Starfield fans think its giant serpent religion could be a nod to one of Skyrim’s standing stones

Most of the hardcore Bethesda RPG fans who’ve invested thousands of hours into Skyrim and Fallout 4 can't wait for the release of Starfield.

Some have been passing the time until September by creating tabletop RPGs that allow people to take an early trip into space, getting ready to make some mods for it, or getting way too invested in the philosophies of its factions.

Thankfully, for those who’ve been desperately hoping for more information about the game, a timeline detailing the history of its world and a recent developer Q&A session delivered some more interesting nuggets. Now, one of them has inspired a fan to uncover something interesting in Skyrim.

Are you hoping to find plenty of potential Skyrim references in Starfield?

In the Q&A session, Starfield Studio Design Director Emil Pagliarulo provided a description of House Va’ruun, a religious sect within the the game who worship a serpentine interstellar entity they believe will one day devour the universe. Inspired by this, Reddit user Cidermonk has ended up doing some lore-based digging during a recent Skyrim playing session.

In a post on the Starfield subreddit, they shared some sections from the in-game book ‘The Firmament’, which has featured in every mainline Elder Scrolls game since Morrowind, and offers brief summaries of what Tamriel’s people believe regarding the various constellations formed by the stars above Nirn.

The bit that’s aroused their curiosity, as you might expect, is the entry about the serpent constellation, which features on Skyrim’s serpent standing stone and the book describes as follows:

“The Serpent wanders about in the sky and has no Season, though its motions are predictable to a degree. No characteristics are common to all who are born under the sign of the Serpent. Those born under this sign are the most blessed and the most cursed.”

Based on this, Cidermonk suggested: “I wonder if the great serpent [in Starfield] is something beyond a cluster of stars and brings some form of chaos, either luck or destruction, to each new star system it visits.”

While many of their fellow fans have rightly pointed out that both cosmic giant serpents are more likely to be references to Jörmungandr and Apep, from Norse and Egyptian mythology respectively, than any kind of proof of links between the lore of Skyrim and Starfield, as Cidermonk also theorised, their find is still an interesting one.

After all, who knows what kind of other Elder Scrolls related easter eggs - aside from the Adoring Fan, who we’ve already seen - await us in space.

Regardless of whether you’re currently pawing through Skyrim’s litany of tomes trying to find evidence of mechs, make sure to follow us for lots of guides to its world and mechanics, as its release creeps ever closer.

You can also check out our latest mods of the month for some impressive works for other Bethesda games that might help tide you over until it arrives.