Capitalization conventions?

First problem, if the "guard" is called the "Praetorian Guard", then shouldn't the emperor's fleet be called the "Praetorian Fleet" (caps on Fleet)? I'm leaning that way. (Suggest that the Praetorian Guard be capped because it is a formal name. Would also Cap the Praetorian Fleet)

If I call it the Praetorian Fleet, then what happens when I divide up that fleet to attack several different planets, which happens? Is each part of the Praetorian Fleet also to be called Praetorian Fleet, or should those smaller armadas be called Praetorian fleet (no caps on fleet)? I'm leaning toward the latter. (Don't expect the reader to catch such a fine detail as the smaller letter indicating a smaller group of ships. Keep everything capped IMO)

Also, if I go with Praetorian Fleet, then what about the Imperium and the Realm? Should Imperial Fleet be caps when I refer to the whole thing (home fleets + Praetorian Fleet)? It seems odd to write "Imperial fleet" when the emperor's part of that fleet is the "Praetorian Fleet". (Make the Emperor's Fleet with a different name. Ex: Air Force One is whatever plane carries the president. Either call his division The Praetorian.  Either way, cap Imperial Fleet as well as Praetorian Fleet.

That then brings me to the Realm. Should I use Realm Fleet to refer to the whole entity, and Realm fleet to refer to individual armadas? (Make Individual armadas defined by their groupings. Use either boat or animal terms. Ex: Flotilla, or perhaps a swarm? Either way, make it like the army's divisions: Battalion/ Regiment/ Platoon/ Company/ Unit)

One of the Realm planets featured in the story is New Bethlehem. Should its fleet be called the New Bethlehem Fleet or the New Bethlehem fleet? (Suggest you abbreviate to make it easier reading and call it the N.B.F. or come up with a nickname that the New Bethlehem leaders hate but it sticks anyway.  Consider calling it the Flock, perhaps?)

Finally, what do I name the two fleets in the final battle that represent most (but not all!) of the two fleets? Imperial Fleet and Realm Fleet, or Imperial fleet and Realm fleet?  (Suggest that you avoid the repeat of 'fleet' references the same way that you avoid too many names of the same first letter. I.E. Praetorian Armada and the Realm Assembly)

This was a sneaky way to get me to join another group, BTW.  (Evil Dirk!)

After a little digging, I found that individual fleets in the U.S. navy are simply named with a number (e.g., the Fifth Fleet). That suggests that my home fleets be named for the system/planets they defend, so that leads to Magellan Fleet, New Bethlehem Fleet, etc. As Amy suggested, I might get creative and replace the word "fleet" with something else (e.g., armada, floatilla, force, navy, group). So that would give me something like: The Realm Fleet and a Realm force. The latter is not a name, just a description of a subset of the Realm Fleet.

Thanks for the info, Tom. This is useful. However, I don't want the reader to shrug and move on. I want them to at least understand which fleet or force their reading about. If I set it up properly, then when I introduce a new planet like Magellan, they'll immediately know that it has a home fleet called the Magellan Fleet, and a subset of that fleet will be called a Magellan force and/or Magellan attack group.

I'm just reading a Star Wars book about the apprenticeship of the Emperor to Darth Plagueis that I was hoping to learn from. However, it tries to name every building, bridge, and blade of grass - pretty much showing off that the author has drawn heavily from the Star Wars Encyclopedia. Every second character is from a different race, with its own physical attributes, and sometimes multiple names/titles. The result is a barely readable mess.

One thing it does do that I like is that it takes a page or two at the beginning of many chapters to do a little telling to set the scene, describing the planet, people, culture, and history. It eliminates the need for artificial conversations to give the reader the same info. It's something I used in my previous draft and was told by more experienced authors to get rid of unless they were important to the story. In such cases, I was encouraged to put present the information as thoughts or dialogue. Personally, I liked doing them the way I had. If Star Wars can sell millions of books, then they're doing something right.

As for the ships, I'm thinking about some combination of your ideas and Amy's. I hope to keep it simple enough to be easy for readers to get it right away, without me hitting them with names that have no obvious connection to the planet they're associated with. The 5th Fleet in the U.S. Navy gives me no information as to its mission and location. I then have to explain that to the reader, and they have to remember it, or worse, skip over it every time the see it. So, I'm thinking the Magellan Fleet for the planet's whole home fleet, and a Magellan force (or attack group) for a subset of that fleet going elsewhere in the galaxy.

I'm still mulling over Amy's suggestion to use different names instead of fleet, depending on which side of the galaxy's cold war you happen to be on. Thus, the Realm of Stars (one of the two galactic powers) might refer to their fleets as floatillas or assemblies. Those don't readily mean much, so it's a name I have to introduce and describe, and the user has to remember it. Fleet and force are pretty easy. The only special case currently is the Praetorian Guard and Praetorian Fleet, under the direct command of the emperor. As mentioned above, the Praetorian Guard (the emperor's personal legions) comes directly from Roman history. Praetorian Fleet is a futuristic extension of that concept.

I asked a few more people to weigh in to see what they suggest. I'll probably end up drawing on some combination of everyone's ideas.

Thanks, as always.
Dirk

I'm going with caps for the Fleets and just be consistent. U.S. Navy would be caps. So would Army, Marines, Air Force. For the smaller ones you might consider IF1 and RSF1. I like the nickname of "Flock." You could even refer to certain ships as Doves and Ravens, you know, Biblical references. A huge transport could even be call an Ark. LOL! All joking aside, Capitalize. It feels right.

Suggestion: make roman vs new Beth ships the same size start with the same letter. Flotilla and Force. Squadron and Synchrony (you get the idea) that way, the reader can easily parallel the two.