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Citations and The Master Chief Omnibus

From Halopedia, the Halo wiki

Front cover art without logos.
The front cover for The Master Chief Omnibus.
The back cover for The Master Chief Omnibus.
Cover art spread for The Master Chief Omnibus.

Hey everyone!

With the release of Halo: The Master Chief Omnibus just around the corner, we wanted to take the time to discuss how the book re-release affects Halopedia, and how it affects you. In short, not much. In long, noooooooooooooooott muuuuuuuuuuuuchhhhhhhhh.

In all seriousness, the Omnibus represents the most comprehensive re-edit for the original trilogy of Halo novels since they released. If you missed the news, three of the admins from this website's very staff team—myself, CIA391, and TheArb1ter117—got given the incredible opportunity to assist the writers from Halo Studios in working on the book, so we've had time to discuss (behind the scenes) how to prepare, and we've done some prep behind the scenes to make the transition as easy as possible.

The technical part

Canon

Main article: Halopedia:Canon policy

Nothing much is changing here from how we usually operate. In general, newer information overrides the old, so for editing purposes, Omnibus information should be considered definitive over prior editions of the book. One thing that is worth noting though, is that in instances where significant changes have been made, these should be noted in a page's Production notes section.

Additionally, we aim to have specific pages tracking the changes across the books. These are linked below; all contributions to them are welcome!

Lists of appearances

When tracking appearances lists, things that only appear in the new Omnibus can be noted with a specific template: {{MCOo}}. For example:

Sourcing

Back in 2020, we introduced a new citations system that uses premade templates to format citations across the site. As part of this, we standardised that all novel citations should use chapter numbers instead of page numbers. Given the variety of Halo book formats across regions, languages, publishers, and audio and digital release formats, page numbers are too unreliable to be a workable solution. Here's what that looks like:[1]

  1. ^ Halo: First Strike, chapter 5

By standardising citations across the site to a predefined template, we also gained the ability to easily induce mass changes across thousands of pages at once, significantly decreasing workload for all editors and staff. To prepare for the upcoming Omnibus, we've done exactly that. Over the past few days we've rolled out an update for our {{Ref/Novel}} template that adds a field where a user can specify the edition of the book they are referencing. This field is currently only designed for use on citations that affect The Fall of Reach, The Flood, and First Strike; given September's news about mass layoffs at Halo Studios, it seems unlikely any other books in the series will get significant reissues like the ones this trilogy has had over the years.

As of now (writing a few days before the Omnibus' official release), all citations for the original novel trilogy have been updated, as to note which edition of the book is being cited—for the vast, vast majority, this being the 2010/11 Definitive Editions that have been standard for some time now. As such, all citations for these books across the site will look something like this:[1]

  1. ^ Halo: First Strike (Definitive Edition), chapter 5

In total, we have three specific kinds of Edition set up in the template for citation purposes. These are not ultra-granular, but instead represent the major re-edits the books have had over the years; the original 2001-2003 releases, the 2010-2019 Definitive Editions, and the 2026 Omnibus Editions. This aims to strike a balance between informativeness (a genuine need to know which pages are updated) and avoiding overdetail (specific publisher/year information which can clutter articles).

To cite one of these editions, simply write out the following:

{{Ref/Novel|HFS|Edition=DE|Chapter=5}}

To change the specific edition being cited, change the |Edition= parameter to one of the following:

  • OG or Original - the original 2001-2003 release of the book.
  • DE or Definitive - the 2010-11 Definitive Editions
  • TMCO or Omnibus - cites the 2026 Master Chief Omnibus editions
  • Gallery - this is not expected to be used in most instances, but exists to cite the unique Gallery Books editions of Halo: New Blood, Halo: Battle Born and Halo: Meridian Divide.

The Help:References pages has been updated accordingly to assist with this. Please get in touch either on-site or via Discord if you need help!

Thanks for your time. BaconShelf (talk) 09:51, November 6, 2026 (UTC)
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