So you want to know about the Formidine Rift? (Part 3)

[Enrogue]

I have always believed that the statement about it "depending on who goes looking" is could be a direct reference to Salome. She and Hassan are the only two people in the galaxy who actually know what the coordinates are and I've always seen the Formidine Rift as being the sequel to Reclamation. Kahina's adventures in Sol (and beyond) that were recounted in Galnet were all supposed to be leading up to an adventure into the Formidine Rift. There were also supposed to be hints in local news feeds. Those hints rotated out because the local news feeds don't retain stories for very long ... and nobody thought to look for them while they were there.

A lot of the early clues that Drew gave us in the first Formidine Rift thread were back when Drew thought those news articles were persistent and still out there where we could read them. Another possible interpretation of the "depends on who goes looking" could have been a reference to someone who is willing to search out the background story by compiling data from local news feeds. Since those local news articles no longer exist the hint may now be meaningless.

I see your point. Thing is, Drew has stated that a player is able to "find the secret", so it might not be restricted by Salome. Whom did not accept my friend request in-game btw, even though it has been said she accepts all requests. QQ (and yes, I spelled it correctly in-game, with the accented e)! Much tears!

Then again, he has also let it understood the storyline will not (can not?) see fulfilment yet. But, "the secret" is probably not the climax of the story, or even really necessarily needed to be found to advance the storyline.

I can't help but try to be a little optimistic here and think Drew would had let us known if any clue is redundant or if the mechanisms would've changed dramatically. He seems like an awfully nice chap who cares for this himself as well. I also bet he is Salome in-game (but that's just a bet; gamblers lose)

 

[turkwinif]

You should organize an expedition to mark the one year anniversary of Rho Cassiopeia being breached!

Heh heh, I'd love to do that, but I started on my quest to circumnavigate the galaxy a few weeks ago that every explorer eventual does, and I'm pretty far out in the opposite direction. Internet trouble and life have also started to limit my play time. Even if I organized an expedition, I doubt I'd be able to get back and partake in it. [noob]

A good point about the system being unreachable before synthesis. So, presuming all we have heard is true (and can't really go on presuming otherwise) like the secret being there available to be found since beta, it can't be the location for the secret. Unless there is some other explanation.

It is all tinfoil though, all of it. That said, "right on, Commander=Rho Cassiopeiae"...Hmm yea, seems far fetched as well as a little easy at the same time and not really adding up, but hey, you never know. But definitely worth the look , and worth a few other looks. The system is interesting, whatever the case. Related to the secret or no.

Thanks for your reply btw, it is very nice to see the words from a first-hand source. And I also take this opportunity to commend you on persevering with said system.

What bugs me about this is the line about it depending on who goes looking for it, not related to progress or rank or anything like that. WTH?

Oh and I will certainly send a postcard when and if I personally get there! I will try to go rather sooner than later, even if the facts(?) of distances and the secret being available to be found since beta make it impossible for it to be the system "with the secret". Still a nice seeming place to go and while out there in the presumed Rift, well, why not?

Edit: It could also be we tend to be a bit too literal with Drew's tips, seeing as how heavily he is into codes and all that. Like, the core of the problem=heart of the matter=heart and soul nebulae. Seems a little too easy? I don't know. Then again, he presumably said that because he wanted to give the seekers a break.

It's definitely worth the journey, do send a postcard! Word of advice, if you do decide to fly straight at it into the exclusion zone, watch your heat and set aside some time to get back out! It really provides a sense of scale, haha.

 

[Jaiotu]

I see your point. Thing is, Drew has stated that a player is able to "find the secret", so it might not be restricted by Salome. Whom did not accept my friend request in-game btw, even though it has been said she accepts all requests. QQ (and yes, I spelled it correctly in-game, with the accented e)! Much tears!

Oh yes! I do mean that it is intended to be player findable, not meant to be found be Salome herself. I just think that there is a good possibility that Salome's own "search" is meant to yield the clues needed to find it.

 

[Enrogue]

...right on, Commanders!

(sorry couldn't help myself)

As the last bit that really tugs at me and that I want to share before offlining for a bit, are the second set of words by Drew himself that really bother me in addition to "it depends on who goes looking". "We might not be able to recognize it for what it is even if we found it". Oh, splendid, just splendid... [wacky] *whimpers*

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

Oh yes! I do mean that it is intended to be player findable, not meant to be found be Salome herself. I just think that there is a good possibility that Salome's own "search" is meant to yield the clues needed to find it.

That's an interesting thought, because we don't know much at all about Salome's search. All we know is what was in Reclamation (the Old Lady's words & the video Salome found in the Imperial archive) and then Galnet posts February through July of last year, when she was traveling ( on some undisclosed diplomatic mission) in the role of Kahina, then she cchanged role into Salome & disappeared until April this year when she turned up at Beagle Point with the Children of Raxxla, congratulated the explorers & said she felt honoured to have been involved (and I think threw in some extra words about a great conspiracy & to be careful who they sold data to, but that is missing from Heinrich's summary). We know from her message when she was captured in August that she had found something that links events in FR, Conflux & Hawkings Gap (we now assume this will be revealed through the UCBs and the surface bases that are currently removed from game until the 2.2.03 bug fix). I do wonder if the local news posts that seem to have been relevant and were lost related somehow to her travels, it could be likely- you'd expect a visiting dignitary (even just passing through incognito as Salome) would be noted in the local news.

To help fill in the gap is it possible to do an analysis to see what systems she had discovered? She may have been using EDSM/EDD

Heinrich's Repository:
Main page: http://ed.frank-heinrich.net/index.php?title=Main_Page

Kahina/Salome summary: http://ed.frank-heinrich.net/index....:_Congratulations_to_Distant_Worlds_Explorers

 

[Martin Afonso]

Agreed, though think it's symptomatic of having to wait until the update to continue the search. I have, I think, asked this before but didn't see a response so I'm asking now- CTDs were found for FR & Conflux but I don't think for Hawkings Gap. Am I wrong? Did nobody investigate surfaces for:
PLAA AEC XZ-Z B41-0 A1
PLAA AEC IZ-N C20-1 A1A
PLAA AEC TT-B B41-3 B1 (or B2?)
PLAA AEC RY-B B41-1 2B

I did a few descents in all four planets designated by the beacons and a quick search in a couple of distinctive features in one of them, without experiencing CTDs. But I'm currently in Colonia and will head to the Gap again in my Cobra to be there for the patch release around New Year.

 

[Mathew of Tegalus]

Just as an aside note if we're talking about Galnet Articles and Local articles - I have browsed https://community.elitedangerous.com/en/galnet and read through everything, only to do the same http://inara.cz/galaxy-galnet and found that there is actually more; specifically right from the start of the game to do with Hengist and Harold and who not. Never found anything like a repository of local feed news; and I guess the closest thing we had to that was the forum submission thread which died when they changed it over - thread still exists but I doubt it had what we'd be looking for.

Man looking back at how different the writing was, the types of articles, and the stories.

One thing stayed the same all this time. Care to guess?

The Typo's

 

[irtuk]

Tin foil hats to the max but, having read the text of Salome this morning here are some choice quotes.

You would fancy she was looking for dead things.

how I loathe the Romans ! They are rough and common, and they give themselves the airs of noble lords

How black it is, down there ! It must be terrible to be in so black a pit ! It is like a tomb.

It is his eyes above all that are terrible. They are like black holes burned by torches in a Tyrian tapestry. They are like black caverns where dragons dwell. They are like the black caverns of Egypt in which the dragons make their lairs. They are like black lakes troubled by fantastic moons.

Get thee to the desert and seek out the Son of Man

Oh yes, I see it well, and the stars are falling like ripe figs, are they not? And the sun is becoming black like sackcloth of hair, and the kings of the earth are afraid.

The concept of fear, Herod's fear of Jochanaan is the core of the strauss work and there are plentiful references, as above, to spacey-type things, I have read that the moon is almost a central character in the work, as it is in reclamation.

Here's my take. Whats in the rift is fear, but it is something salome must face to exact her revenge on ... on something? In fact, no salome does not face Jochannan in the pit, she has someone do it for her, the executioner...

What do we get if we map the characters from Reclamation onto the characters from Salome?

 

[Enrogue]

Mustn't forget there are "two Salomés", the biblical one as well as the Oscar Wilde one in addition to "ours". It seems mr. Wagar has mainly gotten his inspiration from mr. Wilde. But that is just how it seems and seeing how our dear author's mind seems to work they are probably intermingled, the Wilde and the biblical versions, in the mesh of the in-game Salomé. Probably should not count out either one of the pre-Elite Salomé stories when trying to decipher things related to "our" Salomé.

irtuk, all your quotes were from the biblical one or..?

 

[Jaiotu]

Mustn't forget there are "two Salomés", the biblical one as well as the Oscar Wilde one in addition to "ours". It seems mr. Wagar has mainly gotten his inspiration from mr. Wilde. But that is just how it seems and seeing how our dear author's mind seems to work they are probably intermingled, the Wilde and the biblical versions, in the mesh of the in-game Salomé. Probably should not count out either one of the pre-Elite Salomé stories when trying to decipher things related to "our" Salomé.

irtuk, all your quotes were from the biblical one or..?

In the Bible Herod's daughter is never referred to by name. And she has very little to say. I'm pretty sure but those quotes are from Oscar Wilde.

 

[irtuk]

Yes, Jaiotu is right those are from the translated text of Oscar Wilde's "Salomé" which was written originally in French. you can read it here: https://archive.org/stream/salometragedyino00wilduoft/salometragedyino00wilduoft_djvu.txt I guess its out of copyright....

I have been listening to the Strauss operatic version this afternoon, trying to pick out the Leitmotif associated with Herod, this has been referred to as the "Fear" leitmotif or "Herod's scale". No joy, I was thinking along the lines of identifying a pattern of stars matching the note arrangement of that "fear" motif. crazy stuff.

Another point is that in the Oscar Wilde version Salomé is not Herods daughter, I think she is his niece having usurped his brother and taken Herodias as his wife. That seems to have a vague parallel with the murder of the Loren family in Reclamation, and the subsequent rise of Dalt, a trusted "brother" to the Senator.

 

[Enrogue]

In the Bible Herod's daughter is never referred to by name. And she has very little to say. I'm pretty sure but those quotes are from Oscar Wilde.

Yes, Jaiotu is right those are from the translated text of Oscar Wilde's "Salomé" which was written originally in French.

Alright, thanks for the clarification. The quotes do seem more as something from a play rather than the bible though now that my eyes are more fully opened. Spent many hours in the hypersleeper and it still feels.

The bible isn't too familiar to me, having read it only once just so I know what I am turning my back at. Shame to say, Wilde's work is even less familiar to me. Haven't read much in ages (books), and when I do it tends to be either pop culture fiction like ED novels or factual texts, studies and so on.

I absolutely adore the amount of effort people are willing to see for this story and the way it seems to near-consume so many. Good people. The best

Ahem, weirdos abound, I actually tried to lucid dream about the "we might not recognize it even if we found it" thing... But failed miserably it seems, only dreamt of a green pyramid against a backdrop of a sky filled with a nebula of psychedelic colors. Yea, it's kinda consuming me too. The story, in this occasion

 

[irtuk]

Its great! Absolutley loving it.

Its not a POI.
Its something we might not even recognise for what it is.
Its inexorably linked to the story of Salomé, or at least the dramatic direction of the story.

Its fascinating!

 

[Masheikh Scytale]

Something more then just the word of two people with memory problems

Am I wrong saying the Rift myth comes from long before Rebecca and Salomé whereabouts ?
What I don't know is if these rumors are E: D canon lore or not.

 

[Enrogue]

Am I wrong saying the Rift myth comes from long before Rebecca and Salomé whereabouts ?
What I don't know is if these rumors are E: D canon lore or not.

They're official canon, yes. To my knowledge, and please do correct me if I am mistaken, the only truly interactive plotline in the game as well.

 

[Masheikh Scytale]

No.

We should just make our own solution to the mystery.

I'm in the eafots sector. I'm saying the mystery was completely fabricated by this old woman.

She was a high level empire intelligence agent. Forced into retirement due to old age, she, in her increasingly lucid fantasies brought on by dementia, she created this entire imaginary threat and wandered the systems in the bubble telling any pilots who would listen her fantastical tale ... Now completely believing it real... The dementia having progressed to the point of needing constant hospital care.

Are you a GalCop/ Dark Wheel agent ?

 

[lorrad]

Alright, thanks for the clarification. The quotes do seem more as something from a play rather than the bible though now that my eyes are more fully opened. Spent many hours in the hypersleeper and it still feels.

The bible isn't too familiar to me, having read it only once just so I know what I am turning my back at. Shame to say, Wilde's work is even less familiar to me. Haven't read much in ages (books), and when I do it tends to be either pop culture fiction like ED novels or factual texts, studies and so on.

I absolutely adore the amount of effort people are willing to see for this story and the way it seems to near-consume so many. Good people. The best

Ahem, weirdos abound, I actually tried to lucid dream about the "we might not recognize it even if we found it" thing... But failed miserably it seems, only dreamt of a green pyramid against a backdrop of a sky filled with a nebula of psychedelic colors. Yea, it's kinda consuming me too. The story, in this occasion

There's the old 1950's movie Salome that puts all the versions together in the Cecil B. DeMille's style. If Drew has seen this especially as a child it would link the Salome versions all up. There's an odd correlation between movies seen by children and their idea in adulthood. For example there's a correlation between kids who first saw Mary Poppins between ages 4 and 8 who later became buddhists, people trying to turn themselves into Mary Poppins. Anyway weird rabbit hole being Drew's conception of Salome could be from that movie as well as literature.

A Drew clue not discussed, maybe because in a way it's a killer is the title of his book for season 2 "Premonition" which might as well mean "move along folks nothing to see here until Season 3." I don't actually expect to live that long. What's season 3 going to be "O did you see that?"

How many years of a dog's breakfast can one eat?

 

[Enrogue]

-snip-

How many years of a dog's breakfast can one eat?

A lifetime, I fear...

 

[Masheikh Scytale]

They're official canon, yes. To my knowledge, and please do correct me if I am mistaken, the only truly interactive plotline in the game as well.

Then, IMHO, that's the "core of the problem ".
Ships disappear. Ships are "attacked in witchspace by strange lights" and crash as we can see in their logs. The Rift of Fear. The "here be ghosts". And so on ...
A lot of "good reasons" for never go fly through this cosmic Bermuda Triangle...says the common sense (and some Powers).
I am sailing back there tomorrow. [wacko] [wacko]

 

[Enrogue]

Go with it; trust your instincts

I will raise the anchor tonight as well and set course for the Formidine. Just need to make way to the bubble first from Sacaqawea and get in a ship that actually jumps somewhere.