Let’s be honest, all games are not created equal in terms of lore, and few match the magnitude of research, ideation, and sheer imagination of a Bethesda game. Much like its predecessors, Starfield is brimming with background information, and ahead of its launch in a few weeks, the company has been gleefully sharing some of its favorite pieces of lore, including the many factions and religions that live in the vast recesses of space.
On top of the normal religions that exist in our day-to-day lives, Bethesda has created several new religious sects to flesh out its vibrant worlds and — as is tradition — use their dogma to enslave, control or otherwise brainwash plenty of otherworldly denizens. And while we don’t know very much about them yet, there is definitely one group you don’t want to knock on your door.
The Enlightened
The Enlightened are very much a “practice what you preach” group of people. Organized atheists, the followers of the Enlightened movement focus on humanitarian and community efforts. Their beliefs center around the idea that each person must take responsibility for themself, and each community must work toward making the improvements that will benefit all. They don’t believe in a higher power, instead, they find comfort in the now and humanity, helping one another rather than waiting for a higher power to intervene.
The Sanctum Universum
The Sanctum Universum is only a few decades old in Starfield’s timeline. Despite its relative newness, the religious group has amassed a large following, and it may be due to how well its ideals jive with space expansion. Followers of the Sanctum Universum believe that, not only is God out there in the universe, but the entity allowed humans to master space travel as a sort of come-and-find-me-challenge. Universals believe that a higher power guides all life, and that eventually humans will find their creator out there among the stars.
Fans have been theorizing that there will be a religious group heavily dedicated to NASA iconography since the very first trailers released, and the Sanctum Universum seems the most likely contender. With their views centering on the idea that God is calling humanity to the stars, it’s likely that the first space jumps would be seen as spiritual, and NASA’s work would become the foundation of their religion.
House Va’raun
The most intriguing and secretive among the new religions is also the most set apart from what we might identify as “normal.” The gist of the story goes like this:
One day, as a colony ship was headed for a new world, a passenger claimed he saw a celestial entity. The encounter happened during a grav jump – essentially a moment of hyperspeed designed to get ships to locations much more quickly. While the jump only took seconds, the passenger claimed he had spoken to the entity for a much longer stint of time. The passenger presented a mandate for his soon-to-be followers declaring that all who did not follow the teachings would be devoured when the Great Serpent encircled the universe.
It’s not all fun and games being a part of a cult, followers of the Great Serpent must make frequent grav jumps or risk losing health and diminishing their stats. But for everything the Great Serpent taketh, he gives in return. Players can allegedly get extra boosts if their deity is satiated, and can even rely on cult-ey rants to distract enemies.
There has to be one group of zealots to round out any good Bethesda game. Skyrim has the Dragonborn’s cult, Fallout 4 the Children of Atom, but it sounds like the Giant Serpents cult may take the cake. The game’s lead designer, Emil Pagliarulo has even had the cult’s logo tattooed on his wrists.