Ancient (Stargate)
Template:Stargate race The Ancients (or Alterans, as they originally called themselves) are a fictional race in the Stargate universe.
The Ancients are the race credited with building the system of Stargates. Dr. Daniel Jackson translated many and various writings where the Ancients were referred to as "builders of roads" and throughout SG-1's travels they gathered more information about them. All discoveries relative to the early Ancient race indicate that they were nearly human in form, albeit with incredible healing abilities, long life spans, and highly advanced techology. They had originally evolved in a distant galaxy, then travelled to the Milky Way over several million years ago.
The Ancients explored our galaxy, leaving Stargates wherever they went. They established colonies on many of these worlds, which helps to explain why most of the worlds with Stargates are generally hospitable to humanoid life.
Eventually, there came a time when the Ancients began to research "ascension" to a higher plane of existence, to escape a mysterious plague that was infiltrating their population. Around this time one of the Ancients' cities, Atlantis, left Earth and went to the Pegasus Galaxy, where it settled on an ocean planet with little land. Overconfident, the Ancients seeded humans and Stargates across Pegasus and eventually encountered a leech-like organism with immense healing and immunological capabilities. (Major Sheppard encountered one of these early in the Stargate Atlantis episode "Thirty-Eight Minutes".) As the Ancients were seeking immortality, much as the Asgard do today, they likely spent time experimenting with this organism, as it is noted (season 2, episode 1) that this organism absorbed genetic information from the Ancients and bootstrapped itself rapidly via rapid evolution into sentience as the vampire-like Wraith. The Ancients and Wraith went to war, and although Wraith technology was inferior to that of the Ancients, they overwhelmed the Ancients with sheer numbers. After a long siege, the Ancients of Atlantis returned to Earth via the Stargate and submerged Atlantis under the ocean where it would await the return of the Ancients (or their descendants) for some 10,000 years.
When the Atlantean Ancients returned to the Milky Way, the plague was still spreading. They appear to have either ascended, died out, and/or interbred with humans. One of them, Myrddin, would become known to history as Merlin. Another used the time travel technology found by SG-1 in the Milky Way Galaxy (and simultaneously by another version of Dr. Elizabeth Weir, who used it to travel back to Ancient Atlantis and create a closed timelike curve, giving her future expedition to Atlantis a greater chance of saving the city when it first arrived) to fortell/influence events on a planet later to come under the rule of Col. Harry Maybourne as King Arkhan I. And, of course, they originated the legend of Atlantis that Plato would record millennia later.
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The Ancients' ascended form, pure energy, allows them to be seen and heard by ordinary humans and then disappear at will. Most, however, adhere to a sort of "Prime Directive" which forbids them from influencing the unascended. Near the end of season five, Dr. Daniel Jackson became exposed to a lethal amount of radiation and was approached just prior to his death by an ascended Ancient named Oma Desala (played by Mel Harris) whom he had previously met on the planet Kheb (
). With her assistance, Daniel ascended and joined the Ancients, but in an early season seven episode Daniel was cast down out of his ascended state, some say for over-stretching his authority in an attempt to help SG-1 and to save Abydos, while Oma said that he chose exile because he couldn't countenance the unconcerned detachment of the Ancients for current day events which they are responsible for (namely the semi-ascendance of Goa'uld Anubis and his gaining of Ancient advanced technology).
The Ancients were a member of the Alliance of Four Great Races, alongside the Asgard, the Nox and the Furlings. In addition to the Stargates, the Ancients left behind several repositories of Ancient knowledge, Dakara (which the Ancients used to cleanse the Milky Way of the invading virus), several military outposts similar to that found in Antarctica, and the city of Atlantis, as well as many other lesser relics of advanced technology.
Like most of the other races in the Stargate universe, the Ancients are identified with one of Earth's early civilizations; in this case, the Roman Empire. They share the epithet "builder of roads", and the Ancients' language appears to be a precursor of Latin. The last known contact between physical Ancients and Earth humans took place ten thousand years ago when the survivors of Atlantis returned to Earth via the Antarctic Stargate, well before the founding of Rome. The Ancient language, however similar to Latin, is still distinct; it has a unique writing system. Unlike the Goa'uld and Asgard writing systems, the Ancient writing system has no analogues with any known Earth language. Generally speaking, Ancient characters are squarish, blocky, and dominated by right angles and are, interestingly, written from right to left (Prototype). The Athosians, and probably other human civilizations in the Pegasus Galaxy, say their prayers in Ancient.
During season six of Stargate SG-1 an Ancient woman, named Ayiana, was found frozen in Antarctica and revived herself when thawed, but she was still infected with the plague and died very shortly thereafter. The history of Ancient influence on Earth is not well known. On at least one occasion Ancients have referred to humanity as their "second evolution" and some groups of humans have developed primitive Ancient-like mental abilities, suggesting they may have established humanity as their eventual successor. Also, some humans possess genetic markers (called the ATA gene) unique to the Ancients that allow them to use Ancient technology.
Known Ancients
Ancients who have been mentioned by name (along with episode titles) include:
- Ayiana ("Frozen" (SG-1), "Rising" (Atlantis))
- Chaya/Athar ("Sanctuary" (Atlantis))
- Janus ("Before I Sleep" (Atlantis))
- Oma Desala (numerous SG-1 appearances)
- Orlin ("Ascension" (SG-1), "Fourth Horseman" (SG-1))
- Melia ("Rising" (Atlantis), "Before I Sleep" (Atlantis))
- Moros ("Before I Sleep" (Atlantis))
The Ancients and the Ori
Daniel Jackson and Anubis were also ascended at one point, but they were not Ancients per se; it is clearly established that numerous species have learned to ascend over the years. It is also speculated that the Ori are Ancients who ascended but refused to leave this plane of existence (similar to what Oma did when she remained on Kheb, except she does not think the same way as the Ori), under the belief that their great power deserved being worshipped by lesser beings. This speculation is openly asserted as truth by an Ori that Daniel Jackson meets. Since the Ori are power-obsessed and use fire as an expression of their power, Dr. Jackson theorizes that the Ori are the real demons of Hell which the Goa'uld Sokar only attempted to emulate.
The Ancients were originally called Alterans before they became known as The Ancients. According to the Ancient/Alteran named Orlin, the Alterans and the Ori were once the same race, which evolved in the Ori Home Galaxy. However, there was a split that drove them into two camps: the Ori believed that their power should be worshipped, and they became increasingly dogmatic and filled with religious self -righteousness, believing they had a right to control all lesser races. The Alterans, on the other hand, (for lack of a better term) "believed" in science; they also had a strong belief in free will and believed it was ethically wrong to affect the free will of lesser races, much less force them to worship the Alterans. Eventually, the Alterans escaped the Ori Home Galaxy on a great ship and later arrived in the Milky Way Galaxy.
After Anubis revealed the power of the Ancients and Daniel Jackson revealed the first information about them, the rediscovery of Ancient knowledge has become a main influence on most races in the Milky Way and the quest for Ascension has become their chief spiritual endeavor.