Europa:Article Guidelines

These Article Guidelines will handle an in-depth explanation of things that should go on article pages. The Europa Wiki houses eight different kinds of articles that can be made with a ninth one that isn't available to people who aren't primary staff. However, the ones to focus on are these:

* Characters
* Teams
* Objects
* Organizations
* Storylines
* Eras
* Universes

These are the most important ones and are the ones that maintain the most focus to create and develop. Thankfully - however -, this system has been automated by way of "Create-A" pages that are going to be linked below at the end of this demonstration. However, it is important to note that while they are automated in the sense of preload pages, you - as the editor - will still have to fill out the information to complete it. A full list of the templates used for the aforementioned pages above while also be included at the end of this guided tour. This page will go over how to create each one of those types of pages successfully and correctly. It is **highly** recommended that you have at least two tabs open for the website if you plan on working on it. For any circumstances where you are lost or confused, reach out to Morpheus on Discord.

To find the Creating pages, use the top navigation. Under Hubs, there will be a page titled "Creating 101" and when clicked, it will take you to a category page that has all of the Creating 101 pages within it.

## **Character Creation**

### **Loading The Template**

When beginning to create a character page, you will use the "Create-A-Character" option. On that page, it will explain to you what you are needing to put for the title of the page. In less words, you need to put the name of your character and their crisis designation. Here's an example:

`D'Angelo Morris (Pre-Crisis)`

Now, with that, you will click on the "Create Page" button, and it will reload the page in "Source Editor" mode. In Source Editor, this is where most of the coding occurs. Below is what it should look like when you load it up, if it does not, then restart the process from the beginning. However, do not restart if the page loads up and the words are colorized differently. Here is what you will do to change this to make it easier to read and edit. (Please note that we are using our sister wiki, *Donuts*, as the example in the photos. Don't worry, everything is the same on both wikis.)

First, go to the gear wheel at the top right of the page.

Then when you click it, a drop-down menu will appear. Move the cursor down until you see the words "Syntax Highlighting". Essentially, what this does is to show you - in color form - what you are doing with the lines of code. However, for new people to HTML & CSS, this is utter confusion. Therefore, when you find it, click it.

Once you click that, the page should automatically disable the syntax highlighting and leave you with white text for better readability. It should look like this:

Read the beginning text which helps you understand what to do with the basic information. Once that is completed, begin to fill out the Infobox by starting with the **title**, **name**, and **currentalias** labels but leave `characterimage(s)` and `caption-characterimage(s)` blank, we will come back to this later on Image Policy. Below is a brief interlude to take the time to explain Infoboxes.

### **Infoboxes**

Infoboxes are entire sections of articles and are arguably the most important of the article themselves. They house all information about the character, era, object, team, organization, or story information before getting readers to the actual article itself. The infobox is on the right side of the article on Desktop view while on Mobile, it is the first thing that everyone sees.

Desktop ExampleMobile Example
Infoboxes are great tools to showcase base information for a character or other types of articles in an easy, quick fashion. You most likely will never have to create an infobox as most of them are made for you and the creation of infoboxes are not covered in the guidelines. However, in the event that you **absolutely** need to create an infobox, send a message to your Wiki Admin over Discord. Or use the Community Central Wiki to help you create a infobox.

### **Aliases, Affiliations & Relationships**

Once you reach the `Aliases` label, you will begin to see a series of lines of code that may confuse and/or intimidate you.

Don't worry, this is why we have the guidelines. Here, you have the chance to do two things. This being to continue to use the Source Editor or switch to the Visual Editor at the top left of the page. This portion will follow both ways to do so as it is divided by it being labeled as "Source Editor" and "Method 2: Visual Editor". Below is where you can see the option to change from Source to Visual and vice versa. However, it is **highly** recommended to do Infobox editing through source editor as it will be nearly impossible to do it in visual editor. Once finished with the Infobox in source editor, you can then switch to visual editor but this will only cover the source editor version of the Infobox. Furthermore, it is also easier to work on the entire article page through source editor. Below will cover how to work on the entire article page in source editor with occasional flips between. However, if you wish to write in visual editor, this will also show you how to do that.

#### **Source Editor**

These are the next following steps to take forward whilst using source editor. First, there is a section of text that says "See Source Editor. Delete When Finished." Here, you will highlight this line of text - do **not** delete the label of "| aliases=" - and leave this blank. Now, each of the alias categories will be explained here so you aren't confused as to what goes where:

* **News Aliases**
	+ These are aliases that the news gives your character which are different from Editorial Names. Examples include "Roseland's Last Hope" or "The Dark Prince Charming". Things that you would see on the front pages of newspapers or titles of web articles.
* **Nicknames**
	+ Self-explanatory. I hope.
* **Editorial Names**
	+ These are official titles that the news gives your character. Examples include "The Shocking Static" or "Batmen: The Dark Knight". Essentially, full adjective superhero names that are referenced in the world of Europa and so on.
* **Given Titles**
	+ These are titles that were bestowed upon the character from outside sources that have no relation to the news. Examples include "The Sorcerer Supreme" or "The Leader of The TMNT", titles that have no real barring over anything outside of being given to said character.

Now, when wanting to fill in the information for each of these, what you will do is this: Read the words that are next to the "body =" syntax. Then, you will highlight the text and delete it and here, you will place the aliases that you will give your character. Do not worry about citing, that will come later. Now this is important. If your character does not have news aliases because they are a normal person or they don't have any given titles, those sections are safe to be deleted. Once you have finished writing the aliases, at the bottom of the page, there is an eye icon with the word "Preview" next to it.

Click it and a preview of the page you are currently editing should pop up. Like this:

To check your work to see if you have completed the aliases correctly, click the expand button next to the "Aliases" label and then select expand on all of the sub-labels to view them.

If you run into a problem where the formatting of the Infobox, do not worry. However, continuing this method, you will fill out the following sections, "Relatives" and this is an interesting part. As you will see, there are two sections labelled "Primary Family" and "Extended Family". Here's a brief explanation just in case you are confused.

* **Primary Family**
	+ These are the immediate family members that are around your character or were involved in your characters life. These being: Mother, Father, Siblings. The correct formatting (using `<br>`) is this for example:
		- Unnamed father (missing; presumed alive)
		Jennifer Daniels (mother, alive)
		Patrick Knight (step-father, deceased)
		Jordan Knight (step-brother, alive)
		- You will not be able to see the usage of `<br>` here because Fandom renders it as an actual code instead of an example. However, notice how the names are uniformed as they are placed underneath each other. The `<br>` stands for Break.

* **Extended Family**
	+ These are members of the family who are notable but aren't immediate. Such as cousins, nephews, etc. The correct format is the same as the Primary Family.

Remember to check your work to see if you formatted everything correctly. It should like it does below, if it does not, review the previous steps.

The next section is "Companions" which houses Lovers and Friends. Much like the previous section of "Relatives", it follows the same formatting style. If the character does not have a lover, you can delete everything from Lovers to the end brackets of **that part of the section**. Do not delete anything else. But for a brief explanation of what these two means is this:

* **Lovers**
	+ These are people who your character has dated or has been in some type of sexual/romantic relationship with. This also includes current and deep relationships such as wives, husbands, fiancées, etc. If you wish to put the type of relationship next to the name, you absolutely can. Remember to place them all here, even if it is hard to contextualize into words, you can simply put complicated. Below is an example of how to format it, again using `<br>`:
		- Alexis May (deceased)
		Valerie St. Lauren (complicated)
		Jane Harper (long-time mutual feelings)

* **Friends**
	+ These are the people who your character is close with. The types of people that are there for your character endlessly. If a friend of their's is deceased, still list them as they are still friends and as we all know from comics, nobody ever truly stays dead. Formatting is similar to that of the Lovers section above but for Friends, remember to use **their alter-ego aliases**. Below is an example, still using `<br>`.
		- Jinx
		The Winter Soldier
		Stormsword
		Hulk
		Areus
		Weaver

Once you have done this, remember to delete the "see source editor" text at the end of the "companions =" and preview it. It should look like this:

Now at the home stretch when it comes to having to use lines of code, you will be greeted by the last section of this called "Affiliations". This houses two sections, the first being for characters and the second is for alter-egos, labeled "As Character Name" and "As Alter-Ego". If your character does not have a secret identiy, then congradulations, you get to skip this part by highlighting the entire section and deleting it, like so:

And once deleted, you can simply just put what they are affiliated with like such for example:
Avengers, Stark Industries; formerly Force Works, West Coast Avengers

But if the character you have **does** have a secret identity, then there are some things I need to explain. First, when editing "As Character Name", please highly the "Character Name" part and put their first and last name, like so:
 As D'Angelo Morris

This section is for the things your character is affiliated with that have nothing to do with their alter-ego identity such as notable schools and organizations. There is no proper formatting for this but it is instead simply just done with comas, for example:

**As D'Angelo Morris**

Then for alter-ego, replace "Alter-Ego" as their superhero name and format it the same as above. It should look like this:

**As Static**

Once done on the article page, it should look like this:

Congradulations! You completed the hardest part of the Infobox. Now everything else is simply data entry on your character. However, to clear up any confusion on certain labels, I will give a brief overview of some of the more obscure ones:

* **Species**
	+ This label represents what your character is. Humans are "Humans" (duh) but for individuals with superpowers are different. If your character gained their powers from the Meta Gene, they are known as "Metahumans", even if they gained their abilities by accident. For people who are of the mystical variety, they're only known as "Homo Magi".

* **Origin**
	+ The "Origin" label is a brief, vague, one sentence summary of how the character gained their powers or how they are able to do. For this, I will showcase two examples of a good Origin section.
		- 1. Eaten by a Zinchari spider on his 16th birthday and bestowed with spider-like abilities.
		- 2. Human gifted with genius-level intelligence.
	+ It is a very condense version of the Overview section (more on this later).

* **Reality**
	+ For the reality, put their their crisis designation, for example: Pre-Crisis. However, it is important to know that you should absolutely place in parenthesis the nickname of the Earth. Example: Pre-Crisis (Europa). This is to alleviate any type of confusion when it comes to where they are.

* **Creator(s)**
	+ Europa is a big supporter of creators and creator-owned works. Therefore, we give credit to individuals who have created something for Europa. For the creator's label, you will simply place your most widely know alias if you do not feel comfortable using your real name. If you co-created the character with someone else, place their name as well. For example:
	+ Morpheus & De

* **First Appearance**
	+ The first appearance of a character is whenever the character debuted into the roleplay during a storyline. Historically, there is always a storyline going on in a roleplay but in the event there isn't one and they just appeared, then you can place the Era they debuted in. For example:
		- **Europa Presents: If You're Reading This, It's Too Late**
	+ However, if the character is retroactively being added into the roleplay via a character's backstory, then you will add two different things. 1. Chronologically and 2. Debut. Because while they chronologically appeared in a backstory, they didn't debut until you brought them into the roleplay. Here is an example, using `<br>` in between Chronologically, the era name, Debut, and the era name (ie. **Chronologically**`<br>`Europa Presents: BORN LIKE THIS`<br>`**Debut**`<br>`Europa Presents: If You're Reading This, It's Too Late):
		- **Chronologically**
		Europa Presents: BORN LIKE THIS
		**Debut**
		Europa Presents: If You're Reading This, It's Too Late)

If you find yourself not needing to place something in an label, then highlight the word "Example" and then press delete and leave it blank. This makes it so that the label doesn't show up on the infobox but the label still exists if you need to go in and add it later.

Now onto the easier things.

### **Quotes**

Quotes are things your character has said, and you feel are significant enough to warrant being on their character page.

The first quote which is directly underneath the Infobox is mandatory as it states. It will look like this:

Where it says "quote =" you will place your quote after the equal sign. Following this, the "speaker =" section will be where you put your character's name, formatted like such **Static (D'Angelo Morris)**. Remember to bold their name like shown.

### **Overview**

The overview is the opening three paragraphs to a character's page that tell readers a very brief summary of who they are and what they are about. It includes origins, their life, and what they are up to currently. Please delete the " " and the "You can put a brief summary of your character up here. Think of it as selling your character to the reader." so that you can write.

* **First Paragraph:**
	+ The first paragraph includes a hook sentence and a very brief summary about their origins (ie. how'd they get their powers, what caused them to be so-and-so, and reiterate their alter-ego name). Example:
		- *The quippy, introverted, pop-culture nerd **D'Angelo Morris** is known to the world at large as the daring and electrifying **Static**. Born to a mother who died during childbirth and an author, D'Angelo would be a bystander during a supervillain fight between his uncle, Black Lightning, and Toyman. Nearly dying in the altercation, D'Angelo awakened his metahuman gene and displayed superhuman abilities. As a result, Black Lightning would take him under his wing, but Black Lightning would tragically die at the hand of his archenemy, Parasite. In honor of his mentor and uncle, D'Angelo became Roseland's only defender, Static.*

* **Second Paragraph:**
	+ The second paragraph is a brief overview of their world and their daily lives. This talks about who they know, their secret identity troubles, and a mention of a few villains they have fought. Example:
		- *To protect himself and his family, D'Angelo kept his identity a secret but, over time, amassed a rogues gallery. It consisted of Eclipso, Hotstreak, Bloodsport, The Maroni Crime Family, Mister Freeze, Punchline, and the most dangerous of them all, Ebon who was revealed to be the reason why D'Angelo gained his powers, to begin with. Due to his exploits, he would become a founding member of the Washington superhero team The Outsiders, gaining friends such as Morgan Jefferson, Marcus Wellington, Montreal Jackson, Jonathan Lucas, Marie Keating, and Angie Thomas.*

* **Third Paragraph:**
	+ The third paragraph is the one that is the most updated as the previous two don't change at all. This paragraph deals with the now. Essentially, it is a very brief summary of what the character is up to currently. It is recommended to write about what the character will go through post-whatever is happening in roleplay to avoid needing to constantly updating it. Example:
		- *Recently, D'Angelo traveled to the 31st century, where he countered the Legion, a planetary response team of superheroes. After a brief adventure fighting Mongul and a bubbling romance with Saturn Girl, D'Angelo returned to his time and began to bounce between Outsiders HQ and his homelife, which rapidly deteriorated as his sister discovered his vigilantism. Though, D'Angelo's life would become more complicated as Ebon was reportedly working with notorious crime boss Carmine Falcone.*

### **Personality**

For their personality section, there is a quote but if you do not want to use it, then simply highlight the quote and then delete itn along with the text that says "this quote is optional". Here, you will place the personality. Please **do not** simply put "good hearted, lovable". Actually, take the time to flesh it out, write it out to flesh out the character.

### **Attributes**

There is another quote here, but it is optional and if you don't want to use it, use the previously mentioned method.

The attributes section encompasses Powers, Abilities, and Weaknesses. However, there is good news. If your character is human, then they don't need to have a listed weakness as they are **literally** human. Therefore, the weaknesses section can be highlighted and deleted, including the hr/ class="hidden" part. To format all of it, below is an example:

To start, you place the type of species they are as the start of it then explain their origins and interesting facts about it.

***Metahuman Biology**: After undergoing a life-threatening situation, D'Angelo was given superhuman abilities relating to the incident that granted him his powers. Initially, it was believed that D'Angelo gained his abilities from the electrical shock he received on accident from Black Lightning and the chemical barrels that exploded near him. However, this was ruled out when Andre tested his blood. Upon discovering the metahuman gene, Andre posited that D'Angelo would eventually become more powerful than him as he gained his powers from an electrical accident. This belief proved correct as D'Angelo's powers differed from Andre's and were potent in the destructive sense. After meeting Batman and Marcus, they both theorized that D'Angelo's powers were still mutating because of his young age. This theory led to Montreal stating that his upper limits are primarily unknown, but Marcus said that D'Angelo would potentially reach his ceiling in his thirties. Montreal's statement proved to be true whenever D'Angelo entered his - what D'Angelo has dubbed - "Burning Chrome" state of unlimited energy for a brief period. This reveal led Rocket to update her danger ranking system, S.T.A.T.U.S., organizing D'Angelo at Power Status: 8, bumping him from his Power Status: 6.*

Then once you are done, you will add a (\*) at the start of the next section. For simplicity's sake, "Superhuman Physiology" is one paragraph that gets to the point.

* ***Superhuman Physiology**: To compensate for the sheer force of his abilities, D'Angelo's body enhanced his native skills as a failsafe. He is strong enough to move dumpsters, rip open maintenance hole covers, and push cars with little to no effort, but he is not strong enough to physically hurt other superhumans without his powers. Interestingly, D'Angelo's durability is heightened, so he can take hits from people like Icon and Batman and be okay with no visible damage. He has also taken falls from high drops, which should have killed him, but he got up with some slight pain. His stamina, reflexes, agility, and speed have all equally been heightened but not unbelievable. Instead, D'Angelo can move a little faster than normal humans and react faster, but he is not on par with his contemporaries.*

Following this, you will format all other powers like you did for the Superhuman physiology. However, if the character gained a new power that is unrelated to their species or gained a secondary mutation, it will be formatted like the first example, "Zinchari Avatar" then all powers relating to the new one is formatted like "Superhuman Physiology".

For abilities, this includes things that they are notably good at like their intelligence, combat ability, and other things related to it.

For weaknesses, this is just a simple bullet list which is used by (\*). Remember to bold the words before the paragraph on all powers, abilities, and weaknesses.

### **Paraphernalia**

The equipment section is pretty straightforward as it houses the equipment your character has in bullet list form. Remember to use the same formatting that you did for the abilities.

### **Trivia**

The trivia is where you will place funny or interesting tidbits of knowledge about your character in a bullet list form using (\*). There is no special kind of formatting needing. Just a bullet list like:

* Magic Man doesn't like seafood

and etc.

## **Graduation**

Congratulations!! You have successfully created a character page! Now press save and your page will render perfectly and completely finished. Remember to intermittently save while working on a page. Nevertheless, now that you know how to work on a character page, you know how to work on all pages as they are self-explanatory and since you have the experience of creating and editing, all of it will be easy moving forward!

If you have any more questions, ask a member of the staff or message an admin on Discord for further information.