During our travels throughout the Settled
Systems we encounter various factions and groups. The one human faction shrouded in the most
mystery and dark unknowns with very little information on them is of course House Va’ruun. House Va’ruun is an enigmatic and widely
feared group with a sizeable part of its faction immediately commencing hostilities with anyone
anywhere anytime. In this video we will examine the lore of
House Va’ruun, who they are, what makes them tick and exactly how they fit into the
dynamics of the universe presented to us in Starfield. Now I know there are potential Elder Scrolls
connections or references to some parts of House Va’ruun but we’ll save that for
a different video and keep this strictly Starfield. Based on the tidbits of information we have
from the interactions with Andreja and environmental storytelling, we will also go over various
theories concerning their religion, culture, government and society so expect some speculation
along with spoilers. I hope you enjoy this video as it took me
days of lore hunting and editing and if you ever want more Starfield or other game lore,
you can check out my other videos and I highly recommend visiting my partner, StarfieldWiki.net
run by the team behind UESP. Usually things don’t end well - at least
for the others - when we run into Spacers, the pirates of the Crimson Fleet or even the
ruthless Ecliptic Mercenaries. While at first glance these groups are just
the baddies of the galaxy, each has their own motivations for doing what they do. The Spacers are made up of a variety of individuals
who for one reason or another got into banditry. Perhaps some were disgruntled or felt abandoned
with either the Freestar Collective or the United Colonies. Or others were more interested in scavenging
and illicit activities to get rich quickly. The demographics that make up the Crimson
Fleet could be similar though with some, a sense of loyalty to the highest earner or
most powerful can permeate through to their resulting behaviors. Maybe others want to pursue the treasure of
Jasper Kryx. The Ecliptic Mercenaries are violent, straight
to the point brutes that will kill or commit atrocities against anyone for the highest
bidder or for the sake of their self-interest. Above all else, in stark contrast to at least
every House Va’ruun Zealot we meet, the other groups can at least be negotiated with
on some level at different points during our journey through the star field. To begin understanding House Va’ruun, their
motivations and indeed everything else in Starfield, we have to look at the history
and timeline preceding our time in it. With the destruction of Earth guaranteed by
the year 2203, colony ships with the newly acquired grav drive technology were carrying
surviving humans throughout the rest of the known galaxy. This massive logistical undertaking would
eventually see to the inevitable types of conflicts familiar to us from humanity’s
time on Earth. The Narion War that began in the year 2196
would become the first large scale conflict in space between the United Colonies that
had formed in 2159 and the younger Freestar Collective that had formed in 2188. The Narion War would last 20 years until the
year 2216 which set the stage for the political divvying of the Settled Systems. However barely 14 years after the end of the
Narion War, at least from the perspective of the United Colonies, House Va’ruun suddenly
appears in the year 2230 upsetting this fragile balance. Led by a proclaimed holyman named Jinan Va’ruun,
the followers of a deity referred to as the Great Serpent seemed to have made their appearance
amicably and formally with both the UC and FC governments. What happened in the next 10 years to ignite
a bloody and exhausting 23 year conflict amongst the stars isn’t elaborated upon and we can
speculate on two possible causes at this point. The first possibility is that the intention
to always attack and eliminate the other factions and their peoples was always there and that
Jinan Va’ruun was simply preparing and biding his time for a decade. The second possibility is that, judging by
the logs in the Va’ruun embassy and Andreja’s behavior towards being disrespected, sometime
in those 10 years House Va’ruun was slighted and just got set off. Regardless of what happened in those 10 years,
the Serpent’s Crusade, a unilateral declaration of war by House Va’ruun on anything not
House Va’ruun, set off in the year 2240. Over the next 23 years until 2263 leaving
tens of thousands dead. The conflict was so devastating and perhaps
incomprehensible to those who thought such a bizarre set of beliefs was worth dying for
that the memory of it never faded in the minds of countless people almost a century later
despite the Colony War being much more recent in the 24th century when we Spacefarers are
exploring. We can see the disgust and recoil in a few
of the people we talk to including Aggie in Akila City when she knows that Andreja is
of House Va’ruun. We don’t know exactly how Jinan Va’ruun
died but assuming he was in his early adulthood when his colony ship left Earth before the
year 2203, he was probably in his 70’s or 80’s by the year 2263, so we could say he
died of old age. While we don’t know the average life expectancy
of future humans, we do meet one of the oldest confirmed humans we can encounter with New
Homestead’s 96 year old historian Maurice Lyon. It could also be that Jinan was killed in
a battle or assassinated by whoever. Once Jinan Va’ruun dies, he’s succeeded
by who we assume is his biological heir and son, Jarek Va’ruun who we can guess is probably
in his 20’s to 30’s or so at this point assuming Jinan sired him between his 20’s
and late 30’s and we’re assuming that because part of the preparation Jinan could
have done was to have an established heir to secure House Va’ruun’s place in the
galaxy in the worst case scenario before going to war much like how some rulers in our history
took or didn’t take steps to such as Alexander the Great. If our assumption is true, this would be an
interesting parallel to one of the major plot points for Legends of the Galactic Heroes
where Kaiser Reinhard was continuously targeted for death in battles as a grand strategy by
his enemies to destabilize his empire with infighting since he didn’t have an heir. But I digress, assuming Jarek Va’ruun was
alive near the year 2330 almost 67 years after the end of the Serpent’s Crusade, he would
have been in his 80’s to 90’s. Before we move on though, we need to address
the obvious internal Schism that occurred within House V’aruun after the conclusion
of the Serpent’s Crusade. Despite Jarek Va’ruun’s clear desire for
peace as he was the one who sued for peace, it’s apparent that not everyone in House
Va’ruun felt the same way indicated by the Va’ruun Zealots we can encounter throughout
the Settled Systems. By the time we Spacefarers are involved, we
are told by multiple people that the majority of House Va’ruun abided by the peace and
withdrew into isolation though not without establishing an embassy in New Atlantis assumingly
in the 2260’s. It’s also made clear that House Va’ruun
was brought in by the Freestar Collective and United Colonies to be a 3rd party to the
balance of powers which is evident by the fact that House Va’ruun is a signatory in
the Armistice that ended the Colony War that raged on between the UC and FC for 3 bloody
years. Interestingly, if we read Va’ruun Ambassador
Qasrik Bal’mor’s first Log in regards to this dynamic, he says: “Yesterday marked the beginning of my tenure
as House Va’ruun’s Ambassador in the United Colonies. I arrived full of hope, believing our gesture
of opening this new embassy would demonstrate that we had moved beyond our bloodstained
past. But we had barely been in New Atlantis an
hour when the troubles ahead of me began to reveal themselves. Our brief walk from the spaceport to the embassy
was marked by suspicious glances and sneers from numerous strangers on the street. I fear minds here will not be easily changed. The wrongdoing of House Va’ruun will not
be so easily forgotten. It is my fervent wish that this embassy will
come to be seen as an emblem of a peaceful future, free of the stains of prejudice and
violence. I will do my utmost to act as an avatar for
that goal, regardless of any resistance I may face. Though I find myself in a strange land, I
know the Great Serpent will guide us to success in our endeavor.” If we speculate that the embassy did open
up in the 2260’s and Bal’mor could have been in his late 20’s or early 30’s as
an ambassador, he’s probably also close to or in his 90’s. I’m willing to speculate that Bal’mor
was probably in his 20’s given his optimism, idealism and a trend in which younger people
generally are more open to trying new things compared to older people already set in their
ways. And younger or newer members usually bring
different ideas as we can observe from the branding of Va’ruun Heretical Writings as
being contraband in the Settled Systems. Another indication of a potential religious
schism much like with Protestanism and Catholicism and of course a reminder that House Va’ruun
can request to make such writings or things illegal in the Settled Systems as the 3rd
power. Clearly the makeup of House Va’ruun is not
a monolith in terms of their attitudes, beliefs or interpretations of said beliefs. We understand this more with Andreja laughing
at our question when we ask if she misses her home: being a wrongdoing and casting it in a negative
light referring to it as “our bloodstained past”. There’s a key takeaway here especially with
his statement as he is serving as the ambassador. He is clearly instructed by the ruling government
of House Va’ruun and its leader Jarek Va’ruun to form and bolster peaceful relations with
the other factions. Why Jarek sued for peace isn’t known, perhaps
it was simply a result of a new theocrat, Jarek in this case, determining that the Serpent’s
Crusade was a misinterpretation by the previous theocrat, his father Jinan. Or more than likely as well, Jarek may be
less fanatical and more pragmatic as the Serpent’s Crusade could have completely drained House
Va’ruun of both resources and population. Yet we’re not exactly sure as to how deep
the Schism is. Do the peaceful House Va’ruun members fight
or exile the Zealots or do both parties simply accept their difference in interpretation
of how they should carry out their worship of the Great Serpent? Some of us Spacefarers may look at our first
meeting with Andreja and note that the people she’s killing are House Va’ruun Zealots
and may argue that yes there is clear conflict between the two internal parties. But there’s two reasons as to why factionwide
conflict may not be a thing. The only people who know that Andreja is House
Va’ruun are Sarah Morgan, Vlad, ourselves, her handler Tomisar Ka’dic, Aggie and Jaeda. More specifically, the only person who should
know that Andreja is a House Va’ruun agent is her handler Tomisar Ka’dic. So it’s probably that the Zealots just don’t
know who she is and assume she’s a dirty unbeliever and initiate hostilities. We also see Andreja has no issues killing
in self defense or really, aggression but this may have more to do with her upbringing
and the intense culture of House Va’ruun which we will inspect later in the video. But when we are avoiding conflict with the
Va’ruun early on in the game assuming we have the Serpent’s Embrace trait we are
told: The second biggest reason as to why there
may not be a massive conflict between the Zealots and peaceful Va’ruun is that the
more peaceful or isolated Va’ruun presumably still hold the current capital city of Darza
on the planet Va’ruun’kai and such a thing, maybe even the concept of a holy or vital
city, probably forces the Zealots to compromise in their dealings with their more peaceful
bretheren. And who’s not to say that the Zealots could
be sending back supplies as well to their families on Va’ruun’kai seeing as how
all the Zealots we meet are constantly on the prowl as nomadic fanatics? We’re basing this assumption on Log #4,
where Ambassador Bal’mor mentions reaching out to his contacts back in Dazra. Andreja also confirms the existence of both
Dazra and Va’ruun’kai. Where this is or what its exact coordinates
are is a mystery to even Andreja herself when she tells us as a House Va’ruun infilitrator,
she’s not given the location or coordinates of her home planet and that the only link
back home is through her handler. Lastly, in one of the many universes we can
travel to where we encounter an Andreja that has killed Constellation members for the Artifacts,
she has Va’ruun Zealots accompanying her. It may be that the Zealots will heed the calls
of the Va’ruun government if bloody or serious enough. One can also speculate that perhaps the isolationist
and peaceful Va’ruun is a front and that the Zealots are allowed to continue the work
without harm coming to the more vulnerable populace of Va’ruun’kai. Fun fact about Va’ruun’kai’s location
is that according to StarfieldWiki.net, the datamined files from Starfield indicate Va’ruun’kai
was supposed to be the planet Serpentis IV in the Serpentis system which explains the
presence of a lot of hostile Va’ruun starships if you ever go there in the game. The files also indicate that a blank map marker
exists for the Va’ruun capital city of Dazra which is apparently supposed to be one of
the major cities in the game players can explore. Andreja also elaborates she was grav jumped
by others piloting a ship all to keep the location of Va’ruun’kai a secret for the
safety of her faction should she be caught and interrogated by outsiders. She also says that her role of smuggler was
a vital cog in sustaining the economy and population of the isolated House Va’ruun
as it seems they don’t really have any formal trade relations with the other factions or
really, an open trade route at all considering their keeping of the homeworld a secret. Interestingly enough, her handler Tomisar
Ka’dic turned out to be the one who sabotaged Andreja’s smuggling which benefits Va’ruun’kai
getting her friends killed with the help of Va’ruun Zealots. While we’re not given an exact reason as
to why he did this despite working for the supposedly peaceful Va’ruun government,
his manipulation of Andreja could be further proof of internal politics and of course the
inevitable human individuality that forms within an organization. As we conclude this part of the examination,
we can surmise that more than likely there could simply just be more sub-factions, sub-houses
or parties with conflicts of interest vying for religious or political advantages within
House Va’ruun that we simply don’t know about. After all, they are human. As we learn slightly more about House Va’ruun’s
motivations on the grand scale, we notice that we don’t even know the name of their
religion. We know that the followers or at least some
of them are called the “Promised”, in that they are promised to be spared by the
Great Serpent when it presumably consumes the entire universe and the unbelievers. It doesn’t seem like based on what she confides
in us that one can simply convert to being a member of House Va’ruun. Perhaps it’s a hereditary religion where
the founding families who followed Jinan Va’ruun and their descendants are the only ones who
can be participants as a result of their steadfast faith in Jinan and his revelation of the Great
Serpent. We know that there are customs, rites and
prayers befitting of a religion. As we will discuss later in the video, there
is even a religious hierarchy of some sort as well. Our two sources for some of what I just mentioned
are again the Ambassador’s 2nd Log where he describes his morning contemplative prayer
being interrupted by protesters outside of the Va’ruun embassy in New Atlantis. He also again mentions morning prayers in
the 7th log while also describing meditation. It’s unclear if prayer and meditation are
different things here though it’s likely they are different things considering we do
have a litany of the Va’ruun faith that Sarah Morgan can recite for us to avoid conflict
with Va’ruun starships if we have the Serpent’s Embrace trait: As shown by the words in the litany, it’s
clear that Jinan Va’ruun is still revered as the founder and an exemplar model all Va’ruun
members should follow including his more violent side. This belief is shown by a data slate we can
acquire from a Va’ruun Zealot: But back to the name of the religion, the
trait “Serpent’s Embrace” probably isn’t indicative of the Va’ruun religion name
as “Raised Enlightened” or “Raised Universal” in regards to the two other popular religions
or spiritualities during this time are not their respective names as “The Enlightened”
aren’t really a religion, they’re more of an atheistic humanitarian organization
and terms like “House of the Enlightened” refers to a dwelling of theirs rather than
the whole set of beliefs. Sanctum Universum is also kind of a name for
the organization and not exactly the set of beliefs. These three religions may just simply not
have names like in our reality how Buddhism may describe the belief of Buddhists or how
Islam describes the beliefs of Muslims and so on. Just as likely of a possibility is that House
Va’ruun members don’t even have a name for their religion as they may find the naming
of their collection of beliefs unnecessary as naming something is to distinguish or differentiate
it from other things. In the worldview of House Va’ruun, there
is no other truth but the truth of the Great Serpent and Jinan Va’ruun’s prophetic
revelations. We know this due to some of the dialogue with
Andreja where she says she knows what’s coming when we enter a relationship with her. She fears for our existence, our “soul”
if you will once the Great Serpent returns because in her mind she has accepted the truth
of the Va’ruun religion and the truth is that the universe will end one day and the
ones who don’t believe or weren’t of House Va’ruun will be cast in the shadow of the
Great Serpent or consumed or what have you, so why give a name to that truth? In one of the many universes we can visit
after passing through the Unity, there is a universe in which we meet a hostile Andreja. It turns out that she killed every member
of Constellation except us. There’s a lot to analyze here. She uses the term ”Penitent" which is also
a word used by a Dr. Baines on Starstation RE-939 who we will actually talk about later. Penitent as a person can be defined as someone
who is seeking to repent their wrongdoings or sins so in this case anyone who is not
of House Va’ruun is a sinner and how they repent seems to basically be oh well I guess
I will die. Another term, Unbeliever seems to also be
a general term for anyone who is not part of House Va’ruun as well. If you happen to have the “Serpent’s Embrace”
trait in Starfield, you don’t have to fight and kill Andreja and her cohort as you have
access to a dialogue option that says: “I await the Shrouding, sister. Lay down your arms.” Here we get another term that we have often
heard from enraged Va’ruun zealots shouting at us as they charged towards us in our adventures. Shrouding. It’s a term that’s used by Zealots as
a substitute word for death or end. It’s also used in part for the House Va’ruun
capital ships, the Shroudbearers we can find in Starfield giving more of a religious significance
to the term. And in the context of the conversation with
Andreja as a fellow Va’ruun member, the Shrouding refers to the end of existence as
we know it in a sort of comforting way akin to how someone shrouds you or blankets you
cozily. This is also referred to in the same litany
that we had Sarah Morgan recite earlier: In response to our statement, Andreja replies: After determining we are one of the “Promised”,
Andreja again mentions that the Great Serpent somehow communicated to her about the last
Constellation member or that she received a vision about us from the Great Serpent or
some source, perhaps the High Council, notified her of our existence. This information is incredibly interesting
as it points to some theories we will speculate on here shortly. One really important detail too is that this
is another rare instance in which we can interact or talk with House Va’ruun Zealots without
them trying to kill us. And in their dialogue, they say: What is the title of caller? It’s a completely different term compared
to “Promised”. Promised implies that we are the ones who
are waiting for something while Caller implies a more active role in summoning something
or someone. Or it can even mean someone who visits someone
or somewhere. Now before you start getting too excited,
it’s highly doubtful that the Zealots or Andreja would know of us being a powerful
Starborn considering they’re quite eager to engage with us and only refer to us as
a member of Constellation. At least initially. This Andreja we meet took action against Constellation
once she discovered the existence of the Artifacts and refers to their existence as blasphemy. She reported the discovery of the Artifacts
to the higher ups and the decision was made to seize them no matter what. But this is the confusing part, once she learns
we are of House Va’ruun and a Promised one, she willingly gives us these Artifacts saying
that as one of the Promised, they are ours by right. This opens up so many questions: does this
then mean that the term “Promised” isn’t just a general term for any House Va’ruun
member or could this be a difference between the starting universe and this universe where
things aren’t given the same nomenclature for the same reasons? And if in this universe with fanatic Andreja
we have a right to the Artifacts as a special Promised, does this mean that House Va’ruun
vaguely knows about the Unity, the armillary and the multiverse or does this simply mean
that we are entitled to it as loot since we are Promised? It’s all very ambiguous and this is where
we have to just speculate and before we do, let’s do a little bit more digging on the
background of the religion: We can actually talk to Mir’za who’s being
held prisoner by the United Colonies and if we still have the Serpent’s Embrace trait,
she tells us: Her statements belie a rather merciless attitude
towards prisoners but also similarly to evil Andreja’s statements about the “Promised”,
ambiguously denote the importance of that status or term even giving us something. The Serpent’s Embrace trait itself is really
interesting because apart from the rare dialogue options, the Serpent’s Embrace trait also
gives us the a 25 point bonus to our Health and Oxygen levels every 4 hours after we grav
jump but if we don’t grav jump, our Health and Oxygen actually suffer. This is sort of a dark parallel to the Sanctum
Universum where many of its believers think that a deistic god waiting for humanity to
reach it can get closer to their concept of god by grav jumping. Now the person in charge of the Sanctum Universum
is Keeper Aquilus in our backyard of the multiverse and he is the Pilgrim Starborn who has gone
through the Unity many times and the way you get to the Unity is by grav jumping with the
armillary onboard. So the fact that House Va’ruun’s cherishing
of grav jumps as a big part of their religion or way of life being so close to the beliefs
of the Pilgrim’s Sanctum Universum is just WAY too coincidental. We know at one point as well that Jinan Va’ruun
had contact with Aquilus also known as the Pilgrim at least in our starting universe. Mir’za tells us of an epic duel between
Aquilus and Jinan on
a planet: This fight may or may not have happened and
was simply a way for Aquilus to leave a trail of breadcrumbs for others who caught wind
of the existence of the Unity, a or the center of the multiverse and existence as we know
it. However I lean towards the fight having actually
occurred especially with Mir’za’s description of the fight where Jinan Va’ruun struck
down the Unbeliever multiple times alluding to the Starborn ability to duplicate or summon
Parallel Selves as we Spacefarers can assuming we become Starborn. So it may just be that Jinan Va’ruun incorporated
his experience with the Starborn into the doctrine of the Great Serpent which is somewhat
credible considering our speculation about evil Andreja’s dialogue. Buckle up here because I want to talk about
some theories that I have as far as Jinan Va’ruun and the Great Serpent go: We have Jinan Va’ruun and his followers
grav jump multiple times on their colony ship. During this time, it’s insinuated that Jinan
lost time during the journey while others didn’t. There is one eerily similar case to Jinan’s
story and that’s a story we’ve explored in another lore video covering the catastrophic
ending of Earth. We discover from Victor Aiza’s final message
that he too lost time after he touched an Artifact uncovered on Mars which led to 12
days of lost time for him. My prevailing theory on this part of his story
is that once he touched an Artifact, he was marked which means that he could be summoned
as a parallel self by another Victor Aiza in a completely different universe with a
completely different timeline for 12 days during which he was given the calculations
needed to develop the grav drives at the cost of Earth. This theory is backed up by Barrett being
the only other Constellation member gaining Starborn powers, specifically Parallel Self,
where he can summon another Barrett from the infinite pool of Barretts and presumably that
Barrett also touched an Artifact just like our original Barrett. So if Jinan lost time, somehow he may have
come into contact with an Artifact which marked him and the one living being that happened
to summon Jinan instead of another Jinan was an extradimensional being he dubs the Great
Serpent which apparently proclaims that it was the original creator of the universe as
we know it and that it will return sometime in the future to wreak devastation and sparing
only the believers. So let’s focus on the Great Serpent now. The Great Serpent could be one of four things: The Great Serpent may actually be an extradimensional
being that resembles a colossal serpent of some sort and could be linked to the group
of beings that the Unity refers to as the Creators, beings who were responsible for
the placement of the Temples and Artifacts we can come across in the multiverse and that
we may even get to meet them later on. The Great Serpent could be another Starborn,
a different Jinan Va’ruun who is immensely powerful and made a grand showing to impress
upon the other Jinan Va’ruuns in following his ways. This may be why there’s a remarkable similarity
in the valuing of grav jumps between the Sanctum Universum and House Va’ruun. The Great Serpent could actually be a different
version of the Unity. All of these theories could be credible considering
it’s said ingame the only person who’s seen the visage of the Great Serpent was Jinan
Va’ruun himself so we don’t necessarily even know that it’s actually a serpentine
being and the name could just be symbolic. While I lean most towards the first theory,
I think the 3rd theory can work as well considering the Unity’s statements and other lore bits
we can pick up on explain to us that existence is literally infinite. To summarize, everything can and can’t be
everything at the same time in a manner of non-linear time. So it wouldn’t be a stretch that this fact
of existence applies to the Unity which we can hold to be a gateway or a center of the
infinite multiverse. The Great Serpent may just simply be a different
version of the Unity considering the Unity itself is existence or is part of existence
but just a more involved or malevolent one. However it wouldn’t explain how Jinan Va’ruun
could have gotten to a Unity without possessing an Armillary from our starting universe at
the very least which then leads to another wild but shaky theory that Jinan Va’ruun
and the colony ship he was on, came from a different universe which is a bit overwhelming
to think about. However, it’s also been said by the Bethesda
writers in a lore Q&A that the colony ship Jinan was on made multiple grav jumps so maybe
there was a chance of causing some sort of anomaly in some way. For both the first or second theory, let’s
quickly examine the symbolism of the serpent and of course the circular mark of House Va’ruun
that feature prominently in grafitti, décor and decal with the lens of human religion
and culture. Humanity since we could pass down stories
orally has attributed a wide array of symbolic and spiritual meanings to snakes or serpents. Across multiple cultures, the serpent can
mean death, evil, anger, deceit, rebirth, fertility, renewal, wisdom and yes, Unity. In particular, the ouroboros sometimes depicted
as a snake biting its tail in a gnostic definition can represent the unity of the spirit and
the material. And of course the center of the multiverse
is called Unity in Starfield. On a personal side note, while the circular
symbol of House Va’ruun does resemble that of an ouroboros, the very first thing I thought
of even before the ouroboros was the enso, a meditative and deliberate painting one undertakes
in Japanese Zen Buddhism that produces the form of a complete or incomplete circle. While the enso for some can symbolize void
awareness, the concept of infinity or the universe, I don’t think it’s a good fit
for our current interpretations of House Va’ruun as the enso can mean a lot of different things
in a lot of different ways for a lot of different people. Now as you may have noticed, I didn’t mention
the fourth and last theory I have about what the Great Serpent is and I will actually bring
it up once we start exploring the technology and horticulture of House Va’ruun later
in this video. When we discover that Andreja is a clandestine
agent for House Va’ruun or as she calls it, her family, we can learn a bit more about
what life is like as a member of the non-Zealot House Va’ruun. Needless to say, based on its policy of self-reliance
and dependence on smuggling work by agents like Andreja, House Va’ruun has a very Spartan
lifestyle in which the children are immediately indoctrinated into not only the Va’ruun
religion but the way of life to accommodate the religion: It seems that even the concept of dating couples
or something that we’re more familiar with in our own reality is a bit foreign to Andreja
as she doesn’t know what to exactly call it or at least equate to in her Va’ruun
culture which is fascinating. As we romance and eventually win her heart
in marriage, Andreja wants to have a very private moment with just the two of us in
which she gives us a rather interesting looking dagger: Based on what Andreja says, the creatures
called groats are one of the main livestock creatures of House Va’ruun that can serve
as not just resource production but sentimental pets much like how chickens or other animals
can be for some people in our reality. Killing a pet you’ve raised since you were
a child is pretty hardcore and the intent behind this ritualistic culmination is clear
in both obvious and subtle ways. Apart from teaching the children to value
and be resourceful with the things or worlds granted by the Great Serpent, it teaches them
to not forge too close of a connection to certain things or in the more extreme case,
dehumanized individuals such as the so called accursed people or Penitents of the Settled
Systems who are not House Va’ruun. The act teaches obedience to the elders, adults
and systems that raised them. Respect is also a huge thing. Andreja was seriously ready to kill the pub
owner Aggie in the middle of Akila City where the Freestar Rangers are headquartered when
she was disrespected after extending an offer of help. Grave insults are not taken lightly at all
and it’s not hard to imagine duels being a frequent event in the Va’ruun capital
of Dazra over perceived insults. Even light insults are taken rather seriously
as shown by Ambassador Bal’mor’s Log #4 where he recounts a terrible state dinner
gone wrong with a high ranking Va’ruun priestess in New Atlantis: “Great Serpent, is this a test of my faith? Do you truly wish to plumb the depths of my
loyalty? What other explanation could merit why you
would permit such a spectacular disaster? Dinner at Deputy Roland’s was initially
promising. Even congenial. Yes, there were pointed questions about House
Va’ruun’s intentions, but overall an air of polite decorum was maintained. But it was when one of Roland’s more boisterous
guests – an officer of some type, perhaps having enjoyed one too many glasses of Chandra
– asked, “But how can we trust you snakes after what you did?” that I believed the
Gravid reached her breaking point. They were only words, but words are the battlefield
on which diplomacy is fought. And I realized too late that this was a salvo
Si’ah would not let pass. As dessert was served, Si’ah excused herself. We waited for her return. And waited. And waited. When it had become clear the Gravid had simply
left, I made my pleasantries and rushed back to the embassy. There, I found her packing her things. When I asked where she was going, she stated
simply “I have seen all I need to.” And she left without another word.” Now, it may or may not be just Andreja’s
personality but we could also assume that almsgiving or charity is looked upon favorably
in House Va’ruun society as whenever we donate Credits for a scholarship or helping
a single mother out, Andreja really likes that. However I have my doubts about this for two
reasons: First it doesn’t feel like House Va’ruun
society tolerates the needy or “weak” based on Andreja’s description of her life
back on Va’ruun’kai. Again the lifestyle and the creeds of Va’ruun
society seem to lean towards self-reliance understanding how your and other beings’
place in the universe works and so forth. We also find out something interesting after
we get to the Unity assuming we married Andreja in the universe we’re leaving: This revelation by the Unity shows us that
not just the Zealots but also House Va’ruun overall as a faction is extremely wary of
outsiders. So when we’re giving 20,000 Credits to some
student or a struggling mother, these total strangers, it just may be Andreja’s personality. Now obviously compassion isn’t totally absent
in House Va’ruun individuals because again we can look at the patience and empathy exhibited
by Ambassador Bal’mor when he’s dealing with the protesters outside of the embassy. We’re just speculating on the societal attitude
towards certain subjects or groups which as we all know from our own reality is completely
different from the perspectives and values you or I hold at an individual level. Lastly for this part of the lore, we should
look at the snake art and culture of House Va’ruun. No, I don’t mean those snakes but anyway
this part you may have to take with a little grain of salt as I couldn’t get the House
Va’ruun Embassy Artifact Info Kiosk to work for me ingame but according to StarfieldWiki.net,
it’s in the game files and the kiosk reads: There’s a lot of potential lore here we
can examine so let’s break this down: First, there’s a huge emphasis on art and
artists in the Va’ruun culture. Even a prominent Va’ruun artist is named
by the name of Deran Ma’leen who sculpted the Coil I and II series that represented
the spirit of the Great Serpent. We also get a description for the Hooded Bust
that was made by a student indicating a formal education system under House Va’ruun. Just from this little information, we can
incur that House Va’ruun isn’t just about the strong eating the weak but is all about
placing value on art, education and probably other forms of culture such as written literature
is backed up by when we look at the contraband Va’ruun Heretical Writings. It wouldn’t be surprising if music and food
were also even more different from the rest of the Settled Systems as I highly doubt Chunks
has a branch set up somewhere on Va’ruun’kai. Second, we get more lore about the Va’ruun
capital city of Dazra on the planet of Va’ruun’kai. It appears just like the MAST building in
New Atlantis or Benjamin Bayu’s precious Trade Tower on Neon, there is a physical center
of administrative power in the form of the Scaled Citadel where it houses the corpse
of Jinan Va’ruun, a ruling body called the High Council and the current Va’ruun leader. Speaking of the current Va’ruun leader,
surprise it’s not the 2nd leader Jarek Va’ruun which is unsurprising and we’ll talk more
about this when we examine the government system of House Va’ruun. The third and current leader as of the year
2330 seems to be Jinan’s grandchild Anasko Va’ruun. We don’t know if Anasko is the only child
or what, so we can assume Anasko’s age to be anywhere between 30 to 60 based on our
earlier speculation about Jarek Va’ruun’s age when Jinan died. The mentioning of Anasko Va’ruun as the
current great leader is going to be something we have to take into account when we talk
about the government of House Va’ruun later in the video. The last piece of lore we can point out here
is that the original flagship of House Va’ruun called “The Mourning” that made contact
with the Settled Systems 100 years ago in the year 2230 was decommissioned 69 years
after in the year 2299. Curiously, the piece of The Mourning’s hull
on display in the Va’ruun embassy has been returned back to Va’ruun’kai by the order
of Anasko Va’ruun. This could mean that they are set on rebuilding
the ship or consider the piece a holy relic or perhaps they are low on resources. Anything is up for debate. House Va’ruun seems to have their own arsenal
of technology that’s quite distinct from the rest of the Settled Systems. While some of their ship models have named
manufactured parts such as Stroud-Eklund, the others seem more custom made such as the
capital ships called Shroudbearers. The names of the ships are also quite interesting
as they further emphasize the religious aspects of House Va’ruun: We have Dirge, Hymn, Litany,
Eulogy, Vigil, Prophecy and Revelation from the lowest tier to the highest class of ships. Technologically speaking, just a few of these
Va’ruun ships are quite powerful and seem to win often against Freestar Collective or
United Colonies patrols when we can observe such fights. House Va’ruun spacesuits and attire seem
very geared for practicality and of course combat. We’re not sure how much more advanced the
spacesuits of House Va’ruun are compared to UC or FC or even Ecliptic armor but given
how difficult Zealots can be to kill and how a few more Zealots in a pack seem to favor
melee combat, the suits must be considerably sturdy and reinforced as the Va’ruun place
great emphasis on warfare. This conclusion can be backed up by the information
on House Va’ruun weapons we can find and use them ourselves in Starfield. We have the Va’ruun Painblade which is one
of the best melee weapons in the game that speaks to a superior craftsmanship behind
it compared to other faction melee weapons. A Va’ruun Starshard particle beam handgun
is also an incredibly powerful weapon that somehow deals both physical and energy damage. Finally we have the Va’ruun Inflictor which
again is an incredibly powerful weapon compared to many of the weapons we Spacefarers can
come across in the game with its particle beams. Now I’m lumping House Va’ruun’s horticultural
practices in with their technology because this relates to their medical care and also
my fourth theory about what the Great Serpent could be. And this got me thinking because what exactly
are the Artifacts made of? We know from Judith Tatienne’s recordings
from NASA that when she was brought on as a metallurgical expert for the examination
of the Artifact from Mars, she had absolutely no idea and even comments that the established
Periodic Table of Elements has completely been flipped upside down. Even scientists in the 24th century when we
go to the Nishina Research Station on Freya III have no clue as to what the Artifact is
or how it’s producing gravitational and dimensional anomalies. We also know that the Artifacts are basically
weightless when we examine them in our inventory. But what if they’re looking in the wrong
places? Enter the Venom Tree: The Venom Tree is really really interesting
especially when we look at the lore behind Starstation RE-939. When we first touch down on New Atlantis,
we are greeted by an incompetent manager and civilians who had barely escaped House Va’ruun
zealots and we head on over there to find a massacre with Va’ruun Zealots still lingering
around. After cleaning up we look through some concerning
logs: “Determine if a human can survive ingestion
and extraction from species CV-82. The experiment will measure levels of common
digestive enzymes – lingual and gastric lipase, pancreatic amylase and measure acidity
levels over extended durations. Post-experimental vivisection will analyze
enzyme secretion and gland structures in the stomach, pancreas and small intestine of CV-82. Based on patient records and anecdotal evidence,
it is hypothesized that consumption by species CV-82 is survivable due to the slow acting
digestive system and reliance on salivary amylase that is unable to penetrate common
fabrics. Experiment does not account for an absence
of clothing materials during the ingestion. Dummy subjects in full spacesuits experienced
zero degradation of the exterior fabric from gastric and lingual lipases. However, pancreatic peptidases showed damage
after fourteen hours. Survivability is estimated at a maximum of
sixteen hours.” A different log titled “VP-0184 abuse?”
by Dr. Fernando Pena refers to these concerning scientific proposals saying: “Hey guys! Not to be a worry wart, but I am slightly
concerned about the psychoactive properties of species VP-0184 and the potential for involuntary
abuse. I’m no snitch, but I’ve noticed a couple
of really bizarre proposals as of late, including this one about “xenodigestion?” Not to call anyone out, but who cares how
long a person can survive inside some predator’s stomach? This isn’t the best use of MAST resources
guys, I’m sure Ricardo would agree.” A response to Pena’s message by an anonymous
user replies, “This might be a coincidence, but the day
after we discovered the psychoactive properties of that particular flora, Dr. Baines described
this incredibly bizarre dream about being devoured by a snake. But you know how private he is about his research. I didn’t push the issue because it’s none
of my business and because honestly, Dr. Baines scares me.” So let’s break all of this down: It seems after Doctor Baines interacted with
the venom tree in experiments, he called someone a Penitent which is a term used frequently
by House Va’ruun members and presumably he was the one who came up with the bizarre
experiment in which how long a person in a specially made suit could live for inside
the digestive system of a living creature veering far away from the original cancer
research they were doing on the starstation. We have a couple possibilities in regards
to Doctor Baines, some might think he was a House Va’ruun infiltrator but he does
have a child, a son onboard the Starstation by the name of Michael Baines so it makes
that possibility a lot less likely. Another possibility is that he may have accidentally
communed somehow with the Great Serpent through the Venom Tree which would explain the significance
of it being present in the Va’ruun embassy. It could explain in theory how Jinan may have
communed with the Great Serpent. Perhaps after picking up a sample of the Venom
Tree from one of many planets that Jinan’s colony ship, the consumption or interaction
with the sap of the Venom Tree during a grav jump could have allowed this communication. Now I keep bringing the sap of the Venom Tree
up as the analysis of this Venom Tree or VP-0814 indicates that there could be potential medicinal
and other beneficial applications of its roots however the leaves possess psychoactive properties
if lit meaning that it can alter your brain chemically in terms of behavior, cognition
and mood. But nothing is said about the sap. Ambassador Bal’mor almost goes into details
about the Venom Tree sap after he talks about the harmless spores but then hesitates and
changes his mind. We can speculate that the sap may simply be
poisonous indicated by our question of if the tree is dangerous but if it is, why not
just say so or even say that the venom tree is entirely harmless? It’s more than possible that the name of
the Venom Tree is just a misnomer and is a symbolic name that represents a connection
of this flora to venomous snakes or specifically the Great Serpent in House Va’ruun’s religion. The sap could serve a strictly religious purpose
close to the secrets of House Va’ruun such as communing with the Great Serpent which
may have been what Doctor Baines did by accident and may have marked him as House Va’ruun
to be whisked away which might explain his disappearance as we can’t find his corpse
on the star station. And this is where the Artifacts or a part
of the properties of the Artifacts come into play: Could it be that the sap of the Venom
Tree containing unknown metals was one of the ingredients in the creation of the Artifacts
by the Creators? Before you laugh, this isn’t too far fetched. Back in 2020, the New York Times covered the
field of phytomining which is a process where you can extract metals from hyperaccumulator
plants that evolved to absorb an incredibly high amount of metals. And if we look at the Venom Trees that have
taken over the Va’ruun embassy in New Atlantis, they even grow all over and through metallic
surfaces. It isn’t too far fetched to consider the
possibility of the Venom Trees on some planet or even Va’ruun’kai absorbing a special
metal to give it particular properties that can be harvested. And this is where my fourth theory on the
Great Serpent comes in, it just could be that the Venom Tree sap induces somehow similar
hallucinations across multiple humans of a Great Serpent like being. When we look at usage cases of Dimethyl tryptamine
or DMT, we can note that a lot of people’s experiences in their visual trips can be strikingly
similar to one another so it’s possible some things came be similar tripping on the
leaves or sap. But assuming we are right about the venom
tree sap, the greater link here may not be to an actual being that exists on a different
dimensional plane but it could be to the pieces of the Armillary, the Artifacts. When we look at the symbol of House Va’ruun,
it looks like it could be a visual representation of the armillaries we encounter in Temples
or when we construct them. And when we look at the name of the next DLC
– Shattered Space, we could do a far reach here and think that the armillaries were once
whole and were shattered into these multiple Artifact pieces. This theory could be linked back to what we
were discussing earlier in the video about how the importance of grav jumps is similar
in both House V’aruun and the Sanctum Universum. But yeah again, lots of fun speculation here
so let me know what you guys think down in the comments below. If we had to sum up the system of government
for House Va’ruun, it would be a theocracy in which a religious leader or religious leaders
are given authority over everybody else by a divine mandate. Of course, it’s not as simple as that definition
when it comes to the history of various societies and it’s definitely not as simple for House
Va’ruun in this case. We do have some big clues presented throughout
the video and what I’m going to cover here shortly as to how the House Va’ruun government
is structured and again I am going to speculate here based on what we’ve covered and a bit
of human history that deals with caliphates, empires and kingdoms that the Bethesda writers
seem to have been inspired by. For the final time, let’s go over some of
Ambassador Bal’mor’s logs again: In LOG #3 – A high ranking priestess by
the name of Si’ah Mavan is mentioned, specifically with the title of Gravid. A Gravid is an interesting word to use here
as it comes from the Latin word “gravis” and is usually used to refer to being pregnant
or carrying eggs or children. We’re not sure if actual pregnancy distinguishes
a high priestess even more but we could definitely take it as a symbolic rank rather than a literal
one with which they may be looked at as a maternal figure with a bit more authority. In LOG #5 – All House Va’ruun are ordered
to return to Dazra with just a single word “Return”. No explanation is given apart from this one
word. When this message was sent, I strongly believe
it was at this point Jarek Va’ruun died and deliberation on the matter of his successor
started in the capital city of Dazra. This could be akin to how kurultais requiring
attendance were called by Mongol chieftains to discuss matters of great importance or
when the Mongols purportedly retreated from Europe upon allegedly receiving the news of
the death of Ogedei Khan. I also strongly think that only this one word
was sent as the leaders of House Va’ruun may not have wanted a message detailing the
death of their leader intercepted by the other factions so their period of mourning or weakness
could be exploited. LOG #6 backs up our theory here when Ambassador
Bal’mor speculates that it couldn’t have been the offended Gravid priestess Mavan who
convinced the leaders to abandon the peace efforts and that it must have been some larger
event that prompted the order of return. Interestingly, a court is mentioned which
may be separate from the High Council that’s mentioned by Andreja and Tomisar Ka’dic. LOG #8 is when I believe Anasko Va’ruun
seized legitimacy and authority as the third theocratic leader of House Va’ruun upon
which he ordered a message be sent to Ambassador Bal’mor requesting information about the
outside world. It’s at this point we’re not sure why
Anasko Va’ruun would have requested said information but more than likely it has to
do with whatever decision they need to make about House Va’ruun’s next move in the
Settled Systems. Now, I’m going to draw 3 beautiful charts
for you to represent my theories on the structure of government for House Va’ruun knowing
what we know: The first chart shows the government of House
Va’ruun may have started out as Jinan Va’ruun as the sole power holder, the sole decision
maker. Helping him are his appointed officers and
advisors that organize the rest of the followers into units ready for the Serpent’s Crusade. There isn’t really a need to develop an
intelligentsia of some sort, no need to make sculptures such as the ones showcased in the
embassy. It’s all about conquest, all about killing. Now just like with models of feudalism and
serfdom or whatever you want to look at in human history, things rarely stay static and
as the Serpent’s Crusade goes on, different individuals in certain positions could have
helped form other organizational systems while Jinan stays at the top. However, once Jinan dies and Jarek Va’ruun
comes into power, we know that there is a High Council. It could be at this point that the previous
administrators or their descendants formed the High Council, an example of the mentioned
systems. There are still officers and advisors but
a successor in this structure often relies on the already established authority and influences
of the old guard to secure their position. We can also probably surmise that the influence
or authority of Jarek Va’ruun may have been diminished just because he is not Jinan and
we see the obvious split between the followers who become isolationist while the other followers
who disagree with Jarek’s decision to sue for peace become Zealots alhough they still
retain religious solidarity and presumably turn all of their aggression towards external
factions like the UC and FC or whoever else. During all this, Jarek and the old guard probably
still needed help with recovering from the losses of the Serpent’s Crusade and to also
maintain relations with the other powers in the Settled Systems, hence we have ambassadors,
officers and probably bureaucrats exist under the High council. Most prominent among them could have been
handlers who worked with their agents to procure supplies and such for Va’ruun’kai as House
Va’ruun did not establish a formal trade route. The third chart shows what I speculate to
be the government of House Va’ruun is like in the year 2330 after the death of Jarek
and the alleged succession of Anasko Va’ruun. By this time, 90 years after the end of the
Serpent’s Crusade, House Va’ruun has seen to an uptick in culture, there’s literature,
there’s art, there’s other roles besides being a soldier. We don’t know when exactly a formal religious
hierarchy formed but most likely it was between the ruling periods of Jarek and Anasko as
you wouldn’t really need such a structure with the founder of the religion who had seen
god itself. By 2330, we have under the High Council, a
system of priests and priestesses with ranks amongst them such as Gravids being named a
high rank. We have a court that serves as the more political
or bureaucratic arm of House Va’ruun. Perhaps they are made up of elites who are
“Promised”, bureaucrats, military officers and other figures of importance. Undoubtedly they probably do have some pressure
they can apply to members of the High Council if the court is separate from the High Council. The basic structure of handlers and agents
remain the same as they continue to answer directly to the High Council as clarified
by Tomisar Ka’dic and Andreja. We probably see another decrease in the influence
and authority of the leader, Anasko Va’ruun as they are the third ruler and it is a rather
common motif in human history to see this diminishment of authority happen over time. It would also make sense given that the embassy
was recalled more than likely during a subtly turbulent transition period. The Zealots at this point are still rampaging
throughout the Settled Systems but will probably answer to the religion or governmental authority
of House Va’ruun as we discussed earlier in the video if called upon. Let me know what you guys think about all
this, I’d love to read your thoughts. But yeah that is it for this video. This was a really really fun video to make
and the lore is just amazing and fascinating the more I think about it. There’s a few elements of the unreliable
narrator here and there in the information we’ve discussed in the video and Bethesda
as we all know loves utilizing the unreliable narrator which is great because that is a
huge part of what we historians have to sift through when looking back through past lives
and events. At the end of the day, I think House Va’ruun
is a fascinating faction that we will probably learn more about in the upcoming Shattered
Space DLC for Starfield if you recall the datamined information discussed earlier and
also the fact that there’s simply just not a lot of data in regard to it and its followers. Until then, it’s been fun speculating and
theorizing various thoughts about House Va’ruun and what may have happened or may be happening. If you liked this video, please consider helping
me out by subscribing to the channel, giving the video a like and maybe even telling me
what lore you want me to cover next down in the comments below! Thank you so much for watching, you’re all
amazing and see you all out there in the star field!
