Te'Chelchel

Hovering between the canopies of the swamplands lurk an incredibly successful generalist, with roving populations spreading as far as the swamplands to the outer reaches of the Ashy Desert. They exist as a core staple of the arboreal ecosystem across the continent and play a vital role in a collection of smaller faiths and cultures littered across the nooks and crannies of the wider world. Some have even gone as far as attempting to properly domesticate these creatures although such efforts have been widely unsuccessful. Nevertheless the concept of ‘taming a Te’Chelchel’ is considered a right of passage for many tribalistic men of the swamplands to the extent depictions of such creatures have been documented across almost every avenue of those who live there,

Te’Chelchel resembles that of dragonflies but is neither an insect nor an arthropod. Instead, these hard-shelled organisms resperate via vertebrate-esc lungs filtering through notches on the inside of their mouthparts. These mouthparts are composed of six different independent mandibles used to strip leaves and masicate prey. Being omnviorous the Te’Chelchel eats predominantly plant material but will opportunistically attack and kill victims smaller than itself.

At maturity a Te’Chelchel stands at six feet tall and roughly triple that in length, supporting a surprisingly light weight of only a few hundred pounds. This is supported by small air sacs running down the duration of the tail and limbs to keep the animal sturdy without sacrificing its ability to fly. To further cement its maneuverability it sports three sets of limbs each marked with at least one claw on either limb, with two digits sprawling out from the rear to cling onto the sides of trees.

To fly the Te’Chelchel utalises two sets of membraned wings which beat back and forth to allow for lift, hovering and moving in just about any direction on an X-Y axis with the movement of its long rudder-like tail. While not particularly fast the Te’Chelchel can weave through the treeline and dart in and out of dense foliage while still remaining airbourne, an adaptation arising from a near constant lifestyle of treebourne survival.

Contrary to popular belief the Te’Chelchel is surprisingly intelligent, showing comparable cognitive ability to that of a bird of prey. This allows it to pinpoint prey using its compound eyes to a much stronger degree than without it, going as far as to reliably hunt field mice nestled in a wave of tallgrass. This also allows the Te’Chelchel to recognise certain aspects of other organisms around it, causing them to become quite territorial and reclusive toward humanoids naturally with some even rumouring that they are secretly carrying out raids on humanoid settlements to carry their children off in the night. Despite this stigma they are in fact tameable, through a brutal process of wearing the animals resolve over the course of several days to the extent that many die in the process of the taming the Te’Chelchel will garner a respect for those attempting to tame it. A tamed Te’chelchel is incredibly loyal to its owner and will refuse to be ridden by anyone other than such.

Despite their lightweight they can be used in short-distance travel by most humanoids so long as the load they carry is only 150lbs (including gear and misc items).