Eldridge
Ancient space vessel
Story and background
The ship carrying Deus crashes onto a planet and sets in motion the engineered rise of humanity in Xenogears.
Events and connections in the series
When Deus went out of control, its components were sealed and transported aboard the Eldridge. During the voyage, Deus attempted to seize the ship and reach a populated destination. The captain chose catastrophe over allowing the weapon to escape: the Eldridge was destroyed, and its wreckage fell on a remote planet. The opening cinematic depicts this disaster, although its meaning becomes clear only very late.
At the core of this history is the Wave Existence, a higher-dimensional being trapped through the Zohar/Deus system. A child aboard the Eldridge named Abel encounters this being and becomes the first Contact. The being responds to the boy's longing for his mother; the result becomes central to the existence of Elly, the recurring Antitype, and the pair's extraordinary connection.
The opening's doomed spacecraft is the Eldridge; the mysterious weapon it carries is the ancestor of the entire planet's conflict. Its introductory imagery is not a random prologue but the cause of the setting's civilization, theology and cycles of catastrophe. The title refers most immediately to Fei's ultimate Gear, while the story's deeper identity is the reunion of personal agency with a history designed to suppress it.
More in the lore
Explore the complete chronology for the surrounding events, relationships and consequences across the games.