Warcraft Wiki:Lore policy

Policies
Policy status and phases
Category Copyright Deletion – Speedy deletion Disallowed content – NDA Editing – Disruptive editing External links Fan fiction Images		Item articles Lore Naming Neutrality Personal articles Player character pages Projects Stubs Three revert rule User naming Vandalism Voting
See also: guidelines, administrators

This page is an official policy on Warcraft Wiki. This policy has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that all users should follow. Feel free to propose any changes to this policy, but please make sure that changes you make follow the official process and reflect consensus on the discussion page before you put them into practice. Any big changes need to be Adopted or Decreed to be enforced as policy. See Policies for an overview of Warcraft Wiki policies. See Category:Policies for a list of proposed and adopted policy articles. Shortcut: WCW:LORE

Sources of lore

All official sources of lore are considered valid. This includes the games and their manuals, the novels, and the manga. Comments by authors, artists, and Blizzard Entertainment employees may also be of interest, but should always be clearly cited as such. Unless otherwise corroborated through other sources of lore, comments made by Blizzard GMs or other customer service representatives who are not directly related to the creation of Warcraft lore are deemed to be unreliable. Such statements should be separated from other content - most likely in a Speculation section - and clearly cited as such. Any such comments which are contradicted by more reliable sources of lore should be removed entirely.

References used must be independently verifiable:

• If the content is already on the wiki - such as in the text of a quest - you may link directly to that page as your source. If it is not on the wiki but is available in-game, you should add the content to the wiki first and link to that.
  • Such content added to the wiki must be able to be experienced (now or in the past) by another player. This includes content being added to the wiki after being removed from the game.
  • Content retrieved by exploits is not allowed on the wiki per the DNP policy. Datamined content is allowed on the wiki, but if it is not accessible in-game then it cannot serve as a source of lore.
• If the content is currently on a Blizzard website (and from a Blizzard developer source - rumors discussed in the forums besides developers' posts are not reliable), you may link directly to their site, but should also ensure the content is otherwise archived, ideally through a public web archive, as Blizzard tends to update their site and remove content regularly.
  • Such content must be publicly accessible - whether through the website or a public archive of the website.
• Content from Blizzard-licensed books and other media may simply reference the source using standard references.
  • Content from the Warcraft movie follows a separate canon and should be tagged with {{Film}}
  • Content from the Trading Card Game bears questionable canonicity and should be tagged with {{TCG}}. Note that descriptions on the cards are not considered canon by Blizzard.
  • Content from the RPG is non-canon (see below) and should be tagged with {{RPG}}
• If the content is found on third-party sites (not operated by Blizzard or a direct archive of a Blizzard website), it is not reliable and should not be used - unless it can be found independently from Blizzard sources.
  • Interviews with Blizzard developers (who have direct input on Warcraft lore) conducted by reputable press may be used as references. Such interviews must be performed "on the record" and should be publicly accessible.

Clarify the context of information. This wiki serves as a repository for Warcraft universe lore (with a focus, though not priority, on World of Warcraft). It covers the entire Warcraft series of games, RPG reference books, strategy guides, novels, "manga", and other sources. Each source of information should be clearly cited using <ref></ref>. Helper templates such as {{ref game}} are available to help, though unnecessary.

Source header templates may also be used in an article. For example, a discussion of the physical manifestations of Elune's powers is likely to leave a reader only familiar with World of Warcraft somewhat confused. Use {{Novel}} for information related to novels and short stories. Use {{Warcraft II}} for information related to Warcraft II and its expansion. Use {{Warcraft III}} for information related to Warcraft III and its expansion. Do not stack these templates.

RPG

Note that as per an Ask CDev response, Blizzard does not consider the RPGs in and of themselves to be canonical. Various elements from the RPGs can be made canon by being added to/referenced from other sources, however.

• Do not remove RPG information from the wiki, but rather separate it from other sources of lore where possible.
  • RPG-only articles should be tagged with {{RPG}} at the top and removed from any gameplay/non-RPG-specific categories.
  • Paragraphs of RPG content disconnected from the rest of the article should be moved to an "In the RPG" section near the end of the article.
• Pictures from the RPG are fine where a better picture is not available.

Citation

Cite your sources. As verifiability is crucial to the integrity of information in the wiki, statements which are likely to be disputed should provide citations to the above sources. Providing a citation allows other users to verify that information is correct, and helps identify speculation masquerading as official lore. Citation is particularly important when dealing with controversial topics, as well as statements including specific numbers, such as populations.

If a specific claim lacks a citation, it may be tagged with the {{Fact}} template. The {{Source needed}} banner can be used if an entire article or section has an unclear foundation in official sources. If no citation is provided within a reasonable time, the impugned material should be removed from the wiki.

Lore conflicts

Two or more sources of lore may conflict on significant points. However, it is not Warcraft Wiki's purpose to simply ignore older lore as if it never existed, but rather show the evolution of the story, and all alternate events. Perceived discrepancies may be retcons, flavor lore, or simply errors, but it is not up to the wiki to decide which is the case. All versions should be compared and contrasted with citations, in order to portray the true publishing history.

Please note, attempts to reconcile conflicting versions of lore falls under the category of Speculation, and are governed by the guidelines under that section. Official reconciliation is allowed if properly cited.

Speculation

Keep speculation separate. Speculation consists of anything that is not verifiable in an official source of lore and usually includes attempts to fill in blanks, resolve discrepancies, or predict future events. This separation preserves the integrity of objective, verifiable information. Speculation should not build on previous speculation or assumptions, and all ideas must have factual backing.

Speculation should be in a separate article with a title indicating the nature of the content, such as "speculation", "theory", or "rumor", or in a separate section in a main article with a similarly titled section. A {{speculation}} tag should be used in either case at the beginning of the speculated content. A completely separate article is only created if the theory is large or complex. Speculation is not the same as fan fiction, and if an author does not want their theories to be altered, their theories should be placed in a completely separate user subpage and labeled as one author's ideas.

Some speculation can be easily avoided by phrasing information as facts. While the line "Athridas Bearmantle might well be the long lost brother of Broll" would be speculation, the line "Athridas shares the name Bearmantle with Broll" would be constitute a fact and therefore be a preferred option.

Retcons or lore conflicts and gaps are particularly important. When describing these, the conflicting information from the cited sources should be presented without commentary. Theories as to how the conflict could or should be resolved should be relegated to separate sections or articles.

It is not the wiki's job to endorse a particular speculatory idea. If an idea is to be added to an existing speculation section or article, do not remove the existing speculation; add to it. The exception to this rule is if the existing speculation contradicts established lore.

Concise articles and source text

Lore articles on characters, places, and events should be kept reasonably concise by summarizing the facts and events directly relevant to the topic. Large sections of copied source text are strongly discouraged because they do not comply with the CC-by-SA licensing of the wiki. Such sections also tend to make articles lengthy, repetitive, irrelevant, and problematic to update.