Who can do this?
Owners and co-authors with rights to relationships create, change and remove them. Guests only see a relationship if both characters involved have been shared with them.
Character relationships
A relationship connects two characters with type, intensity and direction and applies from a point in the story.
What is it for?
Characters are related to each other: they are siblings, rivals or allies, and that changes over the course of the story. In Illumentis you record each relationship with a freely chosen type, an intensity and a direction. It can be mutual or run from one side only.
The point in time matters: you state since when the relationship exists, as a scene or as a world time. If a relationship changes, you also record since when the change applies. That keeps the development traceable, and the time relationship graph can display it later.
You maintain relationships on the detail page of a character and view them in the network view: as a network graph and as a hierarchy tree.
How it works
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Open the detail page of a character and choose the “Relationships” section.
What you see afterwards: The form for new relationships and the list of existing ones appear.
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Choose the “Other character”, enter “Type” and “Intensity” and choose the “Direction”.
What you see afterwards: The direction is mutual, away from this character, or toward it.
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Under “Since when does this relationship exist?” enter a scene or a world time and choose “Add relationship”.
What you see afterwards: The relationship appears in the list.
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In the character overview, open the “Network view”.
What you see afterwards: The “Network graph” shows all relationships of the project.
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Switch to the “Hierarchy tree” to read a hierarchy from directed relationships.
What you see afterwards: Purely mutual relationships are listed under “Not assigned to a hierarchy”.
Your data
Relationships belong to the project. Every creation and change is logged in the history with type, intensity, direction, point in time and the person who made it. They are backed up and exported with the project.
Limits
Character A and character B must be different. The type has at most 255 characters. Every new relationship needs exactly one time entry, either a scene or a world time. The form in the network view currently does not ask for a point in time; create new relationships on the detail page instead.
Frequently asked questions
Why can’t I create a relationship in the network view?
The form there currently does not ask for a point in time, but Illumentis requires exactly one time entry: a scene or a world time. The message reads “Please either select a scene or enter a world time manually.” Create the relationship on the detail page of the character.
What is the hierarchy tree?
It derives a hierarchy from directed relationships. Without at least one directed relationship, there is no hierarchy. Purely mutual relationships appear under “Not assigned to a hierarchy”.
How do I change an existing relationship?
Choose “Edit” on the relationship, change type, intensity or direction, and state since when the change applies. “Remove” deletes it.