Ayiana was the name given to an Ancient woman who lived on Earth between five and ten million years ago. When her people took the city of Atlantis to the Pegasus Galaxy, she was the one Ancient left behind in the Ancient outpost in what would later be called Antarctica.[2]
Millions of years later, in 2002 (episode "Frozen"), she was unearthed in a block of ice not far from where the second Stargate was discovered over four years before. Her name, which is the Cherokee word for "eternal bloom", was given to her by Dr. Francine Michaels, one of the researchers who found her whose grandfather was one-quarter Cherokee. (The character's true name was therefore never revealed). SG-1 and Dr. Janet Fraiser were called in to study her. They were shocked to discover upon defrosting her that she was, in fact, alive in a state of cryogenic suspension.
She was the first indication that Ancients were advanced humans who evolved (not necessarily on Earth) millions of years ago. It was later surmised that they were the first evolution of humanity while the humans currently living on Earth and throughout the Milky Way are the second. After spending only a few hours with Jonas Quinn, she was able to fully understand every word of English that he said and could even speak some herself. This was another sign of how advanced she and her people were compared to present day humans. She also possessed the ability to heal almost any injury, though she was severely weakened in the process.
Unfortunately, Ayiana carried the disease that had ravaged her people millions of years ago and infected all of the researchers, SG-1 and Fraiser. All except for Teal'c, whose Goa'uld symbiote protected him from many different types of diseases and infections, soon began to exhibit symptoms. Feeling enormously guilty for this, Ayiana used her abilities to heal them despite the huge risk to herself. She succeeded in completely healing all but Jack O'Neill before she collapsed. She was subsequently brought to the SGC where she died soon afterwards from exhaustion. O'Neill, fortunately, was soon cured when he was blended with a Tok'ra symbiote.[3]
Three years later, it became known that the virus which wiped out most of the Ancients millions of years ago, the virus Ayiana carried, bears similarities to the biological weapon created by the Ori.[4]
Ayiana is one of only two Ancients appearing both in Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis - the other being Moros.
