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

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 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."
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."