Designing the two races of sentient non-humans in Northern Arcadia has been a real challenge, and the source of many manuscript revisions.

The ‘ssssla’ described in the earliest manuscript drafts as ‘fish-people’ have drifted into ‘frog’ territory, and will ultimately owe much of their appearance to the family of American toads. I’m also leaning towards replacing ‘ssssla’ with ‘dhao bo’; I’m hard pressed to imagine sentient toads picking a name for themselves with all those stray sibilants.

Designing the race of ape people, the ghuba, has posed different challenges. More on that tomorrow.