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
28Excavations
published
published
25Worlds
under study
under study
MMXXVIFounded
Featured ExcavationNº 0028
Excavation Nº 0028 · Extinct Worlds
The Kingdom That Tried to Forget Its God
Hollow Knight’s Hallownest was ruled by a god-king whose people forgot an older god of light. An excavation of a kingdom undone by its own memory.
- World
- Hallownest, Hollow Knight
- Period
- The age of the Pale King to the fall (in-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
0028The Kingdom That Tried to Forget Its GodExtinct WorldsHollow Knight○ Extinct0027The City That Lived Around a Single FireAnthropologyFrostpunk● Active0026The 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● 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.
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