The Quest To Find Raxxla

[D7]

I like the idea though. This was kind of the same thing I was thinking but To position my ship jumping into/ through the black hole. Most likely a specific origin and destination system required to bypass rebuy screen. Potentially a prerequisite set of accomplishments and perhaps key systems visited also, just because the game can track all that easily and I'm also trying to think like a game Easter egg at this point lol

Interesting. I have never tried to set a hyperspace jump such that it my reticles are dead head straight on a black hole. I assume unless FDev made a special case exemption, that the jump would get rejected for being blocked ("destination target obscured").

 

[CMDRCorrMorningstarFelian]

The path "North" from Aquilla (the Eagle) on the horizon, across the magpie bridge past Vega and Draco, to Ursa Minor and Polaris, could be significant in some way?

Even in Holdstock and Malcolm Edwards book on legends it mentions that Ursa Major is visible. I will put a proper post together in a bit. That has some interesting influence in search area. It cannot be in Alliance territory.

 

[Quaero]

So I can think of a couple basic ways.
1) a hyper jump that requires you to jump with low fuel to get there making the return jump a risky bet.
2) a designation in a star system that requires so much fuel during SC that, once there, a jump out to the nearest star is a risky bet.

In both cases you could die yourself back to your last dock though.

Which could explain how cmdrs may have been there but don't know where, because their explore data went poof.

Interesting. I have never tried to set a hyperspace jump such that it my reticles are dead head straight on a black hole. I assume unless FDev made a special case exemption, that the jump would get rejected for being blocked ("destination target obscured").

The actual black hole is, as I understand it, incredibly small and the visible stellar object is only gravitationally distorted light. So idk if that would get in the way or not.

 

[CMDRCorrMorningstarFelian]

It (Raxxla) cannot be in Alliance territory.

Before we get into the bulk of this post the stars of the asterism Big Dipper (part of Ursa Major):

• Alkaid
• Mizar
• Alioth
• Megrez
• Phecda/Phekda
• Merak
• Dubhe

Holdstock and Edwards make it abundantly clear in the last few page of Lost Realms that a celestial bear is visible in heavens of a very important star system. The characteristics of this system:
-9 planets
-2nd planet covered in clouds
-3rd planet dry and windy
-5th planet multi-colored gas world
-6th planet with massive rings
-Apparently, located in spiral galaxy there is eye shape described as "Eye of the Mother" about 1/3 the way to edge of galaxy. This sounds like a large nebula. The Eye has appeared in other Holdstock works.

If it's important to see Ursa Major, it really cannot be in the Alliance. That said, there are two zones where this should be visible:
Sol -> Alioth
Achenar -> Alioth

In case of Raxxla, it supposedly is a place that connects universes. In the case of The Dark Wheel, they were mystery seekers seeking both Raxxla and their true home. The myth is further elaborated in Alien World, that the group may have come about as part of accident involving a generation ship. I have highlighted before, the planets that can be used to decorate our cockpits do not match Sol perfectly. We are looking for something similar to Sol that apparently holds something very important.

Whatever Raxxla is, it apparently cannot be in the Alliance itself as the celestial bear would be absent. I guess this means it is in the Bubble. Even then, that is a lot of space.

 

[D7]

Before we get into the bulk of this post the stars of the asterism Big Dipper (part of Ursa Major):

• Alkaid
• Mizar
• Alioth
• Megrez
• Phecda/Phekda
• Merak
• Dubhe

Holdstock and Edwards make it abundantly clear in the last few page of Lost Realms that a celestial bear is visible in heavens of a very important star system. The characteristics of this system:
-9 planets
-2nd planet covered in clouds
-3rd planet dry and windy
-5th planet multi-colored gas world
-6th planet with massive rings
-Apparently, located in spiral galaxy there is eye shape described as "Eye of the Mother" about 1/3 the way to edge of galaxy. This sounds like a large nebula. The Eye has appeared in other Holdstock works.

If it's important to see Ursa Major, it really cannot be in the Alliance. That said, there are two zones where this should be visible:
Sol -> Alioth
Achenar -> Alioth

In case of Raxxla, it supposedly is a place that connects universes. In the case of The Dark Wheel, they were mystery seekers seeking both Raxxla and their true home. The myth is further elaborated in Alien World, that the group may have come about as part of accident involving a generation ship. I have highlighted before, the planets that can be used to decorate our cockpits do not match Sol perfectly. We are looking for something similar to Sol that apparently holds something very important.

Whatever Raxxla is, it apparently cannot be in the Alliance itself as the celestial bear would be absent. I guess this means it is in the Bubble. Even then, that is a lot of space.

The part that troubles me is that Raxxla is apparently in a system that has been honked but not discovered. Is not virtually every system in the bubble discovered? I could be wrong since I have spent very little of my time in the bubble but, from the little I've seen it seems like the bubble is fully discovered. No?

 

[varonica]

The part that troubles me is that Raxxla is apparently in a system that has been honked but not discovered. Is not virtually every system in the bubble discovered? I could be wrong since I have spent very little of my time in the bubble but, from the little I've seen it seems like the bubble is fully discovered. No?

A few years back FDEV did state there was still one unvisited system in the bubble....that is a single system, so it's highly unlikely that now, several years later, that is still the case.

 

[Rochester]

A few years ago there were some undiscovered systems in the bubble, but since then certainly this is far less a reality.

There likely is some missing component to the mystery which FD may have promoted but we haven’t picked up on.

Simply finding the location on its own makes the mystery rather simplistic, unless said system is very far away or if said element is hard to find.

In the past certain features could not be found without direct interaction. Eg the Mki eyeball scanner snd close proximity flying. Therefore there was a period of time when said systems would have been discovered but possibly not wholly mapped. So the presumption exists that any discovered system is 100% explored; this might not be the case entirely.

The mystery also could very likely be tied to factions.

There maybe a singular faction or a string of factions which need to be unlocked. Or applicably a series of missions found?

I do suspect Brookes was hinting a lot about Raxxla, especially in his public blog with his Drabbles, possibly alluding to an area of space close to Shamash etc. but I don’t feel he was being entirely specific.

What too then of other official FD posts?

For example who or what or where was Ethel Moonshot, how was the Winking Cat involved; what was mentioned in which copy of Sagittarius Eye shown in that CM Chan 4 broadcast!

Again singularly I don’t believe they point anywhere specifically, but collectively they hint at something more environmental?

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

"Raxxla is apparently in a system that has been honked but not discovered. Is not virtually every system in the bubble discovered?"

Evidently Raxxla has been observed (somehow- either by pilot visit or astronomical telescope observation or infered from a gravitational anomaly detection) otherwise we would not be aware of it at all...but likely it's significance was not realised by anyone who has honked it and then jumped out of the system- so it could be anything, anywhere, but is clearly not named as "Raxxla" -else it would have been found on day one by galmap search/file miners. It may be something that does not show up on a honk, and it was only a few years ago that it was revealed that our (formerly "advanced") scanner which originally had "infinte range" within a system actually did not detect some objects until within a finite distance away (e.g. Guardian surface sites).

There has never been any lore/FD explanation of why Sol/Triton is permit locked, nor how to get that permit, so it could be Raxxla (or Raxxla could be an object on Triton's surface). Same possibility applies to Sol/Luna.

It could be a "comet", which are in-game but with no graphical representation and it's very hard to drop out at their position within a system, even if you know where they are (try in Pareco, 6 stations are orbiting one).

It could be the one Black Hole in-game that actually leads somewhere if entered...that hypothesis is a good fit for the "Omphalos Rift" hint.

It's possible that FD have all along been using a bit of artistic licence when talking about Raxxla, using the name for both the "Omphalos" hyperspace trigger and the actual system loaded by it but held on FD server and only downloaded when the trigger is pulled. The "Omphalos" could be disguised as anything, from a featureless moon, specific crater, black hole, "comet", NPC, ...to a strangely shaped reflecting pool inside a space station.

So, there is no valid argument that Raxxla is not in the bubble because it has not yet been found...it must have been found (because we are aware of it), many times if it's in the bubble, but the finder has just not realised.

 

[Robert Rockbite]

There is no point in speculating that Raxxla might be located within an area of influence, in the bubble or not in the bubble.
There could be more than one Raxxla or a distributed Raxxla consisting of several locations - and there could be something in the bubble and somewhere else at the same time.
Maybe it is distributed over several locations and the one(s) in the bubble are locked and you first have to find one or more locations outside of the bubble to be considered worthy to use it and obtain the permit for the location(s) in the bubble.
Maybe it is not at a location but a certain sequence of actions (geometric pattern formed by sequence of jumps, pattern of star types) and maybe it could be found more than once, anywhere.
Even if there is only one Raxxla and only one part of it: Maybe it was in the area of influence, but it moved on - maybe Jacques took it with him and in order to access it, you must first persuade the barkeeper to sell you drinks.

 

[Rochester]

Maybe it’s a state of conscious enlightenment!

Maybe it isn’t just one location, but an area of numerous systems, which together identify something esoteric.

 

[Emperor]

Ive often found systems with a BH and NS next to each other, i thought about the Talmor lens and boosted using the NS to slingshot me into the BH

Spoiler: Which took me to!

The rebuy screen!!

O7

Rebuy screen is Raxxla....state of cosmic enlightenment... The cosmos will kill you!

 

[Planewalker]

rabbit holes are way too deep, its simple on the surface.
"Princess Astrophel and the Spiralling Stars" -- Star-lover and the Spiraling Stars, so we're talking stars. Particularly spiraling stars.
Star 1: Jewel that burns on the brow of mother of galaxies. So what's a star with a high temp that is just short becoming a black hole?
Star 2: Whisper in witch space, siren of deepest void. What star gives off sounds that sound like whispers in SC, and entices sailors to make a dangerous journey that may strand them?

I know two of the things I'm looking for....

1. I am fairly certain it is in the serpentis region.

2. "The whispers in witchspace" is already being analysed: there is a spectograph a bit earlier in the thread that shows a symbol that needs clearing up.
(it's when in the hypertunnel the sound can be heard northwest in the cockpit IIRC)

 

[Ian Doncaster]

-9 planets
-2nd planet covered in clouds
-3rd planet dry and windy
-5th planet multi-colored gas world
-6th planet with massive rings

Provided you're willing to take a certain definition of what counts as a "planet" which would have been current when Holdstock was writing, there's a really obvious candidate for which system they mean, of course.

The part that troubles me is that Raxxla is apparently in a system that has been honked but not discovered.

This is something which it's really difficult to find any evidence for.

It was apparently said in 2017, but the earliest reference I can find to it (and that one someone stating that they can't find any evidence of it being true) is in mid-2019. Other comments from around that time disagree on where and when it was said.

Searching in 2017 I can't find any evidence of anyone mentioning it at the time - which you'd think, given how important a clue to Raxxla it might be - someone would have. If you can find a reference to it (even just as a "I've heard they said") before May 2019 that would be really useful to at least narrow down where this rumour came from!

What I did find in 2017 were three other things:
1) Verifiable comments from Frontier that paraphrase as "Raxxla is in the game and we know where it is"
2) A claim - never verified and presumed false - from a player to have found Raxxla, in a system which had already had its star discovered (which in the context of 2017, means not just honked but face-scanned)
3) Outside of that claim, plenty of player speculation that someone might have passed through the system without spotting it - but no-one making this speculation says that they heard anyone at Frontier suggest it.
Given a couple of years it's plausible that someone in 2019 might have merged at least the first two in their memory.



Even if it was true I'd agree that it doesn't necessarily mean that Raxxla is anywhere near Sol and if anything suggests the opposite is most likely:
- by mid-2017, the galaxy had been quite substantially - if hardly systematically - searched by explorers.
- there are around 100,000 systems including uninhabited ones in the approximate "bubble". There were a similar number of systems catalogued on EDSM in the Prua Phoe sector alone at that time (and EDSM appears to only track 1/3 to 1/4 of actual exploration)
- there are around 2 million systems in the entire Wregoe-Wredguia-Synuefe-Synuefai set of four sectors containing the bubble (many of which remained unvisited in 2017); from Frontier's official figures, there were probably around 70 million total visited systems at that point spread across the galaxy
- "honked but not scanned" would tend to imply "only one visitor so far" and therefore one of the more distant ones; it would also imply "and they'd have found it if they had scanned" which suggests it again can't have been anywhere revisited more thoroughly in the 7 years since.

 

[Darrack]

Im pretty convinced that Raxxla (the key to it not necessarily the place) is in the bubble.
Why? mainly because of what Drew Wager said about the very first Elite system and some of those planets now being in our current Galaxy, i also think that the 7LY range on ships back then has a relevance.

I still believe Raxxla itself is not in our Galaxy but the bridge/passage to it is (re The Alien World book).

O7

 

[CMDRCorrMorningstarFelian]

For historical

Maybe it’s a state of conscious enlightenment!

Maybe it isn’t just one location, but an area of numerous systems, which together identify something esoteric.

I am going to go out on limb and say this may be closer to reality. Sol is just the place that proves it is real. In Sol there are artificial structures (some of which appear pyramidal) and artificial power sources. At least according to Alien World: A Complete Illustrated Guide, the components of Talmor Lens were built on airless rocky or ice worlds (but not exclusively). By the way, those artificial structures and power sources can be found thoughout the Bubble and you're more likely to see them in mythically named systems. Then there's stuff like Electricae which only exist on ice worlds with nobel gas atmospheres. That's an important detail because that implies they are artificial lifeforms. Their purpose is unknown but they appear to be biological power generators. Then there's the surface and orbital installations. These may well be components, too.

It cannot be in Alliance territory.

The above implies this is possibly both true and false. TRUE in the sense that the proof it exists is where humans start - Sol in which the celestial bears are visible. However, FALSE in the sense that artificial power sources and artificial structures are in Alioth itself and other alliance worlds. Then you have (Oltiqu/Hope/Gateway). Hope is the first planet in Gateway. Gateway is connected to Veliaze myth and was needed to figure out its' exact whereabouts and current name. It was just Hope ran into reality and Ol' Currie station became New Chernobyl. Hope is unfortunately a dangerous thing. Additionally, Dream-ware and its' modern form Insight and Insight Entertainment is developed by Alliance with INRA. Stardreamer also came about through work with INRA. The modern form appears to be Holo-Me. See Dream-ware/Stardreamer timeline.

 

[Louis Calvert]

 

[Louis Calvert]

 

[D7]

Provided you're willing to take a certain definition of what counts as a "planet" which would have been current when Holdstock was writing, there's a really obvious candidate for which system they mean, of course.


This is something which it's really difficult to find any evidence for.

It was apparently said in 2017, but the earliest reference I can find to it (and that one someone stating that they can't find any evidence of it being true) is in mid-2019. Other comments from around that time disagree on where and when it was said.

Searching in 2017 I can't find any evidence of anyone mentioning it at the time - which you'd think, given how important a clue to Raxxla it might be - someone would have. If you can find a reference to it (even just as a "I've heard they said") before May 2019 that would be really useful to at least narrow down where this rumour came from!

What I did find in 2017 were three other things:
1) Verifiable comments from Frontier that paraphrase as "Raxxla is in the game and we know where it is"
2) A claim - never verified and presumed false - from a player to have found Raxxla, in a system which had already had its star discovered (which in the context of 2017, means not just honked but face-scanned)
3) Outside of that claim, plenty of player speculation that someone might have passed through the system without spotting it - but no-one making this speculation says that they heard anyone at Frontier suggest it.
Given a couple of years it's plausible that someone in 2019 might have merged at least the first two in their memory.



Even if it was true I'd agree that it doesn't necessarily mean that Raxxla is anywhere near Sol and if anything suggests the opposite is most likely:
- by mid-2017, the galaxy had been quite substantially - if hardly systematically - searched by explorers.
- there are around 100,000 systems including uninhabited ones in the approximate "bubble". There were a similar number of systems catalogued on EDSM in the Prua Phoe sector alone at that time (and EDSM appears to only track 1/3 to 1/4 of actual exploration)
- there are around 2 million systems in the entire Wregoe-Wredguia-Synuefe-Synuefai set of four sectors containing the bubble (many of which remained unvisited in 2017); from Frontier's official figures, there were probably around 70 million total visited systems at that point spread across the galaxy
- "honked but not scanned" would tend to imply "only one visitor so far" and therefore one of the more distant ones; it would also imply "and they'd have found it if they had scanned" which suggests it again can't have been anywhere revisited more thoroughly in the 7 years since.

Yeah thanks for that background. So it's one of those deals where it cant be verified - which makes me very reluctant to buy-in. I would only say that IF this was true (honked but not discovered) then the chances of it being in the bubble are zero and certainly not in a 300-500 LY circle around Lave as DW suspects. Even if there are a few honked only systems in the bubble, the chances that the "Raxxla system" got lucky and just so happened to be one of the few is essentially zero. I personally think that if it was a true statement then Raxxla would have to be just outside the bubble. Even if it was discovered that would be a notch on a commanders gun but, it wouldn't be of any value beyond that. In order to function, Raxxla must require some sort of "pass" such as a being accepted by The Dark Wheel after gaining certain clues, artifacts, etc... So perhaps, while everyone is looking for Raxxla they should be hunting (so to speak) for the Dark Wheel? Or is it looking for Raxxla that gains the Dark Wheel's attention and brings them to you?

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Yes. If it's close to the bubble, then - especially by now! - it must have some protection against discovery which even a normally thorough system survey would miss.

That could in theory include that it's right there in plain sight and CMDRs have - to paraphrase Douglas Adams - "flown past Raxxla, round it, even over it, and simply never have noticed that the thing was there" because it didn't take the form they expect.

 

[marx]

["The part that troubles me is that Raxxla is apparently in a system that has been honked but not discovered."]
This is something which it's really difficult to find any evidence for.

It was apparently said in 2017, but the earliest reference I can find to it (and that one someone stating that they can't find any evidence of it being true) is in mid-2019. Other comments from around that time disagree on where and when it was said.

Searching in 2017 I can't find any evidence of anyone mentioning it at the time - which you'd think, given how important a clue to Raxxla it might be - someone would have. If you can find a reference to it (even just as a "I've heard they said") before May 2019 that would be really useful to at least narrow down where this rumour came from!

There's the DJTruthsayer rumour (where he heard it from a guy who heard it from an unnamed Frontier employee), but there's also one from earlier. There was CMDR Ascorbius saying that Michael Brookes himself said at a Lavecon Q&A. The original video was since removed, but somebody clipped it here. I don't see the exact date, but the last time Michael Brookes was at LaveCon was 2016 AFAIK, so that would be it from then.

I find it rather unlikely that he specifically would have said this, and he'd never be asked about it again, nor would he chime in elsewhere when the rumour was brought up. Also that nobody else who was inside that room would have repeated what was supposedly said.

Even if it was true I'd agree that it doesn't necessarily mean that Raxxla is anywhere near Sol and if anything suggests the opposite is most likely:
- by mid-2017, the galaxy had been quite substantially - if hardly systematically - searched by explorers.
- there are around 100,000 systems including uninhabited ones in the approximate "bubble". There were a similar number of systems catalogued on EDSM in the Prua Phoe sector alone at that time (and EDSM appears to only track 1/3 to 1/4 of actual exploration)

By that time, there were systematic area surveys, target surveys, and perhaps even a few boxel surveys too.
As a minor note, for how much EDSM, or to be more precise, EDDN tracks: it usually hovers just under 40% for any given period, which is a rather excellent ratio. (The last time Frontier have released official numbers was 2023. January though.) The total is just smaller because logs were only added about two years after release (IIRC), and only a handful of people triangulated system positions on EDSM before that.

Anyway, something else I wanted to add: there are some assumptions that many people make unintentionally, which might of course not be true: that Raxxla has always been at the same place, and that it's in the same place for everyone. If either (or both) of those are false, then relying on the "someone has already been in the system but didn't notice it" rumour is rather pointless.
All just speculation, of course.