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
07Excavations
published
published
06Worlds
under study
under study
MMXXVIFounded
Featured ExcavationNº 0007
Excavation Nº 0007 · Mythosphere
The Norse Underworld Inside Senua’s Mind
Hellblade retells the oldest journey in myth, the descent to the underworld, through Norse gods seen by a grieving Pictish warrior. A Mythosphere study.
- World
- Orkney and Helheim, Hellblade
- Period
- Late 8th to 9th century (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
0007The Norse Underworld Inside Senua’s MindMythosphereHellblade● Active0006Why the Wasteland Keeps Rebuilding the Same CivilizationAnthropologyFallout● Active0005From the Tokyo Subway to PersonaObservatoryPersona● Active0004The Message Culture of the Lands BetweenHuman ArchiveElden Ring● Active0003The Cults of the WastelandReligionsFallout● Active0002Eywa: Anatomy of a Planetary OrganismEcologiesPandora● 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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