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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"There are three hundred [stories on this site] with the word "chronicles", more if you include misspellings, almost as many with "begins" and "beginning", and god knows how many "Character Name"'s whatever. There are almost five hundred with "legend". There are over eight hundred with "journey", seven hundred and fifty with "story", two hundred with "quest", and nine hundred and fifty with "adventure". [...] What I'm getting at here is that you want to choose an original title that has to do with your story in particular, not something that indicates it's yet another story [...]."''|Farla, on this trope's usage in ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' fan fiction}}
It's not easy coming up with a compelling title for a story, especially if you are trying to convey the idea that the story is big, somehow important. A title that is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|too blunt]], à la ''[[Snakes on a Plane]]'', might work for a comedy, but for drama, high adventure, and anything that tries to be important, there needs to be something else. Something that sounds meaningful.
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Incidentally, an easier way to come up with a title is "The Dark (Noun)". For instance: ''The Dark Cushion'', ''The Dark Burrito'', ''[[The Dark Tower]]'', etc.
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==▼
* ''[[Naruto]] Shippuden'' sometimes translates to ''[[Naruto]]: Hurricane Chronicles''.▼
** "Hurricane Chronicles" is the ''literal'' translation of "Shippuuden". Well, "Legend" if you want to be more specific.▼
* ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]] Chronicles'', a Pokemon spin-off with secondary characters as protagonists.▼
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', for trying to pack as much quasi-religious atmosphere into a three word title as humanly possible.▼
* This is very common in ''[[Pokémon]]'' fan fiction, with the words "Pokémon", "chronicles", "beginning", "[[Original Character|Character Name]]'', "legend", "journey", "story", "quest", "adventure", "saga", "region", "champion" and the names of the series' regions all occur in hundreds of different fics.▼
* Film adaptations of this sort of thing used to avert this trope for fear of [[Sci Fi Ghetto|"alienating mainstream audiences"]]. Nowadays, they play it straight using the title of the original work, or even [[Colon Cancer|err in the opposite direction]]. Examples not mentioned above include:▼
* ''[[The Dark Crystal]]''▼
* ''[[Reign of Fire]]''▼
== Literature ==
* ''The Chronicles of [[Narnia]]''
** To be fair a lot of this trend comes from the publishers rather then the authors. For example ''The Magician's Nephew'' was originally supposed to be the less flashy title "Polly and Digory" but it was renamed by the publisher.
* ''The [[Dragonlance]] Chronicles''. Oh, where to begin... ''The Dark Disciple Trilogy'': ''Amber and Ashes'', ''Amber and Iron'', ''Amber and Blood''; ''The War of Souls Trilogy:'' ''Dragons of a Fallen Sun'', ''Dragons of a Lost Star'', ''Dragons of a Vanished Moon''; ''The Lost Chronicles'': ''Dragons of the Dwarven Depths'', ''Dragons of the Highlord Skies'', ''Dragons of the Hourglass Mage'' (not released); ''Dragons of Autumn Twilight'', ''Dragons of Winter Night'', ''Dragons of Spring Dawning'', ''Dragons of Summer Flame''.
** Also by Weis and Hickman, ''[[The Death Gate Cycle]]'', comprising ''Dragon Wing'', ''Elven Star'', ''Fire Sea'', ''Serpent Mage'', ''The Hand of Chaos'' and ''The Seventh Gate''.
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* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'': ''A Game of Thrones'', ''A Clash of Kings'', ''A Storm of Swords'', ''A Feast for Crows'', ''A Dance With Dragons''
* ''The [[Sword of Truth]]'': ''Wizard's First Rule'', ''Stone of Tears'', ''Temple of the Winds'', ''Soul of the Fire'', ''Faith of the Fallen'', ''Naked Empire''
* The ''[[Belgariad]]'' and ''Mallorean'' books.
** And ''[[The Elenium]]'' and the ''Tamuli''.
* ''[[The Bartimaeus Trilogy]]'': ''The Amulet of Samarkand'', ''The Golem's Eye'', and ''Ptolemy's Gate''
* ''[[Dragaera]]'': ''The Paths of the Dead'' and ''The Lord of Castle Black''
* ''[[The Dark Tower]]''
* ''[[Discworld]]'': ''The Colour of Magic'', ''Sourcery'' ([[Just for Pun|yay puns]]!), ''Witches Abroad'', ''Lords and Ladies'', ''Thief of Time'', ''Troll Bridge'' (short story)
* The Farseer Trilogy: ''Assassin's Apprentice'', ''Royal Assassin'', and ''Assassin's Quest''
* Referenced in [[Thursday Next|''The Well of Lost Plots'']], where the unfinished fantasy novel set apart as a literary wildlife reserve (with many poor abandoned unicorns) is called ''The Sword of the Zenobians''
* ''[[Dragonriders of Pern]]''
* ''[[Shannara]]'' series:
** ''First King of...''
** ''Sword of...''
** ''Elfstones of...'' arguably comes under "gems", and certainly under [[MacGuffin]]
** ''Wishsong of...''
** ''Elf Queen of...''
** ''Druid of...'' (Druid/druidry isn't mentioned in the list of magic users above, but it's the same principle)
** ''Talismans of...''
** The three novels in ''Voyage of the Jerle Shanarra'' are all named after the [[Big Bad]] and the first one has "Witch" in the title as well.
** As is the last novel in the ''High Druid of...'' trilogy. The others are named after a parallel world (country) and a magic tree ([[MacGuffin]]).
** ''Dark Wraith of...''
* Many ''[[Forgotten Realms]]' novels, especially RA Salvatore's ''Drizzt'' series:
** ''[[The Icewind Dale Trilogy]]: The Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver, The Halfling's Gem''
** ''[[Legacy of the Drow Series]]: Siege of Darkness''
** ''Paths of Darkness: The Silent Blade, The Spine of the World, Servant of the Shard, Sea of Swords''
** ''The Hunter's Blades: The Thousand Orcs, The Lone Drow, The Two Swords''
** ''The Sellswords: Promise of the Witch-King''
** ''Transitions: The Orc King, The Pirate King, The Ghost King''
* ''[[Harry Potter]]'' and the...well, all seven of them, really, though I grant you Azkaban's borderline because it's a prison, not a country.
* Double points for Tamora Pierce's ''Trickster's Queen'', as the Trickster is a god.
** A lot of
* A particularly extreme example: Elizabeth Haydon's "Symphony of Ages" trilogy.
** ''Book 1: Rhapsody'', fits in with the "Song or Ballad" qualification.
** ''Book 2: Prophecy''
** ''Book 3: Destiny''
*** She gets even worse with [[Trilogy Creep|the first sequel]], ''Requiem for the Sun.''
* Raymond E. Feist avoided this in his earlier works (''Magician'', ''Silverthorn'', ''Faerie Tale'') but his later series are all about this trope. Empire Trilogy: ''Daughter of the Empire'', ''Servant of the Empire'', ''Mistress of the Empire''. Serpentwar Saga: ''Shadow of a Dark Queen'', ''Rise of a Merchant Prince'', ''Rage of a Demon King'', ''Shards of a Broken Crown''; etc.
* Stephen R. Donaldson's ''[[Chronicles of Thomas Covenant]]'': ''Lord Foul's Bane,'' ''The Illearth War,'' and ''The Power that Preserves.''
* ''[[Neverwhere]]''.
* ''[[Shadows of the Apt]]'' pulls this off both with the series title and most of the individual books:
** ''Empire in Black and Gold''
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** ''Salute the Dark''
** Books 3 and 5 kinda-sorta-semi avert it, though- ''Blood of the Mantis'' isn't about vampires, and ''The Scarab Path'' doesn't even come close to any of them.
* Parodied by [[John Scalzi]] with ''The Shadow War of the Night Dragons, Book One: The Dead City'', found [http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/04/the-shadow-war-of-the-night-dragons-book-one-the-dead-city-excerpt here]. Books two and three in the trilogy would be ''Dark Blood Magic'' and ''Dream World of the Fire Wolf'' respectively, if they existed. This title came from compiling the most popular words in fantasy titles and determining that this was the ''ultimate'' title. Scalzi promptly decided to [[Defictionalization|defictionalize]] it as an [[April Fools' Day|April Fools]] joke. For which he was paid... in [[Trademark Favorite Food|bacon]].
* The ''[[Wheel of Time]]'' series has - ''The Dragon Reborn'', ''The Shadow Rising'', ''The Fires of Heaven'', ''Lord of Chaos'', ''Knife of Dreams'' and ''A Crown of Swords''.
* ''[[Wicked Lovely]]'' itself escapes this trope (being more of a [[Word Salad Title]]), as does ''Ink Exchange''.
==
* You can count on [[Heavy Mithril]] bands to embrace this trope lovingly, not only in titles but in lyrics too.▼
* Rhapsody's "Magic of the Wizard's Dream" certainly counts. If the title itself wasn't enough, a solid three fourths of the lyrics (ab)use these buzzwords.▼
** Hell, you'd be hard pressed to find a Rhapsody of Fire album or song title that doesn't. Even more so, ridiculously many of them are in a "[[The X of Y|Noun Of Adjective Noun]]" format, with the nouns and adjectives seemingly randomly picked from the list.▼
** The band's name itself falls under this trope!▼
* [[DragonForce]]'s songs tend to embody this trope.▼
** [[Cracked.com]] has even made a [http://www.cracked.com/article_15123_five-most-unintentionally-funny-albums-2006.html word count chart] for their album "Inhuman Rampage".▼
* [[Nanowar of Steel]] specializes in mockery of metal bands that take themselves too seriously and/or try to look and sound "manly" too hard, so their albums and songs that aren't named in parody of famous titles tend to be over-the-top examples of this. [[Heavy Mithril]] and/or [[Heavy Meta]] are always an option. This approach is nicely complemented with two secondary principles:▼
# A little redundancy cannot spoil the soup. For example: ''"Power Of The Power Of The Power Of The Power (Of The Great Sword)"''.▼
# When in doubt, adding "...of steel" at the end can improve ''anything''. For example: ''"Triumph Of True Metal Of Steel"''. Or the band's new name, yes.▼
▲Film adaptations of this sort of thing used to avert this trope for fear of [[Sci Fi Ghetto|"alienating mainstream audiences"]]. Nowadays, they play it straight using the title of the original work, or even [[Colon Cancer|err in the opposite direction]]. Examples not mentioned above include:
* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''▼
* [[Old World of Darkness|Both versions of]] [[New World of Darkness|the ''World of Darkness'']] use "Creature: The description" as their titles:▼
** ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]''/''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]''▼
** ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]''/''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]''▼
** ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]''/''[[Mage: The Awakening]]''▼
** ''[[Hunter: The Reckoning]]''/''[[Hunter: The Vigil]]''▼
** ''[[Changeling: The Dreaming]]''/''[[Changeling: The Lost]]''▼
** ''[[Wraith: The Oblivion]]''▼
** ''[[Demon: The Fallen]]''▼
** ''[[Promethean: The Created]]''▼
* ''[[Magic: The
** ''Shadowmoor'', ''Shards of Alara'', ''Alara Reborn'', ''Zendikar'', ''Scars of Mirrodin'',...▼
* ''[[Exalted]]'': Wonders of The ''Lost Age'', The Black and White ''Treatises'', Oadenol's ''Codex'', Roll of ''Glorious Divinity''.▼
** The cake however, must be given to ''Return of the Scarlet Empress''.▼
* ''[[Traveller]]''▼
▲* ''[[The Dark Crystal]]''
* ''[[Bionicle]]'' loves these. The three book series were called Bionicle ''Chronicles'',''Adventures'' and ''Legends''. Notable individual titles include ''Reign of Shadows'', ''Dark Destiny'', ''Journey's End'', ''The Yesterday Quest'',''The Legend Reborn'', ''The Fall of Atero'', ''[[MacGuffin Title|The Mask of Light]]'', ''Swamp of Secrets'', ''The Mata Nui Saga'', ''Sahmad's Tale'', ''The Fall and Rise of the Skrall''...▼
▲* ''The Chronicles of [[Riddick]]''
▲* ''[[Reign of Fire]]''
▲== Anime ==
▲* ''[[Naruto]] Shippuden'' sometimes translates to ''[[Naruto]]: Hurricane Chronicles''.
▲** "Hurricane Chronicles" is the ''literal'' translation of "Shippuuden". Well, "Legend" if you want to be more specific.
▲* ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]] Chronicles'', a Pokemon spin-off with secondary characters as protagonists.
▲* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', for trying to pack as much quasi-religious atmosphere into a three word title as humanly possible.
== Video Games ==
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** ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep|Birth By Sleep]]''
** ''[[Kingdom Hearts 3D|Dream Drop Distance]]''
▲== Table Top Games ==
▲* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''
▲* [[Old World of Darkness|Both versions of]] [[New World of Darkness|the World of Darkness]] use "Creature: The description" as their titles:
▲** ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]''/''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]''
▲** ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]''/''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]''
▲** ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]''/''[[Mage: The Awakening]]''
▲** ''[[Hunter: The Reckoning]]''/''[[Hunter: The Vigil]]''
▲** ''[[Changeling: The Dreaming]]''/''[[Changeling: The Lost]]''
▲** ''[[Mummy: The Resurrection]]''/''[[Tabletop Game/Mummy The Curse|Mummy: The Curse]]''
▲** ''[[Wraith: The Oblivion]]''
▲** ''[[Demon: The Fallen]]''
▲** ''[[Promethean: The Created]]''
▲** ''[[Geist: The Sin Eaters|Geist: The Sin-Eaters]]''
▲* ''[[Magic: The Gathering|Magic the Gathering]]'': ''Arabian Nights'', ''Legends'', ''The Dark'', ''Fallen Empires'', ''Ice Age'', ''Urza's Destiny'', ''Mercadian Masques'', ''Prophecy'', ''Mirrodin'', ''Champions of Kamigawa'', ''Betrayers of Kamigawa'', ''Saviors of Kamigawa'', ''Ravnica: City of Guilds'', ''Lorwyn''
▲** ''Shadowmoor'', ''Shards of Alara'', ''Alara Reborn'', ''Zendikar'', ''Scars of Mirrodin'',...
▲* ''[[Exalted]]'': Wonders of The ''Lost Age'', The Black and White ''Treatises'', Oadenol's ''Codex'', Roll of ''Glorious Divinity''.
▲** The cake however, must be given to ''Return of the Scarlet Empress''.
▲* [[Traveller]]
▲== Toys ==
▲* ''[[Bionicle]]'' loves these. The three book series were called Bionicle ''Chronicles'',''Adventures'' and ''Legends''. Notable individual titles include ''Reign of Shadows'', ''Dark Destiny'', ''Journey's End'', ''The Yesterday Quest'',''The Legend Reborn'', ''The Fall of Atero'', ''[[MacGuffin Title|The Mask of Light]]'', ''Swamp of Secrets'', ''The Mata Nui Saga'', ''Sahmad's Tale'', ''The Fall and Rise of the Skrall''...
== Webcomics ==
* ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]'' parodies it often. The second book is named ''Epic Legends of the Magic Sword Kings''.
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== Web Original ==
* ''[http://www.musicsrc.com/video/Secret_of_Dragon_Ledgend.php?id=6_XEQosmB_w&artist=After+Forever&song=Free+of+Doubt Secret of Dragon Ledgend]''.
* There
▲== Music ==
▲* You can count on [[Heavy Mithril]] bands to embrace this trope lovingly, not only in titles but in lyrics too.
▲* Rhapsody's "Magic of the Wizard's Dream" certainly counts. If the title itself wasn't enough, a solid three fourths of the lyrics (ab)use these buzzwords.
▲** Hell, you'd be hard pressed to find a Rhapsody of Fire album or song title that doesn't. Even more so, ridiculously many of them are in a "[[The X of Y|Noun Of Adjective Noun]]" format, with the nouns and adjectives seemingly randomly picked from the list.
▲** The band's name itself falls under this trope!
▲* [[DragonForce]]'s songs tend to embody this trope.
▲** Cracked has even made a [http://www.cracked.com/article_15123_five-most-unintentionally-funny-albums-2006.html word count chart] for their album "Inhuman Rampage".
▲* [[Nanowar of Steel]] specializes in mockery of metal bands that take themselves too seriously and/or try to look and sound "manly" too hard, so their albums and songs that aren't named in parody of famous titles tend to be over-the-top examples of this. [[Heavy Mithril]] and/or [[Heavy Meta]] are always an option. This approach is nicely complemented with two secondary principles:
▲# A little redundancy cannot spoil the soup. For example: ''"Power Of The Power Of The Power Of The Power (Of The Great Sword)"''.
▲# When in doubt, adding "...of steel" at the end can improve ''anything''. For example: ''"Triumph Of True Metal Of Steel"''. Or the band's new name, yes.
▲== [[Fan Fiction]] ==
▲* This is very common in ''Pokémon'' fan fiction, with the words "Pokémon", "chronicles", "beginning", "[[Original Character|Character Name]]'', "legend", "journey", "story", "quest", "adventure", "saga", "region", "champion" and the names of the series' regions all occur in hundreds of different fics.
{{reflist}}
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