“Oh yes, I will speak to you about the cha’thrang - you lowlanders need to learn more about coexisting with the creatures of this world. With these mighty creatures, even a wet behind the ears beginner can gain valuable resources. It’s simply about learning some respect.”
- Threet Walks Down, halfling druid lecturing an aspirant not far from Urik

About the Cha’thrang

“Cha’thrang have Focus; they perfectly fulfill their function. Probably not useful to your Focus, but well worth the study. You had better not mess with mine though! I am feeding them different diets, see if affects their tethers. The only use everyone thinks of for the cha’thrang is their tethers, and for damn good reason: a good length of tether can hold 50 stone. If you get creative, the sky is limit! Braiding them only increases their value. I’ve used them to make tents, mats, and clothes. ‘Course, my bow strings are second to none!

As for the rest, they aren’t any good for water. Too much lime built up under the shell, makes it undrinkable. However, if you know what you’re doing, you can use that lime to preserve the meat. It’ll keep for weeks! And you can feed it to predators or scavengers or people you hate! It’s poisonous until you wash the lime off, you see…

The pipes on its back? Mostly useless. They are very brittle, so it’s hard to shape them without breaking. This pipe? Freak accident. One grew in almost the right shape. I try to sell discarded pipes as wind chimes, toys for children, art. Art for idiots.

The pipes make it hard for them to mate. When the male mounts the lady, her pipes jab and stab into the male’s underbelly. Not rare for the male to die. I respect the determination, but it’s a major flaw. That’s why I sand off a carefully selected section of the pipes off the females - that way the male can get to rutting proper. Wild ones won’t let you do that, but the trine I’ve got seems to like it.”
- Hardoc, dwarven bowyer

“Look upon the cha’thrang my children! It’s face down in the dirt, never raising its eyes to the glorious sky. Never does it witness the glories of the world. It blindly belches forth its darts, pitifully accepting whatever prey the eternal sky permits it. Learn from this example: always race the wind!”
- Allater Wind Chaser, elven cleric of Air

“We call them “silties”. They’re a kind of cha’thrang that live in silt. They wade in deep enough to mostly cover themselves, then they push their nostrils up above the silt. Heck, when the wind blows over their pipes it makes them whistle, which can draw in prey. Harmless to us.”
- Kyveli Barou, a Balican silt sailor

“They call them ‘Great Cliff Clingers’, near as I can translate. Just like a cha’thrang, but they hold onto the side of those vertical cliffs. They don’t have legs like ours do. Instead, they have some kind of mucous pad, and they use them to stick to the Cliffs. Getting tagged by one of those guys is regarded as a death sentence by the Wind Riders.”
- Tyrril, half-elven explorer

Practical uses of the Cha’thrang

Silt Snorkel: Most Athasians can’t imagine a body of water deep enough to submerge in, but I assure it was once possible. Other uses for a snorkel, like with mud or silt, aren’t practical. Despite this, some have conceived of novel uses for a silt snorkel. It has proven popular for psionicists and thrill seeking nobles, who use it in controlled circumstances as a sensory deprivation device. Silt clerics will often use one to submerge initiates as a test. Elven raiders are even known to employ a snorkel-using spotter, hiding beneath the sands and psionically alerting his kin when prey approaches.

However, the true potential of silt snorkels lies with their enhancement with psionic powers. Clairvoyants will often enhance snorkels to allow their users to see through silt or view the surrounding area from above; elemental clerics and templars sometimes work similar enchantments with their magic. Interestingly, most Silt clerics seem to consider enchanting a snorkel heretical, believing it to be “cheating”.

Tethers: Cha’thrang tethers can be used in a similar way to giant hair, but giant hair rope is longer, thicker, and available in greater amounts. Tethers can still be quite long, however, and are much thinner than giant hair rope without sacrificing strength. Cha’thrang tethers are much harder to acquire than giant hair, though. Tethers are best obtained by following cha’thrangs around and picking up the ones they shed onto the ground. This makes tethers ill-suited for any use that approaches an industrial scale, but they are in high demand in places with limited access to giant hair.

Cha’thrang tethers are also ideal for bow and musical instrument strings, and some healers swear by their use as sutures. Tethers have also proved highly effective in use with armor. Naturally, enchanted cha’thrang tethers involving sound, the element of Air, healing, and ranged combat are extremely effective.

Lime: Even if just used as a poison, bards find plenty of use for cha’thrang lime. As a natural caustic, the lime can easily inflict burns on the skin, eyes, and respiratory system. Blowing powdered lime directly in the face of an opponent to blind and cause breathing issues is by far the most popular combat application of cha’thrang lime. A more insidious use, however, is to serve it in drinks or slather the lime on the inside of armor - this is a popular way to debilitate a gladiator before a match.

Legendary Examples:

“Ol’ Faithful”: a cha’thrang that unleashes his darts with clockwork regularity. Popular rumor holds that Ol’ Faithful is a deaf elder, who just shoots at a regular intervals to try and catch something. As a bigger and slower example of his kind, local youths like to dare each other to tag him.

“Sarekka”: a clinger variant, is notorious among wind riders for killing far more than she can eat. She is said to be able to move about uncommonly fast, possibly indicating magic or psionic influence.

“Windy Rock”: this cha’thrang lairs in an unspoiled area, and seemingly aims to keep it that way. Quite mysterious, some believe the creature is an awakened beast, while others say it must be a druid in disguise. Whatever its true nature, Windy Rock does seem to possess elemental magic of the earth variety. Oddly, air powers have also been noted as well. Whether the cha’thrang is really a druid with access to multiple spheres, or some strange confluence of elemental Earth and Air is hard to say.