The lore wiki is editable for anyone with an account on Heimr. However, to keep things organized there are limitations. Anyone is allowed to make minor changes to the wiki. Things like improve on the writing, clarify the information, add details are all considered minor changes. If you wish to make major changes or add new paragraphs or pages, these should first be posted on the forum so they can be discussed. The reason for this is because there is a lot of lore and it is important that the lore remains consistent. Only lore masters are allowed to make major changes directly to the wiki. <!--break-->
Lore Structure
Heimr Lore is organized into pages. Each page describes a specific topic. When writing a lore page, try to avoid pages that are over 1000 words. When pages become too long they are daunting to read. Also it is quite probably that pages of that length contain too much detailed information. Each page is given a knowledge level (KL). The KL of a page indicates how specialized the information on that page is. Lower KLs indicate very general information.
For instance, KL1 is so generalized that only those who live in complete isolation don't know this. There is only 1 page with knowledge level one. This page then links to pages of KL2, which contains more specialized knowledge. The kind of information someone might learn from passing travellers. The topics of KL2 pages are still very general, but these pages form introductions to the topics of the KL3 pages. Which is the kind of knowledge someone might have gotten from investigating the subject for a while, or from having gone to school for a few years.
In this way, you can enter the lore from KL1, and dig deeper into the information. Every lore page (except for KL1) should be on a topic that is introduced on a page of 1 KL lower then it's self. Generally speaking, Pages with similar topics should have the same KL. For instance all Races have KL3, and all gods have KL4. The exception is if the topic is better known for some reason. For example the capital city of a country is better known then it's other cities and so it could have a lower KL.
Page Structure
Every page starts with it's title, which is put in the title field. Then it is followed by a a single section of one or more paragraphs. This is the introduction to that topic. Following the introduction, you can add other sections. Pages with more then one section should have a teaser break point after it's introduction section.
A summary provides the highlights of a topic. A good way to write a section is to list the most important points that should be made on that topic, and form a readable text from that. The introduction gives a description of the topic. The description is simply an elaboration on the title. And then it gives a context for the topic; How does this topic fit in a larger field of interest, and how is it different from related subjects. You can use the following guidelines to test if you created a good summary and introduction:
- An introduction should name topics of pages that summarize the current page, and thus have a KL one less then the current page. - An introduction may name topics of pages of the same KL, when these are closely related. - List they key points of each section. If you were to create a page on the topic the section summarizes, all the sections on that page contain at least one of the key points.
Pages of similar topic should have similar sections. Each section must start with a descriptive heading. This must be an h2 heading. Each section after the introduction should be a summary of a topic that can (or is) a page on it's own. This page must be (should become) a page with a KL that is one higher then that of the page you are working on. These higher knowledge pages must be linked to from the section with the text "Main article [ [ page name ] ]". This text is placed immediately after the section heading.
A page must contain at least 100 words. If there is less then 100 words of content on the page, the content should instead be used as a section on a page with more generalized KL. Each section must contain a h2 heading, followed by up to three paragraphs. Each paragraph must contain no more then 120 words. Subsections are not permitted. A new page of a higher knowledge level should be created instead.
Linking
The introduction always links to pages with lower KL. The other sections link to other pages. Do not link to the same article more then once. Be careful when linking to pages more then 2 KL away from the current page. This is a pretty good indication you're mentioning too specialized or too generalized information. Don't go out of your way to name things so they can be linked. Where this is useful, create a "Further Reading" section at the bottom of a page with a list of links to related topics.
Language And Writing Style
Lore must be writen using British English spelling. Many readers of the lore are not native English speakers. So a preference must be given to simpler English. Try to keep the sentences short and concise. The longer the sentence becomes the harder it is to read. Do not abbreviate words such as cannot into can't or do not into don't.
Some of the lore may only be partially true. For instance legends, beliefs, preconceptions, etc. When writing lore like this, it must be made clear from the context that this information is believed by some, but that the information isn't confirmed. The lore is essentially written from the perspective of the gods. If the Heimrian gods can agree that something is true, it can be stated as a fact on the lore wiki.