Tollana

Tollana was the planet the Tollans relocated to after the cataclysms of Tollan forced them to leave. It originally lacked a Stargate, though the Tollan were able to build one with the help of the Nox. The Tollans quickly constructed cities on the planet together with advanced defenses to protect them. Eventually, the Goa'uld Tanith, in the service of Anubis, was able to modify the shields on his ship to protect him from the Tollans' ion cannons and forced them to do the bidding of his master. After Tanith's plan was foiled due to the intervention of SG-1, Tanith decimated the planet, killing most of the Tollans.

Colonization


A lush and verdant world in the Milky Way which originally did not have a Stargate, Tollana was untouched by sentient life until the arrival of the Tollans. Having chosen Tollana as their new homeworld with the help of the Nox due to its natural deposits of trinium, Tollana benefited from the bitter lessons that were learned by the Tollans on their original homeworld of Tollan. Since the Tollans settled there, Tollana suffered from none of the ill-effects seen on Tollan, and the Tollans planned never to let any such event happen again. With their technology as well as the planets natural resources, the Tollans had ample clean energy resources, as well as supplies of food and nutrients. Additionally, the Tollans brought with them the technology which gave them the ability to adjust the planetary climate to maintain an active and prosperous ecosystem.

The planet itself had two moons, which the Tollans christened Onseem and Deril; whether or not this was after their dead remains unknown. After settling on the main continent of the planet, which they named Vanell, the Tollans built their first city among the roaming hills. The position was most likely chosen for its position close to an ocean, which the Tollans used as a water source&mdash;along with the streams feeding into it&mdash;extracting and purifying water from it to be used by their people. In addition to this, they made sure to recycle and purify all waste before returning it to the environment to keep the planet clean. The climate control system they employed made sure that the planet maintained near ideal temperatures, occasionally providing them with thunderstorm activity in order to replenish the local wildlife. Even if not for this system, Tollana was naturally comfortable for Humans to live on, and had predictable seasons and weather patterns. Also, it seems Tollana is much smaller than Earth, as the entire planet could be defended by 9 Ion Cannons, while Earth needed 38 to ensure global protection.



Tollan society
The Tollans soon constructed a Stargate on their planet which enabled them to keep in touch with their new allies as well as reach other planets quickly, placing it within their capital city. In addition to this construction, the Tollans quickly assembled many other structures on their new planet and soon were on their way to rebuilding their society. Included in these structures was the Wall of Remembrance, one of the first things erected when the Tollans settled the planet. Etched into this wall were the names of every Tollan who had died on the planet, with the centerpiece being a declaration of the highest law of the Tollans; never to share their technology with any species that they were not sure would use it wisely. The Tollans soon started visiting the wall at least once a week, some visiting to give prayer or ask for support and guidance in their lives.



Housing on the planet was all provided by the government, and most people resided in small private units which were sparsely furnished. Family units had larger accommodations, which were usually multiple-story. Every housing unit included basic entertainment facilities as well as health accommodations such as food preparation and hygiene facilities and a communal gathering area along with private sleeping quarters for every member of the household. Those who served within a government office often had slightly larger housing which was also closer to their respective place of work as serving in such a capacity was considered a great honor.



The Plaza of Ministries was the location of most of the governmental offices, being home to the four divisions of the government which saw to all matters on Tollana. These offices were named after their functions, the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Science, and finally the Ministry of Space. Most of these buildings were composed of simple white sandstone or marble with a series of sky bridges which connected them together for ease of movement. Each of the ministries fulfilled important and separate tasks in governing Tollana, but each office reported to the central Office of the Curia who were the planet's supreme ruling body. Soon after populating their new planet, the Tollans contacted some of their off-world colonies which had been settled by explorers decades before the destruction of their former world, renewing contact and offering the people a new home. Many of these colonists chose to travel to Tollana to help their people rebuild.



For defense of the planet, the Tollans employed a series of orbital defense batteries which were located at strategic points across the surface of the planet. These giant ion cannons were able to fire charged ion particle blasts into space from their location on the surface of the planet with deadly accuracy, and were able to destroy most spaceships. The targeting ranges of these ion cannons had slightly overlapping fields, but were designed that way so that they could provide additional protection just in case a single cannon was disabled or destroyed. The Tollans themselves kept the location of these ion cannons a heavily guarded secret from even their closest allies.

Goa'uld contact


These cannons would soon come to use when, in the year 2000, Klorel fled to the planet with two of Heru'ur's ha'tak motherships in tow; Klorel knew that the Tollans would be able to destroy his pursuers and so decided that it would be a good way to escape. The Tollans warned the ships that, if they came close to the planet, they would be destroyed but the ha'taks continued to pursue Klorel. As they disregarded the warning, the Tollans used their ion cannons to destroy the two ha'taks in a single volley, but not before Klorel's death glider was hit. Damaged, the death glider plummeted to the planet where it crash landed near the Tollans city becoming badly damaged in the crash. Several Tollans went to meet with the crashed ship, but rather than Klorel they were instead greeted by Skaara who was able to gain temporary control of his body, and pleaded for help. As such, the Tollans took Skaara/Klorel back to their city where he healed from his wounds and was fitted with a Goa'uld control device to enable both host and symbiote to speak of their own will.



The Tollans decided to conduct a triad to determine ownership of the body, and as such invited both SG-1 and a Goa'uld contingent led by Zipacna to the planet to act as representatives for both host and symbiote, as well as inviting Lya as a neutral Nox party. During the triad, both parties argued for control of Skaara's body though Zipacna ordered his Jaffa contingent with secret orders to locate the Tollans ion cannons. Samantha Carter and Teal'c of SG-1 followed these Jaffa and, once they saw them plant devices on the ion cannons, reported their sightings to Colonel Jack O'Neill. O'Neill ordered Carter to speak with Narim, who took the advice to the Curia. Though the Tollans examined their cannons, they were unable to find any tampering or markers on them and so dismissed SG-1's claims; indeed, they ordered SG-1 to stay away from Zipacna's forces or face dismissal from the triad.



The triad resumed, with both parties again arguing over who got control of Klorel's body. Teal'c, ignoring O'Neill's orders to leave the issue alone, spoke to Lya about Zipacna's forces and asked for her help in defending the planet. Though Lya was cautious&mdash;she did not know what she, as a Nox, could do&mdash;Teal'c convinced her to cloak a single ion cannon so that Zipacna's Jaffa could not locate and mark it. Though the triad continued, a ha'tak mothership came to the planet under Zipacna's orders which caused Narim to burst into triad and interrupt it. High Chancellor Travell, having been told by Zipacna that the ship was simply coming to transport him to another planet after triad ended, informed him that the Tollans automated defense system would destroy the ha'tak if it came any closer. It was at this time that Zipacna chose to end the triad, which both SG-1 and Lya agreed to do.



With triad ended, it was decided that Skaara's body would be given back to him and the symbiote Klorel would be removed and placed in storage so he could be taken to a new host. The Tollans called for the Tok'ra to aide in removing Klorel's symbiote but, before they could arrive, Zipacna ordered his mothership to activate their plan. With this order, the ha'tak targeted every ion cannon save for the one that Lya had cloaked and, in a single volley, destroyed them all. Zipacna's forces sent death gliders to the planet which, upon discovering the intact ion cannon, tried to fire on it before it could attack. Teal'c quickly acted, however, and took control of the ion cannon to destroy both the death gliders and the ha'tak mothership in orbit.



With the Goa'uld forces destroyed, the Tollans and the Tok'ra managed to remove Klorel from Skaara's body. Although O'Neill asked for technology in exchange for saving the Tollans, they simply stated that their laws forbade any such trade. Instead, SG-1 left the planet with Skaara who was later sent back to Abydos to live out his life. The symbiote Klorel was placed in a container and sent to a Goa'uld-controlled planet of his choosing, just as the Tollans had promised during triad.

Theft of technology


Soon after this event, the Tollans discovered that Tau'ri from Earth had been stealing technology from several races and so they, along with the Asgard, approached the Tau'ri and threatened to sever all ties with them if the thefts did not stop. General George Hammond and O'Neill concocted a plan in secret, informing the Tollans of it before they put it into action. As such, Stargate Command once again sent SG-1 to the planet ostensibly in order to reopen diplomatic negotiations with the Tollans, but in actual fact so that O'Neill could steal a piece of technology. After a brief conversation with the Tollan Curia where O'Neill had an outburst, SG-1 left the negotiations. Though the rest of the team were unaware of O'Neill's plan, they did not stop him from stealing a weapons disabler on the way back to the Stargate, but simply voiced their disagreement. The Tollans, following the plan, let O'Neill steal the technology but soon sent representatives to Earth to "demand" their technology back, and pretend to sever all ties with Earth.



After O'Neill managed to get the pieces of technology back by infiltrating a secret N.I.D. Base offworld, the Tollana once more sent Travell to the SGC to witness the N.I.D. operatives being apprehended. Seeing that the Tau'ri were able to apprehend the thieves, the Tollans agreed to continue diplomatic relations with Earth. It is possible that Daniel Jackson later went to the planet and continued their diplomatic talks, as he stated that he had put a lot of work into his speech before O'Neill interrupted him.

Pact with Anubis


Some two years later, the Goa'uld Tanith came to Tollana in service of his master, Anubis. Arriving in a ha'tak which had modified shields, Tanith was able to stand up to the Tollans ion cannons and land on the planet unharmed. After manipulating and blackmailing members of the Curia, he was able to force the people of Tollana to serve his masters needs. Tanith managed to convince the Tollans to construct a new form of weapon, a bomb which was fitted with their phase shifting technology so that it would be able to simply pass through any defenses. After testing this weapon, only one voice spoke out loudly against what the Tollans were doing; Omac. It was because of these cries that his voiced was silenced, and Omac became the first person to be murdered in Tollana's history.



Omac's funeral brought SG-1 to the planet once again, as he had requested that only those who he respected attend the ceremony. While at the funeral, Travell approached the Tau'ri and offered to speak with them regarding trading technology at a more appropriate time. Confused, the group accepted the offer and were about to leave the planet when Narim handed something to Samantha Carter, a device which later turned out to be a holographic recording device stating that Earth was in danger. Though cautious about the messages' cryptic meaning, SG-1 returned to Tollana the next day and both Jackson and O'Neill met once again with Travell. During their meeting, Travell offered the group something that they had never expected to be offered; an ion cannon, in exchange for trinium. Shocked at the offer, and indeed that the Tollans asked for so little in return, the group returned to Earth with the good news.



Though the Tau'ri back on Earth were also skeptical about the offer, they soon discovered a flaw inherent anyway; for global cover of the planet, they would need thirty-eight ion cannons rather than simply one. The group headed back to Tollana in order to inform the Curia of this problem, but were immediately met by Narim who had discovered that Omac had been murdered. Burdened with this news, O'Neill and Jackson once again go before the Curia in order to request that they be given more than simply one ion cannon. After quickly listening to their plight, Travell agreed to give them the full thirty-eight ion cannons which shocked both members of the team further. During this period of time, Narim and the rest of SG-1 had gone to Narim's house to investigate the death of Omac.



While there, they were reunited with the remaining members of their team, who told them that their request for more ion cannons had been accepted. Though this news shocked Narim, what made him even more aghast was that he discovered the Curia had deleted hours worth of session data from the records, clearly hiding information from their people. Armed with this knowledge, SG-1 convinced Narim to help them stand against the Tollana government. Narim then helped Carter and Jackson break into Travell's office, where they learned of the Goa'uld mothership which entered orbit two months previously and managed to survive the Tollans ion cannons. Though the records indicated that the Goa'uld ship left peacefully after surviving the attack, Carter didn't buy it as it simply made no sense.



During this time, O'Neill and Teal'c managed to track one of the shipments of trinium which they gave to the Curia into a warehouse which was full of the new weapons developed for Tanith. In Travell's office, Narim discovered the same information during his searches on the computer and concluded that it must simply be a new weapon developed to fight the Goa'uld who had managed to develop shields which could withstand the ion cannons. Carter pointed out the logical problem with that theory, however, as she simply asked why a Goa'uld would come by the planet to simply show off his new shields and then leave in order to let the Tollans develop new weapons to stop him. Before Narim was able to answer, however, Travell arrived with several guards and captured the group. Narim, taking the offensive, confronted Travell about the information he had just learned, but just then Tanith revealed himself and so it was explained that he threatened to destroy their planet if the Tollans did not capitulate to his wishes, though it was also revealed that Tanith was working for another whose name he refused to mention.



Narim chose this as his chance to escape and, activating his phase shifting technology, jumped through a nearby wall and ran out the building. He soon met up with O'Neill and Teal'c, and the two groups swapped information before coming up with another plan after convincing Narim to save the galaxy rather than simply his own planet. While the Tollana military used Narim's health implant to track his movements, Tanith ordered Travell to demonstrate the destructive power of their new weapons by sending one through to Earth; this would evade their iris and cause a massive explosion. Though Travell was clearly taken aback, she decided that she had no choice if she wished to save her people and so agreed to perform the act. Carter explained to her that the Goa'uld were simply using her to get past the Protected Planets Treaty so that the Asgard would not attack, but this did not sway Travell from her decision.



At the same time, the guards closed in on Narim's signal but, rather than finding Narim, are met with both O'Neill and Teal'c whom they bring back to Travell. Though pleased with the capture of all of the Tau'ri, Travell was still displeased that they had not managed to apprehend Narim as he could still cause problems. It was then that O'Neill informed her that they had managed to buy Narim enough time to act against the Goa'uld. Narim, meanwhile, had managed to take control of one of the city's ion cannons and aimed it at the warehouse containing the new weapons, destroying them in a single blast. This explosion shocked the city noticeably, and caused Travell to flee from her office with her guards leaving SG-1 trapped inside. Luckily for them, however, Narim soon arrived and freed them.

Fall of Tollana


Tanith, having discovered that his weapons were destroyed, assumed that the Tollans were no longer willing to honor their side of the agreement and so ordered his forces to attack the city. Narim led the members of SG-1 to the planet's Stargate, dodging explosions and weapons fire on the way, before bidding them farewell as he believed he had lead his people into a fight they very well may lose. Though SG-1 offered to take him with them, Narim refused. Tanith's forces continued to attack the city, but Narim was later able to send a message to the SGC through one of the Tollans long-range communications satellites where he stated that the Stargate had supposedly been destroyed&mdash;in actuality, it had been buried in the rubble&mdash;and that many ships attempting to flee the surface were being shot down. Though the message continued, it was cut off in static from the attacks.



These attacks continued for days, with the Goa'uld forces not ceasing to attack after the Tollans city was reduced to rubble. During this time, some of the Tollans were able to escape the planet in personal space vessels but many were trapped on the planet and left with no way to escape. After destroying the Tollans city, Anubis's forces proceeded to attack fault lines on the planet, creating volcanoes and earthquakes in order to wipe Tollana of life completely. Mountain ranges on the planet were soon shattered, and the landscape was split open with grievous wounds causing massive amounts of dust, debris, and particulate matter to be thrown into the low orbit and block out the sun. The lush vegetation which once covered the planet quickly withered and died and, with their food source rapidly dying, the fauna of the planet soon followed suite.

The Tollan that did manage to escape the initial destruction retreated into whatever shelter they could find, finding natural caves which had also managed to survive and seeking shelter from the now inhospitable weather patterns within them. Makeshift shelters made from shattered stone were soon erected, replacing their previous super-modern city. The inhabitants of the planet changed in their ways too, becoming hunter gatherers in order to survive their new world. Though individual Tollans retained much of their technological knowledge, and indeed much of it survived on personal data units, the entire infrastructure of the planet was shattered in but five days. Because of this destruction, survival became more important than rebuilding for the survivors.



Hope remained for the survivors on the planet, however, as the offworld colonies became curious as to why Tollana suddenly stopped communicating with them. As such, the closest colony&mdash;a world known as Pellor&mdash;sent an expedition to investigate Tollana. Discovering the destruction which had been wrought upon the planet by Anubis, the expedition was lucky to make contact with a few survivors still on the planet. This first expedition were able to land on the planet and rescue over a dozen Tollans who had taken refuge near their fallen capital city. Had the Tollans only had to contend with their new planet, many more may have been saved.

Goa'uld occupation
Unfortunately for the Tollans, however, Anubis coveted their knowledge despite his own technological superiority and so dispatched hundreds of battalions of his Jaffa to the planet in order to scour for survivors so that Anubis could interrogate them. As such, Anubis's Jaffa maintained a strong presence in the former capital city, and there were thousands of Jaffa along with dozens of death gliders which ranged across the planets surface in their systematic search for survivors. Despite these forces, a small number of Tollans believed that their best hope for survival was reestablishing contact with the Tau'ri and so they moved among the blasted ruins of their former capital city in secret, hoping to get to the Stargate. These desperate bands of resistance waged guerrilla warfare against the Jaffa occupying their former homes and, though they were frequently driven into hiding, they soon begun the long task of clearing rubble away from their Stargate so that they could once again open a wormhole to Earth.



Not all the Tollans still on the planet were as resourceful as these groups, however, and many simply could not adapt to their new lifestyle. Since being forced to fend for themselves, many among the survivors fell victim to wild animals, starvation, as well as simply the inhospitable elements themselves. Because of the planets harsh conditions, these survivors were often malnourished, paranoid, and, because of their former reliance on technology, poorly-prepared for the elements. Despite their newfound primitive lifestyle, many of the Tollans retained small pieces of their technology which they were able to fashion for other uses. For example, a precision laser which had once been used for manicures and pedicures was turned into an instrument to bone fish, and portable entertainment consoles were used to scare hungry animals away from Tollan camps with their loud noises and holographic imagery.

Though these remaining Tollans were still extremely reluctant to share their advanced technology with others, most of them recognized that their own survival trumped this principle and so, given only a little convincing, they were likely to turn over their technology at a chance to either get off their world or to simply hurt Anubis in some way. Whether or not the SGC was ever able to get in contact with Tollana ever again, or indeed if the colony worlds were able to evacuate any more survivors, remains unknown.

Behind the scenes
The shots featuring Tollana's city were all shot on location at the Simon Fraser University in Burnaby Mountain, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada due to the contemporary, Brutalist architecture of the Academic Quadrangle and the W.A.C. Bennett Library Building.

Original concept paintings of Tollana (both before and after Anubis's attack) have appeared on the official Stargate Worlds website, indicating that the planet would be a visitable area in the game. This was later confirmed by the developers of the game, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, who have stated that you will be able to visit Tollana both before and after its destruction.