Style Guide

This Style Guide is...damn, I guess it is official...a guide on how articles on this wiki should appear. The intent of this guide is to help create a wiki that is consistent in regards to language, layout, and formatting.

## History of the Wiki

This section is completely self-indulgent but I (Tricks) think it’s important to acknowledge that the wiki was created by Kirby in 2019 as a way to keep track of the various characters Hollow was coming out with. As far as I can tell it was a personal project, with articles being written by the Discord server mods who also happened to be script writers and personal friends with Hollow, hence a lot of informal writing and in-jokes in many of the earlier articles.

As the cast of characters grew so too did the complexity of the intertwining stories. This wiki is an important resource for those of us who are fascinated by the implications of a wider narrative being revealed in each audio. That being said, until the community comes to a consensus about how formal this site is supposed to be, the Style Guide will allow some leeway in the language to reflect (I hope) what the fandom is like - a place to have fun and be amazed at (simp for) the amazing writing, acting, and worldbuilding in the Hollow VA channel.

## General

This wiki is meant to 1) Catalog canon information about the characters, settings, and narrative and 2) Provide visibility on generally accepted theories of the fandom in regards to narrative links. Headcanon about character traits, backgrounds, AU spinoffs, and fan-Listener characters go in DMs, not here.

1. Canon sources follow this hierarchy in regards to names, spelling, and general information.
	* Explicit dialogue from each audio/script
	* YouTube video titles and comments written by Hollow/thescript author and playlist titles and descriptions.
	* Information shared by Hollow/the script authori n the Sleep Gang Discord server, Hollow\_ASMR Patreon, and/or Hollow\_VA Twitch.
	* Canon can change based on what Hollow or the script author decides and this wiki will do its best to keep the most updated information on each article as we know it. The Hollow VA channel does not release content in in-universe chronological order and the content asks its audience to imagine a world through its piecemeal nature. There are appropriate channels in the Discord server to discuss the lore and ask Hollow for more information about the world and its characters
2. Assume all information on this wiki is considered canon unless in italics (see Special Formatting below).
3. Correct spelling and grammar is to be used in all articles. All updates from 2020 onwards follow American spelling conventions.
4. Use **neutral language** when writing and editing articles. Do not use value judgements, such as "bad" versus "good” unless you are describing something said about that character. The wiki is here to record facts and descriptions of characters and settings, not make judgements.
5. Citations on this wiki are used to link information to their respective YouTube videos.
6. Avoid making many small and consecutive edits on an article. Editing errors is understandable.
	* Try to combine multiple edits into one save per page section where possible.
	* Use the "Preview" button before saving the edit to ensure everything is the way it should be.
7. Indicate changes in the edit summaries and use the Minor Edit Button for typo fixes and other minor formatting changes.
8. Do not change the templates and formatting on articles without notifying and discussing it with an admin first.
9. Do not edit the article name without consulting an admin; doing so is likely to break all links leading to that article.

### Linking

Okay, I may have overlinked the wiki. As of 2021, a unique hyperlink may appear only once per section of the article and clean-up of existing articles is much appreciated.

## Styles and Standards

### Preferred Vocabulary

1. All articles should follow these guidelines unless otherwise noted.
2. The word “audio” is used when referring to YouTube videos as the content has no actual visual component other than the faceclaim, a text quote, and a title to serve as a thumbnail.
3. Articles are written in the third person and present tense to describe settings, current events and a character’s appearance, personality, and known background.
4. The word “Listener” is used to refer to the distinct character being spoken to in each audio versus the actual person listening to the audio. The Listener character is gender neutral and uses they/them pronouns.
	* Only 2 Listeners have been named in canon - Thorn from the “Tempting Dark Mage Names You” and the Wild Walker from the Flirty Gangster series. All other names and titles are considered unofficial and codified by the writer. These titles are only meant for internal consistency of this wiki and do not reflect nor direct how the fandom describes the character in its discussions. Do not edit Listener titles without asking admins first.

### Character Article Format

See Ortas for a complete example of a character article as of 29/08/2021.

#### Opening Character Quote

Italicized and text is one size bigger. Any quote from the audio may be used, not just what’s in the thumbnail. In general, you may choose a quote that is memorable or indicative of the character’s personality or philosophy.

#### Unformatted description of the character

This includes a brief description of the character, their title and character description (i.e. Arrogant Prince), and job/role in society with notable skills.

This section should be edited to reflect the most updated changes of any of the above, regardless of spoilers (e.g. Pharos).

#### History

A new section added in 2021 that describes the background and past events of the character before they met the Listener character. This may be written in the past tense as necessary.

This section can describe both the stated truth of the character as well as the actual truth as revealed by Hollow to the fandom (e.g. August)

#### Storyline

Describe the events in each audio following in-universe chronological order.

This section serves to outline the happenings in each audio, not detail every single action and emotion conveyed by the character. Reading the article is not meant to replicate the experience of an audio one-to-one. Transcriptions are not a priority for this wiki until Hollow or the community asks for them to be provided.

If a character gives long, detailed descriptions about settings, past events, or other characters, paraphrase. More detail can be provided in the relevant page or other sections..

Given the unique POV of the medium, you should be careful when ascribing emotions or motivations to the character and Listener. It’s best to write descriptions that are objective and leave the possibility of other interpretations unless that emotion is explicit in the script or acting. Use your best judgement and reach out to an admin for feedback and guidance if you feel your article would .

Example: “The Listener seems to react with shock” instead of “The Listener is shocked “

#### Personality

This section describes the motivations that drive a character’s personality and actions as it’s currently understood by the audience. This may include descriptions of their canon family background, social standing, and events and relationships with other characters.

The final paragraph describes their perspective of and relationship with the Listener character.

#### Trivia

##### Character Trivia

This section was created to list all the canon worldbuilding details that would otherwise clog up the Storyline section. Use your best judgement if trivia belongs to the character or in the appropriate setting sub-section.This includes but is not limited to:

* Descriptions from other characters
* Miscellaneous character favorites, hobbies, preferences, etc.
* Nicknames for the Listener character
* Relevant information from other canon sources

##### Listener Trivia

* This section assumes that the Listener in the article only interacts with that character. If a character interacts with multiple Listeners, you may give the Listener a unique title to differentiate between them if there isn’t a canon one (there probably isn’t one). This title is to be used for future hyperlinks, so please save shitposty names for the Fan Theory section.
	+ If the Listener is the one to interact with multiple characters, such as in the Hotel Sanguine series, a Trivia section for them will be created in the summary page for that series.
	+ If there is no summary page for the series, this list should be prefaced with this sentence: “This list is in addition to the ones in article of [Character 1], [Character 2]” with appropriate hyperlinks
* Canon descriptions of the Listener only! If the character doesn’t say something about them but you’d like to include it in the wiki, it goes under Fan Theories.
* If this Listener interacts with multiple characters, this list may be restricted to new information as revealed by that character until the series summary page is created.

##### Fan Theories

* Indicate that theories have been disproven or outdated with a strikethrough and a description of the update.
* Speculation on the Listener’s personality and background goes here.
* Fun shitposty things but to a minimum - no headcanon.

#### Audio References

If the character is on a playlist use this format: "The (incomplete) Playlist Name playlist can be found <here>."

Insert a reference section here by clicking Insert > References List

### Category Guide

New categories can only be created by admins .

* Character - Applies to all character articles
* Fantasy - Applies to all characters in the fantasy genre, including vampires
* Fantasy world - Applies to all characters in the world of Sarrus + Domeras
* Series categories - Applies to all characters and articles (summary pages) that are part of the series
	+ Arcane Academy
	+ Hotel Sanguine
	+ Strange lands, stranger people
	+ The Spymaster’s Gambit
* Anime - Applies to all character articles with some kind of anime theme
* Boyfriend - Applies to all character in the “Boyfriend Experience” genre of ASMR/Roleplay
* Other - Applies to all characters who don’t fit in any of the above genres. Sci-fi and  literary characters live here.
* Real World - Applies to characters that exist in the "real world" E.g. Delinquent-verse, Percy, and certain demons
* Location characters - TBD if this is needed to create hubs for characters from specific locations in Sarrus + Domeras

### Special Formatting

Major cleanup is needed in this area.

* Audio titles should be underlined and in "quotation marks"
* Playlist/Series titles should be in **bold**
* Unofficial Listener names and unconfirmed spellings of names should be in *italics*
* Unofficial series titles should be in **bold and italics**
* Phonetic spellings of made up words should stay in *italics* until their canon spelling is confirmed

Transcribing is hard! With Hollow’s talent for accents, it’s understandable if your initial spelling based on what you heard does not match what is considered canon later on e.g. Asha Port vs. Azure Port. Use your best judgement when it comes to spelling and if you’re really not sure, use the appropriate channel in the Discord server to clarify the spelling.

## Admin Guidelines

* Create new character pages using the character’s first name as established by Kirby. As much as possible, use the canon spelling when creating the page to avoid.
* One-shot characters who don’t get updated for six months may have a new page created using their audio title description only if that description is unique to that character. Seriously, there are two different Dark Mages and three different warlocks, it’s easier to stick to canon names.
* New series categories should be created with canon titles only to reduce the need of hyperlink shenanigans. If Hollow hasn’t put the videos in a playlist, sorry, it’s not getting made.
* Series categories act as a hub for the relevant articles related to that series. Individual articles must be tagged with the appropriate series category.
* A series category should itself be tagged with the “Series” category.