Point of Divergence

Point of Divergence or POD, in alternate history fiction, is the moment when the fictional world stops following the same timeline as our timeline.

Many alternate history stories use an important battle as a Point of Divergence. In How Few Remain, an alternate history novel by Harry Turtledove, the POD occurs when important military orders lost by the Confederacy are immediately recovered. In our timeline, the orderes were discovered by Union forces. Before that moment the history of How Few Remain is the same as ours; from that moment onward, How Few Remain's timeline is different from ours.