Shantaks, Shantak-birds

[HPL Kadath (online text)]: Of the dreamlands. The shantak-birds are winged beings that guard Kadath.

Beings of Rumor and Legend

The onyx-miners of Inganok believe that the shantak-birds are no wholesome things, and that it is fortunate that no man has ever truly seen one.

Shantak-birds are rumored to frequent a great unused onyx quarry, north of Inganok and close to the Cold Waste. Flapping sounds at another such quarry reminded Randolph Carter uncomfortably of the rumored shantak-birds. A slant-eyed merchant brought eggs of the rumored shantak-birds to Inganok to trade.

The father of all the shanktak birds is rumored to dwell in the great central dome of the palace of the Veiled King at Inganok, where it is fed in the dark.

The Awful Truth

The shantak-birds are larger than elephants and have heads like a horse's. To their wings cling the rime (ice) and nitre of nether pits. The shantak-birds have slippery scales instead of feathers.

The shantak-birds both understand speech, and can speak themselves. Thus, one shantak-bird understood the guttural speech of the slant-eyed merchant, and replied to him in tittering tones like the scratching of ground glass. Sometimes the shantak-birds wheeze and titter with impatience, or leer and titter at their victims.

The shantak-birds build nests on the ledges half-way up the peaks dividing Leng from Inganok.

The shantaks fear the night-gaunts that frequent certain caves near the topmost pinnacles.

Foes of Randolph Carter

In the Cold Waste, near the carven mountains, Randolph Carter saw the shantak-birds. After being taken prisoner, Carter rode one the shantak-birds through the air. They took him to the monastery of the high-priest not to be described. Later, Carter feared passing over Leng and past the monastery again, partly because of the risk of encountering the shantak-birds once more.

Carter asked for night-gaunts to bear him past the realm of the shantaks.

Nyarlathotep offered Carter a shantak-bird to bear him to his fabulous sunset city. On arriving there, Carter was to prod the shantak-bird until it cried out, for its sound would make the Great Ones homesick. The shantak-bird was supposed to remind the Great Ones of Kadath and tell them that its halls were lonely. Then the shantak-bird was to utter its homing cry and fly back to Kadath, inspiring the Great Ones to follow behind. But the shantak-bird actually set course for Azathoth and infinity's center.

Shantaks in Derleth Stories

The shantaks are of Kadath in the Cold Waste [AWD Seal (online text), Space]. The shantaks guard Kadath in the Cold Waste and the Plateau of Leng [AWD Lurker].

The shantaks are minions of the Great Old Ones (3), aka Ancient Ones (2), aka Old Ones (4) [AWD Gable (online text), Keeper, Seal (online text), Space, Survivor (online text)]. The shantaks fly at the bidding of the Wendigo [AWD Seal (online text)].

The shantaks' average height is greater than that of a man. They have furred, bat-like bodies and bat wings, extending three feet above the head. Their faces are beaked and vulture-like. [AWD Gable (online text)]

The shantaks can be summoned wherever men say the forbidden words [AWD Whippoorwills]. The shantaks can be sommoned by raising stones and repeating the forbidden words three times [AWD Lurker].

Wilbur Akeley saw shantaks through the gable window. One of the shantaks became aware of Akeley and tried to approach him. [AWD Gable (online text)]

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