Dust 514 takes place in the same fictional universe as Eve Online, a science-fiction MMORPG. The Eve Online backstory explains that humanity, after using up the Earth's resources, began to colonize the rest of the Milky Way. The development of faster-than-light travel allowed mankind to expand at an extremely fast pace, leading to violent competition between space-faring corporations. A natural wormhole was discovered, and humanity entered through it to find an empty new galaxy which they began colonizing. However, the wormhole connecting the two galaxies collapsed, leaving young colonies cut off from the mainland. Without support, many of the colonies in the new galaxy died off, and over time the few that remained lost both their knowledge of technology and of their origins from Earth. Eventually, faster-than-light travel was rediscovered and five unique space-faring powers emerged from the colonies. In this new era, war and the pursuit of wealth once again became the defining aspects of civilization.
Eve Online players take the role of capsuleers, who are elite starship pilots made immortal using cloning technology and consciousness transfers. For much of Eve history, only capsuleers were immortal because the technology required to download consciousness is linked to a capsule that encloses them and leaves them in suspended animation. The capsule creates an interface for pilots to control the ship that they are placed within. However, the discovery of a special implant made it possible to achieve a transfer of consciousness without the use of a capsule, so it became possible to make immortals that were not pilots. Dust 514 players take the role of immortal ground-based soldiers which were created by the military shortly after the implant was discovered.
