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."

Mistipedia defines the following levels of Canon for Ravenloft materials:

Level Definitions

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. Web Enhancements to Canon sources are considered Canon as well.

This information may be marked with

or if needed, but unless otherwise indicated, all material in Mistipedia should be assumed to be canon.

(Use the code {{Canon}} or {{Canon-small}} to get the above labels)

5e Canon

This refers to completed (non-draft) information published by WotC or an official licencee in book form or online for the 5th Edition continuity. Unless declared as Declared non-canon by the publishers, or contradicted by later releases, all such information is Canon. However, the 5e-canon label is intended to help Mistipedia users distinguish 5th Edition continuity from the continuity of previous editions.

This information should be marked with

or.

(Use the code {{5e-canon}} or {{5e-canon-small}} to get the above labels)

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).

This information should be marked with

or.

(Use the code {{Potential-canon}} or {{Potential-canon-small}} to get the above labels)

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 Hiregaard)
• Desmond LaRouche from RLMC2 (for a contradictory version of Tristen Hiregaard)

This information should be marked with

or.

(Use the code {{Declared non-canon}} or {{Declared non-canon-small}} to get the above labels)

Netbook-canon

This refers to material published in Kargatane or Fraternity of Shadows netbooks, or in other select netbooks. (Maps from the MCS are considered Netbook-canon, even though they were not published in a full Netbook format). 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, and it can be assumed that some effort was taken to make the material fit into the Canon. (Though sometimes later additions to Canon have invalidated Netbook-canon).

This information should be marked with

or.

(Use the code {{Netbook-canon}} or {{Netbook-canon-small}} to get the above labels)

Homebrew non-canon

This refers to non-canon information from the home campaigns of the general public, or from random musings online.

This information should be marked with

or.

(Use the code {{Homebrew non-canon}} or {{Homebrew non-canon-small}} to get the above labels)

Speculation

This can be considered as a subset of Homebrew non-canon. It refers to any sort of Speculation (inference, observation, extrapolation, questions, musings, etc) that are the personal thoughts of the editor, not directly mentioned in the source material. It is encouraged to separate this sort of thing into a different section, but when it makes more sense to be inline with other information, use Template:Spec to label it, as follows: I think the God-Brain is a child of the Gentleman Caller.

(Use the code {{Spec|I think the [[God-Brain]] is a child of the [[Gentleman Caller]].}} to get the above label)

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 non-canon exact location of certain canon features on the MCS maps.

This information should be marked with

or.

(Use the code {{Questionably-canon}} or {{Questionably-canon-small}} to get the above labels)

FoS-canon

This refers to any information from Fraternity of Shadows projects or sources, not including netbooks (which would be Netbook-canon instead). Examples include The Hub Project and anything from in-character announcements or events on the forums, such as Ominous events at La Maison Soulombre or An Evening with the Fraternity

This information should be marked with

or.

(Use the code {{FoS-canon}} or {{FoS-canon-small}} to get the above labels)

Organization

When different levels of Canon are combined in a single article, the overall organization of the article should be constructed logically, with respect to the subject, not canonicity. The canon levels should be clearly segregated and identified with headings at lower levels of the article. For an example, see Malus Sceleris. Note that distinction between Canon and Netbook-canon is at a lower level than the headings of Background, Statistics, and the like.

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