Stargate: Every System Lord Ranked Worst To Best

There have been a fair few System Lords in Stargate, so who comes out on top of them all?

By Sean Ferrick /

In the beginning, there was Ra. He, chief among the System Lords, dominated Earth, until eventually the people of Egypt rose up against him. He hightailed it out of there and found a new home on Abydos, but he was far from the only Goa'uld System Lord in existence.

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There was dozens of minor and major lords dotted throughout history. Some had already been killed by the time that SG-1 began to journey through the Stargate, while some were very much still active and in positions of power.

Then-Colonel Jack O'Neill saved the people of Abydos from destruction when he transported that nuke aboard Ra's vessel, but in doing so he opened up the doors for the rest of the System Lords to begin warring with themselves and others for dominion over the Galaxy. The Goa'uld, never particularly well known for getting along, engaged in slaughters that invariably left the people that got in the way as the real victims.

Thanks a bunch, Jack O'Neill.

While it's hardly fair to blame O'Neill, the rest of the System Lords were formidable foes whom SG-1 (and others) had to face from time to time. This list is going to rank those who appeared on-screen, as there were more again who weren't shown but were mentioned in dialogue. Some were more powerful than others. Some were not evil at all. Some were simply....there?

23. Egeria

Egeria is a special case on this list, as she was a Goa'uld Queen - yet she abhorred the idea of taking other races as hosts against their will. According to some legends, she was originally a prim'ta of an alternate version of Teal'c who had traveled back through time. As Teal'c was opposed to the Goa'uld himself, then this suggests that he had managed to communicate his beliefs to her.

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While she grew, she spawned many other Goa'uld without the domineering nature of the rest of their species. They would eventually go on to become known as the Tok'ra. Once Ra himself discovered this, he stripped her of her host and sealed her in a stasis jar on Pangar. The Pangarans later discovered her and, assuming her to be a standard Goa'uld, discovered that they could use her to create Tretonin - a drug that mimicked the perfect health that hosting a Goa'uld symbiote gave to a host.

SG-1 informed the Tok'ra of this who, upon discovering who she really was, were horrified. The Tok'ra Kelmaa sacrificed herself so that her host could take Egeria. Unfortunately, it was too late to save the Queen's life.

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