Space Viking

After the Big War had left the Terran Federation in tatters, ten thousand military refugees from the losing side, the System States Alliance, fled thousands of light-years beyond the boundaries of the Federation to escape pursuit and establish a new life. There they discovered a small star cluster and colonized an earth-like

planet the named Excalibur. By the time of Space Viking the former refugees had colonized a dozen worlds, which the called the Sword-Worlds, the planets having been named after legendary swords from ancient Terran tales. In their isolation, the Sword-Worlds developed a system of planetary feudalism while still managing to retain much of the former Federation's technology, including space travel and contragravity.

Things did not fare so well in the Old Federation; formerly civilized planets