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EGSRefer

datestamp: 201706100119

Being an unofficial protocol for referring to El Goonish Shive characters in transcripts et cetera.

Transparent syntax

This syntax should not affect the parsing of the name itself, but should be used to determine which parts should be displayed to the reader.  They should not be merely whited out but completely omitted, unless spoiler-showing is enabled.  During parsing for understanding the begin-spoiler and end-spoiler tags should be ignored, not rejected, just skipped over (hence “transparent”).

e.g.

• /*Noah->"ShadowNoah"(*/"ChildLeftBehind"/*)*/
• "FriendOfTony"/*("Ronin")*/ before Ronin’s identity revealed, "Ronin"("FriendOfTony") subsequent for one dialogue, then just "Ronin".  This shall become deprecated once Ronin’s real name becomes known.

Parsed syntax

Top-level syntax

A “name” can be:

A “form” can be:

A “tfmode” can be:

• a valid “tfgvar”
• a “filename”

If neither of these can be applied to a given TFG transformation, use a “nickname” as a “formname” instead of using a “tfmode”.  If it is a scanned clone form of somebody else, use the appropriate syntax instead.

A “tfgvar” can be:

A “tfgvar” is made of up to four parts:

• an optional single letter (case insensitive) followed by a double-colon, indicating which TF-gun is being indexed (this should not be used until it becomes clear which gun is which, however).
• a capital M or F denoting male or female respectively.
• a capital V, denoting variant.
• a number, consisting of one or more digits.

e.g. Tedd->[FV1] Tedd->[FV5]

Grace’s Birthday Party male forms are designated thusly:

• Grace->[MV2]
• Susan->[MV3]
• Nanase->[MV4]("Manase")
• Sarah->[MV5]

A “filename” can be:

A filename is designated by beginning with / (for absolute paths) or ./ (for just the filename or some other relative path) or potentially ../ (for up-one-or-more-levels relative paths).  No backslashes unless you want to look like you have been brainwashed by Microsoft and IBM into using the ubiquitous character-escape character in your file paths!

A filename: ./sarah.bak

Currently, this is not used as the only known filename that I am aware of is a clone form (which is represented as e.g. Tedd->Sarah - not that that ever happened as far as we know at the time of writing ;-).

A “formname” can be:

• Manase, Heidi, Gracelyn, etc.
• A “nickname” may be used if no properly official formname exists. e.g.
  • !!Tedd->"BeachGirl"
  • Noah->"ShadowNoah"

Grace’s Birthday Party female forms are designated thusly:

• Tedd->"GraceBirthdayTedd"
• Elliot->"GraceBirthdayElliot"
• Justin->"GraceBirthdayJustin"

An “aspect” can be:

So far have we seen the following.  This will probably not always/still/forever be an exhaustive list in the future:

• (of Susan) Nature, Nurture, Logic, Curiosity, Ego
• (of Elliot) “Confusion”, “Timidity”, “Inquisitive”, “Analyst”, Libido, Superego, MildMannered, Angsty, PartyAnimal
• (of Sarah) FantasyVampire, FantasyWerewolf, Ego

A “universe” can be:

• In continuity: Alpha, Beta, Main, SecondLife (or SL), “MagusUniverse”
• Meta (outside fourth wall): “DanUniverse”, “GermahnLabs”, “IntroductionsUniverse”
• EGS:NP only: “Goonmanji”, “PreOblivious”, “PostOblivious”, AF04

At the moment, at least.  I may have forgotten something, also.

A “charname” can be:

• The primary identifier: whatever the character is most known as, typically a first name.
• Titles are not included before forenames unless absolutely necessary.  E.g. Alpha::Tedd should be used rather than Alpha::LordTedd as the universe namespace makes the Tedd referred to obvious.
• Grace Sciuridae the Elder is GraceSr and Grace “Shade Tail” Sciuridae is Grace whereas, in the Alpha namespace, Shade Tail should be written as one word (Alpha::Shadetail) (TODO re-evaluate this).  See also my comments above about not including non-essential titles.
  
• Adrian Raven is Raven
• Pandora Chaos Raven is Pandora
• Edward Verres is MrVerres
• DrGermahn

A “nickname” can be:

• Anything that is either
  a. used in-universe to refer to the being of then-unknown name or identity,
  b. wildly used to refer to the character in question,
  c. obvious regarding which character of then-unknown name or identity it refers to, or
  d. a valid identifier but not the primary one.
  Some examples:
  • /*"Ronin"*/
  • "MaleFrenchImmortal"
  • Pandora("Chaos")
• Please, be consistent with your use of nicknames (do not say "MaleFrenchImmortal" the one time and "MaleAmnesiacImmortal" the next).  Also (in editable transcripts) mark a name up properly after it becomes apparent e.g. Ashley("PonytailGirl") or Demetrius("MaleFrenchImmortal")

Unambiguity measures

• In using X("Y") to mean the “nickname” of a being, and when that being happens on an unrelated note to be morphed into a specific form, do not insert the parenthetical after the “form”, as that should only be done of it is the “formname” of the “form”.  e.g. Pandora("Chaos")-->"ChildOfChaos" vs Elliot->Elliot.PartyAnimal("Heidi").  This is also relevant to X(=Y).
• If two or more beings/forms/etc. can be referred to by one name, more specificity is needed.

Talking in a universe namespace

(Universe X){Y}

This is a signal to interpret anything in Y (which is text containing one or more egsrefer IDs) in relation to X(universe).  e.g.

• The sentence

  Alpha::Nioi believes that Alpha::Shadetail (who differs exceedingly from Grace) may be corrupting Alpha::Tedd.
  

  could be replaced by the following:

• (Universe Alpha){ Nioi believes that Shadetail (who differs exceedingly from Main::Grace) may be corrupting Tedd.}