Archivo:Chull.jpg

A sketch of chulls from Shallan Davar's sketchbook.

“Chulls are everywhere, of course, and they come in a variety of shapes and sizes. There must be far more breeds of the animal than I'd originally assumed. I've seen them pulling carts, towing boxes, carrying jugs of water in racks on their sides.

I even saw a man riding one for transportation, though it seems that walking would be far faster
The shells aren't nearly as heavy as they look.
In the wild, plants grow in the crevices, and a sleeping chull looks much like a boulder.
Apparently the beasts aren't hurt if the shell is cracked, or even shaped. Some people sand flat palces on top to ride, and many carts are hooked to fittings drilled directly into the shell.
Many of the drivers here on the coast direct the animals by tapping on their antennae with a long pole, rather than using a complex leather bridle like the workers on my fathers estate.

”

—Transcription of notations

A study of chulls, some rough drawings, others more detailed. It's annotated in neat, curly handwriting. Chulls are depicted as being quite tall, the top of their shell is taller than a human. They're roughly as tall as they are wide, so when they tuck their legs in to sleep they look quite round. On the right of the page, we have a rough sketch of a sleeping chull. It's legs are tucked into the side of its body and its two pincers are crossed in front of its head. The head is retracted as well and two white dots show where its eyes are, peeking out of the shell. This chull's outer shell has plants growing on it. They look like large, real-life succulent plants. They have a main, bulbous body and the leaves at the top peel away to reveal a flower-like structure inside. A couple of these plants have been drawn in more detail next to this chull. There is also a very rough sketch of how the legs connect to the body. The leg has three segments: starting at the body there is a short sturdy segment pointing straight away from the body, then a longer part sticking up and to the side, and finally the main foot segment sticking down again. The foot is very thick and roughly pyramid shaped. Below our sleepy friend are two close-ups of a chull's face. It looks a lot like a lobster or shrimp’s: flat, rectangular, with several sets of antennae and a large mouth that opens sideways. It doesn't have a snout or jaws, just a flat bit of shell with a vertical crack in the middle that opens to let food inside. Above the mouth are two small, beady eyes on eye stalks. There are three pairs of antennas. The first sit between the eyes and mouth. They are medium length, thin, and it doesn't seem like the chull can move them. They stick straight out in front of its face, so I imagine the chull uses these to detect when it's about to run into something. I don't think they have very good eyesight. According to a second drawing, these antennas can be curled up in spirals like a real-life butterfly's tongue. The second pair, the longest thickest ones, are to either side of the face. Their bases have two joints, almost like fingers, so the chull can move these antennas around to explore objects around it. The third pair are short and sit on either side of the mouth. Their ends are like mandibles than antennas. These are clearly used to shovel food into the mouth. The centre of the page is a large, detailed drawing of a human riding a chull. The chull is lobster-like, with a tall boulder-like shell. There are pitons driven into the shell at the back, to hitch a wagon to. It's easily twice as tall as the human riding it. Several rugs have been draped over the top of the chull's shell as well as sacks and what appears to be a bedroll. In the midst of this nest sits a lone human figure holding a reed that's easily twice as long as him. He is wearing many-layered robes and his hair is done in a top-knot. He's Thaylen and his eyebrows are sticking up over his eyes like fans. He looks quite proud, perched on top of his chull, like a king overseeing his domain. Below the central drawing are a few smaller ones detailing the pitons in the chull's shell and the mechanisms by which wagons are attached to them. To the right of these, still below the main drawing is a sketch of another species of chull. This one has a spiky shell, it doesn't look very pleasant to ride. Finally, at the bottom of the page are two pictures of chulls pulling wagons. The focus of these pictures is more on the wagons than the chulls. The first is a box-like wagon with four wheels possibly a slave carriage. The second is a lower wagon with an open top and back. Several humanoid figures with pitchforks are filling it with hay.