Harry Turtledove Wiki



Welcome to Turtledove Wiki , An encyclopedia on Harry Turtledove's Literature. &mdash; Special:Statistics articles in English &mdash; Warning: Spoilers are to be expected. See our Spoiler Policy for details.''

Turtledove Wiki is an encyclopedia of people, places, and events that are portrayed in the writings of Harry Turtledove, famed author in the genre of alternate history. These articles can include information about both the historical person and the alternate version(s) Turtledove creates in his fantastic stories. We also have articles on his novels, stories and other writings -- he's written numerous works of historical fiction, fantasy, and science fiction in addition to his alternate history works.This is not a site for speculative writing or fan-fic!

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Popular Categories
These categories are probably the most interesting to first-time visitors.
 * Bibliography
 * Videssos
 * Historical Figures
 * Alternate History
 * Southern Victory
 * Worldwar
 * The War That Came Early
 * Atlantis

All Categories


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Newest pages
 A list of the most recent pages created for this project: http://turtledove.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:Newpages&feed=rss|charset=UTF-8|short|max=9 More new pages
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Ruled Britannia is an Alternate History novel by Harry Turtledove, published in 2002. It won the Sidewise Award for 2002.

Plot summary
It is set in the year 1597, in an alternate universe where the Spanish Armada is successful. The Kingdom of England has been conquered and converted to Catholicism under the rule of Queen Isabella, daughter of Philip II of Spain. Queen Elizabeth is imprisoned within the Tower of London as her fellow Protestants are burned as heretics by the English Inquisition. Scotland continued to be independent under the Protestant King James VI. Border clashes continued throughout this period.

Read more

The Most important Rules
While the nature of writing about fictional works requires a certain amount of flexibility, ad hoc decision making, and some policies may be subject to change, we have two cardinal rules we observe here:

When writing articles about the characters or events of a work, write in past-tense, and in-universe.
That's self-explanatory.

It's usually best to avoid references to our own timeline in an article. Jake Featherston doesn't know he's a functional equivalent of Adolf Hitler, and so addressing their similarities in the article is unnecessary. Obviously, there are instances where the characters involved in the story are somehow aware that there are multiple timelines (e.g., the Crosstime Traffic series), and so comparisons in the article make some sense.

However, that is not to say comparisons with OTL are unwelcome; just refrain from using them in the "historical analysis" portion of the article. Instead, save them for a separate section at the end of the article, in a subsection of their own. In some cases, an article dedicated to comparing Turtledove's work to OTL might be warranted.

Stay within the parameters of what Turtledove actually put on the page!
Don't worry about trying to fill in the gaps of knowledge that Turtledove inevitably leaves. If a person, place, or thing is fleetingly referenced, its enough to note the fleeting reference. For example, Peru is quickly referenced as being at war with its neighbors in the Southern Victory. Obviously, there might be some actual historical basis for this alternate historical event, but including that information in an article is completely unnecessary, as it would be highly speculative.

Speculation Policy
Speculation in articles is discouraged as a rule. All articles should be about people, places, and events at least mentioned (or described obliquely) in Harry Turtledove's work. However, Turtledove does not always fully describe the people and events that are peripheral, a certain level of speculation is tolerable if: 1) It has some factual basis in Turtledove's writing; and 2) It is needed to reconcile an inconsistency in Turtledove's work or otherwise produce a coherent article.

An excellent example is Franklin D. Roosevelt as he appears in Southern Victory. When he is first introduced, FDR is a member of a Democratic administration. However, for the remainder of the series, FDR is described as a lifelong Socialist. Turtledove never directly addresses this inconsistency, and so speculation is necessary for the article to work.

This is not a site for fan-fic
This site is not a place for creative writing. For example, Martin Luther King's role in In the Presence of Mine Enemies has no place here, as he was neither mentioned by name nor described in any way in that work.

Creating Articles for historical figures
When adding information for a historical character who appears in unrelated works, separate that information using appropriate sub-headings. See model entry, or for example, Abraham Lincoln. To limit confusion to new visitors, its best to begin the article with a brief sketch of the historical figure's biography. It needn't be a complete survey of that person's life, merely the highlights of why that person is remembered/important to our history.

Links can be made to specific subsections of articles. This is especially useful with Historical Figures and geography generally. For example, a link to Abraham Lincoln in Southern Victory would look like this: Abraham Lincoln.

Don't forget to use the character templates.
See Template:Infobox Historical Figure and Template:Infobox Fictional Character.

Creating categories
When creating new categories, it's best to first consider how many articles might actually be listed in that category. Usually, a category should have at least three articles to start, but that is not a hard and fast rule.

All series should have their own categories, as should stand alone novels and short stories.

Subcategories for characters should be created in most instances. See the Characters category for a list of categories that apply to characters, including nationality, religion, profession, etc. Not all of Harry Turtledove's short stories embrace many characters. Some may have one or two. In those instances, a subcategory is probably unecessary.

Geography may be divided by continent, country, state/province, or city.







Create these articles
These are articles that have been linked but haven't been created yet:

More wanted pages

Expand these articles
See the Stub category for articles that have been created, but still need more content.

Historical Figures need pics
Some articles about Historical figures require pictures of the subject. Please feel free to add photos, drawings, paintings, etc.

Help build templates
We need help creating and/or improving templates. Here's what we have right now: Category:Templates.

Links
Other AH wikis:
 * S. M. Stirling Wiki
 * Eric Flint Wiki

