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
39Excavations
published
published
35Worlds
under study
under study
MMXXVIFounded
Featured ExcavationNº 0039
Excavation Nº 0039 · Extinct Worlds
The Civilization That Left Its Questions Behind
In Outer Wilds, the vanished Nomai left no empire behind, only questions spiralling across the walls of a dying solar system. An excavation of their curiosity.
- World
- The Nomai, Outer Wilds
- Period
- Hundreds of thousands of years before the Hearthians (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
0039The 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○ Extinct0034The Fortress That Remembered EverythingHuman ArchiveDwarf Fortress● 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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