Ba'al
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Ba'al is a Goa'uld connected to the mythology of Mesopotamia, and is widely considered to be the last of the System Lords.
History
A System Lord since before the Goa'uld exodus of Earth, Ba'al — or Ishkur — once ruled over parts of Mesopotamia, including the region that became known as Babylon. While not one of the "royal family" of Goa'uld directly related to Ra and his kin, he managed to become a close associate: Earth history remembers Ishkur as the brother of Ishtar, an alias of the Goa'uld Queen Hathor. Despite his proximity to power, Ishkur's position and status were not absolute: even before the Tau'ri Rebellion that drove Ra from Earth and buried the Tau'ri Stargate — more than five thousand years ago — Ishkur suffered his own rebellion at the hands of the Jaffa who went on to become the Sodan. With Hathor left behind on Earth after Ra and his loyalists withdrew, Ishkur fell from grace further still. (SG1: "Fire and Water", "Hathor", "Babylon")
Ba'al was a particularly patient and opportunistic Goa'uld, however, content to bide his time and consolidate power quietly. By the time Ra was killed by members of the Tau'ri, Ba'al was one of the most influential members of the High Council of the System Lords, a status he carefully leveraged for even more power and influence. He was one of the System Lords who voted to allow Anubis to return, but also one of the System Lords who turned against him to form the United Alliance of System Lords when his galactic extinction machinations were discovered, positioning himself as the alliance's Supreme Commander. Even then, he also secretly allied himself with Anubis after his apparent death at the Battle of Antarctica, serving the part-Ascended being in exchange for functional command of his Kull Warrior army, allowing Ba'al to declare himself Supreme System Lord in an attempt to unify the System Lords against a galactic invasion by the Replicators. (SG1: "Summit", "Last Stand", "Homecoming", "Lost City, Part 2", "Reckoning, Part 1", "Reckoning, Part 2")
Uncharacteristically for a Goa'uld, Ba'al was also a System Lord who valued and rewarded loyalty. While Underlords like Mot had been in service to Ba'al for millennia — evidenced by their shared mythology as recorded on Earth — it was Ba'al's alliances with Goa'uld like Nerus or Athena, noted as much (or more) for their intelligence and wisdom as for their military prowess, that formed the backbone of Ba'al's quiet rise to power. He possessed an unusual interest in advancement and innovation compared to the other Goa'uld, who were content to let their technology stagnate: his fascination with artificial gravity and genetic cloning was of particular note, but he also grew fascinated with the functioning of the Stargate Network itself. Importantly, while Ba'al relied on his scientists and innovators for their expertise, he made a point of studying that expertise for himself: while Nerus was (by his account, at least) the one who determined how to dial all the Stargates in the galaxy at once, Ba'al would later demonstrate a similar level of technological understanding and prowess with Ancient technology on a number of occasions. (SG1: "Abyss", "Reckoning, Part 2", "Beachhead", "Ex Deus Machina", "Off the Grid", "The Quest, Part 1", "The Quest, Part 2")
Perhaps most notable among his idiosyncrasies, however, was his respect for the Tau'ri. While most Goa'uld saw Stargate Command as a vestige of rebellion among an inferior people, Ba'al came to respect them, although perhaps more as a useful resource than as a people. Ba'al cooperated with Stargate Command in the interests of his own version of the greater good on a number of occasions — always to his own benefit, of course — but also took steps to sow his influence into humanity's efforts as well. After The Trust was infiltrated by the Goa'uld, Ba'al would use the organisation to influence the Tau'ri through corporations and politics, even going so far as to carve out a refuge for himself on Earth, should he need it. His insidious machinations also extended themselves to the Free Jaffa Nation, this time relying on za'tarc technology to control the Jaffa High Council and manipulate them into being a more formidable opponent for the Ori Crusade. Almost unique amongst Goa'uld, Ba'al demonstrated a willingness to adapt: rather than cling to the past, he was willing to find ways to adapt and survive into the future. (SG1: "Endgame", "Full Alert", "Ex Deus Machina", "Stronghold", "Insiders"; ATL: "Critical Mass")
Ba'al also had machinations for defeating the Ori. His own investigations into the Sangraal — a weapon capable of destroying Ascended beings — led him to Merlin's laboratory alongside SG-1, where he assisted Samantha Carter in reconfiguring the Ancient transporter technology that was beaming the laboratory contents through a series of interconnected Stargates. He later infiltrated Stargate Command's efforts to capture the Orici, Adria, taking her as a host, but his (cloned) symbiote was killed during the Tok'ra's attempt to surgically remove him, and Adria managed to Ascend before the symbiote's death toxins could kill her. (SG1: "The Quest, Part 1", "The Quest, Part 2", "Dominion")
Rapidly running out of both clones and machinations, and with his last duplicate about to be executed — believed to be "the last System Lord" — he launched a plan to alter time and restore the Goa'uld Empire. Travelling back to 1939, he prevented the Tau'ri Stargate from ever reaching the United States of America, and then spent the next several decades using his knowledge of the future to machinate his way into a position of supremacy among the Goa'uld, with the loyalty not only of many of his defeated System Lord bretheren, but also the Jaffa Rebellion as led by his new First Prime, Teal'c. He even attempted to incorporate the Tau'ri into his imperium, approaching Earth as a potential ally rather than a conqueror, but he was betrayed by his Queen Qetesh, and his alterations to time were ultimately undone by SG-1. (Continuum)
Mythology
Ba'al is not necessarily a specific deity, but rather a title or honorific, meaning "lord". It was particularly associated with Ba'al Hadad (or Adad), a god of storms worshipped in the area surrounding Babylon. Hadad was also known by the name Ishkur: the System Lord once worshipped by the Jaffa who became the Sodan. As Ba'al Zephon, Hadad is considered largely equivalent to Zeus of Ancient Greece, and is even one of three brothers, with one (Yamm) ruling the oceans, and another (Mot) ruling the underworld. Mot in particular is known to have been an Underlord of Ba'al, adding credence to this particular mythic identification.
While the epithet Ba'al Zebul might translate as "lord of the heavens", the corrupted form of Ba'al Zebul — or Beelzebub — is incorporated into Hebrew and Biblical texts as a demonic figure.
Ba'al Hadad is sometimes described as the child of the moon (Sin), and by extension as the sibling of the sun (Utu), and of the goddess of love (Inanna or Ishtar) — the latter speculated to be an alias of the Goa'uld Hathor. In the Baal Cycle, the goddess Anat (or Anath) is described as one of his closest allies and aides, and sometimes as his sister — Anath is equated in some sources with Athena, one of Ba'al's last remaining allies. Most variations on Ba'al feature strong associations with bull symbology, perhaps suggesting some ancient connection or subserviance to Cronus, or perhaps an effect of his association with Ishtar (Hathor).
Behind the Scenes
Ba'al was portrayed by Cliff Simon in 12 episodes of Stargate SG-1, and Continuum.
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