Alternate History / Fan Works

• It's not the focus of the story, but there is a Watchmen fanfic where Dr Manhattan is monologuing about various alternate incarnations of himself he is aware of, with one world having a notable divergence in the past, where "It is Mithraism that becomes the driving force of western civilization, and the people of the city we know as New York wear golden bulls around their necks, and it is Christianity that lies forgotten in the dusts of history."
• In Aeon Entelechy Evangelion history starts to diverge in 1930, when the discovery of the Elder Thing City (which causes the USA to drop its Isolationist policy and join the League of Nations) and the prolonged World War II (The War ends in 1946 with the atomic bombing of Berlin by the western allies to deny the Russians).
• Always Advancing has Yukari Akiyama, the loader of Oarai's Panzer IV in Girls und Panzer, wake up in an alternate timeline where her school was never was able to revive its Sensha-do program and subsequently shut down. The story follows her attempting to locate where her old Oarai comrades are while being part of the Sensha-do team at her new school, Saunders.
• The Conversion Bureau: The Other Side of the Spectrum does this to one Equestria (called the Solar Empire or TCB!Equestria). There are often numerous differences mentioned between the (mostly) canon universe and the TCB one, such as genocidal purges of the Changelings and a war with the Crystal Empire. There's also the existence of totem-proles (a surveillance network similar to telescreens) and the genocidal war against humanity. All of which came about because TCB!Lyra Heartstrings decided to go off on a little scuba diving trip with her buddies and uncovered a little Artifact of Doom that turned Celestia into its Brainwashed and Crazy puppet (Prime!Lyra on the other hoof denied the invite to practice for the Canterlot Royal Orchestra tryouts). Whoops.
• Many AARs on the Total War, Civilization and Paradox series inevitably result in alternate histories of varying types.
  • Notable examples include A Scotsman in Egypt and I Am Skantarios.
  • Similarly, although less commonly, games where you can have all sides played by an AI can be used as "random history generators". These tend to be less protagonist-based than AARs stemming from a player nation, but usually a lot wackier, because A.I.s are stupid.
• In All-American Girl (Shinzakura) and Ed, Edd n' Eddy Z, 9/11 never happened. In the former's case, al-Qaeda also never existed.
• Battlefield Gallia is essentially a World War II story that imagines the world of Valkyria Chronicles existing alongside ours. For the Axis, Allies and Soviets, at least, things get weird very quickly.
• Even more than its original series, Code Geass Megiddo is based around the premise that Julius Caesar's invasion of the British Isles was repulsed by the armies of Alwyn, resulting in Britannia's ultimate foundation and the world that followed. And that's before one takes a look at Geass' implementation throughout history, which is very much akin to the Pieces of Eden from Assassin's Creed.
• In The Conversion Bureau: Cold War, a xenocidal Princess makes contact with humanity to announce how she plans to wipe them out... in 1986, to the leaders of the world's most powerful nations.
• In Emperor, a Harry Potter fanfic, history changes when Robert Schuman fails to convince the European governments to work on what would eventually become the European Union, leaving the continent divided, Britain militarized and the threat of war hanging over everyone's heads. Turns out that the failure of Project Manhattan was an even earlier point of divergence.
• The Grey Skies Universe takes place in an alternate timeline where the French fail to assist the Americans in their revolution, so the British Empire wins the American War for Independence, and goes on to cover how things would turn out differently from the perspective of the Hetalian Nations as People.
• The KanColle fic Eternity has a naval portion of WWII go a little differently:
  • Directly inspired by Indestructible Spirit, due to politics the ship that was to become IJN Kongou stayed in England and became HMS Indestructible. Thus Hiei became a lead ship of her own class, and somewhere down the line the Japanese decided that they in fact did need a 4th battlecruiser, so they built it and named her Kongou. Something the shipgirl did not appreciate.
  • Hood was captured instead of sunk, which had driven Churchill into frenzy and directed many efforts to sink her despite the navy's resistance. Attempts to sink her failed, but the British got back at Germans by capturing Bismarck instead. Both survived the war, and after the brief return to their original countries' service they transfered to their "captors'" navies as symbols of European solidarity.
  • And the main Point of Divergence that sets the premise of the fic, is the USS Enterprise damaging IJN Yamato enough in the Kure Raid that she was unable to participate in operation Ten-Go, leading to her capture by the Americans. Years later when Admiral Halsey was unable to get support to retire Enterprise as a museum ship, he made a deal with the General MacArthur: He helps the general in convincing the government to refit Yamato and formally add her into US Navy, and in return the General will help him in convincing the Japanese to buy Enterprise as a precaution against the Communists. They succeed, and Yamato became USS Montana, while Enterprise became JDS Yonaga, whose long service with JMSDF earned the titular nicknane Eien, Eternity.
• In Faded Blue, Steven tells Lapis there are 194 countries- two fewer than in real life. This is because Russia doesn't exist, and Korea never split into two countries.
• In the Gate - Thus the JSDF Fought There fanfiction The Fight we Chose, the titular Gate opens at Dealy Plaza hours before President John F. Kennedy lands at Texas, inadvertently saving him from assassination and continues to lead America during the early 60s. The situation in Vietnam is slowly de-escalated while he pours troops through the Gate to bring the Empire to justice, all while juggling between his re-election campaign and the Civil Rights Movement back home.
• Halloween Unspectacular uses this trope for a lot of stories:
  • "Legendaries" is set in a version of World War II where the Western Allies somehow come into possession of Legendary Pokémon. This allows them to crush the Nazis, invading Berlin by 1944.
  • "Come the Revolution" takes place in a version of 1940s Los Angeles where robots known as Mechans are a sizable minority of the population. Oh, and Thomas Dewey is President.
  • "Lady Liberty" is set in a world based on a game of Civilization, and features the Mongols as Britain's great enemy in Asia. Also, the Statue of Liberty in this world is in Edinburgh, and is actually a transformed Dani.
  • "The Catalyst" is centered around these, giving various different fictional characters the final choice the player has to make in Mass Effect 3.
  • "Hanging Tree" is set in a universe where the American Civil War wasn't fought over slavery, so it's still an active thing in the present.
  • "The Great White Fleet" is set in America in 1902, but airship technology is advanced enough to make them flying fortresses used as standard by the military. Also, William McKinley is still alive and President, and Teddy Roosevelt is Secretary of the Navy.
  • "The Trans-European Express" is set in a universe where the Bonaparte dynasty, the Kaiser, and the Tsar are all still in power. And transhumanism is a common, if repressed, social group.
  • "Sea to Shining Sea" expands on the universe created in "The Trans-European Express". White Star line is still around, transcontinental train lines are still the main form of long distance mass transit in America, and John F Kennedy was an anti-liberal authoritarian (who wasn't assassinated but lost reelection) while Richard Nixon is beloved for being a champion of the Civil Rights movement.
  • "A Sunburnt Country" is set in the same universe that was begun in "The Trans-European Express" and continued in "Sea to Shining Sea". This time it focuses on Australia, which never unified politically and is composed of several nations, the largest of which is a reactionary apartheid state which represses aboriginals and women. Also, it's revealed that all space exploration efforts ceased after the first manned mission to the moon ended with the spacecraft crashing and all but one crew member dying (with the sole survivor being stranded).
• Handmaid's entire premise is based on a reality where the handmaid privilege (a medieval form of surrogacy) exists, allowing Henry VIII to remain married to Katherine of Aragon while allowing Anne Boleyn to bear his legitimate children, causing England to never break away from the Catholic Church. It's also a reality where Anne fell in love with Katherine before she could fall for Henry, changing the dynamics of her relationships with both. While it never goes beyond the sixteenth century, there are several significant changes that would've no doubt radically changed the course of history. As for the fates of Henry's original six wives:
  • Katherine of Aragon, of course, remains his sole wife, and their daughter Mary (Mary I, or "Bloody Mary") remains legitimate and later marries the Philip, Duke of Bavaria. She eventually dies around the same time as Henry.
  • Anne Boleyn becomes Henry's handmaid. As they start coupling earlier, Anne first gives birth to a daughter named Cecily, before giving birth to Elizabeth (Elizabeth I) and Elizabeth's twin Edmund, Henry's long-awaited son and legitimate heir. A few years later, she also gives birth to a second son, named Owen. Having succeeded in her goal, Anne is created as Princess Consort (essentially, Henry's second wife) and remains with Henry and Katherine until their deaths in the 1550s. The loss of both her romantic partners in quick succession devastates her, and she dies only a year or so after they do.
  • Jane Seymour does become Henry's mistress for a brief time and falls pregnant with Edward (Edward VI). However, Anne's lack of jealousy over their relationship causes Jane to become pregnant with Edward earlier, prompting her brother Thomas to try and kill Anne so Jane can replace her. After Jane accidentally confesses that she knew about what Thomas did before his arrest but kept silent about it, she herself is arrested, charged with treason, and executed a few days after giving birth to Edward.
  • Anne of Cleves never goes to England, instead marrying the Duke of Lorraine and giving birth to his son. She eventually befriends Mary Tudor during one of her many visits to Cleves, going as far as to help her out with Mary's first pregnancy.
  • Katherine Howard is taken on as one of Anne's ladies-in-waiting before she can join the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk's household in Lambeth. Thus, she has no sexual scandals and is completely free to marry Thomas Culpeper when they meet and fall in love. Later on, she and her husband join Cecily's household as her senior lady-in-waiting and master of horse, respectively, when the latter departs for Spain to marry Philip (Philip II).
  • Katherine Parr never marries any of her historical husbands, electing to go to court instead and become one of Anne's companions. There, she meets Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey, falling in love and marrying him instead. Their marriage tempers him, and the two become Duke and Duchess of Norfolk after the death of Thomas Howard.
• The Hogwarts Exposed Timeline on AlternateHistory.com posits the impact of the events of the Harry Potter books happening in our world... and exposed to the public in the late 1990s.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers has a good deal of alternate histories and universes within its collective. One notable, though dark, example is All He Ever Wanted
  • The 1983: Doomsday Stories is a Broad Strokes Alternate Universe crossover series between Hetalia: Axis Powers and 1983: Doomsday, history diverging in 1983 when the Cold War turned into a catastrophic nuclear hell. The stories are told entirely through the eyes of the Nations themselves, more specifically those around what had been Central Europe.
  • This is Justice, Blind Carbon Copy, and Grey Skies Over London involve timelines where America lost the revolution against England. Most similarities end there though, as they each take completely different paths after that point.
  • A Castle of Silence and Bones takes place in world where the Axis Powers not only won World War II but had also taken over much of the planet at gunpoint. Things get much worse from there.
  • Monarchy Over The Danube involves a timeline where the Habsburgs return to Austria in 1935, resulting in a reborn Austria-Hungary and a changed world.
• In i'm giving you a nightcall, As a Post-Conqueror of Shamballa verse, this is to be expected. In that story the first Edward and Alphonse Elric were prominent figures in the Second World War and defused the tension of the Cold War and implied to have had a hand in the creation of their world’s Amestris.
• In The Geeky Zoologist's reimagining of Jurassic World, there is a minor example. In the universe of this fic, Rolando Araya Monge became president of Costa Rica instead of Abel Pacheco and attended the inauguration of Jurassic World.
• Khan Victorious is a a Star Trek timeline that explores a universe where Khan Noonien Singh and the Augument’s were able to win the Eugenics Wars, through the use of a last ditch tactic which ensured their victory: engineering a genetic virus, known as the Ascension Flu, which results in any future children born infected with the virus to be born as Auguments. From there it explores the consequences of that change upon the Star Trek universe.
• In The Last War by Jan Niemczyk, the democracy movements east of the Iron Curtain are crushed by the USSR and loyalist forces. A renewed Cold War simmers on until April, 2005 when it finally boils over. There are no battlefield nukes any more, so World War III does not go nuclear in the first hour after the bullets and pretty much everything else start flying.
• Masako X's Dragon Ball What If? series explores various possible alternate timelines to Dragon Ball, such as 'what if Goku and Bulma never met', 'what if Future Trunks was trapped in the past', 'what if Goku was a woman', and 'what if this character turned good' (Raditz, Nappa, Broly, Freeza, Goku Black, the Ginyu Force, Babidi, Turles, Cooler and Cell have all gotten this treatment).
• Pacific: World War II U.S. Navy Shipgirls has The Korean War begin and end differently, namely the US Seventh Fleet being wiped out at the beginning thanks to an Alien Invasion. Additionally, it has France secede from NATO in the 1960s, as well as a more militaristic (and less economically successful) Japan, and finally a less influential United States.
• Pokéumans claims that the original Neanderthal humans lived alongside creatures that we would recognise today as Pokemon, until they started abusing their privilege and companions. This one could have actually happened, though - eventually the Legendaries undid everything they taught humanity and all evidence of their existence before leaving for a different dimension. This then has repercussions in the modern day - BIG repercussions.
• The PreDespair Kids, in addition to being an Alternate Universe for Danganronpa, has quite a few historical deviations from our own. Hope's Peak Academy was founded back in 1937, Toranosuke Ishimaru served as the 46th prime minister of Japan instead of Noboru Takeshita, and the Towa Group and Togami Corporation managed to save Japan from experiencing the economic downturn in the 1990's, leading to the country becoming a much more important player in world politics. However, some things remain consistent between worlds, such as Brexit and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Elections.
• The Savage Seas, by the same author as A Thing of Vikings, is a How to Train Your Dragon fanfic set in a fantastic version of the Age of Sail.
• The Son of the Emperor is basically what happens when you combine The Napoleonic Wars with My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Historical hijinks and world-changing events ensue.
• Strike Witches Quest has said witches exist in history with minor effects with major ones occurring as a Martian invasion hits at the same time as Pearl Harbor, resulting in the countries of the world uniting to fight back. One of the side effects of the invasion is most of the nefarious leaders/powers are removed either by the Martians or by others taking advantage of the situation.
• Tarkin's Fist: The Star Wars films were never made in this world. So no one on Earth knows what a Jedi is or what the Empire is about when they appear. Otherwise history occurs as it did in real life before diverging in the late 2010's. This is due to the fact that, as a consequence of being first written in 2009, many of the events predicted to have come to pass in the backstory have not occurred or are unlikely to occur.
  • In the world of Tarkin's Fist Korea reunified in late 2020.

  • The Union of South American Nations developed into an important player on the international political scene thanks to oil money, whereas in real life the organization never evolved beyond a weak economic and political union before most of its members withdrew.

  • China was able to take control of Taiwan at some point in the 2010s.

  • A North American Union is formed by the mid 2020's.

  • Self Driving cars are said to have entered widespread use after legislation passed in 2019.
• A Thing of Vikings takes the first How To Train Your Dragon film and drops it, anachronisms and all, into Real Life History in the AD 1040s as the point of Divergence, with the worldbuilding essentially being designed around dragons having existed but not having an impact on world history until Hiccup tamed them and brought the dragons of the Green Death's nest into his tribe. Now, in 1041 AD, where the height of military technology on the planet is Greek Fire, a small Norse tribe in the British Isles has a fire-breathing air force. Hijinks ensue.
• TITANOMACH sees the world take a very different turn after WWII, with America, the Soviet Union and China choosing to form a non-aggression pact to focus on bringing the rest of the world under their direct control. This pact (the Triumvirate) remains standing several decades later, when the Traveler arrives over Mars.
• The Uplifted series are about what happens when the Quarians decide to uplift Humanity in order to bring an end to their exile and retake Rannoch. Unfortunately, Russia in 1942 might not have been the best place for first contact. In the second part of the story, the Quarians begin to collaborate with the Junkers in order to bring down Hitler's government. Also features a love story between a Quarian and an SS officer. It's rated M for a reason, the author is not shy about showing just how racist the average person was back then, or any of the other nastiness of that war.