Canon

Wiki contributors: See also Veteran Comments policy

Definition

When applied to FreeSpace, canon information is anything that has been confirmed by Volition as official truth within the FreeSpace universe. This is primarily derived from in-game material, such as command briefings, mission messages, cutscenes, and the tech room; though it can also be obtained from other sources such as the FreeSpace Reference Bible. Furthermore, anything stated by a Volition employee (such as the famous quote "The Shivans are merely a symptom of a much bigger problem") is generally also accepted as canon. The official expansion to FreeSpace 1, Silent Threat is also canon.

Canonicity is typically one of the most important measures of the quality of a user-created story (whether a mission or fan fiction). Linking a story with canon events is an excellent way to establish believability, consistency, and credibility. A story that has a high degree of correspondence with canon information will probably be viewed more favorably than a story which contradicts canon in many places.

Notes

• Even canon contradicts itself sometimes (e.g. FS2 intro)
• Some non-canon information, such as Su-Tehp's fleet arrangement list, is commonly used because it is a handy way to fill in gaps in canon—but this should be treated as one of many possible "expanded universes" which writers should feel free to accept or not accept
• Establishing the "only Volition information is canon" rule helps prevent elitism and strife (e.g. fans of different post-FS2 continuities, such as Inferno and Cold Element, arguing over which should be considered canon).
• Popularity should not dictate what is taken to be official
• See also Karajorma's writings on FreeSpace 3

Wiki Policy on Canonicity

Because the FreeSpace Wiki aims to be a reliable resource, it is important for it to properly distinguish between canon and non-canon information. This is because readers will usually treat an article as describing canon unless it is clear from the context that it is not.

Generally, canon and non-canon information should appear in separate articles to avoid the possibility of confusing the two. When canon and non-canon information both appear in the same article, the canon should take precedence. There should be strong justification for the presence of non-canon information (for example, deductions which, though reasonably based on established facts, are not definitively known to be true) to reduce the possibility of confusion or distraction from the canon. The non-canon information should always be clearly labelled as such and, wherever possible, separated from the rest of the article through use of the {{non-canon}} tag:

You can use this heading with grey text underneath it like this {{non-canon|Text in grey}}. :

You can change the text color to grey using the

<font color=grey>

markup.

If you are creating a new article on a non-canon ship, such as the HLD Mefdef or Spacesuit, be sure to put the following code at the top of the article:

{{User-made Ships}}

This marks your ship, and all information regarding it, as non-canon, and automatically adds a link to other user-made ships as well.