Wikipedia talk:Locations in fiction, fictional locations, and settings

Beware sci fi addicts
Are you sure that people will make any difference between categories like "Fictional planets" and "Planets in fiction" ? They quite look the same and if I had to care I should refer to a FAQ all the time.

Now "Real planets in fiction" might help. --DLL 23:36, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
 * The test would be simple, and the article/list/category will be very specific. The Planet in fiction must have been discovered by a scientist on real Earth and should be found either in a non-fiction article here or elsewhere, and the artcile has to be verifiable. Planets in fiction will probably not be populated, meaning uncreated, for a while. I think that Alpha Centauri(sp) is the closest star, and I don't think that plenets have been discovered yet. There are only 9 planets that we know for certain, those in the Solar System. &#151;Lady Aleena talk / contribs 03:13, 16 June 2006 (UTC)


 * While there may not be absolute certainty that extrasolar planets exist, there is substantial evidence that they do. See the JPL website on the topic.


 * The planet or star system used in fiction is likely not to have the properties of the real planet or system. A book that has London as one of its locations may have the characters doing things in or around famous places like Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, that is, the story will actually be taking place in London. Fiction using a planet, etc., on the other hand, will have to invent the whole place, the atmosphere, vegetation, aliens, etc. The planet used in fiction may only have the same name, or the same color star. It is not the same place. —Centrx→talk &bull; 03:39, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Mars and Venus have been considered inhabitable at some point, though we now know different, and have been used as places with people walking the surfaces of those worlds as they do Earth. Though references may be highly fictionalized, that doesn't mean that they aren't used. The use of a real known planet in fiction does not denote accuracy of the true nature of the planet. &#151;Lady Aleena talk / contribs 20:40, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

It looks really good, nice work Aleena. -Quiddity 04:19, 22 June 2006 (UTC)


 * I agree that adding 'real' to the above types would prevent any confusion. I like the standarization of article's names and categories - this looks good. A question: if this would become a policy, would it result in a) renaming of some current articles b) merge/deletion of some current articles? If so, can we have any examples? Are any of those controversial (i.e. proposed now on in the past, and not carried through on individual basis)?--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 15:21, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Actually, what will happen is the "real" articles will be based on the name of the location. Deneb is a good example of how a real place in fiction should be handled. Start off with the place and add an In fiction section. Once that section gets to approximately 10 items, make a separate article out of it. So if Deneb gets to 10 or so items, create Deneb in fiction. I don't know if any planets have ever been found around Deneb, so all references to planets will go under the star instead of their own articles, UNLESS the planet gets 25 or so entries on its own. The Deneb in fiction article would contain a section on similarities between the various fiction works amongst other things, and then the list of references. As the article grows and the list gets longer, there may be a time when References of Deneb in fiction may need to be created. The "real" locations main articles will explicitly state their nature in the first sentence instead of bogging down the title. Sound good? &#151;Lady Aleena talk / contribs 18:03, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Articles, lists, and categories
A "To do" list of sorts. Add when you find other articles, lists, and categories which may need a name change. - LA @ 17:53, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Merges
Planets in science fiction and Fantasy world to become Fictional planets

Renames
Fictional universe to Fictional setting

Alternate history query
I've stopped by a couple times since your invite. Want to echo the kudo's from Quiddity. What is your 'expert answer' on things like alternate timelines in your scheme. All the Assiti Shards series novels now in the pipeline (Four universes published by this time next year) technically create a parallel universe or an alternate Earth timeline'' 'neohistory'.  Seems to me there is (or was) a Time lines'' oriented category. Would you class an alternate history assuming a time travel (past setting) in Real world, or Fictional... could go either way. But that particular sub-genre of SF is really growing rapidly, so would also be good to spell it out. Hope we'll see you in WPP:series now and then! Best regards. // Fra nkB 05:35, 16 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Just wanted to add this cat needs incorporated into your system: Category: Alternate history timelines which we'd had listed as a possible cat on the sub-project organization sections on talk:1632 series. Such series pages should carry same for Alt history series. I'll make sure we cover that in WPP:series currently being revived.


 * I searched for the three title words, and get no hit. Submit any pipetricked names merely echo the category name as a policy in your table of organization. (i.e. renaming a no-no since Searching into edit windows can be problematic on long pages, hence 'fidelity' to the real cats is essential, imho.) Best! // Fra nkB 19:38, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Answer
This proposal only covers the location, not what is happening nor its current state in the fictional work. So if London is occupied by Germany in 2006 in a book, the book may still be mentioned in the London article (or sub article). If Earth is just a floating piece of space debris in a film, it would still get mentioned in the Earth article (or sub article).

If a character is transported to an alternate dimension, they are still within our universe, so where ever the character is in that alternate dimension, the character is still here. The same holds true for alternate realities/history.

To have a completely new universe listing which is fictional, the creator of the work must explicitly state that the action is taking place outside of our universe. Now, one fictional universe that may work in this framework is the one created by the Spelljammer setting for Dungeons & Dragons. There are whole new rules about getting from planetary system to planetary system. What would not fit is the Dune universe, which is still here, but in the future, so Dune universe should be renamed Dune setting. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen still happens on Earth, so would be listed on Earth as well.

I hope that clears things up for everyone. &#151;Lady Aleena talk / contribs 06:31, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

What happened to...
The list and article about fictional cities? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Maxmordon (talk • contribs).
 * See Articles for deletion/List of fictional cities. —Quiddity 20:11, 12 January 2007 (UTC)