History Main / PhantasySpelling

* {{RuneScape}} has ''both'' Vampires and Vampyres. The two are quite different however; the Vampires are basically human-looking bloodthirsty animals, having little intelligence and are vulnerable to any weapon. The Vamp'''y'''res, on the other hand, are very intelligent and are invulnerable to all but silver weapons. (Or ''unpredictable'' silver weapons, in the case of the Vyrewatch) They(at least the Juvinate-stage ones) also have far more human faces.

* The first vampire novel published in English, ''VarneyTheVampire'' [[http://varney.50megs.com/varney/images.htm spells the word in two ways]]; one cover uses "vampire" while the title page reads "vampyre".
** However, the first vampire ''story'' published in English is called ''The Vampyre'' and uses that spelling exclusively.

[[AC:Fantasy]]

* Discworld parodies this occasionally, not only with the 'vampyres' listed above, but also with 'magick' which is the largely-useless modern attempt at witchcraft done by the younger witches who don't understand what they're doing.

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

* In the latest ''Tomb of Dracula'' series, starring Marvel horror mainstay Blade, it's indirectly implied that a vamp''y''re is comepletely 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.

* ChristopherMoore's ''[[BloodsuckingFiends You Suck: A Love Story]]'' uses ''vampire'' most of the time, but switches to ''vampyre'' for Abby's diaries, to spoof how "gothic" she is.

* As a way of implying ancientness. This is somewhat TruthInTelevision, because before spelling was codified words ''could'' be spelled in a number of different ways, though in modern fantasy it is often gratuitous and may not even reflect the way a word was really spelled in any ancient languages.

* Parody in the "Storyteller" episode of ''{{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}'': "Buffy, Slayer of the Vampyrs". Andrew actually pronounces "Vampyr" slightly differently to make the point, putting the stress on the second syllable rather than the first.

* Parody in the "Storyteller" episode of ''{{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}'': "Buffy, Slayer of the Vampyr". Andrew actually pronounces "Vampyr" slightly differently to make the point.

** Also, in the pilot there was an old-looking book titled ''Vampyre''.

* The first vampire novel published in English, ''[[http://varney.50megs.com/varney/images.htm Varney the Vampire]]'' spells the word in two ways; one cover uses "vampire" while the title page reads "vampyre".

* ChinaMieville's PerdidoStreetStation and sequels employ this trope heavily -- vampirs, chymistry, elyctric elementals...

** And let's not forget "lyons," "sfinxes," and (in the ''FirebringerTrilogy'') "wyches."

* {{Erfworld}} somewhat subverts this by 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"?

* The eponymous demon of Meredith Ann Pierce's ''The Darkangel'' is variously called darkangel, icarus or vampyre.

* ChristopherMoore's ''You Suck: A Love Story'' uses ''vampire'' most of the time, but switches to ''vampyre'' for Abby's diaries, to spoof how "gothic" she is.

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in [[http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=644 this]] strip from QuestionableContent, where Jimbo the trucker plans to write a fantasy novel entitled, "March of the Sword-Princess Leihaephaera".
** "How do you spell that?" "No ****in' clue, lotsa A's and E's I guess."

* [[SoulCalibur Soul Calibur]]

* As a way of implying ancientness, regardless of whether the word is really spelled that way in ancient languages.