History Main / PhantasySpelling

* [[RuleOfCool It looks]] [[XtremeKoolLetterz Kool]]

Common words spelled this way are "magic", "vampire", "fairy", and "fantasy", among others. See also MyNaymeIs, XtremeKoolLetterz, HeavyMetalUmlaut, TheBackwardsR, PunctuationShaker, AVillainNamedZrg and LawOfAlienNames. Depending on the word, the author may instead decide that CapitalLettersAreMagic.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', knights are "Ser" not "Sir". The ''Franchise/DragonAge'' series, much influenced by ASOIAF, does the same thing.

** Or even, [[FanNickname on rare occasions]], [[VideoGame/DwarfFortress "dorfs"]].

* The darkangels of Meredith Ann Pierce's ''Literature/TheDarkangelTrilogy'' is variously called darkangel, icarus or vampyre. As it turns out, a darkangel is a [[spoiler: human boy adopted by [[BigBad the witch]], raised as her son ''and'' lover. Eventually she drains his blood, gives him his wings, and gilds his heart with lead before sending him out to collect some souls for Mommy. When he succeeds, he flies home, Mommy drinks the souls like shots, as well as his own soul, which will make him a complete darkangel.]]

** Supplementary sources state that J.R.R. Tolkien discovered too late that "dwerrow" was an acceptable plural for "dwarf". Had he known that earlier he said he would have used it, and avoided the "dwarfs/dwarves" question. (''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' used "dwerrow" for their race of "dark dwarfs/dwarves".) He realized too late for ''Literature/TheHobbit'', but in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' he did use "Dwarrowdelf" as a translation for ''Khazad-Dûm''.

* Parodied in ''Literature/CarpeJugulum'':

* One ''Franchise/{{Blade}}'' series implies that vampires and vampyres are actually different things.

* Most ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' games use "fairy," but the original version of ''VideoGame/ALinkToThePast'' used "faerie." The GBA remake went back to "fairy."

* In Literature/WickedLovely, they are commonly referred to as the fey, one on it's own is a faery. The world is faerie.

* Both ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheDreaming'' and TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost go for "faerie" or "fae." In ''Lost'', it's divided up amongst "faerie/fae," lowercase (to refer to all things that draw power from the Wyrd), "Faerie," uppercase (to refer to [[EldritchLocation Arcadia]]) and "the True Fae" (to refer to [[TheFairFolk the Gentry]]).

* The older 8-bit ''{{Phantasie}}'' game series.

* In the 2004 ''Comicbook/TheTombOfDracula'' mini-series, starring Marvel horror mainstay Blade, it's indirectly implied that a vamp''y''re is completely different from a vamp''i''re. From the context, they're apparently analogous to the real life vampire subculture, except they hobnob with actual vampires and are really obnoxious about it.

** TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 in an odd mix of sci-fi and fantasy. Orks ''vs.'' Orcs, Psykers ''vs.'' Psychics — and Daemons ''vs.'' Demons.(Daemon is the Latin spelling, which is understandable here because the Imperial High Gothic language is CanisLatinicus. Of course, TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy likewise.) The Eldar and Dark Eldar make liberal use of peculiar spellings: Vyper hover-tanks, Wych cults, Haemonculi...

* ''{{Webcomic/Erfworld}}'' somewhat subverts this by [[ElmuhFuddSyndwome replacing many an 'r' with a 'w']], resulting in gwiffons, dwagons and spidews. When the protagonist makes note of this and asks if it shouldn't be "dragon" instead, the other characters seem to be quite weirded out by these "incredible stupid words" and state that they "really don't want to know what you call spidews in Stupidworld or whatever you call it". Note that "erf" sounds slightly like "earth". "earthworld"?

* Sometimes this applies even outside of the fantasy genre. In the FourX strategy game ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion II'', there is an energy weapon called a "phasor", an obvious {{Shout Out}} to ''Franchise/{{Star Trek}}'''s "phaser".

* ''Nosferatu the Vampyre'', the 1979 remake of ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}''.

* Don't forget about "Dwarfs ''vs.'' Dwarves" and "Elven ''vs.'' Elfin ''vs.'' Elvish".

** The ''Elfs'' roleplaying game notes that during their culture's GoldenAge, elfs "spelled their plural differently".

* Parody in the "Storyteller" episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': "Buffy, Slayer of the Vampyrs". Andrew [[AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLABle actually pronounces "Vampyr" slightly differently]] to make the point, putting the stress on the second syllable rather than the first.

* Also parodied in ''Discworld/CarpeJugulum'':

** Also "Wizzard", but that was an [[RougeAnglesOfSatin in-universe spelling error]] on Rincewind's part. It becomes a plot point in ''Discworld/InterestingTimes'' when Unseen University is instructed to send "a Great Wizzard" and because there's only one wizard who spells it like that, [[ButtMonkey they send him]]. (The use of a different spelling for differentiation actually kind of applies. Rincewind is not like most wizards. Mainly, [[IneptMage he can't do any actual wizardry]].)

* In ''MagicTheGathering'', it's faeries.

Common words spelled this way are "magic", "vampire", "fairy", and "fantasy", among others. See also MyNaymeIs, XtremeKoolLetterz, HeavyMetalUmlaut, TheBackwardsR PunctuationShaker, AVillainNamedZrg and LawOfAlienNames. Depending on the word, the author may instead decide that CapitalLettersAreMagic.

* Another parody in ''ComicBook/Preacher'': Cassidy calls an exceptionally pretentious fellow vampire a "wanker", and the latter assumes it's an archaic variant of the word vampire.

* Also lampshaded in Creator/KimNewman's Literature/DiogenesClub story "The Gypsies in the Wood", featuring a series of children's stories about faeries (including ''The Aerie Faerie Annual''). One character rhetorically asks what's wrong with the word "fairy".

* ''Literature/RedMoonRising'': Werewulves instead of "[[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolves]]"

* ''Literature/RedMoonRisingMoore''
** Vampyres instead of "[[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]]"
** Werewulves instead of "[[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolves]]"

* ''Literature/RedMoonRising'' has, in addition to the above vampyres, were'''u'''lves.

* ''Literature/RedMoonRising'' has vampyres.