- "According to legend, no Sodan has been indentured to a Goa'uld for over five thousand years."
- ―Daniel Jackson[src]
The Sodan were a religious group of Jaffa on the planet P9G-844 who rebelled against their 'false gods' over five-thousand years ago and began worshiping their 'true gods'.
History[]
For the longest time, the Sodan were part of an elite force under the command of the Goa'uld known as Ishkur. For years, they pillaged and plundered under his name, driving fear into the hearts of all those that would oppose his rule. The further they rose among the Jaffa ranks, the more they were able to discern the truth: that he was not a god at all, but merely a being of flesh and blood masquerading as one. Ishkur branded the now rebelling Sodan as traitors, and ordered their deaths. They tried to fight, to show their brothers the faith, but the odds were too great and they were forced to flee. They set out to find Kheb, hoping that their souls would find eternal peace. Instead, their search led them to P9G-844, where they took up residence until they were discovered by the Tau'ri. After being captured by the Sodan, Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell underwent months of training with them with limited success before Jolan helped Mitchell escape. At the time of Mitchell's capture, he managed to seriously wound Volnek who was taken back to the SGC for treatment. After Mitchell's escape, Volnek was returned to the Sodan. (SG1: "Babylon")
In order to acquire symbiotes that could sustain them, they raided Goa'uld strongholds for shipments of symbiotes that had yet to be implanted in any Jaffa, and such missions became rites of passage for their youngest warriors. By the time of their contact with SG-1, the Sodan's numbers were such that two hundred warriors was a sizable force for them, thus suggesting that they lived in a number of scattered villages. (SG1: "Babylon")
Their beliefs would eventually lead them to believe that the true gods were those that came long before the Goa'uld: the Ancients. Many of the Sodan, including their leader Haikon, believed that only the Ori could provide them with the necessary evidence of their gods' powers, even when they came to realize that the Ori themselves were not the Ancients. (SG1: "Babylon", "The Fourth Horseman, Part 2")
Eventually, however, the Sodan came to understand that the Ori were in fact no better than the Goa'uld. They renounced Origin, and assisted the Tau'ri in subduing a Prior to prevent the Ori plague from destroying all life on Earth. (SG1: "The Fourth Horseman, Part 2")
In retaliation for their abandonment of Origin, a Prior infected the Sodan warrior Volnek with a different illness. After going insane - and then apparently dying - Volnek systematically wiped out his entire village, before Teal'c and Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell literally blew Volnek apart. The only Sodan to survive the rampage (barely) was Lord Haikon himself. (SG1: "Arthur's Mantle")
Alternate timelines[]
- In an alternate timeline, after seeing Cameron Mitchell as the First Prime of Qetesh, Teal'c states that Mitchell was trained as a Jaffa warrior by the Sodan. As a result of that training, Mitchell would've had the skill needed to quickly rise in the ranks after being made into a Jaffa. (SG1: "Roswell")
Beliefs[]
The Sodan were proud warriors who worshipped the Ancients and had disdain for other Jaffa due to their servitude to the Goa'uld, even after the defeat of the Goa'uld System Lords. Distrusting of outsiders, they were willing to kill anyone who trespassed onto their planet to protect themselves and had a number of rituals with one, kel shak lo, being a fight to the death after blood was spilled.
The Sodan possessed their own unique fighting style, one that combined their bladed staffs with at least on occasion, the use of their invisibility devices. This made them formidable opponents, even against their fellow Jaffa. According to Jolan, the Sodan fighting style was a closely guarded secret for a hundred generations. The only known outsider to be taught it was Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell who was to be trained in order to fight to the death in kel shak lo.
A rite of passage for the Sodan's young warriors was ambushing shipments of Goa'uld symbiotes that had yet to be implanted due to the Sodan's need for symbiotes as Jaffa.
Though the Sodan switched their worship to the Ori, who they knew weren't the Ancients, they retained their proud and kind nature and so abandoned the Ori after being ordered to slaughter a village full of innocent people, something that went against their beliefs.
Members[]
Rituals[]
Appearances[]
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