Starfield Players Get a Timeline Full of In-Universe Lore

Starfield‘s release date is quickly approaching. Bethesda’s new space-faring adventure welcomes Xbox and PC players on September 6, but the team has given fans the opportunity to dig into the world’s backstory a little early by dropping a new in-universe timeline. While not giving everything away, this timeline gives Starfield fans a quick peak at everything leading up to the start of the game, including some insight into the steps humanity took to become space travelers. Plus, if Bethesda turns out to be a predictor of the real world, we’re only around 25 years until the first humans make it to Mars.

The official Starfield timeline shared by Bethesda kicks off in 2050 when the first humans arrived on Mars. That’s a little slower than current NASA and SpaceX estimates, though it’s certainly within the realm of what seems plausible at this point. From there, the timeline says that “humans are living in space” by 2100. Now, it isn’t clear in this timeline if that means all humans live in space or just some, but that’s something we will likely learn more about when Starfield ships. We then learn that humans made their way to Alpha Centauri (which is noted as being 4.37 light years away from Earth in the graphic) in 2156 and formed the United Colonies three years later.

From there, the lore gets a bit more specific, referencing characters that we’ll likely learn more about in the full game. That said, there are about 150 years of history you can read leading into 2330 when Starfield begins. Knowing all of it isn’t going to be completely necessary to enjoy the game, but it is something hardcore fans can dig into to get a headstart on learning about Starfield‘s in-depth backstory.

Thankfully, we don’t have to wait much longer to dig into Starfield‘s story. As mentioned above, the game is out on September 6 for Xbox and PC platforms. Thus far, the early reports seem to be very positive, though those should probably be taken with some skepticism since they’re not totally official. That said, the mod page is already up, so even if the game ships with the usual amount of Bethesda jank, you can count on the players to clean things up via post-launch mods.