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
25Excavations
published
published
22Worlds
under study
under study
MMXXVIFounded
Featured ExcavationNº 0025
Excavation Nº 0025 · Religions
The Tribe That Worshipped a Machine’s Door
A thousand years after the end of the world, the tribes of Horizon worship the machines that rebuilt it. A study of faith grown from deleted history.
- World
- The Sacred Lands, Horizon
- Period
- 31st 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
0025The Tribe That Worshipped a Machine’s DoorReligionsHorizon● Active0024The City That Lost the War and Kept Its PoliticsAnthropologyDisco Elysium◐ Contested0023The Toxic Jungle That Was Healing the WorldEcologiesNausicaä of the Valley of the Wind● Active0022The People Who Outlived the BombAnthropologyFallout● Active0021The Genealogy of the DragonObservatoryMany Worlds● Active0020The Last Days of AnthemAnthropologyAnthem○ 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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