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
41Excavations
published
published
37Worlds
under study
under study
MMXXVIFounded
Featured ExcavationNº 0041
Excavation Nº 0041 · Anthropology
The People Made by Distance
In The Expanse, generations born in low gravity became a new people, the Belters, with their own bodies, language and politics. An excavation of distance.
- World
- The Belt, The Expanse
- Period
- Centuries after the colonization of the solar system (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
0041The People Made by DistanceAnthropologyThe Expanse● Active0040The Church That Turned Science Into ScriptureReligionsFoundation◐ Superseded0039The Civilization That Left Its Questions BehindExtinct WorldsOuter Wilds○ Extinct0038The Country Held Together by DeliveriesHuman ArchiveDeath Stranding● Active0037The Empire That Prays to a CorpseReligions000● Active0036The Bureau That Turned the Impossible Into ProcedureAnthropologyControl● 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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