Characters/Guidelines

Below lists the guidelines of the Project Characters. We ask that all members of the Characters Project follow these rules.

## Project Articles

Below are some guidelines and common practices for writing and maintaining Project Books articles.

### General Considerations

The following are generally applicable for all articles:

* Articles shall be written in English language, with US spelling.
* Articles shall be encyclopedic in content, mentioning every aspect of the topic without bias.
* In references, page numbers from the first US edition of the book shall be mentioned.
* Create links for other wiki articles whenever applicable; do not let pages get orphaned. One link for a certain other page in an article body is enough; lists and references might contain an exception for aesthetic considerations.
* Write and capitalize the names of locations and concepts as they appear in the book (e.g. sun-drown-place instead of Sun-Drown-Place, Gathering instead of gathering etc).
* Use in-universe terms, such as "sunhigh" instead of noon, "moon" instead of month.
* In plot descriptions and cliffnotes, use narration instead of quotes (e.g. *He says he is Scourge* instead of *He says, "I am Scourge"*).

## Article Layout

All character pages must follow a specific layout listed below. For a tutorial on the coding, check here.

### Start Spoiler

Place the {{Startspoiler}} at the top of the page. This is to warn that spoilers are ahead.

### Main Quote

This is optional and used if a character has an important, main quote. Note that quotes with multiple speakers cannot be used.

### Description

All characters need a physical description listed here including looks and gender. All other things related to description (such as mistakes or the character looks like another character) will be added to the trivia.

### Information

This is the main information of the character's allegiance and age.

#### Affiliations

This is where the cat's past and current affiliations are listed.

#### Names

This lists all the character's names, from kit to elder.

#### Death

If the character has died, we list the way they died and their post-death residence.

#### Family

This lists the character's *immediate* family. Extended family is listed further down the page.

#### Education

If the cat had a mentor and/or apprentice, they would be listed here.

#### Book Appearances

All books the character has appeared in is listed here.

#### Creator

The author of the fanfiction the character is from must always be credited and listed here. If the character was originally unnamed in the original Erin Hunter books she will be listed as the creator, but the author that added on to the character will be added in.

### History

This makes up most of every character article. It has two subheadings - the type of books (e.g. seperate arcs, short stories and plays, etc) and another subheading for the book. All books that character appear in or are mentioned in will be added here.

### Trivia

With bullet points (\*) interesting facts and mistakes from the books and author will be listed here. This includes Clan heritage, facts from authors and mistakes related to name or description.

### Gallery

Where the character pictures are shown. This can only be edited by senior warriors/deputy/leader of Project Charart. If there is a problem, please let them know.

**Special:** if the character is based off a real cat, one picture may be displayed of the real cat named "Character Based Off". The image should be called *(character name)*.real.png with the category "Real Life Character Picture.

### Kin

This is where the Kin members list and family tree is shown.

#### Members

This section lists all kin of the character, including immediate and distant. It shall be listed from closest kin to most distant family.

All cats should have a listing of if they are living or deceased:

* If living, list when it was known they were last living.
* If deceased, list if they are a StarClan/Place of No Stars member, suspected StarClan/Place of No Stars member, Unknown Residence or No Residence.

#### Tree

Where the family trees are shown. This can only be edited by senior warriors/deputy/leader of Project Geneology. If there is a problem, please let them know.

### Quotes

Good quotes made by the character, narrator or other characters about the character will be added here. They are to describe the character's personality or quote important events, speeches, etc. The most quotes necessary are 5-6 but please aim for quality over quantity.

### Ceremonies

This is where if a character's changing rank ceremony is featured in a book and it will be added here and listed.

### End Spoiler

Place the {{Endspoiler}} template here so readers may know where all the spoilers are located.

## House Keeping

The following tasks are to be carried out regularly throughout the project.

### Concerns

Any user who feels that an article has issues that should be publicized should add it to the concerns list located on the main project page. The characters on this list are sorted by Affiliation.

### Creating and Moving Pages

When a new book is released, it is almost guaranteed that new characters will be introduced and/or characters will go or have gone through name changes.

When a whole new character is introduced, create a new page for the character, including the appropriate sections.

When a character experiences a name change, the article should be moved to the appropriate title.

### Disambiguation Pages

When multiple characters are specific by the same name, a disambiguation page is to be made to help readers navigate the wiki.

Use abbreviations for characters with same names, (for example: Sparrowkit (SL) and Sparrowkit (TC)).

Next, create a disambiguation page using the {{Disambig}} template. List the characters under the same name and make a brief description as to what makes them unique to the others. For example, see Sparrowkit.

## Featured

### Featured Articles

Every month, a new character of the month is posted on the project main page and the wiki main page. Users must discuss here on who shall be the next featured. At the end of the month, a senior warrior/deputy/leader will post the most voted character up.

### Featured User

Sometimes, a user shines above all others and they can be nominated to become a senior warrior.

To nominate someone for a senior warrior, please check the instructions here.