User:BadCatMan/Manual of Style 2

The Manual of Style is a style guide for writing, formatting, and organizing articles on the Forgotten Realms Wiki (hereafter, FRW). It's based on the standard wiki style used at Wikipedia and elsewhere, on conventions of academic writing, and on practices developed by FRW editors to suit the Forgotten Realms setting and the FRW's policies and goals. It includes introductory information for editing on a wiki; advice regarding spelling, grammar, and article layout; and requested and suggested styles for articles on the FRW, as well as general

Purpose
While a style guide may seem pretentious or nitpicky and the guidelines unimportant, all good wikis have them. If editors follow the same style, their additions will meld seamlessly. A wiki without a consistent style is messy and inconsistent, making it hard to read and find information and discouraging adding more, while one with a consistent style appears neat and professional, raising its profile. A well-written, well-styled, and properly formatted article is more inviting and enjoyable to read. Therefore, this guide encourages a consistent, high-quality article style that suits wiki policies.

But this is less a strict checklist and more a set of firm suggestions to improve an article. Pages may vary and editors have different approaches and habits, each with their pros and cons, and putting different ideas into practice is the best way to determine which is better. If you have an idea, feel free to try it out, so long as it doesn't break policies or conflict with the overall wiki style, and another editor may either change it or adopt it. Feel free to discuss ideas with other editors or in the Forum.

In addition to this guide, you should also read many other FRW articles, especially those on similar topics, and look at their code and format to understand how they are written and to use them as a basis for your own.

Our key aims are:
 * Quality writing and formatting,
 * Complete referencing, and
 * Entertaining and professional style.

Basic Editing
This section gives some basic instructions for writing and editing wikitext (also called wiki markup and wikicode), as well as advice for getting starting and learning the process.

Scaling the Learning Curve and Staying at the Summit
The codes and techniques of wiki editing can at first seem daunting, with a lot to get a handle on, but the basics of everyday editing are quick and easy to learn. Nevertheless, whether a would-be editor who is new to wikis entirely or an old hand who is simply new to the FRW, we encourage all new editors to take things one step at a time, to learn each new aspect as they go and level-up as an FRW editor. While there is no checklist to follow, do keep this approach in mind as you get started.

For example, begin by fixing some typos or grammar, correcting errors in lore, or improving some phrasing as you find issues while reading, in order to get used to the editor page, the preview function, and saving your work, as well as to see the wikicode in operation to familiarize yourself. Later, try fixing italics or bolding to see how they work, then try adding a simple template or footnote. After that, you can combine these skills and add a full reference. Next, practice adding a more complex template. At some point, if you're still interested after that minutia, make an account with FANDOM so you can set your preferences and we can keep track of your work. Finally, you may be ready to add a paragraph or so of information to an existing page, and after that, adding a complete new page to the wiki. If you wish to experiment, use your own User page as a sandbox.

And, while doing this, don't do it all in one day. Instead, space it out, making your edits once a day or so. This will give regular editors a chance to see your edit and recognize your name and to make any corrections or revisions to your edits that may be needed. Check back on the page later and view the page's History, from the drop-down menu next to Edit, to see what was done. Once you're comfortable and confident, you can move on to the next thing, and the next, and so on.

More generally, you can take a similar approach with your research and wiki projects. The big important aspects of the setting, like major characters, organizations, deities, and realms are large-scale, long-term, major projects that even experienced editors find formidable. Therefore, start small, with a small page for a minor character, group, or place so you can focus on other aspects of compiling an article. Carry on with such things until you have developed your research and writing skills enough to take on a moderately sized page and project. And so on until you feel brave enough to take on a large project. Even then, it's wise to break that project down into more manageable components with subtopics and chip around the edges to reduce it in scope and size.

All too often, we see brand-new editors join the wiki, dive right in, take on a major project, and try to do everything at once. And, almost always, they quickly become overwhelmed and burned out, abandoning their half-complete project and leaving a lot of errors and issues for other editors to eventually fix up and finish off, and often not in a satisfactory way. Even veteran editors who try to do too much will start making basic errors in accuracy, layout, referencing, or code.

Finally, pick projects you have a personal stake in, whether it's background for your character or your campaign, whether as player or DM; part of a Forgotten Realms story you enjoy; or just something in the setting you're interested in or are intrigued about. Regular editors will do a lot to help out fellow editors, fix up articles, or improve the wiki's coverage of a topic, and some tasks will be necessary. However, doing a lot of cleanup or taking on major projects we're not invested or interested in can soon become too much like work. This should always be a fun hobby for us, so be sure to pursue what interests you, fix up and cover what you can along the way, and find your strengths as an editor and the best way you can contribute to the FRW. But also take breaks or switch between topics when one gets too much, and don't spend all your time cleaning up after others and neglecting your own pet projects.

In summary, take it slow and steady and do what you love, as much for your own benefit as that of your fellow editors.

Use the Source Editor
We strongly recommend all editors use the source editor, not the visual editor provided by FANDOM. The source editor displays the wikicode, allowing a user to see directly how it works and fix problems easily, without creating other problems. It is the most effective way of learning wikicode and of applying templates and other features. We also provide common symbols and templates at the bottom of the source editor page that can be inserted at the click of a mouse. The visual editor, meanwhile, displays how the finished page may look, but obscures the code and can cause other problems. A user may try to correct the spelling in a link, but change only the overlying text and miss correcting the link itself. The visual editor can also add spaces and alter formatting or incorrectly apply templates without the user even trying.

Unfortunately, visual editing is the default on FANDOM, especially for users without accounts. To use the source editor, select 'Edit source' from the drop-down menu beside the 'Edit' button in the page's top-right corner. If the visual editor is already open, select 'Source editing' from its drop-down menu in the top right. If you have a FANDOM account, go to Preferences, to the Editing tab, and set the 'Preferred editor' to 'Source editor'.

Apostrophes and Quotation Marks
Use plain, straight apostrophes, as would appear in the source editor or other basic text editors. Curly apostrophes or "smart" quotation marks, which may be copied over from documents or advanced text editors, are treated as different symbols in wikicode. Look closely and compare ‘witch’ and “witch” to 'witch' and "witch". The wrong apostrophes and quotes can produce broken links and lead to duplicate pages being created.

If copy-pasting text, make sure that no broken and invisible characters are included, as these may disrupt wikicode. The source editor will display these.

Italic, Bold, and Italic Bold
Italics and bold text are created like so: Note that bold and italic is the two apostrophes of italics plus the three apostrophes of bolding and these groups may be split. For example, italic and bold is created with.
 * To make italic text, wrap it with two apostrophes:
 * To make bold text, wrap it with three apostrophes:
 * To make bold and italic text, wrap it with five apostrophes:.

Note that a regular apostrophe as in a quote or possessive may interfere with these. If so, use  (which prevents wikicode working) to cover the actual apostrophe. For example, the  to give the "Forgotten Realms  ' creators".

Links and Templates
To make a link, wrap it with two square brackets:  makes "remove curse". To apply italics or bolding, place apostrophes outside the square brackets:  makes "remove curse". Try to avoid creating bold links, as the extra color is unsightly.

To have different text appear in a link, insert a vertical line or 'pipe':  makes "lifted his curse". Italics or bolding may go either outside the link or inside the latter piped part, but try not to mix these.

To call a template, use two curly brackets:  makes "the ". Pipes are also used to separate the parts of the template. In most cases, just copy-and-paste the template from the template page and follow the instructions there.

Citations and References
To make a citation, use a citation template:  makes:

To include page and chapter numbers, include them after pipes with a hyphen for ranges. The first position is for the page, the second for the chapter:  makes:

These should generally not be used on their own, and only in Sources or Further Reading sections in an Appendix. Instead, they should appear in footnote references.

To make a footnote reference, wrap the text in  tags. For example  to create a superscript numbered link, such as "Grimalkin was a cat belonging to Benelaius, a retired War Wizard. " The   can be anything, but try to keep 'foo' brief, clear, and unique to the reference; the initials of the source and a page or chapter number are most common. If the same  is used for two different references, the page will display an error, so be sure to distinguish them. If the reference will not be used again on the page, then  may be left out, such as   to give the same superscript numbered link, "He regularly lay on Benelaius's lap and liked being rubbed behind the ears. " The results are displayed by a   template at the bottom of the page in a References section:

This displays all references made above the point it appears on a page. Therefore, it should appear near the bottom of a page, beneath all referenced text.

To find the desired citation template for a source, begin typing  then the name and wait for auto-complete to suggest it, or else find a link to it on the source's page. They are divided by medium (book, comic, game, etc.), edition (hardcover, mass-market paperback, year, etc.), and disambiguation (explained under Page Name, below). Note that using pages without the correct cite template may produce an error message.

Breaks and Sections
To create paragraph breaks, create two new lines, that is, by tapping the Enter key twice. If there is only one new line, the wikicode will not read it and will show the text as a single block, as if there was no paragraph break. Note also that a single space at the start of a line will cause it to display in a shaded box in a Courier-style font used for displaying code; this is a common error and should be avoided. Don't do this.

To create section headings, wrap the text with multiple equals signs. As seen on this page,  produces a large, underlined section heading. Three equals signs produces a subsection,, and four will produce a subsubsection,  , as below.

A single equals sign produces a large section heading equivalent to a page name, so these should not be used in any circumstance. Similarly, five and six equal signs produce tiny section headings equivalent to regular text, so these should also be avoided if possible.

Note that having three or more sections will cause the page to create a Contents box near the top, just before the first section heading. In a page with many sections, subsections, etc. producing a very long table of contents (which can prevent the reader from seeing the article itself), place at the same point the Contents box should appear, that is, before the first section and after the first paragraph (called the lead, discussed later). The number '3' specifies the level of section heading, that is, the number of equals signs, to show. This is used on this page.

Subsubsection
This is a subsubsection.

Subsubsubsection
This is a subsubsubsection. You get the idea.

Etiquette
This section discusses some editing etiquette and makes some suggestions for an improved editing experience for everyone.

Preview Before Publishing
Whichever editor you use, always preview and test before publishing. In the source editor, click 'Show Preview' to make sure everything looks and works correctly before you click 'Save Changes'. In the visual editor, preview is automatic, but not necessarily accurate. Click 'Show changes' at the bottom of the visual editor to see the added and altered wikicode to confirm it is correct and test any links you've made or altered to confirm they go to the intended pages, before clicking 'Save'. Preview settings can be set in your Preferences, under the Editing tab.

Try to do all your work at once before saving, to avoid many small edits filling up logs and page histories and so other editors can tell when you are finished. Regardless, large projects and complex changes may require multiple sessions and it is common to make follow-up corrections.

Provide Edit Summaries
To explain your changes to fellow and future editors, provide an edit summary. In the source editor, fill in the Summary box. In the visual editor, replace 'Describe what you changed'. You can put anything, but should summarize the work done, list sources used for additions, or give a reason for a particular change.

Note that inadvertently pressing Enter while in the Summary can cause a page to be saved prematurely, often with an incomplete or erroneous summary, so take care.

Avoid Edit Conflicts
To avoid edit conflicts and disrupting others' work, try not to edit a page soon after another editor, in case they have more to add or need to correct an error. An edit conflict can force an editor to make changes or redo their own work. To mark a page you're working on, place the Working template at the top of the page, as, which includes your account name and date. Try to avoid editing a page marked with Working, as the editor may have already addressed an issue or have significant changes being prepared. Large projects may require pages to be marked for days or weeks with significant additions each time; be sure to update the date in such cases. (Working tags will be removed from abandoned projects.)

If you correct an error or disagree with an interpretation, do not simply change it without giving new evidence or reasoning. This can cause an edit war or argument. Instead, explain the reason in the edit summary or open a discussion on the article's Talk page to work out a solution and let other editors contribute.

Check Your Work
Always look over your article and read your work back to check for issues, both before you save and after. In addition, check back on the page in the next day or so, especially if you are new to the FRW, to see how other editors have corrected and improved upon it. You can review these revisions by seeing the page's History, from the drop-down menu next to Edit.

Page Names
When creating a new article, the page name (presented in large font at the top of each page, used for links, searches, and categories) should be the proper name of the subject. However, there are a few things to consider so it is more easily recognized, searched for, linked to, and sorted in categories.

Most Recent or Common Name
If the subject was renamed in later lore, use the latest known name. For example, the city of Heliogabalus was renamed Helgabal, so it is detailed on the Helgabal page. Make sure any necessary redirects, such as Heliogabalus, are made.

If the subject is much more commonly known by a different name than their proper name, then consider using the more common name. For example, Elminster, not Elminster Aumar, and mind flayer, not illithid. Again, redirects will still be needed under the full name, such as illithid and Elminster Aumar.

Use Lower Case
The names of common creatures, items, and most classes, spells, and magic items should be written in lower case, just as they would appear in a sentence in an article, novel, or D&D sourcebook, which favour lower-case names for classes, spells, and magic items. Proper nouns are capitalized as normal. For example, human, moon elf, longsword, enlarge or reduce person, and ioun stone, but Wong Fei's ioun stone and Congenio Ioun.

Note that only the first letter of a page name is case-insensitive, meaning it works the same whether as lower- or upper-case, so Human goes to the same page, but Enlarge or Reduce Person does not. Also note that auto-completed wiki links default to an upper-case first letter, so these need to be reverted.

Skip Opening "The"
Avoid using the definite article "The" at the start of the page name, unless it is specifically part of the name in the source text. For example, the Scarlet Sheath tavern and the House of Good Spirits guildhall don't need it, but The Fish House, The Wizard's Hand, and The Mysterious Harpers do.

However, if "the" is an essential part of the name and is needed make a page name sensible and not just a basic word, or to disambiguate, then it may be retained, for example, the Vast and the Hand.

Naming the Unnamable
If no proper name is known, then you may invent one. Make this simple, descriptive, and lower case, as it would appear in a sentence, so that it's not mistaken for a proper name. It can be based on descriptions or nicknames in the source or something to clarify it from others. For example, the second battle of Shadowdale, unnamed bandit leader, kittenlord, and one who waits. If a name is unknown and constructed, this should be explained in the article's Appendix. Do consider if an article for an unnamed topic even needs to be made, as it may not be notable enough.

Disambiguation
When two or more pages would have the same name, disambiguation is the process of deciding how to distinguish them. First, check if one has a more complete or up-to-date name it should be called instead. If not, give the name to the most well-known or most commonly linked-to page. The other page should be named with a brief description of what it is in brackets. For example, darkvision (the ability, and most common), Darkvision (novel) (the book), and darkvision (spell) (you get the idea).

If there are only two such pages, use a otheruses4 or distinguish template at the top of the page to clarify which is which and link between them. If there are three, use either two other uses or otheruses. Finally, create a disambiguation page like darkvision (disambiguation) to list the different page names and meanings, followed by the disambig notice.

Disambiguation may also be done for pages with similar but not identical names and even when pages have better names to go by. In this case, use the templates and make a disambiguation page, but do not rename the pages. For example, see Helm (disambiguation).

The disambiguating term should be short, specific, a basic noun, and in-universe. For example, Snake (ninja) (his occupation, ninja) rather than Snake (character) (an out-of-universe term) or Snake (Aru) (the place Snake is found, which may be unfamiliar or confusing). Some situations may necessarily break this rule, such as Athosar and Athosar (Loudwater), two identically named human clerics of Lathander distinguishable only by location.

Layout
This section covers how templates, text, and topics are arranged on a page for consistency and ease of finding information.

Infoboxes
In the source editor, at the top of the page (but below disambiguating and other top-of-the-page notices) is the infobox, a sidebar presenting basic information (e.g., a character's title, race, and home), statistics (a town's population or an item's value and weight), and some crunchy information (levels of characters, magic items, and spells), allowing the FRW to present important crunch while keeping it out of the main text. It also displays a page name (in title case, where important words are capitalized, and without need for disambiguation) and a key image at the top of the page.

Look through Category:Infoboxes for a suitable infobox; they are widely applicable but tailored to specific types of article. The most common are Person for characters (non-player!); Location for regions, realms, and settlements; Building for businesses, castles, and built structures; Creature for races and monsters in general; {tl|Item}} for tools, weapons, and magic items; and Class for classes of various kinds in each edition. Copy the infobox wikicode from the template page and paste it at the top of your article, then start filling out the entries according to the infobox's instructions. They don't all need to be filled, and should only be filled when the information is known. You may delete entries you won't use, but consider leaving some present for later users to expand on or copy. References should always be included and there are dedicated entries for them.

Images may be displayed in all infoboxes in the  entry, using , File:Image.jpg , or simply. The infobox allows a larger image width than default thumbnails, i.e., 270 pixels, so try to upload an image this size or larger. As this is the first thing a reader will see, try to display a relevant, recent, or eye-catching image that best illustrates the subject. However, if no suitable image exists, then it is not necessary to include one. After the image is the  entry; use this to describe the image or indicate the relevant part, especially if there are several characters or complex events or if it is a map and the location is hard to find. A caption is not necessary if the image is very self-explanatory.

Some pages may include two infoboxes, such as Organization to detail an order of knights and Class to detail a special class unique to its members.

Don't Bury the Lead
The lead (or lede) is the introductory sentence or paragraph of an article. It should appear at the top of the finished page, just below any top-of-the-page notices, and it should not have a section heading. In the source editor, it should appear below the infobox template. The lead quickly tells a reader what the article is about to help them decide whether to keep reading. Try to interest the reader in the article, but keep it short and to the point. It should give the basic who, what, where, when, how, and why of the topic.

An effective lead should give the name or names of the subject in bold and in standard sentence case at the start of the sentence or as close to it as possible, together with any titles. If the topic has multiple names, they can all be bolded, but try to space them out for clarity. Note that a topic with no proper name may require a different phrasing to explain it. The name should be followed by what it is, where it is found in the setting, and when it existed. Finally, it should give a brief explanation of its significance, if any. For long articles, the lead may even include a short summary. A lead should be written in complete and standard sentences and should be referenced as normal.

For example, let's look at Susztam Mar-Shinn:
 * Susztam Mar-Shinn was a drow illusionist and shadow adept. He was the Head Student of the Inverted Tower and a user of the Shadow Weave in Szith Morcane in the late 14 century.

First, it says who the article is about (usually the same as the page name). It is bolded for emphasis. Second, it says what he is: race, classes, and title/occupation. Third, it gives context: where he lives (both the building and settlement) and when he is in this role (the date range). Fourth, it gives why he is important, namely he's a practitioner of the Shadow Weave.

The when also subtly indicates the era and edition(s) of D&D and the Forgotten Realms the article pertains to. Saying "mid–14 century DR" covers 1 or early 2 editions (1356 DR to 1367 DR); "mid-to-late 14 century DR" covers 1, 2, and 3 editions (to 1385 DR; "late 14 century DR" covers late 2 and 3 editions" (1367 DR to 1385 DR); and "late 15 century DR" covers 4 and 5 editions (1479 DR onward); while other centuries indicate historical characters and sources set in earlier times. As a rule of thumb, consider that "early" covers the first 33 years of a century, "mid–" the 33 to 66 years, and "late" the final 33 years. If the date is ambiguous or you wish to narrow it further then consider "in the 9 century DR" or "in the 800s DR" or "in the 1360s DR", but avoid a specific year—few characters are relevant for only one year or less.

Section Breaks
Use section headings, as explained above, to break up walls of text and focus on specific aspects, such as Description, History, or Abilities. This makes it easier to arrange and focus an article and find specific information. Each of the infobox templates and "Help:Writing an article about…" pages gives a set of commonly used section headings. These should be consistent from page to page, but their order is flexible. For example, you may put History first to give context to later sections, by detailing the events that led to the conditions, or put History last, to avoid spoiling something, or you may put "Relationships" first to introduce the other people in the history. Think about how the article should be organized and the story you want to tell about the topic.

Subsections may also be included to break long sections into particular subjects and new sections may be created for specific issues. Unused sections should be removed. Sections may also be avoided in very short articles.

Use title case, not sentence case, in the section heading. That is, capitalize the first and major words and leave the minor words in lower case. For example, 'Ancient History', 'Rumors and Legends', and 'After the Fall of Netheril'.

Note that we use Description within an article to describe how something looks, and Appearances for appearances in fiction in the Appendix, so avoid using Appearance to describe the subject of an article.

Appendix
End the article with Appendix sections. These give real-world information and background, footnotes, sources, appearances in fiction, external links to other sites, galleries of images not shown in the main article, and navigation templates for finding similar pages.

Again, the infobox templates and "Help:Writing an article about…" pages will give standard Appendix sections for each kind of article. A common example is as follows: ==Appendix==

Categories
The Category: entries at the bottom of each page sort the page into categories according to what it is, where it is found, key descriptions and crunch, etc. so it can be found by searching a specific category. For example, include Category:Bakers on a page about a baker, cake maker, or pastry chef, and someone seeking bakers in the Realms can look there to find them. Note that this is distinct from Category:Cooks (general cooks and chefs) and Category:Bakeries (shops where breads, cakes, and pastries are made).

Try to include a full category tree at the bottom of the page. It's difficult to get a grasp on all possible categories, so browse the categories and look at similar pages and "Help:Writing an article about…" pages to find possible categories, copy-paste them, and adapt as needed. If you can think of it, try it out and try different possible names. For example, Salmone Healsmith has the following, covering class, race, sex, occupation, faith, location, and alignment:

A good order is to go from specific to general and to group by kind, so other editors can easily see what else needs to added.

Check to see if category pages exist or are needed before making new ones. New categories can be created when needed, but should be general enough to cover multiple possibilities and specific enough to be useful. For example, a 'Pastry chefs' category will be created when there are enough pastry chefs on the FRW to warrant one.

Point of View
Articles should adopt an in-universe and past-tense point-of-view for all in-universe subjects and out-of-universe and mixed past- and present-tense points-of-view for all real-world subjects.

In-universe Articles
An in-universe article covers the fictional lore of the Forgotten Realms or other setting and of the D&D game, also known as "fluff" in the fandom (as opposed to the "crunch" of rules and statistics). This includes characters, creatures, places and regions, events and history, spells, items, the descriptive aspects of classes, and so on.

In an in-universe article, everything that exists in the Forgotten Realms or D&D must be written about from an in-universe point-of-view, that is, from the point-of-view of someone on the planet Toril. It must treat this fictional lore as if it was real and should not mention crunch, novels, sourcebooks, and so on. This maintains immersion and focus and encourages a more fleshed-out article. Mentions of sources, editions, and D&D rules are forbidden, as these break the reader's suspension of disbelief, reminding them that they are not reading about a world, but about a book or game. For example, not "Ildilyntra Starym is a character in Elminster in Myth Drannor who…" but "Ildilyntra Starym was the former matriarch of the Starym clan of Cormanthyr" and not "Impiltur is a kingdom is the Forgotten Realms setting" but "Impiltur was a wealthy kingdom on the Easting Reach." In addition, not "The fireball did 3d6 fire damage to those in range" but "The fireball burned all it struck." To help handle differences in editions, refer instead to the timeline: not "In 3 edition, the fireball could be cast…" but "After the Year of Wild Magic, 1372 DR, the fireball could be cast…" These maintain suspension of disbelief and allow for more interesting descriptions.

On in-universe articles, out-of-universe information is only covered in the Appendix section at the end of the article, with discussion in Background or Notes subsections. Some crunch may also be included in certain infobox entries. Magic items may also be defined as +1 and so on within articles for convenience.

Past Tense
All in-universe articles must be written in past tense, as per our Past-Tense Policy to handle the Realms' evolving and uncertain timeline. In short, this is a narrative tense as used in most novels (particularly Forgotten Realms novels) and it does not mean anything is destroyed. For example, "Elminster slayed the dragon and flew to Cormyr" and "Ravens Bluff was a city in the Vast."

Apply the normal rules of grammar and tense. For example, for events that took place for a period of time but ceased at some point, use the past perfect continuous tense, e.g., "Smuggling had been occurring but the city guard stopped it in 1375 DR."

Do not use a conditional future tense with "would", as in "Elminster would slay the dragon and would fly to Cormyr" as this sounds strange, suggesting these things were planned but did not necessarily occur. Avoid this except where appropriate for discussion, e.g., "Elminster would have slayed the dragon, but it was immune to his magic" (conditional perfect tense, indicating intent but not completion) or "They would go on to defeat the witch." (past tense of will, indicating events in the relative future).

Past tense should also be used for real-world and general topics for consistency, e.g., "The katana was a sword used by samurai." and "Mathematics was a field of study." This maintains the in-universe point-of-view and narrative tense.

Present tense may be used in chronologies on years pages, following conventions in timelines in sourcebooks and Wikipedia. For example, from −286 DR, "The Xothol arcane college is closed." and "Wulgreth of Netheril settles in the ruins of Karse."

Present tense may also be considered for real-world perspectives, such as when information is lacking or the writer is forced to suggest or speculate, e.g., "The outcome of this battle is unknown" or "This may be due to the Time of Troubles." In these cases, the outcome of the battle is unknown to the editor, not necessarily to the people of Faerûn, while an effect or event occurring in 1358 DR is highly likely to be intended to be a result of the Time of Troubles but this cannot be confirmed. This should be used only when vital and be qualified with a footnote.

Real-world Articles
An out-of-universe or real-world article covers real-world information related to the Forgotten Realms and the D&D game. This includes sourcebooks, novels, comics, magazines, card games, board games, video games, film and television, and so on, as well as the series and ranges they are part of. It also covers real people, the game designers, writers, artists, and others responsible for their creation, and the companies that publish them. Other topics that can be treated as out-of-universe include key aspects of game crunch and pages covering Living Forgotten Realms and RPGA campaigns and publishing events. This includes Notes and Background sections in the Appendix of an in-universe article. Naturally, real-world topics should be written about with an out-of-universe point-of-view, as normal.

Past and present tenses should be used as normal for articles about real-world subjects, with present tense for sources still in existence and people who are still alive and past tense for things that were done in the past and for people who have passed away. For example, "Ed Greenwood is the creator of the Forgotten Realms setting", "Ed Greenwood wrote Spellfire in 1988", and "Spellfire is a novel by Ed Greenwood published in 1988" while "Jim Holloway was an artist for many sourcebooks."

An exception is the Earth article, which is the fictional Earth of D&D and fourth-wall-breaking articles and fiction in the Forgotten Realms, not the real Earth we live on, we hope.

Third-person Point-of-View
Articles should be written from the third-person point-of-view, that is, referring to participants by name or group and grammatical personal pronouns, not by referring to oneself (the first-person point-of-view, with "I" or "we") or addressing the audience (the second-person point-of-view, with "you"). For example, "Alusair defeated her foe" and "She returned to Cormyr" and "The Purple Dragons followed her." This is not an adventure module or sourcebook; there is no need to address readers, players, dungeon masters. This provides a neutral perspective.

If no participant is known, such as in descriptions of spells and effects or in actions by non-specific persons, then use the neutral point-of-view that does not refer to anyone. For example, "This was done to…" or "The spell harmed all enemies…" A hypothetical person may be supposed for describing complex effects, such as "For example, if an adventurer fell into the trap, she would be teleported to…" Do not default to a masculine pronoun, but use a variety of examples (he, she, and they) or use a singular pronoun 'they'.

Tone and Focus
All article text should have a high-quality academic/encyclopedic style with a neutral yet entertaining tone. We encourage editors to be both sage and storyteller and to write for everybody, no matter their knowledge of D&D, their place in the world, or their proficiency with English, while remaining true to the Forgotten Realms setting.

Encyclopedic Tone
The tone of the writing should be academic or encyclopedic and clear to all readers. Write information in a straightforward and honest way, and leave out personal opinions and excessive embellishments. It's not necessary to describe how evil a villain is, it's enough just to say that he eats puppies. Nevertheless, this is D&D, not Wikipedia, and it's fine to describe a villain as evil or to present a set of events in dramatic terms when appropriate, particularly when a source uses similar terminology.

Old-fashioned Tone
As the Forgotten Realms is a world of pseudohistorical fantasy, avoid strictly modern terminology that would be jarring to the reader's immersion. Try to describe a concept or find an older term rather than using a modern label that would be unknown within the setting. You may use older words, phrasing, and concepts that would be avoided in modern communication, provided the meaning is still clear. Of course, this does not mean a "ye olde" cod-medieval style should be adopted, unless appearing in quotes from the source, or that a lot of unfamiliar in-universe terms should be used. It is also not a license to insert old derogatory terms, nor to use modern political or social terms.

Entertaining Tone
Despite the above, the writing doesn't have to be dull. To entertain and reward the reader, you may include brief dramatic descriptions of events, clever and humorous turns of phrase, and witty remarks, provided they do not break the standard style or limit the usefulness of the article. However, try to avoid simple references to real-world topics and pop culture, other fictional works, and internet memes, as these break immersion, quickly become out-of-date and are also lazy. If you must make a reference, make it subtle and clever and not immersion-breaking. Generally, let the humor arise from the world and your own wit.

Focus on Lore, Avoid Crunch
The FRW is a lore-focused wiki and including a lot of the rules information of each D&D edition may be copyright infringing, so "crunch" should be avoided. Instead of mentioning a mechanical effect, describe what would occur in-universe. If giving a level, say if it is low, moderate, or high. That said, the FRW does list some basic crunch for comparison and organization purposes: with classes, levels, and alignments in infoboxes and +1 and similar ratings on magical items in text, as well as italics on spells and magic items, but this is the limit.

Focus on Facts, Avoid Speculation
The Forgotten Realms is an evolving and shared setting, so whatever information there is, something else may come along that builds on or counters it. For example, a "they lived happily ever after" ending may not be case with future adventures, and if a villain was defeated but no body seen, then who's to say she's really dead? A place might not have been mentioned or mapped in 4 edition, but that doesn't mean it was destroyed in the Spellplague, not when it could have been destroyed in some prior or later disaster, or even still exist beneath the world's and the writers' notice. Assumptions can mislead editors and readers into thinking something was explicitly stated in the source when in fact it never was.

Therefore, adopt a "just the facts" approach and report only what is presented in the sources you are referencing. Avoid making assumptions or presumptions and avoid extrapolating or interpolating information, except where absolutely necessary for a complete article, and even then tag with it a note and a speculation template. Where there is a hole in the world or a gap in the knowledge, do not try to fill it in yourself. Leave that to the reader, the writer, and the Dungeon Master.

Focus on Fairness, Avoid Personal Opinion
Do not include personal views in articles, both in in-universe content and particularly in real-world discussion. The FRW is edition-neutral and accepts all eras of the setting equally, regardless of individual personal feeling, and is not intended for reviews and commentary. Nevertheless, if it is necessary to discuss fan reactions or cover a controversial matter, then write about real-world matters in a detached and neutral way, while maintaining balance and fairness with a focus on facts and the Forgotten Realms. You may link to important reviews and discussions as examples, but try to balance opposing views and clarify who said what with references. Cover multiple fan theories, not just your own. Remember this is the work of real people and not everyone has the same views and tastes.

Spelling and Grammar
Write complete sentences with correct US English spelling, good grammar, and natural phrasing, while avoiding slang, abbreviations, unfamiliar idioms, and obscure terms without explanation. This keeps the text clear, comprehensible, and readable by the most people. Read your work back to yourself and consider if others will understand it, including those for whom English is not a first language. That said, you do not have to dumb your writing down; instead, feel free to exercise your creative writing skills for a more engaging or entertaining article.

On the other hand, do not be discouraged if English is not your first language or not your strong point—the FRW welcomes editors from many different language backgrounds and editors are on hand to correct each other's work.

The following is intended to help with advanced English usage.

US English Spelling and Grammar
Use US English spelling and grammar throughout, because the Forgotten Realms and Dungeons & Dragons are owned and produced by American companies who use US English in their works. However, if a subject uses a non-standard spelling or even an error in a proper name, then it should be retained, such as Grey Jungle or The Compleat Dragon-Hunter or Anthropologic and Folkloric Historie of the Settled Lands.

Spellings and Misspellings
Please use the following standard US English spellings and watch out for these common misspellings:
 * "worshiper", "worshiping", and "worshiped", not "worshipper", "worshipping", and "worshipped" (the former are used in D&D sourcebooks);
 * 'z' spellings for words such as "organization", "organized", and "organizing", not "organisation", "organised", and "organising";
 * "color", not "colour";
 * "gray", not "grey", unless appearing in a proper name such as Grey Jungle or Nanathlor Greysword; and
 * "rogue", not "rouge", of course.

That versus Which
Please follow the grammatical distinction between 'that' and 'which' in formal US English when used as relative pronouns (e.g., 'who' and 'whom,' 'why,' 'where,' and 'when').

For example, in the sentence "Dragons that breathed fire were most notorious," the words "that breathed fire" are a 'restrictive clause', meaning it cannot be removed without altering the meaning—"Dragons were most notorious" refers to all dragons rather than specific dragons.

In contrast, in the sentence "Red dragons, which breathed fire, were most notorious," the words "which breathed fire" are a 'non-restrictive clause', meaning it can be removed without altering the meaning—"Red dragons were most notorious" has the same meaning, giving the same primary information about red dragons. Non-restrictive clauses are also enclosed by commas.

However, in some English writing manuals and style guides, particularly in British English, 'that' and 'which' are used interchangeably. In this case, "Dragons which breathed fire were most notorious" is a valid sentence with a restrictive clause. However, the US English grammar allows for information to be conveyed more precisely and so it is preferred on the FRW. For more discussion and explanation, see this article.

Note that this does not alter any other grammatical rules about using 'that' and 'which'.

Who or Whom?
'Who' and 'whom' are a pair of pronouns like 'he' and 'him', 'she' and 'her', 'they' and them'. The former are the subjects of a sentence (the one doing the action) and the latter are the objects of the sentence (the ones to which the action is done). To help remember which is which, notice that 'he', 'they', and 'who' end in vowel sounds and 'him', 'them', and 'whom' end in 'm'.

To help decide whether 'who' or 'whom' should be used in a sentence, consider these tests. If the sentence is a question (rarely seen in a wiki article) or can be phrased as one, and the answer could be 'he…', then 'who' is used and if the answer could be 'him…', then 'whom' is used. If the sentence is not a question, then consider replacing your 'who' with 'he' or 'him', and even rearranging the sentence so it makes sense. If 'he' fits the sentence, then 'who' is correct and if 'him' fits the sentence, then 'whom' is correct.

For example, consider "The knight who slew the dragon." By switching 'who' for 'he' or 'him', we have "he slew the dragon," which makes sense, or "him slew the dragon," which does not. The question "Who slew the dragon?" could have the answer "He slew the dragon" or "He did". Therefore, 'who' is correct.

For another example, "The knight, whom the people loved, rode into the city." In this case, "him the people loved" may sound weird, so add to it with "it was him the people loved" or rearrange it as "the people loved him", and these are correct. The question "Whom did the people love?" has the answer "The people loved him." or simply "Him." Therefore, 'whom' is correct. However, note that a slight revision changes the situation: "The knight, who was loved by the people, rode into the city."

If in still in doubt, simply use 'who' in any case. Even if it's wrong, it's a common error and passes without notice to almost everyone except the writers of guides like this one. But misusing 'whom' will just sound strange and is often an effort to sound knowledgeable without actually being so. For more discussion and explanation, see this article.

Prepositions
Prepositions express relations between terms regarding space and time. They can be difficult to fully understand or know which to use and when, and there are many of them. Think of them as almost anything you'd use to describe a cat with a box—look for a box, sitting on a box, sitting in a box, playing with a box, hiding under a box, lying beside a box (i.e., next to on the left or right), before a box (front of the box), behind (rear of the box), jumping off a box, jumping into a box, jumping over a box, hanging above a box, clawing at a box, clawing apart box, clawing through a box, fleeing because the box broke, hiding after the box broke, and finally bored since the box broke. Later, the cat may lie among the debris or walk between two new boxes.

Among and Between
In particular, the prepositions 'among' and 'between' are similar and often mistaken, but they have different uses.

'Among' is used to express inclusion or presence within a group and when the items in that group are not distinct. For example, 'Some among the tribe feared the beast,' meaning certain people included in the tribe, not specifying who or how many. For another example, 'Bats roosted among the inn's rafters,' meaning bats lived on, hung from, and flew around in the general space of the rafters.

'Between' is used to express a relationship or interaction of two or more distinct items. For example, 'The river ran between the mountains and the plain,' where the river forms a boundary (a relationship) separating the mountains and plains. Another example is 'Negotiations between the three merchants went well,' meaning the three merchants negotiated (an interaction) with one another.

Note that there is a common myth that 'between' is used for two items and 'among' for three or more, but this is completely false.

For more details and examples, see this article.

Active and Passive Voices
A passive sentence (or passive voice) is one in which the target of an action is placed as the subject of the sentence (at the beginning, with everything else related back to it). The one actually performing the action comes last as the object. For example, "Fine armor was sold by the blacksmith," where 'armor' is the subject of the sentence and target of the action 'sold' and 'the blacksmith' is the one doing the action and the object of the sentence. For a simpler example, "this was done by them" with 'this' the subject and target of the action, 'done' the action, and 'them' the object and the one doing the thing.

In contrast, an active sentence (or active voice) is one in which the one performing the action comes first at the subject and the target of the action comes after at the object. For example, "The blacksmith sold fine armor," where 'the blacksmith' is now the subject of the sentence and the one performing the action 'sold' and the 'armor' is object and the target of the action. For a simpler example, "they did this" with 'they' the subject doing the thing and 'this' the object.

The active voice is often more direct, explicit about who is doing the action, and clearer to understand than the passive and sometimes involves less words. Therefore, consider using the active voice to strengthen your writing and add action. "The paladin smote the blackguard with his holy avenger" has the attacking paladin as the active party, whereas "The blackguard was smote by the paladin with his holy avenger" has the paladin as a passive source of an attack, which is much less how a battle should go.

However, in many cases and especially in wiki article writing, it may be essential to have the target of an action as the subject and thus use the passive voice. Using the above example, if the focus of discussion is the armor, not the blacksmith, then the passive voice would be preferrable. Moreover, if the one doing the action is unknown, then the passive voice may be almost unavoidable, e.g., "goods were sold in the village market" when we don't know if the sellers had local farmers, traveling merchants, visiting dwarves, all three, or neither. In these cases, the object may be left out completely. Note that this kind of passive voice can be a weasel wording that evades giving the source or responsibility, e.g., "It was said that…" (who or what kinds of people said it?) or "It was decided to…" (who decided, and how and why?) but this may be unavoidable given the prevalence of incomplete or general information in the setting.

Faerûnian Spelling and Symbols
As it uses many fictional, fantastical, and non-English-based languages, the Forgotten Realms have many strange and difficult spellings and long words, especially in the names of dragons, dragonborn, elves, and drow. Therefore, take care that the spellings of the names of characters, locations, and other things are correct. This is most important in page names; in links, which lead to page names and are used for searching; and in infobox titles, which are used to generate links to categories.

These spellings include many diacritic marks on letters that are unfamiliar in English and not found on a typical keyboard. For example, the circumflex on the 'u' in Faerûn and Selûne and the acute accent on the 'e' in Nouméa Drathchuld and "Oloré". Try to retain these, such as by copy-pasting from the book, another article, or Windows' Character Map program or other means of entering special characters. Common diacritic-marked letters are included in the edit tools in the source editor. The FRW also has redirects for many 'bare' and common incorrect spellings, so Faerun will work and 'Faerûn' will be auto-suggested in a link.

Correct Punctuation
Please review the proper use of hyphens and dashes, again in conventional US English style:
 * The hyphen, -, is short and joins words together as a compound modifier, which jointly modify another word (e.g., a light-green sack is light green in color, while a light green sack is a sack that is green and light in weight) and combines words into single units (such as hyphenated names). Think of it as a hug, bringing things together. It can be entered via the keyboard.
 * The en dash, –, is longer and indicates relations (e.g., the Waterdeep–Neverwinter route, the Aldimer–Mathlin–Uruthkurt alliance, or the Greenwood–Grubb novel) and ranges (e.g., pages 10–13, the years 1357–1359 DR). Think of it as being at arm's reach and keeping things apart, or as a handshake made in partnership. It can be entered via the FRW's edit tools, Character Map, or typed out with – . Citation templates will automatically convert a hyphen to an en dash, so '10-13' is fine inside a cite book template.
 * The em dash, —, is longest and indicates parenthetical breaks (e.g., "The three adventurers—named Grin, Richard, and Wu-Wei—ventured into the tower") and interruptions (e.g., "So, as I was sayi— aargh!". Think of it as touching with a ten-foot pole, to avoid getting any closer. It can be entered via the FRW's edit tools, Character Map, or typed out with &mdash;.
 * The minus sign, −, is slightly higher than an en dash in most fonts and indicates subtraction and negatives of values. On the FRW, it is primarily used in years, e.g., "in the Year of Confusion, −120 DR". However, for ease of searching and linking, the FRW uses hyphens in year page names and links, e.g., -120 DR. The minus sign may be entered via the FRW's edit tools and Character Map, and templates like Yearlink and will convert and display the minus sign automatically when a hyphen is used.

US and SI Units of Measurement
As with spelling and grammar, use US customary units of measurement, that is, the use of feet and pounds rather than meters and kilograms and so on. In practice, these will be the same values appearing in D&D sourcebooks and so on. However, if a subject uses a metric or non-standard unit of measurement, then it should be retained for accuracy.

However, for convenience of non-US readers, the FRW provides SI metric conversions for measurements in US customary units. These appear in parentheses after the measurement, for example, "5 feet (1.5 meters)". The SI, SIrange, and SIAdj templates may be used to automatically convert many different kinds of units in both short and long formats.

In infoboxes and tables where space is limited, use short forms of units, e.g., "20 lb (9 kg)". In the main text of the article, use long forms of units, e.g., "20 pounds (9 kilograms)", for ease of reading and clarity.

If not using the templates for conversion, use the same number of significant figures. That is, 20 pounds has one significant figure, '2', so the conversion is limited to one significant figure, '9', for fair approximation and so we have '9 kilograms' and not ' 9.07185 kilograms'. Regardless, use your best judgement: 5 feet and 1 meter have the same significant figures, but 1 meter is only 3.28 feet, which is way off, so 1.5 meters is more accurate. At the same scale, consider it to be 5.0 feet, with two significant figures, 5 and 0.

Myths and Legends of Grammar
Some well-known rules and ideas about grammar are actually false, and are usually based on misunderstandings or past attempts to make English work more like Latin. These are largely disproved or dismissed by experts now.

One is the split infinitive in which an adverb is inserted between 'to' and a verb. For example, "The adventurers armed themselves to boldly venture into the dragon's lair" has the adverb 'boldly' split the infinitive 'to venture'. This is fine, and 'to venture boldly' is fine too. In these cases, put the adverb where it is clearest, even if it is before the verb is it describing.

Another is the rule against ending a sentence with a preposition, which are described above. Some may insist a sentence should not end in, on, or with a preposition, e.g., "This was something they knew well of." or "This was the man she'd fought with." and "What did you step on?" To avoid this, sentences can be restructured, usually placing the preposition before a relative pronoun, but the alternatives can get too wordy, formal, not natural-sounding, or grammatically tangled: "This was something of which they knew well." or "This was the man with whom she'd fought." and "On what did you step?" And this is the sort of thing up with which we shall not put. So, the prohibition on these prepositions is disregarded. Nevertheless, it is a common error for a stray preposition to appear in a sentence, often at the end, and a useful test is to restructure it so it does not. If the preposition has nowhere to go, it may be unnecessary. For example, "This was where they were at." becomes "This was at where they were." showing us that the 'at' is actually unnecessary here. (For more on this issue, see this article.)

While these wordier and formal phrasings do suit the FRW, given the old-fashioned tone of fantasy fiction and the Forgotten Realms, they are not necessary and can be disregarded for the sake of clarity and ease of reading.

A common suggestion for first-time writers is that short sentences are better and long sentences should be avoided. This is unhelpful. Short sentences make text abrupt. They make it hard to link concepts. They have no no sense of flow. See what that sounds like? In contrast, a longer sentence allows concepts to be linked and carries the reader through the statement it is making. Of course, a very long sentence can be confusing, with more errors accumulating or the reader forgetting the point it started on. And a person struggling with English will likely find shorter sentences easier to write and to read. Therefore, a sentence should be as long as it needs to be and no longer, without stringing together too many unrelated concepts.

Text Style
While the FRW is not stringent on style, here are a few basic rules taken from common styles and Dungeons & Dragons publications, adopted for consistency and to address common issues. For more, please see the most recent D&D sourcebooks and Wikipedia's Manual of Style. If in doubt, follow the style used in the source where possible.

Book Titles in Italics, Article Titles in Quotation Marks
Titles of books, both in-universe and real-world, are written with italics, such as Book of the Black and Powers & Pantheons. Titles of individual short stories, poems, chapters, sections, and articles, both in-universe and real-world, are written with quotation marks, such as "The Night Tymora Sneezed" and "The Warlock King". Article series such as appearing in magazines and on websites are written in italics, such as The Everwinking Eye, while the titles of trilogies like The Nobles and The Heroes of Phlan trilogy.

Lower Case for Common Nouns
When appearing in sentences, the words for creatures, items, and most classes, spells, and magic items should be written in lower case, as common nouns, as they would appear in D&D sourcebooks. For example, dwarf, strongheart halfling, invisible stalker, battleaxe, and cleric. Note that automatically completed links are generated with capitalized initial letters (which are case-insensitive), so try to manually convert these to lower case.

Upper Case for Proper Nouns
As normal for proper nouns, the names of most characters, locations, nationalities, ethnicities, organizations, events, faiths, important items, and so on, are capitalized. For example, Filia Churlgo, the Way of the Dragon, the Tashalan people, and the Knights of Ilmater. Mixtures of both proper and common nouns use both, e.g., Purple Dragon knight. Take care not to mistakenly capitalize something appearing only in lower case in a source, as you risk turning it into a proper noun. Note also that some sources will use capital letters for crunch or emphasis on things that are not proper nouns

Title Case in Section, Table, and Infobox Headings
Text in titles, section headings, the labels of tables, and the tops of infoboxes (given in the  entry) should be written in title case, that is, capitalizing the first letter and all nouns and major words, while leaving prepositions, definite and indefinite articles ('the', 'a', 'an') in lower case. For example, The Grand History of the Realms (a sourcebook title), A Glimpse into the Abyss (an in-universe book title), "Ancient History" (a section heading), and "Explosive Cascade" at the top of the infobox on the explosive cascade page. If in doubt, follow the form used in the source.

Spells and Magic Item Names in Italics
Similarly, following the style in D&D sourcebooks, spells and common magic items are written in lower case with italics, not including any proper nouns that may be a part of their names, for example, magic missile, Otto's irresistible dance, and cloak of resistance. Note that common items like holy symbol or spellbook may become magic items, but are not generally magical, so they are written in plain text.

Note that some storied magic items, especially artifacts, have multiple names, some in italics and some not, and some capitalized, such as Ilbratha, the Mistress of Battles, so follow the style used in the sourcebook. If the item appears only in a video game, which may not follow this style, use italics and convert to lower case as appropriate.

Use Italics for Non-English Text and for Emphasis
To distinguish text from languages other than English, both real and fictional, write them in italics. You may do this for Latin phrases and abbreviations like e.g., circa, and et cetera; for Elven words and quotations such as aegiskeryn or "Ai armiel telere maenen hir," and so on.

You may also use italics for emphasis by adding stress to a key word, but do this sparingly and avoid them if italics are used heavily in neighboring text.

Straight Quotation Marks
Use straight quotation marks, as 'here' and "here", not the curly or smart quotation marks that may be copied over from documents or advanced text editors, as seen ‘here’ and “here” (look closely to see the difference). While curly quotation marks do not cause issue in regular text unlike in page titles, they can break links if they are used in them and they cannot be used to create italics and bolding in wikicode. For consistency and ease of use, straight marks should be used throughout.

Single vs. Double Quotation Marks
Use single quotes to name things, for example, "aegiskeryn, Elven for 'shield guardian'". This distinguishes a term as being separate from a sentence's grammar and phrasing. Use double quotation marks to present quoted text within paragraphs, such as "Fairin Icemantle said they "run in waist-high riot across the land".

Place Superscripts after Punctuation
Superscripts (small text raised to the upper part of the line) for both references and footnotes, as created with  tags, should be placed after any punctuation. For example, "here,[1]" and "here;[1][2]" and also "here.[note 1]". This ensures the punctuation remains clearly connected to the sentence, as a long row of superscripts can push it very far away from the text it belongs to.