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Proper noun question

This is something that has been bugging me for a while now and I've not been sure how to do it. In my major novel series project I am working on, there are several new species or races that my group of adventurers comes accross. I've been trying to figure out for a while now if these should be capitalized as proper nouns or not. Examples of what I have are Ghasset, Jade, Demenimp, Vald, Trallax. I have no idea if I should capitalize these.

When I think about it, I don't know if other fictitious (or even some real) species/races/beings are supposed to be capitalized. You've got humans (should we be capitalized), dogs, cats, etc and in fiction, Klingons, Vulcans, Hutts, Rancor, Tusken Raider, Drow, Elf, Halfling, etc.

When writing my story, if my character, Kallin, gets in a fight with a creature that I call a Jade, should the Jade be capitalized whenever I refer to it? If so, should I then capitalize the word Human, whenever I refer to our own species? And so on that one, should I capitalize Dog, whenever I refer to our beloved Canines?

It depends, I think, if you are referring to an individual, race, or an actual character. Like in your example: 'Kallin hit the Jade' because it has no other name 'the Jade' is its name so it would be capitalized you might even capitalize 'The'. When you refer to the races you should capitalize them just like you would with different people from different countries like: The Americans. I think you want to capitalize humans when you are referring to them in comparison to another race.
I think that's it.
Hope that helps

I agree with Shank. Humans, dogs, cats etc are a type of species and are not capitalised whereas Americans, Australians, Africans, Earthlings etc refer to the name of the country or planet the species is from and thus are capitalised.

If your ghasset, jade, demenimp, vald and trallax are a type of species which I'm guessing they probably are then don't capitalise them. But if your Trallaxites (or whatever) come from a place called Trallax then do capitalise them.

If they are all species then the easiest way of figuring it out is just to think what you would do if you were writing "human" instead. For example, in the same way you would not capitalise "the man" or "the human" you should not capitalise "the jade" even if you write "Kallin hit the jade".


I think drow, elf, halfling etc are incorrectly capitalised whenever they are for the above reasoning and I guess if you capitalise those then you should be consistent and capitalise human and dog etc. Therefore, since you wouldn't capitalise human and dog then don't capitalise elf and drow either.

Mm, don't go by what one person says. Unless they are your editor (by which I mean a professional who is working to get your book published).

Stemming off of Myryca and Pyro Fish (because they're right) just go by your own personal preferences

Mmm, good thoughts. I am personally preferring how I'm doing it now (thanks to the various suggestions). Though it is one of those things that isn't too big of a deal and if a publisher wants it different, I don't see what it will hurt later.