Beast parts

People of the Surface learned pretty quickly that they have to use anything they can to survive the harsh environment of The Surface layers. Up there, the best source of resources are Beasts from Above. Those giant insect-like creatures were born to thrive in the hostile conditions of the land above the Surface. Their bodies are strong, durable and resistant to the effects the sun has on everything else.

Parts and their uses

Below there are described the most commonly used organs of the Beasts.

Oils

The most important resource one can gather from the corpse of a Beast, the oils that cover their bodies are one of the things that makes them immune to both the temperature and the corrosive influence of the sun. Covering anything with them makes the thing resistant to those effects, letting people of the Surface wear the clothes and create tents without the fear that they will disintegrate the next day.

Gas bladders

The most valuable resource, gas bladders are membranous spheres that are filled with an unknown gas. The ones that are filled have a mysterious property of making anything they are attached to lighter. As such, any tribe that travels a lot considers them a very useful thing to have. They are often used in Sandboards to increase their mobility and are the main component in production of Spearguns. Empty gas bladders can be also used to store the surprising amounts of water.

Float webbings

These big membranous structures tend to stretch and tense as if they were pushed by the wind, even in windless conditions of the Surface. They are mostly used as sails for sandboards. Some tried to use them as tents only to discover that they have woken up looking at the ceiling of the layer.

Legs

Thanks to their high chitin to hemolymph and meat ratio, legs of Beasts are usually the hardest parts of their bodies. As such, they are often used as beams for any structures the people of the Surface build. Legs are also incredibly sharp and pointy. If one finds legs thin enough and properly cleans them, they can use them when creating weapons such as spears or missiles and barrels for spearguns. If hollowed out, they can be used in the creation of periscopes the Stargazers or as pipes used to transport the water from the oasis.

Carapace shells

Cleaned out, the carapaces of the Beasts can be used either as dishes or an armor. And although most people of the Surface tend to stay away from anything that encumbers them, there are some of the Beasts, which are better took on head-on straight, as they tend to show their weak spots during the attack. This armor is both really durable against the impact and slashes.

Carapace plates

Larger than carapace shells, plates are both thicker and tougher. They are often used as the base for the Sandboards. Aside from this use, some use them as shields or walls in their tents/houses.

Mandibles

Extremely sharp and jagged, mandibles serve as the saws and weapons such as axes. Some of the species of Beasts have poison glands stored within them, and obtaining said poison can both be used to assassinate someone and create antivenoms in case of being bitten by them.

Spikes

Sharp structures coming from the more hostile cousins of Living fortresses, the spikes are mostly used as weapons, be it javelins, speargun projectiles or sword blades and spear heads.

Eyes

Eyes of the Beasts are surprisingly hard. Depending on their species they can be just a single photoreceptive spot, a structure similar to the human eye, or a they can be compound eyes, being made out of thousands of those photoreceptors. The number of eyes also varies between them. Some have only 2, while the record-holder had 24. Even though many of those creatures have really bad eyesight, their eyes make pretty good lenses. Stargazers use them to build periscopes that let them watch what's happening above the Surface.

Distribution

Storage

After the beast from above is killed and its body (or its fragments) are brought to the tribe, the organs are stripped of all of the meat and hemolymph. The oils on them are scraped off of them and stored inside of vases made out of carapace shells. What's left can just be stored anywhere under conditions of the Surface.

Type

Biomaterial

Value

Depends on the type of the part and where it is sold

Rarity

Common on the Surface, getting rarer the farther down it goes

Related Locations

• The Surface

Related Items

• Speargun

Related Professions

• Stargazers

The use for those living below

Those living below, in The Tree layers and in The Depths, experience vastly different conditions than those living on the Surface layers. As such, for them, the value and functions the components collected from Beasts can differ greatly. Some are completely useless, being outclassed by the resources coming from those layers, while others might have such a unique use, their market value skyrockets the farther down they need to be transported.

• Oils - as their main function is to protect from the deadly sun that shines through the Surface, they rarely are sent outside of those layers, both because of the constant need for them there and because they don't have any other purpose.
• Gas bladders - extremely valuable. Their ability to both send out gas at high pressure and reduce their weight-reducing property makes them useful to both the traders and travelers and those working with a heavy burden, such as construction workers.
• Float webbings - an expensive toy used for gliding outside of the main shaft of The Pit or just as expensive sails for the ships traversing the Black Sea.
• Legs - they can be a really good reinforcement, however, there are many more articles that can serve the same purpose.
• Carapace shells - armor made out of them is bought only for its collection value. There is stuff that protects from bullets (more common here) better than carapace armor.
• Carapace plates - only used to make fancy shields for those who still use them/collect them.
• Mandibles - almost worthless, steel melee weapons are better
• Spikes - same as mandibles.
• Eyes - even below they are used in some machines as lenses making them a valuable resource.