Institute for Fictional Civilizations · Est. MMXXVI
The study of civilizations that never existed.
Games, novels, films and myths are our field sites. Their societies, faiths, ecologies and collapses are our subject.
07Departments
38Excavations
published
published
34Worlds
under study
under study
MMXXVIFounded
Featured ExcavationNº 0038
Excavation Nº 0038 · Human Archive
The Country Held Together by Deliveries
In Death Stranding, a shattered America is rebuilt one parcel at a time, and players build roads for strangers. An excavation of a nation made of deliveries.
- World
- The United Cities of America, Death Stranding
- Period
- After the Death Stranding (in-world)
- Status
- Active
The Departments
Seven ways of reading an imagined world.
Every Excavation is filed in one of the Institute's departments. Open a drawer to see what it holds.
The Register
Recent excavations
0038The Country Held Together by DeliveriesHuman ArchiveDeath Stranding● Active0037The Empire That Prays to a CorpseReligions000● Active0036The Bureau That Turned the Impossible Into ProcedureAnthropologyControl● Active0035The Island That Tried to Sail Into HeavenMythosphereMiddle-earth○ Extinct0034The Fortress That Remembered EverythingHuman ArchiveDwarf Fortress● Active0033The Tree at the Center of Every WorldMythosphereMany Worlds● Active
The Institute's thesis
Fiction is not escapism.
Humanity keeps imagining other civilizations. The Institute studies what they reveal about power, belief, survival and ourselves.
About the Institute →