History Main / UniverseCompendium

* The ''WorldOfWarcraft: Chronicle'' series, so far, has been well received for tidying up the ContinuitySnarl that the ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' franchise had accumulated over the years into a single coherent picture. Two volumes were released in 2016 and 2017, covering events from the distant past up until ''VideoGame/WarcraftII'', and the third volume to be released in 2018 is supposed to cover the events of ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' and beyond.

* MarvelComics started hiring especially well-known fansite creators to write their compendia on a certain series, bridging the gap between a Universe Compendium and a UniverseConcordance. There's also the famous ''ComicBook/OfficialHandbookOfTheMarvelUniverse''.

* ''{{GURPS}}'', from Steve Jackson Games, has produced compendia for several literary [[TheVerse universes]]. Author David Brin provided much of the information in ''GURPS Uplift'', including data that had not yet appeared in any of his novels at the time of publication.

* The number of "side material" books for the {{Nasuverse}} is staggering, containing archives of the game illustrations, concept art, interviews, and entire short stories that tremendously develop several characters (most infamously, the transition of OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent [[{{Tsukihime}} Tohno Shiki]] into a vampire assassin) which may or may not involve plotlines from possible sequels. All this, without mentioning the 'Dictionary' sections which expand the {{Canon}} into areas rarely mentioned in the original works. ([[FunctionalMagic Magecraft organizations, hierarchies, and systems]]? {{Alien Inva|sion}}ders?) One particular volume, ''Character Material'', is comprised almost entirely of completely new characters, characters only mentioned as an aside, or characters which previously were never illustrated.

* The number of "side material" books for the {{Nasuverse}} is staggering, containing archives of the game illustrations, concept art, interviews, and entire short stories that tremendously develop several characters (most infamously, the transition of OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent [[{{Tsukihime}} Tohno Shiki]] into a vampire assassin) which may or may not involve plotlines from possible sequels. All this, without mentioning the 'Dictionary' sections which expand the {{Canon}} into areas rarely mentioned in the original works. ([[FunctionalMagic Magecraft organizations, hierarchies, and systems]]? {{Alien Invasion}}ders?) One particular volume, ''Character Material'', is comprised almost entirely of completely new characters, characters only mentioned as an aside, or characters which previously were never illustrated.

* ''[[http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon_Age:_The_World_of_Thedas Dragon Age: The World of Thedas]]'', intended as a multi-volume work, is the official universe bible for the ''Franchise/DragonAge'' series.

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* A lot of Creator/SquareEnix games (before and after the merger) can have multiple guides for just one game. Best example would be the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' and ''KingdomHearts'' series: the Ultimanias can almost have the weight of a phone book and are about the size of an average graphic novel released in the US (Japanese tankobon are smaller), filled with strategies, data on items/weapons/monsters, concept sketches of characters and locales, and interviews with key staff and/or voice members.

* A lot of SquareEnix games (before and after the merger) can have multiple guides for just one game. Best example would be the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' and ''KingdomHearts'' series: the Ultimanias can almost have the weight of a phone book and are about the size of an average graphic novel released in the US (Japanese tankobon are smaller), filled with strategies, data on items/weapons/monsters, concept sketches of characters and locales, and interviews with key staff and/or voice members.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' has ''The World of Ice and Fire''

* ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog has ''The Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopedia''. While there are minor flaws, the book is dense with information on various aspects of the series. It's a good way to get up to date with a comic with over 200 issues and several connected series.

* MarvelComics started hiring especially well-known fansite creators to write their compendia on a certain series, bridging the gap between a Universe Compendium and a UniverseConcordance.

* ''Franchise/AdventureTime'' has ''The Adventure Time Encyclopedia'', written in-character by the universe's {{Satan}} figure Hunson Abadeer.

* ''The Literature/{{Discworld}} Companion'' has been around long enough to have had two new and expanded editions.

* MarvelComics started hiring especially well-known fansite creators to write their compendia on a certain series, bringing the game between a Universe Compendium and a UniverseConcordance.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' has ''Hyrule Historia'', which is part a compilation of development info and part a UniverseCompendium, mostly because it discusses the official ''Zelda'' timeline.

* A lot of SquareEnix games (before and after the merger) can have multiple guides for just one game. Best example would be the ''FinalFantasy'' and ''KingdomHearts'' series: the Ultimanias can almost have the weight of a phone book and are about the size of an average graphic novel released in the US (Japanese tankobon are smaller), filled with strategies, data on items/weapons/monsters, concept sketches of characters and locales, and interviews with key staff and/or voice members.

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* ''Literature/{{A Song of Ice and Fire}}'' has ''The World of Ice and Fire''

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* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' SpinOff ''FactionParadox'' has a wildy metafictional version of this sort of book, called ''The Book of the War''.

It is therefore often necessary to distill the bible down to a terser piece, more consistent in style and more limited in scope before officially releasing it to the fans. A UniverseCompendium is a book or series of books which encapsulates much of the information in the UniverseBible, reformatted for consistency, with information added or removed for various reasons: It may go into more detail than the bible in some areas, or omit information that would be considered a {{Spoiler}}.

Depending on the size of the UniverseBible, the compendium may be split into several books, each having considerably narrower scopes. They can include licensed supplements for paper-and-pencil RolePlayingGames, though these just as often qualify as {{Universe Concordance}}s.

Any details in a compendium which have not been established on-screen are subject to revision, and cannot be assumed to be {{Canon}}; though it's still considered bad form for fanfic writers to contradict them. Canon writers get more of a pass because they presumably had [[FiveYearPlan plans]] for the series's future long before the compendium was published, and the compendium authors or may not have consulted with them to avoid contradicting those plans.

Often, once such a book is compiled, writers will begin referring to it rather than the UniverseBible. While the Bible retains primacy, the ad hoc manner in which the Bible is maintained often makes it harder to use.

More common, and more necessary, for SpeculativeFiction shows, since a show with a mundane setting just has to keep track of the protagonists and their situations.

The official counterpart of the UniverseConcordance.

* ''The World of Robert Jordan's ''{{Literature/TheWheelOfTime}}.
* The RailwaySeries had ''The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways'' and later, ''Sodor: Reading Between the Lines,'' which covered the titular island so thoroughly that the actual stories formed a small fraction of the book. Sodor's history, geography, language, economy, industry and even geology were covered to a degree that would make Tolkien envious.

** There is a [[RefugeInAudacity Federation travel guide.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' has ''Elements of Harmony: The Official Guidebook'', a book that covers the whole settings, all the characters, and all the episodes up to the end of Season 3.

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A UniverseBible is something created for the writers and production team of a series or franchise. While many of these have made their way into the public arena, they are really not intended for public consumption. As a result, they often contain much which, like real bibles, is apocryphal, confusing or outright wrong.

* Creator/StephenKing's mythology for ''TheDarkTower'' got so out of hand that, when he sat down to finish the series, he hired someone to write him a "Concordance" summarising all the relevant information. He was so pleased with the end result that he had it published.