THE GOA’ULD SYSTEM LORDS
For thousands of years the Goa’uld were the dominant race in our galaxy, commanded by the System Lords — a feudal group of aliens who each ruled various parts of the galaxy and competed with one another. At various times in their history they were united under a single, militarily superior Goa’uld (such as Ra).
Biologically speaking, the Goa’uld are parasitic, snake-like creatures which take human beings as hosts, totally controlling them. With their sarcophagus technology, they can live in the same host body for hundreds, even thousands of years.
The Goa’uld are technologically advanced, but just about everything they have, they stole from other races. Their true power base is the Jaffa, a race of humanoids from various planets they have genetically engineered to be biologically dependent upon the Goa’uld (the Jaffa serve as incubators to the larval symbiotes). The power-hungry and capricious Goa’uld order their armies of Jaffa into battle over territory or petty rivalries, while the Jaffa throughout the galaxy yearn to be free.
In its adventures, SG-1 managed to bump off more than a few prominent Goa’uld. Ra, once the “Supreme System Lord,” was killed when Jack and Daniel sent a nuclear bomb to his ship as he attempted to flee an uprising on Abydos (“Stargate” the movie). Cronus was killed in an act of revenge by Teal’c — or, more accurately, a robot duplicate of him (“Double Jeopardy”). Nirrti was killed when the people she had subject to genetic experiments turned on her (“Metamorphosis”). And Yu was murdered by a Replicator copy of Sam Carter (“Reckoning, Part 1”).
Finally, the Goa’uld System Lord empire was dealt a crippling blow three years ago, when the Replicators invaded our galaxy and defeated the Goa’uld at every turn (“Reckoning, Part 1”). Since then they have been fragmented and, for the most part, without the Jaffa to serve them. Only one of the former System Lords, Baal, has made a real play at grabbing power again.