Help:Writing an article about a place
Articles on places can refer to any specific or general location in the Pathfinder campaign setting. This includes cities, nations, and geographical features. If it is an article on a settlement, nation, or region within a nation, you should begin the article by using the {{City}}, {{Nation}}, or {{Region}} templates, respectively. Visit that template page, and copy the text from the usage box. You can just paste this at the beginning of your article and fill in the blanks. The template automatically knows only to display the information that you fill in, so if you leave any of the fields blank, they will just not be displayed.
See the example template for Osirion on this page. You might also want to refer to the policy on citing sources to provide references for the statements in your article.
Sections
There are no hard-and-fast rules on what sections should and should not exist within an article, although there is some logic to the convention that has built up with the creation of many articles about locations. Typically there are more sections for a nation or city than for a river or mountain range, but this is not a concrete guideline. You might consider using, but are not forced to use, the following sections in your article:
- Geography
- Any distinguishing geographical features, districts, substates, etc. that might apply to the given location.
- Government
- For an article about a civilized location, such as a city or nation, an overview of the government structures and authority figures is helpful.
- History
- An overview of the history of the region or location. This might include political evolution as well as important events that have taken place in or near the locations.
- People
- If inhabitants of the location have unique characteristics, mention them in their own section.
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Categorization
Although the following list is not exhaustive, generally an article about a location should be categorized according to:
General
There is no set list of possible location types, but logic should dictate the general category an article should belong to. For example, a nation would be placed in Category:Nations and a river would be in Category:Rivers. Some locations might appear in more than one general category.
Region
For ease of searching, all locations should also belong to one or more regional category. For example, the Yondabakari River belongs to the category Category:Varisia/Geography as do the Varisian Gulf and the Kodar Mountains. If a location belongs to multiple regions or nations, include it in both regions. (An example of this would be the Mindspin Mountains which are part of both Category:Varisia/Geography and Category:Hold of Belkzen/Geography. Cities or towns should be included in the applicable "settlements" category, such as Category:Varisia/Settlements or Category:Andoran/Settlements. Nations are categorized regionally by their continent in categories such as Category:Avistan as well as the more general Category:Nations.
Racial Affiliation
Some locations are specifically associated with a particular race, and should be noted as such. For example, the nation of Kyonin is ruled and inhabited primarily by elves, thus it would belong to Category:Elf/Nations. Similarly, the city of Janderhoff is a dwarf city, so it belongs to Category:Dwarf/Settlements. For human nations or settlements, no racial category is required, as this is the assumed default for the setting.
Alignment
For nations and settlements, include as well the alignment of the location. Thus, Varisia would belong to Category:Neutral nations and Korvosa would belong to Category:Lawful neutral settlements.
Type
Geographical features
For geographical features, such as rivers, lakes, oceans, or mountain ranges, articles should be placed in categories by type. Thus the Turandarok River would belong in Category:Rivers and the World's Edge Mountains would belong in Category:Mountains.
A feature might be relevant in multiple categories. For instance, Asp River is both a river and a tributary of another river, so it is categorized in both Category:Rivers and Category:Tributaries. Avoid adding overly general categories for geographical features, such as Category:Bodies of water, unless no more specific categories exist (or should exist).
For a list of all of the geographical feature categories in use, see Category:Geographical features; if you create a new category for a new type of feature, remember to categorize that new category under Geographical features in addition to any other relevant categories.
Structures
For buildings, articles may also be placed in categories by type. Museums, for instance, would belong in Category: Museums and, similarly, for schools, universities, palaces, observatories, temples, etc. For a list of buildings already categorized, please see Category: Buildings, but like geographical features many more could be added as appropriate.
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.