Starbound Lore

I'm almost finished with all the known codexes and I've noticed a similiar theme to all the races in Starbound. They all have the theme of being trapped or caught. The humans have no homeworld, they are trapped in space. The Apex are opressed by Big Ape and his elite. The Glitch are trapped in their programming. The Floran are trapped within their own overwhelming instinct to stab and hunt and kil. And of course the Avians are trapped within their own religion of Kluex. Except for the Hylotls..who knows! The player character however is free of their societies trappings. HMM!

 

Well, personally I wouldn't call the florans trapped. They are a new race that forgets their past. But of all the races, the florans (and possibly Hylotl) are the only ones that don't seem to have distinctions among their own race. The apex have civillian/minknog, avians have believers/grounded (and more divisions within that), the glitch have hivemind/outcasts, and the humans I suppose don't have divisions either, (military/dead I suppose ).

On top of that, the florans seem to show the most growth as a society, I believe them to just be new and thus need time for that growth.

As for other races being "trapped", I'm partial against the word, indeed the Apex are opressed, no doubting that and in that sense they are trapped, and the Glitch I can agree with too. But for the humans to be "trapped in space" seems kind of weird to me, space being so vast. As for the Hylotl, they would be trapped in the sea by the florans I suppose, or as trapped as the humans at least. The Avians however are in their own heirarchy, and I suppose there is some almighty Kluex, but most of the structure seems to me that it is corrupt politics. And back to the florans, I really see no sense they are trapped, they are constantly growing in every sense

 

The floran ones intrigue me. It's like Dwarf Fortress epics.

 

I'm just going on what the codexes say, humans I meant "figuratively" trapped as they can't return to their home planet which so far in the codex seems to be their only goal. Defeat the monster and reclaim earth. Florans definitely are growing if the codex is believed to be like a storyline. Especially the Circle of Thorns which I imagine is a Floran mercenary group. Seems to be used heavily by Greenfinger. Has anyone found any actual Avian temples? I think I've just found ruins with gravestones. I'd like to see an actual temple.

 

I believe the Circle of Thorns is actually a group lead by Thornwing. And I also believe the codexes are considered canon starbound lore? And yes I've seen avian temples both ascendant towers and tombs.

 

If I recall, the Floran quest mentioned something of them being tired of the savagery of their home world, hence why they left. So.. I guess yeah, they are all free.

 

The starter quest mentions you specifically being tired and free of the savagery, not the rest of them . The rest of them are perfectly happy for the most part .

 

Just finished reading all the lore, very great read. I briefly scanned over the chapters you compiled, and most of them looked in order. Man Hiraki is such a mischief maker! I wonder if there will be another Apex codex describing the mess she left them with (leading Miniknog to a resistance base).

Great post!

 

Thank you Zagorsek! And we will certainly see how that turns out. I'm hoping to see more of Hiraki too, but I don't know if her story is retired as she hit all the races. (Except Hylotl xD). Also, her floran logs are rather breif. "Tree houese! Now, lemme gtfo", which is understandable for a hylotl in a floran village but still dissappointing from the view of someone very interested in florans

 

I am totally looking forward to some of the Floran lore when the game gets released. The Drysap, Greenguard, Oaken Soldiers, Greenfinger stuff gets my curiosity up big-time.

 

I totally agree, Greenfinger's whole story seems mysterious and intense.

 

The Floran lore is what has me hooked at the moment. I really want to know what their big secret is, especially considering Greenfinger would kill an old and trusted friend just to keep it safe. I was wondering if they've always been so one track and simple minded with the "stab, stab," mentality or if they were once more literate and something happened to them relating to their forgotten past with the Oaken Soldiers etc.

 

Agreed, the Oaken Soldiers are a huge mystery. It seems that certainly, at the very least, there were two era's of floran, pre-greenfinger and post-greenfinger. And Greenfinger went from being a wanted man to being sort of a hero among florans. Something very strange happened in the dust, I think.

 

“I was visited by the Stargazers themselves. They have heard of me, of my work. And so, too, has Kluex. I was summoned. Let me just say I was wrong. I have been wrong this whole time. I am a fool and a rogue. Glory to Kluex. I have gazed upon our Sunborn lord with my own eyes, and I know now the truth. Grounded, it is not too late! Repent, come back to the flock. Kluex will forgive you. Do not doubt his power. Now, I need to deal with that whole Big Ape thing I may have kicked off. My Apex contacts report that he's been training exceptionally hard for some kind of boxing match..."

this really caught my interest. Im thinking he was forced to wright this by the clipped council, to conceal the truth.

 

kluex can go to hell and big ape can stick a banana in his ass.

 

I agree but it also seems likely to me that the council used the Big Ape's technology to mess with his head.

 

Yes! I also think the council used apex technology to convince all avians they were once able to fly, even though they were not.

 

My current standing conspiracy theory is that Greenfinger either is a member of the "precursors" (name tentative) that have had a hand in every current race in the universe, or the floran in charge of the precursor's entire floran project. Or perhaps Kluex.

Bear with me.

TOTAL PROBABLY INACCURATE CONJECTURE AND HOLY WALL OF TEXT BATMAN INBOUND.

The precursors are something that appear several times in various points of lore in universe and out. The primary point of contention is whether each reference refers to the same species/coalition or entirely different ones. For the sake of my insane conspiracy theory I'm going to assume theyre all one race.

The precursors have maxxed out their tech tree. To them, the universe is a playing field and they have all the time in the world. As such, they have interfered with or had a hand in every race today.

The glitch are the most obvious. Likely an early precursor experiment, the glitch along with various other robots were built as simulations involving society with various random variables. Every bunch of societybots were fabricated, linked via a mesh network, or hive mind, and populated on a random planet. Most societybot cultures broke down after enough time and tech progression, likely either the effect of whatever aspect of society was changed as part of the experiment inn that batch or an intentional precursor failsafe to prevent a robot uprising. The glitch, either as the result of an actual glitch or another intentional precursor experiment (unlikely as odds of robot uprising would be too great), had their entire tech progression,and therefore sense of time passing (examine the hourglasses and clocks in glitch structures), halted. They never advanced past the schizotech societybot middle ages. This saved them from the fall like the other societybots, but opened up the eventual discovery of their robotic nature. With it, the glitch gained self awareness. Though every glitch became self aware, most feared change, and proceeded to subsume back within the hive mind. Those who remained independent were either outcast from glitch society or reprogrammed.

Florans are either an entirely fabricated or heavily uplifted race. Driven by the drive of all plants to grow and consume, Greenfinger's story in the lore starts here. Florans are not evil, they merely have difficulty comprehending non plant based organic sentient life. An apex or human to many floran is simply another wild mindless creature to be hunted and eaten. Friendly floran huts and towns are populated by florans who understand living creatures can think for themselves. Green finger is likely one of three things. A) The Precursor who engineered the florans, staying behind to manage them as an ongoing project. B ) A heavily uplifted floran, similar to kluex, who runs the floran experiment on behalf of the precursors. C) Kluex himself, operating under precursor orders. Greenfinger is known as a brilliant scientist, ruthless, holds no regard for the lives of others, Knows both Big Ape and Thornwing, and has enough connections to get anything done. The reason he flipped out at others examining floran DNA, and the big secret of the florans, is that contrary to common belief, the florans are not nature in its purest form but rather an unholy abomination and utter middle finger to mother nature with a heavily modified or entirely synthetic genetic code.

The Apex were most likely an independently evolved race, similar to the avians. Unlike the avians, however, the precursors only experiment upon the apex was the knowledge of the genetic regression tech. The premise of the experiment was simple: here's some tech that makes people smarter and look more beastly. Go nuts while I grab popcorn and watch. Big Ape is seeking one of two things: either to return apex to their previous forms without mental regression or to create a race of genetic super soldiers. Big Ape runs the miniknog as a necessary evil. To get apex test subjects in sufficient quantities for genetic modification, he has to create a system where apex will obviously rebel, and get crushed immediately, being sent off for experimentation as punishment. This and the draft from the populace ensures the miniknog has a steady supply of test subjects. Big Ape is focused on the species as a whole, not morals or individual rights. Not even 1984 style power. He cares for the future of his species and will do anything, even conspiring with greenfinger (who knows all his secrets and could likely easily have him killed), to make it happen.

Avian history is outlined in the lore document available on the wiki, so I don't need to go into much detail about anything before the present day. Space bird aztechs with crystals and a penchant for sacrificing both their own lower class and other races via stabbing or jumping off towers. The experiment was originally intended to see the results of a genetically superior superavian race interact and likely enslave the normal ones. Thornwing, the newest player in the game, is greenfinger's attempts at doing this again. The serum thornwing used has likely made him similar to the sunborn the avians were uplifted to all those years ago. This time it works spectacularly. Thornwing quickly takes charge of the avian government and forms his circle of thorns hitsquad and special forces group. Thornwing is less noble than the other two major players. All he cares for is a legacy that rivals or surpasses that of Kluex, to become a god in his own right. How he plans to do this is as of yet unseen, but I bet it involves more sacrifices and throwing people off buildings.

The Hylotl don't have much back story, besides the fact that they are kind, herbivoric fish monsters, in contrast to the peaceful looking murderous florans. They have no true visible connection to the precursors at this point, excepting an uncanny ability to gum up the works. The primary example is Hiraki, bless her heart, who manages to drink some of thornwing's greenfinger produced super genetic serum, visit and escape many different settlements out to kill her, and more. At this point, the hylotl were likely invaded by the florans due to Greenfinger specifically ordering it, stopping their peace missions from interfering in everyone else's tyrranical experiments. Directive 0451 is either a funny system shock/deus ex reference or the first sign of some hidden malice by the hylotl. Perhaps they're like the tau in 40k? Who knows. Depends on what comes in the hylotl codex entries.

Humans are unique in that they only got in this mess by a fluke. No precursor gene mods, no gumming up the works, our place in the conspiracy is that a precursor engineered planet busting super weapon creature was accidentally awoken and targeted at earth. Most people who made it out alive were uscm forces, who went into lockdown in their bunkers and abandoned their prisons after hearing preliminary reports of earth's attack. They don't even know Earth is gone, and are so paranoid that anyone from the outside is treated as a threat. Greenfinger saw our race, and knowing our drive yet lack of comprehension about the rest of the universe decided to use us for jobs that could raise difficult questions with the other races.

The mushroom people... I got nothing.

Greenfinger is the linking point between everything. He is likely the most dangerous person in the universe and should be regarded as the highest possible threat.

TLDR; all six races are basically the playthings of a super advanced forerunner race, greenfinger is an utter dick and probably the cause of almost everything in the story, and the entire universe is nothing more than the toy box of aliens so advanced they may as well be gods.

 

The current lore shits on your theory (no offence). Also you forgot the novakid. If you want I can explain in detail why your theory is wrong but I am on my phone right now and I'm going to sleep in a couple minutes.

 

I feel like this should be stickied or something. All that hard work and good lore getting buried under "BETA QQ"