AlternateHistory.com
is, as this page was written, the internet's largest Alternate History site since the collapse of Soc.history.what-if. Revolves around a discussion forum that has been in existence since 2000 and in its current form since 2004. Has produced a great deal of AH fiction output; a full list of timelines with links can be found here on the site's wiki.
AH.com has also produced some AH, science fiction and fantasy stories in the form of prose, which can be found here.
However, the forum's Off Topic section is also notable for having developed its own subculture over the years, filled with Running Gags and Memetic Mutation. All of this has found its expression in AH.com: The Series, a satirical comedy-cum-drama (Depending on the Writer) series parodying both common Alternate History settings and tropes, and more generically the futuristic sci-fi setting of the titular crosstime ship. The crew and most of the guest cast is made up of fictionalized forms of the Board's own members. If it can be categorized as a Self-Insert Fic, we can only conclude that most AH.commers are raving sadomasochists, given what usually happens to the crew.
In addition to the main Series, there have been several other similar productions, such as Luaky Commer and AH.com Wars (parodies of Harry Potter and Star Wars starring the characters from the Series), the Spin-Off AH Dot Com The Next Generation, and others.
As a disclaimer, however, much of the content, including the Future History, ASB and Off Topic sections, on the forum is accessible only to logged in members. The main logic behind it (according to the moderators) is so that it would encourage people to sign up for the more "serious" discussion threads, with the rest available afterwards (with a Writers' Block section sensibly restricted for copyright reasons).
It also has a Shared Worlds section divided up into Shared Worlds, Moderated Games, Nation Games, and Map Games.
In addition to their main wiki, they have also created their own variation on TV Tropes, titled (of course) AH Tropes. It's currently in its infancy, so Wiki Magic is necessary.
Due to server issues, the site goes down at least once a month. It always comes back up eventually.
open/close all folders
AH.com Works with TVTropes pages
Works from this website referenced here:
- Ad Astra Per Aspera
- Agent Lavender
- An Age of Miracles
- A Work Of Divine Providence
- AH.com Eternals
- AH.com: The Series
- AH World Cup
- AK47's ISOT Mapgame
- All Along the Watchtower
- An Alternate History of the Netherlands
- An Examination Of Extra Universal Systems Of Government
- America's Stepbrother, America's Enemy
- The Anglo/American – Nazi War
- Arose From Out The Azure Main
- As One Star Sets Another Rises
- ATL Meetup
- The Biden Express
- Blue Skies In Camelot
- Bouvet Island Map Game
- A Brave New Century
- British Imperialism of the 19th Century
- The Britwank Empire
- Canadian Power: The Canadian Forces as a Major Power
- Catherverse
- A Central East
- Chaos Timeline
- The Confederacy
- The Consequences Of An Errant Shell
- The Creepy Teen Years
- Crisis In The Kremlin
- The Cuban Missile War
- Damsels and Dirigibles
- The Dawn of a System
- The Dead Skunk
- Death Of A Nation
- Decades of Darkness
- Decisive Darkness
- Diaries Of The Doofus King
- Dirty Laundry: An Alternate 1980s
- Disaster At Leuthen
- Dying a Dream
- Dystopic Return of Magic
- Earth's Alien History
- Englishman
- The Eugenics Wars: A Brief History
- Event Horizon: Storm of Magic
- Eyes Turned Skywards
- The Falcon Cannot Hear
- Fear, Loathing and Gumbo on the Campaign Trail '72
- Fictional ISOT Map Game
- Fight and Be Right
- Five Colors for a Dime
- The Footprint Of Mussolini
- For All the Marbles
- For All Time
- Forgotten No More
- The Fountainhead Filibuster: Tales from Objectivist Katanga
- A Giant Sucking Sound
- Godforsaken Future
- A Golden Island To The West
- Gorbachev Mk II
- A Greater Britain
- Great Interstellar War
- Green Antarctica
- Hakko Ichiu
- Hammer's, Sickle's, and Mushroom Clouds
- Heart of Dixie
- Her Diamond Heart
- The History Of Arturius Aurelianus
- Hogwarts Exposed Timeline
- Holding Out for a Hero: Gustav Stresemann Survives
- Icarus Falls
- The ISOT'd House: One Woman Goes from 2012 to 1952
- An ISOT In Grimdark
- Keynes Cruisers
- The Land Of Freedom
- Lands of Ice and Mice
- Lands of Red and Gold
- The Legacy of the Glorious
- A Light In The Darkness
- Look to the West
- Losing The Peace
- McGoverning
- Make A Good Lawyer
- Malê Rising
- Mass Effect Co OPA Voyage To The Galaxy
- Misadventure to a Tripolar World
- A More Personal Union
- The Navatlacas: Heirs to Hernan and Montezuma
- New Deal Coalition Retained
- No Man's Land: Tales from the Weird Wars
- No Southern Strategy
- No Spanish Civil War in 1936
- No W
- Now Blooms the Tudor Rose
- On the Shoulders of Giants
- Orange Tempest
- Our Struggle
- Pax Atomica An American Dystopia
- Philippines and the Three Renegade Countries
- PISOT
- Player Two Start
- Power Rangers Gunslinger Company
- Price Of Wisdom
- Protect and Survive: A Timeline
- Pure Souls Roleplay
- Qilai Qilai
- Red Dawn +20
- Reds
- Reimagined Enterprise
- Rejection And Revenge
- O Renascimento de um Império
- Revolution Or A Victorian Cold War
- Robb Returns
- The Ruins of an American Party System
- The Selma Massacre
- Sean Bean Saves Westeros
- The Shield Of Liberty
- The Silver Knight
- The Tiger Awakens
- Southern USA Isot Game
- Soviets In The Sun
- Space Cadet
- A Spark of Ice and Fire
- Spectre Of Europe
- Spiralling Out of Control
- Star Trek: A New Beginning
- Star Trek: Union
- Story of a Party
- Stupid Luck And Happenstance
- Superpower Empire: China 1912
- A Symphony of Eternity
- Swarm on the Somme
- Teen Lit Wasteland
- That Wacky Redhead
- Theocracy Empires Of Abominaton
- To A Place You Do Not Know
- To Rule Them All A Lord Of The Rings ISOT
- Two Lucky Princes
- The Eagle Down Under
- Thousand-Week Reich
- The Tiger Awakened
- The Twilights Last Gleaming
- Twilight of the Red Tsar
- Union and Liberty
- The Union Forever
- United States of Ameriwank
- A Valkyrie Rises Over Europe
- Vive la Francewank
- Vivere Militare Est
- Weber's Germany: The Veterinarian Totalitarian
- Weimar World
- We'll Meet Again
- The Whale Has Wings
- What Madness Is This?
- A World of Laughter, a World of Tears
- Worldfall
- The World Turned Upside Down
- Worldwar: War of Equals, an adaptation of a thread called Race 2012 Invasion map game.
- Zhirinovsky's Russian Empire
Note that many of these timelines and scenarios (whether fully finished or not) are quite grand examples of Archive Panic. You have been warned...
AH.commers on TVTropes
AH.commers who are also tropers include:
- AHI-3000 note
- AK 47 Productions
- Analytical Engine
- Askelion
- Brainbin
- Bhlee0019
- Burstkiller
- Canonier
- CJ Miller note
- Comrade Tovarich
- Crackers N Cheese
- Cryolemon note
- Counter Blitzkrieg note
- Django
- dracogeorgenote
- DracoLazarus
- Drcynic
- Dr Nodelescu
- Dr. Strangelove
- Emperor Oshronnote
- Fenrir Angerboda
- Geekhis Khan
- Iserlohn 92note
- IEPHnote
- jameshunter
- kasumigenx
- Kinkajounote
- Laqueesha
- Marr965
- Max Sinister
- Medicus
- Meshakhad
- Milarqui
- Moogi
- Nothing Now
- PachPachis
- Paulie Romanov
- Razgriz 2 K 9
- Remitonov
- Romagnadvoratrelundarnote
- rvbomally
- The Pest 179
- The Sandman
- Santos L Halpernote
- Screwy Sqrl
- StarSword
- Thande
- Tovarishch note
- Turtler
- viperhawkz
- Vulcan Trekkie 45
- Whitewings
- Wilcoxchar
- yourtowndrunk
- Zemplin Templarnote
- Zacoftheaxes
Tropes appearing in AH.com board culture include:
- 419 Scam: Often referenced due to similar scams being attempted by spambots invading the forum occasionally. The name 'Charles Akawele' for an archetypal Nigerian spammer is a Running Gag.
- Alien Space Bats: The Trope Namer is soc.history.what-if, of which AH.com is a spiritual descendant.
- Alternate History – Nazi Victory: The "Nazi Victory" is generally seen as cliche, not only because it's primarily popular for newbies to the forum, but because it's very prone to Alternate History Wank and Artistic License – History for the sake of Rule of Cool. In particular, positing "Operation Sea Lion", the planned Nazi German invasion of the United Kingdom in 1940, as a Point of Divergence has become a meme on the forum for being one of the most ill-conceived invasion plans in recorded history and highly unlikely to result in a Nazi victory. Still, there are a few timelines that have gained some acclaim for being well-written/researched, such as The Anglo/American – Nazi War .
- Argentina Is Nazi-Land: Averted. The board has long deemed this an overblown cliché, whether in AH works or real life (the idea of Nazi emigrees setting up a Fourth Reich in South America is ridiculed in particular).
- As You Know: This overly obvious mode of infodump tends to be frowned upon by the AH community as bad form, but can't always be avoided.
- This is a trope especially endemic in Double-Blind What If scenarios, when they don't just degenerate into roleplaying.
- Brain Bleach: AH.com's version is to scream and call for "THE FORKS! THE FORKS!"
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Justified Trope, given the Alternate History settings the board's authors create and tackle. Here's the specific wiki page that lovingly maps the whole phenomenon.
- Cosmic Horror Story: Parodied with "The Underboard" running gag.
- Different World, Different Movies: Naturally, alternate popculture is a frequent feature of many of the board's AH stories and projects. Pages compiling some discussions on these topics can be found here and here.
- Double-Blind What-If: Naturally, some forum games will ask for an “alternate timeline” that produced an event in real history, with the forum members coming up with both a timeline without it, and then determining how residents of that world would write the original request.
- Eagleland: When "Ameriwank" scenarios come up, generally their authors have flavour #1 in mind and everyone else is pointedly reminded of flavour #2.
- El Spanish "-o": A Running Gag on the site, started by member Thermopylae, who refers to map updates to his timelines as "El Mappo!", and later used by the Heterosexual Reconquista.
- Everything's Better with Plushies: Several years ago, the site started the "Sealion World Tour". This joke project is still on-going in 2011. The members send a plush sealion named Sealion from one member to another, who'll take pictures and post them on the forum. Sealion has been to four continents so far and has last been seen in Brazil. The reason they used a sealion? It's an ironic mascot of the site, referencing a surprisingly popular yet horribly implausible AH scenario. It gets better when you find out the person who is supposed to receive said stuffed animal in the end is nicknamed on the forum... "The Overlord".
- Fake Movie Real Trailer: This thread.
- Fan Sequel: Many published works of alternate history have received this experimental treatment over the years in various scenarios posted on the board. These unofficial re-imaginings and continuations are usually of high quality. Her Diamond Heart is one of the re-imaginings of S.M. Stirling's The Peshawar Lancers. Decades of Darkness was explicitly created as as an attempt to make a realistic timeline with an evil empire in the vein of The Draka, making it an Inspired by... re-imagining of sorts. There's even an unofficial continuation of Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191 series.
- For Want of a Nail: Great care is usually taken by writers of counterfactual timelines in the choice of the point of divergence.
- Horse of a Different Color: In the board's less serious moments you will occasionally find mention of Bear Cavalry and the like for sheer Rule of Cool. Though outside the Alien Space Bats area of discussion, expect to see some deconstruction of the possibility for less likely animals.
- Inexplicable Cultural Ties: Criticised and dubbed the "Citroen DS Incident". (The latter was based on how a former forum member once criticised the use of too much real world iconography on the reimagined Battlestar Galactica and in AH fiction).
- Intentionally Awkward Title: There's a timeline called "The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies".
- Istanbul (Not Constantinople): As with the alternate terminology seen in many timelines, alternate geographic names are equally common.
- Lost Episode: In an infamous 2011 case of moderator powers abuse, now-banned board member maverick hard-deleted several threads from the discussion board, most of which were his own extensive timelines, projects and stories, an event that would become known as the Maverick Mutiny. Though some efforts have been made to recover them via the Internet Archive and similar sources, most of them have been permanently lost.
- Mad Mathematician: Zyzzyva jokingly received this kind of reputation.
- Mass Teleportation: Quite common in scenarios involving Alien Space Bats. The local term is ISOT, a verbed abbreviation derived from the initials of S.M. Stirling's novel Island in the Sea of Time. (E.g. "I'll ISOT myself/country XY/person XY to the year...").
- Middle Eastern Coalition: Routinely spoofed and skewed. Popular joke names include "the Randomid Caliphate", "Implausiblid Caliphate", "The Obligatory Supercaliphate", and "the Inevitablid Caliphate".
- No Name Given: The Sealion World Tour featured a stuffed toy sealion called... Sealion, because nobody could think of a suitable name. He was eventually dubbed "Silas" by the Brazilians, a Punny Name that only works in Portuguese.
- Patriotic Fervour: Parodied, occasionally played straight.
- People's Republic of Tyranny: A number of examples appear in various timelines.
- Person as Verb: The mapmaking style of member B_Munro (minimalism coupled to snarky annotations) has become so popular that other mapmakers often refer to taking an older map and "B_Munrofying it".
- Play-by-Post Game: The Shared Worlds section contains a variety of them (map games, Alternate History RPGs, etc.). A good deal of them become complex stories or universes given enough time.
- Podcast: The AH.com Podcast.
- Running Gag : In addition to using some mainstream internet memes, AH.com has
its own set.- There are also various related memes about the most common Cliche Storms seen in timelines (especially those of newbie authors preferring Alternate History Wank).
- At one point, there was a tendency to give really sadistic Crapsack World scenarios the "Vlad Tepes Award◊" (aka Vlad Dracula, Vlad the Impaler). That name alone explains itself. Due to increasing overuse, this meme is now frowned upon.
- "If I see that damned Kazakh border one more time..."
- The collection of silly names for an "Eeebiiiil Muslim Middle Eastern Coalition". A variant is the "Boat People's Caliphate", a mocking name for a hypothetical Indonesia-led alliance of south Asian Muslim countries (a staple of the already cliché scenario "random near future war between Indonesia and Australia").
- Another notable running gag is that all the German members on the forum actually constitute a Hive Mind - despite their constant political arguments, which are held to be only an elaborate cover.
- Someone is bound to bring up the infamous "China need not democracy, need not throwing banana" statement by pro-Red China troll "kahing" every time there's a thread on said country.
- Trolls in general are often regarded as a rich and treasured source of memes among AH.commers.
- Occasionally, a discussion will bring up this obligatory string of statements:
"X needs a warm water port!""And Alsace-Lorraine!""And a transcontinental railroad to connect them!"- And, of course, "Blaming Thande". The member in question has remarked that "back in 2007, it was everywhere and part of the site culture's canon - by now, it's gone borderline meta...".
- There are also various related memes
- Scrapbook Story: Many of the best works on the site.
- Shown Their Work: Because of their love for the genre, the members of the board try to do this as much as possible - even when writing deliberately silly and Rule of Fun scenarios and timelines.
- Silly Reason for War: While some of the on-board disputes have an amount of seriousness to them, they've been mostly jocular in nature.
- Spell My Name with an "S": Nobody can ever agree on how to spell Colonel Gaddafi's name.
- Testosterone Poisoning: At one point a beard-growing contest was held, with the winner being given the title of "Ultimate AH.com Macho Manly Mountain Man In The Height Of His Manliness".
- Unknown Rival: Alternia.
- Zeppelins from Another World: Generally seen as a codeword for "this timeline shouldn't be taken entirely seriously." They've been sporked as a cliche, but everyone still admits that they're too cool not to put in somewhere.
