Oriuka

Oriuka is Ukrainavi’s small blue-and-yellow guide bird, living in the margins of our articles. Whenever you stop mid-read and think, “Wait, what’s this?”, Oriuka peeks out from a fold in the page and helps you find where the answer is written.

Profile

Name	Oriuka
Where the name comes from	From oru, the Japanese word for folding paper.
What kind of creature?	A small bird that looks as if it were folded from paper.
Home	The Information Desk at the Fold, just beyond the margins and creases of each article.
Favorite things	Spotting new words, the colors on a map, and the small differences in food and music.
Questions Oriuka always asks	“When was this?” “Whose words are these?” “What exactly does this number count?”
Where to find Oriuka	At the start of articles, before headings, in related-article suggestions, in the Ukrainian dictionary, and on the search page.

What Oriuka looks like

• A round cyan head, folded blue facets, and triangular wings stretched out to either side.
• Big navy eyes and a small yellow beak. Every feeling shows in those eyes right away.
• A yellow breast, an origami-like tail, and tiny feet.

Personality

• Curious, but never a know-it-all. An unfamiliar word gets a tilt of the head; an interesting connection makes those eyes light up.
• Helpful, but never preachy. “Let’s look here first,” Oriuka says, quietly pointing to what to read next.
• Careful, but never gloomy. For Oriuka, checking things is half the fun.
• Just a little impatient. When the urge to rush to an answer kicks in, Oriuka stops and asks: “Really?”

The Information Desk at the Fold

Just beyond the white margins of each article sits a small information desk. Folded paper becomes its walls and paths, and a yellow bookmark marks the spot: “Read this next.” It appears every time you open an article, and slips back into the margin when you’re done.

• The Margin Entrance — a small blue fold at the edge of the page. This is where Oriuka peeks out.
• The Desk — stacked paper and a yellow bookmark. Whatever caught your eye gets shaped into a single question here.
• The Bookmark Trail — thin yellow markers leading on to the text, charts, sources, and related articles.
• The Empty Shelf — where things we don’t know yet stay honestly unknown.

Oriuka in our articles

In our articles, Oriuka asks questions like these. If one catches your interest, go ahead and read on.

Oriuka’s many faces

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  Talking

  “I wonder what this word means here.”

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  Hello

  “Nice to meet you. Let’s read together.”

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  Explaining

  “Pull similar words apart, and the differences start to show.”

• 

  Pointing down

  “The answer seems to be just below.”

• 

  Thinking

  “Was it called the same thing back then?”

• 

  Reading

  “Follow the sources to learn a little more.”

• 

  Reading a map

  “What do the colors on this map mark out?”

• 

  Listening

  “That’s a fair question. Let’s look into it.”

• 

  A word of caution

  “When was this number counted, and what does it count?”

• 

  Looking back

  “Finished reading? Take a moment to look back.”

• 

  Discovering

  “So that’s where they connect.”

• 

  Delighted

  “Food and music get more fun the more you know.”

• 

  Flying on

  “Curious? On to the next article.”

Oriuka’s companions

Oriuka is not alone in the Wayfinding Room in the Folds. Oriuka points the way forward, and four small companions join in: one keeps the way back, one lights up the blank spots, one finds another way in, and one lays out a single path to read. Together they look for the parts of an article worth reading.

• 

  Taburi

  A small paper turtle who leaves markers along the way you came.

  

• 

  Suune

  A paper lantern who lights up what is still unknown, and leaves it blank.

  

• 

  Yorikune

  A paper fox with a folded, zigzag tail who finds one more way in.

  

• 

  Shimero

  A tall, folded paper guide of few words who shows the one path to read first.

  

Where will you meet them?

Now and then, two or three of them talk it over briefly and point to the heading or table where the answer is.

Character	Where you’ll meet
Oriuka	At the start of an article, before a section heading, and next to related articles.
Taburi	Timelines, older names, the order of steps in a procedure, and places where you may want to go back to an earlier section.
Suune	When a figure was counted and under what conditions, what we could not verify, and points where views differ.
Yorikune	Side trips to the dictionary, the notes, and related articles.
Shimero	Long articles, where it helps to narrow things down to the one section to read first, or to a single reading order.

1. 

   Oriuka

   A new article. Where should we start?

2. 

   Taburi

   Let’s look over the headings first. If we get lost, we can go back there.

3. 

   Suune

   Anything still unknown is at the end, under “What we could not verify”.

Like Oriuka, Taburi, Suune, Yorikune and Shimero are Ukrainavi characters created from generated images, and they follow the same promises. The answers are in the text, the figures and the sources; the companions only point to where they are. They do not appear in articles about painful events.

A scene from the story

A fictional scene featuring Oriuka and its companions.

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Oriuka is a Ukrainavi character created from generated images. The Information Desk at the Fold is a place in a story; it does not depict any real place or history. The facts in our articles come from the text and its sources. Oriuka stays out of articles about painful events.