WithStarfieldcoming out early next year, Bethesda fans are excited to see what the new frontier will bring to the table. It’s the company’s first new IP in over 25 years, so the community has little to go on aside from Bethesda’s official announcements and gameplay teasers.
One seemingly outlandish possibility is the inclusion ofFallout 3’salien race from the Mothership Zetan expansion pack. While it may sound absurd at first, adding the Zetans toStarfield’s vast world actually makes sense given the game’s setting. Doing so would connect the world ofStarfieldtoFallout, but if that’s too messy, Bethesda can always chalk it up to being an easter egg. Regardless, a callback to Mothership Zetan would be an amusing inclusion forFalloutfans.
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The Zetan Aliens of Fallout 3
Though they first appeared inFallout 3, the Zetans have reportedly been studying Earth even before theGreat War ofFallout. The aliens had been stealing manmade technology and abducting local lifeforms as early as the 1960s. So, while the Zetans’ motivations are unclear, they seem determined to experiment on the human race and other Earthly lifeforms.
It’s also believed that government institutions, notably the Enclave, somehow got their hands on alien devices and used them as a blueprint for their own creations. This is confirmed by the MPLX Novasurge, aunique plasma pistol inFallout3that was supposedly a piece of government-owned alien technology.Fallout 76, which canonically takes place after the Great War and beforeFallout 3, further affirms this as players can find alien corpses within the Enclave’s Research Facility.
While the Enclave’s alien research was halted after the Great War, the Zetans continued with their research practices. InFallout 76, they kidnapped wastelanders for experimentation, having been dubbed the “Flatwoods Monster” in Appalachia. Players can even face off against them in theInvaders from BeyondFallout 76event, where they must fight waves of aliens while a mysterious ally known as Homer Saperstein remotely disables their alien technology.
Later down theFallouttimeline, the Zetans finally make a grand appearance inFallout 3’sMothership Zetan DLC. In this quest line, the Lone Wanderer is teleported onto an alien spaceship commanded by a group of Zetans. In the spaceship, the player meets other kidnapped humans from different eras of history, essentially confirming that the Zetan race has been preying on mankind for a long time now. Luckily, the Lone Wanderer manages to defeat the aliens and escape their mothership.
Fallout: New VegasandFallout 4also have player encounters involving aliens, but they’re brief when compared to the events mentioned above. Choosing theFallout: New Vegasperk “Wild Wasteland” allows the player to encounter a UFO near the Horowitz Farmstead, with three hostile aliens waiting near it. Meanwhile,Fallout 4has an unmarked area where a crashed UFO and a lone alien can be found. Note that whether these aliens are Zetans is never confirmed, but they look similar to the Zetan aliens.
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A Potential Alien Race in Starfield
The Zetans have been an active force as early as 2102 (whenFallout 76began) and as late as 2287 (whenFallout 4began).Starfieldtakes place around the year 2330, which isn’t toofar off from theFallouttimeline. So, it wouldn’t be too farfetched to believe that the Zetan race persisted for half a century more. If anything, the Zetans would make for an interesting addition to the different races ofStarfield. Perhaps the new title could even delve into why they’re so adamant about experimenting on humans. It’d certainly make for an intriguing questline – one tailor-made forFalloutfans.
That said, the Zetans don’t necessarily need a full-blown quest series should they be included in the game. They could simply be part of a random encounter. Perhaps they could try to hijack theplayer’s spaceship inStarfieldwhile they were traveling through a remote area of the solar system, attacking them with their energy beams. Later, the player could also stumble upon notes and news reports about a hostile alien race roaming the colony.
Canon to Starfield Lore or Merely an Easter Egg?
Incorporating the Zetan aliens in theStarfieldIP inevitably makes connections between that and theFalloutuniverse. It would lead fans to think that the two worlds are the same, calling into question what the “canon” is and raising plenty of questions. For example, ifStarfieldandFallouttook placein the same universe, it would be difficult to explain the jump from post-apocalyptic human society to intergalactic space colony.Fallout 4showcased plenty of advanced technology, but it’s likely not enough to establish an entire society spread across different planets.
However, this contention is based on the assumption that the humanoid raceinStarfield’sreveal trailersis from Earth. The issue could be explained away if the humanoid beings fromStarfieldand those fromFalloutwere two distinct races from different galaxies. So, really, Bethesda has plenty of leeway to makeStarfieldlore andFalloutlore make sense when taken together.
But the developer doesn’t necessarilyhaveto keep the lore consistent. To avoid all the fuss of making the canon make sense, Bethesda can simply include the Zetan aliens asaFallouteaster egg. After all, past Bethesda titles have included references to the developer’s other IPs – from Nirnroot appearing inFalloutto sweetrolls virtually everywhere. At the end of the day, a callback to one ofFallout’smost absurd add-ons is enough to make fans happy – no lore questions asked.
Of course, all of this is merely speculation on what Bethesda might have in store for players inStarfield. The community will have to wait for announcements or the game’s release to see if the developer decided to spotlight the Zetan race in the new IP. Though with over 1,000 planets to explore,Starfieldundoubtedly has plenty of room to sneak in a reference or two totheFalloutalien race.
Starfieldreleases in 2023 for PC and Xbox Series X.
