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
40Excavations
published
published
36Worlds
under study
under study
MMXXVIFounded
Featured ExcavationNº 0040
Excavation Nº 0040 · Religions
The Church That Turned Science Into Scripture
In Asimov’s Foundation, scholars disguised nuclear power as religion to rule the barbarian kingdoms. An excavation of a church built on science.
- World
- The Foundation and the Four Kingdoms, Foundation
- Period
- The first two centuries of the Foundation Era (in-world)
- Status
- Superseded
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
0040The 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● Active0035The Island That Tried to Sail Into HeavenMythosphereMiddle-earth○ Extinct
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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