Setting & Lore

The Gap is the defining mystery of the Starfinder setting: a period of unknown length during which all memories, records, and evidence of history were erased from the minds of every sentient being and every archive in the galaxy. No one knows how long the Gap lasted, what caused it, or what happened during it. What is known is that before the Gap, the planet Golarion existed in the system now occupied by Absalom Station, and after the Gap, the planet was gone, replaced by the station. The goddess Triune emerged after the Gap with the gift of Drift technology, which allows faster-than-light travel by routing ships through a hyperspace dimension called the Drift. Current history begins after the Gap, with the formation of the Pact Worlds, the Veskarium War, the Swarm invasion, and the ongoing expansion of known space. Scholars, archaeologists, and theologians throughout the galaxy continue to search for clues about what happened during the Gap, but so far the mystery remains unsolved.