Authority

This article is an editorial.

See also: Shining Media, Who Made the Shining Series?, and Nothing Is Canon

The country profiles in ASCII's Shining Force Strategy Guide and Shogakukan's Shining Force Setting Compendium give population figures that sometimes vary by thousands of people, but their coats of arms incorporate similar elements.

The Shining Lore & Translation Wiki seeks to compile information pertaining to the narratives, settings, and characters of all Shining games and related media. It also attempts to document their development histories and the creative works of the authors who made them. In order to maintain the accuracy of the articles on this wiki, information should only be included if it is verifiable as originating from an authoritative source.

What Qualifies as Authoritative?

The Shining Force III Official Setting Compendium offers this dragonman's name in English as "Cyclops" with a given etymology related to the Greek one-eyed giant. However, based on the pronunciation of his Japanese name, Kekuropusu (ケクロプス), it is more likely that the character's name is derived from Cecrops, a mythological figure who, like the character in question, is a human–dragon hybrid.

The games themselves carry the highest degree of authority. It is unproblematic if the games contradict one another—it is not up to the wiki to reconcile these differences, and the information should still be recorded. The story and world presented by one game does not override that of any other game, and each should be held accountable only to itself.

Statements made by developers in interviews, articles, or verified correspondence are of a high degree of merit. Exceptions to this include claims made by individuals proven to be unreliable. Though their words should still be documented, their uncertain nature is to be expressed.

Official creative works including comics and novels are theoretically of equal authority to the games on which they are based, though their impact on game narratives are more likely to be subject to consideration if the media has some relationship to game staff. For example, the narrative implications of Doom Blade, a comic written and illustrated by original Shining series artist Yoshitaka Tamaki, who also has scenario credits on Shining Force and storyboard and outline credits on Shining and the Darkness, are likely to carry more weight than Saint Fencer Max by Toshihiro Ono or Descent of the Gods by Tanuma Yuuichirou despite all three works being within the purview of this wiki. Another example of a narrative with weight is the graphic novel adaptation of Shining Force Neo written by Masaki Wachi, known for being the chief scenario writer of Legacy, having sole writing credit on Resurrection, and acting as supervising story editor on Neo.

Game Journalists, Fan Sites, and Wikis Are Not Authoritative

There is an observed tendency for the writers of gaming magazines, fan pages, and wikis to uncritically repeat unsourced, unverifiable, and likely false information about the Shining series and its development history. Unless the information provided is able to be corroborated by series staff, official publications, or the games themselves, it is to be treated with caution if not disregarded completely.

Guide Books Are Not Authoritative

With limited exceptions, e.g., ASCII's Shining Force Strategy Guide, the various strategy guides, encyclopedias, and setting books published to profit from the release of each Shining game have not been produced with significant input from individuals associated with the development of the games they describe. Even books that do include interviews or statements contributed by game staff are likely to have text that is mostly written by the editors of an unrelated publishing company. There is no assurance that these editors know more than would any other outsider to the creation of the games, and much of the books' unattributed flavor text is likely to be fanciful. Character biographies are often reconstructed from information already available within the games.

Though some of the information in these books is documented on this wiki, if the ideas expressed seem dubious, contradict the games, and cannot be traced to a source that actually worked on the games, then the details should probably not be taken too seriously.