What the Wraith Say

[Tannis]

I have seen a lot of threads about the Wraith and all sorts of suppositions about them. Well, in case you guys didn't notice, there is a Wraith Journal on the Stargate:Atlantis main Scifi site under the "Aliens" link. Here is what the Wraith say:

Annals of the Curator of the Feeding Grounds, in the first rotation of the New Awakening of the Wraith.

"Entry the second.

"Signs have come from among the herd, signs we have not known since the Awakening of the Great War. Our scouts, pursuing these signs, ensnared a group of strange humans trespassing upon the grounds of our stewardship. Their prime male was strong, but our lady, the Keeper of the Sleep, nonetheless took from his mind tidings of his home territory — a fertile world swarming with prey. This world, Earth, is far from here and the route there is unknown, but a banquet spread cannot be ignored. We do not doubt that we will one day reach this bounty and devour it in an orgy of great strengthening and joy.
"Barring our way, however, stand our Ancient Enemies. We know this because more new humans invaded our hive to free those whom our scouts had corralled. Their leader, a persistent beast, bore with him a piece of Enemy technology. He killed the Keeper of the Sleep, whose dying voice triggered our glorious Awakening. The male human then fled our wrath with his fellow creatures. Those of us who pursued him say he learned quickly, teaching his small herd to ignore our deceptive shadows. Surely a mere game animal, however canny, could not accomplish so much, so fast, without help.
"So he has had help — and this means the Enemy Technology is awake. We must therefore assume that the Ancient Enemies themselves, those who built the star portals and the city on the water, are awake as well.

"They are foul perversions. They condemn us merely because humans are the food we must eat. If they could, our Ancient Enemies would forbid us this food until we died of starvation. They deny nature itself in their monstrous arrogance.

"Therefore, we welcome our Ancient Enemies' coming, so that we may finally exterminate them, as is our right. Our people shall not be hungry."

So in answer to a couple of threads:

Did the wraiths really defeat the ancients?
Yes. Quoting from above:

Barring our way, however, stand our Ancient Enemies. We know this because more new humans invaded our hive to free those whom our scouts had corralled. Their leader, a persistent beast, bore with him a piece of Enemy technology....

"... So he has had help — and this means the Enemy Technology is awake. We must therefore assume that the Ancient Enemies themselves, those who built the star portals and the city on the water, are awake as well. "

The ancient enemy of the Wraith are " those who built the star portals and the city on the water" I.e. those who built the stargates and Atlantis.

How do the others know when The Caretaker Dies?

When Sheppard killed the Keeper her "voice" woke the others as said below. This "voice" could have been a telepathic "death scream" which woke all the others to defend their "hive".

He killed the Keeper of the Sleep, whose dying voice triggered our glorious Awakening.

It has been said in the past that the Wraith were a Hive mind controlled by a female queen, so I think it is assumed that they communicate in some way telephathicly. It would go with the other mind powers they appear to have such as reading humans' minds and projecting shadows or false images to distract their prey.

[Erik Pasternak]

Wow! Thanks so much for going to all the trouble of typing and posting that info. It's sure to settle a lot of debates!

[uknesvuinng]

Did the wraiths really defeat the ancients?
Yes. Quoting from above:

Barring our way, however, stand our Ancient Enemies. We know this because more new humans invaded our hive to free those whom our scouts had corralled. Their leader, a persistent beast, bore with him a piece of Enemy technology....
"... So he has had help — and this means the Enemy Technology is awake. We must therefore assume that the Ancient Enemies themselves, those who built the star portals and the city on the water, are awake as well. "

The ancient enemy of the Wraith are " those who built the star portals and the city on the water" I.e. those who built the stargates and Atlantis.

This does not necessarily mean that the Wraith are in fact the Ancients' "dark enemy", just that the Ancients and the Wraith had a throwdown in the past, in which the Wraith discovered the city and such but stopped fighting after the Ancients disappeared. The Wraith may have attacked the city, only to be held off and suddenly found themselves being eradicated. They retreated only to find the Ancients had turned their attention elsewhere. The Wraith sent out some scouts and found that the Ancients had "disappeared". They assumed the Ancients were biologically similar to themselves and required hibernation as they did. You can follow this up with the fact that Wraith tech seems quite inferior to the Ancients tech, and From the Lowdown, I get the feeling that the Wraith mothership is the only one. This doesn't make for a enemy with similar tech and superior numbers. Another enemy with great stealth tech could have lain in wait and struck the Ancients quickly. They lay quick waste to the human worlds weakening their ability to defend themselves, then turned to Atlantis to do the same. The enemy continued to seige the city, until the Ancients faked the city's destruction by sinking it. The enemy was satisfied that they had removed the threat and moved on, and the Wraith took advantage of the defenseless human worlds to increase their food supply.

Personally, I figure the Wraith probably will be the dark enemy that defeated the Ancients, but that entry isn't conclusive.

How do the others know when The Caretaker Dies?

When Sheppard killed the Keeper her "voice" woke the others as said below. This "voice" could have been a telepathic "death scream" which woke all the others to defend their "hive".

He killed the Keeper of the Sleep, whose dying voice triggered our glorious Awakening.

It has been said in the past that the Wraith were a Hive mind controlled by a female queen, so I think it is assumed that they communicate in some way telephathicly. It would go with the other mind powers they appear to have such as reading humans' minds and projecting shadows or false images to distract their prey.

The voice could have been a verbal command to the computer to wake everyone. It could just be a poetic way of saying, "When she died, we woke up". It isn't necessarily a psychic connection or even a literal voice.

Up to date, nothing has been said about the Wraith having a collective mindset or psychic connection. In fact, their actions in "Rising" suggest they use verbal communication (such as the male Wraith instructing the warrior Wraith to take which victims). They do have a psychic ability, but no signs of telepathy. The only hive anything they have is a hive society, with a caste system.

Edited to add: Also, there's no reason to automatically take these entries as canon. It's part of the website, not something on the show. It's possible the writer of the entries isn't entirely privy to all the writing ideas that are going into the show.

[Erik Pasternak]

Edited to add: Also, there's no reason to automatically take these entries as canon. It's part of the website, not something on the show. It's possible the writer of the entries isn't entirely privy to all the writing ideas that are going into the show.

Good point, but what is being said makes a lot of sense.

[KorbenDirewolf]

I'd rather wait and see what the series tells us, rather than what one of the official sites tells us.

[Torley]

Yeah the writeups on the original site are fun and all, but we'll actually have to see what the show shows us. There is a HUGE Writer's Bible for consistency's sake though, apparently.

[Tannis]

Up to date, nothing has been said about the Wraith having a collective mindset or psychic connection. In fact, their actions in "Rising" suggest they use verbal communication (such as the male Wraith instructing the warrior Wraith to take which victims). They do have a psychic ability, but no signs of telepathy. The only hive anything they have is a hive society, with a caste system.

Edited to add: Also, there's no reason to automatically take these entries as canon. It's part of the website, not something on the show. It's possible the writer of the entries isn't entirely privy to all the writing ideas that are going into the show.

I believe I got the hive mind information from a post of Sci-FI wire interview I think with the Producer. It said that the wraith are a hive mind, kind of like Bees, and led by one Female (Queen). I will look up the articles and see if I can find the one it was in.

I take everything said about a new series with a very large salt shaker by my side . I know that things can change, but I did think the concept of having a Wraith point of view was kinda neat.

If you take what the holoancient said and what the wraith said on the main site, you can put together a pretty good case for the wraith being the Ancient's great enemy.

As far as the technology thing, if the Wraith are a hive mind type of civilization, given what the holoancient said about being over confident and under manned, the Wraith could have conceivably overwhelmed the ancients by sheer numbers. By the time the ancients' realized what was happening the Wraith could have depleated the Ancients' numbers significantly.

[uknesvuinng]

I believe I got the hive mind information from a post of Sci-FI wire interview I think with the Producer. It said that the wraith are a hive mind, kind of like Bees, and led by one Female (Queen). I will look up the articles and see if I can find the one it was in.

Bees aren't telepathic either, and they have a caste system.

Bees use dances to comunicate where to find nectar. Does this mean we'll have a disco scene in Atlantis which turns out to be the Wraith having a strategy meeting?

[aschen]

I read that, and the first entry in that journal...and something is boring me...

"Therefore, we welcome our Ancient Enemies' coming, so that we may finally exterminate them, as is our right. Our people shall not be hungry."

This makes absolutely no sense at all. Why would they want to exterminate them? They're food. If the Wraith ate them all they'd all starve!

Also...why are they eating humans? Most humanoid beings don't have much meat. It's mostly muscle and fat. What good are we? Why don't they eat a cow or something?

[aAnubiSs]

Have you seen Rising? They don't "eat" us.

[Tannis]

It is possible that the wraith didnt make the connection that the Ancient's WERE humans.

And that bothered me as well... what did they eat BEFORE humans came along or did they evolve side by side with humans and eat them from the beginning?

[aAnubiSs]

Well since the Wraith were in Pegasus before the Ancients got there(that's atleast how I see it) they probably fed of some other galaxy. Andromeda is close. Maybe they ate eachother.

[uknesvuinng]

I read that, and the first entry in that journal...and something is boring me...



This makes absolutely no sense at all. Why would they want to exterminate them? They're food. If the Wraith ate them all they'd all starve!

Also...why are they eating humans? Most humanoid beings don't have much meat. It's mostly muscle and fat. What good are we? Why don't they eat a cow or something?

The Wraith don't eat humans so much as they drain "something" from us.

The Wraith probably want to exterminate the Ancients because they consider them too much of a threat to keep as food.

[aschen]

Have you seen Rising? They don't "eat" us.

Don't patronize me. Of course I have!

Then they must be sucking the prana out of people.

That would probably helps to account for why they live so long.

[GhostPoet]

The Wraith don't eat humans so much as they drain "something" from us.

The Wraith probably want to exterminate the Ancients because they consider them too much of a threat to keep as food.

or maybe the ancients just taste really bad.