Relationships

Relationships define meaningful connections between your story elements—family ties, alliances, ownership, or spatial connections. Element references are also relationships, automatically created when you mention an element in a document.

Manual vs. Automatic Relationships

Feature	Element References (@mentions)	Manual Relationships
Creation	Automatic when typing @	Explicit via dialog
Display	Inline links in text	Listed in the Relationships section
Backlinks	Yes, on the referenced worldbuilding element	Yes, with inverse label
Types	Generic "references"	Familial, Social, Spatial, etc.

Quick Start

1. Open any worldbuilding element
2. Open the Relationships section in the element navigation
3. Click "Add Relationship" at the top of the section
4. Select a relationship type (e.g., "Parent", "Sibling", "Located In")
5. Search and select the target element
6. Click Create

The Relationships Section

When you open a worldbuilding element, the Relationships section shows all connections for that element.

Panel Structure

• Add Relationship button at the top
• Relationship type sections (e.g., "Parent", "Child of", "Sibling")
  • Each type expands/collapses independently
  • Shows count of relationships in that category
  • Lists all relationships of that type

Relationship Cards

Each relationship displays as a card showing:

• Element icon based on the element's template
• Element name as a clickable link
• Delete button to remove the relationship

Click any relationship card to navigate directly to that element.

Bidirectional Nature

When you create a relationship, it appears on both elements:

• Outgoing: Shows on the source element with the primary label
• Incoming (Backlink): Shows on the target element with the inverse label

Example: If you mark "Marcus" as the Parent of "Elena":

On Marcus's page, you see the outgoing relationship:

On Elena's page, you see the incoming backlink:

Relationship Types

All relationship types are defined per-project in Project Settings. Demo templates may include pre-configured types to help you get started.

Creating a Relationship Type

1. Go to Project Settings → Relationship Types
2. Click "New Type"
3. Use the full editor to configure the type (see below)
4. Click Create — the type is saved automatically

Editing a Relationship Type

Click the Edit (pencil) button on any type card to open the full editor with all existing values pre-filled.

Relationship Type Editor

The editor lets you configure every aspect of a relationship type:

Field	Description
Name	Primary (outgoing) label, e.g. "Parent", "Mentor", "Located In"
Inverse label	Backlink label shown on the target element, e.g. "Child of", "Student of"
Show inverse	Toggle whether backlinks appear on the target element
Category	Organises types for sorting — Family, Social, Professional, Location, Timeline, Ownership, Reference, or Other
Icon	Choose from a grid of Material icons (same picker as Tags)
Color	Choose from 16 preset colors (same palette as Tags)
Source — allowed element types	Which element schemas can use this relationship as the source. Toggle "Any element type" for no restriction, or select specific types.
Source — max relationships	Optional cap on how many of this type a source element can have
Target — allowed element types	Which element schemas can be the target. Same options as source.
Target — max relationships	Optional cap on the target side

Duplicating a Relationship Type

Click the Duplicate button on any type card. The full editor opens pre-filled with the original type's data (name gets a "(Copy)" suffix). Modify anything you need, then click Create to save the copy.

Deleting a Relationship Type

Click the Delete button and confirm. Deleting a type does not remove existing relationships that use it — those remain but will no longer be grouped under a named type.

Common Patterns

Category	Primary → Inverse
Family	Parent ↔ Child of, Sibling ↔ Sibling of, Spouse ↔ Spouse of
Social	Friend ↔ Friend of, Mentor ↔ Student of, Employer ↔ Employee of
Location	Located In ↔ Contains, Adjacent To ↔ Adjacent To
Ownership	Owns ↔ Owned By, Member Of ↔ Has Member, Created By ↔ Creator of

Multiple Relationships

An element can have many relationships of different types:

Managing Relationships

Deleting Relationships

To remove a relationship:

1. Find the relationship card in the Relationships section
2. Click the Delete (trash) button
3. Confirm the deletion

The relationship is removed from both elements.

Changing a Relationship

To change a relationship's type or target:

1. Delete the existing relationship
2. Create a new one with the correct type and target

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