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
31Excavations
published
published
28Worlds
under study
under study
MMXXVIFounded
Featured ExcavationNº 0031
Excavation Nº 0031 · Anthropology
The Stations That Became Nations
In Metro 2033, Moscow’s survivors turned subway stations into nations, empires and faiths. An excavation of the underground civilization of the Metro.
- World
- The Moscow Metro, Metro
- Period
- 2013 onward (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
0031The Stations That Became NationsAnthropologyMetro● Active0030The Wilderness That Rewrote Its VisitorsEcologiesSouthern Reach● Active0029The Church That Healed Its City With the Blood of GodsReligionsBloodborne● Active0028The Kingdom That Tried to Forget Its GodExtinct WorldsHollow Knight○ Extinct0027The City That Lived Around a Single FireAnthropologyFrostpunk● Active0026The Civilization That Died TwiceExtinct WorldsThe Matrix Online○ 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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