History, Part I

The Shrin'yar race was born on Fassan, a world in the Phoenix Irregular Dwarf galaxy. After the Shrin'yar discovered hyperspace-flight, they made contact with the Taugh, a more malevolent race. The Taugh threatened the Shrin'yar, and so the major nations of Fassan allied themselves to defend against them.

The Shrin'yar held the Taugh at bay for a few years before they stumbled upon another alien race: the Hgrrh. The Hgrrh were more advanced than the Taugh, and they offered to protect the Shrin'yar. The Shrin'yar Coalition agreed, and so the Hgrrh aided them in their fight against the Taugh, eventually driving them away from known space.¹


For a few decades after the Taugh War, the Coalition was at peace and they relaxed their guard. However, an assassination by a terrorist group sparked conflict between two of the member states and the Coalition crumbled. Eventually, open war was joined (whether or not it was a Civil War is debatable since the Coalition had already dissolved).

The Shrin'yar fought amongst themselves for years, and even their off-world colonies were sucked into the fight. The Hgrrh, dismayed, withdrew all contact with the Shrin'yar.

Then end came when one of the factions fired a salvo of experimental, naquadah-enhanced nuclear warheads at one of the rival nations on Fassan. The warheads were far more powerful than expected, and Fassan was devastated. Seeing the carnage, one of the Shrin'yar Generals, Thei-Hodas, decided that it was time to end the war. He rallied the rest of his military forces, and many of the other forces deserted to his banner, seeing a promise of peace. He then cunningly destroyed the rest of his opposition and convinced the Shrin'yar people to follow him.


Fassan was uninhabitable after the nuclear devastation, so Hodas set up a new government on Nahara, one of the larger colonies. Having seen the destruction brought about by bureaucracies, Hodas declared himself the head of a Shrin'yar empire, taking the ancient title of Go-Cach'cor. However, Hodas had no wish to rule his people with an iron fist, and intended to move the people back to a republican form of government once they were fully unified again.

But Hodas died before his task was complete, and his son, Thei-Her'ji, took the throne. While not a tyrant, Her'ji was less idealistic than his father, and he believed that it was better to continue the Empire than to give away his power to the people. He feared that the common folk, once given power, would fall back into strife.

So it came to pass that Her'ji died as well, and his son took the throne. Unlike his father and grandfather, the son of Her'ji believed the place of Emperor was his by right. He took the name and title of Go-Thei-Cor, naming himself among the mighty. He expanded the Shrin'yar Empire, albeit peacefully, and under him the people regained their spirit. During the reign of Go-Cor, the Shrin'yar also stumbled upon a world with a device that would revolutionize their view of the universe: a Stargate.


The Stargate was similar to the ones left for the Destiny, and had no DHD. The Shrin'yar worked to decipher its purpose, and they were eventually able to create an interface to the device. They were able to translate some of the data by comparing it with other ruins found on the planet. They discovered that an ancient race, the Altera, had passed through their galaxy long ago. They had lived in a small network of planets, and had created the Astria Porta to connect them. However, some unknown event caused the Altera to leave the galaxy shortly after the creation of the 'gates, and, as far as the Shrin'yar knew, they had never returned.²

Intrigued, the Shrin'yar tried to activate the device, but they did not make a successful lock until many years later during the reign of Go-Cor's grandson. They sent a small team through the 'gate, and found that they had come through to the home world of another race: the Gagoda (or Tka-tko-tka, but the Shrin'yar could not pronounce their name properly). The Gagoda had been studying the Stargates for some time, and they offered to trade their knowledge of the 'gates. The Shrin'yar agreed to set up an embassy on the planet.


For several years the Shrin'yar and Gagoda engaged in trade, but eventually the alliance broke down. The Gagoda were at war with another race, and they let their relations with the Shrin'yar grow cold. Exactly who this other race was, however, remained unknown until one of the Shrin'yar ambassadors saw the wreckage of a ship being transported to the surface for study. It was a Hgrrh warship.

The Shrin'yar had not had direct contact with the Hgrrh in a long time, but they immediately sent a ship to contact the Hgrrh and ask them what was happening. The Hgrrh informed the Shrin'yar that the Gagoda had opened war on them in order to expand their territory.

The Shrin'yar ship returned to Nahara and informed the Emperor, but a Gagoda spy among the Hgrrh had witnessed everything that had happened. The Gagoda seized the Shrin'yar embassy and sent a strike force through the Stargate. They were stopped by the Shrin'yar forces, but not without losses.

The Emperor, Go-Thei-Ara, declared war on the Gagoda. The Hgrrh, glad to have allies, agreed to upgrade the Shrin'yar warships with new defenses: phase-cloaks like those the Hgrrh themselves used. And although the Hgrrh had not admitted it to the Shrin'yar before, it soon became obvious that their fight with the Gagoda had been going on for many years, and their forces were weakened. However, the Shrin'yar forces were fresh and ready for war.


The Shrin'yar fought wars against the Gagoda for nearly thirty years, each side ramping up the conflict. The Shrin'yar perfected their phase-cloak technology, and they also gained a new technology from captured Gagoda spies; a mimic device that allowed them to take the form of other people and species.³

Halfway through the conflict, the Shrin'yar Emperor was assassinated. In shock, the Empire reeled and nearly toppled, but again a cunning General was there to take the throne. His name was Ler-Kana. Go-Kana took the rage of his people at the death of their Emperor and forged it into a deadly weapon. The Shrin'yar pulled no stops now; anything that stood in their way was blown aside. The Gagoda retaliated in kind, completely destroying several Shrin'yar worlds. This, however, only served to fuel their rage.

The Hgrrh were worried by the change in their allies, but they were in no position to say anything. They merely watched as the Shrin'yar forces swept across the Gagoda, leaving nothing but destruction in their wake.

Eventually, only the Gagoda home world was left, their other planets reduced to glowing husks from nuclear bombardments and worse. Nothing seemed to stand in the way of the Shrin'yar's final victory.

The Shrin'yar forces fought the Gagoda for days before they realized something was wrong. The Gagoda ships seemed to be drawing out the battle intentionally. Worried, the Shrin'yar performed a scan of the planet and were shocked to find that the Stargate was active. Or rather, they were shocked at how much power the Gagoda were pumping into the active 'gate. The Shrin'yar General in command of the attack, worried that his foes might escape, ordered his ships to breach the atmosphere at all costs and secure the 'gate.

But the Shrin'yar, for all their efforts, could not break through. They ultimately destroyed the Gagoda, but the gate was lost in the molten city around it. They would never know what had happened.


Notes

History, Part II

The Shrin'yar experienced a period of peace after the Gagoda were defeated. As the years passed, the Shrin'yar and Hgrrh began to feel cramped. There were not many worlds capable of supporting life in the region the Shrin'yar were familiar with, and several had been devastated in the wars. So the Shrin'yar sent out explorers in ships to scout out new planets to settle.

One year, a century and a half after the war with the Gagoda, one of the Shrin'yar exploratory vessels came across a small fleet of ships in what looked to be battered condition. The Shrin'yar captain hailed the alien ships, and asked who they were. The aliens replied in a form of Old Alteran, which the Shrin'yar realized was a sort of trade language for them. They called themselves the Galerites, and they said they were fleeing from the massacre of their people by another race. A race they called the Ta'hg.

Fearing that these Ta'hg were none other than the Taugh that had threatened to destroy the Shrin'yar so long ago, the Shrin'yar captain led the Galerite fleet to Lourssa, a nearby colony with a Stargate. From there, the Shrin'yar captain and the Galerite commander travelled to Nahara, where they met with the emperor to warn him of the Taugh's possible return.

The Emperor, Go-Ilji, heard the Galerites' tale, and was convinced that it was indeed the Taugh who were coming, perhaps seeking revenge for their defeat. He conceived a plan with the Galerite Commander to ambush the Taugh before they reached the Shrin'yar Empire, or the Hgrrh. Using information the Galerites provided on the location and movement of the Taugh, they selected a star system forty-eight light years away from Shrin'yar space. A derelict Shrin'yar warship would be towed to the system, and its distress beacon would be activated. The Shrin'yar counted on the Taugh to see the ship as an easy target, and a quick source of intelligence. The Shrin'yar and Galerite fleets would hold position just outside of the star system, and when the Taugh fleet arrived in system they would attack.

The Shrin'yar spent a week repairing systems on board the Galerite ships, and then they set their trap. The system was a day's journey away by hyperdrive, and the Shrin'yar and Galerite fleets took several days to make sure everything was in place. The Shrin'yar committed a large chunk of their forces to this battle; they wanted to ensure the Taugh would never rise again. Then, when their preparations were finished, they waited.

Three days later, their patience was rewarded. A fleet of large, arrowhead-shaped ships slid out of hyperspace around the derelict Shrin'yar vessel. On their grey hulls, they bore an emblem the Shrin'yar knew well: a figure like an X with a diamond above it. It was the symbol of the Taugh.

When the Taugh fleet seemed fully occupied with the derelict ship, the Shrin'yar and Galerites jumped in-system. The ambush was perfect, and the Taugh vessels were caught with their shields down. The Shrin'yar hammered the Taugh with a double wave of nuclear missiles, destroying dozens of escort ships and heavily damaging the larger warships, while the Galerite ships used their guns to finish off smaller craft. A handful of Taugh ships managed to raise their shields, but the spurts of green flame that burst from their cannon were too little to turn the tide.

Victory seemed assured, but it was not to be. Before the last Taugh ships were destroyed a second, larger fleet of Taugh warships dropped out of hyperspace in front of the Shrin'yar. They poured a withering rain of virid plasma onto the Shrin'yar ships, catching them off guard in turn. The Shrin'yar fleet took heavy damage, and the General commanding the fleet ordered his rapidly shrinking forces to fall back.

Then, disaster struck. As the Shrin'yar ships fled the hail of fire from the Taugh, they were suddenly attacked from behind. The Galerite vessels that had been guarding the rear turned their guns onto the Shrin'yar ships, betraying their trust. The Shrin'yar realized that the Galerites had been working with the Taugh all along. They had been led into a trap.¹

The destruction of the Shrin'yar fleets was complete. Only a few ships made the jump to hyperspace, and worse was yet to come. When the surviving ships arrived over Lourssa two days later, limping out of hyperspace, they found to their horror that the Taugh had already come. While the bulk of the fleet had been away, more Taugh ships had come around into Shrin'yar space and begun destroying their worlds. The Hgrrh had also come under attack from a combined force of Taugh and Galerite ships, and they were being overrun.

The Taugh had created weapons and sensors which rendered the phase-cloaking technology used by the Shrin'yar and Hgrrh useless. With precious little defense, the Shrin'yar were hopelessly outmatched. One by one, their worlds fell. The Hgrrh were lost, never to be heard from again, it seemed, and the Shrin'yar were nearing defeat.


At last, when all hope was lost, the Shrin'yar decided to flee. They gathered all their remaining ships over Nahara, and then they left, abandoning their home. They flew on through hyperspace for weeks, dropping out around silent stars to resupply. But they were always afraid the Taugh would be right behind them, breathing down their necks.

So the Shrin'yar decided to risk something that had never been done before. They decided to leave their galaxy and flee somewhere where the Taugh could not follow them. They set their eyes on a larger galaxy, many light years away, which they called Ca'Oul: the great disk.


Only the largest ships could make the journey, so the smaller ships were abandoned. The Shrin'yar ships stocked up with food and water, and prepared places to grow food on board when those supplies ran out. Then, when everything was ready, they said farewell to their home, and made the jump out of their galaxy.


It took the ships 40 years to cross the interstellar void. Many Shrin'yar died on the way: some of old age, some of sickness, a few of starvation in the last years as supplies ran low and could not be easily replenished. But at last they reached Ca'Oul, the galaxy called the "Milky Way" by some of its inhabitants. And there, at last, they found a world to settle on. They called it Thre-Fassan: "New Fassan".

The Shrin'yar rebuilt their civilization on Thre-Fassan, and they began scouting out the rest of the galaxy. They discovered that a large portion of the galaxy was under the control of a race called the Goa'uld, but recently the chief of these Goa'uld, named Ria'h, had been assassinated by an unknown group. Another race, called the Asgard, seemed to have an arrangement with the Goa'uld for the protection of certain worlds, but they were not seen often. The Shrin'yar were wary of the Goa'uld, and kept themselves completely hidden. They colonized a few other worlds, but stayed in their own space as much as possible.


A decade passed, and the Shrin'yar watched in interest as the Goa'uld were overthrown by their former slaves with the help of a new faction called the Tau'ri. A Shrin'yar vessel carrying supplies between colonies was surprised by a Tau'ri craft at one point, and they nearly destroyed the smaller ship because they did not want word of their presence to spread. However, one of the Tau'ri had tricked the Shrin'yar ship into a nebula which prevented its engines from activating, and she only let them out on condition that her ship would go free.²

During the time of the Goa'uld and their fall, the Shrin'yar spread agents around the galaxy to keep track of the political scene. Sleeper cells were sometimes established on worlds deemed important. Not once, however, did the Shrin'yar reveal themselves. Their experiences with aliens had left a bitter taste in their mouths, and they had no wish to repeat the past.

Another decade passed, this time leaving the galactic scene much less uniform. A powerful race from outside the galaxy sought to invade, the Tau'ri expanded into the galaxy, the Jaffa -- former servants of the Goa'uld -- fractured and reformed, and other groups rose in prominence. One of these groups would be the first in the galaxy to have open contact with the Shrin'yar. They were called the Aschen.³


Notes