Fictional realms are settings - countries, planets, universes, multiverses or alternative or parallel realities, in which one or more stories are set.

Some writers try to make their own versions of classic legends like Atlantis. Others are unique to one author, such as J. K. Rowling's world of the Harry Potter series; they remain unique partly because of copyright.

It can be argued that every work of fiction generates a world of its own (Robert A. Heinlein coined the neologism Ficton to refer to such a world) but to qualify as a fictional, alternative reality the setting should be distinct and germane to the stories told there.

By their very nature, fantasy and science fiction tend to generate fictional realms, but they may also apply to other types of stories where the time and place in which stories are set invokes a sense of a world apart and unique to the purpose of casting the tales told in it.

See these types:

• Fantasy world
• Fictional city
• Fictional country
• Future history
• Imaginary universe
• Alternate history
• Planets in science fiction
• Science Fiction universe

Other fictional universes:

• Middle-earth
• Hyrule from The Legend of Zelda video game series
• DC Universe
• Marvel Universe
• The Star Trek universe.
• The Star Wars galaxy
• Wild Cards series edited by George R. R. Martin.

• please add more fictional universes to this list

Books:

• Alberto Manguel & Gianni Guadalupi: The Dictionary of imaginary places
• Brian Stableford: The Dictionary of Science Fiction Places

See also: Virtual reality, Mythical place