Help:Writing an article about a person
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The term "person" on PathfinderWiki is used quite loosely to mean any distinct inhabitant of the Pathfinder campaign setting. An article about a person could be about a human, a dwarf, or even a dragon, as long as it is about one specific human, dwarf, or dragon. If your article is about a species or ancestry of creatures, see Help:Writing an article about a creature.
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Summary |
Using the {{Person}} infobox template
- Want more information about templates? Visit Help:Templates.
PathfinderWiki uses infobox templates to provide an easy-to-glance summary of important facts about a person. You should begin the article by adding the {{Person}} infobox template:
- Visit the {{Person}} template page.
- Copy the code from the Template box in the {{Person}} documentation.
- Navigate to the article you're creating. You can do this by clicking a red link to that article from an existing article or entering the article's name in the wiki search box.
- Paste the {{Person}} template at the beginning of your article.
- Fill in the blanks after the equal signs in the template.
The template automatically displays only the information that you fill in; leave any fields you can't fill in, as they won't be displayed and will help chroniclers complete them if new information becomes available in future products. You can see the example template for Ileosa Arabasti by editing this page.
If you need help deciding what to put in the template or understanding what its fields represent, see the {{Person}} template documentation or ask for help in the Discord chat.
Citing sources
Remember to refer to the citation policy and practices to provide references for your article's content. Citing sources is very important—uncited content may be flagged or removed, so remember to note canon sources for anything you add and note any conflicts between canon sources that you find.
Sections
There are no hard-and-fast rules on what sections must exist in an article, although there is some logic to the convention that has built up with the creation of many articles about people. You might consider using, but are not required to use, the following sections in your article:
- Appearance
- A physical description of the person. In some cases, it might be useful to mention particularly iconic clothing here, but armor and weapons are better described in the "Possessions" section (see below).
- Relatives
- The person's family. This might include immediate relationships such as parents, siblings, spouses, and children, but can also include significant uncles, aunts, partners, cousins, etc. Friends, comrades, colleagues, and other non-familial relationships are better presented in an "Associates" heading.
- Background
- The person's history, life story, details of their past or circumstances. This is often split into multiple sections because it can get quite long, and different periods or significant events are better presented under their own headings.
- Possessions
- Describe magic items, weapons, armor, and significant or noteworthy equipment or jewelry in this section. Keep in mind the No Crunch policy—do describe these items from an in-setting perspective, but don't describe the items' game mechanics, and avoid describing properties or histories of items that may not be known to characters when possible. For instance, you can say a character has a magical broadsword, but not a +1 broadsword.
For examples of well-written articles about people, see Jakthion Korvosa and Waydon Endrin.
Categorization
- Want more information about categorization? Visit Help:Categories.
Although the following list is not exhaustive, an article about a person should be generally belong to these types of categories:
Ancestry and ethnicity
The ancestry or species of the person. This might be something simple like Category:Human/Inhabitants or could be more specific, such as Category:Varisian. For those of mixed heritages, if there is already an established mixed ancestry or versatile heritage, use that category (for example, Category:Aiuvarin/Inhabitants for descendants of elves and other ancestries).
In the case of a unique mixed ancestry, it might be necessary to use two categories, so for a half-dragon, half-ogre, you might want to use both Category:Dragon/Inhabitants and Category:Ogre/Inhabitants. This is because it would not be worth creating a category for this specific mixed ancestry due to its rarity.
For humans whose ethnicity is known, include it in the category for their specific ethnicity (such as Category:Chelaxian) as well as Category:Human/Inhabitants.
Truly unique creatures
Some creatures do not belong to a type or ancestry, or are so unusual or individually distinctive that they do not easily fit into one—they are truly one of a kind. Some examples include Spawn of Rovagug and individual kaiju. These creatures can be categorized as Category:Unique creatures.
If a creature has a name but is otherwise not significantly distinct from any ancestry or species, it should not be categorized in Category:Unique creatures. Instead, categorize it accordingly using the guidance on this page, and check for categories specifically classifying named creatures, such as Category:Animal companions (named) or Category:Familiars (named).
Occupation
The job or role that the person plays in society. This is not necessarily the character's game class; a fighter-class character who works as a sheriff would be categorized as Category:Police. The person might be a fisherman, merchant, or king, which would all be examples of occupations that could be categorized. Because there are many different terms for the same job, it is recommended you look in Category:Inhabitants by occupation to find an existing category if possible.
Membership
Membership in an organization should be categorized so a reader can quickly see all the known members of a particular organization. A member of the Pathfinder Society would belong to the organization's general category (Category:Pathfinder Society) as well as its members subcategory (Category:Pathfinder Society/Members). In some instances members hold specific positions within an organization, so a venture-captain in the Society would additionally belong in Category:Pathfinder Society/Venture-captains. It is quite possible for there to be some duality between membership and occupation/class. For example, a person might be in Category:Assassins and Category:Red Mantis/Members.
Religion
This is often obvious for clerics, because a cleric of Sarenrae must be a worshiper of Sarenrae. For other people, although it is not often known, it is sometimes useful to list deities where possible. For mortals, these categories will begin with the deity's name followed by "/Followers", as in Category:Zon-Kuthon/Followers. It is quite possible for one person to be in many religion categories, since it is quite possible that a person will worship more than one deity simultaneously.
For outsiders who have a special relationship to a deity—for instance, a deity's herald or planar allies that serve a deity—instead use the construct of the deity's name followed by "/Servants", as in Category:Erastil/Servants.
Home town and homeland
Be as specific as possible with this categorization, although this is not always straightforward. These categories are formatted with the name of the location first followed by "/Inhabitants". For example, if you know that a person lives in the town of Sandpoint, use Category:Sandpoint/Inhabitants. There is no need to put the person in Category:Varisia/Inhabitants, the nation to which Sandpoint belongs; however, Category:Varisia/Inhabitants could apply if the person doesn't have a specific home town in the source material or is a nomad within that region.
There is no need to be more specific than the town or city level. For example, if you knew that someone lived in the docks ward of a particular city, categorize them under that city, not the specific ward. If a person has previously lived in different places, add those as categories as well, but if a person is nomadic in nature, it is probably not appropriate to add them to any habitation categories unless they are nomadic only within one nation or region.
Alignment
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While the Pathfinder Remaster removed alignment from Pathfinder Second Edition mechanics, you should still include alignment when listed for people who appeared in works prior to the remaster or in Pathfinder First Edition works. |
Quite simply a categorization of a person by their alignment. Include all alignments if that person has changed their personal alignment over time. For example, Belor Hemlock should be added to Category:Chaotic good inhabitants as he is of chaotic good alignment. All of these categories begin with one of the nine alignments (using "Neutral" instead of "True neutral") and end with "inhabitants". Note that only the first word in an alignment pairing is capitalized.
Traits
Some people have Pathfinder Second Edition game mechanics as a unique creature, and in turn have corresponding traits and a creature level. Use the traits parameter in the infobox to list those traits as {{2eTrait}} templates, add corresponding creature trait categories (such as Category:Medium creatures or Category:Aberration creatures, per their listed traits), and include a "Category:Level X inhabitants" category, where X is their stated level.
Class and level
Add the person to their class-specific category and to their class-and-level category. For example, since Belor Hemlock is a level 4 fighter, he belongs to both Category:Fighters and Category:Fighters of 4th level. This ensures that readers can find Belor if they are looking for a 4th-level fighter, or even if they are just looking for a fighter whose level is of no consequence.
In the {{Person}} template, levels of NPC classes (commoner, expert, warrior, etc.) are to be added before the base class and levels of prestige classes (mystic theurge, harrower, etc.) are to be added after.
If a person's class changes across multiple appearances, the content of the article should reflect that person's most current known state. However, you can and should keep categories from valid past descriptions to help others discover the article through related categories.
Second Edition characters
Pathfinder Second Edition people often have an NPC level, which should be added to the person's infobox under "level =". Also add the appropriate "Category:Level nn inhabitants", such as Category:Level 15 inhabitants.
Specialist wizards
Wizards need special care as specialist wizards also need placing in their specialist categories. Socorro, the Butcher of Carrion Hill, is a 17th-level necromancer. Ergo, he belongs to Category:Wizards, Category:Wizards of 17th level, Category:Necromancers, and Category:Necromancers of 17th level.
Multiclassed characters
Multiclassed NPCs and those with prestige classes should be members of each applicable category. If Belor Hemlock takes a level in rogue, he would be a member of Category:Fighters and Category:Fighters of 4th level, and Category:Rogues and Category:Rogues of 1st level. Should he then add a level of the duelist prestige class, he would also belong in Category:Duelists and Category:Duelists of 1st level.
Death
If the person being added or amended is dead, add them to Category:Deceased inhabitants. If the year of death is known, remember to include it in the {{Person}} template. This extends to living creatures who have died and transformed into something no longer mortal, such as an undead creature—mark the death of their mortal form, and fill in the destroyed part of the {{Person}} infobox if the undead form is destroyed.
Unsure about categories?
If you have written an article and are unsure about which categories to apply, or simply want your categories double checked, then please feel free to add this text at the bottom of your article in this format:
[[Category:Please check categories]]
This will flag to others that the article's categories need checking or adding. We hope that, soon thereafter, another wiki member will be along to help.
Articles about more than one person
Although articles are usually about a single person, it is sometimes more appropriate to use a single article for more than one person. This should not be a group of people, because a person can be mentioned in a group article while also having their own article. It is more useful for articles such as twins who have only a brief mention and have very little information separating them. You should consider whether, by having more than one article, the articles would be a copy of one another in all but title. If this is the case, it is worth using a single article. If there is any differing information beyond this, it is probably worth using one article per person.
When an article is about a couple of characters, the article's first instance of each character's name is usually written in boldface font. One example of this is when a person has a named familiar, animal companion, spirit animal, phantom, eidolon, intelligent magic item, or other type of bound companion. Remember that in a {Person}/{Iconic} infobox template, animal companions are not entered into the "companion = " field; the companion field is for non-animal companions. Animal companions use the "animal = " field. Also remember to specify in infobox templates each companion/familiar's species or type, such as "Droogami (snow leopard)".
Most iconics' companions like Daji and Whirp are significant characters seen wherever the master goes, so it's important that those companions get top billing in the first paragraph of the article.
References
As with all articles, remember to add a References section and {{Refs}} template to the end of the article. This automatically turns your inline references into a sorted and linked bibliography.