Asgard

"Love those guys."

- Jack O'Neill

The Asgard are a benevolent and highly technologically advanced race from the galaxy of Ida that has visited Earth on many occasions, giving rise to the Nordic legends. They were part of the Alliance of Four Great Races, along with the Nox, the Furlings, and the Ancients. Its policy in the Milky Way is generally against the Goa'uld.

Early history
The Asgard evolved on Othalla, in the Ida Galaxy. They began exploring outside their Galaxy around 28,000 BCE. The Asgard eventually began a program of cloning their people and transfering their minds into these bodies. However, the continuing use of clones caused genetic degradation, causing serious health issues.

They made peaceful contact with the Ancients, the Furlings, and the Nox. They also came into conflict with the Goa'uld, recognizing the Goa'uld for what they were. They took several Humans from Goa'uld worlds and declared themselves their protectors until their cultures had sufficiently evolved, and threatened the Goa'udl with violent retaliation if they attempted to enslave the Humans.

The Replicators
"They are the enemy of the Asgard."

- Thor speaking about the Replicators

The Asgard have been mainly incapable to help Earth in the fight against the Goa'uld because of a war with a greater enemy, Replicators. The weapons of the Asgard were ineffective against the Replicators because they were based on energy. Human weapons, on the other hand, used simple chemical reactions to drive training shells. With the aid of SG-1, the Asgard attracted all the replicators in a temporary time dilation field. Unfortunately, they escaped and attacked the Asgard homeworld, Orilla. Aegir attacked the ship that arose from the hyperspace before it could raise his shields. Not all the replicators were destroyed; the replicator known as “Fifth” landed on the planet. Colonel O'Neill, with the knowledge ganied from the Ancients' repository of knowledge, invented a weapon that blocked the network of intercommunication between the replicator cells permanently. Thor designed a bigger version to shoot over the planet.

The future
It is uncertain what the Asgard will do after the destruction of the replicators and the Jaffa rebellion, but it is reasonable to assume that they will focus their energy in reconstructing their civilization, along with providing aid to humanity. The Goa'uld have been defeated, but there are new threats like the Ori. They also continue providing technological aid to Earth like the Daedalus class and the Asgard engineer Hermiod.

Extinction
With their last attempts to fix the genetic degradation suffered by the constant use of clones, the Asgard unleashed a genetic virus onto their population that would slowly and painfully kill them. Unable to cure it, and unwilling to allow their technology to be plundered by other races, the Asgard decided to commit mass suicide and destroy their technology, but not without leaving their legacy intact. They gave the SG-1 an Asgard computer database, and made significant modifications to the Odyssey. After the repairs were complete, however, three Ori battlecruisers arrived and attacked Orilla and the Odyssey. The Odyssey fled with one Ori ship in persuit, while the other two prepared to attack Orilla. At that moment, the Asgard caused Orilla to explode, destroying the planet, the two ships, and the Asgard.

Language
It is considered that the Asgard language has influenced the evolution of Germanic languages. Its written language is made of runes. Whereas the Goa'uld are named on the Earth as Egyptian and Greek gods, the Asgard are named from Nordic mythology.

Interaction with other races
Due to the Protected Planets Treaty, the Asgard have set up protective measures and holographic representations of themselves on a number of planets in the Milky Way galaxy for protection against the Goa'uld and other enemies.

On the planet Cimmeria, the Asgard Thor set up Thor's Hammer, a protective obelisk that transports Goa'uld or symbiote-carriers to an underground labyrinth where only the host can leave with the symbiote dying when going through the 'hammer'. The 'hammer' was destroyed by the Earth team SG-1 when Teal'c got trapped in the labyrinth upon arriving at the planet.

The Asgard were once members of the Alliance of Four Great Races, along with the Ancients, the Furlings, and the Nox.

Asgard High Council
The Asgard High Council is the government of the Asgard. The size and structure of the council is not known, but there are seven seated members, including Freyr, Thor, and Penigal. The High Asgard Council makes decisions that affect the whole race. In addition, they negotiate in name of the Tau'ri in the Protected Planets Treaty. The council members meet in a great room with holographic projectors.

Protected Planets Treaty
On one occasion the Asgard they came to help Earth when the Goa'uld decided to attack. The Asgard met with representatives of the Goa'uld, humans and Asgard, in order to put Earth under the protection of the “Protected Planets Treaty”. This treaty has served to maintain peace between the Goa'uld and the Asgard. Attending in name of the Goa'uld were Yu, Nirrti and Cronus. Thor represented the Asgard and chose Colonel Jack O'Neill to represent the humans.

Technology
"Are you implying that our technology is some kind of trickery?"

- Freyr speaking to Colonel Jack O'Neill

The Asgard have a level of technology superior to that of Goa'uld. Their ships can cross thousands of light-years in minutes. They have also mastered teleportation and holographic imagery. Only one Asgard is required to operate their ships, which suggests they have many automated systems.

They can not reproduce; the continuance of the species remains through a process of cloning and transferring the mind, although this has caused a decay of the Asgard genome that will eventually make the species extinct unless the problem is solved. While the Asgard maintains a great fleet of ships with defensive capabilities, they altogether are not a militaristic race, and strongly disapprove of the use of technology for aggressive reasons.

The Asgard has at least 3 types of ships: the cruisers (Beliskner-class), the scientific ships (Daniel Jackson-class) and the battleships (O'Neill-class).

Known Asgard

 * Aegir - Asgard Commander
 * Famrir - Former host to Ra who was driven to madness
 * Freyr - Member of the Asgard High Council
 * Heimdall - Asgard Scientist
 * Hermiod - Asgard Enginneer/Liason Daedalus
 * Hermod - Asgard teacher to the Cimmerians
 * Kvasir - Asgard Scientist
 * Loki - Rouge Scientist
 * Penigal - Member of the Asgard High Council
 * Thor - Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet
 * Tyr - One-time chief tactical officer and military strategist of the Asgard fleet, one-time commander of the Valkyries, and defender of Vanaheim
 * Zeus - Amnesiac ruler of Stennos