If you've decided to share your ideas for characters and stories on our site, that's awesome! We're glad to have you around. But as you contribute, keep in mind that like any other public space where you're interacting with others, there are certain expectations for behavior we'll ask you to abide by to make everyone's experience positive. Beyond these, there are also certain restrictions on the type of content appropriate for the site. We're all here for fan-written works about The Witcher, and not everything in the history of writing is relevant to or appropriate for that subject. For what we mean more specifically, see below.
Rules[]
Conduct Expectations[]
These rules pertain to use of the wiki as a platform and your interaction with others through it.
- Be civil and respectful. In all interactions with other users, assume good faith from those you speak with and act with nothing less. Writing's an intensely personal thing, so critique of what you create can hurt. However, always remember to look past it to see if criticisms may have a point and can lead you to revise your work with new improvements. Even if you see the criticism from someone isn't constructive, don't let the conversation devolve into personal attacks or respond with anything you might have cause to regret later.
- Be constructive in your own responses. In reading articles on the site, you may come across someone's mistakes in spelling or grammar conventions, a view you strongly disagree with, or a concept in someone's work you don't think would be possible in The Witcher. If that's the case, don't simply comment their ideas are 'stupid' or 'wrong'. Politely point out what problem you have with their work, and if possible offer some suggestions for ways you see they could improve it.
- No discriminatory behavior. So far as this wiki is concerned, everyone here is equal in being simply a writer with a username on computer displays. Any espousing beliefs that one person is superior to another on the basis of race, sexuality, beliefs, or other factors may be subject to discipline including temporary or permanent ban.
- Do not edit others' pages without permission. Unlike other wikis about fiction series, fanon wikis such as The Witcher Fanon Wiki are about adding your own characters instead of contributing to articles wherever you see blank space. At the top of most pages will be a Writer template which includes the username of the person who came up with and started writing a page for their character. Unless you have their permission, do not make changes to the original works of other users. If you see a grammatical mistake or error using the wikis templates, good faith minor edits are permissible, but for more major issues get in touch with them to point it out or offer your help.
- Do not plagiarize. Whether from another user's page here or another site on the web, copying the work of others to pass off as your own is disingenuous and strictly forbidden on this wiki. If referring to a canon element or quote from the Witcher books or games, excerpted quotes are permitted to help make your point, but they cannot make up the majority of your page.
- No sockpuppetting. One wikia account for one individual should be enough for everyone. If the administration learns someone is using more than one account, they will be contacted to ban one of the accounts to prevent confusion or misuse. If misuse has been found to occur, such as using multiple accounts to praise one's own work or especially tamper with community votes, both accounts may be subject to a ban in addition to any further accounts created.
Content Guidelines[]
These guidelines are in place to help keep writing on the site focused and appropriate.
- Make your writing fit the setting. This wiki is for fanon and fanfiction related to The Witcher series, and as such the characters and stories you post here should be compatible with it. Because there are differences in canon between the novels, games, and TV series and we want to encourage users to have their characters interact, there isn't a stringent requirement to have your writing fit one specific version of events exactly. However, they should fall relatively well into the patterns set down by canon. These may include:
- Don't directly contradict canon. At the time of the Third Northern War, the king of Redania was Radovid V and the Emperor of Nilfgaard was Emhyr var Emreis; saying both thrones were filled by one person who was a vampire is just false. Please don't take known facts about the Witcher world and directly replace them. There can be exceptions to rules, and many times those exceptions are interesting, but if, say, you have a canon character appear in your story after when they supposedly died, at least take care to provide an explanation for their appearance; maybe the other characters didn't know they escaped, or a doppler is impersonating them. Try to build your own character or lore, building on that of others. On this Wikia, unlike others, we try to expand The Witcher universe in a coherent and cohesive way. Not everyone creating parallel universes, each one crazier than the last. In that sense, we try to imitate other examples of collaborative writing done well, such as the SCP Foundation. If you want your character or lore to be outside of the common fanon we are creating. Let one of the admins know so they can take care of it.
- No Godmodding. What makes characters interesting is the struggles they go up against and either overcome or fail against. Thus, having a witcher with the inexplicable ability to snap his fingers and change reality with their more-powerful-than-Vilgefortz magic isn't just unrealistic in the context of The Witcher, it's bad writing. While bad writing's not forbidden here (I don't claim to be the next Shakespeare myself), put thought into having your characters' abilities roughly equal those of others of their type. If your witcher exceeds Geralt of Rivia in some aspect, for example, explain why they excel in that way and give them appropriate drawbacks to balance them, making your character more interesting.
- No Crossovers. While crossovers are a popular tradition in fanfiction and reading about Geralt of Rivia riding across Westeros might be fun, this wiki is dedicated to strictly The Witcher and encourage such ideas to be posted on other sites such as fanfiction.net or Archive of Our Own. That said, there's nothing wrong with having characters for The Witcher be inspired by characters in other media or using images of them to represent your character. However, directly importing them from other franchises is discouraged and may result in the character being moved to namespace or even deleted should the above rule concerning plagiarism be involved.
- Refrain from excessive mature content. The Witcher is a mature series that often deals with adult topics. Murder, profanity, and sex are part of life and appear in The Witcher’s various works often, and we would expect no less from fan works covering the same world and tone and themes. However, these are best used tastefully and in moderation. Outright pornographic works are prohibited on this wiki, and if half your story's wordcount is composed of bad, naughty swears, there probably isn't all that much story behind it to begin with. That said, these topics are expected to come up, so be prepared and take no offence when they do.
- In roleplays, consult other players before including mature content. As expected as they may be, some of your fellow users might be uncomfortable with certain subjects. If they do come up when writing collaboratively with other users, be sure to ask them before involving their characters in scenes depicting such subjects or including the subject at all in works they share an equal part in contributing to.
Blocking Policy[]
If a User breaks the above rules in a significant way, or otherwise attempts to disrupt or vandalize the site, Fandom Administrators and Bureaucrats have the ability to lock Users' rights to edit or view the site. These bans should not, however, be inflicted without a fair process. As such, we have a simple "Three Strikes" rule as outlined below:
- Pre-offence Warning
- First Offence: Official Warning and/or 24-hour ban
- Second Offence: 24-hour to 2-week ban (depending on severity)
- Third Offence: 1-month to Indefinite ban (depending on severity)
Pre-offence warning: It's entirely possible a user has yet to see and read these Rules, and thus, good faith should be assumed. If a user is breaking a rule or behaving disruptively, they should be made aware of the issue through a message from an administrator. This might be carried out publicly, such as through a post on the offending User's Message Wall, or privately, such as through Discord personal messages, if they are in contact there. This gives the User a chance to correct their mistake.
First Offence: If a User has been warned or otherwise knows they are breaking the Rules through their actions, a public Official Warning should be posted on the User's Message Wall. This warning should include the nature of the offence, including if possible a link to evidence of the wrongdoing. This may also include the removal of offensive content on site articles, or other consequences up to and including a 24-hour ban. During this ban, the User's right to edit their own Talk page should remain open for purposes of Appeal.
Second Offence: If a User has already received an Official Warning for their behavior or content, and persists in it, a longer ban may be necessary to make clear the consequences. This can take the form of a longer ban, anywhere from 24 hours to 2 weeks in duration. As before, offensive content posted on site articles might be removed or vandalism reversed, and should be accompanied by a Message Wall post from the Administrator or Bureaucrat enacting the ban to cite the reasons for doing so.
Third Offence: If a User has already been warned at least twice, and either fails to acknowledge the previous warnings or shows no indication of remorse by continuing the same activities, the administration may have no choice but to enact a long-term ban, including permanent banning. The ability to edit one's own Talk page for continued communication may be allowed to remain open for communication and appeal purposes, but in cases of vandalism or extreme hostility, is not required.
Appeals: If the User feels they have been unfairly dealt a Warning or Ban, they are permitted to Appeal the warning to other Administrators or Bureaucrats. The administration team will then review the appeal together and attempt to reach a consensus on the issue. If reversed, the User may have their ban undone and the instance of a Warning removed for future blocking consideration. The administration team reserves, however, the right to impose more serious consequences if the initial punishment was found too lenient.
Immediate Bans: While the above applies to the majority of situations, some Users may be subjected to a permanent ban without the Three Strikes applying. This is reserved for cases where the User shows their only intention is to vandalize or disrupt the site, i.e. trolling or posting obscene content. A review by the Administrators might be required after the fact to confirm the fairness of the ban, but any Administrator has the right to ban an obvious bad actor to prevent further vandalism.
Style Guide[]
Page Layouts[]
There are numerous layout styles used across Wikia's many fanon wiki, and users here are encouraged to experiment and use the format they're most comfortable with. However, for those new to fanon wikis, there is a Character article format we suggest starting out with for a number of reasons: it's used on a majority of fanon wikis, it's closest to the format used by certain canon series wikis, its layout makes sense, and it's easy to use or modify. In order:
- Writer template (as all pages should start with)
- A Character infobox (this one is a favorite)
- An introductory paragraph (give us an overview, like a wikipedia page, of who this is)
- Biography header
- Sub-headers for different parts of their life
- Personality & Traits
- If desired, sub-headers like Personality, Physical traits, things critical to who they are
- Abilities (powers or skills the character possesses, like a witcher's augmentations, the types of spells a mage specialized in, or a bard's musicality and social skill)
- Equipment (such as tools of their trade or treasured objects you'd never see the character without)
Image Policy[]
Users are free to upload any images they wish to use as representations of their characters, monsters, structures, or article subject matter, but are required to at least mark them as being intended for uses covered under Fair Use law in the US in the Licensing drop-down of Special:Upload when adding to the site. This includes stills from live-action TV programs, animation, game screenshots, and concept art.
If using fan art created by someone else on the web, however, you should do them the courtesy of asking permission to use their work first. In addition, you must add the Image Source template in the Summary box of Special:Upload, or on the File page under a Summary header, as seen here. This will include links to credit the original creator.
Regardless, if the administrators are contacted by anyone with reasonable evidence that a piece of fan art is not being used with the original artist's permission, it will be removed by the administrators at the artist's request with no questions asked.
Categorization Policy[]
Typically, an article should be tagged with all categories applying to their subject matter, using "[[Category:CATEGORYNAME]]. A character article, for instance, will typically include:
- The creator's user category, generated automatically by the Writer template.
- The "Characters" category, generated automatically by the Character infobox.
- The character's race (Humans, Elves, Half-elves, Dragons, etc.)
- The more notable general facts about them, such as their profession (Witchers, Mages, Soldiers, etc.) and sub-categories therein (School of the Wolf for witchers, for example).
A list of all categories can be found here, and any questions about categorization can be brought up to an administrator on their talk page.