For nearly all of humanity The Tempest was the apocalypse. It burnt our homeworlds and left a toxic hell. For those of us living off-world, it was the ascension. Captains turned their cargo decks into slums and The Arks grew into drifting cities. Officers became nobility and the crew peasants. Fifty years later I rule an Ark twenty miles long with fifty-thousand Arkbound and I’d trade it all for a breath of clean air.
- Cpt. Juara Banks, "Letters for the Lost Home".
from What is the Goal of the Game?:
Your characters are bound by allegiance to an Ark, a city-sized ship drifting through ruined space after a catastrophe wiped out life on all colonised worlds. As Arkbound they owe their lives to the Ark and failing to contribute to its progress means being thrown in the protein extractors. They may strive to earn their freedom by becoming an Officer or finding somewhere to flee to.