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Specific Wyvern's Library Rules

Welcome to the rules page for Wyvern’s Library. The following will be the breakdown of the rules within the Library, detailing what is and what is not allowed, things to be careful of, and general procedures that are good practices to follow.

Elfwood requires that all material going into the Wyvern’s Library have some form of Science Fiction or Fantasy elements, making it ‘In Genre’. For an explanation of what is ‘In Genre’ please see the General Rules.

All stories must have SF&F(Science Fiction or Fantasy) elements within the body of the file, having it only in the description will not cut it. However, the exception to this rule is if the SF&F elements don’t reveal themselves until further into the story and would only be found on a separate file. If this is the case, please be sure that you submit the files together.

Genres:

• Fantasy.
  Fantasy is anything and everything involving magic, dragons, elves, non-humans( but not aliens), and so forth. Events in history will only fit into this genre if given a "magical" touch. For example: a soldier from ancient Greece by himself isn’t in genre, but that same soldier riding Pegasus is.
  
  Fantasy can include modern elements as well. For example, a troll wearing jeans is, but a boy in jeans isn't in genre.
  
  
• Science Fiction.
  Anything that involves technology that doesn't exist, alien races, space travel, exploring distant worlds and so forth is considered science fiction. Again, humans by themselves aren't considered sci-fi any more than they are fantasy. However, with obvious elements (plasma gun, alien as pet, etc), they will fit within this genre.
  
  
• Other.
  Horror is no longer a category in and of itself. It simply should fall under one of the two areas above. Horror involving vampires, ghosts, magic or etc. is always welcome. Horror involving humans murdering each other is not welcome in Wyverns, but can be held in the Other Works tab as long as it doesn't break any of the forbidden content rules.
  
  

Quality Guidelines do exist within the Library, as they do in the art sections of Elfwood. The quality guidelines are for viewing purposes, and have nothing to do with how well written the story is.

Below are some of the common declines seen for quality, please note that you can view your files before they wait for approval of a moderator, and that it is recommended that you double check the file while it is uploaded to Elfwood for any problems.

(A) Bad HTML coding.
Check http://www.nethermind.co.nz/html.html to see some examples on how to code your story properly.

• Files that require you to scroll left to right in order to see the entire story.
  
  
• A massive amount of machine coding/strange characters scattered throughout your work.
  
  
• Stories in all centered text. Poems are fine as all centered text though.
  
  
• No HTML coding, such as not having any breaks in lines, and the story is just one large block of text.

• Font size. If your font is too small or too large to be properly read, then your story will be declined. Depending upon the chosen font, the suggested sizes are between 8 and 14 point, but know that it is dependent on how readable it is.
• Font color. The only acceptable font color is black.
• Font type. It is highly recommended that you chose a common font such as Times New Roman or Arial. Obscure and/or hard to read fonts will be declined, as will ALL caps, cursive and calligraphy fonts.
• Background colorations. You are not allowed to change the background colors of your work from the Elfwood standard.

• HTML (.htm, .html)
• Text files with html coding within them (.txt)

(D) Too many items in a file.

• Each file needs to have only one (1) connected story to it. Meaning two (2) different stories bunched into one(1) file is not acceptable. This also applies for poems and songs.

• Movies
• Television series
• Cartoons
• Comics, both in print and webcomics
• Role-playing games (D&D, World of Darkness, et al)
• Online role-playing games
• Video games
• Works in print (books, magazines, et al)

Fan fiction is recognized by the use of words, phrasing, languages and locations that are accepted as being part of another creator’s world. For example: ‘hobbit’ or ‘the Shire’ are from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” and use of those words in your story would be considered Fan Fiction.

Another example is the most common form of fan fiction submitted to Elfwood. The word “Drow“, when used to refer to a race of elves, is copyrighted to TSR, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast.

Elfwood also considers works Fan Fiction if the story has original characters but is based on someone else‘s world, it‘s still fan fiction.

However, this does *NOT* apply to worlds within Elfwood. If you’re writing a story based on another Elfwood writer/artist’s world and they’ve given you permission to do so, this is acceptable even if that person has their work published outside of Elfwood later.

Many more examples of fan fiction exist, more than we could possibly hope to list here. However, the ruling on it is simple. Fan fiction, in any form, is not allowed within the Wyvern‘s Library.

Beyond uploading your stories and giving them the appropriate titles and so forth, there are a few guidelines to how to organize your content correctly. This applies to illustrations, character and racial biographies, dictionaries and thesauruses. Please follow the guidelines below regarding this content:

A) Illustrations.
You can use an illustration if:

• The picture was drawn by you.
  
  
• The picture was drawn for you, and you have permission to use it.
  
  
• You have been given permission to use an image by the owner.
  
  
• The picture is a public domain picture.
  
  

For the ease of the moderators, we require that you provide this information in the stories description, and give proper credit and state that you have permission to use it if the image is not done by you. Also, please provide a link to the original artist if possible.

To add an illustration to your story, use the following code in your HTML. For this example, I‘ve used my own UID and webpage.

<img src="http://www.elfwood.com/libr/n/e/netpoet22/image1.jpg" height="210" width="375">

Just replace my link with the link to your illustration. Be sure to indicate within the HTML what size you want your picture to be. The maximum size the picture can be is 450x450 pixels and 250Kb in file size.

Illustrations for your stories within the Wyvern‘s Library MUST be uploaded to Elfwood and the links must come from there. You may NOT hotlink to an illustration that‘s uploaded anywhere else, such as on a site other than Elfwood or to your Elfwood artwork page. Each illustration must be uploaded individually and linked appropriately, though they can be used for more than one story (such as if you have a divider picture that you use routinely, etc.).

B) Foreign/made-up languages.
All stories are to be written primarily in English. Other languages are allowed for dialogue, but we require that you inform the readers what language you are using in the description box, if you don’t provide a translation of the text. Made up languages are fine, but we require a note that you are using a made up language in the description box.

There are other acceptable ways to inform the readers other than the description box though.

Within the body of the text itself. Example: Ed sighed. “G‘lar kadu means that she likes you, you foolish elf.“

By use of footnotes. If you use footnotes, simply place a number after the language in question, and detail out the translations at the bottom of each story that utilizes the language.

By indicating in the description that all non-English language is translated in a single file that is used for a dictionary/thesaurus for all your Elfwood stories. Then don’t forget to provide a link.

C) Dictionary/Thesaurus.
All Wyvern’s Library members are allowed one (1) file that they can use as a running dictionary/thesaurus for ALL of their stories in one file. This is the only file that can be non genre.

D) Character/Racial biographies.
All Wyvern’s Library members are allowed one (1) file that they can use to map out and describe character profiles, racial biographies, histories, and land descriptions.

A) Public domain works.
Stories, movies, and other related items that have had their copyrights expire are considered public domain works. Once a story has become a public domain work, stories and parodies involving these worlds and characters are perfectly acceptable within Wyverns Library, as long as they follow all other rulings.

So by this, a story about Romeo and Juliet set in space and involving alien races, would be perfectly acceptable. This includes plays, works of prose and poetry, and fairy tales.

B) Brand names.
Some usage of brand name products, especially in a modern-day setting, is allowed. However, too many dropped product names will get your story declined.

C) Dreams/Hallucinations.
Dreams and hallucinations, by themselves, are not considered in genre. The exception to this is, if the dream/hallucination has any impact on the “real“ world after it‘s completion, then it would be considered in genre.

Additionally, there are some stories that are only revealed to be dreams/hallucinations near the very end of a long story. Those type of stories are allowed as long as the stories are well over fifteen (15) chapters of genre elements present before you reveal that it‘s nothing more than a dream.

C) Links within stories.
No HTML links will be allowed within the body of the story, beyond simple ones such as moving between different sections of the existing story (anchor linking).

D) Celebrities.
No celebrity will be allowed to be used as a character in any of your stories. They can be MENTIONED in passing but NOT as actual characters.

E) More rulings... will be added to this section as the need dictates. Elfwood is an ever-changing beast, and what there isn‘t a rule for at the moment doesn‘t necessarily mean there won‘t be a rule about it in the future. Watch this space here for future details.








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