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3%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Take care to put your example in its proper place in accordance with Administrivia/HowToAlphabetizeThings!
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6
7[[quoteright:348:[[ComicBook/{{Superboy}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/even_a_woman_9.png]]]]
8[[caption-width-right:347:The criminal and the ape-thing, OK. ''[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking But a]] [[RuleSixtyThree woman]]?!'' That's just crazy.]]
9
10->''"Penny, while I subscribe to the many worlds theory which posits the existence of an infinite number of Sheldons in an infinite number of universes, I assure you in none of them am I dancing."''
11-->-- '''Sheldon Cooper''', ''Series/TheBigBangTheory''
12
13A story in which the characters we know are seen in a reality that's somehow different, often disturbingly so. If they can access ''multiple'' alternative universes at the same time, that's TheMultiverse.
14
15Sometimes everyone has an EvilTwin. Other times, everyone has a twin that's just a little different. Allows the goodies to be baddies for an episode, or for half of the cast to be killed -- but [[ExpendableAlternateUniverse not really]]. Sometimes it's just part of SideStoryBonusArt.
16
17Given a long enough run, any series based on superhero [[ComicBookTropes comic books]] will [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome run into these]].
18
19If the writers ''want'' to depict an Alternate Universe, but the show's genre would not usually allow an Alternate Universe ''per se'', the depiction may be accomplished via an extended DreamSequence.
20
21This trope is not to be confused with the following:
22* AlternateContinuity -- The meta version, where a set of works is declared to take place in different universes (or, more specifically, different ''{{Canon}}s'').
23* AlternateRealityEpisode -- Asking and exploring a ''[[WhatIf What If X and Y happened differently?]]'' question.
24* AlternateUniverseFic -- Pretty much the same as above but for fanfics. Here at Website/TVTropes we use slightly different terminology, hence "universe" instead of "reality".
25* AnotherDimension -- Technically directions, such as left/right, up/down, and forward/backward. Some people say past/future, or time, is another one. Some also say the direction perpendicular to past/future is to different universes, hence over time "dimension" has become synonymous with "universe".
26* ConstructedWorld -- It's not Earth. Simple, right?
27
28May be meta-caused by aforementioned AlternateContinuity; as well as by any of the three varieties of Discontinuity (CanonDiscontinuity, FanonDiscontinuity, or NegativeContinuity).
29
30Specific variations:
31[[index]]
32* AlternateHistory -- Some major event in the past changed, like the UsefulNotes/RussianRevolution never occurring.
33* AlternateTimeline -- This alternate reality is reached by rewriting history. Different from AlternateUniverse the same way using a new piece of paper is different from using an eraser or correction fluid.
34** AlternateTimelineAncestry
35** FakeBetterAlternateTimeline
36* AlternateTooniverse -- An animated counterpart to reality.
37* BizarroUniverse -- A lot of things in that world are reversed from the usual context, good is evil or vice versa, etc.
38* CrossoverAlternateUniverse -- A universe that is created for a crossover.
39* DarkWorld -- Our world's dark, sinister opposite.
40* {{Elseworld}} -- Famous characters are placed into a situation which is potentially wildly different from the norm.
41* GenderBentAlternateUniverse -- Males and females are reversed.
42* ItsAWonderfulPlot -- You get to see how the world would have turned out if you were never born/existed.
43* MergedReality -- A universe where two or more universes are combined together into one.
44* MirrorUniverse -- Often a subset of BizarroUniverse, Good and Evil are reversed, but otherwise most of the things are the same.
45* TheMultiverse -- The people involved have the capacity to cross over to more than one additional universe.
46* PointOfDivergence -- One small change caused a huge difference between the universes.
47** InSpiteOfANail -- Tiny changes have made the world almost the same, but the differences are critical (or wildly different, but the characters are still the same and still together).
48* PrimeTimeline -- The original timeline, the one all these alternates are an alternate ''to''.
49* RetroUniverse -- The universe obviously resembles the past, and may or may not include additional fantastic elements.
50* RoleSwapAU -- A universe where some or all of the main characters are the same, but they've rearranged their roles. Often seen in superhero stories, with the same group of characters but the powers, alter egos and origin stories rearranged.
51* ShortScreentimeForReality -- The alternate universe is incredibly vast and exciting compared to our own limited, ordinary universe.
52[[/index]]
53
54Another type of Alternate Universe is that which doesn't take any of the characters, but instead takes concepts, or machines. Such Alternate Universes are uncommon, but exist. ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' is the perfect example, with no less than ''ten'' separate universes, all of them rehashing essentially the same plots and concepts -- in particular, the conflict between those living in space and those living on Earth. With [[HumongousMecha giant robots.]]
55
56This trope is a common excuse for game masters to use when importing player characters from one [[TabletopGames tabletop role-playing campaign]] to another.
57
58Compare with {{Masquerade}}, where a world might look the same, but [[TheConspiracy something hidden]] makes it different. See DoppelgangerGetsSameSentiment for examples wherein someone from one universe projects their feelings for their version onto a different universe's version.
59----
60!!Example Subpages:
61[[index]]
62* AlternateUniverse/ComicBooks
63** ''AlternateUniverse/TheDCU''
64*** ''AlternateUniverse/TheMultiversity''
65** ''AlternateUniverse/MarvelUniverse''
66* AlternateUniverse/FanWorks
67* AlternateUniverse/LiveActionTV
68* AlternateUniverse/VideoGames
69[[/index]]
70
71!!Other Examples:
72[[foldercontrol]]
73[[folder:Alternate Reality Game]]
74* ''ARG/CrystoreInc.'' revolves around the titular company and its iterations across the [[ColourCodedForYourConvenience Red, Green, and Blue]] Bridges, alternate universes designated by the colour of their Golden Gate Bridge.
75[[/folder]]
76
77[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
78* ''Manga/{{Bakegyamon}}'': The game is held in a kind of mirror world where the kids are able to summon monsters, and the game master can float around.
79* In the Creator/KyotoAnimation adaptation of [[Creator/KeyVisualArts Key's]] VisualNovel ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'', Tomoyo's arc, which was never completed properly, was showcased in an AU OVA entitled ''Another World: Tomoyo Arc'', where Tomoya never met Nagisa and Tomoyo is the winning girl.
80** In July 2009, they released the final DVD of ''Clannad: ~After Story~'' that contains an extra OVA episode entitled ''Another World: Kyou Arc''. Kyou finally gets her arc!
81* ''Anime/CodeGeass'', like ''Anime/{{K}}'', has an Idol AU, featuring the characters as idol groups, instead of militaries. The groups are Code Black, a goth/punk band consisting of Lelouch, C.C., Kallen, and Shirley (with animal ears); Royal Rouge Rounds (or RRR), an idol group featuring either Euphemia, Suzaku, Cornelia, Gino, Anya, and Jeremiah, or Cornelia, Euphemia, Suzaku, and Lelouch; and Princess Peach, featuring Kaguya, Nunnally, and Lihua. Several figure sets have been made from this AU, and an album is ([[DevelopmentHell supposedly]]) on the way.
82* ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'': In [[Recap/DoraemonV3C1AWorldWithoutSound "A World Without Sound"]], the characters go to an alternate universe where there is no sound and everyone communicates through writing.
83* ''Franchise/DragonBall'' has three varieties:
84** The first is the demon world, which mirrors the regular setting except for the fact it is populated by demons. It first showed up in a {{filler}} episode of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' dealing with a martial arts master from the demon world breaching the seal between the two worlds in order to kidnap human girls but later was added into continuity proper when the evil wizard Babadi enslaved the demon world's strongest fighter. The main villains from ''Videogame/DragonBallOnline'' hail from the demon world and ''Videogame/DragonBallXenoverse'' implies they too want to break the seal between the two worlds.
85** The second variety comes in the form of multiple timelines, a concept introduced when [[KidFromTheFuture Future Trunks]] arrived via time machine to try and discover how to defeat two enemies from a very dark BadFuture. Unfortunately he was followed from an ''[[FromBadtoWorse even darker]]'' future from which Cell hails. [[spoiler:He killed his timeline's version of Trunks, who had already killed the Androids Cell needs to absorb, leading him to steal the time machine so he could absorb them in the past.]] ''Videogame/DragonBallOnline'' implies these alternate timelines are potentially endless and the main job of the protagonists was to prevent more of them from splitting off before encountering villains that aimed to change the known timelines rather than create new ones.
86** ''Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods'' and ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' introduces the third variety that comes in the form of twelve separate "universes", which come in pairs that are determined by their designated numbers adding up to thirteen. The main setting is designated Universe 7 and so it paired with Universe 6, which superficially resembles it but has seen some drastically different developments over the course of its own history.
87* In ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'' [[spoiler:the opposite side of The Gate is shown to be our universe.]] The two worlds have vastly different continuities but all humans have an AlternateSelf on the other side of the gate.
88* ''Manga/FairyTail''
89** As the story was written by Creator/HiroMashima, who already had experience with this with ''Manga/RaveMaster'', it only made sense for it to have one of these as well, in the form of [[BizarroUniverse Edolas]], a world where magic power is scarce and slowly dying out, with the populace unable to use magic themselves but capable of storing it into tools and weapons and have resorted to using a special spell to siphon magic energy from Earthland. It makes for an interesting plot twist, and despite its relative lack of plot significance, it doesn't feel tacked on at all. Although it does explain a good few things, like Happy and Carla's origin, and why [[spoiler:Jellal and Mystogan look identical to one another]].
90** In ''Manga/FairyTail100YearsQuest'', [[spoiler:alongside a surprise return to Edolas]], it's revealed there are other dimensions connected to Earth-land that aren't usually capable of being reached. One such Alternate Universe is Elentir, the Transcendent Magic World, where magic power flows in such an abundance [[spoiler:it actually threatens to erupt and destroy it in a cataclysm without the aid of an order of priests that use [[PowerNullifier White-Out Magic]] to pacify the land's magical energy.]] It is the home of [[spoiler:both another Exceed named Touka and the White Mage/Faris, the latter of whom used the former to come to Earthland as part of a scheme to save her world from the Moon Dragon God Selene.]]
91* The ''Manga/HetaliaBloodbath2010'' event: [[spoiler:the culprits turn out to be alternate versions of various countries from another world where everyone has cat ears and they walk around nude like it's no problem, and apparently contains ''123 different Frances.'' The survival of that world depends on finding a nation with a certain mark on their chest or butt before the end of Christmas, hence the stripping.]] ItMakesSenseInContext.
92** And that's not counting the HighSchoolAU or the [[GenderBentAlternateUniverse Nyotalia-verse]] [[spoiler:which Estonia stumbles upon]].
93* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' eventually starts dealing with these:
94** The climax of ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean'' involves [[spoiler:Pucci's Made in Heaven causing the universe to reset and remade [[InTheirOwnImage in his own image]]; however, his plans are ultimately foiled before he can finish the job, resulting in a restored version of the original universe that features alternate versions of all the characters he killed. The only one not affected was Emporio, the kid who killed him]].
95** From ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureSteelBallRun'' onward, each Part takes place in an alternate universe with parallels to the previous timeline. [[spoiler:WordOfGod has gone on record saying the universe of ''Steel Ball Run'' and ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureJojolion JoJolion]]'' is an entirely separate, unrelated universe with a new continuity that merely pays homage to the original story]].
96*** The BigBad of ''Steel Ball Run'' has a [[FightingSpirit Stand]] based around weaponizing a similar concept. He could escape death by pulling an identical version of himself from another universe to replace him, and could also force others to [[NeverTheSelvesShallMeet come into contact with their doppelgangers, and thus be obliterated]]. The other universes are almost identical, with the sole prominent difference being [[spoiler:the lack of the Holy Corpse in all but the main universe]].
97* ''Anime/{{K}}'' has both a HighSchoolAU and an Idol AU, which feature the series' feuding factions as rival school clubs or idol producers.
98* The ''Official Doujin'' spinoff of ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' eventually becomes a collection of [=AU=]s instead of the initial HotterAndSexier premise. There are The Little Mermaid AU, Cinderella AU, an all-girls school AU, and so on. The most well-known one is the Kindergarten AU, where Shirogane and Hayasaka are kindergarten teachers and the others as their students. It also has [[spoiler:Hayasaka becoming Shirogane's love interest in this universe instead of Kaguya]].
99* The ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' [[Anime/KirbyRightBackAtYa anime]] is ''meant'' to be an alternate universe from the games, something many fans miss.
100* Unlike the traditional ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' setting, ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaINNOCENT'' is set in a universe without magic and alternate dimensions. Instead, the characters are normal humans living on earth, dueling one another via a recently introduced virtual reality-based CardBattleGame.
101** The franchise itself is one to the ''Triangle Heart'' series, where it's the rest of the Takamachis that live a secret battle-hardened lifestyle while Nanoha is an ordinary little girl.
102* ''Anime/MazingerZ'' has a bunch of alternate universes: ''Manga/NewMazinger'', set several years in the future, in a polluted, torn-warn Earth; ''Anime/GodMazinger'', which has absolutely nothing to do with the original universe; ''Mazin Saga, Z-Mazinger'', an alternate retelling where [[BattleCouple Kouji and Sayaka]] fight aliens masquerading as Greek deities; ''Anime/{{Mazinkaiser}}'', another alternate retelling where Kouji finds his grandfather's true legacy; ''Anime/ShinMazinger'', yet ANOTHER retelling; ''Manga/ShinMazingerZero'', a sequel to the original series set in an alternate timeline...
103* ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}'': Most of the NonSerialMovie, ''Anime/NarutoTheMovieRoadToNinja'', takes place in another world that Tobi sent Naruto and Sakura to. Many of the filler episodes of ''Shippuden'' after Madara activates the Infinite Tsukuyomi also use alternate takes on the main setting--in addition to alluding to ''Road to Ninja'', one "seen" by Tsunade takes place in a universe where both Naruto and Sasuke's families weren't killed and, particularly, Naruto is publicly acknowledged as the son of the Fourth Hokage but still secretly ostracized as a jinchuriki.
104* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'':
105** During the Third Impact Shinji is shown an alternate universe mirroring a stereotypical love comedy anime (which has since become an official {{Elseworld}}): ''Manga/NeonGenesisEvangelionAngelicDays''.
106** The photonovel story ''Literature/EvangelionANIMA'' was, according to WordOfGod, specifically created out of the desire to produce a ''Gundam''-style Alternate Universe story.
107** ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' is another alternate universe.
108* In Episode 51 of ''Anime/PowerpuffGirlsZ'', the girls spend the entire episode [[TimeTravel traveling through time]] (using the [[HumongousMecha Dyna]][[TimeMachine mo Z]]) [[MacGuffin gathering 3 flashes of light]]. Before they can get to the 2nd light, Him sends them off-course by transporting them into the universe of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'', where the PPG can be seen fighting the [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever Giant Balloon Fish]] in Townsville. However, the girls don't stick around long enough to meet their original counterparts, as they immediately travel back to their own universe and continue time traveling.
109* A major plot twist in ''Manga/RaveMaster'' involved this trope: [[spoiler:''the entire series'' exists within an Alternate Universe, which was created when the last survivor of the original reality manipulated time in order to create a parallel world where TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt didn't come to pass. The OmnicidalManiac that was destroying this parallel world was in fact a balancing force created as a result of the unnatural divergence in the timestream]].
110* Officially stated by a character in Manga/SaintSeiyaEpisodeGAssassin: Shura and Aiolia are not in their usual timeline nor universe.
111* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' has one of these in Episode 26 with [[spoiler:the BigBad's LotusEaterMachine.]]
112** In a different vein, the new ''Parallel Works'' music videos leading up to the movie seem to be using these.
113** The series [[http://www.onemanga.com/Tengen_Toppa_Gurren_Lagann_-_Guren_Gakuenhen/ also has a]] HighSchoolAU manga.
114** One fan also seems to make an excellent example with an [[WebComic/DoubleK AU universe comic]] about ''TTGL'' worthy of the series.
115* ''Manga/TsubasaChronicle'' has many different worlds, and the four protagonists actually come from different worlds.
116* ''Anime/PanzerWorldGalient'': The third OVA is an Alternate Universe to the series in which [[spoiler:Jordy, Chururu and Hy Shaltat both are brothers-in-law, and Hilmuka isn't an alien.]]
117* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'':
118** An episode of ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesXY'' has one where Ash and his Kalos friends have MirrorUniverse counterparts that have completely polar personalities. In that universe, Ash has become a wimp who cries when things go bad, Alternate!Serena has become a {{Jerkass}} who often taunts Alternate!Ash, Alternate!Clemont has become a magician, and Alternate!Bonnie is more quiet and polite. Also, the real Team Rocket encounter their alternate counterparts, where they were actually seen as ''heroes'' of the Kalos region. Their Pokémon get affected too; Alternate!Hawlucha has become a wimp like Alternate!Ash, and Alternate!Pikachu has become cocky and is a regular nuisance to Team Rocket.
119** A two-parter in ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesSunAndMoon'' has Ash and Pikachu sent to an alternate universe version of Melemele where pollution and attacks by Guzzlord have devastated the now-abandoned island. They team up with the lone survivor to force the Guzzlord back to its home dimension before they are returned to their home universe.
120** Another two-parter in ''Anime/PokemonJourneysTheSeries'' revolves around a BizarroUniverse in which Ash is a weak-willed ShrinkingViolet like in the ''XY'' mirror universe while Goh & Chloe are HotBlooded, and the [[TerribleTrio Team Rocket trio]] is high-ranked and competent enough to have {{mooks}} of their own. The story revolves around their efforts to SaveBothWorlds from Alternate!Team Rocket's RageAgainstTheHeavens plot.
121* Zigzagged in ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' which has TheMultiverse and inter dimensional travel as a major plot point, but each dimension is an Alternate Universe version of a previous setting in the ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' franchise (though there's no direct communication between these dimensions and the settings they serve as counterparts to). [[spoiler:After TheReveal it turns out this trope is either invoked or averted, depending on your point of view.]]
122%%* In the CardBattleGame anime ''Anime/WeissSurvive'': The Weiss Schwarz world of battles.
123* ''Anime/SpaceDandy'' plays with this trope a lot. Each episode of the series is arguably set in a different universe as many of them end with the characters dying, becoming zombies or even micro-organisms, only for them to be perfectly fine the next episode. [[spoiler:The series also ends with Dandy rejecting the Narrator's offer of Godhood, which causes the universe to reset itself to the very first episode...though things appear to be ''slightly'' different this time round.]]
124** One episode features Dandy, Meow and QT actually meeting different alternate versions of themselves, including a space trucker Dandy, a guy in a pink suit who thinks he's a robot (QT's alternate self) and a scary cyborg Meow.
125* Late into ''Manga/UQHolder'', Kirie Sakurame is briefly sent into an alternate universe that's all but directly stated to be [[spoiler:the universe that the reader resides in, as she mentions the year was 2021 (as opposed to 2086 where the story takes place) and there was a [[UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic virus currently plauging said world]]]].
126[[/folder]]
127
128[[folder:Asian Animation]]
129* Each season of ''Animation/GGBond'' features the characters having different personalities, an oddity that's explained in Season 16 as being because there are multiple alternate universe that the characters can be found in.
130[[/folder]]
131
132[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
133* It's implied that the two ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'' sequels are set in different universes.
134* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie'': The LEGO World is this to the Real World. While the events of the film and actions of the protagonists seem to be heavily influenced by Finn's actions at his father's LEGO set, Emmet still possesses his own thoughts when he falls into the Real World, and even wills himself to move at one point, independent of Finn or his father. The two worlds are separate, but apparently run parallel to each other, with whatever happens in the Real World affecting what happens in the LEGO world. The inverse also appears to be true, as Finn's father realizes his son's work when Emmet points it out to President Business.
135* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls1'', Twilight Sparkle goes to one where the ponies are humans in high school, accessed via a MagicMirror. However one [[https://derpibooru.org/1576576 visual gag]] raises the possibility that it's an [[AfterTheEnd alternate point in time]] rather than an alternate universe...
136* ''WesternAnimation/ShrekForeverAfter'' takes place in a universe where [[BigBad Rumpelstiltskin]] is crowned king, and many of Shrek's former allies have been changed in one way or another (I.E. Puss in Boots becoming the ogre clan's housecat and Donkey being treated as a regular mule).
137* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'': While the actual ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'' universe until ''ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}}'' very much reflected reality like the classic Franchise/MarvelUniverse did, the film uses the ''ComicBook/SpiderVerse'' concept to take the idea of [[Characters/MarvelComicsMilesMorales Miles Morales]] coming from an alternate reality even further; for example, New York police cars are labeled with "PDNY" rather than "NYPD", {{Bland Name Product}}s abound (with "Koca-Soda" instead of Coca-Cola and "[=RedEx=]" instead of "[=FedEx=]"), ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'' became an actual franchise, and Miles doesn't know what Comic-Con is when Peter quips about it. This is cemented by Peter Parker's own universe having a Coca-Cola neon sign and the traditional "NYPD" abbreviation on a police car.
138[[/folder]]
139
140[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
141* ''Film/BeauIsAfraid'''s version of 2022 contains a number of differences from our reality, including there existing a US city and state named Corrina, the US being involved in a military conflict with Venezuela, Moviefone still maintaining its now defunct call-in service, and there being no references to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.
142* In ''Film/Cube2Hypercube'', the hypercube transects parallel universes. The characters don't realize this until they start running into duplicates of themselves and each other. Exploited by one character who uses them as a [[IAmAHumanitarian human food source]].
143* ''Film/LoveIsAllYouNeed2016'' takes place in a universe, where [[PersecutionFlip homosexuality is commonplace and heterosexuals are victimized and persecuted]].
144* ''Film/TheOne'' is a cross between this and ConservationOfNinjutsu. The villain is traveling around to the various universes killing all the alternate versions of himself so he'll have all the power that would otherwise be spread out between them. Since the hero is one of the alternates, he winds up with bigger and bigger slices of the power pie as well, making for a ''battle royale'' when it's down to just the two of them.
145%%* Apparently the setting of ''Film/{{Parallels}}'' leans heavily on this trope, with entire branches of TheMultiverse to be shunted about in.
146* ''Film/SuperMarioBros1993'' posits a "sub-dimension" created through the impact of the meteorite into earth that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs continued to evolve in this sub-dimension in the city of "Dinohattan", a city mirroring New York City.
147[[/folder]]
148
149[[folder:Literature]]
150* Discussed in a short story from Creator/ArthurCClarke called ''The Other Tiger'', in which two scientists start talking about the infinite universes that could theorically exist.
151* In the ''Literature/OneHundredCupboards'' trilogy, the different worlds the characters reach through the cupboards are implied to be parallel universes whose timelines have diverged so dramatically from that of "our" Earth that they bear little resemblance anymore.
152* Creator/StephenBaxter's ''[[Literature/AntiIce Anti-Ice]]'': The discovery of an AppliedPhlebotinum with properties similar to anti-matter dramatically accelerates the [[SteamPunk Industrial Age]]. The book begins with the Crimean War ending with the destruction of Sevastopol by a [[NukeEm single anti-ice shell]], and includes a Creator/JulesVerne-like trip to the Moon.
153* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
154** The Roundworld Project: Created by Hex the magic AI as an emergency dumping-ground for a thaumic overload, an orange-sized spherical universe is kept on Rincewind's desk at Unseen University. Most of the UU faculty think this narrativium-deprived alternate reality is a silly waste of time; even so, the Archchancellor occasionally (meaning, whenever a new ''Literature/TheScienceOfDiscworld'' book is published) tasks his wizards to offset interlopers' tampering with the pocket universe's history. Silly or not, it ''is'' University property. [[spoiler:"Roundworld" is, of course, our own universe.]]
155** Alternate Universe theory crops up elsewhere in Discworld, too, such as in ''Literature/LordsAndLadies'', where Ridcully, upon being told that there's a universe somewhere where he married his childhood sweetheart, gets annoyed that he wasn't invited to the wedding:
156--->'''Ridcully:''' You'd think I'd think of ''me'', wouldn't you? What a bastard!
157* In Creator/TeresaEdgerton's ''Literature/{{Celydonn}}'' trilogy, the Inner Celydonn plays this role to Celydonn proper, so that, for example, the version of Tir Gwyngelli known in traveller's tales really exists as the home of TheFairFolk.
158* Creator/DarylGregory's ''[[Literature/TheDevilsAlphabet The Devil's Alphabet]]'': A virus (of sorts) mutates the populations of a couple of cities in different parts of the world. The eventual realization is that the various types of new humans (Argos, Betas and Charlies) are what humans are normally like in alternate versions of the world.
159* One of the types of dimensions the portals in''Literature/LivInTheFuture can lead to. While not shown, one government-sustained portal is known to lead to a universe where Jamaica has sharp sand.
160* Creator/HBeamPiper's ''{{Literature/Paratime}}'': This series by is based entirely around this concept, in which an advanced Earth civilization with the technology to explore alternate universes does so in order to secretly mine them for resources.
161* ''Literature/TheDarkTower'' books by Creator/StephenKing : Mid-World is a strange collision of ScavengerWorld, AfterTheEnd, and WeirdWest with some trace elements of SteamPunk to boot. It exists "next" to our world on the Tower, and shares some overlap, such as the existence of [[Music/TheBeatles "Hey Jude"]] as a type of ancient campfire song, the presence of an Amoco gas pump, and a mysterious race of {{Precursors}} who had knowledge of and access to our world. This is without mentioning the endless levels of the Tower which make up different versions of our world and Mid-World. See TheMultiverse page for that.
162* In ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'', Raistlin succeeds in becoming a god and killing every other god as well as all life in Krynn. Then Caramon time travels back to prevent him from succeeding.
163** The ''Alternate Universe'' part comes from the suggestion that there are universes where Caramon didn't succeed.
164* Most of the Claimed in ''Literature/DisAcedia'' come from various alternate universes.
165* In ''Literature/TheEdge'', the Weird is a mirror universe to our world, mirrored so that Florida is in the west and California in the east. None of the characters are duplicated, though.
166* ''Literature/TheGenesisOfJennyEverywhere'' by Tropers/TheLyniezian makes use of the Shifter's ability to exist in multiple alternate universes and read the thoughts of other versions of herself (see also Web Original folder). Her home universe, though fairly mundane and boring has [[AlternateHistory a continuing Imperial Japan]] in the news about to invade Mongolia, various AnachronismStew elements ([[Creator/TheBBC Radio 4 is still the BBC Home Service]] despite being otherwise identical to RealLife; Jenny listens to music on what may or may not be 8-track cartridges, but other girls at school obsess over boy bands and reality TV), and, of course, [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld there are the obligatory zeppelins.]] This Jenny, a bored schoolgirl with [[EducationMama an overbearing mother]], would rather be dreaming of excitement in some more AdventureFriendlyWorld or other- then gets her wish when she discovers her shifting power.
167* In the fourth ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'' novel, ''The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya'', Kyon suddenly finds himself in a world without supernatural powers, with the SOS members remain leading normal, human lives, and where Haruhi went to a different high school. It is, however, quite important to the plot that it actually [[spoiler:was not an alternate universe, the one he has always been at had been rebuilt]]. This universe is further explored in the manga spinoff ''Manga/TheDisappearanceOfNagatoYukiChan''.
168* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/WhatIf1952": Mr If's [[CrystalBall scrying glass]] allows people to view "what might have been". Liwy and Norman ask "What if we hadn't met that day?" and see events play out slightly differently because of it.
169%%** ''Literature/TheGodsThemselves''
170* Creator/IsaacAsimov and Creator/JanetAsimov's ''Literature/NorbyFindsAVillain'': In this story, it is discovered that, with enough power, robots like Norby and Pera can use [[SubspaceOrHyperspace hyperspace]] to travel into other universes.
171* The Literature/GwendalavirUniverse is a world parallel to ours.
172* This is the origin of all the strange things in Literature/JohnDiesAtTheEnd.
173* ''Literature/TheManInTheHighCastle'' by Creator/PhilipKDick contains an alternate 1960s California controlled by the Japanese after a defeat of the allies during WWII. There is mention of another alternate reality, apparently revealed to an au ctthor who writes a book about such an alternate in which the US does not lose WWII. This is slowly revealed not to be "our" alternate, but one dreamed up by the writer, and of no special significance. The book was written using the I-Ching as a guide to the character's actions.
174* Robert J. Sawyer's "Literature/TheNeanderthalParallax" trilogy is all about an alternate universe where Neanderthals didn't go extinct, but homo sapiens did.
175%%* Creator/BrianLumley's ''Necroscope III: The Source''
176* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TheNumberOfTheBeast'' and ''Literature/TheCatWhoWalksThroughWalls'' are based on this, exploring various fictional universes created not only by Heinlein but also others, especially [[Literature/LandOfOz Oz]].
177* ''Literature/TheReluctantKing'': The world of the trilogy is one for Earth, which in turn constitutes its afterlife. Early on, Jorian briefly crosses over into Earth before going back. He's completely befuddled by his encounter with what are clearly cars on a paved road, then a highway patrol officer who's trying to help what must seem like a very strange man.
178* ''Literature/TheShadowhunterChronicles'' has an unknown amount of alternate universes. Four have been introduced so far.
179** The first is Edom, introduced in the latter half of ''Literature/CityOfHeavenlyFire''. It is a world where Jonathan Shadowhunter was a cocky individual who rejected working with the Downworlders in the fight against demons. As a result, the Downworlders sided with the demons, enabling the latter to kill all Shadowhunters in the world. The demons subsequently ate everything else, turning the entire Earth into a wasteland. The sea is drained and the sun is obscured by gray clouds. There are no living things, except for demons who scavenge for food. Edom is now ruled by the demons Lilith and Asmodeus.
180** The second is Thule, introduced in the second act of ''Literature/QueenOfAirAndDarkness''. It is a world where Clary Fairchild was killed during the Battle of the Burren in the year 2007, as depicted in ''Literature/CityOfLostSouls''. As a result, the Shadowhunters lost their primary champion in the fight against Sebastian Morgenstern and his army, who then spread a demonic plague called Blight that served as portals for demons to take over, turning the Earth into a wasteland, much like Edom. However, because the point of divergence with the main world is much more recent compared to Edom, Thule still has Shadowhunters and Downworlders, although the former have lost all of their angelic powers.
181** The third is an unnamed realm ruled by Belial, which appears in ''Literature/ChainOfGold''. It used to belong to Belphegor until Belial took it. The realm is made of a desert environment that is devoid of color. There is also a ruined civilization that looks similar to London. The realm is destroyed when Cordelia incapacitates Belial using Cortana.
182** The fourth is Diyu, based on the Chinese afterlife of the same name, which appears in ''Literature/TheLostBookOfTheWhite''. It was ruled by a Greater Demon, Yanluo, until he was killed. It used to be the place where the wicked were tortured, but after Yanluo's death it has fallen to disarray and is currently inhabited by wandering demons. Sammael has plans to take over it.
183* ''Literature/TheSecretLivesOfPrincesses'': Princess Ices produces a mirror that you can step through to travel to another world.
184* The alternate history series ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' runs on this trope. Not long after the Virginia mining town from 2000 appears in Europe in 1632 during the Thirty Years War, some characters speculate they have moved to a different universe.
185* In ''Literature/SmokeAndShadows'', [[spoiler:Arra]] comes from what seems to be a parallel Earth given how easily she adapts to life in Vancouver. Her world was less technological, but magic use was mainstream.
186* ''Literature/SpectralShadows'' has this; {{Word of God}} says that the "Somebody Else's Dream/Episodes from Hell" segment of Serial 11 is this.
187* The ''Myriad Universes'' ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novella collections have the "for want of a nail" version of this trope. The Mirror Universe short story collections, on the other hand, are ''very'' different to the main universe.
188* ''Literature/TheFarsideTrilogy'' involves travel between Earth during the World Wars and a magical realm called Yuulith where humans have to deal with Elven Empires and an invasion from a Europe taken over by utterly alien seeming creatures who want to enslave everyone in Yuulith.
189* In ''Literature/TheWickedYears'' it's implied that the story takes place in an alternate universe and Oz is a counterpart to America. This differentiates from the original ''Oz'' canon, as Oz was simply another country on Earth.
190* In ''Literature/{{Wildside}}'' by Steven Gould, a teenager has a portal to a parallel world in which humans never evolved on his farm. He and several friends try to use it to become rich by exploiting the knowledge of huge gold strikes on their earth that were never discovered on the human-free world (of course). They do attempt to not pollute or otherwise screw up that universe-- and then [[spoiler:the American government (the bad parts of it) discover the group's access to an alternate world, and things get dangerous. Eventually, it is revealed that the main character's mother came from a different world in which the Industrial Revolution ran amok and destroyed it, eventually using portals to come to our timeline and saving the uninhabited world as a potential ''"lifeboat"'' for our world]]
191* Creator/MichaelKurland:
192** In ''Literature/TheUnicornGirl'', the protagonists inadvertantly explore several alternate universes.
193** In ''The Whenabouts of Burr'', somebody steals the Declaration of Independence and replaces it with its counterpart from an AlternateHistory; the protagonists go in search of that alternate history in order to find answers and get their own Declaration back. The title comes from the fact that the alternate Declaration was signed by Aaron Burr instead of Alexander Hamilton -- which incidentally makes the protagonists' world an alternate history as well, because in our history Hamilton didn't sign it either.
194* ''Literature/TheProbabilityBroach'' by L. Neil Smith -- a police officer in a dystopian United States is accidentally blown into an alternate universe where the North American continent is a libertarian society, and must help his alternate self defeat a plot to conquer this new world. Basically an AuthorTract (albeit an entertaining one) for libertarianism, it's [[http://www.bigheadpress.com/tpbtgn?page=0 available online as a graphic novel as well]].
195* ''Literature/TheRedAndTheRest'' takes place in a parallel Earth where the major difference seems to be a link to one of these. The main characters soon find themselves lost in the world of lost things, which really kicks off the plot.
196* '' Literature/AThousandPiecesOfYou''. The whole storyline of the books is about two scientists traveling from universe to universe and finding trouble in each one.
197* In ''Literature/RoughDraft'', the protagonist finds himself the customs officer of an InnBetweenTheWorlds with access to a number of parallel worlds. Some of these are explored in greater detail than others:
198** Earth 1 (Arkan): A universe 35 years behind Earth 2 from a technological and historical viewpoint, although some areas of technology here are superior to Earth 2.
199** Earth 2 (Demos): Our world. One of the most technologically advanced known worlds. Nicknamed "Demos" for the prevalence of democracy.
200** Earth 3 (Veroz): A world without nation-states or oil, so SteamPunk is common. City-states can be found across the world, frequently in the same locations as on Earth 2 but with different names. Australia hasn't been explored or settled. Seas are full of dangerous creatures, such as [[KrakenAndLeviathan krakens]]. One of the more fleshed out worlds in the novel.
201** Earth 4 (Antik): A world stuck at the Classical stage of development with an "evolved" form of slavery (e.g. slaves can be richer than their owners and can rebel twice a year).
202** Earth 5: Humans have a spring mating season and are at the 50s-60s level of development.
203** Earth 8 (Firmament): A world dominated by the Catholic Church, stuck in MedievalStasis with the exception of advanced bio-engineering. The Cardinals run the Church (no Pope) and are protected by [[AmazonBrigade female Swiss Guards]] with killer Yorkshire terriers, razor-sharp halberds, and flying gargoyles.
204** Earth 14 (Janus): A planet with harsh winters and scorching summers. Spring is the only (barely) tolerable season. There is no moon and no magnetic fields. Initially appears lifeless, but one character insists that some human and animal life survives by migrating with the spring.
205** Earth 16: It appears to be Earth stuck at the primordial stage with unceasing volcanic activity and radiation. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that it's an AfterTheEnd world that is the homeworld of the [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual Functionals]]. Human and animal life survives on a single island]].
206** Earth 18 (Preserve): A pristine world with no humans. Frequently treated as a resort place, provided the visitors clean up after themselves.
207** Earth 22 (Nirvana): A world with no animal life. Filled with plants that produce spores that trigger a narcotic effect. Used as a prison of sorts, since all people dumped here are permanently stuck in a drugged stupor. Taking someone out results in a lengthy withdrawal period.
208** Earth 46: A technologically-advanced world, whose people have successfully resisted an inter-dimensional invasion. They practice BrainUploading and "preserve" their dead by copying their minds into robots. They have used their advanced quantum physics knowledge to seal off their world from the rest permanently.
209* Creator/AndreyLivadny's ''The History of Worlds'' setting turns five of his previously separate settings into TheMultiverse, allowing characters from them to interact. Four are unofficially called by key works set in them, and one is called by the name of a key character.
210** ''Literature/TheHistoryOfTheGalaxy'' universe: the most explored setting due to being the author's longest-running series with over 60 novels, novellas, and short stories, spanning a millennium of humanity's exploration of the galaxy and various conflicts between human powers, corporations, and aliens.
211** ''Another Mind'' universe: humanity is at the early 21st century development level and comes under attack from space.
212** ''Life Form'' universe: humans are settling the Solar System with STL interstellar travel a possibility; alien artifacts are discovered on some planets.
213** ''Contact'' universe: humans are exploring the galaxy using FTL-capable ships; then an archaeological discovery on Ganymede is made, revealing the existence of multiple alien races.
214** Omni universe: Earth is a radioactive wasteland, following a mutually-destructive war against a race of InsectoidAliens, with the survivors of both species attempting to rebuild their civilizations.
215* ''Literature/{{Tasakeru}}'' takes place in an alternate universe where humans have never existed.
216* ''Literature/GravityFallsJournal3'': During his travels in the multiverse, Ford came across several of these, most notably one he deemed "The Better World": [[spoiler:Stanley took Journal 1 instead of fighting him and alongside Fiddleford, that world’s Ford kept Bill Cipher at bay and created the Institute of Oddology, becoming rich and famous in the process thanks to his multidimensional travel technology.]]
217* In the Christian novel ''Literature/TheTuningStation'', an atheist meets an alternate version of himself, who is a devout Christian, and they are given the assignment to find out where their lives diverged.
218* ''Literature/ArmadilloFists'' exists in a multiverse, where travel between realities is commonplace enough that people hold "dop conventions" where they meet with all the other versions of themselves. This can be an unpleasant experience, though - main character June learns that almost every other version of her is male, while villain Rape Face discovers that there isn't a ''single'' universe where he became something better than a petty asshole criminal.
219* ''Literature/{{Phaeton}}'' takes place entirely in and out of alternate universe (Labeled Alpha Gamma 64) and the records of events were somehow sent to our universe, exactly how is as of yet untold.
220[[/folder]]
221
222[[folder:Music]]
223* Music/{{Gloryhammer}}: The first album, ''Tales from the Kingdom of Fife'' is set in a Fantasy Scotland with unicorns, magic, trolls and goblins. The second album, ''Space 1992: Rise of the Chaos Wizards'' is set ten centuries later in the grim darkness of 1992, when Zargothrax, the EvilSorcerer from the first album, comes back to wreak havoc with the aid of the Goblin King and the Chaos Wizards. At the end of the second album, [[TheHero McFife]] follows Zargothrax through a wormhole into another reality.
224* ''Music/{{Tsukipro}}'' - a fictional talent agency representing various artists, mostly boy bands. Their main releases are music singles, accompanied by audio dramas about their daily lives, stories which continue on the official twitter accounts and in the various anime adaptations. Normally, it would stop there, but not this time. This series makes good use of its UniversalAdaptorCast, and AU stories have been made turning them into {{youkai}}, military officers in space, angels and demons, [[LittleBitBeastly rabbit royals]], and more. It helps that in canon, one of the idols is a demon king. Or maybe it doesn't...
225[[/folder]]
226
227[[folder:Podcasts]]
228* The retrofuturistic [[The80s Eighties]] setting of ''Podcast/WithinTheWires'' is a FalseUtopia that divorces children from the concept of family, separating them from parents, and eliminating[=/=]repressing memories of siblings and childhood relationships at the age of ten via pharmacology, {{cybernetic|sEatYourSoul}} implants, and batteries of psychological programming. Gradually, the series reveals a PointOfDivergence, a devastating war called "The Great Reckoning." In its aftermath, [[OneWorldOrder The Society]] was created, and it was decided that nationalism, tribalism and familial loyalty were the root causes of war and violence, to be eliminated through drastic social engineering.
229[[/folder]]
230
231[[folder:Roleplay]]
232* Many roleplays on the [[Roleplay/Bay12PlayByPostGames Bay12 Forums]] use this as their base:
233** ''Roleplay/Bay12RWBYRoleplay'' is half this, half ElsewhereFic.
234** ''Roleplay/Bay12SwordArtOnlineRP'' is explicitly confirmed to take place in an alternate universe.
235** ''Roleplay/Bay12KatawaShoujoRoleplay'' and its [[Roleplay/KatawaShoujoGaiden sequel.]]
236* The first story in the ''Literature/BraveNewWorldUniverse'' has an entire story arc dealing with a character traveling to multiple alternate realities.
237* ''Roleplay/FateNuovoGuerra'' takes one of ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'''s bad endings and runs with it as their BackStory. The Fifth Grail War results in the destruction of Fuyuki City, prompting the Einzberns to start a new Grail War elsewhere.
238* In ''[[Roleplay/LordsOfCreationHistoryOfTheUsurpers Lords of Creation]]'' every one of the new gods became that way by successfully offing a god in their own universe, now they have to create their own and hopefully not screw it up.
239* ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'':
240** It has had several small-scale AU RP's. These range from simple ''What-If'' scenarios (What If the students had been rescued on Day 3, What If ''SOTF'' really ''was'' a TV show, etc) to radically different concepts such as [[HumongousMecha Mech]] ''SOTF'' and ''SOTF'' with zombies.
241** In 2010, a spin-off site effectively dedicated to Alternate Universe versions of ''Survival of the Fittest'' was created, with the pilot in an interesting ContinuityNod, being an alternate version of ''Literature/BattleRoyale,'' the concept which SOTF was based off. While the Battle Royale AU was left unfinished, several other AUs have been established and seen multiple versions. A list can be found [[Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittestMini here]].
242[[/folder]]
243
244[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
245* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Several campaign settings are alternate universes to both Earth and each other, although this is rarely referenced in game materials and comes mostly from WordOfGod.
246** ''TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}}'' exists in a Multiverse (along with ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' and the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms''), but it's not made up of alternate universes. Rather, it's the term used for the system of heavens and hells, elemental planes, the Astral Plane, and so on; the different campaign settings are planets in the same universe.
247** ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'': The entry for 1357 DR in ''The Grand History of the Realms'' notes that in that year, on an alternate Material Plane world known as Earth, Ed of the Greenwood gathered together various books and maps given to him by Elminster of Shadowdale, and made the first publication of the ''Forgotten Realms'' campaign setting.
248** ''TabletopGame/{{Mystara}}'' somehow exists in a different multiversal set-up from the other campaign settings. In addition to Earth, it also crossed over with another universe with futuristic technology; a starship from that universe crashed on Mystara and its radioactive engine became a major source of arcane power.
249** Unlike most other official ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' settings, ''TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}}'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Mystara}}'' share background elements pulled from early games (such as the aforementioned starship crash, the Barony of Blackmoor, and connections to Earth), but in slightly different formats.
250** [[TabletopGame/MasqueOfTheRedDeath Gothic Earth]], a spinoff of the ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' product line, is an Alternate Universe version of our own planet in which supernatural horrors lurk beneath the façade of Victorian-era society. Also, some characters from classic fiction in our world are real there.
251** Urban Arcana's worlds on the other side of Shadow could be this, but the nature of Shadow makes travel between universes... tricky. As in, 'you can't go back'. One of the adventures includes a character from the other side that has figured out how you ''can'' travel between the Earth of UA and his world. This character, and his organization, also appeared in ''Planescape''...
252* Broken Rooms is a science fiction horror game involving movement between 13 alternate realities. The premise of the game is that on a certain date on our world nothing remarkable happened...but on 13 other realities the beginning of the end of the world took place. These can range from a catastrophic meteor strike, to a nano-viral zombie plague, to an alien invasion, to the annihilation of the solar system from a rogue black hole. Only people with a certain hindbrain anomaly can travel between these realities by way of Broken Rooms, places where tragedy has eroded the barrier between realities.
253* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'': The ''Shards of the Exalted Dream'' features four versions of the main Exalted universe: a SpaceOpera setting, a modern day setting, a fighting game-style setting, and a setting based on ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003''.
254* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' ''TabletopGame/InfiniteWorlds'' setting.
255** It involves the [[PlayerCharacters PCs]] as agents travelling through alternate universes. Officially ''all'' GURPS settings are universes within the ''Infinite Worlds''. This includes assorted [[AlternateHistory Alternate Histories]] (''TabletopGame/GURPSTechnomancer'', ''TabletopGame/GURPSReignOfSteel''), several universes where AllMythsAreTrue (''GURPS [[Myth/ArthurianLegend Camelot]]'', ''GURPS {{Atlantis}}''), multiple worlds with superheroes (''TabletopGame/GURPSSupers'', ''GURPS International Super Teams''), and even universes inexplicably modeled on the popular fiction of the baseline universe (''GURPS [[Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian Conan]]'', ''[[TabletopGame/DiscworldRolePlayingGame GURPS Discworld]]'')!
256** The enemy timeline is Centrum, a scientific state that wants what is best for all, and for this to continue (discovering [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet where this one branched off]] is a surprise)... others in the ''Alternate Worlds'' books have included Gernsback (named for the Golden Age SF editor), where UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla's inventions shaped the development of science; Excalli, where the dominant empire is an Aztec-derived one; Roma Aeterna, where the Empire of Rome simply carried on, with the adoption of science; an alternate where China continued to trade overseas; and several versions of the usual "Nazis triumphant" parallel. Oh, and the United States of Lizardia, where dinosaurs evolved into sentient beings but somehow ended up recapitulating human history along the way.
257* ''TabletopGame/{{Planebreaker}}'': The Planes of Mirror and Shadow refers to parallel worlds of the Material Plane. If a character finds themselves the focus of a trip into the Congruent Corridor, the alternate world first observed should look almost exactly like their world of origin, except for at least one thing that might or might not be easy to notice. As the character moves along the Congruent Corridor, the alternate worlds remain roughly similar, but more and more different additions and subtractions build up with each new window.
258* Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast long ago published a set of generic supplements for handling deities in roleplaying games, called ''The Primal Order''. One of the books in this series, ''Chessboards'', covered in exquisite detail how to design and manage an entire multiverse complete with cosmology.
259* ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse'', as the name implies, features several alternate universes both shown in the game itself and in its background lore. This includes such universes as the Iron Legacy Timeline where all around Boy Scout Legacy goes totalitarian after his nemesis kills his daughter, The Inverse-verse where heroes are bad guys and villains are good guys, the Xtreme-verse where everything is XTREME(!), the Animal Verse where everyone is an animal except for Plague Rat who is instead Plague Man (this one in particular originated as a joke after Christopher and Adam, the game's creators, accidentally referred to the character Sergeant Steel as Sargent Seal), and many, many others.
260* ''TabletopGame/{{TORG}}'':
261** It features several different dimensions/realities, each corresponding to a different genre (such as Aysle, a traditional world of MedievalEuropeanFantasy; the Cyberpapacy, a CyberPunk world run by a CorruptChurch; the SpaceOpera-influenced dimension of the Space Gods; Orrorsh, a Lovecraftian CosmicHorrorStory in a ''Heart of Darkness'' style British colonial jungle setting; the Nile Empire, a world of Pulp Action Adventure; the Living Land, with sentient dinosaurs; and others), all cooperating to invade Earth.
262** Part of what makes ''TORG'' such an interesting game is that it's based on distinctly different rules for how reality works, depending on the context of the home dimension. First edition's Nile Empire, for example, had no room for moral ambiguities: every character was either Good or Evil, though they could change from one to the other under the right circumstances. Characters can engage in literal 'reality duels' with opponents from different dimensions, and the [[BigBad High Lords]] can do the same with entire areas of real estate.
263* TabletopGame/TheHyborianCampaign was alternate universe to the Literature/ConanTheBarbarian series, particularly as it progressed and more and more {{Space Filling Empire}}s nonexistent in canon arose as players conquered increasing amounts of land.
264* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' was originally just ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'' InSpace, then the two were implied to be alternate universes of each other or that Fantasy was just set on one planet among billions in 40K. Now the universes are more or less set apart except for the occasional reference to high-tech wargear finding its way to Fantasy by way of the Warp.
265[[/folder]]
266
267[[folder:Toys]]
268* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' has the Olmak, also called the Mask of Dimensional Gates. Does exactly that. Its wearer, Brutaka, has used it both to teleport and to send enemies to a dimension they probably won't return from. He tried to send his former friend Axonn into the Zone of Darkness (a pitch-black dimension with only flat, featureless plain with gravity), and also used his (then damaged) mask to teleport Takanuva to Karda Nui to warn the heroes of a great danger. However, the mask malfunctioned, and sent Takanuva into both AlternateHistory and a BizarroUniverse. After finally finding the another Olmak in one of those universes, Takanuva entered inter-dimensional space and got to his intended destination. This is a [[TheMultiverse Multiverse]] with a twist, as "our" dimension is explicitly called "the real universe", the rest are only pocket dimensions that shows how things would've turned out if they were done differently. Brutaka's mask was destroyed eventually, but the lunatic villain Vezon managed to get his hands on another one... and it ended up fusing to his face. Now he is a living dimensional gate, and has already visited several other universes (among them a few of those that Takanuva got lost in).
269** A subversion of this trope happens in the book Time Trap before any of the other examples. Vakama wakes up in an alternate timeline where he and the rest of the Toa Metru never became Toa and six others became toa in their place. At first it seems like he accidentally changed the past with the mask of time, but [[spoiler:it turns out the BigBad was using [[MasterOfIllusion illusions]] [[LotusEaterMachine to trick him.]] Vakama figures out the situation isn't real by mentioning an event that didn't happen to a friend who would know that it didn't happen, then continues to play along with the illusion for a while to look for clues.]]
270[[/folder]]
271
272[[folder:Visual Novels]]
273* ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'':
274** ''Literature/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavocIf'' takes place in a "What if?" version where Naegi finds a switch to escape the school before any of the students can attempt a murder.
275** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' takes place in an alternate universe where [[spoiler:the ''Danganronpa'' franchise is a popular series of video games and anime. So popular, in fact, that it became a reality TV show where high school students willingly sign up to take part in real killing games where they are mind-wiped and implanted with the fabricated personalities and backstories of ''Danganronpa'' characters as a form of EnforcedMethodActing. It's mentioned that world peace has been achieved and there are no wars or conflict anymore, so watching ''Danganronpa'' is now the only way for humanity to satisfy its lust for violence]].
276** Each of the main ''Danganronpa'' entries has an extra mode (School Mode in ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'', Island Mode in ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'', Dangan Salmon Team in ''Danganronpa V3''), all of which could be considered alternate universes where the killing games never happened. ''Danganronpa V3'' also has an unlockable game titled Ultimate Talent Development Plan which could count as yet another alternate universe, where the rosters from all three novels attend Hope's Peak Academy during the same period and the Monokubs take over as the school's headmasters.
277* ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend'' has at least two alternate universes (that we know of) compared to the one the game takes place in. The first is the universe that the upcoming sequel ''Hatoful Boyfriend: MIRROR'' takes place in, where the main protagonist's parents are alive (and the [[spoiler:Heartful Home incident never happened, preventing the chain of events that lead to Nageki's death and Hitori taking Kazuaki's identity, meaning both Nageki and the real Kazuaki are alive]]). The second is the world of the book ''Absolute Zero: The Forbidden Epic of Fallen Angels'', which is the alternate universe that's mainly seen as [[CloudCuckoolander Anghel]]'s fantasy world, yet is actually a real parallel dimension (indicated by things that Anghel very obviously should not know about being present in the book, such as [[spoiler:"Kazuaki" being Hitori's impersonation of the real Kazuaki and Shuu knowing Ryouta's father when they were younger]]) and it's implied that Anghel is some sort of RealityWarper capable of temporarily merging that dimension with the one he's actually in.
278* The main plot behind ''VisualNovel/LittleBusters'' can be described as this. [[spoiler:At first you don't realize because you're playing like any other DSIM, but at each playthrough the two main characters evolve a little (better seen on their status screens) and little things change from one playthrough to the other. It's only when you complete the Rin route for the second time, after playing through all the other five routes that it's revealed that the world they live in is actually an alternate universe created for the two main characters by the other eight, in order to help them cope with what happened in the real world.]]
279* ''VisualNovel/{{Sunrider}} Academy'' is a HighschoolAU of the main ''Sunrider'' universe. Sola's route reveals that both universes are part of a larger multiverse, as [[spoiler:Academy!Sola is one of several "fragments" of the main universe Sola, created when the main Sola was transported thousands of years into her future; as such, Academy!Sola [[ParadoxPerson should not exist]] and the plot of her route involves preventing her from being [[RetGone erased from reality]]]].
280** [RE]turn is an alternate universe to ''Sunrider Liberation Day'', in which [[spoiler:[[TimeMaster Claude]]]] transports Kayto three days into the past [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong and gives him a chance to prevent the disastrous events of]] [[spoiler:[[WhamEpisode the Liberation Day ceremony]]]].
281* Every path in the multi-route ''[[Franchise/{{Nasuverse}} TYPE-MOON]]'' games is a potential outcome of the main scenario, which makes it rather difficult to establish [[{{Canon}} the rules of the 'verse]] due to the plot differences in each route; according to WordOfGod, [[TheMultiverse all of them are canon]].
282* The ''Franchise/WhenTheyCry'' franchise is filled of this, referred to as fragments/kakera. In ''[[VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry Higurashi]]'' the GroundHogDayLoop is revealed not to be repeats of the same events but instead different universes with a certain person pushing the ResetButton after each arc searching for a fragment in the sea of fragments where [[spoiler:Rika won't be killed]]. In ''[[VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry Umineko]]'' we are introduced to witches who can travel in the sea of fragments looking for specific events that fit their needs or wants.
283* The [[VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors Nonary]] [[VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward Games]] [[VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma trilogy]] all hinge on using knowledge gained in an AlternateUniverse path with a BadEnding in order to progress on the main path to the TrueEnding.
284[[/folder]]
285
286[[folder:Web Animation]]
287* The 150th WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail had Strong Bad visiting many of the website's alternate universes.
288* ''WebAnimation/SmashKing'' is a story based on an alternate universe in the world of Smash that's parallel to the Nintendo multiverse at large, and the trophies know they're replicas of their original selves from the multi-verse, yet create their own society and choose their own personalities of their own volition, living life on their own terms in this tier based society.
289* In ''WebAnimation/{{Underverse}}'', the plot jumps between timelines and multiple different universes, tracking Cross's effort to get his timeline back.
290[[/folder]]
291
292[[folder:Webcomics]]
293* In ''Webcomic/TwoOverZero'', an alternate version of the universe was discovered [[spoiler:by Terra]].
294* In ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'' The universe the setting is in is sandwiched between two other realities, the Radical land, and what amounts to the real world. These universes both bleed their coolness and lameness into the comics one respectively so that its cooler than our universe but not as cool as the radical lands.
295* ''Webcomic/BittersweetCandyBowl'', According to the commentary, the chapter "[[http://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c59/p1.html Another Path]]" was originally intended to be set in an alternate universe where [[spoiler:Paulo had sex with Lucy during her [[HeroicBSOD Mental Breakdown]] in "Another Shoulder"]]. The final version has it as a daydream of Paulo's.
296* ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'' has an infinite number of them, and Bob visits quite a few. The title characters themselves are from a different universe than the one where most of the action takes place.
297* In ''Webcomic/{{Bobwhite}}'', [[http://www.bobwhitecomics.com/?webcomic_post=20090407 Cleo freaks out]] over the many-worlds hypothesis and its implications on fast food. In this universe, she never orders burritos because they're gross... which means that in some other universe she ''always'' orders burritos. ''But why?''
298* There are a few of these in ''Webcomic/BreakpointCity'', though they haven't played a major part so far.
299* The first page of ''Webcomic/CityOfTrees'' establishes real locations in Boise, Idaho, though the story quickly introduces magic and magical begins.
300* ''Webcomic/DecryptingRita'' has four such universes [[spoiler:at minimum, not counting Universe Aleph]]:
301** Universe 1: The beginning universe, a ScienceFiction spy thriller where Rita is the fastest cyborg spy alive. [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience Represented with blue.]]
302** Universe 2: A SliceOfLife drama where Rita is a former dancer with plenty of problems on her mind. [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience Represented with red and yellow.]]
303** Universe 3: A ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''-esque fantasy world where Rita is a dragoness with two lovers living with her. [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience Represented with gold and umber.]]
304** Universe 4: A GaslampFantasy with {{Floating Continent}}s and airships where Rita is a Hat Lady. [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience Represented with green.]]
305** [[spoiler:Universe Aleph: A BeautifulVoid mountain of eggs watched over by Kim-Aleph, where Rita is all of the above and more. Here, ColorCodedForYourConvenience applies more to the characters than the world: Kim-Aleph is green and Rita-Aleph purple.]]
306* ''Webcomic/DelaTheHooda'': Universes are classified into "alternate universes" and "parallel dimensions." Alternate universes are usually {{Alternate History}}, such as Edith's homeworld where Erasmus Darwin unleashed an alien plague that caused mass [[UpliftedAnimal animal uplift]] and can sometimes be traveled to by accident via wandering into "soft places." While parallel dimensions are completely different worlds, such as Dela's "Babylon 5 meets Lord of the Rings" homeworld of Mhâr, and are considerably harder to reach.
307* ''Webcomic/DinosaurComics'' has an alternate universe where everyone has goatees, a ShoutOut to the ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E4MirrorMirror Mirror Mirror]]," in which the Spock counterpart wore a goatee. Anytime you see an alternate universe counterpart with a goatee, chances are it's a ShoutOut to "Mirror Mirror."
308* ''Webcomic/DumbingOfAge'' is an alternate universe to ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'' and the other series in David Willis' Webcomic/WalkyVerse. It reboots the story by placing it back in college (most of the Walky cast graduated from college in 2001) removing the science fiction elements completely, and using a SlidingTimescale so the characters will never graduate. ''Shortpacked!'' continued to run until 2015, and Willis had since started reposting the Walkyverse [[http://www.itswalky.com/ here]] with commentary.
309* In ''Webcomic/DragonCity'', Erin's friend Natasha reveals herself to an alternate universe counterpart despite Erin having blue scales and Natasha having brown.
310** Actually, as Natasha (the brown Erin) points out, due to genetics, Erin was more likely to be brown than blue and that the blue Erin is a genetic fluke.
311** Yes, Erin IS that vain to have made friends with her other world counterpart.
312* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', the WordOfGod said that at least four [[AnotherDimension dimensions]] have meddled with the "main" one. Most of them are Alternate Universes, each with its own version of Tedd or other main characters.
313* In ''Webcomic/FakeNewsRumble'', all the villains came from an alternative universe, as well as protagonist Tek Jensen. Furthermore, every universe contains some version of of our heroes Stephen and Jon.
314* ''Webcomic/FallCityBlues'' revolves around two versions of the same person forced to live together when their alternate universes were merged to save space.
315* ''Webcomic/FiveNightsAtFreddysLostSouls'': One in which Fazbear's Frights was built and a theme park was erected around it to cash in on the in-universe real-life Fazbear murders. However, the attraction burned down under mysterious circumstances, with the other rides beginning to break down shortly after. In the comic's present, the theme park has been abandoned completely, with only the animatronics and the mysterious entity still walking its grounds.
316* ''Webcomic/FreakingRomance'': The whole story is about two people falling in love after their dimensions keep meeting and colliding in their apartment.
317** As it turns out, there's a lot of other dimensions. At least 54 if the number is correct.
318* All the ''Webcomic/FourCorners'' short stories or most [[SideStoryBonusArt extra drawings]] are always putting the characters in alternate universes, and never in the comic's actual timeline.
319* Alternate Universes play a big role in the '[[http://www.goblinscomic.com/02112011-4/The Maze of Many]]' arc in ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}''; the Maze itself is a PocketDimension which allows different iterations of characters from across multiple realities to exist in the same place simultaneously.
320* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', initiating [[spoiler:the Scratch]] creates one of these by [[ResetButton resetting the conditions of the game]], including the players and their universe. [[spoiler:As a result, the players of the initial session switch places with their ectobiological parents, and vice-versa.]] This has happened twice so far: once to Earth, and once to [[spoiler:Alternia]].
321* ''Webcomic/{{Jix}}'' had a story that took place in an alternate reality where Remula had taken over the Earth and it was discovered later that the original Lauren had actually be transported to that universe when she caught up to her counterpart.
322* If they can be successfully opened, Panegates in ''Webcomic/TheMansionOfE'' allow access to alternate universes.
323* ''Webcomic/MinionsAtWork'': Invoked [[http://www.theminionsatwork.com/comic/alternator-problem-remastered/ here]].
324* ''Webcomic/MSPaintMasterpieces'' has a number of alternate timelines that are shown as side-stories. [[spoiler:As X explains in filler, there's only one ''actual'' timeline, and when you mess with time travel, you destroy the projected one, which is what Wily's up to between the first and second games.]]
325* The protagonists of ''Webcomic/PaoniaPawns'' gain the ability to travel between these; in many, some sort of [[ApocalypseHow disaster]] has wrecked the local civilization.
326* ''Webcomic/{{Parallels}}'':
327-->''Keeping the spaceways safe one universe at a time.''
328* One ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'' story featured Leslie travelling to a universe where the Drama Tag was never pulled. Another one-off strip featured a series of parallel universes in which Hasbro had made different announcements about the new ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' toy, making the point that the FanDumb would have been unhappy regardless (and ending with what will probably be the only official ''Webcomic/DumbingOfAge'' crossover.)
329* ''Webcomic/SilverBulletNights'' is basically an alternative universe of ''Webcomic/SmokeFurAndStone''. The creator of both these comics often plays with the idea of alternative worlds and multiple versions of characters in his work.
330* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' is almost the ''Series/{{Sliders}}'' of webcomics. Among the worlds its characters have visited are:
331** A sci-fi dimension heavy on tropes from Star Trek and Alien,
332** A "Dimension of Pain" inhabited by demons,
333** A rather saccharine dimension where everyone is always nice and friendly to each other, there's no beer, and the main source of food is rice cakes,
334** A dimension where everyone has purple hair and speaks Portuguese,
335** An anime-parody dimension where battles between good and evil were regularly fought out by giant robots, in which the entire universe is actually a power source for a giant waffle iron (don't ask),
336** A dimension that has been invaded by Aylee's race, and
337** A dimension that has been overrun by mutants, with the only survivors holed up in the Orwellian 4U City, which keeps its inhabitants drugged into submission.
338** Creator/JohnRingo's ''[[Literature/LegacyOfTheAldenata Hell's Faire]]'' features several Sluggy Freelance strips as if they were created within the novel's setting. This was possibly a favor in return for the shout outs to Sluggy Freelance in the third and fourth books of the series.
339* ''Webcomic/SupernormalStep'' takes place on an AU Earth with magic and fantasy creatures. It is one of [[TheMultiverse many dimensions]], and two of the main characters are actually from our normal, boring one.
340* [[http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=052807 Very briefly done]] in ''Webcomic/{{Vexxarr}}''.
341* ''WebComic/DragonBallMultiverse'': In total there are 20 competing in the tournament, each going down a different path in DBZ history (Goku becoming evil, the Namekians fusing to form a Super-Namekian, etc).
342* ''Webcomic/{{Helvetica}}'' takes place in a world where everyone is 'born' as a skeleton right after they die on the real world. They have none of their old memories and the first word they say becomes their name, no matter how weird.
343* ''Webcomic/ZebraGirl'': The "Angels with Dirty Fur" arc, where the gang is trapped in a parallel cartoon universe GoneHorriblyWrong.
344* ''Webcomic/NoZoneArchive'' focuses on the No Zone from ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'', which was a zone that had nearly all the characters involved in law enforcement.
345[[/folder]]
346
347[[folder:Web Original]]
348* In ''WebOriginal/KeitAi'', two lovers from alternate dimensions help each other out in hooking each other up with the [[AlternateSelf AU versions of themselves]] by telling their deepest, darkest secrets through their cellphones (hence the [[PunBasedTitle title]]).
349[[/folder]]
350
351[[folder:Websites]]
352* ''Website/SCPFoundation''. The Foundation has many contained objects that apparently come from (or are doorways to) other universes, many of which are similar to the Foundation's universe.
353** [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/mackenzie-s-proposal Dr. Mackenzie's SCP-001 Proposal ("The Legacy")]]. In his diary The Administrator claims to originally be from a parallel plane of existence that he calls an "alternate reality".
354** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-093 SCP-093 ("Red Sea Object")]] is capable of transferring people to an alternate world using mirrors. This world is mostly a wasteland filled with futuristic technology and giant humanoid monsters that attack and absorb any living things they see. Explorers from our universe find a journal of an SCP agent from a ''third'' universe that details what happened here. The world the object connects to was visited by an incredibly powerful god-like being only named He, who arrived during the Industrial Revolution and declared the world to be unclean. He instigated a massive Tech Boom for a war to purge the world of sin. This left the world in ruins and the survivors became the giant abominations, mutated thanks to exposure to a pure form of a substance called His Tears, which was apparently supposed to free them from sin. Not only that but there are numerous copies of the Red Sea Object that are all linked to other universes, and there's a possibility that He could use the Object copies to travel to any of them... including ours.
355** [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-507 SCP-507 ("Reluctant Dimension Hopper"]] is a man who randomly and involuntarily gets sent to various ones, which The Foundation keeps a [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/document-507-3b log of.]]
356** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-970 SCP-970 ("The Recursive Room")]]. Anyone who passes through all of the doors in SCP-970 and ends up in their original location will actually be in a slightly different universe. Each time they pass through SCP-970 the universe will change a little more, until things get really strange.
357** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1142 SCP-1142 ("A Cry for Help")]]. SCP-1142 is a radio receiver that broadcasts transmissions from an alternate Earth where the Nazis summoned an EldritchAbomination that is threatening to destroy their world.
358** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1739 SCP-1739 ("Obsolete Laptop")]]. SCP-1739 turns an EldritchAbomination into a SealedEvilInACan by creating one of these. The Abomination is distracted by being allowed to destroy the new universe, keeping it from destroying the universe it's in.
359** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2069 SCP-2069 ("AEGIS")]] is a collection of debris that was blasted into the Foundation's universe. It was the aftermath of when AEGIS (a team up between the Foundation and the Global Occult Coalition) used a doomsday device called NOVA as a last-ditch attempt to stop an AlienInvasion.
360** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2273 SCP-2273 ("Major Alexei Belitrov, of the Red Army's 22nd Armored Infantry Division")]]. SCP-2273 is a soldier from another universe where the U.S. and U.S.S.R. got into a nuclear war.
361** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2332 SCP-2332 ("Thought Messenger")]] is a butterfly made of ultraviolet light that was originally created and sent out by another universe's version of the Foundation. It ended up in this universe by accident.
362** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2451 SCP-2451 ("Love Through Time, Space and Species")]]. SCP-2451 is a doorway to a series of other universes, some of which are very different from the Foundation's universe. In one the "humans" are 8 foot tall bird-like creatures with beaks the size of a human's arm.
363** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2645 SCP-2645 ("Through the Looking Glass")]]. The anomalous mirror SCP-2645 has another universe accessible through its mirrored surface that is initially identical to the SCP Foundation's universe. The contents of that universe can be changed by the influence of entities in the Foundation's universe.
364** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2935 SCP-2935 ("O, Death")]] is a cave underneath a cemetery, which leads to another world exactly like our own, except that all life died at the exact same instant on April 20, 2016. Corpses lay where they fell, vehicles have crashed, trees are broken, and nothing is decomposing because all microbial life is dead as well. ''Even [[NighInvulnerability SCP-682]] is dead.'' What caused it? [[spoiler:This world's Foundation sent someone to investigate their own 2935, and just like our world's Foundation, he too discovered a world where everything died at the exact same instant. Then he came back to his own world, and the instant he did, everything in his world died (except for him, though he [[DrivenToSuicide took care of that himself]] later). The investigators from our Foundation wisely decide not to return to their own world so that the same thing won't happen to it, and send a drone back with their findings and instructions to blow up the cave and seal it off.]]
365** [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-4823 SCP-4823 ("The Whole World Has Gone Bananas!")]] is a banana that functions as a portal to an alternate universe where all life is plant-based and instead of humans, there are humanoid banana-people. Diplomatic relations between our Foundation and their Foundation were going well... [[spoiler:until a single fruit fly accidentally hitched a ride over to Banana World with one of our guys, found the best all-you-can-eat buffet it could ever ask for, and started laying eggs. Six months later, an ApocalypticLog was ejected through the portal, written by a French banana girl as her world was devoured by TheSwarm, with the last entry stating that she is about to die as well, but is sending her journal over so that our Foundation knows ''exactly'' what they did]].
366* Almost every story in ''Website/TheWanderersLibrary'' takes place in a different one.
367* Website/{{YTMND}}:
368** The website gets its name from Sean Connery's line "You're the man now, dog!" in the movie ''Film/FindingForrester''. One user created a YTMND of the full scene containing the line, which also included Connery saying "Punch the keys for God's sake!" This inspired the creation of an alternate universe where the site's creator chose ''that'' line to make his site around instead of "You're the man now, dog!". PTKFGS had slightly different versions of YTMND's fads, such as "omg, internet" instead of "lol, internet", "R U SHUR?" instead of "O RLY?", etc. These sites had a blue PTKFGS watermark in the upper right corner to contrast YTMND's orange watermark in the upper left. This eventually snowballed into the creation of a ''third'' universe, YESYES, named after Connery's exclamation of "Yes! Yes!" in the same scene from ''Finding Forrester''. YESYES sites had a green watermark in the bottom right corner. Multiple attempts were made to create a "fourth corner" universe, but nobody could agree on what to definitively call it since Connery didn't have any more lines in that scene. Proposed suggestions included "HEH" (Connery lets out a small chuckle during that scene), "Typing Noises" (another character can be heard typing on a typewriter during that scene), and "YHTMOAG" ("You have the manners of a goat", a Connery line from ''Film/{{Highlander}}''). Eventually one user created a YTMND establishing lore that the fourth corner was in fact a multiverse containing all proposed suggestions.
369** There were other AU memes on the site beyond the traditional "corners", such as "[=GAYTMND=]" (CampGay and often set to "Shut Up (and Sleep With Me)"), "[[StylisticSuck CRAPTMND]]", "[[EarRape LOUDTMND]]", and "Violin" (which involved edits of other sites to have classical music and pictures of violins pasted into them, and being perpetuated as a ForcedMeme on the front page by a user's repeated donations).
370[[/folder]]
371
372[[folder:Web Videos]]
373* ''WebVideo/FeatherAdventures'': There are several alternate versions of the titular world which are only accessible by portals during special occasions or episodes.
374** The first known one is only accessible on Halloween. The alternate Sqaishey is called 'Sqoshey', the entire world has a much darker atmosphere, mobs like spiders and phantoms are friendly while cows and horses are hostile, and all the pets are bunnies.
375** Another example occurs in Episode 336, "Let It Snow!", where an alternate Sqaishey named 'Sqlushey' appears through a portal. Sqlushey looks like a snowman version of Sqaishey and they leave a trail of snow wherever they go, and appears to [[AnIcePerson have some control over ice and snow]]. They have also been featured in later {{Christmas Episode}}s.
376** A third one appears in Episode 344, "A Polluted World", where the place looks almost normal at first glance (though a bit darker and less cheery) and houses the green 'Sporshey', who spends a lot of their time clearing out rubbish and smog clouds and [[FisherKing shifts between bright and greyish shades of green]] depending on the level of pollution of the land. [[spoiler:The land becomes a lot brighter and more colourful when the rubbish and smog are cleared out, and once more trees and flowers are planted around. Fittingly, the episode where Sporshey is introduced is released on Earth Day 2022 and has a GreenAesop.]]
377** A fourth one makes its debut in Episode 377, "The Water Mystery!!", which is home to the light blue 'Sploshey'. The world itself resembles a dried-up, desert version of Feather Adventures with only tiny pockets of water, and is filled with bleached coral and dead plant life. [[spoiler:Once Sploshey recovers their stolen trident, they are able to restore their world to a stormy but lush world of prismarine, sandstone, and bright and healthy coral. The episode also introduces Sqorchey, a [[PlayingWithFire fiery]], red version of Sqaishey who turns out to be the real culprit of the trident theft.]]
378[[/folder]]
379
380[[folder:Western Animation]]
381* In the season four finale of ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', the GreaterScopeVillain [[spoiler:[[TheDreaded the Lich]]]] finds and opens a portal to TheMultiverse. When Finn and Jake follow, we see them in a universe where the Mushroom War never happened. Thus, the Candy Kingdom doesn't exist, Jake can't talk, and Finn is not the last human. He also has a robot arm. We find out more about this in the season 5 premiere. [[spoiler:Finn wished the Lich out of existence, so he and Jake ended up in an alternate timeline where the Ice King performed a HeroicSacrifice to prevent the final bomb from falling in the Mushroom War, and the creation of the Lich, from ever happening.]]
382* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'' introduced us to the multiverse for a major arc. Among the alternate universes seen are a world where Ben never got the Omnitrix and a post-apocalyptic world a la ''Film/MadMax''.
383* In the ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' episode "[[Recap/CodenameKidsNextDoorS4E4OperationPOOL Operation: P.O.O.L.]]", Numbah Four travels to an alternate world where the KND are the DNK (Destructively Nefarious Kids). His own evil counterpart is the leader (complete with goatee).
384* The Negaverse in the ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' episode "[[Recap/DarkwingDuckS1E33LifeTheNegaverseAndEverything Life, the Negaverse, and Everything]]" -- a mirror universe set up to explain the origin of Negaduck (not to be confused with the self-proclaimed Negaduck whom Megavolt accidentally created in another episode by dividing Darkwing into good and evil clones) The portal to the Negaverse was lost at the end of this episode, in a traditional StatusQuoIsGod ending.
385* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
386** In "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E15TheFarnsworthParabox The Farnsworth Parabox]]", Farnsworth creates a box leading to an alternate universe where every coin toss has the opposite outcome. There are also lots of other boxes, leading to other alternate universes, each linking to each other.
387** In "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E15IDatedARobot I Dated a Robot]]", Fry goes to the edge of the universe and sees alternate versions of himself and his friends, all wearing cowboy hats.
388** In "[[Recap/FuturamaM2TheBeastWithABillionBacks The Beast with a Billion Backs]]", a portal opens to an alternate universe, home to only one sentient being: Yivo, the infinitely huge, love-lorn ball of tentacles.
389** In "[[Recap/FuturamaS6E7TheLatePhillipJFry The Late Phillip J. Fry]]", after Farnsworth, Bender, and Fry have reached the end of the universe, a second Big Bang creates a universe identical to the last, giving the trio a chance to go home. And giving Farnsworth a chance to shoot Hitler. And once they reach their time, Farnsworth accidentally slips on the controls, forcing them to go all the way back around again. This time around, Farnsworth misses Hitler and hits Eleanor Roosevelt instead.
390** In "[[Recap/FuturamaS2E6TheLesserOfTwoEvils The Lesser of Two Evils]]", the sign which says "Tonight: MISS UNIVERSE PAGEANT" a moment later turns into "Tomorrow: MISS PARALLEL UNIVERSE PAGEANT".
391** In "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E8ThatsLobstertainment That's Lobstertainment!]]", there is a Parallel Universal Studios side-by-side with the Universal Studios.
392* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'' featured a timeline where Cobra had succeeded in taking over the world.
393* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' seems like it may take place in one, but then again, it may just be TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture.
394** The Halloween special had one where everyone was a horrific monster version of themselves and they were trying to get into our world with a portal in Dib's head.
395* ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'' episode ''Flipside''.
396* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' had several -- the retro-styled world of the Justice Guild in "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS1E18And19Legends Legends]]", the Vandal Savage-ruled world created through time travel in "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS1E24To26TheSavageTime The Savage Time]]", the dark dystopia of the Justice Lords in "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E11And12ABetterWorld A Better World]]", and others. Notably, the Justice Lords Universe depicts Arkham Asylum, and Gotham City for that matter, as very bright, Metropolis-esque places, in one of the few instances of the city being shown during the day.
397* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': The episode "Let's Play Astronauts" had the main four go to an alternate universe [[ArtisticLicensePhysics through a black hole in space]]. There, Kaeloo's [[HulkingOut transformation]] works in reverse, [[TheWoobie Quack Quack]] and [[VillainProtagonist Mr. Cat]] (known as Meow Meow and Mr. Duck) had each other's personalities and traits, and [[TheDitz Stumpy]] was a genius who loved physics and hated comic books. [[spoiler:It turns out [[AllJustADream Stumpy dreamed this all up]].]]
398** In Episode 70, the main four meet themselves from another dimension where the concept of life is "Let's Learn..." instead of "Let's Play...". Alternate Universe!Kaeloo's [[HulkingOut transformation]] takes place in reverse, and instead of being sweet and gentle, she's strict and somewhat abusive. Alternate Universe!Stumpy is intelligent instead of being TheDitz, and Alternate!Universe Mr. Cat is a quiet idiot who [[ExtremeOmnivore eats books]] instead of an extremely intelligent but AxCrazy psychopath who goes around destroying stuff.
399* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', Tommy and Chuckie think they're in a "Mirrorland".
400* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretSaturdays,'' the whole family (except the female lead's brother) has a twin in an alternate universe, who all try to take out the heroes as ThePsychoRangers.
401* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries:''
402** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeriesS1E8TheMagicksOfMegasTu The Magicks of Megas-Tu]]", the crew of the ''Enterprise'' discover a world where much of their equipment doesn't work, but FunctionalMagic is commonplace. Oddly, [[TheSpock Spock]] adapts quickly.
403** In the other universe shown in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeriesS2E6TheCounterClockIncident The Counter-Clock Incident]]", time runs in reverse, and the only way to travel between universes is to go through a dead star/nova at Warp 36.
404* The various incarnations of the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' have done this quite a bit, with alternate timelines galore.
405* A large percentage of ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' revolves around parallel universes and inter-dimensional travel. In one episode, it is revealed that many of the infinite other Ricks from alternate dimensions came together to form the Citadel of Ricks, a society made entirely up of Ricks with their Morty companions, complete with their own form of government. [[spoiler:The ability to travel between dimensions has also helped the duo on more than a few occasions. Most notable was the time where Rick irreversibly altered the DNA structure of everyone on Earth, making them Cronenberg creatures. They remedied the problem by finding an alternate dimension where both Rick and Morty die shortly after solving the problem, leaving the "invading" Rick and Morty to bury their own corpses and assume their own lives in a new dimension.]]
406* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS12E13SpongeBobsBigBirthdayBlowout SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout]]" has [=SpongeBob=] and company going to a restaurant on the surface called the Trusty Slab and encountering live-action human versions of themselves.
407* The ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "[[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS2E12BraveNewMetropolis Brave New Metropolis]]" features a universe where Lois is assassinated, prompting Superman to team up with Luthor and take over Metropolis.
408[[/folder]]
409
410[[folder:Real Life]]
411* Many physicists and cosmologists are coming up with the possibilities of other worlds, and that there are more than one universe, but multiple universes in the "multiverse". This idea has been theorized in religion, transpersonal psychology, literature, astronomy, and philosophy. Even though the theory is quite popular in science fiction and fantasy cultures, many scientists are trying find proof of existing dimensions. Some believe we are living in parallel universes that had different timelines, alternate histories, and different, but similar environments. But the existence of alternate universes has not yet been confirmed.
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414[[folder:Other]]
415* Come on, we have to mention MediaNotes/JennyEverywhere in here somehow! (She is meant to exist in all possible such universes and can shift between them. Conveniently allowing for [[DependingOnTheAuthor variability in settings and variations on the nature of the character in different stories.]])
416[[/folder]]
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