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In-Universe, those are actual people, not fictional characters.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
So, Beethoven for inuniverse real characters?
My understanding is that Been There, Shaped History is when a major character in a story has been present and involved in major historical events. They don't necessarily have to have been anyone important to history themselves, but they can be.
Beethoven Was an Alien Spy is when major historical figures are, themselves, alien or otherwise supernatural.
So Dresden characters slotting into its lore, like being past Winter Knights or The Merlin, would fit in the latter trope. Meanwhile, something like Morgan using Trinity, New Mexico's atomic bomb tests to kill a Skinwalker, or the White Court having a direct hand in the writing of Bram Stoker's Dracula might be more the former.
Edited by sgamer82
^ Workable distinction
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
Where do characters of legend fall between these two? In The Dresden Files, there are characters of other legends, King Arthur being a Knight of the Cross, and Tam Lin being the Winter Knight for a time, come to mind, who were not created by the author but neither are they actual people. At least with Arthur the one used in story is more of the man from the fictions rather than anything based on an actual person.