Here’s some correspondence I had with Vizh on the subject of Miiri and friends:
Vizh: What the hell am I going to do with 9... You know, I'm not even going to finish that one. But still, 9?!
HH: But you were complaining about Nats and his sex princess getting all the fun, and commenting about the need to work green-skinned slave girls into the plot. I'm just reacting to reader feedback.
Vizh: Okay... okay... I can deal with this.
HH: Good man.
Vizh: I just need to take it slow and figure things out a bit. So... any ideas about who these women are? What species? What planet they're from?
HH: They're from Caph IX, in the constellation Cassiopeia (from Earth the stars form an inverted W, and Caph is the one at the bottom left), so I guess they're Caphean. Caph was named by the ancient Arabs (who knows how they got the right name for it) and it is also known in modern astronomy as Beta Cassiopeiae. Caph is the Arabic word for a hand stained with henna, the woman's hair dye. The star is 54 light years from Earth, an F-Class giant 4 times larger and 28 times brighter than Sol, so Caph IX is probably an arid desert planet, and its inhabitants can photosynthesise to supplement their nutrient intake (hence the green skin).
Vizh: They like being slaves (or at least don't know any better), but hated the toads enough to look forward to fighting them with CSFB?
HH: They come from a culture based upon slavery and ownership, where a slave takes their social status from the master they are owned by. A king's slave girl is accorded much more status and authority than a poor man's slave girl. Not to be owned at all would be a terrible fate, to be an outcast with no protection in law, no means of support, and prey to any who might want to harm or exploit them. Only very bad slaves would be cast out in that manner, after flogging and torture failed to reform them, and they would deserve everything that happened to them thereafter.
And of course, being fantasy slave women, they're proficient at knife-fighting and face-clawing.
Slaves sold offworld, for example those acquired by the Slavers of Frammistat Eight, often expect their new masters to understand the mutual bond of obedience and protection that is implicit on Caph IX, and are horrified to learn that this is not always the case in the big bad universe. These nine Caphans have had a bad time of late.
Vizh: Are they related? Clones? Do they have names? They need names...
HH: Some may be related, and others will have trained together. They do indeed have names. I can supply them if you don't want to create some. Of course, should you wish to rename them they will be amenable.
Vizh: Who's idea was it to put them in my room? Who told them I was in charge?
HH: I'm guessing the chain of events went like this: The Librarian finds that these nine rescued girls can't be returned home. They were legally sold, and now under Caphan law they're owned by the LL by right of conquest. So he sends them to Deputy-Leader Yo. Yo is setting up the big gods-battle thing, so of course s/he says “Go to be seeing of cute-Visi. He is to be knowing what to doing with you.” Factor in that Vizh wears the yellow coat of a high-status Cephan master denoting that he is very important indeed and probably owns favoured-slave Yo and the others of the team and your doom is sealed.
There's no reason you can't put any or all of this into any scene you elect to write, by the way.
Vizh: Seriously, is the Shoggoth going to eat me when he finds out about the whole slave thing? Cause I hear that's a sore point with him...
HH: It is indeed. I imagine the Shoggoth will be wanting a word with you at some point. And Dancer.
Vizh: I'll definitely try to find time for a scene if you let me know what the answers are to some of these questions, or if I should just make it up wholesale. I guess I wouldn't need to know what's going to happen (I like the surprise, after all), but... what's their motivation?
HH: They want to be owned by a nice master who will treat them kindly. Perhaps they could settle down and some of them might gain favoured slave status by bearing him strong sons. Some of them are quite bright but Caphean women are not allowed to read or write and are not really encouraged to show initiative or original thinking. They are probably terrified and desperate, knowing that their new master commands forces mighty enough to destroy the Slaver Lovetoad.
And Yo is far from stupid in sending these unhappy young women to see Vizh, now is s/he?
Good luck.
___
Since then, further correspondence has established the nine Cephans as #1 Deeela, #2 Sayaana, #3 Philaana, #4 Noona, #5 Miiri, #6 Odoona, #7 Losiira, #8 Luuma, and #9 Kaara. The numbers denote their sale value from highest to lowest, based on the standard annual assessments of proficiencies, obedience, experience, and looks (Miiri would be worth rather more if she could overcome her obedience problems). Deeela, Sayaana, and Philaana are triplets. Losiira is the eldest, Luuma the youngest. And their names are not as random as they might seem, and so far CSFB! hasn’t worked out that this is a Kirk trivia question.