But, whatever you do, do not copy from the book.
This Editing Guide and Manual of Style is a combined help and 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 Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), as well as 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 guidance for writing effective articles.
Please place queries and suggestions on the Talk page.
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, enabling new information to be added more easily. A wiki without an established 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 well-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 articles.
Our key aims are:
- Quality writing and formatting,
- Complete referencing, and
- Entertaining and professional style.
Becoming a Great Editor[]
First, in this section, we give some advice for getting started and learning the ropes of wiki editing, as well how to write good wiki articles.
Scaling the Learning Curve[]
The codes and techniques of wiki editing can 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 early on, make an account with FANDOM so you can set preferences (and avoid advertising!) 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 then add a complete new page to the wiki. If you wish to experiment, use your own User page or subpage as a sandbox.
And 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 topics 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.
Staying at the Summit[]
Don't let yourself wind up like this guy.
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 attempt too much will start making basic errors in accuracy, layout, referencing, or code. Therefore, take it steady, as suggested above.
Also be sure to pick projects you have a personal stake in. It could be background for your character or your campaign, either as a player or as a DM. It could be part of a Forgotten Realms story you loved and want to document and share with others. Or it could just be something in the setting you're interested in or are intrigued about, like a favorite race or realm, a villainous organization you want to know more about, or a mystery you want to get to the bottom of. 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 become essential. 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. Developing the wiki 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. Putting a project on hold too long can make it lose its spark or cause an editor to forget what they were doing.
In summary, take it slow and steady and do what you love, for this is a labor of love. This is as much for your own benefit as that of your fellow editors.
Writing Good Articles[]
To summarize a lot of what follows, try to write complete sentences with US English spelling, correct punctuation, 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.
Moreover, write with an in-universe, past-tense point-of-view, avoiding the out-of-universe reality of D&D as a game in our world. If it helps, imagine yourself as a sage, scholar, or historian living on Toril centuries later; piecing together and cross-checking information from different sources; and writing about it for your fellows.
As you write, 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 down your writing; instead, feel free to exercise your creative writing skills for a more educational, engaging, and entertaining article.
On the other hand, do not be discouraged by wiki coding or if English is not your first language or not your strong point—the FRW welcomes editors from many different language backgrounds and editors are always ready to correct each other's work. Any errors can be corrected, so do not be afraid to make them.
Finally, never copy from the sourcebooks and other works and always include citations or references for all information you add. Copied text and unsourced additions will be removed, so, if nothing else, provide the source somewhere so it can be properly cited.
Basic Editing[]
This section gives some basic instructions for editing and or using wikitext (also called wiki markup and wikicode).
The Edit Button and Menu[]
The Edit button and drop-down menu of page controls and options.
To edit a page, go to the upper-right corner, where you'll find a pencil symbol and 'Edit', and three dots that f you hover over them will display a drop-down menu of page controls and options. Click Edit to open the editor. The drop-down menu displays an alternative editor: if the visual editor is default, this will be the source editor; if source editor is default, this will be the visual editor. It also gives links to History, which shows the revision history of the page and options for comparing changes; Move, which renames a page with or without redirects; Purge, which clears the cache for forced reloads to display recent changes to a page; Talk, which links to the Talk page associated with the page used to discuss specific issues, with number of messages made; and Watch/Unwatch, which adds or removes the page from your personal watchlist. (Protect and Delete are for admins only, don't worry about them.)
Use the Source Editor, Please[]
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 you can insert at the click of a mouse. The visual editor, meanwhile, displays how the page may look to the reader, but obscures the code, does not work with many templates, and can cause other problems. A user may try to correct the spelling in a link, but often changes only the overlying text and misses correcting the link itself. The visual editor can also add spaces and alter formatting or incorrectly apply templates without the user even trying. A third option is the visual editor's source mode, which does wikicode but with the limited functions of the visual editor.
The Editing tab in Preferences. Try out different options to find what works for you.
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 Edit. If the visual editor is already open, select 'Source editing' from its drop-down menu in the top right. Note that this may take you to the visual editor's source mode. If you have a FANDOM account, go to Preferences, go to the Editing tab, and set the 'Preferred editor' to 'Source editor'.
Finally, be sure to check the box for "Enable the editing toolbar" to display the panel of options at the top of the editing window. These give more ready-made standard wikicode you can insert (bold, italics, links, pictures, references, section headings, etc.) and a few helpful reminders of what they do. In particular, click on the pencil icon to turn on syntax highlighting; this indicates complete and incomplete wikicode, which is helpful in correct bugs.
Watching Pages[]
To help keep track of your pages, use the Watch function. When creating or editing a page, you have the option to tick a box for 'Watch this page'. (Default options for these can be set in Preferences.) When viewing a page, you can click 'Watch' in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. If you're already watching the page, it becomes 'Unwatch' instead. You may check Special:Watchlist to see changes to pages you're watching, see lists of all watched pages, or select pages to unwatch. Note that watching only works if you have a FANDOM account.
Creating New Pages[]
The mouse cursor disappeared for the screenshot, but it's the second from the right.
A new article can be created in one of two ways.
The first is by following a red link from an existing page (blue links mean the page exists on the wiki, red links mean it doesn't), which will open the default editor for the reader to begin adding text and wikicode (presuming, of course, that they know what to add).
The second is by clicking the 'Add New Pages' icon (a page being pulled up) in the upper-right corner, bringing up the 'Create a new article' window. You need to add the page name here, so be sure it is correct or appropriate, as discussed under Page Names below.
The 'Create a new article' window. It also checks if a page name is taken and suggests some wanted articles you probably aren't interested in.
When creating a new page in the source editor, we provide a selection of auto-load or preload options at the top of the editing window for a number of common types of article. Simply click one of these and the browser will load a new page populated with the full infobox template and standard sections and appendices. Be sure to remove unwanted sections and {{#if:{{NAMESPACE}}|[[Category:Preload templates]]}}<!-- Please delete this on article pages --> from the bottom.
Our preload options are a big time saver.
If you don't use one of these, you will need to copy-paste the relevant infobox template, type out or copy the relevant sections, and so on. You can also cheat and copy-paste text from a similar article and revise as needed After that, you'll need to fill out the infobox entries according to its specific instructions and actually write the article, which is what the rest of this guide is about.
Apostrophes & 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". Using the wrong apostrophes and quotation marks 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:
- To make italic text, wrap it with two apostrophes:
''italic'' - To make bold text, wrap it with three apostrophes:
'''bold''' - To make bold and italic text, wrap it with five apostrophes:
'''''bold and italic'''''.
Note that bold and italic is the two apostrophes of italics plus the three apostrophes of bold and these groups may be split. For example, italic and bold is created with '''''italic'' and bold'''.
A regular apostrophe as in a quote or possessive may interfere with these. If so, use nowiki (which prevents wikicode working) to cover the actual apostrophe. For example, write the ''Forgotten Realms''<nowiki>'</nowiki> creators to give "the Forgotten Realms' creators".
Links and Templates[]
To make a link, wrap it with two square brackets: [[remove curse]] makes "remove curse". To apply italics or bolding, place apostrophes outside the square brackets: ''[[remove curse]]'' 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': [[remove curse|lifted his curse]] 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: the {{YearlinkName|1362}} makes "the Year of the Helm, 1362 DR". 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[]
First, reference everything. Thorough referencing helps readers and other editors understand the source and context for each piece of information, allows them to find the sourcebook or novel and confirm it for themselves, and demonstrates the wiki's reliability, accuracy, and usefulness. You can have a reference for a whole paragraph, a single sentence, a single clause in that sentence, or even a single word. Apply references with good judgement, being neither too general nor too fastidious but enough for a dedicated reader or editor to reverse engineer the reasoning used to write a passage of text.
To make a citation, use a citation template. For example, {{Cite book/Murder in Cormyr}} makes:
- Chet Williamson (July 1998). Murder in Cormyr. (TSR, Inc.). ISBN 0-7869-0486-0.
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: {{Cite book/Murder in Cormyr/MMP|9-12|3}} makes:
- Chet Williamson (July 1998). Murder in Cormyr. (TSR, Inc.), chap. 3, pp. 9–12. ISBN 0-7869-0486-0.
Citation templates 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 ref tags. For example <ref name="MiC-c4">{{Cite book/Murder in Cormyr/MMP|9-12|3}}</ref> to create a superscript numbered link, such as "Grimalkin was a cat belonging to Benelaius, a retired War Wizard.[2]" The name="foo" 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 name="foo" 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 name may be left out, such as <ref>{{Cite book/Murder in Cormyr/MMP|9-12|3}}</ref>
To reuse this reference, use the first part with the name defined earlier: <ref name="MiC-c4" /> to give the same superscript numbered link, "He regularly lay on Benelaius's lap and liked being rubbed behind the ears.[2]" The results are displayed by a {{refs}} template at the bottom of the page in a References section:
- ↑ Ed Greenwood, Jeff Grubb (August 1987). “Cyclopedia of the Realms”. In Karen S. Martin ed. Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (TSR, Inc.), p. 1. ISBN 0-88038-472-7.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chet Williamson (July 1998). Murder in Cormyr. (TSR, Inc.), chap. 4, pp. 8, 32–33. ISBN 0-7869-0486-0.
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 {{Cite book/ then the name and wait for auto-complete to suggest it, use Search for "Template:Cite book/…", or else find a link to it on the source's page or look through Category:Citation templates. They are divided by medium (book, comic, game, etc.), edition (hardcover, mass-market paperback, year, etc.), and disambiguation (explained under Page Name, below) as needed. Note that inserting page numbers without the correct cite template may produce an error message.
Page numbers will vary with each edition and are not meaningful in ebooks, so be sure to use the chapter number as well.
If nothing works, then at least try to include the source for what you added or changed, whether in the Summary or the article text itself, so another editor can correct it for you. Unsourced changes or additions will be tagged as needing a reference or even reverted.
Footnotes[]
To make a note that appears as a footnote, the process is similar. Write the note explaining an issue or giving clarifying information from a real-world perspective, then wrap it in ref tags and include group="note". For example, "Brave adventurers apparently defeated the marauding dragon.<ref group="note">The source does not make it clear if the dragon was slain or merely gravely wounded, as it flew away before it could fall.</ref>" This will show "Brave adventurers apparently defeated the marauding dragon.[note 1]"
If you wish to reuse a note, then name="bar" can be used as is done for references. For example, "It was a city of 2,500 or 3,000 people.<ref group="note" name="population">Each edition gives different population figures for the city, hence this discrepancy.</ref>" This can be called later with <ref group="note" name="population" />. For example, our first use of the note gives: "It was a city of 2,500 or 3,000 people.[note 2]" It is called again with "Population: 2,500 or 3,000<ref group="note" name="population" />" and gives us "Population: 2,500 or 3,000[note 2]" Typically, this is done for one use in the infobox and another in the main text.
In both cases, the results are displayed by a {{notes}} template at the bottom of the page in a Notes section:
Don't be shy about using footnotes, no matter how pedantic—if they're good enough for Elminster to comment on Volo's work, they're good enough for us!
Paragraph Breaks[]
As with most webpages, paragraphs on wiki pages have spaces between them for readability. To create paragraph breaks, make 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 rejoin the text as a single block, as if there was no paragraph break. Do not indent the paragraph, as a single space at the start of a line is used to create boxed-out sections (see Indents & Definitions, below).
Section Headings[]
To create section headings, wrap the text with multiple equals signs. As seen above, two equals signs produces a large, underlined section heading, ==Editing==, and three equals signs produces a subsection, ===Breaks and Sections===. Four will produce a subsubsection, ====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.
Sections are automatically nested, with subsections included as part of preceding sections and subsubsections included as part of preceding subsections. Be sure to have correct section headings for the proper page layout.
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 hinder the reader from seeing the article itself), place {{TOC limit|3}} 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.
Indentations & Definitions[]
In addition to sections, there are multiple ways of creating indented text for different purposes.
A single space at the start of a line will cause the text to be displayed in a shaded box in a Courier-style font. This is typically used for displaying code in documentation for templates; in regular articles, this is a common error and should be avoided. This is why spaces cannot be used to indent paragraphs.
You probably don't want this.
To indent a paragraph, place a colon at the start of the line instead. (And yes, this is counter to standard writing practice.) This will indent the whole paragraph (not just the first line) by roughly 3 characters. Multiple colons will indent even further. For most article text, you won't need this, except to create a quick note or link to a larger article. For example, as the Ilmater page focuses on the deity, the religion is detailed on a separate page, with the Worshipers section including an overview and the line :{{Main|Church of Ilmater}}, which displays:
These indents should be italicized to distinguish them from the main text of the article. Second, indents may be used to create inset paragraphs for special purposes, as discussed in the But What Actually Happened? subsection, below. Third, indents are commonly used on Talk pages for discussions.
- One indent indicates a reply to the above line.
- Two indents indicates a reply to that line.
- And so on.
- And so forth.
- And so on.
- Two indents indicates a reply to that line.
To form a definition, you may use a semicolon and a colon in combination. A semicolon at the start of a line makes the following text bold without becoming a section heading. The next colon, whether immediately following or at the start of the next line, creates text indented close below the bold text. For example, ;Term : Definition or, on different lines:
;Term
:Definition
and:
;Term:
:Definition
will all display:
- Term
- Definition
These are used to create definitions of terms, especially in the dictionary pages for various languages. Note that, if the colon is not included, then the text at 'Definition' will simply appear as a new paragraph. In addition, for coding reasons, the semicolon should not be used independently; it must be followed by the colon.
Plagiarizing & Paraphrasing & Quoting[]
This section covers the definitions and differences between plagiarism and copyright infringement and how to avoid both with fair use and proper paraphrasing.
Plagiarism & Copyright Infringement[]
Once again, do not copy, not even yourself.
Do not copy from the books! Again, just to be clear, do not copy from the books!
Yes, it can be tempting to copy, as D&D sourcebooks already provide descriptive summaries that may seem to fit well in a wiki article, but this is false and potentially illegal. First, the text of a sourcebook is not a good match for a wiki's encyclopedic style, as it carries a more dramatic or biased tone, has a different point of view (whether present tense, real-world, or directed at players or Dungeon Masters), and weaves information on different topics in each statement, rather than arranging topics by sections as in an article. This makes it actually difficult to fit to a wiki article and to incorporate new information later, leading to inconsistency and repetition.
Second, and most importantly, it is considered to be plagiarism, even copyright infringement. These are related and similar but very different concepts. Plagiarism here is copying text and passing it off as one's own work—since wiki editors are presumed to be writing in their own words, publishing copied text on the wiki (especially uncited) is plagiarism and is seen as unethical and lazy. Copyright infringement is understood to mean copying text and other materials in a way that infringes on the rights and licenses of D&D and leads to commercial loss. That is, copying the text of a sourcebook and publishing it for free online could mean a lost sale of the actual sourcebook. It may leave the wiki liable to legal action for copyright infringement, leading to it being shut down. Obviously, we don't want that.
Therefore, all text added to the wiki must be written in the wiki editor's own words. A simple change of tense, a minor rephrasing or rewording, or restructuring to a wiki article format is not sufficient. The text must be fully rewritten to original text. Again, write all text in your own words. A wiki is a creative endeavor, so exercise your writing ability and creativity and have fun with it.
Fair Use of Text and Images[]
Of course, the act of transferring information from books, novels, games, comics, and more to a wiki may itself be considered to be somewhat infringing. Fortunately, it is covered under the doctrine of fair use. That is, it is fair for us as fans to use this properly obtained information for discussion of the setting, promotion of the game, and the entertainment of ourselves and others, provided it is not used for commercial purposes and does not infringe on copyright. Furthermore, as described by FANDOM, wiki text is under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC BY-SA) license, meaning it may in turn be freely used, provided attribution is given to the wiki.
To be considered fair use, we believe a wiki article should not be a substitute for a sourcebook or novel. Therefore, do not completely retell a novel or rewrite a sourcebook, but rather write a full and useful summary of it, perhaps one that encourages readers to read the book for themselves. Do not give a blow-by-blow account of a battle, conversation, or other scene, but certainly cover all the key events and give necessary context in a way that makes the article clear and understandable without reference to the original story. Nevertheless, different editors have different standards for their summaries and what qualifies as useful information; some will write much more than others and we do aim to be complete and comprehensive. This is fair and makes the wiki more useful.
Furthermore, the wiki does not give complete D&D rules or statistics, only the minimum necessary for organization and comparison, with in-universe descriptions of effects. For example, we can say a character is a barbarian who can fly into a battle-rage with his magical flaming sword, without detailing the barbarian class in any edition, mechanics of the rage class feature, or the damage dice of the flaming sword. Note that basic rules information like class level is mostly relegated to infoboxes, not in the main text, to maintain an in-universe point-of-view (more on that later).
Blurring the other characters helps this priest of Bane stand out from the crowd.
Similarly, images should not be uploaded at maximum size as might be provided on the artist's website or social media, as this may supplant a need to visit their website, can increase page load times, and would be unnecessary for wiki purposes of illustrating an article or topic. Therefore, reduce an image in dimensions and file size before uploading it to the wiki, though not if it makes the image small and unclear or makes labels on a map illegible. Moreover, erase any text from images (artist name and copyright details should remain), maps (map keys, legends, and compass roses may be kept for reference, but consider if a list of locations would be better being written separately, with wiki links and additional information), and comics panels (that is, erase text in speech bubbles). Some parts of an image may be difficult to erase or crop without becoming unsightly or obscuring an image, so it is fine to retain them. You may also consider blurring out undesired parts of an image to bring more focus to a subject that might otherwise be obscured or not obvious. Finally, promotional images released by the company may be displayed at the provided size and images of covers may be displayed at large size as needed (they are by their nature public and promotional).
Quotations & Epigraphs[]
A quotation is any text copied from the source material for illustrative purposes. Quotations should be wrapped in double quotation marks and displayed exactly as they appear in the source, not altered or rewritten in any way apart from minor punctuation and spelling corrections, and must be accurately referenced. For fair use, refrain from quoting the prose of a novel (the real-world author's words) unless it is very necessary, and instead quote the words of a character in a novel or sourcebook or an in-universe text such as a book or poem, in order to maintain an in-universe point-of-view.
In addition, try to quote only a sentence or two at a time for fair use, not a whole paragraph or more, to avoid it becoming excessive and infringing. You may omit text or indicate continuing text with an ellipsis, that is, … (three periods in a row) or … (a single special character). More text may be quoted if deemed necessary for a fair rendition that would be helpful to readers, such as a whole poem or song. Blurbs (back-cover text and publisher's descriptions) may be quoted in full as they are promotional.
Quotations on the wiki appear in one of three forms. The most basic appear as part of regular article text in simple double quotation marks and are used to support or illustrate the present discussion. For example:
- Fairin Icemantle described the dwarven slaughter of the orcs in his Treatise Against Blood-Metal, saying that they "run in waist-high riot across the land".
- This transparent excuse to meet Albhaera Haerldoun earned the Purple Dragons the mockery of the Whelunians, who called out such things as "Better check my basket here, look ye—mayhap Albhaera's hiding in it!"
The other two forms are both examples of epigraphs. These are quotations that appear outside the regular article text and display the quote with particular attention. The FRW uses two kinds.
The {{Quote}} template presents the quote in plain text on its own line, indented and wrapped with oversized quotation marks, with an em dash and the source and reference following. For example, {{Quote|Ye have enemies? Good, good—that means ye've stood up for something, sometime in thy life...|Elminster, speaking to a young member of the [[Harpers]].<ref name="CotH-p118">{{Cite book/The Code of the Harpers|118}}</ref>}} produces:
This is useful for helping to begin an article with an appropriate theme, e.g., an article about a character might have a quote from that character like at Balduran or from another character about them like at Artak, or for beginning or concluding a lengthy section with a quote on that topic, as at Elminster—the above quote opens the Enemies subsection. This kind of quote can also be used to present a large block of quoted text, such as a blurb, whole paragraph, song lyrics, or a poem.
The {{Fq}}, for floating quote, template instead presents the quote in a colored box with a special border and runes. It has more entries and options. At the simplest:
{{fq
| text = ...swords speak, but they do not listen.
| source = [[Elduth Yarmmaster]] on the annexation question<ref>{{Cite book/Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 2nd edition (revised)/A Grand Tour of the Realms|59}}</ref>
| float = right
}}
will produce the quote box seen on the right, with float defining whether it appears on the right or left of the page. The regular article text is shaped around as with thumbnail images. This template is useful for small quotes and quotes that might not fit in the main text, and for breaking up walls of text in long articles, by using the quote like an image. With work, it can also be used to present a custom sidebar in an article, such as a table of definitions to aid the reader. The width of the box and alignment of text within the box can also be set.
Finally, all three kinds of quotations should be presented in plain text for quotes of text and speech and in italics for quotes of song lyrics and poetry, non-English writing, and magical words. For example, Wind by the Fireside quotes its song lyrics in italics, while the Aurora page quotes her catalogue and her lines from a novel in plain text. The advantage of using plain text in regular quotations is that it lets us mix plain text for English words and italics for non-English words, emphasis and stress, magical words, book titles, etc. The following epigraph quote from laws of Cormyr uses italics for stress on 'must', as used in the novel:
However, for the epigraph quotations in 5th-edition sourcebooks, Wizards of the Coast use small capitals for the first line and italics for the remainder, while many editors opt for italics, so you will see both plain text and italic quotes in common use on the wiki regardless. While italics help distinguish quoted text from article text and might appear slightly handwritten, this is unnecessary given the other stylistic features.
Paraphrasing & Rewriting[]
Effective and accurate paraphrasing (the rewriting of text in one's own words) requires good writing ability and understanding of English, so take the time to consider it carefully as you go. To demonstrate and give ideas, the following example will go through the different steps and degrees of paraphrasing.
First, let's consider a line from a sourcebook regarding Hasklar's Arms & Armor:
This was reprinted in a following sourcebook, so it's already been partially paraphrased:
Now, let's go over the different ways of revising and paraphrasing:
- Change tense: "Hasklar was often heard to talk to the empty air and listen intently, as if holding conversations—he might well have shared his shop with a ghost." As the FRW uses past tense, this one is default, so we'll use it for the following examples.
- Replace words with synonyms (different words with the same meaning): "Hasklar was regularly observed to speak to thin air and listen closely, as if holding a discussion—he might well have shared his home with a spirit." This swaps a few words around, but the source is clear on comparison.
- Replace phrases with similar phrasing: "Hasklar was often heard talking to empty air and listening intently, almost like he was in a conversation—he might well be living with a ghost." This can make a sentence shorter or more concise.
- Vary sentence structure: "Hasklar might well have shared his shop with a ghost—he was often heard to talk to the empty air and listen intently, as if holding conversations." This simply flips the sentence around. Alternatively, "Hasklar often appeared to hold conversations with empty air, both talking and listening intently; this may well be a ghost with which he shared the shop." or "Hasklar often appeared to hold conversations with a ghost with which he shared the shop, as he was often heard to talk to the empty air and listen intently." These produce more extensive changes.
- Reorder information: "Hasklar was often heard to listen intently to the empty air and talk to it, as if holding conversations—he might well have shared his shop with a ghost." This reorders the list of talking and listening to listening and talking, but is a minor change.
- Break long sentences into short sentences: "Hasklar was often heard to talk to the empty air and listen intently, as if holding conversations. He might well have shared his shop with a ghost." This can help with adding new information later, but shorter sentences can sound broken, abrupt, and staccato.
- Merge short sentences into a long one: "Hasklar was often heard to talk to the empty air and listen intently, as if holding conversations, so he might well have shared his shop with a ghost." In this case, the original sentence is not two sentences, but one sentence with multiple clauses.
- Remove unnecessary information and words: "Hasklar was often heard holding conversations with empty air—he might have shared his shop with a ghost." Since speaking and listening are inherent to holding a conversation, these may be removed to focus on the conversation itself.
- Express concepts more clearly or concisely: "Hasklar was often heard talking and listening to something unseen—he might have shared his shop with a ghost." Rather than 'empty air', this emphasizes the thing he's talking to, precluding the idea he might be talking to himself.
By themselves, all of these are insufficient for avoiding plagiarism, but by combining several different approaches, we can write a whole new sentence. For example, by replacing synonyms and removing unnecessary words, we get "Hasklar was regularly observed conversing with thin air—he might well have shared his home with a spirit." By also varying sentence structure, we have "Hasklar appeared to share his home with a spirit, for he was regularly observed conversing with thin air." At this point, the original sentence is almost unrecognizable and it is has been successfully paraphrased. You can and should go further and write a wholly new sentence from scratch that conveys the same information.
Do not be afraid to embellish, dramatize, or even improve on the original text. Consider how would you put it if you were the writer or Dungeon Master. Can you make it more concise, clear, or interesting? For example, "Reports suggested that Hasklar's shop was haunted by a ghost, for he was regularly observed conversing with thin air." Also consider the focus of the discussion; an article about Hasklar would have "Hasklar was regularly observed holding conversations with something unseen in his shop", but an article about his shop would have "Hasklar's shop was reported to be haunted by a ghost, for he was regularly observed conversing with something unseen." New information from another source can also be used to add to and alter a sentence. In this case, the Volo's Guide reveals there is a devoted watchghost and other undead spirits, so we can say "Haskar often spoke to the watchghost that guarded his shop; people regularly observing him speaking to something unseen."
Finally, make sure that the paraphrased text accurately reflects the original text. Excessive rewriting can lose the original meaning or give a false impression. For example, "Hasklar was often observed talking to himself." is accurate but implies he is crazy, not speaking to a ghost. In addition, 'ghost', 'spirit', and 'specter' are all synonyms in English, but are separate types of undead and other entities in D&D. Furthermore, sometimes you may come across a word or turn of phrase for which there is no good alternative, not without risking altering the meaning or choosing one specific meaning for an ambiguous statement with multiple interpretations. In such cases, you may retain the original for accuracy, but do be sure to alter other aspects of the sentence.
Etiquette[]
The Summary entry, checkboxes for minor edits and adding a page to your watchlist, and buttons to save your work, preview the final look, see highlighted changes to wikicode, and to cancel all changes. These are all shown below the Source Editor window.
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 Changes' to confirm the changes to the wikicode and 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. Regular editors often create large articles in a Word document or other text editor and copy the text to the wiki when it is ready.
Provide Edit Summaries[]
To explain your changes to fellow and future editors, be sure to 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. Be informative, but brief; some shorthand is fine. The edit summary will help other editors check and confirm the changes or make corrections if something went wrong. For example, if you struggle to get a reference to work but include the source here, another editor can add the reference. Otherwise, an unexplained, non-obvious change with a blank summary may be reverted without explanation too.
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 {{Working|~~~|~~~~~}}, 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 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 apparent 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 as others may not know why you made the change. 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.
Altering Existing Text[]
As the tagline goes, a wiki is something that anyone can edit. While wiki editing is collaborative and we expect our articles to grow over time, editors also put a lot of work into what they write and into trying to write well while preserving the original meaning of the sources. Therefore, to respect the efforts of fellow editors, when you correct, alter, or add to existing text in an article, try to make your changes minimal and preserve whatever you can of the former text where possible. Of course, some changes will be necessary or unavoidable, or will be a clear improvement, so do not be shy to make those changes. Otherwise, do not edit for editing's sake and do not erase and rewrite wholesale just because it feels easier.
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 in the page's History, which is available from the drop-down menu next to Edit. To see if there has been a follow-up edit, check Special:RecentChanges (it can move fast on the FRW, so check it once or twice a day; regular editors will have it open by default) or your Watchlist.
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 its proper name, then consider using the more common name for ease of use and recognition. For example, Elminster rather than Elminster Aumar and mind flayer rather than illithid. Again, redirects will still be needed under the full name, such as illithid and Elminster Aumar.
Wait, What are Redirects?[]
Redirects are special pages that simply divert the reader to another page on the wiki: when a redirect page is loaded, the browser automatically stops and loads the target page instead. (This is different from a piped link that simply links to a different page.) When this happens, a small "(Redirected from [old page name])", where [old page name] is the redirect page, will appear just below the page name, notifying the reader and allowing them to go back.
A redirect page can be created by including #REDIRECT [[target page]] at the top of the page. Redirects can also be created as a result of renaming or moving a page. Nothing else needs to be on the page; in practice, it will never be seen by readers. Nevertheless, categories can be added to organize the redirect page separately from the target page, causing it to appear in italics in those categories. This can be done for false identities of characters, things that don't yet have full articles, or topics that don't warrant a full page as per the Three-Sentence Rule.
Redirects are used for topics with multiple different names (e.g., illithid redirects to mind flayer); characters with nicknames, aliases, pseudonyms, or unique titles (Volo and Valhalaeria the Vaunted redirect to Volothamp Geddarm); names that change over time (Velprintalar to Veltalar); and variations in spelling (Yrlaphon and Ylraphon). They also aid in searching and page suggestion by giving a simpler form to type out (e.g., Selune to Selûne). They can also be left behind as a result of renaming misspelled pages, but these should be deleted instead.
If a topic has multiple possible names, then be sure to create redirects for all of them as necessary. If something has two names or different spellings, then editors may mistakenly make separate articles under each name, leading to duplicate articles and requiring an admin to merge them later.
On the other hand, redirects should not be created without a good need. They generally should not be created to avoid writing an article by targeting a larger, related one, but it can happen. A redirect may be deleted or replaced with a whole article later if the topic is found to warrant it.
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 favor 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 in many cases while editing.
Skip Opening "The"[]
A page name starting with 'The' can make it difficult to search for or receive suggested results for. For example, a user searching for 'Harpers' won't automatically find a page called 'The Harpers' and the page will appear under 'T' rather than 'H' in the wiki categories unless the category sorting is also set to 'Harpers'. It can also require links to be piped: thwarted by the pesky [[Harpers]] is simpler than thwarted by the pesky [[The Harpers|Harpers]].
Therefore, 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. If so, you may see 'The' capitalized or included within quotes within 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 (a book title) do.
However, if the 'the' is an essential part of the name and is needed to make a page name sensible and not just a basic word, or else to help disambiguate it from similar names, then 'the' may be retained. For example, the Vast and the Hand, as well as the Narwhal to help distinguish from regular narwhals. More complex names like the Board Laid Bare and the Boar with Black Tusks also make more sense if 'the' is included.
If you do need to start a page name with 'the', then be sure to also create redirects under the name without it. For example, 'Vast' redirects to 'the Vast' and 'Board Laid Bare' redirects to 'The Board Laid Bare'. You will also need to account for the name in disambiguation links.
Naming the Unnamable, Effing the Ineffable[]
If no proper name is known, then you may invent one. Make this simple, descriptive, and lower case, like how 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, the process of deciding how to distinguish them is called disambiguation. First, check if one topic 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) rather than Snake (character) (an out-of-universe term) or Snake (Aru) (the place Snake operates, 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.
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. The following section discusses this in more detail.
In Universe, or the Fictional World[]
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, do not write "Ildilyntra Starym is a character in Elminster in Myth Drannor who…" but instead write "Ildilyntra Starym was the former matriarch of the Starym clan of Cormanthyr" and do not write "Impiltur is a kingdom is the Forgotten Realms setting" but do write "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 3rd 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.
In the 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 deceased or destroyed. For example, "Elminster killed 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.
Out of Universe, or the Real World[]
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. "Real world" also 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 where appropriate for articles and appendices 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." Don't go writing any obituaries for people before their time!
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, or 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…" Spell descriptions may refer to casters, targets, allies, enemies, and so on. 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 neutral pronoun 'they'.
In-Universe Article Layout[]
This section covers how templates, text, and topics are arranged on a page for consistency and ease of finding information.
Infoboxes[]
An example of the Person infobox from Jarlaxle.
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 titles, 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, explained below, 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 (specific monsters should use Person); {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 image entry, using [[File:Image.jpg]], File:Image.jpg, or simply Image.jpg (replacing Image.jpg with the filename on the wiki). The infobox allows a larger image width than default thumbnails (described below), 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. If the appropriate artwork for an in-universe topic is from a book cover, then crop the relevant part to exclude titles and author name or find a clean version of the artwork itself to display instead—do not display the cover for an in-universe topic if you can help it. Finally, if you're blessed enough to have multiple images you want to show in the infobox, such as standard depictions of a character or monster from each edition and prominent games, then you may add tabs for each image. This is generated with Gallery, for example:
| image = <gallery>
Jarlaxle-5e.png|5e
Jarlaxle FRCG.jpg|4e
Jarlaxle.jpg|2e
</gallery>
| caption2 = The famed mercenary Jarlaxle.
Label the tabs with brief codes like 1e, 2e, 3e, 4e, and 5e (for the main editions) 5eR (for the current revised 5th edition), BG3 (for Baldur's Gate III), HAT (for Honor Among Thieves) as space can get limited. Note that the caption entry needs to be changed to caption2 for it to correctly display.
After the image is the caption 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. The caption will be automatically displayed in italics, so do not add any, and avoid links that would appear in the infobox contents or main text. (Note that if the infobox image uses edition tabs, this should be changed to caption2.)
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 (that is, as you'd normally write a sentence) 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 and avoid excessive names. 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 14th 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–14th century DR" covers 1st or early 2nd editions (1356 DR to 1367 DR); "mid-to-late 14th century DR" covers 1st, 2nd, and 3rd editions (to 1385 DR; "late 14th century DR" covers late 2nd and 3rd editions" (1367 DR to 1385 DR); and "late 15th century DR" covers 4th and 5th 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 33rd to 66th years, and "late" the final 33 years. If the date is ambiguous or you wish to narrow it further then consider "in the 9th 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 following information; or put History last, to avoid spoiling something or give a conclusion to the article; 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 to avoid clutter. Sections may also be avoided in very short articles.
Use title case, not sentence case, in the section, subsection, and subsubsection headings. 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'. This is explained further below.
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.
Thumbnail Images[]
The Fortress of the Eternal Despot looming over the oppressed village of Orlbar.
Images are displayed using wikicode links. For example, the image shown on the right is produced using [[File:Orlbar and Fortress of the Eternal Despot.jpg|thumb|right|350px|''The Fortress of the Eternal Despot looming over the oppressed village of Orlbar.'']]
It has the following basic form: [[File:file name.jpg|thumb|left|250px|''The caption.'']] The first part, File:, is essential to link to the image because it is the namespace the file is kept under ('namespace' is a classification for all pages on the wiki, with regular articles being in the default Main namespace and everything else needing to be prefaced by its namespace, such as Talk: or Forum:). Image: will also work but should be avoided for consistency; not all files are images, with video and audio also possible. The file name is of course the name of the file, or the name of the page where the file is located. It can be as long and detailed as desired, and should not be too short or obtuse to be understood. This is followed by the extension or file type, usually .jpg or .png, but others are possible.
The remaining parts can be included in any order and are technically optional, but specifying them all in the above order makes the wikicode clearer to later editors. First, thumb specifies an image is a thumbnail; this causes it to default to a small size, appear on the right, and display a caption. This should be included in all images displayed within an article (not those in infoboxes and galleries).
Next, left and right indicate on which side of a page the image should appear. Without thumb, it will default to the left, and with it, it will default to the right. The text will wrap around it in either case. Another possibility is center, which of course places it in the middle. This should be reserved for special images that are much wider than they are high or which the editor wishes to display at large size for an important purpose, such as a unique map. Text will not wrap around a centered image.
The size an image should be displayed at can be specified with, for example, 250px, which means the image should be displayed at 250 pixels in width. Without this, a thumbnail will default to a somewhat smaller size. This is fine in most cases, but if the details are too obscured, you may consider a larger size; 250 pixels is the most common. Images may be displayed at larger sizes, such as if they are wider than they are tall or are keyed maps, but do not overdo this in order to avoid images swamping the article and screen. In the above example, a wider size of 350 pixels is chosen because the image is somewhat wide and also to make the village more visible, because it is used to illustrate the Orlbar page.
Finally, any other text included in the file link will be displayed as a caption. Anything may go here, but try to briefly describe the image to help the reader understand its relevance to the article, such as identifying a character or creature, indicating a location on a map, or explaining what event it depicts. If the subject of the image is obvious, then you may instead consider a dramatic or witty remark about it. The caption should be displayed in italics to distinguish its text from the regular text of the article.
For best results, place the image link immediately above or on the same line as the start of the paragraph. This will ensure it displays level with the first line of text of the paragraph. Moreover, try to place images where they are relevant to the neighboring text, to ensure they illustrate the topic at hand and can be easily understood by the reader.
Also note that images near the top of the page may clash with the infobox. Images on the left may squeeze text between them and the infobox, while images on the right may be shifted far beneath the infobox. Therefore, images should be placed below the level of the infobox or, if necessary to be higher, be of quite small size on the left. When checking, don't forget to click 'Show' and 'Hide' on the Contents box as the text will shift as this changes, and with it, the position of the image. In addition, the preview of a page will be at a different width to the final page, so this too changes the relative layout of text and images.
Appendix[]
End the article with an Appendix sections and associated subsections. These give real-world information and background, footnotes, references, 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. The most:
==Appendix==
{{Stub}}
===See Also===
* [[Link]], a similar topic
===Background===
===Notes===
{{notes}}
===Appearances===
{{Appearances
| adventures = ''[[Tomb of Annihilation]]''; ''[[Storm King's Thunder]]''
| adventure refs =
| novels = ''[[Ring of Winter (novel)|Ring of Winter]]''
| novel refs =
| films =
| film refs =
| comics =
| comic refs =
| gamebooks =
| gamebook refs =
| video games = ''[[Neverwinter (game)|Neverwinter]]''
| video game refs =
| board games =
| board game refs =
| card games = ''[[AD&D Trading Cards]]''
| card game refs =
| organized play =
| organized play refs =
}}
===Gallery===
<gallery>
FileName1|Caption1
FileName2|Caption2
FileName3|Caption3
</gallery>
===External Links===
* {{EW}}
===References===
{{refs}}
===Connections===
{{genies}}
First, bottom-page notices like {{Stub}}, {{Stub-person}}, {{Stub-geo}}, and others (used to indicate a basic placeholder page) or {{Incomplete}} (indicating a sizeable page lacking information) and {{Wikipedia}} (noting a page has text copied from Wikipedia) should go just below ==Appendix==.
The See Also subsection gives a simple list of links to other articles on similar topics. This is useful for directing the reader to a similar or related topic that couldn't be included in the main article. You may include a brief explanation after the link.
The Background subsection may be used to discuss general background information on the topic; this is a simple block of text presented from a real-world point of view. Footnoted references can be used here. Meanwhile, Notes is used to present footnotes for specific issues, as described earlier. Only the template {{notes}} should appear here.
The Appearances subsection is used for listing appearances and mentions in works of Forgotten Realms and D&D fiction, in all media, including adventure modules. See {{Appearances}} for more information on how to use this template. Unused entries may be removed. Note that this will produce extra subsubsections, such as Novels & Short Stories.
The Gallery subsection is used to display images that cannot be included in the main article, such as book covers and posters with real-world elements or extra artwork omitted for limited space. While gallery has extra options for displaying images at different sizes that can be used, it only needs the filename in place of FileName1 followed by a pipe and a caption (in italics).
External Links lists links to other sites, usually other wikis that give different versions of the information, such as Wikipedia or another D&D wiki such as the Eberron Wiki. Templates for the most common are presented in Category:Interwiki templates. These should be primary sources or community-approved wikis.
The References subsection presents the full list of references used in the article. These are automatically generated and formatted and displayed with {{refs}}, which is the only thing that should go here. (If forgotten, the wikicode will automatically generate a default list of larger size.) If the list is very large, it will appear in two columns.
Finally, the Connections subsection displays navigation templates directing the reader to other articles of the same kind, such as all creatures of the same type, dynasties of a kingdom, or deities in a pantheon. Look in Category:Navigation templates to find an appropriate template, but not all articles will require this.
The Appendix subsections may be presented in any order as seems sensible or practical, but with a few considerations. First, {{refs}} will display all references above its point on the page, not after, so References should go after Background or other subsections with footnote references. Second, a very long list of references or many large navigation templates may discourage a reader scrolling further, so References and Connections should go after the other subsections.
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, 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 you can use, so browse the category trees, get to know how they're used on the wiki, 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 to see if it's already been created. If you're not sure, browse similar or related categories until you find something appropriate. For example, Salmone Healsmith has the following, covering class, race, sex, gender, occupation, faith, location, and alignment:
[[Category:Clerics of Eldath]] [[Category:Clerics]] [[Category:Humans]] [[Category:Males]] [[Category:Adventurers]] [[Category:Worshipers of Eldath]] [[Category:Inhabitants of Scardale Town]] [[Category:Inhabitants of Scardale]] [[Category:Inhabitants of the Dalelands]] [[Category:Inhabitants of the Eastern Heartlands]] [[Category:Inhabitants of North Faerûn]] [[Category:Inhabitants of Faerûn]] [[Category:Inhabitants of Toril]] [[Category:Inhabitants of neutral alignment]] [[Category:Inhabitants of masculine gender]] [[Category:Inhabitants]]
Note that many categories are automatically generated by entries in the infobox: {{Person}} creates the sex, gender, an alignment ones above, while {{Creature}}, {{Spell}}, and others create many others. While this saves work, be sure the infobox entries are correct.
As for placement on a page, technically they can go anywhere and still function the same, but the very bottom is absolutely preferred for tidiness. 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 be added and readers can find what they're looking for. However, with changes and additions, they will become disorganized over time.
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 could be created when there are enough pastry chefs on the FRW to warrant one; until then, 'Bakers' will do.
By the way, categories should cover things all of the same kind, not miscellaneous different things under an umbrella term. For example, we have Salmone (a singular person or inhabitant) in [[Category:Inhabitants of the Dalelands]] and the Church of Eldath (a religion of many people) in [[Category:Organizations in the Dalelands]], but we do not have [[Category:The Dalelands]] with Salmone and the Church of Eldath rubbing shoulders. Other wikis may have these catch-all umbrella categories, but the FRW has a more focused structure. The {{Category jump}}, {{Creature category jump}}, and {{Religion category jump}} allow for easy "jumping" between different category trees.
Out-of-Universe Article Layout[]
The layout of a real-world article is rather more straightforward and shares many elements with the layout of in-universe articles. However, they will vary according to the subject of the article.
Infoboxes[]
Again, a real-world article begins with an infobox, a sidebar providing a summary of important information about a book, game, company, or real person. For example, dates of publication, editions, number of pages, and ISBNs for books, and some basic background for an author or artist or for a company.
Look through Category:Infoboxes for a suitable infobox. The main ones here are {{Book}} (for all novels, comics, and sourcebooks) and {{Author}} (for all authors, artists, and designers), but there are others. Again, just copy the raw template and fill in the necessary entries. These tend to be much easier to work with. You can also include an image, usually the cover of a work or a photo of an author. Choose images of the person in a professional capacity, such as might appear in a book or on a website where their work is presented, not personal images from their social media.
Lead[]
As before, begin the article with a short introduction to quickly tell the reader what it's about and give context to the article.
If it's an article about a book, game, comic, etc., then put the title in bold at the start and acknowledge the authors, writers, or designers, as well as artists if it's a comic. In addition, state the publisher or other company and the original publication date. Also state what series and range the work is a part of, and if it's a sourcebook, state what edition of D&D it was designed for. Consider also giving a brief summary of what it's about and any significance it has. For example:
- Condemnation is a novel by Richard Baker published by Wizards of the Coast in 2003. It is the third book in the War of the Spider Queen series.
- Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage is a 5th-edition Dungeons & Dragons adventure published by Wizards of the Coast in 2018. It takes place in the dungeon of Undermountain, located under Waterdeep, and follows the Waterdeep: Dragon Heist adventure through levels 6‒20.
After this, you may place a {{Quote}} template displaying a blurb; this can be either the back-cover text or the publisher's description, but not both so as to avoid the page being overlong. Generally, an unreleased work will have a publisher's description, which should be replaced with the back-cover text after publication.
If it's an article for a real person, then put their name in bold, list their occupations and what they've done in the Forgotten Realms setting or Dungeon & Dragons game, and give any other notable details, such as famous characters they created or career achievements. Note that this should focus on professional, not personal, details. For example:
- Kim Mohan was an author, editor, and game designer who worked for TSR, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast. He was a long-time editor and editor-in-chief of Dragon magazine and later Lead Editor and then Managing Editor of Dungeons & Dragons itself, overseeing the development of 3rd edition. Having worked on Dungeons & Dragons from 1st through to 5th editions over nearly 40 years, he is the longest serving of any designer, writer, or editor.
Sections[]
Real-world articles are also broken up into sections, but they can have very different sections, depending on their topic and what you choose to write about them.
An article about a source (book, comic, game, movie, etc.) may have sections for a Description (description of a physical product or the contents of a boxed set, or the rules or playstyle of a game), a Summary (briefly summarizing the story or contents of a book), a Synopsis (summarizing a story in more detail), and an Index listing and linking everything in the source that can be a subject for the wiki. Next there may be a Gallery presenting images; preferably these are images of the product, such as the back cover, alternate covers, promotional wallpapers, maps in novels, and the full artwork used for the cover. Note than an Index is most useful for cross-referencing and research on the wiki, as one can use Special:WhatLinksHere to find that a character or creature is mentioned in this source.
A full article about a person can give a brief biography, with sections for Biography or Career (their education and professional life), Interests (hobbies, which can be beyond D&D), and Personal Life (basic information on relationships and pets) or Trivia (odd and interesting details). Note these are examples and do not need to be included and sections may not be required if the page has little information. The article should focus on their work in the Forgotten Realms, in Dungeons & Dragons, and in RPGs, in that order if possible, and only briefly cover their work outside these areas, but a little such information is acceptable to give a complete picture of the person and illustrate their wider work, importance, and achievements elsewhere. Avoid delving too much into personal matters and unrelated areas of their life and use a neutral, encyclopedic tone—remember, these are real people, not D&D villains. Finally, a Works or Bibliography section can list their works: books authored, sourcebooks illustrated, or articles written, etc. An artist may have a Gallery displaying notable artworks. Links to Wikipedia articles and the person's own websites and social media should be listed in the Appendix under External Links.
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 and real-world 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 or slang 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 (especially Elminster), or that a lot of unfamiliar in-universe or obsolete real-world terms should be used without clear meaning, explanation, or linking to a definition. 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 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. As text must focus on facts, image captions are a good place to use humor.
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 the 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 4th 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 it with 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 articles and particularly in real-world articles and appendices. 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.
Telling the Tale[]
Here, we discuss how to handle the branching storylines, contradictions, and uncertain events that may be encountered when documenting D&D sourcebooks, novels, adventures, video games, and others.
Unreliable Narrators[]
The Forgotten Realms has a long tradition of using narrators and even unreliable narrators, that is, characters within the setting who write with an in-universe point of view and tell the story to the reader, but who may be inaccurate, lacking information, or even untrustworthy. One of the most famous is Volo, the in-universe author of books like Volo's Guide to Waterdeep, but who is claimed by Elminster to be often mistaken or lying. Elminster himself censors materials like Volo's Guide to All Things Magical. Other examples are the writers of each book of Elminster's Ecologies (generally trustworthy), most chapters of Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms (often biased), and Chapter 2 of Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide (sometimes mistaken). In fact, much of the Forgotten Realms operates on the conceit that information from the world of Toril, whether true, false, mistaken, incomplete, censored, or fake, is delivered to Ed Greenwood and other writers and revised and altered for publication as a roleplaying game. This allows any Dungeon Master to decide for themselves what is "true" in their version of the Forgotten Realms, but would of course be a headache for any wiki trying to document the "real" Toril. Ignoring unreliable narration would naturally leave us with very little wiki left.
Therefore, you may treat these unreliable narrators as being generally reliable. Information that comes from a narrator or an in-universe book, ballad, or other source may be attributed to that source in order to express this to the reader, especially if it seems doubtful. For example, "Volo said it was one of the worst inns he'd ever had to flee from.[1]" or "Rand Sharpsword, a caravanner and Zhent agent, reported that the town was inhabited by indolent folk ripe for raiding.[2]" If you encounter contradictions, you may consider the unreliable narrator false, but do not exclude their information. Instead, add the new information as a correction, for example, "Volo said it was one of the worst inns he'd ever had to flee from,[1] but it was actually ranked as one of the finest in town.[3]"
Do note that many more sources do not have narrators, reliable or otherwise, and thus should be treated as factual. Moreover, information from narrated works that is reprinted in non-narrated works should also be regarded as factual. Finally, in the absence of contradictions or hints of bias or error, any narrated text should be treated as reliable and therefore factual for the sake of having information to work with. Even Volo's.
In effect, the FRW is itself an unreliable narrator, as it uses second-, third, or even fourth-hand information from Toril that we interpret and compile as best we can, for readers to decide for themselves what is "true" for their game.
Who is This About?[]
When writing about an adventure module or video game, you may refer to the hypothetical player-characters (PC) as "adventurers", as this is the default role or occupation of PCs, or else they will be seen as such by people in the setting. Refer to them as unnamed, unidentified adventurers, using the plural so that they reflect a typical adventuring party and player group. For example, "When a group of adventurers volunteered to search for the missing villagers, Fitsyll offered her prized enchanted +2 shortspear as a reward for the villagers' return or at the very least proof of the cause of the disappearance being dealt with."
If the module or game has the PCs recruited by a specific non-player-character (NPC) or based in a certain place, then you may use this to further distinguish them. For example, "Yaemon argued with Buntaro Ostato, who was working with an adventuring party hired by the daimyo Benju Matsutomo, about the deaths of some pilgrims." This is helpful when you need to provide background or context for the event or need to link to another page that will give more of the story.
The unnamed protagonists of some video games have acquired some more-or-less useful titles: Gorion's Ward for the Baldur's Gate game series, the Hero of Neverwinter for Neverwinter Nights, Drogan Droganson's pupil for its Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark expansions, the Hero of Daggerford for Darkness over Daggerford, the Kalach-Cha for Neverwinter Nights 2 and some of its expansions, the Dark Urge for some storylines in Baldur's Gate III, and others. These help to distinguish the PC as a specific character, as opposed to an unnamed and unidentified character. Whole pages may be written about these characters. However, as the name, race, sex/gender, class, and other details may all be set by the player, you should assume nothing about them. Use a gender-neutral 'they' or even no personal pronoun at all when referring to the character, or else refer to the party of PC and companions with a plural 'they'. Note that some default or specific details may be gleaned from the game or its related materials, such as for the Hero of Daggerford and the Dark Urge. These may be used where known. Similarly, the whole party in Baldur's Gate III is known as the Absolute Adversaries, so this group may be referred to instead, regardless of its makeup.
If the adventure module or video game is written as a novelization or is referred to in a subsequent sourcebook, then canon characters may have been created to perform these events. Thus, you should refer to them where applicable. For example, Gorion's Ward was involved in events specific to the first Baldur's Gate game and Abdel Adrian was involved in events specific to the Baldur's Gate novelization, and where events are the same in both series, Abdel Adrian acted in place of Gorion's Ward. Later sourcebooks have cemented Abdel Adrian as the central character of the events of the Baldur's Gate games as well.
In a lesser case, the PCs of Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave are described as "adventurers in service of Mystra" in The Grand History of the Realms, confirming the Tunaster Dranik opening plot hook, so this may be assumed to be the canon case, rather than one of the alternatives.
Handling Contradictions[]
Often, you will encounter contradictions and errors in the lore. This is common in such a large and long-running setting with so many writers over so many series and media. These should not be regarded as problems, but rather as possibilities. When you encounter two sources saying two different things, or more, there are a few things to do.
First, consider if there really is a contradiction. The sources may be years apart and reflect a changing situation, or may represent opposing views or unreliable narration, or may refer to subtly different situations that do not technically contradict. Second, look for other sources on the same topic to see which version is more supported and thus has more weight of evidence, to find if a resolution has already been published, or to see if a third version exists. Third, use the FRW's Canon policy to decide which version has primacy. In summary, sourcebooks and novels supersede licensed works and other materials, and later publications may supersede earlier ones, as they may provide retcons, updates, or corrections to past materials. Nevertheless, errors can be made: if the latest source makes an obvious error, it might be disregarded.
Finally, simply report both versions, one after the other, and let the reader decide which is the case. Do not dismiss or ignore either version and do not set your own interpretation or close off any other interpretations. For example, "The castle was said to be abandoned,[1] but adventurers reported it to be held by a Lord Redsword.[2]" Here, the lord may have recently moved in, or in fact be an impostor or bandit, but the article avoids speculating. Be sure to clearly reference each statement to distinguish the different sources.
In any case, be sure to provide a footnote (as explained above) explaining the contradiction. Be precise and detailed in describing the issue, quote text if necessary to aid understanding, and give sources with page numbers. This aids readers and future editors in investigating the issue for themselves, in choosing which version they prefer for their game, and even in finding a resolution.
But What Actually Happened?[]
Adventure modules and video games present events and even entire storylines for which outcomes are not set in stone. Players may have several options for completion or may choose to do almost anything else, so events will turn out differently for each player and gaming group. Readers may also want to imagine their own characters behind these events or may want to see all possible outcomes so that they can decide for themselves which occurred for their game. Moreover, there is often no follow-up or canon confirmation of how events played out. Therefore, try to give all the main outcomes and options presented in the game or module and do not assume 100% completion, the "good ending", or anything. We want to see the whole story covered, even if that story branches out in different directions.
There are several ways to go about this. One is to write the article up to the situation that the characters and location are in at the beginning of play. For example, the Green Lady article leaves her in the state of mourning she is in when PCs are expected to find her. For an optional extra, an out-of-universe note is included in the Appendix to explain that there is no official resolution, but mentions what will happen if PCs progress successfully. This is the simplest solution and the most useful when there is no clear or set outcome. It's also useful for something like Baldur's Gate III, where there may be too many outcomes and possibilities to cover them all.
If the module or game provides only one possible outcome, then you may go further and present that outcome. For example, for the Green Lady, one might add "Adventurers investigating Dura's death discovered the Green Lady and roused her from her depression, before learning from her the details of the bandits." This is appropriate for linear narratives in both heavily "railroaded" modules and video games in which the player either succeeds or fails/dies—failure or death renders the rest of the storyline moot, so it does not need to be a factor.
Things get more complicated when there are multiple possible outcomes or even branching outcomes. In this case, consider using conditional statements—if and then, would have, could have, and so on—to express these. You may assume successful progress down the main storyline, with other possibilities branching off from this. For example, the Ward Mossfeld article has several branching possibilities: "Ward and his brothers competed in the Harvest Brawl. The Kalach-Cha, Amie, and Bevil, after defeating the Lannon siblings, would've faced Ward, Wyl, and Webb. If the Kalach-Cha, Amie, and Bevil were defeated, they could've asked Merring for a rematch or acknowledged that the Mossfelds had won." Here, it is an established fact that the brothers competed, while the rest is conditional. However, this can sound vague and uncertain, and is difficult to write well, so use this efficiently and carefully. As an alternative, you may simply run with that uncertainty, such as "It is unknown whether the Mossfelds or the Kalach-Cha and friends won."
To sound less clumsy, you might frame these possibilities as "accounts", "reports", or "rumors", to emphasize a lack of certainty and the potential for conflict, and to frame the story as an unreliable narrator. Continuing the above example, "Reports differed on whether the Mossfelds or the Kalach-Cha and friends won." However, avoid going too deeply into these hypothetical reports and rumors; an embellished statement like "Some sages wrote that…" invites the question of who these sages are and what they're writing and risks inventing false lore, leaving the reader wondering if this in the source or not.
If there are two or more separate main storylines, then you can put two separate sections in the article. For example, the Blood & Magic computer game provides pairs of conflicting campaigns in which the player plays as first one side and then the other, which cannot be reconciled. Therefore, articles for these conflicts, like the Harvest of Horrors page, handle this by presenting two separate sections for each campaign, distinguished by their respective leaders. The paragraphs are indented (created in wikicode with colons, :) to indicate that these are outside of the main timeline.
If the deviations get too extreme, then consider adding a Gameplay section to the Appendix so you may discuss the various outcomes more freely and with a fully out-of-universe point-of-view.
Note that if a novel or sourcebook or other later work presents a canon outcome for the events of a module or video game, then this usually takes precedence over the alternatives, as given by our Canon policy. In this case, use this canon outcome in the article and cite the later works. You can still present the alternatives for interest and completeness, however. For example, "While they could've sided with the bandits, they instead defeated them and brought them back to face justice." Do note that some canon outcomes may stop being supported in later works. For example, the Baldur's Gate novelizations, which already change much from the Baldur's Gate video games, have been contradicted and superseded by later callbacks favoring the video games whilst retaining their protagonist, Abdel Adrian.
Don't Fill in the Blanks[]
The lore that is found for some subjects can often be rather piecemeal, with unrelated facts and disconnected events being all that is known, rather than a complete overview. For example, the history of a city may have its founding centuries previously and some recent events, with no clue what happened in the intervening period. A character first appearing in one D&D edition may reappear in another edition, in a different capacity and at a later date, with no clue what they've been up to.
In such cases, it may be tempting to try to complete the story, by assuming a trajectory between events in history or between appearances in different editions, for example, saying the city grew directly into its present state or saying the character changed careers or did the later thing immediately after. However, this can lead to false lore, with the reader believing such information is in the source when it is not, and it can lead to conflicts and confusion if new information is found later that fits in the gap. It can also close off storytelling possibilities, as that settlement may have plenty of ups and downs in its centuries-long history, not steady growth, while the character may have had offscreen adventures or other reasons for a change of role.
Therefore, do not try to interpolate or extrapolate the lore, or, in other words, do not try to join the dots or fill in the blanks. Instead, simply present events as they appear and do not assume a connection where none is known, in order to allow the reader to imagine for themselves what happened. For example, the history of Koryo has many undated and disconnected events that can be placed in any order, potentially giving different histories: there may be one or multiple eruptions of the Kanko volcano, and this may have been the end or the beginning of the Han clan. While an order must be selected for the sake of having information in a linear article, the History section does not try to connect the events to tell a complete history story, apart from treating the eruptions as one event. Several footnotes are used to indicate and explain the choices and assumptions made and to give alternative possibilities.
Spin Doctoring[]
A wiki editor should always be careful not to place their own or unintended interpretations on any topic. We all have our preferences and biases and it is fine if we dislike a particular D&D edition, character, or theme for whatever reason. However, another person may like them just as much and for equally good reasons. Moreover, tastes and views evolve and Dungeons & Dragons and the Forgotten Realms are long-running series, weird things happen, and the FRW's purpose is to cover all valid sources, equally and fairly. Therefore, an editor should take care not to apply their own bias or personal interpretation of a topic, but rather try to maintain the intent and meaning of the source, as best they can. Unless a character is obviously heroic or villainous, don't apply a moral judgement to a character's actions, but simply state what they did and the reasons given, and let the reader look and decide for themselves.
In addition, it should be noted that the very act of compiling information from multiple sources on a wiki page can create an unexpected new interpretation of the subject. That is, one source will give one version and another source will give a different version, and putting these side-by-side naturally creates a contrast or contradiction, leading to a new interpretation not intended by either author. For example, the 4th-edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide treats 1400s Elturel and Elturgard as a place of harsh laws and religious intolerance as part of its cynical, darker approach, but 5th edition's Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide takes a more optimistic approach and describes the realm in glowing, heroic terms just a few years later, as presented in-universe by a narrator, Aedyn Graymantle, writing in book titled Far from the Misty Hills. On the wiki articles, the contrast between the two versions produces the appearance of propaganda, showing a public face and a hard reality, which is not present in either source and likely not intended by either author. Next in 5th edition, Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus has the realm betrayed to devils by its High Observer, now identified as the corrupt priest Thavius Kreeg in a thorough retcon of both prior sourcebooks. On the wiki, having the three versions all together seems to give reasons for the earlier authoritarian depiction, makes the apparent propaganda more stark, suggests more widespread devilish influence, and places a sinister new spin on Kreeg's earlier actions. While this can be seen as conjuring new lore, this is an inevitable outcome of documenting the existing lore on the wiki and is no different from fan discussion comparing different versions and generating the same ideas. It's a transformative action that takes the wiki article away from the risk of copyright infringement. It can also be entertaining to the editor to discover these new ideas and creates storytelling possibilities for the reader. Nevertheless, the differences should be addressed in footnotes or Background sections so the reader may decide for themselves which interpretation to adopt.
Spelling and Grammar[]
The following section 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 D&D 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 a deliberate 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 statement "that breathed fire" is a 'restrictive clause', meaning it cannot be removed without altering the meaning. That is, "Dragons were most notorious" would refer to all dragons rather than specific dragons.
In contrast, in the sentence "Red dragons, which breathed fire, were most notorious," the statement "which breathed fire" is a 'non-restrictive clause', meaning it can be removed without altering the meaning. That is, "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. There, "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?[]
The owl's pronouns are who/whom.
'Who' and 'whom' are a pair of pronouns like 'he' and 'him', 'she' and 'her', and 'they' and them'. The former of each pair 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 rephrased as one, and the answer could be 'he…', then 'who' should be used and if the answer could be 'him…', then 'whom' should be 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?" has the answer "He slew the dragon" or "He did". Therefore, 'who' is correct in the sentence.
For another example, "The knight, whom the people loved, rode into the city." In this case, "him the people loved" may sound weird, but it can be expanded as "it was him the people loved" or rearranged 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 in the sentence.
However, note that a slight revision changes the situation: "The knight, who was loved by the people, rode into the city." We can answer the question with "He was loved by the people." so clearly 'who' is correct.
If 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 attempt to sound knowledgeable without actually being so. For more discussion and explanation, see this article.
Prepositions[]
Prepositions are words that express relations between terms regarding space and time. It can be difficult to know which to use and when, there are a wide range of them, and some words serve as both prepositions and other types of words.
To help remember what is a preposition, think of them as almost anything you'd use to describe a cat with a box—looking for a box, running to a box, sitting on a box or atop a box or in a box, playing with a box, hiding under a box, lying beside a box (i.e., next to on the left or right), lying before a box (front of the box), lying behind a box (rear of the box), climbing up a box, climbing down a box, jumping onto a box, jumping out of a box jumping from a 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, continuing until the box broke, fleeing because the box broke, hiding after the box broke, and finally bored since the box broke. Nevertheless, the box is a possession of the cat. Later, the cat may lie among the debris or walk between two new boxes, all throughout the afternoon.
As you can see, prepositions usually express how a verb is applied to an object noun. For example, in 'the cat sits on the box', 'cat' is the subject noun, 'box' is the object noun, 'sit' is the verb', and 'on' is the preposition defining how the cat sits in relation to the box, vertically above and in contact. Typically, 'to' indicates a direction toward the object and 'from' a direction away from the object, while 'at' indicates a target and 'of' indicates possession. If you are unsure whether a preposition is correct or not, then swap out the nouns and verbs to create a simpler situation, whether cat/box-related or not. In some cases, a preposition is not required: 'the cat attacked the box' does not require 'at', while 'the cat clawed the box' and 'the cat clawed at the box' works either way. 'The cat launched an attack at the box' does require 'at' as the verb is now 'launch'. The presence of absence of a preposition or an incorrect preposition can radically change the meaning of a sentence, depending on the verb. 'The cat launched at the box' suggests the cat charges at the box, but 'the cat launched the box' says it threw it in the air.
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.
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 doing the action comes last as the object. For example:
- "This was done by them." Here, 'this' is the subject and target of the action, 'done' is the action, and 'them' is the object and the one doing the action.
- "Fine armor was sold by the blacksmith." Here, 'armor' is the subject and target of the action 'sold' and 'the blacksmith' is the object and the one doing the action.
In contrast, an active sentence (or active voice) is one in which the one performing the action comes first as the subject and the target of the action comes after as the object. Using the same examples in active voice:
- "They did this." Here, 'they' is the subject doing the action 'did' and 'this' is the object.
- "The blacksmith sold fine armor." Here, 'the blacksmith' is now the subject and the one doing the action 'sold' and the 'armor' is the object and the target of the action.
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. Compare these versions:
- Passive: "The blackguard was smote by the paladin with his holy avenger."
- Active: "The paladin smote the blackguard with his holy avenger."
In the former, the paladin is the passive source of an attack, whereas in the latter the paladin has an active role in making the attack, as one would expect.
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 examples, if the focus of discussion is the armor, not the blacksmith, then the passive voice would be preferrable. An article about the paladin would use the active phrasing for focus on the paladin and their heroic victory over the blackguard, whereas an article about the blackguard would use the passive phrasing for the focus on the blackguard and their tragic defeat at the hands of the paladin.
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 were 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.
Compose and Comprise[]
As they sound very similar and also have similar meanings, the verbs 'compose' and 'comprise' are often used interchangeably, with 'comprised of' being used in the same manner as 'composed of'. However, this is incorrect. These words are used in different ways and are practically the reverse of each other.
'To compose' means 'to make up' or 'to put together', that is, to put together from the parts, though these parts need not be specified. It takes the following basic form:
- Passive: 'The whole is composed of its parts,' with the whole as the subject and the parts as the object.
- Active: 'The parts compose the whole,' with the parts as the subject and the whole as the object.
'Compose' is used for creating things, putting things together, or forming groups, such as "compose a letter" (from words and ideas), "composed a symphony" (from musical notes and instruments), or "composing your thoughts" (the thoughts themselves into a more focused form). For example:
- Passive: "The adventuring party was composed of four heroes."
- Active: "Four heroes composed the adventuring company."
'To comprise' means 'to be made up of' or 'to be put together by', that is, to be put together by the parts. It is similar to 'contain' or 'include'. It takes the following basic form:
- Passive: 'The parts are comprised by the whole,' with the parts as the subject and the whole as the object.
- Active: 'The whole comprises the parts,' with the whole as the subject and the parts as the object.
'Comprise' is used for expressing what something contains, includes, or is assembled from. For example, "the castle comprises stone blocks" (the castle is built of stone blocks), "the army comprising militias and mercenary companies" (the army is formed from both militias and mercenaries) or "the council was comprised by its members" (the members are the constituents of the council). Reusing the above example:
- Passive: "Four heroes were comprised by the adventuring company."
- Active: "The adventuring party comprised four heroes."
So, why is 'comprised of' an error? Note that the above definitions are very passive-voice-sounding and may end in extra prepositions. If we swap in another wording, we get very strange results: "The company was comprised of mercenaries" becomes "The company was made up of of mercenaries." The extra 'of' there shows this is grammatically incorrect and tautological. Of course, the intended meaning is obvious, but it won't always be. With more abstract concepts, it may not be clear what is making up what. For example, "the Weave was comprised of raw magic" is misleading, as it requires the reader to mentally swap in 'composed' for 'comprised' and suggests the Weave was simply made up of raw magic. However, it is more accurate to say raw magic manifests in the form of the Weave, which is conveyed by "the Weave was comprised by raw magic", similar to saying the Weave was put together by raw magic.
In any case, if you are unsure, there are plenty of easier alternatives to saying 'comprised of', including 'composed of', 'contained', 'included', and so on.
Lists and the Oxford Serial Killer Comma[]
When making a list of three or more items, each item is followed by a comma to separate it from the next item, with 'and' or 'or' before the last item to indicate the end of the list. While the conventional approach is to not have a comma after the second-last (also called penultimate) item in the list, a popular refinement is to use another comma there, before the 'and'/'or'. This is called the Oxford comma or serial comma.(By the way, a comma represents a slight pause in speech used to structure a sentence.)
Here are some examples of both approaches:
- Conventional: "The store sold apples, oranges and lemons."
- Oxford: "The store sold apples, oranges, and lemons."
- Conventional: "They asked for an orange, lemon or lime."
- Oxford: "They asked for an orange, lemon, or lime."
While both of these are quite clear, more complex or ambiguous examples demonstrate the usefulness of the Oxford comma:
- Conventional: "Caught in the spell were two festhall girls, Elminster and Khelben."
- Oxford: "Caught in the spell were two festhall girls, Elminster, and Khelben."
The former can be read as implying there are only two people and that Elminster and Khelben are the festhall girls, which is (unless they're playing dress-up) incorrect. The latter shows the list is not done yet and that there are four people in this little gathering. Of course, a clearer phrasing always helps to prevent confusion, if not embarrassment:
- Clarified: "Caught in the spell were Elminster, Khelben, and two festhall girls."
In general, for greater clarity in a list, place the most important or named items first or the longest items last, as fits the sentence and discussion.
You may use either the conventional or Oxford approaches to construct a list. If the list is quite simple as in the apples, oranges, and/or lemons case, or if the sentence has too many other commas forming clauses and risks looking dirty with them, then consider the conventional approach. If the list is complex or requires clarification, then consider the Oxford comma. If neither approach is appropriate, then you may even omit the commas altogether and simply use 'and' or 'or', to further separate items in a complex list or give the options greater emphasis. (To explain, the basic mechanical way of forming a list is to use 'and'/'or', e.g., "apples and oranges and lemons" or "apples or oranges or lemons", but this can be clunky so the comma is used as a shorthand replacing the excess appearances of 'and'/'or'. This is one reason the Oxford comma is controversial to some, as it essentially duplicates the final 'and'/'or'.)
While we're talking lists, the rules for comma usage may or may not also be applied to multiple adjectives or descriptions in front of a noun. Let's compare:
- "He wielded a big, heavy, old, black-bladed, and enchanted sword."
- "He wielded a big heavy old black-bladed enchanted sword."
In the former, the reader may initially read "big" and "heavy" and wonder just what it will refer to before finally getting to the sword. In the latter, the descriptions move much faster, but break the traditional rule about lists. However, this is becoming more common and accepted, especially when there are only a few terms:
- "He wielded a big heavy sword."
- "He wielded a black-bladed enchanted sword."
Moreover, the first case can become confusing when there are commas serving other uses elsewhere in the sentence, such as:
- "Early in his career, however, he wielded a big, heavy, old, black-bladed, and enchanted sword, which he found in a tomb, as well as a longbow."
Also consider if the descriptions should be associated to one another or not and how they would sound. Consider the subtle difference between these two:
- "He wielded a big, old sword."
- "He wielded a big old sword."
The former is a plain description of a sword that is big and old, while the latter is the US idiom "big old" expressing the sword is impressively big or that it is simply big in a flippant way. Ultimately, you may apply either comma-full or comma-free approaches at your discretion, but be sure to keep it clear and readable and consider rephrasing as needed. For example:
- "He wielded an old enchanted sword that was big, heavy, and black-bladed."
- "In a tomb, he found an old enchanted sword that he wielded early in his career; it was big, heavy, and black-bladed. He also made use of a longbow."
Finally, in English, lists of adjectives often appear in the following order: opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose. For example:
- "He wielded an ugly, big, old, two-handed, black-bladed, Chondathan steel executioner's sword."
However, there is no actual rule for this and while some variations can sound odd to English readers, others will sound just fine, like "big ugly" or "old steel Chondathan two-handed executioner's sword". Therefore, use whichever order makes the most sense (is the sword Chondathan or the executioner?) and considering expanding such lists of adjectives into more interesting descriptions.
Colon Cancer[]
The colon, :, has a number of uses, but the most common on this wiki are to create subtitles in the names of series, books, and other works and to begin a list, description, definition, or explanation that is not grammatically connected to the preceding text. In essence, colons pause a preceding sentence and introduce a new statement. For example:
- "The store sold a wide variety of produce: apples, oranges, and lemons, among others."
- "The king gave his reason for summoning the heroes: a red dragon was terrorizing the realm."
Without the colons, the sentences become grammatically incorrect, confusing, or clumsy:
- " The store sold a wide variety of produce. Apples, oranges, and lemons, among others."
- "The king gave his reason for summoning the heroes. A red dragon was terrorizing the realm."
Therefore, they must be revised with connecting words, but may sound wordy or dull:
- "The store sold a wide variety of produce, including apples, oranges, and lemons, among others."
- "The king's reason for summoning the heroes was because a red dragon was terrorizing the realm."
Thus, colons can make complex sentences simpler, direct, and more engaging or dramatic. However, they should be used sparingly so as not to confuse the reader with too many or to lessen their impact through overuse.
Semi-Colon Cancer[]
The semi-colon, ;, is often misunderstood but has two main uses. The first is to put together two statements or clauses that are grammatically independent and not joined by a conjunction, but which are related, complementary, or contrasting, or which give supporting information. For example:
- "Themberchaud somehow escaped his captivity and appeared in faraway Dolblunde; Xenk supposed he must have found a new den."
- "Lycanthropy was known by the euphemism Selûne's Kiss; one so touched was said to be kissed by Selûne."
- "The army marched to relieve the besieged fortress; however, they found only smoking ruins."
While these could be split into two shorter separate sentences each (with a full stop in place of the semi-colon), they may sound stilted or lose the clear association between the statements. As with colons, semi-colons can simplify and dramatize a complex sentence, but should not be used excessively to avoid confusing a reader.
The second use has the semi-colon replacing the comma in complex lists where each item is a statement including punctuation of its own or is even a list itself. In essence, the list comma upgrades to a semi-colon. This helps separate and distinguish each statement in the list. Even when only one item in the list has punctuation, all items should be followed by semi-colons for consistency and clarity. Let's look at some examples:
- "In life, the Dark Three were a trio of power-hungry adventurers: Bane, the tyrant; Myrkul, the necromancer; and Bhaal, the assassin."
- "After the battle, the adventuring company reassembled: Vendall; Xale; a recovering Daurvos; and Minnitha, a replacement wizard whom they'd met in Daggerford."
- "In the time of ancient Netheril, Selûne held the portfolios of the moon, moonlight, and stars; beauty and purity; love and marriage; navigation and navigators; tracking, wanderers, and seekers; diviners and dreams; good and neutral lycanthropes; and autumn."
The same rules as for commas apply. An Oxford semi-colon may be employed after the penultimate item in the list for clarity.
Diacritical Hits: 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.
Dash it All! How to Use Hyphens and Dashes[]
Please review the proper use of hyphens and different kinds of dashes, again in conventional US English style:
The hyphen, -, is short and has a few uses, mostly to combine words into single units. First, it is used in hyphenated names like House Fey-Branche. Second, it is used to append prefixes to words, such as 'mid-' or 'semi-' or 'anti-' (the hyphen can be excluded in some cases when the meaning is clear). Finally, it joins adjectives and other terms together as a compound modifier, that is, two or more words that jointly modify another word. For example, a light-brown sack is light brown in color, while a light brown sack is a sack that is brown and light in weight. Think of a hyphen as a hug, bringing things together. It can be entered via the keyboard.
The en dash, –, is longer and has two uses. First, it indicates relations, e.g., "the Waterdeep–Neverwinter route" (a route connecting or relating these two cities), the "Aldimer–Mathlin–Uruthkurt alliance" (arrangements and relations between these three families), or "the Greenwood–Grubb novel" (a collaboration between these two authors). It also indicates ranges, e.g., "pages 10–13" and "the years 1357–1359 DR" (essentially a relation from the first to last values and everything in between). Think of the en dash 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 also has two uses. First, it indicates parenthetical breaks, e.g., "The three adventurers—Grin, Richard, and Wu-Wei—ventured into the tower"). It also interruptions, like "So, as I was sayi— aargh!". Think of the em dash 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 —.
Finally, 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 Year of the Rising Flame, 0 DR will convert and display the minus sign automatically when a hyphen is used. For example, {{Yearlink|-123}} will output −123 DR.
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. 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, and just because it's a better system, 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. In cases like this, 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, out-of-date understandings, or past attempts to make English work more like Latin for some reason. These are largely disproved or dismissed by editors and 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 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. In any case, a sentence should be as long as it needs to be to sound complete and natural and no longer, without stringing together too many unrelated concepts.
Text Style[]
Here are a few basic rules taken from common styles and D&D publications that have been 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 one is apparent.
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, just 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.
Take care to not mistakenly capitalize something appearing only in lower case in a source, as you risk turning it into a proper noun and implying that it is an official name rather than a description.
Note that some sources will use capital letters for non-grammatical reasons, such as indicating crunch (such as classes, spell names, and magic items, particularly in video games) or placing for emphasis on things that Are Not Proper Nouns. In these cases, you may change them to lower case for consistency, provided it is clear the source is using capital letters in this way.
Capitalize 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.
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 name 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. The sections on this page give many other examples.
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 unique and 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 and may use capitals, use italics and convert to lower case as appropriate, but it is acceptable to leave it in the capitalized form.
Use Italics for Non-English Text and for Emphasis[]
To distinguish English text from languages other than English, both real and fictional, write the non-English text 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[]
As mentioned above in "Apostrophes & 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 issues 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. They are entered the same way as apostrophes in most fonts.
Single vs. Double Quotation Marks[]
Use double quotation marks to present quoted text within paragraphs, such as "Fairin Icemantle said they "run in waist-high riot across the land".
You may use either single or double quotation marks to introduce definitions, translations, and names for things. For example, "aegiskeryn, Elven for 'shield guardian'". This distinguishes a term as being separate from a sentence's regular grammar and phrasing.
However, if you are not quoting in-universe text or are not using a definition from the source, then do not use double quotation marks. That is, if you wish to use scare quotes or ironic quotes of your own devising, then use only single quotes to indicate it is not a direct quotation. For example, "The Zhentilar's 'peacekeeping' efforts left many dead and maimed.' where "peacekeeping" is a word used in the real-world text of a sourcebook or is chosen based on the wiki editor's own understanding, not something a Zhentilar soldier said.
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, songs, 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 are left written in plain text. These rules help distinguish a title from regular text; as a complex title has grammar of its own, it may be confusing to the reader if these words are encountered 'loose' in a sentence. For example, compare "Martek was the author of Martek, By Martek." and "Martek was the author of Martek, By Martek."—the former looks like a mangled sentence, but the latter clarifies what the book is actually titled, as well as the truth of the man's egotism. Similarly, "Jaladha Tshamryl wrote Jonstan the Rover" may imply Jonstan is a person to whom Jaladha wrote a letter, but "Jaladha Tshamryl wrote "Jonstan the Rover"." makes it clear this is a song or poem, not a person.
Place Superscripts after Punctuation[]
Superscripts (small text raised to the upper part of the line) for both references and footnotes, as created with <ref></ref> 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.
Ordinal Numbers[]
Ordinal numbers indicate a position or rank in sequence, rather than a quantity. For example, "first lord", "second street", "third edition", or "fourteenth century". These may be abbreviated for things that are ordinarily numbered, so "3rd edition" and "14th century", but not things that are merely descriptive, such as "the first lord of the city" or "the second foe to approach". Abbreviated ordinal numbers may be written plain, "1st", or superscripted, "1st", but the templates {{st}}, {{nd}}, {{rd}}, and {{th}} are available to make the latter easier.
Appendix[]
References[]
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (September 1993). The Code of the Harpers. Edited by Mike Breault. (TSR, Inc.), p. 118. ISBN 1-56076-644-1.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood, Julia Martin, Jeff Grubb (1993). Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 2nd edition (revised), A Grand Tour of the Realms. (TSR, Inc), p. 59. ISBN 1-5607-6617-4.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (August 2006). Swords of Eveningstar. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 6, p. 60. ISBN 978-0-7869-4022-6.
- ↑ James Ward, Anne K. Brown (November 1993). Pool of Twilight. (TSR, Inc), chap. 18, p. 277. ISBN 1-5607-6582-8.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood, Jeff Grubb (August 1987). “DM's Sourcebook of the Realms”. In Karen S. Martin ed. Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (TSR, Inc.), p. 1. ISBN 0-88038-472-7.
- ↑ Dale Donovan (January 1998). Cult of the Dragon. Edited by Julia Martin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 1. ISBN 0-7869-0709-6.
- ↑ Steve Winter, Alexander Winter, Wolfgang Baur (November 2014). The Rise of Tiamat. Edited by Scott Fitzgerald Gray. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 8–9. ISBN 978-0786965656.