Image: Bethesda
Bethesda has published an official timeline of Starfield’s war-torn world.
Bethesda Game Studios has released a lore timeline for Starfield, its upcoming sci-fi open-world game. The timeline takes viewers through important events in Starfield’s backstory starting from 2050 to 2330, which is when the game’s story campaign begins and the player enters a very complicated universe.
The timeline kicks off in 2050, when humans first land on Mars. By 2100, humans begin living in space, and that’s when things really start to take off - no pun intended. In 2156, humans arrive in Alpha Centauri, a star system 4.37 light years away from Earth. As a result of humanity finding itself in uncharted territory so far from home, the United Colonies are established in 2159. None of these visits are brief or fleeting - each time humanity arrives in a new place, according to Starfield, it’s there to stay.
A city called New Atlantis is founded in 2060 and established as the official capital city of the United Colonies the following year. Alas, this time of peace and discovery could not last forever. In 2167, Solomon Coe settles Cheyenne and its first city, Akila City. In 2188, Coe invites the star system Volii to join Cheyenne in a new alliance called the Freestar Collective, which gets officially formed in 2189.
After that, both the United Colonies and Freestar Collective start getting into spats over interstellar territory. When the UC attempt to set up a star station in the unaffiliated Narion system, its people rebel and join the Freestar Collective to purge them out. In 2196, both factions kick off a conflict referred to as the ‘Narion War’ over control of the system. In 2216, public sentiment on the war sours and both factions sign the Treaty of Narion to usher in a time of peace.
The spacefaring organisation Constellation is formed in 2275, and it's the same one players will end up joining at the start of Starfield’s story. The UC gets into another war with the Freestar Collective in 2308 after the latter breaks the Treaty of Narion, but this ‘Colony War’ ends in 2311. It does lead to the formation of the UC Vanguard, UC’s very own space-navy. Bethesda’s timeline slows down after this, explaining the origins of various characters you’ll meet in the game.
The final event in the timeline takes place in 2328, when someone named Barrett convinces Constellation to establish a deep space scanner called The Eye. The discovery of alien artifacts is also mentioned further up the timeline, so chances are that the organisation will use The Eye to investigate them. And there you have it! Starfield’s world is a complicated place, with lots of cities scattered across lots of planets, and two big factions resting in an uneasy time of peace following two big wars.