Jaffa

I don't know how to do all the fancy headings, etc., so someone else can do it for me....

Jaffa

The Jaffa are decendants of Ancient Egyptians who were enslaved by the Goa'uld System Lord Ra. Ra sought to populate the galaxy (and also mine other planets for a rare substance called Naquadah, which powers all Goa'uld technology), and sent his slaves to other planets via the Chappai'ai (Stargate) around 4000 BC, before a rebellion led to Ra's retreat to Abydos and the burial of Earth's stargate.

Some of the slaves who were taken from Earth were implanted with infant Goa'uld, and became known as Jaffa. As reward for carrying infant Goa'uld, the symbiote (the infant goa'uld itself) protects the host Jaffa and gives the host supposed eternal life. The symbiote also heals the Jaffa of any medical problems.

The slaves populated many planets in the Milky Way galaxy, and several planets revolted against their system lords and changed their names, such as The Tollans, The Tok'ra and the Kelownans. The Asgard, The Ancients, The Goa'uld, The Furlings and The Nox are in no way decendants of The Tauri (humans from Earth) or any of the slaves taken from Earth.

The Ancients were the original inhabitants of Earth, and created the stargate network. About 5 million years ago (according to Stargate Atlantis pilot episode 1: Rising Part 1) The Ancients left Earth in a huge space-borne city, known as Atlantis. After leaving The Milky Way and arriving in The Pegasus Galaxy, The Ancients found an overwhelming new enemy, The Wraith, and so the remaiming Ancients abandoned Atlantis via Stargate and returned to Earth, where the reintegrated back into human society. This is how several humans, such as Jack O'Neill and John Shepherd have "the ancient gene" required to use Ancient technology.