How historical information is handled in Histoglyph

Dates

Birth and death years are stored separately and reused across game modes. When the exact year is uncertain, a record should not be presented with more precision than the underlying historical evidence supports. Timeline uses birth year for chronological placement, so two people with the same recorded year are treated as belonging to the same chronological position rather than forcing an arbitrary order.

Places

Birth and death places are stored as reusable place records. The aim is to use a historically meaningful location while still giving the map a practical coordinate. A birthplace may therefore refer to an estate, settlement or locality rather than simply replacing it with the nearest large modern city.

Historical borders and modern country names do not always align. Place labels are kept readable for the game, while the coordinates remain the main geographic reference.

Occupations and historical periods

Occupations are descriptive tags used both for organisation and for optional hints. They are intended to describe what a person is widely known for rather than provide a complete list of every role held during a lifetime. Historical-period tags are kept separate from occupations so that future collections and filters can use the two concepts independently.

Portraits

Portraits are attached to person records and shown only where the game design needs them. Image credits, source links and licence information can be stored with the person record so attribution can be retained separately from the gameplay interface. Portraits should represent the historical person accurately and should not be used when the identification is uncertain.

Corrections and uncertainty

Historical data is not always perfectly settled. If a birthplace is disputed, a date is uncertain or a classification is misleading, the record can be corrected rather than treated as permanently fixed. Histoglyph welcomes factual corrections and source suggestions at histoglyph@outlook.com.

What Histoglyph is — and is not

Histoglyph is designed as an educational history game, not as a substitute for a scholarly biography or primary-source research. The game intentionally reduces a life to a small number of clues so that players can practise recall. Those clues should still be accurate, clearly presented and open to correction.