Help:Editing Guide/Character

Character articles are about specific characters in the series. (Example: Clay.)

Article Structure

A character article should be structured as follows:

• Top Quote
• Infobox
• Introduction
• Appearance
• Personality
• Biography
• Relationships
• Family Tree
• Enchantments (when applicable)
• Prophecies (when applicable)
• Quotes
• Trivia
• Gallery
• References
• Navboxes
• Categories

Below you can find more detailed information on what to keep in mind while editing each section.

Infoboxes

• An infobox contains vital information about a character. This includes their name, age, gender, tribe, status (alive or dead), current and prior occupations, familial relationships, romantic partnerships, and what books they appeared or were mentioned in.
  • Do not add crushes to character's infoboxes. Characters must be in a confirmed relationship to be added to each other's infobox.
• Graphic novel images should appear first in the infobox gallery, with wiki references appearing last. If a character has one or more cover appearances, these should come before a graphic novel deptction, prioritizing the character's own book cover (if applicable).

Introduction

• The Introduction paragraph includes essential information about a character, including their age category, gender, tribe, status/occupation, first appearance, and family. Please keep this paragraph as concise as possible and do not add plot descriptions, their physical appearance, et cetera.
  • Romantic interest may be included when applicable (x.)
  • Current status may be included when applicable (x.)
  • Cause of death may be included when applicable (x.)

Appearance

• This section includes a character’s physical appearance as it is described in the books, using proper citations. Feel free to use Nathia Safira's edit document containing all such descriptions for reference while editing.
  • Please do not add uncited descriptions, basic information about a tribe (such as a LeafWing character having leaf-shaped wings), or speculation (such as a SilkWing character likely having scales that match the colors of the butterfly they are named after). Do not delete appearance citations unless they are incorrectly cited.
  • Keep in mind that the character templates made by our current refmakers (Goosefeathers, WoF Kinka, Lumin the Whisperer, Sands of Lost Time, SpaceshipEarth, Spirit978, and Skyla the Skywing) are based solely on the information provided in the books and may therefore feature additional unconfirmed colorations. Do not use these references as a source for the Appearance section and instead focus on canon material.
  • Character appearances from the main series books are prioritized over graphic novel appearances. Please do not edit out cited appearance information in favor of the graphic novel depiction of a character.
• You can add a citation of a book page (in source mode) by using the Ref template (click the link for an explanation on how to use it). Citations of sources outside the books can be done using the <ref></ref> syntax (in source mode) or by selecting the Insert tab and clicking Reference in the drop box (in Visual Editor mode).
  • Please do not use <ref></ref> for book citations, and replace them with the proper format when necessary.

Personality

• This section should include mostly adjectives or statements describing the character from within the books, using proper citations.
  • Any thought or verbal description of a character may be included, unless it is an instance of sarcasm or lying within context.
  • Biased descriptions (such as Tsunami describing Peril, a dragon she dislikes) should be prefaced with context ("According to Tsunami, Peril is a ...").
• Try to avoid phrasings such as, "Tsunami is bold, as shown when she ..." and instead opt for using citations. This reduces article clutter and makes personality sections more concise.

Biography

• Biography sections do not require citations. As they are summaries of events, citations are unnecessary — anyone who has read the book should be able to verify that the information is true.
  • The Biography section should not include small details that require citations, as it is meant to be a general event summary.
• Please prioritize brevity and omit any unnecessary details. Ensure that a character's biography is a summary of scenes they are present for, or mentions, not the book at large.
• If a character has a Biography section exceeding ~4 short paragraphs (x) or ~2 long paragraphs (x), these may be placed into a dropdown. Our dropdown template can be found here.
• The layout of a Biography section should be as follows. Please only include dropdowns for books where the character appeared or was mentioned. Link the dropdown headers, but do not link the section headers (Prophecies, 'Legends', and 'Winglets').
  • Pre-Series (no header) > The Dragonet Prophecy > The Jade Mountain Prophecy > The Lost Continent Prophecy > Legends > Winglets (Example: x.)
  • Section headers should be added with or without dropdowns
  • Proper formatting includes an instance of ---- between each section. ---- is not necessary at the beginning or end of the Biography section.
• Proper title formatting is as follows:
  • == Biography ==
    
  • === [Section Title] ===
    
  • ==== [Book title] ==== or dropdown/s

Relationships

• Relationships should be in alphabetical order by character name.
• A Relationships subsection should be made for any relation that the character has significant interactions with or thoughts/feelings about. This includes friends, romantic partners, romantic crushes, and family members, as well as any other significant relationship (such as a rival, enemy, guardian, etc.)
  • A few passing thoughts about dragons do not demand a whole section devoted to them. This part of a character's page should be devoted to close relationships that have a significant amount of content.
• Relationship subsections do not have to be mutual.
  • Example: Bigtail might have a section talking about his jealousy towards Moonwatcher, but Moonwatcher may not have a section addressing him, as they only interacted once and it did not have a significant place in her story or character.
• Speculation should be avoided within this section particularly — only use information cited from the books when describing character's interactions and relationship.

Family Tree

• This section is only necessary if there is enough known about a character’s family for there to be a family tree template, in which case said template is put in this section (Example: {{Clay Family Tree}}). Click here to see all existing family tree templates.

Enchantments

• Animus dragons should have an Enchantments section listing spells cast by them.
• Use the Enchantments template and include citations next to the 'phrasing' or 'intention' text in each row.
• Include all applicable information — for this template to work, each enchantment must have at least a target listed. 'Phrasing' or 'intention' can be left blank if they are unknown.

Prophecies

• should have a Prophecies section listing prophecies given by them.
• Use the Prophecies template and include citations next to the 'prophecy' text in each row.
• This section is specifically for prophecies, not all the visions they've had.

Quotes

• A maximum of ten quotes should be included on a character's page, with less prominent characters having less quotes.
• Only quotes that serve a purpose, such as being humorous, conveying character development, or including commentary on something relevant to the character's life, should be added. (Example: "Look out!" is not an acceptable quote.)
• Quotes are to be cited with proper book titles and page numbers. Please use the SingleQuote template.
  • Proper formatting includes an instance of ---- between each quote. ---- is not necessary at the beginning or end of the Quotes section.
• Do not change a character's quote while writing. If you wish to shorten a quote, please use three dots in square brackets when omitting dialogue. (Example: "Stop!" she said, "you're cornered. Don't move." may quote as "Stop! [...] Don't move.")

Trivia

• Please do not add trivia relating to character's namesakes, repeated names, or highly speculative trivia.
  • Acceptable name trivia: "Onyx was named after the Eye of Onyx, hinting to her royal heritage"
  • Excessive name trivia: "Eagles are large birds of prey which are members of the bird family Accipitridae and belong to several genera which are not necessarily closely related to each other."
• This section should be used for statements about characters made by Tui at online or in-person events. Ideally, these statements should be cited to a specific event.
  • Statements made on an official Scholastic media (websites, social media, etc.) are also acceptable.

Gallery

• Character galleries should not include fanart or fan-made content, aside from character references made by powerusers or refmakers.
  • Do not remove the references from character galleries. If you have a question or suggestion regarding the character templates, message Space or Lumin instead.
• Do not remove or replace infobox images.
• Images that are irrelevant to the article will be removed. This includes "Real Life" photos (Example: a photo of a kestrel in Kestrel's gallery will be removed.)
• If a character has more than five graphic novel images, a dropdown for these images should be placed below the primary gallery.

References

• You can add a citation of a book page (in source mode) by using the Ref template (click the link for an explanation on how to use it). Citations of sources outside the books can be done using the <ref></ref> syntax (in source mode) or by selecting the Insert tab and clicking Reference in the drop box (in Visual Editor mode).
  • Please do not use <ref></ref> for book citations, and replace them with the proper format when necessary.
• If a citation is used anywhere on the article (via the Ref template or the <ref></ref> syntax), this section needs to be added to the page so the citation displays properly. In most cases, this is done by adding <references /> to this section.
• If there are more than ten distinct citations on an article, you can use {{RefColumns2}} instead of <references /> so the citations appear in two columns instead of one. Similarly, {{RefColumns3}} exists to create three columns, although this is only needed for very excessive citation lists such as on this article.
• If there are no citations on an article, this section can be omitted.

Navboxes

• Navboxes are a quick way to navigate around information about a specific tribe. They include article links for known dragons, locations, and societal information. Navboxes should only be added to pages they link to, including the tribe’s members, events, and relevant locations.
• You can add a navbox by using {{Tribe Navbox}} (Example: {{HiveWing Navbox}}).

Categories

Categories are an easy way to find things on our wiki. You can find all the existing categories at the Category Guide or the Category Tree.
All characters should be placed into the following categories:

• Characters.
• Their character role category.
  • Protagonists, Deuteragonists, Supporting characters, Minor characters, and Mentioned characters are mutually exclusive — each character should be in only one of these categories. Click each for details on what characters belong, or see here.
  • Antagonists may be added to any character, in addition to one of the above categories.
  • Point of views may be added to any character with a point of view in the series, in addition to the above categories.
    • This includes POV characters from prologues, epilogues, and magic-related visions; any character where we saw the world from their point of view.
• Their gender category (Males, Females, or Unknown).
• Their respective tribe category or categories (click for full list).
  • Hybrids go in Hybrids, in addition to all applicable tribe categories.
  • Human characters go in Humans, and animals in Animals.
• Book mention/appearance categories (eg. Mentioned in TLH and WT Characters; click for the full list).

Categories with specific conditions:

• Deceased should be added to dead characters.
  • Characters who died before the events of The Dragonet Prophecy also belong in Historical characters.
• Dragonets should be added to characters under the age of seven.
• Characters involved with named organizations or specific occupations belong in associated categories (eg. Soldiers, Outclaws, Assassins, etc.).
  • Students of Jade Mountain Academy belong in their winglet category (eg. Jade Winglet, Copper Winglet, etc.).
• Dragon royalty should be added to royal characters, alongside their position category (eg. Princesses, Kings, etc.).
  • Princesses who took the throne should have Princesses replaced with Queens.
  • Queens who lost their position before dying belong in Ex-Queens.
• Characters who are canonically LGBT+, as of the books or a statement by Tui, belong in LGBT.
• Characters with special powers belong in the appropriate categories (eg. Flamesilks, Animus dragons, etc.).
  • If their powers are known, characters in Empowered NightWings should also be in Seers, Mind readers, or both.
• Characters who have been enchanted by an animus dragon belong in Animus touched.
• Characters who only exist in visions of the future belong in Characters from possible futures.
• RainWings imprisoned by the NightWings in THK and TDS belong in Captured RainWings.