Do you have the book? Starting on Page 106 (107 it topped with FUTURE mirrored) is a section that I swear desribes the Raxxla myth and possibly the system in vivid detail. Most of these books had a end-chapter reminscient of the Raxxla myth. This was far from the only one. I went through a great deal of trouble to acquire all of them written between Holdstock and Malcolm Edwards plus the few written under the alias Steven Eisler.
The Quest To Find Raxxla
- Thread starter Macros Black
- Start date
You realize that Lave proves Sol has always been in the lore from the beginning even though someone (probably Walden tries to erase it from the map in the first game). The TDW novella has tons of Earth references.
If the "FUTURE" section of "Lost Realms: An Illustrated Exploration of the lands behind the legends" is at all relevant we are looking for a 9 planet system with an Earth-like. I think Sol is just the place that proves Raxxla is legit but we are looking for a system with exactly 9 planets and something special buried within. Sol, was just the place where humanity originated but also where we were able to rebuild Talmor Lens when it was misbuilt. Sol is important to Raxxla but it isn't itself Raxxla, if I understand it correctly."And fast by, hanging in a golden chain,
This pendent world, in bigness as a star
Of smallest magnitude, close by the moon."
fits Lucifer also, smallest magnitude star being the white dwarf, Lucifer is only 0.0500 earth masses (pendent size) also, Planets been wrapped by coils since 2350 and exploited for synthesis of "custom elements" for Military grade fuel which is what was or still is need for older type jump drives and capital ships, What if these coils are harnessing something different from a seedier cabal like Sirius is and has been known as I mean nothing much difference between Lucifer and lets say most other high metal planets
also Lucifer reference to the post above "Satan is able to see Earth through a gold chain hanging from heaven" I may target earth and travel in its direction from Lucifer and see if anything pops up and if the golden chain references a line that must be travelled
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I highly recommend this if you can find a copy… there’s free press version abound but I got hold of a physical copy.
The Astronomy of Paradise Lost by Thomas N Orchard MD, p 1913.
A lot of it’s science is obviously out of date, but it actually interprets Milton’s abstract concepts rather brilliantly, one could go so far as describing Paradise Lost as the first sci-fi book, before Mary Shelly, in the way that Milton describes his model universe and the cosmological journey of Lucifer, from that perspective it’s astonishing for the time, for its abstractions and metaphysics!
I read Milton at school which was a dull affair, concerning mostly on the religious / moral aspects. Yet Milton’s world building didn’t really hit me until recently when I looked at it from the perspective of astronomy - thanks in part to Micheal Brookes O7.
Post in thread 'The Quest To Find Raxxla'
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/the-quest-to-find-raxxla.168253/post-9015241
The Astronomy of Paradise Lost by Thomas N Orchard MD, p 1913.
A lot of it’s science is obviously out of date, but it actually interprets Milton’s abstract concepts rather brilliantly, one could go so far as describing Paradise Lost as the first sci-fi book, before Mary Shelly, in the way that Milton describes his model universe and the cosmological journey of Lucifer, from that perspective it’s astonishing for the time, for its abstractions and metaphysics!
I read Milton at school which was a dull affair, concerning mostly on the religious / moral aspects. Yet Milton’s world building didn’t really hit me until recently when I looked at it from the perspective of astronomy - thanks in part to Micheal Brookes O7.
Post in thread 'The Quest To Find Raxxla'
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/the-quest-to-find-raxxla.168253/post-9015241
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With great wealth comes great responsibility to share it. You can thank The University of Toronto and The Internet Archive and some wicked Elder Millennial Google-fu.
Files
Text-only converted to PDF (<1 MB) - attached
Fully Illustrated original digitized PDF (>17 MB):
THE ASTRONOMY OF MILTON'S 'PARADISE LOST'_FullText.pdf
drive.google.com
Nice ! Just got home and was going to go looking myself for that. Now on to other fun
The other fun:
‘As far removed from god and light of heaven as far from the centre three times to the utmost pole’ John Milton Paradise Lost
In regards to FD recent inclusion of the Brookes Galactic beacons I believe helps a great deal to establish a key and possibly pivotal information gap.
For a long time we’ve considered Sol to be our centre, so it is within John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Earth/Eden/Paradise ergo Sol being the centrepiece.
Paradise was held by a golden chain off the walls of heaven.
The recent text shifts this perspective, as in my opinion now establishes Raxxla in the same context.
Raxxla is Paradise Lost = Eden/Paradise. Raxxla is the jewel!
Now in Paradise Lost Milton does not give any fixed locations for either Heaven, Hell or Paradise. But Milton DOES give dimensional measurements which identify the distances between them.
We actually now know where Hell is in game, it’s centred around Axis Mundi, that’s where the capital of Milton’s Hell resides - Pandemonium.
If we now ignore Sol, we can ask the question… what else in game could the axis align with?
If you understand that you can extrapolate and potentially find Heavens Gate (or what Brookes established as a potential metaphorical comparison) as that is where the chain is attached. If you do that you can then calculate where Paradise / Raxxla might be.
I’ve touched on this before but my calculations were solely focused upon Sol being Paradise as I was looking for Heavens gate, not Paradice!
If we accept FD currently new information and the jewel being Raxxla, then this changes everything and we have 1/3 of the puzzle solved because I establish that the codex text is descriptive of the ‘underworld’ sector centred around the system Axis Mundi and Pandemonium… we therefore know where Hell is, where to plant our axis!
So what else does this new information provided by FD tell us….
The Astronomy of Paradise Lost by Thomas N Orchard MD, p 1913 gives a great breakdown on this theory.
In regards to FD recent inclusion of the Brookes Galactic beacons I believe helps a great deal to establish a key and possibly pivotal information gap.
For a long time we’ve considered Sol to be our centre, so it is within John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Earth/Eden/Paradise ergo Sol being the centrepiece.
Paradise was held by a golden chain off the walls of heaven.
The recent text shifts this perspective, as in my opinion now establishes Raxxla in the same context.
Raxxla is Paradise Lost = Eden/Paradise. Raxxla is the jewel!
Now in Paradise Lost Milton does not give any fixed locations for either Heaven, Hell or Paradise. But Milton DOES give dimensional measurements which identify the distances between them.
We actually now know where Hell is in game, it’s centred around Axis Mundi, that’s where the capital of Milton’s Hell resides - Pandemonium.
If we now ignore Sol, we can ask the question… what else in game could the axis align with?
If you understand that you can extrapolate and potentially find Heavens Gate (or what Brookes established as a potential metaphorical comparison) as that is where the chain is attached. If you do that you can then calculate where Paradise / Raxxla might be.
I’ve touched on this before but my calculations were solely focused upon Sol being Paradise as I was looking for Heavens gate, not Paradice!
If we accept FD currently new information and the jewel being Raxxla, then this changes everything and we have 1/3 of the puzzle solved because I establish that the codex text is descriptive of the ‘underworld’ sector centred around the system Axis Mundi and Pandemonium… we therefore know where Hell is, where to plant our axis!
So what else does this new information provided by FD tell us….
The Astronomy of Paradise Lost by Thomas N Orchard MD, p 1913 gives a great breakdown on this theory.
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You might be on to something. If Draco represents the underworld / Hell / Satan, I would say that up is down and down is up.
If we drop Polaris as up (or down for that matter) because the polestars shift over time, we need an axis (mundi) that is more constant. Both the ecliptic north pole and the lunar north pole are in Draco. The lunar pole shifts a little bit, but it's always in Draco. The ecliptic pole and the lunar orbital pole does not shift in any significant way.
If hell is in Draco then heaven is in Dorado. In the right part of Dorado (about 70° declination) , we have the large Magelanic cloud. The LMC fits well with Gan Romeros description: 'an area of space, not black but radiant…glowing like heaven,' and Milton saying that the outer shell of the universe is black, except for the part that touches Heaven.
Hecate is of course a moon goddess and the Raxxla logo has these three crescents around the Sun symbol, so the moon could be the key?
Perhaps the Ompalos rift leads to Melnick 42? After all the answer is always 42 and the dolphins(dorado) must have gone somewhere, when they left earth.
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There is an existing axis that was discovered a while ago but not understood…. The Thargoid Axis. The strange connection between Col70 and Merope used to describe coordinates…
Yayyyyy Southern constellations and the LMC FTW!…. Well we will see
This Pendent World
‘Cosmos and Character in Paradise Lost’, by Malabika Sarkar
This is a very good description and explanation of the abstract nature of this particular text.
Seeing a lot of interpretations flying about trying to apply simplistic examples to fix this in game. The reality is it could be far simpler and in my opinion more in line with either the original text, or it’s been abstracted further in line with Brookes other influences…
It’s worth noting that Milton sometimes utilised practical ‘for the time’ descriptions to convey vast unknown distances, but these are interchangeable, at some points these seem smaller than corresponding larger entities and visa-versa, the point was not to be so scientifically accurate, but to convey an aspect of cosmological wonder and of dimensions outside our (then) comprehension which might defy description, or dimensions which were at that time considered vast and measured and understood, or comparable.
Example - celestial beings are noted as being enormous yet mutable, and unknown yet physical, matter may be an entity (eg Chaos is both an entity but also not).
My point being one cannot simply apply logic to this text, it is very much a work of creative and imaginative abstraction.
Also many of the allusions meant something completely different during that period; when referring to something it may be an allusion to something classical (Greek) or a feeling (the colour black had various meanings not all of them negative) and of course a great deal of the text was metaphorical, referring to political aspects apparent during that period.
For instance demons were described to fly like bees - an in joke about the church….
Fascinating…
IMPHO I believe the quote is effectively saying is that parasite (our universe) hangs as from a golden chain (also transformed a golden staircase - which is retractable), the reference to the moon is to indicate that in comparison to the heavens which were the source of Devine light, our paradise looked like a star, in comparison to heaven - if heaven was the moon.
Eg you look to the sky and see the moon the brightest object in the night sky, a star beside it would be bright but not so brilliant.
You also have to take account that in the book there is no other source of illumination outside of our universe, except heaven, everything is in absolute darkness, not even the darkness is illuminated by heavens light.
So paradise hangs as if from a golden chain, like a star in comparison to the brilliance of the moon, of the walls of heaven, the most brightest thing to behold.
Raxxla is as brilliant like a star but in comparison to other stars about it does not equal them?
link.springer.com
Source: https://youtu.be/L1v7hXEQhsQ
‘Cosmos and Character in Paradise Lost’, by Malabika Sarkar
This is a very good description and explanation of the abstract nature of this particular text.
Seeing a lot of interpretations flying about trying to apply simplistic examples to fix this in game. The reality is it could be far simpler and in my opinion more in line with either the original text, or it’s been abstracted further in line with Brookes other influences…
It’s worth noting that Milton sometimes utilised practical ‘for the time’ descriptions to convey vast unknown distances, but these are interchangeable, at some points these seem smaller than corresponding larger entities and visa-versa, the point was not to be so scientifically accurate, but to convey an aspect of cosmological wonder and of dimensions outside our (then) comprehension which might defy description, or dimensions which were at that time considered vast and measured and understood, or comparable.
Example - celestial beings are noted as being enormous yet mutable, and unknown yet physical, matter may be an entity (eg Chaos is both an entity but also not).
My point being one cannot simply apply logic to this text, it is very much a work of creative and imaginative abstraction.
Also many of the allusions meant something completely different during that period; when referring to something it may be an allusion to something classical (Greek) or a feeling (the colour black had various meanings not all of them negative) and of course a great deal of the text was metaphorical, referring to political aspects apparent during that period.
For instance demons were described to fly like bees - an in joke about the church….
Fascinating…
IMPHO I believe the quote is effectively saying is that parasite (our universe) hangs as from a golden chain (also transformed a golden staircase - which is retractable), the reference to the moon is to indicate that in comparison to the heavens which were the source of Devine light, our paradise looked like a star, in comparison to heaven - if heaven was the moon.
Eg you look to the sky and see the moon the brightest object in the night sky, a star beside it would be bright but not so brilliant.
You also have to take account that in the book there is no other source of illumination outside of our universe, except heaven, everything is in absolute darkness, not even the darkness is illuminated by heavens light.
So paradise hangs as if from a golden chain, like a star in comparison to the brilliance of the moon, of the walls of heaven, the most brightest thing to behold.
Raxxla is as brilliant like a star but in comparison to other stars about it does not equal them?
“This Pendent World”: The Cosmos of Paradise Lost
At the end of his long journey from hell through chaos, Satan arrives within sight of “the empyreal heaven, extended wide / In circuit” (2.1047–48) and sees “fast by hanging in a golden chain / This pendent world” (2.1051–52). As...
link.springer.com
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Good points. And we have to remember that it’s FD’s understanding of the text that matters, in the game. They may have their own spinn on the story.This Pendent World
‘Cosmos and Character in Paradise Lost’, by Malabika Sarkar
This is a very good description and explanation of the abstract nature of this particular text.
Seeing a lot of interpretations flying about trying to apply simplistic examples to fix this in game. The reality is it could be far simpler and in my opinion more in line with either the original text, or it’s been abstracted further in line with Brookes other influences…
It’s worth noting that Milton sometimes utilised practical ‘for the time’ descriptions to convey vast unknown distances, but these are interchangeable, at some points these seem smaller than corresponding larger entities and visa-versa, the point was not to be so scientifically accurate, but to convey an aspect of cosmological wonder and of dimensions outside our (then) comprehension which might defy description, or dimensions which were at that time considered vast and measured and understood, or comparable.
Example - celestial beings are noted as being enormous yet mutable, and unknown yet physical, matter may be an entity (eg Chaos is both an entity but also not).
My point being one cannot simply apply logic to this text, it is very much a work of creative and imaginative abstraction.
Also many of the allusions meant something completely different during that period; when referring to something it may be an allusion to something classical (Greek) or a feeling (the colour black had various meanings not all of them negative) and of course a great deal of the text was metaphorical, referring to political aspects apparent during that period.
For instance demons were described to fly like bees - an in joke about the church….
Fascinating…
“This Pendent World”: The Cosmos of Paradise Lost
At the end of his long journey from hell through chaos, Satan arrives within sight of “the empyreal heaven, extended wide / In circuit” (2.1047–48) and sees “fast by hanging in a golden chain / This pendent world” (2.1051–52). As...
Finally got to the last beacon, works been hectic and yes i admit i lost my old route notes on how to get here!
Thought the beacon descriptions were really well written, just need to look close and see what clues they may hold (if any).
Will grab a few beers at the Tourist Centre and head back to look more into Galactic Tours tomorrow (well actually today now).
O7
Thought the beacon descriptions were really well written, just need to look close and see what clues they may hold (if any).
Will grab a few beers at the Tourist Centre and head back to look more into Galactic Tours tomorrow (well actually today now).
O7
I do believe we’re very close. FD has given us a big clue here. The system Artemis is not simply chosen because it already represented Brookes. His book Legacy has some unique elements which bring attention to ‘the triad’. The codex to I believe pulls us in the same direction. But I suspect Brookes was inspired by a collection of ideas, especially Holdstock.
‘Lost Realms’ by Holdstock is essentially IMOP the underworld area in game near Axis Mundi literally spelt out… many of the lands in that book are there, and I believe the codex point there too… it’s essentially a big Holdstock Easter egg.
I’m still pulling various concepts together but I may try and present something- don’t believe it will lead anywhere but it might establish certain hypothesis.
‘Lost Realms’ by Holdstock is essentially IMOP the underworld area in game near Axis Mundi literally spelt out… many of the lands in that book are there, and I believe the codex point there too… it’s essentially a big Holdstock Easter egg.
I’m still pulling various concepts together but I may try and present something- don’t believe it will lead anywhere but it might establish certain hypothesis.
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I wonder considering the recent new developments as to if Trinkets have a renewed relevance?
In the past in the absence of information I was force to seek clarification. In that respect FD confirmed no active storyline existed…
Has this changed?
Post in thread 'The Quest To Find Raxxla'
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/the-quest-to-find-raxxla.168253/post-9925296
In the past in the absence of information I was force to seek clarification. In that respect FD confirmed no active storyline existed…
Has this changed?
Post in thread 'The Quest To Find Raxxla'
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/the-quest-to-find-raxxla.168253/post-9925296
I feel it might be good to bring up "The Space In-between" again....
Brookes was fond of Drabbles – there was a thread early on dedicated to them here in the forums somewhere.... On his blogspot he wrote this back in 2014 under a drawing of Yog-Sothoth.
Later he comissioned a drawing which he ended up getting tattooed on his back... It was also called "The Space In-between". I think we are all familiar with that drawing.... I bring this up because while he might have structured his maze using Milton.... I think it was filled with Lovecraft....
Brookes was fond of Drabbles – there was a thread early on dedicated to them here in the forums somewhere.... On his blogspot he wrote this back in 2014 under a drawing of Yog-Sothoth.
There is a secret hidden deep inside the heart of the universe. A terrible reality which once challenged the power of the divine. In a war spanning our universe and beyond the elder beings almost destroyed everything that was and what might yet come to be.
Those who survived imprisoned the horror inside a maze of nothingness. Only the complex space in between could contain their impossible forms. Their presence creates quantum chaos to what was once mathematical precision.
No faith alone can unlock their prison, but science has the key.
The elder ones await our discoveries with keen hunger.
Those who survived imprisoned the horror inside a maze of nothingness. Only the complex space in between could contain their impossible forms. Their presence creates quantum chaos to what was once mathematical precision.
No faith alone can unlock their prison, but science has the key.
The elder ones await our discoveries with keen hunger.
Later he comissioned a drawing which he ended up getting tattooed on his back... It was also called "The Space In-between". I think we are all familiar with that drawing.... I bring this up because while he might have structured his maze using Milton.... I think it was filled with Lovecraft....
Sadly no I could not make any meaningful links. Orion does pop up once in Paradise Lost, but only metaphorically in conveying a tempest or storm. That constellation seemingly had no other import other than to convey maybe the seasonal weather?
‘When with fierce winds Orion armed Hath vexed the Red Sea coast, whose waves o’erthew Busiris and his Memphis chivalry’ John Milton.
Busiris, was Greek myth, the Egyptian king and son of Poseidon and of Lysianassa.
Other than that I could not find a meaningful link. I didn’t believe it had any other relevance other than convey a storm or tempest?
IMHO the constellations existed within the Crystalline shell (the orb hanging from the chain). And we’re used by Milton to describe either the periods of the year (weather) or known points in the sky, such as with the journey of Lucifer when he descended into our universe, as he traveled in an oblique angle.
His vantage point could possibly be accessed by acknowledging which constellations he saw, from his initial vantage point, which is described in the book. As to if Brookes followed Milton ‘academically’, is anyone’s guess but I presume not.
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Within the various reflections on that image Brookes does confirm it was inspired directly by Milton, but is likewise a mixture of Lovecraft references.
Lovecraft is not something many have looked into. Lovecraft did utilise a number of real life stars in his works but these IMO are too physically far away from the concentration of events potentially depicted in the Codex around the Axis Mundi / Pandemonium systems.
But it is a key element which deserves more scrutiny I agree.
I suspect during his research in to Holdstock he came upon various references (Yggdrasil etc) which he drew from and coalesced. There might not be any direct outside or academic link, it could all revolve around Holdstock IMPO…
I do suspect Brookes image to have been ultimately painted large upon the stars, in game, and many of the characters represent actual locations around a central Axi Mundi Yggdrasil - many are probably metaphors, the two figures I suspect are actually Adam and Eve, but notice how they are depicted in Greek fashions!
In Paradise Lost Eve is not the meek character perpetuated by the Church, nor is she evil, she is intelligent and Adams equal, the fall is actually linked to ‘knowledge’ and ‘growth’ as Gods love is effectively ‘being’ ergo stillness in perfection - knowledge is forwards momentum and evolution…
Time literally stands still in Eden and only begins moving forwards after the second fall.
Anyway - digressing.
Eve is depicted in Paradise Lost as a huntress. On the tattoo she she dressed as a huntress with a spear.
I suspect this is a metaphor for ‘Artemis’. Artemis in game is literally right next to Yggdrasils central column!
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