Revision 277141831 of "Government warehouse (fiction)" on enwiki

{{Refimprove|date=May 2008}}
[[Image:Government Warehouse.jpg|thumb|250px|right|The Government Warehouse at the end of the movie ''[[Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark|Raiders of the Lost Ark]]''.]]

The '''Government Warehouse''' is a plot device used in [[Film|movie]]s, [[Television program|television series]], and [[novel]]s, a scenario used in [[role-playing game]]s, and a belief of some [[conspiracy theory|conspiracy theorists]]. The concept is that there is a secret government warehouse where various items are stored of whose existence the [[government]] wants the general populace to remain ignorant.

==Real-world government warehouses ==
The government warehouses of fiction and [[conspiracy theories]] have a number of analogues in the real world, although some are not run by official national governments. Historically, the template is the [[Library of Alexandria|Great Library of Alexandria]], which held an extensive collection of written works but was repeatedly destroyed during the first millennium AD. The [[Vatican Secret Archives]]<ref>[http://asv.vatican.va/home_en.htm Vatican<!-- bot-generated title -->] at asv.vatican.va</ref> are alleged to hold the secrets of the [[Knights Templar]]. Many prominent museums have extensive archives which often lay undisturbed for decades, such as the [[Cairo Museum]] in Egypt, which was found in 2002 to have 80,000 items - more than half the museum's collection - stored away in its vaults.<ref>[http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/12/1213_021213_cairomuseum.html Cairo Museum Unveils &quot;Lost&quot; Egyptian Treasures<!-- bot-generated title -->] at news.nationalgeographic.com</ref>

In the United States, the [[National Archives and Records Administration]] and the [[Library of Congress]] both have numerous government warehouses to store historic items and documents.

== RPG scenarios ==
The concept of a Government Warehouse has been used as a fun scenario for role-playing games:

* The [[MMORPG]] ''[[City of Heroes]]'' parodies this plot device by having the MAGI Vault be where dangerous magical artifacts are stored safely under the care of Azuria. However, these items tend to get stolen from the vault very quickly, often right after the player gives the item to Azuria for safekeeping.
* {{cite web|accessdate=September 11|accessyear=2007|
url=http://www.io.com/~jlockett/RPG/HEGGA/Stuff/warehouse.html|
title=Government Warehouse list version 1.2.1|
work=}} &mdash; an attempt to construct an RPG scenario of a Government Warehouse containing every famous item ever mentioned in fiction or a conspiracy theory as being lost or suppressed
* {{cite web|accessdate=September 11|accessyear=2007|
url=http://www.deathworld.org/spy.html|
title=Government Warehouse list version 1.3.2|
work=}} &mdash; Notice that in this later version the introduction has been removed and replaced by seals denoting United States government agencies and a purported [[security classification]] notice, giving a greater impression of realism.
* {{cite web|accessdate=September 11|accessyear=2007|
url=http://www.bahneman.com/liem/x-files/warehouse.html|
title=Wherehouse|
work=}} &mdash; an even more detailed attempt to do the same thing, that even includes a classification system for the objects, and includes objects that logically could not possibly be contained in such a warehouse.  
* {{cite web|accessdate=October 26|accessyear=2007|url=http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/warehouse23|title=GURPS Warehouse 23}} &mdash; an entire book based on the strange and mysterious things that might be in such a warehouse, run by Secret Masters. [[Steve Jackson Games]] also calls its online store "Warehouse 23".

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Conspiracy theories]]
[[Category:Fictional secret bases]]
[[Category:Plot devices]]
[[Category:Warehouses]]

[[it:Magazzini del governo]]