Lore
Canon in the Game
There is Strict Oolite - and then there are the over 12655723162254307425418678245150829297671403862274660768187828858528140823147351237817802795619571074765208532598060224803240903782164769430795025578054271906283387643826088448124626488332623608376164081221171179439885840257818732919037889603719186743943363062139593784473922231852782547619771723889252476871186000174697934549112845662596182308280390615184691924446215552586523740084932807259056238962104689731522587564412231618018774350801526839567367444928206231310973619440354723718012867753019556135721376207959558860559933052856914157120622980057169891912595926540427596853441276985006724869558201930657900240943007657817473684008944448183219124163017666607770667585082169598239230274035517738648065600492702095732843492708856036920219883363111527988109277392696562776813446645651238419301586157342867860646666350050113314787911320639668510871569846664873595017518995670958477806411667505346462590471136862647349666243426242677175204732314281064417939041868653741187423064985189556742640111598580035644021835576715752869397465453828584471291269955890393294448315746500268702149708808053100406398480942695623586049403348084970064668900206251516968479727515576425962392136269169089884609794271331061018895634421094082310408889752954265842691732460538911784,960,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 different versions of Oolite with oxps - and that is ignoring the tweaked oxp versions!
So to establish a 'canonical version' of Oolite the game is no mean feat! Attempts to do this in the past (Realistic Shipyards & Oolite Extended) failed dismally.
Canon in the Lore
IF we turn from the game to the lore, we find instead a sustained argument.
There have been at least two major schools of thought: those seeking to link in Classic Elite/Oolite with the Frontier family (which includes Elite Dangerous) - and those who regard the entire exercise as a waste of effort! The first school, the syncretists, includes those working to incorporate elements of Frontier in Oolite - most notably Selezen and Drew Wagar. The second school, the purists, includes Cim & Smivs. Some of the keener exponents of the first school have since migrated to Elite Dangerous, whilst those of the second school seem to have gotten lost in inter-galactic space (except of course, Cody/El Viejo, who luckily seems to have quaffed from the chalice of eternal life.
| Feature | Classic Elite | Oolite Vanilla game | Frontier/Elite 2 | First Encounters/FFE2 | Elite: Dangerous |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of "Universes" | 8 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Existence of GalCop | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Existence of Federation & Empire | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Thargoids | Enemy | Enemy | Inexistent | Neutral | Neutral |
| Non-human races: felines/lobstoids etc | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Planet Earth on map? | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
What would count as the core Lore?
- As regards Classic Elite, we have what we see in the game (see table above) and then there is the material in the Instruction Manual and that in The Dark Wheel.
- But Cody, for example, does not see Dark Wheel as canonical (too many things that Holdstock got wrong - see The Dark Wheel controversy section).
- Andy Redman's Imprint was released together with PC Elite Plus in 1991 instead of Robert Holdstock's "The Dark Wheel.
- User2357 on the other hand sees - not only the Dark Wheel & Imprint but - (this wiki's host) Dylan Smith's The Virtuous Misfortune as an essential part of the core Lore.
- As regards Oolite there are Drew Wagar's novels and also Clym Angus's Chronicles of Shulth(which are both syncretistic - but in very different ways - regarding Frontier).
- There are also a bevy of OXPs: The Tionisla Orbital Graveyard collection and the Tionisla Chronicle, the old Lave OXP and the newer Lave Academy OXP. There is also the Deep Space Dredger and the Generation Ships OXP.
- It should be mentioned that Drew & Selezen also see a lore-based disjunct between Elite Dangerous and its predecessors.
Definitions
The Lore (accumulated knowledge or beliefs held by a group about a subject) can be defined by the Canon. Thus arguments about Lore often end up as arguments about the Canon.
Links
- What is regarded as canonical in Oolite history?: Discussion
- "Not in the manual" - setting and canon in the eight charts: Discussion led by the 3rd Lead Developer, Cim
- Metafiction: Dialogues on the Lore of Xlite: More recent discussion.
- Background story of the Elite universe - musings of a Frontier devotee back in 2006
- For something a bit lighter than the above, try Legends of Elite
