Capitalization in Fantasy

The rules of capitalization can be confusing for any writer, but fantasy writers often have an even tougher time of it. The many made-up terms in fantasy may all seem worthy of extra emphasis, but are they really? Let's find out!

​Some Basic Guidelines
Capitalization's primary function, beyond signaling the beginning of a sentence, is to draw the reader's eye to important terms. But some writers, particularly in fantasy, overcapitalize. And the reason is understandable: More so than any other genre, fantasy is full of wonderfully creative terms for novel inventions and fictional species. Fantasy writers build entire new worlds from scratch, and that can make everything feel important.

But sometimes less is more. If Every Word In A Sentence Is Capitalized, Even The Important Words Lose Their Effect. Did you find that previous sentence harder to read? I bet so. In the same way, your reader will find it difficult to get through a passage where too many words are pulling at their attention equally rather than in proportion to their importance.

So how do you avoid overcapitalization? Unfortunately, there's not an easy answer for fantasy writers. In some respects, you get to make your own rules. But let's talk about some guiding principles to start you on the right path.

Consistency is the most important element in any style decision, and capitalization is no exception. No matter which categories of words you capitalize, make sure you're consistent throughout the entire book or series.

Balance is also key. As I said, if everything's important, nothing is. You want to draw your reader's eye to the correct places. Here's my advice: when in doubt, be conservative. Readers pay more attention to capitalized words, so they are more likely to overlook a lowercase term that should probably be capitalized than they are to forgive an author for capitalizing terms willy-nilly.

Finally, a good rule of thumb for any fantasy capitalization conundrum is to compare it to a real-world equivalent. In fact, as you'll see from the examples below, that's probably the best way to approach most of your capitalization. Following existing conventions that your reader already knows and understands will help immerse them in the story and keep them from focusing on or questioning your capitalization decisions.

Ready to dive in? Great!

Proper Nouns
Let's start with something easy. Certain terms are always capitalized because they're proper nouns. People's names are a great example. Locations such as cities, countries, and recognized regions are also capitalized. But note that ordinary directions are not.

They walked north for several miles.
They wandered around the North Coast for days.

Landmarks and organizations are also capitalized if referring to specific places or recognized entities. Otherwise, lowercase.

Head to the mountains.
You must pass through the Mountains of Despair.

I reckon they're from the bureau.
He was from the Bureau of Human-Elf Relations.

Titles and Relationships
With titles, ranks, and relationships, you'll want to follow real-world conventions as well: Lowercase common nouns and capitalize proper nouns. Put simply, if a name accompanies the title, capitalize them both. If a relationship description replaces a name (as in the final example below), capitalize it.

The king was coming.
They bowed before King Levotz.

A group of healers rushed toward the wounded.
He turned to look at Healer Tristan.

The boy cried for his mother.
I wish Mom were here.

Deities and Other Powerful Beings
Things can get trickier with deities and other powerful beings. But it helps to think of them like all the terms we've covered so far. If a term points to a specific entity, then capitalize it, but leave generic terms lowercase.

Another way to think of it is that capitalizing a term referring to a deity or other powerful being signifies that it is the only one of its kind and you therefore couldn't be referring to anyone else. It's a replacement for its personal name, if it has one, just as in the example with Mom above. But if there are multiple similar beings, of which this is only one, then you'd lowercase the term. (Though you would, of course, capitalize any personal name it had.)

He's one of the great ones.
I've consulted the Great One.

The gods are living among us.
This is God's plan.

Many of them, including Phabus, were dark lords.
It was the Dark Lord who cursed us.

Species and Races
Ah, here's where things get really confusing. In science fiction especially, the terms species and race are often confused or used interchangeably, so let's sort that out first. If it's been a while since you've studied biology, a species is a class of individuals with common attributes that can breed with one another but not with other species. Examples of species in the real world are humans, cats, and blue oak trees. Notice that we don't capitalize any of those. Similarly, if you have elves, vampires, or dragons in your stories, you generally won't capitalize them either.

A race is a group within a species that shares a common background. Just as we often capitalize races such as Asian, Hispanic, and Black in the real world, you may want to capitalize certain races in your fantasy world to distinguish them from each other. If you have Shadow Elves and Lucent Elves, for instance, capitalization could be a good way to set the two races apart. And if a race's name is derived from a proper noun, such as the particular place where that race originates, then it would definitely be capitalized. Think of the Hungarian Horntail, a type of dragon from Harry Potter.

As you can see, the general rule is to lowercase species names but to capitalize races. There are exceptions, of course. In science fiction, the convention seems to be to capitalize most race and species names. Fantasy rarely does that, but if you're consistent, that's okay for fantasy too. This is where preference comes in.

The great J. R. R. Tolkien took an odd approach to capitalization, sometimes capitalizing Elves, Dwarves, and Hobbits but other times not. A closer inspection reveals that he usually capitalized each term when referring in a generic sense to the species as a whole and lowercased it when referring to an individual character or group, although Tolkien didn't always apply his own rule consistently. But I think we'll give the father of modern fantasy a break.

Does that mean you can just do whatever you want in regard to capitalization in your fantasy novel? Maybe. But consider how readers who are unfamiliar with you or your work might perceive a seemingly inconsistent approach to capitalization. Sticking with an easily identifiable pattern is probably best.

Capitalization in fantasy can be confusing, but fortunately, as the writer, your preference takes precedence. Stick to most real-world rules, but make your own when it feels appropriate. And if you want to leave all the fuss of capitalization rules to someone else, I'd love to help. Get in touch!