The Fifth World is an open source shared universe that explores a future where rewilding, decolonization, permaculture, and other such movements have succeeded. We imagine a world beyond civilization, when its collapse has become ancient history, and life revolves around our kinship with a more-than-human world. It is:
- Neotribal, because the people of the Fifth World live in small, egalitarian bands and villages, even though their ancestors may never have expected it.
- Ecotopian, because the world may not be exactly perfect, but it is far better than it used to be, and all thanks to the ways in which we’ve learned to live as part of a more-than-human world again.
- Animist realist, because it takes animism seriously, and sees no reason to question the animist world that presents itself to our human senses.
Imagining a world of restored biocultural diversity is beyond any single human brain, so we made it open source. The setting is a wiki that any of our members can edit or add to, the idea being that we would all imagine what such a future would look like in our own bioregions, and collaboratively we would begin to glimpse a better world.
Our community is invitation only. Since members can do so much to shape our project, we want to make sure that the people who join us share our vision. But I’m rather certain that anyone on this forum is also someone we’d love to have in our community, too, so if you’re interested, here is a link to join our Discord server: