Starfield's Starborn Are Seriously Strange
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- čas přidán 12. 09. 2024
- While the motivations of the Starborn are, eventually, easy enough to understand within the context of Starfield’s universe, they’re also sort of baffling, and there is plenty left to uncover and discuss about the lives of the Starborn and how they work.
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"Oh, neat! I can't wait to figure out the mystery behind these artifacts!"
"Oh neat! There are megalithic scifi temples built too? I bet the reveal will be cool AF!"
"Oh, neat! Finally made it to the end to meet The Unity larping as me...can't wait for the reveal, so who built all this and set it all up, putting it all in motion?"
"... The...Makers made it."
* *Throws keyboard*
The apathy of the hunter seems excessive at start. When you meet him at the bar. Till you start running through ng+s and eventually become like the hunter yourself. Its so well done i struggled to believe Bethesda wrote it
That happened to me too. Lol
Me too. I was about to go to a new universe but wanted to level up pistols. Since none of it mattered anyway in the new universe I just killed everyone on Jemison to improve the skill. Then entered unity with UC trying to kill me
He's Basically Rick Sanchez without the crybaby backstory.
I came to write this. You stop caring after you are yonked from your original galaxy.
@@Xariann_You_ stop caring, maybe. I try to leave each universe better than it was when I arrived.
One multiverse theory is that each decision creates infinite new universes. If that's the case in Starfield, then us touching the first artifact could be what creates " our" multiverse. Everything seems the same to us because it is the same until we touch that artifact.
Legit
And a reason why we respawn (at least in my head canon) is that you respawn in an alternative universe, where you didn't die in that moment. That would explain why we don't respawn with more power and still try to hunt the artifacts.
My favorite mod for Starfield was "Starfield As Roguelike" - which got started when the author said... _"Hey...what happens to all those Starborn we merk'd?"_ which led to the question _"why doesn't that happen to us?"_ - which led to the author thinking "It should happen to us..."
So when you have that mod active - if you die, then you start a new NG+ game in a new universe.
It gets interesting if you use the *other* mod that increases the chances that you land in one of the "Alternate" universes from the base 12.5% to something higher (one alternate every 8 NG+ starts...urf...) ...but not TOO high such that you run out of those Alternates and start encountering a bunch of repeats...
I found it made me a LOT more careful once I got to a universe that I actually liked.
A minor point: There is at least one other "named" Starborn I have encountered in every universe so far... The Trader. Of course, they are just a "mysterious ship" during the initial playthrough. I definitely am not sure, but IIRC they do seem to recognize your transformation from your initial game when you encounter them in NG+ .. something along the lines of "good to see you made it".
There are also alternate universes where you meet some "one-off" named Starborn: one where "Constellation" is made up of different versions of yourself and one with a vengeful Starborn Cora who is hunting down every version of you across universes to avenge her Dad, whose heart you broke. Not sure how those might influence your thoughts on the Starborn.
quick correction on the Cora one, she's specifically hunting the "you" from her universe, because in her universe, that "you" allowed the Hunter to kill Sam
Wow I didn’t know about the trader - have never seen this one
When the Cora thing happened, it blew my mind.
@@GinaRanChaosdiver There's also the all you constellation, that's six more.
@@vinaypatel8578 what does that have to do with what i said?
Frankly, I'm convinced that the evil option is going through the unity.
@@zachariahlacy2944 It depends on your motivations for going through, and how you reach it in the first place.
Would you leave everyone in your life, all your memories, experiences, accomplishments for the chance to do it all over again?
Would it be worth it to see a loved one just one more time, and what about again, and again, and again? At what point is enough enough? At what point is an end good enough?
Whatever your answer, that is the answer of the unity. Your answer.
To me it never really made sense.
You die when leaving this universe, but you enter the new one as a starborn, but thats it.
The only gameplay differences are not doing the mainquest from the beginning and being able to skip certain dialogue trees.
Its not more like your universe but somehow learning there are other multiverses.
what i mean is in your multiverse, there would always be a given chance to touch that artifact since i thing its said that the changes are small and not massive.
This would mean that only you can be a starborn, but others also can be one.
This means that you don't enter a universe centred around you but around the one who touches the artifact first.
It can be done from a place of hope too. Taking just you out of the universe you came from, you have a chance to make better choices in the new one and save so many.
You're clearly putting more thought into this than Bethesda did.
I find the starborn to be depressing, hollow, and an existential nightmare in terms of universal purpose. I think the true victory is never giving into them, the powers, the bs, and their hollow endless struggles.
I think this makes the most sense. It feels like the starborn and the main story in general is designed to show you that it's about the journey, not the destination. When you decide to forsake your character's life, including all your friends and relationships in order to reach the unity, you end up feeling alone and you still don't have the answers you wanted
Unity could be like a tree where everytime you enter it, you spawn into several branches/universes. Which would explain why the hunter is a starborn before you, in all of em. As hes started a lot earlier and is simply so much further up the tree that hes exponentially ahead of you.
This should be canon. It would explain why there are hundreds of star born in the same universe (not to mention in the same part of the Milky Way) at the same time.
And the hunter also comments on how he has never seen our character make it to becoming a starborn
If Bethesda decides to expand the starborn lore in dlc or future games they honestly have the potential to reach the level of well written mindfuckery of the elder scrolls lore
it's pretty hard to explain in a way that isn't totally broken or doesn't go into "reality is just a game yo"
The problem with that is that BGS has long since lost its best lore writers from the Elder Scrolls' heyday, especially the ones who designed the nuances of its cosmogony.
In fact, they've even kept their worst quest writer (Emil), who's doubtless a predominant reason why the writing in Starfield stops at the elevator pitch premise.
@@baitposter Emil “Nate is a war criminal” Pagliarulo lmao
The mindfuckery of the "Dragon Break"
@@qwuvvy4155 "yeah so we fucked up really bad. How can we make it all canon and not canon all at once so we don't have to think about continuity for future games?" "Why not just make everything canon and call it a dragon break?" "Hot diggity darn Emil I knew we kept you around for a reason.
My take on the Hunter and the Emissary and by extension all the other Starborn is that there is effectively an infinite number of each of them traversing the multiverse and when the Hunter and Emissary talk about having the same meeting in every universe they are not referring specifically to the other as having been present but rather a different version of the other. The Hunter has ultimately killed every other version of the Emissary he has met when going for the last piece of the armillary and likewise, the Emissary has ultimately killed every other version of the Hunter they have met when going for the last piece of the armillary.
Two things. If you choose neither The Hunter nor The Emissary, when in the unity it says that you keep the way open for those after you, so more than just those on your ship go through. Two, you have to give something of yourself to the old universe to start ng+ that could be reseeding the artifacts.
Like the Dragon Balls?
It's also described as a star going nova, which is a little confusing as an analogy since it kind of explains the term "starborn" and you body being replaced with stardust if you coalesce from a nova, except that the nova happens in the old universe. Maybe it's supposed to happen simultaneously in both, linking the two (or more) universes. Either way, it would have been fun had there been mentions near the start of the game of there being two novae spotted simultaneously, and in ng+ of there being four (one each for the Emissary, Hunter, Trader and player), or potentially more (for variants with, eg, starborn Cora).
The Starborn are obsessed with the power of the Starborn. It's a step beyond psychotic that we aren't meant to take. That has to break the mind in ways we can't even begin to understand. The emissary is as fruity as the hunter. They're just two sides of the same coin. It's all about power for each of them regardless of what the emissary claims.
Once I got to the reveal of who the starborn are, I got it.
Their minds are broken in ways we can't possibly understand, and each starborn processes the unity in their own way
@@bafelix89 Anyone's minds (read: most people's, maybe not literally everyone's) would be broken after going through such an experience, especially several times. A lot, especially in a repeating time frame and not a brand new random one each time, but even then so, would become meaningless or interchangable, no longer special, truly unique, etc.
Picture it like this: Imagine you could save or reload to a fixed point in time in reality. At will or after obtaining some things. You'd retain knowledge (and thus skills). You start exploring. You start learning. You amass knowledge, even if you can't retain physical skills or so maybe, assuming said reload doesn't carry that over as well. You'd start trying new things. It'd be curious at first. Then over time your mind would likely somehow take some form of 'damage' or change with it. At some point especially when you were e.g. of poorer origin, you probably would hit the lottery jackpot, amass wealth, maybe found a company, introduce a brand new tech before all others (because money and partly knowledge wouldn't be an issue after a while, right?)...and you keep doing that or going.
It's like a vampire or immortal concept that goes throughout the century among humans, always losing loved ones or whatever as they die of old age.
I dare say the human mind is hardly made for whatever form of "immortality" you can think of, in most cases. It'd be fun or exciting for a while, possibly a long while. Maybe thousands of attempts or years but at some point you tire. You will inevitably tire. Or, I guess, at some point perish through some means.
@@Unknown-ek1ox Once you're given a universal reset button, you naturally begin to assign less value to the impact of your choices; you stop caring. Nothing matters, because you can just reset it anyway. This leads to people becoming the most extreme personifications of their base ideals and desires.
@@AdmiralKarelia (Sorry slightly longer reply :D)
"This leads to people becoming the most extreme personifications of their base ideals and desires."
You actually kinda put it in a nice simple and yet elegant or beautiful fashion.
At times I actually think of "What would I do if I could 'reset' or 'reload' to a specific time in life, but obviously with the knowledge of what comes after in general?"
And I go through some scenarios in my head. But ultimately I notice that what I would consider an interesting attempt or noble goal to pursue isn't really in stark contrast to my morals, views, interests or ideology. Most scenarios are 'just me, but more empowered or able'.
I'll keep this basic now but for example when something really bad happened to a lot of people I started aiding them with my voice and wallet. But those - time and money - were or are ultimately limited.
If I could go back a few years (just 7-10 years would be enough), I'd know the event would be pretty inevitable and that I couldn't likely avoid it no matter what I did because it's a bit like in the base game of Starfield. You are always set back to a specific point in time. But you're ultimately still right after that Argos artifact gig. Sometimes to change major events you'd need to be another person altogether because it's like rails and tracks and for some things you'd need to be in another "branch" or railways altogether.
Anyway, sorry for rambling, point being, I'd likely try to amass wealth by going for the right investment trends right away (I'd just cheaply buy a lot of Bitcoin before they blow up further and then sell them at their peak of roughly 60k per unit). Or I'd just "guess" the lottery numbers right.
Then with that added wealth, I'd be better able to pursue my notions or ideals and help others.
TL;DR: I'd ultimately still act within my general "operating framework" rather than radically do something else, like IDK, run amok for the heck of it.
I can't rule out however that this wild experience of "ground hog day" might change me drastically still. I specifically mentioned obtaining wealth to pursue goals. I always think of myself as relatively level-headed and modest but I've seen people who went 180 when they obtained a lot of wealth, almost in a way they couldn't handle either maintaining it long-term and/or character-wise. Then again we could argue and go back to your original point: It is just their base personality to begin with, amplified.
@@Unknown-ek1ox That's just Undertale Flowey's arc in a nutshell, without the convolution. His and Sans dialog reflects the number of routes and times you've reloaded, resetted, and saved. On the Genocide route, Flowey even talks about when he was reborn into a flower and found he had the power to SAVE and RELOAD and how every time he reloaded, kept memories, and kept trying new things, it soon grew frustrating.
"I've done everything this world has to offer. I've read every book. I've burned every book. I've won every game. I've lost every game. I've appeased everyone. I've killed everyone. Sets of numbers... Lines of dialogue... I've seen them all."
IIRC I saw one theory that says that:
Not only are The Pilgrim, Keeper, and Hunter all the same person, but so is the person who first touched the artifact that pushes humanity to destroy Earth for the Grav Drives. And your "reset" point is always when you first touch the artifact. Meaning that not only is the Hunter someone who has been through the Unity a ton, he has to go through all of human grav drive history to get there again.
As I understand it:
Time progresses but has the multiverse save point for each Starborn when they touch the artifact. So, the original Hunter touches the first artifact, lives long enough that Humanity gets to the artifacts supremely slowly at the rate we would've without interference. He resets and does it again and again, getting tired of how long it takes and taking shortcuts to get there until he blitzes it and makes us lose Earth to get there faster. As evident by one of the NG+ variants you can end up in a universe where the original you is still there and didn't die. My guess is the timeline WE start in, that happened to the Hunter. The original him still exists and the experienced Starborn him does too. BUT when that version touches an artifact, now that version's reset branch IS there being two of him. Now, one of them goes on to become the pilgrim, one goes on to be the hunter. Fast forward and now there's us, we died in the other resets but this time we didn't. We touch the artifact and set our own reset branching point. So for us, all those other things will always be the base for the universe. They aren't "different" Hunters but the same one from the past every time. That's why he never has a version that remembers us and always says the "huh, you never lived" line.
...Of course this all gets thrown wacky when you try to explain the Emissary or the other Starborn. Maybe when entering the Unity enough some figure out how to enter more specific realities? It's the only way The Emissary's goal of being Bethesda Aeons makes any sense.
They're saying that the Hunter is also Victor Aiza?
When I first saw the Hunter, I kept trying to figure out a way to hire him for my crew.
I like the idea that when you go through the unity, you exist everywhere and every when at the same time, only coalescing into the reality that you get more artifacts for. What if that’s the situation? Getting the artifacts solidifies you into the universe, and the Starborn are rabidly searching for the reality they left, or one close enough. Losing everyone and everything just to move forward would probably cause some people to go crazy.
@@aschergamer2213 enlightenment or oblivion… It truly would drive some mad. Especially when you think about how just the monotony of normal day-to-day life can break some people.
Naww more like... You remember having form so you build a form from yourself out of just... matter, stardust whatever. Maybe it takes constant concentration to maintain your form maybe thats why you turn to stardust when you die. your concentration is disrupted and you have to re-constitute yourself. The ship and the spacesuit are interesting though because they suggest before you ended up in New Atlantis you went SOMEWHERE. Somewhere with ships and an armoury.
i wanted his gear when i first saw it but wasn’t in a mood to fight him as i ran out of ammo due to bounty hunters
You can get him as a companion if you get the right alternate start in ng+
I think starfield is a meta commentary on how people play bethesda's games. the different starborn are all examples of the kind of role play we as the player can have in the starfield world.
youve got the obvious: be the merciless, kill everything for fun hunter. or the righteous, help people, good guy trying to do whats right emissary.
then less obviously: the trader, representing a less common roleplay approach of a merchant. Petrov, "the collector" the captain of the scow being that player who hordes everything, collecting everything in the game.
and as for the unexplained hows and why's of the mechanics of the world, keeper aquilas is literally telling us its up to us to come to our own conclusions with his "your truth" speech.
Honestly it's a meta commentary on the mechanic of new game plus or subsequent playthoughs in general.
This has always been my thought too. Even a decade ago there were jokes and memes about every quicksave before a decision creating a multiverse; how many of those universes did the Dragonborn give in to violence and tyranny and sack Whiterun singlehandedly just because Nazeem said something rude?
if only it was a real rp touch the artifact...nope i'm good goes back to work lol not ever one want to be the hero some just want a pay check
@@bc64100 You can actually do that. Barrett gives you the Frontier, and even though Vasco says you have to go to Jemison, you can actually go wherever you want.
YES. YES. FINALLY. IVE BEEN SCREAMING THIS FROM THE ROOFTOPS. God, the number of skyrim characters I made and seeing how starfield works? It's fucking genius
Everyone on the ship definitely goes into the unity. If you don't go through, when you talk to them again they will also mention having chosen to stay. Would have been awesome if one or two of your crew were not there when you come back.
I think each person goes to individual version of unity - it is like yes it is the same place but for every mind is only, it is not like they all were on ship and got staying in the same hall
depending on your ending, your romantic partner(s) will follow you. not to say you will actually meet them again but it does mention it. Cora also goes into Unity eventually, not sure about the others
The Hunter is from a time before Earth is fully evacuated. The reason he is so powerful is because he is likely one of the first humans in history that would have been able to discover the artifacts. The Hunter is also not Keeper Aquilus. The Hunter in our first universe is Keeper Aquilus. The Keeper Aquilus in our first universe is a Hunter who survived long enough to become The Pilgrim, who then becomes The Keeper. The player character, after going through The Unity enough times, becomes The Hunter, because the hunt for power is all we care about. We then, as The Hunter, can decide that chasing power isn't worth it, and instead stay in a universe and create a legacy, thus making us The Keeper. In the time between us being The Hunter and The Keeper, we would be The Pilgrim, questioning our place and our motivation.
The Hunter will always exist, because there will always be someone whose ambition for power drives them to the pathology of collecting the artifacts. Due to the inevitability of The Hunter's existence, there will always be those left in the wake of their destructive pursuit, and so there will always be an Emissary who attempts to prevent more Hunters from being born. If you remain in a universe after collecting the artifacts, and keep the armillary built in your base, you are effectively becoming The Emissary because you are gatekeeping who can reach the Unity.
Anyone and everyone can reach the Unity. If you grav-jumped a colony ship, everyone on the ship would reach the unity, and they would all become Starborn (if they decided to). Once someone reaches the Unity in a universe, A pulse of energy rings out, infusing that universe with your essence, and in the final shot of the ending, you see flashing light headed toward where we exploded. We know that the universe continues naturally (outside of your infused essence), but we also see that the use of the unity signals or draws some force from deep space toward that point. Perhaps the creators, perhaps intelligent aliens, perhaps Sebastian Banks using the light to guide his way home.
( Tangent ) The House Varuun sigil looks nearly identical to the doors on the temples. The Great Serpent is likely a Starborn, or perhaps a creator entity. Perhaps they are what is called back to the universe with our leaving it, or perhaps the prophesy of its return indicates that The Great Serpent intends to be able to return to universes they have previously visited. Perhaps The Great Serpent is a Hunter that never pursues the self-enlightenment of The Pilgrim, or perhaps the actions of The Great Serpent are what ultimately lead to the creation of The Pilgrim.
( Tangent Over)
The Emissary is a dark perversion of the Constellation members. When The Hunter kills one of your companions, everyone left alive reinforces to you that you must not give up on the quest to find the answers. It is the grief of losing us, the player character, that drives The Emissary to commit to their philosophy of gatekeeping. They are unable to let go of their grief, they are controlled by their grief. This is why your first interaction with The Emissary is them telling you to not seek answers, to give up your quest, meanwhile, your still living version of that character is telling you that you must press on.
It is why the wake quest is so important, because at the wake you are able to embrace grief as a justification for killing the hunter, perhaps leading you to side with the Emissary. While you are able to decide to feel this way, if you speak to the members of constellation, they will encourage you to overcome your grief, which is why each of their storylines involves unresolved grief. They understand what you are going through, having lost your most important companion.
Every aspect of this story is deeply human, and wants you to ask yourself the big questions. The Starborn are physical caricatures of the answers one might derive, given the fantasy presented in the game. This allows for incredible roleplaying depth, as you decide what answers you will give to the universe.
Personally, my main character has fully embraced the role of The Hunter. His inner drive comes from his unshakable faith in The Great Serpent's return. The Irony of my character is that he has the weakest justification for his atrocities. In his original universe, he married Andreja after The Hunter killed Sam Coe. He ultimately sided with The Hunter. He and Andreja entered The Unity together, but ever since that day, he regrets doing so because he will never be reunited with the real Andreja. He travels universe to universe, always killing both The Hunter and The Emissary. Now he mindlessly seeks power to better serve his god, which is the only constant among the infinite.
Love it, thank you
Hey that's my main characters story
@@Connordaboss45 We can share. You are me, anyway.
Better writing than Bethesda
@@Pr0phet_Taker_official They wrote what I am repeating.
I gotta' be honest. Seeing your video about this is a breath of fresh air. I have no idea what's up with The Starborn, what their goal is - but I intend to keep asking and keep searching. There's a lot of cynical takes about, "The quality of BGS' writing" and, "How this game is worthless" and "How Starfield is dead and every other space game is better because X reason or Y gameplay concession or Starfield does Z worse" or. Something.
But here you are, engaging with the media *on its terms,* asking questions *about it.* You have no idea how much I respect and appreciate that. I'm happy to stay tuned to whatever you have to say about one of my genuinely most favorite games in the future.
Thank you.
Yes, Im sure any man that can think will be questioned the same, cause this game gives you some to be thinking of, it is bad people can’t go deep or see through these times - starfield much more complicated than people that just won’t understand it try to simplify it as worse game than NMS/BG3, bad writing or whatever they call it
Wut, you mean this is one of your favorite games!
Seconded. Love this guy's thoughts on starfield.
@@wihx9071 It's really not complicated. If you try to dig in deeper you'll find there's nothing there. It's surface level attention with no real motive behind the whole thing. When you actually look objectively at the Emissary and Hunter - their motives make ZERO sense. If they're here just to go crazy and have fun then why aren't they doing just that? If they're there to help protect lives, then why aren't they doing just that? No, they exist solely to go into the unity for ... reasons. That's all there is to it.
They ignore the fact that you equip the thing to a starship and LITERALLY jump to it with everyone on board. So teaming up is the logical thing to do here. Everyone wins, no one has to die. But nope, gotta shoot first ask questions later.
Also, think about it for a second. You can leave the unity, ship intact, and revisit the Unity at any time. It's not a single use item. You don't bring your ship with you into the unity, so it can be assumed your ship remains in whatever place it 'jumped' to minus the crew. That again completely destroys any reason for the conflict.
As for the game itself, well... it IS objectively bad. Poor writing, zero player agency, utterly soulless NPCs, and only a handful of missions which offer something besides "shoot everything that moves" or "fetch the stick" style quests. If you enjoy that then fine, but let' not pretend it does anything particularly well.
we'll most likely get a starborn expansion at some point
You’ve asked the same questions I’ve had since originally “glimpsing the Unity”.
My theory is that when the artifacts are assembled into the Armillary and the Unity is activated the artifacts are reset in that Universe as if we never found them or even existed.
Restarting the search for the remaining Starborn and explores.
Also maybe the time line resetting for our character each time is to give us a chance to live life again, before ours was interrupted by this never ending quest.
That’s an interesting concept - the universe resetting to make up for your success. Maybe that’s the problem with the Starborn, a desperate need to find a place they can fit back into because they are “outside” forever. Hell, that’d probably make me homicidal as well.
@@aschergamer2213 you meet a couple former Starborn like keeper Aquilus with similar story’s, but the one character that made me think this was the Starborn Trader. The way she speaks of the life a Starborn and how they always seem to be the same.
She knew the only way to be free and use the gift of a new life was to end her search and just live.
What if the whole point of the Unity in Starfield is to not go j to the Unity? Meta upon meta???
I really don't think that is the case... When you enter the Unity, it states that the Emissary starts her/his our church and ends her/his search. I think I remember a few lines of dialogue that point to the idea that once the armillary is used, there is no way those left behind can move on. They are just forced to accept this as their universe.
Of course, I don't know this to be fact... And I kind of feel bad for those left behind if this is the case.
You can meet an adult Cora coe who's a star born so yeah all the people in the ship can enter the unity. Maybe we should commandeer the Constant and get as many people though it as possible 😅
dude, blink!
Wanted to post it.
constelation: its good to have you on board
player: i actually dont wanna join
constelation: we are so happy to have you hear lets get to work
player: i wanna join a different group or just go back to mining
constelation: alright now we have these weird artifacts..
I told people not to expect much from the story of this game because its an Emil Pagirulo special, which means no thought went into it all that went into it is "how can i get a twist? Twists make stories good!"
Still dislike that the one trying to stop you wasn't YOU from a previous run.
Or that annoying aspect where New Game Plus wipes your ship, companions, and all your items. Sure you keep the perks, but what was the POINT in ship customization if it would just be wiped. Same with companions, you should at least be able to bring your main one with you. Imagine the conversations with their double present.
The longer we get into the 5 year delivery schedule and more story is released, i'm sure a lot of these questions will get answered tho i'm sure for the continuing IP be it if it gets a sequel or goes full SaaS, but i think its the meeting with the Creators that will most likely spell out the point in all of this.
They are going to release DLC called starborn so we get creators
@@wihx9071 I think they'll hold off on the Creators until the 5th year. Based on what i'm seeing right now i think that DLC order will go Shattered Space >> Starborn >> Faction War >> Creators/Ending
They're going to spoon feed more crap in the hopes you'll buy it. Don't expect anything resembling deep thought or intuitive gameplay. Just more damage sponges one would assume.
@@mikeymondavi there was a trademark called starborn that called leaked a while back. i don't think they'll keep it for the 5th year DLC. we don't even know if it's going to get that many expansions
@@t.t6294 Nah, that'll be after Shattered Space, so expecting them to pull back a layer or two with the Starborn themselves, but they'll hold off the Creators for the final year and ending most likely.
Todd mentioned a 5 year delivery schedule and a 10 year product lifecycle before launch, and it was that approach that made me decide to pre-order rather than wait on a GOTY ed like i was going to when i thought this was going to be the typical BGS 1 and done with DLC approach like Fallout 3, NV, and 4. And thus far they seem to be sticking to that delivery schedule so its lookin like we'll get exactly what they said we'd get before launch.
I've yet to see them do or say something that would lead me to believe the plans changed or somehow wont materialize.
It could be that every universe where the player dosen't die is the universe that has the pilgrim, keeper aqualis, and the hunter coexisting. So possibly without those factors the player ends up dead by the hunters hands
The hunter is just too jaded, I don't think "I'm bored" is a good enough reason to kill everyone.
The emissary is a megalomaniac, the unity itself makes no judgement, and yet they feel entitled to judge who gets to the unity, when they themselves were not judged, it's hypocrisy and I won't stand for it, they can both go duck themselves
I don't think it's necessarily that he's bored. I think it's more like he's been to so many universes now that he no longer recognizes them as people. They're probably just obstacles to him after so much time
If you literally seen the same people hundreds of times, human life starts to lose meaning. To him, no one is unique or special. They can be replaced. He lives life like how a player plays a game.
You've never done a "kill everything " run? Ever? The Hunter acts just like the typical gamer.
@@notreallydaedalus the game itself even references this with the version of you that kills everyone in constellation HQ before you get there. Thought it was super cool
But you the player eventually become like this, the first few play-through's you keep trying to save people and do things differently, then eventually after a bunch of NG+'s you start to become psychopathic ie doing ridiculous stuff or turning evil just for kicks or speed-running for temple powers. You're only on your 10th run of a universe and you're already becoming the Hunter and he's on his thousandth run.
Added to everything you said in your excellent video - _groups_ of unnamed Starborn pursue the player. How do they even form groups? Do they have a clubhouse universe? Much of the language they use implies that they are working together to stop you.
We are certainly never tasked with stopping a "new" starborn, nor a source of authority to task us with anything really (Maybe after 6x9 NG+'s 🤗).
Them lil portals in the end quest (and the one with the uncalibrated laser thingy) allow universe hopping without Unity. And the Unnamed are both able and ready to hop right in whenever you complete a temple or snag an artifact.
Cynically these are just gameplay elements not fully fleshed out and simply don't make sense. But maybe if there *is* a Starborn DLC next year, the lore will add up.
I’ve often wondered if the star born don’t actually exist that your body is lying in a cryo-pod somewhere while your consciousness is sent out across the Multiverse as a star born
Tbh based on the dialogue from some of those staborn it seems that they're either trying to get the artifacts for themselves, or defending it from its resting place, almost like they're defending the artifacts themselves from power hungry starborn. And since the player seems to be an anomaly in the multiverse, they see you as a threat
Ngl, a starborn Ark full of starborn monks trying to decipher the origins & meaning of the Unity sounds SO cool.
Yeah I’ve burnt some speculation trying to come up with a working theory on the Starborn, no luck yet 🤣🤣🤣
The film Interstellar came out a year or two before BGS first started working on the concept for Starfield. I think BGS were heavily influenced by that film (Earth is dying & covered in dust; and ‘the Creators’ seem to be like the future humans in Interstellar - guiding past humanity to safety away from Earth with their future tech). Also the Marvel multiverse seems to have played a part. 😅
I appreciate the ability to make different choices and have done so. I still tend to choose neither and try to reason with them at the end, as that feels "right" to me. The times I have chosen a side have been in alternate realities when my companions aren't a factor. I generally choose to avoid the main quest until I have done some factions first.
It's the illusion of choice. Choose one guy, choose the other guy. Choose neither. It's the same outcome either way, just that one option avoids having to kill them. Personally, I found their motivations for attacking you to be pretty weak so I just offed the pair of them. The universe is better off without super powered psychopaths.
As much as starfield has its flaws, it's Main story and the questions it leaves, and you becoming exactly what you hated in the hunter if you're not careful, is amazing.
have fun at the minority table instead of the cool-kids-liking-good-writing table
they are basically all speed runners after jumping to multiple universes.
There’s a part in one universe where when you get to the unity, the insinuation I got is that, for a starborn to be born, you the person are destroyed and in return, you live on in all universes. The other interesting part is that in most universes the player character dies too. So it almost makes it seem that other than being the main character, there is something important about the character we play as. Kind of like space Highlander. There an only be one.
What I want to understand is even though Father Aquilis is the Hunter, I'm curious to how the Constillation members can become the Hunter or Emissary. My first playthough was Barret and when Father said he was the Hunter I was super confused
The Barrett in your starting universe is not the Barrett who became Starborn FIRST. In the emissary's original universe, he discovered all of the artifacts and entered the unity (and perhaps your character in his universe wasn't even part of constellation ) and became Starborn. From there, he was able to go through the Unity Multiple times, and eventually end up in your Universe. He is still surprised that you are the one to become Starborn, because he has never seen a version of you become Starborn.
He is still Barrett (or one of the other Constellation members), just a variation of the Barrett you know.
@@yesteryearr that's actually super cool! I never realized or thought of it that way!
Have you done Barrett's personal mission? I ask because... spoiler ahead... once you complete it and he gets his power he is able to bring over another version of him to your universe, and they have completely different stories about their lives, and some minor differences between themselves too.
I wouldn't put too much brain-power into it. Knowing BGS's puddle-deep storytelling skills I wouldn't be surprised if any mysteries popping up is nothing but happy coincidences with no real weight behind them whatsoever.
Apparently there is pattern filled by ZeniMax called "starborn". Perhaps we'll get expansion that will fill the gaps and answer some questions
As they say in game, unity is only half of the answer. The other half was given to the founder of the house of va’run. The great serpent to so degree represents something just as real and important as unity. We’ll have answers after the dlc
I doubt the dlc has the full answer.
@@shahherwan93 Maybe not the full answer. But some of it. I mean we don’t even fully understand the unity so I’m not saying it’ll answer everything. But I think the serpent will be revealed to be a real thing and not just a mythical religious belief
Crack Theory: We're playing through the Redguard Creation Myth.
The Great Serpent consumes the universe at its end, but it also creates new ones by shedding its skin.
The Starborn are the Et'Ada who've learned to walk outside the world long enough to persist between universes... accumulating power and shaping the universe with what they carry between them. Eternally stuck in a cycle of seeking a deeper understanding.
If we branch out into the Lessons of Vivec, it actually parallels a bit more. The only escape from the cycle is realizing the impact of one's own existence as a part of the universe, and loving all as one loves themselves, thereby slipping up and out. The Keeper/Pilgrim is attempting that.
The only answer I came to at the end of Starfield is no one should have the power of the unity and you should learn to accept the choices you made in your original universe. Don't get me wrong I new game plused a few times, upgraded some powers yadda yadda, but everytime I tried to do any type of quest everything felt completely hollow and meaningless. My answer after gathering all the artefacts was kicking Constellation off my ship, hiding the artifacts on an empty world on the edge of the galaxy and ensuring no one could ever abused their power. All of Constellation wanted to single mindedly use the artifacts without a moment of thought put into it of leaving your original universe, family, friends, everyone who ever knew or cared about you and trading it in for a fancy space suit, fancy ship, and lame space magic. It just seems incredibly short sighted at best, and power hungry at its worse.
I was really irritated when I asked myself about the origin of the temples and got offhandedly dismissed. NG+ is also hard to get excited about when you lose everything each time you enter the unity. I felt punished by progression since it was all for naught. Maybe the first time though sure, but at least let me keep my favorite two guns and some of my money in the locker of my starborn ship. I don't want to build an outpost and farm money, then wait at benches till the guns and upgrade materials are available every time. Just obvious hindrances at that point that exist purely as a fun tax.
There's a mod for that now.
I just wish this game didn't play it safe to which you're unable to be blocked out of doing any quests.
It'd have made the New Game Plus element so much more impactful. If, once you enter the Unity, it functionally resets everything anyway, why not let us do deeper missions with heavier outcomes. It'd have substantially increased replay value.
That in mind, I feel like the only thing the Unity amounts to is how impatient and possibly hostile you will get after racing through it, multiple times in a row.
Like constantly beating the game multiple times just to see one of the universes/or get better upgrades. That all being said, everything is very much pointless in that game and it could've been better had they a good writer.
loved the vid! great discussion
i feel like they are a device to make their NG+ part of the game's lore. The real stories are in the UC/Crimson Fleet/Ryujin and Ranger quests. We might learn more in what may be a future DLC rumored to be called "Starborn".
Whether or not they have any answers worked out now, and are just keeping from us until a later date, or if they didn't write any more lore than what we see, who knows :)
I made the story more dramatic in my first universe before NG+ as my character had just married Sarah and then several in game days later into the story the Hunter had killed her.
Then once my character discovered the Emissary was another variant of Sarah this opened up the possibility of getting a 2nd chance of being with her again, so it kind of makes sense that my character would travel to the next universe, then he starts becoming blinded with power and starts entering more universes then eventually like the Pilgrim he decides to stay put after travelling over a dozen universes.
I hope future DLCs will add more to the story.
Timeline theory:
Elder Scrolls exists in the first Kalpa
When that kalpa ends, most magic is removed from the following one.
A very regular Earth then exists like normal. Then the Fallout timelines happen.
200/300 ish years after that, humanity recovers and sets out for
the Starfield
One thing that really irritated me about Starfield is no one that matters reacts to you being a starborn in any way that matters. NG+1 should have an almost entirely different story, not just the ability to skip the story.
Starfield is really really weird. Bethesda has a solid game system with solid concepts behind it. But it falls short on so many aspects.The base building is strangely good but it lacks anything to do with it. You can't really make cities like Fallout 4 but you can do it much more easily than in fallout 4.
I assumed that if you talk the Hunter into giving you the artifacts, that starts him on his path to becoming the Pilgrim. You basically force him to look at things from another point of view.
19:42 the unity entity asks can one ever truly experience anything outside themselves, the hint I took from that is all universes and choices are actually happening simultaneously but you can only experience them linearly due to limited perspective. Even the hunter claims it’s all really variables and constants when he tells you that you’ve never came this far in previous realities. So it’s a giant algorithmic process running simultaneous variables and constants. Did victor aiza actually meet a starborn him, or was it the unity speaking to him for twelve days? Never met a starborn that can show you other universe glimpses but the unity “AI “ could. Maybe it got bored waiting on its creators to return from some unknown dimension so it started playing a game with humanity the only other sentient beings out there. What game can a computational system however complex play to pass the time other than this?
People can go through the unity after you do in the same universe. If you stop both of them you will see that inside the final space as one of the small things you can interact with.
Accumulation of power, good sir.
This is why they fight to get to the Unity. You do so, as well, whether or not that’s your goal.
It’s capped out at ten trips through the Unity. But, as far as the story line goes, the Hunter himself states as much. His seemingly endless trips through the Unity were all for accumulation of power.
Now, as far as how the Unity and multiple dimensions work? The details are messy, to say the least.
You bring up a lot of good points. How does the pilgrim, Aquilas and the Hunter all exist at the same time in seemingly endless universes? You can get a taste of it yourself, in one of the trips through the Unity. You come out the other side, travel to the Lodge to find that universes version of yourself already there. Another time you can find all of the member of the lodge murdered by a psychopath version of yourself donning the same black armor as the Hunter. On the other hand, it’s also possible to traverse the Unity and find yourself in a universe all by yourself. All of the lodge members gone, or alternatively, only find Noel as all other members retired.
It seems this game’s version of multiple universes breaks causality and several paradoxes all at the same time. Hell, siding with the Hunter will see him order you to murder Aquilas. Siding with the Emissary leaves that version of whichever constellation member to be the sole decision maker of who gets into the Unity and who doesn’t. Siding with neither means you “leave it open behind you”.
So, we can surmise the artifacts remain intact once you leave. Leaving it open behind you is confusing, though. Do people still need to build the armillery? That defeats the purpose of “leaving it open”, doesn’t it? The whole thing is confusing. Best to just not think about it too much. Multiple universes and time travel gets way too ridiculous, in my opinion.
Overall, I like the game. It could stand to have a bit more variety in some areas. Maybe answer a few questions or give us a goal besides power accumulation, as our reason for going through the unity. Maybe give us the ability to end the war between Starborn in each universe. That’s a worthy goal, moving forward. Each iteration that we visit, we could end the war between them by either good or evil means. But again, overall, I like the game. Having fun with it, especially with Mods.
Good video. Well thought out.
"Some holes in the plot ..." - I think you are giving Bethesda perhaps a little too much credit. Most of the NPC answers felt like a Martial Art Master trope : answering vaguely or in a riddle. I even wonder if the design team can explain the story to themselves, or do they just admit to the story being a mcguffin like logic: it exists, therefor it is.
*SPOILERS* In the endgame part where you can choose to enter or reject the Unity, two of the endings show that anyone can enter the Unity after you do. In the Emissary ending, this group gatekeeps the Unity and allows only the "worthy" from entering it. In the ending where you fight both the Hunter and the Emissary it specifically states that others start to enter it as well. In any ending, your romantic interest enters the Unity "some time later" and becomes Starborn. So, it doesn't seem like there's any limit.
I felt that the hunters apathy is basically the callousness one gets after replaying any game multiple times
I enjoy Starfield a lot more when I pretend the Multiverse Plot isn't there and never happened. I really liked the grounded, low-fantasy setting the game had before doing the main quest. I let an an audible groan the first time I met a Starborn and saw space magic. I don't think a multiverse plot can ever feel satisfying. It's the equivalent of "and it was all a dream!"
Watch "Everything Everywhere all at Once".
The Multiverse doesn't matter when you treat each universe as not mattering, and every character as being largely interchangeable.
If you treat everyone in every universe as a person with a life... then the Multiverse does matter. Because even in the face of the infinite and the uncaring, you can still make things better locally.
@@michaeloliver5892 It just requires a suspension of disbelief level I can't do. Knowing there are multiple copies of Sarah Morgan out there ready to nag me totally removes any impact if she were to die. I have achieved CHIM and there is no going back. My immersion is ruined.
Love to see someone talking about Starfield lore, more specifically the Starborn. I really hope the next DLC will answer some questions about them.
If you didn’t already know, the Artifacts aren’t destroyed when someone goes through the Unity because the “you” from the Unity tells you that your partner from the universe you are leaving eventually goes through, although it’s unknown if they stay assembled on your ship or if they scatter again.
While the VA theory is major evidence against it, I personally think Aquilus/The Hunter IS Victor Aiza. If you side with him as a Starborn to go to the buried temple, he mentions being hundreds of years old and living on Earth. Victor Aiza was also misled/manipulated by the person he met when he touched the Mars Artifact, and who gains the most benefit from humanity spreading across the stars? The Hunter, because in many universes rather than tracking down all 24 Artifacts himself, he relies on Constellation and the other Starborn to collect the majority of them for him so he can take them for himself and reach the Unity even faster.
The biggest flaw of the game is the main story.
First playthrough: all is OK, because you are asked to make a choice. You pick one of the 3 options: starborn, hunter or neither.
Then all fall apart, because when the game "reset", it simply give you a ship for NG+ and the armor, and the ability to skip the main quest to complete your mission and see the real ending. Sure, there are those random variations when you reach Constellation, but these are one percent of the whole game in terms of variables, right?
There is virtually no stake because nothing is really changing. The logic at the base of these choices is meaningless because you affect nothing. You go through unity and there is a new version of the world with the same exact order, same people, same quests. You neither affected the world you are visiting now in some ways (you kill the starborn or the hunter? Make no difference, they will be there again when you reset everything), nor you see changes based on what you do while you are in that world (factions are the same, people are still good or bad as you left them; there is no switch of places or different outcomes or variants of any sort).
Now if instead you would influence what is happening, and your actions would cause ripple effects in the next playthrough; that would be meaningful and brilliant. Imagine killing the emissary and have to deal with the consequences by becoming the hunter at that point, and running the universe as the one with that mindset; or killing the hunter and running instead with the emissary mindset the things in the next playthrough. Have the consequences of supporting the pirates factions vs the space soldiers; when you pick one side; or make it so when you are a space ranger or not, that makes the difference. And so on...
The game is infuriating... So much potential in how they set up things, and then it feels like all you do is a waste of time, because you reset everything like any other game; but you keep something like your powers; which to an extent are the worst part of the entire game. What else do you keep that has value? Companions are the same, quests are the same, everything is the same no matter if you are good or evil; so what is the point ? Once you understand that, you realize that this game is worth rushing to finish fast, then your second playthrough you build your base, get all the ships you want and basically "finish" the content, and stay in that timeline, as there is no reason to go on anymore at that point, because you can play all the factions missions in one playthrough.
I love this game but it does make me so disappointed at the lost opportunity...
I agree. So much potential, wasted by BGS’ usual poor writing when it comes to main quests. Hell, even the side missions felt too short to me but were better written.
@@thejoeker8439 The military faction side quest chain is actually better than the main quest... And that is just to say how bad the main campaign is.
If only there was a way to modify it with the editor tools, at least we can fix it ourselves.
With how the main mission was done, and with how it’s so free… I think I might just have myself a star wars starfield experience 💀
The armillary isn't used up, the person in the unity tells you as much in the ending where you didn't ally with either the hunter or the emissary. Something about people being free to discover the armillary without the interference of those too.
I loved this. I am just at the end of my first playthrough and am trying to figure out the Starborn and am having no luck. You opened my eyes and will just go through on my own.
Every Starborn leaves a "time stamp" as you put after they collect the very first artifact. The reason the Hunter and the Emissary keep "reappearing" isn't because of their "time stamps" but more so because of yours. When they die, they are gone only from that particular Universe that they were reborn into, but they still follow their own paths of rebirth and what they did until you either side with them or are killed. I would've loved to have a scenario where we were able kill them both before they had the opportunity to become Starborn in the first place and maybe have two other conflicting forces arise up (like two other random named NPCs that both have a convincing stance on the Artifact with followers and they both formed joinable factions or ones we can stand in opposition to...something like that). Either way, they never "truly" die because in every reset, they are there and present by the time we touch our first artifact.
The way unity works seems to be a bit of a time loop. They clue us into this when Barret says he first touched an artifact LONG ago. So, it is hinted at that the Emissary is whoever touched that original artifact in their universe (as they are always a member of constellation, and not always Barret, we can assume it is not always Barret that finds it). That would mean that the Emissary is thrown back at the time that he found his artifact originally. The Hunter would do the same thing, and the other Starborn the same thing. At the point where "A new champion touches the beacon", all of those players are in your universe. You created the start of the loop there, and you can only enter other universes there. However, we have to assume that you created many splits of that timeline, and perhaps created alternate splits as well (where the Emissary is another person, or any of the variant universes).
Take the movie everything everywhere all at once, and think about the way they phrased the multiverse, and how the more different a universe is, the further "away" it is. You are looping back to universes that are as close to your original as you can. Assumedly, it would taken hundreds of times through to get "further away" from the original universe, like the Hunter eventually did here.
TL:DR Universes continue to branch outwards even after a Starborn is in them, which duplicates said Starborn while they are in that universe. You created a branch point, and so many of your times through are revolving around minor differences to that branch point.
As we know that the Hunter originally lived on Earth before the magnetosphere collapsed, it could have been a long time ago he touched one.
@@downix He may well be the guy who found Earth's artifact.
It's one of my headcanons that if you keep going through Unity, eventually there's a chance that it might spit you out in a universe where you aren't the main character anymore, but one of the random background Starborn. Which would make sense, if each time you take the leap, you have at least a chance of getting a little "farther" away from your native universe.
Personally, I love the dichotomy between The Keeper and The Hunter. They're the same exact person, yet completely different in their ideologies.
They're important because they represent the split between power and contentment. The two choices you have. And the two people you could potentially become.
You could be like the Hunter and pursue power until the end of time.
Or be the Keeper, and be content with what you have.
It's essential to remember that the Hunter is Aquilus and not vice-versa. He wasn't a religious leader who discovered the Unity and became a power-hungry madman, he was a power-hungry madman who'd gone through the Unity so many times he began to question why he was even doing it at all. After all, what's the point of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting shit to change? That, by definition, is insanity.
My answer in the end, and I suppose many of yours, was the same as Aquilus'. To stay, and be happy with what I've got. I wasn't about to leave my wife Andreja, my cool weapons, my trusty ship: the HMS Tax Dodger, and a mountain of credits behind so I could make my fireball slightly stronger. Bump that.
To be honest, overall, I think that's the true answer. Especially when you get back to your ship, and it's revealed that none of your friends could make the jump either, having too much stock in this universe to simply give up on it now.
When you reach the Unity you're removed from the normal continuum. The reason you pop out when you do is because that's the moment you touched an artifact and communed with it, something that not everyone can do. But that's not the same start point for everyone else. We know this because other starborn can wait for you at the Lodge. The reason you only sometimes encounter yourself is because most people just get vaporized when closely interacting with an artifact like you do, including most versions of yourself.
It's basically Two different colored hamsterwheels.
I think starborn move in a linear line sort of. The hunter and the emissary always meet because that universe they always meet in is a convergence point. And either the emissary passes through, the hunter, or in very small circumstances, you do. And either the hunter dies, passes through, or stays behind. That's the case for all 3 of them. Either the emissary dies, stays behind, or goes through. The emissary comes from a universe where the character dies, and either the hunter stays or dies. And the further "down the line" either 3 go, they eventually decide to stop and settle.
Kinda feels like this guy put more thought in Stanfield than the writer did
I enjoyed your philosophical meanderings! Regarding the hunter and the emissary, you didn't mention that those are perhaps special creations/representations/agents of whoever created the artifacts and the temples. That creator may have a purpose in elevating humans and giving them ever increasing powers, and they may have created the Hunter and the Emissary in each universe to guide the evolutionary process of the starborn...
The hunter says that (you) normally die when the crimson fleet first arrive. We as players are a anomaly there fore we are just one. Its safe to say that the Starborn both as reborn and there normal self's can go true creating more of them each new universe.
the starborn don't actually seem to appear at the same time and the hunter isn't just one guy, he is likely to be many different copies.
The hunter at one point mentions that someone had the idea to build a fortress on the final artifact, which presumably would take a huge amount of effort, time, and resources.
Which implies that the artifacts can only be obtained at the same time, but different starborn appear in each universe at different times? some showing up earlier to build fortresses while others sit back and wait for others to collect the artifacts for them.
I assume the timeline centers around constellation and its members, being the ones who discover the artifacts, presumably the people who discovered the artifacts. I assume the hunter is the guy who originally discovered the artifact on earth, which may be how someone shows up so much earlier, having achieved the unity long after initially discovering an artifact. so I assume your starborn initiation point is the point at which you make contact with an artifact, like making a quick save. but only actually becoming starborn when collecting the rest of them.
I would have preferred the options to refuse to go to the unity or do destroy the armillary.
What if, when you step into Unity, you arrive at a world where all is reset but starborn.
Its the same world but reset. Not a multiverse. (just like the game, reset only)
All starborn will retain their previous experience and memory.
Lets say, Helix got all the pieces at the last fight we have with him. He will then go through the unity as a 'winner';
whereas for us, we will be reset but retain the last memory of losing to Helix.
Hunter and emissary at which will not be fighting us, but lost to Helix and then reborn together with us where Helix got 'upgraded'.
Whoever win will reset the world to the time the winner's touching their first piece of artifact.
Example,
Lin touched the artifact (instead of us player) will set her (Lin & this artifact) reset time/point exactly the same as us player if she eventually collects all and go into the Unity.
We will be reset and loop again and be in the cave with her without knowing anything. But Lin will.
If somehow Lin is defeated at anytime, this reset time/point will be cancel.
By using this theory, artifact is a character save, time save & coordinate safe for whoever first 'touch' it.
By collecting all 24 pieces, it will activate to one's only save.
But this will exponentially increase any starborn's chance of winning over normal human(retaining all memories, knowledge & ability).
Still, loop holes everywhere.
Let say, i won for the first time.
Went to NG+1,
Went to the cave, got my artifact and went into hiding indefinitely.
Did not break the cycle, but agonizing for the rest of the starborns.
Will Unity interfere.
"Helix" is just the name of the Emissary's ship, not another Starborn. The Hunter's ship is the Scorpius.
I suspect that they've both been through so many universes at this point that they've stopped bothering to build or acquire other ships, and just go with the top-tier Starborn Guardian in each universe. It's basically the same ship every universe, so they name it the same thing every time.
We do know the artifacts in fact stick around/are usable thanks to the unity "epilogue" talking, your romance partner "eventually" chooses to become starborn, the emissary leads people they think should be starborns to be reborn, a certain alternate reality variation has someone hunting you after you went thru.
You make a good point about The Pilgrim being another version of Keeper Aquilas. But, I'd like to think that The Pilgrim is another version of the old earth scientist that discovered grav drives and was then visited by himself too; Just a lot further down the line. It would be cool to get hints as to who some of the other Starborn are, or at least why they appear to guard some of the temples and other artifacts.
4:26 I think that, when a starborn is killed, their body rematerializes in their home universe. It makes sense, since they are interlopers in the multiverse, and it's a way of balancing out the multi-cosmic scale.
The first artefact was found on Mars before humans left the solar system. My guess is when they reset they are sent back through time or maybe each universe is reset. The bigger question is who made the artefacts the ships and unity.
In my playtrough, I decided not to go in to the unity, to break the cycle and keep the artifacts
Doesn't the Emissary talk about setting up some sort of starborn council that decides who is worthy enough to pass through the unity while the hunter thinks only the strongest should go through Highlander style.
What would be the point of setting up a council deciding who is worthy if only one person can go through in the end? Unless the unity stays open once someone has gone through and only those who know where it is can travel through it.
Also what happens if you travel to a universe that's already had someone go through the unity? Does that mean you are stuck there now?
Did they actually have a plan for this or was it just they had an idea for a game mechanic and wrote the story around that?
Centipede people? Were you hoping he was a Kohr-Ah stuffed into that Edge Suit?
there is one other neutral starborn, a random spaceship encounter with a merchant that revals to be starborn if you are in ng+ and sells some legendary and unique weapons
Enjoyed the vid. Thought I'd drop in and give some of my theories.
1. The game does explain in the unity that our companions eventually go through the unity. meaning the unity is opened by way of grav jumping with the armillary at any point.
2. I theorize that when we grave jump, time is stopped by the armillary and all aboard are turned to energy. We reconstitute in a new universe and our clothing and ships are formed from the space around us.
3. My theory on the Starborn is that the tech was built to escape a cataclysmic event, one that destroys the universe (great serpent?) and when the tech was activated, it opened the multiverse and created a nexus event. (event that branches the timelines).
4. i believe we the player are the Nexus Being, (person who drastically changes the timeline), seeing as we die in every timeline, until now. We also meet the "Hunter" us, who i believe, is actually the future version of ourselves who chose to become the hunter.
5.regardless, i think the event that happened has yet to come and we are in a time loop, Starting at the beginning each time to slowly build enough power to possibly collapse the nexus event and stop the cataclysm that started it all.
YOu did miss that the other starborn can coordinate. The Hunter brings helpers in to fight against you. They seem to gate into the universe at his command.
Just subscribed, you're the only person talking about Starfield lore I can find! If anyone has any other suggestions, feel free to reply.
I actually choose the hunter over the emissary. A system controlled over a hierarchy? What has the gotten the world today? I'd choose free will and power over following rules and having a leader
It’s a game about exploring into the unknown. Whenever we as humans find answers to the questions of the universe we also find more questions along the way.
Except nothing is unknown. Literally every planet you can land on has already been visited by someone. Even the unity isn't really an 'unknown' at the end of the day, because the Starborn have already been there. In fact, they could literally have told you exactly what the unity is right from the start and your character probably wouldn't have even bothered looking for it.
This “Starborn logic” sounds a lot like Bethesda logic and very convenient for their writers
Pretty good "hitchhikers guide" joke
18:00 if when the ng+ starts, could it be the universes where our player character dips with the ship, never going to the lodge, never doing the main mission?
Everytime you enter the unity your consciousness is scattered across the multiverse. Your consciousness gets updated across the multiple versions of yourself.
See that doesn’t make since either because when you side with the emissary they talk about leading others to the unity
The Starborn not only experience those whom they know the outcome of, but those who know their outcome as well, something they may only realize through third parties. The player character has only experienced a small fraction of what it is to be a Starborn, but this type of interaction has driven them to be more of an introverted type of character. The extroverts of the lot are usually the ones who have given up on the race for Starborn power, to survive they have to be introverted. Perhaps the Starborn DLC will have the player meet someone who has already slain them, perhaps repeatedly, with them completely oblivious to it except when ultimately confirmed by other Starborn, and this faction would represent that of the emissary more directly. This has already happened, but never after having gone through the Unity for the player, and it establishes the power struggle being motivated by not having other Starborn control your fate before you control theirs.
The whole Unity plot, it's not really defined, but it can go a lot of ways. It could even be the answer to Fermi's Paradox in-game, that when life is capable enough to travel across the universe, that it snuffs out the potential for other life, so the Unity could have been concocted to provide safe havens for different forms of life to spread within their own universe, and through the Starborn process, to prepare to interact with other forms of intelligent life. There is no Vasco Starborn because this portion of the multiverse has not been intended to filter out his form of sentience. The Unity is the first step, the next step of the puzzle to unlock its potential past Groundhog Day has yet to be seen. The next step could be interaction with very different human universes, and then afterwards, aliens.
As I understand it, you can go through the Unity even after someone did before. This though is something I take from an ending siding with the Emissary, in which it was stated that the Emissary remained in the Universe to guide others into the Unity without violence.
This, obviously, seems to collide with why all Starborn fight over the Artifacts to get into the Unity. Unless.... unless only the first one to enter the Unity keeps their powers they gathered in that universe. This would also explain why there are so infinitely many relatively "weak" Starborn. And why there are groups of them working together.
Well, that is my theory at least.
You can run into yourself in some universes.
In one you can encounter yourself at Constellation and he becomes a companion option
The unity has to be a trap as no branch of any alternate universe you create ever leads you to anything other than a reflection of yourself at the end. Sure, you can get powers or make the easy meta layup that it’s just a ng+ treadmill, but nothing really changes except a finite power increase and a handful of minor universe changes. There’s never going to be a real satisfying reward in the Unity. It’s just an addiction you lose yourself to and eventually stop on some far away parallel galaxy that was never your original.
They basically turn into Rick Sanchez, you transcend what it means to love in the now. You become numb to anything and everything but your own consequences and actions. Do anything bad? Universe hop. Something didn't turn out your way? Hop in another. Everything is true and nothing is forbidden. Because nothing matters but what the Starbor. Want and that's endless pursuit of powers and endeavors.
The artifacts remind me of the sphere in Michael Crichton’s The Sphere in a way, although I doubt that was an influence.
I expect a DLC in the future that will give us some clarity and focus on the purpose of the starborn. Perhaps during the quest components, they will give hints that would guide the player to a location that perhaps a planet/city/location that is out of time or beyond time perhaps. What would you find could create a whole new purpose and direction for the player. Imagine if you will a group of advisors who could give missions to the starborn that would affect the flow of history as we know it. I think starborn are individuals that have unique genetics allowing them to access and use abilities unavailable to a normal human. I see the multiverse where you not only have access to many realities but also able to transverse time and change history.
I believe the starborn appear in each new universe at the exact moment they first touched the artifact the first time so they don't all appear in the same place at the same time they just appear at the same place in time as when they first saw their first vision of unity
When you die after becoming starborn, you turn to dust too. And then time shenanigans happen, and you reload... Maybe in a different universe? Maybe death does transport you, but how would you know that if you never experience death before?
16:30 The Hunter was alive when Earth was still habitable. So that whould mean he touched original artifact from Mars centuries ago and every time he goes through Unity he has to wait centuries before going through it again.