r/starfield_lore

I appreciate the neatness of the Unity idea, but it isn't being used effectively. The only changes one sees are in minor dialogue options and the elements of the main mission. The team could have created a cascaded impact of changes across the galaxy.
Even slight changes could drastically alter the experience.
For instance,

1. Andreja could be the one leading the constellation, not as a destroyer, but as someone who gave them a unique direction. The lodge's aesthetics could become more... Varunn-centric.
2. The Crimson fleet mission could experience a role reversal. Imagine Delgado as a UC System head, with Naeva as his second in command. Their nature won't change. They may be brutal, but they could be all about fanatical justice.
3. Even some faction quests could be removed entirely, like the UC Vanguard, which may not exist in the new universe; only the Freestar Collective does. Imagine New Atlantis having a more rugged look. Or if there is less budget, let us name Akila, New Atlantis. And the standard New Atlantis does not exist. The well could be above the surface here. Mods have shown that it can be done.
4. There could be a universe where everything wants to kill you. Think of how, in the lodge, you become a villain in one of the universes; this could expand to the entire galaxy. Every faction may try to kill you, leaving you to fend off alone in a cosmos where all see you as the ultimate villain. Piracy could be the only default way to survive, and the extra companions could become a band of misfits, often trying to save the galaxy that hates you.
5. There could even be a dead universe. You enter the lodge, and everyone is dead; only a message about the artifacts remains, stating that it is too late for the universe, but save the next. It could be about you choosing the microorganism option to deal with terrormorphs, but it mutated and swept across the galaxy. No people are in the galaxy, only crazed starborn hunting each other. It could become a gameplay of you farming quantum essence and gaining the ability to incrementally increase the impact of powers, nearly infinite times. It could be called, "Starborn everywhere universe." since Starborn are like vampires already, killing their own kind.
6. There could also be a universe where everyone is silent, and the only way to communicate with others is through a text box. A budget-friendly way to handle the changes.
7. Other than that, it would be cool to have some additional powers in new universes. Some could only have powers related to building and surviving. It means no grav dash or wave, just harnessing the elements.

These are me thinking out loud, but they could elevate the multiversal experience beyond the standard run-and-gun, fly-and-shoot, loot-and-sell, build-and-build gameplay. Also, before you say "Bethesda hasn't done it before." Remember that the concept of Multiverse is novel, so why limit onesself to old ideas.

I posted this to the main Starfield sub, but I figured you guys would like this as well. Answers will be at the bottom covered by spoiler tags. Be honest, how many did you get right?

(Sorry about the formatting. Reddit is terrible on the app)

1. Which individual is credited with completing the first prototype Grav Drive at NASA in 2138?

A. Sebastian Banks

B. Jinan Va'ruun

C. Solomon Coe

D. Dr. Victor Aiza

2. What event served as the immediate catalyst for the Narion War in 2196?

A. The refusal of the UC to remove 'The Clinic' starstation

B. The disappearance of the colony ship Archimedes

C. The signing of the Centaurus Proclamation

D. The establishment of a farming colony on Vesta

3. Which two star systems formed an alliance in 2189 to establish the Freestar Collective?

A. Sol and Cheyenne

B. Alpha Centauri and Narion

C. Kavnyk and Lunara

D. Cheyenne and Volii

4. What was the primary reason for the formation of the UC Vanguard in 2315?

A. To hunt down members of the Va'ruun Zealots

B. To explore the uncharted Kavnyk system

C. To enforce the ban on mech technology

D. To mimic the success of civilian ships in the Colony War

5. In the timeline of House Va'ruun, what significant change occurred after Jarek Va'ruun took control in 2263?

A. The beginning of the Serpent's Crusade

B. The initiation of the secret 'unorthodox' grav drive research

C. The end of the Serpent's Crusade

D. The establishment of Dazra as the capital city

6. Which technologies were explicitly banned by the Armistice Agreement signed in 2311?

A. Grav Drives and Faster-than-light jumps

B. Xenowarfare and Mech technology

C. Deep space scanners and Starstations

D. Chronmarks and AI technology

7. Which of the following describes the relationship between Jarek and Jandar Va'ruun?

A. They were rival leaders from House Ma'leen and House Ka'dic

B. They were the primary negotiators of the Treaty of Narion

C. They were father and son who founded House Va'ruun together

D. They were twin brothers with opposing views on isolation

8. What is the historical significance of the year 2203 in the timeline?

A. Earth becomes uninhabitable

B. The founding of New Atlantis

C. The first manned faster-than-light jump

D. The establishment of the Freestar Rangers

9. Who was the primary financial backer of Constellation, joining the group in 2321?

A. Walter Stroud

B. Matteo Khatri

C. Vladimir Sall

D. Sarah Morgan

10. According to the timeline, when did Constellation recover the first Artifact that would eventually lead to the events of 2330?

A. 2328

B. 2310

C. 2326

D. 2275

Answers:

>!1) D!<

>!2) A!<

>!3) D!<

>!4) D!<

>!5) C!<

>!6) B!<

>!7) D!<

>!8) A!<

>!9) A!<

>!10) B!<

We have all talked about needing a Star Born DLC. What if one comes, but accessible only on the new game plus?

You travel with your companions, and beset by the new faction as soon as you exit the first temple.

They know who you are, and start hunting you to either destroy you or make you join them.

Their base? An entire star system. They have their own civilization, with the artifact based technology as its foundation.

A civil war between them is brewing. One faction wants to guide the rest of of humanity and make them stronger while protecting them, and the other that wants to hoard all the tech and rule over the galaxy.

New missions. New politics. New armors (star born-themed). New ships? Customisable star born ships. And new companions even.

A new hub star system consisting of 2 space stations. Two planets. One for each faction.

It could have two hub worlds, with their own identities. New Atlantis, and Neon combination, but better, and a lot more futuristic.
A man can dream.

I was thinking this the other day as I as playing. I get from a game play point our ships will always be parked at the spaceport for us to get easy access to. Again I understand that gameplay will need to come first in some aspects to keep the game fun and fluid and will over ride reality.

But where do the people that own ships in Akila, or Neon, or New Atlantis keep their ships?

I get not everyone has one and that is stated by npcs in various cities. But the 1% citizens of New Atlantis for sure have private shuttles and ships to transport them to Neon for business meetings or Paradiso for vacations.

Are they kept in orbit? Does AI land the ships for them? Or are there unseen, but theoretical stations orbiting planets that act as garages for ships?

Neon especially. I do love the vibe, but have a hard time getting over how little docking there is in the spaceport for a water based city and we permanently take up one space when we dock.

Or do we really just not have enough info on this to even speculate.

As with other Bethesda games, all we see of the Settled Systems are scaled-down versions of the most important cities and locations, though unlike the post-apocalypse or medieval fantasy it's harder to explain that emptiness in a sci-fi setting.

Even though the population was drastically reduced during the earth's collapse a century later it seems to have stabilized again. People are leaving colonized space for the frontier in droves and there's apparently enough people to have a planet-destroying war with conventional weapons and military installations from that war across the galaxy.

Do we get any indication of how this population is set up off-screen? Is almost all of the population meant to be living in a handful of megacities or is there evidence that places like Jemison, Mars or Akila are more built up than we see with planet-wide infrastructure

So, I'm a south Slav, specifically a Bosniak, and I've noticed that much of the Va'ruun stuff seems to be directly inspired by south Slavic culture/language, in addition to Arabic and some other cultures and languages.

Apologies if this post is long-winded and a bit all over the place, I'm very tired but had this rattling around my brain for a bit and wanted to put it out there.

The names of people and certain other things in particular, and I believe that much of the influences are south Slavic specifically because of the fact that the spelling of these names is south Slavic, including names that originated from Arabic, Persian or Turkish but became common among many south Slavs during the time of the Ottoman Empire.

There are also some names that are either clearly neither, or seem heavily inspired by one or the other, or are more broadly Slavic, but I'm just rambling now.

There's also clear Arabic influences that seem to be strictly Arabic, and probably a couple other cultural and lingusitic influences that I haven't listed, but again, primarily, south Slav (and to a lesser extent, IMO, more broadly Slavic) and Arabic. And because I'm a south Slav, I'm mainly gonna talk about the Slavic stuff.

For example, koza, the alcoholic milk drink thing, is literally just the word for goat in most Slavic languages, having stayed consistent since proto-Slavic, as most words in our languages for common animals and certain other things have more or less stayed the same.

Andreja's name is mispronounced but is spelt exactly how you spell it in our languages. This, again, seems to be an Anglicised pronunciation of a common south Slav name. It's also typically a male name.

Then you have Mir'za, which is just Mirza with an apostrophe, and pronounced exactly the same way, although it's also a male name and if I remember right the character in the game is a woman. I believe the name is Persian in origin initially but came to us, again, via the Ottomans and is now a pretty common name among Muslim Slavs in the Balkans, particularly in Bosnia.

There's Djimal, which is Arabic in origin IIRC, and English-speakers would probably recognise the name better as Jamal. And while I don't think that it's spelt Djimal in any language that I'm aware of, Džemal and Džemila are both common Bosniak names, with the variant spellings of Djemal and Djemila not being too uncommon. I believe that Djemal is also how Turks spell it.

Now, one of the most obvious ones for me is House Ka'dic, which is very clearly derived from the surname Kadić, though again, it is pronounced in a very Anglicised way. It's meant to have a soft "ch" sound at the end, not a hard K. In real life, they were an Ottoman Bosnian family, nobility more or less. Their descendants still have the same surname.

Then there's Kavnyk, which is very likely based off the Slovenian surname Kavnik. Not sure of the exact origin of it, but the suffix -nik in Slavic naming is more or less equivalent to -er, -ist or -ian in English. Closest word I can think of that's similar enough to the "kav" bit at the start is kava/kahva/kafa, which is literally just coffee. Though I doubt that the star system Kavnyk was named by one of the game devs/writers thinking "you know what would be a great name for their star? Coffee guy."

There's multiple other names, so I won't draw this out too long, but just to name a few others that are either south Slav names or broadly Slavic: Alicja, Kreso, Lucjan, Irina, Karija, etc.

I still have an issue with the fact that the pronunciation of most of the names is heavily Anglicised, but it's honestly not unexpected in western media, to be honest. Personally, I will never pronounce Andreja's name with a "zh" sound rather than a "y" sound because that kills my brain.

Special shoutout to Ivica Vukovic in New Babylon. Not part of house Va'ruun, but very obviously a south Slav, and he even says some BCMS words in his dialogue and on his terminal.

He pronounces several of the words incorrectly and emphasises them like a Russian or other east Slavic language speaker, though. But hey, I'll take what representation I can get.

If I've made any mistakes, or if any of you feel like any of this is a stretch for whatever reason, let me know. And again, sorry if I'm kinda all over the place with my writing.

Tl;dr: Va'ruun is very much culturally/linguistically south Slav and Arab influenced in many ways, with a lil sprinkle of eldritch horror.

With the initial release of the game, I was under the impression that “flight speeds” between planets were something more hard science fiction. Constant thrust thanks to space tec magic, then a flip and burn. Hence, the travel between planets being as they made it. My only real support for that was the derelict with all the cultists who off themselves to “join” with the comet. It seems very clear in the notes they had to time it right, whereas If they had access to a faster thrust they could just keep up.

My question is if anyone knows whether this was the case, and cruise mode was just a gameplay addition, or if such a faster speed was always implied to exist before said addition.

Edit: something I just remembered, after your initial liftoff, crimson fleet pirates seem to almost “warp” in to the AO. That does feel suspiciously like an admittance of FTL in system flight.

Always seemed weird to me that New Atlantis and Akila city are the only cities on each planet.

Is there a lore reason, or are other cities ever mentioned.

I get from a gameplay perspective, having to generate cities would be too resource intensive.