- "There is still talk of returning, even though I've told them the Wraith have scorched Athos bare in revenge for our resistance."
- ―Teyla Emmagan[src]
Athos was the first planet the Atlantis expedition visited after arriving in the Pegasus Galaxy in 2004.
History
10,000 years ago, Athos was a populous human world protected by the Lanteans. The Wraith that would become known as Ashes and Osprey originally came from this world. After escaping from their prison on the frozen planet, the first Wraith dialed out to Athos before escaping to another planet. They later returned to seek aid from Ashes' wife only to fall into a trap by the Lanteans that they barely escaped. (SGA: "Secrets")
After the beginning of the Lantean-Wraith war, the Lanteans who lived on Athos abandoned the planet to fight in the war. Eventually, Athos suffered a massive Culling from Wraith hive ships and Wraith cruisers in order to feed the Wraith armada besieging Atlantis. While the rest of the planet fell victim to the Wraith attack, the city of Emege possessed a Lantean energy shield that protected it from attack, becoming the last safe place on the planet. After a year and a day, the shield finally failed and the Wraith, led by the legendary and feared Queen Death destroyed Emege and dined on its people so that the city could never rise again. After taking their fill, the Wraith departed, leaving the starving Athosian survivors to pick up the pieces.
After the return of an Athosian named Arda with news that the Lanteans and Queen Death were both gone, the Athosians rebuilt Emege and set out to live their lives without the Lanteans. Athos still suffered Cullings with the first being two generations after the Lanteans lost the war. Sometimes only a few years would pass between Cullings and sometimes a century with some Cullings being by a single Wraith Dart through the Stargate and others being more massive and ending with cities destroyed and thousands lost. Eventually, the Athosians abandoned Emege and took up a simpler life on Athos to survive by hiding from the Wraith. (SGA: "Death Game", "Rising")
After the arrival of the Atlantis expedition, they traveled to Athos where they found the Athosian village near the ruins of Emege. Teyla Emmagan took Major John Sheppard to some caves where the early Athosians hid from the Wraith, and where Sheppard found a necklace that belonged to Teyla. Unfortunately, the central locket was actually a Wraith transmitter that detected the ATA gene in Sheppard, which lead the Wraith to cull the planet. The Tau'ri helped the Athosians to fight back, but there were still a number of losses, leading Sheppard to take the Athosians back to Atlantis. As punishment for the Athosians' defiance, the Wraith devastated the planet. (SGA: "Rising")
Athos was littered with forests and has short days. (SGA: "Rising") It was later revealed that at some point the expedition must have returned as Teyla commented that the Wraith had "scorched it bare" in revenge. (SGA: "The Storm")
Teyla later discovered from Guide that the legendary Queen Death that devastated Athos during the Lantean-Wraith war was in fact Coldamber, a Wraith Queen encountered and killed under Lantea's ocean. After accessing the Wraith genetic memory she has as a Wraithkin, Teyla learns of the history of the original Wraith and their connection to Athos. (SGA: "The Furies", "Secrets")
Following the fall of Queen Death, Athos fell into the territory of Queen Waterlight who had aided Atlantis in defeating Queen Death. Teyla suggested that if the Athosians wished to return to their planet, which remained intact, Waterlight would leave them be per the treaty out of respect for Teyla. In an attempt to determine if Emege had a shield generator that could be used to protect the Athosians, Teyla and McKay ventured into the city with the permission of the Athosian Council. There, McKay determined that the valley containing Emege was in fact in the caldera of a supervolcano similar to the one on Taranis. The geothermal energy from this supervolcano was the true power source for the Emege shield generator which remained intact. McKay was able to determine that when Emege originally fell, the residents had shut down the shield due to the threat of the supervolcano erupting and threatening to devastate the entire planet and the Athosians hiding in other places upon it. (SGA: "The Mysteries of Emege")
Alternate timeline
- In an alternate timeline, Atlantis had no failsafe mechanism and all Zero Point Modules ran simultaneously so the city sank when it was flooded. Consequently, almost the entire Atlantis expedition was killed shortly after their arrival in the Pegasus galaxy. They never travelled to Athos and therefore never met Teyla Emmagan or the Athosians. As such, in that reality, Athos remained intact and untouched by the Wraith. (SGA: "Before I Sleep")
Behind the scenes
- The planet is named after Mount Athos, a peninsula in Northern Greece which is home to multiple ancient Christian monasteries that have been in continuous use since at least the 9th Century CE.
