The Ori: A race of ascended beings who acquired a sustaining form of energy
from the worship of mortal beings.
The Ori share a common root species with the Ancients.
And while both evolved into beings who ascended to an immaterial plane of existence, the Ancients
pursued scientific advancement and (eventually) noninterference with material life forms –
while the self-serving Ori instead created a religion to manipulate humans into servitude.
Many millions of years ago, the Alteran civilization grew and developed on a world in a distant galaxy.
The Alterans reached a level of technological advancement that would allow them to travel
the stars, even crossing into other galaxies ... and, eventually, building the Stargates.
But among the Alteran culture two radically different sects emerged.
The Ori embraced the inward convictions of religion, and the Ancients turned to the careful
experimentation and rational proofs of science.
As their society fragmented more and more deeply, the Ancients chose to leave their
homeworld and emigrate to the Milky Way Galaxy.
There they continued their development in relative peace, seeding the galaxy with human
life and interconnecting many thousands of worlds with the Stargate network.
Back in their home galaxy, the Ori too continued to evolve.
While they believed their brethren had “abandoned the path,”
the Ori did not reject scientific development altogether.
Rather they too appear to have developed similar technologies, including Stargates,
transport rings, and space-faring vessels.
But the Ori do not appear to have used their knowledge for the betterment of others.
While numerous human colonies exist in their galaxy, the ascended Ori appear deliberately
to have limited their development.
Instead, what the ascended Ori gave to mortal beings was the religion of Origin –
a religion in which they themselves are to be worshiped as gods.
This belief system is complete with daily rituals, a religious text filled with morality
tales (the Book of Origin), anointed ministers to preach and lead the flock in the ways of Origin,
and Priors – missionaries empowered by advanced technology and evolutionary advancements
to carry out the will of the Ori.
All of this took place under the direction of the Doci, the unwavering spiritual leader of Origin,
who is sometimes even possessed by an Ori spirit.
The religion of Origin does include some basic teachings about kindness and faith.
But its core message is one meant to channel the psychic energy of its worshipers to the
ascended beings: “Hallowed are the Ori.”
Followers are promised enlightenment – that they too will one day ascend to a higher plane.
But this is a lie: the Ori do not ascend their followers.
Otherwise they would have to share the energy of mortal worship among a greater number.
When they manifest in the material plane the Ori appear to be spirits of fire
(whereas the Ancients take on a more cloud-like, ethereal appearance).
On the higher planes of existence, the Ori possessed a level of power equal to the Ancients.
Dr. Daniel Jackson suspected that it was because of this deadlock in strength that the Ancients
were long able to prevent the Ori from discovering that the Milky Way Galaxy had become populated
with many billions of humans.
When they discovered this, the Ori sent Priors to preach Origin – and eventually advanced
warships and a military deployment, made up of their human followers, to convert the people
of our galaxy by force.
Billions of new worshippers meant more energy, which could empower the Ori to destroy
even the Ancients themselves.
The Ori’s followers were led by the “Orici,” Adria, herself sired by the Ori.
The military struggle against this force was one thing.
But how does one fight a powerful, immaterial being?
The tide of the conflict was turned by the discovery of a unique weapon developed
by the legendary Merlin.
He himself was once an ascended Ancient, but he retook human form in order to find a way
to fight the Ori that could be hidden from the Ancients.
After meeting Merlin himself, frozen in stasis, Daniel Jackson obtained the knowledge he needed
to complete the device.
The weapon specifically targets the noncorporeal plane where ascended beings dwell.
It was activated and sent through the Ori Supergate back to their home galaxy,
and the Ori were annihilated.
This did not stop their human followers, however.
Adria herself soon learned to ascend, and as the sole beneficiary of the worship of
Origin she became a seemingly unstoppable power – the last of the Ori.
SG-1 traveled through the Supergate to locate the Ark of Truth, another powerful piece of
technology left behind when the Alterans departed their homeworld.
When the Ark was activated the Doci, his Priors, the followers under them, where all exposed
to the reality of the Ori's true intentions.
At the same time, Adria herself was confronted by the Ancient known as Morgan Le Fay.
Without the energy of her worshipers Adria was now an “ordinary” ascended being.
Thanks to Morgan's intervention she is now locked in combat on the ascended plane
for all eternity.
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