- "When we first arrived here, we thought we had failed. We didn't achieve the mission on Destiny, but now, looking at all your smiling faces, at this beautiful new school, I can't help but feel a great sense of pride... And success."
- ―Camille Wray
The People of Novus are a race of humans who lived on planet Novus after their ancestors, the Destiny expedition from an alternate timeline traveled back in time and settled there.
History
After Destiny come to the brink of destruction because of drone attack, David Telford advocated to abandon the ship by dialing Earth within a star. He went through the Stargate first and reached Earth, but the others who followed after him never reached their destination and were presumed dead. Instead, the Destiny expedition was sent to a planet with a thin atmosphere and dust storms that they abandoned for a planet that they would later name Novus, meaning New in Ancient, 2,000 years in a past. Within the next 2,000 years, their descendants population grew into the millions and they built a thriving society with advanced technology. Among their advancments were ships lacking FTLs or hyperdrives and cures to many diseases, including ALS. (SGU: "Twin Destinies", "Common Descent", "Epilogue")
At some point Novus was starting to become dangerous to inhabit and they used the gate to launch reconnaissance expeditions to nearby planets in order to establish colonies. One such group traveled to a nearby planet and were stranded there for 30 years because the gate on Novus went off-line and no other gates were in proximity. There they encountered Destiny expedition from the current timeline.
The Destiny expedition agreed to take the colonists aboard and take them back to Novus, only to discover that planet is no longer habitable and lacks human life. Searching through the Tenaran archives, the expidition learned that the people's Stargate had been destroyed by a lava flow thirty years before and that the Tenarans and Futurans had set aside their differences in light of the imminent threat to their lives and built ships that they abandoned the planet in for one of Novus' colonies. The colony was ten days away on Destiny, but the Novus ships lacked an FTL or hyperdrive so it would take over two hundred years for them to reach the colony. After gathering supplies, including a replacement for the lime needed for the CO2 scrubbers and a third of the Tenaran database, the expedition and the colonists abandoned Novus as an opening fault line destroyed the Tenaran city. The expedition then set course for the Novus colony that the ships were headed to, to deliver the colonists there. (SGU: "Common Descent", "Epilogue")
Culture
People of Novus are divided into two nations, Tenara and Futura, originating from division of Destiny expedition survivors into Young's and Brody's factions. The only reminder of these days is the Kino record. This was made on the planet, and had attained the status of sacred artifacts. The footage contained in it is an important part of Novus culture and people easily recognized their "ancestors" the moment they stepped through the Stargate. While there was much tension between the countries for over 2,000 years, they came together when their planet was on the brink of destruction in order to escape it.
They still speak English, although they inherited some Chinese because of Camille Wray. The grammar used somewhat more basic, such as attack being simplified into atak. Although they weren't certain, some were expecting to one day encounter Destiny and the expedition because their ancestors (Eli) hypothesised that they had traveled through time to reach the planet. Their opinion of Nicholas Rush varies, with the Tenaran's seeing him as a demon-like figure, while the Futuran's view him as if he was a saint, or their savior. (SGU: "Common Descent", "Epilogue")