The Current Wiki Projects: Compilation and Schedule is my personal public reference list of things "to do" compiled into a nice, lengthy, and organized blog post. I will be updating this as needed.
I know a lot of new users are having trouble finding a place to start with helping out in the wiki. I am openly recruiting for assistance on these projects and would gladly help divide the load with users willing and able to do so. I have begun most of these projects already and have been working on them for the past few weeks. Unfortunately, a new project that requires my attention or a calamity of fanon that needs to be holocausted has cause multiple push-backs of my more long-term works.
Truth is, this wiki needs work and a lot of it. No matter how much I want to, I can't make the quotas I set in a timely matter that I am satisfied with. Simply say that you are interested and I will assign the necessary tasks and details. If you are offering your services, I expect you to commit. Otherwise, I will use this as a reference to keep track of my progress and complete any tasks I assigned at my own pace.
Trivia Revision Project[]
Directive[]
This project's purpose is to both polish up our existing trivia as well as be more strict with what trivia we include and how we word it. Overall, while our trivia is by no means in poor quality and has largey been kept to our previous established format, we do need reexamine each article's individual section and make some necessary changes. This project is currently not active. This project shall be carried out as follows:
Format[]
As per our standard, trivia will be formatted as three lines when viewed at around half your standard computer screen (or your standard tablet screen at horizantal orientation). Each trivia point should be a single sentence, though use of a semi-colon is perfectly permissible if needed to fully explain the trivia.
Ex:
- Sateriasis' name is derived from satyriasis, meaning "a morbid or excessive desire for women"; the term comes from the Satyrs, hedonist creatures featuring goat-like traits, tying with the Duke's demon form.
However, a new standard we'll start enforcing is citations. Ultimately, we're not mothy, nor can we safely assume a lot of things about a character from just what we observe. As a result, we need to revise trivia that implies something definitive about a character or his/her inspiration, if we can't cite it:
Ex:
- Leonhart's name is derived from Richard I of England, also known as Richard the Lionheart; King Richard earned his nickname due to his valor as a warrior and military leader.
The above example implies that Leonhart's name has been confirmed to be taken from Richard I, which have no source that has actually confirmed that. While there are clear similarities in name and personality, it can't be assumed to be fact. Therefore, the trivia should be revised:
Ex:
- Leonhart's name may be derived from Richard I of England, also known as Richard the Lionheart; King Richard earned his nickname due to his valor as a warrior and military leader.
Using terms like "may be", "is possible", etc. are all adequate alternatives and editors are encouraged to vary their trivia so we don't have 3-4 for trivia in a row using "may be". However, citations are not always mandatory:
Ex:
- While he is mentioned to be wearing white facepaint in Five the Pierrot, the song PV never portrays him with any kind of makeup.
With the previous example, the source being cited is included in the trivia as part of the explanation. As a result, a reference isn't needed, although it may still be included. However:
Ex:
- Her E factor being quanitifed as 666 resulted in suspicions that she was a HER; the number is regarded as the Number of the Beast and a satanic number of evil by biblical scholars.
In this example, the first part of the trivia does not cite where the information of her [Irina] being suspected of being a HER or her E fact being 666 comes from. It would need a reference citing it.
The second part of the trivia however does not need a citation or to be reworded. The reason is because it is merely commenting about an established fact (Irina's number being 666) and not directly implying that that is in fact the inspiration, though the reader can choose whether they think the connection is obvious.
That said, the information that second part provides can be directly associated with the character and has a strong relevance to their traits. In contrast, let's consider one for Pollo:
Ex:
- The name Pollo also means "chicken" in Spanish, possibly referencing Banica eating him.
While the above statement is true and rather humorous, it's not relevant to Pollo's character; Pollo's counterpart, Arte, has no association with "art" and mothy has instead confirmed their names to be derived from the Greek twin gods "Artemis" and "Apollo", not even mentioning a Spanish connection. As a result, this pun is seemingly unintentional and loses its noteworthiness (though still fun to makes jokes about!).
Instead, a more appropriate name trivia would be:
Ex:
- The name Allen is Celtic in origin, meaning "fair, handsome, noble, bright, and harmonious"; in numerology, the name is associated with loving and generous people who enjoy being appreciated for their ability to be responsible and consider their family to be the most important thing in their life.
In this case, a commentary is being made about the meaning of a name and a description of relevant symbolism in numerology. That said, the use of numerology in a trivia is perfectly debateable, as is the source for the definition and origin of the name "Allen". Similarly:
Ex:
- The key's use as a knife for murder parallels the theme of vicious acts of justice or retributation that have gone awry such as the brutal stabbings of Julius Caesar and Empress Elisabeth of Austria.
The above trivia makes a vary general statement (a knife used for murders) and associates it to the Sin of Wrath. While there could be a connection, it's also very vague and loses relevance in it's broad scope (how many uses, themes, and symbolisms of a knife being used for murder can you think of alone?). As a result, this trivia enters speculation territory as it looks a little too deeply at things and likely should be removed.
How do we determine what should and shouldn't be in the article? It's a balancing act. Each of these trivia should be looked at and some may need to be discussed with fellow editors to reach a conclusion.
We have to ask ourselves, is that this could be a connection, or that we want this to be a connection. We as human beings love drawing patterns where none exist (it is the entire make up of symbolism analysis!). For the purpose of this project, we need to feel firm that the evidence for a potential trivia outweighs the evidence against it.
Organization[]
Ordering trivia is just as important as how we present the trivia themselves. Most of us would be at least irked to find the meaning of Allen's name at the top of of his section but notice the meaning of Mariam's name was at the bottom of hers. Hence why we have an order, to give a general bracket that's easy to follow.
All our trivia sections should be split into two sections: Conceptualization and Origin, and Curiosities.
The former has to do with what the name means, how the character/place/event came about in the creative process, where is it derived from. Stuff like Retrouver of Silver originally being cut content for Cloture and Riliane being based on Marie Antoinette falls into this category.
The latter focuses more on what interesting little tidbits can be included there that otherwise won't appear in the article. Stuff like how Minis' pandering to Riliane reminds Allen of Germaine's dog, Chubby, or perhaps how Germaine has a dog named "Chubby" when her ancestor is Banica, the postergirl for Gluttony in Evillious.
If you are unsure whether a trivia point is in the correct section, ask yourself if it pertains directly to the creation of that character themselves. If not, it's probably a curiosity.
Also, it is very important that when you are orrganizing these trivia that you link everything. To simplify trivia and streamline the ability for readers to quickly get info about a historical figure or culture, link the main people, events, concepts, etc. to it's corresponding wikipedia article. Not everyone knows who Marie Antoinette is, for instance, and those that do might not know that much about her.
Song Lyrics Expansion Project[]
Directive[]
This project has one purpose: Add English song lyrics as a tab to our existing song articles. It's a feature that many in this community have hoped for and one that would greatly improve the accessibility of reference material for users who want a "wiki-supported" translation to go to when they are making theories, proving points, or making derivative songs. This project will involve the cooperation of numerous users and their translations, if available. This project is currently active and will be done as follows:
Part I: Translations[]
Users who have been aware of this project ahead of time have had the time to translate each song we have an article for and provide their own insight/contributions. Because translations are essentially an approximation of the original language's meaning, translations that provide the most accurate meaning in the English language will be taken into consideration.
Things that simply "don't translate" like idioms, certain words or phrases, will be changed to be better understood by an English speaking audience (should this be necessary). Similarly, translations contributed to this project will not be penalized or ignored for poor spelling/grammar. We will correct any technical errors in the text and still use the translation. Again, our focus is accurately describing the intended meaning.
After a translation has been finalized and polished, it will be posted in it's respective song article.
Part II: Priority List[]
Because this project will take a large amount of time to heavily review, analyze, fact-check, and confirm the lyrics and each individual translation, we are organizing a priority list on the order of songs we'll be working on. This should also give translators who are still working on certain songs to know what songs they might want to translate first in order to submit it to us before it is done and posted in each article.
The priorities are as follows:
- New songs included in The Muzzle of Nemesis (album)
- Seven Deadly Sins Series songs
- Story of Evil songs
- Original Sin Story songs
- End of the Four songs
- Clockwork Lullaby Series songs
Songs that are not part of a particular series may be worked on at any time, particularly if a delay on a certain song series is needed or a sudden need to have that non-affiliated song translated is needed. This should also give some flexibility to translators. Otherwise, these songs will be worked on last and in no particular order.
Part III: Regulation[]
Because translations are approximations of the intended meaning, there is very rarely only one way to say or describe a word or phrase. Therefore, edits done without the consultation of an admin or a discussion thread beforehand will result in the edit being immediately reverted.
That said, as Evillious is an on-going series, translations may be revised in the future to accomodate new information or context to the lyrics. The translations we use are ultimately not set in stone.
Part IV: Listing[]
Current Project[]
Our current song being worked on for this project: The Journey of Two Mages ~Great Wall and Watchman~