Exodus: An Exploration for the Dedicated Futurism Fanatic.

For a distinct breed of science-fiction enthusiast, the revelation of Exodus stood as the most significant moment from a recent gaming awards ceremony. Interestingly, those very fans may not have grasped its full implications during the initial showcase.

Exodus, the first project from a recently established studio staffed with former talent from a famous RPG developer, was originally announced a couple of years prior. At the latest event, the development team provided an projected release window of 2027, accompanied by a spectacle-filled trailer. Ahead of this presentation, the studio's leadership detailed some of the grounded scientific ideas that form the foundation for the game's universe: time dilation, human augmentation, and galactic expansion. These are all suitably complex ideas, which are inherently challenging to communicate in a brief, marketing-driven trailer.

“I wish some of those fascinating and new ideas were featured in the trailer. What I perceived was ‘stereotypical man in space,’” wrote one commenter. Another quipped, “All I got was ‘we have a well-known space opera RPG at home.’” Reactions in community spaces were similarly varied.

The trailer's strategy undoubtedly is understandable from a commercial angle. When attempting to make an impact during a hours-long barrage of game announcements, what has broader appeal: A group debating the finer points of Einsteinian physics? Or enormous robots blowing up while more war machines emit plasma from their faces? However, in opting for spectacle, the developers neglected to include the more nuanced concepts that make Exodus one of the more promising scientifically rigorous games coming soon. Let's explore further.

The Celestial Conundrum

Does Exodus contain aliens? Yes. It depends. Consider that shot near the beginning of the trailer, depicting a being with gray-blue skin and cybernetic components merged into their body. That was surely an alien, yes? In the end hinges on your interpretation regarding one of the game's core thematic dilemmas: If you applied incremental change logic to the human DNA, is what remains still human?

“We want the Celestials... for a player who isn't dedicate significant amounts of time into studying the backstory, to still grasp the core concept that they're advanced humans, see that they’re an opposing force you have to confront... But also, at the end of the day, make sure it's engaging and that they're cool and that they play well to fight against,” explained the studio's head.

Grasping how these non-human beings aren't by definition aliens requires understanding immense expanses of both space and time. Time dilation — the Einsteinian theory that time moves at a reduced rate for high-velocity objects — is an fundamental scientific basis of Exodus’ fictional framework. Here are the fundamentals: Humanity abandons a desiccated Earth in the 23rd century for a distant corner of the Milky Way. Due to time dilation, some human travelers arrive ages before others. Those firstcomers heavily modified their DNA and assumed the “Celestial” name.

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

Exodus is set about 40,000 years in the future. Ponder that timeframe — that's effectively all of our documented past repeated ten times over. Now contemplate what humans would evolve into if they spent ten entire human histories pushing the boundaries of biotech. You would not possibly recognize the outcome as human. You might certainly believe you're looking at an alien. The scariest branch of Celestial, known as the Mara-Yama, can adopt diverse forms. Some possess fangs and claws and stand enormously tall. Others are encased in armored plating. According to expanded universe lore, when Mara-Yama travel between stars, their physical forms can break down into little more than a mass of tissue attached to a head.

Building a Sci-Fi Canon

Amidst the detonations, beam attacks, and battle bears, you might have glimpsed snippets of advanced technology in the trailer. The protagonist, Jun Aslan, operates a metallic machine that radiates a purple glow. A spaceship flies into a portal and vanishes at near-light speed. This all seems outside human achievement, the kind of tech ascribed to a Kardashev Scale-topping civilization. Yet, these are further examples of wonders that seem alien but are ultimately derived in our species' own ascension.

Beyond the core development team, the Exodus canon is being expanded by what the narrative lead called a duo of “renowned authors.” One celebrated author has already published a lengthy novel set in the universe, with another planned, while another esteemed writer has penned a series of short stories. Bringing such established science-fiction writers into the world years before the game's release has enabled the studio to develop a layered fictional universe as a framework for the game.

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

One interesting scene shows Jun appearing to manipulate the ground beneath him, fashioning stone into a temporary bridge. This material, called livestone, responds to mental impulses from Celestials or a specific human subclass — descendants of later human arrivals who were given limited technologies by the Celestials. Since Jun demonstrates this ability, questions are raised about his origins.

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

The immense scale of the Exodus setting — both in the galaxy and the timeline — means there is ample room for diverse stories to exist, pulling from the same core lore without causing overlap.

Tales of Time and Loss

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 delves into the connection between a Uranic human and a woman whose ship arrived tens of thousands later than planned, making Celestials utterly alien to her experience. An episode of a streaming show recounts a poignant story about a father searching for his daughter across star systems, with time dilation resulting in life-altering 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 primarily abdicated by Celestials that has become a refuge. A corrupting influence known as “the Rot” has begun corroding everything, including critical life support systems, and Jun must use his unusual powers to {find a solution|stop