Goa'uld

The Goa'uld are a species of eusocial parasitic sapients that are the first revealed and primary villains for much of the Stargate franchise.

Attributes

Goa'uld resemble lampreys and are about thirty centimeters long. They are capable of entering the body of a humanoid to commandeer control of it. Once established, the parasite increases the host's lifespan, strength, and general health. Advanced technologies, such as sarcophagi, further increase the host's life expectancy to practical immortality.

Goa'uld reproduction is done via Queens, which are capable of producing large quanities of offspring as well as being able to pass on a genetic memory to their offspring and are capable of selectively altering them, being able to produce Goa'uld born scietificially literate as well as mindless blanks.

History

Native to P3X-888, the Goa'uld emerged as a powerful faction after the collapse/Ascension of the Ancient civilization. Using the Stargate network, the Goa'uld managed to come across ancient Earth and posed as gods among several early Terran civilizations. They relocated populations of humans to various other worlds, transplanting human civilizations across the galaxy and eventually abandoning Earth. The Goa'uld established a feudal empire over most of the Milky Way, keeping themselves in power via armies of Jaffa and religious indoctrination, with human serfs under the Goa'uld worshiping them as gods.

Organization

Goa'uld society was feudal, but far from united. The Goa'uld sphere of influence was divided into different kingdoms consisting of several planets ruled by a System Lord, who in turn had several administrators ruling over smaller domains within the kingdom. Various staffs of officers, administrators and scientists served these administrators. Beneath them were the Jaffa, who served the Goa'uld in a military capacity, and human serfs and slaves.

Under normal conditions, the Goa'uld system lords were constantly at each other's throats, vying for power in a semi-ritualised form of warfare, cooperating only in the face of major threat to their status-quo.

Threat Assessment

At their peak, the Goa'uld collectively had a vast interstellar domain under their control and were the dominant faction in the Milky Way galaxy, ruling over billions of Human serfs. However, most of these worlds were at an Iron Age period of development, although there were some industrial hubs, such as Delmak, with shipyards. Each System Lord commanded a fleet of Ha'tak-class Motherships, each one capable of wreaking massive damage on a planetary civilization via orbital bombardment with weapons rated at 200 megatons. Very prominent System Lords somtimes fielded larger command ships, but these were quite rare.

Goa'uld ground forces were composed of Jaffa infantry, which -- as stated before -- normally fight in a semi-ritualized form of warfare. The standard Jaffa infantryman wore metallic armor which offered some protection against small arms and wielded a spear-shaped staff weapon capable of firing energy bolts at a rate comparable to that of a semi-automatic rifle. Additional weaponry included more powerful staff cannons and Zat'nikatel sidearms. Their forces lacked indirect artillery, ground vehicle support, camoflage, and night vision equipment, and they used outdated tactics such as massed charges, putting Jaffa at a massive disadvantage against Terran infantry in combat. Airpower in the form of Al'kesh Bombers and Death Glider fightercraft somewhat offset the lack of surface support gear.

Goa'uld of Note

• Ra
• Ba'al
• Apophis
• Anubis
• Yu
• Sokar