Helen Grange Saga



The Helen Grange Saga was started by an entry of Helen Grange's journal regarding an investigation into the Lamanai Pyramids.

It was a roleplaying project between players on the forums and Jagex moderators disguised as various characters in a story that played out in forum posts.

The Helen Grange Journals
The Helen Grange Saga was started by an entry of Helen Grange's journal regarding an investigation into the Lamanai Pyramids on the Stellar Dawn Official Forums.

During the course of these journal entries, a narrative began to emerge centered around an archaeological dig at Lamanai north of Belize. In journal entries set in October to November of the year 2043 Helen Grange, an archaeologist at the Lamanai dig site, chronicled the excavation of two ancient Mayan pyramids. During the course of the excavation she discussed her extraordinary discoveries and speculated on the incongruities of this particular dig. For instance in this dig there were unique substances, osmium and tungsten, and there were only two pyramids as opposed to the usual three.

In her final entry Helen Grange revealed that they had discovered some kind of device that was built with methods and materials which the Mayans did not use. According to Helen Grange goverment agents arrived and were beginning to enforce a communications lockdown.

Special Projects Group
The Special Projects Group (SPG) showed up when Helen Grange disappeared. Alex Novak and D Georgiou began to post talking to each other and exchanging codes. When members of the SDOF began to talk to them they began to interrogate various users of the forums on whether they had been to Belize, the same area where Helen Grange was working, and where they could find Helen Grange's journals. After they had read the journals Alex Novak began to rant against D Georgiou saying that he was using her and that the whole affair was about her father's work. After this the SPG began to study the forum posters for a short time and announced the winners of the Art Competition. However eventually they signed off saying "........We're moving. Irregular chatter, talk to no one." Since then there has been no contact with Jagex on the SDOF.

Facebook Incorporation
Helen Grange had a Facebook account, where she posted updates on her situation with notes, similar to the initial diary entry on the Stellar Dawn Official Forums. She would add anyone as friends so players could easily access her page and notes. The Facebook account was deleted when she disappeared.

Characters
Helen Grange - Archaeologist and the writer of the journals.

Professor Catherwood - An expert on Mayan archaeology who has experience in astrophysics modelling.

Dr Ashkenazy - Archaeologist working on the Lamanai Dig.

Alex Novak - A member of the SPG whose father might have some connection with Helen Grange.

Dimitris Georgiou - A member of the SPG who seems to be in charge.

Speculation and Analysis
When the Helen Grange Saga first began people carefully analyzed every detail in every post. They connected the dates she mentioned to possible release dates for the Stellar Dawn Beta and hypothesized that when she discussed the progress of the dig she was actually allegorizing the progress of the beta, though this has since seemed to be less and less true. The other theory commonly expressed was that the journals and the SPG were the beginnings of a backstory for the Stellar Dawn Universe.

Since the ending of the Helen Grange series of journal entries, there have been a number of hoaxes pretending to be follow-ups or some other part of the story. None have been confirmed to be part of the saga as of yet.

Trivia
The name of Professor Catherwood is likely gotten from that of Frederick Catherwood, a 19th century artist known for depicting the ruins of the Mayan civilization.

Osmium and tungsten are both elements used to make substances significantly more durable.

Lamanai ("submerged crocodile" in Mayan) is a real archaeological site located just outside of Belize.

The acronym SPG also refers to the Space Propulsion Group, a team dedicated to developing hybrid rocket technology.