User:Gonel/Sandbox

Meta:Capitalization Conventions

Owing to limitations on naming, The LEGO Company frequently avoided creating new titles for characters or concepts that existed in the BIONICLE universe. Because of this, fans often took common descriptions and expressions and used them as proper nouns for reference and shorthand. In order to distinguish between the proper nouns that can be found in canon sources and those that are strictly fan nicknames, the following page has been created.

Bara Magna

Being the furthest removed from the Maori lawsuit, Bara Magna contains few proper nouns for organizations and locations, although expressions frequently get repeated. Interestingly, proper nouns appeared in some instances where fans assumed them and retroactively inserted them when translating The Crossing from Polish and transcribing the podcasts for Riddle of the Great Beings and Sahmad's Tale. As these conflict with all other media, especially that written by Greg, these can be seen as errors. Greg generally remained consistent with his upper and lowercase usage, both with published media and even when interacting with fans online.

All character names are capitalized, as are the words "Zesk," "Vorox," "Agori," "Glatorian," and "Skrall."

All animal species have names found exclusively in the lowercase, with the two exceptions being "Spikit" and "Skopio." These two appear exclusively uppercase except one instance in Empire of the Skrall where Spikit can be seen lowercase. While "iron wolves," "sand bat," and "sand stalker" appear in the uppercase in some online versions of Riddle of the Great Beings, The Crossing, and Sahmad's Tale these were fan manuscripts where proper nouns were assumed and retroactively inserted.

The only instances of an Agori "tribe" being capitalized the Legend Reborn guide and Berix's MNGtBM entry which allude to the "Water tribe." References to Agori elemental tribes are otherwise consistently uncapitalized. Capitalization of "[Element] Agori" is inconsistent (there are a number of instances of "[element] tribe Agori") and "[Element] Glatorian]" is usually lowercase (though it's sometimes more common to see a Glatorian identified by city rather than element) but both expressions are far less frequently used than expected. "Prime Glatorian" and "Second Glatorian" are always capitalized.

The following Bara Magna topics only appear in canon sources in lowercase.

• baterra - Only appears capitalized once in Empire of the Skrall chapter 4 when they discuss the origin of the name. Every other time (including throughout the rest of the story) it is lowercase.
• dune snakes
• dune wolves
• exsidian - Owing to fan transcription errors in The Crossing and Riddle of the Great Beings this can sometimes be seen capitalized in those stories online, but in all published media this is lowercase.
• fire tribe
• ice tribe
• iron wolves - Owing to fan transcription errors Riddle of the Great Beings this can sometimes be seen capitalized in that story online, but in Mata Nui's Guide to Bara Magna this is lowercase.
• jungle tribe
• rock steed
• rock tribe
• sand bat - Owing to fan transcription errors The Crossing this can sometimes be seen capitalized in that story online, but in all other media this is lowercase.
• sand stalker - Owing to fan transcription errors in The Crossing and Riddle of the Great Beings this can sometimes be seen capitalized in those stories online, but in all published media this is lowercase.
• sand tribe
• water tribe - Only appears as "Water tribe" twice in Berix's entry in Mata Nui's Guide to Bara Magna and in the Legend Reborn guide(?). All other instances use "water tribe"

The following words alternate between uppercase and lowercase.

• Bone Hunter - Lowercase in Empire of the Skrall, The Legend Reborn: The Official Movie Guide, Journey's End, and Mata Nui's Guide to the Universe. Uppercase in Raid on Vulcanus and The Legend Reborn. (Erroneously capitalized in the WoH version of JE chapter 5.)

Matoran Universe

Characters and Groups

• Nynrah Ghost - "Nynrah ghost" in The Mutran Chronicles, "Nynrah Ghost" in Dark Mirror (an audio transcript) and The Powers That Be. "Nynrah crafter" in BIA, The Kingdom, and BL10.

Locations

• "Matoran universe" - Owing to fan transcription errors Into the Darkness this can sometimes be seen capitalized in that story online, but in all other media this is lowercase.
• "southern islands" - This region is just as often referenced as "southern lands" and "southern regions"
• "northern continent"/"southern continent" - only one uppercase instance of "Southern Continent" appears on the map in Makuta's Guide to the Universe (even though there is also a fully lowercase instance on the same page).
• "red star" - Entirely consistent in lowercase within Greg's works and responses to fans with the only exception being the fan transcript of Riddle of the Great Beings. The only canonical uppercase instances occur in Nixie's dialogue in the Mata Nui Online Game.

Events

• "Destiny war"

Objects and Weapons

• "Makuta stone"
• "Mata Nui stone"
• "Toa stone" - the only instance of uppercase "Toa Stone" occurs in Makuta's Guide to Bara Magna

Misc

• "the three virtues" - Interestingly the virtues themselves--Unity, Duty, and Destiny--are sometimes capitalized and sometimes not.

To Be Confirmed

• adaptive armor
• airweed
• antidermis
• ash bear
• avohkah* (shows up uppercase once and lowercase once in Makuta's Guide to the Universe, but lowercase in Takanuva's Blog; based on that I think it's lowercase)
• the cord
• Cordak blaster (lowercase b)
• dikapi
• doom viper* (uppercase in Rahi Beasts; lowercase in Reign of Shadows and the Legends books)
• energized protodermis/energized protodermis entity
• frostelus
• hydruka
• keras crab
• kini (on its own)
• klakk
• kolhii (we can infer koli too)
• kraata
• krana (except when a suffix is applied - e.g. "Krana Za" - although the BEU notably makes these lowercase too)
• krana-kal
• Makoki stone (lowercase s)
• Mangai volcano (lowercase v)
• metru (on its own)
• Midak skyblaster* (lowercase s) (bionicle.com has it as uppercase)
• Motara desert (lowercase d; interestingly, listed in the index as just "Motara," but places like "Fau Swamp" have the whole name listed...)
• Nui stone* (uppercase s in The Many Deaths of Toa Tuyet and the serials)
• Nynrah ghost blaster (Lowercase g and s. This is an interesting case since I think the Nynrah Ghosts were canonized after the blaster. This led to weird situations, like in Federation of Fear, BL10, and BL11 when they're called just a "ghost blaster." Maybe people in the MU didn't know they were named after the Nynrah Ghosts. I bet if we asked Greg about this now, he'd say it's properly "Nynrah Ghost blaster" with a capital g.)
  • A couple times in BL10 it's just called a "Nynrah blaster"
• protodax
• protodermis
• protodites
• protosteel
• Rhotuka launcher, Rhotuka spinner (lowercase l, s)
• rock worm
• shadow leech
• time slip
• Toa seal (lowercase s)
• Toa stone (lowercase s)
• treespeak (we can infer chutespeak too)
• Tridax pod (lowercase p)
• Visorak venom (second v is lowercase)
• wahi (on its own)
• zamor sphere, zamor sphere launcher

Words you might expect to be improper nouns, but aren't:

• Charred Jungle (though once referenced as "Charred Forest" in the BEU lavaboards entry)
• Cliff Village
• Fau Swamp
• Fenrakk
• Gadunka
• Gukko bird
• Hahnah crab
• Kanoka
• Kardas
• Kavinika
• Kikanalo
• Knowledge Towers
• Manas crab
• Maxilos
• Morbuzakh
• Nektann (referring to the robots)
• Nui-Jaga
• Nui-Rama (spelled Nui Rama in the book)
• Nui-Kopen wasp
• Rahi
• Tahtorak
• Takea shark
• The Shadowed One (uppercase T)
• Ussal crab
• Vahki
• Zyglak

* Names that have shown up as proper nouns in other canon media at some point. Not an exhaustive list.

Note from Morris: I've found that the written serials are surprisingly consistent with the capitalization outlined above, but they seem inconsistent because the transcribed podcasts keep everything capitalized. For example, "kolhii" is lowercase in Reign of Shadows, a written serial, but it's uppercase in Dark Mirror. That's not because Greg was inconsistent, it's because Dark Mirror was transcribed by us (now fixed). It's similar for other words too, like "kraata."

To be checked (though the possibility exists that an exception may be found, transferring it to the other list below)

• Toa code? Haven't fully looked into this one.
• A number of Toa weapons also only appear lowercase.