I always spell Morrowind and Daggerfall with a capital as they are place names. But I spell oblivion and arena lower case, because it is a realm, or a description.

Like I would spell Derbyshire with a capital, but limbo not.

My question is, is this correct? Should I spell oblivion otherwise?

I know its a bit nitpicky, but I really want to know. What is the general consensus on this please?

In English proper nouns are generally capitalized so it should be Oblivion and Arena.

If you are discussing a female monarch generally the term you would use is queen, lowercase. However if you are discussing Elizabeth II specifically she would be referred to as a Queen, uppercase. The same works with book and game titles: you travel to the arena to see gladiators but the first game in the Elder Scrolls series is Arena.

"Nouns name people, places, and things. Every noun can further be classified as common or proper. A proper noun has two distinctive features: 1) it will name a specific [usually a one-of-a-kind] item, and 2) it will begin with a capital letter no matter where it occurs in a sentence." <- what google said on alien concept of 'proper noun'

Ok that makes sense, but the proper noun bit seems to be a kind of recursive circle. It has a capital letter because it is a proper noun and its a proper noun because its capitalised.

Ok, so.. a queen is lower cased but the Queen is not, games are capitalised because they are proper nouns.
So Arena and Oblivion when I refer to the games, but arena/ oblivion when I refer to the description of Tamriel/ realm.
Ok.

Thanks

Not really a loop, since if 1 isn't true (that it names a specific entity or thing) and the noun is being used as a common noun, then you have improper capitalization.

'improper capitalisation'
At this point I feel its helpful to mention I do all my spelling from a sort of 'internal feeling if it looks right'
and 90% of the time im right.
I guess Im just not that much of a rule absorber. I remember in school I couldnt make heads nor tails of grammar as it was so arbitrary. I think I survived on parroting and making up my own rules.

Im sorry but I dont understand your explanation.
Does it say: If you name a specific thing. (i.e. the queen.) but its used in an unofficial way, ( the queen of Norway) then you do not capitalize?
But that doesnt negate the loop of a proper noun is capitalised cause a capitalisation is a proper noun.

I think I may have to post this question on a language site. It may not be the place for this here.
Anyway, from now on Ill spell the game Oblivion with a capital, but the realm lower case and that was my question

In America, It's capitalization.


The capitalization of proper nouns is an indicator that it's a proper noun. What actually makes it a proper noun is that it names a specific thing.

Right!
So a queen of Norway as opposed to the Queen of Norway!
I get it now, thanks .. I hope.. Ill remember, but well, guesstimating worked for 20 odd years so..

In regards to "arena/oblivion" when speaking about places and realms in Tamriel, you would still use Oblivion as it is the name of the realm, and as such is a proper noun. Arena, however, as 'arena' would be fine, unless referring to a specific place that is colloquially referred to as "Arena." For instance, the arena in the Imperial City could just be called the Arena. I do not know if it is, but that is how it would be.

Actually, even then it'd be lowercase. It's the difference between saying "I went into the city today" and saying "I went into the City today." The former implies the city nearby, while the latter implies that there is a city that you can refer to as a specific place simply by referring to it as a city (New York City, usually).

Though, it is capitalized when used in the context of the Arena-Mundex-Terrene, because it is referring to the mortal realm and implicitly separating it from the Waters of Oblivion (again, capitalized to delineate itself from Mundus and Aetherius).

Proper Nouns. ACK!

"Tamriel" means "arena". The early settlers of Tamriel named as such, and to them is basically "The Arena". Because of that, shouldn't Arena be capitalized? It's not "an arena", it's "the Arena". That's what it's named, and names are pronouns, and as such it should be "Arena".

Unless I missed something, whether misread or you were replying to someone else, in which case I apoologize (lol), but if you were to me, I feel as if you made my case stronger. The arena has no official name that I am aware of. And there's only one in Cyrodiil, I think. So you could use both, saying the arena (referring to the Arena yet not stating as a name), or the Arena, referring to the Imperial City arena.

So it is capitalised because its a proper noun, and what makes is a proper noun is that it names a specific, rather than a generic. This is Dog, he is my dog.
Its confusing, but Im glad I now know how to spell Oblivion.
Thanks guys

(Lord, how did I get into a semantics argument?) There [was] an arena in Kvatch. But, regardless in that case, arena described the place, it didn't name it. The city I live in has an arena. We colloquially call 'the arena'. It's name is 'The [insert sponsor's name who I forget here] Colosseum.' In the case of the Imperial City, it's the 'Imperial City Arena.' You can shorten it to 'the Arena', but then you risk confusing it with 'The Arena', which is the mortal realm. So for simplicity's sake, it should be used as the describer 'the arena' instead of a shortened name.

So yes, you're right, but for simplicity's sake, you're wrong.

^ That's correct. It's more confusing in a fictional setting like TES, too, because of all the abstract beings and locations whose names have no single or obvious source or context.

I just wish more people would put apostrophes in the right places.

Oops. I'm only human. I mean daedra.

Tamriel means Dawn's Beauty and Starry Heart. Mundus means Arena.

I thought semantics was your guilty pleasure, coming after chaos?

Love being right and wrong at the same time, lol. And I get what you mean. I had to argue it, though. Though, at the same time, while it may become confusing to some, both can be used, the arena and the realm. And 'the Arena' can be confused with 'The Arena", too. Lol but now I am just becoming a troll and being rude to you, for which I apologize, lol. I am not like this normally, but I like you. May I be allowed to be a servant (slave) of yours?

But seriously, the annoying joke of arguing aside, I completely agree with you.

That sounds correct to me. I always capitalize Oblivion because it refers specifically to the realm of Oblivion, so it's the name of a specific place, there are not multiple different oblivions, there's just Oblivion, so it should be capitalized for the same reason Mundus would be. Plus, all in-game text I've seen writes it as Oblivion, as far as I can recall. I'd do the same with Arena, if using it to refer specifically to the Elder Scrolls setting, not that I'd do so, that's just silly, why would you call your world "Arena", unless it's actually used as an arena by some sort of interstellar empire? Plus it's confusing, one could easily assume you're refering to the arena in the Imperial City, or in Vivec, or any other arena in existence. That sort of confusion doesn't exist when one says Nirn or Mundus or Tamriel or whatever. Now if you're refering to an actual arena, it depends, if it can just mean any arena, then lower case works fine, but now for the Imperial City Arena or the Arena Canton in Vivec, it would generally be customary to capitalize it.

Things start to get more confusing if you find a word that seems to be sometimes capitalized and other times not, like daedra/Daedra.

Why would you call your world "Earth", unless it was actually made of nothing but mud?

Because you named it after a woman?