Universes

A universe is a world — a container for all the items, discussions and stories that belong to the same setting. Every universe has its own settings, its own list of collaborators, and its own set of item types.

Creating a Universe

Click Universes in the navigation bar, then the New Universe card (or go to /universes/create). Fill in:

• Title — the name of your universe.

• Shortname — the identifier used in your universe's URL (e.g. archivium.net/universes/my-world). It is filled in automatically from the title, but you can change it.

• Visibility — Public universes can be viewed by anyone; Private universes can only be viewed by people you give access to.

• Discussion — whether the universe has a Discuss tab and allows comments. See Discussion and Comments.

• Who can comment — Anyone, or only users with the Comment permission level or higher.

Then click Create Universe. You'll automatically become the universe's Owner, and it will start out with the default set of item types.

Shortname Rules

Shortnames (for universes, items, stories, and vaults) must:

• Be between 3 and 64 characters long.

• Only contain letters, numbers and hyphens.

• Not start or end with a dash.

• Be unique — no two universes can share a shortname, and no two items in the same universe can share one.

A few shortnames (like create and news) are reserved.

The Universe Page

A universe's page shows who created it, when it was last updated, and an action bar. Depending on your permission level, you'll see:

Below that are the universe's tabs:

• Home — the universe's home page, if one has been enabled (see below).

• Items — a card for each item type, showing how many items of that type exist, plus an All Items card (unless it has been hidden in the universe's settings).

• Authors — everyone with Write access or above.

• Viewers — in private universes, everyone with Read or Comment access.

• Discuss — discussion threads, if discussion is enabled.

• Stories — stories set in this universe, if stories are enabled.

Editing a Universe

Admins can click Edit to change the universe's settings. Remember to click Save Changes when you're done, or Discard Changes to leave without saving.

General Settings

• Title, Shortname, Visibility, Discussion and Who can comment work the same as when creating a universe.

• Stories enabled — turns on the Stories tab for this universe.

• Show "All Items" Card — whether the universe's Items tab shows an All Items card next to the item type cards.

• Theme — give your universe its own look. See Themes.

Careful when changing the shortname! Doing so will kick out anyone currently viewing the universe, prevent anyone currently editing an item from saving their work, and break any external bookmarks or links to the universe. Links between items inside Archivium are updated automatically.

Premium universes have a few extra settings (more themes, semantic search and MCP access) — see Premium Universes.

Home Page and Public Page

• Home Page — when enabled, click Edit Home Page to write a landing page for your universe. It is shown in the universe's Home tab, and is a great place for an introduction, an overview of the setting, or links to important items.

• Public Page — only available for private universes. When enabled, click Edit Public Page to write a page that is shown to visitors who don't have access, instead of the usual "Access Denied" message. Use it to tease your world or explain how to request access.

Both pages are edited with the same rich text editor as items.

Item Types

Every item in a universe has a type, such as Character or Location. The Item Types table lets you decide which types your universe uses. Each type has:

• Shortname — an identifier used in URLs and filters.

• Singular Type Name — e.g. "character".

• Plural Type Name — e.g. "characters".

• Color — used as the backdrop of the title card on items of this type.

• Tabs — click Configure to choose which tabs new items of this type start with (see below).

Use Add Type to create new types, or Reset to default types to go back to the defaults. New universes start with these types: Article, Character, Location, Event, Archive, Document, Timeline, Item and Organization.

Removing or renaming an item type will not update existing items that use it. Items whose type no longer exists show up as "Missing Category".

Default Tabs

Clicking Configure on a type lets you choose what new items of that type start with:

• Default tabs — any of Main Text, Lineage, Map, Timeline and Gallery.

• Custom data tabs — a comma-separated list of custom data tab names, e.g. Stats, Bio.

• Tab types — any custom tab types your universe has defined.

For example, you might give Characters a Main Text, Lineage and Gallery tab, and Locations a Main Text and Map tab. This only affects newly created items; existing items can add any missing tabs from the item editor.

Universe Statistics

Anyone with Write access can open the Stats page, which has three tabs:

• Links

  • Link Graph — an interactive graph of how your items link to each other. Click a node to open that item. Items with no links aren't shown.

  • Dead Links — links pointing to items that don't exist yet, and which items contain them. Handy for finding things you still need to write!

  • Link Counts — how many links each item makes and receives.

• Word Counts — the total word count of your universe, and a breakdown per item.

• Tabs — which tabs each item uses, showing whether each tab is visible, hidden but containing data, or empty.

Following a Universe

Click Follow on any universe you can view to keep up with it. Followed universes are listed on your home page, along with recent edits made by other people.

Universe Subdomains

Universes can also be viewed on their own subdomain, at <shortname>.archivium.net. On a subdomain, URLs are shortened — for example, /items instead of /universes/<shortname>/items.

Deleting a Universe

Only Owners can delete a universe. Click Delete, type the universe's shortname to confirm, and click Delete Universe. This is permanent and cannot be undone:

• All items in the universe are deleted.

• All images in the universe are deleted.

• All discussion threads and comments are deleted.

• Notes pinned to items in the universe are not deleted, but they are unpinned.