ProseStyle - Revision history

Egallager: link back to Create Writing; a few other copyedits

2025-01-25T13:16:15Z

link back to Create Writing; a few other copyedits

Shadowm at 03:21, 12 August 2017

2017-08-12T03:21:25Z

Kateiteki: link to Japanese translation added

2017-03-14T02:40:39Z

link to Japanese translation added

Crommy: /* Dialogue and accents */ typo fixed

2011-07-10T12:14:21Z

‎Dialogue and accents: typo fixed

Esr: Categorize

2008-03-08T11:33:42Z

Categorize

Esr: /* Usage notes */

2008-02-21T06:27:40Z

‎Usage notes

Esr: Tips on writing prose and dialogue for the game

2007-05-07T01:32:21Z

Tips on writing prose and dialogue for the game

New page

=== Elements of the style ===

Wesnoth is a game of heroic and high fantasy. In writing for it, you
should use formal and poetic language with enough archaic words in it
to convey a feeling of grandeur and times past.

In English, there is no need to go all the way back to the Elizabethan
english of Shakespeare, but you do in general want to sound like a
fantasy novelist of Victorian or Edwardian times. J.R.R. Tolkien was,
of course, the best known of these; other good models are Lord
Dunsany, E.R. Eddison, or James Branch Cabell.

Beware of sounding like a bad parody, however. When writing in this
style it is easy to become florid and overwrought. Restraint is
important, otherwise readers will just laugh.

If you are a good writer and very sure of yourself, you can mix in
some elements of modern 'street' language, especially for comic and
intimate scenes and when you are doing irony. But try not to mix
mall-rat slang and archaisms in the same dialogue, the effect is too
jarring. See "The Rise of Wesnoth" for a campaign in which occasional
modern intrusions in the fantasy-poetic language are done well and
transitions from one to the other are particularly smooth.

=== Usage notes ===

Use the forms "elves", "elven", "elvish", "dwarves", "dwarven", and
"dwarvish", rather than the older spellings using 'f'. Mainstream English
is tending this way anyway under Tolkien's influence and they are now
definitely preferred for fantasy use.

In English it is legitimate to either treat all names of speaking
peoples as proper nouns to be capitalized (Humans, Elves, Dwarves,
Orcs) or as common collective nouns not capitalized (humans, elves,
dwarves, orcs); howver these two conventions should not be mixed in
the same work. In BfW we use the second convention.

Be careful about plurals and possessives and don't misplace
apostrophes. Note that "lich", like other English words ending in
"ch", pluralizes as "liches", not "lichs".

When referring to a specific unit type (e.g. "Spearman", "Ulfserker",
captalize it when talking about the unit in the narrator's voice,
but do not do so when characters are speaking. Thus, the narrator
might say "You may now recruit Spearmen", but a character would
say "We should send some spearmen to protect the eastern gate."

=== Dialogue and accents ===

In general, formality and elaboration of speech should increase with
social rank. (This is true in every society, but strongly true in the
European medieval societies that are the models for Wesnoth.)

Magic-users and liches (especially high-ranking ones) should sound like
nobles. (They have to be educated and literate.)

Dwarves have been given the accent of old-time highland Scots. When
translating into other languages, pick an accent associated with
tough, stubborn mountain folk.

Ogres and trolls have crude and rather mangled grammar. This is
deliberate, as they are rather stupid by human stanadards.

Orcs and goblins, which are a bit brighter, should speak mostly correct
but rather crude and vulgar language. Notice the epithets they have
for other speaking peoples ("tree-shagger", etc.) and use them freely;
they are a window into how orcs think.

Elves should have the most refined, correct, and elaborate speech. Common
elves should sound like human nobles, and noble elves like human orators
and poets.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{Translations}}
 === Elements of the style ===
@@ Line 8: / Line 11: @@
 In English, there is no need to go all the way back to the Elizabethan
-english of Shakespeare, but you do in general want to sound like a
+English of Shakespeare, but you do in general want to sound like a
 fantasy novelist of Victorian or Edwardian times. J.R.R. Tolkien was,
 of course, the best known of these; other good models are Lord
@@ Line 35: / Line 38: @@
 peoples as proper nouns to be capitalized (Humans, Elves, Dwarves,
 Orcs) or as common collective nouns not capitalized (humans, elves,
-dwarves, orcs); howver these two conventions should not be mixed in
+dwarves, orcs); however these two conventions should not be mixed in
 the same work.  In BfW we use the second convention.

@@ Line 60: / Line 60: @@
 Ogres and trolls have crude and rather mangled grammar.  This is
-deliberate, as they are rather stupid by human stanadards.
+deliberate, as they are rather stupid by human standards.
 Orcs and goblins, which are a bit brighter, should speak mostly correct

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 When referring to a specific unit type (e.g. "Spearman", "Ulfserker",
-captalize it when talking about the unit in the narrator's voice,
+capitalize it when talking about the unit in the narrator's voice,
 but do not do so when characters are speaking.  Thus, the narrator
 might say "You may now recruit Spearmen", but a character would
 say "We should send some spearmen to protect the eastern gate."
 === Dialogue and accents ===