The Others

The Others manifested in a cloud

Summary

The Others are a group of Ascended Beings who have joined in a collective to enforce rules governing their interactions with those not on their higher plane of existence. They were introduced in the episode, 5.03 "Ascension".

Stargate References

Millennia ago, the Ancients, Asgard, Furlings, and Nox built an alliance in which they shared their knowledge. A meeting place was discovered on the planet now called "Ernest's Planet" or "Heliopolis", where a large repository of their knowledge was kept. The pact these races had made was written on the walls in each of their languages, but the repository was written in a common, universal language using symbolic representations of the elements (i.e., elements of the periodic table) projected in three dimensional space. Daniel called this the "meaning of life stuff" because it was so profound. (1.11 "Torment of Tantalus")

We later learn that the Ancients were indeed the builders of the Stargates, something that Daniel Jackson suspected based off of Roman legends about "The Ancient Ones" who were the "builders of the roads". When Jack O'Neill took the Ancient knowledge download on the planet named "Place of Our Legacy", he rigged the Stargate to send him to the Asgard homeworld of Othala in the Ida Galaxy so that they could help him have the knowledge removed because it was killing him. The Asgard removed the knowledge and then told him of the four-race alliance. They confirmed Daniel's theory that the Ancients were the builders of the Stargates. (2.16 "The Fifth Race")

The connection between the Ancients and The Others was not known for several years. It wasn't until Season Six that we discover that The Others were the Ancients who had learned how to ascend to a higher plane of existence. (6.22 "Full Circle")

The Others were spoken of by Orlin, an Ascended Being who had been banished for passing on the knowledge of how to build a powerful weapon to the people on the planet Velona. The people used the weapon to defend themselves against the Goa'uld and were victorious. They then decided to use the weapon against other worlds in order to conquer them. When this happened, Orlin's interference with their development caused them to advance beyond their ability to handle the technology wisely, so The Others destroyed Velona and banished Orlin there. Orlin said that he had broken the most sacred rule of all: Do not accelerate the natural ascension process of those beneath. (5.03 "Ascension")

Four hundred years into his banishment, Orlin met SG-1 and followed them through the Stargate, unseen by human eyes. He had fallen in love with Samantha Carter at first sight and decided to take a chance that she'd accept him by retaking his human form. Before doing so, he demonstrated that Ascended Beings are able to walk through solid matter by passing his essence through Carter's kitchen counter. He was also able to share his "innermost essence", a form of communication, by merging his mind with Carter's. Once he retook his human form, he would not be able to ascend to the higher plane without help from The Others. After Orlin learned that the SGC intended to power up and test the weapon which he had designed, he went through a small Stargate he built in Carter's basement. During his attempt to disengage the naquadah reactor from the weapon, Col. Reynolds of SG-16 shot him. As Orlin laid dying, The Others appeared, having sensed that the weapon was being powered up. Recognizing that he was attempting to prevent another disaster, The Others accepted him back into the collective and he ascended once more. As an Ascended Being, Orlin carried the naquadah reactor away from the SGC personnel so that it would explode far from them. He then used lightning to destroy the weapon for good. Orlin joined The Others who had manifested themselves in a cloud. He had told Carter that manipulating nature was very easy for them to do. (5.03 "Ascension")

Orlin and Carter had a chance to discuss The Others and Oma Desala, the Ascended Being SG-1 met on the planet Kheb. He said that he had never heard of Oma and after Carter told him that Oma helped people ascend to a higher plane of existence, he assumed that she must be an outcast because she was breaking the sacred rule of non-interference of those "beneath". After Oma helped Daniel to ascend when he died from radiation poisoning, Daniel appeared to Jack and spoke about being one of Oma's followers. He said that it was their duty to help people ascend and that Oma had been trying to accomplish some great task which The Others had decided not to prevent. Daniel said that he had never met any of The Others during his time ascended, but was certain that Oma would pull him out if The Others caught him using his powers as an Ascended Being to help SG-1 or the Abydonians fight against the Goa'uld System Lord Anubis. (3.20 "Maternal Instinct", 5.03 "Ascension", 5.21 "Meridian", 6.22 "Full Circle")

While Daniel was on Abydos after deciding to cross the line and help SG-1 fight against Anubis, he discovered a tablet which spoke of the Ancients and their Lost City which had very powerful weapons which would give the possessor supremacy. He also discovered from this tablet that The Others were the Ancients who had learned how to ascend. The tablet revealed that those Ancients who did not learn to ascend had died out, most likely of the plague. On top of that, Daniel also learned that Anubis, a Goa'uld System Lord who had been banished by the other System Lords for crimes which were unspeakable even to the Goa'uld, had somehow learned to ascend. Daniel said that The Others didn't want him and tried to send him back, but Anubis got stuck between the two planes and The Others left him that way. Anubis had continued to use his knowledge of Ancient technology gained as an Ascended Being to exert himself as the most powerful System Lord in the galaxy and The Others did nothing to stop him. It is possible that since he did not use his powers as an Ascended Being that The Others decided not to interfere, because, technically, he had not broken any of their rules. (5.16 "Last Stand Part 2", 6.22 "Full Circle")

Anubis knew the rules of The Others and taunted Daniel to take action against him, most likely banking on The Others to stop Daniel from seeing through his threats to wipe Anubis from existence, a power Anubis knew Daniel possessed as an Ascended Being. Daniel took action, thrusting two energy orbs in Anubis' direction, but the energy and Daniel were pulled out, leaving Anubis unharmed. Anubis went on to destroy Abydos, but Oma Desala stepped in and ascended the entire population of Abydos after they were killed in the explosion. When Jack talked with the newly-ascended Skaara, he found out that Oma had ascended all of the Abydonians, but no one had seen or knew what had happened to Daniel. Because of this, Jack feared that Daniel had been prevented to help the Abydonians by The Others and might have also been destroyed by them. (6.22 "Full Circle")

After Daniel was pulled out of his confrontation with Anubis in his attempt to buy time for SG-1 to get off of Abydos with the tablet which spoke of the Lost City, he returned to corporeal form. His essence was sent in a bright light from the skies over the planet Vis Uban and he was deposited naked in the clearing of the forest among the ruins of an Ancient city. Daniel did not fare any better than Anubis in his descent because he was left without any of his memories of who he was or his time before his deposit on Vis Uban. By some stroke of luck, but most likely a nudge from Oma Desala to Jonas Quinn, SG-1 was reunited with Daniel when they were on a mission to Vis Uban in the search for the Lost City. Jack and Carter talked the amnesiac Daniel, called Arrom by his nomadic friends who discovered him, to return to the SGC to learn about himself. After his first night there, he remembered Sha're's name and went to share this revelation with Teal'c. Daniel then discovered that Sha're was dead and he grew angry at his situation. He asked that Teal'c tell him about Anubis and Oma Desala. Teal'c conjectured that Oma Desala skirted around the rules of The Others by taking his memory from him as a condition of his return to human form, but somehow allowed those memories to return to him over time. Only a few memories of his time ascended returned and Daniel continued to struggle with the feeling that he had done something terribly wrong to warrant his "fall from grace" in such a state. (6.22 "Full Circle", 7.01 "Fallen", 7.04 "Orpheus")

Because of the nature of Anubis' existence and his continued advancement as the most powerful System Lord in the galaxy, the people of the SGC developed something close to contempt for The Others. The newly inaugurated President of the United States, Henry Hayes, was briefed on the existence of the Stargate Program, and thus alien life, and was told about the threat that Anubis had against the very existence of Earth. He was also told about SG-1's search for the Lost City of the Ancients in order to find the weapons to protect Earth and the existence of The Others who refused to help because to do so is "beneath them" and that "they won't involve themselves in our affairs." Because The Others refused to involve themselves, it was left up to the SGC to find the weapons and protect Earth any way they could, but President Hayes was also aware that the SGC had drawn the attention of Anubis and other enemies through their activities. Indirectly, The Others' lack of action led to temporarily handing the Stargate Program over to a civilian. (7.20 "Inauguration", 7.21 Lost City Part 1")

Jack helped SG-1 locate an Ancient Outpost in Antarctica after he voluntarily took the download of the Ancients' knowledge through another Repository of Knowledge found on the planet designated P3X-439. He unleashed a powerful weapon against Anubis' attacking fleet and destroyed them all. But, Anubis, because he was a form of energy, survived the destruction of his ship and transferred his essence to a cosmonaut working in the International Space Station. When that cosmonaut returned to Earth, Anubis transferred to a Russian Air Force colonel who was assigned to the SGC. Anubis was desperately trying to get through the Stargate so that he could put himself into a shield (his cloak and mask) so that he could interact on the corporeal level. Because he was so determined to get through the Stargate, Daniel suggested that the SGC attempt to provoke Anubis to use his powers as an Ascended Being and, therefore, draw the attention of The Others. It was his hope that The Others would then "take action" once all of Anubis' options on Earth were taken from him. Anubis got to the Stargate, but was tricked into believing he was going to his base when Carter changed the dialing sequence to connect with an ice planet. Despite their best efforts to force him to use his powers as an Ascended Being, Anubis didn't draw the attention of The Others (referred to as "Ancients" interchangeably at this point) during his time in the base. (7.22 "Lost City Part 2", 8.03 "Lockdown")

Anubis somehow escaped the ice planet and was soon engaged in becoming the most powerful being in the galaxy. He took a human host, burned him out, and then took another on his way to galactic domination. All that he did to get back into power must have been done without using his ascended powers, because he never drew the attention of The Others. That was the case until he had his sights on using a powerful weapon built by the Ancients on the planet Dakara. The weapon was said to have been used by the Ancients to reseed life in the Milky Way Galaxy millions of years ago after the plague killed those who could not ascend. While Anubis was making his moves, Daniel Jackson was killed by Replicator Carter after she probed his mind and discovered that he held all the knowledge of the Ancients in his subconscious mind. Oma Desala had buried his memories, instead of erasing them as she was instructed to by The Others. Oma brought Daniel to a semi-ascended plane after his death to give him another chance at ascension, but Daniel was confused because he didn't remember what happened during his first ascension. The Others watched Oma, Daniel, and Anubis, disguised as a friendly businessman named Jim, in this place that Oma took Daniel so that he could decide between death or everlasting enlightenment through ascension. His choice was made complicated by the fact that he could do nothing with what he learned while there, including using his powers as a fully-ascended being to stop Anubis from wiping out all life in the galaxy with the Ancient weapon. It was during this encounter, made to look like it was taking place in a roadside diner, that it was revealed that The Others include Ascended Beings who were not all Ancients. Even though Daniel tried to engage them in friendly conversation, The Others ignored him, acting as if he didn't even exist. (8.16 "Reckoning Part 1", 8.17 "Reckoning Part 2", 8.18 "Threads")

There are many levels of ascension between being corporeal and being ascended. It is the purpose of the organization formed by The Others to establish and follow rules as to how they interact with those who inhabit the corpreal plane, a plane lower to those of the ascended. The Ascended Beings call those in the corporeal plane, "lowers". The Others forbid any single Ascended Being to help a lower to ascend, feeling that if the lower deserves ascension, he would make it on his own. Only a majority vote of The Others would permit their helping a lower to ascend. The Others also did not interfere unless something of cosmic significance were to result by their inaction. (8.18 "Threads")

Oma Desala was an outcast of The Others because she rejected the rules and helped lowers to ascend because she felt that there were many good people who deserved it, even though their physical bodies had not evolved to a point where they could reach ascension on their own. She established Kheb and wrote instructions on the walls of the temple which revealed the path to ascension. These were the writings that Daniel had read which helped him open his mind to the possibility of ascending to a higher plane of existence. Daniel's willingness to believe that ascension was possible, even for him, is what drew Oma to him and why she was available to help him to ascend after the accident on Kelowna took his life. When Daniel visited Jack as an Ascended Being, he told Jack that Oma had seen humanity's potential in him. While he followed Oma's fine line, Daniel was never accepted by The Others and actually had not met them by the time that he confronted Anubis over Abydos. He finally learned that it was Oma who pulled him out of his confrontation with Anubis because she feared that he would have been dealt with more severely by The Others who were always watching. He also discovered that it was his decision to return to human form because he felt he could do more for humanity. The Others required that Oma erase Daniel's memories before he was returned to the corporeal plane, but Oma disobeyed the rules once again and merely buried them. (3.20 "Maternal Instinct", 5.21 "Meridian", 6.06 "Abyss", 6.22 "Full Circle", 8.18 "Threads")

Not all those who sought out Kheb were good, however. Anubis must have found some Ancient research on ascension and came to Kheb informed enough to know how to trick Oma into ascending him. As soon as she discovered what she had done, she tried to undo it, but The Others stepped in. They sent him to a half-ascended state and warned him that he could not use any of his ascended powers, but could only do what a corporeal Goa'uld could do. Anubis was extremely clever at never breaking the rules and at prompting others to take action for him instead. Oma continued to help people like Daniel and the Abydonians to ascend, thinking that she could make up for her mistake in ascending Anubis. The Others merely watched as she continued her work, waiting for her to take responsibility for her actions in breaking the rules to begin with, but she continued ascending lowers as Anubis kept wreaking havoc across the galaxy. Oma was prevented from destroying Anubis, so she felt that she should try to make up for the evil he was doing by doing good. What The Others waited for finally came when Daniel pleaded for them to take action as Anubis prepared to kill all life in the galaxy with the weapon on Dakara: Oma engaged Anubis in an eternal struggle in order to prevent him from ever doing more harm. Daniel stood in shock as The Others, who had ignored him and his pleas up to this point, finally turned and watched as Oma and Anubis were swept away in their fight. Daniel's words had driven Oma to act and to take responsibility for disobeying the rules. With her engagement of Anubis in this eternal battle, not only was Anubis prevented from taking any more action, but Oma herself was also prevented from helping any more lowers to ascend. (8.18 "Threads")

Although Oma prevented Anubis from pushing the button on the weapon on Dakara, there were many lives still threatened by his actions to gain access to the weapon. He had sent his entire army of Kull Warriors to kill the Rebel Jaffa on Dakara who were guarding the weapon, and the SGC had started a self-destruct in order to prevent the energy wave of the weapon from coming through the wormhole. Miraculously, the Kull Warriors became confused and the Rebel Jaffa destroyed them, and the self-destruct was suspended. Additionally, Daniel was returned to human form, apparently with his memory intact. There remains, however, several questions concerning what happened between Daniel and The Others after Oma took Anubis away. Had Daniel pursuaded them to confuse the Kull Warriors and to suspend the self-destruct, or had The Others given him the powers to do these things before his return? Daniel claimed he wasn't responsible, but he has said that in the past when it was clearly evident that he had indeed taken action. Perhaps he had pursuaded The Others that to take action was the right thing to do in order to prevent something of cataclysmic cosmic significance. (6.06 "Abyss", 8.18 "Threads")

Notable Characters

• Orlin - He was a member of the collective, but was banished as punishment for providing knowledge on how to build a powerful weapon to those "beneath". After four hundreds years of his exile, he was taken back into the collective after he sacrificed his corporeal form in order to prevent the weapon from falling into the SGC's hands.

Alliances

• Asgard, Furlings, Nox - A very long time ago, before joining The Others, the Ancients were in a four-race alliance with these races. Now that they are ascended and are with The Others, they appear to have no alliances at all, but maintain their philosophy of non-interference.

Enemies

• Oma Desala - Although not a true enemy, Oma Desala was most likely banished by The Others because she felt it her duty to help people ascend, thus breaking one of the most sacred rules of the ascended. The Others watched and waited for Oma to take responsibility for helping the evil Goa'uld Anubis to ascend. Because she was prevented from destroying Anubis, Oma felt that she could make up for his evil actions with helping good people to ascend. Finally, after Daniel made a heart-felt plea on her behalf to end her punishment regarding Anubis, Oma decided to take action herself. She engaged Anubis in an eternal struggle which would prevent both of them from ever interacting with the corporeal plane again.
• SGC and Daniel Jackson - Because The Others continued to permit Anubis to exist in his form and destroy lives in order to gain galactic supremacy, the SGC had something close to contempt for them. The SGC used The Others' rules of non-interference against them when they tried to get them to take action against Anubis while he was haunting the base and attempting to get through the Stargate. Anubis got through the Stargate without using his ascended powers and thus, The Others were not provoked to act. The SGC's current relationship with The Others depends on whether or not Daniel Jackson remembered and informed the SGC of what transpired between himself and The Others during his second ascension.

Episodes

• 1.11 "The Torment Of Tantalus"
• 2.16 "The Fifth Race"
• 3.20 "Maternal Instinct"
• 5.03 "Ascension"
• 5.16 "Last Stand Part 2"
• 5.21 "Meridian"
• 6.06 "Abyss"
• 6.22 "Full Circle"
• 7.01 "Fallen Part 1"
• 7.04 "Orpheus"
• 7.20 "Inauguration"
• 7.21 "Lost City Part 1"
• 7.21 "Lost City Part 2"
• 8.03 "Lockdown"
• 8.16 "Reckoning Part 1"
• 8.17 "Reckoning Part 2"
• 8.18 "Threads"

Gallery

• Ascended Beings Screencapture Gallery Contains images of Oma Desala, Shifu, Orlin, The Others, the ascended Daniel Jackson and the partially ascended Anubis. Clicking on each thumbnail will lead you to a larger image which you are welcome to download. If you click on the gallery's home button, you will be sent to the article on Ascended Beings.

Related Articles

Members of SG-1:

• Col. Jack O'Neill
• Dr. Daniel Jackson
• Maj. Samantha Carter
• Teal'c
• Jonas Quinn

Other Characters and Keywords:

• Abydos and the Abydonian People
• Ancients
• Antarctic Outpost
• Anubis
• Ascended Beings
• Asgard
• Arrom
• Dakara
• Ernest's planet (P3X-972, later PB2-908)
• Furlings
• Goa'uld
• President Henry Hayes
• Kheb
• Lost City of the Ancients
• Naquadah
• Nox
• Oma Desala
• Orlin
• Othala
• P3X-439
• Place of Our Legacy (P3R-272)
• Rebel Jaffa
• Repository of Knowledge
• Col. Reynolds
• SG-1
• SG-16
• Stargate Command (SGC)
• System Lord
• Velona (P4X-636)
• Vis Uban
• Weapon on Dakara

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--DeeKayP 08:01, 16 Nov 2004 (PST)