Ak Ana is a warm terrestrial planet in orbit of the star Kama Ti in the Great Swan Cluster. It has an orbital period of 320 days, exerts a gravitational force of 0.9g, and has a human-breathable atmosphere with an average pressure at sea level of 97kPa. The planet is populated with a variety of forms of life, including humans. Recorded human histories on Ak Ana date back several thousand years.

Unbeknownst to its citizens, much of the population of Ak Ana originates from something of a shipwreck from many millennia ago. A colony ship which was seeking a much farther star suffered irreparable damage in a collision with an object in the vicinity of Kama Ti and set down on Ak Ana's surface to attempt repairs. This failed, but enough supplies were on board, and enough materials were in the hull of the ship, to construct a permanent settlement. Little of the original colony ship remains, and what does remain would not be recognizable to the civilization that built it (if they are even still around), but it is nevertheless preserved as a holy site for one of Ak Ana's major religions.

Ak Ana was, for much of the last few centuries, a united under a monarchic planetary government, the Sovereignty of Ak Ana, headed by a figure whose title is the Karal. The Sovereignty pushed for expansion into space for the furtherance of faith, riches, and glory for the Karal and their subjects.

Contact was made with one or two similarly small civilizations with little more than one planet and a few space stations. Ak Ana engaged in trade with these civilizations, and the resulting cultural and technological exchange propelled the Sovereignty and its subjects through a rapid period of growth, complete with aspirations of colonization. Ak Ana FTL technology around the beginning of this period of growth, commonly called the Luminous Age by Sovereignty historians, was capable of half a light year per month. After 40 years, this figure was improved to one light year per week.

The end of the Luminous Age came approximately 50 years ago, just after establishing minor colonies and research bases within the Kama Ti system (in the asteroid belt and on an icy-shelled oceanic moon of a gas giant) and in the neighboring Temez Ri system, on the planet of Alara. Most of Ak Ana's historians generally agree that the Great Blight marked the end of the era.

The Great Blight was an anthropogenic disease that affected several of the planet's staple foods. The Sovereign Botanical Research Laboratory and a genetic engineering firm known as Ulustim Biotechnical were under contract with the Sovereign government to create a pesticide to help ensure the food supply of Ak Ana and its colonies. The effort had produced a microbial pesticide, in this case, something resembling a cross between bacteria and algae, where the organism would persist on the surface of the plant on sunlight and water vapor, and cause illness to insects and other small animals that sought the plant, but could easily be washed off for safe human consumption.

Development of this organism took many years and many dozens of strains, but eventually a safe and useful strain was created and passed laboratory tests with flying colors. Unfortunately, its label was switched with that of a failed, dangerous strain that had a tendency to eat into the plants it was supposed to be protecting. This dangerous strain was cultured for production and shipped to a few farms all by mistake. The farms suffered crop failure within a few weeks, and by the time the mistake had been realized, the microbial pesticide had already spread to other farms, both by factory distribution, and by the organism itself clinging to the clothes of farm attendants; the fur, flesh, and feathers of animals; and waterways shared by the farms.

Whether the label was switched intentionally or by accident is a matter of public debate. Some call into question the quality control of Ulustim Biotechnical's production facility, others suspect a government conspiracy about population control. This has helped to sow the seeds of doubt in the Sovereignty's legitimacy and efficacy.

The agricultural lands of some regions were spared from the Blight, by a combination of happy coincidences of geography and strict decontamination regimes. Nevertheless, there were plant-wide crop failures, and the ability of Ak Ana to feed its people and its colonies was called rapidly into question.