Unas (Stargate)

A fictional species in the sci-fi television show Stargate SG-1, the Unas, meaning the "First Ones", are a race of large and primitive humanoids that evolved on the same planet as the Goa'uld.

Description
An Unas first appeared in the episode "Thor's Hammer", in which Jack and Teal'c were trapped by a device called Thor's Hammer on the planet of Cimmeria and had to defend themselves from a Goa'uld-parasitized Unas that had been trapped long previously. Teal'c explains that the Unas were the first hosts to the Goa'uld, before the parasitic species encountered human beings.

In the later episode, SG-1 discovered the Unas/Goa'uld homeworld, only referred to by the designation P3X-888. The Unas there lived a primitive lifestyle and feared the open bodies of water where "wild" Goa'uld lived. They made special necklacees that prevent the Go'uld from entering their bodies. Daniel encountered and befriended an Unas named Chaka there. He established a line of communication with him, and later helped him escape (and start a revolt) from a human based society that used the Unas as slave labor in. Chaka also helped SG-1 negotiate a treaty with the Unas of P3X-403. These Unas had been enslaved to mine naqahdah for the Goa'uld. When Stargate Command sent a team to this world to mine, the native Unas felt threatened and began to war on them until they settled the matter.

Unas are an exceptionally tough and hardy species, and significantly stronger than human beings. A healthy Unas can keep fighting even after an entire magazine from a P90 has been emptied into its chest, although it will eventually die from such massive injuries. A Goa'uld possessed Unas is even more powerful, with exceptional regeneration abilities that allow them to survive and recover from multiple bullet wounds even without the aid of a sarcophagus.

Given this, it remains unclear why the Goa'uld ultimately chose to abandon the Unas as hosts, although it has been suggested that the Goa'uld prefer the greater dexterity available in the human hand and the more beatific human body. It has also been suggested that the sarcophagus technology couldn't grant near-immortality with Unas as it could with humans, since it is apparently our easily-repaired physiology that makes the sarcophagus so effective. Another possibility is that the Goa'uld had possessed, enslaved, or killed so many Unas that they were driven to the brink of extiction, forcing them to find another race to use as hosts (humans), and since most of the remaining Unas were left on worlds that no longer have any value, they have been forgotten, and the Goa'uld may think that so few could have survived that it was not worth seeking them out to use as hosts again.