Unas

The Unas are a species native to the Stargate SG-1 continuum. They developed on the same planet that the Goa'uld first developed on, and were the first hosts taken by the Goa'uld. There have been at least two Goa'uld encountered by SG-1 that still used Unas as hosts. All mini-Unas are un-Goa'ulded.

Unas are reptilian. They are approximately human sized, with similar variations in height. However, they are more heavily built. They are much stronger and hardier than humans, being able to sustain and survive much greater damage. They have green blood. When this is enhanced by a Goa'uld symbiote, they are truly formidable foes.

Unas have no hair. The tops of their heads are ridged with additional ridges running along their cheeks and jawline. They have horns coming from their chins, and smaller ones in various locations along the ridges.

The size of their horns indicate increasing maturity. The ridges also become incresaingly prominent with age. It is possible that the variations in color also have to do with age with their coloring getting darker with age. Their coloring varies from a light chestnut brown with green mottling to a dark walnut brown with black mottling.

P3X-888
Unas have been encountered on three different planets. Their home world, which was likely the least populated of the three inhabited, due to the constant threat the wild Goa'uld which infested all waterways on the planet, posed. The Unas there are primitive, but have mastered fire, stone tools and weapons, cave painting and other abstract cultural expressions, and clothing manufacture. They wear collar style necklaces made from bones to protect themselves from being taken as a host by the Goa'uld. They live deep in caves in tribal units, which are controlled by an alpha male. Young males are required to leave the caves, capture something special for consumption by the tribe, and present it to the alpha in order to be allowed to remain a part of the tribe.

During the fourth season episode "The First Ones" Chaka, a young male Unas on such a journey, captured Daniel Jackson. However, during the journey Chaka and Daniel learned to communicate and became friends. When they reached the tribe, Chaka tried to convince the alpha to allow Daniel to join the tribe. The alpha refused and was about to kill Daniel when the rest of SG-1 arrived and shot the alpha, thereby weakening him enough to allow Chaka to challenge and kill him. Chaka eventually became alpha of the tribe, and continued to visit Daniel near the Stargate.

Burrock's World
In the fifth season episode "Beasts of Burden", about a year after the events in "The First Ones", Chaka was captured by slave traders from what is referred to by fans as Burrock's World (it was never given a name in canon). Daniel had been setting up video camera and leaving gifts of chocolate energy bars near the gate, this proximity coupled with Chaka's good experiences with humans allowed the slave traders to capture him. The camera also recorded the gate address. SG-1 went to the planet posing as traders in order to buy Chaka's freedom. When this failed (the Unas on the planet were becoming dangerously in-bred, and the traders desperately wanted Chaka to enhance the bloodlines they owned), Daniel and Jack attempted to break Chaka out. They were captured and charged with "beast stealing", which was a capital crime.

Carter and Teal'c stage a more successful breakout, managing to release Daniel, Jack, Chaka, and several other Unas. They make a run for the gate, but when they reach it, Daniel realizes that Chaka was helping them escape. He intended to stay behind and lead a slave revolt. Later on we find out that the revolt was a success, and that Chaka was able to negotiate a truce (albeit a fragile one) between the humans and Unas on the planet. The Unas from this planet are much more civilized. They wear long cloth robes with high collars. They walk more upright, possibly because they don't live in low-ceilinged caves, and they use metal weapons. They don't wear the bone collars common to the other Unas. They still wear leather accoutrements reminiscent of armor.

P3X-403
In the seventh season episode "Enemy Mine", the final Unas planet encountered in canon, though it is likely that there are others out there, was P3X-403. This planet had at one time been mined by the Goa'uld for Naquadah, but it had been abandoned hundreds of years ago when the richest veins were mined out. This planet was inhabited by thousands of Unas descended from the slave labor the Goa'uld had abandoned when they stopped mining. The Unas on this planet were the most independently advanced. They sometimes still wore clothes of animal skins, but the more common style was of cured leather, carefully cut and fitted. Their weapons were more advanced, being made of metal. They still wore bone collars as decorative items. They also wore many other decorative items such as bracelets, and add-ons to their clothing. The most powerful tribe of the planet lived nearest the Naquadah mines, which were considered sacred ground by the all the Unas of the planet. When the SGC survey team gets too close, they take one of the team members and kill him. They added his body to their shrine which contained the remains of many dead Jaffa warriors and Jaffa weapons.

A brief battle resulted in a draw with casualties on both sides. At this point, Daniel Jackson managed to convince the powers that be to allow him to bring Chaka to the planet to help negotiate a peace treaty, as his own understanding of the Unas language was not advanced enough to manage this. There was a great deal of hostility to the idea and to Chaka, but eventually after several more Events, Chaka was able to broker a deal with Kor Asek, the alpha of the primary tribe. The humans would still not be allowed to enter the sacred grounds, but the Unas, who numbered in the thousands, would mine the Naquadah to help the humans fight the Goa'uld.

Unas with a Goa'uld symbiote
The first Unas ever encountered by SG-1 was in the first season episode "Thor's Hammer" in which Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c were transported into a labyrinthine cave system by an Asgard anti-Goa'uld device. Within the cave they encountered a Goa'uld who had likely been trapped for thousands of years. It had survived by eating other creatures (including other Goa'uld and Jaffa who had been trapped) and hibernating. O'Neill emptied an entire clip into its chest, and they thought it was dead. However, the symbiote was, after a short time, able to heal its host, and it attacked again. This time O'Neill and Teal'c were able to force the creature into the beam of Thor's Hammer that guarded the exit of the cave system where the symbiote was destroyed. The Unas died shortly thereafter from the numerous wounds it had received in the fighting.

In the third season episode, "Demons" the team encounters a Unas who collects potential hosts for Sokar, a Goa'uld who chose Satan as his persona. Sokar was rumored to have had an Unas host at some point in history. The Goa'uld in this episode was killed, but not before it jumped hosts as the Unas was dying, to the local human official who assisted in the host choosing process. This host and the symbiote were also killed