Shantak

“	Winged and whirring, those forms grew larger each moment, and the traveller knew his stumbling was at an end. They were not any birds or bats known elsewhere on earth or in dreamland, for they were larger than elephants and had heads like a horse's. Carter knew that they must be the Shantak-birds of ill rumour, and wondered no more what evil guardians and nameless sentinels made men avoid the boreal rock desert. "It was hard work ascending, for the Shantak-bird has scales instead of feathers, and those scales are very slippery."	„
	~ -H. P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

Shantaks are a fictional species created by H. P. Lovecraft in his Dreamlands novel The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. Lovecraft depicts them as a flying bird-like creature larger than elephants, with heads resembling those of horses. They have scales rather than feathers, and lay eggs of colossal size and rich flavor. They are allied with Nyarlathotep, and fear the Night-gaunt minions of Nodens.

Lovecraft describes the Shantaks' speech as "tittering tones that rasped like the scratching of ground glass".

In the short story "The Gable Window", August Derleth presents a different image of the shantak via the notes of Wilbur Akeley: "Average height exceeding that of a man. Furred, bat-like bodies, bat wings, extending three feet above head. Face beaked, vulture-like, but otherwise resembling bat."

Derleth lists the Shantaks as one of the servitor races of the Great Old Ones (AWD: "The Keeper of the Key"), and claims that they "flew from Kadath in the Cold Waste at the bidding of Wind-Walker, the Wendigo, cousin of Ithaqua" (AWD: "The Seal of R'lyeh").

Lin Carter portrayed the Shantaks and the Fishers from Outside as being the same species (EXP: "The Fishers from Outside"), although other media, such as the role-playing game Call of Cthulhu, maintain that they are distinct. In Carter's works, the Shantaks / Fishers from Outside are led by Quumyagga, and are loyal to Groth-Golka.

Shantak

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