About

The study of how civilizations are built and broken.

Obsidianics publishes long-form essays on technology, business, and the institutions that shape civilizations. Founded in 2026, it examines how the systems that organize the world form, transfer, and collapse, drawing on primary sources and historical parallels.

The Name

Obsidian is volcanic glass. Its edge, when worked properly, is finer than surgical steel; pre-modern civilizations used it for their first cutting tools and modern surgeons sometimes still prefer it to metal. The suffix is the one English uses to name a field of study. Obsidianics is the study of how civilizations are built and broken.

Editor

Obsidianics is written and edited by Tacitus Uí Néill.

Cadence

New essays appear weekly. Long-form pieces run 2,000 to 4,000 words; quick takes run shorter.