Bethesda has kept many of the details about its upcoming space-set RPG Starfield under wraps, despite the game first being announced over three years ago. As the studio’s first new IP in over twenty-five years, some fans have had a tough time piecing together exactly what kind of universe they’ll be exploring and the types of groups inhabiting it.
Between the videos released on Bethesda’s YouTube channel towards the end of last month and some blink-and-you’ll-miss-it background details found in the video Into the Starfield: The Journey Begins by Reddit user kami77, Bethesda appears, intentionally or not, to have revealed eight of the factions which will be included in the game. With Todd Howard claiming that factions will be as important in Starfield as they are in Skyrim, here are some of the groups players can expect to encounter.
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Constellation
Constellation has been the main faction focused on in Starfield’s marketing material so far. As far back as the first Starfield image leaks, what is now known to be the Constellation logo can be seen as a patch on the player character’s spacesuit.
Constellation is space exploration organization, seemingly inspired by NASA and SpaceX. It appears to be the faction players will join as part of the main quest, which involves finding an answer to “life’s greatest mystery” and going on “humanity’s final journey” after the player makes an important discovery that has yet to be revealed.
The United Colonies
The United Colonies is a major faction that was officially revealed in one of the Starfield: Location Insights videos. Bethesda’s design director Emil Pagliarulo described it as “the most powerful, established military and political faction in the game.” Its capital is the city of New Atlantis.
In the background of the Into the Starfield video, around 57 seconds in, Pagliarulo can be seen writing what appears to be an email which will appear in the game. The fictional email is signed off by UC Fleet Admiral Pascual Logan, though whether or not that’s the highest office in the United Colonies is unknown - little has been revealed about the UC outside the document and the Starfield concept art of New Atlantis.
The document describes another faction known as the Crimson Fleet expanding into United Colonies territory, into the “Sagan, Cheyenne, Lunara and Narion systems.” This suggests that these systems are part of the United Colonies, and since they seem to be border regions, fans can only assume for now that the United Colonies has even more star systems under its control.
The Crimson Fleet
The Crimson Fleet has not been mentioned aloud in any Starfield videos so far, but is referenced in the Admiral Logan email. It appears to be a pirate faction which originally preyed on the territory of the Freestar Collective, another of the major governmental factions found in Starfield's setting, and is now expanding its reach into UC territory. The line in the document claiming that “Pirates of the Crimson Fleet have extended far beyond the Kryx system” suggests that the Kryx system may be their base of operations, though it is possible it is simply an area where piracy has affected colonies to a large degree.
When it comes to the group’s structure, according to Admiral Logan the Crimson Fleet shouldn’t actually be considered a faction at all. The document claims that “the "Crimson Fleet" is not a single organized entity or faction. Rather, it is a loose confederation of individual captains, all organized under the same banner.” The document also explains that the group has taken up the Jolly Roger as its symbol, and that anyone seen displaying that symbol can be “terminated at will” by United Colonies forces. A jolly roger can be seen on some Starfield armor designs.
The Crimson Fleet appears to be one of the main villainous factions in the game, though like Skyrim’s Dark Brotherhood, Thieves’ Guild, and Volkihar vampire clan, that does not necessarily mean they will be antagonistic. In fact, it seems very likely that players hoping to take to the skies as a space pirate will get that chance.
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MAST
MAST is one of the other factions mentioned in the same document, though only as part of Admiral Pascual Logan’s sign-off. It appears to be a part of the United Colonies government, and appears as “MAST (Military, Administrative and Scientific Triumvirate).” Whether MAST is a force for good in the United Colonies or something more sinister has yet to be revealed. If nothing else, the existence of multiple groups within larger factions could be an interesting way for Bethesda to complicate the otherwise very optimistic marketing of Starfield’s universe so far.
SysDef and Vanguard
SysDef is another faction mentioned in the Into the Starfield document. It is described as “committed to ridding United Colonies space of these parasite.” The name presumably stands for Systems Defense, and the fact that the group appears to be separate from the United Colonies and MAST suggests that it could be a private military contractor. Vanguard is the other faction described as taking on the Crimson Fleet, apparently on behalf of the UC. It seems possible that the UC is hiring out the fight against the pirates to different groups, which players will likely find competing with one another in the game.
The Freestar Collective
The Freestar Collective is the second major governmental faction found in Starfield. Its capital is Akila City, a town with high walls beyond which lie “the deadly Ashta, alien predators that are a cross between a wolf and a velociraptor.” The Freestar Collective appears to have split off from the UC at some point, accepting frontier living and Starfield's alien monsters as the price for freedom. It encompasses three star systems, and seems to have the most difficulty with the Crimson Fleet.
The Xenofresh Corporation
The Xenofresh Corporation is the faction in charge of Neon, a “pleasure city” on an “otherwise nondescript aquatic world.” It originally set up shop on the planet to build a fishing platform, before finding that the world’s psychotropic fish could make far more money bringing in tourism. For players always eager to make a few extra bucks or just get away from it all, the Xenofresh Corporation could be right up their alley.
Starfield releases November 11, 2022 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.