Hypotheses:
1) Elite Legacy hint: Julia as a girl “dreamed of being the first pilot to discover Raxxla”... She hoped to keep her Eagle as she’d grown accustomed to its idiosyncrasies...”whether it was a suitable ship for travelling all the way to Alliance space was another matter”. So Raxxla system lies in Alliance space! (2015 bubble size so ~30 to max 60ly from Alioth: -33.65625 / 72.46875 / -20.65625); ~1100 systems
2) Elite Legacy hint: 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”
3) Codex hints:
a. "The legend of Raxxla has been in circulation, in whispers, for centuries" a clue? An anagram?
b. 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....
4) System name may (med probability?) be a subanagram of "Princess Astrophel and the Spiralling Stars" ... "for those with eyes to see". N.B. Astrophil/phel is a boy's name so why "princess"? N.N.B. "for those with eyes to see
and ears to hear" is the usual quotation.
5)
@Rochester has incontrovertibly shown that MB inserted Paradise Lost cosmology in-game, and this shows the Empyrean as being in/on the border of Alliance space. Milton's Pendent World
should be located near to Heaven's Gate and possibly lies between Heaven's Gate & Sol (0/0/0) (i.e. Gateway: -11 / 77.84375 / -0.875 or Wolf 248: 2.78125 / 60.3125 / -0.437) - from usual PLost cosmology pic, though Milton's text has the gate in the East. From
@Rochester 's findings Empyrean floor radius ~82.2 ly
6) Li Qing Jao station garden design is a clue (second line of Toast)->Milton's cosmos shown in left panel
7) Trinkets of Hidden Fortune may be required?
ED codex was released in Beyond - Chapter Four 11 DEC 3304 (2018).
Beyond - Chapter Four - Exploration Reveal livestream 18Oct2018 : @1:29:58 Adam Bourke-Waite (Senior Designer) said “that thing we haven’t shown” (i.e. Raxxla codex entry) “there’s elements of that that are probably my favourite parts of this”... so probably interesting graphics scene when Raxxla is activated! m.youtube.com/watch?v=rtmmmP_waf4&list=PL7glm5rbPHKw5-Bx_eQuz3SX7-dyAiyJh&index=9&pp=iAQB
Edifying Will - EXO livestream 21/03/2019 Will Flanagan with Sally Morgan Moore in Void Opal mining wing with EXO in an icy planetary ring. At 31:40 EXO said they’re really looking for Raxxla, Will mimed zipping his mouth then said you
are looking in the right place, you’re looking in an asteroid... No reaction from Sally.
Elite: Dangerous Fiction Diary #1 @7mins30 MB said “When you’re travelling in Alliance space make sure you’re not accidentally smuggling something illegal” with big grin and fixed look for several seconds. At about 10:21 he also mentioned the Martian alien artifact in the context of other sentient species in the galaxy (Guardian?)
The "alleged toast of the Dark Wheel":
To the jewel that burns on the brow of the mother of galaxies! Simguru Pranav Antal said “Sol is the birthplace of our race, the shining jewel of our galaxy” in Galnet 14jun3301 . Mother Gaia (mother of the Sky) faction in Sol, planet Earth, moon Luna
To the whisperer in witch-space, the siren of the deepest void! Li Qing Jo station at Earth's moon Luna, inventor of the FSD that allowed travel in witchspace, where the garden design is remarkable- see below
The parent's grief, the lover's woe, and the yearning of our vagabond hearts: Paradise Lost, God the father's grief at humanity's fall, Adam's woe at Eve's failure to resist temptation, Adam & Eve became the original vagabonds
To Raxxla!" (i.e. Paradise!)
Garden design:
Bah. Image deleted during copy & paste!
LHS is Milton's Paradise Lost cosmology ("fast by hanging in a golden chain. This pendent world, in bigness as a star; Of smallest magnitude close by the moon"), There is a tree motif, starting with 4 in the "pendent ball" in the left part of the garden, then 6 trees in the middle part, indicating IMO the prize...and 6 repeated in the right part. Logically middle panel indicates system, with "it" at second planet (not including moons, but does middle panel imply the broader outer ring?). RHS should logically indicate specific location - inner planetary ring?
Princess Astrophel and the Spiralling Stars? ...For those with eyes to see" & "a young man’s quest to save a princess from an alien dragon". I have long advocated that since we don't have the book mentioned in the codex then the clue must be buried in the title string, probably as a subanagram, and somehow the book title hint from Elite Legacy must also correspond to that from the codex...it took me a surprisingly long time to realise "alien dragon" is a viable subanagram of "Princess Astrophel and the Spiralling Stars"! (I blame my advanced age and too much Lavian brandy). Note: the Princess may be
from an alien dragon, or threatened
by it..the context is unclear-read on!
"Alien dragon": in addition to meaning "extraterrestrial", "alien" can mean "coming from a foreign country", so I looked at "dragon" in various foreign languages: Draconis, Draco, Long, Ryu, dragon, drake, drache, drago, drakon, zmiy, dragua, herensuge, cmok, zmaj, drac, dragone, drak, traekke, draak, draakon, drachen, sarkany, dreki, dragan, smok, dragao, balaur, continuar, draig, dregana, ajagar, zaj, dryagan, aydahar, yong, ajidaar, mangkon, draagan, dreganaluu, nagarr, dryagana, ajagara, makara, tirakan, ejderha, aagondarha, ajdaho, Rong, ziha, draak, zenido, chinjoka, dodon, ikiyoka, drakone, dhiragoni, masduulaagii, joka, inamba, dragoni, udrako, deragona, naga, dragona, tarakona, tarako, doragon
Spreadsheet search of systems in Alliance space: I built a spreadsheet of the ~1100 system names within 60ly of Alioth and did a substring search against the various foreign language dragon names.
Ryu system stands out as the only likely "alien dragon" (only one "Ryu", though 2 Draco & around 16 Draconis systems, investigated a few, nothing promising). 'Ryu' is the Japanese word for dragon, specifically the East Asian sort of dragon (wingless, long bodied, four legs), while 'Doragon' is the word for Western dragons.
Ryu system matches the middle part of the garden design! The star, planet 1 and it's single moon were first discovered by "Princess Luna" -this commander name joined the forum Feb 2016, but can't see any posts after 2017; while planet 2 and it's 6 moons were discovered by another. This matches the report that MB said (during the last Q&A he attended, so Lavecon 2017) that the Raxxla system had been honked but Raxxla was not discovered; the earlier three discovery scanner options (Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced) were condensed into a single, infinite-range scanner with Beyond Chapter Four release on December 11, 2018 (also it is very probable that Raxxla/Omphalos is not detectable during normal scanner operation). It's possible that "Princess Luna" was one of the FD team, or the name coincidence gave rise to the codex hints, but the use of "Princess" in the codex is suggestive, as is "Luna" (moons are star lovers, they follow them around!). Only space station in Ryu is outpost Francisco de Almeida Hangar ( the family name is derived from the Arabic words "al ma'ida," meaning a plateau), but see no hint here. Distances: 43.07 ly to Gateway, 46.07 to Alioth, 78.62 to Sol, 108.4 to Tau Ceti.
The MB Tours final Tourist Beacon Milton's Paradise Lost quotation ("fast by hanging in a golden chain. This pendent world, in bigness as a star; Of smallest magnitude close by the moon") suggests that Raxxla/Omphalos is located in a planetary belt (hanging in a golden chain?) but near the moon does not fit as Ryu 2a moon is orbiting faster than the belt asteroids.
I feel that at this point the
Raxxla logo should provide a final clue, but I can't resolve this part of the puzzle.
Bah. Image deleted during copy & paste!
Something hexagonal hidden in a planetary belt?
"Lonsdaleite also called hexagonal diamond in reference to the crystal structure, is an allotrope of carbon with a hexagonal lattice as opposed to the cubical lattice of conventional diamond", and is found in meteorite debris, formed by high temperature and pressure impacts converting hexagonal structure graphite into diamond. If this is the solution and Raxxla is a giant diamond asteroid I want an FD cheque for my share of the retail value!
Ryu2 has 6 MOONS, suggesting the hexagonal symbology. They're in coplanar circular orbit, the barycentre lies within planet 2. Does dotted line imply a complex orbit between all 6 moons, not sure that's feasible?? Or possibly hidden behind somehow?
Ryu 2 Ring dimensions are 118,440-145,580km; 0.395-0.486ls/ 145,680-469,960km; 0.486-1.568ls, so ring midpoints at 0.44ls & 1.027ls. Inter-belt gap should be at 0.486ls.
Ryu 2a orbital radius is ~4.84 ls/ 1,450,995.5 km/ 0.009699 AU
The trees in the garden design are not equally spaced! If a line were drawn between opposite pairs that would give the logo "asterisk"...? But logically that ought to be repeatable in the system to localise it, however there are only 5 mineral hot spots in the belts. Drawing lines between the orbiting moons will only give a very infrequent hexagonal alignment....is this a time-gated puzzle, does the Omphalos only open when the 6 moons are in regular hexagonal alignment??
The logo is reminiscent of Hecate, key holder of gateways, symbol the Tri-Via triple-crossroad, the triple moon goddess, one of her aspects being Luna...so a hint to the moons and confirmation of the system?
So is there a hint to a specific location within the belts?
There are 33 dots in the logo dotted hexagon...if these were light second counts the hexagon circumference in the logo would imply a radius of 5.25 ls...nothing found
#dots= 5 5 6 6 5 6 total 33...Is this indicating an Orbital distance? (5)56 (6)56?
556,656 km=1.857ls
566,565km=1.89ls
665,655km=2.22ls
656,556km=2.19ls dry dry
565,566km=1.887ls
655,665km=2.187ls
Nope- tried these..
Could be in light seconds for very distant orbital radius, but then wouldn't fit the quotation or location at planet 2.
665,655ls circumference, radius=105.94ls
565,566ls circumference, radius= 90.01ls
tried 100ls above & below Ryu2 poles.
Lagrange point "close by the moon"? (So L1 or L2?)
Mass planet 2,293.3054 Earth Masses
Mass inner ring 150,960,000,000 Mt / 2.52616464e-005 Earth Masses
Mass outer ring 4,422,300,000,000 Mt / 0.000740028 Earth Masses
Mass inner moon 0.0015 Earth Masses Semi major axis 4.84 ls
Ring masses are very small compared with planet 2 mass, so ignore for Lagrange calculation.
L1 -89,441.651 km (-0.298 ls) secondary; 1,361,553.844 km ( 4.542 ls) primary
L2 93,276.651 km ( 0.311 ls) secondary; 1544272.146 km (5.151 ls) primary
nope- nothing at L1 or L2
Running out of ideas! Need inspiration/Lavian brandy!
I've been carrying around a Trinket of Hidden Fortune while conducting this research, it's brought me no luck & I'm getting heartily sick of doing it in the dark (Ryu2 is a long way from the star, and the belts, planet & moons are dark!) while dodging pirates.. I'm getting frustrated & bored. Plus, Sandro was the initial game designer & I always thought he over relied on difficult RNG mechanisms....
reactormag.com
), perhaps we have to use our lasers to shoot at something to activate it...given the (IMO) likelihood that it is Guardian, then I'm reminded of the Guardian beacon activation, which IIRC requires shooting three things within a timeout period...must look up my PC videos of doing that...do any of the objects involved match the black area shapes of the logo??
