Best Epic Historical Fanfics
Historical fanfics over 100,000 words — the long-form treatment of the trope. Curated from AO3, ranked by kudos.
Top 20 Epic Historical Fanfics
Ranked by AO3 kudos. Each fic is tagged with historical and falls in the over 100,000 words range.
talk to me dirty; talk to me sweet
by thesweetestdream
Will and Mike accidentally overhear a couple talking dirty over the walkie, and start repeating some of the filthy phrases to each other for shits and giggles. What starts as a joke, soon turns into something they can't stop doing – and can’t tell anyone about. Or: Mike and Will start talking dirty
The Songbird and the Sea
by maia_archives
In a world where dominance of the sea is an endless battle between pirates and mariners, Park Jimin is content living in his little village on a small, uninteresting island by the eastern mainland. He wants nothing to do with the bloodshed of good and evil, the heartless killing of both innocents an
This Dangerous Game
by MissDisoriental
"Keep your wits about you Inspector Graham – I rather fear you are going to need them."London 1888. In order to catch the notorious serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, Will Graham must seek the insights of Dr Hannibal Lecter. ----- Now with beautiful fanart! Huge thanks to azrabel, carrionofmy
Sooner or Later You're Gonna be Mine
by Staringback
Frisk sang for a living. She sang in clubs that were populated by mobsters, murderers and the most violent criminals her city had to offer. She honestly thought things couldn't get any worse until corruption in the form of a grinning skeleton came strolling into her life. His name: Sans. She tr
Terrible, But Great
by Isalise
“Harry Potter.” The cold burrowed into his flesh; the scent of cloying death and molding earth clogged his senses. “The Boy Who Lived.” A strange sense of unimaginable loss and disappointment rose inside of Harry. That brilliant, yet cruel boy could’ve been so much more if he’d not stepped
Holly & Yew
by LovelyLotus
After a bout of accidental magic when Harry is six, Vernon goes too far. When Harry wakes up, he is gravely wounded and more than fifty years in the past in another world. After some shuffling, Harry ends up at Wool's. There, he meets Tom Riddle, his mysterious roommate, eventual best friend, and th
Somebody To Love
by LOVERVMINS (orphan_account)
Falling in love with another man during the 1950s was never something Taehyung or Jeongguk envisioned. Especially not when they were both married and had beautiful wives. Or, The story of two lovers who were never meant for each other, but destiny found its way anyway.
to memory now I can't recall
by Etharei
While on a mission storming a HYDRA facility, James Buchanan Barnes touches one of the many strange alien devices collected by the Red Skull. He does this, in fact, twice— in the past, and in the future. Next thing he knows, Bucky Barnes is opening his eyes in the 21st century, which is full of grea
A Desperate Arrangement
by mikkimouse
"I'm sorry, I believe there's something wrong with my hearing," Stiles said. "Because I could have sworn you just told me you set up a betrothal agreement with the Hales. A betrothal agreement involving me. Me." Scott smiled his easygoing smile and nodded, which told Stiles no, he hadn't misheard
good night, darling
by purplemineralwater
"I can send you back. Not to your body, but to one many years ago. Harry, you must fix the natural order of Death, on my behalf." Harry's breath faltered. It was all so confusing... Harry had died. He had died and spoken to Death and suddenly he was standing in Hogwarts, in 1942, and the Sorting H
Between Thought and Reality
by Maeglin_Yedi
Harry's life post final battle isn't what he expected it would be, and then he dies, just like that. He gets a second chance but forgets to read the fine-print, and ends up somewhere in the distant past while his body suddenly looks quite differently. Now he's stuck as a teenager attending Hogwarts
The Evans Boy
by lonibal
“Mr. Evans,” Ollivander said, smiling wider. “Any relation to Lily Evans?”“Who?” Harry Evans was almost like any other boy growing up in Cokeworth. He lived alone in a house nobody else could see, he stole food from the supermarket and never got caught, and he had a little brother who had been hidd
I have swallowed my pride (To say goodbye)
by IzzyMRDB
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep." ~Robert FrostAKARhea thought the fight was over when she handed Luke that blade. The war she fought for others was over. She was wrong.Now a thousand miles and a thousand years from home, all alone wi
To Sing a Song of Steel
by CaptainDegenerate
As a token of goodwill, you're sent to a hostile foreign nation to marry the son of the Czar. Having given up all you know and living inside a castle that doesn't welcome you, you're surrounded by people you cannot trust, your life hanging by a thread in the unsteady political climate.In your hopele
Zanka
by rinsled05
Aoyagi's lips parted in a sigh, and for a brief second, Viktor saw a wistful expression beneath the fine-edged veneer – fleeting and transient as a cherry blossom in bloom. There was so much unspoken that Viktor wanted, now more than ever, to take the man with him. Bring him home and far away from t
Bel Canto
by bendingsignpost
After years of waiting for wealthy patrons to faint, Dr John Watson discovers a far more interesting patient in the opera house basement. (AU through a Phantom of the Opera lens.)
The Stormlight Archive Regency Romance
by babylonsheep
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” – Jane Austen, 1813. Adolin Kholin, duke, dandy and darling of the Kholinar ton, has one flaw: his bachelorhood. To Jasnah Kholin, this is an opportunity to secure an advantageou
Dead Reckoning
by ThornyThestral
An American funeral director crosses the road while thinking about coffee in 2016 and finds herself in London in the wrong century, with a messenger bag and absolutely no time to panic because panic has never solved anything. Her grandfather always warned her about crossroads. She thought he was bei
Twin Souls
by liralenli
This entire story is based "about 1000 years ago", when Yamamoto's school was started, and Kyouraku and Ukitake were attending the Academy. It had lots of sword play, but it also has a very sweet shonen-ai sort of romance, which is denied by Kyouraku, between the two Academy boys.This is an account
to you, the name stitched in the river of my veins
by ComeHitherFool
"If you command it, Levi, I will be powerless to deny." A tension to twist into a noose. "Will you do it still?" --When her sister runs away, Arabella is forced to take her place in marrying the Duke from the House of Ackerman. She's thrown into the chaos of the upper court that she is alarmingly il
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About Historical
Fic set in a real historical period — regency ballrooms, world wars, golden-age piracy, 1980s small towns — either because canon lives there or because the writer relocated the cast. Distinct from historical-au in usage mainly by covering canon-era period fic too.
Period settings raise the stakes on intimacy: letters take weeks, reputations can kill, and a glance across a ballroom carries a novel's worth of meaning.
Common scenarios: A WWII epistolary romance between a soldier and the friend writing from home, or canon pirates given the full weight of their actual century.
About This List
This list of 20epic Historical fanfics spans 4,030,796 total words. Kudos range from 395 on the newest entries to 91,351 on the most established. 55% are marked complete — check the status flag before committing to a longfic. The most common rating is Explicit (13 of 20 fics).
Recurring tags across this list: Alternate Universe - Historical · Time Travel · Slow Burn · Canon-Typical Violence · Time Travel Fix-It.
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