Starfield lore timeline reveals interesting details about key characters and factions, but not Barrett's last name

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 submitting questions for this week’s developer Q&A session.

Thankfully, for those who’ve been desperately hoping for more information about the game to dig into and speculate about prior to its arrival, Bethesda has just released a timeline of key events that provides a clearer picture of the world that players will be arriving in next month.

Which of the entries in this Starfield timeline did you find most interesting?

The timeline spans from 2050 to 2328, with the latter being just a couple of years before the year the game is set in, 2330.

As you might imagine, plenty of things take place within that 278-year span, which begins with the first human expedition to Mars and ends with Constellation setting up a deep-space scanner called “The Eye,” which fans are now assuming is this structure shown in the game’s trailers.

Among the other details that have intrigued Reddit detectives are the couple of lengthy conflicts between the United Colonies and the Freestar Collective.

Some are already theorising that these groups might both be morally grey enough for the tension between them to work similarly to the sides in Skyrim’s civil war, at least in terms of fuelling debate among players.

A number have also pointed out the lack of mentions of Earth, which they’re speculating could be a measure taken to prevent any spoilers, assuming that the fate of humanity’s home planet might serve as a key element of the game’s main story.

Some have also picked up on some cool details about the backgrounds of key characters we’ve already been introduced to, such as Sarah Morgan, who we now know is an ex-head of the United Colonies’ Navigator Corps.

Sadly, one thing the timeline doesn’t do is reseal the surname of Barrett, the companion in the space suit you’ll probably have seen a million times by now, leaving some players to jokingly speculate he could actually be called “Bar Rett” or “Barret T.”

Thankfully, it does establish that he’s a more important member of Constellation than you might have first thought, so there should be plenty of chances to try and ask him whether he just ran out of room when printing his name onto his space suit.

Regardless of how keen you are to jump into the game and start making these kinds of important inquiries, make sure to follow us for lots of guides to Starfield’s world and mechanics.

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.