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"The 'ELDRIDGE' was equipped with history's first ever inexhaustible pseudo-perpetual engine. This was not just a highly efficient generator, but it also made possible the production of defense fields from it's unique 'A.O. (Absolute Object) space' and the actuation of hyper-light-speed 'S.V. (Subject Variable) navigation' etc... With a design based on the Heisenberg proposition's S Matrix, which is the solution to the Uncertainty Principle's reciprocal relationship of particles (or Cosmic Wave), it was thus also known as the 'S Matrix Engine' or 'Heisenberg Engine'."
-Excerpt from a Zeboim-era magazine
Eldridge p9

Eldridge sketch from Perfect Works.

The Eldridge is an important vehicle in the timeline of Xenogears.

Around 10,000 years before the plot of Xenogears, this massive 100 kilometer long colony ship was commissioned by the Milky Way Federation.

Origins[]

In 4767, after the Federation completed their work on Deus, they made the powerful Zohar Modifier its power source. This led to disaster three months later, when both systems went out of control during a series of experiments. Deus invaded the nearby colony on the planet Miktam04β, resulting in innumerable causalities.

After the military intervened and managed to place Deus in suspended animation at the cost of many more lives, Deus was dismantled into several parts and sealed. The Eldridge was requisitioned for the use of transporting Deus's separated cores, as well as the survivors to another planet for investigation as to what caused the incident on Miktam04β.[1]

Deus takeover[]

Xenogears_Intro

Xenogears Intro

"You shall be as gods."

While near an unnamed planet, Deus managed to activate itself, and used the sealed Zohar to hack into the ship's mainframe. Seeing this, Eldridge captain Shigeyoshi Inoue and a trio of system operators began a plan to use the Eldridge's systems to stop Deus.[2]

Deus began to draw the Eldridge into space displacement mode and set the coordinates for Lost Jerusalem, alarming the crew. After the captain's call to the engine room to start the emergency sealing system went unanswered, the screens filled with the words 'You shall be as gods.' Captain Inoue immediately ordered his crew to begin evacuating the ship's passengers.

The crew's evacuation efforts failed as Deus used the Elridge's weaponry to destroy the escape shuttles in mid-flight. Before Deus assumed complete control over the vessel, the captain initiated the ship's self-destruct system as a last effort, and the Eldridge exploded over an uncharted life-sustaining planet.

After the crash[]

Mother

The mother of humanity arises naked from the wreckage of the Eldridge.

The remnants of the starship fell to the planet, along with Deus and the Zohar Modifier. Deus was heavily damaged and activated its regenerative program, which used the original Elehayym, now transformed into Myyah[3], as the mother of humanity. She set out to begin the process to create enough biological tissue to repair Deus, creating Cain, the members of the Gazel Ministry, the first incarnation of Myyah Hawwa, and the first incarnation of Elly, before returning to the Kadomony stasis pod from which she was generated. Meanwhile, the Zohar was lost in the mantle of the planet at The Land of Bethlehem.

There was only one survivor of the Eldridge: Abel.

Xenogears[]

Virtually all the technology seen in Xenogears was a part of the Eldridge, including all the Gears with the exception of the Xenogears. The salvaged pieces of the Eldridge help humanity's technological progress immensely, leading to some technologically advanced societies such as Zeboim.

Examples of Eldridge technology include:

  • Babel Tower: Babel Tower is the massive main section of the ship which impacted the planet directly perpendicular to the surface.
  • Ft. Jasper: Ft. Jasper is one of the levitating laser cannons seen active during the opening sequence.
  • Mahanon: A floating island known as paradise, or god's resting place. It is the central core of the Eldridge that still housed the Deus core. After the destruction of the Eldridge, this crashed into the sea.
  • Merkava: A mobile system intended to transport Deus.
  • Although not confirmed, it is heavily implied that Yggdrasil was part of the Eldridge.

Etymology[]

It may be a pun on the word eldritch, which means "otherwordly, sinister, ghost-like".

Another possibility is that it is a reference to the USS Eldridge (DE-173), notable for being the ship involved in the purported Philadelphia Experiment hoax.

Trivia[]

  • In Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed, during a cutscene in Chapter 5, a radio bearing the logo of Vector Industries broadcasts a discussion about the successful launch of the 8th interstellar colony ship as part of the Earthlife Colonization Project, with the 9th vessel being the introduction of the new generation of ultra-long range colony ships known as Philadelphia-Class Motherships. This shares the same Class designation as the Eldridge, as described in Perfect Works.[2]

References[]

  1. Perfect Works, pg 8.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Perfect Works, pg 9.
  3. Perfect Works, pg 10.

Gallery[]

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