The short answer: this is what happens when you’re investigating Pepe Silvia but don’t own a corkboard.
Joke aside and longer answer: this web page has the same general goal as a wiki (to gather data and make any piece of information easy to find for any user who seeks it), but a different execution.

Where a wiki creates articles, the lore map contains “lore cards” – inspired from flashcards. Each lore card is its own entity on this page and could be seen as an equivalent to a single paragraph, or even a single sentence out of a wiki article.

Each lore card has three specific goals:

1. to be as concise but exhaustive as necessary,
2. about the most specific fact possible,
3. all the while being as easy to find as can be, no matter the user or context.

Also I lied, there’s a fourth one: A lore card aims to be reliable. Everything that it says requires a source (including a source telling you how to find it yourself in the game).

So in a way, the lore map is a collection of all sentences you would expect to find in a wiki… put in no particular order on a single web page, like tons of aquariums dumped into the ocean.

…This sucks, right? Sure, everything is in here, but how useful is that when the lore you wanted to look up is drowned in all that other stuff? Reading through an entire wiki article can be tedious enough, and it’s the same issue but with an already reduced amount of stuff to check!

Except the lore map provides as many different kinds of fishing rods as we could craft in order to make sure you can find the one you enjoy using and find the most reliable for your own needs. Think about your old reliable “ctrl+f” (for those who use it to try and find the relevant paragraphs on Wikipedia faster), but with more features!

Lore cards can present their information in various ways (text, tables, graphs, images, videos…), but they all follow the same global structure:

The purpose of a lore card is to be all at once succinct (by reading its title alone), exhaustive (by providing as many details as necessary under the cut), easy to find (by tagging it accordingly), and reliable (by ensuring that every piece of information it provides must have a verifiable source).

Lore cards will often give obvious information that is sometimes outright stated in the game: this is part of its exact purpose, to be a reminder of both the obvious and the less obvious. Notably, the lore map aims to remain as impartial and purely factual as possible. Speculation is intended to be kept to the bare minimum, if present at all; and any piece of speculation that may slip in must make it obvious that it is based on a combination of various other facts, rather than an officially confirmed statement.

Some lore cards (notably the “General Data: X” cards) may become quite long and packed with information; but in most cases, it is preferable for the sake of keeping a more accurate tagging system to keep them as concise as possible, and sometimes to split various details of a piece of information into multiple separate lore cards referencing each other. The inspiration behind lore cards was flashcards, after all! There is not much ‘flash’ left to it if it takes a dozen minutes to read just one, let alone if only a small fraction of its contents is related to what you are looking for.

Lore cards come in one of five different colors, each meant to hint at some hierarchy in terms of the reliability/canonicity of the information they provide. From most reliable to entirely retconned:

• Pins & Bookmark: Every lore card comes with the outline of two icons on its top left side. These outlines can be clicked to toggle on and off the following features:
• Bookmark a single lore card to either share its link with others, or reload the page later and continue reading from that point onwards. Just like the ship’s “Mark location on hud” feature, only one lore card can be bookmarked at any time.
• You can also click on this icon on the bottom right corner of the lore card, on the same row as the list of tags. On top of creating a bookmark, this will instantly copy the lore card’s personalized URL to your clipboard for quick sharing.
• Clicking on a lore card’s personalized link will load this exact page, except the lore card of interest will already be visible, open, and even highlighted for a short instant.
• Pin multiple cards individually to make sure they will remain visible regardless of other changes you may make in your search: even the Reset button will hide all cards found via other means, but not pinned ones. You can pin as many lore cards as you want, and your list of pinned cards will be added in your save point so that you can find it again later.
• Just like the bookmark feature, there is a pin/unpin button on both the top left of the lore card, and on its bottom right corner on the same row as its tags.
• Cross references: Sometimes, a lore card will refer to another. If you see this symbol then clicking on it or the colored text next to it will let you access the lore card in question. Note that this will also mark () the accessed lore card until you either unmark it or mark a different lore card.
• Hidden details: Some lore cards may contain even more information than you would suspect at first glance. If this information is not so easily visible, then it normally would only be redundant or minor details that most people would consider insignificant – for example, ship log entries which are unlocked by reading a given Nomai dialogue, but which are simply repeating word for word said Nomai dialogue.
• Still, what one considers useless information, another may judge noteworthy; and as such, the lore map yearns to remain as exhaustive as possible… without being too cluttered for the sake of the majority who wants to get to the point. If you see this symbol Yep, just like this! during your search, then try to hover or click on it! There’s more to explore here.

A tag is by default (or if no lore card is yet tagged with it). Click on any tag to turn it (show lore cards tagged with it), then (hide lore cards tagged with it, even those which are also tagged with a green tag), then back to its neutral color.

Every lore card is tagged depending on the topics it addresses. When you make a query using tags, lore cards which fit your request will appear with the icon by their side, and its tags will be shown in green (tag which is explicitly part of your query), orange (in broad mode, tag which is thematically related to one of the tags you selected), or white (neutral).

Just below this tutorial, you can find a collapsed red section named “List of tags.” From character names to locations to physics concepts, every general topic addressed by the lore cards is listed there. That being said, perhaps you will instead find the features contained within the bottom screen’s tab more practical:

• The blue text box will let you type anything you want; as you type, existing tags which match your query will appear just below it. You don’t have to type entire words, let alone guess a tag’s exact wording – the page will show you all tags which contain the fragments you type. You can even type multiple fragments separated by spaces: somehow, typing “rt he” will show you the tags “#chert” and “#timber hearth” (among others). This will not save you from typos, but it comes as close to it as it can get.
• Tags you have activated (either red or green) will be listed inside the orange box.
• Some tags are thematically connected. If your search is in broad mode, then thematically connected tags will also be passively activated to show more results; in focus mode, these extra related tags will not intervene.
• You can choose to show lore cards tagged with either all green tags, or any green tag (at least one).
• The shiplog-like canvas at the bottom of this tab starts empty, but will be filled up as you toggle tags. Every time you update your selection, this canvas will show not only the tags you activated, but if you are in broad mode, then it will also show the orange tags which are passively toggled, and how they connect to the tags you selected. Each sphere representing a tag can be dragged around at your leisure in order to facilitate readability and better understand why the lore map returns the results it does.

Aside from the spheres shown on the canvas, every tag you see on this page is interactable, including the tags listed at the bottom of each lore card. You can add them to your search, turn them red, or remove them, simply by clicking on them.

Some tags are more specific than others (e.g. “#ash twin” vs “#hourglass twins”), and sometimes, the topics of two or more tags overlap. The way lore cards and tags are designed tries to account for this by making it so that tags are less a list of unrelated strings of text, and rather a network of sorts. Tags with a precise topic (e.g. “#chert”) may also link to other tags which are related, but also more vague (e.g. “#hearthians” or “#astronauts”).

What this means in practice:

• If a lore card is about a very specific topic (for example, “Esker has pink eyes”), then it will come with equally specific tags (such as “#esker”).
• If a lore card encompasses multiple entities at once (for example, “Hearthians have four eyes”), then it will come with a broader tag (“#hearthians”) but not with the whole list of more specific tags (The tag “#esker” and all other 21 Hearthian character tags will not be listed).
• And yet, Esker is a Hearthian: therefore, what you will observe if you decide to activate the tag “#esker” while in broad mode is that the lore card “Hearthians have four eyes” will also appear – even if the tag “#hearthians” is absent from your list of active tags.
  • Tip: If you hover your mouse (or for touchscreen devices, long press – this example and active tags within the search bar will not work, but real tags should) on a tag like , a list of all the related tags which will be added in this “passive” way will be displayed. If no such list appears, then the tag has no documented relations.
  • Be warned that in this very specific case, DLC spoilers will be listed regardless of your preferences! These DLC tags will not actually activate if the DLC filter is on, but the way these lists are made cannot follow (at least not currently) with the DLC filter being toggled on or off.
• If you are not interested in the kind of lore that involves all Hearthians indiscriminately, you can look at the tags of a lore card that isn’t relevant to Esker specifically: the tag “#hearthians” will be orange instead of white or light green. In order to get rid of lore cards that appeared because of an unwanted orange tag, one option is to click on this orange tag twice (first to turn it green, then to turn it red and thus exclude it from the search).
• Of note: Changing the search mode from broad to focus will disregard all orange tags. If you still want to keep at least one or two orange tags (for example, while “#hearthians” is too vague, seeing results for “#lunar outpost” still interests you), you have two options: keep the search mode as broad and turn all the unwanted tags red, or (provided the search logic is any instead of all) turn all the tags of interest green then change the search mode to focus.

A rather vague tag (e.g. “#hearthians”) may be preceded by a circular button like in .

The tag itself will behave as normal, but the circular button has an action of its own: clicking on it will not only activate the tag it is attached to, but also actively toggle (turn green/red or remove from the list) multiple other tags which are thematically related to the topic mentioned by the tag itself. In the case of the generic tag “#hearthians”, clicking on its associated circular button will activate the tag “#hearthians” as well as all 22 tags corresponding to all 22 Hearthian characters.

Similarly to normal tags, hovering over a tag’s circular button will display the list of tags that it controls (aside from the tag it is linked to, which is implied to be part of the list by default).

Needless to say, this circular button only has its uses when you wish to explore the lore at large (and are using any as your search logic; setting all instead will return no results).

The search by keywords is similar to ctrl+f, for those who use it – down to the “Highlight All,” “Match Case” and “Whole Words” options. On top of this, it also allows for multiple searches simultaneously thanks to an and/or/not logic system:

For example, you can type ash twin & !ember twin ; brittle hollow to search for all lore cards which mention Ash Twin and not Ember Twin, or which mention Brittle Hollow.

Every lore card containing the keywords in your query will appear with the icon by their side. Additionally, the matched text will be circled in blue if you choose to check the option “Highlight All.”

The second tab at the bottom of the screen contains:

• A golden input box letting you choose which parts of each lore card you want to look up your keywords in. You can choose to only count occurrences of your search that appear in a lore card’s title, or only in its hidden content, or both, all the while also counting or excluding matches within the lore card’s tags;
• A blue text box allowing you to type your queries;
• A summary of what the search syntax can or cannot do (by clicking or hovering the icon at the right);
• Checkbox buttons to toggle extra features: “Highlight All” (choose whether to emphasize or not the matched text), “Match Case” (choose whether lowercase or uppercase matters; do note that tags will always be lowercase), “Whole Words” (for example, this can define whether the query “space” will exclusively match for the word “space,” or also match for words such as “spacesuit” and “spaceship”).

This web page does not automatically save your progress. I you reload it, everything will be reset to the same blank slate every time.

Thankfully, this tab still allows you to create and load save points by copying and pasting the text it gives you. You do need to keep it in your own text files somewhere, but this also means that you can have as many save points as you want! You can create your own selection of lore cards for a given topic, another for a different topic, and go back to any of them anytime, simply by copying and pasting the text related to the save point of interest.

This tab contains three elements: from left to right, the “Copy current save point” button, the black text box letting you type or paste a pre-existing save point, and the “Submit new save point” button meant to load the save point you just pasted in the text box (though pressing the Enter key should also work).

Clicking on “Copy current save point” will automatically add the lore map’s current state to your clipboard; it will also display the same save point in a brown rectangular box like this:

{
    "Tags":["ash twin project1","ash twin0","ash twin warp tower0"],
    "Mode":"FOCUS",
    "Logic":"ANY",
    "Search":["Title & Tags","ember twin & !brittle hollow",false,false,true],
    "Pins":["QMEarlyDemise","Loop9million"],
    "Bookmark":"dataCT",
    "DLC":"Hide"
}

Again, the web page itself will not save anything – you have to copy this save point and keep it in your own notes somewhere. If your clipboard was overwritten with something else in the meantime, the icon in the top right corner will copy it again in one click.

If you paste the example above into the black text box and submit it, you will notice that:

• Three tags will be automatically turned on, the first green (because their name ends with “1”) and the other two red (because their name ends with “0”);
• The tag search will be switched to focus mode and any logic;
• The keyword search will be switched to “Title & Tags,” the search will be launched with the query “ember twin & !brittle hollow,” and respectively: the “Highlight All” and “Match Case” options will be unchecked, “Whole Words” will be active;
• The lore cards “QMEarlyDemise” and “Loop9million” will be automatically pinned;
• You will be scrolled down to the bookmarked lore card “dataCT,” which will be opened and marked with ;
• DLC spoilers will be blurred.

After the more complex features’ tabs, some simpler buttons stand still at the bottom of your screen:

• Reset erases the search bar’s contents and the state of all tags. The show/conceal state of Echoes of the Eye spoilers and the search mode & logic will not be reset.
• Show all will show every lore card in existence without modifying your current search parameters.
• Open/Close All lets you expand or collapse all lore cards at once.
• Echoes of the Eye spoilers can be toggled on or off. When DLC spoilers are toggled off, concealed lore cards will still be displayed in a heavily blurred state: this is meant to notify you of their existence, without them actually being readable unless you allow DLC spoilers.

“My search returns completely irrelevant results!”

I will assume this happens because you are relying on the tag system. In this case, if you are already using the broad mode and and logic but are still unsatisfied, then perhaps certain lore cards were tagged incorrectly (or tagging them in such way made sense in my/other people’s heads, but your specific case scenario was not accounted for). If you disagree with the way some tags are connected (or not connected), the way some lore cards are tagged or even written – please let me know! I left all my socials below, and this project has its own Discord server if you want more people other than me to see your opinion and join the debate.

“This web page layout looks… broken.”

I’m sorry if it does! I am 100% self-taught on HTML/CSS/JS and have only tested my web pages on my computer and phone, which both use Firefox. If you are using a different browser, this may be the cause. If you are or know a web developer who would be willing to help look into and possibly even fix this kind of issue, don’t hesitate to contact me! Just… be nice and don’t insult me too hard for the spaghetti code. I’m doing my best 😅

“I’d like to make a lore map like this for my own fandom and/or personal project, can I use this page as a template?”

Yes, of course! Please let me know that you do, and credit where it is due would be greatly appreciated – that is all I ask.

I strongly advise you against cloning my whole repository, however: I use the same Github Pages website for a lot of other more personal projects that have nothing to do with this one, so cloning the repository would drown you with hundreds of completely useless files. If you contact me before starting your project, I can give you a quick rundown of how this page works and how you can easily make your own – image/fonts and other aesthetics-related assets aside, you really only need ~6-7 files in total to get the entirety of this page’s layout and interactiveness working.

• This web page uses two Google Fonts: Cabin (meant to imitate Brandon Grotesque, Outer Wilds’ main dialogue font) and Space Mono (used in-game notably for the ship’s computer). Brandon Grotesque should be prioritized over Cabin if it is installed on your device.
• Most images found on this web page are either in-game assets or official artwork for Outer Wilds. Some SVG icons were obtained by tracing the corresponding in-game assets, which I vectorized for the sake of convenience (smaller file size for higher quality, easier to transform/recolor depending on uses). I consider that the credit goes to Mobius Digital as well.
  • These assets have been reuploaded on this website’s Github repository for the sake of convenience and easier access; however, let me know if they should be taken down for any reason (whether it be for reuploading them in a “safer” place, or for finding replacements altogether).
• Other SVG icons used in this project (e.g. ) were downloaded from SVG Repo.
• Other assets used within lore cards should either mention or link to their respective authors. If no credit is given, the asset normally should have been made by myself – but mistakes may happen, so if you have doubts due to (for example) Google Images’ reverse search, do let me know so I can correct it ASAP.
  • Assets whose URL starts with https://lutiaskokopelli.github.io/stories/outerwilds/owhtml/ast-owdoc/ were all made by me. The last part of the URL is the most important here – if the URL instead contains /ast/, then the asset falls into one of the previous two categories: it is either an official/official-inspired Outer Wilds asset, or an SVG icon downloaded from SVG Repo.
  • Imgur images and albums should give explicit credit at the very least on their corresponding Imgur page; other sources should be given explicit credit directly inside the lore card.
• This fan project was made for educational purposes and merely aims to serve the Outer Wilds community. Any potential inaccuracy, or failure to give proper credit, or misstep which may somehow result in accidentally offending or disrespecting someone, is a genuine mistake. Just let me know what I did wrong so I can fix it as fast as possible to the best of my ability: every way you can easily contact me is listed below.