Avishraa Reloaded

This wiki is organized via a hierarchy of namespaces, and its breadcrumbs are set to allow navigation according to that hierarchy. Since the wiki is still being built, it seems best, for consistency's sake, to lay out some principles by which topics should be categorized, so that - with any luck - they don't have to be rearranged later.

First: top-level namespaces referring to a category of things within the world will be given a singular name. The plural 'sessions' is an exception here, partly because it was created before I came up with the rule, but partly also because the RP sessions themselves were written in an IRC channel, they're not technically within the world, just depicting its events. So there.

Second: each intelligent species native to Avishraa, or (like the Extrinsics) otherwise important to the setting, will get its own top-level namespace, since those species are the ones most likely to warrant their own hierarchies of topics; while there will also be a 'species' namespace, this is intended mainly for non-sophonts, like plants and animals, or for any sophonts that may show up in the RP but aren't native to Avishraa. It may be possible, if a sophont species becomes important, to promote it to its own namespace, though ideally this should be a rare event.

Third: The arrangement of topics should be a question of effective structuring of the namespace hierarchy as much as philosophical rigor; I'm trying to simultaneously avoid the situations of 'too many namespaces at a given level, which are more specific than they need to be', 'too many levels of namespace in a hierarchy', 'namespaces whose names don't accurately convey their contents', and 'namespaces whose contents don't belong together'.

The current plan for the hierarchical organization of the wiki is as follows:

• amberworld: any and all topics and other works related to the ITW/Amberworld continuity.
• chosen: not really a species so much as a condition, but good enough. Among other things, Chosen are the only beings capable of innate magic - sorcerers, in D&D terms.
• concept: namespace for topics that aren't really tangible, but more like general ideas important to the setting.
• ethnicity: namespace for groups with an identity based on common traditions and experiences and a perception of being significantly alike.
• extrinsic: sophont species, sort of. Something of a cross between a living concept and a cosmic force.
• family: namespace for important families, particularly royal or noble ones.
• geography: namespace for purely geographical entities: continents, rivers, islands, forests, deserts. Artificial landmarks and monuments may be placed here if they are not associated with something in the community namespace. The immediately subordinate namespaces are the continents (Sekhaa, Talmat, etc.) with features organized under them.
• geopolitical: namespace for geopolitical entities; i.e. those that essentially formally govern or informally regulate the daily existences of their members and/or a given territory or region.
• history: namespace for timelines and events, or at least those that aren't specific to another particular article. The namespaces under history will be as follows, each containing a timeline of the highlights of its particular era; any articles about events will appear under the namespace of the era during which it occurs.
  • prehistory
  • ancient_era
  • dawn_era
  • dawn_era
  • glory_era
  • sky_era
  • storm_era
  • steel_era
  • vigil_era
  • cloud_era
• item: namespace for particular items or classes of item.
  • substance: namespace for substances, natural or artificial, that are important to the setting.
  • text: namespace for written works that exist within the setting, whether or not the text is known.
• language: namespace for languages, and language families, found in the setting.
  • family: namespace specifically for language families and subfamilies.
• literature: storage for stories about the setting.
• meta: namespace for topics about the wiki itself. Like this page!
• mythology: namespace for mythological traditions and systems of belief, as well as the religions, cults, and sects based on them.
• organization: namespace for organizations that don't readily associate with other categories (i.e. are not religious, governmental, political, strongly associated with an ethnicity, etc.
• orghysh: sophont species. Stone Age hunter-gatherers residing in grasslands.
• person: namespace for individuals, whether player characters, NPCs, or just known figures.
• philosophy: namespace for ways of thinking about the universe, where considered as distinct from any mythological tradition or belief system that may have influenced them.
• politics: namespace for groups with a political or geopolitical focus or aim, but which do not effectively control a particular territory or anyone other than its own members.
• sessions: storage for roleplaying sessions in the worldbuilding and Thuban continuities.
• species: namespace for species that are non-sophont, non-native, or otherwise non-important.
  • clade: namespace for taxonomic groups of multiple species.
• takma: sophont species. Overall most numerous and advanced species, but environmentally inflexible.
• templates: storage for wiki-formatting templates.
• thuban: any and all topics and works related to the Thuban continuity.
• tirades: copies of the Avishraa Tirades originally posted on schlaugh.
• universe: namespace for any and all places outside Avishraa, on any scale: from a single world and its features, to an entire galaxy, to a plane of existence.
• writing: namespace for writing systems found within the setting.
• xtauh: sophont species. Smaller in size and number than the closely related takmar, but can survive in a wider range of conditions.