Raxxla

Raxxla is; a fabled planet, a ghost world, a myth. It was first featured in a novella by Robert Holdstock called The Dark Wheel, which came packaged with the original Elite game in 1984. Raxxla has been a hot topic for debate within the Elite community ever since.

Legend

As the legend goes, on Raxxla there is an alien construct that's a gateway to other universes, and all that's in those universes in the way of bounty, and treasures, and aliens, and life. Legend also says that long ago, a corps of The Dark Wheel discovered its location and lives there, exploiting the gateways for all the wealth and riches the other universes could provide. This made them powerful and twisted.

Jason Ryder was a member of the Dark Wheel. He found real evidence for the existence of Raxxla and came back from deep space to get a proper team together. Just before he was due to go back he was assassinated. People suspect the assassin was hired by the people who live on Raxxla to kill the threat to their dominance.

Not a shred of hard evidence has been uncovered to suggest that Raxxla actually exists. This world is kept alive by word of mouth and hearsay only, and is one of Elite's most discussed, and intriguing, legends.

Confirmation

Frontier Developments have historically refused to confirm or deny the existence of Raxxla, a possible location, or anything else about it, and continue to do so.

In September 2015, Drew Wagar - one of the official writers for Elite Dangerous - stated "I spoke to David Braben directly in 2014 and he confirmed to me that 'It’s out there and we (FD) know where it is.' – So it does exist." Michael Brookes said “There will be no clues.”

Raxxla is in the Milky Way. This was confirmed during DJTruthsayer's lore interview with Michael Brookes.

Question: "Where is Raxxla?" Brookes: "Well it's in the Mliky Way, but I can't tell you where it is. It's a journey that everyone has to travel for themselves." Question: "You have said that there will be no clues though?" Brookes: "That's true, but I think you have to make some of it a tiny bit obvious just so people know what they're doing. There's nothing to be revealed at this stage."

Related Missions

A few missions from The Dark Wheel faction in Shinrarta Dezhra refer to “The great mystery”. Thus far they have been simple cargo drops and it's not clear whether this ‘Dark Wheel’ is related to the original ‘Dark Wheel.’

Missions 2, 3, 4, 6 were handed out and might be related to Raxxla.

• Mission 2 mentions a rumour that talks about: "A Certain celestial body. Place that isn't a place, door that is also the key. The myth." Upon delivery you receive a message mentioning a map and a context for coordinates.
• Mission 6 is very vague about "the hunt for, well, you know", but could be a reference to Raxxla. However, this mission could be feeding the ships log (data crystals or spheres?) into the Mission: Obfuscated In The Outer Rim.

These are related in-game missions:

• Mission 2: Obfuscated In The Outer Rim
• Mission 3: The Silent Song Of The Spheres
• Mission 4: Discrete Redistribution Agent Desired
• Mission 5: Dark Wheel Seeks Diplomats For Discreet Delivery
• Mission 6: What Was Lost Will Soon Be Found

MacrosTheBlack has a thread about The Quest To Find Raxxla on the official forum.

References to Raxxla

'Raxxla!' Jason said. 'Remember: Raxxla!' Then, as he pushed Alex back into the cramped escape pod, he shouted, 'Remember me, Alex! I wouldn't have wished this on you. Raxxla!" - from The Dark Wheel by Robert Holdstock