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In the science fiction television show Stargate SG-1, the System Lords are the leaders of the Goa'uld, the dominant alien race of the Milky Way Galaxy.

While there are tens of thousands of Goa'uld ruling across the galaxy, only dozens hold the rank of System Lord, most of which are minor System Lords apparently excluded from high-level decisions, as shown in the Season 5 episode "Summit". A Goa'uld must generally control several star systems to rank as a System Lord.

For thousands of years, Ra was the most powerful Goa'uld and held the rank of Supreme System Lord, until he was killed by Colonel O'Neill and Daniel Jackson, as depicted in the film Stargate.

The System Lords rarely trust each other, and frequently battle amongst themselves for dominance of their individual domains. The Tok'ra - a splinter race descended from a Goa'uld queen who opposed the Goa'uld ways - usually try to keep the System Lords balanced so that no single System Lord can overpower the others; therefore preventing any one Goa'uld from becoming too powerful to topple. The Asgard also follow this strategy. The System Lords will, however, ally against external threats such as the Asgard and the Tau'ri, or against mutual internal threats, such as the Tok'ra and the Rebel Jaffa.

Contents 1 Hierarchy 1.1 Subordinates 2 List of System Lords 2.1 Egyptian mythology 2.2 Shinto mythology 2.3 Greek mythology 2.4 Celtic mythology 2.5 Canaanite/Phoenician mythology 2.6 Hindu mythology 2.7 Sumerian/Babylonian mythology 2.8 Yorùbá mythology 2.9 Slavic mythology 2.10 Non-deific origin 3 General plot 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

There is a strict rank system among the System Lords, and particularly beneath the System Lords (i.e. among their individual followers). The System Lords themselves are a body that, although sometimes warring, are also in many senses allied; they wish to continue the dominance of the System Lords as a whole. To become a System Lord, not only must a Goa'uld have great military power, but he must also be accepted by the others; otherwise he is an immediate enemy.

As seen within the episodes "Fair Game" and "Summit," it would appear that around the time of the first mission to Abydos, the following Goa'uld made up the first rank of System Lords: Ra, Apophis, Cronus, Yu, Nirrti, Ba'al, Bastet, Kali, Morrigan, and Olukun. In addition, Sokar was extremely powerful, but had been banished by the rest of the System Lords. Heru-ur inherited most of his empire from his father Ra, but he may have been a System Lord in his own right as well.

Each System Lord has a vast army of Jaffa, and these are formed in rank systems as well. The Goa'uld that a particular Jaffa serves is designated by a tattoo on their forehead of that Goa'uld's sigil. When one System Lord ultimately defeats another, the loser's Jaffa armies automatically owe allegiance to the victor, thus sometimes Jaffa with different forehead tattoos than that of their current lord are seen, because they serve a previously defeated System Lord. The highest rank is First Prime. A System Lord's First Prime is the military commander of all of that particular System Lord's forces, subject only to the orders of the Goa'uld. First Primes are set apart from other Jaffa in that the mark of service on their foreheads is made with an orak knife and filled with pure gold. This process is described by Teal'c to be tremendously painful.^[1]

System Lords also have a personal human slave called a Lo'tar (a slang term meaning "You, human.") Lo'tars are often used as backup hosts - they are always near the System Lord on a dangerous mission, and if the Lord is wounded too grievously, the symbiote can change to a new body. Apparently, Lo'tars find their position to be an honour, even if they understand that the Lord is not a God.^[2] The slave of a System Lord often works his way up to Lo'tar because he wants to be taken host, such that he can then experience the pleasures that System Lords enjoy.

With few exceptions, System Lords gain power by posing as gods from various Earth mythologies in order to enslave various planets.

Although the Goa'uld often pose as deities from many of Earth's religions to gain power, they generally do not take on the persona of those of modern-day Earth religions. The Goa'uld left Earth after a slave rebellion circa 3,000 B.C., and major religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were founded after this. The Goa'uld continued to take small numbers of humans from Earth through the Stargate in Antarctica, but apparently the costs involved were sufficient to make such takings smaller than in the past. However, the Goa'uld did copy the personas of several of Earth's older religions that still exist in the modern day, such as Hinduism and Shinto, since they are traditional religions with origins from before the burial of the Stargate.

Goa'uld parasites are biologically asexual and possess no gender, but many have been inhabiting human host bodies for so long (all the while experiencing life through their sensations) that they have come to think of themselves as either "male" or "female"; Apophis, Ba'al, and Anubis (before he Ascended) preferred to always take a male host, while Morrigan, Hathor, and Nirrti preferred to take female hosts. Osiris traditionally appeared in a male host for hundreds of years, but necessity required him to take a female host; this particular System Lord is nonetheless still referred to as a "he".

Most of the System Lords (cases such as Osiris and Seth notwithstanding) have inhabited the same host body for millennia. Ra still inhabited the young Earth villager he found ten thousand years ago, while Apophis's host in the late 1990s had once been a scribe at the temple of Amun in Karnak. Yu was apparently so old that he could not leave his host, though it was not established how long he inhabited that particular body.

Name	Origin	Traditional appearance	Notes	Symbol
Ra	Sun God	His Eye symbolised his being	Originally the first Supreme System Lord.[3] Deceased, killed by Jack O'Neill with a naqahdah-improved nuclear warhead above Abydos (Movie)[4] Again encountered after SG-1 time-travelled.[5]
Anubis	Greek name for the Egyptian God of the Underworld	Body of a male human, head of a Jackal	One of the most powerful System Lords, until he was virtually vanquished in the Season 7 finale,[6] and then taken out of the equation in Season 8 by Oma Desala.[7] Most strikingly, he was half-ascended.[8]
Apophis	Greek name for the God of Darkness and Chaos; Egyptian Apep	Serpent	The original antagonist of Stargate SG-1, and former master of Teal'c. Deceased, believed to be killed when his mothership was destroyed. (Season 5).
Osiris	God of Death	Two-horned mummy, or centipede	A recurring villain, finally trapped in Season 7 and removed from his host.[9] His ship was left in cloaked orbit around Earth, and was later used by The Trust.[10]
Heru-ur	Sky God Horus	Falcon, or his Eye	Son of Ra and Hathor. Deceased (Season 4) when Apophis destroyed his mothership.
Sokar	God of the Separation of Soul from the Body	Human-headed bird / Mummified, green, falcon-headed human	Once ruler of the System Lords, but overthrown and banished from the System Lord collective. Deceased (Season 3) when Ne'tu was destroyed by the Tok'ra.
Seth	Greek name for the Egyptian God of the Desert and Chaos (Set)	Composite or unknown animal	Attempted to overthrow Ra. Deceased (Season 3) when killed by Samantha Carter.

Name	Origin	Traditional appearance	Notes
Amaterasu	Sun Goddess, and traditional first ancestor of the Japanese royal family	Woman	One of the System Lords on the delegation petitioning for an alliance, or at least an understanding, with Earth against Ba'al.[11] Fate currently unknown (probably killed by RepliCarter)[12]

Name	Origin	Traditional Appearance	Notes	Symbol
Cronus	Cronus, Titan, father of Zeus the Supreme God	Powerful man	Teal'c's father was his First Prime.[13] Member of the delegation of System Lords sent to negotiate the addition of Earth to the Protected Planets Treaty. Deceased (Season 4, Episode 21).
Aries	Likely the God of War, Ares	Battle-ready, ferocious man	Fled from Anubis and, later, Ba'al when they made their attempts at power. The planet on which Tok'ra had settled Harry Maybourne had previously belonged to him, and his Jaffa attempted to reclaim it; however, when Aries himself arrived, he was killed by SG-1, who used a Puddle Jumper to destroy his Ha'tak. ("It's Good to Be King", Season 8.)

Name	Origin	Traditional appearance	Notes
Camulus	Celtic God of War		Camulus requested asylum at the SGC, and later sacrificed himself in an unsuccessful attempt to kill Ba'al (Season 8).
Mórrígan	Former Goddess of Death	Carrion Crow	Brought the people of P3X-289 from Earth.

Name	Origin	Traditional appearance	Notes
Ba'al	Simply the word for a Lord, son of the Supreme God; also one of the chief gods of Carthage, and later adapted slightly and known as Beelzebub	Powerful man	The dominant System Lord in later seasons. Pretended to be a powerful business executive involved in military contracting on Earth. Has since created many clones of himself to aid in his efforts to maintain and build power in the galaxy. On several occasions since, has aided SG-1 in their efforts to defeat the Ori (though often to achieve his own ends).
Moloc	Moloch, a Canaanite fire god who commanded a sacrifice of first born children		Originally dominant over Ishta's clan, he proclaimed that, until his forces turned the tide of the various wars he was waging, all female children would be sacrificed at birth. When he was later killed by the SGC's missiles (Season 8), his territory was absorbed by Ba'al. Possibly of Hebrew origin. Deceased.

Name	Origin	Traditional Appearance	Notes
Kali	Creator and Destroyer	Black and emaciated woman	A System Lord who voted for Anubis's return to their ranks. Current status is unknown.
Nirrti	Commonly Nirrith, Goddess of Death		The first Goa'uld to experiment with DNA resequencing, creating mutants with telekinetic powers in some cases. Deceased (Season 6).

Name	Origin	Traditional appearance	Notes
Marduk	Supreme God	Very powerful man	Found trapped inside a Sarcophagus in a ziggurat on P2X-338 (Season 5). Deceased when SG-1 blew up a powerful bomb in front of him.
Ishkur	Storm God		Former ruler of the Sodan[14]

Name	Origin	Traditional appearance	Notes
Olokun	Great-great-grandson of the first-existing deity, born from a raped mother who birthed fifteen others		Deceased.

Name	Origin	Traditional appearance	Notes
Svarog	Spirit of Fire	Fire-breathing, winged dragon	"Sent away," banished by the Sentinel, an alien device protecting the Latonan civilization (the Latonans had once reached such a high level of technological sophistication that they no longer needed to maintain their advanced technologies and infrastructure, and gradually forgot how; when Earth encountered them, they could no longer explain how Sentinel worked other than to say that enemies were "sent away".) Fate unknown.

Name	Origin	Notes
Yu	Founder of the Chinese Xia Dynasty	Later became senile (season 7) when he could no longer regenerate, and his First Prime had to effectively take control of his empire. Replicator Carter stabbed him (Season 8).[11] Presumed deceased.

Over the course of the series, several dominant System Lords have risen: Sokar, Apophis, Anubis, and Ba'al to name the greater of them. All System Lords use ground troops called Jaffa as both warriors and symbiotes for young Goa'uld larvae. They pose as Gods even to their own troops, who thus have ultimate loyalty. Teal'c was among the first to question the decific state of his Lord, and subsequently rebelled, beginning a string of rebellions that grew from a small contingent to, later in the series, a serious threat.

Apophis was the original enemy of the series, and original master of Teal'c; Sokar briefly replaced him, but he eventually arose again. Anubis was a far more evil Goa'uld whose aspirations may have been greater than we know. His ascendancy forced the other System Lords to coalesce into a "United Alliance of System Lords" to defeat him and restore the balance of power; this alliance was headed first by Yu, and then by Ba'al after the former's insanity; the Alliance also was forced into an uneasy cooperation with the Tau'ri. Anubis' strength came in large part from his mastery of Ancient technology; this knowledge came to him after he tricked Oma Desala, an Ancient, into allowing him to Ascend, although the other Ancients cast him back down into a half-ascended state. This made it almost impossible to kill him, although Jack O'Neill destroyed a fleet Anubis brought into Earth's orbit by using an Ancient weapon, trapping the half-Ascended Anubis in orbit with the wreckage. (Later, Anubis occupied the body of a Russian cosmonaut who strayed too close to the wreckage, and engineered his transfer to Stargate Command; however, when he tried to escape through the Stargate, he was redirected to a frozen world, where the human body he had seized was frozen solid before he could re-dial out.) Ba'al moves first to claim all of Anubis' territory and resources, including his feared Kull Warriors, and began to dominate all other Goa'uld until all feared him.

At the end of Season 8, the majority of the System Lords (including the long-lasting Yu) were killed by the Replicators during their invasion of the Milky Way galaxy. Apart from the System Lord Ba'al (who escaped, ironically, to Earth), as far as is known there is no other System Lord still living. However, all were not killed at once; SG-1 managed to eliminate several over the course of the series, though usually after each defeat a greater System Lord would subsume the power of the former. Further, the System Lords Kali, Mórrígan, and Amaterasu were never seen killed on screen, nor has their death been mentioned, so they may simply have gone into hiding after the success of the Jaffa rebellion.

• Goa'uld characters in Stargate
• Jaffa characters in Stargate
• Tok'ra characters in Stargate

• Chevron 26: System Lord symbol listing
• "System Lords" at GateWorld Omnipedia.

v • d • e Alien races in the Stargate universe
Alliance of four great races	Ancients (chars, tech), Asgard (chars, tech), Furling, Nox
Humans	Tau'ri (chars, tech), Tollan (tech), Langaran (char), Aschen, Genii (chars, tech), Athosians (chars), Prior, Jaffa (chars): Sodan, Free Jaffa
Goa'uld	System Lords (chars, tech), Kull Warrior, Tok'ra (chars, tech)
Other	Ori (chars, tech), Replicator (chars), Unas, Re'tu, Re'ol, Wraith (chars, tech), Iratus bug, Asurans (chars, tech)

v • d • e Stargate-related lists
General	Works, Episodes (SG-1, Atlantis, Infinity), Cast (SG-1, Atlantis), DVDs (SG-1, Atlantis)
Universe	Plot Timeline, Aliens in Stargate, Technology in Stargate, Planets in Stargate, Human civilizations in Stargate
Characters	Alteran, Aschen, Asgard, Asuran, Athosian, Genii, Goa'uld, Jaffa, Langaran, Lucian Alliance, Ori, Replicator, Tau'ri, Tok'ra, Tollan, Wraith, System Lord, Personnel
Technology	Alteran, Aschen, Asgard, Goa'uld, Ori, Tau'ri, Tok'ra, Tollan, Wraith, Misc.

v • d • e Topics in Stargate
Story of Stargate	Stargate, Stargate SG-1 (episodes), Stargate Atlantis (episodes), Stargate Infinity (episodes), Stargate Universe, Stargate: The Ark of Truth, Stargate: Continuum, Comics, Literature
Stargate Universe	Alien Races, Planets, Technology, The SGC, SG-1, SG Team, Atlantis, The Stargate, Ascension
Factions in Stargate	Tau'ri, Free Jaffa Nation, Tok'ra, Asgard, Ancients, Goa'uld, Jaffa, System Lords, Replicators, Ori, Asuran, Wraith, Lucian Alliance, The Trust, NID, IOA