Forgotten Realms Wiki:Changes to canon policy

Canon is the term given to a piece of Realms- or D&D-related information that establishes its status as an official part of the Forgotten Realms fictional universe.

There is no official hard-and-fast set of rules given by Wizards of the Coast for determining outright what is canon, so this policy provides the guidelines for determining what is canon on this wiki.

Contradiction
Despite fact checking and research at Wizards of the Coast, discrepancies in the canon exist. Documenting the discrepancies is as much a part of writing for the wiki as documenting the Realms itself.

The article author is not at liberty to pick and choose which information should be included and which should be left out. A hierarchy exists to determine which information should be given preference when a contradiction is discovered, but the less preferable information should not be excluded.

Hierarchy
The wiki uses a hierarchy to determine, if two sources contradict one another, which is preferred. See Help:Citing sources for more information on how to reference a given source.


 * Sourcebooks : Includes sourcebooks, boxed sets, and other gaming-related products, but not video games. See Category:Sourcebook citation templates.
 * Novels : A fictional work telling a story. Applies to both printed and digital novels, provided they have been published by TSR, Inc, Wizards of the Coast, or can be demonstrated as within Realms canon. See Category:Novel citation templates.
 * Magazines and online articles : Includes Dragon magazine, Dungeon magazine, and information from the Wizards of the Coast website. Applies to both printed and online editions of the magazines. See Category:Dragon citation templates, Category:Dungeon citation templates, and Category:Web citation templates.
 * Video games : Applies to console games, PC/Mac games and other forms of electronic entertainment. See Category:Game citation templates.
 * Forum posts : Cannot be considered canon unless made by a Wizards of the Coast employee. For citing the forums at the Candlekeep website, see Cite web/Candlekeep forum.

Age
Age is a secondary factor in determining preference of information. If two sourcebooks contradict one another, the more recently published should be considered preferable. If a new novel contradicts an old sourcebook, the sourcebook should be preferred since it is higher in the hierarchy.

Realms-specific versus generic D&D
Realms-specific sources (of any kind) should be preferred to generic D&D ones. Age is not a factor in this decision.

Sourced versus unsourced
As per Help:Citing sources, an unreferenced piece of information may never be taken in preference to a referenced one. It is not simply good enough to claim that a piece of information exists within a source. It must be referenced as accurately as possible so that the reader may choose to check of his or her own accord, and verify that it is the case.

Retcons
A retcon should always be considered to override any information in the source material, provided it is from a Wizards source.

Common sense
The above are simply guidelines and common sense must prevail. It is not outside the realms of possibility that an obvious flaw in the canon will be published that will fall outside the guidelines set in place above. In this situation, the preferred order of information should follow common sense.

Disputes
This policy is clear that in the case of discrepancies in the information, all versions should be included, with references, but preference should be given to one particular version, the details of determining preference having been provided above.

However, should a dispute arise on what is preferable to what, as per the usual wiki policies on discussions, this should be conducted in a civil and productive manner. A general consensus should be reached before the order of preference is determined.

Removing or altering a valid, referenced piece of information is never an acceptable resolution to a discrepancy in the source material.