The Formidine Rift - Part 2
- Thread starter Acheron Kimald
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I suspect that as the main body of Distant Worlds gets closer to home there will be a competitive CG announced to collect the data. The story will progress depending on which side gets the most data contributed. Smart explorers will either deliver the data in private/solo or, if they refuse to leave open, they'll want to steer clear of those CGs to avoid the BOOM.
The reason might be a specific reference to ancient literature. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, for instance, a popular source of ancient myths which Drew can expect us to be familiar with, Ovid, in book 4, line 803, uses "formidine" ("through/with fear", instrumental ablative), to describe the effect of the Gorgon's (here meaning Medusa's) snaky hair. I quote from an old translation:
Translation by Brookes More said:
Note that in this specific context, "her foes"/"she wears upon her breast/her rage" refers to Minerva/Athena because it is the goddess who wears Medusa's head, the so-called Gorgoneion, on her armor as a sort of apotropaic pendant after Perseus no longer needs it.
Here is my own, clumsy, but quite literal translation:
Kleitias' translation of Metamorphoses book 4 said:
Here is the Latin original, from the edition of Hugo Magnus:
Hugo Magnus's 1914 edition of the Metamorphoses said:
(Minerva/Athena is mentioned in the preceding bit which I didn't quote.)
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You are absolutely right that the mystery should be solvable with just in-game hints. I think that will happen. Drew said something about how, when Kahina first appeared in Galnet last year, there were limitations on how Galnet was being presented that prevented the story from unfolding. The story was shelved. Now that those limitations have been lifted the story should begin progressing once again.
Just in case you are curious though, Elite: Dangerous is the first Elite that didn't come boxed with a book (Well, the Premium Backers Edition comes with "Elite: Legacy" but most folks bought a copy sans literature.
Here's the fiction that came with each of the games:
Elite - The Dark Wheel
Elite Plus - Imprint
Frontier: Elite 2 - Stories of Life on the Frontier / The Gazateer
Frontier: First Encounters - Further Stories of Life on the Frontier
Elite Dangerous upped the game by not just including a novella or collection of short stories but by providing a constellation of literature. Since they didn't come as part of the original game purchase. Does that make them DLCs?
Can't give you any more rep for the time being
I honestly can't remember the FE2 fiction - The Dark Wheel sticks very vividly in my mind though as it was the first time I'd gotten a game which had a novella provided with it (not to mention the sheer awesomeness of the game at the time!).
Anyway - back on the tracks we go. Let's hope that in the very near future, actual in-game clues of the sort that provides concrete answers rather than raises more questions, will be provided! Like I said earlier - less of the "too clever by half" please!
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As I understand it, these forum clues are more of a sideshow. The mystery is meant to unfold in game, with the real clues coming from official sources only, the main being in game, but also the canon books can support.
If I am right, it basically means that FD certainly don't expect anyone to find the rift yet based on the clues we have, and are in no rush to release more clues (although 2.1 apparently will bring more), because they can wait for that part of the story to evolve. Its like with the Barnacles, it wasn't moving, and when it came time for the story to move, they started dropping more hints. I think we can be sure the reference to barnacles in the patch notes was quite intentionally designed to jolly us along, not to mention the 2.0 video showing the SRV approaching the barnacle.
If someone were to find Raxxla today, it would probably be earlier than expected by FD, but would be kudos to them.
On the other hand, maybe FD think we already have all the clues we need, and either they overestimate us, or simply cannot understand how we are not getting it from the clues that are out there. Or maybe the clues are there and we are just not seeing them, despite all the tinfoil hats we are wearing.
TL;DR - Bananas.
I can predict with great accuracy when that CG will be launched. It will be one day after I return and hand in all my data.
"Lady Kahina’s Imperial tiara was found in the cockpit, along with a small medallion bearing an ancient symbol on one side and the word ‘Salomé’ on the other."
Has there been any speculation on what that ancient symbol could be? Any historic/mythological Salomé that can be connected to a certain symbol?
**Scratch that,just read the rest of the article.**
Has there been any speculation on what that ancient symbol could be? Any historic/mythological Salomé that can be connected to a certain symbol?
**Scratch that,just read the rest of the article.**
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Personally I'm not dissatisfied with the level of clues. Look at the UA thread as an example of what crowd sourcing can accomplish. The whole wire frame of ships encoded in morse is pretty damned obscure. If the clues that exist actually encoded coordinates which were not stupidly hard to find then whatever *it* is would have more visitors than SagA by now.
I'm very suspicious the clues point to a relatively unique astronomical system, not by name but by type. I have two candidates (CasA is one) that I'm looking for. In the interim I've discovered two rather vexing and fascinating bits of 'well that's weird' that I've become side tracked on. I don't think they point at *it* but they do point to a deeper bit of interesting trivia about the old worlds and the galaxy in general.
I think if you go wander around the Rift honking at stars you're going to discover 1000s of fairly similar and non-interesting systems. Millions if you're patient enough. I also think if you delve into numerology you'll find 1000s if not millions of fascinating but fruitless lines of inquiry.
There's a happy medium between the two approaches.
I'm very suspicious the clues point to a relatively unique astronomical system, not by name but by type. I have two candidates (CasA is one) that I'm looking for. In the interim I've discovered two rather vexing and fascinating bits of 'well that's weird' that I've become side tracked on. I don't think they point at *it* but they do point to a deeper bit of interesting trivia about the old worlds and the galaxy in general.
I think if you go wander around the Rift honking at stars you're going to discover 1000s of fairly similar and non-interesting systems. Millions if you're patient enough. I also think if you delve into numerology you'll find 1000s if not millions of fascinating but fruitless lines of inquiry.
There's a happy medium between the two approaches.
Hmm, so is that symbol considered canon? I mean can it be considered a clue?
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Shh! Don't tell nobody!
No, and it is not connected to this mystery. It was fan-submitted art done for a player group. Discussed at length earlier in the thread with Drew and others.
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It is a fan design so, official canon? No. But considering that Drew wrote the article for Galnet and this is the symbol he identifies on his website this is as close as we can get to canon without the symbol actually appearing in game.
Thank you for the clarification. I am familiar with the Ouroboros symbol, i just didn't know if this particular one was player created or by Drew/devs.
I updated my post above and will now look at the other passages in the Metamorphoses and other ancient mythological texts where "formidine" is used.
Edit: Interestingly, the first occurrences of "formidine" I found in those texts are used in the context of star constellations...
Edit: Interestingly, the first occurrences of "formidine" I found in those texts are used in the context of star constellations...
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Did a review of tweets back from May 2015, for reference for myself, thought I'd share:
@drewwagar: .,.. ......,. ...
No definite answer for this, the 1,26,13 answer seems most fitting.
@FenOswin: 1011000110 10010111000100001
I haven't managed a solid decode on this.
@drewwagar: 01100101 01100010 01110000 00001010
(ASCII, leading zeroes already included)
=> ebp 10
@FenOswin: 1000101 1100011 1101100 101110 100000 1000010 1101001 1101110 101110 100000 1010000 1110101 1101100 1110011 1100001 1110010
(ASCII, leading zeroes added gives)
=> Ecl. Bin. Pulsar
@drewwagar: 01001110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01010000 01110101 01101100 01110011 01100001 01110010
(ASCII, leading zeroes already included)
=> Not Pulsar
@IainMNormal: Tye pui pdopnx liv whfiem kqwa ahv vzmexpae izivl?
(vigenere cipher using 'thargoid' key)
Are you having fun toying with the plebeian class
@drewwagar: x 766= :EVD >J 5FEJ E@ 65F42E6 E96>] xEVD E96 x>A6C:2= H2JP
(bi-part ascii shift: ascii > 80 subtract 47 else add 47)
I feel it's my duty to educate them. It's the Imperial way!
@drewwagar: .,.. ......,. ...
No definite answer for this, the 1,26,13 answer seems most fitting.
@FenOswin: 1011000110 10010111000100001
I haven't managed a solid decode on this.
@drewwagar: 01100101 01100010 01110000 00001010
(ASCII, leading zeroes already included)
=> ebp 10
@FenOswin: 1000101 1100011 1101100 101110 100000 1000010 1101001 1101110 101110 100000 1010000 1110101 1101100 1110011 1100001 1110010
(ASCII, leading zeroes added gives)
=> Ecl. Bin. Pulsar
@drewwagar: 01001110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01010000 01110101 01101100 01110011 01100001 01110010
(ASCII, leading zeroes already included)
=> Not Pulsar
@IainMNormal: Tye pui pdopnx liv whfiem kqwa ahv vzmexpae izivl?
(vigenere cipher using 'thargoid' key)
Are you having fun toying with the plebeian class
@drewwagar: x 766= :EVD >J 5FEJ E@ 65F42E6 E96>] xEVD E96 x>A6C:2= H2JP
(bi-part ascii shift: ascii > 80 subtract 47 else add 47)
I feel it's my duty to educate them. It's the Imperial way!
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At the moment i am at work and it's not busy. Which makes me awfully bored. Most of the time i have stupid thoughts, more so when i am bored...but, sometimes a person's stupid thoughts can make a smarter individual think of something.
So, after apologizing for what you are about to hear, i begin.
What if the Dark Wheel symbol, while resembling the Ouroboros, is actually something else? Still a serpent, but a flying one; Rho cass is part of the chinese constellation of the Flying Serpent, and also the most(?) prominent feature in(?) the Rift. Three circles can be seen on the symbol, which ressemble planets/stars. The third in order star of the Flying Serpent constellation is Pi2 Cygni, which in turn is part of the western constellation of Cygnus. Cygnus is a bird. The berber queen Kahina liked birds...(sorry)
But, as i have already been told, that symbol is user created and shouldn't be related to the mystery.
Another thing that has been bugging me is that we are given Kahina's whereabouts on specific dates through Galnet updates. She also says sol was "most enlightening". Has anyone used a program like stellarium to look towards the "rift" on those specific dates (06/03/3301 - 02/04/3301)? Legend has it that if you zoom in on the area between the Heart neb and Rho Cass as seen from Earth, you will see Drew laughing hysterically while stroking a cat...
So, after apologizing for what you are about to hear, i begin.
What if the Dark Wheel symbol, while resembling the Ouroboros, is actually something else? Still a serpent, but a flying one; Rho cass is part of the chinese constellation of the Flying Serpent, and also the most(?) prominent feature in(?) the Rift. Three circles can be seen on the symbol, which ressemble planets/stars. The third in order star of the Flying Serpent constellation is Pi2 Cygni, which in turn is part of the western constellation of Cygnus. Cygnus is a bird. The berber queen Kahina liked birds...(sorry
)But, as i have already been told, that symbol is user created and shouldn't be related to the mystery.
Another thing that has been bugging me is that we are given Kahina's whereabouts on specific dates through Galnet updates. She also says sol was "most enlightening". Has anyone used a program like stellarium to look towards the "rift" on those specific dates (06/03/3301 - 02/04/3301)? Legend has it that if you zoom in on the area between the Heart neb and Rho Cass as seen from Earth, you will see Drew laughing hysterically while stroking a cat...
IMHO, there are three potentially relevant occurrences of the word "formidine" in Ovid's Metamorphoses:
Occurrence 1: Ovid, Metamorphoses book 2, lines 63-66:
Context: Sol/Helios (here called Phoibus), the sun god, warns his son Phaethon about the dangers of his daily routine of climbing the sky on his sun chariot:
“The opening path is steep and difficult,
for scarcely can the steeds, refreshed at dawn,
climb up the steeps: and when is reached the height,
extreme of midmost Heaven, and sea and earth
are viewed below, my trembling breast is filled
with fearful apprehensions [formidine]."
(Translation: Brookes More, 1922)
Occurrence 2: Ovid, Metamorphoses book 2, lines 193-200:
Context: Despite his father's warnings, Phaethon uses his father's sun chariot to climb the sky:
"He sees horrific wonders scattered round,
and images of hideous animals.—
and there's a spot where Scorpion bends his claws
in double circles, and with tail and arms
on either side, stretches his limbs throughout
the space of two Celestial Signs; and when
the lad beheld him, steeped in oozing slime
of venom, swart, and threatening to strike
grim wounds with jagged spear-points, he was lost;
and, fixed in chills of horror [formidine], dropped the reins."
(Translation: Brookes More, 1922)
Occurrence 3: Ovid, Metamorphoses book 4, lines 801-804:
See my post above.
Brief first analysis: while occurrence 1 is rather general, occurrence 2 points to the constellation Scorpius, and occurrence 3 points to Minerva/Athena, Neptun/Poseidon, Gorgo/Medusa and/or Perseus.
Occurrence 1: Ovid, Metamorphoses book 2, lines 63-66:
Context: Sol/Helios (here called Phoibus), the sun god, warns his son Phaethon about the dangers of his daily routine of climbing the sky on his sun chariot:
“The opening path is steep and difficult,
for scarcely can the steeds, refreshed at dawn,
climb up the steeps: and when is reached the height,
extreme of midmost Heaven, and sea and earth
are viewed below, my trembling breast is filled
with fearful apprehensions [formidine]."
(Translation: Brookes More, 1922)
Occurrence 2: Ovid, Metamorphoses book 2, lines 193-200:
Context: Despite his father's warnings, Phaethon uses his father's sun chariot to climb the sky:
"He sees horrific wonders scattered round,
and images of hideous animals.—
and there's a spot where Scorpion bends his claws
in double circles, and with tail and arms
on either side, stretches his limbs throughout
the space of two Celestial Signs; and when
the lad beheld him, steeped in oozing slime
of venom, swart, and threatening to strike
grim wounds with jagged spear-points, he was lost;
and, fixed in chills of horror [formidine], dropped the reins."
(Translation: Brookes More, 1922)
Occurrence 3: Ovid, Metamorphoses book 4, lines 801-804:
See my post above.
Brief first analysis: while occurrence 1 is rather general, occurrence 2 points to the constellation Scorpius, and occurrence 3 points to Minerva/Athena, Neptun/Poseidon, Gorgo/Medusa and/or Perseus.
Salomé can't be trusted? hmmm didn't see it like that before.
It does make sense though
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