Creating and Editing Lore Articles

Related topics: Lore, Citing Sources in a Lore Article, How To Make Footnotes

The following article is a guideline for how lore related articles should be constructed. The intent is to give lore articles a more uniform style, and to ensure that the information presented within them is accurate, unbiased, and canonical.

Selecting a Topic

Below are some methods for selecting a topic to start a new article about or to improve upon if an article already exists:

• Write about something of interest to you. For example, you may be interested in the Falatacot. You could visit that page and expand on it or any of the related articles it links to.
• Write about something that you are curious about. For example, you may see the name of person or place mentioned in a text that you want to learn more about.
• Browse the Lore Database and any of its subcategories. Many articles could use improvement.
• View the WhatLinksHere for Template:Lore Citation Needed and Template:Specific Citation Needed. these are templates used to flag lore articles or statements within lore articles as needing references, and are good candidates for improving upon.

Researching

You don't have to be a lore guru to write or edit lore articles. All that is required is that you provide sources for your information. With a few simple searches, you can find source material for your article:

• Use the Special:Search feature to search for and terms related to your topic.
• Use Google to search the wiki. To do this search for: <subject> site:asheron.wikia.com. You can also search using the older domain name of asheron.info which may provide different results.
• Use Google to search other fan sites. For example, <subject> site:thejackcat.com, <subject> site:acvault.ign.com
• Use the search feature on Maggie the Jackcat's site.
• Browse or search the AC Database and Encyclopedia at ac.warcry.com. The AC Database is used for content (e.g., quests, items, texts, patch notes) while the Encyclopedia is used for lore tidbits, however it is possible for the two to overlap.

Acceptable Sources

Articles should only be based on official canon. This would include in-game sources, such as texts, item descriptions, and NPC/creature dialog. This would also include official internet sources, such as teasers, rollouts, and other patch announcements and internet lore articles.

Developer quotes should only be considered canonical if the developer was on the AC team at the time of the statement, or writing about a time when they were on the AC team. Examples:

• Chris "Stormwaltz" L'Etoile wrote the statements which were collected as the Stormwaltz Quotes during his time on the AC team.
• Dave "Crowley" Javier, though no longer on the AC team, posted this statement about how he created the Viamontian Rank titles.

Unacceptable and Disputed Sources

Though generally all content in game would be considered canon, there are a few exceptions which may be disputed. This would include the various holiday related content for April Fools' Day, Easter, Halloween, the Asheron's Call anniversary, and Christmas. This would also include various Easter Eggs which make reference to the real world.

Actions taken by specific players or servers are usually not considered canon. For example, on Leafcull, Natalia Brynmad was a member of the fellowship which defeated Aerbax. In lore terms however, Aerbax was defeated by a band of adventurers, and not any specific group of characters from a given server. The only exception to this would be when specific players are mentioned in official sources. For example, the player character Rage Lao of Morningthaw became part of the canon for being one of the first players to experience The Temple of Ixir Zi quest.

Due to their unpredictable nature, the details of live events may not always be considered canon. One should look at the intent of the live event rather than how it played out on any given server.

Fan Fiction is not official and thus not considered canon. The only exception to this are the winning entries to the official writing contest held in 2000, where the winning entries were added as texts available in game at the libraries.

Asheron's Call 2 content may also be unacceptable or disputed. See the Asheron's Call 2 section below for more details.

Writing

Title, Templates, Categories

Article Title

Titles should follow these standards:

• If the article is about a person, Use only their Given and Surname (if available). Do not include titles.
  • Incorrect: Queen Elysa Strathelar
  • Incorrect: Elysa
  • Correct: Elysa Strathelar
• Do not use articles (a, an, the) as the first word of the title unless it is specifically part of the name.
  • The Millennium War, a historical event:
    • Incorrect: The Millennium War
    • Correct: Millennium War
  • The War of Blood and Shadow, the title of a story arc:
    • Incorrect: War of Blood and Shadow
    • Correct: The War of Blood and Shadow

Please create any redirects which you think might be necessary. For example, Alashorn is the character who authored the text The Grael Rebellion. However, the in-game text lists the author as Lord Alashorn. If someone was curious about this character, they might search the wiki for Lord Alashorn. Since the page would not be used otherwise, Lord Alashorn has been created as a redirect to Alashorn. For more information, see How To Make Redirects.

Templates

Once you have a title, you can begin adding content to the page. There are a few helpful lore-related templates which may be helpful in getting your page started:

• {{Auberean Index}} - a template used on high-level pages related to the planet Auberean, its history, and its cultures.
• {{Ispar Index}} - a template used on high-level pages related to the planet Ispar, its history, and its cultures.
• {{Character Summary}} - a template used on pages about a character in the story. It includes a spot for a picture, and is ideal for major characters when a picture would be available.
• {{Minor Character Summary}} - a template used on pages about a character in the story. It does not include a spot for a picture, and is ideal for minor characters or major characters when a picture would not be available.

Categories

There is an extensive list of lore-related categories available to add to pages. The full list can be seen on the Lore Database page. Categories should be added from least specific to most specific. For example, the categories which would be applied to the Asheron Realaidain page would be, in order: Category:Lore Database Entry, Category:Major Character, Category:Empyrean Character, Category:Yalaini Character.

Tense, Person, View

Articles should be written from the perspective of a person existing in the present, articles should be written from the third person, and they should hold a neutral point of view. The majority of the article should be in an in-universe/in-character perspective. For more information see Third-person omniscient narrative.

In other words, when writing a lore article, imagine yourself as an omnipresent, omniscient being existing in the present day universe of Asheron's Call, describing the events of the past and present from an outsider's perspective.

OOC Content

Though articles should be written from an in-character perspective, out of character (OOC) content can be helpful in understanding the lore as well. For example, it may be useful to have a section describing the development of a character and how they have changed over the years as different dev teams have worked with them.

In some cases, OOC works far better than in-character. This is especially true for articles or sections related to Continuity. It also may be preferred on an article that is not entirely focused on lore.

Flagging Questionable Content

If a lore related article or section has no references, place the {{Lore Citation Needed}} template at the top of the article or section. This template displays as:

The following Lore information lacks references or sources for some or all of its content, and may not be correct. Please help improve this article by properly citing sources.

If a specific statement in an article seems questionable, place the {{Specific Citation Needed}} template directly after it, in the same location a ref tag would be placed. This template displays as:

On their homeworld, Banderlings have waged war against the Mosswarts for over 10,000 years.^{[Citation Needed]}

If you see content which has no citation and that you believe to be false, feel free to remove it from the article. However, to be thorough, you should review the history of that article, locate the user who added the content, and contact them on their User talk page, requesting a source for the information. The information may turn out to be canonical.

If you see content which you think is copied from another fan site (e.g., lore articles from Crossroads of Dereth), remove the content and state the reason for removal in the summary field.

Asheron's Call 2

Asheron's Call 2

If an article or section makes references to AC2, these statements should be removed from the main content of the page and placed in a section titled "Asheron's Call 2." The {{AC2 Content}} template should be placed below the section header and above the content. This template displays as:

Asheron's Call 2 Content The following information comes from Asheron's Call 2, and may not be considered canon.