Help:Article structure/Characters

{{character}} This is a guide to the suggested structure for Coppermind articles describing a character. Some character articles may omit one or more of these sections if inadequate information is available. Looking at existing articles to get a sense of a useful structure is always a good idea.

Infobox

All character pages should have an infobox, typically {{character}}; see Template:Character for documentation.

Quotes and Images

Both images and brief quotes from the text are particularly useful for character articles, since they can give the reader a better sense of the character's personality. The infobox should include an image (if one is available), and additional images and quotes can be included in the relevant sections of the article. If multiple image types are available, choose a head or bust portrait for the infobox and reserve a full body portrait for the Appearance and Personality section. See Help:Images and Help:Templates#Other Templates for more information.

Introduction

The introduction is meant to be a general overview of who the character is, and should be no more than a few paragraphs long (in many cases, it may only be a few sentences). Keep in mind that articles should be factual and written from an in-world perspective.

Appearance and Personality

This section should contain a detailed physical description of the character. It should also describe their temperament, citing examples.

Attributes and Abilities

This section should list the character's skills, knowledge, and abilities, particularly any magical/superhuman abilities. Note that it is not necessary to go into extreme depth about a magical ability if it is covered in a separate article; using a {{for}} template may be helpful.

History

This section, usually the longest part of the article, should describe the entire known life of the character. For readability, it should be divided logically into subsections (using date ranges, if available), e.g:

=== Period 1 (date range) ===

=== Period 2 (date range) ===

Relationships

Descriptions of the article subject's relationships with key characters or groups, particularly those that have a notable effect on the subject's personality or story arc.

Trivia

Out of universe facts, such as information about how Brandon created the character.

Notes

The notes section should first list <references />, then the article status template (one of {{stub}}, {{partial}}, or {{complete}}). After the article status should be the series navbar (or navbars, in case more than one is appropriate). Sometimes, extra categories are applied after the navbar, though generally we prefer the categories to be generated from tags listed in the infobox. Categories are also placed here when how the article sorts in that category needs to be changed. For example, Allomancy#Notes lists [[Category:Allomancy| ]] so that the Allomancy page sorts at the top of Category:Allomancy