The Quest To Find Raxxla

[CMDRCorrMorningstarFelian]

If the were a trigger, to initiate any such elements in game, the primary trigger ought to be exploration, factions and ‘missions’. But I would imagine such a meguffin would have been triggered by now, unless it relates to a specific commodity; but I suspect it’s a navigational identifier - pointing us towards someplace in the lost realms!

Read this: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/the-quest-to-find-raxxla.168253/post-10215655

Isinor is very prominently in TDW novella that came with the first game. This is notable for two reasons: it was close to the Ryder home world (controlling traffic for the region) and access is controlled by a particularly quirky theocratic faction. Curiously, Trinkets of Hidden Fortune are found here. I think the only reason this hasn't been triggered so far has more to do with commonly held assumptions by CMDRs. If this is a form of ancestor worship, we have the key and I might just have some ideas of how that gets used. I really think this idea might be viable especially given the difficulty in acquiring Trinkets of Hidden Fortune for oneself. Raxxla is inherently linked to pirates. This is likely the connection.

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

Pondering the section within M Brookes book ‘Legacy’ which FD replicated in the memorial beacons, and which I suspect hold some similarity with Trinkets of Hidden Fortune…

‘For centuries there was a spacer tradition that if a body couldn’t be recovered, then an empty coffin would be filled with small tokens by those attending. The coffin soon filled with patches, glasses and a whole range of small items which provided some connection between the mourner and Hammer’

‘At the suggestion of the engineering chief, a cargo pod was transformed into an oversized coffin. The mementoes all fitted inside and a memorial plaque laser-etched into the surface. Lina wept openly as the pod launched into space’ - Michael Brookes Elite Legacy.

Now the pod was jettisoned in Artemis, but with the proliferation in game of Celtic references, and this being a very unique burial theme, I wonder if this tradition had a particular origin?

It also feels to that such references do pull particular focus upon Legacy. With this in mind, it too falls into likelihood, it may be the same book as the ‘children’s story’ alluded to in the Codex, simply due to the existence of various descriptions:

‘As a girl she’d even dreamed of being the first pilot to discover Raxxla. Her father disapproved of such tales when she’d been a child. Even so, the desire to head into deep space called to her’

‘Her father had told her tales of the old gods of Earth, and in the gloom of her cell they seemed larger than life. Here, sat at a table in the middle of the room with his back to her, was a giant of a man. He looked like one of the old gods from the northern mountains, enjoying a break far from Earth’

‘I had no form of entertainment except for a book, a single book about a young man’s quest to save a princess from an alien dragon. My father must have bought it on the black market. He couldn’t have got it from anywhere else - I still have that book’

‘The Beaumont system was a frontier world far below Achenar‘ - Michael Brookes Elite Legacy.

(*new find for ‘mountains - map’ Beaumont is French for beautiful mountain!)

In the absence of any other book without so many oddities and links to extrapolate from, what references could be pulled from Legacy?

I’ve re-read Legacy, and it does seem evident there’s a link involvement related to Artemis, Hecate and Demeter. An obvious ‘leap’ from there ought to be Persephone… but where from there?

There are a number of systems in the Lost Reslms with links to Persephone, especially a few with bodies, factions and a persistent NPC?

Something is missing here, there’s nothing necessarily in Persephone that’s glaringly obvious, so what else could there be the ‘Legacy’ what else could it hold - or does this collectively just take us the area of the ‘lost realms’.

Currently not in game, but when next available I may just try and grind my way through every system in that area… but I’m sure there’s something more we’re missing which ought to refine our search.

Couple of thoughts...

While Legacy clearly isn't the book about a “young man’s quest to save a princess from an alien dragon”, I think it is extremely likely that MB wrote it to provide clues to Raxxla questors. The description of Hammer just makes me think he was based on MB himself! One thing that nobody has suggested-perhaps Raxxla (or rather the Omphalos Rift device to take us there) is contained within a floating cargo container? That would make sense of the burial scene of Legacy and the description of Trinkets of Hidden Fortune-“these trinkets have a much more valuable prize hidden within”...but just one specific cargo container rather than them all!

Now the other thing we have is the extensive tattoo which MB had, which clearly depicts a journey through the Underworld to Paradise. He said it was for a forthcoming (but apparently never written) book “The Space Between” which IIRC would be loosely based on a mix of HP Lovecraft and John Milton mythology. The game codex clearly hints at mythological references and an Underworld and @Rochester has identified many of those in-game. That tattoo must have been a very painful experience, and it was done over several sessions, so it clearly meant a lot to him, yet that book was not written? I am sceptical of its existence. He had plenty of time to write and publish it....

So what if the tattoo was another hint to Raxxla and was meant to be interpreted in conjunction with Legacy and the codex?

@Rochester I couldnt open the spoilers in your recent post for some reason (probably my ageing iPad).

 

[Rochester]

Couple of thoughts...

While Legacy clearly isn't the book about a “young man’s quest to save a princess from an alien dragon”, I think it is extremely likely that MB wrote it to provide clues to Raxxla questors. The description of Hammer just makes me think he was based on MB himself! One thing that nobody has suggested-perhaps Raxxla (or rather the Omphalos Rift device to take us there) is contained within a floating cargo container? That would make sense of the burial scene of Legacy and the description of Trinkets of Hidden Fortune-“these trinkets have a much more valuable prize hidden within”...but just one specific cargo container rather than them all!

Now the other thing we have is the extensive tattoo which MB had, which clearly depicts a journey through the Underworld to Paradise. He said it was for a forthcoming (but apparently never written) book “The Space Between” which IIRC would be loosely based on a mix of HP Lovecraft and John Milton mythology. The game codex clearly hints at mythological references and an Underworld and @Rochester has identified many of those in-game. That tattoo must have been a very painful experience, and it was done over several sessions, so it clearly meant a lot to him, yet that book was not written? I am sceptical of its existence. He had plenty of time to write and publish it....

So what if the tattoo was another hint to Raxxla and was meant to be interpreted in conjunction with Legacy and the codex?

@Rochester I couldnt open the spoilers in your recent post for some reason (probably my ageing iPad).

@Jorki Rasalas I have now removed the spoilers completely. Personally I don’t like them either, I probably typed them in wrongly (on an IPhone), just thought it might help with reading a wall of text.

Post in thread 'The Quest To Find Raxxla'
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/the-quest-to-find-raxxla.168253/post-10214625

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

@Jorki Rasalas I have now removed the spoilers completely. Personally I don’t like them either, I probably typed them in wrongly (on an IPhone), just thought it might help with reading a wall of text.

Post in thread 'The Quest To Find Raxxla'
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/the-quest-to-find-raxxla.168253/post-10214625

Thanks mate!
I like the use of spoilers to tidy appearance as well as obfuscate spoiler information, but yes, it was possibly your iphone...I like Apple products, always have, sound engineering and from the outset the 68000 was basically a more secure processor then the 8086 that Microsoft used. But I gave up on iPhones after my #4 implemented their battery saving procedure and didnt ring so I missed a medical emergency incoming call a couple of years ago....

Just plain stupid management practice!

The prices have gone stupid too, so when this ageing 2014 iPad finally goes to the great silicon mine in the sky I’ll replace it with a Windows tablet (shudders at thought of more Windows bloatware!)

 

[Rochester]

Remember the Trinkets description via Support and Devs 1 year ago.

I suspect there was some mechanism linked to the lost missions and these might have taken us somewhere, or possibly made us aware of something.

What’s infuriating, is FD never ‘openly’ communicated this when they were pulled. So they effectively left an inactive element in game that led nowhere!

That’s telling of a degree of ignorance towards the previous narrative, likely from their perspective justifiably, because it’s their game, their workload; things happen. And as Arthur once said - certain historical elements built by previous employees might not be wholly known to others, it’s a big game… so I can accept things get over-looked.

So we have to be cautious when thinking about such historical elements. Their true purpose may be redundant. I did recently re-open this thread of Support following the introduction of the ‘tour’ - strangely it’s the first ticket I’ve had that’s ever been ignored.

The ticket below initially advised the trinkets and the missions still worked. Until I challenged it, and the Devs confirmed it removed.

*Support ticket 1 year ago:

 

[Darrack]

So ive been back in the bubble for a couple of days now and hung around Robigo looking for the 'True North Star' passenger mission.
No luck yet.
Ive outfitted a Dolphin with a Luxury cabin as my Orca passenger runner wont fit on the Mines outpost and of course the Python cant equip Luxury modules.
So my question is has anyone seen this mission before? Do we know what cabin it requires? I can flip the boards faster in the Python but that's First class max.
Was it given at the Mines outpost or Hauser's Reach? Obviously i will check both.

Trying to catch up on PP now im back in Utopian space as my rank has taken a nosedive over the past few months during exploration but ive been out to Beacon 541 which i believe is the destination for the mission, nothing found.

The hunt will continue.

O7

 

[CMDRCorrMorningstarFelian]

So ive been back in the bubble for a couple of days now and hung around Robigo looking for the 'True North Star' passenger mission.
No luck yet.
Ive outfitted a Dolphin with a Luxury cabin as my Orca passenger runner wont fit on the Mines outpost and of course the Python cant equip Luxury modules.
So my question is has anyone seen this mission before? Do we know what cabin it requires? I can flip the boards faster in the Python but that's First class max.
Was it given at the Mines outpost or Hauser's Reach? Obviously i will check both.

Trying to catch up on PP now im back in Utopian space as my rank has taken a nosedive over the past few months during exploration but ive been out to Beacon 541 which i believe is the destination for the mission, nothing found.

The hunt will continue.

O7

Hauser's Reach

It has been awhile since I was out there so I don't off the top of my head remember cabin type. It was at least business class or first class but don't remember. Before I go back was going work Sirius Corporation reputation nearer Sol (and possibly unlock Marco Qwent).

 

[Darrack]

Hauser's Reach

It has been awhile since I was out there so I don't off the top of my head remember cabin type. It was at least business class or first class but don't remember. Before I go back was going work Sirius Corporation reputation nearer Sol (and possibly unlock Marco Qwent).

Thats good to know, thanks, will do some missions from there in the Orca which has Luxury/First cabins which i use for long distance.

O7

 

[CMDRCorrMorningstarFelian]

‘The Beaumont system was a frontier world far below Achenar‘ - Michael Brookes Elite Legacy

Utilizing human habits or referencing a place by something important there and shibboleths to protect information from the unwashed masses, I may be able to help on this one. Historically, it was common practice to reference systems by planets or stations. I am pretty sure this would be a station. You have two main pathways for finding this (you'll need as much context as possible):

• Option#1 (in-game): Fly to the reference system, fire up GalMap, search Beaumont. This option is not perfect as results will only pull for systems you have visited and generally well-known systems.
• Option#2 (utilization of external search tools). Go to EDSM and login (enables search nearby), go to station search, put Achenar as CMDR position, set station name to Beaumont, make sure to organize results by distance from CMDR position.

INARA's search nearby stations function may work but I don't think you can search a specific name. For planets, I used to use EDDB but in-game is probably best unless you know planet type. EDSM is awesome in that case. As stated, GalMap is limited to well known places the Pilot's Federation want you to find and details from systems you have visited. May the odds be ever in your favor.

 

[Edelgard von Rhein]

Yes I totally agree. There are a large number of discrepancies in the book that don’t align with the game.

Eg: ‘Bring up the Beaumont insurrection from 3294. A map of a star system appeared from the holo-projector. The Beaumont system was a frontier world far below Achenar’ - Michael Brookes Elite Legacy

An initial search shows no system named Beaumont in game, interestingly it’s French for beautiful mountain - coincidence?

Generally my hypothesis is based upon only the presumption Brookes established the location of Raxxla at the same point of writing the book. It’s possible it’s actually a red-herring because certain points in the codex sound like they cast doubt on these rumours.

...SNIP...

The Milky Way as it is now in-game did not exist until the procedural generation received its final modification to create what became the gamma build, which debuted a couple of weeks prior to the game's full release in December 2014. It was not until then that players could explore the Milky Way, having previously been confined to the beta 'pill' that excluded many key systems.

It is possible to make 'overrides' for systems to change what is in them but I don't know if it is possible to add a system in a given place. When TRAPPIST-1 was implemented after Earth-sized (presumably) rocky worlds were discovered there, an existing system that the procedural generation had placed in almost exactly that location was modified to better represent what was found (very optimistically!).

The clues that have been laid down by naming of systems in a coherent manner, along with some bodies within them, could have been planned well in advance but, if my understanding is correct, the final implementation would have depended upon utilising assets that the procedural generation had placed, with carefully-chosen handcrafted elements (e.g. making certain planets Earth-like Worlds) and possibly reworking some systems completely (although Sol was apparently a lot of work, so something like the Avalon system, which has few bodies, would be easier for one person to do).

Therefore, I suspect that the planning phase would have allowed for Raxxla to be placed anywhere in the lost realms region but that the final location could not have been known when Elite: Legacy was written.

The final location chosen may well have depended upon picking a system matching certain criteria, like having a bright star appear close on the skybox to Andromeda or another visual navigation marker. Clues from the Codex or events in-game (e.g. Jaques mis-jump) would have been laid with the knowledge that Raxxla was in a particular location, so may lead to a more precise location. In-game searching of a system is likely to be the only way that such a navigational clue can be seen - you can't see the skybox of each system in EDSM!

 

[Rochester]

The Milky Way as it is now in-game did not exist until the procedural generation received its final modification to create what became the gamma build, which debuted a couple of weeks prior to the game's full release in December 2014. It was not until then that players could explore the Milky Way, having previously been confined to the beta 'pill' that excluded many key systems.

It is possible to make 'overrides' for systems to change what is in them but I don't know if it is possible to add a system in a given place. When TRAPPIST-1 was implemented after Earth-sized (presumably) rocky worlds were discovered there, an existing system that the procedural generation had placed in almost exactly that location was modified to better represent what was found (very optimistically!).

The clues that have been laid down by naming of systems in a coherent manner, along with some bodies within them, could have been planned well in advance but, if my understanding is correct, the final implementation would have depended upon utilising assets that the procedural generation had placed, with carefully-chosen handcrafted elements (e.g. making certain planets Earth-like Worlds) and possibly reworking some systems completely (although Sol was apparently a lot of work, so something like the Avalon system, which has few bodies, would be easier for one person to do).

Therefore, I suspect that the planning phase would have allowed for Raxxla to be placed anywhere in the lost realms region but that the final location could not have been known when Elite: Legacy was written.

The final location chosen may well have depended upon picking a system matching certain criteria, like having a bright star appear close on the skybox to Andromeda or another visual navigation marker. Clues from the Codex or events in-game (e.g. Jaques mis-jump) would have been laid with the knowledge that Raxxla was in a particular location, so may lead to a more precise location. In-game searching of a system is likely to be the only way that such a navigational clue can be seen - you can't see the skybox of each system in EDSM!

Agree, in game searching is the preferred method.

Third party tools only show data submitted by Cmdrs.

The placement of Raxxla - being undiscovered means logically it cannot be found outside of game, as there might be some unknown identifier, unless it’s hidden in plain sight.

However, various 3rd party tools are still extremely useful in applying wide brush strokes, to identify potential hotspots of interest. QED such anomalies like the Lost Realms or Yggdrasil, pull in our attention and make us question why they are there… are they hand placed?

Others may know more on this than myself, but I do recall a number of statements from various persons, that Brookes personally hand crafted a lot of systems, via a spreadsheet, the details of which are not clear but if correct it informs that a certain percentage of the galaxy was certainly handcrafted.

The existence of the lost realms and various other correlations, eg the Yggdrasil systems advocate a logic to their structure which cannot simply be explained away as arbitrary in my opinion.

If that were so I would presume there would be a huge level of uniformity, where as in reality there is logic to their placements which correlates.

Post in thread 'Should I be able to play Elite Dangerous without nine spreadsheets?'
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...without-nine-spreadsheets.340372/post-5334283

Post in thread 'What is the most efficient way to crowdsource the 3D system coordinates'
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...-the-3d-system-coordinates.43362/post-1089082

 

[CMDRCorrMorningstarFelian]

The Milky Way as it is now in-game did not exist until the procedural generation received its final modification to create what became the gamma build, which debuted a couple of weeks prior to the game's full release in December 2014. It was not until then that players could explore the Milky Way, having previously been confined to the beta 'pill' that excluded many key systems.

I think the "pill" was primarily encircling GalRoute G1. This essentially is a direct route from a Lave to Achenar (though original maps had a different name for Achenar). Vetitice was one jump off the route. This means the "pill" was not at all random. Also, see codex for Hengist Duval and tourist beacon "Tyrell Biggs Election" in Sol for why this would have been the case. A mutual agreement was reached between Federation and the Empire in 3008.

 

[Han_Zen]

I think the "pill" was primarily encircling GalRoute G1. This essentially is a direct route from a Lave to Achenar (though original maps had a different name for Achenar). Vetitice was one jump off the route. This means the "pill" was not at all random. Also, see codex for Hengist Duval and tourist beacon "Tyrell Biggs Election" in Sol for why this would have been the case. A mutual agreement was reached between Federation and the Empire in 3008.

The Beta 2 pill stretched from Eranin to Sol (almost). Achenar and Lave were way outside.
The Beta 1 bubble was only a few systems around Eranin.

 

[CMDRCorrMorningstarFelian]

The Beta 2 pill stretched from Eranin to Sol (almost). Achenar and Lave were way outside.
The Beta 1 bubble was only a few systems around Eranin.

Interesting. I didn't play until late 2016 IRL. Wonder why Eranin? Would be interesting to see if it used to be known by a different name (or something important nearby). Still the bigger question is, "What is Raxxla?"

 

[Redster]

So, just because we don't want to leave anything to chance, a cmdr here noticed that in the word "Raxxla":
Ra has atomic number 88
XX
La has atomic number 57
And I noticed that it appears that there is exactly one system with coordinates exactly 88, <something>, 57 here: ICZ OI-S b4-3
I have no idea if that system is related to Raxxla, but it is quite uncommon to find a system with the first and last exact coordinates as integers without decimals, and even more rare that the two coordinates are also the atomic number of the chemical elements represented by the first and last part of the word Raxxla. So I thought about mentioning it here.

 

[CMDR Davanix]

same "bomb" site type feature as Soonthill found on this lava world out by Guardian space

 

[El Saico]

Agree, in game searching is the preferred method.

Third party tools only show data submitted by Cmdrs.

The placement of Raxxla - being undiscovered means logically it cannot be found outside of game, as there might be some unknown identifier, unless it’s hidden in plain sight.

However, various 3rd party tools are still extremely useful in applying wide brush strokes, to identify potential hotspots of interest. QED such anomalies like the Lost Realms or Yggdrasil, pull in our attention and make us question why they are there… are they hand placed?

Others may know more on this than myself, but I do recall a number of statements from various persons, that Brookes personally hand crafted a lot of systems, via a spreadsheet, the details of which are not clear but if correct it informs that a certain percentage of the galaxy was certainly handcrafted.

The existence of the lost realms and various other correlations, eg the Yggdrasil systems advocate a logic to their structure which cannot simply be explained away as arbitrary in my opinion.

If that were so I would presume there would be a huge level of uniformity, where as in reality there is logic to their placements which correlates.

Post in thread 'Should I be able to play Elite Dangerous without nine spreadsheets?'
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...without-nine-spreadsheets.340372/post-5334283

Post in thread 'What is the most efficient way to crowdsource the 3D system coordinates'
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...-the-3d-system-coordinates.43362/post-1089082

There are two necessary, but perhaps not sufficient, conditions that handcrafted systems must follow:

1. They're not present in any real-life star catalog
2. Neither its current name, or any previous names it had (see: Colonia, Delphi), follow Stellar Forge conventions

The late EDDB was the only third-party database which allowed filtering by #1 - fortunately, there's a full dump available for those willing to trawl it.
https://edgalaxydata.space/EDDB/

 

[Han_Zen]

There are two necessary, but perhaps not sufficient, conditions that handcrafted systems must follow:

1. They're not present in any real-life star catalog
2. Neither its current name, or any previous names it had (see: Colonia, Delphi), follow Stellar Forge conventions

The late EDDB was the only third-party database which allowed filtering by #1 - fortunately, there's a full dump available for those willing to trawl it.
https://edgalaxydata.space/EDDB/

Lots of handcrafted systems are RL stars. Most of local systems around Sol are handcrafted to some degree.
Sol it self is probably the most manual system in the game.

There are also some overides in systems with generic names.
Mostly planet names or the adition of sation, but anything is possible.

 

[El Saico]

Lots of handcrafted systems are RL stars. Most of local systems around Sol are handcrafted to some degree.
Sol it self is probably the most manual system in the game.

There are also some overides in systems with generic names.
Mostly planet names or the adition of sation, but anything is possible.

The RL stars are what I meant by condition #1: "not in any IRL catalog". (it was nearly 4am here, hence the ambiguous wording)

On hand-placed, fictitious systems - a much better and clearer description! - the Old Worlds were described as such by FDev itself, but any others would be suspicious...

EDIT: oh no, seems like the simbad_ref column I was relying on for the EDDB dump was a late addition, and as such only ~10k systems have it set.
This means I have to filter out more naming patterns; luckily, PySpark is being a breeze to work with on that ~7gb mammoth.

 

[CMDRCorrMorningstarFelian]

On hand-placed, fictitious systems - a much better and clearer description! - the Old Worlds were described as such by FDev itself, but any others would be suspicious...

You may need to check GalMap here for verification. However, the "History of Lave" beacon says Lave was previously known as L-453. I suspect this may actually be a real system. GalMap should have any other designations for that system.