GC Quest, "Imperial Devices (Gridania)" -- Text -- Bloisirant's Incorrect Cappings

When the player is outside the Toto-rak dungeon in Gridania, is progressing through the "Imperial Devices (Gridania)" sidequest, and speaks to Bloisirant after having completed the dungeon, the following text appears:

"
Bloisirant: This magitek recording
plate is from the device!? You
must take it to the Adders' Nest
at once! I daresay the First
Serpent Lieutenant would be
eager to have it properly
examined.
"

"
Bloisirant: Hurry back to the
Adders' Nest at once! The First
Serpent Lieutenant will be eager
to hear of all that has
transpired.
"

This is incorrect because the title "First Serpent Lieutenant" is being capitalized in both these lines of text. Throughout the rest of the in-game text, only big titles such as "Admiral" or "Seedseer" have received capitalization. Smaller titles like this should only be capitalized when preceding a name (in this case, "Fulke").

Please fix these issues by replacing both these instances of "First Serpent Lieutenant" with "first serpent lieutenant".

The corrected text would appear as follows:

"
Bloisirant: This magitek recording
plate is from the device!? You
must take it to the Adders' Nest
at once! I daresay the first
serpent lieutenant would be
eager to have it properly
examined.
"

"
Bloisirant: Hurry back to the
Adders' Nest at once! The first
serpent lieutenant will be eager
to hear of all that has
transpired.
"

In case you're tempted to capitalize part of this title (such as "Serpent"—I know I was), it should be noted that these words seem to be lower-cased throughout other parts of the in-game text. For example, "You use a storm tracer" appears when you use one of the Foundation Day fireworks.

Storm tracer describes an object.

First Serpent Lieutenant is a title.

<sigh> You'll notice that things like "the captain" aren't capitalized anywhere in the game, either, and "captain" is a title, too. But you do capitalize it if it immediately precedes someone's name. So, it's "Captain Kirk," but "the captain." That's the style this game uses. It's therefore inconsistent to see "the First Serpent Lieutenant."

I was about to fight this one, but Merm's right. The only time a title is ever capitalized is when its used with a name barring a singular exception.* I guess this one's easily accepted when it comes to military ranks, but starts flame wars when it comes to nobility. It all comes down to "proper noun" or "common noun."

* Back to the exception I mentioned

While not grammatically perfect, you can use the title + name = capitalization rule and not say the name at all, leaving it up to implication. It's vulgar, but you can kind of get away with it if you fight it. For instance, "What do you want, King?" The proper noun is simply implied. (Though, it wouldn't be in the sentence, "What do you want, my king?" etc.)

In this case, we do know that Fulke is being referred to, so it seems like it's a shoe-in for caps because we assume that if we're referring to a specific person holding that title that it's a proper noun. It's not.

This is a military rank; not only can more than one first serpent lieutenant exist over time, more than one first serpent lieutenant can exist AT A TIME. It's a common noun, and the fate is sealed by the word "the."

So:

First Serpent Lieutenant Fulke will be eager ...
First Serpent Lieutenant [Fulke implied] will be eager ...
The first serpent lieutenant will be eager ...

Interesting find. I'd have breezed right over it.

A good point of context that I missed. Thank you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mermentia

Please fix these issues by replacing both these instances of "First Serpent Lieutenant" with "first serpent lieutenant".

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Changed both instances to First Serpent Lieutenant Fulke for even more clarification. Thanks for the find.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Anonymoose

First Serpent Lieutenant Fulke will be eager ...
First Serpent Lieutenant [Fulke implied] will be eager ...
The first serpent lieutenant will be eager ...

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This.