Malazan Wiki:Layout Guide

This **Layout Guide** is an official guide as to how an article should be structured. Feel free to discuss the Layout Guide on the talk page.

## Section order

Display those sections required for the article in the following order

1. **Title tag** – *Usually not required. Used to alter title (e.g. to italicise it).*
2. **Maintenance templates** - *for example work in progress note*
3. **Icon templates** - *for example spoiler safe icons*
4. **Infobox** – *See Category:Infobox templates for examples.*
5. **Opening quote** – *A simple quote about the subject of the article.*
6. **Summary** – *A short introduction about 'page name'. Avoid blatant spoilers. See here for spoiler guidelines.*
7. **Main article** – *Main body of information - sub-divided under book-headers*
8. **History** - *Historical information about pagename*
9. **Trivia** – *For supporting 'trivial' information for example background info from interview*
10. **Speculations** – *For speculations which are well founded or widely publicised.*
11. **Cover gallery** – *See Gardens of the Moon#Cover gallery for an example.*
12. **Appearances** – *If you want to list publications where this person, item, place, etc has appeared or been mentioned. Not generally in use - for characters see DPs for appearance info*
13. **Notes and references** – *Should have the* **`{{Reflist}}`** *template in it.*
14. **See also** – *For related articles that are not otherwise linked to in the article.*
15. **External links** – *For linking to relevant information that is not on the wiki.*
16. **Navigation box** – *See here for a list: Navigation templates.*
17. **Category** – *See here for a list: Malazan Wiki:Category index*
18. **Interwiki links** – *Such as links to the article in other languages.*

Variable layout applies:

1. **Images elsewhere on page**
2. **Quotes elsewhere on page**
3. **Spoilers on page**

Additional layout info:

1. **Stub**
2. **Character articles**
3. **Book articles**
4. **Chapter articles**

## Title tag

Example:

```
 {{DISPLAYTITLE|''insert relevant name here''}}

```

* Used to alter the appearance of the article's title at the top of a page.
* Main uses include to italicize the name of a ship or a novel. See Ragstopper for example.
* Do not use this to alter the actual title (ex: Only displaying "Title" instead of "Title (disambiguation)")

## Maintenance templates

Example:

```
 {{Delete}}

```

* A series of tags used when the article is in need of some sort of maintenance.
* See Category:Maintenance templates

## Icon templates

Example:

```
 {{Icons|safe}}

```

* Icons used as indicators - currently only spoiler status icons available

## Infobox

Example (for an article about a character):

```
 {{Infobox character
}}

```

* Used to present vital statistics of subject. Various infoboxes can be accessed by using the standard preloads just below the "Save page" button.
* See Category:Infobox templates.
* All infobox material must be detailed in the article proper, with the following exceptions:
	+ The "preceded\_by" and "followed\_by" fields of book infoboxes, which are not necessarily relevant to the article.

## Opening quote

Example:

```
 {{Quote|No mule can match wits with me. Oh yes, many have tried, and almost all
 have failed!|Iskaral Pust|The Bonehunters/Chapter 9}}
```

* An opening quote is welcome for almost any type of article.
* Quotes can be said by the article's subject, or said by someone else about the article's subject.
* Do not use links within a quote, unless it is the only mention in the article of a certain subject.
* Do not include spoilers in opening quote.

## Summary

* A summary which gives a brief introduction to the subject of the page - for characters, typically their occupation and a description of their appearance at the time of introduction, maybe country of origin and a few generalities known about them.
* Do not include spoilers.
* If a summary is the entirety of the content, leave any spoilers as far towards the end as possible.
* Do not include major spoilers for other characters.

## Main article

* List book sections in order of publication
* Keep to the timeline
* Keep spoiler content under the appropriate book heading (including that for other characters)
* If you include lists of names etc., where appropriate list in alphabetical order.

Example (for an article about a Character):

```
 '''Joe Malaz''' was... (insert introductory sentence or paragraph)

===In Gardens of the Moon===
 ...

====In House of Chains====
 ...

====In The Crippled God====
 ...

```

Very short articles may not have headers - if the text contains spoiler info, headers are strongly recommended.

## History

Especially were historical information (for example from a flashback) contains spoilers, this should be listed below the book headers in a separate section

## Trivia

For supporting information that would not normally go in an encyclopedia article. Such as:

* errors - obvious errors like misspellings or other errors that have been corrected in reprintings.
* contradictions - point out if one source contradicts another, and which (if any) is accepted.
* authorial intent - information that relevant authors intended to convey in their work, without necessarily being spelled out in the source in question
* observations - pointing out obscure references that the author has likely made (eg. a cotillion is a type of dance).
* information gleaned from interviews and public appearances of the authors

## Speculations

Used to give common/alternative interpretations where text is ambiguous. Other types of speculation should be added to the discussion page or, if they have been discussed elsewhere, add a link to that discussion here.

## Gallery

Examples: Gardens of the Moon#Cover gallery, Anomander Rake#Fan art gallery

* This can either be a **Cover gallery** for book pages or a **Fan art gallery** for other pages.
* For fan art galleries only use a tabber if you have images to put in more than one tab (e.g. a spoiler images tab).
* For cover galleries if there at least three covers per language (for this purpose UK & US are considered separate languages) then use a `<tabber>`.
* For any remaining covers that can't be put into a group of at least three put them in a tab called 'Other'.

#### Example code

```
<tabber>Spoiler free images=
<gallery>
File name.jpg|Image title by [http://someone.deviantart.com/art/File-name-576317472 Artist's name]
Anomander by slaine69-d75ve0w.jpg|Rake by [http://slaine69.deviantart.com/art/Anomander-433125824 slaine69]
Rake.jpg|Rake by [http://yapattack.deviantart.com/art/Anomader-Rake-Prince-of-Darkeness-490127200 Yapattack]
</gallery>
<gallery>
Anomander Rake by genesischant.jpg|Rake veering by [http://genesischant.deviantart.com/art/Anomander-Rake-192572407 genesischant]
</gallery>
</tabber>

```

#### Result

* Spoiler free images
* Spoiler images

File name.jpgImage title by Artist's nameAnomander by slaine69-d75ve0w.jpgRake by slaine69Rake.jpgRake by Yapattack

Anomander Rake by genesischant.jpgRake veering by genesischant
## Appearances

A bulleted list of all the publications that where this person, item, place, etc has appeared or been mentioned.

* Bulleted list of novels or novellas, but not chapters, that the subject has appeared in.
* These are *de facto* references, but they are listed separately because they are in-universe.
* Includes even the smallest mentions in dialogue, narration, or visual appearance.
* Should be sorted in order.
* If a subject's appearance in a specific film/book/comic is only a brief mention, apply the `{{Mo}}` template, e.g. for Whiskeyjack:
	+ Deadhouse Gates (Mentioned only)
* For a subject's first appearance in the saga (in order of publication, not in order of internal chronology), use the `{{1st}}` template, e.g. for Onrack:
	+ House of Chains (First appearance)
* If a subject's first appearance in the saga is only a mere mention, use the `{{1stm}}` template, e.g. for Jacuruku:
	+ Memories of Ice (First mentioned)
	+ Blood and Bone (First appearance)
* A subject might not be named in its first appearance, but is identified in a later source. In this case, use `{{1st}}` and `{{1stID}}`, e.g. for Karsa Orlong:
	+ Deadhouse Gates (First appearance)
	+ House of Chains (First identified as Karsa Orlong)
* Format: name of title only, e.g.:
	+ Midnight Tides
	+ Reaper's Gale
* See Category:Appearance templates.

## Notes and references

Put the **`{{Reflist}}`** template under this heading.

* See Help:Referencing

### Collected quotes pending insertion

After placing the `{{Reflist}}` template a `===Collected quotes===` section can be put after it. This should contain only raw quotes from the books, ideally as a temporary measure before they are incorporated into the article proper as references.

## See also

For articles that are closely related to the subjects article, but are not already linked to in the article.

## External links

For linking to relevant information that is not on the wiki. For example to interviews stored on other sites.

## Navigation box

Generally should only go in articles that are linked to in the navigation box itself and should be placed in all pages that are linked to in the box.

* See here for a list: Category:Navigation templates.

## Category

All pages in the main namespace should be in at least one category. To get an idea of what categories are available see:

* Malazan Wiki:Category index
* Special:CategoryTree
* Special:Categories

### Sorting categories

If the page should be sorted differently in a category than how it is named put a pipe ( `|` ) after the category and then write out how the page should be sorted in that category. If the page should skip normal sorting and be listed first use a space rather than an asterisk.

E.g. `[[Category:Deadhouse Gates| ]]`

A page that is the exact same name as a category it appears in would typically sorted with a space so that it appears first in that category's list.

If a page would always be sorted in a different way from that pages name use the `{{DEFAULTSORT:}}` magic word.

E.g. `{{DEFAULTSORT:Esslemont, Ian Cameron}} [[Category:People]]`

## Interwiki links

Such as links to the article in other languages. Currently available languages:

* German `[[de:]]`
* Polish `[[pl:]]`
* Italian `[[it:]]`

## Images elsewhere on page

Example code:

```

```

* Maximum number of images is determined by text. Images should not overlap if placed on both sides of text. Additional images are placed in gallery.
* Keep sizes reasonable, normally 140px to 180px, thumb size for image rich pages (leave out 200px in example)
* Images can contain spoilers - make sure to place such images under relevant book headings - only general images at beginning of article
* Images should be placed where they are most relevant and should not interrupt the flow or the aesthetics of the article. If there is more than one image equally relevant than the one uploaded first should be listed first.
* Placing images immediately underneath a heading or subheading usually works well
* Images are best aligned to the right to work equally well with different viewing platforms
* Info for images in infoboxes is added to the Notes and reference section of the page

## Quotes elsewhere on page

Example:

```
 {{Quote|No mule can match wits with me. Oh yes, many have tried, and almost all
 have failed!|Iskaral Pust|The Bonehunters/Chapter 9}}

```

* In addition to the introductory quote, further quotes may be used throughout an article.
* Although quotes may be placed in the body of the article, a maximum of one quote is allowed only at the beginning of each section.
* Quotes are included "as-is", with the original spelling and formatting found in the source of the quote. In the case of a typo or other error, *[sic]* may be included to indicate that the error is from the original source and not the article.

## Spoilers on page

Generally, book headers are enough warning about spoilers from that book. Only absolute major spoilers or one displayed right beneath the header may need additional protection.

Example:

```
{{Spoiler}}
...
Major character X died in battle
...
{{Endspoiler}}

```

* See Malazan Wiki:Spoilers.

## Stub

Example:

```
 {{Stub}}

```

* used at the bottom of the article body when the article is too vague or brief, *AND* when there is clearly more information that can be added

## Character articles

Example articles: Onrack, Toc the Elder

* If the article is going to be longer than a stub inserting the **`{{Infobox character}}`** template at the start should be considered.

## Book articles

Example article: Gardens of the Moon

* For book articles insert the **`{{Infobox book}}`** template at the start of the article.
* Write an article summary (in an Out-of-Universe perspective) if required.
* A **Front matter** section can have Dedication, Author's note, Forward and Map sub-sections.
* **Editions** (incl. ISBNs, publication dates and page counts).
* **Publisher's summary** (ie; the back cover). See also: Writing Summaries
* Following this is the **Plot summery** section that may have a template linking to the more detailed dramatis personae and chapter sub-pages. See also: Writing Summaries

## Chapter articles

Example article: Gardens of the Moon/Chapter 23. See also: Writing Summaries.

* Use the appropriate chapters template.
* Insert the epigraph as required.
* Copy out the location/date block if the chapter has one.
* General location(s) in the main header style (==).
* Person with prime perspective(s) in the smallest heading style (====).