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
34Excavations
published
published
30Worlds
under study
under study
MMXXVIFounded
Featured ExcavationNº 0034
Excavation Nº 0034 · Human Archive
The Fortress That Remembered Everything
Dwarf Fortress simulates centuries of history, then lets every dwarf, grudge and artifact add to it. An excavation of a world that records its own past.
- World
- Generated worlds, Dwarf Fortress
- Period
- 2006 to present (real 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
0034The Fortress That Remembered EverythingHuman ArchiveDwarf Fortress● Active0033The Tree at the Center of Every WorldMythosphereMany Worlds● Active0032The Machines That Reinvented HumanityObservatoryNieR: Automata● Active0031The Stations That Became NationsAnthropologyMetro● Active0030The Wilderness That Rewrote Its VisitorsEcologiesSouthern Reach● Active0029The Church That Healed Its City With the Blood of GodsReligionsBloodborne● 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 →