Ancient (Stargate) - Philosophy

Philosophy

The Ancients are well known for their fierce belief in free will. As such, they do not interfere on lower planes of existence at all, not even to save their own kind from being exterminated by the Ori. As punishment for breaking this law, the Ancients have been known to wipe out entire civilizations and abandon the one responsible to correct the grave mistakes caused by one of their people. They have also forced (or tried to force) transgressors to descend back to corporeal form. Ancients are, by every means, capable of drastically altering courses of events at will.

What exactly constitutes law-breaking is open to debate. Interfering "a little bit", as Vala Mal Doran described it, will be tolerated. Examples of this include the killing of several Jaffa troops and giving the coordinates of Sahal and Castiana to Daniel Jackson. Also, some Ancients, like Oma Desala, repeatedly assists "those beneath" in ascending. Those who follow her are forced to walk a very fine line. Other Ancients who have been reprimanded for interfering in the mortal planes include Orlin and Chaya Sar.

The Ancients' viewpoints completely oppose those of their distant cousins, the Ori. The Ori religion states that failure to share the secrets of the universe to those on the lower planes of existence is an evil act and that anyone not following it must be eliminated. They also have no rules against taking direct control of living beings or completely changing them to behave as they desire.

This difference in beliefs is not without its reasons. According to a de-ascended Ancient, Orlin, ascended beings can be empowered by massive numbers of humans worshiping them. The Ori have fabricated an entire religion based on the false promise of ascension to drain power from their followers. The Ancients firmly resent using their powers this way, and therefore refrain from interfering in the lower planes of existence as manipulating and aligning lower life forms in some order could result in exactly this type of abusive corruption. As Morgan le Fay said, if they were to interfere, they would be no better than the Ori.

As a result, the Ancients have shielded the second evolution of humans (i.e. current human culture) in the Milky Way from the Ori (and although it has never been stated, they most likely did the same for the seeded humans in the Pegasus Galaxy and Ida galaxy ) and still prevent the Ori from taking direct action in the Milky Way. However, as the Ancients will not interfere in the lower planes of existence, the Ori are allowed to send their human followers to the Milky Way to convert it, and anyone who wishes to worship the Ori will be allowed to do so.

Even though the Ancients do not believe in interfering in mortal affairs, it is speculated that they are responsible for generating the associations of fire with Demonic imagery in the Milky Way. This would be another method of shielding humans from the Ori, as the central symbols of Origin involve fire. As Daniel Jackson pointed out, there is no immediate illogicality with fire as a symbol of all that is good: it provides warmth, light, etc.

Also, even before their ascension, the Ancients had strict rules on time travel, although this rule has been broken as well. The Ancient scientist Janus developed time travel technology, leading to Elizabeth Weir using it to travel back to Atlantis 10,000 years previously, and to a column containing a history of future events on the Milky Way planet ruled by Harry Maybourne.