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
35Excavations
published
published
31Worlds
under study
under study
MMXXVIFounded
Featured ExcavationNº 0035
Excavation Nº 0035 · Mythosphere
The Island That Tried to Sail Into Heaven
Tolkien’s Númenor was an island given by the gods, ruled by long-lived kings and drowned for sailing west to seize immortality. An excavation of his Atlantis.
- World
- Númenor, Middle-earth
- Period
- Second Age (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
0035The Island That Tried to Sail Into HeavenMythosphereMiddle-earth○ Extinct0034The Fortress That Remembered EverythingHuman ArchiveDwarf Fortress● Active0033The Tree at the Center of Every WorldMythosphereMany Worlds● Active0032The Machines That Reinvented HumanityObservatoryNieR: Automata● Active0031The Stations That Became NationsAnthropologyMetro● Active0030The Wilderness That Rewrote Its VisitorsEcologiesSouthern Reach● 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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