So in my fantasy WIP, Chronicles of Chouwa, I have a variety of non-human species at the moment collectively referred to as demons. One of these species is hermaphroditic and until now I have used singular they as the pronoun for this species, both in dialogue and narrative. But I realized a problem with this. Had it only been one singular character it would have worked, but with an entire species having it trouble arise. I've here below provided a paragraph from the story where only two characters are mentioned, in order to show you the potential issue. Singular and plural they mix and might make for a confusing read. Give it a look and let me know if it really is or if I need to change the pronoun for the species. I also welcome suggestions as to what I could change it to. One member of this species is a very major character and thus appears quite a lot throughout the story, so I want to get this right. Despite their clans being of different stations the two of them had played together a lot as younglings. But when they both came of age Tsubasa slowly realized that they had fallen in love with Kotori, who had grown into a great beauty. Knowing that such a union would never be permitted they had tried all they could to get over them. Then came the Mate Festival. To Tsubasa’s surprise, Kotori had brought them aside, away from snooping eyes, and there they had danced for them. Ever since that night the two of them had met every chance they got, despite knowing what would happen if they were to be discovered. But love makes you blind, and they had not cared about the risks. Until now, that is. With Kotori pregnant there was no way they could hide their forbidden relationship much longer. So for their own lives, and their unborn child’s as well, they now had to abandon their home and families.
Either: 1) Invent a pronoun. Seeing as this is a fictional non-human race, that shouldn't be a problem. 2) Pick an existing gendered pronoun and use that consistently. 3) Always refer to the characters by name. 4) Reword the sentence to make it less unclear, e.g. "Kotori had taken Tsubasa aside, much to their surprise". 5) Write the whole novel in Japanese. Problem solved.
