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
06Excavations
published
published
05Worlds
under study
under study
MMXXVIFounded
Featured ExcavationNº 0001
Excavation Nº 0001 · Extinct Worlds
The Final Days of WildStar
An archaeological reconstruction of a civilization after the servers went dark.
- World
- Nexus, WildStar
- Inhabited
- 2014 to 2018
- 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
0006Why the Wasteland Keeps Rebuilding the Same CivilizationAnthropologyFallout● Active
0005From the Tokyo Subway to PersonaObservatoryPersona● Active
0004The Message Culture of the Lands BetweenHuman ArchiveElden Ring● Active
0003The Cults of the WastelandReligionsFallout● Active
0002Eywa: Anatomy of a Planetary OrganismEcologiesPandora● Active
0001The Final Days of WildStarExtinct WorldsWildStar○ 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.
About the Institute →