A brief look into Guardian Ruins' history
06 Nov 2023Eeka
Most of us have already heard about the enigmatic Guardian Ruins and some may even have paid a visit to them. However, not everyone was able to follow the community bustle when they were announced, nor did they know the effort that led to the first discoveries.With this in mind i decided to share a few bits of information i was able to gather from this period that provides better understanding of the context Guardian Ruins were added to the game, a knowledge i believe every Guardian Researcher/Hunter should have.
The First Ruin
It was found in Synuefe XR-H d11-102123 by CMDR xdeath in October 27th 3302, after decoding the system location from the stars positioning in the v2.2 launch trailer’s skybox45, the planet's moon was also used as reference6.
Picture 1 - First register of a Guardian Ruin provided by a playerThis method was not anticipated by the developers and the ruin discovery was not expected to be so early7, though Michael Brookes and David Braben were able to adapt the storytelling, the discovery method was supposed to be another (not disclosed)8.
Aftermatch
A week later Ram Tah launched a CG to collect Delta Pattern data from the discovered site9.
After the 2.2.03 patch in Jan 10th 3303, Ram Tah launched an algorithm capable of decoding ancient data from the ruins10 thus the mission Decoding the Ancient Ruins. The annoucement of this algorithm was made erroneously in dec 9th 3302 by accident1112, before the patch release13.
With the sucessful completion of the CG, Ram Tah was able to locate 4 more sites: Synuefe ZL-J d10-119, Synuefe XO-P c22-17, IC 2391 Sector ZE-A d101 and IC 2391 Sector GW-V b2-414. It’s worth noting the sites were not POIs and could only be found via visual survey15.
Picture 2 - First Guardian Ruin, Beta type, in Synuefe XR-H d11-102Ruin Types
There are three known Ancient Ruin types: Alpha, Beta and Gamma. The names are defined that way because of the order of the historical logs they provide: Alpha has the first datasets, Beta the middle and Gamma the last ones16.
Beyond providing Guardian historical data, no one was able to confirm additional purposes of the ruins, to date. In the Decrypting the Guardian Logs mission, Ram Tah implies that Guardian engines and starships blueprints could be obtained from a distant Guardian Ruin, in the log 2317.
The Mystery lives on
Although its main purpose is known, it's safe to say a huge part of Guardian Ruins remains an enigma: the layouts. There's no known, proven meaning to the layout of the ruin types, despite many attempts to explain it.
In our research we've seen many mystifiers claiming they were able to decode the layouts but beyond heavy, shady and overcomplicated explanations, no practical evidence was ever provided. They fail passing a simple filter that is extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Unfortunately, Guardian Research remains plagued by pseudoscience, misinformation, and morally dubious researchers, preventing the community from shedding light on mysteries such as this. Even groups self-acclaimed as open and free-thinking are teeming with such problems.
One thing is for sure: Guardian Research needs more curious commanders, committed to sharing useful information, willing to work with integrity and together to answer the questions that the brilliant commanders of the past left to us.
Picture 3 - "And who knows — maybe you’ll be the one to find it"