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
26Excavations
published
published
23Worlds
under study
under study
MMXXVIFounded
Featured ExcavationNº 0026
Excavation Nº 0026 · Extinct Worlds
The Civilization That Died Twice
The Matrix Online carried the films' official story, killed Morpheus and then went dark in 2009. An excavation of a canon that lived inside a mortal world.
- World
- Mega City, The Matrix Online
- Period
- 2005 to 2009 (real world)
- Status
- Extinct
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
0026The Civilization That Died TwiceExtinct WorldsThe Matrix Online○ Extinct0025The Tribe That Worshipped a Machine’s DoorReligionsHorizon● Active0024The City That Lost the War and Kept Its PoliticsAnthropologyDisco Elysium◐ Contested0023The Toxic Jungle That Was Healing the WorldEcologiesNausicaä of the Valley of the Wind● Active0022The People Who Outlived the BombAnthropologyFallout● Active0021The Genealogy of the DragonObservatoryMany 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 →