The mystery concerning Raxxla lives on.
And recently it has captivated me again. I recently saw a live stream with Drew Wagar, who is an author of Elite Dangerous lore.
This subject of Raxxla was brought up again, and I was pointed to an earlier video concerning this.
Here’s some notes that I gathered and researched, as they were considered “important” in relations to this mystery.
Systems of notice that were kept from the first Elite (1984) game:

- Orrere
- Reorte
- Uszaa
- Diso
- Lave (starting system for new players)
- Riedquat
- Leesti
- Orerve
- Zaonce
- Tionisla (referenced with some importance in “the Dark Wheel” novella)
- Tianve (a most curious choice to include in E:D, as it is rather far removed from the core worlds of Elite (1984)
This list shows the core planets/systems in the original Elite, and one addition.
These were the systems you could travel to from early in the game. The ships back then had a different hyperdrive system as opposed to our current Frame Shift Drives.
And the old hyperdrives had a limit (hard limit) of 7Ly traversal.
The odd one out in this list is Tianve.
Tianve was far beyond the reach of the general player. At least at an early stage.
And so it’s a system with less retrospective importance than the rest of the core systems.
A very curious inclusion for sure.
It was one of the furthest systems you could go to in the original galaxy map.
Tionisla
Rafe smiled, shaking his head. Suddenly there was a brilliant sparkle in his eyes: ‘Raxxla’s no alien, Alex. It’s a ghost world. A planet. A legend . . .’ He hesitated, staring quizzically at the younger man
The Dark Wheel – Robert Holdstock
through the distant link between them, ‘Jason really said that to you?’
Alex nodded. ‘Moments before . . . It was the last thing he said.’
‘Then he knew,’ Rafe said with a nod. ‘And that’s good enough for me. Alex, get your frail shell to Tionisla and take a visitor’s shuttle to the orbital cemetery there. Say you’ve come to see the grave of Starpilot Fleischer. And take a good look around. You do that, boy. Tomorrow. I’ll be waiting for you.’
In the novella, the Dark Wheel, Alex Ryder meets Rafe Zetter. A trader that worked with Alex’ father for several years prior to Ryder’s death in the attact of the Dark Wheel Cobra pilot.
During their encounter, Rafe mentions Tionisla as a place of importance in relation to the mystery surrounding Raxxla.
Evidently, there’s supposed to be a graveyard there. And from Drew Wagar’s musings on Raxxla, we know that the Executive Producer or Elite Dangerous (at the time), Michael Brooks, worked hard to incorporate this graveyward into the game.
Perhaps as a homage to the initial Elite novella. Perhaps as something more.
Tianve

Here’s the original Galactic Chart 1 from the game edition for the ZX Spectrum. The core worlds are located in the circled area, and Tianve is located in the orange circle on the top right of the map, 89.6Ly from Lave, where you begin your journey.
This would perhaps seem insignificant, and it may well be. But, all of the names in the Elite Dangerous were generated from the game engine, save from the named ones.
Here’s my thoughts on this:
If you were to “pay homage” to an early edition of the game or the lore within – it would make a heap of sense to include the core worlds. Because every early Elite player would instantly recognize them. In addition, one could include a few more specific ones if they had any connection to the game or the activities within.
Tianve is special in this sense. It had no specific connection to your story as a Commander in Elite. And no other star system in that region was selected to be in Elite Dangerous.
But Tianve is.
And as Drew Wagar said concerning this; Somewhere someone is doing clever things.
A fair bit of effort was put into the new game code to make Tianve a place in the E:D galaxy.
Manual programming and specific placing.
Why? For a system that has no real importance in the original game.
To say the least, it strikes me as odd.
Lave
Lave is the starter system in Elite 1984.
When you start up the game for the first time, this is your home.
This system is of the “core worlds” or Core Systems.
One place to check out is Cirag.
Cirag is one of the places where Alex ryder encountered the Cobra that killed his father. Allegedly marked as “the Dark Wheel”.