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Xenosaga is primarily a series of futuristic science-fiction RPG video games developed by Monolith Soft and published by Namco / Bandai Namco.
The first episode released in February 2002 in Japan, while it was released in February 2003 in North America. The final third episode was released in 2006. Thus, it could either be seen as a series lasting from 2002/2003 to 2006, although since Xenosaga was finished in 2006, there have been Xenosaga references in other video games, such as KOS-MOS' inclusion in Project x Zone. The main story of Xenosaga is in the form of a trilogy of PlayStation 2 video games. Several side stories and spin-offs were also developed, as well an anime adaptation.
Xenosaga was a very ambitious project, intended to be about 6 episodes long, but due to budget and time constraints and other factors, 3 episodes were released. Episode III was forced to cram and condense the rest of the story into a single game.
Xenosaga is an epic-sized space opera that opens in the outer reaches of the galaxy thousands of years in the future sometime in the year 6000-7277, in the 61st century to 73rd century. Humanity has colonized over 500,000 planets in outerspace, and hasn't lived on Earth in over 4000 years. The story follows several space-dwelling citizens as they aim to unlock the secrets of the universe. Humanity is on the verge of extinction due to a mysterious race of hostile aliens known as Gnosis.
Plot summaryEdit
In Lake Turkana, Kenya, during an archaeological excavation, T. Masuda discovers the Zohar, a yellow artifact with mystical properties, in 20xx CE.
In the year T.C. 4767, which is 6000-7277 A.D, mankind exists on distant planets and artificial colonies. Humanity has abandoned Earth for thousands of years; Earth is seemingly gone and the path to it is unknown; it has been erased from starmaps and renamed "Lost Jerusalem". The capital of all known space is Fifth Jerusalem, where the Galaxy Federation supposedly keeps watch over mankind and colonized 500,000 planets in the galaxy.
For the past fourteen years, mysterious alien enemies known as the Gnosis has attacked man's colonies seemingly indiscriminately. Gnosis have been killing humans relentlessly, pushing humanity on the verge of extinction. It is largely believed that the Gnosis were brought into the universe by a scientist named Joachim Mizrahi during the Miltian Conflict of T.C. 4753, but there is more to that story than the public really knows.
Ever since the Miltian Conflict and the resulting disappearance of Old Miltia, the Zohar has become a topic of interest. Several factions — chiefly the underground Ormus cult and the aforementioned Galaxy Federation — wish to harness its power. Both groups believe that the Zohar's significance is threefold; is a power source, the cause of the Gnosis crisis, and the virtual prison of U-DO, a formidable wave existence. Thus, the two factions believe that the Zohar could be the key to the Gnosis destruction and a pathway to unlimited power.
Tests on the Zohar and its power have been conducted by Joachim Mizrahi, the Galaxy Federation, and a mysterious scientist known as Sellers, whose affiliation is with Ormus and the Hyams Group. The results of these tests was the development of several Zohar Emulators, or copies of the original Zohar, which vanished when Miltia was sealed off. However, the original Zohar's power still eclipses the energy output of any known Emulator, despite the fact that one of the Emulators caused the disappearance of the planet Ariadne.
As a result of these discoveries and experiments, the Ormus society and the Galaxy Federation have grown obsessed with finding the original artifact that was sealed away on Miltia at the end of the Miltian Conflict. However, the key to unlocking Miltia and the Original Zohar is contained within the Y-Data, which is in the hands of a Realian called MOMO Mizrahi. In order to retrieve the Y-Data, Ormus must hatch a plot against the Galaxy Federation and its allies by using a series of dummy organizations and insiders, including the U-TIC Organization and an enigmatic figure known as Albedo Piazzolla.
Meanwhile, Vector Industries, the largest corporation in existence and the primary arms manufacturer for the Galaxy Federation, is currently researching new ways to use nanotechnology to build an unstoppable battle android, code-named KOS-MOS. This is quite controversial, since androids have been replaced for many, many years by artificial life-forms known as Realians, which have proven far more effective in combat. However, Vector Industries and their head of R&D, Shion Uzuki, have other ideas. Shion, a simple researcher traveling on the starship Woglinde, becomes involved in a conspiracy not only to control the mysterious Gnosis and Original Zohar, but to reshape the destiny of all mankind.
Main charactersEdit
Xenosaga features a cast that is slowly introduced as the series develops. Almost each cast member (sans KOS-MOS) is dealing with their own unique sort of pain and trauma, especially Shion, Jr. and Ziggy. Allen and Jin also suffer from slight emotional pain, both of them suffer from unrequited love for Shion. The following is a brief description of the main characters featured in the series.
- Shion Uzuki — The protagonist of the series. She is the chief engineer of Vector Industries' First R&D Division. Shion is a young woman who is the lead designer in the KOS-MOS project. She also specializes in Realian technology. However, as the plot develops and corruption is revealed, Shion distances herself from Vector. Shion is ignorant to the fact that her role in the story is greater than it appears.
- KOS-MOS — KOS-MOS is a female battle android developed by Vector Industries (primarily Shion and Kevin Winnicot). Although her development was delayed by an incident two years prior to Episode I, she becomes fully functional during the Woglinde disaster. KOS-MOS has a strong loyalty to Shion that is only overruled by unknown commands from Vector Industries.
- Ziggy — A humanoid cyborg who wishes to be brainwashed because of traumatic experiences as a human. Ziggurat 8 ("Ziggy") befriends MOMO while rescuing her from the U-TIC asteroid "Pleroma" during Episode I. Ziggy's past rises again in several instances, primarily in Episode II.
- MOMO Mizrahi — A female 100-Series Observational Realian developed by Joachim Mizrahi and modeled after his daughter Sakura Mizrahi, MOMO is captured by the U-TIC Organization because she carries valuable information: the Y-Data. MOMO soon befriends Ziggurat 8 when he rescues her from Pleroma. As the story continues, MOMO also develops a close relationship with Jr. and Ziggy.
- chaos — An enigmatic figure who appears to be a white-haired teenager. A member of the Elsa crew, chaos' origins are unknown. However, he does possess the power to destroy Gnosis with the touch of his hand.
- Jr. — A U.R.T.V. unit who played an integral role in the Miltian Conflict, Jr. is a man trapped in a child's body due to his gene modification. Currently, Jr. is a leader of the Kukai Foundation, which is run by his fellow U.R.T.V., Gaignun Kukai. Throughout Episode I and Episode II, Jr. develops a relationship with MOMO.
- Jin Uzuki — Shion Uzuki's older brother, Jin Uzuki runs a bookstore on Second Miltia. However, he was once a sword-wielding Federation commander who attempted to unlock the truth behind the Miltian Conflict. In Episode II, he joins the quest to confirm what he learned about the Conflict.
- Allen Ridgeley — Shion's assistant and friend, Allen is the second in command of the KOS-MOS project. Although two years older than Shion, he is relatively new to Vector Industries and is her junior in the organization. Allen often acts shy around Shion because he is in love with her, although she is rather oblivious to this fact.
Themes Edit
On the surface, Xenosaga is known for its story character drama elements, having a plot which can seem convoluted and difficult to comprehend at times, giant robot mech battles, spaceships, swimsuits, anime presentation, and technobabble. It also has long cutscenes - the trilogy is about 20 hours worth. In the case of the trilogy's English-language releases, it's known for its inconsistent voice acting, with many characters featuring different voice actors.
However, on a deeper level, Xenosaga contains an alchemical mix of deep religious, spiritual, and philosophical overtones, delving into issues such as salvation, free will, morality, mental health and illness, trans-humanism, racism, speciesism, science and technology, among numerous others.
Intertwined with the symbolism of the series are themes of Friedrich Nietzsche, which all three episodes of the main Xenosaga trilogy are named after, as well as Jungian psychology, and elements from the Bible in general. Many key plot elements in the plot named after concepts from Gnosticism.
Like Xenogears, Xenosaga also contains religious and historical allusions that involve names and terms. For example, "KOS-MOS" is derived from the Greek 'kosmos', originally meaning "ornament or decoration", eventually coming to mean "universe, order, and harmony". Another example is chaos, who is also identified as "Yeshua". Furthermore, "Abel" and "Abel's Ark" are references to a biblical figure of the same name.
Buried beneath the mythological and psychological references are the questions the series asks, which often deal with the meaning of life and the truth behind figures and artifacts.
Vision of the future Edit
|This section contains theories based on the research or speculation of one or several fans. While based on official information, the theories themselves may not be officially verified by developers.
Universe Edit
- Humanity does not exist on Earth, and has colonized 500,000 planets in outer space. Earth is re-named Lost Jerusalem and the path to it is no longer known. Interplanetary travel is available through abundant spaceships.
- There is a strong interest in Lost Jerusalem (Earth) culture and antiques such as books.
- It seems no signs of other intelligent life have been found such as aliens (excluding the Gnosis, however, it's eventually revealed that Gnosis are human souls). It's primarily just humans, genetically modified humans, and robots.
- Multiple new species have emerged, including:
- Designer Children - genetically modified humans, usually for looks, intelligence, health and disease-free. Subgroups include:
- Realians — artificial mix between human and robot. Realians can also be categorized as androids.
- Überhuman — humans modified early in life. Offspring of Überhumans are called Übermutants.
- U.R.T.V. — 669 genetically modified partial-humans meant to counter U-DO. Four unique Variants have special abilities.
- Designer Children - genetically modified humans, usually for looks, intelligence, health and disease-free. Subgroups include:
Humanity, laws and ethics Edit
- Nationality is attributed by planets instead of countries. Of course, there is no such thing as being "Mexican", "Japanese", "German", etc, because no one has lived on Lost Jerusalem for thousands of years. Instead, nationality is "Miltian", "Gedalyan", "Brezzan", etc. With 500,000 planets, there are hundreds/thousands of different nationalities, although in many cases, some nationalities are attributed by star clusters and systems, rather than planets. In addition, many planets have higher populations compared to others; for example, a "colonized" planet may consist of huge cities with populations in the millions/billions, while other planets merely have small bases.
- The concept of separate "races" and "ethnicity" are never mentioned, likely due to the amount of genetic variety and genetic mixing over the past thousands of years, leading to a variety of diversity. Of course, there is a physical difference between someone like Helmer and someone like Scott, but no one ever cares to mention it. Racism still exists, but it's mainly in the form of speciesism (e.g. humans and Realians), rather than humans and humans.
- Ormus seems to be the major religion, heavily implied to have evolved from a specific sect of Christianity (Catholicism). However, Ormus is the secret name for the religion, and the Immigrant Fleet is the public side of Ormus. According to Xenosaga ODM, Buddhism has survived, but is thought of as an "ancient religion". There are no mentions of Islam, leading to the possibility that Islam died out.
- The world of Xenosaga seems post-scarcity, and issues such as poverty, homelessness and starvation are not mentioned within the plot. People take human rights extremely seriously.
- War and racism exists to a degree. The wars, such as the Zoar Incident and Miltian Conflict, are mainly religious conflicts and power struggles with the Federation and the Immigrant Fleet, rather than between Federation planets. Racism is usually by humans against Realians (especially after the Miltian Conflict) and Überhumans. Allen Ridgeley makes a slightly racist comment against Übermutants.[1]
- Capital punishment has been abandoned by the Galaxy Federation for thousands of years in favor of "personality reconditioning". Every crime is given a certain level (e.g. Level 3 personality reconditioning, level 5 personality reconditioning) according to the type and severity of the crime. The worse the crime, the higher the level required. At higher levels, nanomachines are even implanted into the brain to control behavior. After a criminal has successfully completed their re-education programs, they are allowed to return to society. All criminals are forced to undergo personality reconditioning at facilities, with no exceptions.
- In Episode I, Margulis comments, "The people of this world have cast away their will to create, drowning themselves instead in an endless cycle of consumption. What you see now is the deceitful light cast by their stagnant eyes." In Episode II, Sergius XVII says, "Thanks to the U.M.N. and the Federation. They've managed to reduce the people to a mass of spineless weaklings." Both of these comments imply that, in Margulis's eyes, much of humanity lacks and is incapable of independent free thought, and has a weak-willed and consumerist mindset.
Science and technology Edit
- Spaceships are abundant. Planets have space ports (such as the one seen on Second Miltia). Fifth Jerusalem, in particular, has an orbital elevator.
- The entire galaxy uses the metric system instead of the imperial system.
- The universe uses a universal digital virtual monetary currency called Credit, synced to the U.M.N.. Its symbol is G, and it's rounded to the nearest whole number.
- The Kukai Foundation is a free orbiting space colony which can be moved by the Durandal.
- Robots and automated jobs and work is normal, welcomed and embraced (for example, the robot in the bar on the Elsa).
- Humanity has almost mastered technology and science, and is much more advanced.
- Ether is like magic, but rooted in science. When used, characters say "Ether Drive!" and "Open Ether Circuit!" It can do many things, like allow people to heal themselves, run and move faster, shoot fire beams, increase physical strength and endurance, etc. However, Episode II requires licenses to be obtained, and Ether may possibly be required to be learned first (for example, before you go around shooting fireballs, you must learn how to first).
- The U.M.N. is a mysterious informational network that spans the entire universe and the 500,000 colonized planets. It is essentially the Internet. Anyone can connect to the U.M.N. via public terminals or portable connection devices. Its non-locality is a large factor in its use in space warps and FTL (faster than light) communications. The U.M.N. uses the Collective Unconscious as a network infrastructure.
- Mental health, as well as mental/physical disabilities, are taken extremely seriously. Jin comments that aside from mental illness, almost all diseases can be cured with medicine and nanotechnology, and that doctors mainly serve as conversationalists for the elderly.[2] However, Mrs. Cherenkov comments that nanotechology isn't perfect and still can't correct mutation in genomes and fix abnormal DNA.[3]
- Sellers uses a hoverchair instead of a wheelchair.
- Human cloning is available as a privilege to a select few who are physically and mentally stable, have positive contributions to the Galaxy Federation, and have filled out a lengthy application process. Mrs. Cherenkov did this, but she needed Cherenkov's support.
- In Episode II, chaos holds a futuristic mini fire extinguisher. It is lightweight, child-friendly, and can easily fit in one hand with a single, simple button.
- Juli Mizrahi mentions that the "the average lifespan of a living brain that hasn't undergone extension is 130 years".[4] Whether or not Juli is referring to humans or cyborgs is unknown. If Juli is referring to humans, then this means a human who hasn't undergone life extension lives to 130 years old. With life extension, it could be anywhere from 131-500 years old.
- Books, print and physical paper is mainly considered archaic and antique. Books have been converted to digital formats and are distributed digitally via the U.M.N. When Jr. tells Mary Godwin she should read books, her reply is, "Books are made from paper and they're such a pain to carry around."
- Electric-powered hover cars are the main form of transportation.[5] They also have self-driving technology that can switch between manual and auto.[6]
- A virtual reality exists called Encephalon. It is a massive, virtual reality world normally accessed through the assistance of special red goggles. It is similar to lucid dreaming. Furthermore, the Encephalon can recreate locations in absolute detail.
|Section ends here.
Primary PlayStation 2 trilogyEdit
Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur MachtEdit
- Main article: Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht
Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht is the first title in the series. Der Wille zur Macht, can be translated as "The Will To Power", but "The Will to Make" is a better translation and is a reference to Nietzsche's thus named concept of an assumed rudimentary a-teleological force that elicits all activity stinted to existence itself.
Episode I serves as an exposition to the storyline; it introduces or mentions most of the main protagonists and antagonists, establishes a plot involving the Gnosis and the recovery of the Zohar Emulators, and provides foreshadowing to important past or future events. Several plot points such as the significance of the Miltian Conflict, the manipulators behind the U-TIC Organization, and the backstories and motivations of many characters are left unanswered for the player to question prior to playing Episode II.
Episode I generally received high marks, although critics were mixed about a variety of issues (see section).
The game's battle system introduces new concepts not common among popular RPG titles, and the majority of the soundtrack is performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und BöseEdit
- Main article: Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse
Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse is the second installment in the series. Jenseits von Gut und Böse can be loosely translated as "Beyond Good and Evil", but it literally means "The other side of Good and Evil" and is taken from a philosophical book by Friedrich Nietzsche of the same name.
Episode II continues the storyline started in Episode I. The backstories and significance of Albedo Piazzolla, Nigredo/Gaignun, and Jr. are developed. Multiple secret organizations are uncovered, including Ormus and Hyams. The Gnosis take a back seat for Episode II; instead, the main plot focuses the search for the Zohar, which culminates in a crisis at the location of Old Miltia. The cast from Episode I plays an important role in the events that transpire on Old Miltia. Although there are several loose ends and characters unaccounted for in Episode II, it concludes without a sudden cliffhanger. This is underscored by the fact that Episode III will take place a full year later.
Episode II changes some elements compared to Episode I, including different graphics, a modified battle system, new music composers, and shorter cutscenes. These changes led to mixed results (see section). After the release of Episode II, several Monolith Soft employees were removed from the project.
Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach ZarathustraEdit
- Main article: Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra
Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra is the third and final game of the primary series. Also sprach Zarathustra, literally "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", is also the title to Nietzsche's most famous novel, which introduced the Übermensch and popularized the phrase "God is dead".
In September 2005, it was announced that Episode III would mark the premature end to the series, which was originally planned to span six titles. Episode III continues the storyline using the current cast of characters, with the addition of several new antagonists and playable characters (Allen, Mizuki, and Canaan). The three new playable characters are only temporarily so; Allen "leaves" the party faster than the others, after one short trek through a dungeon. The release date for Episode III was July 7, 2006 for Japan, and August 29, 2006 for North America.
The ending of this game rather strongly hints at a sequel, one that will likely never happen due to poor sales with the series in general. It is, however, the end of Shion's arc of the story, and so there is actually a sense of closure.
Side storiesEdit
Xenosaga: Pied PiperEdit
- Main article: Xenosaga: Pied Piper
Released on phones in Japan, this Xenosaga side-story is set 100 years prior to the start of Episode I and explores the past of the cyborg character Ziggy when he was a human named Jan Sauer and working for the Galaxy Federation's counter-terrorism task force. The purpose of Pied Piper is to develop the back stories of some of the most important, yet rarely felt presences in the Xenosaga universe, including Ziggy, chaos, Wilhelm, Voyager and Dr. Dmitri Yuriev. The plot itself spans three chapters. It centers on Sauer and his team as they track a serial killer known only by the hacker alias "Voyager", who kills his victims using the U.M.N. network. The game was also Soraya Saga's final contribution to the Xenosaga project.
Xenosaga I & IIEdit
- Main article: Xenosaga I & II
Xenosaga I & II is a re-telling of the first two episodes of the game for the Nintendo DS handheld system. It is not an exact exact retelling of the previous two games; some minor changes were made. The Episode II portion of the game, originally told through Jr.'s perspective, focuses more on on Shion. The Episode II portion of the game is expanded and enhanced with new content (some of which was cut from the Episode II) from Xenosaga creator Tetsuya Takahashi.
The game plays out on the DS' top screen from the 3/4s perspective while the bottom touch screen is used to issue commands and navigate menus. The game's battle mechanics follow the style of Episode I as opposed to Episode II.
The game's script is by Yuichiro Takeda, who worked on Xenosaga: The Animation. Hiroshi Takeuchi, of Cowboy Bebop fame, is responsible for character art. Music for the game is composed by Kousuke Yamashita, who scored the soundtrack for Xenosaga: The Animation. Other previous work includes the Hana Yori Dango and Mahou Sentai Majirenjaa Tabidate live-action television series and Nobunaga's Ambition video game series. Yamashita is the fourth composer to score a Xenosaga video game, following Yasunori Mitsuda, Yuki Kajiura and Shinji Hosoe.
Xenosaga I & II was released in Japan on March 30th, 2006.
Other projectsEdit
Xenosaga: The AnimationEdit
- Main article: Xenosaga: The Animation
A 12-episode anime based on Xenosaga Episode I, titled Xenosaga: The Animation, premiered in Japan on January 5, 2005.
The anime itself follows the story of Xenosaga closely, albeit removing several scenes and adding others. Some scenes were entirely re-written for the show's purposes. The pacing has the viewer running through the first ten to fifteen hours of gameplay of Episode I in the first five episodes. Given the nature of the anime, it works best as a supplement to Episode I; some points that the game explained poorly or didn't explain at all are brought to light in the anime.
Xenosaga: The MangaEdit
- Main article: Xenosaga The Manga
In 2004, an official Japanese manga adaptation for Episode I was written by Atsushi Baba and published by Zero Sum Comics.
Xenogears connections Edit
The Xenosaga series serves as a spiritual successor to the game Xenogears, which was released in 1998 for the PlayStation by Squaresoft (now Square Enix). The creator of both Xenogears and Xenosaga is Tetsuya Takahashi, who left Squaresoft in 1999 along with Hirohide Sugiura. Using funds from Namco, they restarted Monolith Soft and the Xenosaga project.
Outside of allusions and homages, there is no direct relationship between the two storylines, although it was once commonly thought that Xenogears would somehow fit into the Xenosaga storyline. It has been theorized that the Xenosaga trilogy is a re-imagined prequel of the first three episodes of Xenogears which were cancelled. Soraya Saga was the scenario writer for both Xenogears and Xenosaga, and said this of the connection, "I think all Xeno works are, so to speak, like rivers and lakes that once sprung from our mind, eventually became independent. They sure are kin, but not lineal."[7]
While the timeline of Xenosaga does not correspond completely to that set out in Xenogears, the two are largely synchronous. T.C. 4767 is the year the events of the game take place, according to the Xenogears Perfect Works, but in that same year the Eldridge is supposed to have been launched and no mention of that is made in Episode I. However, Xenosaga does use several elements, themes, and plotlines from Xenogears.


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Peel and thinly slice onions, then fry in oil until slightly golden. Wash and cut meat into small pieces and fry in onions until color changes. Add 3 glasses of hot water and bring to boil. Turn heat down and let boil slowly for about 45 minutes, adding more hot water during cooking if needed.
Wash okras and cut their stems only but do not cut the bases. Add okras, salt, pepper and tomato paste to the meat and cook for another 10-15 minutes. Take care not to overcook the okras so that they do not become slippery.
Add lime juice and adjust seasoning. Cook for another 3-4 minutes. Khoresht Bamieh should be served with white rice.
If desired, potatoes can also be added to Khoresht Bamieh. In that case, 500 grams of potatoes should be washed, peeled and cut into small pieces, and added in with 500 grams of okras (or slightly earlier; required cooking time depends somewhat on the size of the cut pieces).


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Social History
From the Stone Age people lived on the Moor for thousands of years. There were many trees there then but by the Bronze Age c2500BC the inhabitants were clearing these away. The trees we see now mainly date from the early 1900s.
The people farmed the land. They had settlements such as the one high up on Backstone Beck where they lived in round huts in rough stone enclosures. They used the grit stone they found on the Moor to make records which are still there. We call them cup and ring stones. What they recorded, nobody knows. There are such stones all over the moor – an unusually high concentration. Several have received evocative names such as the Idol, the Haystack and perhaps best known the Swastika stone.
Cultivating the moor, looking down on the river Wharfe to the north and the ford across the river, people lived according to the seasons. They made the footpaths which we follow today. By the Iron Age, the Brigantes lived here. They were hardy hill folk who were renowned for their horses. They will have watched other people arriving in the valley: the Romans in c AD79 who established a fort to cover the river crossing, then the Angles who built the first church in the remains of the fort. Then came the Danes and the Normans, who in 1069 laid the valley waste – to be repopulated probably from Lancashire. By then the people of the Moor had come down and it has not since been inhabited on any large scale. Animal farming continued with the cows going up to pasture and the sheep roaming freely as they do today.
Activity on the moor for the next millennium was driven largely by the needs of the small community of Ilkley. Roads and packhorse ways developed to connect it with the wool towns of the West Riding. Quarries were dug to provide the stones to build the houses and hotels. The streams were harnessed to power the corn mills on Mill Ghyll. The springs which were the sources of the streams were used for health starting with White Wells in the late 1700s and moving on to the hydrotherapy institutions which began to dot the moor's northern slopes.
With the arrival of the water cures and the need for visitor activity in the Victorian era the aesthetic side came to the fore. Ilkley became "the Heather Spaw." People fell in love with the scenery, the splashing streams, the heather, the mysterious rocks and the pure, fresh air.
The local Council oversaw the creation of the Tarn and footpaths to take people up into the Moor to enjoy its wild spaces. They walked up to the Tarn and beyond, or were ferried on donkeys from the town centre to White Wells. The popularity of the Moor increased further from 1865 when the railway arrived. The seal on the relationship between Ilkley and its Moor was set in 1893 when the Urban District Council bought the Moor so that people would always have it to enjoy.
The Moor has celebrity associations. Charles Darwin and his family visited in 1859. This was ostensibly for hydrotherapy but it was at the time of the publication of Origin of Species – he was avoiding the controversy which he knew would follow. The Darwin Gardens Millennium Green on land at the top of Wells Road commemorates that connection. The writers GK Chesterton and JB Priestley got to know the Moor well and both were inspired in their writing from what they found here.
Before the First World War the Moor was regularly a venue for manoeuvres by territorial units from their summer camps on the Wharfe. Manoeuvres came again with the Second World War.
Today people still use the moor for walking and horse riding but activities have widened. Each year begins with the New Year's Day dip at White Wells. After that comes the fell run and the spring flowers. The Summer is the great time for tourism and in Autumn comes the attraction of the heather, the Moor's great glory, and bilberries for gathering.
The Moor is a great place for relaxation and a perfect platform to look out over Wharfedale – especially on Bonfire Night. The rocks are a also fine vantage point for watching the skies: the 1999 eclipse attracted many people Although no one lives here now, people still love to be involved with the Moor and its rocks. The symbol we so often use for Ilkley is the Cow and Calf.
For more information about the history of people on the Moor visit the Local History Gallery at the Manor House museum in Ilkley: http://www.bradfordmuseums.org/manorhouse/index.htm


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Watch A V8-Swapped Toyota AE86 Struggle To Even Use A Dyno
It's a problem when you can't get the wheels to stick to the dyno itself.
It's a problem when you can't get the wheels to stick to the dyno itself.
Some say two. I say three. How many doors do you say a hatchback has?
UK-based Driftworks came to life ten years ago when Phil Morrison was done building Minis and Golfs for the Euro scene and went for a smoke. Today, it's the number one name in Continental drifting.
A strong contender for the coolest drift car in the world right now is the Driftworks DW86, a mix of a European NASCAR offshoot stock car and an old Toyota AE86.
What happens when you're a factory-backed Formula Drift driver with a quarry for a backyard? You get your friends over for a Fox Mustang vs Subaru STI vs rally AE86 vs drift Nissan vs Fiesta ST jump drift dirt fest.
By now you might be elbows deep in Christmas ham or grease from installing that turbo kit that was exactly what you wanted this year. But if you decided that you or someone you love should have gotten an affordable classic rear-wheel drive hatchback instead, consider this AE86 up for grabs on eBay.
In America's backwards calendar days, it is 8/6/12, a perfect day to honor the trusty steed of the budget racer, rally driver, and drifter for the past few decades. In three videos, let us celebrate its drifty goodness.
The upcoming rear-wheel-drive Toyota FT-86 was developed in collaboration with Subaru, and it's been said all along the car would sport a 2.0-liter flat-four. We guess if this purported FT-86 logo is accurate, doubters should put those worries to rest.
Apart from the production Toyota FT-86 being delayed two years, Toyota's considering different names and recently registered "Toyota FR-S" in the US and Canada. Whatever the name, if it ends up a Solara-replacement, we'll just call it "disappointing." [Toyobaru]
Typically, Corolla and "fun" don't go hand in hand. But there was a time when that wasn't the case. Today Nice Price or Crack Pipe has one from that era and it goes to Levin, if you get my drift.
Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Today we're going to return to a couple of old friends.
Yesterday we showed you a concept sketch of an alleged coupe to be made by a Subaru-Toyota partnership. Scratch the "alleged" as we now have official confirmation in the form of an official statement from Toyota CEO Katsuaki "Ken" Watanabe:
Ever since Toyota started riding Subaru, we'd heard the rumors. Supposedly, that sketch right there — turns the rumors to truth. That's right, we're told that there is Subaru's upcoming rear-wheel drive coupe currently in co-development with the boys at Toyota. The story goes that this "concept drawing" was revealed…


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