Pillars of Eternity Wiki:Guidelines/NPC pages

This article describes guidelines that should generally be followed by pages on this wiki that have a non-player character (NPC) as their subject.

Introduction
Consistency helps both editors and readers, so try to stick to these guidelines where it makes sense.

However, these guidelines are not laws – just because a page deviates from these instructions, doesn't mean it must be changed. Use common sense, and consider whether the previous editors of the page had a good reason for doing things the way they did. (For example, pages for companions, main villains, and merchants usually need to be handled a bit differently.)

These guidelines are also not set in stone – feel free to suggest improvements on the |talk page.

Page hierarchy
Every character in the game who is identified by name and/or whom the player can have non-trivial interactions with, should have their own page.

An exception are the backer NPCs (with the golden name tags) who don't act as characters in the game so much as a mechanism for conveying little stories through soul-reading, and don't need their own wiki page each.

Page title
The page title should usually be the the name that is shown in the tooltip above the character and in the dialog window when talking to them.

If this in-game name tag uses a generic name (e.g. "Vithrack") instead of the character's personal name, or doesn't exist at all (e.g. because the character is a corpse), then use the name the character is commonly called by other characters or texts in the game.

If there are multiple possibilities, use the one that's most commonly used to refer to the character, and add redirects from the other names to the page.

Page structure
To start a new NPC page, you can copy & paste the following bare-bones structure (wiki markup):

 is a ??? in first appeared in::Pillars of Eternity: The White March - Part I.

She can be found in ???.

Interactions
In the following, each part of the page is explained in more detail:

Infobox
The NPC infobox template should be used to display a standardized info box that will float to the right-hand-side of the page. See its documentation for an explanation of all fields. It's okay to leave fields empty if you don't know something.

Intro sentence
A short sentence of the form:

 is a pirate in first appeared in::Pillars of Eternity.

Note that it contains:
 * The full name of the NPC, in bold and right at the start.
 * Often this is the same as the page title (minus any parts in brackets), in which case you should keep the  template there.
 * If the page title doesn't contain the full formal name (with title, salutation, middle name etc.), then write out this full name here (e.g.  on page Lady Webb, and   on page Aldhelm).
 * A short phrase (2-5 words) describing what they are, with links where sensible.
 * Usually, it suffices to use their profession – e.g..
 * If they have multiple professions or roles, that's okay too, but try to keep it short – e.g..
 * If they have a unique position, use that – e.g..
 * No need to mention race/class/gender. Those are listed in the infobox, and if they're relevant to the character's story the "Biography" section below will elaborate on that.
 * The game(s) that the character appears in, formatted as shown, for example:
 * – If the character can be met by anyone who has installed the base game. No need to also mention the expansions, even if the characters has additional content there.
 * – If the character can be met by anyone who has installed this expansion, but not by people who only have the base game.
 * – If the character appears in two separate games (not just expansions of the same), list them all, but only mark the first with Property:first appeared in.

Locations paragraph
A short sentence telling players where to find the character, separated from the intro sentence by a paragraph break, and using a phrase like "can be found" at the start. (This is so that visitors of an NPC page can locate this information very quickly, seeing how it is likely what most of them are looking for.)

Example: She can be found inside Hearthsong Market in the Hearthsong district of Twin Elms.

If the NPC only appears once some condition is met, mention it:

He can be found in the Great Hall of Durgan's Battery once you've started the White March Part II story-line.

If the NPC appears in multiple locations depending on the player's quest/story progress, you can use multiple sentences like this:

She can initially be found on the square platform in the docks in the south-west part of Ondra's Gift in Defiance Bay. Once you've accepted her quest, she walks towards the lighthouse and waits outside of it. After completing her quest, you will meet her inside the lighthouse as the innkeeper.

"Biography" section
Everything that is known about... ...up until the point in time where the player meets them. For some NPCs that's very little, for others it will be many paragraphs.
 * who the NPC is,
 * what their personality is,
 * what their goals are,
 * who they're related or connected to,
 * what they're part of,
 * what they did,
 * what happened to them,

Notes:


 * It should be written as free-flowing text (broken up into multiple paragraphs where it makes sense), i.e. not just a list of bullet points.
 * There's no need to repeat what was already conveyed in the intro sentence above, unless you expand on it.
 * If this section doesn't have any content yet, keep the section headline and  template here, so that newbie/drive-by editors know where to add this content (and are encouraged to do so).

"Interactions" section
All ways that the player can interact with this NPC. This can include things such as:


 * Receiving a quest from the NPC.
 * Being able to learn something interesting or relevant by talking to the NPC (or reading their soul or observing them).
 * Being greeted/threatened/extorted/propositioned/attacked by the NPC.
 * Being able to place the NPC in your dungeons.

Notes:


 * It should be written as free-flowing text (broken up into multiple paragraphs where it makes sense), i.e. not just a list of bullet points.
 * The player character (i.e. The Watcher) can be referred to by the word "you" here, to avoid awkward formulations in the third person or passive tense.
 * If some interactions occur as part of a quest, only summarize them here and refer readers to the Walkthrough on that quest page for details.
 * If this section doesn't have any content yet, the section headline and  template should usually be kept here, so that newbie/drive-by editors know where to add this content (and are encouraged to do so). However, if you know that there are no interactions worth mentioning with this NPC, it's okay to remove the section.

"Trivia" section
A list of short bullet points, each conveying a tidbit of self-contained interesting information (usually fourth-wall-breaking, and ideally sourced with a footnote reference), such as:


 * Which developer wrote this character.
 * Who the character's voice-actor is.
 * That the character was introduced in a backer update / press interview before the game was released.
 * That the character was desiged or named as part of a kickstarter reward.
 * That something used to be different about the character until one of the game patches made them like they are now.
 * That the game has a software bug which specifically affects this character.
 * That something about the character is an easter-egg, pop-culture reference, in-joke, etc.

For example:

Trivia

 * This character was written by Eric Fenstermaker.
 * Before PoE patch 1.03, this NPC had the following Attributes: Mig: 16 Con: 16 Dex: 11 Per: 10 Int: 13 Res: 12.

Notes:


 * This is not a dumping ground for information that actually fits into one of the other sections!
 * This section should only be added if needed (because usually it isn't).

"Gallery" section
An image gallery showing the NPC. This can include:


 * Official concept art or promotional art.
 * An infobox-style screenshot, if the infobox shows a portrait instead (e.g. on page Renengild).
 * Additional screenshots of the NPC, if they shows something meaningful to readers (e.g. a zoomed-out screenshot of the NPC in their natural habitat or while performing some iconic or plot-relevant action, if that is important to the NPC's story/role and isn't already conveyed by the infobox screenshot).
 * Earlier revisions of the NPC's portrait.

It should not include:


 * The image that's already shown in the infobox.
 * Low-quality or poorly cropped screenshots, or ones that don't show anything interesting that isn't already conveyed in the infobox.
 * Fan art.

Example:

Gallery
Note: This section should only be added if needed (because usually it isn't).

"References" section
If you used references (using the  tag) anywhere on the page, add the References section here so that the footnotes show up in the right place, by writing:

Note: This section should only be added if needed (because usually it isn't).