Fiction Brief history and guide to the official Elite : Dangerous Fiction

drew

drew
Way back in the ancient mists of time (circa 1984). Elite, the seminal space trading game, was release to great fanfare and critical acclaim. It was the first game to come with a real back story in the form of the late Robert Holdstock's "The Dark Wheel". You can read it online here.

Fast forward 30 years and Elite has returned in the form of Elite : Dangerous, a brand new version of the game designed for modern hardware and multiplayer online connectivity, but with its roots firmly planted in the amazing universe the original game created.

Elite : Dangerous was partially funded by Kickstarter bid during 2012 and early 2013. Along with the obvious pledge rewards such as a copy of the game, early access to demo versions and so on, one of the more expensive reward tiers was a 'Writers Pack'.

This pack, at a cost of £4,500, allowed anyone who could purchase it, the opportunity to write a single work of fiction in the Elite universe which would be officially recognised by Frontier themselves, and be considered part of the 'canon' (the established background, history and lore) of the game itself. Some events from these stories will be included in the game itself in much the same way as "The Dark Wheel" influenced the original game.

3 of the writers' packs were taken by the sci-fi publisher Gollancz. A further series were purchased by a combination of published authors, indie authors and fans. Many of these were themselves funded by Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns and provided their own pledge awards.

4 of the books are published by Fantastic Books Publishing and are available as ebooks, boxset paperbacks and audiobooks.

Fantastic Books Publishing Books:

Elite : Reclamation - Drew Wagar
Elite : And here the wheel - John Harper
Mostly Harmless - Kate Russell
Elite Anthology : Tales from the Frontier - 15 Short Stories from many authors organised by Chris Booker

Gollancz Books:

Docking is Difficult - Gideon Defoe
Nemorensis - Simon Spurrier
Wanted - Gavin Deas

The other books:

Legacy - Michael Brookes
Out of the Darkness - T. James
Lave: Revolution - Allen Stroud

There are also two role-playing games currently in the works:

Elite Encounters - The Elite Dangerous RPG - Dave Hughes
Elite : Dangerous Role Playing Game - Oliver Hulme and Jon Lunn

Drew's Elite: Reclamation was followed up by a sequel in 2017 called Elite Dangerous : Premonition, charting in-game mysteries and play contributions to the lore and story. This is now available on the Frontier store and published by Frontier Developments.

The Elite : Dangerous game itself is set in the year 3300 AD, following on from the original Elite (set in 3125 AD), the first sequel Frontier Elite 2 (3200 AD) and the second sequel, Frontier First Encounters (3250 AD). Some of the novels are set in tandom with the game, i.e. also in the year 3300. Some are set earlier in time, dealing with events that are historic from the perspective of the game. The books straddle stories relating to the major powers in the Elite universe (The Federation, The Empire and the Alliance of independent Worlds). Some are epic in scope, others focus on specific systems or events in the Elite universe.
 
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Allen Stroud

Allen Stroud
You can also find the listed Life on the Frontier stories here:

http://www.lotf.co.uk/lib.shtml

Its worth bearing in mind, a lot has been changed for the campaign of the new background. Things like Artificial Gravity and a Galaxy full of different types of Aliens will not be what you get in Elite Dangerous, but there's certainly some good pointers and all of the fiction was meticulously read and anotated before we started on the novels.
 

Perseus

Perseus
Allen Stroud said:
. . . but there's certainly some good pointers and all of the fiction was meticulously read and anotated before we started on the novels.
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Curse you, Allen! I bet you're privy to reams of interesting data and I've no way to extract it from you.
I'll just have to wait for the books . . . :D
 

nats

nats
Perseus said:
Curse you, Allen! I bet you're privy to reams of interesting data and I've no way to extract it from you.
I'll just have to wait for the books . . . :D
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Well Allen did hint at something at Fantasticon that didn't pass by me unnoticed - what was it now? Something along the lines of 'check out Zaonce for something unusual' ! :S

Dont know whether that system is inside the present zone of the Beta (dont think so) but I will have to remember to look into the system's description at some point. Very intriguing.
 

Darren Grey

Darren Grey
There are many interesting descriptions to read, lots of references to obscure lore from the previous games and from the new novels.
 

withnail

withnail
Zelada

The Zelada system was colonised at roughly the same time as Ququve, but by a fundamentalist religious sect, looking for a world to conduct a penance for humanity. The conditions they found on New Africa suited their requirements to a remarkable degree. the life was tough, uncompromising and harsh. The arrivals on New Africa had to cope with a bitter climate, coupling torrential sleet and electrical storms with hurricane strength winds and fast moving glaciers. The first three settlements were overmn by these natural forces and all of the initial equipment they brought from Quphieth was lost within the first decade.

Modern archeological and palaeontological surveys of the planet reveal that at one time the temperature of New Africa was much more benign than at present. The world is going through a very prolonged ice age, but before the current cold cycle there was the opportunity for life to colonise the land. The animals which are native to the land of new

Africa are fierce hunters and can survive in the harsh climate which will freeze a man to the bone in seconds. The early colonists had to re-learn primitive hunting skills and abilities in order to survive and their descent into primitivism was swift.

The strict conditions the early settlers had placed concerning interference with the colony from outside meant that no contact was established with the groups for three generations. The early religious settlers had emphatically stated that no outside communications would be accepted and supplies would be destroyed. It was entirely by accident that the Birchwood New Spirit of the Lord Woodwind Ensemble, en-route for Aymiay for a concert performance, was precipitated out of hyper space near the Zelada system. The crew of the ship were able to reach orbit around New Africa and put down an emergency shuttle. The tiny settlement thus formed was later to grow into Rush Depot, the planet's largest starport.

While the musicians tried to eke out an existence at Rush Depot, the ship crew searched for the original colonists. No evidence of the original camps was found, but the primitive society of the final remnants of the religious order was encountered, living a nomadic life hunting the local omnivores and harvesting wild grasses and roots. Instead of making contact, the ship Captain decided to leave the remnants of humanity in peace and instead sent an emergency rescue message to the Federation, describing the plight of both groups.

New Africa was recolonised by an assorted group of wanderers, to no set plan. The initial colony had failed and a sort of planetary squatter's rights became the norm in establishing rules on New Africa. This trend continues today, and the planet suffers under an anarchy with no clear constitution nor allegiance. Zelada system has become synonymous with banditry and hi-jacking, but the mineral rich outer worlds still attract a lot of miners and hopefuls. Traders visit the system despite the high incidence of piracy, and freelance bounty hunters find the bulletin boards of Zelada useful hunting ground for information.
 
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cassius

cassius
Allen Stroud said:
Indeed. :D
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Oh dear... why Allen, why? Why would you send us there?! :p

Booted up FE2 and charted a course to Zelada. About half a dozen jumps or so northish of Sol (depending on your ship of course). Hyperspaced in, opened up the system map and noticed a large blob near my ship.

"Hmm thats odd" i thought. So i rotated, zoomed in a bit and saw this:

zelada.JPG


That wasn't a blob... those are blips. A whole lot of blips! All waiting around the hyperspace entry point for unsuspecting schmucks like myself to stumble into the system. I've taken four out so far (all Adders) before taking this screenshot, and because its a ternary system, the nearest safe port is over 100AU's away. Looks like i've got a long trip ahead of me! :D
 

withnail

withnail
withnail said:
Zelada

The Zelada system was colonised at roughly the same time as Ququve, but by a fundamentalist religious sect, looking for a world to conduct a penance for humanity. The conditions they found on New Africa suited their requirements to a remarkable degree. the life was tough, uncompromising and harsh. The arrivals on New Africa had to cope with a bitter climate, coupling torrential sleet and electrical storms with hurricane strength winds and fast moving glaciers. The first three settlements were overmn by these natural forces and all of the initial equipment they brought from Quphieth was lost within the first decade.

Modern archeological and palaeontological surveys of the planet reveal that at one time the temperature of New Africa was much more benign than at present. The world is going through a very prolonged ice age, but before the current cold cycle there was the opportunity for life to colonise the land. The animals which are native to the land of new

Africa are fierce hunters and can survive in the harsh climate which will freeze a man to the bone in seconds. The early colonists had to re-learn primitive hunting skills and abilities in order to survive and their descent into primitivism was swift.

The strict conditions the early settlers had placed concerning interference with the colony from outside meant that no contact was established with the groups for three generations. The early religious settlers had emphatically stated that no outside communications would be accepted and supplies would be destroyed. It was entirely by accident that the Birchwood New Spirit of the Lord Woodwind Ensemble, en-route for Aymiay for a concert performance, was precipitated out of hyper space near the Zelada system. The crew of the ship were able to reach orbit around New Africa and put down an emergency shuttle. The tiny settlement thus formed was later to grow into Rush Depot, the planet's largest starport.

While the musicians tried to eke out an existence at Rush Depot, the ship crew searched for the original colonists. No evidence of the original camps was found, but the primitive society of the final remnants of the religious order was encountered, living a nomadic life hunting the local omnivores and harvesting wild grasses and roots. Instead of making contact, the ship Captain decided to leave the remnants of humanity in peace and instead sent an emergency rescue message to the Federation, describing the plight of both groups.

New Africa was recolonised by an assorted group of wanderers, to no set plan. The initial colony had failed and a sort of planetary squatter's rights became the norm in establishing rules on New Africa. This trend continues today, and the planet suffers under an anarchy with no clear constitution nor allegiance. Zelada system has become synonymous with banditry and hi-jacking, but the mineral rich outer worlds still attract a lot of miners and hopefuls. Traders visit the system despite the high incidence of piracy, and freelance bounty hunters find the bulletin boards of Zelada useful hunting ground for information.
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I have been reliably informed that my previous post is a bit of a red herring.

However, subsequent research concludes that the interesting thing about Zelada is:

Extra-terrestrials :eek:

At the time Laedla was explored and developed, there was serious concern amongst humanity in general that there was a belligerent extra-terrestrial race waging war on new planets. Many ships were disappearing near Zelada, Ququve and Aymiay and the Federation was keen to expand in a different region in case the fears of non-human encounters were verified.

I wonder who they could be?
 

Allen Stroud

Allen Stroud
Finally someone finds the right passage of text! :D

It will depend on how Frontier elect to 'resolve' that particular piece of history, but I can assure you I made sure it was included in the new documents...;)
 
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