Great review, Chris!
Okay, now... "Merkin"?
You say that's a standard fantasy race, but I'm unfamiliar with the term. My first thought was of the redneck pronunciation of "American", but I assumed that wasn't correct.
Then I thought it must mean "merfolk", but I tried looking it up on Wikipedia just to be sure.
I'm... fairly certain that what I found on Wikipedia under "merkin" is not what you meant, either.
