Aegis (planet)

Aegis, designated P6X-792 by the Tau'ri, was a planet located in a remote area of the Milky Way galaxy which held a Stargate.

History
An extremely old and geologically stable world, much like Chulak or Earth, it is unknown why the Ancients chose to place a Stargate on Aegis and all evidence of their being on the planet&mdash;if indeed they spent any time on it&mdash;was long since gone by the time the Tau'ri constructed Stargate Command. The Stargate itself was located in a hospitable region of the planet, which had steep mountains and wide plains that led down to a nearby freshwater sea. Though these mountains were capped in snow all year round, the coastal region had only mild winters where the temperature only ever reached near freezing. In addition to this, the summers were long and hot, with temperatures sometimes approaching one hundred degrees fahrenheit.

The planet held several native lifeforms, including the herbivorous musi which was analogous to the cows of Earth and the predatory skark, an animal which resembled a giant bat and was capable of flight. In addition to these lifeforms, there was also the kraken, a massive photosynthetic motile plant which lived in the seas of the planet which was chiefly responsible for the breathable oxygen on Aegis. Though the kraken was harmless to Humans, it entered into the mythos of future populations who believed it to be a giant tentacled sea beast which was attracted to any shadows which moved across the surface of the water. While there was little truth to this myth, the kraken was likely to inadvertently wreck any ships which came near it.

Sometime prior to 3,500 BC, the Goa'uld System Lord Pelops took Aegis as his planet, bringing Tau'ri from Mycenae and Laconia to the planet to act as his slaves while he was not on Earth. The people soon constructed a city, calling it Aegis as well, and modelled it in the style of ancient Greece. Pelops himself created a ring of Grecian columns around the Stargate, placing a statue of himself riding a chariot opposite the 'gate itself, identical to the one SG-1 encountered on Argos. Unlike that statue, however, the one on Aegis contained no nanocyte technology in its base; instead, Pelops fitted every Aegisian with personal transmitter armbands.

The Aegisians, unlike the Argosians and the people of Tiryns, were not enhanced with age-accelerating nanoctyes and were instead left as a control group so that Pelops would have a set of Humans to measure his test subjects against. After planting the Humans on the planet, Pelops only visited rarely to gather new baseline data but for the most part he left the Aegisians alone to live their lives. During these times, the only evidence that Pelops ruled the planet was the statue at the Stargate which had some text written in Linear-A, a derivative of a Goa'uld dialect, that spoke of the Greek hero Pelops. The people lived their lives free of the usual Goa'uld oppression in an unmolested and idyllic existance.

This all changed a millennia after Pelops first deposited Humans on Aegis, as he introduced a new group of Tau'ri onto the planet; the Spartans. This new home presented no problem to the nanocyte-enhanced Spartans, who already believed themselves to be the favoured children of Pelops, and they immediately set about conquering and enslaving the native Aegisians. It is unknown if this was Pelops's original plan when he introduced them to the planet, but it provided him with an ideal arrangement as it bred him warriors with the strength and character needed to suppress populations in his name. It was through this that Pelops selected the Spartans as his personal army.

This change in population irrevocably changed the social structure of the planet, and the resulting society was then ruled by a Queen who was considered to bear the divine blessing of Pelops. Though the Spartans themselves only comprised of roughly ten percent of the population, they ruled the rest in Pelops's Queen's name by both force of arms and sheer terror. The original settlers of the planet became slaves under their Spartan rulers, and were renamed Helots to be used for farming, domestic work, and any other trades not directly related to fighting. In direct comparison to this, every Spartan male was a warrior Jaffa in the service of Pelops with their women becoming priests in their god's name.

As the Helots did not have access to the nanocyte technology which coursed through the Spartans, they lived brief and difficult lives under the physically superior Spartan rule. Though they were not outright abused, any Helot who deviated from their assigned tasks were harshly punished with any free-thinkers among the populace preemptively executed at the slightest provocation. In addition to these harsh rules, some of the Helots were assassinated during the night by the Crypteia who were a secret police tasked with keeping internal security on the planet in order. Neither gender of Helots had any rights under the law, being considered mere property of the state by their Spartan rulers, and so had no way to appeal against this system.

Within Spartan society, both the males and females had equal participation in their government as well as equal respect in their chosen professions. Despite this, the two genders were strictly sepererated in both their professional and the majority of their social lives, with the males acting as soldiers and the females managing most other areas of their society including politics. Over the many centuries since the Spartans were planted on Aegis, Pelops bred his soldiers to react perfectly to his nanocyte technology. As such, the Spartans grew even stronger and faster, becoming almost telepathic in their ability to coordinate attacks. In order to keep these troops loyal to him, Pelops used some form of technology to give the Spartans symbiote pouches so that they could carry symbiotes. The female Jaffa, however, had no such pouches as Pelops did not have access to his own Goa'uld queen and so his supply of symbiotes was limited. Despite this, the females called themselves Jaffa and did not see a distinction between themselves and their male brethrin.

Since the introduction of the Spartans the population of Aegis has spoken Greek, though writings on structures which pre-dated the arrival of the Spartans in around 500 AD are more similar to Linear-A. Those who could read such writings, including Goa'uld, Tok'ra, and some Tau'ri, would be able to decipher the history of Pre-Spartan Aegis. Later buildings, however, were all scribed in Greek as it became the language of Aegis's rulers. Though all Spartans were literate in this language, the females were far more educted. In contrast to this, the Helots were forbidden to learn reading or writing though there was a significant underground movement which taught any among them who wanted to learn.

When Queen Helen came to power, she discovered a Helot in her household who was unlike any other; Acastus. The two soon became close and, through Helen's manipulation of his tasks, they spent a lot more time together. Determined to find out what interested her so, Helen eventually learned that Acastus was in fact a Tok'ra who had slipped onto Aegis. They quickly fell in love and Acastus was able to convince Helen that the Tok'ra cause was just before being discovered by Alexander, Pelops's First Prime who had once tried to woo Helen but failed. Thinking that Acastus was a simple Helot and thus unworthy of Helen's love, Alexander attempted to kill Acastus, never realizing that he was a Tok'ra. If Acastus had not been a symbiote then he would have perished, but before he died he was able to transfer himself into Helen's willing body. Acastus was unable to survive in his new host, as his wounds were too grave, but the memories he left Helen with convinced her of the evil nature of the Goa'uld.

Soon after this Helen gave birth to Acastus's child, which she named Galen. Alexander immediately knew that Acastus was the father of this child and so set about making Galen's life as hard as possible. Placing him within the Crypteia, Alexander assumed he had doomed the child to an honorless life. Though Helen feigned anger, she secretly rejoiced as Alexander had played right into her hands. Galen and Helen soon set about a plan where they would spirit Helots targetted by the Crypteia into the mountains, saving them from being killed and enabling them to escape through the chapaa'ai to another world; Ivanna. It was through these efforts that many of the population was saved from death at the hands of Spartans, and it was unlikely that Helen's participation would ever be discovered as the Helots themselves were unaware that it was Helen who was saving their people.