Technological progress, just as expected, did not delay the collapse of the Earth civilization, but brought it even closer.

From the Old Earth, overpopulated and dying, five Arks took off to different Earth-type planets. Each of them was carrying 500 million colonists and about a billion intelligent robot servants.

Four Arks disappeared in the darkness of space. The fifth one safely reached its destination and successfully landed on a planet suitable for colonization. Thus, humans found a new home.

Then a problem revealed itself. It turned out that over the years of the sub-light travel, the Ark’s databases were damaged, or perhaps they were filled in a hurry.

The AI of the Fifth Ark retained all knowledge of science and technology, but lost almost the entire array of data about the humanities and culture. Only a huge library of chivalric romance and adventure novels was somehow preserved in the database.

Thus, generations later, humanity, having lost access to other cultural sources, gradually turned to technofeudalism.

Quite unexpectedly, this turned out to be a good solution for survival in the new world. The descendants of the descendants of earthlings made great progress in robotics, but socially and culturally remained at the level of the Earth’s 14th century. Society was divided into three guilds, each of which kept its secrets and formed a corporation impenetrable to outsiders.

The Artisan Union, whose symbol was a pair of Scissors, was involved in manufacturing and production.

The Scriptor Conclave, whose banners bore the sign of Paper, traditionally specialized in information processing.

And the Guild of Belt Miners with the Rock on their shield mined mineral-rich asteroids.

Inevitable feudal conflicts were usually fought with the help of high-tech robotic Knights, who cut through interplanetary space on their space steed-bikes. The Knights proved terrifyingly effective, as they were virtually indestructible and, in addition, controlled by human Operators located in safe fortresses.

Once a year, the System declares a truce and a great mass tournament, La Grande Mêlée.

The best Operators of the three rival Guilds send their robot Knights, and yesterday’s rivals unite into two teams and put aside their differences for a while to determine who is the worthiest, the most valiant and the most skilled in controlling their combat machines.