Hârn data and HârnWiki

There is a lot of HârnWorld data within the many Works comprising the literature. How much of that data we can present here in the wiki remains to be seen, but the most generous possibility can be assumed when it comes to structuring a database to contain it all. Perhaps not all fields will be present in the final queries with which wiki content is generated, but working in that direction seems better than only entering some data and then coming back for more later.

However, this data is not the focus of the wiki. We do not wish to supplant the written materials; we just want to make them easier to use. We want to highlight the relationships between different people and different places and direct users to the works they need to get more information.

For the most part, all that is known about a particular place can be found on one line in one table in one of the Kingdom Modules and, hopefully, a dot on a map. Sure, many places have gotten more extensive treatment than that, but most place names refer to small manors that will never have an article of their own.

But we have their names, and with their names we can create their pages. On those pages, we can place what data we are permitted to display along with a link to the works: page for the source. We can add links for the place(s) that their liege(s) make their seat(s). In the other direction, we can link the holds of their vassals, if any. We can link the domain and realm to which they belong. Likewise, we can link the shire and hundred, or any other district that may apply. We can link to the Atlas Hârnica map square in which the place is found.

Perhaps we can link the settlement's holder, if only by clan name or title. HârnWorld people are a whole other wing of page creation that may take more time to realize. This may be more slow and hand-entered as individual names are drawn from paragraphs, but we can get the greatclans at the start.

Once we have preliminary tables and a basic layout, pages can be generated offline in many different ways. A Python script comes to the present editor's mind.

For most places, this is likely the end. Other spatial links can perhaps be added, but that seems a problem best addressed in a later stage. Things like other places along the same road or river are envisioned but not right away.

However, many places do have more to say about them. More people can be linked to there. More references can be cited, and quotes, paraphrases, and other remarks can be made. Again, we want to be tasteful about our inclusions, but broad, general statements can be made serving to give some context to how a place fits into the world. It can begin to resemble a proper wiki page.

After the pages are created, more data can be entered onto them, and so they grow out of sync with the original database used to create them. This is a challenge. On the one hand, editors shouldn't be tasked with entering the same information in two different places. On the other, it would be great if they felt like doing that anyway.

It's hard though. Directly entering it into the database itself is likely to be cumbersome, so some intermediate form may work better. Something like a simple CSV file would do for people's names, probably, though that could be error-prone.

In the end, we may just have to prioritize one over the other. The wiki itself is the more visible of the two, so probably that. The data nerds will just have to bend their minds to scraping it.