Topher
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Overview
Shattered Space is a new story expansion for Starfield, Bethesda Game Studios' epic role-playing game and first new universe in more than twenty-five years. A mysterious power stirs in the city of Dazra on House Va'Ruun's hidden homeworld. Investigate a frightening cosmic threat, explore a new planet, and find unique weapons, spacesuits, and gear in this all-new adventure.Those who own the Premium or Constellation Editions of Starfield receive Shattered Space at no additional cost.
Although the DLC’s starting mission will become available after the base game's introductory mission, One Small Step, is completed, Bethesda recommends players wait until they reach level 35 “for the best experience.”
The developer also boasted about the many changes and tweaks it’s brought to the experience since launch, suggesting that with Shattered Space at the door, there’s never been a better time to jump into Starfield. Some of the additions added since the base game released last
year include its Rev-8 vehicle as well as a number of gameplay and visual enhancements.
Release Trailer / Deep Dive
[Screenrant.com] Starfield: House Va’ruun Timeline Explained
Upon its release in September 2023, Starfield represented Bethesda’s first new universe in 25 years. A massive open-world roleplaying game set in the 24th century, the game sees players assume the role of a space miner in the employ of Argos Extractors two decades after the conclusion of a massive interplanetary war between Starfield’s two main factions, the United Colonies and the breakaway Freestar Collective. The protagonist finds themselves navigating a hostile and chaotic universe, seeking out powerful Artifacts on behalf of a mysterious group of explorers known only as Constellation while narrowly avoiding squabbling factions and the enigmatic Starborn.
One of the many organizations players will encounter throughout their time in Starfield is the secretive House Va’ruun, a sprawling theocracy in the Settled Systems that worships a hibernating deity known as the Great Serpent. Fervent believers in the Great Serpent’s impending awakening in an apocalyptic event they refer to as The Shrouding, House Va’ruun begins the game in isolation following the end of the Colony War, having quietly ratified the Armistice before retreating to seclusion. But the House’s relative isolation compared to rival factions in Starfield conceals over a century and a half of intricate lore, which has major ramifications for the game’s universe.
The Rise of House Va’ruun
The Doomsday Religion Had Humble Origins
The roots of House Va’ruun lie within a colony ship, the Archimedes, originating from New Atlantis, the capital city of the United Colonies, in 2190, according to Starfield's official timeline. One of the passengers on the ship was a colonist named Jinan Va’ruun. As the Archimedes entered into deep space from Martian orbit, the colony ship lost contact with New Atlantis. A year later, as the ship arrived in the previously unexplored Kavnyk system, Jinan Va’ruun experienced a hallucinatory episode during the final grav jump where he claimed to commune with the Great Serpent. As the Archimedes’ passengers began to colonize the Kavnyk system, Jinan slowly accumulated a dedicated sect enthralled by tales of his purported encounter with the Serpent.By 2193, the colonization of Kavnyk I-b was spearheaded by Jinan, representing a massive power shift within the hierarchy of the colony ship, which was previously tightly controlled by the Colonial Council. The Great Serpent’s prophet bestows the name of Dazra upon the planet’s newly founded capital city. In a show of thanks for his dedication to the development of Kavnyk, the colonists name the planet’s moon Va’ruun’kai.
Over the next seven years, Jinan solidified his control over the colonists. By 2197, the Kavnyk Colonial Council – which still remained the de jure authority over the former passengers of the Archimedes – formally disbanded, officially handing over the reins of power to Jinan. The prophet’s first task was to completely reform the colonial society he inherited, introducing a new hierarchy in the form of noble families such as Houses Ma’leen and Ka’dic. With the new order now completely beholden to him, Jinan finally completed his grand societal upheaval in 2200 with a complete integration of church and state, forcing all his subjects to become servants of the Great Serpent.
House Va’ruun Enters the 23rd Century
A Violent Introduction To The Outside World
By 2207, members of House Va’ruun were alarmed by their rapidly dwindling supplies. Jinan’s main concern, however, remained religious, and the prophet occupied his time with a series of grav drive experiments in the hope of repeating his original encounter with the Great Serpent. But the House’s relative isolation could not last. By 2230 – the 40th anniversary of the Archimedes’ disappearance – a ship appeared in the Volii system with the original colony ship’s transponder code. This was Mourning, House Va’ruun’s flagship, which had ostensibly arrived to establish diplomatic relations with major factions and corporations within the Settled Systems.In the shadows, however, House Va’ruun was quietly preparing for a bloodbath, gathering information about rival factions in the Settled Systems while assembling an armada of ships. For the next decade, the House retained cordial affairs with the outside world until abruptly severing communications in 2240 and declaring holy war on the rest of humanity in a bloody conflict that would come to be known as the Serpent’s Crusade. Thousands of non-believers died in the face of Va’ruun’s onslaught, and the Old Den, a star station of the United Colonies, was destroyed in battle.
For the following 23 years, the crusade raged on violently until Jinan died suddenly in 2263 following a seven-decade reign. His son, Jarek, promptly assumed control of the House and sued for peace, recalling most of his troops to the Kavnyk system. For the next several decades, Jarek desperately attempted to rehabilitate the reputation of his House, even constructing an embassy in New Atlantis as a sign of goodwill towards the now deeply embittered rival factions. Jarek’s pacifistic outlook was deeply disheartening to his noble underlings, fomenting tensions that would soon lead to chaotic conflict.
By 2270, Jarek’s twin brother, Jandar, rose against his antiwar isolationist policy. In his opposition, he was roundly supported by House Ma’leen, spurring hostilities that would erupt in 2274, when Ma’leen formally split from House Va’ruun and formed an extremist faction of Great Serpent worshippers known as the Va’ruun Zealots. For the next 60 years, the Va’ruun Zealots terrorized the nonbelievers of the Settled Systems, attempting to continue the Serpent’s Crusade with a new, ultraviolent approach to the Va’ruun faith.
House Va’ruun in the 24th Century
The House’s Status At The Beginning Of Starfield
By 2298, Jarek Va’ruun dies and is replaced by his son, Anasko, as Speaker for the Great Serpent. By the fourth year of his reign, Anasko – much like his grandfather – began a secret research program focused on grav drive technology. The program is shadowy and privately referred to as unorthodox inside the House’s territories. Following ratifying the armistice that concluded the Colony War, House Va’ruun remained relatively silent until 2230, when one of its starstations, The Oracle, arrives in the Settled Systems broadcasting a distress signal, the impetus for Starfield's Shattered Space DLC.
Starfield: House Va’ruun Timeline Explained
House Va'ruun's history in the Starfield universe.
screenrant.com
Release Times
Starfield: Shattered Space global release times for PC and Xbox Series X | S:
- Los Angeles: 8:00 a.m., September 30
- Chicago: 10:00 a.m., September 30
- New York: 11 a.m., September 30
- Mexico City: 9:00 a.m., September 30
- São Paulo: 12:00 p.m., September 30
- London: 4:00 p.m., September 30
- Paris: 5:00 p.m., September 30
- Berlin: 5:00 p.m., September 30
- Riyadh: 6:00 p.m., September 30
- New Delhi: 8:30 p.m., September 30
- Hong Kong: 11:00 p.m., September 30
- Beijing: 11:00 p.m., September 30
- Tokyo: 12:00 a.m., October 1
- Sydney: 1 a.m., October 1
- Auckland 4:00 a.m., October 1
Starfield: Shattered Space minimum PC specs:
- OS Windows 10 Version 21H1 (10.0.19043)
- Processor AMD Ryzen 5
- Memory 16 GB RAM
- Graphics AMD Radeon RX 5700, NVIDIA GeForce 1070 Ti
- DirectX Version 12
- Storage 125GB Available Space
- Additional Notes SSD Required
Starfield: Shattered Space recommended PC specs:
- OS Windows 10/11 with updates
- Processor AMD Ryzen 5 3660X, Intel i5-10600K
- Memory 16 GB RAM
- Graphics AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080
- DirectX Version 12
- Network Broadband Internet Connection
- Storage 125GB Available Space
- Additional Notes SSD Required
Starfield: Shattered Space Expansion Global Launch Times Revealed - IGN
Bethesda Game Studios has published Shattered Space global launch times for those looking to hop into the first major Starfield expansion on its PC and Xbox Series X | S release date.
Xbox Series install size
First game OT for me....
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