Encyclopedia Chronotica: A Guideline
By, Josh
lordjesq@hotmail.com
Contents:
Disclaimer
Appendix A: Common Acronyms
Section 1: Organizational Methodologies and Structuralization of Tiers
Section 2: Classified Elucidatory Tagging and Cross-Referential Ancillary Tagging of Information into Data Structures
Section 3: Normalization of Presentation of Encyclopedic Information
Section 4: Transferring Information from the Existing Encyclopedia
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Do take into account the fact that I am not privy to any of the top-level administrative decisions made by the Compendium, and therefore be on notice that any of the information contained herein may be redundant or contradictory to stated encyclopedic objectives.
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Appendix: Common Acronyms
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Acronyms Commonly Used:
Chrono Trigger: CT
Chrono Cross: CC
Radical Dreamers: RD
Encyclopedia Chronotica: EC, Encyclopedia
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1: Organizational Methodologies and Structuralization of Tiers
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I have written this outline which details my vision for updating our young and perhaps not yet useful encyclopedic endeavor into a much vaunted and universally resourceful
Encyclopedia Chronotica.
If we want to pride ourselves on illuminating the mysteries of the Chrono series, then we are going to need to compile a database of referential information, and just as importantly we are going to need to organize it in such a fashion as to make it accessible despite its large content. You see, without proper organization the Encyclopedia will be littered with obscure and therefore ineffective information. It is therefore the methodology of that organization with which I begin.
It would seem both poetically and logically apt if we were to arrange the Encyclopedia Chronotica by chronology. However, the specific type of chronological arrangement is of the utmost importance. In order to distinguish between simultaneous yet disparate information (e.g., the terrain north of Porre is a desert, but it is also a forest), it would be inadequate and perhaps even misleading to organize the encyclopedia by the series’
internal chronology. Ergo, we cannot simply categorize information by time periods. In the matter of CC’s dimensions theater, this failure of internal game chronology becomes even more pronounced.
Therefore I believe the best possible chronology to follow is the order in which the series was meant to be taken, or, more particularly, the chapters into which they are arranged. It is our great fortune that the designers of the entire series have given a title to every important sequence, and this division conveniently sidesteps
all internal uncertainty. For example, the questions as to which moment in time Lavos was truly defeated, or to what extent across the dimensions does Lavos’ defeat remain valid, are going to fill an entire board with debate, and yet one perfectly correct answer is that Lavos is defeated in “The Final Battle,” a unique point in external game time if not in internal game time.
~~Chrono Trigger~~
Chapter:
Prologue
01: The Millennial Fair
02: The Queen Returns
03: The Queen is Gone
04: We’re Back!
05: The Trial
06: Beyond the Ruins
07: The Factory Ruins
08: The End of Time
09: The Village of Magic
10: The Hero Appears
11: Tata and the Frog
12: The Rare Red Rock
13: Footsteps! Follow!
14: The Masamune!
15: Magus's Castle
16: Forward to the Past
17: Unnatural Selection?
18: The Magic Kingdom
19: Break the Seal!
20: The Guru on Mt. Woe
21: What Lies Beyond?
22: Lavos Beckons
23: The New King
24: The Time Egg
25: The Fated Hour
26: The Final Battle
Epilogue
~~Radical Dreamers~~
(Discontinuous)
Scenario:
Prologue
1. Le Trésor Interdit
2. Magil: Caught Between Love and Adventure
3. Kid and the Sunflower
4. SuperXtreme Alphacosmos Police Case EX Ultra
5. Homecoming: Shea's Light
6. The Enigmatic Gigaweapon: Paradise X
7. The Shadow Realm and the Goddess of Death
Epilogue
~~Chrono Cross~~
Chapter:
Prologue
01: Arni Village: Where tides begin to turn
02: Opassa Beach: A calling from beyond time
03: Arni Village: Nothing has changed but everything
04: Cape Howl: A reminder of one's former self
05: The port town of Termina: The pride of the Acacia Dragoons
06: Viper Manor: Where lie the keys to the past
07: Guldove: Where ripples become waves
08: Hermit’s Hideaway: A meeting with the ‘other’ swordsman
09: From pirate ship to ghost ship: A mariner’s worst nightmare
10: On to the Water Isle: In search of the dragon blue
11: Fort Dragonia: Ancient dragon’s dream in ruins
12: Dimension Vortex: Where lost souls wander
13: Back from the Darkness: And on with a new journey
14: Termina: Knight or day?
15: Marbule: Village of the demi-humans
16: The Masamune: The blood-stained sword of evil
17: The Dead Sea: A place forsaken by the gods
18: A Portal Reopened: And the planet begins to shake
19: Back to Viper Manor: A captive audience awaits
20: Surprise Attack!: Pursuers with heavy hearts
21: To The Sea Of Eden: Through the hidden holes in time
22: The Arbiter of Time: On whom the Three Fates smile
23: Chrono Cross: The point where destinies meet
24: Terra Tower: Caught in an echo of time
25: For all the dreamers: Our planet’s dream is not over yet
EpilogueThe usefulness of this chronological arrangement becomes immediately clear. Now we shall be able to reference all information within the entire Chrono series to its specific point of origin.
This chronological organization of the Encyclopedia Chronotica will then be structured into tiers. The top tier (i.e., the main page) will be as simple as (1) a listing of all the chapters, each of which in turn will link to the second tier of organization; (2) a listing of all chapter-independent information (see Section 2), which would also link to the second tier; (3) an internal search engine at the top of the page; (4) a link to the Subgroups Tag main page (see Section 2); and (4) a link to the Compendium’s FAQs, because there are always going to be a few poor fools who just don’t get it. In practice, anyone looking to retrieve a specific piece of information will probably be able to find it intuitively from the main page down, and as an added tool he or she may also elect to use the search engine.
The second tier would consist of at least 64 pages—one for each of the series’ 64 chapters (and scenarios), prologues and epilogues—as well as any chapter-independent pages, and the Subgroup Tags main page. Each page would further divide its respective chapter into secondary organizational groups called nexuses, arranged alphanumerically, which would in turn link to the third tier of organization. Whereas the primary organization of the Encyclopedia is chronological and serves to bypass the trouble of trying to talk about a time travel series from a neutral point of view, these nexuses would follow patterns of information grouping that take into account the actual context of the series, and
might include (but would not be limited to)
Characters, Locations, Plot, Objects and so forth. The Compendium’s top academics will have to sit down at some point prior to implementation and decide on what these nexuses are going to be. I recommend consulting existing walkthroughs, as they provide ruminative springboards for methods of nexial classification.
The third tier would contain many pages indeed, and each page would either list all information contained within the nexus described in the second tier, or would if sufficiently large link to a fourth tier so that the third could provide an additional layer of division before actually getting beyond the links and to the information itself. Again, all arrangements shall be alphanumeric. We shall be able to tell if the Encyclopedia Chronotica is well-balanced by gauging the comparative lengths of third- and fourth-tier pages. Any third-tier page that is too long would need to beget at least two fourth-tier pages, and any fourth-tier page that is too long will need to be divided back on the second tier into two or more nexuses. It is important that no piece of information be more than three levels (and hence three mouse-clicks) away from the main page, as this will aid expeditious information retrieval.
On the backend, it may be useful to consider investing the time in designing an automatic page generation script for the third and fourth tiers so that these hundreds if not thousands of pages will not have to be individually created and maintained and may instead be generated on demand by a backend database, which I might add would be far easier to update both in terms of coding and content.
By organizing the sum of Chrono knowledge according to the game-independent chronology of the chapters of the series, we will be able to discuss any piece of information in the game without confusing it with a similar but separate piece of information that occurs simultaneously (in time or space). This brings a clarity to the information retrieval process rather akin to talking about in-game time from the point of view of the End of Time. By further organizing this chronological structure into nexuses, the in-game events of the series will also be given minimal accommodation sufficient enough for a resourceful individual to retrieve virtually any fact in the Encyclopedia with minimal effort.
Section Terms:Tier – A level of organization moving from general to particular through which specific information from the large contents of the Encyclopedia Chronotica may be logically and expeditiously accessed.
Nexus – A categorization of related information whose specific facts share a common logical theme.
Top Tier – The main page of the Encyclopedia, which lists all chapters and scenarios and includes a search engine.
Second Tier – The level at which information is first and least specifically organized into the context of the Chrono series, taking the form of nexuses.
Third/Fourth Tier – The level(s) at which information within a nexus links to the actual encyclopedic entries.
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2: Classified Elucidatory Tagging and Cross-Referential Ancillary Tagging of Information into Data Structures
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The next step in improving the information-retrieval efficacy of Encyclopedia Chronotica is to build good cross-referential capabilities into the system. This is because we must also respect the internal flows of time and separations of dimensions that exist in the games, to a greater extent than is allowed by the chronological structure and resulting nexial groupings of the primary tier-organizational method.
The easiest way to accomplish this behemoth task is to employ the use of
tags. Tags are back-end variables—with differing names depending on the script employed, but which shall continue to be called “tags” herein—that classify a piece of information into one or more groups. All tags would be manifest to Encyclopedia users in the form of hyperlinks, either to other entries or other sections of the same entry. There are three kinds of tags: Chapter Tags, Static Tags, and Subgroup Tags.
Chapter Tags are self-explanatory. Any entry in the Encyclopedia will have a Chapter Tag for every chapter in which it plays a role in the plot. For instance, Gato would have a CT Chapter 1 tag and also a CC Chapter 24 flag, and those would be his only Chapter Tags. It is these Chapter Tags that determine where exactly in the Encyclopedia an entry will be put.
Static Tags meet the previously unaddressed need of static information organization. You will recall in Section 1 that I said the top tier (i.e., main page) of the Encyclopedia will include chapter-independent information that links to the second tier. This information is said to be
static, because it is not required to occur at a specific point in the series. Such information includes general terminology, in-game money, the various races, in-game locations, just about all menu items, the soundtracks, several plot events which are not specific enough to fall within any chapter(s) in the series (e.g., Confronting Dario and his Masamune), and so forth. Any piece of information that cannot be assigned at least one Chapter Tag will be assigned one or more Static Tags, and this tag will then become dominant in the determination of the information’s encyclopedic location. Note that a piece of information that
can be assigned at least one Chapter Tag may nevertheless still qualify for one or more Static Tags, but that the determination of the information’s location would default to the specification of the most relevant Chapter Tag. An example is Spekkio from CT, whom players must meet at a certain point in the game for their characters to receive their first magical powers, but whom they may also encounter at times of their own choosing to power up later additions to their party.
On the tier structure, Static Tags may constitute a small number of “master-nexuses” links on the top tier (i.e., main page) in addition to the 64 chapter/scenario links, whereas on the second tier they will be divided into standard nexuses just as the rest of the pages on the tier. All nexuses, possibly but not necessarily excepting the “master-nexuses” on the top tier, on, would be alphanumerically arranged.
Subgroup Tags play a different role than other tags. You can think of them as cross-reference links. These are tags that are said not to be critical in terms of structuralization, as any piece of information without a Subgroup Tag will already have been directly accessible from the main page. Rather, Subgroup Tags create an independent structure of information organization that links together information which might not otherwise be linked. An excellent example of this are the towns in CT, which have nothing to do with each other that would show up on the Chapter Tags, and may not yield the desired return on the Static Tags. (Remember, that wherever there is said to be a Tag there is said to be a link.) However, if we created a Subgroup Tag for each of these towns, then any town entry would also be tagged to the main subgroup page for the Chrono Trigger Towns Subgroup. This page would briefly explain what it is that links together these disparate pieces of information, with the information being in this case the towns, and it would also provide links to all the tagged members of the subgroup—that is, the other towns. Another example would be the Chrono Trigger Time Periods Subgroup, and the Radical Dreamers Scenarios Subgroup. As you can see, the point of these Subgroup Tags is to provide common information on indirectly related entries that would otherwise be scattered across the Encyclopedia, and also provide links to those scattered entries, thus explicitly unscattering them. Once again, all arrangements are to be alphanumeric. As with nexuses, the Compendium’s top academics will have to sit down at some point and decide on what these subgroups are going to be, but one small bit of relief is that, unlike the nexuses, these subgroups can be created after implementation—although, for the sake of making sure no entry is missed, it would still be a good idea to decide as many of these subgroups as possible prior to implementation.
To ensure that these subgroups would still follow the general-to-specific logical progression of the existing organizational framework proposals and thus be directly accessible from the top tier, I imagine a single link on the top tier (i.e., main page) to a specialized page where all the subgroups are listed. This specialized page of subgroup listings would exist logically on the second tier but would be fundamentally different from other second-tier pages in that these subgroups are aligned into an ancillary data structure that while adaptable onto the tier-structure is not actually related to other tier structure entries at any level.
To recap the function of tags, every piece of information will be assigned a Chapter Tag if possible. Many pieces of information will be large enough to qualify for multiple chapter tags, and in this case the given entry will be broken into multiple parts on the same page, with embedded anchors employed as necessary to direct users to the specific portion of the entry described by whatever particular Chapter Tag they clicked. In addition to Chapter Tags, many pieces of information will qualify for one or more Static Tags, which function identically to Chapter Tags except are secondary in priority. Any piece of information that does not have at least one Chapter Tag will be given a Static Tag. Finally, to help group information that shares a common logical theme that is either not reflected accurately or not reflected at all by Chapter and Static Tags, the creation of Subgroup tags will allow for the formulation of ancillary data structures within the Encyclopedia which link this related information together in an intuitive fashion.
Because of the Encyclopedia’s proposed organizational structure, it should be noted that Chapter Tags will always be
intralinks while Static Tags and Subgroup Tags will always be
interlinks. This is another way of saying that entries will be arranged according to their chronological appearance as discussed in Section 1. In the special case where an entry has no Chapter Tags, we may think of the entry as occurring in a special chapter that is not bound to the chronological flow of the series.
On the matter of interlinks versus intralinks, many entries in the Encyclopedia will have multiple tags attached to them. Some of these tags will reference other entries altogether (i.e., interlinking), but many will reference nothing more than another part of the same entry (i.e., intralinking). For example, if a user inquiries as to when in CT one can acquire the Epoch, he or she would find the Epoch entry, which would describe the circumstances under which the Epoch is first acquired. However, it would also include (in theory) several reference links to later sections of the entry, where the Epoch again plays a role in the plot, such as when it is given wings, when it is crashed into Lavos, and when its likeness is found in the Viper Mansion library. But you may notice that in practice these entries may be too short to warrant intralinking, and in such cases as where the entry is not particularly long, the appropriate tags can be (at the expense of additional man-hours) locally disabled, so as not to fill a given entry with so many links as to present a visual distraction rather than a useful cross-reference resource.
As either an alternative or a supplement to the embedding of tags within the text of an entry, it would make sense to embed these tags either into “See Also” lists at the bottom of the entry. Personally, I recommend “See Also” footnote lists on all entries, and contextually-embedded links only on longer entries.
All tags will always be two-way, meaning that if Page A links to Page B, then Page B will link to Page A, so that those users who are so inclined will never have to use their browser’s Back button to navigate the full Encyclopedia. This is both aesthetically and logically prudent. Again, consider the two-way nature of links both in terms of local intralinks (which may be optionally disabled if we are so inclined) that describes cases of what I’ll call Page Aa linking to Page Ab and Ab back to Page Aa, and encyclopedia-wide interlinks that will lead to from one entry to another entry altogether.
Finally, do not mistake the tier-structure links with tag links. While the Chapter (and sometimes Static) Tags determine where in the Encyclopedia an entry will go, and while the tier structure leads to those residences, the tiered links themselves are simply a method of data structure.
The bottom line with tags is that they must not be viewed as obfuscators but as elucidators. Well-assigned tags will make information retrieval clearer and more efficient.
Example:
Gato:
Chapter Tags: Where does Gato have something important to do with the plot? Gato would thusly have a CT Chapter 1 tag and also a CC Chapter 24 flag, and those would be his only Chapter Tags. That is to say, his entry will be accessible from both of those chapters on the top tier.
Static Tags: Is there anything about Gato that is chapter-independent? Yes, there are the facts that he has his own musical theme, that he can be fought many times in CT, and that if you beat him up you earn 15 Silver Points. He would have Static Tags for each of those things. That is to say, his entry will also be accessible from these three components of the Static Tag group.
Subgroup Tags: Is there anything about Gato that hasn’t been covered well enough yet? It’s a subjective question, but here are several possibilities. For one, he is a robot, something of a rarity in the Chrono series (at least where non-enemy characters are concerned). For another, he is an attraction at the Millennial Fair. Finally, he is one of Lucca’s inventions. By Chapter and Status Tags alone, Gato would not yet be linked to entries such as Grobyc, a fellow robot, or the Telepod, which not only is another attraction at the Millennial Fair, but is also another of Lucca’s inventions. The whole point of cross-referencing is the probability that some Encyclopedia user will at some point want to research an idea, fact, or hypothesis and will only be able to do so (without considerable difficulty) if the Encyclopedia provides an ancillary interlinking data structure.
Section Terms:Tag – The method of data classification whereby a given piece of information is directly accessible at a particular location within the general Encyclopedia Chronotica without use of a search engine. There are three different types of tags, but these distinctions are made only for organizational purposes, and on the backend every tag serves the same purpose. Every tag is manifest to an Encyclopedia user as a hyperlink.
Chapter Tag – A tag indicating that a given entry exists at a particular location or multiple particular locations in the chronology of the series. A given entry may have more than one chapter tag, and multiple Chapter Tags occur as intralinks within the entry.
Static Tag – A tag indicating that a given entry exists at a non-particular location or multiple non-particular locations in the chronology of the series. A Static Tag is similar in function but subordinate to a Chapter Tag. A given entry is not required to have any Static Tags, but an entry without any Chapter Tags must have at least one Static Tag. Static Tags occur as intralinks within a given entry.
Subgroup Tags – A tag which establishes a cross-reference to another, indirectly related entry. An entry may have any number of Subgroup Tags, but no entry is required to have any at all, except for those entries which serve as subgroup main pages, elucidating the nature of the subgroup into which multiple entries have been classified. Subgroup Tags occur as interlinks within a given entry, and are accessible on their own page one tier down from the top tier. (On the top tier, a single, prominent link will link to that second-tier main page.)
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3: Normalization of Presentation of Encyclopedic Information
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With a definitive and exhaustively useful organization for the Encyclopedia Chronotica finally established, we can settle to the matter of the normalization of information presentation within the Encyclopedia. This will not be a discussion of aesthetic appearances, but of giving the user a homogenous experience throughout.
When you look up a word in the dictionary, you will find several pieces of information every time without fail, including a phonetic pronunciation of the word in question and a classification of the part of speech into which the word falls, not to mention the accurate spelling of the word, of course.
Likewise, encyclopedias must also provide common information with every entry. Such information will include the game(s), the time era(s) and dimension(s), and the physical location(s) in which the entry subject appears. Also included would be a basic categorization into divisions of beings, places, objects, conditions, processes, and events. For instance, the Time Crash is an event. Medina is a place. Janus is a being. The Masamune is an object. Time travel is a process. The Ice Age is a condition. Confusion (the status ailment) is also a condition. Money is an object. (Or is money
no object?) And so on. It would probably be a good idea to color-code these categorizations as specifically as possible.
Our example entry of Gato might look like this:
Gato
Chrono Trigger Ch. 01: The Millennial Fair
• 1000 A.D., Millennial Fair
Chrono Cross Ch. 24: Terra Tower: Caught in an echo of time
• Another, Lucca’s Orphanage c.1012 A.D. (in flashback)
Category: Being, robot
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Gato is a humanoid robot with a vaguely feline appearance built as a battle trainer by Lucca prior to 1000 A.D. He is red and white in color, barrel-chested, has metallic feline ears, and is programmed to be fond of singing.
Gato was set up as an attraction at the Millennial Fair. A victory over him earned 15 silver points. Slow moving and relatively weak, Gato’s primary attack is a boxing glove that extends from its stomach to allow distance attacks. He sometimes also resorts to simple bludgeoning attacks. If you are defeated by him, you will be excused from the battle with one HP remaining for each party member.
Gato was eventually destroyed in the orphanage fire at Lucca's house sometime in the years following 1010 A.D.
In the Japanese version of both games Gato’s name is given as Gonzales. Gato
is the Spanish word for cat, thus affirming the nature of his appearance.
Gato bears a striking resemblance to Cybot, an enemy robot found in the Black Omen.
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See Also:
<example links>
Chrono Trigger Script
Chrono Cross Script
Cybot, Chrono Trigger Bestiary
Gato’s Song Lyrics
Gato’s Theme
Millennial Fair
Silver Points
Lucca
Lucca’s Inventions
</example links>(Note that some of the information for this example entry was taken from Corridors of Time at
http://home.earthlink.net/~letrimh/)
In addition to providing the aforementioned common information, another point to note is that every major fact group has its own paragraph. The key to an informative encyclopedia is to be straightforward, succinct, and to withhold no information that has even a small possibility of being of interest to users. A clear presentation will prioritize information both by chronology and importance, striking a balance between the two. Tangential and incidental information that has no place in the context of the rest of the entry should be provided last.
A successfully implemented encyclopedia will become a transparent, normalized step in the research of the user.
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4: Transferring Information from the Existing Encyclopedia
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In establishing the Encyclopedia Chronotica I see three significant sources of work. The first is coding, and of course is the only step that must be undertaken before the Encyclopedia can become operational. The second is adding to the Encyclopedia’s existing knowledge. However, this is a workload that may be completed with great leisure. Finally, the third is evaluating information from the existing encyclopedias at the Compendium, filtering the information for compliance with the Encyclopedia Chronotica’s data structure, and conducting the actual transferences of information from the old to the new. I recommend that the Compendium’s top academics establish policies for review and transliteration of preexisting encyclopedic data.
