As in, do I capitalize “human” and “orc”? And if not, what about “lightforged draenei” and “blood elf”? We sometimes use the races to describe the individual factions. Like “blood elves” basically refers to those from Silvermoon. “Mag’har orcs” are their own independent faction.
And furthermore, what about the classes, such as “demon hunter” or “paladin”?
I just want to make sure that my grammar is correct.
Did this really need a thread?
Just do you.
No they aren’t. Races and classes aren’t capitalized. 
I admit that it’s kind of dumb, but it’s a pet peeve for me. I end up feeling really stupid if I don’t write everything correctly.
Whelp, you already have 90% of this new generation beat with that attitude.
(I mean this in a good way)
As silly as it may seem to create a topic for it, I must admit I sometimes have the same quandary.
The word “human” doesn’t need to be capitalized IRL. I’d argue you only capitalize if you’re referring to a specific faction within the race, but not for the race itself (i.e. Nightfallen/nightborne).
I typically capitalize race but not class. I have no idea if it’s proper or not, but that’s how I do it.
/shrug.
This is what I was thinking, but I wasn’t sure. “Lightforged” should be capitalized, but “lightforged draenei” should not.
It gets particularly hard though when referring to races that don’t really have a faction name. Like “mag’har orc”. I guess you could argue that their faction could be called “Iron Horde”, but eh… Furthermore, it gets complicated when referring to “kul tiran human” or “zandalari troll”. While “zandalari troll” is their race, it is also their faction. They are referred to as the “Zandalari”. Same for Kul Tirans. “Kul tiran human” is their race, but they are “Kul Tirans” nationally.
That’s a good point. I guess it depends whether “Mag’har” is the name of the faction, or just a reference to the fact they are “uncorrupted” (mag’har) orcs. I don’t know.
“Kul Tiran” is presumably a proper noun, so I’d write it as “Kul Tiran human” myself. Zandalari definitely is, and it’d be like calling a regular troll a “Darkspear troll”. It’s an unusual case of the game including the specific group the troll belongs to as part of the race’s name, kind of like referring to playable undead as “Forsaken” rather than just “undead”.
EDIT: I agree with you that Lightforged is tricky, for the same reason Mag’har is; it completely depends on whether “Lightforged” is the term given to their faction itself, or simply a descriptor for the fact that they’re just draenei who have been lightforged.
I’ve always known it’s poor grammar, but more often than not I tend to capitalize the names of various fantasy and sci-fi races, be they Orc, Night Elf, Tauren, Borg, Klingon, Twi’lek, Wookiee, Yuuzhan Vong, or Cylon. Idk why, I just do, same with classes.
Would that mean “Lightforged draenei” should be written like this, then? And “Mag’har orc” like this? When referring to the races of the factions? And how does that translate to the mag’har orcs in Outland? Since they aren’t apart of the Mag’har orc faction from Draenor.
I don’t know, to be honest. I’d write it as “Lightforged draenei” if Lightforged is the proper noun given as the name of the faction of the Army of the Light they belong to, but “lightforged draenei” if it’s only a descriptor referring to the fact that they’ve been lightforged. I don’t know which is the case, so it’s hard to say.
It depends on format. If you’re just having a discussion with someone, then no, you don’t have to. If you’re RP’ing and you’re addressing someone through narration, you don’t have to.
If you’re placing identification qualities such as class and race in an addon like TRP, on the other hand, then you should for the sake of it being used in the sense of an identification on a form, rather than used in conversation.
Shadina acknowledged the forsaken across the room with a quirk of the brow.
The above is a very simple 1-liner post in the RP sense where, as others have pointed out, no you don’t capitalize the race. And in this case, because Shadina doesn’t know him, the narration reflects it. She doesn’t know who he is, so her narration shows this by giving a distant label of race, rather than addressing him by name.
Turalyon referred to them just as “Lightforged” in Antorus. Similar to how demon hunters would be referred to as “Illidari”.
Ah cool, I didn’t know that. Then I’d say it’s “Lightforged draenei” for sure.
I tend to not capitalize class and racial names, just like I wouldn’t capitalize “human” or “computer programmer”. But I would capitalize “American” or “European”, so “Maghar” or “Dark Iron” or “Kul-Tiran” would be capitalized. I generally don’t capitalize “blood”, “void”, or “lightforged”, however.
Dunno if that’s right or not, that’s just what I do.
In this case I’d actually argue “Forsaken” should be capitalized as you’re referring to them with respect to the specific faction of undead they’re a part of. If you had said “undead” instead, I’d have kept it lowercase as it’s just a reference to someone of that race, similar to pointing out a nondescript human. That’s just me, though.
I think the reason I don’t think it applies here is because the only undead Horde would regard in that manner would be a member of the Forsaken (which I capitalize there because of title), whereas to call someone forsaken is just like calling them a sin’dorei to me.
Maybe I’m incorrect.