Monster Legends Wiki:Manual of Style

This Manual of Style outlines a standard of clean, consistent formatting for articles in the Monster Legends Wiki. The formatting described here is a guideline and can be overridden where circumstances warrant it. These guidelines will never be unerringly perfect for every situation. However, please try your best to keep to the advice outlined in this article so others may use your edits as an example when creating and editing their own articles.

These guidelines are a summary of the most important guidelines for the Monster Legends Wiki, but a more expansive set of guidelines can be found on Wikipedia at Wikipedia Manual of Style.

Grammar and Punctuation

General Rules

When writing articles it is important to follow these rules of the English language:

1. Don't use netspeak or any similar slang. We are compiling a professional resource for Monster Legends players.
2. Keep your writing around a 6th Grade reading level. You don't need to fill it with big words just to make it sound smarter, especially if you're not certain how the word should be used.
3. Vary your words. When writing, try to vary the words you use and the length of your sentences. It makes things sound more interesting.
4. Capitalize words when appropriate.
5. Use correct punctuation. This includes commas, periods, quotation marks, and apostrophes.
6. Know the difference between homophones: there, their, and they're; here and hear; it's and its; who's and whose.

Capitalization

In naming an article, the first letter of it will always be capitalized due to technical restrictions. For monsters whose first letters of their names are not capitalized, feel free to utilize the "lowercase title" template.

Punctuation

In addition to basic punctuation, it is important to properly include punctuation in monster names. For example: Shannara's Pet and C.Y.M.O. It also recommended to create a redirect link for a version without punctuation.

Links

To link to another article inside Monster Legends Wiki, you must put [[ ]] around it. To link to an article in Wikipedia, use [[wikipedia:|]] and put the article title inside. If an article does not exist by that name, the link will show up as dark red, like this. External links will show up as blue.

You only need to link to another page once in any given article. Most of the time this is the first time that article's title comes up, but there are some exceptions to this.

Please do not make unnecessary links to pages that do not exist. This will only clutter the list of broken links. This applies to any page, be it a blog, forum, article etc. In addition, it is not recommended to link words in a headline.

Article name

Bolding

The first time the name of the article is used in an article, and only the first time, it should be printed in bold text (done by surrounding the name with ''' on each side). Also, if there are two names referring to the same thing for the article, both should be bolded for the first time. This bolding rule does not apply to the first occurrence of a monster's name in the monster's description.

Monsters

Infobox

The template: InfoboxMonster is used and always appears first on the page.  The "title" field automatically uses the page name, so there is no need to use this variable.

Images

Insert the following coding, replacing MONSTER with the appropriate name (remembering case sensitivity):

 <gallery>  MONSTER_3.png|Adult  MONSTER_2.png|Juvenile  MONSTER_1.png|Baby  MONSTER_0.png|Egg</gallery>

Rarity

Various templates already exist and will automatically categorize the page when used:

 {{rarityc}}

 {{rarityu}}

 {{rarityr}}

 {{raritye}}

 {{rarityl}}

Elements

Various templates already exist and will automatically categorize the page when used.  Use {{ELEMENT}} replacing ELEMENT with the appropriate element name.  For legendary monsters, {{special}} is used.  The Monster Legends Wiki strives for consistency, so remember the proper order of elements: special, nature, fire, earth, thunder, water, dark, magic, light, and metal.

Number

This is the monster's number in the Monstagram.

Rarity Color

This field determines the color scheme of the infobox.  Simply type the rarity of the monster here.

Prev and Next

This area is for the links to the previous and next monsters appearing in the Monstagram.  Use {{prev|MONSTER}} on Prev and {{next|MONSTER}} for Next.

Description

This is the description used in the game for the monster.  Contrary to normal formatting rules, do not bold the first use of the monster's name if it appears, but do link the first occurrence of any other monster.

Stats and Information

Utilize the {{Stats}} template. For monsters with an evolving trait, utilize the {{Statsevolve}} template to input a different trait at each rank.

Stats

Enter the appropriate numbers without commas.  The template will automatically add commas back in and recalculate the stats for each rank.

Trait

Various templates already exist and will automatically categorize the page when used.  See a full list of available templates [[:Category:TraitTemplates|here]]. For monsters with dual traits, do not use a space between traits as it will throw off the formatting. For monsters with status caster, use the image of the effect that is being cast and be sure to add Category:Status Caster.

Book

Various templates already exist and will automatically categorize the page when used.  They are simply the book's name.  If the monster is in no book, the template {{nobook}} is used.  The Monster Legends Wiki strives for consistency, so remember the proper order of books: beginner, dragon, spirits, winged, sea, underworld, mechanical, female, undead, winter, good legions, evil legions, superheroes, families, team wars, exclusive, adventurers, villains, elite, and then any limited time books.

Relics

Various templates already exist and will automatically categorize the page when used.  They are simply the relic's type.

Breeding

Use a bulleted list.  For unbreedable monsters (most of them), just use "Unbreedable".  Do not insert breeding event breeding combinations here as those will be on a separate article.  Only list permanent breeding combinations.

Skills

Utilize the {{Skills}} template. For monsters with a 4th skills group, use the {{SkillsNemesis}} for those with only 3 skills in the group or {{SkillsWarmaster}} template for those with 4 skills in the group.

Element

Each skill has its own elemental type.  Use the {{ELEMENTskill}} template, replacing ELEMENT with the appropriate type.  For example, {{specialskill}}, {{physicalskill}}, or {{fireskill}}.

Target

Various templates already exist:

• self = {{tars}}

• single enemy = {{tarse}}

• multiple enemies = {{tarme}}

• single ally = {{tarsa}}

• multiple allies = {{tarma}}

Many skills target a single enemy or ally but cause effects to other enemies or allies. Use the "text" section to differentiate these.

Text

This column has been reworked to only include information any additional effects that occur beyond damage or cooldown.  Various templates already exist for status effects and will automatically categorize the page when used.  See a full list of available templates here.

Trivia

Trivia should include information players may find interesting about the monster such as:

• sharing a similar design with another monster
• non-obvious references contained in the monster's description, skill set, name, or design
• unique features about the monster

Trivia should not include:

• mere descriptions about the monster's appearance or repetition of the monster's description
• descriptions about how the monster's appearance changes from evolution to evolution
• strategy
• mere speculation
• non-specific references/inspiration to general concepts and ideas
• how the monster's stats compare to other monsters - we have sortable stats tables and category pages for these purposes

Not every monster will necessarily require a trivia entry.  Use links when applicable, giving preference to other Fandom community articles.

Category

While most categories are automatically added by templates, one additional category must be manually added: a category for hybrid monsters (which is all monsters except commons).  Simply type the elements separated by a backslash, remembering the proper order of elements.  For example: Nature/Magic or Fire/Dark.  For legendary monsters, do not use a backslash.  For example: Legendary Water.

Specific Article Formatting

• Maze Island Event Pages
• Progressive Island Pages
• Team Race Pages
• Titan Invasion Pages