All Human AU

Tropes and genres
Synonym(s)	Mundane AU
Related tropes/genres	High School AU
See also	Alternate Universe, Magic AU
The Cover of Variety by CynSyn (2019), fanart for the fic Slow Show, and example of an All Human AU, where Aziraphale and Crowley are not an angel and a demon but human actors
Related articles on Fanlore.

In an All Human AU, characters who are canonically non-human are now humans, with corresponding changes to their backstories.

trobadora asked in a LiveJournal post about the attraction of All-Human AUs, and lots of people gave lots of answers that ran the gamut from badfic to easier to write to separating individual from identity.

In High School AUs, characters who are canonically immortal or otherwise unaging are most often either older high school students or in college.

Common Fandoms

• Buffyverse — Usually vampires (such as Angel, Spike, or Drusilla) being rendered human. There were also works where Buffy was not a Vampire Slayer, that might be defined as Mundane AUs today. In the early 2000s, a variety of different terms were used to describe these works; including AU, fantasy fanfiction. The term Human AU was not in widespread use.
• Teen Wolf — alternate universes with no supernatural elements. It is the most common fandom in the "Alternate Universe - Human" tag on AO3, with 6500+ works.
• Supernatural — 4200+ works on A03.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers — 5000+ works AO3.
• Homestuck - often known as "Humanstuck". 5400+ works on AO3.
• Twilight — Often called "AH" fics in the fandom. These were especially common in the early Twilight fandom, when much of the fic was found on LiveJournal and FanFiction.net, and in small, fan-run communities such as Twilighted. However, despite the presence of over 20,000 Twilight fics on AO3, there are only 550+ works in the fandom's "Alternate Universe - Human" tag.

Examples

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Fanfiction

• Bent Justice, by toobusy2write—a highly recommended Prison AU Angel/Spike fic, where Spike is an undercover agent sent to investigate a smuggling ring in a prison
• Ordinary People, by daegaer—widely recommended Good Omens story in which the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley are ordinary humans
• Wide Awake, by angstgoddess003—a popular Twilight fanfiction in which Edward Cullen is human and bonds with Bella over mutual insomnia and PTSD.
• Prowl by withfireandblood—a very popular Klaus/Caroline fic in The Vampire Diaries fandom, where Klaus is an escaped criminal and Caroline gets involved in his world by accident.
• Marriage of Convenience—a Klaroline marriage of convenience fic
• DILF—a popular Derek/Stiles Mundane AU kidfic.
• Good AUmens - an anthology zine in Good Omens fandom, focused on Human AUs.
• The Grand Galloping 20s - a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic AU set in 1920s Nebraska.

Fanart

• Hey look, I finally drew my headcanon humanstuck Nepeta design ! by princessharumi
• Humanstuck by ansemaru
• – h u m a n s t u c k – by forest-minish-arts

Resources

• Fanworks tagged Alternate Universe - Human on AO3