To capitalize or not capitalize? (Race Names)

[Naruzeldamaster]

So I've been going back and forth on this while writing in most of my current projects.
I am undecided if I should always capitalize the first letter of each word in a race/creature name or not.
I'm torn on both because I use the names in different contexts all the time in one of my stories.
Two of the stories are fanfiction and in most cases the races are capitalized but when they're used in 'regular' conversation they aren't.
Same with my own fictional races.

 

[skip.knox]

If I were to write an animal fantasy, I would not have Mice and Elephants and Dogs. All would be lower case. That's my logic for writing a "human" fantasy, if you please. I have elves, dwarves, gnomes, ogres, orcs, trolls ... and humans. So far, that seems to work fine.

But as you've observed, in certain micro-genres, there are conventions to be respected.

 

[pmmg]

A race, yes, a creature, no...unless its a proper name.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

A race, yes, a creature, no...unless its a proper name.

The way I've been doing it, is if I'm mentioning it in a 'formal' way say the character is addressing a dragon kin directly and calling them that in the dialogue, I been capitalizing it, but if it's mentioned in narration with no formal meaning behind it, I use lower case. Though I don't know if that's confusing or not?

Kinda the same with other stuff, though none of it is set in stone right now.

RWBY has a Species (of wildlife) that is almost always capitalized when mentioned but they also have a race that isn't always capitalized. They also have a couple of important terms that tend to be mixed weather they're capitalized or not.

 

[pmmg]

I would capitalize Dragon Kin, and maybe add a hyphen Dragon-Kin.

More importantly, make a call, and make it consistent.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

I would capitalize Dragon Kin, and maybe add a hyphen Dragon-Kin.

More importantly, make a call, and make it consistent.

Hmm, roger, would you hyphen X-blood elf?
I have several species of elves that are like 'lightning, fire, stone etc' but blood and then elf and I'm not sure how to handle that.

 

[pmmg]

Yes, I would, as it would lessen confusion.

The High-Elf glared at the X-Blood.

Strunk and White even suggests capitalizing White and Black when talking about races to distinguish between talking about just the colors.

Race is a tricky word in fantasy though. There are a lot more reasons for race to mean different types of sentient beings, and not ethnicities between them.

 

[Zilver]

I never get where those capitals ever came from or why they're there, so... I use capitals in fantasy as I use them in our own life: for proper names, topological names and sometimes era's, that's it.

say the character is addressing a dragon kin directly and calling them that in the dialogue, I been capitalizing it, but if it's mentioned in narration with no formal meaning behind it, I use lower case. Though I don't know if that's confusing or not?

This, to me, would probably feel confusing. Or rather, it would give the race when mentioned in dialogue an undue and possibly obnoxious emphasis. Kind of like when you'd read a dialogue line "Yes, my king," versus, "Yes, my King". The word king in the second example draws a ton of unnecessary emphasis, in my mind.

But if for some reason it's the right thing for your story, then go for it. Consistency is the only hard rule here, if you ask me.

 

[pmmg]

I never get where those capitals ever came from or why they're there, so...

Maybe you should get a style guide or a composition book and look them up...

 

[Zilver]

Maybe you should get a style guide or a composition book and look them up...

Oh why thank you for your helpful advice, I was desparately looking for that. Or I mean like... whut's this reply? ^.^

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Yes, I would, as it would lessen confusion.

The High-Elf glared at the X-Blood.

Strunk and White even suggests capitalizing White and Black when talking about races to distinguish between talking about just the colors.

Race is a tricky word in fantasy though. There are a lot more reasons for race to mean different types of sentient beings, and not ethnicities between them.

It is pretty tricky in my story, since for example a Stone-Blood elf can be many colors (there are sub species of Stone-Blood for just about any mineral, even gold and other precious stones, for example one of the main party members is a Jade Stone Blood elf, her body is seemingly made of Jade.) so the race has to do with more than just their species.

Dragon-Kin are like mostly human with some hard dragon like features and they treat dragons like family (hence the name Dragon-Kin, kin as in family) so there's that. For the males the dragon traits are more dominant and for females the human traits are more dominant.

Flame-Blood elves can be different colors depending on the chemicals introduced to the first flame they consume but they generally stick to the different flame colors.

 

[pmmg]

I will say it in a nicer way... If you dont know where they come from, maybe you could go look them up. They do come from somewhere.

Stone-Blood elf

Stone-Blood Elf <--The E too.

If color is not part of the race, I might go with red Stone-Blood Elf, and shorten it to red Elf after the first intro.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

I will say it in a nicer way... If you dont know where they come from, maybe you could go look them up. They do come from somewhere.




Stone-Blood Elf <--The E too.

If color is not part of the race, I might go with red Stone-Blood Elf, and shorten it to red Elf after the first intro.

The color is kinda part of the race, it's like hair or eye color (Based on genetics but also other cultural factors) for the Stone-Blood Elves in particular they tend to favor consuming and producing a certain mineral to the point where their body becomes "made" (not literally) of that mineral. Everything functions like a normal body part but it just happens to have a similar makeup.

 

[pmmg]

Perhaps they are delineating too much.

I could write one is a Native American, or one is a Cherokee Native American, or just one is a Cherokee.

When the name gets to drawn out, people will cut it short. Red Stone Blood Elf is too much. Why not just, he's a Red Stone.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Perhaps they are delineating too much.

I could write one is a Native American, or one is a Cherokee Native American, or just one is a Cherokee.

When the name gets to drawn out, people will cut it short. Red Stone Blood Elf is too much. Why not just, he's a Red Stone.

Maybe, I wasn't planning on having too many mineral variants of them in the entire species (Just some common ones and a few precious ones such as Jade that I mentioned earlier) in the entire world there's probably like 10 of them (them being mineral variants) but only a handful of them appear in the story itself. Thing is they're all called Stone-Blood Elves regardless of the mineral, and most of them can do the 'main' thing that I've designed their species to do.

The interesting ones are the precious metal/mineral ones because they can literally 'produce' the mineral that they are (Usually through their hands) not effectively enough to create a factory doing so. But for making small bits for like jewelry and stuff is possible.

 

[Mad Swede]

I'm going to be very very blunt, possibly a bit rude, and get straight to the point.

You need to learn basic English grammar.

Only proper nouns (the names of people or places, formal titles and formal modes of address) are capitalised. So your stone-blood elves are just that, the king of the stone-blood elves is addressed as Your Majesty (or Your Grace or whatever), the king's name is Ardvark (or whatever it is), his title is King Ardvark the Malevolent (or the Magnificent or some other adjective), their tribe (or clan or group) might be the Red Stones and the dragon your hero talks to is addressed as Dragon, along the lines of "Oh Dragon, I bessech you to aid me... etc etc."

It doesn't matter what mistakes other writers make (genre conventions as some people call them), you should aim to use correct grammar in your writing.

 

[Adam Scribentis]

At the risk of straying from the path of race names: on my first book I wavered a lot on when to capitalize titles, e.g. President, General. In the end I did what seemed best in the context, especially when the character was habitually or exclusively referred to by a title. English allows us more flexibility than, say, German, which always capitalizes nouns, but with flexibility comes hard decisions about small matters, sometimes!

 

[pmmg]

APA style guide:

Spelling and capitalization of racial and ethnic terms​

Racial and ethnic groups are designated by proper nouns and are capitalized. Therefore, use “Black” and “White” instead of “black” and “white” (do not use colors to refer to other human groups; doing so is considered pejorative). Likewise, capitalize terms such as “Native American,” “Hispanic,” and so on. Capitalize “Indigenous” and “Aboriginal” whenever they are used. Capitalize “Indigenous People” or “Aboriginal People” when referring to a specific group (e.g., the Indigenous Peoples of Canada), but use lowercase for “people” when describing persons who are Indigenous or Aboriginal (e.g., “the authors were all Indigenous people but belonged to different nations”).
Do not use hyphens in multiword names, even if the names act as unit modifiers (e.g., write “Asian American participants,” not “Asian-American participants”). If people belong to multiple racial or ethnic groups, the names of the specific groups are capitalized, but the terms “multiracial,” “biracial,” “multi-ethnic,” and so on are lowercase.