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DW:CANON |
In fictional settings, Canon is the material that is accepted as being officially part of the story of the fictional universe in question, as opposed to noncanonical material. For Dinotopia Wiki to remain true to the original works by James Gurney, the site has this policy on canonical information. Since “what's real, and what's not?” does not have a clear-cut answer, please read on to avoid your information being altered or deleted. Any statement or article added to the wiki should have references to canon material.
Canon[]
- See also: Main Books
The highest "priority" of canon is the main book series written by James Gurney, since they were the first material published to take place in Dinotopia and served as the basis of subsequent material. This includes not only the text, but also the illustrations Gurney made. For reference, the four books released so far are listed below;
- Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time (1992)
- Dinotopia: The World Beneath (1995)
- Dinotopia: First Flight (1999)
- Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara (2007)
Furthermore, subsequent re-releases of these books are also canon since no storyline material has been altered. This is especially important for the 20th Anniversary Edition of Dinotopia: First Flight, since it features significant Backstory notes detailing the Age of Heroes.
Other books by different authors are also seen as canon, as detailed in the List of books on the official Dinotopia website. These include two novels written by Alan Dean Foster;
- Dinotopia Lost (1996)
- The Hand of Dinotopia (1999)
And the 16 Random House Digest novels;
- Dinotopia: Windchaser by Scott Ciencin (1996)
- Dinotopia: River Quest by John Vornholt
- Dinotopia: Hatchling by Midori Snyder
- Dinotopia: Lost City by Scott Ciencin
- Dinotopia: Sabertooth Mountain by John Vornholt
- Dinotopia: Thunder Falls by Scott Ciencin
- Dinotopia: Firestorm by Gene De Weese
- Dinotopia: The Maze by Peter David
- Dinotopia: The Rescue Party by Mark A. Garland
- Dinotopia: Sky Dance by Scott Ciencin
- Dinotopia: Chomper by Don Glut
- Dinotopia: Return to Lost City by Scott Ciencin
- Dinotopia: Survive! by Brad Strickland
- Dinotopia: The Explorers by Scott Ciencin
- Dinotopia: Dolphin Watch by John Vornholt
- Dinotopia: Oasis by Cathy Hapka
There is also some additional material created or authorized by James Gurney that is to be considered canon, such as the Traveler's Map of Dinotopia.
Non-Canon[]
The miniseries and TV series are not canon. This is due to many changes being made to the overall storyline, culture and traditions, political systems etc. This does not mean that content from these media should necessarily be excluded. Information from these media can be included in a section titled “Noncanonical appearances”, or similar. Here you may make observations as to the differences between the books and TV Dinotopia. (Please remain neutral, or your work will be altered!) This section, of course, does not have to be included in the articles of characters from the TV Dinotopia. (Which are welcome!) There is a project devoted to the TV series called Wikiproject Dinotopia on TV, that you can join!
Other material recognized as noncanonical include games and cartoons that have also been released under the Dinotopia brand.
Articles on subjects, characters, dinosaurs, events, places, etc. that are recognized as not appearing in canonical material should be prefaced by the following template:
Non-Canon | The subject of this article or section is non-canon since it only features in noncanonical material, such as the 2002 miniseries, or features material that otherwise conflicts with accepted canon sources. |
Guidelines |
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Terms of Use • Manual of Style • Canon • Point of View • Role Playing |