Zaddik

Zaddik
Biographical information
Race	Zaddik's people
Home planet	Zaddik's homeworld
Gender	Male
Born	1971
Died	2005
Political information
Allegiances	Ellia
Out of universe information
Appearances	Stargate: Atlantis *"Instinct"
Actor	John Innes Blake Stadel

Zaddik was a Human who adopted a female Wraith, which he named Ellia.

Biography

Background information

Young Zaddik finds Ellia

He rescued Ellia when she was a young child, from a lone Wraith scout ship that had crashed on the planet years ago, shortly after the death of his own wife and son due to a fever. Though the villagers had slain all Wraith that they found had survived the crash, Zaddik spared the baby he found because of its apparent innocence, before the others found her. Raised with compassion and love, Ellua was treated no differently from any human girl, even able to be fed on normal human food for the first few years of her time with Zaddik. When Ellia grew she needed to feed on human life force, so Zaddik offered himself to Ellia, but whilst she refused, he managed to persuade her to feed upon him. Zaddik began experimenting and developed a serum as an alternative food source, which he believed worked. According to Zaddik (and until after Ellia tells him otherwise, he believes), Ellia never fed on a human other than him. (SGA: "Instinct")

2005

When Lt. Colonel John Sheppard's team arrived on the planet, and after talking to several of the locals, they were told of the Daimos, a creature that lives in the forest, and feeds on humans from time-to-time. Believing it was a Wraith, the members of the Atlantis team began to search the surrounding forest for what they deduced is a lone Wraith soldier that had survived the crash. While searching in the woods for the Wraith that had been terrorizing the village, the Atlantis team sees and chases Ellia, who inadvertently leads the team to Zaddik's home.

Zaddik tells them of Ellia and how he made a serum to suppress the Wraith's need to feed. Dr. Carson Beckett visits Zaddik and Ellia's home to study the serum. While complimenting Zaddik's work, Beckett reveals that he has been working on an Iratus bug retrovirus to potentially turn Wraith into humans, expressing hope that studying Ellia will help him perfect the process. Unfortunately, Ellia, hating her Wraith nature, takes the drug without Beckett's knowledge when they step outside for a moment, despite the fact that it isn't yet ready. The retrovirus has the exact opposite effect intended, and increases the effects of the Iratus bug on her DNA.

Ellia confesses to Zaddik that his serum has never worked and she has been feeding on humans in the village for years. Another Wraith survived the crash, an adult male, and Ellia had been following him to feed whenever he did, hiding her involvement by only picking the scraps he left behind. The effects of the retrovirus appear to grow in intensity over time, and she becomes increasingly violent, with a blue growth covering much of her body. She throws Zaddik against a tree and runs away into the forest, unaware of what she is doing. As he is dying, he reveals that while he was developing the serum he allowed Ellia to feed on him to relieve her hunger. He was, in fact, the missing son of Goran, one of the villagers; and his apparent age is only a result of Ellia's feeding.

Although forced to reveal his true past to the other villagers when his father appeared, Sheppard and Ronon went along with his lie that Ellia had never fed on another human since he perfected the serum in the hope of saving her but after Sheppard tracked Ellia down after Zaddik's death, he and Ronon Dex were forced to kill her when she attempted to feed on Sheppard in her feral state. It is later revealed that when Ellia attacked Sheppard, she infected him with a small dose of the retrovirus, which makes him stronger and faster than he was, before overtaking his body almost completely. (SGA: "Instinct", "Conversion")

Relationships

Family

• Goran: To be added

• Zaddik's wife: To be added

• Zaddik's son: To be added

Behind the scenes

• The name Zaddik is derived from a Hebrew word (tzadok) which means "righteous". This could be a reference to Zaddik's selfless behavior in raising Ellia.

Links and navigation

• GateWorld's article on Zaddik in The Stargate Omnipedia