Goa'uld

A Goa'uld Symbiote.

Goa'uld are a serpentine parasitical species that feature in Stargate: SG-1.

History

Origin

The Goa'uld were a species of water dwelling organisms that were believed by archaeologists to had been native to the planet designated P3X-888 where they co-existed with the native Unas. All symbiotes were believed to had originated on this world where they were believed to had been predatory animals but not parasitical. A theory was held that the Goa'uld evolved for millions of years in the prehistoric oceans of P3X-888 before taking on hosts. These early symbiotes even lacked trace amounts of Naquadah and it was believed that this element entered into their makeup later in their evolution. (Episode: The First Ones)

Whilst they did not build the Stargate system, the parasitic beings made use of it to become the dominant race in the galaxy. (Episode: Thor's Hammer) According to a Jaffa, many worlds containing a Stargate had been terraformed by the Goa'uld many centuries ago. (Episode: The First Commandment)

In their early history, the parasitic species managed to spread their rule through space and claimed the planet Dakara which had been the home of the Ancients. (Episode: Reckoning, Part 2) Millennia ago, they discovered a primitive world whose inhabitants were called the Tau'ri or the First World where human form of life had evolved. Upon discovery, the harvested the planet of its primitives with some becoming Goa'uld hosts whilst others were transformed into the Jaffa. (Episode: The Enemy Within) At some point, the Goa'uld created the first Jaffa on the planet Dakara which became the site of the first prim'tah ritual that forever bonded the Human offshoot race to their masters. This enshrined the world in Jaffa beliefs as a sacred world where the Goa'uld first gave their servants their strength and longevity. As a result, for thousands of years Dakara was seen as a sacred world for the Jaffa who saw it as the cradle of their existence. (Episode: Reckoning, Part 1) The remaining were taken as slaves that were seeded among the stars to serve them thus leading to many such planets becoming populated by the ancient cultures of Earth. (Episode: The Enemy Within) Thousands of years ago, a Goa'uld by the name of Telchak had discovered an Ancient healing device that had the power to heal but its effects were so powerful that it was devastating. The Goa'uld reverse engineered the technology he had discovered and used it to create the Sarcophagus. (Episode: Evolution, Part 1) Around 2000 years ago, a Goa'uld Queen by the name of Egeria grew repelled at the cruelty of her people. She decided to come to Earth in order to stop her people from taking humans through the Stargate as slaves. Ra eventually found her and it was believed that he had her killed but not before she spawned the Tok'ra movement. (Episode: Crossroads) At some point, they had encountered the Asgard who had moved to protect mankind from the parasites. They managed to forge a treaty with the System Lords whereby a select number of worlds became safe havens for human populations that were protected by the Asgard from the Goa'uld with one such world being Cimmeria that became forbidden among the Jaffa. (Episode: Thor's Hammer) After being forced from Earth, knowledge on the location of world had been lost for centuries with the planet of the Tau'ri becoming a tale told among the Jaffa. (Episode: The Enemy Within)

Meanwhile, on Earth, Setesh remained trapped on the world where he had spent most of his time on Earth forming various cults, among them one where he impersonated the god Typhon in ancient Greece and a suicide cult in England near Stonehenge during the eighteenth century where his worshipers had died after slitting their own throats but Setesh' body was never found. (Episode: Seth)

Stargate

In 1996, the Tau'ri of Earth managed to uncover the Stargate and began to study it where they activated it allowing them to journey to Abydos. The team dispatched consisted of Colonel Jack O'Neill and Dr. Daniel Jackson who had arrived on the world when the Supreme System Lord Ra had arrived to collect his tribute. Ra would capture the Tau'ri with Colonel O'Neill deciding to detonate a nuclear warhead that he had been given in case he had encountered a threat. After learning of Earth, Ra had the device enriched with Naquadah thus enhancing its destructive potential where he intended to send it back to the Tau'ri homeworld. However, Dr. Daniel Jackson would inform the native Abydonians about the truth behid Ra where they rebelled against him forcing him to flee. Both Colonel O'Neill and Dr. Jackson managed to use a ring transporter to transport the bomb to Ra's orbiting vessel where it detonated before Ra could defuse it. (Movie: Stargate) In the aftermath, the Goa'uld Apophis struck at his former enemies territory where he managed to find the coordinates to Earth. Arriving on Earth, his Jaffa guards came to easily deal with the Tau'ri guards present at the facility and kidnapped a female soldier as a potential host for queen. The incident sparked a resurgence in Earth's Stargate program where they looked to investigate this new threat to their world. Meanwhile, Apophis's Jaffa next struck at Abydos where they took more humans as hosts. All the kidnapped humans were brought to Apophis's stronghold of Chulak where they awaited the moment to be selected as host bodies for newly matured symbionts. Tau'ri forces led by SG-1 came to track the kidnapped hosts to Chulak where they were captured but eventually freed by the Jaffa defector Teal'c. However, several humans including Sha're and Skaara were taken as host bodies by the Goa'uld. Returning to Earth, the Tau'ri managed to evade the Goa'ulds reprisal by creating an iris around their gate to prevent unauthorised personnel from entering their facility. (Episode: Children of the Gods) In the aftermath of a rescue mission, Major Charles Kawalsky became infested with a Goa'uld symbiote. Attempts to remove it proved unsuccessful with the Goa'uld eventually taking control of Kawalsky's body up until it died after the back of Kawalsky's head was severed while held partially inside the deactivating Stargate. (SG1: The Enemy Within)

Hathor had been in stasis in her sarcophagus in a Mayan temple and she was released when the archaeologists came upon her there. She made 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 led a team of women to overcome their aggressor. Hathor escaped 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. (Episode: Hathor)

SG-1 subsequently came up against an Unas in service of Sokar who pretended to be a demon on the medieval planet to get an easy source of hosts for Sokar's use. The Unas was killed by Simon and its symbiote by Colonel Jack O'Neill. On the orders of SG-1, the villagers buried the Stargate to prevent Sokar from returning for retribution with Major Samantha Carter predicting that the planet was too far away for Sokar to bother making the trip by ship. (SG1: Demons)

One summer, the stasis jar containing Osiris was once again found by divers discovering the wreck of Sheldon Stewart's ship. The jar along with all the other artifacts recovered from the ship and was sent to the University of Chicago to be analyzed before being shipped back to Egypt at the behest of the Egyptian government. Falling into the temporary possession of Professor David Jordan and his former students Dr. Sarah Gardner and Dr. Steven Rayner, the trio tried to learn all they could before the artifacts were taken away once more. It was perhaps because of this haste that Sarah decided to open the Osiris jar, unwittingly freeing the long-trapped Goa'uld. Osiris, sensations dulled, did what was natural to him; he sensed the nearest host and took its body as his own. Delirious from the new memories that flushed through his mind, and recovering from the stasis, Osiris had his new host. (Episode: The Cursed)

The Replicators soon infested Apophis' mothership, and Apophis took over SG-1's mothership, but it too became infested with Replicators. SG-1 sabotaged the vessel, causing it to crash into Delmak. Apophis was aboard the Ha'tak at the time, and was killed in the crash. His body was presumably destroyed beyond repair in the crash. (SG1: Enemies)

Fallen Gods

The fall of the Goa'uld came when the Replicators arrived in the Milky Way and initiated an all-out attack against the parasitic aliens. (Episode: Reckoning, Part 1)

Hoping to end the Ori invasion, Ba'al captured Adria and took her as a host. He also killed his clones, hoping to cover his tracks. Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell killed Ba'al during the capture of Adria, and the symbiote placed in her was soon removed. However, Mitchell expressed doubt over whether Ba'al was finally dead, fearing that one or more of Ba'al's clones may have survived. (SG1: Dominion)

Ultimately, the last of Ba'al's clones was captured and extracted, only for the clone to claim prior to his extraction that the original Ba'al had a contingency plan. Just then, the 'real' one uses a solar flare in conjunction with a Stargate to travel back in time to prevent the Earth Stargate from getting to America by sinking the ship that was taking it to America in 1938, thereby changing the present. Using his foreknowledge, Ba'al then rose to the highest level in the renewed Goa'uld Empire, bringing a massive fleet to conquer Earth with Qetesh as his queen and Teal'c as his First Prime. Though all of the Systems Lords wished to obliterate Earth from the face of the universe, Ba'al decided to treat them leniently. This got Qetesh suspicious and forced Ba'al to reveal the location of his monitoring base before she killed him. Fortunately, the remaining members of SG-1 - who had escaped the alterations to history thanks to them travelling through the Stargate at the moment that history finished changing in the aftermath of Ba'al's modifications - allied with Teal'c and traveled to Ba'al's monitoring base, using the Stargate and a convenient solar flare to send Colonel Cameron Mitchell back in time to 1929, allowing him to get into position to be on board the transport ship and kill Ba'al before he destroyed history. With the real Ba'al dead, the extraction went uninterrupted. The Ba'al symbiote died from the extraction while his host survived. With the death of the real Ba'al and his last remaining clone, the last remaining Goa'uld System Lord had fallen. (Movie: Continuum)

Overview

The snake shaped parasite that is the Goa'uld requires a host body to inhabit in order to affect the environment around it. Typically, among the Goa'uld, this is done invasively taking control over the host body and surpressing the mind. As such, its typical among the Goa'uld to state that "Nothing of the host remains." as part of the process. However, strong minds can resist the parasite for brief moments requiring more concentration from the Goa'uld within to maintain its control over the body.

The symbiont typically enters the body of a host either through the mouth or burrowing through the neck. Once inside the body, they attach themselves to the spinal column and begin their control over the body. Young larval Goa'uld can only accomplish this briefly as they have not matured to the point that would allow them complete control over the body. As part of their maturation cycle, a Goa'uld can 'shed' its skin leaving an empty husk behind which can confuse enemies that attempt to surgically remove the Goa'uld.

Symbiotes have regenerative abilities, and with the aid of Sarcophagi they are capable of living thousands of years within the same human host. (SG1: Serpent's Song)

Within nearly all hosts, a Goa'uld parasite has complete control, and the degree of control to exert at any given moment is also up to the parasite. Typically entering through the neck and more seldom through the throat, the Goa'uld will attach itself to the spinal cord which allows access to the brain, leaving an entry mark. When within a host, the Goa'uld gives perfect health, increased strength, and increased intelligence. When in control of the body, the symbiote is capable of making the host's eyes glow, and also speak in a deep, booming voice. The voice, however, is an unnecessary affectation that may be used to differentiate between parasite and host, as the Tok'ra do, or simply to intimidate slaves and opponents. (SG1: Children of the Gods)

Entry could be achieved through force with the parasite burrowing through the neck. Upon latching onto a host, the parasite wrapped itself around the spine and wove itself around the nervous system with thin filaments that extended up and into the brain. Immature symbionts at times abandoned their Jaffa incubators out of desperation to survive and forcibly take a host. However, they waged a battle with the host for control of the body with this becoming divided as they forced them to black out and take control before being forced to relinquish command of the body. It was for this reason that the Jaffa were created to be living incubators to the young Goa'uld. Jaffa were generally not able to communicate with the symbiote inside of them. As they matured, the symbiotes were noted to shed their skin as a husk. (Episode: The Enemy Within)

Early prehistoric Goa'uld were believed to be predatory animals that remained in this existence for millions of years before adopting a parastic existence. The early primordial queens were noted for their enlarged pectoral musculature and dorsal structure. (Episode: The First Ones)

Goa'uld Queens were responsible for birthing members of their kind and created the larvae. To create the larvae, the Queen required the code of life from the juices of a species intended as a host. This was the DNA of the host race in order to prevent rejection of the Symbiote. (Episode: Hathor) Infant Goa'uld were the larval version of their kind that were placed within living incubators such as the Jaffa who each carried one. Species such as the Jaffa carried the infant Goa'uld until maturity and in exchange they received perfect health as well as long lives. Removal of the larvae would lead to the eventual death of the incubator host. (Episode: Children of the Gods) One of the conditions required for a larval symbiote to be maintained outside the host was a small electrical current that mimicked that generated by the body. Even if the conditions of the pouch were replicated the Goa'uld larva would still slowly die without this one final element. (Episode: Bane)

Goa'uld possessed a genetic memory where all were born with the knowledge of their kind before them. (Episode: The Enemy Within)

One of the unique traits among the Goa'uld is their genetic memory which allows them access to the accumulated knowledge of their race from the Queen that spawned them. As such, the moment a Goa'uld is born, they possess the memories of their predecessors. This includes the memories of the acts made by their ancestors and parents.

Though not explained, the Goa'uld during their journey across the stars developed Naquadah within their blood. This has provided the Goa'uld several advantages one of which is that it serves as a 'genetic key' that allows them the usage of their technology which only responds to the Naquadah in the users blood. A symbiont is capable of implanting this ability in a host should the Goa'uld itself die.

Another noted advantage of the Naquadah present in a Goa'ulds body is that it allows them to actually sense the location of a Stargate.

This allowed them to be drawn to the location of a Stargate even if they lacked the technological means of finding one. (Episode: Hathor)

Primordial symbiotes from their original homeworld lacked even trace amounts of Naquadah within their makeup with the substance later becoming part of their biology later in their evolution. (Episode: The First Ones)

Certain hosts with proper training could prevent the Symbiote from taking complete control over their mind. They then operated as a voice within the mind of a Goa'uld and were able to influence their actions. (Episode: Thor's Hammer)

Society

As a parasitic race, they were noted to take life and use it for their own purposes. (Episode: The Nox) Traditionally, a Goa'uld were said to be vain about their appearance. (Episode: Evolution, Part 1) It was for this reason that the worlds that fell under their control had their populations fear beauty as curse as such individuals were desirable as perfect hosts. (Episode: Thor's Hammer) Goa'uld Queens were noted for enjoying the method of acquiring the 'code of life' from humans and found the process pleasurable. (Episode: Hathor) Goa'uld saw others as tools whose deaths were cheap means of getting rid of their enemies. (Episode: Singularity) There were certain worlds that they regularly visited in order to harvest them of hosts for Goa'uld absorption which was how the perceived their populations. (Episode: Cor-ai)

One of the most likely threats a Goa'uld lord could face was being challenged by their children. (SG1: The Serpent's Lair)

It was said that the Goa'uld would not willingly share their knowledge with others. (Episode: The Enemy Within)

Though they used humans, there were other species that were far older who had been used as hosts some of whom had immeasurable power and savagery. (Episode: Thor's Hammer)

Minor Goa'uld are often forced to serve the more powerful as Underlords and can consist of former warlords that were defeated. While they can serve as lieutenants and commanders for the lord in question, there was the danger of the Underlord plotting to overthrow their master. This threat is even greater when one considers that the usurper would gain all the holdings of their master if successful. (SG1: Prophecy)

As a civilization, they ruled by force and though they were very few in numbers they were growing. Some of their kind ruled as great kings that lorded over many worlds and portrayed themselves as gods. Many hundreds of worlds were believed to had been under their control. Some of those planets were abandoned leaving their populations to fend for themselves. It was said that they had no need for peace and that if it was in their power they would kill other civilizations. (Episode: The Enemy Within)

Goa'uld lords were often accompanied by a personal guard of Jaffa. (Episode: The Nox)

The final wish a Goa'uld can give their First Prime was the task of avenging their death if they were betrayed or killed by a rival. (Movie: Continuum)

One group that formed among the Goa'uld were the Linvris who were nine minor lords that opposed the System Lords. (Episode: Legacy)

Knowledge of Goa'uld science or 'magic' was forbidden to their slaves such as the Jaffa. (Episode: The Enemy Within) There were still some technologies that the Goa'uld even sought out to acquire for themselves. (Episode: The Nox)

Their were more archaic and obscure dialects of the Goa'uld language. (Episode: Brief Candle)

Technology

Information was recorded on smaller hand-held triangular tablet devices where the writing shifted and could be used to contain a record. (Episode: Brief Candle) A tool used for transmitting information was the long-range visual communication device that resembled spheres ranging from hand-held to larger than humans. These devices operated similar to televisions but were much more advanced where images and voiced emerged on the spheres surface. (Episode: Within The Serpent's Grasp Part 1)

During exploration, they threw spherical devices through the Stargate which emitted a scanning field back of its findings. (Episode: Children of the Gods)

Goa'uld Queens had hosts that could maintain a device on their abdomen that created a pouch in a host species that could become a womb for a Goa'uld larvae. (Episode: Hathor)

They had developed small handheld devices that were worn over the palm and when activated emitted an energy that healed wounds. (Episode: Thor's Hammer) The sarcophagus was developed from a study of an Ancient healing device. (Episode: Evolution, Part 1) It was said that the sarcophagus was capable of great miracles. (Episode: Hathor)

A hand-held weapon was the zat'nik'tel that used a different form of energy that was less powerful than that of a staff weapon. Whilst less destructive, it was still quite deadly with a single blast able to disable a person but left them in incredible pain. A second shot killed most targets and a third shot vaporised targets. (Episode: Within The Serpent's Grasp Part 1)

Certain Goa'uld had also experimented in the use of nanotechnology with them creating Nanocytes that were microscopic machines that operated in organic hosts. They replicated themselves and could be programmed for selected tasks with this being triggered by a signal which could cause the host to either sleep or rapidly age. (Episode: Brief Candle)

They also developed a homing device allowing the user to find a missing Stargate. (Episode: The Nox)

Without the Stargate, they made use of spacecraft in journeys that could take months or years. (Episode: The Enemy Within) Windows were covered with a force field as no transparent material was capable of withstanding the velocity their ships were capable of achieving. (Episode: Within The Serpent's Grasp Part 1)

They had built smaller shield devices that were large barrel shaped machines that created an energy force high in the air and protected regions on worlds that had large amounts of radiation reaching the surface. (Episode: The First Commandment)

Members

• Ra :
• Apophis :
• Anubis :
• Sokar : He later conquered the world of Delmak, making it his homeworld, and pyroformed its moon into a hell-like world, naming it Netu. His underling Bynarr ruled Ne'tu, traveling to Delmak by way of the transportation rings to inform Sokar of the suffering of the damned. (SG1: Jolinar's Memories)
• Hathor : a Queen who was an ally and enemy of Ra who imprisoned her in a sarcophagus at a Mayan temple on Earth 2,000 years ago whereupon she was released and sought to forge a new empire on Earth before escaping Stargate Command through the Stargate. (Episode: Hathor)
• Osiris :
• Setesh :
• Baal :
• Her-ur :
• Pelops : a Goa'uld lord who had taken human slaves to the planet Argos where he experimented on them with nanocyte technology that accelerated their aging process in order to see where evolution would take human hosts in the future. (Episode: Brief Candle)
• Nirrti : a Goa'uld lord who was an enemy of Apophis. (Episode: Singularity)
• Belus : (Episode: Fire and Water)
• Pelops : (Episode: Brief Candle)
• Klorel :

Notes

• The Goa'uld were introduced as antagonists in the Stargate: SG-1 television series.

In other media

Video games

• In Stargate: Timekeepers, the Goa'uld appeared in the setting of the real-time tactics video game. Events depicted began from the attack made on Antarctica by Anubis as he looked to claim the lost city of the Ancients. Afterwards, a Stargate Command team were involved in numerous battles against the Goa'uld empire.

Novels

• In Stargate SG-1: Kali's Wrath, the Goa'uld appeared in the setting of the non-canon Fandemonium novel written by Keith DeCandido. In the events of the book, Kali claimed that after Ra solidified his rule in Ancient Egypt, he sent out an invitation to other System Lords that they were allowed to lay claim to a domain on Earth, subservient to Ra. At this time, the Goa'uld still used Unas as hosts until Ra took his lo'taur as a host, the young native boy who did not flee at Ra's ha'tak landing. He immediately decreed that all Goa'uld would each take a human as their new host. Within a year, many heeded Ra's decree - some like Hathor even begin experimenting and creating the first Jaffa soldiers; others like Cronus and Shiva secretly rejected the idea of taking a lesser host, making excuses when questioned by Ra.

Appearances

• Stargate SG-1:

External Links

• Stargate Wiki Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.