"You are the messiah": Community leak claims Starfield plot is about a dying planetary system

Starfield, along with Redfall, was delayed to the first half of 2023 last month.

Being Bethesda's first new intellectual property in 25 years, Starfield was among the most highly anticipated titles this year, on the same row as Elden Ring. No matter how much they may abate the hype train, the delay has not fazed the bubbling speculation about Bethesda's hot new RPG.

Much of this can be accounted for by a severe lack of gameplay footage. Next week, it will most likely have its big reveal on stage at the Summer Games Fest. Till then, reasonable guesses on how it will play are limited to an implicit similarity to other BGS role-playing games like Fallout 4.

The lore of Starfield's new world is something Bethesda has been teasing slowly over the years. This is sometimes done through bite-sized featurettes on companions, such as the bot Vasco, and sometimes through a big-picture exposition of its setting, the Settled Systems.

Earlier today, an anonymous leaker on the /v/ 4chan board exposed the alleged plot points of Starfield, most of which is unprecedented information. Overall, it equates the central plot of Starfield to the quasi-religious salvation of a doomed world, possibly a symbolic one.

"All the planet's and cities are falling apart. The universe is dying. People believe finding the ethereal source will save them.

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How credible is the Starfield plot leak?

Thus far, all that Bethesda has officially revealed regarding the plot is the protagonist's nature: an explorer of the Constellation faction. As the dev diary episode 2 teases, the protagonist is a 'wanderer,' a nomadic on-brand figure with the Fallout heroes - the lone wanderer, the courier, etc.

Other lore tidbits that they have shared focus on the different factions and cultures of Starfield, such as the corporations that run the essential cyberpunk haven of Neon or the tribes of Akila City.

So this plot leak is virtually the first of its kind, and its implications are fascinating. The leak must be prefaced with the anonymity of the user and the lack of any additional credibility, so this should be taken with a grain of salt.

As per the leak, humanity was led towards the Settled System by some mysterious 'ethereal energy.' The plot starts with some order of dispersion of said energy, and the protagonist is the only on-site survivor of the event. As the 'chosen one,' they must unravel the mystery of a dying planetary system and save the day.

The highly mythic-religious tone of a chosen hero's journey puts Starfield much closer to Bethesda's other IP: The Elder Scrolls. Be it the Nerevar, the Champion of Cyrodiil, or the Dragonborn. These protagonists are placed as prophesized heroes to solve a world-ending crisis.

In a shot of a bookshelf in the announcement trailer, one can locate two real books: 'Sailing Alone Around The World' by Joshua Slocum and 'Omega: The Last Days of The World' by Camille Flammarion. The latter's plot just so happens to be about a similar world-ending crisis, also with the same quasi-religious tone.

At any rate, whether this is a legitimate leak, an older draft of a now-discarded plot, or simply a glib reference to The Bright Brotherhood, this will give fans plenty more to speculate on till the big reveal on June 12.