Archetype's Exodus: The Ultimate Guide for the Dedicated Science Fiction Enthusiast.
For a particular breed of science-fiction devotee, the unveiling of Exodus stood as the biggest news from a recent gaming awards ceremony. Interestingly, those very fans may not have grasped its full implications during the initial showcase.
Exodus, the inaugural game from a freshly formed studio filled with former talent from a renowned RPG developer, was first teased a couple of years prior. At the latest event, the development team provided an projected release window of 2027, accompanied by a fast-paced trailer. Before this showcase, the studio's leadership elaborated on some of the authentic scientific ideas that serve as the basis for the game's universe: time dilation, human augmentation, and interstellar colonization. These are all inherently heady ideas, which are notoriously difficult to convey in a brief, showy trailer.
“I wish some of those fascinating and new ideas were highlighted in the trailer. What I perceived was ‘stereotypical man in space,’” wrote one viewer. Another responded, “My impression was ‘this is like a well-known space opera RPG at home.’” Responses in online forums were correspondingly mixed.
The trailer's focus undoubtedly makes sense from a commercial angle. When trying to capture attention during a hours-long deluge of game announcements, what has broader appeal: A team debating the intricacies of relativity? Or massive robots combusting while other mechs emit energy beams from their visors? However, in prioritizing visual bombast, the developers failed to include the quieter elements that make Exodus one of the more intriguing hard sci-fi games coming soon. Let's delve deeper.
The Question of Humanity
Does Exodus include aliens? Perhaps. That's complicated. Consider that shot near the opening of the trailer, depicting a bipedal figure with metallic skin and technological components merged into their body. That was certainly an alien, right? Ultimately hinges on your stance regarding one of the game's major philosophical questions: If you applied Ship of Theseus reasoning to the human biology, is what is left still human?
“We want the Celestials... for a player that isn't spend considerable amounts of time into studying the backstory, to still understand the core concept that they're advanced humans, recognize that they’re an opposing force you have to confront... But also, importantly, make sure it's enjoyable and that they're compelling and that they are satisfying to challenge,” explained the studio's general manager.
Grasping how these non-human beings aren't strictly aliens requires grappling with immense expanses of both the galaxy 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’ narrative setting. Here are the fundamentals: Humanity leaves a dying Earth in the 23rd century for a far-off corner of the Milky Way. Due to time dilation, some human colonists arrive ages before others. Those pioneers heavily modified their biology and took on the “Celestial” moniker.
“There’s various stages of evolution. The people who got to the Centauri cluster first... had many thousands of years of evolution into the Celestials... They really see unaltered humans as sort of unevolved, lesser, not really suitable for the higher tiers of society,” stated the game's story head.
Exodus is set about 40,000 years in the future. Consider that scale — that's the equivalent of all of our documented past multiplied ten times over. Now think about what humans would become if they spent ten entire human histories mastering the limits of biotech. You would absolutely not recognize the outcome as human. You might very well believe you're seeing an alien. The most fearsome branch of Celestial, known as the Mara-Yama, can take diverse forms. Some possess sharp teeth and claws and stand towering 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 collection of organs attached to a head.
A Universe of Ideas
Amidst the pyrotechnics, energy weapons, and war beasts, you might have caught snippets of advanced technology in the trailer. The protagonist, Jun Aslan, interacts with a shiny machine that emanates a purple glow. A spaceship jets into a portal and disappears at relativistic velocity. This all seems past human comprehension, the kind of tech ascribed to a Kardashev Scale-topping civilization. Yet, these are further examples of wonders that seem alien but are deeply rooted in our species' own ascension.
Beyond the core development team, the Exodus lore is being expanded by what the narrative lead called a duo of “literary legends.” One acclaimed author has already published a massive novel set in the universe, with another planned, while another prolific writer has penned a series of short stories. Bringing such respected science-fiction writers into the world years before the game's release has permitted the studio to develop a layered fictional universe as a foundation for the game.
“It was really a collaborative effort. We had set some basics, 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 constrain him. You want to give him room to explore,” the narrative director said of the collaboration.
One key scene shows Jun seemingly shape the ground beneath him, fashioning stone into a instant bridge. This material, called livestone, reacts to neural commands from Celestials or a specific human subclass — descendants of later human arrivals who were granted specific technologies by the Celestials. Since Jun exhibits this ability, questions are raised about his origins.
“Jun's not specifically 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 “key part of the game.”
The immense scale of the Exodus setting — both in physical space and historical time — means there is abundant room for various stories to be told, pulling from the same established rules without risking overlap.
A Broad Narrative Canvas
Although Exodus has been on the radar for a couple of years and isn't releasing, several stories have already begun to be told within its universe. The first major novel explores the connection between a Uranic human and a woman whose ship arrived tens of thousands later than planned, making Celestials totally alien to her experience. An episode of a streaming show tells a heartbreaking story about a father searching for his daughter across star systems, with time dilation causing life-altering effects on their family; by the time he finds her, she has lived decades.
The game itself is centered on “Jun’s story,” set on the planet Lidon — a world mostly abdicated by Celestials that has become a bastion. A consuming plague known as “the Rot” has begun corroding everything, including vital life support systems, and Jun must use his Celestial-like powers to {find a solution|stop
