The Quest To Find Raxxla

[Diplomacy] Carnegie

[Diplomacy] Carnegie
Let's, for the sake of argument, assume that the Codex contains encrypted/encoded clues regarding Raxxla. The question then becomes "How do we decode them?"

So, what are our options?

Character substitution cipher:
The thing about character substitution is that the output invariably looks like somebody threw a Scrabble set at a wall. You simply don't get human-readable out of it, even in a different language. (See the Exodus logs for examples.)
So we can safely assume this isn't the way.

'Hidden' text:
Hiding the real message inside a longer text - first letter of each word/line for example. Poetry is a good medium to use for this, since nobody cares about grammar or line lengths, making the creation of the fake message somewhat easier. The Codex could be using this style, but it's easily brute-forced and I personally would be disappointed.

'Cryptic crossword' clues
Do I need to explain these?
If there's anything in the Codex to lead us forward, this is how I'd expect it to be presented - but I still don't believe that Raxxla will be found by an easter egg hunt. Still, I like the intellectual exercise of trying to decipher them, even if it's almost certainly pointless.
 

yelboc

yelboc
DrewCarnegie said:
Let's, for the sake of argument, assume that the Codex contains encrypted/encoded clues regarding Raxxla. The question then becomes "How do we decode them?"

So, what are our options?

Character substitution cipher:
The thing about character substitution is that the output invariably looks like somebody threw a Scrabble set at a wall. You simply don't get human-readable out of it, even in a different language. (See the Exodus logs for examples.)
So we can safely assume this isn't the way.

'Hidden' text:
Hiding the real message inside a longer text - first letter of each word/line for example. Poetry is a good medium to use for this, since nobody cares about grammar or line lengths, making the creation of the fake message somewhat easier. The Codex could be using this style, but it's easily brute-forced and I personally would be disappointed.

'Cryptic crossword' clues
Do I need to explain these?
If there's anything in the Codex to lead us forward, this is how I'd expect it to be presented - but I still don't believe that Raxxla will be found by an easter egg hunt. Still, I like the intellectual exercise of trying to decipher them, even if it's almost certainly pointless.
Click to expand...

carrying on the brainstorm:

Reverse Book Ciphers
normally you have numbers that convert to letters of the plaintext by looking up the words or letters in the reference text, but for coordinates you have it the other way around - words that make numbers by looking up the words in the reference text.

Triangulation from systems implied from the text
By identifying 3 systems in the galaxy a fourth can be triangulated - the text points to systems - I gues we've already done alot of this in our mythologising.
 

PeteACarter

P
yelboc said:
carrying on the brainstorm:

Reverse Book Ciphers
normally you have numbers that convert to letters of the plaintext by looking up the words or letters in the reference text, but for coordinates you have it the other way around - words that make numbers by looking up the words in the reference text.

Triangulation from systems implied from the text
By identifying 3 systems in the galaxy a fourth can be triangulated - the text points to systems - I gues we've already done alot of this in our mythologising.
Click to expand...
With triangulation, I wonder if the clue could be in likening the search to el Dorado, prester John and Atlantis?

I still think Fernweh is important somehow though. Otherwise why fernweh, not wanderlust, or any other similar term. This is also the only theme that carries directly to the DW toast, with vagabond
 

[Diplomacy] Carnegie

[Diplomacy] Carnegie
Count dEstard said:
Ok seems, most do not count Zion/ Jerusalem as the hottest topic. Let me offer a few ideas.

a) „Zion“ was the place where the first and second Temple of King Solomon were built (Nr. 1 by King Solomon himself; Nr. 2 by Nehemias). From a masonic point of view I‘d say - look at the heart of Darkness.

b) Wasn‘t there something about Zion in Dune? Awful long time since I read that. We have IX - so worth a try?

So what have I been about since asking Scytale to repost the Tattoo?

Well since I theorize the Tattoo symbolizes a journey through the underworld (classical Heroes journey part 2 and 3: Descent into darkness, travelling the underworld, return to light) I asked myself what greek mythology had to say about entrances. Answer: Okeanos, Acheron and lands of the Cimmerians. No Okeanos or Acheron on Galmap but Cimmerians. Went there and did some (not concluded) scanning. Nothing unusual so far (discovered 7 geological sites on C4 using DSS, investigated No 1, nothing unusual, invaded some bases on C4 and got jailed). After finishing Cimmerians I'll head to Styx and Orcus.

If anyone here is around on PS4 and wants to wing up I'm using my iCourier Perceval until after finishing Styx (only m bases) and will then switch back to my Conda Marco Polo.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying you shouldn't investigate, but I kicked the Greek Mythology systems and anything 'underworld'-related hard during the Formidine Rift mystery and never came across anything unusual.
 

[Diplomacy] Carnegie

[Diplomacy] Carnegie
PeteACarter said:
With triangulation, I wonder if the clue could be in likening the search to el Dorado, prester John and Atlantis?

I still think Fernweh is important somehow though. Otherwise why fernweh, not wanderlust, or any other similar term. This is also the only theme that carries directly to the DW toast, with vagabond
Click to expand...

It's probably nitpicking, but my reading of fernweh is that it's more targeted than wanderlust. Wanderlust is a desire to travel, whereas fernweh is a desire to be somewhere (else) specific. So if I had an urge to explore China, that would be wanderlust, but a desire to live in Hong Kong would be fernweh.

Vagabond actually fits better with wanderlust than with fernweh, since again it's about having no fixed destination.
 

Thatchinho

Thatchinho
yelboc said:
carrying on the brainstorm:

Reverse Book Ciphers
normally you have numbers that convert to letters of the plaintext by looking up the words or letters in the reference text, but for coordinates you have it the other way around - words that make numbers by looking up the words in the reference text.

Triangulation from systems implied from the text
By identifying 3 systems in the galaxy a fourth can be triangulated - the text points to systems - I gues we've already done alot of this in our mythologising.
Click to expand...
Slight point, but you need more info than the names of 3 systems for trilateration or triangulation. Either that or you’re making an assumption of equidistance, which is fine as a starting point in the absence of any other info, but is a pretty big assumption to make in general.

For trilateration you need 3 reference locations and the distance from those 3 locations - that will allow the calculation of 2 possible destinations.

Triangulation’s more of a visual thing in this context. Just having 3 locations wouldn’t tell you anything in terms of a further location. As an example (off the top of my head), from text you’d need something like ‘find the place where the angle between A and B appears to be X, the angle between B and C appears to be Y, and the angle between A and C appears to be Z. (With X,Y,Z being angles, not cartesian co-ordinates.)

Edit - just for clarity, with the example above I’m talking about the type of information you’d need to be able to derive from the text, not a specific form it would need to be presented in within the text.
 
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PeteACarter

P
Just going back to spiralling stars for a moment, I found this timelapse of a wolf rayet interesting...https://plus.maths.org/content/spiralling-stars
 

Thatchinho

Thatchinho
DrewCarnegie said:
It's probably nitpicking, but my reading of fernweh is that it's more targeted than wanderlust. Wanderlust is a desire to travel, whereas fernweh is a desire to be somewhere (else) specific. So if I had an urge to explore China, that would be wanderlust, but a desire to live in Hong Kong would be fernweh.

Vagabond actually fits better with wanderlust than with fernweh, since again it's about having no fixed destination.
Click to expand...
Same.

Though I’d say ‘fernweh’ also encompasses not knowing what the specific place is. A ‘looking for something, don’t know quite exactly what it is, but will know it when I find it’ type thing, if you see what I mean.
 

[Diplomacy] Carnegie

[Diplomacy] Carnegie
Thatchinho said:
Same.

Though I’d say ‘fernweh’ also encompasses not knowing what the specific place is. A ‘looking for something, don’t know quite exactly what it is, but will know it when I find it’ type thing, if you see what I mean.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd agree with that:

Wanderlust: I'll keep moving
Fernweh: I'll stop when I find it

Of course, it could just be that whoever wrote the Codex just hit a thesaurus and picked a word that sounded cool :D

Edit:
This is the problem I have with trying to 'solve' Raxxla.
Since we don't know what's a clue and what's not, we end up assuming that everything is a clue, to the point that it'll take us longer to evaluate all the possibilities than it would to fly to every star in the galaxy :ROFLMAO:
 

thebattlepope

T
Since we're talking about asterisms, here's another fun angle - this one regarding the jewel that burns on the brow of the mother of all galaxies.

The great diamond:
en.wikipedia.org

Great Diamond - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

To dig this rabbit hole a lil deeper, Spica/Alpha Virginis is a part of this particular asterism, and is associated by some with Hermes Trismegistus. Fun times.

And yeah, the worst part about this whole hunt is that we don't know what's a lead and what isn't. Hell, we can't even reasonably use the fact that raxxla was supposed to be in since gamma, seeing as it may have been moved in one of the patches to play better with new game features... or locked off behind an unknown permit.

EDIT:

"Spica is believed to be the star that gave Hipparchus the data that led him to discover the precession of the equinoxes.[13] A temple to Menat(an early Hathor) at Thebes was oriented with reference to Spica when it was built in 3200 BC, and, over time, precession slowly but noticeably changed Spica's location relative to the temple."

And there's Thebes being mentioned. The plot, it thickens.
 
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[Diplomacy] Carnegie

[Diplomacy] Carnegie
thebattlepope said:
Since we're talking about asterisms, here's another fun angle - this one regarding the jewel that burns on the brow of the mother of all galaxies.

The great diamond:
en.wikipedia.org

Great Diamond - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

To dig this rabbit hole a lil deeper, Spica/Alpha Virginis is a part of this particular asterism, and is associated by some with Hermes Trismegistus. Fun times.

And yeah, the worst part about this whole hunt is that we don't know what's a lead and what isn't. Hell, we can't even reasonably use the fact that raxxla was supposed to be in since gamma, seeing as it may have been moved in one of the patches to play better with new game features... or locked off behind an unknown permit.
Click to expand...

Ahhh, Cor Caroli. I thought that might be a Rift clue too. I swear I'm gonna forget which mystery I'm trying to solve!
 

Lori Jameson

Lori Jameson
DrewCarnegie said:
You're not wondering why it's called 'Source 2'? Go to Prism system, where all the stars have names, but none of them have additional numbers - so why 'Source 2' and not just 'Source'? Where is 'Source 1'? Is there a 'Destination 2'? That sounds like somewhere interesting to go.

Incidentally, if you go to Prism, don't get over-excited about the star called 'Diamond' - that's definitely a Rift thing.

Edit:
Obviously I mean letters, not numbers, so Source 2 should be Sagittarius A* B, which makes it all the more curious.
Click to expand...
Source 2 alludes to the fact that when radio telescopes went to view Sag A* there was 2 large sources of radio waves, not the expected 1 from Sag A*.
 

Count dEstard

Count dEstard
DrewCarnegie said:
I'm not saying you shouldn't investigate, but I kicked the Greek Mythology systems and anything 'underworld'-related hard during the Formidine Rift mystery and never came across anything unusual.
Click to expand...

Kind regards for that. But.. you had no DSS at that time. So I'll give it a try and have fun.
 

[PS4] Filthymick420

[PS4] Filthymick420
My suspicion of the choice of the word 'fernweh' is that it's a word that in 36+years I've never heard before nor read in any books. Yet in definition it's an older language word( unless it's regularly used in germany, which I suspect it isn't).

Why would a game set so far in the future use such an uncommon word that isn't even necessarily relevant today?
 

Thatchinho

Thatchinho
Filthymick420 said:
My suspicion of the choice of the word 'fernweh' is that it's a word that in 36+years I've never heard before nor read in any books. Yet in definition it's an older language word( unless it's regularly used in germany, which I suspect it isn't).

Why would a game set so far in the future use such an uncommon word that isn't even necessarily relevant today?
Click to expand...
Why shouldn’t it?

Various points:

- the word may come into usage

- the word might just be a very good description for what it is

- someone might just be a fan of how different languages have words for things which English doesn’t necessarily have a word for

- someone might be a fan of historical/old language

Not sure where you’re based but if you’re in the UK, you may remember a thing from a few years back where a politician said that people had forgotten the meaning of Habeas Corpus.

How long has Latin been a dead language for?

As another point, is there any reason why the game shouldn’t introduce people to new things (whether words, ideas, concepts, etc)?



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