Lord Ra

Ra, the Egyptian Sun God and Supreme System Lord, was for millenia the most powerful Goa'uld. Husband of Hathor and father of Heru'ur, Ra was the first Goa'uld to find Earth and take a human host, which might explain his rise to power. For many centuries, he ruled his domain from Egypt, although a revolt roughly five thousand years ago managed to expel him from Earth.

Having scattered millions of humans throughout the galaxy for centuries, Ra decided that the human homeworld was not worth the trouble and the Tau'ri were left to their own devices, although he returned at least once in Roman times to capture Egeria, the leader and mother of the recently created Tok'ra. The very name of this resistance movement ('against Ra', in Goa'uld/Ancient Egyptian) is a testimony of Ra's power and influence.

However, he was no unchallenged pharaoh. At some point after losing Earth, Sokar grew powerful enough to challenge Ra's hegemony and the Sun God had to ally with other Goa'uld (including Apophis and Cronus) to regain his position. In the centuries before the rediscovery of the Stargate in Earth, he seems to have run out of luck. He lost his new throneworld of Pangar and at some point started to use humans for his personal guard (something that among the System Lords is usually considered a desperate move).

He might have been forced to use Abydos as his last throneworld... he certainly built secret chambers for his most valued treasures and a temple with thousands of Stargate addresses there. Finally, it was in Abydos where his guards captured the members of the original Stargate expedition and Ra realized just how much Earth had advanced. He intended to send through the Stargate a naquadah enhanced nuclear warhead that, but his plans were foiled by Jackson, O'Neill and a timely uprising of the Abydonians. He attempted to escape from the planet with his pyramid ship, but O'Neill and Jackson transported the powerful bomb he had prepared for use against Earth and Ra's long existence ended in a blaze of nuclear fire.

It is noteworthy that Ra took much more seriously than other Goa'uld his claims of divinity. When he appeared before his human slaves, he always made a impressive display of wealth and power, wearing a silver mask and speaking with a deep, distorted voice. His guards used full helmets (Horus masks for the foot soldiers, an Anubis head for his 'First Prime) when in public, making the superstitious Abydonians believe that they were inmortal 'gods' too and at least in his last years, Ra had forbidden the use of the written word for his human slaves, to prevent the remembrance of his past defeats.

It seems that Ra kept his original human host (an slightly effeminate teenager) until his death, for reasons unknown, although some fans have noticed the way the silver mask seems to retract inside his body and speculated that he might have used cybernetic implants in an attempt to create a hok'taur ('advanced host' in Goa'uld). If true, this would have been just another customized item in the rather long list of them Ra owned, a particular trait. This list also includes unusual sarcophagus and rivon device designs, as well as more powerful than standard staff weapons and helmets with heat vision for his personal guards.

Record 1238 - character - Last update 28 Mar 2007, 23:11:05

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