Mistipedia:Levels of Canon
Wikipedia defines canon as: "A canon, in terms of a fictional universe, is a body of material that is considered to be "genuine" or "official", that can be directly referenced as, or as if it were, material produced by the original author or creator of a series."[1]
Mistipedia defines the following levels of Canon for Ravenloft materials:
Canon
This refers to completed (non-draft) information published by TSR, WotC, or their official licencees such as ArtHaus, in book form or online. Unless declared as Declared non-canon by the publishers, or contradicted by later releases, all such information is Canon.
==Potential-canon This category is for official information that was only published in draft form (such as Van Richten's Guide to the Mists) and for information directly from the creators regarding what they intended to include in the products but never did, (such as the Kargatane's hints as to the fate of S).
Declared non-canon
This category is for Canon information that is officially declared non-canon by the publishers. To date, this only includes:
- Lord of the Necropolis (for revealing too much about the Dark Powers)
- The Enemy Within (for a contradictory version of Tristen Hiregaardd)
- Desmond LaRouche from RLMC2 (for a contradictory version of Tristen Hiregaardd)
Netbook-canon
This refers to material published in Kargatane or Fraternity of Shadows netbooks, or in other select netbooks. This differs from Homebrew Non-Canon only in that many Ravenloft fans can easily refer to such netbooks and decide if the material is suited for their campaign.
Homebrew non-canon
This refers to non-canon information from the home campaigns of the general public, or from random musings online.
Questionably-canon
This refers to any information whose officialness cannot be agreed upon. Generally speaking, this is for officially released information that is later contradicted, or for information released in unusual channels, such as the backs of D&D Miniatures information cards. Also included here is information where the general facts are canon, but the details are extrapolated, such as the exact location of certain canon features on the MCS maps.
