Linking
As you write, GMTales recognises article names and turns them into links, so most links cost you nothing.
How GMTales Finds Links
When you save, GMTales scans the text for other articles' titles, aliases, and the parts of comma-separated titles. Every match becomes a link and records an article relation. Matching is case-insensitive.
If an article titled "Greyhaven" exists, the mention links to it, and this article appears among Greyhaven's backlinks.
Auto-linking runs everywhere prose is written: articles, notes, and image descriptions. Only an article's own prose records relations, so only it feeds backlinks and the graph. A link in a note or an image description is drawn the same way but stores nothing. In a World, a save also records relations to articles in the world's other campaigns, which is what puts cross-campaign edges in the graph.
Comma-Separated Titles
A comma in a title separates parts of a name, and every part is a name the article answers to. File a character as Ashford, Halden and the article sorts under the surname while still being found by either half:
All three mentions there link to the same article. Ashford, Halden is matched by four names: the title as written, "Ashford", "Halden", and the parts in natural order, "Halden Ashford".
Titles with more parts work the same way. Ashford, Halden, the Younger is matched by each of its three parts, and by the full reversal, "the Younger Halden Ashford".
Each part is matched wherever it stands as a whole word, so a part that is also a name elsewhere in the campaign matches more than you mean. A character filed as Downs, Skell claims every mention of "Downs", the region the party is crossing included. Where the whole title appears in a passage, it wins the link, so "Ashford, Halden" in prose becomes one link rather than two.
Aliases
The alias directive declares alternative names for an article:
Any of those names in another article's text now links here:
Commas separate the names, and spaces around them are trimmed, so an alias cannot itself contain a comma; a name with a comma in it belongs in the title, where the comma splits parts.
Disambiguation and Priority
When several articles could match the same phrase, the priority is:
Title (highest)
Alias
Part of a comma-separated title (lowest)
A village article titled Halden therefore takes every mention of "Halden", even though Ashford, Halden answers to that name too.
If several matches share the same priority, the link leads to a disambiguation page listing the candidates so the reader can choose. Two characters of the same house share their surname at the same rank, so "Ashford" on its own lands here:
To spare readers the disambiguation page for an important article, keep its title unique or link it explicitly by key.
Specificity
When matches overlap in the same passage, the longer match wins. With articles "Stonewatch" and "Battle of Stonewatch", the phrase "Battle of Stonewatch" links to the battle, not the fortress.
Keys for Explicit Linking
A key is a stable reference that survives title changes:
Link to it with standard Markdown link syntax:
Article Relations
Every link stores a relation between the source and target articles. Relations power backlinks and the graph view.
Relations Keep Themselves Current
A save looks both ways. GMTales scans the article you saved for other articles' names, and it scans the campaign for prose that names the article you saved.
That means you never have to go back and re-save anything to make a link appear:
Give an article a new alias, and every mention of that alias already written elsewhere becomes a link to it.
Rename an article, and the links pointing at it follow the new name.
Write a new article, and prose that already named it links to it as soon as you publish.
Change who may read an article, and the links pointing at it narrow or widen with it.
Visibility of Relations
A relation is visible to the readers who can see both of its ends:
A restricted target restricts the relation the same way.
A mention that appears only inside a secret block restricts the relation to that block's audience. Where a name is mentioned both openly and in a secret, the open mention decides.
If both apply, the relation is readable by whoever satisfies both. Where nobody does, no relation is recorded at all, and where either side is yours alone, so is the relation.