A little excerpt from my current manuscript:

The largest and flattest island, which was home to the City of Strangleroot, was blocked by these outer islands, so Fenicia could not see it. […] The entire region had an unfairly negative reputation, on account of the strangleroot vine being popularly recognized as the ideal material to fashion a garrotte. Of course the vine had dozens or even hundreds of uses beyond choking animals to death, but the City’s inhabitants were uncomfortable enough to start the petition to change its name to “Tangletown.” The measure was actually gaining traction, which Fenicia found preposterous.

But that’s the beautiful thing about art, isn’t it? Art is forgiving, and it rewards experimentation.

“Messy?” – sure, maybe, I dunno. But definitely assertive and deliberate, and kinda fierce! I like it

Aha, okay. The “true bat” versus, uh, “gargoyle” distinction, heh.

One of the very first conceptions of Azuaveria was “the beach episode of Redwall in an urban setting.” So I imagined a sort of tropical-punk with a furry reimagining of the romantic aspects of San Francisco. As I’ve built up the world, it’s taken on a slightly different character, but that core attitude is still intact, I think.

Azuaveria is much more bright than dark. I hope readers think of Makoto Shinkai’s blue skies with enormous white clouds. The weather is actually pretty good almost all the time, but because this universe takes place in the eye of a gigantic hurricane (!) there is danger and peril if you seek it. The edges of the Storm Wall are way beyond the horizon for almost all denizens, though, so it’s easy to ignore. Nobeast WANTS to stay so close to the edge.

I’ve introduced a lot of mythology to the world over the years. Different cultures have different explanations for why the world is the way it is. But the main thing I focus on, as an author, is diversity. There are lots of different species, different walks of life, and as a result, different explanations for things. I’ve introduced more political intrigue over the years, as well. Hopefully this gives the world more nuance, and a more adult target audience, but the bright and sunny vibe is what prevails.

What do you mean “give them back wings” ? Do bats in your world… not have wings?

I guess the major difference between your world and my world is that you’ve introduced the idea of ‘evolution’. I know evolution is a scientific reality but in my world, there’s no need to explain why bat-people exist. They exist for the same reason any other species exists.

In my world, bats are a bit of an oddity (for lack of a better term) because they are more bat-like than they are human-like. They lead different lives from almost every other species to accommodate their unique anatomy. They’ve built different spaces and forged different kinds of tools for themselves to better suit themselves. And it’s fine because my world is a very diverse place.

The “hands” of bats in this world are smaller but can still hold things and manipulate objects (but not while flying). The feet are much more versatile and can carry things even while flying (requires more energy to remain airborne, though).

For me, there were several separate threads that all came together at one point.

In middle school, I was envious of my friends’ artistic abilities and I resolved to get better at drawing. This was during the heyday of DeviantArt and so I made an account and followed my friends. Traversing through people’s profiles and what they liked, just randomly surfing, I discovered the work of Melissa O’Brien (“Frisket17”) and I fell in love with their entire oeuvre.

Then I realized why I was so in love with her work specifically: for the first time, I saw depictions that closely resembled the world that I had built in my head – a sort of sunny, tropical spinoff of Redwall. And then I was like, oh my god, it’s not just me! I’m not the only one who wants to see this sort of thing. I wanted The Lion King but in a city. I wanted the beach episode of Redwall. I finally had a word for it: I wanted furry. And it turns out I could draw these characters, too – I could flesh out my own world AND get better at art. Win!

I didn’t realize it at the time, but the reason I had created my own world in the first place is because I desperately wanted an escape from my real life woes about gender identity and my sexuality. I learned through anthro art the relationship between the furry fan and their fursona, and I was like, “I want one, too.” I REALLY liked the idea of being a person, but WITHOUT the BS human limitations that were contributing to my gender dysphoria.

So, I guess I stumbled upon the fandom initially because I wanted to get better at art, but the reason I stuck around is because it offered a safe space for me to explore identity. That was the real awakening.

For another conflict unrelated to tails, what about keeping fur clean? I imagine in the anthro world this is a huge industry with lots of research into how to dry fur as quickly as possible, how to avoid getting drains clogged, perhaps species specific shampoos

In the world I’ve built, there aren’t showers and bathtubs, only saunas. Partially because Plumbing Is Hard in this time period but also because a sauna is essentially a room-sized shower that can accommodate any size, and there’s no drainage to worry about, just sweep fur out the door with a broom. The techniques IRL animals use to keep themselves dry still apply in this world, too – for instance, a dog person shaking themselves dry is still effective, it gets you halfway there.

TL;DR have some faith that the reader can figure it out.

Making the character do literally anything that an ordinary animal couldn’t is good enough. It’s also fine to have “the reveal” come a little later.

In the first sentence of the first chapter of the first book of Redwall, Brian Jacques establishes that this character is anthro:

Matthias cut a comical little figure as he wobbled his way along the cloisters, with his large sandals flip-flopping and his tail peeping from beneath the baggy folds of an oversized novice’s habit.

As others have mentioned, clothes are a nice shorthand. Here, Matthias has sandals AND a tail – that’s all the information we NEED to establish the fact he’s furry. But there’s more: the fact Matthias is described as a “novice” implies some sort of hierarchy or social structure which hints at humanness in my opinion.

It’s an example of how the reader can learn about this world at the same time we move the story along – Matthias is DOING something. No exposition per se is needed.

It’s not until a few sentences later we learn that he’s a mouse – “The young mouse squeaked in dismay” – but that’s fine. In the opening moments of the story, Matthias’ awkward appearance from his clothes not fitting is more important than the fact he’s a mouse.

You already alluded to this, but one of the main reasons why I love writing stories with anthro characters in the first place is because there is so much narrative potential.

In one story of mine, our main character is a skunk, whose extremely large tail is NOT accommodated for in most situations – cramped seating on a bus or in a theater, for instance – and this causes conflict. Thus drama, and thus an interesting story.

In the world I’m building, everyone CAN use their tail for nonverbal communication, but not all tails are the same, so not everyone can communicate the same things WITH their tails. In my world, this mostly stems from whether tails can be arched upwards or not – so, a tiger is able to slowly and seductively sway their tail in a way that a horse cannot.

Another thing to consider is, even within a single species, there are variations. For example, the long shagginess of the golden retriever’s tail doesn’t apply to a Doberman. So, what personal grooming even means can be informed in part by the style of tail.

This is wonderful! I get good vibes from Weaver.

I literally said “Woah” out loud when I read the part where this isn’t the first time this guy has been fined on this scale for speeding. Totaling nearly 280k euros over the past 10 years! Seems like a perfectly fair price to pay for the obscenely wealthy – we know just how exponentially much more money the richest have compared to everyone else.