Help:Categorization

Here is a guide on how to categorize pages on the Coppermind, and the full hierarchy of categories.

Categorization Basics

Categories are listed at the bottom of a page. Every article, template, and file should be categorized. It is important to categorize everything correctly, as categories are one of two ways that an article can be found (the other way, of course, is through wiki-links). Articles should be able to be found from the main series categories (as listed on the main page), or through the main content categories on the sidebar on the left. To categorize something, go to the page you want to categories and insert:

[[Category: Whatever]]

Many infoboxes and navigation boxes will often categorize content appropriately. (For on those templates, see Help: Templates, and also Help:Article structure.)

The Coppermind's categories are like tags, not folders. In a folder system (like your computer's file system), a file is a member of exactly one folder. Wiki articles are not like that. Articles can be in a lot of categories. The more categories, the better. Maybe the list of all Viewpoint Characters will be useful to someone at some point. Who knows. The more the merrier.

Make sure you reserve categories for articles, and avoid them on talk pages.

Required Categories

Every content page will, with very few exceptions, be a member of at least three required categories:

• A series identifier, such as Stormlight Archive, Mistborn, etc., so that the article can be found from its series/book categories
• A high-level content category, like Character, Places, Magic, Lifeforms
• A quality tag, such as Stubs or Complete articles. These are administrative tags which are useful for editors to keep track of how good things are on the wiki

This is of course a minimum of categories. These required categories are automatically inserted through various templates.

Series Identifier

Series tags are generated from the navigation boxes--the large boxes at the bottom of articles. Here is a list of them:

• Stormlight Archive, use {{Stormlight}}
• Mistborn, use {{Mistborn}}. In addition, for Mistborn articles, you can add a parameter for {{Mistborn}}, such as {{Mistborn|adventures}} for the correct Mistborn era.
• Elantris, use {{Elantris}}
• Warbreaker, use {{Warbreaker}}
• The Reckoners, use {{Reckoners}}
• The Rithmatist, use {{Rithmatist}}
• The Emperor's Soul, use {{The Emperor's Soul}}
• Shadows for Silence, use {{Shadows for Silence}}
• Sixth of the Dusk, use {{Sixth of the Dusk}}
• Alcatraz, use {{Alcatraz}}
• Legion, use {{Legion}}
• Defending Elysium, use {{Defending Elysium}}
• Firstborn, use {{Firstborn}}
• Perfect State, use {{Perfect State}}

Sometimes Cosmere articles have no associated series yet, so use {{Cosmere}} in place of the relevant series article.

High Level Content Categories

There are nine high level content categories, which classify different articles on the Coppermind. They are:

• Books
• Characters
• Culture
• Events and Eras
• Items
• Magic
• Out of Universe
• Places
• Sources

Articles should never be in multiple ones of these. These categories are generated from infoboxes (the box on the upper right of an article). There are some specific exceptions to the usage of these categories, which you can read about below.

Quality Tags

Quality tags are massively useful for editors. Quality generally indicates the amount of information on a page, and are judged on how "complete" they are. These are generated with a template that goes right above the main series navigation box.

The four main quality tags are:

• Stubs, use {{stub}}
• Partially complete articles, use {{partial}}
• Articles nearing completion, use {{complete}}
• Complete articles, add |reviewed=yes to {{complete}}

Stubs are articles that have barely any information. Partially completed articles have a wide range, but generally have some or most of the information on a subject.

Articles nearing completion is for articles that you as an editor believe to be content complete (hence the use of {{complete}}). Regular editors should not use the Complete articles category, which should be used when Coppermind staff look at the "nearly complete" article, verify its completeness, then add the reviewed=yes tag to it.

There are two additional tags of this type that are not required: Notable articles and Exemplary articles. Notable articles are different from other quality tags in that it indicates the importance of the topic, which is generally reserved for important aspects to big series or books. The exemplary tag is for the very best articles on the Coppermind. Exemplary articles must be Complete as well as Notable, and also well written. To tag something as Exemplary, use {{exemplary}} near the top of the article.

Rarely, articles will lack a quality tag. These include Coppermind articles (which are not "Content" articles), verbatim sources like epigraphs, and some summary articles.

Full Hierarchy of Categories

Below holds the intensely specific information on the structure and hierarchy of Coppermind categories. This is intended as a reference, but should not be needed for almost any editor, since templates like infoboxes will automatically categorize articles. But, if one is interested, here it is!

The Root Category

In the beginning of the universe, there was the Big Bang, and in the beginning of the Coppermind, there is the Root category. This is a hidden category that should never apply to any articles directly. It is only a container for other categories. (A category of this type--that contains other categories, but rarely articles--is called a holding category.) Root's only articles are the Coppermind home pages.

In the Root category, there are the five main sections of the wiki:

• Content, a holding category containing what one normally think of as "articles"
• Administration, which contains all categories and pages for maintaining the wiki
• Help, for all help documentation
• Images, for images
• Silly, for silly non-content articles, which should be used sparingly

Content

Content is a holding category that, through its subsets, contains every topic related to Brandon's works, both in-universe and out-of-universe. Almost all pages in the Coppermind are in this section of the wiki. As a holding category, Content should not be applied to any specific article.

Content holds nine special, mutually exclusive subcategories, the high level content categories (HLCCs). Articles should always be in one of these HLCCs and cannot be tagged with more than one of them. The high level content categories are:

• Books
• Characters
• Culture
• Events and Eras
• Items
• Magic
• Out of Universe
• Places
• Sources

These categories are designed to be mutually exclusive, big bins of pages. Even if there is a more specific subset that applies to the article, keep the HLCC tag. For example, Kelsier is a Scadrian but the Characters category remains.

The HLCCs have a vast array of subcategories, and it can be difficult which exactly should apply. The Character category has the Groups category, and that category has even more subcategories! What is one to do?

For this, there is a simple rule of thumb: with exception of the HLCC tag, do not be redundant! Select the most relevant content category. The category Amaram's army is in Armies, which is a subset of Groups, but for members of Amaram's army, it is silly to include the Armies and Groups tags, since that isn't even relevant! Another example would be how Kelsier is labeled as an Allomancer, but not a Magic user, since Allomancer is automatically a Magic user.

In some scenarios, subcategories of HLCCs can be members of more than one HLCC, if explicitly necessary. Some pages in one HLCC can have a subcategory of another HLCC if necessary (ex: Cult of the Returned).

There are also special subcategories of the HLCCs called overriding categories that, instead of keeping the HLCC tag, override it. This can be because this subcategory is distinct enough within its HLCC that it does not make sense to tag the article with both. For example, Bridge Four is in the Groups category. Groups are groups of characters, and thus are a member of the Character Category, but Bridge Four is not a character itself. Another reason an article could use a subset of a HLCC is because this subset is a member of multiple HLCCs, such as Magical entities, which is a member of both Magic and Characters.

The overriding categories are: Sapient beings, Ethnicities and Nationalities, and Groups, which are all subcategories of Characters, the largest high level content category.

Moving on from the HLCCs, there are some subcategories of Content that are not mutually exclusive with any of those high level categories. They are:

• Cosmere, the category that contains pages related to the Cosmere universe as a whole, and can act like an HLCC
• Deleted material, which has articles about a subject that was part of the development of a story, but later deleted before the final release
• Unpublished, which has articles relating to unpublished works.

Now we go in-depth to all of the Content categories, as well as their subsets.

Books

The Books category contains articles that are books or works of Brandon Sanderson. It can also contain pages about related works based off of Brandon's writing, such as pages on the Mistborn Adventure Game and its supplements.

Principal subcategories are:

• Media, for works that are non-text media based off of Brandon's works
• Series, which contains pages on specific series

In the Books category (or in Series), there are the series tags, which must be on all pages in the Content section. These series tags are generated by the navigation boxes on the bottom of pages. The series tags are:

• Stormlight Archive
• Mistborn, with Mistborn Era 1, Mistborn Era 2, etc.
• Elantris
• Warbreaker
• Alcatraz
• The Reckoners
• The Rithmatist
• Dragonsteel
• Infinity Blade
• Legion

And, for shorter works, there are:

• The Emperor's Soul
• Shadows for Silence
• Sixth of the Dusk
• Defending Elysium
• Firstborn
• Perfect State

Characters

Characters is the single largest category on the Coppermind, which contains every characters. A character is a sapient being, such as a human. In other words, to be a character, it needs to be something that could have a viewpoint in a story. For named things that are not sapient, see Flora and Fauna.

It contains subcategories for characters by book. For Cosmere works, these use demonyms (when known) like Scadrians, Nalthians, or Rosharans; otherwise, they are titled as Reckoners characters or Legion characters.

Subcategories include:

• Dead characters
• Unnamed characters
• Viewpoint characters
• Professions, a holding category for subsets of characters by profession, like Category: Scholars

Other principal subcategories are specific sets of characters:

• Sapient beings, an overriding category
• Ethnicities and Nationalities, an overriding category
• Magic users, a holding category
• Magical entities, see Magic
• Groups, an overriding category

Sapient beings

This category--which overrides the Characters tag--contains articles on particular species of sapient beings. For nonsapient beings, see Flora and Fauna. Species that are sapient can also be magical in origin, and so, pages in this category can also be in Magical entities (see the Magic category).

Ethnicities and Nationalities

This category--which overrides the Characters tag--contains categories of characters by their ethnicity or nationality, rather than species, such as skaa or Alethi. It also contains articles on specific ethnicities or nationalities (like Grand or Incarna), if the information on the ethnicity are not, for example, in a relevant article in Places. Pages on sapient species should not be in this category, instead use sapient beings.

Subcategories here should be members of their particular planet, such as a Scadrian race being marked as Scadrian, or a race of people in Alcatraz be marked with Alcatraz characters.

Magic users

This holding category--which is also a member of the Magic HLCC--contains sets of characters who utilize magic, such as Allomancers, Surgebinders, Oculators, and Epics. Do not apply Magic users directly to an article, instead use the relevant subcategory. As in: Kelsier is an Allomancer, and that is implicitly a magic user, so the magic user category is redundant and should not be used.

Groups

This category--which overrides the Characters tag--is for other sets of characters that are not in Sapient beings, Ethnicities and Nationalities, Magic users, or Magical entities. Generally, this means that Groups are organizations (created by characters), or named families (often nobility).

Groups contain various subcategories for specific members of such groups, such as Category: Armies, Businesses, or Noble Houses.

Culture

The Culture category contains elements that are relevant to a particular culture, but are not in other HLCCs, like Characters, Events, Places, or Magic.

• Currencies
• Food, sometimes in Flora and Fauna when relevant and edible. If in Flora and Fauna, does not need to be in Culture. Can contain restaurants
• Games
• Language
• Myths and Legends
• Religion
• Symbols

Elements in the subcategories of Culture can, if more relevant, be labeled with a different HLCC entirely, which is unique to this HLCC.

Events and Eras

Events and Eras is the category for particular events, like battles, or periods of time.

There are currently no subcategories for this HLCC.

Lifeforms

Lifeforms contains pages of non-sapient species, like plants, animals, but also other organisms. These should be primarily biological in nature. For non-biological beings, use Magical entities, and for sapient beings, use Sapient beings.

Subcategories are:

• Diseases
• Food (see Culture)
• Specific sets of a particular species

This category can also contain particular elements of a named creature, such as pets, as they are not considered Characters.

Items

Items contains specific objects or materials. Elements of this category are nouns that are not people or places, and are in the vaguer realm of "things". Keep this to physical things.

Subcategories are:

• Literature, for specific works of literature or art (move to culture?)
• Railcraft
• Watercraft
• Weapons

Other future categories will be vehicles, aircraft, and spacecraft.

Magic

Magic contains all magical things. In the Cosmere, this refers to Investiture.

Principal subcategories are:

• Magic systems
• Magic users (see Characters)
• Magical entities

It contains subcategories of a particular type of magic, like the Allomancy category, and contains subcats of Magic users, like Allomancers.

Magical entities

Magical entities is for beings that come from a magical source, or are magical constructs. Examples include spren, Lifeless, or koloss. This is not a mutually exclusive category with Sapient beings, as some beings of this type may also be thinking beings.

Magical entities should not be included in Magic users, as some magical aptitude may be inherent to something being a magical entity.

This category contains subcategories of specific magical beings, such as kandra.

Out of Universe

This category contains articles people, terms, companies, or other important--but out of universe--things related to Brandon's works. This category is unique among HLCCs in that pages in this category will rarely have a series identifier. Only include a series identifier if the article's subject is extremely intimately related to only the series, like a cover artist who only worked on one series.

Principal subcategories:

• People
• Fandom

Fandom is reserved for websites, and should be used sparingly. Do not mark User pages in either People or Fandom.

Places

Under construction.

Sources

Pages in this category are direct sources for Brandon's books, or are indices for terms.

Principal subcategories are:

• Epigraphs
• Indices
• Summaries

It also contains subcategories for other sources, like Navani's notebook.

Administration

Under construction.

Help

The Help category is for documentation on the wiki. There are currently no subcategories for the Help section.

Images

Under construction.