diff --git a/evennia/settings_default.py b/evennia/settings_default.py
index d12c21ba98..528fcafac4 100644
--- a/evennia/settings_default.py
+++ b/evennia/settings_default.py
@@ -250,6 +250,17 @@ DATABASES = {
 # If you get errors about the database having gone away after long idle
 # periods, shorten this value (e.g. MySQL defaults to a timeout of 8 hrs)
 CONN_MAX_AGE = 3600 * 7
+# When removing or renaming models, such models stored in Attributes may
+# become orphaned and will return as None. If the change is a rename (that
+# is, there is a 1:1 pk mapping between the old and the new), the unserializer
+# can convert old to new when retrieving them. This is a list of tuples
+# (old_natural_key, new_natural_key). Note that Django ContentTypes'
+# natural_keys are themselves tuples (appname, modelname). If new_natural_key
+# does not exist, `None` will be returned and stored back as if no replacement
+# was set.
+ATTRIBUTE_STORED_MODEL_RENAME = [
+        ((u"players", u"playerdb"), (u"accounts", u"accountdb")),
+        ((u"typeclasses", u"defaultplayer"), (u"typeclasses", u"defaultaccount"))]
 
 
 ######################################################################
diff --git a/evennia/utils/dbserialize.py b/evennia/utils/dbserialize.py
index 0ff0678be2..0877636a3c 100644
--- a/evennia/utils/dbserialize.py
+++ b/evennia/utils/dbserialize.py
@@ -115,13 +115,18 @@ def _init_globals():
         _FROM_MODEL_MAP = defaultdict(str)
         _FROM_MODEL_MAP.update(dict((c.model, c.natural_key()) for c in ContentType.objects.all()))
     if not _TO_MODEL_MAP:
+        from django.conf import settings
         _TO_MODEL_MAP = defaultdict(str)
         _TO_MODEL_MAP.update(dict((c.natural_key(), c.model_class()) for c in ContentType.objects.all()))
+        for src_key, dst_key in settings.ATTRIBUTE_STORED_MODEL_RENAME:
+            _TO_MODEL_MAP[src_key] = _TO_MODEL_MAP.get(dst_key, None)
         # handle old player models by converting them to accounts
         _TO_MODEL_MAP[(u"players", u"playerdb")] = _TO_MODEL_MAP[(u"accounts", u"accountdb")]
+        _TO_MODEL_MAP[(u"typeclasses", u"defaultplayer")] = _TO_MODEL_MAP[(u"typeclasses", u"defaultaccount")]
     if not _SESSION_HANDLER:
         from evennia.server.sessionhandler import SESSION_HANDLER as _SESSION_HANDLER
 
+
 #
 # SaverList, SaverDict, SaverSet - Attribute-specific helper classes and functions
 #