The sequel to the novel Rome's Revolution, called The Ark Lords, is almost entirely devoted to this topic.
The Great Dying occurred in 2081AD and was caused by an artificial virus. Nine billion people died. You will find out the origin of the virus in The Ark Lords. Even though several million humans survived, the chaos created was so devastating that society devolved into nomads and farmers. Things stayed that way for nearly 600 years as the remaining humans eschewed science and technology, blaming it for the near extinction of the human race.
The Ark program was supposed to consist of four Arks but in reality consisted of five. The fifth Ark, sometimes called the Stealth Ark, was launched in 2076 and sent to the Chara star system. There were no habitable planets there so the Ark looped around and returned to the Earth in the year 2655AD or 579PR. It landed in Northern New Jersey, to the west of New York City.
Rather than the crew being a mix of 80% white and 20% gray as previous missions, this Ark was 100% gray. Also, the male to female ratio was 4:1 rather than 4:5 as normal. When the crew of Ark V landed, they immediately settled and created a compound sealed off from the outside world. They ran raids and captured women to bring up the male to female ratio.
They were very warlike and cruel. They reintroduced slavery and used their superior technology to begin building an empire. The people came to refer to them as the Ark Lords or in Vuduri, the Erklirte. They represented the very worst of mankind and the people of our age.
The subjugated masses began a resistance movement which broke out into a full-on war following the Battle of Chicago. Even though they initially had no competing technology, the people of the area, led by Jack Henry (later called Hanry Ta Jihn by the Vuduri), won the battle by sacrificing a score of people before revealing they had discovered a secret cache of Essessoni weapons. The result of the battle was the resistance captured several Erklirte vehicles including one with a particle beam cannon. Once armed, it gave the people a fighting chance.
Hanry Ta Jihn was killed and was elevated to martyr status. His death served as an inspiration to all and the people of North America descended upon the Erklirte compound and eventually killed all of them.
Thus the name Erklirte has become synonymous with cruelty and the bullying that comes with superior technology. With the legacy of our generation (called the Essessoni by the Vuduri) nearly wiping out mankind and the cruelty of the Erklirte, many Vuduri assumed they were one and the same. It was not until the arrival of Rei Bierak and his contributions to the betterment of mankind that the Vuduri came to realize that not everyone from the Essessoni generation was Erklirte.