Earth is long gone. The last humans inhabit the vast colony ship Tarian. Drawing power from the sun, Tarian stays in the middle of the sun's goldilocks zone. As planets enter the goldilocks zone, teams of clone workers are sent to exploit the planets minerals and grow food.

No one knows how long Tarian has been in space. Recorded history only extends a little over 300 years. Previous recorded history was destroyed when the Sun entered a galaxy wide magnetic storm lasting several years. Even the most highly shielded data repositories eventually succumbed to the pernicious magnetic radiation. All digital storage devices were wiped. Only Tarians navigation and control systems, positioned millions of kilometers inside the solid rock metorite shield, escaped the radiation.

Now known as "the Great Data Loss", this event destroyed all knowledge of Tarians construction and operation. The autonomous AI control systems take care of all environmental control and navigation. Essentially the ship has been on autopilot since before anyone can remember. Nobody knows who built it or how to control it.

The Great Data Loss also destroyed the collected human records of art, culture, history and science. Apart from the patchy written records compiled in the wake of the Great Data Loss, only the sculptures remain.