History Main / CapitalLettersAreMagic

* More 'official' than 'magic, but ''Literature/{{Cryptonomicon}}'', by Creator/NealStephenson, has a passage in which the main character navigated a small island. It is so small, in fact, that there is only one of most things-hence titles such as 'the Car', 'the Street', and 'the Squeegee'.

** Anything written from the Old Ehlnofey language uses all capital letters. The Ehlnofey were the [[{{Precursors}} Precursor]] race to both [[OurElvesAreBetter Mer (Elves)]] and Men, descended from the pre-creation spirits themselves. Perhaps the most famous word is CHIM, the in-universe concept of [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascending to a Higher Plane of Existence]] where one becomes [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall aware of the nature]] of [[GodOfGods Anu]]'s Dream, but exists as one with it and maintains a sense of individuality. It is always capitalized as such.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci Fi Channel]]'s miniseries ''Series/TheLostRoom'' is based around a series of about one hundred items called Objects that possess strange properties. Objects featured include The Key, The Pen, The Glass Eye and The Bus Ticket.

* White Wolf seems to be in love with this trope, and any RPG they publish will have multiple instances of this. Aside from the ''{{TabletopGame/Exalted}}'' examples already listed above, we have the Beast and Vitae from Vampire, the Wyrm, the Weaver, and the Wyld from Werewolf, the Second Breath and the Wyld again from Exalted, Legend, Fate, Knacks, Birthrights, and Scions from Scion, and numerous other examples.
** Lampshaded in the nWoD ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'' rulebook intro:
--->"Note Important Capital Letters. Mages Use Lots Of Capital Letters."

* ''VideoGame/{{Geneforge}}'': the Shapers create and modify living organisms by Shaping.
* Literature/TheBrightestShadow: Conspicuously not used. Words for magic or other races that are familiar to the protagonists are never capitalized.
* There's actually an American conspiracy theory built around this trope. The United States Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment to it were written and ratified more than seventy-five years apart, during which time the trend towards capitalization of all nouns, regardless of their position in the sentence, fell out of use in UsefulNotes/AmericanEnglish. The theory claims that this change -- specifically, the capitalization of the word "citizen" in the former but not the latter -- was deliberate rather than just AntiquatedLinguistics falling into disuse, and created two separate, legally distinct classes of citizenship. They also make a [[http://activistnyc.wordpress.com/2007/12/24/united-states-corporation-and-the-district-of-columbia-organic-act-of-1871-more-anti-banker-misinfo-disinfo/ big deal about the DC Organic Act of 1871,]] passed soon after the Fourteenth Amendment, that reorganized the government of UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC. From there, the theory claims that it's possible to attain "pre-Fourteenth Amendment" citizenship by filing special forms, granting all sorts of unique freedoms to the point of rendering a person a nation unto himself. Naturally, this isn't true; it's simply that in the 1860s and 70s, we had capitalization rules that were more or less the same as those we have today, while in the 1780s, there were no such rules, and English-speakers just put [[Literature/AmericaTheBook Capitals in the Oddest of Places]].
* Capitals ''can'' have special meaning in the law...but only when the capitals are assigned to a definition. This is because capital letters are one of a few common methods of indicating that a word being used is supposed to be a proper noun referring to a specific thing, rather than a common noun referring to a class of things. To give some common examples (in America anyway):
** One of the most common uses is in contract drafting, where a lot of terms tend to be defined. For instance: When selling a business set up as a corporation, you can do it in two ways, asset sale and stock sale. In the latter, you just sell the stock; in the former, you sell everything the corporation owns to the buyer, with a few critical exceptions, leaving the corporation as a (hopefully) giant pile of money and not much else (when the sale is done, the owners typically dissolve the corporation and take the money and whatever else remains out in proportion to their shares). The reasons to pick one over the other don't concern us; just suffice it to say that asset sales are much more desirable than stock sales. Unfortunately, an asset sale means you're going to need to actually write a contract selling all this crap, and it would be ''tremendous'' pain to recite every time you referred to it. So instead of saying, say, "all the stuff [=TropeCo=] owns, except for this thing and that thing and the other thing and these things and the painting in the CEO's office" every time you refer to what's being sold, you just have a definitions section in which you say "'Assets' means all the stuff [=TropeCo=] owns, except for this thing and that thing and the other thing and these things and the painting in the CEO's office" and just use "Assets" (with a capital "A") ever afterward. This also means that you can talk about "assets" (with a small "a") in other contexts and be clear.
** Courts are wont to use Magic Capitals as well, generally using them for the same reasons. Classic ones are "Plaintiff" and "Defendant," being used in place of the actual names of the plaintiff and defendant in the case, because (1) people reading at home might forget who sued who, (2) sometimes litigants may share the same surname (as with in-family civil disputes or offenses), and (3) sometimes one or the other has a really long or complicated name (particularly when one, the other, or both is a corporation or government agency). The court will usually also define terms if something it would be useful to have shorthand for will appear often, and use capitals to indicate when a defined term is being used. For instance, if Alice sues the Bureau (a state government agency), Charlie and Donna (employees of the government agency), and Edward (a private contractor doing work for the Bureau), the Court may choose to group the Bureau, Charlie, and Donna as "the State Defendants" because they are the government and they might have different rules apply to them (e.g. sovereign immunity) and might have long sections devoted to what the law is respecting them. Also, the State Defendants (see what we did there?) are almost certainly all represented by the state's Attorney General's office, while Edward will have his own lawyer, so they may make different arguments; that means the court may need to address the State Defendants' arguments and those of Edward separately.
** American lawyers and judges will always capitalize the word "Court" whenever it refers to the [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts United States Supreme Court]], even if the full name is not being used. (Example: In ''United States v. Windsor'' [a US Supreme Court case], the Court held..." but "In ''Windsor v. United States'' [a trial court case], the court held..."). They may also capitalize it in reference to their state's highest court, but not always. Also, American lawyers have historically learned that they should always capitalize "court" when referring to the court that they are currently litigating in; i.e. if they write a brief in support of a motion, it should always be "Defendants request the Court to do x," etc.
** This habit is dying out a bit, with some courts dropping most of the capitalization, especially after Brian W. Garner, a leading guru on legal writing (and one of the few people who can say they were friends with both Creator/DavidFosterWallace and Antonin Scalia), declared war on excessive capitalization in the late 1990s/early 2000. However, the legal profession is nothing if not conservative in its habits, and so capitalization persists elsewhere and isn't going anywhere in contract writing.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
** Anything written from the Old Ehlnofey language uses all capital letters. The Ehlnofey were the [[{{Precursors}} Precursor]] race to both [[OurElvesAreBetter Mer (Elves)]] and Men, descended from the pre-creation spirits themselves. Perhaps the most famous word is CHIM, the in-universe concept of [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascending to a Higher Plane of Existence]] where one becomes [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall aware of the nature]] of [[GodOfGods Anu]]'s Dream, but exists as one with it and maintains a sense of individuality. It is always capitalized as such.
** Concepts related to the [[LanguageOfMagic Thu'um]], such as "Voice" and "[[MakeMeWannaShout Shout]]" are capitalized regardless of their placement in a sentence to distinguish them from mundane speech.

* [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci Fi Channel]]'s miniseries ''Series/TheLostRoom'' is based around a series of about one hundred items called Objects that possess strange properties. Objects featured include The Key, The Pen, The Glass Eye and The Bus Ticket.
* {{Wiki Word}}s.

* The Fence of ComicBook/TheAmoryWars is another name for Heaven, where the Prise hang out (another name for angels).

* The <<Sword>>, The <<Blood>>, and to <<See>> in YuriGenre VisualNovel ''VisualNovel/AkaiIto'' and its sort-of sequel ''VisualNovel/AoiShiro''. [[spoiler: The <<Sword>> [[SubvertedTrope has a proper name]] though, it's [[{{Orochi}} Ame-no-Murakumo]].]]
* Doesn't enter the above category for being a group instead of a race: ''Series/{{Lost}}'' has the Others.
* ''VideoGame/OracleOfTao'' does a combination of science and magic, and pre-existing scientific terms are lowercase while that of Magic are uppercase. A magical portal joining two worlds is a Gate, the world of nonbeing is the Void, and Light and Darkness refer to balance of the two (and since it is Taoism-based, they are normally coupled). Then we have various scientific processes like cloning, which are lowercase for the mundane science, and capitalized for Cloning magic. Likewise, when referring to a light or dark room, these two are lowercase. There seem to [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief some inconsistencies in this though]]...
* VideoGame/SupremeCommander has a fictional religion called, "The Way." So does (Gene Roddenberry's) ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'', though it seems like theirs is based on/inspired by Taoism.

* The ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' powerups are always capitalized. It's not a mushroom, it's a Super Mushroom, it's not a fire flower, it's a Fire Flower, etc.
* ''Blog/{{LIS_DEAD}}'' has a fair list of these, from Him to the Agents of the Organization
* '''Magykal''' words in ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'' are always capitalized.
* "The Change" in ''Literature/TheLastDove'' to refer to the ability of all the characters to shapeshift.
* UsefulNotes/{{Christian|ity}}s, and some editions of Literature/TheBible, often capitalize pronouns that refer to {{God}} or UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} to show reverence to Him. Other editions of the Bible drop the practice except to distinguish between God or Jesus and another male character in the same scene.

* The ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' fanfic, ''Fanfic/TheLegendOfTotalDramaIsland'' has a couple of notable cases:
** Cody gets "The Mother Of All Wedgies" as opposed to just any old wedgie.
** One of TheStoryteller's standard epithets for Justin is, "The Embodiment of Manly Beauty".

* In ''Webcomic/ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'', when Elaine [[http://www.arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/1055.htm describes the Holy Grail]], Morgan asks how she talks so the capital letters on "Holy Grail", "Our Lord" "Last Supper" and so on are [[PsmithPsyndrome audible]]. Elaine replies "It's a Gift."
* The German language mostly averts this, by virtue of being the only major language to retain a orthographic convention languages like English used to have: All nouns begin with capital letters. There are thus no proper nouns and only very rarely does the capitalization of any given word mean a thing. However, psychological studies on reading comprehension indicate that the trope applies insofar as German (and even Danish or Dutch that ditched said convention centuries ago) becomes easier to read with the nouns - and only the nouns - capitalized.
* Several of [[VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac The Binding of Isaac's]] bosses, including The Haunt, The Hollow, The Husk, The Wretched, The Frail, The Stain, The Forsaken...

* The credits of ''Series/TwinPeaks'' capitalize ''the entirety'' of the supernatural entities BOB and MIKE to differentiate them from the [[OneSteveLimit unrelated humans that have the same names]].
* In ''VideoGame/CultistSimulator'', stuff tied to the resident {{Eldritch Abomination}}s and mystic principles tends to start with a capital letter - Lantern, Grail, Moth, the Mansus, the Wood, the Watchman.

* In ''VideoGame/ARMS'', the titular allcaps word is used to refer to a mutation that gives people long, stretchy arms, a sport that revolves around boxing with said arms, and the various types of boxing gloves used in the sport, as opposed to regular, non-elastic arms.

* [[VideoGame/VideoGame/SunlessSkies Judgements]]
* [[VideoGame/VideoGame/CultistSimulator The Hours]]

* In general, many TabletopGames use capital letters to distinguish rules and mechanics from other text. That is, the difference between "strength", how physically strong your character is, and Strength, the number on your character sheet that represents their strength mechanically.

* Relatedly, however: Capitals ''can'' have special meaning in the law...but only when the capitals are assigned to a definition. This is because capital letters are one of a few common methods of indicating that a word being used is supposed to be a proper noun referring to a specific thing, rather than a common noun referring to a class of things. To give some common examples (in America anyway):

* Used frequently by Katherine Kurtz in her Literature/{{Deryni}} works to distinguish magically-enhanced things/processes from analogous ordinary ones (healing vs. Healing, veil vs. Veil). Also used in particular phrases coined to describe magical objects and processes, such as Mind Seeing, Truth Reading, Truth Saying, Transfer Portal.

--->''“He didn’t like the sound of Him being back and Him being angry. Whenever something important enough to deserve capital letters was angry in the vicinity of Rincewind, it was usually angry with him.”''

* Storyteller Mark Lewis sometimes remarks that when he first read Literature/WinnieThePooh he noticed that some words were capitalized even though they weren't proper nouns. Much later he asked a British friend why these words were capitalized, and said friend responded "Because they are Important."
* The Franchise/SuperMarioBros powerups are always capitalized. It's not a mushroom, it's a Super Mushroom, it's not a fire flower, it's a Fire Flower, etc.

* People draw a distinction between ideologies and the political parties that have appropriated the names of the ideologies. For example, there are "small-l libertarians" and "big-L Libertarians".
** Occasionally, there is a massive distinction between the party and the ideology from which it gets its name, so the capital makes a huge difference. Compare Republicans and republicans.

* Whenever there is NoNameGiven, but you still need to refer to a specific character, it's a fairly common practice to simply pick a particularly apt description and capitalize it as a Proper Noun ([[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep Barkeep]], for example), either InUniverse or at least in discussion of the work (or in the credits). Expect this to overlap heavily with ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.

** One of TheStoryteller’s standard epithets for Justin is, “The Embodiment of Manly Beauty”.

* By tradition, all sapient species in the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse (up to and including Humans, DependingOnTheWriter).

** ''Discworld/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents'': in one header you find out that Mister Bunnsy finds himself in "the Dark Wood".

** Lampshaded in ''The Truth'', in which there's a comment in the narration that it's usually a sign of SanitySlippage when people start thinking in capitals.

** From ''Discworld/{{Eric}}'':

** Played with in ''Discworld/MenAtArms'', with Gaspode the Wonder Dog's boast about how the Dog Guild won't dare to cross him because he has "the Power". [[spoiler: While this ''sounds'' like it's some great magical secret, it turns out to be the same ability to speak Human that he'd demonstrated since ''Moving Pictures'' ... it's just particularly effective when he uses it to order his fellow dogs to ''"Sit!"''.]]

* The short story "It's Such a Beautiful Day", by Creator/IsaacAsimov, involves a teleportation device known as a "Door". This is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by the mechanic:
-->"That's a door, too, ma'am. You don't give that kind a capital letter when you write it."

* ''Literature/Nightfall1990'': Due to phobias and rarity, dark is often called Dark or Darkness, and used as a curse word for ill-fortune. Other terms are also spoken with capital letters, such as Stars, Cold, and Doom, all associated with the religious fear caused by nightfall.

** CHIM, the in-universe concept of [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascending to a Higher Plane of Existence]] where one becomes [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall aware of the nature]] of [[GodOfGods Anu]]'s Dream but exists as one with it and maintains a sense of individuality, is always capitalized as such.

* There's actually an American conspiracy theory built around this trope. The United States Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment to it were written and ratified more than seventy-five years apart, during which time the trend towards capitalization of all nouns, regardless of their position in the sentence, fell out of use in UsefulNotes/AmericanEnglish. The theory claims that this change -- specifically, the capitalization of the word "citizen" in the former but not the latter -- was deliberate rather than just AntiquatedLinguistics falling into disuse, and created two separate, legally distinct classes of citizenship. They also make a [[http://activistnyc.wordpress.com/2007/12/24/united-states-corporation-and-the-district-of-columbia-organic-act-of-1871-more-anti-banker-misinfo-disinfo/ big deal about the DC Organic Act of 1871,]] passed soon after the Fourth Amendment, that reorganized the government of UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC. From there, the theory claims that it's possible to attain "pre-Fourteenth Amendment" citizenship by filing special forms, granting all sorts of unique freedoms to the point of rendering a person a nation unto himself. Naturally, this isn't true; it's simply that in the 1860s and 70s, we had capitalization rules that were more or less the same as those we have today, while in the 1780s, there were no such rules, and English-speakers just put [[Literature/AmericaTheBook Capitals in the Oddest of Places]].

* From a ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' FanFic: "Capital letters were very useful when dealing with Gaara. They helped to distinguish between sand, which got in your shorts, and [[CallingYourAttacks Sand]], [[DishingOutDirt which could kill you.]]"

* [[Literature/TheBible The Word]], [[Literature/TheBible The LORD]]

* The ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' series uses Capitals frequently to distinguish concepts unique to the titular group from more common definitions. Heralds are not merely royal mouthpieces, but do-anything agents of the Crown. Their Companions are not simply friends or compatriots, but [[CoolHorse equine]] BondCreatures and {{Intellectual Animal}}s, who [[CallToAdventure Choose the Heralds]] for their abilities and IncorruptiblePurePureness, and thereafter call them "Chosen." Their Gifts are not presents or mundane talents, but PsychicPowers. The King (or Queen) and Heir of Valdemar are always referred to as such. Indeed, this trope is powerful in Valdemar that the start of the first book sees the heroines traveling on the Road beside the River.

* The ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' series uses Capitals frequently to distinguish concepts unique to the titular group from more common definitions. Heralds are not merely royal mouthpieces, but do-anything agents of the Crown. Their Companions are not simply friends or compatriots, but [[CoolHorse equine]] BondCreatures and {{Intellectual Animal}}s, who [[CallToAdventure Choose the Heralds]] for their abilities and IncorruptiblePurePureness, and thereafter call them "Chosen." Their Gifts are not presents or mundane talents, but PsychicPowers. The King (or Queen) and Heir of Valdemar are always referred to as such.

** Also, the Covenant's Grunts, Jackals, Drones, Hunters, Engineers, Brutes, Elites, and Prophets, which all have non-English species names anyway[[note]]Unggoy, Kig-Yar, Yanme'e, Lekgolo (with Hunter-type Lekgolo colonies specifically being "Mgalekgolo"), Huragok, Jiralhanae, Sangheili, and San'Shyuum if you're curious[[/note]].

* Originally, [[VideoGame/StarCraft the Zerg and the Protoss]], although they were knocked down to lowercase letters later on, because real-life species names aren't capitalized.

* [[VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} The Light]]

* The Forsaken and the Scourge from ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}''

** American lawyers and judges will always capitalize the word "Court" whenever it refers to the [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts United States Supreme Court]], even if the full name is not being used. (Example: In ''United States v. Windsor'' [a US Supreme Court case], the Court held..." but "In ''Windsor v. United States'' [a trial court case], the court held..."). They may also capitalize it in reference to their state's highest court, but not always. Also, American lawyers should always capitalize "court" when referring to the court that they are currently litigating in; i.e. if they write a brief in support of a motion, it should always be "Defendants request the Court to do x," etc.
** This habit is dying out a bit, with some courts dropping most of the capitalization, but it persists elsewhere and isn't going anywhere in contract writing.

* [[Literature/SeekersOfTheSky The Word]]