Popular fictional works, such as Tolkien's excellent and detailed Middle-Earth books, can serve as the basis for alternate history. Due to the presence of magic, all scenarios inside this universe are considered ASB.

Note that some of these scenarios, as well as many others, are explored in alternate universe fanfics on many different websites.

• Middle-earth WIs
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• WI: Continued Age of the Lamps
• Fingolfin kills Morgoth
• WI Fingolfin defeated Morgoth ?
• Fingon's army survives the Battle of Unnumbered Tears
• WI "good" Orcs in Tolkien's works ?
• Turin marries Finduilas
• Only part of Beleriand sinks
• ASB AHC: High-King of the Noldor in the Third Age
• Galadriel marries Annatar
• Who are the Nazgul ?
• Tar-Miriel becomes ruling queen of Númenor
• WI: Ar-Pharazon didn't attack Valinor ?
• WI: Civil war between supporters of Tar-Miriel and Ar-Pharazon
• Army of the Dead helps Isildur (while alive)
• Isildur destroys Ring
• Orcish mercenaries hired against Sauron
• Would Gondor accept a claimant from the line of Beruthiel and Tarannon ?
• Saruman stays loyal
• The Swan and the Tree: Civil War in Gondor
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• The Hobbit WI: Erebor never falls to Smaug
• Arda WI : Aragorn raised by hobbits
• WI: Hobbit military
• Challenge: Save Middle-Earth without the help of Bilbo
• Gandalf never met Thorin
• Bilbo kills Gollum (1)
• Bilbo kills Gollum (2)
• WI Bilbo never told Gollum who he was and where he was from ?
• Sauron isn't removed from Dol Guldur but Bilbo still has the One Ring and returns to the Shire
• Gandalf and Bilbo stop at Lothlorien after Battle of the Five Armies
• Bilbo stops at Lothlorien on way home
• Gandalf doesn't meet Thorin
• Frodo leaves Hobbiton earlier
• Gandalf takes the Ring
• WI Gandalf uses the Ring of Power ?
• Gandalf joins Saruman
• Challenge: Switch the fates of Saruman and Gandalf
• WI: Saruman repents
• WI Frodo doesn't make it to Rivendell in time ? Or Wraith Frodo ?
• Gildor escorts Frodo to Rivendell
• The Ring is taken to the Grey Havens
• Frodo killed by the spear in Moria
• Gandalf survives Moria (1)
• Gandalf survives Moria (2)
• Gandalf dies in Moria and stays dead
• Plausibility check: Would Galadriel rescue Gandalf ?
• Boromir holds out longer
• Boromir survives
• Western Eriador Contributes
• Harad stays out of War of the Ring
• WI: Gollum gets killed, Faramir joins Frodo and Sam
• Rohan loses at Helm's Deep
• Gollum dies; Sauron wins
• WI Sauron wins
• Various PODs (1)
• Various PODs (2)
• One-on-one battles against Saruman
• What would Middle Earth's Fourth Age look like?
• LOTR - WI the Valar have a Plan B ? AKA Return of the Noldor
• Disproving the eagles dropping ring into Mount Doom premise ?
• Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

• Middle-Earth as the past of the real world (1)
• Middle-Earth as the past of the real world (2)
• Middle-Earth as the past of the real world (3)
• Middle-Earth as the past of the real world (4)
• Best place for Minas Tirith in OTL Europe
• Every human in North America replaced in 2000 BC with Tolkien's hobbits
• WI: Silmarillion ISOTed to between 300 BCE to 300 CE
• Sauron ISOTed to 280 BC Tasmania
• Rome vs. Middle-Earth
• Roman legion ISOTed from the Battle of Pharsalus to near Erebor before the Battle of the Five Armies
• Ride of the Rohirrim ISOTed to the Battle of Hastings
• Numenoreans replace the Normans in Europe
• WI The First Crusade was ISOTed to Beleriand from The Silmarillion ?
• Sauron, with Ring, ISOTed to Holy Roman Empire
• Mongols vs. Middle-Earth
• Isengard ISOTed to Europe or Japan in the 1300s (plus preliminary discussion)
• Straight Road leads to America, not Valinor
• Ar-Pharazon's fleet ISOTed to 1492 America
• Númenor ISOTed to mid-Atlantic in 1500
• Númenor ISOTed to mid-Atlantic in 1600
• Napoleon's Campaign on the Anduin
• Joseph Smith discovers The Hobbit instead of the Book of Mormon
• Mines of Moria ISOTed to 1850 Britain
• Morgoth returns at Tunguska
• Smaug ISOTed to 1914
• WWI German army ISOTed to Pellenor Fields
• The Japanese Invade Mordor - In a homage to a Tolkien scrap.
• Afrika Korps at Helm's Deep
• Nazis ISOTed to Mordor
• Iwo Jima 1945 switched with the Lonely Mountain during The Hobbit
• 11th Airborne helps Gondolin fight Morgoth
• Gandalf ISOTed from Moria to 2001 Afghanistan
• Mordor and Iran swap places
• America replaced by Valinor
• Beleriand (from Tolkien's The Silmarillion) becomes connected to 2012 Europe
• The Lord of the Rings/The Silmarillion Noldor ISOT
• Earth transported to Eä (Silmarillion / Tolkienverse)
• LOTR Main Actors end up in Middle Earth
• Miranda Otto (the actress) replaces Eowyn
• (insert name here) ISOTed to Middle Earth
• Hobbit neighborhoods in America's and Western Europe's major cities
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• The Misplaced Legion in Fourth Age Gondor
• Grantville in Middle-Earth (1)
• Grantville in Middle-Earth (2)
• Gandalf vs. Dumbledore
• Gandalf replaces Dumbledore
• Sauron and Ringwraiths replace Voldemort and Death Eaters
• Witch-King takes over the Death Eaters
• Harry and Ron replace Frodo and Sam
• Thangorodrim and Beleriand ISOTed to Westeros
• WI: Mordor ISOTed into ASOIAF
• ISOT WI: Numenor vs the Valyrian Freehold
• WI: The Noldor in Westeros
• Fire Nation in Middle-Earth
• Valinor ISOTed to Thedas
• Dwemer settlements and mines ISOTed to Ered Luin dwarven settlements and mines
• The Lord of the Swords
• Lord of the Gates
• 1000 Klingon Warriors ISOTed to Helms Deep
• Hobbit Trek
• USS Enterprise encounters Middle Earth
• Mordor ISOTed to Pandora
• WI X-men ISOTed to LOTR
• LOTR X-(wo)men Style: A Mutant Fellowship
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• What if there was no Tolkien ?
• Two PODs early in the life of Tolkien
• WI: J. R. R. Tolkien dies in World War I (1)
• WI: J. R. R. Tolkien dies in World War I (2)
• Tolkien and C.S. Lewis killed on the Western Front
• Tolkien of Arabia: WI Tolkien assigned as a soldier in Arab Revolt alongside T. E. Lawrence and his experiences shape his writing about Arda and Middle Earth ?
• JRR Tolkien dies in WWI, what does the fantasy genre look like today ?
• Plausibility check: Tolkien finishing more of his Arda Legendarium works and sooner ? (And the influence of this on other early fantasy writers.)
• Plausibility check: Tolkien becomes an agnostic
• WI J.R.R. Tolkien completes and publishes the Silmarillion ?
• WI Tolkien publishes Silmarillion before writing LOTR ?
• WI: Tolkien and C.S. Lewis had died in a fire at the Eagle and Child pub in March 1938
• No Lord of the Rings
• Challenge: The War of the Jewels & LOTR
• The Lord of the Rings published as one volume
• The Lord of the Rings is published as seven books
• WI J.R.R. Tolkien didn't publish The Lord of the Rings during his lifetime (until the 1970s)
• WI: Tolkien lives longer ?
• Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

• J.R.R. Tolkien dies early, Robert E. Howard lives. What would the effects on the fantasy genre be like ?
• The Hobbit and LotR, by Tolkien and Lewis; The Narnia Chronicles by Lewis and Tolkien
• Hollywood writes sequels to LOTR
• Generic sci-fi authors rewrite LOTR
• George Orwell writes LOTR
• You are Peter Jackson
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• Plausibility check: Fritz Lang's The Lord of the Rings
• WI: Disney animated Lord of the Rings ?
• DBWI: WI Walt Disney never made "The Hobbit" ?
• Disney get the rights to do LOTR
• Casting a late 1950s Lord of the Rings movie
• Kurosawa directs Lord of the Rings...
• BBC television Lord of the Rings
• WI: Beatles-produced "Lord of the Rings" adaptation
• Kubrick Adapts LOTR
• 70s cast for The Lord of The Rings
• Stanley Kubrick's 1974 psychedelic Lord of the Rings project, starring the Beatles
• John Boorman's LOTR adaptation gets made in the 70s
• WI the animated Lord of the Rings was better made ?
• WI Lucas gains the rights to The Hobbit ?
• Plausibility check: A really good animated LOTR pre-2000
• Challenge: Anime version of Lord of the Rings
• DBWI: New Line Cinema makes The Lord Of The Rings trilogy instead of the Foundation series ?
• DBWI: Peter Jackson directed The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
• WI Peter Jackson had the rights to the full Tolkien legendarium
• Silmarillion movie (by Jackson or others)
• The Hobbit movie made before LOTR
• WI LOTR series made as 1 movie ?
• POD between the book version and Jackson's movie adaptation ?
• Tom Bombadil in LOTR movie
• Challenge: Ruin The Lord of the Rings movies
• Does a more successful Star Wars Prequel Trilogy = less successful LOTR film trilogy ?
• Plausibility check: LOTR on the small screen
• DBWI: Lord Of The Rings Trilogy (2001-03)
• Jackson really forced to move production of The Hobbit to Eastern Europe
• WI: (Post-Jackson) Silmarillion adaptation
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• Middle-Earth with modern technology
• Industrial Age in Middle Earth
• Marxist theory applied to Middle-Earth
• Middle-Earth Immigration Officials Swamped by Waves of Arriving Geeks
• Galadriel, Gandalf, and Elrond get bodyswapped
• How big was Sauron's army during the war of the ring ?
• If the War of the Ring had actually resembled WWII
• Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

Timelines based on Tolkien's works

David Bofinger's website with Legendarium PODs (archived version)

Tolkienist Cabal

Popular culture PODs Main Directory

Points of Divergence Main Directory