Capitalization of certain things in media

[danzibr]

Why is it, say, that human is not capitalized but Orc is? Or Elf but not dragon? For that matter, Half-Dragon but not dragon? I know it varies widely, but when do you think things should be capitalized/not capitalized?

[Kato]

Why is it, say, that human is not capitalized but Orc is? Or Elf but not dragon? For that matter, Half-Dragon but not dragon? I know it varies widely, but when do you think things should be capitalized/not capitalized?

Well, English could do it like decent languages, i.e. German and just capitalize nouns in general... or they could stay arbitrary so people can capitalize whatever they want if they can come up with a decent excuse.
No, frankly, either have a proper rule or don't do it. And honestly, I can't really say I've observed the capitalization as stated by you. :smallconfused:

[Benthesquid]

Broadly speaking, in English one does not capitalize non-scientific names for a species (Ie human, or dog), but one does capitalize nationality, race, or ethnicity (Ie American, Irish, Martian, Caucasian). Which more accurately applies to any given fantasy creature is left as an exercise for the writer.

[Fri]

I work in translation and subtitling, and there are writing rules for these kind of things. For example, titles are not capitalized but if it refers to a specific person it's capitalized. So, if we're discussing queens of egypt in general it's not capitalized, but if we're referring to a specific queen, it's capitalized (because it's a replacement for name), etc. I'm pretty sure there's a specific rule on when human is started with capital letter or not in writing.