In my first draft of Princess of Amathar, Alexander Ashton was transported to a strange world and found a family of pioneer Amatharians that lived in a remote log cabin.  When I started to describe the wonderful city of Amathar, I didn’t have a reason for this family now to be away from the city unless they were some strange neo-Luddites.  So I wrote them out and created Malagor, one of the many humanoid species living in Ecos for Alexander to run into.  Looking back now, I can see I was definitely influenced by the science fantasy classics Star Trek and Star Wars in his creation.  He is still one of my favorite characters though.