Dakara
Summary
Dakara is a planet of extensive history which started at the time of the Ancients millions of years ago. It later became of significance to the Goa'uld as a symbol of their godhood among their Jaffa because the first prim'ta (infant Goa'uld symbiote) implantation ceremony was performed there. It is now in control of the new Free Jaffa Nation.
Factoids
- Names and Designations: Dakara
- Number of Suns: 1
- Number of Moons: 1
- Source of Address: Rebel Jaffa
- Introduced in Episode: 8.16 "Reckoning Part 1"
- Earth Cultural/Technological Equivalent: None
- Main Interest: Ancient Weapon; Temple
- Influenced/Dominated by: Ancients; Goa'uld; Free Jaffa Nation
- History of Stargate: Unknown
Stargate Glyphs
Unknown
Geopolitical Structure and History
Dakara of the Ancients
The Ancients once lived on Dakara. They built a massive monument, which appeared to be in the form of a sitting man wearing a helmet with a long veil attached to it and robes which covered his entire body, yet his arms and legs are visible, and which housed a powerful weapon. When activated, this weapon opened like a four-petaled flower from the statue's head. (8.17 "Reckoning Part 2")
After the Ancients were nearly wiped out by a plague which swept through the galaxy millions of years ago (between five and ten million years ago), the Ancients used this device to reseed life in the Milky Way Galaxy. If the device were originally built for that purpose, then it wouldn't necessarily have been seen as a weapon. However, because the device emits an energy wave which could very well wipe out life just as easily as create it, whoever possessed it could hold that very fact over millions in a demonstration of power. (8.16 "Reckoning Part 1", 8.17 "Reckoning Part 2", 8.18 "Threads", Stargate Atlantis: "Rising Part 1")
The Ancients protected the weapon with a combination lock on a large stone wall which covered the entrance to the device's control center. Anyone who could read the oldest form of the Ancients' language could determine that combination with great ease. Remarkably, upon its modern-day discovery, the weapon seemed to have remained dormant ever since it was used by the Ancients those millions of years ago. (8.17 "Reckoning Part 2")
Which group of Ancients actually used the weapon to seed the Milky Way with new life is still unknown, since there were only three groups known to exist in the galaxy in that time:
- The Ancients who learned how to ascend to a higher plane of existence and join "The Others" who also lived in that state. (6.22 "Full Circle")
- Those who left Earth for the Pegasus Galaxy in the city-ship called "Atlantis". (Stargate Atlantis: "Rising")
- Those who couldn't ascend, but eventually died out (from the plague and its effects). (6.22 "Full Circle")
Because the human lifeform is said to have originated from Earth in the Milky Way Galaxy, it is possible that the Ancients emitted the wave through the Stargate on Dakara with only Earth as its destination. What became of the Ancients who reseeded life in the galaxy is not known. (1.03 "The Enemy Within", "8.17 "Reckoning Part 2", 8.18 "Threads")
Dakara of the Goa'uld
Eventually Dakara was discovered by the Goa'uld. It was said that Anubis was one of the oldest System Lords and his first resurrection occurred on Dakara. This might have been the first time a sarcophagus was used, or might indicate the first time that the Anubis symbiote took a different host. (8.16 "Reckoning Part 1")
The first prim'ta implantation ceremony was conducted in the temple on Dakara. This ceremony is when a Jaffa's abdominal pouch is created and a Goa'uld symbiote is placed inside of it to mature. The Jaffa were genetically engineered to increase the odds that a symbiote would survive long enough to eventually be blended into its host. Before that, the odds were a one in two chance of successful blending. (1.02 "Children of the Gods Part 2", 6.10 "Cure")
Because of the natural healing powers of the symbiote, the Jaffa is given long life and good health. Most of the male Jaffa were trained as the Goa'uld's soldiers, while the rest of the Jaffa population served in temples and did other tasks which supported the status of the Goa'uld as a god. (1.02 "Children of the Gods Part 2")
The Goa'uld's status as gods to the Jaffa was established on Dakara because of this first implantation ceremony. Because of this, it was important that the planet remain under the control of the Goa'uld. The last Goa'uld known to have Dakara within his territory was Ba'al. He kept several ha'tak in orbit to protect the planet which was deep within his territory. How and when he obtained the planet remains a mystery. (8.16 "Reckoning Part 1")
The Battle Over Dakara
When the Replicators came to the Milky Way Galaxy, their first order of business was to wipe out the Goa'uld and take their technology. The Replicators were led by the human form duplicate of Samantha Carter. They immediately attacked and killed the last remaining System Lords who sat on the Goa'uld's High Council. They then began spreading throughout the galaxy, attacking and taking control of every ha'tak they encountered. Anubis and Ba'al sent a great mass of their fleets to fight the Replicators, but the battle was extremely one-sided because the Replicators were relentless. Ba'al called them "a scourge". (8.16 "Reckoning Part 1")
The Rebel Jaffa saw the opportunity to forever discredit the Goa'uld as gods when Ba'al sent some of the ha'tak which normally guarded Dakara to fight the Replicators, leaving the planet open to attack. They took control of the temple with hardly a fight because they had greater numbers. The battle to keep Dakara, on the other hand, was the greater challenge. (6.16 "Reckoning Part 1")
Ba'al worked under Anubis in their fight against the Replicators, but when he found out that Anubis planned to use the powerful weapon hidden on the planet, he decided to ask for the Tau'ri's help. Amazing as it seemed, he kept them informed of what Anubis was doing and asked for help in ridding them of the Replicators because he knew that the Tau'ri had helped the Asgard several times in the past. He also decided to stall his fleet's arrival to Dakara, even though the Rebel Jaffa had taken control of the temple there. This stalling tactic was to give the Tau'ri time to find and destroy the weapon. (8.16 "Reckoning Part 1", 8.17 "Reckoning Part 2")
Once Lt. Col. Samantha Carter and Jacob Carter/Selmak opened the entrance to the control room of the Ancient weapon, they were prepared to destroy it using a naquadah reactor. But Jacob/Selmak discovered that the weapon's technology was capable of emitting an energy wave set on a frequency which would only destroy the Replicators and leave other living things alone. They decided not to destroy the weapon, but to calibrate it to within a margin of the modified frequency used by the disruptor gun designed by Jack when he held the knowledge of the Ancients from his second download of the database from a Repository of Knowledge. Thor of the Asgard connected Jack to his computer system on his ship, the Daniel Jackson, and Jack used his Ancient knowledge and Thor's computer to design this disruptor gun. The weapon on Dakara used similar technology because both were of Ancient design. (8.02 "New Order Part 2", 8.16 "Reckoning Part 1", 8.17 "Reckoning Part 2")
The Replicators were connected to each other through a subspace link. Because of this link, if a group of them were destroyed by the disruptor wave, the remaining group could develop a cipher to become immune to the wave. In order to wipe out all of the Replicators throughout the galaxy, the wave needed to be translated through every Stargate in the galaxy at the same time. Carter asked Ba'al to reprogram the DHD and Stargate on Dakara to dial all the other Stargates because he had done something similar with a virus which had originally been planted by the SGC to knock out one of his Stargates. Ba'al performed the modification by showing Carter how to do it while he projected his image in a hologram from his command ha'tak which was in orbit over Dakara. (8.16 "Reckoning Part 1", 8.17 "Reckoning Part 2")
Ba'al began to help the Carters to set the console panels to match the output frequency of the disruptor gun, but had to leave when his ship lost life support on several levels. The Replicators were there, too, having heard about the weapon on Dakara from a probe of Daniel Jackson's subconscious mind after he was captured by Replicator Carter. She had hoped that he might hold Ancient knowledge from his time ascended, and, as it turns out, she found that he not only had information about Dakara, but also held all of the Ancients' knowledge. She was distracted by her greed and Daniel took advantage of the knowledge she was unburying and the distribution commands she was sending to her "brethren" (the bug-like first generation Replicators) to take control of all of the Replicators. He froze their progress and prevented Replicator Carter from issuing a counter-command long enough for the Carters to calibrate the weapon. Those few seconds of control helped to save the entire galaxy from the Replicators' destruction. As soon as she could, Replicator Carter killed Daniel, but it was too late for her because by that time, Jacob/Selmak matched the frequency and hit the button on the weapon. All Replicators throughout the galaxy were destroyed. (8.17 "Reckoning Part 2")
The Rebel Jaffa boarded Ba'al's ha'tak and attempted to gain his surrender, but he beamed out of the ship to some unknown location. Ba'al's escape left his fleet and Dakara in control of the Rebel Jaffa. (8.17 "Reckoning Part 2")
Dakara of the Free Jaffa Nation
The Rebel Jaffa landed several of their ha'tak on the planet and kept the others in orbit. They used the temple as a ceremonial place once more. This time, the ceremony was to honor Master Bra'tac and Teal'c for their leadership in realizing the Jaffa's freedom. One of the high priests, Tolok, performed the ceremony, much like a knight's tapping ceremony where he used a staff weapon instead of a sword, and declared that Bra'tac of Chulak and Teal'c of the Tau'ri were blood brothers to all Jaffa. Everyone in attendance bowed before them, but Bra'tac announced that from that moment on, no Jaffa would bow down to anyone. Bra'tac and Teal'c then stepped out of the temple to see a mass of Jaffa assembled in the courtyard between the temple and the Stargate. It was their day, one for which they had fought for so long. (8.18 "Threads")
The high priests suggested that Bra'tac and Teal'c take seats on a High Council in order to establish a new nation. It was important that they learn to become a nation of diverse peoples quickly or else their freedom could be replaced by anarchy. (8.18 "Threads")
The first challenge presented to the new nation was the dispensation of the powerful Ancient weapon. Some believed that it should be kept available in case it would be needed again; while others felt that it needed to be destroyed. If the Free Jaffa kept the weapon, it would have given them the leverage they needed and have instilled fear among the rest of the galaxy. But, an operational weapon could become the object of those seeking ultimate power. This was the case when Anubis devised a plan to take the weapon from the Rebel Jaffa. His plan included dividing their forces by sending false intelligence that all of the Kull Warriors were assembling on Tartarus and would be on their way to Dakara to annihilate the entire population of Rebel Jaffa. In order to stop this invasion, the Rebel Jaffa sent a portion of their fleet to Tartarus and left a portion to guard the weapon. The Kull Warriors weren't at Tartarus, but had already arrived on Dakara to wipe out whoever remained there. The Rebel Jaffa fleet at Tartarus were too far away to offer any kind of assistance. (8.18 "Threads")
Anubis was posed to push the button to end all life in the galaxy when he suddenly disappeared. No one was aware that Oma Desala had engaged Anubis in an eternal struggle in the ascended plane to prevent him from taking action. She did this as recompense for having broken the first rule of the ascended and helping Anubis ascend when had gone to Kheb over a thousand years ago. Afterwards, all of the Kull Warriors became confused and the Rebel Jaffa quickly overcame them and retook control of the weapon. Because of this close call, the High Council agreed to destroy the weapon and build a new monument where the old one once stood. (8.18 "Threads")
Gallery
Episodes
- 1.02 "Children Of The Gods Part 2"
- 1.03 "The Enemy Within"
- 6.10 "Cure"
- 6.22 "Full Circle"
- 8.02 "New Order Part 2"
- 8.16 "Reckoning Part 1"
- 8.17 "Reckoning Part 2"
- 8.18 "Threads"
Related Characters
- Col./Brig. Gen. Jack O'Neill
- Dr. Daniel Jackson
- Lt. Col. Samantha Carter
- Teal'c
- Anubis
- Ba'al
- Master Bra'tac
- Jacob Carter/Selmak
- Oma Desala
- Replicator Samantha Carter
- Thor
- Tolok
Related Articles
Keywords
- Ancients
- Chulak
- Atlantis
- Daniel Jackson (Ship)
- Free Jaffa Nation
- Goa'uld
- Ha'tak
- Jaffa
- Kheb
- Kull Warrior
- Naquadah Reactor
- Rebel Jaffa
- Replicator Disruptor Gun
- Replicators
- Repository of Knowledge
- Sarcophagus
- Stargate
- Symbiote
- Tartarus
- Tau'ri
- Weapon on Dakara
Other
--DeeKayP 16:20, 28 Jun 2005 (PDT)