Editorial Policy
Drama is what gets readers to the page. The facts decide what stays on it.
What We Publish
EmpiresDiary publishes long-form history episodes about major empires and the turning points that shaped them. The writing is for general readers. The facts come from standard scholarship.
Narrative writing is fine. Pacing, scene-setting, and vivid description belong in good history. Inventing events, quotations, dates, offices, battles, or relationships does not.
Core Standards
- Facts first: Historical claims have to match what reputable scholars or reference sources say.
- No false confidence: When historians disagree, the episode says so. Speculation is not presented as fact.
- Context, not just spectacle: Causes and consequences belong in the story alongside the dramatic moments. Drama on its own is not the point.
- Readable but accountable: The style can be vivid. The dates, names, geography, institutions, and chronology still have to be right.
- Sourcing is shown: Citations and source notes stay with the article so readers can check the work.
Review Process
- The episode begins as an AI draft from a prompt built for educational history writing.
- An automated reviewer reads the draft for factual mistakes, anachronisms, unsupported claims, and weak sourcing.
- If the audit does not pass, the draft is rewritten and audited a second time before it can publish.
- Image prompts come from the same historical brief, which keeps the artwork inside the right period and region.
- Published episodes can be revised later when better sources, reader corrections, or clarifications come in.
What We Avoid
- Made-up dialogue passed off as a real quotation.
- Wrong clothing, architecture, weapons, or symbols in the artwork for a given period.
- Composite characters or compressed timelines treated as literal history without saying so.
- Numbers without sources, especially casualty figures, dates, and economic estimates.
Corrections And Reader Feedback
If a reader spots a factual error, an unclear passage, or a missing piece of context, the corrections page is for sending it in. Valid corrections get applied to the affected page and feed back into how later episodes are written.