History Main / CapitalLettersAreMagic

One of the hardest parts of making a fantasy or science fiction world can be names. Not just for people, but for metaphysical concepts, alien races or awe-inspiring devices/weapons. When writers don't want to make up a new word, they'll often take a short, evocative term and capitalize it. We get a lot of tropes this way as well, such as the TheLoad and TheChick. [[hottip:*:(Of course, some of that's due to the wiki software's conventions).]]

* TheFairFolk being from European folklore makes this OlderThanDirt.

* Gregory Maguire's ''{{Wicked}}'' makes an important distinction between animals and [[FunnyAnimal Animals]].

* the ''KnightAndRogueSerie'' has Gifts, which give people the ability to detect potentially dangerous wild magic, as well as a slew of other randomaly assorted unreliable abilities such as knowing if your in danger (which can be anything from being stalked to having your aunt trying to arrange your marriage) or taming animals.

* [[FineStructure The Script]]

-->''"The door was the way to... to...''
-->''The Door was The Way.''
-->''Good.''
-->''Capital letters were always the best way of dealing with things you didn't have a good answer to."''

-->--'''The Electric Monk''', ''[[DirkGently Dirk Gently's]] Holistic Detective Agency''

Compare TheHorror and TheTropeWithoutATitle. Contrast CallARabbitASmeerp, which is putting fantastical names to common things. A popular alternative is PhantasySpelling, though such terms are often also capitalized.

Alongside ordinary words that take on special new meanings, neologisms are frequently capitalized as well. If fantasy characters talk about smeerps instead of Smeerps, then it may throw the reader off as much as reading about someone who breeds Rabbits. (Even if these characters are Smeerp farmers who wouldn't think of the animals as "special", and who also ride lower-case horses.) Better-established concepts, such as dragons or vampires, don't get this treatment. It seems that lowercase words feel more orthodox and "official", and it therefore feels incorrect for a fictional world to have a "new" one without the characters somehow noticing that something is different.

In real life, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademark genericized trademarks]] are an example of the effect and its disappearance; people start out talking about Zeppelins and Kleenex and, once the product becomes more everyday, think of their stuff as band-aids and popsicles.

* [[KeysToTheKingdom Nothing]]

* The <<Sword>>, The <<Blood>>, and to <<See>> in GirlsLove VisualNovel ''AkaiIto'' and its sort-of sequel ''AoiShiro''. [[spoiler: The <<Sword>> [[SubvertedTrope has proper name]] though, it's [[{{Orochi}} Ame-no-Murakumo]].]]

->''The door was the way to... to...''
->''The Door was The Way.''
->''Good.''
->''Capital letters were always the best way of dealing with things you didn't have a good answer to.''
-->-'''The Electric Monk''', ''[[DirkGently Dirk Gently's]] Holistic Detective Agency''

One of the hardest parts of making a fantasy world can be names. Not just for people, but for metaphysical concepts, alien races or awe-inspiring devices/weapons. When writers don't want to make up a new word, they'll often take a short, evocative term and capitalize it. We get a lot of tropes this way as well, such as the TheLoad and TheChick.

Alongside ordinary words that take on special new meanings, neologisms are frequently capitalized. If fantasy characters talk about smeerps instead of Smeerps, then it may throw the reader off as much as reading about someone who breeds Rabbits. (Even if these characters are Smeerp farmers who wouldn't think of them as "special" and who also ride lower-case horses.)

** The series does have a few examples of these. There's the Trace (a term which, interestingly, only comes up a good deal ''after'' the concept has been well established). Places can be made Unplottable, words can be Tabooed, and people Stunned. In most cases, though, novel magical concepts/devices will be capitalized ''and'' a made-up word, such as Occlumency (not, say, Clouding). Or a pre-existing word, such as squib or [[GoldenSnitch snitch]], will be used in so unrelated a manner that it feels like a made-up word. The capitalization trend doesn't apply when it's something Rowling didn't invent: wands and dragons versus Time-Turners and Thestrals.

Ideally, this will give the concept a simple, descriptive name that doesn't sound too dopey. Unfortunately, this can cause [[WhosOnFirst hiccups]] when they want to use the word in its usual sense, and often leads to eye-rolling from jaded fantasy fans.

* From a Naruto FanFic: "Capital letters were very useful when dealing with Gaara. They helped to distinguish between sand, which got in your shorts, and Sand, which could kill you."

** Also the Grunts, Jackals, Drones, Hunters, Engineers, Brutes, Elites, and Prophets (which all have non-English names anyway (Unggoy, Kig-Yar, Yanme'e, Mgalekgolo (Lekgolo being colonies not integrated into suits or machines), Huragok, Jiralhanae, Sangheili, and San 'Shyuum if you're curious)).

Compare TheHorror. Contrast CallARabbitASmeerp, which is putting fantastical names to common things. A popular alternative is PhantasySpelling, though such terms are often also capitalized.

-->''Note Important Capital Letters. Mages Use Lots Of Capital Letters''
-->-'''Arctos, Mage The Awakening'''

->''"a thing isn't that bad. a Thing is."''
-->'''[[BillyVsSNAKEMAN Al McMasters]]'''

-->'"Note Important Capital Letters. Mages Use Lots Of Capital Letters"-Arctos, Mage The Awakening''