History Main / FictionalDocument

** The first book, ''Literature/TheWayOfKings'', is named after one of the oldest surviving books, written by an ancient king named Nohadon. It is a set of parables, documenting a journey Nohadon went on alone, each teaching or exploring a lesson about what it means to rule. The book also inspired much of the philosophy of the now also ancient Knights Radiant. It's lessons are more or less ignored in modern Alethkar, both due to it's association with the now disgraced and fallen orders of Knights, as well as for containing lessons like "[[AristocratsAreEvil nobles should act responsibly]]" and "[[BloodKnight fighting isn't always the best solution]]."

* In the "new" 1985 at the end of ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', George has become an author who just published ''A Match Made in Space'', obviously directly inspired by his encounter with "Darth Vader, of the planet Vulcan" back in 1955.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* The hugely popular epic poem (and later play) LOVELESS is frequently quoted by Genesis in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII VideoGame/CrisisCore''. What we hear of the plot is that it's about two young men, in love with the same woman, who go to war and end up on opposite sides. And after that? Well, the last chapter of the poem is missing, so nobody's sure. [[StylisticSuck And Genesis is the only named character who doesn't think it's a trainwreck.]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/HotelDuskRoom215'' has a subplot involving writer Martin Summers. His first, most famous novel is called "The Secret Word" and the story behind this...story is the driving factor to his role in the greater scheme of the plot.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''Webcomic/UnwindersTallComics'' are ''loaded'' with fictional books. Unwinder is a fan of the ''After Dark'' series, a series of [[Literature/{{Twilight}} romance novels involving zombies who are actually super-attractive athletes who can also fly,]] as well as the remarkably dull sci-fi {{doorstopper}}s of Gary P. Rastov. Excerpts from all of these are provided, of course.\\

* ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'': Several romantic novels the girls read get mentioned occasionally, the most prominent being The Devilish Count, owing to the eponymous count being frequently compared to Nicol.

'''Lister:''' Well...no.\\

-->-- ''Series/RedDwarf'', "Quarantine"

* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', Dream's castle includes a library of books that were never written.
* The Franchise/DCUniverse features "true crime" comics of Franchise/{{Superman}}, Franchise/{{Batman}}, Franchise/WonderWoman, etc.'s adventures, presumably taken from media accounts, etc.; one late 60s Batman story made use of this as its plot (Batman forced to confront the writer of his world's "Batman" comic).
* Franchise/{{Superman}} of course features the great metropolitan newspaper ''The Daily Planet.''
** As does ComicBook/LoisLane, who also had a novel published.

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation:

[[folder:Film]]

* When medieval poet Wolfram von Eschenbach wrote ''Parzival'', a German retelling and continuation of Creator/ChretienDeTroyes' ''Perceval'', he answered criticism of discrepancies between his version and Chrétien's earlier ones by claiming he was being faithful to the original account by one "Kyot the Provencal", whom he alleged to have been Chrétien's source as well.

* ''VideoGame/QuestForGlory'' uses the correspondence courses from Famous Adventurer's Correspondence School as supplements to the manual for each game until the 5th game, which features Famous Adventurer himself as an NPC who helps the player with some of the Rites of Rulership.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' has a few books mentioned in the game. Most notably one called ''In the Darkness of Shadow Moses'', a novelization of the events of the first game which is available to read on the main menu of ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty MGS2]]''.

* Also from {{Creator/Bethesda}}, the Wasteland Survival Guide in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', the quality of which depends on how much work you put into it, including none at all!
* ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland2LeChucksRevenge'' has an entire library of fictional documents, mostly comprised of various jokes, in-jokes, and parodies.
* The ''Emigre Document'' of ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'', seemingly based on the untranslatable ''Voynich Manuscript'' carries in it all manner of [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique dangerous knowlege]] including resurrection. That part always fails in the most catastrophic ways possible, usually summoning soulless abominations from your loved ones corpse to devour them and you as well. [[spoiler:Except for two recorded times. And in the first example, the corpse couldn't take the stress and dissolved before the process finished.]]
** If that is not Lovecraftian enough, also available is the ''R'lyeh Text'', translated as ''Codex of Lurie'', which you find in a nudie mag.
* In the vein of plot-important fake books is ''In-Laqetti'', of ''VideoGame/{{Persona 2}}'' fame. A composition of [[SoYouWantTo/WriteAConspiracyTheory patchwork conspiracy]] including aliens, Mayans, and [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Master-D himself]], which would apparently cause the [[EarthShatteringKaboom world to go bye-de-bye]]. Thanks to a bit of [[WordsCanBreakMyBones kotodama]] and extreme Wikiality, things start coming true.

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' is full of these. Some provide plot-relevant information ("The History of the Dead Three") other just notes on the setting. One is a recipe for cookies.
** Its ''Franchise/DragonAge'' [[SpiritualSuccessor spiritual successors]] are full of fictional documents - books with notes on the setting, silly poetry, letters between characters, and [[VideoGame/DragonAgeII Varric's]] schlocky novels (Hawke: "'Hard in Hightown.' 'Siege Harder.' What does that even MEAN? Ohh, Varric must be stopped.") Particularly prevalent is Anders's Manifesto, which the rebel mage appears to have stuffed in every book on Hawke's shelf, left on every table, and dropped in the fireplace. (Some fans have even attempted a {{Defictionalization}} of it.)
* In ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil'', Jade's sidekick Double H quotes passages frequently from the the 'Carlson & Peeters' military manual, a BigBookOfWar. While the player eventually does see a section of the book in digital form, most of what we know about the book is from Double H offering advice from the book as quoted passages: "If you can't go through a door, go around it!". Perhaps one of the few fictional documents which also serves as inspiration for someone's BattleCry.
-->'''Double H:''' CAARRRLSONNN AAAND PEEETERRRRS! [[DropTheHammer -Whack!-]]
* The Books of Chzo, which includes The Book of The Bridge, the Book of The New Prince, The Book of Victims, and the Book of The Prince. These Books are shown in pieces throughout the VideoGame/ChzoMythos in order to flesh out most of the back-story and themes of the series.
* Many of the techs and secret projects in ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' use quotes from fictional books ostensibly written by the various faction leaders, although a few quotes are from RealLife works. They are also used to introduce each faction when first selecting them. This is continued in the ''Alien Crossfire'' ExpansionPack with the 5 new human and 2 alien factions (yes, aliens write and read books too).
-->Our first challenge is to create an entire economic infrastructure, from top to bottom, out of whole cloth. No gradual evolution from previous economic systems is possible, because there is no previous economic system. Each interdependent piece must be materialized simultaneously and in perfect working order; otherwise the system will crash out before it ever gets off the ground.
--->CEO Nwabudike Morgan, "The Centauri Monopoly"

* ''VideoGame/TheTalosPrinciple'': Dozens of them on the various computer terminals, to help the AI learn who its makers were and what happened to them, as well as possibly inspire it to make something great based on one or more of them. The most prominent one, of course, is the origin of the Talos Principle itself, supposedly posited by a Greek philosopher named Straton of Stageira.

* Although not many appear in the game itself, information about a few characters from ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' is taken as extracts from in-universe documents, such as Cecil B. Heimerdinger's daily journals or a Zaunite field report of an attempt to track down Twitch (it doesn't go well). The player can also build an item called the Morellomnicon, a book literally crackling with magical energy.

** Wiki/TheOtherWiki has a rather extensive list of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu_Mythos_arcane_literature Cthulhu Mythos arcane literature]], most of which falls under this trope. ''The Book of Eibon'', ''Unaussprechlichen Kulten'', and ''De Vermis Mysteriis'' are mentioned nearly as often as ''The Necronomicon''.

** Marvel Comics in the Marve Universe are more or less accurate re-tellings of character's adventures with names changed to protect secret identities. In ComicBook/SheHulk, it is explained that the comics code is in charge of making sure they are factually accurate and "approving" comics that can be used as legal accounts of events.

* Pretty much all of the 11 backup features in ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', in addition to the comic book ''Tales from the Black Freighter''. The comic contains these documents for real in the sense of containing their actual texts and illustrations. (This does mean ''Under the Hood'' is a very short book, even though it sounds credible enough when you read it.)

* The hugely popular novel (and later play) LOVELESS is frequently quoted by Genesis in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII VideoGame/CrisisCore'', It's apparently very moving, but we never find out what the novel is actually about.

* In the world of ''[[Film/{{Beetlejuice}} Beetlejuice]]'', every new dead person is assigned a copy of the ''Handbook for the Recently Deceased''. It apparently reads like stereo instructions.

* The Sunken Scrolls in the ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' series are a set of miscellaneous documents and fragments that can be found scattered throughout the Octarian domes, most of which contain bits of information regarding [[StoryBreadcrumbs the games' backstory and lore]]. The contents of the scrolls vary widely, and include newspaper clippings, historical photographs, [[FictionalPainting paintings]], schematics of Octarian technology, sheet music, propaganda and recruitment posters, ''Hyakunin Isshu'' cards, [[SacredScripture religious texts]], and much, much more.

* ''Webcomic/TheLegendOfGenji'' has ''[=BenderTeen=]'', a popular gossip magazine aimed at teenagers that regularly prints exclusive interviews with the false Avatar Luan.

* {{Superman}} of course features the great metropolitan newspaper ''The Daily Planet.''