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This article is about the people. For the episode, see The Nox.

"We get life from the forest. From everything."
Ohper[src]

The Nox are a humanoid race from the lush planet Gaia, located in the Milky Way galaxy. The Nox had a symbiotic relations with nature, and as a society were centered on absolute pacifism and non-violence. They also did not permit their technological advances to compromise the natural beauty of their environment.

Background[]

The Nox are peaceful and fairy-like people, capable of reviving the dead and rendering objects as large as their own city invisible. (SG1: "The Nox")

History[]

"Our ways have served us for as long as our people have lived."
Anteaus[src]

The Nox are considered to be a member of the "Alliance of Four Great Races", along with the Alterans, Asgard, and Furlings. (SG1: "The Fifth Race")

Nox symbol

The Nox' symbol.

They encountered SG-1 on their homeworld when the Goa'uld System Lord Apophis came hunting for the Fenri. (SG1: "The Nox")

When SG-1 wanted to help the Tollans escape Earth and the NID, they suggested that the Nox could take them. The Nox later helped the refugees leave Earth and build a Stargate on their new home world of Tollana. In addition, Lya acted as the neutral Archon in the Triad of Skaara and Klorel. When Teal'c became suspicious of the Goa'uld's intentions during the Triad, he approached Lya for help and they reached a compromise: Lya refused to directly help against the Goa'uld but would hide one of the Tollan's ion cannons in case it was necessary. It turned out to be a necessary precaution as the Goa'uld did attack, but Lya walked a fine line in doing so: she didn't break the Nox' pacifism as she only hid the cannon, not fired it. (SG1: "Enigma", "Pretense")

Physiology[]

"... definitely more advanced than anything that has evolved on Earth."
Daniel Jackson[src]

The Nox are known to be one of the oldest species that inhabit the galaxy, although very few know of them. Like the Ancients, they were humans more or less, but with a faint gray skin color as well as grass-like hair from which branches and leaves grow. The Nox tend to wear primitive clothing with colors that combine gray to gray-blue to violet and scarlet. They appear slightly shorter than average humans with a slight build; they often present an unassuming façade that belies their capabilities.

Because of their more advanced physiology and symbiotic relations with nature, the eldest of the Nox can reach the age of 500 years, with children reaching maturity by the age of 18 years. Once a Nox reaches adulthood, their aging slows down to an almost imperceptible rate. Only during the last two centuries of a Nox's life do they begin to appear old, but this also belies their true age.

Evolved abilities[]

  • Heightened intellect: The Nox are an extremely intelligent and perceptive race that are able to perform complex arithmetic in fractions of a second.
  • Eidetic memory: They possess an astounding ability to comprehend and retain information with near perfect memories.
  • Heightened perception: They make use of the five senses that Humans use but they are far more acute when compared to Humans allowing them to pick up on details and subtleties around them that others would miss entirely. This provides the Nox with abilities that border on extra-sensory perception due to their perceptive nature and heightened senses.
  • Bio-electrical tuning: In addition to this, the Nox possess the innate ability to tune into the bio-electrical fields within other beings, in a sense "reading" them at a level far beyond normal senses. They are capable of also channeling their natural heightened perception into a number of extraordinary abilities that include the ability to learn languages after hearing them spoken for only a short time, a mild form of mind-reading that allows them to detect nearby surface thoughts, and the ability to heal others. With the latter ability, which they refer to as the Ritual of Life, the Nox are capable of completely healing the most severe of injuries and even resurrect the recently deceased so long as the tiniest amount of molecular activity as well as bio-electrical energy remains within the body. In order to accomplish this ritual, there is a minimum requirement of three Nox to perform the intense and focused concentration which interrupts their ability to use their technology. They also can render extremely large objects invisible and insubstantial. It is unlikely, however, that a feature such as their city is cloaked in this manner. It most likely uses its own cloaking device. (RPG: "Fantastic Frontiers: Stargate Season One")

Culture[]

Nox language 1

Nox writing.

The race has a symbiotic relationship with nature and, in particular, the forests of the world as well as the living beings that occupy it be they animal or plant. In the view of the Nox, all beings contribute to and receive from the universe. This view prevented the Nox from allowing their technological advances to compromise the natural beauty of their environment of their world. Nox scholars long ago discovered that "life", the energy that keeps all beings alive, is in essence a dynamic energy myriad of other energy fields that exist outside the physical form. The Nox believe these external energy fields comprise the "life force" of their planet and the universe itself. In their view, these individual fields, also known as "consciousness" to the people of Earth, exists with an external field with each working with the other one. The Nox appear to be less arrogant than most technologically advanced races, as they only kindly refer to the humans as "young", instead of referring to them flatly as "primitive", like most of the other races do. The Nox (at least the ones who live in the forest) are vegetarians: they usually eat fruit, porridge and different plants. They don't eat meat: the Nox believe that every animal, every being is sacred and has rights to live. It's likely that the Nox get protein, carbohydrates and other important elements from their white porridge and different special plants.

Society[]

"Maybe one day you will learn, that your way is not the only way."
Anteaus[src]

The Nox practice a philosophy of absolute pacifism and non-violence that is so strict that they refuse even to defend themselves when threatened. Should a Nox find themselves in such a situation, they tend to typically hide through the use of their stealth technology or simply use their technology to remove the aggressors along with their weapons. This policy is so strict that others within their domain are forced to obey their rules of policy of pacifism when necessary. Should visitors attempt to employ violence against one another, the Nox remove their weapons as part of their rules.

Ritual of Life

The Ritual of Life being used to resurrect Lya.

The Nox race highly value freedom; both for themselves and for the others. They refuse to infringe on the rights of others for free choice except where such individuals choose to make use of violence or war-like ways. As such, the Nox accept no authority except their own and thus refuse to allow others to impose their views on others.

Isolationist and non-interventionist in the extreme, they feel morally obligated to help both sides of an argument, no matter if one side is thoroughly evil. Case in point, they will equally aid both the Goa'uld and the Tau'ri (Earth Humans). They will not even fight to protect themselves; however, with their abilities of rendering objects invisible and resurrecting their dead, fighting is unnecessary.

When Tollana comes under attack, it is saved because Teal'c and Lya hid an Ion cannon with Lya's abilities. When asked about this, as it should go against the Nox's rules against violence, Lya says that it was alright as she simply "hid" the weapon, not "fired" it, although she admitted that when she did she walked a very fine line. (SG1: "The Nox", "Pretense")

Technology[]

"Knowledge takes time. Over the years we teach the young to be wise."
Ohper[src]

The Nox's advanced technology is shown when they revealed their floating city to the SG-1 team on the Nox's planet. They are also capable of establishing a wormhole instantly (without needing to dial) without the unstable vortex effect and disable Stargate Command's Iris while traveling to Earth, both capabilities shared with the Asgard. They rarely use their technology, however, preferring to live in a simpler state with nature. Both their cloaking technology, and the disabling of the unstable vortex are technologies that other members of the Alliance of Four Great Races possess, possibly meaning that they traded it with each other. (SG1: "The Nox", "Enigma", "Pretense"). Also, possibly, some of their abilities (such ability as rendering objects) actually can be created by tech, although we haven't seen it before.

Known Nox[]

Links and navigation[]

v  e
Nox
Individuals AnteausDruanaLyaNafrayuOhperTiana
Planets AturaCallandraGaia
Technology Antigravity deviceCloakDome deviceFloating cityGiftTransportation console
Terms Alliance of Four Great RacesNox languageRitual of Life
v  e
Alliance of Four Great Races
Members AncientsAsgardFurlingNoxTau'ri
Planets Heliopolis
Technology Dome device
Terms Universal language
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