Small planet Heim, somewhat similar to Earth. Some local residents consider themselves culturally superior. From their point of view, most of the autochthones of Heim are mired in barbarism, and it has been so since the great fall of society precipitated by an era of glaciation. However, it is a rather cozy barbarism, not burdened with excesses like theocracy or wars lasting for centuries. Over the past few centuries, scholars managed to restore or rediscover knowledge of metallurgy, electricity, aeronautics, and nuclear energy. Steamships ply the seas. Airships, stratoplanes, and turbojets brave the skies. A few city-states build spaceships. A colony on a nearby planet, while not exactly thriving, does survive. However, scientific disagreements are often resolved in the old-fashioned way - with a swordfight. Also, it may turn out that the rocket is hauled to the launch pad by an elephant in plate armor, because noises disrupt the hunt of the naked denizens of the surrounding mountains, and they can express their displeasure by letting a hail of arrows loose.
All this relative barbaric prosperity is quite fragile, and can be brought into jeopardy by a volcanic eruption that threatens a new ice age, by an invasion of nomads, by the rise of a strange chthonic cult ... or by any combination of the three thereof.
Written in Russian!
