[Livestreams] Pre-2.4 Lore Stream Summary

Paige Harvey

Community Manager
Good afternoon everyone!

Thank you for joining us last night for our pre-2.4 lore stream with Ed Lewis and Sandro Sammarco hosting. If you missed the stream you can catch up with it here, or here if you'd prefer to check out the incredible Commander Chronicles: Retaliation. However, if livestreams aren't your thing and you just want to read about the lore of the Thargoids, then you've come to the right place!


3125

The Thargoid story begins in 3125, almost 200 years ago. Accounts surfaced that pilots had been pulled from witch-space and attacked by mysterious octagonal starships. Witnesses said that the strange vessels were exceptionally fast and manoeuvrable. Pilots who survived these experiences were convinced they had encountered extraterrestrials. They named the aliens 'Thargoids'.

As news of these encounters spread, rumours surfaced that the interdictions might be a response to an earlier human attack. Leaked Federal intelligence indicated that colonists in the Veliaze system had encountered and assaulted an extraterrestrial deputation shortly before the Thargoid interdictions began. There were suggestions that the Thargoid attacks were a reaction to this initial assault.
Not long after, reports of Thargoid encounters came to an abrupt halt, and in the decades that followed, not one credible account of a Thargoid encounter was reported.


3250

In 3250, more than 100 years later, reports emerged that the disappearance of the Thargoids might have been a direct consequence of a covert anti-Thargoid operation. Rumours surfaced that an organization known as the Intergalactic Naval Reserve Arm had developed a chemical weapon specifically designed to target Thargoid technology. This weapon – known as the mycoid virus – was designed to attack plastic polymers, which were believed to be present in Thargoid hyperdrive systems. The fact that the virus also appeared to harm the Thargoids led to speculation that the aliens' bodies might contain some kind of polymer-like material.


3301

In May, mysterious objects known as Unknown Artefacts were discovered floating in space. The Artefacts emitted a distinctive sound and had the ability to damage ships transporting them, although this process was not fully understood.

In June, it was discovered that the sound emitted by the Artefacts contained their location, encrypted in Morse code.

In October, the Unknown Artefacts started scanning nearby ships. The sound produced by the Artefacts was discovered to contain a wireframe image of the scanned vessel. A short time later, a number of starports started experiencing inexplicable malfunctions, and over the following months, the number of stations experiencing such issues grew.

In December, the xeno-biologist Professor Ishmael Palin speculated that there might be a connection between the Unknown Artefacts and the technical issues plaguing the galaxy’s starports.


3302

In January, strange organic structures known as barnacles were discovered on planets in several systems. These barnacles produced a material called meta-alloys. A short time later, Professor Palin confirmed that the Artefacts were the cause of the technical issues affecting the galaxy’s starports. He discovered that the Artefacts leech material from stations and use it to repair themselves, thereby causing malfunctions.

In March, it was confirmed that meta-alloys could counter the disruptive effect of Unknown Artefacts.

In July, mysterious objects known as Unknown Probes were discovered around ammonia worlds in the Merope system. It was soon discovered that when a Probe was examined with an advanced discovery scanner, it emitted an electromagnetic pulse that temporarily incapacitated the scanning ship. The pulse was followed by a burst of sound containing a mysterious encrypted image.

In August, the remains of a strange ship were discovered on a planet in the Pleiades Nebula.

In September, it was discovered that the Unknown Probes were transmitting data to a location within the Col 70 sector, but the permit lock of Col 70 prevented further investigation.

In November, a second strange shipwreck, virtually identical to that found in August, was discovered in the HIP 17862 system.


3303

In January, an independent pilot was interdicted by an unusual ship while in hyperspace. The galactic community noted similarities between the mysterious craft and the shipwrecks found in the Pleiades Nebula. In the weeks that followed, a number of further interdictions took place.

In May, reports surfaced of mysterious attacks in the Maia system, where eyewitnesses claimed to have found the remains of Federal vessels. Eyewitnesses maintained they had seen the Unknown Ships at the wreckage sites.

In June, Unknown Ships were seen interacting with barnacles. Observers reported that the ships targeted the barnacles with energy beams, apparently to extract matter from them. A few weeks later, Professor Ishmael Palin determined the origin of the Unknown Ships by comparing data from them with older Thargoid samples. Palin’s experiment conclusively proved that the Unknown Ships were Thargoid.

Also in June, huge Thargoid structures were discovered in a number of systems. Several of these structures were found to contain functional Thargoid technology. The fact that Unknown Artefacts and Unknown Probes could be used to activate this technology proved the objects were of Thargoid origin.

In July, an Ocellus starport called The Oracle relocated to the Pleiades Sector IR-W D1-55 to study the region’s Thargoid structure and serve as a centre for future Thargoid research.

In August, scientists from the Empire, Federation and Alliance united to establish a new organisation called Aegis. The organisation’s remit is to gather intelligence on the Thargoids and coordinate future research into the aliens.


This is what we know of the Thargoids so far; and who knows what the future will bring?


Elite Dangerous 2.4 begins 26 September 2017. Are you ready?

21740110_10159289655040564_3455736167757210014_n.jpg
 
One slightly off-topic question - can the picture at the bottom of the post be found in a higher resolution? It's the type of picture that I'd like to have as wallpaper on my screen's background. :)
 
One slightly off-topic question - can the picture at the bottom of the post be found in a higher resolution? It's the type of picture that I'd like to have as wallpaper on my screen's background. :)

Yes, please, I would like that, too! :)
 

Yaffle

Volunteer Moderator
Paige

Is the official fiction still canon?

If so then T James' book (Out of Darkness) becomes important reading for commanders everywhere, as it deals with many things Thargoid (and other similar species) related.
 
One slightly off-topic question - can the picture at the bottom of the post be found in a higher resolution? It's the type of picture that I'd like to have as wallpaper on my screen's background. :)

Josh Hawkins had a high rez version on his stream yesterday
It might have been this one:
THE_RETURN_2.4_HD.png


Its not super high rez but a bit better than the OP image.
Be lovely to see a 4K wallpaper! :)
 
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Veliaze system ???

Thanks for the effort.
Maybe Frontier find a "solution" for the not in game yet "Veliaze"-system (see under year 3125).
If i missed it at the map somehow i beg your pardon ....
 
Thanks for the effort.
Maybe Frontier find a "solution" for the not in game yet "Veliaze"-system (see under year 3125).
If i missed it at the map somehow i beg your pardon ....

Just like Enaness, Liaququ and Hotice.

I guess it's like the RIGs solution to radio active dumps:
'We don't need to remove the hot stuff, we just have to rename the places. If the old name's gone, then it doesn't exist. And if the stuff isn't officially transferred to the new place, then it isn't there.'
 
Paige, will QA part of stream will be available somewhere? Thanks...and thanks for these summaries in forum for streams, very nice idea!
 
Can I ask, in the live stream Ed talks about Aegis then segways into the video.

Are the CMDRs in the video a part of Aegis? It's not clear but it seems implied.
 

VampyreGTX

Volunteer Moderator
Can I ask, in the live stream Ed talks about Aegis then segways into the video.

Are the CMDRs in the video a part of Aegis? It's not clear but it seems implied.

It sure seemed like it since they have new aegis modules and essentially state it was a test...
 
I know it might be part of the development of the narrative, so perhaps not much can be revealed currently, however I'd be keen on further exploring the details of how these past and current hostilities have arisen. It seems implied that humans might have created these problems when it says 'rumours surfaced that the interdictions might be a response to an earlier human attack', although no detail is given.

For me personally, I think the real mystery is not the Thargoids and that they exist but instead why we seem to be engaged in hostilities.
 
Nice write up, but one thing bugs me about it. Morse code in the unknown artifacts. Im no good at math but I do know it takes 4 years for radio waves to get to the nearest star, morse had a short shelf live.

This might have been answered before but why morse and not somthing a bit more mathmatical or science based.
 
Nice write up, but one thing bugs me about it. Morse code in the unknown artifacts. Im no good at math but I do know it takes 4 years for radio waves to get to the nearest star, morse had a short shelf live.

This might have been answered before but why morse and not somthing a bit more mathmatical or science based.

Morse code can be used as a simple encoding method for a lot of different carriers. We have FTL comms in text and audio form ingame - who's to say that it wasn't morse code dots and dashes encoded into that form of FTL comms ?
 
It sure seemed like it since they have new aegis modules and essentially state it was a test...

Aye it did.

But you then have Aegis initiating an unprovoked attack on a Thargoid vessel, which is important for players to know about when deciding where their alignments might lie.

Just would be nice to get clarification, it is an important event!
 
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