Fictional Earth needs looking at for TRS I think. Drafting a potential rewrite of its description here to start; other issues can be ironed out in a forum thread
When you see a setting with a map entirely different from ours, it's usually safe to assume that it's separate from the world as we know it. Whether it's Science Fiction or High Fantasy, it's a Constructed World completely different from the one we live in. Sometimes, however, it isn't — the story explicitly identifies it as "Earth," even though it looks completely different.
A Fictional Earth is typically identical to our own in terms of climate and astronomy, orbiting a yellow dwarf star just like ours, with a single moon of about the same size and distance. Its nations, while typically fictional, will often have cultures that loosely parallel real-world countries. The main differences are typically in history and geography — a Fictional Earth allows the writer to weave completely original histories for its nations, and while these histories will often mirror our own in key ways, the writer is free to shape the exact details in whatever manner they please.
These aren't the only differences a Fictional Earth can have from reality, of course — fantasy or science fiction stories utilizing a Fictional Earth may introduce things like magic, fictional animal species, or altered laws of physics. In theory, a setting that's almost entirely divorced from reality could qualify as a Fictional Earth so long as it's identified as such in the narrative, but such instances are rare — most Fictional Earths are still recognizably Earth, with any fantasy elements falling under the Urban Fantasy umbrella.
Note that the planet the story takes place on has to be identified as Earth in some way for it to qualify as a Fictional Earth. Otherwise, you're just dealing with a Constructed World that may or may not be similar to Earth.
Compare Earth All Along, where a planet seems alien at first but turns out to be a version of Earth. Contrast Earth Drift, where a setting starts as Earth but gradually becomes a fantasy world as the series goes on. Like Reality, Unless Noted is when the difference with our Earth is minimal and mostly about events and characters.
