Fictional universe

An imagined world with its own characters, places, and rules, serving as the setting for one or more works of fiction.

Fictional setting: The time and place in which a narrative unfolds. A universe provides the settings in which its stories take place.
Shared universe: A fictional setting used by multiple creators or works, often across different series. It lets separate stories contribute to a common world.
Standalone fiction: A work of fiction designed to tell a substantially self-contained story. It contrasts with stories built to share a continuing fictional world.
Fan fiction: Fiction written by fans using characters, settings, or other elements from existing works. Fans use established universes as foundations for their own stories.
Worldbuilding: The creation of an imagined world's geography, history, cultures, and systems. It establishes the details that make a fictional universe feel coherent.
Media franchise: A group of related creative works and products developed around shared intellectual property. A fictional universe can anchor a franchise spanning several media.
Alternate history: Fiction that imagines historical events unfolding differently from recorded history. It builds an imagined world by changing the past rather than inventing every foundation.
Fandom: A community of people who share interest in a person, work, or fictional world. A detailed universe can sustain communities that discuss and reinterpret it.
Fictional character: An imagined person or other entity represented in a work of fiction. Characters give a universe agents whose actions and relationships shape its stories.
Transmedia storytelling: A storytelling approach in which distinct parts of a narrative unfold across multiple media. It distributes stories and world details across formats.

Linked from 3 pages

MythopoeiaNarrower topic: Mythopoeia can provide the deep history and shared legends that bind a fictional universe together.