The Quest To Find Raxxla

[selbie]

Spacially your systems are relatively upon an alignment with a system Ive been watching called Purisaz, it is a weird mis-spelling of a Norse Rune linked to ‘Thorns’.

Purisaz is aligned with another Norse Rune system within the Lost Realms zone…

Purisaz is of interest to me because Robert Holdstock used the ‘Rune of Thorn’ to denote the location of a mystical secret in his book Ragthorn!

Technically my new theory goes towards identifying potentially locations where the Pendant world ought to hang in relation to Paradise Lost, the systems your have identified are slap-bang in one of those locations!

I will be publishing my hypothesis very soon, here is your example overlayed.

Interesting
The spelling is basically a visual literal version of Thurisaz flipping the runic ᚦ ('thurs' or 'th' sound in this case) for P. Thurs is usually symbolic of a giant, or the Jötunn
So it could have a small linkage to the codex if you consider Art Thornqvist's name used.
Do you know of any descriptions in Paradise Lost of a literal giant thorned item of some kind? or maybe a deer or horned entity? any mentions of thorned branches?


ALSO, speaking of runic parallels I just discovered the following:
Consider that in anglo-saxon Futhorc, the rune ᛞ appears twice in some bind runes - forming a double d sound (dd)
So could RAXXLA be a twisting of runic symbols ᚱᚬᛞᛞᛚᚬ which could sound something like RADDLA? RADDLE? (with the e having more of an 'eh' sound like you hear in scandinavian accents) so maybe ᚱᛖᛞᛞᛚᛖ
The word Raddle means to twist together / interweave, or to mark something with red ochre. Similarly REDDLE means to turn red.
Perhaps Braben was making it literally a RIDDLE / ᚱᛇᛞᛞᛚᛖ which can also mean a verb to riddle - To put something through a riddle or sieve; to sieve; to sift. Or To fill or spread throughout; to pervade. Or quite literally used in verb form, to solve a riddle. 'Riddle me this'
Maybe TDW have named it as such so that those with eyes to see can prove themselves worthy of knowing Raxxla's true form.

Like my earlier Norse investigations, Art Thornqvist could be related to a large ominous thorned object, or thorn branch. Perhaps there is some linkage there with the boundary of between heaven and earth being some kind of giant thorned branch.... much like a world tree of sorts

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

Just thinking if they were more in one side of the bubble than any other?

There’s a lot of data there to plot by hand, didn’t want to start anything if it had been undertaken previously.

My suspicion was they were all random, but what if that randomness wasn’t intentional, if that itself was a bug, or it occurred over intentional locations, maybe they propagated in a particular ‘cloud’, or if disorganised, is there an element of order hidden within it? If so - could a base centre be identified…

If that were true, my assumption would be it might marry up with other hypotheses about various locations. Of course more likely it might not…

Not in any hurry to crunch such data…

Have a look at the Update Notes for late 2015/early 2016...I seem to remember one where the E/F mission givers had been occuring outside SD and IIRC MB himself said that had been updated to contain them within SD, which implies they were of specific interest to him. A graphical analysis of those mission locations could be suggestive, though I suspect Macros' list doesn't have enough data points for a sound statistical analysis and I never heard of anyone else keeping note of them.

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

Interesting findings Louis Calvert!

I think there is one thing to be wary of here and that is the fact that, for hand-crafted systems, they are not being procedurally generated - instead it is my understanding that the information has to be pulled out of a database. That would mean that increased loading times are a sign that you are jumping to a hand-crafted system. I am not sure if the number of bodies in the system influences the loading time, or to what extent - Jackson's Lighthouse has few bodies but an increased loading time, for example. (I remember Maia, a system with many bodies, has always had a long loading time - raced through there several times! Why HR 1185 should have the same loading time, I don't know).

This does not mean that loading times are to be dismissed! It could still be a clue - especially if the visuals are different jumping into those systems.

I'm going to be spending some time around the Lost Realms this month but am struggling to manage my time this week. I can think of some other people who may be doing the same, so I'll make discreet enquiries as to any oddities in the hyperspace tunnel or loading times.

Reminiscent of the loading time method for finding the Formidine Rift bases...it worked for hard discs but not for SSDs. I used to use the data transfer monitoring mode as a more reliable method (CTRL+B, though so long ago I may have that wrong).

I remember a bug that often caused the hyperspace transition to be extended, sometimes to the point where the PC had to be reset...seem to remember it was related to poor internet commsfailing to find peers to connect with....never understood why that should affect it!

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

Interesting
The spelling is basically a visual literal version of Thurisaz flipping the runic ᚦ ('thurs' or 'th' sound in this case) for P. Thurs is usually symbolic of a giant, or the Jötunn
So it could have a small linkage to the codex if you consider Art Thornqvist's name used.
Do you know of any descriptions in Paradise Lost of a literal giant thorned item of some kind? or maybe a deer or horned entity? any mentions of thorned branches?


ALSO, speaking of runic parallels I just discovered the following:
Consider that in anglo-saxon Futhorc, the rune ᛞ appears twice in some bind runes - forming a double d sound (dd)
So could RAXXLA be a twisting of runic symbols ᚱᚬᛞᛞᛚᚬ which could sound something like RADDLA? RADDLE? (with the e having more of an 'eh' sound like you hear in scandinavian accents) so maybe ᚱᛖᛞᛞᛚᛖ
The word Raddle means to twist together / interweave, or to mark something with red ochre. Similarly REDDLE means to turn red.
Perhaps Braben was making it literally a RIDDLE / ᚱᛇᛞᛞᛚᛖ which can also mean a verb to riddle - To put something through a riddle or sieve; to sieve; to sift. Or To fill or spread throughout; to pervade. Or quite literally used in verb form, to solve a riddle. 'Riddle me this'
Maybe TDW have named it as such so that those with eyes to see can prove themselves worthy of knowing Raxxla's true form.

Like my earlier Norse investigations, Art Thornqvist could be related to a large ominous thorned object, or thorn branch. Perhaps there is some linkage there with the boundary of between heaven and earth being some kind of giant thorned branch.... much like a world tree of sorts

Interesting...the Thurs/Thorn/Thurisaz rune was modified when printing presses and moveable type became widespread and typesetters translated it into medieval English as the letter Y, hence "Ye Old Pubbe" or "Ye Olde Tea Shoppe". I'm sure MB would have been aware of that. So why use a "P" instead...to highlight the runes?

I like the runic analysis...if "Raxxla" can be translated as "Riddle" then perhaps we have a major clue as to finding it. I've long thought the heart of the codex entry to be the paragraph "Several versions of the Raxxla story mention an alien artefact, the Omphalos Rift, described as a gateway or tunnel through which parallel universes can be accessed. These details, however, were later shown to bear a striking resemblance to the children's story Princess Astrophel and the Spiralling Stars, and soon lost credibility. Undaunted, some Raxxla seekers insisted that the story's author had cunningly concealed facts about the mysterious locale in his book as hints for those with eyes to see"...it just sounds so obviously like a riddle that needs to be solved! MB also highlighted that childrens' story in his book Legacy "As a girl Julia grew up without toys with a single possession, a book “about a young man’s quest to save a princess from an alien dragon"

@Rochester Just a thought, but I was looking through the Project Gutenberg ebook of the Astronomy of Milton's Paradise Lost the other day and spotted something...Gabriel discovered Satan in Paradise and there was a bit about "betwixt Astrea and the Scorpion sign". Now Astrea was a goddess who ascended to the Heavens and became the constellation Virgo, so could your Paradise (Raxxla?) be located on the directional vector from Sol to the mid point between Virgo and Scorpio..i.e. Libra?

 

[selbie]

I like the runic analysis...if "Raxxla" can be translated as "Riddle" then perhaps we have a major clue as to finding it. I've long thought the heart of the codex entry to be the paragraph "Several versions of the Raxxla story mention an alien artefact, the Omphalos Rift, described as a gateway or tunnel through which parallel universes can be accessed. These details, however, were later shown to bear a striking resemblance to the children's story Princess Astrophel and the Spiralling Stars, and soon lost credibility. Undaunted, some Raxxla seekers insisted that the story's author had cunningly concealed facts about the mysterious locale in his book as hints for those with eyes to see"...it just sounds so obviously like a riddle that needs to be solved! MB also highlighted that childrens' story in his book Legacy "As a girl Julia grew up without toys with a single possession, a book “about a young man’s quest to save a princess from an alien dragon"

Looks like I'm doing some reading tonight , lo and behold I discovered I have the Legacy novel in my files, I'm guessing from the kickstarter reward or some other bonus.

 

[Rochester]

Interesting...the Thurs/Thorn/Thurisaz rune was modified when printing presses and moveable type became widespread and typesetters translated it into medieval English as the letter Y, hence "Ye Old Pubbe" or "Ye Olde Tea Shoppe". I'm sure MB would have been aware of that. So why use a "P" instead...to highlight the runes?

I like the runic analysis...if "Raxxla" can be translated as "Riddle" then perhaps we have a major clue as to finding it. I've long thought the heart of the codex entry to be the paragraph "Several versions of the Raxxla story mention an alien artefact, the Omphalos Rift, described as a gateway or tunnel through which parallel universes can be accessed. These details, however, were later shown to bear a striking resemblance to the children's story Princess Astrophel and the Spiralling Stars, and soon lost credibility. Undaunted, some Raxxla seekers insisted that the story's author had cunningly concealed facts about the mysterious locale in his book as hints for those with eyes to see"...it just sounds so obviously like a riddle that needs to be solved! MB also highlighted that childrens' story in his book Legacy "As a girl Julia grew up without toys with a single possession, a book “about a young man’s quest to save a princess from an alien dragon"

@Rochester Just a thought, but I was looking through the Project Gutenberg ebook of the Astronomy of Milton's Paradise Lost the other day and spotted something...Gabriel discovered Satan in Paradise and there was a bit about "betwixt Astrea and the Scorpion sign". Now Astrea was a goddess who ascended to the Heavens and became the constellation Virgo, so could your Paradise (Raxxla?) be located on the directional vector from Sol to the mid point between Virgo and Scorpio..i.e. Libra?

Yes to ‘P’ I speculated this was because of it originally spelling of Þurisaz.

Thurisaz - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Regarding Astraea I had touched on this before, where Astraea is also described by Milton as Virgo, indicating Libra, where creation was weighed: “Betwixt Astraea and the Scorpions sign”.

So yes this gives us Lucifers vantage point from heaven.

Post in thread 'The Quest To Find Raxxla'
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/the-quest-to-find-raxxla.168253/post-9496027

 

[Rochester]

Interesting
The spelling is basically a visual literal version of Thurisaz flipping the runic ᚦ ('thurs' or 'th' sound in this case) for P. Thurs is usually symbolic of a giant, or the Jötunn
So it could have a small linkage to the codex if you consider Art Thornqvist's name used.
Do you know of any descriptions in Paradise Lost of a literal giant thorned item of some kind? or maybe a deer or horned entity? any mentions of thorned branches?


ALSO, speaking of runic parallels I just discovered the following:
Consider that in anglo-saxon Futhorc, the rune ᛞ appears twice in some bind runes - forming a double d sound (dd)
So could RAXXLA be a twisting of runic symbols ᚱᚬᛞᛞᛚᚬ which could sound something like RADDLA? RADDLE? (with the e having more of an 'eh' sound like you hear in scandinavian accents) so maybe ᚱᛖᛞᛞᛚᛖ
The word Raddle means to twist together / interweave, or to mark something with red ochre. Similarly REDDLE means to turn red.
Perhaps Braben was making it literally a RIDDLE / ᚱᛇᛞᛞᛚᛖ which can also mean a verb to riddle - To put something through a riddle or sieve; to sieve; to sift. Or To fill or spread throughout; to pervade. Or quite literally used in verb form, to solve a riddle. 'Riddle me this'
Maybe TDW have named it as such so that those with eyes to see can prove themselves worthy of knowing Raxxla's true form.

Like my earlier Norse investigations, Art Thornqvist could be related to a large ominous thorned object, or thorn branch. Perhaps there is some linkage there with the boundary of between heaven and earth being some kind of giant thorned branch.... much like a world tree of sorts

Please read Robert Holdstocks ‘Ragthorn’.

I believe that this discussion may revolve around a key aspect in this novel. The use of the Rune for Thorn to denote or highlight a secret.

In the book the author finds historical material where certain words linked to a thorn tree are scribbled around, the scribble is the Rune symbol for thorn.

It’s a great read and even has Milton referenced in it. The whole premise revolves around Gilgamesh’s journey to obtain the plant of immortality - a thorny plant.

Gilgamesh is to feature in my new hypothesis (soon to be published) so I believe it’s very likely intentional.

In the story of Gilgamesh is the deity Ereshkigal (in game) was abducted to the underworld by Irkalla, in a parallel to the myth of Persephone.

Irkalla in game is just below Pandemonium…

So I am somewhat certain this is a reference in the Codex to ‘a thorny branch’ - a reference back to Gilgamesh…and Robert Holdstocks Ragthorn.

Again I’m still writing up my assignment on all this and will publish real soon, but here is an example of what I’ve discovered. I do wholeheartedly believe this is a cosmological model universe and Raxxla is in a particular area…

 

[marx]

The pattern here seems to suggest that the hyperspace animation will aim to complete in approximately 13 seconds, but if it's not able to, it then re-polls to see if it can complete at approximately 4 second intervals, possibly because of how the sound or animation for the "extension" is looped.


I do not recall star-heavy systems slowing jumps before, though - and certainly not to anything like 30/43 seconds. Admittedly, I haven't been doing many hyperspace jumps to high-star systems lately either.

(Of course, if it's a "time to generate system" indicator, then it might be reproducible on any specific PC but completely different on one with a different performance profile)

I'm not sure how things might have changed with Odyssey, if they have even changed, and I couldn't verify this new data above because I just left the bubble a day before they were posted, but I can tell you about how things were before: system generation during the loading screen (of the jump animation) depends on the GPU, with a minimum time set so that top-end GPUs don't let players get through jumps that much faster. This was mostly done by testing things on potato GPUs as well, which could have load times stretching into minutes. Variation between systems seemed to mostly depend on two things: how many bodies there are, and how old the system is. After all, it does matter whether the history that needs to be simulated is 30 million years or 13 billion years.

@Edelgard von Rhein : entirely hand-crafted systems would take shorter to generate, not longer, especially if the values were stored client-side. As far as I know, there are very few of these though, pretty much just some of the iconic systems from FE2 and FFE. Then there are systems where some bodies are overwritten with manual data while the rest stays generated, most notably TRAPPIST-1. When that was bugged during the beta it was added in, you could see that which bodies were edited (as they didn't appear correctly on the system map). There's also a simple and crude way to test: disable your net connection while playing (= yank the cable, unless you're on wireless) and then see where the game will stall.

Personally, if I wanted to find Raxxla, I wouldn't rely on loading times and such. You have to jump into a system anyway (can't filter stuff out from the galaxy map), so in the end, the best way to be certain is to scan everything once you're there.

 

[SergMx]

When going through farming missions I jump between 2 identical systems a lot.
I'm a single player.
The time is sometimes longer than usual.

 

[SergMx]

And by the way conditions can be VERY different and we don't know what they are. Example: you have to have a negative relationship with Sirius to be allowed to one engineer.

Maybe Sirius is the Dark Wheel.

 

[Han_Zen]

I've been looking a bit more into the idea that there could be hidden systems. I have no idea where they are, so I made one up.

My hidden system is at the coordinates 85, 20, 55. These are the simplest coordinates I get fro the word Raxxla. It's just the Roman numerical values for RA, XX, LA, using standard form and medieval Roman numerals. This gives:

R=80
A=5
X=10
L=50

RA= 85
XX=20
LA=55

Roman numerals - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

This point isn't to far from Shinrarta Dezhra at 55.71875, 17.59375, 27.15625, so I wanted to have SD as either start or end system for the jump. The best target system I have found so far, is Nariya at 105.40625, 22.0625, 75.09375. A jump from SD to Nariya passes 0.3590892392606653 ly from 85, 20, 55.

I've tried a few locations to jump from in both systems. Raxxla has not revealed it self. I might try to supercruise to to the perfect jump of coordinates to pass exactly att 85, 20 55, but that is a long journey to 56.23892876, 17.09306171, 26.67937395 (0.8652661285187726 ly).

Fun testing though. Even if the jump is a bit long at 69 ly and I need a basic FDS boost to do it.

 

[Bushido Brown]

I might try to supercruise to to the perfect jump of coordinates to pass exactly att 85, 20 55, but that is a long journey to 56.23892876, 17.09306171, 26.67937395 (0.8652661285187726 ly).

Enjoy your trip!

 

[Louis Calvert]

I've been looking a bit more into the idea that there could be hidden systems. I have no idea where they are, so I made one up.

My hidden system is at the coordinates 85, 20, 55. These are the simplest coordinates I get fro the word Raxxla. It's just the Roman numerical values for RA, XX, LA, using standard form and medieval Roman numerals. This gives:

R=80
A=5
X=10
L=50

RA= 85
XX=20
LA=55

Roman numerals - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

This point isn't to far from Shinrarta Dezhra at 55.71875, 17.59375, 27.15625, so I wanted to have SD as either start or end system for the jump. The best target system I have found so far, is Nariya at 105.40625, 22.0625, 75.09375. A jump from SD to Nariya passes 0.3590892392606653 ly from 85, 20, 55.

I've tried a few locations to jump from in both systems. Raxxla has not revealed it self. I might try to supercruise to to the perfect jump of coordinates to pass exactly att 85, 20 55, but that is a long journey to 56.23892876, 17.09306171, 26.67937395 (0.8652661285187726 ly).

Fun testing though. Even if the jump is a bit long at 69 ly and I need a basic FDS boost to do it.

I was watching an interesting video-essay on the development of Elite recently, it focused a lot on the technical innovations and coding that went into it (most of which I wasn't previously aware of). At one point they talked about the procedural generation seed:

I wondered briefly if that number was coordinates in the Elite Dangerous galaxy, there's no system at those coordinates, sadly, but... maybe there's a hidden system there? It would be quite beautifully poetic in many ways. EDIT: Those coordinates take you to almost the exact opposite side of the galaxy from Sol btw, basically 47000ly away.

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

I've been looking a bit more into the idea that there could be hidden systems. I have no idea where they are, so I made one up.

My hidden system is at the coordinates 85, 20, 55. These are the simplest coordinates I get fro the word Raxxla. It's just the Roman numerical values for RA, XX, LA, using standard form and medieval Roman numerals. This gives:

R=80
A=5
X=10
L=50

RA= 85
XX=20
LA=55

Roman numerals - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

This point isn't to far from Shinrarta Dezhra at 55.71875, 17.59375, 27.15625, so I wanted to have SD as either start or end system for the jump. The best target system I have found so far, is Nariya at 105.40625, 22.0625, 75.09375. A jump from SD to Nariya passes 0.3590892392606653 ly from 85, 20, 55.

I've tried a few locations to jump from in both systems. Raxxla has not revealed it self. I might try to supercruise to to the perfect jump of coordinates to pass exactly att 85, 20 55, but that is a long journey to 56.23892876, 17.09306171, 26.67937395 (0.8652661285187726 ly).

Fun testing though. Even if the jump is a bit long at 69 ly and I need a basic FDS boost to do it.

Have you tried naming your ship "Omphalos Rift"?

 

[Han_Zen]

Have you tried naming your ship "Omphalos Rift"?

I can’t rename the Pax Vobisquit🥹

 

[Edelgard von Rhein]

The effort that Michael Brookes has put into crafting so many systems and locations in a systematic manner is, as has been said on this thread, a work of art and an Easter Egg in its own right, regardless of whether Raxxla is found. It deserves wider recognition, so that other players, who might otherwise only note a few interesting names in passing, can understand why that happens, the importance of it and the dedication that was required to create it.

As someone who plays Elite not only for the 1:1 scale simulation of Milky Way and the stories and legends contained within but who also races spaceships for fun with the Buckyball Racing Club, I decided to pay my own small tribute to Michael Brookes, the effort he put into the game and the authors who inspired him. So I am staging a Buckyball Racing Club event over the holidays (23rd - 31st Dec), called Obfuscated in the Outer Rim and the race thread is now up here:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...d-in-the-outer-rim-23rd-31st-dec-3309.621772/

I do hope you will stop by, have a read and say hello, even if racing is not for you. It could be an interesting journey!

 

[Merlin StWahgwaan]

I was watching an interesting video-essay on the development of Elite recently, it focused a lot on the technical innovations and coding that went into it (most of which I wasn't previously aware of). At one point they talked about the procedural generation seed:

View attachment 377173

I wondered briefly if that number was coordinates in the Elite Dangerous galaxy, there's no system at those coordinates, sadly, but... maybe there's a hidden system there? It would be quite beautifully poetic in many ways. EDIT: Those coordinates take you to almost the exact opposite side of the galaxy from Sol btw, basically 47000ly away.

I am actually about half way between Colonia and Beagle Point right now...
if you can supply a system name, or a group of systems, that is at those coordinates, I would be more than happy to go there after Beagle point, and FSS any systems of interest and report back... (I've played my last 100hrs on Steam Deck, so galmap coordinates are hard to see and find, but systems I can search for)

I'm planning to get to Beagle Point by the end of this weekend (if not today/tomorrow), so I could head to this area next week easily...

Edit: I'm exactly 300 jumps away from Beagle Point now. And I forgot I'm kinda busy this weekend, but I'll definitely be there by mid week, and then can start headed out anywhere anyone suggests

 

[Rochester]

The effort that Michael Brookes has put into crafting so many systems and locations in a systematic manner is, as has been said on this thread, a work of art and an Easter Egg in its own right, regardless of whether Raxxla is found. It deserves wider recognition, so that other players, who might otherwise only note a few interesting names in passing, can understand why that happens, the importance of it and the dedication that was required to create it.

As someone who plays Elite not only for the 1:1 scale simulation of Milky Way and the stories and legends contained within but who also races spaceships for fun with the Buckyball Racing Club, I decided to pay my own small tribute to Michael Brookes, the effort he put into the game and the authors who inspired him. So I am staging a Buckyball Racing Club event over the holidays (23rd - 31st Dec), called Obfuscated in the Outer Rim and the race thread is now up here:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...d-in-the-outer-rim-23rd-31st-dec-3309.621772/

I do hope you will stop by, have a read and say hello, even if racing is not for you. It could be an interesting journey!

I will be posting my new hypothesis soon, and to be honest, my observations mirror your own statements.

Now for context, I have years of RL experience in locational mapping. Im very aware of institutional, cultural and personal pattern bias; doubly so in this game. But its evident in my humble professional opinion that Brookes developed a very large and complex entity in game; and as you’ve pointed out - irrespective of Raxxla, it’s a really impressive construct which I feel FD needs to champion.

I can only speculate that the reasons why they currently are not are multiple.

Either they are totally ignorant of this design (?!) or it’s directly tied to Raxxla or likewise various current or upcoming narratives, therefore to broadcast it only serves to ‘give away its secrets’.

Or it’s just space madness (and to be honest it feels like space madness because right now, I’m seeing a whole bunch of some really weird data)…

My drives are still attempting to redirect power for repairs, so I hope to get a transmission up over the next couple of days.

I hope that with some critical insight we might assess how likely my hypothesis is, because I feel that it ought not to exist solely within ‘lore & roleplay’, so I’ll be looking to re-posting it in a secondary thread under discussions.

O7

 

[Emperor]

Have you tried naming your ship "Omphalos Rift"?

Most of mine are called "The Dark Wheel"...still waiting for them to come find me and shut me down.... seems like they're a bit lackadaisical with their threats... it's been quite a long time now since we could name them ;-)

 

[Darrack]

Most of mine are called "The Dark Wheel"...still waiting for them to come find me and shut me down.... seems like they're a bit lackadaisical with their threats... it's been quite a long time now since we could name them ;-)

My exploration Cobra is called Endeavour after Cooks survey ship, not sure it will end well

O7