Encyclopedia Miscellania

Continuity Notes



Continuity in this context is used synonymously with terms such as "reality", "universe", "world", "future history", or any term used to distinguish a particular reality. Every Encyclopedia entry is designated as belonging to one or more continuities, a master list of which may be found below. For example, a real person would have the designation "Continuity: RL", standing for real life, at the end of their entry. A fictional character would be labeled with the appropriate continuity of their source. If you're still confused, take a look at the list on continuities below to get more of an idea of what I'm talking about.

Note on existing works of fiction: Since a given work of fiction, for example, Foundation by Isaac Asimov, exists in real life but also describes a different, fictional continuity, it is labeled as belonging to both those continuities. So for example, the entry for Foundation would have the designation, "Continuity: RL, Asimov".

Some of the more common continuities have icons associated with them. These icons are shown in the list below, and can be found in the upper-right hand corner of various Encyclopedia entries.


Alphabetical list of Continuities with brief explanatory notes. Note that not all of these are necessarily in use in the Encyclopedia at this time, and that this list may be expanded, especially during the Beta stages of developement.

anime - This is a generic designation for the universe of any anime series not covered by one of the major series listed seperately.

Asimov - The vast future history created by the late, great Isaac Asimov. This includes his Robot novels, Empire stories, and the Foundation series, as well as other short stories.

Babylon 5 - The future history laid out in J. Michael Straczinski's Babylon 5 TV series.

Discworld - The multiverse of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels.

Dominia - The multiverse of Wizards of the Coast's card game Magic: The Gathering (tm). Includes all expansion sets.

Hitchhiker's - The universe of Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series.

Marathon - The future history of the Marathon trilogy of games for Macintosh by Bungie Software. Their earlier game Pathways Into Darkness also falls within this continuity.

misc - Used for anything not covered by a major continuity.

RL - Real life. This is fairly self explanatory. However, since reality is debatably a subjective thing, people may have differring opinions of exactly what is real. Your mileage may vary.

Star Wars - The galaxy of George Lucas classic sequence of movies.

Square - The multiple realities of Square's video role-plauing games, including the Final Fantasy series and Chrono Trigger.

Takahashi - The universe of manga artist Rumiko Takahashi's major works. These are lumped together because they are not mutually contradictory, and are often considered to occur in the same universe. They include Ranma 1/2, Urusei Yatsura, and Maison Ikkoku among others.

Tolkien - The realms of Middle Earth as laid out by J.R.R. Tolkien in The Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings novels, the Silmarillion, and other books.



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Last Modified 7/24/96; ©1996 by Ben Elgin who should have been doing real work.