Wowpedia:Fan fiction policy

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This page is an official policy on Wowpedia. This policy has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that all users should follow. Feel free to propose any changes to this policy, but please make sure that changes you make follow the official process and reflect consensus on the discussion page before you put them into practice. Any big changes need to be Adopted or Decreed to be enforced as policy. See Wowpedia:Policies for an overview of Wowpedia policies. See Category:Policies for a list of proposed and adopted policy articles.

While Fan Fiction is certainly a rather open field, there are some things that we would prefer to not see on WoWWiki, simply because we feel it could ruin the warcraft experience of our audience. This policy is an attempt at e.g. keeping the Protoss away from Ironforge, and Diablo out of Molten Core. You're of course free to write fanfic like that elsewhere, but, please, not on WoWWiki.

Clearly marking fan fiction

Fan fiction on WoWWiki must be clearly marked as such, at or near the top of the page, to avoid confusing readers. One such tag is the Template:Tlink tag, which produces the below banner:

This article is fan fiction. The contents herein are entirely player made and in no way represent official Warcraft lore or history. The characters and events listed are of an independent nature and are applied for roleplaying purposes only.

See Help:Fan fiction for a list of tags in use.

Fan fiction reconcilibility with official lore

Fan fiction should not be allowed to conflict substantially with official lore in such a way that it is impossible to reconcile the truth of offical lore and the events in the fan fiction or destroy the unique quality of the Warcraft Universe in such a way that is the Warcraft Universe would turn into a cheap near-exact copy of another universe such as the Dungeons and Dragons or Everquest Universe.

1. No fan fiction can have events which would alter the past in such a way that the event would have been recorded throughout history and widely known unless a feasible plot device would allow it. For example, Grom Hellscream cannot have survived in a fan fiction, because this would have been widely recorded. Conversely, Grom Hellscream could have talked to a character or have gone on an unrecorded quest before his death, since this would not directly conflict with official lore. Time travel is the exception to this rule because time travel has been done in official lore.
2. Also, objects or characters which would have been widely known or otherwise already mentioned cannot be introduced into the story unless a feasible plot device would allow it. This would include gods who would have been affecting the Universe and widely known to Azerothians, but not gods who have been asleep, imprisoned, etc. Also, races which would have been known or present cannot be introduced. For example, a demonic race cannot have been both the most powerful race (making them the most useful) in the Burning Legion and never have been mentioned.
3. Fanfiction cannot state the Warcraft Universe is shared with a contradictory gaming universe. For example, the Protoss cannot invade Azeroth. The Starcraft Universe has complete interplanetary travel which would conflict with the existance of the Titans, because these entities would have had contact with each other. The Diablo Universe posits the literal existance of Hell and Heaven, conflicting with the Warcraft Universe's make up. The Dungeons and Dragons Universe has multiple planes and planar entities while the Warcraft Universe has three elemental planes. If the Dungeons and Dragons Torrasque were to attack Azeroth, it would necessitate the shared universe of both gaming worlds, causing contradition in the planar realities of the two.
4. Fanfiction must correspond with official lore in the case that future lore and retcons make its events contradictory with official lore. For example, a character cannot kill someone who is dicovered to be integral to the plot of official lore in the future.
5. If the fanfiction conflicts with lore in such a way to be contradictory with past events, users who did not create the original fan fiction are allowed to change it to make it non-condradictory with official lore. The reviser of the fanfiction must try to keep the fanfiction as close to the original concept as possible.