Keeping track of characters, places and lore in the Codex

The Codex workspace in Pendrilo Studio keeps your characters, places, groups, items and lore in one place. It also shows which chapters name each entry, so you can check that a detail hasn't drifted as the book grew. The Codex is part of your book file, so it travels with the book.

Opening the Codex

Click Codex in the top bar of Studio. Your entries appear on the left, and the selected entry opens on the right.

Adding an entry

1. Click + New.
2. Choose a kind: Character, Place, Group, Item or Lore note.
3. Fill in the entry. Its fields are described below.

Each kind starts with a few detail rows already in place. A character gets Age, Height, Hair, Eyes, Wardrobe, Wants and Fears. A place gets Type, Region, Population, Climate and Notable for. A group gets Type, Leader, Headquarters, Founded, Size and Goal. An item gets Type, Owner, Origin, Appearance and Properties.

Every entry has these fields:

Name and a one-line summary of who or what it is.
Also called: nicknames and titles the story uses, separated by commas.
Dies in the story: when and how, if it applies.
Portrait: a picture for your own reference, added with Choose a Picture…. It shows in the Codex and the Story Bible, but never in the printed or ebook text.
Details: label-and-value rows. Click + Add a Detail to add more.
Notes: history, voice, secrets, or anything else worth keeping straight.
Relationships: ties to other entries (see the next section).
Named in: the chapters that name this entry (see below).

Relationships

Relationships connect entries, so you can record who is whose rival, which place a group is based in, or who owns an item.

1. Open the entry.
2. Under Relationships, choose the other character, place, group or item.
3. Type how they're tied, such as Rivals, Sister or Based in.
4. Click Add.

Once any two entries are tied, the Relationship Map button appears (see below).

Named in: finding where a name appears

The Named in list shows every chapter that names the entry. Pendrilo finds these by the entry's name, parts of its name, its nicknames, and plurals and possessives such as "Nora's". Click a chapter to open it.

This is a search, not a reading. It finds the words as spelled, so check the results if a name is also a common word.

Finding and deleting entries

Use Search the codex to find an entry by name.

To remove an entry, open it and click Delete…. This removes the entry, its notes and its relationships. Check the entry first if you may want any of that later.

Codex names in your text

When View → Underline Codex Names is on, every name from your Codex is underlined in the editor, in that entry's colour. It's on by default.

Rest the pointer on an underlined name to see a short card for the entry.
Click the name to open the entry in the Codex tab of the panel beside the editor. You can edit its summary, details and notes there without leaving the chapter.
Click Open in Codex to open the whole entry in the Codex workspace.

With no entry selected, the Codex tab in the panel lists everyone NAMED IN THIS CHAPTER. This is a quick way to check who appears in the scene you're writing.

The Relationship Map

The Relationship Map draws everything that is tied together in one picture.

1. In the Codex workspace, click Relationship Map.
2. Each tied entry sits on a ring, with a labelled line for each tie.
3. Point at an entry to light up its ties. Click its name to open it.
4. Drag entries to arrange them. Your arrangement is saved.

To put every entry back in its place on the ring, click Back to the Ring.

Sharing entries across books in a universe

If you write several books in the same story world, group them into a universe. Books in a universe can share Codex entries.

1. Open Book Goals and, under Universe, choose Choose to make or pick a universe.
2. In the Codex, open the character or place you want to share.
3. Tick Share with every book in your universe.

When you save, the entry is recorded for the universe. Each other book in the universe picks up the latest version when it opens, along with the ties to and facts about that entry. If two books change the same shared entry, the one saved last wins, so save each book before you work in another.

Checking facts across the book

The Codex keeps the details. To check that facts agree with each other across the book, record them in the Story workspace, which flags conflicting facts for you to review.