II. Guidelines

Style

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Below are some general guidelines on the writing style that you should apply when contributing to the wiki.

General style

Objectivity

Nov Belgaer is an encyclopedia and should therefore be absent of personal opinions, commentary, and (as far as possible) free of editorial bias. Contributions should be informative and properly referenced, using neutral and formal wording.

Verifiability

Users should check that facts or claims correspond to reliable sources. Each fact or claim in an article must be verifiable. Read more about this on IV. References.

Theories and Speculation

Any speculative content should be avoided, unless included in a section specially designated and demarcated for such. Each edit made to the wiki should be backed by the source material, and should not reflect any unconfirmed theories.

Paraphrase Sources

While quotes are allowed—and often encouraged—they should not be used excessively. It is generally better to paraphrase quotes using your own words.

Limit Links

You are encouraged to provide links to other articles that appear in your text. In general, this should be limited to the first appearance of a given article (i.e. don't link the same page more than once). However, links within infoboxes, tables, quote attributions, and bullet lists do not count toward the link limit. For example, if Delos appears both in the infobox and in the text, both instances should be linked.

Writing Conventions

Grammar

You should avoid speaking in first person and addressing the reader directly.

Tense

Generally, write using present tense. The only exception to this rule is the history sections, where past tense should instead be applied.

Capitalization

Capitalization should follow the style set in the books. If you see a word capitalized in any of the canonical entries, that will align with our conventions as well.

Numbers

In general, you should spell out the numbers 1-100 instead of using numerals (i.e. write "twenty-three" instead of "23"). Dates are exempt to this rule, meaning that you should write "ISD 54" and not "ISD fifty-four".

References

References at the end of sentences should always be placed directly after the period.

Titles

Article Titles

Titles of articles should generally be singular. In other words, name your page after one thing, not the plural of that thing. Exceptions include lists or categories (Tales of the Sun Eater (short stories)), when the subject is inherently plural (Gibson Codices), or when the official name is plural (The Dragonslayers). If it's about one thing, use singular.

Headers

Headers, or section titles, should be written in title case. They should also never be formatted (e.g. bold, italics, strikethrough, etc.), or linked.

Article Structure

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Infobox

For consistency, please ensure that all pages contain an infobox near the top of the page. The wiki templates should have infoboxes tailored to the subject-type. Exceptions to the rule include the various chapter summaries.

Opening Quote

Below the infobox, if appropriate, you can include a subject-relevant quote. Do this by using the <blockquote> tag. Place your quote within the tag and remember to attribute it to the correct source. Attributions should be preceded by an em dash (—) and followed by the source. The quote should be wrapped in the <p> tag, but the attribution should not. Example:

It was not his war.

— Synopsis from Highmatter Books

Introduction

The quote should be followed by a brief introduction to the article. This section should be spoiler-free. The name of the article's subject should be bolded when first named in this section. This includes any aliases.

Article Body

This comprises the main content of the article. It should usually contain a number of headers that denote different sections. Different templates and subject-areas will require different structures (e.g. the headers for a page about a planet will differ from that of a character). When creating a new page, please choose an appropriate structure from Article Structure.

Notes and References

The last header of the page (or second-to-last, if the article is using the Index header mentioned below) is the References section. Here, you should list all the footnotes and references that appear in your article. Currently, our system is manual, so you're going to have to type out each one and link them yourself. Read more about how to reference different novels, novellas, and short stories on IV. References.

Index

You will notice that some pages have an Index. This section is not a requirement for every page. It is a community effort to compile a list of every chapter in each written that mentions the article's subject. This section is organized by entry in chronological order (i.e. Empire of Silence, then The Lesser Devil, then Howling Dark, etc.). Under each dropdown, you will find the following labels: Mentioned and Present, along with the relevant chapter numbers, short story titles, or "N/A" if not applicable.

Layout

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Structure

When constructing your page, it is sometimes appropriate to deviate from the standardized article structure discussed above. If the page contains no relevant information regarding a certain header, you can generally remove said header. You are also free to add any appropriate subheaders of your own.

Narrative

When writing your article, you should consider the overall flow of it. The page itself should tell a story, so make sure it is not too disjointed or jumps from topic to topic too much.

Images

Images are a great way to liven up your article. As always, make sure you obtain each individual artist's permission first. Images should be placed using the <figure> tag. You can read more about how to format, style, and use images on V. Images. Please be cognizant of our policy against artifically-generated images, found at the bottom of this page and in our Code of Conduct.

Quotes

Quotes are another way to make your article more interesting. Like discussed above, please do not use them excessively, but interspersing them in your article is allowed and recommended. Make sure, however, that the quotes are relevant and used to explain or exemplify a point that you're trying to make.

Etiquette

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Listen and try to understand what contributors of different backgrounds try to tell you, and be ready to challenge and adapt your own understanding. Assume the good faith of other contributors, and always deliver criticism constructively. This wiki is a collaborative endeavor, and feedback should therefore be given kindly and respectfully.

All and any forms of harrassment is disallowed on Nov Belgaer. This includes insults based on another's intelligence, appearance, ethnicity, race, religion (or lack thereof), culture, caste, sexual orientation, gender, sex, disability, age, nationality, political affiliation, or other characteristics.

Remember that Nov Belgaer's Code of Conduct applies to the entire wiki.

AI Policy

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The use of AI to create or modify content on Nov Belgaer is not permitted. This includes the generation of text, images, and other content used on Nov Belgaer. The content of the Nov Belgaer wiki may not be used for AI training or automated scraping without the express permission of the Nov Belgaer Administrators and all licensees.