The Formidine Rift - Part 2

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Jaiotu

Jaiotu
I'm going to wrap most of this post in a big spoiler warning because it is a LOT of tinfoil that probably has nothing to do with the Formidine Mystery but I think more than a few of the folks watching this thread might be interested in.

No doubt much of this will be 'old news' to some of you. I'm just coming up for air after plunging into the internet searching for Raxxla.

I was one of the poor souls who went searching the 8 galaxies of the original Elite for Raxxla after reading about it in Robert Holdstock's "The Dark Wheel" which was included along with the game. I never found it of course because it wasn't implemented. Didn't stop me from looking again when Elite Plus was released and included a brand-new 9th galaxy.

I did an image search for Raxxla on google and, hiding among the various Elite-related imagery, this stood out:

The+Alien+World+1+Cover.jpg


It turns out that this is a book published back in 1980 and apparently refers to a species known as the "Oisir-Raxxla". Odd coincidence? Maybe Robert Holdstock was inspired by this book?

No. Not a coincidence at all. And Robert Holdstock wasn't inspired by it either. I discovered after a few minutes of searching that the author of "The Alien World", Professor Steven Eisler, is none other than Robert Holdstock himself. It was one of Holdstock's many pen-names.

From the book:

The+Alien+World+5+F.+Jurgen+Rogner.jpg


"The Eye Of The Beholder. A Raxxlan projection which appeared above the primitive world Winter D, populated by sentient, but unadvanced insectoids. The Eye became an overwhelming symbol of the evil that stared from the heavens, so disorienting the creatures that the Oisir-Raxxla were able to build their structure and depart without life being lost."
Click to expand...

Hoping that this won't seem as a total waste of time to those who took the time to read it. I personally found it extremely interesting and have ordered a copy of the book to see what Holdstock's personal mythology of Raxxla would have been at the time he was writing "The Dark Wheel."
 

Judge Rhadamanthus

Judge Rhadamanthus
clavain said:
I thought we were assuming that 2015 and 3301 were the same astronomically in-game (i.e. use 2015 times of astronomical events to represent 3301)? Ditto 2016 and 3302?
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Would one way to check this be with Pioneer 10? I vaguely remember the pioneer probes being in the game. Are they where they would be now or in 3302?
 
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Jaiotu

Jaiotu
Judge Rhadamanthus said:
Would one way to check this be with Pioneer 10? I vaguely remember the pioneer probes being in the game. Are they where they would be now or in 3302?
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They're in the correct position for 3302. This probably wouldn't apply to them. Using celestial positions from 2015/2016 is simply a shortcut for the developers. Tracking where everything will have moved to in 300 years was probably deemed to be too much work. Plus... April 25th in 3302 is on a Tuesday not a Monday. Imagine the confusion.

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CMDRMesaana said:
I just had an epiphany. Drew said to 'consider the "core" of the problem.' Could that not be "CoR"?
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That is one possible interpretation. "Consider the core" might mean "you might want to think about joining Children of Raxxla".
 

Han_Zen

Han_Zen
Jaiotu said:
I'm going to wrap most of this post in a big spoiler warning because it is a LOT of tinfoil that probably has nothing to do with the Formidine Mystery but I think more than a few of the folks watching this thread might be interested in.

No doubt much of this will be 'old news' to some of you. I'm just coming up for air after plunging into the internet searching for Raxxla.

I was one of the poor souls who went searching the 8 galaxies of the original Elite for Raxxla after reading about it in Robert Holdstock's "The Dark Wheel" which was included along with the game. I never found it of course because it wasn't implemented. Didn't stop me from looking again when Elite Plus was released and included a brand-new 9th galaxy.

I did an image search for Raxxla on google and, hiding among the various Elite-related imagery, this stood out:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_MnzWiCCz.../ZXHromdQzsg/s640/The+Alien+World+1+Cover.jpg

It turns out that this is a book published back in 1980 and apparently refers to a species known as the "Oisir-Raxxla". Odd coincidence? Maybe Robert Holdstock was inspired by this book?

No. Not a coincidence at all. And Robert Holdstock wasn't inspired by it either. I discovered after a few minutes of searching that the author of "The Alien World", Professor Steven Eisler, is none other than Robert Holdstock himself. It was one of Holdstock's many pen-names.

From the book:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Jdp5Nbp_0...k/s640/The+Alien+World+5+F.+Jurgen+Rogner.jpg

Hoping that this won't seem as a total waste of time to those who took the time to read it. I personally found it extremely interesting and have ordered a copy of the book to see what Holdstock's personal mythology of Raxxla would have been at the time he was writing "The Dark Wheel."
Click to expand...


Nice find. This is new to me.[up]
 

Dielos

Dielos
Jaiotu said:
I'm going to wrap most of this post in a big spoiler warning because it is a LOT of tinfoil that probably has nothing to do with the Formidine Mystery but I think more than a few of the folks watching this thread might be interested in.

No doubt much of this will be 'old news' to some of you. I'm just coming up for air after plunging into the internet searching for Raxxla.

I was one of the poor souls who went searching the 8 galaxies of the original Elite for Raxxla after reading about it in Robert Holdstock's "The Dark Wheel" which was included along with the game. I never found it of course because it wasn't implemented. Didn't stop me from looking again when Elite Plus was released and included a brand-new 9th galaxy.

I did an image search for Raxxla on google and, hiding among the various Elite-related imagery, this stood out:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_MnzWiCCz.../ZXHromdQzsg/s640/The+Alien+World+1+Cover.jpg

It turns out that this is a book published back in 1980 and apparently refers to a species known as the "Oisir-Raxxla". Odd coincidence? Maybe Robert Holdstock was inspired by this book?

No. Not a coincidence at all. And Robert Holdstock wasn't inspired by it either. I discovered after a few minutes of searching that the author of "The Alien World", Professor Steven Eisler, is none other than Robert Holdstock himself. It was one of Holdstock's many pen-names.

From the book:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Jdp5Nbp_0...k/s640/The+Alien+World+5+F.+Jurgen+Rogner.jpg

Hoping that this won't seem as a total waste of time to those who took the time to read it. I personally found it extremely interesting and have ordered a copy of the book to see what Holdstock's personal mythology of Raxxla would have been at the time he was writing "The Dark Wheel."
Click to expand...
New to me as well. Can't rep you more though...
 

James Helios

James Helios
Sometimes i wonder if Salome doesn't get the coords from the text but actually from what she sees when "The woman leaned in closer to the recording device.". We get a pretty good description of her, iirc, 2 times in the book.Once when they meet in the hospital and a second time when Salome sees the picture after the search completes. Maybe the "core of the problem" is the old woman, and her memory.
 

Jaiotu

Jaiotu
James Helios said:
Sometimes i wonder if Salome doesn't get the coords from the text but actually from what she sees when "The woman leaned in closer to the recording device.". We get a pretty good description of her, iirc, 2 times in the book.Once when they meet in the hospital and a second time when Salome sees the picture after the search completes. Maybe the "core of the problem" is the old woman, and her memory.
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The old woman's description is a good match for Rebecca Tyley from Drew's 'Oolite' Saga. Drew addressed this on the FAQ page for Reclamation thusly:
Q. Is the old woman in the hospital Rebecca Tyley from your Oolite books, or is she Elyssia Fields from ‘The Dark Wheel’?

My Oolite books are not canon to the ED universe, neither is ‘The Dark Wheel’ any more. Parallel universes will naturally share a lot in common.
Click to expand...

I think the repeated description of the woman was intended as a nod to Drew's Oolite fans.

BTW: Removed your color formatting because it makes the text nearly invisible if using the 'official frontier theme'.

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Dielos said:
New to me as well. Can't rep you more though...
Click to expand...

Once I have my copy in-hand I'll digest as much as I can and publish anything 'relevant' or 'interesting' that I find. Even if it has nothing to do with Raxxla in-game or the Rift it's still a bit of fun.
 

Han_Zen

Han_Zen
Jaiotu said:
The old woman's description is a good match for Rebecca Tyley from Drew's 'Oolite' Saga. Drew addressed this on the FAQ page for Reclamation thusly:


I think the repeated description of the woman was intended as a nod to Drew's Oolite fans.

BTW: Removed your color formatting because it makes the text nearly invisible if using the 'official frontier theme'.
Click to expand...

The description of the old woman is also very close to the description of Elyssia Fields in The Dark Wheel. Both in looks and in the form of the description.

Is it possible that Rebecca Tyley is really Rebecca Ryder Fields?
 

Jaiotu

Jaiotu
Han_Zen said:
The description of the old woman is also very close to the description of Elyssia Fields in The Dark Wheel. Both in looks and in the form of the description.

Is it possible that Rebecca Tyley is really Rebecca Ryder Fields?
Click to expand...

Could be! I haven't finished the Oolite Saga myself but at the point I'm currently at Rebecca's mother is a bit of a mystery herself.
 

frostypaw

frostypaw
Han_Zen said:
The description of the old woman is also very close to the description of Elyssia Fields in The Dark Wheel. Both in looks and in the form of the description.

Is it possible that Rebecca Tyley is really Rebecca Ryder Fields?
Click to expand...
They exist in parallel universes, but there'd be some things they share is I believe what Drew said - I'm sure we've been over this too
 

Jaiotu

Jaiotu
frostypaw said:
They exist in parallel universes, but there'd be some things they share is I believe what Drew said - I'm sure we've been over this too
Click to expand...

Yeah ... sometimes I think this thread should be renamed "The Formidine Treadmill (Threadmill?)". With so many posts its difficult to remember what has or hasn't been covered ... even though I've been following since the first thread, have read the OP on this one and LuckyLuke's journal.
 

Nazgutek

N
Han_Zen said:
The description of the old woman is also very close to the description of Elyssia Fields in The Dark Wheel. Both in looks and in the form of the description.

Is it possible that Rebecca Tyley is really Rebecca Ryder Fields?
Click to expand...

The old woman has a faint scar on her right cheek. Rebecca Weston has her right cheek deliberately scarred by Zerz in Mutabilis, one of Drew's Oolite fictions.

And that's probably as far as it goes in this game universe.
 

Jaiotu

Jaiotu
Nazgutek said:
The old woman has a faint scar on her right cheek. Rebecca Weston has her right cheek deliberately scarred by Zerz in Mutabilis, one of Drew's Oolite fictions.

And that's probably as far as it goes in this game universe.
Click to expand...

Ah! But in Incursio, after Rebecca barely survived an attack by Thargoids, she had the scar removed while she was being fixed up after the fight:

Rebecca had settled for ensuring that grey hair would never be an issue and removing an almost invisible scar from her right cheek.
Click to expand...
 
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