The Elder Scrolls Wiki:Notability

This page is considered an official policy on TESWiki. It has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that everyone should follow. Except for minor edits, please make use of the discussion page to propose changes to this policy.

Notability is a subjective characteristic of The Elder Scrolls content which makes that information meaningful enough to document on the wiki. There are broadly three areas where notability is evaluated:

• In the creation of articles (topics)
• In the addition of content to articles
• In the addition of images to articles

It is impossible for a written policy to specify notability in enough detail to anticipate every possible topic. Therefore, it is the responsibility of administrators and patrollers to make decisions about notability that explicit policies cannot cover.

Editors should remember that they are writing content for an audience, not a computer. It's more important to document content that readers find notable than content which fits current notability guidelines; if there is a conflict, consider modifying these guidelines where appropriate.

Article notability

In general, a topic can be considered notable enough for an article if it meets the following criteria:

1. The topic directly pertains to The Elder Scrolls
2. The topic is discrete; it is relatively self-contained and can stand by itself to readers
3. The topic is either about a specific thing or defines/categorizes/groups other, specific articles
4. The topic would not duplicate an existing article
5. The topic either:
   • ...has wide relevance to a large number of readers
   • ...is relevant only to a small number of readers, but is very relevant to those readers
   • ...has recognizable indirect relevance to some number of readers, such as supporting other, more immediately relevant topics

Occasionally, topics that might not otherwise be considered "notable" are created, and then become notable to the community by virtue of being documented on the wiki. This is called "emergent notability."

In general, all of the following things should have articles (not necessarily a complete list):

Media

• All licensed The Elder Scrolls games, books, merchandise, and other releases (digital or physical)
• Licensed content which is not technically in the TES franchise, but which is produced in cooperation with another franchise, such as Fortnite
• Unlicensed TES documents that meet the criteria for unlicensed references in the Sourcing policy

Lore and concepts

• Lore concepts, events, and other topics mentioned by multiple sources, especially across multiple games
• Lore concepts, events and other topics mentioned by only one source, but which have substantial detail or are important in the context of other articles

Characters and creatures

• The player character
• All interactable and/or named non-player characters in a game
• All named creatures and enemies in a game
• Generic characters and creatures, as categories; for example, not any particular generic frog, but the label of "frog" that applies to multiple generic entities (such an article may be useful in listing the locations of various generic frogs)

Locations

• All exterior game locations with a map marker
• All semi-exterior game locations that may or may not have map markers, such as buildings within a city that you can enter and interact with
• All unmarked game locations with named entries in the game files or which are mentioned in a piece of media like a game guide
• Some interior locations (sublocations) which are large, full of interesting things, or otherwise unique
• Some exterior areas which are explicit referred to in the game and are relatively well-defined, such as regions, provinces, large bodies of water, and other prominent geographic features of note

Mechanics

• Game systems such as combat, leveling, and crafting
• Intentional mechanics that users may need information about, such as random encounters
• Skills, powerups, spells, and other mechanics that can be used by the player
• Control schemes
• Lists of console commands

Quests

• All marked game quests. Walkthrough content is very useful to readers who are stuck in part of a game.
• Some unmarked quest objectives which are not specifically part of a quest, but which have a name and which a user may wish to look up

Objects

• All usable items (weapons, armor, ingredients, etc.) in a game that have static locations, except if items in the game are so numerous, generic, and simple that a simple list of items suffices in place of separate pages
• Usable items that have non-static locations, unless they are more suitably presented in a simple list of items
• All books that appear in a game
• Some non-interactable items that are relevant to other aspects of gameplay

Other

• Wiki-specific articles that disambiguate content articles that share a title
• Sub-articles created to manage the presentations of very large lists, such as Characters (Online)/S
• Content that is only available in specific versions of the game, such as on specific platforms or in specific language versions, like the Hylian Shield
• Cut content in any of the above categories, as contained in the game files or potentially in developer interviews (if significant), such as the Windhelm Pit and Test Cells in general
• Other content in the above categories that was never intended to be interactable by the player, but still exists in the game files and may be utility to players using console commands or otherwise seeking to learn about the game's underlying systems. For example, Do Not Delete chests
• Other content that would be meaningful to readers but which is hard to classify into strict categories, as long as this content meets all other policies and guidelines

Content notability

In general, content can be considered notable enough to place on an existing article if it meets the following criteria:

1. The content pertains to The Elder Scrolls and specifically pertains to the article it is being placed on
2. The content is encyclopedic in nature
3. One of the following novelty criteria is met:
   • ...the content is new (not documented on any other article)
   • ...the content exists on another article, but also pertains to this one and could be useful to readers who would not visit the other page
4. One of the following relevance criteria is met:
   • ...the content has broad relevance to any reader who intentionally accesses this article
   • ...the content is only relevant to some readers who intentionally access this article, but is particularly relevant to that group
   • ...the content supports or expands upon other content on the page, or on another page, in a way that is meaningful
5. A reader who would realistically visit this page would find the content theoretically pertinent to someone, even if it is not themselves; i.e. they would not find the content to be inherently off-topic or out of place, even if they don't happen to be interested in it

Occasionally, content that is quite niche may be documented simply because it is not documented elsewhere on the internet, such as old game Interviews or Push Notifications. While the wiki is not a collection of all information about TES, it can serve as a reference of otherwise lost material.

Image notability

Images are useful additions to wiki articles because they can visually demonstrate something that is otherwise difficult to explain in writing.

In general, something could be worthy of being screenshotted and put on the wiki if it:

1. ...meets all wiki media policies
2. ...portrays the primary subject of the article, such as a head-on view of a character on their own article, or the exterior of a location
   • ...is a descriptive portrait of the subject exhibiting default behavior
   • ...is one of several instances of an article subject, like a loading screen on an article about loading screens
   • ...is necessary as a source in and of itself, like a screenshot of a book's contents to show its exact wording
   • ...is almost any icon, such as an achievement icon or an icon for a type of location on a map
3. ...is meant as a supplement to an article and may represent that article's subject exclusively or along with other subjects
   • ...portrays the subject in a distinctive state, such as a character doing something visually interesting or a building suddenly on fire
   • ...is a map image that is particularly important to understanding the physical position of something in the game world
   • ...is otherwise narratively relevant or useful to the reader, such as a puzzle solution, diagram in a walkthrough, or console command
4. ...is being added to an article with few or no images; a high quantity of images may stop being useful

This list isn't comprehensive, and no image will meet all of those criteria (just a few is typically fine). Try to use common sense here. What does the reader benefit from seeing rather than reading?

See also

• TES:Deletion
• TES:NOTE