I fully expected Saros to become a talking point in the manufactured culture war when I played through Housemarque’s latest shooter, but I didn’t realize that grifters would stoop to bending the truth and using AI-generated images to gin up their latest rage-bait cycle. We can’t really get into what’s going on and why it’s dishonest without getting into spoilers, so if you’re still fighting your way through Carcosa, come back to this after you’re done. Or don’t! It might save you some psychic damage.
The earliest example I could find of the Saros misinformation campaign has been deleted, but the offending X post from @pirat_nation claimed that the game included “a storyline involving a cucked man being betrayed and left by his wife for a lesbian woman.” The post also included a doctored image of Nitya, Saros protagonist Arjun’s wife, embracing Kayla, a member of Arjun’s crew. Crucially, Nitya and Kayla are never once seen on-screen together throughout Saros. Nitya did not leave Arjun for her because they don’t even know each other.
This “Screenshot” from SAROS is 100% fake and AI! it’s not in the game nor do nitya and Kayla even cross paths ever. What a disgrace to spread this around doing the devs at Housemarque a disservice lying on their beautiful story pic.twitter.com/P131twDQvA
— junkster (@Junksterrr) May 2, 2026
So what actually happens in Saros? What could these people be latching onto that even vaguely resembles the above lie such that they could distort and twist into an anti-woke backlash narrative? Let’s break it down:
- Arjun spends most of Saros searching for Nitya on Carcosa, and at first, this is portrayed as a worthy cause. He’s worried for the safety of his wife after the galactic expedition she was on seems to have gone south.
- It’s revealed later in the game that Arjun was an alcoholic, emotionally abusive partner who also cheated on her.
- Nitya left him before the events of the game because it was a bad situation and she wanted more for her life.
- She goes to Carcosa with the first Echelon crew, and once they arrive and find out how time is distorted on the planet, they live there for centuries as what are essentially “gods,” though there’s a lot of infighting and war that leads to the wreckage players encounter once when Arjun arrives.
- During that time, when Arjun has become just a distant memory, Nitya does find a new lover that is, yes, a woman.
- This man hasn’t been “cucked” and he hasn’t been “betrayed” or left “for” a lesbian relationship. She left him and then moved on with her life, at what was for her, literally hundreds of years ago.
Works cited: Actually playing Saros.
Sometimes the misinformation campaign gets so distorted that I can’t tell whether or not people actually believe these lies or if some people are just getting so wound up about this because they have incredibly archaic views of relationships. Do they actually believe these lies are the actual story of Saros? Or is a woman leaving you and then finding a new relationship because you were abusive now the new definition of being “cucked?” Or are some people online just so illiterate now they’ll catch a whiff of what sounds like something they don’t like from a game they haven’t even played and run with the narrative for social media engagement?
Whatever the case, more AI-mockups and racist rhetoric are spreading on social media as Saros gets deemed a “cuck simulator” or whatever other nonsense. Don’t look too hard into the abyss, I sure wish I hadn’t.
