Religion is one of the themes in Starfield, and to help make the theme and the existing religions in the game feel more believable, Bethesda rehired one of its former writers who had left to become a Jesuit priest.
In an interview with Esquire, Todd Howard said one of Bethesda’s former employees left the studio to became a priest for the Jesuit Order, and was then rehired by the developer to help write some of Starfield’s religious text. “It can only be written by somebody who went and legitimately did it and studied for years and years,” Howard told Esquire. “I find all of those topics very, very interesting to explore in a game like this.”
This fact was also confirmed by Starfield design director Emil Pagliarulo, who told Polygon in an interview last week that the individual was Shane Liesegang, who helped write Fallout 4 and Skyrim before leaving the studio to become a Jesuit priest. Pagliraulo noted that Liesegang not only consulted and did some writing with the development team, but also wrote the religious text for the Sanctum Universum, one of the religions in Starfield.
Starfield has three religions: Sanctum Universum, The Enlightened, and House Var’uun. Pagliarulo briefly explained the three religions during a developer Q&A held in the Bethesda Game Studios Discord last month. Pagliraulo said members of Sanctum universum (known as Universals) “believe that God very much exists somewhere in the universe”, noting that Universals “believe that humanity’s ability to travel the universe and grav jump is God’s way of saying, ‘I’m out here. Come find me.’ “
In our review of Starfield, which we awarded a 7 out of 10, my colleague Dan Stapleton said “Starfield has a lot of forces working against it, but eventually the allure of its expansive roleplaying quests and respectable combat make its gravitational pull difficult to resist”.
Starfield is officially out today for everyone, including Game Pass subscribers. If you are starting your journey into the settled systems this week, check out our guides on the first things you should do when starting, the best traits and backgrounds to pick, and 28 things Starfield doesn’t tell you.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
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