User blog comment:A, Mori/The Forged Fates/Chapters 9-12/@comment-16075172-20160120185443

Fun facts:
 * Amper Sand is a reference to Ampersand (the & symbol). Kwik Sand is a reference to sanic quicksand. Inclusion of these guys is to make the point of "the guys who aren't the big bads have friends, so they're not entirely bad people"
 * Kappa is supposed to mirror Nu
 * Deepest lore but Alden was designed to be the prime counterpart of Sergei. The joke here is that Sergei was a huge jerk to Horst, and here Thomas is kind of a jerk to Alden. (Alden isn't Thomas' father; it's been established that counterparts don't need to have exactly the same familial relation. Either way tho I guess it still is up to the creator as to whether he counts as a counterpart or not)