Capital letters for imaginary species?

[Pyan]

If I saw 'The Golden Unicorn', I'd think they were talking about an inn or pub.

 

[paranoid marvin]

There is often a grammatically correct way to use them, and a way that they work well in a story. Tolkien is a good example of this, where he had his own way of using language to get his story across. It worked well for him, but (imho) he isn't always entirely consistent in his usage and terminology. Unsurprising, as his work spanned many years and no doubt was spread over many thousands of pieces of paper with annotations, corrections and alterations. And no doubt his viewpoint on certain things in Middle-earth changed over that period.

It all worked out brilliantly well of course, but it would be interesting to see what a publisher would think of his story if it was submitted 'as is'. I wonder how many corrections and alteration he would be asked to make?

 

[Wayne Mack]

An alternate interpretation might be to treat the noxi as a race instead of a species. In that case, capitalization would be considered correct. Racial and ethnic identity).

 

[AE35Unit]

I would only use capitals if using the scientific name of an animal, then only the generic name. The specific being uncapitalised (e.g. Canis lupus)

 

[Swank]

An alternate interpretation might be to treat the noxi as a race instead of a species. In that case, capitalization would be considered correct. Racial and ethnic identity).

Normally a race wouldn't be capitalized: elf, white, negro. Races are capitalized when the race uses a place or other proper name as basis: Asian, Neanderthal, Caucasian, African, Mongoloid.

(Yes, some of these terms are dated, offensive or bordering on such. But so is the disproved concept of race. I only use them to illustrate the usage of caps in the real world, since fantasy is still stuck on it.)

 

[JS Wiig]

Echoing the sentiment that story telling is still art, I would just write it the way I thought it worked best for the story. Which, of course, would likely change several times during the process.

If and when someone who really mattered—someone who was going to pay me for the work like an editor, agent or publisher—indicated it should be one way or another that was counter to how I had already written it, then I would consider changing it.