ELITE: RECLAMATION THE OFFICIAL GUIDEBOOK

Drew Wagar .com

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Official Guidebook

ELITE: RECLAMATION

ELITE: RECLAMATION

Drew Wagar .com

Elite: Reclamation was born in controversy and clamour. Supported by a few brave souls at the outset, I had a vision of something that the prevailing view said was absolute madness. I never planned on writing an Elite story, I was working on something else in late 2012. But when opportunity comes knocking, I can only recommend that you grab it and hang on for dear life. I’ve met some amazing people as part of this process and been staggered by the generosity of both money and spirit towards me. Thanks to all of you. This guidebook lets you see the entire story of Elite: Reclamation, from beginning to end. I hope you enjoy it. - Drew

Kickstarter

ELITE: RECLAMATION

On Tuesday 6th of November 2012, I was spectacularly wrong.

On Friday 30th of November 2012, I was

spectacularly right.

• I’m on record on the Frontier forum (before the Kickstarter appeared) for saying that “Elite 4 will never happen, it’s been left too long and we’re all too old.” I was wrong.

• I had no idea what a Kickstarter was. I saw the Elite logo on the BBC website and clicked through like a thousand others.

• By the time I’d figured out what was going on the hefty sum of £200,000 had already been raised. I figured it was a foregone conclusion.

• The original Elite came with the famous novella ‘The Dark Wheel’. I wondered if they planned to commission one for this new game.

• You see, I had a bit of ‘previous’ with this sort of thing.

I wrote the Oolite Saga between 2006 and 2011

• Oolite, an open-source fan remake of the original game but built for modern hardware, had been running quietly along since around 2004. It’s still going strong even now.

• Just for fun, I wrote a novella for Oolite, ‘Status Quo’, back in 2006. It was well received by the immediate fans. It’s still on my website, free to read.

• That led to three sequels, each a little more ambitious than the previous one. I saw them as a ‘thank you’ to Elite, a game I considered gave me a lot in my youth.

• I sent an email to ask if Frontier would consider auditions for writing a book for Elite: Dangerous. There was no answer.

• But then the writer’s pack appeared.

£4,500?

Game Over, Commander!

Not many folks have a spare £4,500. I certainly didn’t.

Was this the stupidest idea ever? Maybe, but I ran with it.

I asked Frontier if it would be ok with them to launch a Kickstarter aimed at

funding a Kickstarter. Could I use some Elite imagery and video to

promote it?

Their response was fast and positive.

Kickstarter themselves didn’t bat an eyelid. My Kickstarter was approved overnight.

Feedback from the Elite Community was pretty mixed.

Then the press got hold of it. The coverage wasn’t exactly positive either.

• There were only two weeks between the launch of the Elite: Dangerous Kickstarter and my own.

• I had no story, no plot, no synopsis, no characters. I had no previous experience of running a Kickstarter.

• I received a number of hostile emails from Elite fans regarding the idea, accusing me of cashing in, being a crook and trying to derail the main Kickstarter. There was a lot of negativity.

• Would it work? Frankly I thought it would probably crash and burn; a blip, quickly forgotten.

• But I knew I had to try, or live forever with a sad litany of ‘What if?’

• I read the guidelines, did my homework, pressed the launch button, and held on.

We proved the detractors and the naysayers wrong. I hit my funding goal in a mere 9 days from a standing start.

A total of over £7,000 was pledged by the Elite community for an idea

called ‘Elite: Reclamation’. Now I had to come up with something.

Production

ELITE: RECLAMATION

I’ve written books before.

I knew this was going to be a bit of a mission.

• I had 14 months. It was January 2013. March 2014 was the target date. I was keen to make sure the book came out with the game.

• This was a big deal. Paid up backers would expect quality and a cracking story tied into the Elite universe.

• That meant a solid plan, realistic milestones and a lot of hard work.

• The book needed multiple approvals from Frontier, plot, synopsis and integration into the universe. Not to mention final approval once it was written.

• Editing, revision, type-setting, cover design, production, ebook testing, the list was daunting.

• I was going to need help. Fortunately it wasn’t far away.

During mid 2012 I’d entered a short story competition run by a small but enthusiastic

publisher to create a sci-fi anthology.

My story ‘Metal’ was one of those selected. It was published as part of

‘Fusion’ by Fantastic Book Publishing. I was impressed by their thoroughness.

After the Kickstarter I approached the

CEO, Dan Grubb, asking whether they’d be interested in publishing Elite:

Reclamation.

My synopsis was reviewed, my plot examined.

A contract was in the post.

Frontier Approval? That’ll be a doddle.

I know this stuff like the back of my hand …

• I was very confident in my original synopsis. I knew my Elite, I’d been a fan since my earliest teenage years. I was arrogant in my belief that there wasn’t anything you could teach me about the Elite universe.

• Other than the fact I’d completely missed the sequel games, Frontier Elite 2 (FE2) and Frontier First Encounters (FFE). Big mistake.

• It quickly transpired that Elite: Dangerous was going to follow on from these games.

• This blew big holes in my synopsis. Re-write time.

• The Frontier team’s attention to detail in terms of technology, astronomy, sociology and future history was impressive. I had to work hard to comply.

• But I got the approval in March. Now I had to write the story.

Timeline

ELITE: RECLAMATION

30 years is a long time to wait for a new game.

Yet in the Elite universe more than 175

years has passed since we first launched from Lave …

Original Elite – 3125 AD

Frontier: Elite 2 – 3200 AD

Frontier: First Encounters – 3250 AD

Elite: Dangerous – 3300 AD

Themes

ELITE: RECLAMATION

That original game seems so distant now, but it had such a dramatic

influence on me and so many others.

How to pay homage to it and do justice to this opportunity?

• The Original 8-bit Elite managed to create a believable open-ended universe

• It was peopled with pirates, bounty hunters and traders

• A galaxy of star systems to explore

• Three dimensional spacecraft viewed in first person

• All in 22k of memory

• Trading, Piracy, Bounty hunting. These were the key aspects of the original game. They are already a well-trodden path in official and unofficial fiction. They are referenced in this story, but arguably not the core of it.

• The later games introduced different factions into the universe: The Federation, The Empire and the Alliance of Independent worlds. Having reviewed some of the source material, I decided that a political story looked more engaging.

• I believe that Elite: Reclamation is the only full-length story to feature the Imperials as the main characters, which allowed me to stamp something of a mark on the style and conduct of these people. They have been described as a cross between “the early Roman Empire and the British Empire at its height.” Who could resist!

One of the key aspects of the two sequels was the drama of take-off and landing from a

planetary surface.

There was something almost poetic there, which had to be captured in the story ...

• Seamless planetary landings were a big feature of FE2 and FFE. They were also a source of controversy during the Elite: Dangerous kickstarter when it became clear that it wouldn’t be possible to land on planets in the initial version of the new game.

• I hadn’t really played either of these games before the Kickstarter, so I had to do some hasty research. It was difficult to be objective about a 20 year old game given the astonishing progress in computer graphics over the last decade.

• I understood the major themes though. The sense of exploration, touching down on a new planet, seeing a city come into view, the impression of scale as you moved from ground to orbit. Something of that experience had to be in the book.

The original game pitched you alone, in a poor ship, against a hostile universe

where anything might happen.

That sense of isolation struck me as essential ...

From the tone set in ‘The Dark Wheel’ we knew that life was harsh and brutal

in the Elite universe.

Nothing has changed by 3300 AD.

• ‘The Dark Wheel’, whilst much of its background had been necessarily revised, remained the definitive Elite book for many. It cast a shadow across the years that was impossible for any of the writers to avoid.

• Robert Holdstock had instantiated a universe filled with uncertainty. The Elite universe is no sanitised version of the future where humans have bettered themselves and thus reached for the stars. If anything, our darker side is more prevalent, civilisation held together by a thin veneer of advanced technology.

• Whilst the ‘Edible Poets’ and ‘Blue Bony Felines’ have hit the cutting room floor, the dark and malevolent background remains. It’s truly ‘Dangerous’ out there!

Being misunderstood, different, unfairly treated, ridiculed, taken advantage of,

hurt, injured, even tortured …

This was to be a dark tale, and not for the faint-hearted.

• Elite: Reclamation is set far from the closeted, predictable safety of the Core Worlds. The Prism system is some 80 light-years out from the centre of human inhabited space.

• This was a deliberate choice as I wanted a rather lawless and frontier feel to my story, something I didn’t think could be achieved in the Core.

• This had an impact on the technology used. I made a conscious decision to use older, less advanced hardware. Guns are, for the most part, projectile weapons. Ships are used and grimy, patched up and kept running with spare parts of dubious origin.

• Only the most rugged kit works out here, tried and tested for longevity and reliability.

• Elite: Reclamation was always going to be a science fiction story, but I was keen that it would appeal to as wide an audience as possible. That meant characters who could transcend the genre, and avoiding many of the typical sci-fi clichés.

• I concentrated on the human condition; the emotions, the fears and concerns we all experience, magnified by the scenery of the future. I was able to explore themes of betrayal, infighting, jealousy, ambition, pride and humility through this story.

• My previous works have also had a lighter tone. Elite: Reclamation was always going to be darker and has some sections which are sharp and edgy, reinforcing the brutality of the universe of Elite.

The Empire, with its flamboyance, style and quality, yet flawed by overwhelming hubris and decadence; so different from anything

we have on Earth today …

… what better way to show this than two spoilt sisters high in the echelons of Imperial

society.

• One thing that always appeals in a fictional story is being able to juxtapose people from completely different walks of life. The universe of Elite provides many opportunities to mix and match different types of people from common traders, through political leaders and high ranking military staff.

• In this story people of high rank and privilege end up rubbing shoulders with folks from lower social positions. This provides the opportunity for conflict and for examining how people interact with each other.

• I was also able to show a lot of family infighting and conflict between siblings. Physical abuse is one thing, but the mental abuse found in some family situations was another facet I wanted to explore.

Another feature from both FE2 and FFE that intrigued me were the strange isolationist

religious conclaves.

The most famous one, at Van Maanen’s Star, was deemed off-limits, but I still wanted

that fundamentalist religious flavour in my story …

• Religion is another rich vein I wanted to explore. The capacity for faith and belief to overcome reason is a constant flavour of my books and stories.

• FE2 and FFE featured a number of special star systems that were ‘off limits’, protected by law and forbidden to star travellers without a special permit. In Elite: Reclamation we get to see what one of these futuristic religions might look like.

• I intended to use one of the existing ‘isolationist conclaves’ as they were known, but the existing ones were too far away from where my own star-system ending up being placed, so I was able to ask for another one not to far away. You’ll find the details in the story.

• Approach with caution!

• Early on I new there was going to be battle of some sort. I wanted my heroine to be ripped from her familiar and comfortable Imperial world by events far beyond her control. During the Kickstarter I envisaged this as an attack on an Imperial City.

• As the plot developed this became less manageable. I changed the event to an assassination and pushed the attack into the Prologue. Thus it’s the Imperials attacking and subjugating in the first instance.

• I was fortunate too; the ‘Damocles’ video could easily

have been a scene from Chapter 13 of Elite: Reclamation, although my scene was written long before the video was released – and only minor tweaks were required as a result.

There was one other thing that had to be in the story, of course.

The star of the show, no longer a humble

wireframe …

… the venerable Cobra Mk3.

• The Cobra in Elite: Reclamation is a early version of original Elite vintage. Back in 3125 the Cobra was made by a company called ‘Cowell and MgRath’. Later versions (and the ones seen in Elite: Dangerous) are built by ‘Faulcon de Lacy’. Thus we have a ‘classic’ Cobra. I envisioned it as a cleaner and simpler version of the seminal ship.

• Many other classic craft from Elite are featured: Adders, Sidewinders and Asps. It was also important to me to feature some of the more notable ships from FE2 and FFE, thus the Eagle and the Imperial Courier also make an appearance.

• Of course, Elite: Dangerous brings new ships to the fleet, and a selection of these have also been incorporated, ensuring that homage is paid to all versions of the game.

Location

ELITE: RECLAMATION

The Prism system didn’t exist early on, I was planning to reuse an existing star-system

from FFE.

The Wolf 630 system looked ideal, but Frontier had other plans.

• The world where my adventure starts was originally going to be a rather hostile ice-bound planet. This image gave me the idea of having a moon as the primary scene, rather than a planet itself.

• I ultimately decided not to go for an ice-bound environment. I figured the Imperials liked their comforts! Thus the more pastoral ‘Chione’ began to take form.

• I liked the city in the distance however. Imperials value style over function, so that sort of elegant structure is how I see many of their buildings.

• The name for the star system came early on after it became clear that the Wolf 630 system was a no go. I still wanted to set the scene somewhere similar to the Pleiades star cluster. Those stars themselves wouldn’t work, they are too far from Earth and are too young to have planets.

• However a multiple sun system is both plausible and a little more interesting than our rather mundane solar-system. If you have the option to design a system, why not make it as interesting as possible? Particularly if you’re going to be able to visit it in game.

• A configuration of stars in a particular shape gave me ‘Prism’, and I ultimately decided that multiple colours would reinforce the ‘Prism’ idea.

If you’ve got a chance to design an entire solar-system, why go halves? How often are you going

to get that opportunity?

Hence the Prism system was born.

It lies about 80 light-years from the Core Worlds.

I’ve been an astronomer since the age of six, so it was important that my setting

obeyed current scientific understanding of solar system formation.

The Prism system was designed and

simulated, so it really could be out there, and, somewhere, it probably is…

Extract from Elite: Reclamation Working Notes: The Prism system is a quadruple star system. Light from the other stars is notable in the night sky on the inhabited planets, dependant on season and orbital dynamics. Prism and Ruby orbit a common centre of mass with an average separation of 50 astronomical units (AU). (1 AU = 93 Million Miles) Sapphire and Diamond likewise orbit each other at a distance averaging 70 AUs. The two pairs of stars orbit a common centre of mass with a diameter of around 650 AUs.

• Sapphire – Blue main sequence star (B1V) – No

Planets

• Diamond – White main sequence star (A7V) – No Planets

• Ruby – Red Dwarf (M2V) – No Planets

• Prism Star – Orange main sequence (K1V) – Planets indicated

The Prism star is smaller and much fainter than our own Sun. This means that any habitable planets must be in much tighter orbits than they would be in our solar system. Many recent real exoplanets are ‘Hot Jupiters’ in astonishingly close orbits, something I thought I would use here. I have a ‘Hot Saturn’ instead!

Diameter (km) Orbital distance (AU)

Orbital Period (days)

Surface Temp (K) Mass (Earth = 1)

Mestra 240,000 0.1 17 405 95

Daedalion 28,000 0.25 49 502 8.8

Chione (Moon) 11,500 - 1.2 (Daedalion) 320 0.82

Neaera 6,880 0.575 194 173 0.25

Eurycleia 49,500 2.1 1,553 136 17

Anticlea (Moon) 3,000 - 2.9 (Eurcyleia) 115 0.05

Amphithea 2,000 3 2,847 104 0.02

One of the TV shows I remembered fondly from the 1980s was ‘Ulysses 31’, the Greek names for

the Prism Planets are a small homage.

The images that follow are those I used to imagine the Prism system, they may look

different within Elite: Dangerous.

Why not go and see for yourself?

• Mestra

• Mestra was a daughter of Erysichthon of Thessaly. She had the ability to change her shape at will, a gift of her lover Poseidon. Mestra married the thief Autolycus.

• In Elite: Reclamation Mestra is the first planet in the system, a ‘hot Saturn’, close in to the star with an extensive ring system.

• Ever since I saw the footage of David Braben having a dogfight in a series of rings I wanted a scene like that myself.

• Mestra provides the scenery for this and is the first planet Kahina reaches on her return to the Prism system.

• Daedalion

• Daedalion was a son of Hesperos and brother of Ceyx. He is described as a cruel and warlike man. He is the father of the beautiful Chione.

• In Elite: Reclamation, Daedalion is a ‘super Earth’, a planet halfway in size between the Earth and ice giants such as Neptune. There is nothing like this in our solar system. Gravity would be very strong on the surface of such worlds, with a dense hot water vapour atmosphere.

• I envisaged Daedalion as a ‘water world’ completely covered with ocean to a depth of several hundred kilometres. Dalk has a wish to take an old atmospheric Moray spaceship and go hunting the legendary life-forms that are rumoured to live in the depths of the seas.

• Chione

• Chione (English translation: “Snow White") was the daughter of Daedalion. She was very beautiful, and had countless suitors, including the gods Apollo and Hermes. Chione became so vain she compared her beauty favourably to that of Artemis, whereupon the goddess shot and killed her with an arrow.

• In Elite: Reclamation, Chione is the only habitable world in the Prism system, a moon of Daedalion. Its primary feature is that it is tidally locked to Daedalion, meaning the planet doesn’t change its position in Chione’s sky, whilst the sun rises as sets as normal.

• Chione features shallow oceans of pure water and the recent discovery of Tantalum ensures it becomes a flashpoint for the coming conflict.

• Neaera

• Neaera, a daughter of Autolycus, mother of Hippothous, eventually killed herself after hearing of the death of her son.

• In Elite: Reclamation, Neaera is the next planet out from Daedalion, a mid-sized Mars like world. Perhaps it will be terra-formed in years to come, but it is currently uninhabited.

• It was also a little homage to FE2 and FFE – there are rather a lot of ‘rocky planets with a thin atmosphere’ in those games!

• Eurcyleia and Anticleia

• Eurycleia was the daughter of Ops and granddaughter of Peisenor, as well as the wet-nurse of Ulysses. As a girl she was bought by Laertes, Ulysses' father. She nursed Ulysses and Telemachus, Ulysses' son.

• Anticleia was the daughter of Autolycus and Amphithea and mother of Ulysses by Laertes. She was also the granddaughter of the god Hermes.

• In Elite: Reclamation Eurcyleia is a Neptune-like ice giant on the edge of the Prism system orbited by a small rocky moon – Anticleia.

• Amphithea

• Amphithea was the wife of Autolycus and mother of Anticlea (the mother of Ulysses).

• In Elite: Reclamation, Amphithea is a rocky dwarf planet on the outskirts, it is the last charted object in the Prism System.

Chione was of little interest to the Imperials until the discovery of Tantalum.

However the charms of this pastoral moon, so far

from the Core Worlds, were not lost on them.

The Imperial palace made the best of the views available.

I also had the chance to define a space station. Chione plays host to a massive orbital mining

facility called ‘Hiram’s Anchorage.’

This was named after my father, ‘Hiram Holroyd Wagar’, who passed away in 2013.

Core Characters

ELITE: RECLAMATION

I was very keen to have characters that weren’t classic protagonists and

antagonists. There are no ‘goodies and baddies’ here.

The cast is universally flawed, each with their

own agenda they firmly believe in …

• Lady Kahina Tijani Loren is the youngest of the Loren Lineage, third daughter of Senator Algreb.

• She is frustrated as the story opens, the least of three daughters, denied a useful place in the family through no fault of her own.

• Despite her privileged position, years of bitterness have made her cold and aloof, something which only the drastic events that unfold are able to strip away.

• The loss of her memory forces her core personality back to the fore, finding inner reserves of strength that no one, including herself, have recognised before.

• Thus Kahina goes from cold, hard and alone, through loss and betrayal to vulnerability and innocence, before finally learning judgement and compassion …

Kahina starts from a position of absolute privilege, in a place most in the Elite

universe would envy.

Yet she has no personal freedom and is regarded as nothing more than a tool in her

family’s ambition …

Her world and life are turned upside down by powers completely beyond her control.

Deprived of even her memory, she is left

vulnerable and exposed …

Yet she is no shrinking violet, nor incapable of looking after herself.

High ranking Imperials are often trained in martial arts and sword-play from a young age in order to take part in the ritualistic ceremonies that form a

major part of Imperial society.

• Hassan Farrukh Sharma was designed as a young trader, trying, rather ineptly, to make his way in the universe by treading a familiar path to wealth. He’s the closest character to the typical ‘trader’ player of Elite: Dangerous itself.

• I wanted a character the players could relate to directly, someone who had the same problems; not enough cash, small vulnerable ship and some difficult choices.

• He makes some bad calls, and his mistakes cost him dear. Through him I was able to show the Elite: Dangerous universe remains a tough and difficult place.

• He eventually is forced to make a choice between doing what is right and doing what is best for him, something I hope the game may provide for players.

Hassan is an analogue of the player in Elite: Dangerous.

He’s got a cheap ship, not much money and he’s trying to make his way up the food chain.

Just as you’ll find out in the game, it isn’t going to

be easy …

• Patron Dalk Torgen was designed to be many things, but primarily a character that was confusing. Should the reader root for him or not? Is he trying to do the right thing or is he working against the greater good?

• My answer was that even Dalk becomes unsure. He starts with a clear agenda, but Kahina’s own journey unseats him, and he eventually becomes the very thing he initially despised.

• He is a man who loses his way, but doesn’t realise it until too late.

• I wanted a ‘mentor’ character, and Dalk provides this for Kahina early on. As often happens the ‘apprentice’ doesn’t always turn out as expected.

• Dalk underestimates Kahina’s resolve and this proves to be his undoing.

Dalk is a man on a mission, trying to restore a lost arcadia, playing the Reclamists, the Empire and the Federation against each

other …

• Octavia Quinton is a mafia boss. She runs a strong cartel of trading vessels across this region of space, directly in competition with the trader’s guild which is an honest alliance of smaller traders.

• She is the mechanism by which weapons have been smuggled to the Reclamists on Chione, funded by the Federation.

• She is brutal in dealing with those who stand in her way and considers everything as a commodity to be bought and sold at whim. She has a very clear sense of self and is highly intelligent.

• Octavia is attempting to defy age, becoming increasingly obsessed by the quest for more life.

• This quest has led her to Kahina and the Imperial technology Dalk employs to hide her.

Octavia is a powerful woman, with more wealth than she could ever reasonably use.

She has been striving to create a

permanent legacy for herself and these events give her a unique opportunity …

• Luciano Prestigio Giovanni (Luko) is an old school trader with an old school ship. He has a wealth of experience, but an altercation with a group of pirates forced him to land his crippled ship. He’s been marooned for twenty years.

• He is initially rather judgemental about the Imperials, gaining him a frosty reception from Kahina. He disapproves of much of what they stand for, particularly slavery which he abhors.

• Kahina’s resolve and strength of character impresses him and he find himself drawn into her conflict despite his objections, assisting her return to the Empire.

• He is torn between supporting Kahina as an individual and supporting the conflict she instigates, leading to a fall out between them.

Luko is a widely travelled trader with an old school approach. He flies an antique ship of

original Elite vintage.

Marooned on a desolate world for 20 years he’s become rather eccentric, but plays an

important role in the fight for Chione …

Not far away from here was the border, the boundary, the limit of known space.

The edge over which only those who couldn’t resist the siren song of adventure dared to go.

Those to which ‘dangerous’ was just a substitute

for exhilaration.

They call it the Frontier.

She looked at him with a mischievous grin. ‘Shall we?’

Author’s Note: A huge number of people were involved in the creation of Elite: Reclamation; from fans, backers, friends, family, other writers, editors, Fantastic Books and Frontier themselves. Literally hundreds of people made this tale possible and there’s no space to thank you all individually. You all deserve it though. Right on, Commanders! Drew (May 2014)

ELITE: RECLAMATION An Official Elite: Dangerous Novel

Drew Wagar .com