Arguably the most powerful and formidable figure in the history of the Goa’uld empire
is the system lord Anubis. His ability to evade death and regroup after suffering setbacks and
significant defeats enabled him to amass power and knowledge over many thousands of years of activity
in the Milky Way Galaxy. In this video, I’d like to explore the history of Anubis, how his quest
for power led him to achieve immortality, and how his evil schemes were brought to an eternal end.
The known timeline of Anubis spans many thousands of years before the establishment
of the Tauri stargate program. Anubis first arose as a warlord in the service of Apep.
Driven by his own insatiable ambition, he eventually killed Apep, removing the symbiote
from his host and devouring it before the eyes of the Goa'uld. In the wake of Apep’s death,
the Goa'uld Ra, was successful in rallying his brethren to fight against Anubis.
After some three centuries of civil war Anubis was defeated and was thereafter banished.
Thousands of years later, Anubis returned from exile and attempted to earn a position
of leadership among the Goa’uld by offering to destroy their enemies, the Asgard. This
infuriated Ra, triggering yet another war among the Goa’uld as he sought to put Anubis to death.
However, it was during this time that Anubis stumbled across Ancient research
on the process of ascension. Believing this to be a promising means to attain more power,
he allowed the Goa’uld System Lords to believe he was dead. In his quest to learn more about
ascension he was led to the planet Kheb where he completed trails overseen by the rogue Ancient
Oma Desala. After successfully deceiving Oma and after passing her trials, Anubis
was deemed to be worthy of ascension. By the time she realized his true evil nature it was too late.
Unable to descend Anubis on her own, Oma enlisted the help of the other ascended Ancients.
Frustrated with Oma’s disregard for their rules regarding interference on lower planes
of existence, the Others chose to punish Oma by leaving Anubis partially ascended, and allowed him
to retain any of the knowledge he could have gained as a regular Goa’uld. In this state,
Anubis lived on as an incorporeal being of energy, kept intact and given form through the use of a
personal force field, donning a cloak and hood allowing him to be seen on the material plane. At
some point, using a genetic manipulation device, he performed experiments attempting to create
a highly evolved human-hybrid soldier capable of ascending, named Kaylek. It’s been speculated that
this experimentation was motivated by Anubis’s own resentment at being trapped as a half-ascended
being. While it's apparent that he abandoned this experiment, were he to be successful at
helping Khalek to fully ascend, it’s thought that he could have theoretically replicated the process
in order to create an army capable of challenging and even destroying the Ancients.
Anubis would continue on in this form seeking to amass power through the development and discovery
of advanced technologies in order to gain an advantage over the other Goa’uld system lords.
Eventually, after the death of several prominent system lords, the Goa’uld empire
fell into disarray. Anubis then once again made his presence known and thereafter gained
support from both older discredited as well as newer Goa’uld who served as his underlords.
He was able to use his tremendous knowledge and advanced shield technology
to subjugate and force compliance from the technologically superior Tollans.
When his attempts to acquire a new Phase-shifting weapon from the Tollans failed, he razed
their (new) homeworld and continued on in his relentless pursuit of advanced weapons and tech.
After promising to destroy Earth with a Naquadah asteroid which he was ultimately unable to
fulfill, Anubis was successful in convincing the High Council to restore him to his former rank of
System Lord. In the meantime, he was also able to execute an assault wiping out all the enemy Tok’ra
at their base on Revanna. Anubis then utilized his superior shield and weapon technology to
initiate a surprise attack and capture the Asgard Thor. Using a mind probe, he was able to gain the
knowledge of the Asgard’s transporter and hologram technology before being forced to retreat.
Anubis then attempted once again to destroy all life on the Tauri homeworld,
through the use of an Ancient weapon intended to detonate the naquadah in Earth's Stargate.
After this effort was thwarted, he then turned his attention toward the acquisition of
six ancient artifacts capable of powering up a superweapon located on his mothership.
After gaining the sixth and final artifact he then used his superweapon to destroy Abydos,
which he had previously agreed to spare in exchange for the artifact. Interestingly, Anubis
was protected from the ascended Daniel Jackson’s attempts to stop the system lord by Oma Desala.
After descending, Dr. Jackson, plotted with the SG-1 team to bypass the mothership's shields
and subsequently destroyed the superweapon shortly before Anubis was able to escape.
Seeking to rebuild his superweapon, he was able to capture Jonas Quinn and use his mind probe
to learn the location of Naquadria deposits. While attempting to harvest these deposits,
his mothership was attacked and destroyed by the united alliance of system lords,
forcing him to flee in his escape pod. Seeking to rebuild his forces,
Anubis began working toward the development of a new genetically-engineered humanoid soldier
superior to the Jaffa culminating in the creation of the nearly invincible Kull warriors.
Through the deployment of these soldiers Anubis once again rose to power regaining a foothold
in the galaxy by taking out several Goa’uld and absorbing their forces. Having come to
believe that the Tauri had discovered the location of the Lost City of the Ancients
along with Ancient Technology, Anubis launched an assault on Earth with a fleet of motherships.
However, he was ultimately defeated when Jack O’Neill was able to deploy
Ancient drone weapons from the Antarctic outpost.
Even though the vessel carrying the half-ascended system lord was destroyed, his formless essence
survived. In an effort to escape the earth through its Stargate, Anubis went on to possess several
members of the SGC before he was allowed to travel through the Stargate to a frozen planet.
Eventually,he escaped this planet and thereafter gained significant influence over the System Lord
Ba’al, overseeing his rise to dominance in the Goa’uld empire. During this time, Anubis continued
to possess a succession of bodies, jumping from one host to another as they deteriorated under
his control. The biggest threat to his plans for Galactic domination came from the invasion of
the Replicators. To thwart this invasion Anubis intended to make use of yet another superweapon
located on Dakara through which all corporeal life in the galaxy would be eliminated.
After this, he would be able to repopulate the galaxy to his own specifications
Realizing Anubis’s intentions, Ba’al worked with the Tauri Samantha Carter and the Tok’ra Jacob
Carter to alter the weapon’s scope making it target and destroy only the replicators.
Anubis then outmaneuvered an attack from the fleet assembled by the Free Jaffa
Nation on his stronghold on Tartarus. His forces then launched an assault on Dakara,
and after capturing the planet, they began working to execute his plan to wipe out
all life in the Milky Way. Revealing the depth of his hubris, Anubis then entered
the midpoint between the normal and Ascended planes of reality in order to mock Oma Desala.
After Daniel Jackson recognized Anubis at this midpoint, he attempted to attack the system lord
and failed due to his lack of power in this plane. Inspired by Daniel’s actions,
Oma then chose to engage with Anubis in an endless battle, forcing him to contend with her for all
eternity and thus preventing him from interfering any further on lower planes of existence.
With no master to serve, the Kull warriors immediately became disorganized and confused,
resulting in their defeat. While Anubis retained his immortality, Oma’s actions effectively marked
the end of the thousands of years of the System Lord’s activity and saw the removal of his threat
to life and his ability to bring any further harm to the beings inhabiting the Milky Way galaxy.
But I’m curious to know what you think about Anubis?
Is there a moment in this System Lord’s history that stands out to you? Do you think it was
fair for the Ancients to have punished Oma by effectively granting Anubis such immortality?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. I hope you enjoyed this video,
leave a like if you did and be sure to subscribe for more Stargate and other sci-fi and fantasy
news and lore. Thank you all so much for your support and as always have a very nerdy day.