Quotes are used for in-world information as directly stated or written down in-world. An excerpt from an academic work, something a character once said, or parts of a poem, legend, story or play would count. Typically, there will be several quotes throughout the main content, as well as a final quote at the bottom of the sidebar. There are some guidelines for what quotes are used for which sorts of article described below.
— Author (may include a link or tooltip if relevant.
 

Overview of this Guide

This is a general overview of the way I write and style articles in Crimson Court. It serves mostly to focus my brain and remind me of how to approach things/help me write and present things in a consistent way. Because I'm cheeky like that, I'm placing the description of how I do articles in the shape of an article using the template I actually use. Go me.

A Note about the Site Design

Generally I prefer black on white for a colorscheme instead of dark backgrounds. I also prefer sort of sleek/minimalist designs. However, in this case the design of the site is part of the story itself: the colors, the gold filigree, the generally ornate style is meant to reference Samael Asther's character design - because the story and the court in which it takes place sort of wrap themselves around him by design. Obviously the parchment also reflects the world.

Header and Profile Images

Every category of article has (or will have) generic header and profile images which will be used if there is nothing to visually portray, or if there is no image yet prepared. Generic images are immediately obvious because they are black and white; profile images will also generally be in silhouette. Article exclusive images will be color. (Note: This is in progress - right now, a lot of pages still just have the defeault world header, which is the bottom part of the map.)

Fancy Entries (fancyentry)

Used to promote visual flow and structure. Also used to bind multiple headers, quote boxes or images together to indicate a consistent theme.

Depending on the length of the article, the entire thing might be in fancy entries, or they might be alternating with text directly on the black generic background. H1 headers are usually on black, H2 headers may or may not be depending on what looks better/flows better. H3 headers are almost always in a fancyentry.

Dictionary Lists (dictionary-entry)

Used for glossary/dictionary/list style entries like the Dead Houses /Dead Nations/The Deadlists or the　Phrase Dictionary.

Smaller default text size.

Often: Will have a small text list of things to further define the list entry, e.g. Use cases, examples, dates, etc.

Writing for Empirica Sin

Perspective Rules

Articles are written in third person and, whenever possible, in a manner reflecting to knowledge, beliefs, feelings and experiences of the subject of the article, whether that means explaining only things that the character an article is about knows or describing things from the "perspective" of a culture or specific settlement.

I really meant to write in a straightforward, Wiki/encyclopedic style but I'm incapable of it, so the text is full of snark.

This means there may be contradictory information in different articles as reflects different understandings of a specific subject. It is up to the reader to tease out the truth if they wish to do so.

Of course, not all subjects of articles are sentient beings! Below is the general breakdown of how to handle any particular type of article:

  • A living Character (or other single sentient thing)
    As above, article is written to reflect the knowledge, belief, perspectives, feelings, etc of the person the article is about. This will be very biased. It also means different events may be recounted differently.
  • A deceased or missing Character (or other single sentient thing)
    The should have a more "distant" feeling, as though we're seeing them through the eyes of others, to better reflect their absence. Information reflects the outlook on the deceased/missing character from the view of scholars, their surviving family, the culture surrounding them etc. There is also a quirk for them with supplementary quotes as their entire personality section is a list of quotes from others. I have not yet decided what to do if someone dies in mid-story.
  • Race/Metarace/Ethnicity/Organization/Sentient fauna and the Like
    Written to reflect the information available to and known by a well-educated scholar with knowledge of that race or metarace. This is not necessarily the same thing as being wholly accurate, as common knowledge is sometimes incorrect, too.
  • Country/Ethnicity/Culture/Rituals/Holidays/General Locations (e.g;. a forest)
    Reflects the general knowledge around the culture or ethnicity the article is about or associated with. For example an article on Shadow Wood would reflect the knowledge of Gaean in general and the area around the forest in particular, and an article on Lutos Gambit would discuss what it means to Amayans.
  • Object types (e.g. Swords)/(Non-sentient) Fauna/Flora/Condition/Historical Event/Myth etc
    Includes the knowledge held by educated scholars on the subject.
  • Specific Items(e.g. Ashen Star) or Locations (e.g. Crimson Palace)
    Contains the lore according to whoever controls the thing.

Sweetbox

(sweetbox or sweetboxf)

A sidebox, generally made for gallery/like or who's who style entries such as paintings or, usually, short profiles of people relevant to the entry.

Sometimes given a colored background like Demon boxes or Celestial boxes to indicate which major species the character or gallery or whatever is associated with. Sometimes presented with Red Brocade for a lush look.


Sweetboxf

For half-page columns like this one. Display columns, primarily.


Sweetbox

For third columns - these can be seen on the index pages. Info columns.


No idea why I called it sweetbox.

Who's Who Style

An image in a box in this style is mostly for Who's Who style entries - image, description of their role in whatever the article is about..

"Name Plate"

Role or Epithet.
Gallery Style
A second way of displaying, meant to evoke a museum display: a description plaque and a name plaque with the art betweet them.
Notes

Many articles will have an aside like this one. These are special notes from Gabriel's journal and include his perspective or observations on the thing or person, particularly in comparison to his knowledge of A Certain Webnovel. The background color is meant to evoke parchment.

Gabriel's signature

Supplementary Inserts

Articles also have a number of supplementary inserts. These add additional context and information by providing perspectives outside of the main reflected POV. These are generally either Supplementary Quotes, Information Blurbs or Relevant Images.

Relevant Images

Self-explanatory. These may include images of the character in different situations or displaying different abilities, shots of their homes, etc.

Information Blurbs

 

Additional information about the topic. This information must be relevant and better placed here than in a sidebar or in the main body of the article for whatever reason. Possible examples of this would include, Known (or Notable) Members burbs for organizations, lists of known crimes for criminals, lists of bases for wide-reaching organizations, etc. These can also serve as more pointed explorations of topics covered in the main text, eg. a specific relationship or what vehicles a person has.  

Supplementary Quotes

Direct quotes from specific people (things they have said or written about in journals, etc), or excerpts from things like plays, academic texts, poetry, myths, etc. As such, even though they provide additional information, it's good to remember that this information, too, comes from a specific perspective.

There are two kinds of supplementary quote with two slightly different formats.

Info Insert

These little inserts will carry additional information. These are normally entry-specific rather than category specific, which is why they aren't built directly into the template.

 
  • Excerpts from Gabriel's Journal
    An example of this can be found to the left of this text. These journal entries have smaller body text and begin with a title from Gabriel and end with Gabriel's signature. Because of Gabriel's nature, these notes will tend to reflect an outsider POV and contain comparisons to A Certain Webnovel.
  • General Quotes
    Any quote that isn't specifically from Gabriel's Journal. These use blockquote formatting, as seen at the top of the page. While they can contain any of the above things (direct quotes/literature/etc) there are some general guidelines on what sorts of material should be predominant in different sorts of articles This is still being worked out, but for now:

    • Living Character
      Quotes from people who know them, advice on dealing with them, things they have said, themselves, etc. It can also include scholarly work about them in the case of characters with a major cultural presence, or even their own writing if the person is a writer of some kind.
    • Deceased Chareacter
      As above, but leans more into comments about them rather than to them, historical accounts, etc. Most notably, though, a deceased character will usually have [their entire personality section replaced with a series of supplementary quotes in order to emphasize that they are absent and exist only in the memories of others.
    • Deities
      Deities/Deivas are a bit unique in Empirica Sin because they are both characters and forces/deities. They are also generally incredibly old, with the oldest having witnessed The Awakening, and of course they are often worshipped (mostly by Fair Folk and Mortals). Supplementary Quotes will therefore emphasize things like mythology or academic, religious or literary works about or dedicated to them. There is greyness here, though - for example, Dagonis both a deity and a major character so his entry slides from mythic to personal as the article proceeds.

 

Articles, Micros, Dictionaries and Variables

There are four ways to convey information on a specific topic here. They include:

  • Full Articles

    A full article with all of the information about the topic. These can be short in the case of a simple topic or quite long. Examples: Astaroth Dracothis is over 9k words. Book of Names is much shorter. Ideally, most micros will eventually become full articles, but there are some things that just don't warrant that much space.

  • Microarticles

    Short snippets of information. They're meant to be what WA itself calls stubs but they tend to be a bit shorter than stubs because I have to account for the bb code. Generally these are created as placeholders for later expansion.

  • Dictionaries

    These are usually list form articles that give the necessary information about topics that are too significant for a variable but too insubstantial for a real article. However, it is also used for literal dictionaries and glossary of terms style articles. Phrase Dictionary is an example of a dictionary style article that is an actual dictionary. Dead Houses and The Dead are examples of dictionary format articles that are actually more like collections of microarticles.

  • Variables

    These appear as mouse overs with a quick bit of information in them. Generally these should be used as quick reminders of things that have more substantial articles or entries elsewhere or information needed for context. For example, while there is an article on Power Assessments that explains every rank, there are also equivalent variables such as Dumen can be used to quickly convey information without the reader having to go look at the whole article again.    

Article Styling and Format

The list of elements will undoubtedly grow as I create them. But for the moment, here they are:

ArticleBlock

Depending on where it is, an article block may not have an image or may have the descriptive text hidden.

Style Guide
Generic article | Sep 6, 2024

A guide to the writing and visual styles used in the Crimson Courft world.

Metamorphous - Article Title Only

(H1) Cinzel (Line,R): Main Sections

(H2) Crimson Text (Small-Caps) - Major Subsections

(H3) Crimson Text (Italics) - Secondary Subsections

(H4) Crimson Text (Bold) - Replicates keyphrases
   

Handwriting

Asmodeus Zanedine
Astaroth Dracothis
Cain Amortus
Dagon
Dante Savoy
Jason Duck
Gabriel Shean
Grigorius Bieloskytes
Isis Asther
Leviael Kythien
Mastema Amarandos
Samael Asther
Genwrite
Genwrite2
Genwrite3
Genwrite4
  Click to learn how I use standard spoilers.
Used to hide specialized information. The nature of the special information will be on the button - it could be out of world stuff that I'm hiding to avoid breaking immersion (e.g. game stats), or Spicy/Sexy stuff that, while not graphic, one might want to avoid reading in public anyway (e.g. the Sexuality profile at the end of the main article body.) Also here's a fake link.
 
fancyblock -> spoiler

Standard Text without a secondary container.

Metamorphous - Article Title Only

(H1) Cinzel (Line,R): Main Sections

(H2) Crimson Text (Small-Caps) - Major Subsections

(H3) Crimson Text (Italics) - Secondary Subsections

(H4) Crimson Text (Bold) - Replicates keyphrases
 

Fancyentry

Altered for being inside a spoiler box since the background of the spoiler is already a fancybox.

Metamorphous - Article Title Only

(H1) Cinzel (Line,R): Main Sections

(H2) Crimson Text (Small-Caps) - Major Subsections

(H3) Crimson Text (Italics) - Secondary Subsections

(H4) Crimson Text (Bold) - Replicates keyphrases

Quote

For actual blockquotes. ...needs some work, lmao.

Metamorphous - Article Title Only

(H1) Cinzel (Line,R): Main Sections

(H2) Crimson Text (Small-Caps) - Major Subsections

(H3) Crimson Text (Italics) - Secondary Subsections

(H4) Crimson Text (Bold) - Replicates keyphrases

Pseudo-Quote

It's really a container with most of the same styling, idek. Needs some work!

Metamorphous - Article Title Only

(H1) Cinzel (Line,R): Main Sections

(H2) Crimson Text (Small-Caps) - Major Subsections

(H3) Crimson Text (Italics) - Secondary Subsections

(H4) Crimson Text (Bold) - Replicates keyphrases
  Not a real link - Bright yellow, bold, italic and has a bottom-border when hovered over.
  1. List Item
  2. List Item
    1. List Sub-item
  • List Item
  • List Item
    • List Item

 

Crimson Text is also used for quotes and Gabriel's informational inserts. The main body text is (IDEK YET).

 

Writing for the Otherworld

Are There Rules?

Writing for the Otherworld is completely different and less restricted than writing for Empirica Sin because the bulk of the site is more scraps of things and infobits than active narrative. That said, the aim is emphasize more objective narration with a focus on things like Wikipop entries, news articles, etc.

Similarly there isn't really a cohesive styling guide, but I'll work on something when I have more pages in the Otherworld file.