Works icons conventions

These conventions guide the use of icons in the works: section of the wiki. When discussing these works we use some common and synonymous words to mean specific, different things.

• Class refers to whether the work is canon—produced by the game publishers—or fanon—produced by fans.
• Category refers to a group into which similar works can be grouped by subject matter. These are things like Adventures, Kaldor, HârnMaster, etc.

1. In rightsidebar lists and RefNotes citations, an icon precedes the link to signify the broad class to which the work belongs among the following. These are plain icons in this case, and only one is used.
   1. Canon works have a checkbox
   2. Fanon works have a fan
   3. Out-of-print works have a gravestone
2. Above the top-level headings on the pages for each work, a row of icons appears that have all been formatted with a background color and border resembling the page headers of articles by Columbia Games, Inc. These represent the category to which the work belongs, which in turn is aligned with the sub-namespaces into which the works: namespace of the wiki is divided.

Conventions for listings are straightforward: each work gets one icon from a choice of three. The Icons plugin is used to display it as follows.

Here, out-of-print works are treated as a class of their own. With just the one icon assigned in this role, that is a meaningful distinction to make versus more current works.

In all cases, the size is reduced to 12 pixels from the plugin default value of 16. The coding for this parameter could be possibly shortened like {{mdi>fan?12}}, but the size= has been retained for the sake of clarity.

In page headings, there are many more variations of category icons. Rather than using the Icons plugin directly, editors work with the include plugin to include the content of pages with already-formatted icons. Such an inclusion—within a block atop the Works namespace template—looks like this.

{{page>icons:kaldor&inline}}

The entire collection of category icons is displayed in several ways.

• Icons start gives a broad overview.
• Icons key is a more compact display of the main icons.
• Realm-specific icons key shows the realm variants like the Castle in Kaldor reference.
• code_for_editors puts all of the wiki urls together for quicker reference.
• color_scheme lays out the colors used for works icons (and “World” section headings).

1. All works get a publisher icon.
   1. Columbia Games, Inc. works
   2. Keléstia Productions Ltd. works
   3. All fanon works get the same icon.
2. Out-of-print works get an icon.
   1. This is in addition to the publisher icon.
   2. Some Hârnlore magazine issues get the icon.
   3. Superseded Hârnlore magazine articles get the icon.
3. Magazines and articles get a magazine icon.
   1. There is one color for all magazines.
   2. Issues have this icon near the start, articles at end.
4. All works get one or more category icons.
   1. The main category comes first.
   2. HârnMaster works get a version icon.
   3. Categories of articles within the work get an icon.
   4. Categories within mixed articles get an icon if significant.
   5. Realms relevant to the work get an icon each.
   6. Settlements described in the work get the most apt icons.
   7. Vathrans and thrans follow map symbols.
   8. Locations described in the work get the most apt icons.
   9. Abbeys get the relevant religion icon.
   10. Settlements with chantries get the relevant magic icon.
   11. Significant maps in the work get the most apt icon.

The first icon in the row represents the publisher. The Works namespace template provides Include plugin code for both a Columbia Games, Inc. icon and a fanon one.

The CGI icon could be blazoned “Gules, a checkbox argent”.¹⁾ Out-of-print works from this publisher get one of these first.

The KPL icon could be blazoned “Sanguine, a checkbox argent.” None of these currently in the wiki has yet gone out of print.

The fanon icon could be blazoned “Azure, a fan argent.” The icon pagename, ldc, stands for Lýthia Dot Com, but fanon from other sources is represented this way too. At this time, it does not seem helpful to create more distinctions since Lýthia hosts an order of magnitude more works than are found elsewhere.

This differs from Tags, which are created for individual fanon publishers.

After the publisher icon, works that are no longer in print and unavailable in digital form get the out-of-print icon. This differs from the way that class icons are treated in listings: those have just one icon while headings can have many category icons.

Yes, CGI may happen to have a few more printed copies of some of these on hand, and one may even be able to purchase them from their website. They are still regarded as out-of-print since they are not printing more nor have they been digitized.

A notable edge case is that of Hârnlore magazine. Issues #1–9 have been laid out anew, digitized, and pdfs are available for sale. This is not the case for Hârnlore #10, and Hârnlore #11. While—at the time of this writing—remaining print copies of those latter two are being sold, that window will close and the rest will be destroyed. They have not, as yet, been digitized.

Consequently, the pages for the entire magazine for the last two issues get the out-of-print icon. The others do not.

Many individual articles from both groups of issues have been republished into their own, stand-alone articles. This renders the magazine versions obsolete. An example of this is Oselbridge from Hârnlore #7.

Pages for the individual articles from any magazines get the out-of-print icon only when they have been superseded by subsequently-published articles.

All magazines and magazine articles get the magazine icon. All magazines are represented by the same icon inclusion.

At this time, it has been decided not to differentiate them with color variations.

While pages for entire magazines have this icon toward the start of the row on the left, pages for articles place it at the far right.

Next comes at least one icon representing the category about which the work has been written. These are the same as the sub-namespaces into which the works: namespace has been divided, such as kaldor:, adventures:, and the like. This system has been modeled on CGi's publications and expanded from there to encompass fanon that stood outside that scheme.

If there is more than one icon that can apply, give precedence to the main category of the work. For example, an adventure with statistics for a novel monster would get the adventures icon first.

Sometimes it isn't clear which aspect of a work should take precedence. HârnMaster materials are especially mingled, one in particular being Pilots' Almanac. It has three guild articles with much rules crunch, “World” data tables, a glossary, and regional maps.

When in doubt, go with the namespace assignment. Here, harnmaster: seemed the best place for the small group of maritime works in order to keep them together. Therefore, the HârnMaster 3 icon comes first.

Four general HârnMaster icons have been created: HârnMaster 1, HârnMaster 2, HârnMaster 3, and HârnMaster Gold. If the work states that it is for a specific version, use that. If not, go with the latest CGI version at the time it was written or with Gold if that seems more appropriate.

If a work comprises several articles, each treating a different Hârn category, then each category so treated should get an icon. These follow the best fit to the order in which they are found.

Each work only gets one such icon. A Friends, Foes and Followers work with twelve character profiles just gets one NPCs icon.

Even if a work is one article rather than a collection of several, another icon should be displayed if another Hârn category is treated in a substantial way.

For instance, npcs icons are not given to every settlement article even though many residents are named. However, a full HârnMaster character writeup with game statistics would merit both the npcs and the game version icons.

Obviously, works about Kaldor get the Kaldor icon. Others may get one too if they are relevant to a Kaldor campaign. This determination can be more generous than that for other, non-realm categories.

Examples would be adventures set in Kaldor, wilderness sites near Kaldor, religious orders active in Kaldor, and the like.

Articles can get more than just one realm icon. For instance, the Afarezir Islands article could be germane to both Rethem and Orbaal.

Exceptions are articles that touch upon so many realms that the display of icons would grow too large. Pilot's Almanac is an example where region icons have been deemed sufficient. The tags there are bad enough.

If an article substantially treats a particular castle, keep, or other settlement, it should get the realm-specific settlement icon that applies. For example, the module on the City of Tashal has the City in Kaldor icon.

It had been general practice to give both realm and realm-specific settlement icons when the settlement is a secondary category, and this still seems best for the purpose of clarity. There are only so many colors, and it may get hard to differentiate them without a region icon added to the realm color for help.

If no realm-specific icon exists, one can use the generic one, such as the keep icon. That with the realm icon will tell the story.

Alternately, one can format the icon manually, following the syntax on the best-suited icon page. It would not be fully tied into the whole complex of icon pages, but this may not be a big problem. An example might look like this.

<WRAP icon-pad>
<WRAP tarkain columbian-icon>
{{ra>tower?30&align=left|Keep in Tarkain}}
</WRAP></WRAP>

Note: On the actual icon pages, the icon is placed in the label of a link. In an ad-hoc instance such as this, however, there may be no icons:pages:realms:keep_tarkain to which to link.

Best of all would be to create the needed icon pages according to the New works icon procedure and include them normally. As a practical matter, however, there are already many existing ones that have not been used even once let alone widely. Heck, there aren't even any cities in Chybisa, but there's an icon for them.

There isn't a good equivalence between Ivinian fortified settlements and Hârnic ones. Instead, they are related to castle, keep, and manor icons as they are marked on maps: those having a keep symbol on a map get a keep icon, etc. For example, Zynholm Thran gets the Keep in Orbaal reference while Genheim Thran gets the Manor in Orbaal reference.

Articles detailing a location smaller than an entire settlement get the appropriate realm-specific location icon. For example, the article on The Silver Way Inn in Kiban has the Location in Kaldor reference.

Again, if one does not yet exist, The generic location icon will work.

Icons have been made for all of the major religions. In addition to works where they are a category, settlements and locations relevant to them get icons. For example, Caleme Abbey has the Larani icon.

Icons have been made for all the convocations of the Shek-Pvar. In addition to works where they are a category, settlements and locations relevant to them get icons. For example, Gwaeryn Keep has the Jmorvi icon.

The map icons are generally used for works that are just a map, possibly with an included index.

Settlement articles have maps almost by definition, so it has not been the practice to place map icons on them. However, significant maps, such as region maps, should get an icon.

Series of maps, such as the Atlas Hârnica works, have their own map icons: Atlas Hârnica reference, Atlas Ivinia reference, and Atlas Keléstia reference.

In addition to the generic map icon, some region-specific and realm-specific ones have been made as well. Use the most suitable one.