Exodus: An Exploration for the Dedicated Futurism Fanatic.

For a particular breed of science-fiction fan, the revelation of Exodus stood as the most impactful reveal from a recent gaming awards ceremony. Interestingly, those very fans may not have grasped its full importance during the initial showcase.

Exodus, the first project from a new studio populated with veteran talent from a legendary RPG developer, was originally announced a couple of years prior. At the latest event, the development team provided an targeted release window of 2027, accompanied by a fast-paced trailer. Prior to this reveal, the studio's leadership detailed some of the grounded scientific concepts that form the foundation for the game's universe: relativistic time effects, biological engineering, and galactic expansion. These are all appropriately heady ideas, which are inherently challenging to express in a brief, showy trailer.

“It's a shame some of those innovative and new ideas were featured in the trailer. My takeaway was ‘standard man in space,’” wrote one viewer. Another quipped, “All I got was ‘this is like a well-known space opera RPG at home.’” Responses in online forums were equally mixed.

The trailer's strategy certainly is understandable from a business perspective. When attempting to stand out during a lengthy deluge of game announcements, what is more marketable: Scientists contemplating the intricacies of Einsteinian physics? Or massive robots blowing up while more mechs fire plasma from their visors? However, in prioritizing spectacle, the developers failed to include the quieter concepts that make Exodus one of the more exciting concept-driven games coming soon. Let's explore further.

Evolved or Alien?

Does Exodus include aliens? Perhaps. The answer is nuanced. Consider that shot near the start of the trailer, depicting a humanoid with ashen skin and technological components merged into their flesh. That was certainly an alien, correct? The truth hinges on your interpretation regarding one of the game's major philosophical questions: If you applied Ship of Theseus logic to the human genome, is what results still human?

“We want the Celestials... for a player who isn't spend significant amounts of time into learning the lore, to still comprehend the fundamental idea that they're evolved humans, see that they’re an foe you have to confront... But also, ultimately, make sure it's enjoyable and that they're impressive and that they are satisfying to fight against,” explained the studio's head.

Comprehending how these non-human beings aren't by definition aliens requires grappling with enormous expanses of both the cosmos and time. Time dilation — the Einsteinian theory that time moves at a reduced rate for rapidly traveling objects — is an fundamental core tenet of Exodus’ narrative setting. Here are the fundamentals: Humanity abandons a desiccated Earth in the 23rd century for a remote corner of the Milky Way. Due to time dilation, some human travelers arrive ages before others. Those firstcomers radically altered their biology and took on the “Celestial” name.

“There’s multiple tiers of evolution. The people who got to the Centauri cluster first... had tens of thousands of years of evolution into the Celestials... They really see standard humans as fundamentally primitive, beneath them, not really suitable for the dominant positions of society,” stated the game's story head.

Exodus is set roughly 40,000 years in the future. Ponder that timeframe — that's the equivalent of all of our documented past repeated ten times over. Now imagine what humans would become if they spent ten entire human histories pushing the boundaries of biological science. You would never recognize the result as human. You might certainly believe you're observing an alien. The most fearsome strain of Celestial, known as the Mara-Yama, can adopt various forms. Some possess fangs and blades and stand nine feet tall. Others are encased in armored plating. According to supplementary lore, when Mara-Yama travel between stars, their physical forms can atrophy into little more than a mass of tissue attached to a head.

A Universe of Ideas

Between the detonations, lasers, and combat creatures, you might have caught snippets of otherworldly technology in the trailer. The protagonist, Jun Aslan, interacts with a shiny machine that emanates a purple glow. A spaceship accelerates into a portal and vanishes at near-light speed. This all seems past human comprehension, the kind of tech attributed to a highly advanced civilization. Yet, these are further examples of elements that seem alien but are ultimately derived in our species' own ascension.

Beyond the core development team, the Exodus universe is being crafted by what the narrative lead called a duo of “sci-fi giants.” One celebrated author has already published a lengthy novel set in the universe, with another planned, while another award-winning writer has written a series of short stories. Incorporating such respected science-fiction minds into the fold years before the game's release has allowed the studio to develop a dense fictional universe as a backdrop for the game.

“It was really a joint venture. We had set some parameters, and working with him, he would have ideas... and we would work to see how they all integrated... With someone of that caliber, you don't want to handcuff him. You want to give him latitude,” the narrative director said of the collaboration.

One notable scene shows Jun seemingly mold the ground beneath him, forming stone into a makeshift bridge. This material, called livestone, reacts to neural commands from Celestials or a specific human subclass — descendants of later human arrivals who were granted limited technologies by the Celestials. Since Jun demonstrates this ability, one might wonder about his status.

“Jun's not exactly a Uranic human... Jun is sort of a modified version, for want of a better term,” clarified the writer, stating that the ability to interface with Celestial technology is a “important element of the game.”

The immense scale of the Exodus setting — both in physical space and the timeline — means there is abundant room for various stories to coexist, pulling from the same core lore without risking overlap.

Stories Within the Void

Although Exodus has been in development for a couple of years and isn't releasing, several stories have already told within its universe. The first major novel explores the connection between a Uranic human and a woman whose ship arrived an aeon later than planned, making Celestials utterly alien to her experience. An episode of a streaming show depicts a poignant story about a father pursuing his daughter across star systems, with time dilation resulting in profound effects on their family; by the time he finds her, she has experienced many years.

The game itself is centered on “Jun’s story,” set on the planet Lidon — a world primarily abandoned by Celestials that has become a refuge. A corrupting influence known as “the Rot” has begun eating away at everything, including vital life support systems, and Jun must use his Celestial-like powers to {find a solution|stop