Tropes and settings that are not of our Earth.
For tropes about Earth, see This Index Earth.
Tropes:
Subcategories:
- Agri World: A world dedicated primarily or entirely to agriculture.
- Alien Landmass: Using unusual or exotic landscapes to signify that the setting is alien and unlike the mundane world.
- Alien Sea: Making the ocean strangely colored or otherwise weird to signify that the setting is alien and unlike the mundane world.
- Alien Sky: Using a weird or exotic sky to signify that the setting is alien and unlike the mundane world.
- All Planets Are Earth-Like: The climate, habitability and other details of every world you come across are conveniently like good ol' Terra's.
- Alternate History: A world fundamentally like ours, but whose history took some weird turns.
- Alternate Tooniverse: A parallel dimension where everything's a cartoon.
- Balkanize Me: Alternate history where large real-life nations fragment into lots of smaller ones.
- Bazaar of the Bizarre: A marketplace where you can buy weird, magical or just very exotic stuff.
- Beneath the Earth: Large, far-reaching cavern systems extending beneath other settings.
- Binary Suns: There are two suns in the sky.
- Bizarro Universe: A parallel dimension where everything is weird.
- Brown Note Being: An entity whose mere presence is enough to harm others.
- Colonized Solar System: After humanity leaves Earth, it builds homes on Mars, Venus, the Moon, Jupiter and the rest.
- Constructed World: A setting ideated and designed by a story's writer.
- Crystal Landscape: A setting made of or filled with crystals, gemstones and jewels.
- Cyberspace: The Internet as an alternate dimension.
- Dark World: A world that serves as a ruined or pessimistic parody of another.
- Daydream Believer: Someone believes their daydreams are the world's objective truth.
- Departure Means Death: Someone cannot leave a certain area or they will die.
- Different World, Different Movies: When you go to a parallel dimension, famous media will be subtly, glaringly or comically different.
- Dimensional Traveler: Someone who journeys from alternate dimension to alternate dimension.
- Dream Land: Dreams as an alternate dimension.
- Dream People: Self-aware beings who live in other people's dreams.
- A Dungeon Is You: Someone becomes the Genius Loci of a complex, probably underground, building full of monsters.
- The Earth-Prime Theory: In the multiverse, one universe existed first, is at the center, or is a keystone for the existence of all the others.
- Easily Conquered World: A world that is very easily taken over by the bad guys.
- Elseworld: Already-established characters are put into a different continuity.
- Expendable Alternate Universe: Universes besides the story's primary one can be ruined or destroyed with little fuss.
- Extradimensional Emergency Exit: A character avoids a crisis by escaping into another dimension.
- Extradimensional Shortcut: Going faster than light by popping over into a dimension where that's a thing you can do.
- Fantasy Americana: The wilderness of North America as a fantasy setting.
- Fictional Earth: It's got one sun, one Moon, the same weather and climate and flora and fauna, it's probably still called Earth, but it's a different world.
- Final Boss, New Dimension: The final Boss Battle is in another dimension.
- Gender-Bent Alternate Universe: An alternate dimension where everyone's sexes and/or genders are switched around.
- Genius Loci: A place that's also a person.
- Grim Up North: The northern lands of fantasy settings — expect cold, barbarism, and lots of dangerous monsters.
- Heavenly Concentric Circles: Heavenly planes or beings are depicted as concentric circles in the sky.
- Hellgate: A gate that leads to Hell.
- Hollow World: A world inside of a world that has its own inhabitants.
- Inexplicable Cultural Ties: The natives of distant planets develop suspicious similarities to Earth's own cultures.
- Inn Between the Worlds: A pub, inn, bar or other watering hole that serves as a travel hub between dimensions.
- Interdimensional Travel Device: A gadget that lets you travel between universes.
- In the Doldrums: A place that is actively dull, featureless and dead, and takes steps to keep itself that way.
- Intrepid Fictioneer: A character who travels into in-universe fictional settings.
- Land of Faerie: A magic-filled dimension where the fairies live.
- Layered World: A world built in layers, which are either metaphorically above and below one another or physically so.
- Level Ate: A place made out of food.
- A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away...: An interplanetary setting far removed from Earth and humanity as we know it.
- Lost World: A place somehow isolated from the wider world, where unusual things and creatures or ones from the past still exist.
- Mage in Manhattan: A villain from a Magical Land comes to our world to cause havoc.
- Magical Land: A fantasy world with magic that is accessible from the "real" world.
- Media Transmigration: A character's soul is transferred from their current body into that of a fictional character.
- Merged Reality: Two or more timelines/dimensions/realities are merged into one.
- The Metaverse: An internet-like system represented as a place where people can walk around like in the physical world.
- Mirror Universe: An alternate dimension where the good guys are bad and the bad guys are good.
- Modern Mayincatec Empire: A mesoamerican nation, or one inspired by mesoamerican culture, existing in a present-day or future setting.
- Multicultural Alien Planet: An alien planet home to multiple independent cultures and/or nations.
- Multipurpose Monocultured Crop: A single farmed crop that can be used for everything.
- The Multiverse: Many universes existing alongside each other. Travel between them may be possible.
- Mushroom House: Houses built within giant mushrooms.
- Mutually Fictional: The natives of two different dimensions/universes know of each other as characters from works of fiction.
- Never Was This Universe: An alternate history without a specific point of divergence from real life.
- New Life in Another World Bonus: If you end up trapped in another world, you also get skills or powers to go with your new life.
- Platonic Cave: The world is not as it seems, and a deception keeps you from seeing it.
- A Planet Named Zok: Alien planets' names tend to be heavy on the z's, x's, k's and the like.
- Planet of Copyhats: A planetary race with very specific, similar traits.
- Planet of Hats: A planetary race defined by a specific quirk, habit or value.
- Planetville: Planets are treated as culturally uniform throughout — essentially like big towns or cities.
- Portal Pool: A pool that serves as a portal between places or universes.
- Post-Soviet Reunion: Russia reunites with post-Soviet states into an alliance, supranational union or superstate.
- Psychological Torment Zone: A location that preys upon your deepest, darkest fears and secrets.
- Real-World Episode: Fictional characters visit the real world.
- Recursive Reality: Reality exists infinitely within itself.
- Refugee from TV Land: Fictional characters escape to or become trapped in the real world.
- Reincarnate in Another World: You die, and are reborn in another universe.
- Retro Universe: An alternate universe where retro, vintage or antiquated technology, styles and aesthetics are still used.
- Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman: A historical figure who, in an alternate universe or history, holds a vastly different job.
- The Savage South: The distant south of pulp or fantasy settings. Expect jungles, stifling humidity, hostile wildlife and hostile natives.
- Save Both Worlds: Protagonists who need to save Another Dimension find their original one endangered as well.
- Sealed Evil in Another World: Where the Big Bad was banished to a different world in order to keep this one safe from them.
- The Series Has Left Reality: A previously more grounded or realistic series gains more fanciful elements as it goes on.
- Single-Biome Planet: A planet improbably covered in a single biome — all swamp, all desert, all rainforest, all constantly-erupting volcanoes, etc.
- Space-Filling Empire: Alternate history where one or a few sprawling nations cover most of the world.
- Space Romans: Aliens who behave like Ancient Rome at its imperial, militaristic height.
- Speculative Fiction LGBT: Fantasy and science fiction with a heavy emphasis on LGBT themes.
- Sudden Lack of Signal: When you find yourself somewhere weird, you will also find yourself without wi-fi or phone reception.
- Thin Dimensional Barrier: Location where whatever keeps dimensions separate can be easily passed through.
- Tidally Locked Planet: A natural satellite that has one side always facing the body it orbits and the other always facing away.
- The Time of Myths: The often-vague period in the ancient past when gods, heroes and monsters walked, often with little emphasis on hard chronology.
- Toon Town: A place where cartoon characters live in an otherwise normal world.
- Trapped in Another World: Characters from one world are left stranded in another.
- Trapped in TV Land: Characters are left stranded in an in-universe work of fiction.
- United Europe: Europe unites under a single government that supersedes or supplants the traditional national governments.
- Up the Real Rabbit Hole: Fantasy worlds and their inhabitants are of no consequence because they're not really "real".
- Vision Quest: A character goes on a spiritual journey of self-discovery.
- Weird West: The Wild West with supernatural elements.
- Weird World, Weird Food: A strange world is established as being strange thanks to the food it contains.
- Where the Magic Went: There's no longer magic in our world, 'cause it left for a different world.
- Win to Exit: Characters trapped in a virtual reality must win a game to exit it.
- The World as Myth: All fictional universes are real and accessible to one another and the real world.
- Worldbuilding: The process of filling out and expanding a fictional world's lore and setting.
- World Pillars: A world, or a part of it, held up by literal pillars.
- World Shapes: Worlds with unusual shapes — flat, cubical, ring-shaped, etc.
- World Sundering: A world is physically broken into pieces.
- World Tree: A tree that holds up one or more worlds.
- Your Magic's No Good Here: Traveling to an alternate dimension/reality/universe causes a person's special abilities (magic, super powers, etc.) to work differently.
- Zeppelins from Another World: How to show that a work takes place in another universe or an alternate history? Put zeppelins everywhere.
