Lornedo
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Post by Lornedo on Apr 27, 2012 22:56:02 GMT 10
Stargate is a military science fiction1 based on the MGM movie of the same name released in 1994. The main canon consists of Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe, with a total of 17 seasons of 20-22 episodes between them. (Yes, that's a lot of episodes, but you don't necessarily need to watch them). There are also several spin-off games, two completed movies, two cancelled movies, Stargate Infinity and close to 100 books, short stories and comics.
Let's start with the basics. In 1928 a device now called the Stargate was found in Egypt. It spent a few years gathering dust, had an interesting alternate timeline2 encounter in 1939 while being transported to America before it was first opened in the 1940s. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the project was abandoned until 1994 when an archaeologist, Dr. Daniel Jackson, translated the Stargate's version of a Rosetta Stone.
Now, how the Stargate works is quite complicated. Lots of babble about matter deconstruction and wormholes - best not to think about it too much. The easiest way is to think of the Stargate as a giant round phone. You dial the coordinates of the planet you want to visit on the separate dialing device3 and head on through. To return home or go to another location, simply repeat the process. If the gate doesn't have a dialing device, then you're very much screwed. Also, do remember to keep your arms, legs and other precious appendages clear of the whoosh4 at all times, or risk being vaporized.
The race known as the Ancients built the Stargates, and they didn't stop at a handful. They're also the first evolution of humans from another galaxy, but they decided to pick a fight with their brothers, the Ori, so they flew on over to the Milky Way in their giant flying city ship. Created life and whatnot, spent some time interfering with everything then left when the Goa'uld didn't have anything nice to say about them5. Of course they did leave behind lots of awesome tech for the Goa'uld to use and enslave the galaxy with. But that's history, since SG-1 defeated them... well, they never really defeated all the Goa'uld, but the Milky Way is not currently in danger of egotistical snakes in heads looking to control the entire galaxy6.
Control of the Milky Way is bouncing between two factions - the Free Jaffa Nation and the Lucian Alliance. For the humans, and Tok'ra, of the galaxy there is a lot of hatred for the Jaffa
1 While Stargate is MilSciFi, we at Wonder have aimed for a more relaxed environment. You are encouraged to do some research, but you don't have to be an expert in American military practices to play a military character, and the same goes for the civilian occupations. Besides, if you're an expert egyptologist, wouldn't you rather be playing with your mummy?
2 Time travel is a common occurrence in the Stargate fandom, so you best get used to it. Despite how often they say it's impossible to travel through time, solar flares, evil guys with solar flare prediction machines and secretive Ancient inventors do tend to happen frequently.
3 Officially called the dial home device, or DHD, it's round, mounted on an angle at a safe distance from the whoosh and looks a little like a podium. It's face is covered in two rings of star symbols which are just like your phone's number pad. You'll need to enter six of these symbols for a local call, seven for a long distance call and eight for a collect call to Destiny-in-the-middle-of-nowhere. The big red (or blue, in Pegasus, because colour coding is cool) button is your call button.
4 The whoosh is an unstable vortex that whooshes out the front of the gate when it's opened. Fun fact, the whoosh effect in the show was created by blowing pressurized air into a jug of water.
5 The Ancients were also suffering from a plague, sent to Earth by their angry big brother, the Ori. During this time (around 10 million years ago), the Ancients left Earth in their city-ship for the Pegasus Galaxy. In Pegasus, the Ancients seeded both Stargates and humans to various worlds, inadvertently creating the Wraith.
6 The local populations of humans, hanging around in the best malls in the Milky Way were all originally from Earth. They were transported to other planets by the Goa'uld when they realized how good they were at mining naquadah in various eras of Earth's history. The Goa'uld facilitated the transfer by posing as various deities.
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