21 "Meridian", we learn that the Goa'uld Thanos (his name was revealed in the Season Seven episode, 7.14 "Fallout") experimented with a very powerful mineral called naquadria on the planet Kelowna 10,000 years ago. Evidence indicated that he nearly blew the planet to bits with his research. The Kelownans discovered their stargate and this research about 15 years prior to when SG-1 made contact with them. The Kelownans were attempting to create a bomb in preparation of a world war. During one of the experiments with the extremely dangerous and radiactive power core, an accident occurred while Daniel was touring the facility with the government's ethical advisor, Jonas Quinn. In order to prevent the entire planet from being destroyed from the impending blast, Daniel exposed himself to the radiactive core and dismantled it before it went critical. Daniel's body died from the radiation poisoning, but he escaped permanent death by becoming an Ascended Being with the help of Oma Desala.

Finally, at the close of Season Five, the Goa'uld Anubis is revealed in the episode, 5.22 "Revelations":

Anubis

Osiris and Anubis captured Thor of the Asgard and probed his mind for every bit of Asgard knowledge they could. This probing left Thor in a coma, but the three remaining members of SG-1 were able to save him.

Seasons Six and Seven

RECAP: Goa'uld who are alive at the beginning of this period are:

Adrian Conrad's Goa'uld - Colonel Frank Simmons of the NID hid him away in a safe house in South Dakota, USA.
Anubis - A strange-looking hooded figure who was recently voted back into the System Lord fold by six of the seven most powerful System Lords. Only System Lord Yu objected to his return.
Ba'al - He was a major player at the summit and spoke as if he were the strongest of the seven there.
Bastet
Kali
Klorel
Morrigan
Olokun
Osiris - In service to Anubis.
Zipacna - Also, in service to Anubis.

At the start of this period, Anubis had again attempted to rid the galaxy of the Tau'ri—this time by attacking the stargate. He was using a weapon which bombarded the stargate with enough energy to make it go critical. The resulting explosion would wipe out the entire world. The SGC was able to strap the stargate to the X-302, take it far into space through a hyperspace window, and allow it to explode far from Earth. Once again, Anubis' plan to destroy the Tau'ri failed (6.01 "Redemption Part 1" and 6.02 "Redemption Part 2").

The next group of Goa'uld encountered by SG-1 were clones of the one which Adrian Conrad had implanted into himself. They were immature and were only able to take over their hosts during the nighttime while their hosts slept. During the night, they were busy building a Goa'uld spacecraft in a warehouse in the "sleepy" town of Steveston, Oregon. The NID was aware of this and let it continue because they wanted access to the technology. The Goa'uld, however, were planning on infiltrating the NID and the SGC once they discovered that they were being watched. They didn't know that the genetic engineer who created them built into them a kill switch in which they would die when exposed to a certain antibiotic. The townspeople were given the antibiotic not knowing what had truly happened to them and the unfinished spaceship was taken to Area 51 for study (6.05 "Nightwalkers").

A woman was discovered buried in the ice of the Antarctic, not far from where the second stargate was found (1.18 "Solitudes"). As it turns out, she was carrying the plague which wiped out the Ancients and she exposed SG-1 to it. She had healing powers, but each time she used them, she grew weaker until she finally succumbed. The only person left to be cured was Jack. He was given the opportunity to receive a Tok'ra symbiote named Kanan to cure himself and to provide a temporary host so that Kanan could reveal important information he had gathered on his last mission before his own host was killed. Jack was cured by the Tok'ra, but the Tok'ra took advantage of Jack by hijacking his body to go and rescue his lover from Ba'al's hidden fortress. They were captured and Kanan left Jack's body. Ba'al repeatedly tortured Jack for information about the Tok'ra, killed him, and then revived him in the sarcophagus. As an Ascended Being, Daniel came to Jack's rescue by nudging Teal'c with an idea while Teal'c was deep in kel-no-reem. Teal'c was able to get System Lord Yu to attack Ba'al's fortress because Ba'al had been working on anti-gravity technology in secret. Jack was able to escape with Kanan's lover, Shallan, who decided to stay with the Tok'ra in honor of Kanan (6.04 "Frozen" and 6.06 "Abyss").

SG-1 helped the Tok'ra in an undercover operation in which they would purposefully get themselves captured and brought into the presence of the Goa'uld Khonsu, who actually happened to be a Tok'ra spy. Khonsu had a Jaffa named Her'ak in his service who killed him and took SG-1 hostage for himself, revealing that he was in service to Anubis. This Jaffa later became Anubis' First Prime. SG-1 was able to escape from Her'ak before they were presented to Anubis (6.08 "The Other Guys").

Anubis learned of the Tok'ra's hidden base in the Risa System and attacked it. The Tok'ra did not know that there was an Ashrak in their midst when they escaped to the Alpha Site, already the home to Rebel Jaffa and some SGC personnel. The Ashrak attempted to set the Jaffa and Tok'ra off on each other, but they united instead when the Ashrak's presence was revealed (6.09 "Allegiance").

Ashrak in the service of Anubis

Adrian Conrad's Goa'uld attempted to steal the latest advancement in Tau'ri technology, the X-303 battle cruiser, later named Prometheus. Colonel Frank Simmons was also in league with him and they were successful at getting the spaceship out of its subterranean bay and into hyperspace, ending at a location out in the middle of nowhere. Adrian Conrad was killed in a fight and the symbiote jumped into Colonel Simmons, who was subsequently killed by Jack when Simmons attempted to kill him and Teal'c. Fortunately, Thor of the Asgard detected their presence and was able to lead them home (6.11 "Prometheus" and 6.12 "Unnatural Selection").

Nirrti was discovered on a planet by the Russian SG team and SG-1 and the Russian team returned to the planet to help the people gain their freedom. She was continuing her genetic research in order to produce the perfect host and was using the people of the planet as her guinea pigs, telling them that she was attempting to cure them from a disfiguring disease. The disfiguring was actually the result of her manipulations. The people learned the truth about her and were able to free themselves of her by killing her, using the powers that she had given them through the manipulations. They discovered how to reverse the DNA alterations with her machine before killing her and they promised SG-1 that they would destroy the machine once all of their people were restored (6.16 "Metamorphosis").

SG-1 was invited to be on the Prometheus when it got taken out for a test of the hyperdrive engines powered by naquadria, a mineral known to be unstable. The engines failed and they had to eject the core before it destroyed them. They ended up at a planet Tagrea, which Jonas knew had a stargate, but the Tagreans were not aware of it. SG-1 learned that the planet had belonged to the Goa'uld Heru'ur but had been abandoned by him when their resources ran out. In defiance, the people buried the stargate and eliminated all records of Heru'ur's existence. SG-1 found the stargate and established a relationship with the Tagreans (6.20 "Memento").

The Goa'uld Mot was in the service of Ba'al and he regularly visited the planet P4S-237 to receive a tribute of naquadah. Unknown to the people of the planet, Lord Mot was hoarding the naquadah in a plan to overthrow Ba'al himself. It had been known that Ba'al had stopped receiving the naquadah and had assumed that the mines were no longer productive. Lord Mot revealed to SG-1 of his plans to overthrow Ba'al, who was currently under Anubis in strength. Mot was killed by one of the people of the planet (6.21 "Prophecy"):

Mot

Anubis was the next Goa'uld heard from at the end of Season Six in the episode, 6.22 "Full Circle". An amazing number of significant events occurred in this episode, but the ones of importance concerning the Goa'uld include:

Daniel, as an Ascended Being, recruited SG-1 to help save Abydos when he learned that Anubis was searching there for the Eye of Ra, a component which when joined with other Eyes would create a superweapon.
Daniel discovered a tablet which told of what became of the Ancients: some of them learned to ascend and became known as "The Others" and the rest died from the plague. He also learned from the tablet that the Ancients left behind a city which was said to have a vast store of weapons which could be used to gain power in the galaxy if Anubis discovered its location. This city has been since referred to as the Lost City of the Ancients. Daniel realized the importance of finding the Lost City before Anubis did and told Jack to give the Eye of Ra to Anubis so that they would be granted safe passage and could get off of the planet alive with the tablet.
Daniel learned that Anubis was once a Goa'uld with a human host, but had somehow learned how to ascend. The Others tried to kick him out of their plane of existence, but were not successful, so Anubis was left as some form of energy, stuck between the corporeal and the ascended forms.
Daniel informed the rest of the System Lords where Anubis was and about the superweapon and the System Lords, including Yu and Ba'al, attacked him in orbit over Abydos.
Significant damage was done, but Anubis was the victor and he turned his attention to using his new superweapon on Abydos as a test.
Daniel attempted to buy more time for SG-1 to get off of the planet through the stargate by confronting Anubis.
SG-1 got off of the planet with the tablet, but Daniel was forcibly removed from Anubis' presence before he was able to wipe Anubis from existence. It was not revealed who removed Daniel since it could have been either Oma Desala or The Others.
Anubis used the superweapon and destroyed Abydos, killing everyone with the blast, but Oma Desala helped all of the Abydonians ascend.

At the start of Season Seven, in the episodes, 7.10 "Fallen Part 1" and 7.11 "Homecoming Part 2", Daniel Jackson is returned to human form and left on the planet Vis Uban to be discovered by his friends. His memories were buried either by choice or as a punishment for his actions against Anubis on Abydos. SG-1 convinced him to return home with them and as soon as he was there, he started to remember who he was. It was not long after this that he got involved with SGC's plan to destroy Anubis' superweapon that he used on Abydos and on the other System Lords, making Anubis more and more powerful. Daniel and Jonas Quinn boarded Anubis' ship in order to hack into his computer systems, encoded with the language of the Ancients, so that they could discover the location of a ventilation shaft that allowed the superweapon to cool. Once they found the location of this shaft, Jack and Carter were able to destroy it and Anubis' superweapon overheated and exploded when he tried to use it. In their attempt to escape the ship, Jonas was captured and Daniel was left in the inner-workings of the ship trying to find a way of freeing him.

Anubis had discovered naquadria on Jonas' homeworld of Kelowna through a memory probe he used on Jonas. So, Anubis took his ship to Kelowna to get his hands on the mineral and all of the research that Thanos had recorded. A Goa'uld scientist was in service to Anubis on his vessell. His name is never given, but he was employed as a technical expert:

Anubis' scientist

When the test of the naquadria-enhanced weapon failed, Anubis had his First Prime Her'ak kill the Goa'uld scientist. Jonas was able to escape when the power to his prison cell was cut off by the damage done to the failed weapons test and he and Daniel were able to ring to the planet. With the help of the System Lords under the leadership of Ba'al, Anubis was attacked and his ship was destroyed. Anubis, however, was able to escape.

Ba'al gained more power after this leveling of Anubis (7.04 "Orpheus" and 7.09 "Avenger 2.0"), but Anubis was not one to be put down for long. Soon, he was building a vast army of Kull Warriors who were the product of genetic engineering. These warriors were implanted with a Goa'uld symbiote which was programmed to be completely loyal to Anubis. This loyalty was something that Anubis knew he could not depend upon from his Jaffa. Anubis was using his knowledge gained from being one of the ascended to create these Kull Warriors by animating their laboratory-grown inanimate tissue with a device similar to the sarcophagus. This technology was once that of the Ancients and it came to be known as Telchak's Device. Telchak was the Goa'uld who discovered the technology a long time ago and developed the first sarcophagus from it (7.11 "Evolution Part 1" and 7.12 "Evolution Part 2").

Kull Warrior

Master Bra'tac and Teal'c were informed by a Rebel Jaffa working in the minor Goa'uld System Lord Ramius' service, that Ramius and Tilgath, another minor Goa'uld System Lord, were planning an alliance in order to build strength against Anubis. Anubis was aware of their plans and sent one of his Kull Warriors to kill them as they met. Tilgath and several of the Jaffa on both sides were killed by this one warrior. Ramius was able to escape, but he was tracked down by another Kull Warrior and killed:

Ramius

Daniel and fellow civilian scientist Dr. Bill Lee were able to find the Telchak Device in Honduras using the research notes left behind by Daniel's grandfather, Nicholas Ballard. Concurrent to Daniel's mission in Honduras, Major Carter, Teal'c, Jacob Carter/Selmak, and Master Bra'tac infiltrated Anubis' base on Tartarus and discovered the Goa'uld queen which was producing all of the symbiotes for the Kull Warriors:

Goa'uld queen in Anubis' service

They destroyed the queen and were almost captured by the Goa'uld Thoth who was serving Anubis as a technical specialist in producing the Kull Warriors, among other things. They killed Thoth in their escape from Tartarus:

Thoth

Along with the Tok'ra, Major Carter was able to develop a weapon derived from the Telchak Device to counteract the Kull Warrior's life-giving energy (7.16 "Death Knell").

In the episode, 7.10 "Birthright", we are introduced to another Goa'uld. His name is Moloc, but we don't see his face. He started a ritual among his Jaffa that all female babies were to be burned as soon as they were born. He could do this for a few hundred years before it would negatively affect his Jaffa population. Many of his priestesses started a new colony in secret where they would rescue the babies and raise them there. A major problem from this showing of mercy was that eventually the girls would need symbiotes to live (Moloc's Jaffa were genetically engineered to need a symbiote at puberty). The leader of the group, Ishta, would take her female warriors out on raids and kill Moloc's male Jaffa for their symbiotes. SG-1 was able to introduce them to tretonin so that they would no longer kill their brethren, many of whom were wanting freedom from the Goa'uld as much as they.

Because Ba'al had led the System Lords to destroy Anubis while he was testing out naquadria while hovering over the capital city of Kelowna (the nation on the planet with the same name), Ba'al took an interest in the mineral himself. He sent a Goa'uld to the planet and had it take one of the local scientists, Kianna Cyr, as a host, gaining secrets through her position. Naquadria was created as a result of Thanos' experiments and the Kelownans mined the mineral to power their bomb (this is the same bomb research that killed Daniel in Season Five). They tested the bomb and started a chain reaction that would lead to the planet's destruction when the conversion of the vein of naquadria reached the planet's core. The unnamed Goa'uld decided it wanted the naquadria for itself so that it could harness its power instead of Ba'al, but its plans backfired and it ended up dead in the process. Before it died, however, it saved both the planet and Kianna Cyr (7.14 "Fallout").

Kianna Cyr as host to an unnamed Goa'uld in Ba'al's service

Osiris, still working under Anubis, knew that the Tau'ri were searching for the Lost City of the Ancients and that Daniel had once been ascended. The assumption was that he knew of the location of the Lost City, but it was buried in his subconscious. Using modified memory devices, Osiris visited Daniel as he slept and invaded his dreams with false images of his time with Sarah Gardner and his attempt to decipher a tablet. This tablet was supposed to help Daniel recall his memory of where the Lost City was located, if he ever knew. Daniel realized what was happening and with the rest of his team set a trap to capture Osiris the next time he visited. Daniel wanted to remember where the Lost City was, but soon the morning was upon him and he still had not remembered. They were successful at capturing Osiris and the Tok'ra removed him from Sarah. It was not revealed what the Tok'ra did to the symbiote, but it can be fairly assumed that Osiris is dead (7.15 "Chimera").

In the episode, 7.19 "Resurrection", a rogue NID cell created a human-Goa'uld hybrid named Anna. She was given the genetic memory of the Goa'uld named Sekhmet who had been in service to Ra (Sekhmet is also said to be the mother of Nefertum, the Goa'uld of 3.19 "New Ground"). It was determined that the Germans had uncovered a canopic jar with the Sekhmet symbiote and that jar reached the possession of Dr. Keffler, son of a convicted Nazi war criminal. Dr. Keffler used Anna as a medium to access the Goa'uld genetic memory and his treatment of her was repulsively inhumane. He didn't see her as a person, but merely as a way to get to the information. The entire staff of the lab died in this episode, including Dr. Keffler and Anna, but nothing was said of what became of the Goa'uld symbiote. Most likely it is dead, since it didn't have to be alive in order for one to cultivate its DNA.

Continuing on the search of the Lost City, the SGC remained only one step ahead of Anubis. When the SGC was discovered to have a presence on the planet P3X-666, Anubis sent ships to attack them. In the battle, Dr. Janet Fraiser was killed (7.17 "Heroes Part 1" and 7.18 "Heroes Part 2"). The SGC gained another step ahead upon discovering an Ancient's Repository of Knowledge on the planet P3X-439, but once Anubis was attacking, Jack decided to take the download once again (he had done it previously in the Season Two episode, 2.16 "The Fifth Race"). Eventually, the knowledge he gained helped them locate an Ancient outpost in Antarctica and Jack was able to activate a weapon which destroyed all of Anubis' attacking fleet he had sent to Earth (including Anubis himself). Although the weapon was powerful, Daniel concluded that the outpost in Antarctica was not the actual Lost City of the Ancients because the outpost was not big enough to match the description of the city. Jack placed himself in a stasis pod at the outpost when he realized that he was about to die because the knowledge of the Ancients was overloading his system (7.21 "Lost City Part 1" and 7.22 "Lost City Part 2").

Season Eight

RECAP: Goa'uld assumed to be alive and active at the beginning of this period:

Ba'al - He was an active Goa'uld during Season Seven, even though we never saw him after he led the attack on Anubis over Kelowna (7.01 "Fallen Part 1" and 7.02 "Homecoming Part 2").
Bastet - She was mentioned in the Season Seven episode, 7.02 "Homecoming Part 2".
Kali
Klorel
Moloc - Introduced in the Season Seven episode, 7.10 "Birthright".
Morrigan
Olokun - He was mentioned in the Season Seven episode, 7.16 "Death Knell".
Zipacna

Season Eight started right off the block with Jack O'Neill successfully unfrozen from stasis by Thor of the Asgard, promoted to Brigadier General, and placed in charge of the SGC. With all of this excitement came more information about the state of Goa'uld affairs as the SGC was introduced two new System Lords:

Camulus

Amaterasu

After Earth's successful destruction of Anubis' attacking fleet, the System Lords took advantage of Anubis' defeat and agreed to divide the spoils evenly among themselves. Ba'al, however, decided to take more than his share, including reprogramming Anubis' Kull Warriors to be loyal to him, and the other System Lords were wanting Earth to help them even the playing field by eliminating Ba'al with the same weapon we used to defeat Anubis. They sent three System Lords to represent their interests: Camulus, Amaterasu, and Yu (along with his First Prime Oshu). Negotiations between the SGC and the System Lords did not go well and so the System Lords decided to send a ship to test out Earth's defenses. Ba'al destroyed that ship before it reached Earth and the System Lords were asked to leave. Camulus, however, asked for asylum because his army was no more and he had nothing with which to fight. He felt that he could offer more help staying on Earth. The other System Lords looked upon him as a coward and traitor to his kind (8.01 "New Order Part 1" and 8.02 "New Order Part 2").

In a surprise twist in the episode, 8.03 "Lockdown", the SGC discovered that Anubis wasn't killed after all when the Ancients' weapon was used to destroy his fleet over Earth. Instead, since he was part ascended, his essence survived the blast in a portion of his ship. When the International Space Station and the debris in which Anubis abode came close in orbit, Anubis transferred himself into Cosmonaut Konstantinov and upon Konstantinov's return to Earth, Anubis transferred to Russian Air Force Colonel Vaselov. Vaselov was given a position at the SGC and from there, Anubis was able to get to the stargate. Vaselov sacrificed his own life because he knew that he was about to die after having "hosted" Anubis' detrimental energy form. He walked through the stargate and, unknown to him at the time, Carter sent the wormhole to a planet in the middle of an ice age. At this point, Anubis was assumed to be trapped in Vaselov's body with no way of reaching a DHD to get to his stronghold to obtain another shield to retain his form in the corporeal plane.

Anubis frozen in Col. Vaselov's body

Notable Characters

The members of SG-1 have taken an active role in the fight against the Goa'uld:

Click on the link below to see which detailed biographical articles of the Goa'uld personalities covered in this article currently abide in the StargateWiki:

Goa'uld Biographies

Hosts:

Other Characters mentioned in this article:

Alliances

The Goa'uld serve only their own interests and basically operate on their own. However, within the race, there have been some alliances formed when one group of Goa'uld wishes to overthrow another:

System Lords - The most powerful System Lords have gathered into a High Council which exerts itself when one of their own begins to gain too much power.
Linvris - The Linvris was a group of minor Goa'uld who opposed the System Lords.

Enemies

Asgard - The Asgard have a Protected Planets Treaty signed with the System Lords which attempts to keep the Goa'uld in check. The terms of this treaty are not revealed in detail and it seems to be absolutely worthless.
Giant Aliens - We don't know why these aliens have declared the Goa'uld their enemy, but they have.
Ma'chello - He was a thorn in their side for many years and could not be caught. He died in the SGC infirmary, but he left behind many of his Goa'uld-killing inventions as if placing carefully-concealed mine fields.
Rebel Jaffa - The movement of the Jaffa was started by Teal'c and their numbers are growing stronger. Anubis attempted to replace his untrustworthy Jaffa with the genetically-engineered Kull Warriors.
Reetou - The Reetou wish to eliminate the Goa'uld race entirely. Some rebel factions of their race have gone so far as to attempt to eliminate all potential hosts, including those humans on Earth.
Replicators - The Replicators are everyone's enemy because they don't play political games at all—they just consume everything they can to reproduce and this includes the advanced technology that the Goa'uld possess.
Tau'ri - It seems the war with the Goa'uld began as soon as the Goa'uld Ra set foot on Earth seeking a new kind of host for his dying race. Even though the ancient Egyptians were successful at banishing him, many of the removed humans of Earth have become slaves of the Goa'uld, including the Jaffa who were genetically altered to carry the Goa'uld symbiotes in pouches.
Tok'ra - Their movement was started by the Goa'uld Egeria who first opposed Ra (Tok'ra means against Ra). They work through subterfuge and have been doing so for thousands of years. Because their numbers have dwindled significantly, they have had to regroup and return to their old ways without keeping an alliance with the Tau'ri.

@@ Line 364: / Line 364: @@
 ==Alliances==
-* The Goa'uld serve only their own interests, but some of them have joined together in an organization of System Lords to exert supremacy in the galaxy.
+The Goa'uld serve only their own interests and basically operate on their own. However, within the race, there have been some alliances formed when one group of Goa'uld wishes to overthrow another:
+* [[System Lord|System Lords]] - The most powerful System Lords have gathered into a High Council which exerts itself when one of their own begins to gain too much power.
+* [[Linvris]] - The Linvris was a group of minor Goa'uld who opposed the System Lords.
 ==Enemies==

Goa'uld: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 04:39, 27 July 2004

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