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Your own types and fields

The built-in types are a starting point

Every universe begins with Characters, Places, Items, Factions, Rules, Events, Maps and Other, each with a sensible handful of fields. Many worlds need more: ships, spells, species, clues, deities. The codex lets you add your own types, give any type the fields it needs, and connect entries to one another—a city's country, a character's faction—with the connection visible from both ends. Think of it as building a small relational database by filling in forms, with a wiki page attached to every row.

The Setup rail

In the codex, click Setup at the top right. The main area becomes a rail of your types, one box per type, with its fields inside. Nothing about entries is lost; Back to entries returns you.

Renaming and hiding types

Each type box has One is called and Several are called—so Faction can be House and Houses, and the whole codex follows, from the left-hand list to the forms. A built-in type you have no use for can be unticked (shown) to hide it; it comes back the same way. Your own types have Remove type instead, which is allowed only while nothing uses them.

Adding a type

At the bottom of the rail, A type called: give the singular and plural, and it appears as a box of its own with the three fields every type has—Pictures, Overview and Tags. Add fields to it as below.

Adding a field

In any type's box, click Add a field and say:

  • Field label—what the row is called on the entry page: Rank, Capital, Ship class.
  • What the field holds—one of:
    • a line of text, or paragraphs;
    • a number;
    • a date, a year on one of your calendars;
    • one of a list, a dropdown; or several of a list, tags you pick from;
    • another entry, or several other entries—a connection to other things in the codex;
    • pictures, from the media library.

For a list, give The choices, one per line. Choices are strict: only these spellings are accepted, on the page and from any connected AI, which is what keeps a bible from drifting into Admiral, admiral and Adm. More can be added later, from the setup or straight from an entry that needs a new one.

For a connection, say Points at which type—Country points at Places, Faction at Factions—and give the Reverse list name: what the other side calls the list of things pointing at it. A city's Country field with the reverse name Cities means every country's page gains a Cities list, filled in automatically from the cities that name it. Choose another entry for one (a city has one country) or several other entries for many (a character has several affiliations).

The built-in fields already use this: a character's Affiliation shows up on the faction as Members; a place's Within shows on the larger place as Contains.

Changing a field

Click a field in the rail to rename it, change its choices, change its reverse name, or change what it holds. Values already stored keep the shape they were saved in, so a field that goes from a line of text to another entry won't convert its old text into connections—change kinds early, or add a new field and move the information over.

A note on choosing kinds

  • Use one of a list for anything you'd otherwise type the same way every time: status, rank, species. The dropdown saves you from your own spelling.
  • Use another entry when the value is a thing with its own page. "Capital: Landfall" as text is a word; as a connection it's a link both ways, and it follows if Landfall is renamed.
  • Use paragraphs sparingly in at-a-glance; long text belongs in the body. The Overview field is already there for the one paragraph that should travel with the box.
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