Chapter 3
Many years had passed. The Goa'uld empire slowly grew among the stars. The most powerful of the Goa'uld were a higher class, dubbing themselves the 'system lords'; Ra maintained dominance as the supreme system lord. He was still the master, with the most worlds, the most technology, and the largest army.
Their egotistical, arrogant natures presenting themselves, the system lords were quick to wage war upon each other, squabbling and warring for territory. For the most part, Ra separated himself from their squabbles, but would intervene as he saw fit. In a way, he was like a father separating children who were fighting, old as his 'children' were.
One such struggle saw Sokar make a play for rule of the system lords, amassing his Jaffa troops on his colony-world and attempting to challenge Ra himself by bearing down on him unannounced in a hatak on one of Ra's visits to another world. Ra escaped through the Stargate before Sokar landed and swarmed the colony with his Jaffa.
Ra could not let this mutinous behaviour go unpunished. The Goa'uld only understood force, and force was what Sokar would see. He and the other, loyal Goa'uld were quick to respond, themselves coming down on Sokar's army and crushing his forces. Sokar was sent into retreat, slinking off into an uncharted region of the galaxy.
In another instance, Anubis became more bloodthirsty and violent following a defeat at the hands of a rival, jockeying for a greater position among the Goa'uld by rampaging and killing beyond his remit, and seemingly taking pleasure in watching his small army wipe away whole colonies of humans. This was unacceptable; sadistic as they were, the Goa'uld had no desire to rule over a pile of corpses. He was eventually branded an outcast, and presumed dead after a long battle.
In spite of this rebellious bloodlust, Ra's champion, the chief of his retinue of guards, continued to wear the visage of Anubis; the jackal-headed god had long since become significant to the people of Earth as a god of the underworld, and now, if anything, the actions of the rogue Goa'uld gave the Anubis visage new, sinister significance among people who had heard of the Goa'uld's rampages.
In yet another instance, Set went to war with Osiris and his wife Isis for his territory. After some brief skirmishes, Set managed to overcome their defences and defeated them. Set wasn't content with merely taking his vanquished enemies prisoner; he had the hosts executed, then extracted the Goa'uld eel-creature and sealed them in canopic jars.
In still another instance, a colony on a world called Ombos rebelled against Ra's rule. As an act of retribution, Ra had the colony's entire population slaughtered by a force led by Hathor, one of the more faithful Goa'uld. Having tasted blood, Hathor was eager for more killing, but Ra put a stop to her killing spree, sealing her in a sarcophagus far from his settlement on the Nile. This particular incident would become cemented in Egyptian mythology, with a few embellishments.
As his enforcers, Ra gave the Goa'uld ships and weapons, but he had withheld his most precious technology: the technology powering his sarcophagus that gave him eternal life. It was the reason why he had selected humans in the first place; his existing technology could easily regenerate human bodies. He had had no desire to share this technology with his underlings; immortality would be reserved for Ra alone.
He would eventually learn that one of them, Telchak, had found an alien device with regenerative abilities. The technology in this device eventually became the basis for an imitation sarcophagus, an emulation of Ra's original. Seeking to replicate Ra's life-sustaining technology for themselves, the other Goa'uld welcomed this new discovery in a rare, and brief, display of unity. Then it was back to business as usual, unity giving way to backstabbing and jockeying for position and resources.
Ra himself viewed this new development with concern, as his former lieutenants, whom he still viewed as lesser than himself, seemingly had the immortality previously exclusive to himself within their grasp, therefore putting them on equal footing with himself. Also, the unity they showed upon Telchak's revelation that he had emulated Ra's sarcophagus technology was concerning, since alliances between the Goa'uld were usually headed by Ra himself; this was not so this time. Finally, immortality might embolden them to rebel where mortality had held them back; indeed, his spies among their ranks warned him of whisperings to that effect. However, upon seeing the co-operation and unity they showed was short-lived, especially upon learning that Anubis decided to wage war with Telchak for possession of the alien device, he was reassured somewhat of his supremacy.
As for the original alien device, it was lost after being used in experiments on humans in Telchak's domain on Earth.
Busying themselves creating their own empires out of colonies, the system lords would ultimately leave Earth for the stars. Only Ra himself had a regular presence on Earth, but he too was frequently drawn away to other worlds, leaving control in the hands of his guards. The reports of his guards, however, grew progressively less encouraging, with the human population becoming increasingly difficult to manage and informers voicing rumours of dissent and organised rebellion.
Word of Hathor's carnage on Ombos reached other colonies and came back to Earth. While the incident served to put the fear of Ra into them, the humans on Earth, however, ultimately proved more troublesome: Ra learned that soon after he had left Earth for what would be the last time, plotters stormed his pyramid and took the Stargate down. He sent his champion, Anubis, to find out what had transpired, but never heard from him or the Horus guard who had accompanied him again.
Ra briefly considered returning to eliminate the rebels, but decided against it; a return wasn't worth the trouble. By now, he was only using Earth as a 'farm' to take humans for breeding stock, which he no longer needed now that he and the other Goa'uld had established colonies of humans in the hundreds. Not only that, but his forces were spread thin with the dual duties of exploring and keeping the other colonies – and the Goa'uld – in check.
Although he had forbidden travel to Earth, several of the Goa'uld continued to travel there by ship, exerting influence on small populations of humans and even taking some of them to other planets. Some returned with new hosts and names, drawn from the cultures they visited.
