The H.P. Lovecraft Wiki:Manual of Style

The Manual of Style is not intended as an ironclad set of rules, as much as guidelines to help make our pages more uniform and our information easy to understand and edit.

Only contents from professional or published work are to have an article page. Other content can be referenced in real-world or Behind the Mythos sections.

Markings and prefixes

Because of the varied and myriad works that comprise the Mythos as it exists today, and the extreme range of articles in the wikia, it is important to clarify for readers what information they are reading and from what sources.

Real World

Historic and factual information regarding authors, publications, etc. should carry the {{realworld}} template tag at the top of the article, and will look like this:

Lovecraft Myth Cycles

If Lovecraft was directly involved in the story, prefer the following:

{{HPL}}:

This yields:

HPL:

When referencing a letter of Lovecraft, when possible, use the number from the Selected Letters of H.P. Lovecraft. e.g. Shaurash-Ho is a descendant of Azathoth (HPL: Selected Letters 4.633)

Similarly, do the same with the Letters of Clark Ashton Smith and the Commonplace book entries.

"Lovecraft Circle" Myth Cycles

Articles about fictional people, places, entities, that originate from sources in the "Lovecraft Circle" should carry the {{lovecraftcircle}} template tag at the top of the article or section, and will look like this:

When a notation is needed, the following markup text can be used:

{{CIRCLE}}:

This yields:

CIRCLE:

Derleth Cthulhu Mythos

Articles about fictional people, places, entities, that originate from sources in the Derleth Cthulhu Mythos should carry the {{derlethmythos}} template tag at the top of the article or section, and will look like this:

When a notation is needed, the following markup text can be used:

{{AWD}}:

This yields:

AWD:

Expanded Cthulhu Mythos

Articles about fictional people, places, entities, that originate from sources in the Expanded Cthulhu Mythos should carry the {{expandedmythos}} template tag at the top of the article or section, and will look like this:

When a notation is needed, the following markup text can be used:

{{EXP}}:

This yields:

EXP:

For RPG based content, preferably had "(RPG)" after the title of the source.

Mythos Adjacent Works

Articles about fictional people, places, entities, that originate from sources in the Adjacent Cthulhu Mythos should carry the {{mythosadjacent}} template tag at the top of the article or section, and will look like this:

When a notation is needed, the following markup text can be used:

{{ADJ}}:

This yields:

ADJ:

Mythos Influenced Works

Articles about Lovecraftian Subjects without being part of the Mythos themselves. This can be deduced from authorial intent. The {{Mythosinfluenced}} template should be used at the top of the page and will look like this:

Use of Language/Perspective

This wiki was conceived to be a reference for the literary worlds of the H.P. Lovecraft "Cthulhu Mythos", as well as the people that made it, and the creating that continues. As such, it should be written from a "real-world" perspective. This is to say that the person writing the article first establishes whether or not they are describing a fictional person/place/thing or a real life person/place/thing, then continues the article to describe the role that it plays in the Cthulhu Mythos and its writings.

For example, DO WRITE:

"Cthulhu is a fictional deity in the Cthulhu Mythos. He is described as an ancient entity of immense power that manipulates the minds of human beings from his sunken island of R'lyeh. He first appears in H.P. Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu", but remains a recurring presence and force throughout the stories in the titular mythos."

DO NOT WRITE:

"Cthulhu is an ancient entity of immense power that manipulates the minds of human beings from his sunken island of R'lyeh."

Article Titling

Article titles, when possible should be a person/place/thing in its singular form, (i.e. Deep One, rather than Deep Ones). Exceptions to this are when the proper name or group name is naturally pluralized, (i.e. The Dreamlands).

Additionally, as with The Dreamlands and The Necronomicon, while the common usage is to add the article "The" in front of the nouns, the article titles should not contain these. Exceptions should be made in the case of real world story or book titles, (i.e. "The Festival")

Prefer to use the more famous name for the article and not necessarily the most accurate or complete.

It is very simple to correct this type of problem so that it corrects for any misusage elsewhere in the wiki.

1. In the incorrectly named article, enter the edit mode and copy the entirety of the article, and its code
2. Create a new article with the correct name
3. Paste all of the original content into the new article and publish
4. Return to the original incorrectly named article and delete all the content and replace that with the #REDIRECT [[New Article]] command

Disambiguation

At times it may be necessary to distinguish between articles of the same apparent name. For example, Dagon the character/deity, should be distinguished from Dagon (short story), and Dagon (2001 Film).

Parentheticals should be added only when necessary and a disambiguation article and link should be placed at the beginning of the articles using the {{alt|See this page}}

Images and image usage

When at all possible images should be added to articles in their original and unedited form with proper attribution to the creator of the piece.

Efforts should be made to correctly identify the work, and properly give its information in the image file entry.

Images should not be modified in any way unless permission is so given by the artist, (i.e. permission has been given in some cases to blur regions of images that might be considered offensive). They should not be cut out from backgrounds, or otherwise modified.

Efforts should be made to contact the artist in question if the work has not otherwise been published. Due to the unofficial and "fan made" nature of this site, "Fair Use" remains a gray area that remains legally questionable. Thus some interpretations of the law may allow for the usage of imagery on the wiki, but may still violate the individual rights of an artist to withhold their work. All decisions defer to the artist, and a reasonable efforts should be made to contact the artist and secure express written communication when possible.

Such images should be given a meaningful name.

Although fanart is allowed on this wiki, it is preferable to use those that are about the subject from authorial intent or from professional publication.

Categories

Articles should use the lowest possible subcategories when being labelled to avoid cluttering this space with parent categories.

Discussion

Except in the most obvious of cases, community discussion is required to declare a story invalid.

In talk pages and discussion boards, users have to assume good faith in each others.

Sub-Manuals

For the obvious reasons of keeping this page cleaner and easier to use, below are a list of Manuals pertaining to specific categories:

Manual of Style/Character or Entity