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Shared Universe: Difference between revisions
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When [[The Verse]] is shaped by multiple creators, writing independently. Many different comic book titles are set in a collective continuity, making it easy to have a [[Crossover]]. In contrast, a single TV series with multiple writers is just the Verse with subcontractors. Likewise, when different continuities by the same author are tied together later by an [[Intercontinuity Crossover]], that's [[Canon Welding]].
The nature of the Shared Universe — multiple independent creators creating one continuity — can easily lead to a [[Continuity Snarl]] if it lasts a long time and the different creators don't take care to keep things straight. If a Shared Universe starts relying too heavily on continuity, especially if it's obscure or too reliant on each work in the Verse, a [[Continuity Lock Out]] may occur. When creators disagree on the direction the Verse should take, they may fight [[Armed
When they [[Older Than Steam|go back centuries]], [[Older Than Feudalism|and even further]] and [[Older Than Dirt|further]], long before copyrights and trademarks, the Shared Universe turns into one or more actual mythologies. Compare with [[The Verse]], [[Expanded Universe]] and [[Canon]]. Contrast with [[Shout-Out]].
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== Anime and Manga ==
* A truly bizarre case is ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Cromartie High School]]'' and ''[[Di Gi Charat]]''
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* In the [[Savage Dragon]], there is a shared universe that not only consists of the rest of the Image Universe but also creator-owned properties such as [[Hellboy]], [[Madman (Comic Book)|Madman]], and [[Bone]] have made appearances. Aside from that, Erik Larsen likes to [[Lawyer-Friendly Cameo|slip in characters from the Marvel Universe and DC Universe]]. Often, this consists of characters showing up far in the background, being mention in passing but not shown, or having a single boot or glove visible that indicates that those characters are there but enough is concealed to avoid copyright issues.
** Virtually all of the early [[Image Comics]] titles were set in the same universe, with the stars of any given book often making guest appearances in another. However, one of the core ideas of the company was and always has been creator ownership. This caused a [[Continuity Snarl]] no less than ''twice''; Once, when [[Rob Liefeld]] picked up his characters and left to create Awesome Comics (though he returned after Awesome folded), and again when Jim Lee took ''his'' properties, which encompassed about half a dozen titles, and made his Wildstorm Studios into a DC imprint.
** Currently, ''[[
== Fan Fiction ==
* [[
* The AU ''Shadowverse'' stories about [[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] characters Lutecia and Vivio, created by [[Radiant Beam]], also involve many other writers who write about secondary characters in that universe. Each of the various authors tend to write around different themes (spy-thriller, emotional drama, political-thriller, etc) despite writing in the same AU.
* More than a decade after the release of ''Under The Bridge'', ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (
== Film ==
* Because Marvel Films holds the rights to all [[Marvel Comics]] characters not given to other studios ([[Spider-Man (
== Literature ==
* The [[Cthulhu Mythos]] is a famous example of this; professional fanfiction set in his world is not only published, but was also acknowledged and supported by Lovecraft before his death.
* [[
* Susannah Clarke's short story ''The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse'' connects the universes of her novel [[Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell]] to that of Neil Gaiman's novel ''Stardust''.
** Hang on, isn't ''Stardust'' already implied to be part of the ''[[
* The ''[[Wild Cards]]'' books were designed as Shared Universe [[Anthology|Anthologies]] from the ground up.
* [[Border Town]] is a city between the "real world" and Faerie. It was originally created by Terri Windling, but Emma Bull, Will Shetterly, Charles de Lint and several other writers have written stories set there.
* ''[[1632]]'' was originally to be a one-off novel, but due to favorable fan response went beyond that, later expanding into ''The Grantville Gazette'', one of whose main goals is to give previously unknown authors a way to be published, and paid for their work. Unlike with many anthologies, the contributions from other authors affect the "main" story line works. There are very few aspects that are truly forbidden to these authors, primarily those where it would interfere with the prerogatives of Eric Flint, the series creator.
* ''[[Thieves' World]]'' was a [[Darker and Edgier|dark fantasy]] Shared Universe created by [[Robert Asprin]] in the late 1970s. It had contributors like [[Poul Anderson]], [[John Brunner]] and [[Marion Zimmer Bradley]] and generated 12 anthlogies of short stories, seven official novels and a bunch of roleplaying adaptations before writing stopped in 1989. It preemptively dealt with [[Continuity Snarl]] with a preface framing story about an old timer talking to a new arrival in the city about how one should not believe everything in the stories one hears, as everyone spins the stories to fit their agendas, to make themselves sound more important in a good story, or less to blame in a bad one, and two people telling the same story may have wildly different variations.
* The universe of the ''[[Bolo]]'' super-tanks has been shared by everyone from John Ringo to Mercedes Lackey.
* The Russian ''[[Death Zone]]'' series is worked on by several known Russian sci-fi authors and is loosely based on the ''[[STALKER]]'' games. Unfortunately, this tends to create certain [[Canon Dis Continuity|lapses in continuity]]. For example, in [[Andrei Livadny]]'s novels, the Order is portrayed as a rational group that believes in the existence of an otherdimentional point known as the Node based purely on empirical evidence. In [[Roman Glushkov]]'s books, they are fanatics spouting religious nonsense about the Holy Node before sacrificing themselves for the cause. It could be explained that these are different members of the Order interpreting their teachings, if they were not using the same characters.
* The ''[[Liavek]]'' anthology series- stories by several different authors, set in and around the titular city. Apparently Liavek started out as a RPG invented by Will Shetterly for his writer's group, The Scribblies; they later fleshed out the setting and produced five volumes of short stories (and a few poems). Two of the authors- [[John M. Ford]] and [[Pamela Dean]]- later wrote more stories in the same universe.
* The Midnight Rose collective, a group of British SF writers, published several shared-universe anthologies in the early 1990s, with settings including ''[[
* All of Simon R Green's series appear to inhabit the same universe
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* ''[[Warehouse 13]]'' and ''[[Eureka]]'' share a universe with ''[[Alphas]]''.
* ''[[CSI]]'', ''CSI: NY'', ''CSI:Miami'', ''[[
* After a great many hints in the various [[Dan Schneider]] shows, ''[[
* The [[DCLAU]], the Disney Channel Live Action Universe, which is comprised of ''[[Even Stevens]]'', ''[[That's So Raven]]'', ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody|The Suite Life of Zack and Cody/On Deck]]'', ''[[Hannah Montana]]'', ''[[Cory in The House]]'', ''[[Wizards of Waverly Place]]'', ''[[Zeke and Luther]]'', ''[[I'm in The Band]]'', ''[[Pair of Kings]]'', ''[[ANT Farm]]'', and ''[[Kickin It]]''.
* The various seasons of ''[[Power Rangers]]'' are shown to exist in the same Universe. This was most obvious in the early years of the series, which had one, continuing storyline culminating in ''[[Power Rangers in Space]]''. Later seasons tend to downplay this, but the various crossovers and reappearing characters establish that the universe is the same. However, ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]'' takes place in an [[Alternate Universe]], something not made obvious until its crossover with ''[[Power Rangers Samurai]]''.
* ''[[JAG]]'',''[[NCIS]]'', ''[[NCIS: Los Angeles]]'' and the new ''[[Hawaii Five-O|Hawaii Five-0]]'' are a shared world, as evidenced by Kensi's presence in Hawaii.
* All the ''[[Law and Order]]'' series share a world with ''[[Homicide: Life On the Street]]'', due to [[John Munch]].
* The Filmways-produced ''[[
** Also frequent crossovers with [[The Beverly Hillbillies]].
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== Multi-Type ==
* [[Older Than Steam]]: Perhaps the oldest non-mythology example is the ''Jianghu'' (literally "rivers and lakes") fantasy world in which most Chinese [[Wuxia]] books, films, TV series, etc. are set. Jianghu dates at least to the 14th-century novel ''[[
* Each ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' campaign setting is its own [[The Verse|'Verse]] (See the page on D&D for more information), and the associated novels have many different authors, though - like the ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] - the writers usually have to clear their ideas through the universe's owner.
** ''Dungeons and Dragons'' also has all of the settings linked in ''[[Planescape]]'' and ''[[Spelljammer]]'', but those are rarely mentioned as existing except for their own continuities.
*** Given that [[
* The ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' universe is shared by a large number of writers; the sheer scale of the setting in both space and time helps avoid continuity problems.
** In early versions of the background, it was heavily hinted that the ''Warhammer Fantasy'' world was part of a planet cut off from the rest of the universe by warp storms, explaining the many shared elements. However, mentioning this nowadays is liable to get you bundled into a van and never seen again.
* [[Word of God]] places ''[[
** The [[Mutant Enemy|Edlundverse]] perhaps?
* [[Spells R Us]] was started off with Bill Hart's story A Strangeness at the Frat House and then became not so much a universe but a single series of the same character in the same [[The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday|errant shop]] all ending up with customers being transformed into something.
== Video Games ==
* [[Portal (
* The ''[[Super Mario]]'' and ''[[Donkey Kong]]'' series exist in the same universe, as shown through Donkey Kong, Diddy, Dixie, and Funky appearing in Mario spin-offs, as well as Mario and Yoshi appearing in Donkey Kong Country 2. Additionally, due to first appearing in ''Super Mario World'' and ''Super Mario Land 2'' respectively, the ''Yoshi'', ''[[Wario Land]]'', and ''[[Wario Ware]]'' series are also part of the expanded Super Mario Universe. The entire [[Shared Universe]] of Mario, however, is much, MUCH larger.
* ''[[Street Fighter]], [[Final Fight]]'', ''[[
** A few ''Final Fight'' characters (namely Guy, Sodom, Rolento, and Cody) have appeared as fighters in the ''[[
** Haggar appeared in ''Slam Masters'' as a wrestler. The U.S. localization refers to him as the "former mayor of Metro City", although the original Japanese storyline actually places the games before Haggar was elected. A couple of ''Street Fighter'' characters have cameos in the ''Slam Masters'' series (such as Chun-Li, Honda, and Balrog) and the Slam Masters are referenced in Hugo's ending in ''2nd Impact''.
** ''Captain Commando'' takes place in a futuristic version of Metro City. A sculpt of Mike Haggar is featured in the game as an bonus item, and Ginzu the Ninja is a future successor of Guy in the Bushin style of Ninjutsu.
** The first ''Rival Schools'' features Sakura as a playable character (although, her blood type is different from the one given in the ''Alpha'' series). Moreover, the ''Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki'' spin-offs has Hinata studying the "Ken Masters style of Karate" and Iinchou/Chairperson learning "Saikyou-Style" through mail. On the other hand, there are a few date discrepancies according to the first game's intro and Sakura's storyline (in which she's yet to meet Ryu, placing the series pre-''[[
** While not part of the main ''Street Fighter'' continuity, the Arika-developed ''[[
* Koei's [[Warriors Orochi]] was made to confirm that it's series [[Dynasty Warriors]] and [[Samurai Warriors]] take place in the same universe but the second trailer of Warriors Orochi 3 more or less confirms Koei's other games [[Warriors: Legends of Troy]] and [[Blade Storm The Hundred Years War]] due to the presence of Achilles and Jeanne D'Arc. But it also confirms that it's business partner Tecmo series [[Ninja Gaiden]] and [[Dead or Alive]] series take place there due to the presence of Ryu Hayabusa. By extension it might also might also put it in the same universe as the [[Halo Series]] due to the Spartan Nicole's Presence in Dead Or Alive 4.
* The ''Ultima'' series features references to the ''Wing Commander'' series. In ''Ultima I'' there were spaceships that in ''Ultima 7: The Black Gate'' was explained to be the spaceship of the Kilrathi. As pointed out by [[The Spoony Experiment
* ''[[Dig Dug]]'', ''Baraduke'' (or ''Alien Sector'' if you prefer), and ''[[Mr. Driller]]'' are set in the same world, by virtue of Taizo Hori and [[Gender Blender Name|Toby]] [[Dub Name Change|"Kissy"]] [[Samus Is a Girl|Masuyo]] being the parents of Susumu, Ataru, and Taiyo Hori (the first of the three being [[The Hero]] of the ''[[Spinoff Babies|Mr. Driller]]'' series) and the events of the first ''Dig Dug'' being referenced directly in ''Mr. Driller'' (the "Dig Dug incident").
* [[Eve Online]] and the upcoming FPS [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hat4psYcvII&feature=relmfu DUST 514] are part of the same universe... ''literally''. Players will be able to accept contracts and do missions for the player-run companies of [[Eve Online]], and even form their own corporations that [[Eve Online]] players will be able to join.
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* The presence of both Seath the Scaleless and Patches the Hyena seem to indicate that [[Dark Souls]] shares the same world and universe as the [[Kings Field]] series and [[Demons Souls]].
* [[Broderbund Software]] tried to work the Bungeling Empire into most of its early 1980s action games. ''Choplifter'' and ''[[Lode Runner]]'' had it [[All There in the Manual]]; ''Raid on Bungeling Bay'' had it in the title but wasn't really a sequel to anything.
* ''[[
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* Webcomics tend to be chock full of [[Crossover|Crossovers]] and [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]], but very few non-[[Spin-Off]] comics have Shared Universes. Among those that do:
** ''[[Something Positive]]'' and ''[[
** More recently, ''[[Something Positive]]'' and ''[[Girls
** Also recently, ''[[Something Positive]]'' and ''[[Penny and Aggie]]''
** ''[[Melonpool]]'' and the [[Walkyverse]]
*** In fact, all of the above apparently share a universe now, since characters from ''[[Something Positive]]'' and ''[[Girls
*** [[Questionable Content]] as well, though mainly as the odd cameo (and an implied spacewarp between the Shortpacked store and Coffee of Doom, which is actually pretty reasonable by QC standards at least.)
**** Questionable Content also shows Kim Ross, cybernetic protagonist of [[Dresden Codak]], laughing at Pintsize's mishaps in an IRC.
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* Many [http://www.teleread.org/category/paleo-e-books/ Internet writing circles] take the form of shared universes. Some such universes have been around continuously since the mid-1980s.
* The Randomverse contains multiple roleplays run by different people. They include [[The Death Series]], [[The Insane Quest]], [[Smile for The Camera]] and [[TV Tropes the Adventure]].
* Jason Bortz, M. S. Patterson, and Christopher Wright share a universe informally titled "The Foldspace Universe." It's the setting for ''[[
* "In My World" and "Inspector Dan Rather" seem to take place in the same over-the-top-ridiculous universe, although they are told from very different points of view and rarely overlap. [http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2004/09/rather_blames_r.html The only "Inspector Dan Rather" story not told from Rather's delusional point-of-view] seems to confirm this.
* Several "imprints" on the superhero fiction newsgroup rec.arts.comics.creative, notably the [[Legion of Net
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Rugrats]]'', ''[[The Wild Thornberries]]'', and ''[[Rocket Power]]''.
* ''[[Family Guy]]'' and ''[[The Cleveland Show]]'', along with ''[[
* A subtle link exists among four of Marvel and Sunbow's [[Merchandise-Driven]] 1980s cartoons — the character of Hector Ramirez, a [[No Celebrities Were Harmed|thinly veiled]] [[Parody]] of Geraldo Rivera, appears in ''[[
** In Transformers Animated: The [[All Spark]] Almanac II, Vector Prime confirms that all these shows and [[C/O/P/S/]] take place in the Transformers generation 1 continuity.
* Since the ''[[
* While it's pretty obvious that ''[[
** Disney did something similar years later by placing all of its then-running shows into the same universe by giving each show a [[Crossover]] with ''[[Lilo and Stitch: The Series]]'': ''[[
*** If we take Kim's inserted cameo into the "Spot the Diff" version of a ''[[
* The ''[[DCAU]]''.
* The [[Cartoon Network]] universe was first established with "[[Crisis Crossover|The Grim Adventures of the KND]]". It consists of:
** ''[[
** ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy]]''
** ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy|Ed, Edd, and Eddy]]''
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[My Gym Partner's a
** ''[[
** ''[[Squirrel Boy]]''
** Arguably ''[[Camp Lazlo]]'' as well due to being part of the [[Cross Through|CartoonNetwork Invaded crossover]] event.
*** The CN Invaded event was one of four [[E En E]] specials that were mentioned in the [[E En E]] movie.
** Earlier, it was established that ''[[
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