A few days ago, I discussed how the ekra came to be and how they changed over time, both physically and as a culture. Well, around the same time that the ekra were redesigned, so were the amüli. I want to note that amüli have always looked the same way that they do now, but other aspects were added and their internal workings and history have changed over time to better suit the laws of Inrugia and her history.
Back when I first began developing Clae's story (in 2002), amüli were called angels, which can't be too surprising, considering they appeared rather angelic. Such as in this illustration of Ayev of Madir (now Madirakov) and a much older illustration of Bertrys Aneys.
The term amüli came about long before the name for the ekra people, and to be quite honest, I'm not sure where it came from. I do recall, however, after my first use of it in public how people loved it. Feedback on forums and in my writing groups was enormous. Numerous people who rarely replied to my posts came forward to state that they loved the way the word looked and how it sounded. Someone suggested I add an umlaut for clarification of pronunciation, and I'm glad I did.
Progression after the amüli were given their new name was slow. First, the name, then the realization that maybe amüli hadn't always looked humanoid. I wanted to design and develop a species that had a reason for appearing human and keeping their wings. After all, there are hundreds of stories available about angels, and I've never been one to fit into the mold. My creations were no longer angels, and their history needed to reflect that.
Over the following years, I worked on a few various conceptual drawings of what amüli might have looked like before they became humanoid. It wasn't until early 2012, however, that one of the designs stuck.
This isn't the first drawing I did of the pre-Transition amüli design; that, unfortunately, ended up being lost. I spent a great deal of time trying to design a creature that would coexist on Inrugia with beings such as ekra, recbrether, denayn, and other monsters. I wanted something familiar (avian design) but with a bit of a twist, and this, while not a complete example, is the design I finally chose.
This design took me months and months to figure out, and this specific example is of a female amüli. Males have a larger crest and longer feathers under the chin; they also don't have poison on their barbed proboscises. The feathers are perhaps my favorite part of the pre-Transition amüli design, but those will be discussed at length in another blog post.
Like the ekra (since the ekra use amüli bones and body parts to create their own), amüli had long legs with opposable thumbs. They also had air sacks used to communicate, which I would like to explore in another blog, and large, round eyes similar to Earth's raptors. Quite a change from this form the their current one, wouldn't you say?
Since the development of the amüli is such a large topic, I'm splitting the process into multiple blog posts. Tomorrow, you'll learn more about why the amüli became more humanoid.
What sort of creatures have you developed for your manuscripts or published stories? Where did you find the creation most difficult? Why? Share in the comments below!
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