Wowpedia:Lore policy

Wowpedia:Policies
Policy status and phases
Category Copyright Deletion – Speedy deletion Disallowed content – NDA Editing – Disruptive editing External links Fan fiction Images		Item articles Lore Naming Neutrality Personal articles Player character pages Projects Stubs Three revert rule User naming Vandalism Voting
See also: guidelines, administrators

This page is an official policy on Wowpedia. This policy has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that all users should follow. Feel free to propose any changes to this policy, but please make sure that changes you make follow the official process and reflect consensus on the discussion page before you put them into practice. Any big changes need to be Adopted or Decreed to be enforced as policy. See Wowpedia:Policies for an overview of Wowpedia policies. See Category:Policies for a list of proposed and adopted policy articles.

This is a sub-policy of the Writing policy concerning writing lore articles.

Lore

Official sources of lore

• All official sources of lore are considered valid.

This includes the games and the manuals, the novels, the manga, and the RPG books.

Comments by authors, artists, and [Blizzard] employees may also be of interest, but should always be clearly cited as such, and not taken as definitive statements of fact.

Citation

• Cite your sources.

As verifiability is crucial to the integrity of information in the wiki, statements which are likely to be disputed should provide citations to the above sources. Providing a citation allows other users to verify that information is correct, and helps identify speculation masquerading as official lore. Citation is particularly important when dealing with controversial topics, as well as statements including specific numbers, such as populations.

If a specific claim lacks a citation, it may be tagged with the {{Fact}} template. The {{Source needed}} banner can be used if an entire article or section has an unclear foundation in official sources. If no citation is provided within a reasonable time, the impugned material should be removed from the wiki.

Information sources

• Clarify the context of information.

While this wiki serves as a repository for all Warcraft lore, there is an emphasis on the World of Warcraft game. Information which focuses on aspects of lore which may not match versions presented by other sources should be clearly labeled.

For example, a discussion of the physical manifestations of Elune’s powers is likely to leave a reader only familiar with World of Warcraft somewhat confused. The {{RPG}} template provides one way to clarify the context in which that information is relevant. Use {{Novel}} for information related to novels and short stories. Use {{Warcraft II}} for information related to the Warcraft II game and its expansion. Use {{Warcraft III}} for information related to Warcraft III and its expansion. Use {{WoW}} for any information related mainly in World of Warcraft & its expansions, etc. For more information, and examples of specific source templates, see, WoWWiki:Templates.

Conflicts

Two or more sources of lore may conflict on significant points. However, it is not WoWWiki's purpose to simply ignore older lore as if it never existed, but rather show the evolution of the story, and all alternate events. Perceived discrepencies may be retcons, flavor lore, or simply errors, but it is not up to wiki to decide which is the case. All versions should be compared and contrasted with citations, in order to portray the true publishing history.

Please note that attempts to reconcile conflicting versions of lore fall under the category of Speculation, and are governed by the guidelines under that section. Official reconcilation is allowed if properly cited.

Speculation

• Keep speculation separate.

Speculation consists of anything that is not verifiable in an official source of lore, and usually includes attempts to fill in blanks, resolve discrepancies, or predict future events.

It is imperative for the integrity of the information in the wiki that all speculation be kept clearly distinct from objective, verifiable information. Ideally, this means placing the conjecture in a completely separate article, with a title that includes "speculation," "theory," "rumor," or some other word indicating the uncertain and unofficial nature of the content. If included in a regular article, conjecture should be placed under a separate subheading clearly labeling it with one of the above words.

This policy is of particularly importance when dealing with the sometimes confusing issue of retcons or lore conflicts. When describing these, the conflicting information from the cited sources should be presented without commentary. Theories as to how the conflict could or should be resolved should be relegated to separate sections or articles.

Concise articles and source text

Lore articles on characters, places, and events should be kept reasonably concise, summarizing and cleanly presenting the facts and events directly relevant to the topic. Large sections of copied source text are discouraged, as they tend to make articles overly long, create repetition, contain much information that isn't directly relevant, and are problematic to update.

Citations to an official source should be included where relevant in the form of a link. Following the policy of preferring internal links, the link would ideally be to an internal page containing a complete transcription of the source, clearly identified as Source Text. This should also allow for easier verification and citation of sources.

Why don't we use the word "canon"?

Canon is an oft-used term by Warcraft fans regarding official lore, specifically the fictional accounts in the Warcraft Universe. This type of lore can be referred to as "canonical" lore.

WoWWiki strives to have a neutral point of view on official lore, as it is rarely discussed by Blizzard. For this reason, and as calling something "canon" often precludes the possibility of discussion about validity and "truth", we avoid using this term to describe lore on the wiki. It is also useful to note that Blizzard does not use the term "canon", for similar reasons.