The prototype for Philnn Arol is obviously Errol Flynn
. What better mold for an Adventurer's God could there be, personal problems and all, except perhaps Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton (a name which didn't lend itself nearly as well to being mangled). The Flynn of The Adventures of Robin Hood is clearly the one in the descriptions, complete with the brighter-than-life nod to three-strip Technicolor. - oh, right, he doesn't actually appear here. Well, just carry on, then. Nothing to see.
And Gashanatantra? Made up, out of whole cloth. Not at random, of course - names are important, and often you don't know you have the right one until you've tried it out for a bit - but sometimes you can use found words, and sometimes you just have to tinker bit by bit until you converge on the solution. Gash was one of the latter. I knew I needed a word with (1) multiple syllables, (2) vaguely Indian in tenor, and (3) lending itself to a natural abbreviation. Q.E.D.
The name of the chapter, on the other hand, is another Hammett reference, this time to The Thin Man. Actually, the reference is more to the movie series than the book. The Thin Man in the novel was not actually Nick Charles, the co-hero, but in order to establish series title continuity for the films, the Thin Man moniker was pulled along and applied retroactively, in effect, to Mr. Charles himself. When the name of the Creeping Sword appears here in this chapter title it doesn't, strictly speaking, seem to make sense; this can always be read as a potential hint of foreshadowing, if the author knows what he's doing, or example of malpractice, if he doesn't.
