Exodus: A Deep Dive for the Hardcore Science Fiction Enthusiast.

For a distinct breed of science-fiction fan, the announcement of Exodus stood as the most significant news from a recent gaming awards ceremony. Curiously, those very fans might not have grasped its full importance during the initial showcase.

Exodus, the first project from a new studio staffed with veteran talent from a renowned RPG developer, was first teased a couple of years prior. At the latest event, the development team provided an early release window of 2027, accompanied by a action-packed trailer. Ahead of this reveal, the studio's leadership discussed some of the authentic scientific theories that form the foundation for the game's universe: time dilation, human augmentation, and galactic expansion. These are all suitably heady ideas, which are notoriously challenging to communicate in a brief, marketing-driven trailer.

“It's a shame some of those innovative and novel ideas were featured in the trailer. All I saw was ‘standard man in space,’” wrote one observer. Another replied, “All I got was ‘we have a well-known space opera RPG at home.’” Feedback in online forums were correspondingly mixed.

The trailer's approach clearly makes sense from a business angle. When trying to make an impact during a lengthy onslaught of game announcements, what is more marketable: A group discussing the complexities of theoretical science? Or giant robots blowing up while additional mechs shoot energy beams from their faces? However, in opting for spectacle, the developers failed to include the quieter elements that make Exodus one of the more promising scientifically rigorous games coming soon. Let's delve deeper.

The Celestial Conundrum

Does Exodus contain aliens? Perhaps. It depends. Recall that shot near the beginning of the trailer, depicting a humanoid with ashen skin and metal components fused into their flesh. That was definitely an alien, right? In the end hinges on your perspective regarding one of the game's central existential inquiries: If you applied incremental change reasoning to the human genome, is what remains still humanity?

“We want the Celestials... for a player not intending to dedicate large amounts of time into absorbing the lore, to still understand the basic premise that they're evolved humans, recognize that they’re an foe you have to deal with... But also, ultimately, make sure it's engaging and that they're cool and that they are satisfying to fight against,” explained the studio's head.

Comprehending how these otherworldly beings aren't by definition aliens requires grappling with enormous expanses of both the cosmos and time. Time dilation — the scientific principle that time moves at a reduced rate for rapidly traveling objects — is an fundamental hard line of Exodus’ fictional framework. Here are the fundamentals: Humanity evacuates a desiccated Earth in the 23rd century for a remote corner of the Milky Way. Due to time dilation, some human voyagers arrive millennia before others. Those pioneers extensively engineered their genetic sequences and took on the “Celestial” moniker.

“There’s multiple tiers of evolution. The people who reached the Centauri cluster first... had tens of thousands of years of evolution into the Celestials... They really see unaltered humans as fundamentally unevolved, inferior, not really fit for the higher tiers of society,” stated the game's lead writer.

Exodus is set approximately 40,000 years in the future. Reflect on that timeframe — that's essentially all of recorded human history multiplied ten times over. Now contemplate what humans would become if they spent ten entire human histories pushing the boundaries of genetic manipulation. You would not possibly identify the result as human. You might certainly believe you're looking at an alien. The most fearsome strain of Celestial, known as the Mara-Yama, can adopt diverse forms. Some possess sharp teeth and claws and stand enormously tall. Others are protected in chitinous shells. According to supplementary lore, when Mara-Yama travel between stars, their physical forms can degenerate into little more than a fleshy blob attached to a head.

Building a Sci-Fi Canon

Between the explosions, beam attacks, and battle bears, you might have glimpsed snippets of advanced technology in the trailer. The protagonist, Jun Aslan, uses a chrome machine that emanates a purple glow. A spaceship flies into a portal and is gone at incredible speed. This all seems beyond human comprehension, the kind of tech linked to a highly advanced civilization. Yet, these are further examples of wonders that seem alien but are ultimately derived in our species' own evolution.

Beyond the core development team, the Exodus canon is being crafted by what the narrative lead called a duo of “renowned authors.” One acclaimed author has already published a doorstopper novel set in the universe, with another planned, while another esteemed writer has contributed a series of short stories. Incorporating such respected science-fiction minds into the fold years before the game's release has enabled the studio to develop a rich fictional universe as a framework 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 fit together... With someone so talented, you don't want to constrain 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, creating stone into a makeshift bridge. This material, called livestone, responds to mental impulses from Celestials or augmented enforcers — descendants of later human arrivals who were granted certain technologies by the Celestials. Since Jun exhibits this ability, questions are raised about his status.

“Jun's not specifically a Uranic human... Jun is sort of a hacked version, for want of a better term,” clarified the writer, noting that the ability to use Celestial technology is a “important element of the game.”

The sheer scale of the Exodus setting — both in distance and temporal scope — means there is abundant room for various stories to exist, pulling from the same universe without causing interference.

A Broad Narrative Canvas

Although Exodus has been publicly known for a couple of years and is still distant, several stories have already been told within its universe. The first major novel delves into the connection between a Uranic human and a woman whose ship arrived many millennia later than planned, making Celestials utterly alien to her experience. An episode of a television series tells a poignant story about a father pursuing his daughter across star systems, with time dilation resulting in devastating effects on their family; by the time he finds her, she has aged a lifetime.

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