Wraith (Stargate) - Background

Background

The Wraith are key characters in the TV show Stargate Atlantis, which is a spin off from the fellow American military science fiction series, Stargate SG-1.

The Wraith are intelligent humanoids who are genetically close to insects, though they are predominantly human. They evolved in the Pegasus galaxy after a human population seeded by the Ancients was fed upon by an insect called the irratus bug, which has the ability to draw upon a human's life to heal itself. As they fed, the bugs incorporated human DNA into themselves, giving rise to the Wraith. The Wraith too feed on humans, treating them akin to livestock and regarding the act of feeding as nothing more than natural predation.

Some ten thousand one-hundred years ago, the Wraith went to war with the Ancients (whom they knew as the Lanteans) over control of the galaxy. Although technologically superior, the Ancients were a passive people by nature, and lacked the familiarity with aggression and strategic thinking to successfully neutralize the Wraith. This naivete allowed the Wraith to lure Ancient warships into unprotected areas of space where they were ambushed and captured, along with their ZPM power supplies, which the Wraith used to power cloning facilities that increased the size of their army a hundredfold. Vastly outnumbered, the Ancients sent a delegation protected by their most powerful warships to sue for peace, but they were wiped out. The Wraith steadily pushed back the Ancients until only Atlantis remained. The war with the Ancients lasted for more than 100 years, until the Ancients decided to submerge the city and return to Earth. With the Wraith victorious, they became the dominant power in Pegasus.

In the ensuing feeding frenzy following their victory, the Wraith quickly learned that their wartime population was too great to sustain. Lacking the technology for intergalactic hyperdrive, and having depleted the ZPMs for the war, the Wraith were unable to safely venture outside of Pegasus to explore neighboring galaxies; ignorant of Earth or prior Ancient civilizations in the Milky Way, they had little incentive to try. Unable to leave, the Wraith were collectively forced to hibernate for extended periods of time, often centuries, while the human population of Pegasus regenerated. A small selection of Wraith were tasked with remaining active during this time to maintain watch on the galaxy to prevent human reprisals. With most of the population in suspended animation, and given the competitive nature of their species, the Wraith were unable to make significant advancements in their technology, and aside from small experiments by individual Wraith over the millennia, they have remained largely stagnant for 10,000 years. Their existence is restricted to waking en masse every few centuries to replenish their health by galaxy-wide abductions of humans called "cullings."