WikiNarnia:WikiNarnia Format

The Chronicles of Narnia Wiki Format is a set of guidelines for writing all Narnia Wiki articles in a systemized, uniform fashion in order to maintain a sense of consistency throughout the wiki and help prevent disputes among users. The process of editing an article to comply with WikiFormat is called "Narnianisation."

Section I: Definitions
A. In-universe (abbreviated IU): “In-universe” describes anything that exists in the fictional alternate reality in which all of the Chronicles are factually true. All of the places, people, and events described by the books are in-universe. Also, it is possible for a thing to be both in-universe and real. For example, Lewis and the Chronicles are IU. (That is, in the fictional alternate universe in which the books’ events occurred, Lewis actually existed and actually wrote the books.)

B. Movie-universe: This one's more complicated. Movie-universe describes anything that exists in the fictional alternate reality in which all of the movies are factually true, but NOT in the fictional alternate reality in which all the books are true. For example, Lucy Pevensie is NOT movie-universe, because she exists in both the books and the movies. The Green Mist is movie-universe because it exists in the movies and not in the books. Any article about something movie-universe should have the Movie template. (See Section V for instructions on adding this template to a page.)

C. Out-of-universe (abbreviated OOU): If you understand IU and Movie-universe, this one’s easy: Anything that is not IU or Movie-universe is OOU. (Movie actors, for example.) Any article about something OOU should have the out-of-universe template. (See Section V for instructions on adding this template to a page.)

D. Canon: “Canon” applies to anything that describes in-universe things. For example, the books are canon because all of the events, people, and places described by the books are in-universe. (That is, they exist in the alternate reality in which the books are factually true.)

E. Movie Canon: "Movie Canon" applies to anything that describes movie-universe things. For example, all of the movies are movie canon. (In other words, Movie Canon is to Movie-universe as Canon is to in-universe.)

F. Deserving of an article: This is distinct from all of the previous terms. There are IU, OOU, and Movie-universe things that do deserve their own articles, and there are things from each category that don't deserve their own articles. For example: Lucy Pevensie (IU), Ben Barnes (OOU), and The Green Mist (Movie-universe) all deserve articles, but Zebras (IU), individual creatures seen in movie concept art but not in the movies themselves (OOU), and Pig People (Movie-universe; see Beast) do not.

Section II: General Encyclopedic Format
In general, articles should be written as if Narnia Wiki were a formal encyclopedia about actual historical events.

A: Encyclopedic Perspective
 * Historical Point of View: All in-universe and movie-universe articles should be written from a historical point of view-- that is, as if Narnia were an actual place and all of the Chronicles were factually true.
 * Past Tense: All in-universe and movie-universe articles should be written in the past tense--as would be appropriate if this wiki were a historical encyclopedia about real events.
 * How to deal with OOU topics: There are some topics relevant to the Narnia Wiki which cannot be made into in-universe or movie-universe articles (see Section III). Articles about these topics should have an out-of-universe notice like the one at the top of this page. (See Section V for instructions on adding this to a page.) Also, the Citations section, Adaptions section, and Behind the Scenes section (see Section IVc) of any article should be written from an out-of-universe point of view (that is, they should treat the Chronicles and movies as fiction), although they should not have the template.

B: Formal, Encyclopedic Style
 * British English: Because the Chronicles were written in and about England, all articles should be written with British English spellings. (For example, American English "color" is "colour"; "organize" is "organise.")
 * Grammar: All articles should use formal English grammar, syntax, and spelling.
 * Try to avoid book titles: Although it is possible to maintain a historical point of view and mention a book title (eg, "As recorded in The Horse and His Boy..."), it is highly preferable to reference the historical era instead (eg, "During the Golden Age of Narnia...") in in-universe and movie-universe articles. For a list of historical eras, see Time Periods of Narnia. Book titles may be mentioned in the Citations section of an article (see Section IVc).
 * Quote Template: Quotes are an excellent way to introduce an article or a section of an article. In order to achieve a sense of formality in articles, use the quote template any time a quote appears as a separate paragraph. (See Section V for how to add this template to a page.) Also add an entry in the citations section of the page detailing where in the book the quote is located.
 * Awkward, unnecessary phrases to avoid:
 * “Nothing else is known about ___.” This can be simply left off the end of an article. It can be assumed that if there were more information to be had about ___, you would have put it in the article.
 * “He was described as being ___.” Although this is still technically a historical point of view, it is awkward, wordy, and informal. Instead, use “He was ___.”

C: Things that don’t belong in articles
 * Opinions: As in a printed encyclopedia, articles should be limited to factual information. User opinions are welcome on all talk pages, user pages, and forums. The only articles which may contain user opinions are Personality pages.
 * Fan-fiction: Please do not make up information to add to articles. All information on articles should be either real-world fact or verifiable from book or movie canon.

Section III: What is IU, OOU, Canon, and Deserving of an article?
A: Books
 * IU: All facts about book publication are IU. Treat them like history books.
 * Canon: All events described in Lewis’ text are IU.
 * Deserve articles: Each book deserves an IU article.
 * Things described deserve articles: All events, people, and places directly referenced in Lewis’ text (as distinct from the illustrations) should be given an article.

B: Movies
 * OOU: Facts about the making of the movie are not IU or movie-universe.
 * Movie Canon: Things described by the movie and not by the book are movie canon.
 * Deserve Articles: Each movie deserves an OOU article.
 * Things described deserve articles: All named characters, all events, and all places not in the book but seen in the movie deserve Movie-universe articles. Species seen in the movie, none of whose members have names, and which are not mentioned in the book, should be added to the Adaptions section of the Beast page.

C: Video games
 * Special Note: Anything described differently by books and movies should be given an IU article about the thing as described by the book with an “Adaptions” section detailing the differences between book and movie from an OOU point of view. (See Section IVc.)
 * OOU.
 * Non-canon: No video game is an acceptable source of in-universe information.
 * Deserve articles: Every mass-produced, Narnia-based video game deserves an OOU article.
 * Things described do not deserve articles, although they may be given re-direct pages to the video games to which they pertain.

D: Book Illustrations
 * IU: In the fictional universe, Pauline Baynes and all of her illustrations exist.
 * Canon: Baynes’ illustrations are considered factually reliable in-universe.
 * Deserve articles: The illustrations as a whole deserve an article; so does Pauline Baynes.
 * Things described DO NOT deserve articles, unless they are also in the text. For example, one of Baynes’ illustrations portrays a zebra, but zebras are not mentioned in Lewis’ text, so zebras do not deserve an article. They are in-universe (because the illustrations are canon) and may therefore be mentioned in other IU articles, but they do not deserve their own article.

E: Movie Concept Art
 * OOU.
 * Non-canon.
 * Deserves an article.
 * Things described do not deserve articles, although they may be made as re-directs to the movie concept art page.

Section IV: How to Properly Construct an Article
A. Protocol for naming articles. In general, articles' titles should reflect the official, canon name for their topics. Some more specific guidelines for characters are below. Apply these rules in the order written; for example, because Edmund's first and last names are available (Rule 1), use those instead of his title and name (Rule 2).
 * 1. Use first and last names wherever possible.
 * Examples: Edmund Pevensie instead of "King Edmund the Just," Harold Scrubb instead of "Harold," Eustace Scrubb instead of "Eustace Clarence Scrubb."


 * 2. If a character's first (or last) name is unknown or inapplicable, but he has a title used with his name, use his official title and name.
 * Examples: Lasaraleen Tarkheena instead of "Lasaraleen," "Governor Gumpas" instead of "Gumpas," "Mr. Tumnus" instead of "Tumnus".
 * Exception: Royalty should be named using only their first names (and Roman numerals if applicable). E.g., Frank I instead of "King Frank I," Caspian X instead of "King Caspian X," Rabadash instead of "Prince Rabadash," Swanwhite instead of "Queen Swanwhite."
 * Note: If a character's first (or last) name is unknown and he has a title, but the title is never used with the name, Rule 2 does NOT apply. See Rule 4.


 * 3. If a character has two acceptable, formal titles used throughout the series, use the one which is significantly more common.
 * Example: Mr. Beaver instead of "He-Beaver."


 * 4. If a character has a first or last name but no title, or a title that is never used with the name, use whatever name is given. In other words, always use an available name instead of just a title or description.
 * Examples: Sarah instead of "Andrew Ketterley's housemaid," Jadis instead of "the White Witch."


 * 5. If a character's name changes, use the final name.
 * Examples: Fledge instead of "Strawberry," Cor instead of "Shasta."


 * 6. If a character is unnamed, describe him as succinctly and specifically as possible using language approximately like that used in the series. Tools at your disposal include the character's occupation, his title, and his relation to other characters. (If you use a relation to another character, use that character's full name following the rules above: e.g., "Governor Gumpas's Secretary" instead of "Gumpas's Secretary".) Any time this rule must be applied, the user who created the page should offer to discuss other naming alternatives on the talk page. The goal is clarity and brevity.
 * Examples: Jadis' sister, Jadis' great-grandfather, "Captain of Governor Gumpas's Guards."

B. Standard layout for articles. All articles should contain a brief, one-sentence, general introduction. (This introduction may be replaced or supplemented by a quote.) After this introduction, the article should proceed with more specific and detailed information categorised under headings, which will vary based on the article's topic. Here are some ideas for appropriate headings for various types of articles:
 * Characters: Physical Description, Personality, and Role in the History of Narnia.


 * Places: Geography (describes where the place is on a map), Physical Description (describes what the place looks like), and History.


 * Others: Choose an intentional, organised order and selection of headings describing information approximately equivalent to the headings listed for characters and places, as applicable.

C. Additional Sections that may be added.
 * Citations: All pages should include a "Citations" section if appropriate. This section should always be the last section of the page.
 * To cite books: Use the title abbreviation (LWW, PC, VDT, SC, HB, MN, LB) and the chapter number in Roman numerals. If you need to reference a specific part of the chapter, add a period and the paragraph number (number of paragraphs since the beginning of the chapter) in Arabic numerals. For example, HB VII.24 points to The Horse and His Boy, Chapter 7, paragraph 24.
 * To cite movies: Use the title abbreviation followed by a lower-case "m" to denote "movie." If you need to reference a specific scene in the movie, add a colon followed by the official name of the scene.
 * Other works may also be cited where appropriate. (If possible, include a link to the cited work.)


 * Adaptations: If the subject of an article is IU but represented differently by movie canon than by book canon, the thing should be discussed as a normal IU character, place, or event according to the books' description. An additional Adaptions heading should discuss the differences between book and movie from an OOU point of view.


 * Behind the Scenes: This section is optional for any IU or movie-universe page. It may discuss from an OOU point of view OOU trivia, facts about the making of a movie, connections between the story and real events, etc. For example, a Behind the Scenes section of the Lucy Pevensie page might reference Lucy Barfield (a Lucy Lewis actually knew).

Section V: Templates
A. Delete Template
 * Use: Use this template on an article which you think does not deserve a page, in accordance with the rules outlined in Section III. Leave more details about why the page deserves deletion on the article's talk page. After a reasonable amount of time for community discussion, an Administrator will either delete the page or remove the deletion notice, in accordance with the conclusions of the discussion on the talk page.
 * To add to an article:Type to get this.

B. Adapt Template
 * Use: Use this template on an article which does not comply with the rules listed above, but which you do not have time to fix immediately. If necessary, leave more details about what needs to be fixed on the article's talk page.
 * To add to an article: Type to get this.

C. Out-of-universe Template
 * Use: Use this template for any OOU article. (See Section I for the definition of OOU and Section III for a discussion of what OOU topics deserve articles.) Do not use this template for a Citations, Adaptions, or Behind the Scenes section; these are understood to be OOU without the need for a template. Always add to the top of the page (i.e., above all sections of the article and any introduction to the article's topic).
 * To add to an article: Type to get this.

D. Movie-Universe Template
 * Use: Use this template for any Movie Universe article. (See Section I for the definition of Movie-universe and Section III for a discussion of what Movie-universe topics deserve articles.) Do not use this template for any subsection of an article, including the Behind the Scenes and Adaptions sections.
 * To add to an article: Type to get this.

E. Quote Template
 * Use: Use this template any time you add a quote to an article as its own paragraph. This may be added at the top of a page or in a sub-headed section of an article. A given article may contain multiple quote templates, although quotes should not compose a majority of a page's content.
 * To add to an article: Type "What was said"

- Who said it to get this:

"What was said"

- Who said it


 * Notes:
 * "quote" means type the word "quote", not type the quotation you want in the article. (Type "Well, he knows me."

- Edmund Pevensie instead of
 * To get the "|" symbol, hold down shift and hit backslash (\). Alternatively, you can click on "more" in the top lefthand corner of the page when you are editing in source mode. In the pop-up menu, the symbol is the second one listed in the "wiki markup" section.
 * When typing what was said, do not add quotation marks. The template will insert those itself. Type "Well, he knows me."

- Edmund Pevensie instead of ""Well, he knows me.""

- Edmund Pevensie
 * When typing the book/movie name, make sure it is the title of a WikiNarnia article about the book/movie, because the template will turn this name into a link. (Type "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" instead of "VDT" or "Voyage of the Dawn Treader.")
 * Do not add links to quotes unless absolutely necessary (that is, unless the thing you want to link to is not mentioned anywhere on the page except in the quote).


 * For example: "Well, he knows me."

- Edmund Pevensie produces:

"Well, he knows me."

- Edmund Pevensie

F. General Guidelines
 * Order: The templates are listed above in the order in which they should appear on a page. For example, if a movie-universe article that begins with a quote is in need of Narnianisation and has also been nominated for deletion, the top of the page should have in this order: the delete template, the adapt template, the Movie template, and the quote template. (It should be very rare that articles have this many templates.)
 * Permanence: Delete and Adapt templates should be temporary-- as soon as the deletion discussion has reached a consensus or the article has been Narnianised, these templates should be removed. OOU, Movie-universe, and Quote templates are a permanent part of an article--unless these templates were inserted by mistake, they should not be removed.


 * For other technical help, see or leave a message on any administrator's talk page.