My stories and characters

Simply a thread with links to my Felarya stories. Feel free to comment, make suggestions (or even requests, although I may be too busy to consider them any time soon), and so on... If you'd like to suggest developments for my characters, I'd be interested to hear them. Or if you think one of your characters should meet one of mine... I'm usually up to integrating other people's characters into my stories, if you're interested. And conversely, if you'd like to use one of my characters in your drawings or stories, feel free; just let me know.

My list of characters can be found here. It contains a description of them, with spoilers from some of my stories, so be warned:
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Felaryan-characters-116733426

Milly is probably my "main" character. She's a giantess, and comes from somewhere else originally, although I've left that vague. She has a few peculiarities - notably, she lives in a wooden hut (in the forest to the north-west of Ur-Sagol), and she has a cage to put humans in. When she encounters humans and she's not hungry just yet, she takes them home and puts them in a cage to keep them for later. She's friendly with her food, and likes to engage them in conversation about themselves, because she's curious about them and she wants to help them relax. It doesn't really work; they don't relax.

Jissy, her friend, is a naga. She generally doesn't talk to her prey much, and is amused by the fact that Milly does. Her main peculiarity comes from her past, which is developed in one of my stories. Oh, and she likes jewelry (a habit left over from her past). And she eats smaller nagas.

Tina is a tomthumb. Her tribe lives under Milly's protection. I haven't developed her very much yet, but I intend to one day. I like tomthumbs, for some reason, and they don't seem to get much attention.

I also have a few other characters, including several humans who actually don't get eaten... They all appear in the following stories.

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STORIES

My first Felaryan story (short). The only one based on consensual vore. I prefer consensual most of the time, but since Felarya revolves around non-consensual, I switched to that for subsequent stories. This one has Crisis in it:
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Story-10-103474606

My first lengthy Felarya story (in two parts). It introduces Milly as the main character. Tina also appears, and Joanna arrives in Felarya. Tasty humans get eaten. Crisis appears briefly (at the very beginning and at the very end).
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Story-11-part-1-103475819
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Story-11-part-2-106896268

My next story revolves around Felarya Express - an idea of mine which Karbo kindly added to the wiki. This story also introduces Jissy, and features Milly, Tina and Joanna once more.
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Story-12-part-1-108758403
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Story-12-part-2-108758847

My "Felaryan flashes" series. Eight short stories, each giving a glimpse into the lives of one or two Felaryan characters.
* Stories 1 & 2: "Breakfast - Vuni's story", and "Trapped - Lucilya's story". Introducing my slug girl and fairy characters. "Breakfast" is, for the most part, a retelling of one of Zoekin's Katrika stories, but from another character's perspective.
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Felaryan-flashes-stories-1-2-110649324
* Stories 3 & 4: "A most unfortunate encounter - Selima's story", and "A different perspective - Jissy's story".
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Felaryan-flashes-stories-3-4-110653087
(The continuation of Jissy's story is here:
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Story-29-126745348 )
* Story 5: "At the bottom of the food chain - Tina and Joanna's story".
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Felaryan-flashes-story-5-123632284
* Story 6: "The words to survive - Isham's story".
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Felaryan-flashes-story-6-123632560
* Stories 7 & 8: "Beauty of the snow - Yshwi's story", and "Felaryan feast - Milly's story".
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Felaryan-flashes-stories-7-8-127184124

A story about Jissy's past. (Not yet put on DA.):
http://aryion.com/g3/showitem.php?id=166161

A story based on one of Karbo's doodles. Features Vivian and Namesta:
http://aryion.com/g3/showitem.php?id=166844

My "Lost in Felarya" series. If I ever complete this, it will contain fourteen chapters. The story chronicles the "adventures" of the human survivors of a plane crash; the plane, flying from Paris to Damascus, was unfortunately caught in a dimensional rift and crashed in Felarya. Twelve of the passengers are "main characters", and each of them has a centric chapter, revealing more about them. Yes, it's inspired by Lost, but with a Felaryan twist. Follow the trek of about 150 humans as they wander through the jungle and discover that Felarya is actually quite dangerous... Lucilya appears, as do Milly and Jissy. Other players' characters may appear; if you'd like one of your characters to make an appearance, let me know.
chapter 1: "Destination"
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Lost-in-Felarya-chapter-1-113204944
chapter 2: "On the run"
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Lost-in-Felarya-chapter-2-113572811
chapter 3: "A land unknown"
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Lost-in-Felarya-chapter-3-115680564
chapter 4: "On a mission"
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Lost-in-Felarya-chapter-4-116622844
chapter 5: "The leader"
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Lost-in-Felarya-chapter-5-122944636
chapter 6: "Irréparable"
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Lost-in-Felarya-chapter-6-123877660
chapter 7: "The price of a story"
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Lost-in-Felarya-chapter-7-125371593
chapter 8: "The sorcerer's way"
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Lost-in-Felarya-chapter-8-130318951
chapter 9: "The real world"
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Lost-in-Felarya-chapter-9-135045025

A stand alone story introducing a new character, and featuring the Lake of Illusions:
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Story-20-116676259

An adventurer in Felarya. Based on a story by Zoekin.
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Story-23-part-1-124018797

More on Isham and Milly's relationship:
http://aryion.com/g3/showitem.php?id=171624
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Story-31-129204021

A story about fairies and their vore-related religion:
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Story-25-124476509

More Vuni stories, about my human-sized slug girl:
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Story-26-124662149
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Story-33-part-1-135090064

A one-off featuring Crisis, and a human who hopes to survive her digestive system:
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Story-27-124699556

A story about a tomthumb:
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Story-28-126561077

New, probably one-off characters:
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/The-Dridder-and-the-Naga-135970088

A bit of silliness, featuring Milly:
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Angel-and-Demon-136204675

That's all so far.

I just love thse stories ! you have superb skills in writting in general and some vore scenes there are excellent !
I am so looking forward to what you will come up with next

Thank you.

I'm currently writing a story that's not set in Felarya, but I'll definitely be returning to Felarya soon enough. For one thing, I have to continue my "Lost in Felarya" story. (And since the crash survivors are thinking of heading towards the Giant Tree, Crisis will definitely make an appearance at some point;)

My next Felarya story is done. Or, more accurately, two short stories - stories 5 and 6 of the "Felaryan flashes" series:

http://aryion.com/g3/showitem.php?id=171308

They are:
* "At the bottom of the food chain" - Tina and Joanna's story
* "The words to survive" - Isham's story

They continue on from previous stories, although they're comprehensible in themselves.

"At the bottom of the food chain" picks up shortly after Joanna joins the tomthumb Alsumi tribe (so continuing from here). "The words to survive" picks up right after Isham is captured by Milly (so continuing from here).

These stories are, in some way, a little less light-hearted than some of my other ones. Both Joanna and Isham are trying to come to grips with living in Felarya, as outsiders, and discovering that it can be a cruel world.

"The words to survive" also got me grappling with Milly's darker side, seen through human eyes.

This is just superb ! Very few authors can put so much emotions in their stories . And I just love how you always integrate them in the rest of the world.
Fantastic work !

Thank you! I've got a few more in mind, including some that I've started (writing several at the same time, which slows me down a bit...).

New story.

For the second time, I'm basing one of my stories on one of Zoekin's. Specifically, this one ("Old Friend").

Ranilla is originally Zoekin's character, although he never named her. He described her physically and laid the bases of her personality; I expanded on that, gave her a backstory and explained what she's doing in Felarya. The lines spoken during the conversation between Katrika and Ranilla are Zoekin's; in fact, that scene is taken from his story and re-described from Ranilla's perspective instead of Katrika's.

Katrika belongs to Zoekin; Crisis belongs to Karbo; Jora belongs to Ravana3k. Other characters are my own, except Ranilla I suppose, who is Zoekin's too. Felarya is Karbo's world. The places and scenery described or mentioned here are credited to Karbo and to other people who have contributed to expanding Felarya's world.

I think that about covers the credits.

I wrote this story because the character and situation that Zoekin created inspired me. I wanted to develop Ranilla further. Also, his original story hinted at a darker side to Crisis, which I wanted to explore in all its Felarya-esque moral ambiguity. So, many thanks to Zoekin, for his great writing which sparked my imagination, and of course to Karbo for starting this all off.

My story is here:
http://aryion.com/g3/showitem.php?id=171495

A new story, about Isham and Milly:
http://aryion.com/g3/showitem.php?id=171624

Chapter 5 of Lost in Felarya: "The leader".
http://aryion.com/g3/showitem.php?id=171917

I'll upload it on DA too, later.

Reading your stories is like being stabbed in the face during an orgasm.

I'm so used to half-baked stories full of characters I'd enjoy personally murdering, that when I run into a series of genuinely GOOD, well-written stories with three-dimensional, likable characters, both human and native, that it's an extraordinarily pleasant relief, while at the same time being confusing and almost painful.

It's a compliment, I swear.

These stories actually, genuinely feel like Felarya. It's startling, yet pleasant.

Well, thank you. Knowing your reputation for blunt honesty, that comes as even more of a compliment.

I'm glad you like them. And that they "feel like Felarya" to you. I enjoy trying to develop characters in Felarya's unique setting, so it's a pleasure to write them. I'm pleased if people enjoy reading them, too.

Wow you rarely get to read so well developped characters ! They are complex, well thoughts and coherent in their reactions ^_^
Also I agree with Gregole, your stories really describe well the world and have just the right "Felarya feel" to them They are a delight to read !

And now that I am getting familiar with your characters, I think I will definitely integrate several of them

Thank you very much! I'm delighted that they meet with the approval of the Creator himself. Quite seriously, I'm really pleased that you think they have a "Felarya feel", and that the characters are complex and "coherent". Those were some of my major objectives, so I'm flattered and pleased that it's come through all right.

Felarya is a fascinating setting (for which I'm very much indebted to you), and it means I really do enjoy developing characters' personalities and reactions in such a setting. Felarya is a great place for character development.

Karbo wrote:

And now that I am getting familiar with your characters, I think I will definitely integrate several of them

Yay! I'll very much look forward to seeing that! Thanks!

Chapter 6 of Lost in Felarya is now complete, and on Eka's. I'll be uploading it to DA as well later.

http://aryion.com/g3/showitem.php?id=172173

Six chapters done out of fourteen... We're slowly approaching the half-way mark.

My newest story is just a short one. I got this idea from the "predator trinity" on the wiki. I was probably inpired, also, by one of Angel2012's pictures. Basically, I combined the two: the picture of a fairy with a food-filled belly led me to want to develop the "predator trinity" religion a little bit. This isn't so much a "story" as a "scene", though.

It's on Eka's now, and will be on DA soon.

http://aryion.com/g3/showitem.php?id=172345

Vuni the slug girl returns, in all her... sluggishness. This is a story I'd been meaning to write for many months, and I've finally got it done. Like the previous, it's a "scene" rather than a story per se.

My main concern is whether I got Katrika right. I wasn't entirely sure how she'd behave in such a situation.

http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Story-26-124662149

Another short one, with Crisis this time:
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Story-27-124699556

I confess, I'm actually beginning to lose interest somewhat.

Initially, what I liked about the stories I read was that they painted a picture of Felarya as a savage, yet unbiased land. Both humans and predators were likable and interesting.

But the more I read, the more I'm picking up a distinct predator bias, which is working my nerves. A lot of these stories seem to be illustrating concepts like "human technology will always be useless in Felarya" or "Even the most well-intentioned of people will die if they dare to take nagas in a negative light," or other nonsense. Something I get enough of browsing all the crappy stories I find on DA or so much as glancing at the character discussion board.

Personally, I think you ought to explore human AND predator interaction more. Present the predators in a light that DOESN'T make me want to beat them senseless, and portray humans in a light that isn't confined to "Evil corporate business archetype" and "cynical pro-pred human who doesn't mind seeing innocent people die daily archetype."

Contrary to what Karbo said, I'm not seeing much emotional development. Emotions, sure, but nothing that I think is genuinely worth following. There's no surprise anymore. Everyone dies in epically predictable ways. It's to the point where the human characters are only interesting before they get to Felarya. After such, they become predictable dinner of the day. Why should I care? Why should anyone care? We know what's going to happen to them. There's not going to be any further development beyond "OHMYGOD I'M ABOUT TO DIE! THIS ISN'T HOW THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN! I WAS SUPPOSED TO NOT DIE! TRULY THIS TRIP WAS A COMPLETE RIPOFF!"
That manner of story was entertaining the first five times I read it. Now it's just stale and cluttering.

The problem is, you were exploring various aspects of Felarya and now you're just looking for how many different ways you can tell the same story. It's like a sci-fi original movie. Same plot, same characters, same bad CGI, just with a few different irrelevant quirks. Only difference is, I NEVER get tired of crappy CGI snake movies. But I'm definitely getting tired of predictable vore stories.

That's just my two cents. Which compared to everyone else's two cents is like, a million bucks.

I can't get enough of your storie personnaly
They are very well written, explore lot of aspects of Felarya and contains *emotions*
Also on the last one, you captured very well Crisis and Anna

Gregole: Thanks for the advice. I'm not sure I quite get where you're coming from, though. More specifically:

GREGOLE wrote:

But the more I read, the more I'm picking up a distinct predator bias, which is working my nerves.

Hmmm... I do try to show that predators are complex characters rather than mono-dimensional evil monsters. I don't see that as "pro-pred bias", though. "Predator bias" would imply that I'm "anti-prey", that I show prey characters in a negative light. I honestly don't think I do that. I try to make my prey characters likeable. In fact, it's one of my main "themes", so to speak.

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A lot of these stories seem to be illustrating concepts like "human technology will always be useless in Felarya" or "Even the most well-intentioned of people will die if they dare to take nagas in a negative light," or other nonsense.

I'm not sure what you mean by "dare to take nagas in a negative light", but if you mean what I think you mean, you're wrong. I never use "eating as punishment". I don't think I've ever done so; not once. One of the reasons is because I tend to identify with prey, and I can't identify with an unlikeable characters. So unlikeable characters tend not to get eaten in my stories.

I've never considered or implied that a character is eaten because he or she is angry about nagas. Or that they deserved to be eaten. My prey characters never "deserve" to be eaten.

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Personally, I think you ought to explore human AND predator interaction more.

Well, damn. That's kind of what I've been trying to do all along.

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Present the predators in a light that DOESN'T make me want to beat them senseless,

Likewise. I thought that's what I'd been doing.

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and portray humans in a light that isn't confined to "Evil corporate business archetype" and "cynical pro-pred human who doesn't mind seeing innocent people die daily archetype."

Ehm, what? Those are precisely the two types of character I've been trying to avoid! I really don't see how you can say my characters are "confined" to archetypes that I dislike and reject! I don't like evil or cynical characters, and I try to use them as little as possible.

I'm trying to think which characters you might be talking about here. Jissy's captor is the closest I've come to an "evil" human, I think - and he was never prey. Isham is someone I've tried to portray as complex and conflicted, neither "evil" nor cynical. Roshan is more accepting of Jissy's diet, but that's not due to cynicism; it's down to his nurturing affection for her. I haven't used Roshan much yet, though, so I don't know whether you were thinking of him. On a personal level, I'm a bit uncomfortable with Léa's coldness, which is why I'd like to make Roshan a bit different. (Tina resembles Léa, I suppose, but she's not human. She's a tomthumb, and she's Felaryan-born.)

Who else...? Elaya? She's not "cynical"; she's just got a predator mentality. She's like a human fairy, albeit also drawn to the human world.

Peana? She's about as far from those archetypes as you can get.

Pal and Manda? They're most definitely not "evil", and I don't consider them particularly cynical. They're certainly not blasé about seeing people get eaten.

I'd like to think I've created a variety of humans, none of whom are particularly cynical, most of whom have fairly different personalities, and only one of whom, a minor character seen only briefly in one story, came anywhere close to the "Evil corporate business archetype", as you put it. So I'm a bit... puzzled as to where your impressions come from.

Of course we're not going to have exactly the same tastes. But your comments suggest to me that your tastes are fairly close to mine, and to what I've been trying to do throughout my stories.

Karbo: Thanks. Crisis and Anna were fun to write about. And I enjoy exploring characters' emotions. Maybe I should do something a bit more light-hearted, too, but since I like to focus on prey (or on characters who, like Vuni, are both pred and prey), Felarya is a dangerous world... Still, I'll continue seeing what I can do with predators' and prey's feelings.

I can't claim to have read all your stories. But I've been browsing and I've read the majority of the recent ones and I still get these vibes.

Your most recent one, for instance. I knew he was going to die. Like so many other stories of this nature, I didn't read it so much as skim.
I knew the human was doomed to be digested by acids that realistically should not have been able to handle a material that has already been confirmed as borderline indestructible. He was a likable person and despite the predictability of the story, I didn't want to see him die.

Crisis? Well, I confess, I hate Crisis. I don't know why. Maybe it's the fact that she's been ass-raped by so many authors that she's synonymous with bad storytelling for me. Maybe I'm just sick of the formulaic approach to each and every story involving her. The important thing is, her use in the story did nothing to make me reconsider.

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Hmmm... I do try to show that predators are complex characters rather than mono-dimensional evil monsters. I don't see that as "pro-pred bias", though. "Predator bias" would imply that I'm "anti-prey", that I show prey characters in a negative light. I honestly don't think I do that. I try to make my prey characters likeable. In fact, it's one of my main "themes", so to speak.

It's more complex than that. Characters we're made to like get killed off, yet it's never treated as anything but a good thing when this happens. Meanwhile, the predators either come off as sinister, bigoted pricks, or just plain idiots. If you use fridge logic, then you might realize that this isn't the case, but a good story doesn't depend on fridge logic. I should feel for the predator WHILE I'm reading the story.

I've already mentioned how much I hate the ending to that story involving Kat, Crisis and the "naga's egg". Not since I read that gawdawful novel have I so desperately wished to see Crisis get her ass kicked.

Now this isn't a problem with ALL your stories, of course. Many of them legitimately develop both parties. But many of them don't, and I think that's something you need some wok on.

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I've never considered or implied that a character is eaten because he or she is angry about nagas. Or that they deserved to be eaten. My prey characters never "deserve" to be eaten.

Which again, is part of the problem. These stories should either paint the predators as a horrible, evil being, or else do SOMETHING to get us to like them at least as much as the humans. If someone is supposed to be evil, then we don't hate them for doing evil things because they're designated as villains. Example: Raison. And if we grow to like them enough, we can easily forgive them for whatever atrocities they commit. Example: Belkar bitterleaf. But if you do neither, you're left with an almost schizophrenic story where we don't know who to root for, but we wind up rooting against the predator, simply because we grew to like the human first. Now this CAN be remedied, but it's not, from what I've seen.

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Well, damn. That's kind of what I've been trying to do all along. Sad

And in many cases, it's worked. In others, not so much.
What I'm saying is you need to stress it more, figure out if we'll feel cheated or angry in the end. If the answer is yes, then some rewriting is probably in order.

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I'm trying to think which characters you might be talking about here. Jissy's captor is the closest I've come to an "evil" human, I think - and he was never prey. Isham is someone I've tried to portray as complex and conflicted, neither "evil" nor cynical. Roshan is more accepting of Jissy's diet, but that's not due to cynicism; it's down to his nurturing affection for her. I haven't used Roshan much yet, though, so I don't know whether you were thinking of him. On a personal level, I'm a bit uncomfortable with Léa's coldness, which is why I'd like to make Roshan a bit different. (Tina resembles Léa, I suppose, but she's not human. She's a tomthumb, and she's Felaryan-born.)

I can't claim to have read all of your stories, so I couldn't point to each example either. And like I said, not all of them suffer from these problems. But some of them do, and they seem to be more recent than the others.
I'm not trying to get you to radically alter your style. I'm just trying to caution you in case you're heading into an unsavory phase.


Now, I would bet my life savings that someone's going to jump in at some point with the argument "Oh, it's a world where people eat each other! You have to leave room for conflicting morals!" so I'm going to stake that pest before dusk.

It's challenging to make a human-eating character likable. This is obvious, looking at how many people fail at it. But it IS indeed possible, and you CAN and HAVE done so. I'd just prefer to see more of that.
You can't just make an unlikable character and assume people won't hate them because "It's the law of the jungle". It may be a savage setting, but it's still art. Like it or not, most human-perspective Felarya stories wind up making the predators look like insensitive pricks and bullies. Now this may not be logical when you pause to go grab a snack and think about the story, but again, a story cannot sustain itself on fridge logic. It's a matter of portrayal.

You seem to really like the human perspective though, so what I would recommend is this. Have the inevitable predator converse with the prey more. Interact, be original, keep the audience guessing whether the human will survive or perish. Of course, to do this, the human will have to survive some of the time. And what I'd recommend is making a story that SEEMS to be the basic "vacation in Felarya, protagonist gets eaten" formula, then suddenly have them survive and become a major player.
The problem with some of these stories is that they're predictable. But your style isn't inherently tied to that predictability, so it's definitely somehting you can fix. I just want to give my thoughts on it now.

GREGOLE wrote:

I can't claim to have read all your stories. But I've been browsing and I've read the majority of the recent ones and I still get these vibes.

Your most recent one, for instance. I knew he was going to die. Like so many other stories of this nature, I didn't read it so much as skim.
I knew the human was doomed to be digested by acids that realistically should not have been able to handle a material that has already been confirmed as borderline indestructible. He was a likable person and despite the predictability of the story, I didn't want to see him die.

In this particular case, I wasn't trying to build up much suspense. At least, not among people who are familiar with Felarya's background. Since it had been established in the past that Crisis could digest titanium, that was my starting point. Anyone who remembered that would know from the start that Faren was likely to end up being digested. So in this particular case, it wasn't supposed to be unpredictable. (I sometimes do subject characters to unpredicted events, but not in this story.)

I intended Faren to be likeable. As a matter of personal preference, I don't see much point in developping unlikeable characters and then killing them off. I prefer to develop likeable characters, and then (occasionally) kill them off. I aim for readers to care about what happens to them.

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It's more complex than that. Characters we're made to like get killed off, yet it's never treated as anything but a good thing when this happens.

Ah. I don't actually presume to tell readers it's a "good thing". My aim is more to get readers to see both the prey's perspective and that of the predator. It's "good" for the predator, because she gets some enjoyable food. It's bad for the prey, obviously, because he or she gets eaten.

I'm not trying to make you not care about the character who gets eaten. Quite the contrary.

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Meanwhile, the predators either come off as sinister, bigoted pricks, or just plain idiots. If you use fridge logic, then you might realize that this isn't the case, but a good story doesn't depend on fridge logic. I should feel for the predator WHILE I'm reading the story.

Hmm. Well, I do try to make the preds likeable. I suppose likeability is subjective.

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I've already mentioned how much I hate the ending to that story involving Kat, Crisis and the "naga's egg". Not since I read that gawdawful novel have I so desperately wished to see Crisis get her ass kicked.

Look at it from her perspective. She thinks an unhatched baby naga has been kidnapped. Of course that upsets her and makes her angry. Crisis being Crisis, she doesn't stop to think or care about the fact that Ranilla had to make something up very quickly in a desperate attempt to survive.

I'm not saying you should like Crisis, of course. I'm saying it's a matter of point of view. Not everybody is going to hate Crisis for that story.

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Now this isn't a problem with ALL your stories, of course. Many of them legitimately develop both parties. But many of them don't, and I think that's something you need some wok on.

*nods* If I feel I may be making a predator unlikeable, I'll try to fix it. But of course, not everyone is going to agree on what constitutes "likeable".

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I've never considered or implied that a character is eaten because he or she is angry about nagas. Or that they deserved to be eaten. My prey characters never "deserve" to be eaten.

Which again, is part of the problem. These stories should either paint the predators as a horrible, evil being, or else do SOMETHING to get us to like them at least as much as the humans. If someone is supposed to be evil, then we don't hate them for doing evil things because they're designated as villains. Example: Raison. And if we grow to like them enough, we can easily forgive them for whatever atrocities they commit. Example: Belkar bitterleaf. But if you do neither, you're left with an almost schizophrenic story where we don't know who to root for, but we wind up rooting against the predator, simply because we grew to like the human first. Now this CAN be remedied, but it's not, from what I've seen.

That's an interesting comment. But it's also a matter of opinion. I like your reference to "an almost schizophrenic story where we don't know who to root for"; that's actually more or less what I deliberately try to produce. I don't necessarily want readers to root for one character and against the other. I'd rather they sympathised with both. If I don't make my pred characters as likeable as my prey ones, that's something I do need to work on... But I thought you'd accused me of pro-pred bias, rather than the opposite.

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Well, damn. That's kind of what I've been trying to do all along. Sad

And in many cases, it's worked. In others, not so much.
What I'm saying is you need to stress it more, figure out if we'll feel cheated or angry in the end. If the answer is yes, then some rewriting is probably in order.

What if I want readers to feel angry, or at least conflicted and uncertain?

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I can't claim to have read all of your stories, so I couldn't point to each example either. And like I said, not all of them suffer from these problems. But some of them do, and they seem to be more recent than the others.
I'm not trying to get you to radically alter your style. I'm just trying to caution you in case you're heading into an unsavory phase.

Hmm. OK. Thank you for your suggestions. They'll be something to bear in mind.

Of course, it's inevitable that we won't have exactly the same priorities, expectations and preferences.

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Now, I would bet my life savings that someone's going to jump in at some point with the argument "Oh, it's a world where people eat each other! You have to leave room for conflicting morals!" so I'm going to stake that pest before dusk.

It's challenging to make a human-eating character likable. This is obvious, looking at how many people fail at it. But it IS indeed possible, and you CAN and HAVE done so. I'd just prefer to see more of that.

Thanks. I'll do my best.

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You can't just make an unlikable character and assume people won't hate them because "It's the law of the jungle". It may be a savage setting, but it's still art. Like it or not, most human-perspective Felarya stories wind up making the predators look like insensitive pricks and bullies. Now this may not be logical when you pause to go grab a snack and think about the story, but again, a story cannot sustain itself on fridge logic. It's a matter of portrayal.

You seem to really like the human perspective though, so what I would recommend is this. Have the inevitable predator converse with the prey more. Interact, be original, keep the audience guessing whether the human will survive or perish. Of course, to do this, the human will have to survive some of the time. And what I'd recommend is making a story that SEEMS to be the basic "vacation in Felarya, protagonist gets eaten" formula, then suddenly have them survive and become a major player.
The problem with some of these stories is that they're predictable. But your style isn't inherently tied to that predictability, so it's definitely somehting you can fix. I just want to give my thoughts on it now.

*nods* Thank you for taking the time to detail your thoughts and suggestions. I'd like to think that there's some suspense and unpredictability in a number of my stories; readers have told me several times that they were worried as to whether a particular character would survive, and that they were relieved when he or she did. I was pleased to hear that, because it meant I'd been able to a) create an effect of suspense, and b) make the character likeable enough for the reader to care what happened to them. I'll try to continue to do that. And to do better when it doesn't quite work.

Chapter 7 of Lost in Felarya: "The price of a story"
http://frenchsnack.deviantart.com/art/Lost-in-Felarya-chapter-7-125371593

Spoiler:

A short story about a tomthumb:
http://aryion.com/g3/showitem.php?id=173005

(I'll put it on DA, too, maybe tomorrow.)

While writing it, I couldn't help but feel that I may have been influenced by timing2's Felarya stories. They're very good, so if you haven't read them yet, I'll take this opportunity to advertise them.

Six months ago, I uploaded a story in which Jissy was turned into a human. In it, she met a human woman called Niree, narrowly avoided being eaten by Katrika, and took refuge at the Great Tree with Crisis and Anna. I left the story with a "to be continued".

A while ago, I started writing the continuation. Now I've finally completed it. It focuses mainly on the relationship between Jissy and Roshan.

I changed my mind several times about the ending while writing the story, before settling on the final version:

http://aryion.com/g3/showitem.php?id=173084