Chulls

Chulls, as the name suggests, adds Chulls, effective beasts of burden to bring on your desert trips. Grow a Chull from a little Chull Egg, into a Cremling, which will metamorphosize into a full-grown Chull, completing the cycle. Chulls can be given saddles and ridden, and function as walking double chests when shift-right-clicked. (If saddled). Also added are Lavis Polyps, as well as a couple other features.

This mod requires Geckolib to function.

This is my first real mod, so I apologize for the bugs. Please put your feedback in the comments!

Warning:

Do not allow your Chulls to senescence while carrying items in their inventory! Do to a current bug, all the items will be lost.
The current situation makes this hard to fix, but it will hopefully no longer be a problem in the future.

Features

New as of 1.3:

With this update comes the final stage of metamorphosis for the Chull: Senescence! Chulls, during the rain or thunderstorm, will form a cocoon around them to begin the final stage of their lifecycle. Along with this comes new benefits including a larger form of the rocklily, a new variant of the chull, and a useful garden to speed up crop production. Added alongside senescence and a crucial part of it is the new variant, the Chull Scavenger. The Chull texture and it's chitin have also been changed. More about this all is below.

Chull

Chulls are the centerpiece of this mod. Hatched from a Chull Egg, a Chull starts its journey as a Cremling as it goes through the various stages of metamorphosis. Once the lengthy process is complete, a full-grown Chull is ready to serve as a useful beast of burden. If given a saddle, it can be ridden and serves as a walking double chest.

Chull Scavenger

The first obtainable variant of the Chull. These smaller members of the Chull family carry big shells and wield proportionally large claws and pincers to aid them in their favorite pastime: digging. As per the name, these Chulls will "scavenge" underneat the dirt, digging it up, to obtain valuable items both from the mod and otherwise.

Popping a Rockblossom in front of a Scavenger will cause them to dig it up. (Sometimes they need encouragement, however. Try leading them to it with some Lavis Grain!). Much like the cremling they came from, they enjoy digging up Rocklily, albeit a larger form of the plant. As said above, this will reveal valuable materials ranging from grain to gems to even an armor trim. (This will receive much more functionality in the next update).

Chull Scavenger digging up a Rockblossom

Lavis Polyp

Lavis Polyps can be found scattered throughout the desert. Break them or pop them open by right-clicking with an axe to obtain Lavis Grain, which can be cooked, turned into Chull Feed, or directly fed to Chulls to breed them. It can also be fed to Cremlings to advance their growth. New polyps can also be planted using the grain.

Chull Senescence

The final stage of a Chull's lifecycle. From Egg, to Cremling, to Cocoon, to full grown, this is the true "death" of a Chull. Occurring during rainstorms or thunderstorms, a Chull will begin to form a cocoon after a time and become completely oblivious to the outside world. This cocoon will soon grow into a Senescence Garden, a mysterious yet useful plant that grants access to new variants of the Chull family.

This garden grants strange properties to the plants grown on it. Normal plants will receive a periodic bonemealing, greatly speeding crop growth. Rocklily will grow past its normal height, into a grand Rockblossom. And finally, Chull seedlings can be grown on top of a garden to form an egg.

But perhaps you do not wish to part with your Chulls? Never fear! To stop the natural process of senescence, you can feed a Chull a piece of Shalebark, which will stop the process from occurring during the next or current rainstorm. Keep in mind this must be done for each rainstorm, however. The most tried and true method of keeping a Chull from senescencing is simply putting a roof over their head. As long as the rain does not affect them and they cannot see the sky, the Chull is safe.

Soulcast Ruins

The ruins of old soulcast (Cosmere reference) buildings can be found, albeit rarely, in the desert. Though they often blend with the sand and can be difficult to find, it can be made easier by searching near a desert villlage (~150 blocks away). Perhaps stored within one of the barrels is the egg of a long-lost creature?

Chull Cremlings

Chull Cremlings are baby chulls still going through the lifecycle of metamorphosis. While not as useful as their adult counterparts, it can be good to have a few cremlings around when stranded in a large desert.

Planting a rocklily in front of a cremling will cause it to dig it up, leaving the sand below tilled. Tilled Sand can support crops even in the barren desert. If you want your cremling to stick around rather than metamorphosising, try feeding it some shalebark.

Blocks and Items

Chull Egg

Found in Soulcast Ruins. When placed, it will hatch into a Cremling after a time.

Lavis Grain

Obtained from Lavis Polyps. Can be baked into flatbread, turned to Chull Feed, or fed to Chulls to breed them. Chull feed can be used while riding a Chull to heal them. As well as this, Lavis Grain can be used as a quick but plentiful fuel source.

Chull Chitin

Right-clicking a chull with a pickaxe will shear off a chunk of its shell, leaving behind some Chitin. (This does not hurt the chull in any way). Chitin, a very useful piece of carapace, can be crafted into a chestplate, iron gear fitted with pieces of a chull's shell. Wearing it grants protects the user from 1/4th of all projectile damage. As well as this is the shield, which, as well as having greater durability than it's counterpart, grants armor when held. Chitin can also be used to craft arrows.

Chull Saddle and Driver

A Chull can be saddled to allow riding and to open its inventory. The Chull Driver, when held while riding a Chull, will move it forward much like a carrot-on-a-stick.

Seedlings

As of now, the only seedling is the Scavenger's. These are seeds that, when planted on a Senescence Garden, will grow into the eggs of new Chull variants. Stay tuned for the next update which will add new variants and expand on the Scavenger's main utility: digging up new seedlings!

Scavenger seedlings can be obtained by Cremlings digging up Rockblossom plants that have been moved from the Garden to the sand.

Rockblossoms

Rockblossoms are Rocklily plants that have been planted onto a Senescence garden, enhancing their growth. Sprouting into large counterparts of the original plant, these can be used to grow Rockblossom Fruit, which, when turned into a jam, can be fed to Chulls to increase their speed. It can otherwise be eaten to gain a large amount of saturation.

The primary use for these plants however, is having them be dug up. Cremlings will dig up Rockblossoms that have been moved from a Garden to the sand to reveal the Chull Scavenger Seedling. Chull Scavengers can dig up Rockblossoms to reveal valuable rewards. Just make sure to fence in your Rockblossom fruit producers around Cremlings and Scavengers or you might find some loot on the ground in their place!

New Plants

Two new plants are added, the shalebark and rocklily. Shalebark is a mushroom that is found in soulcast ruins, and can be used to inhibit the growth of a cremling. Rocklily is found in stony shores and on the tops of stony peaks. It can be used to temporarily increase the speed of a Chull if used while riding.

Dependencies

Requires Geckolib to function!

The new models added as of 1.1 were completely textured and modeled by user Forestwastakenn. Not only this, but this user was a huge motivation to me and the entire reason for this new update, and the next upcoming one. I would have probably abandoned this project but am now filled with renewed vigor for updating the mod! Please check out Forestwastakenn's curseforge page as there are some super high quality mods there! (Particularly Ender Beetles, which is criminally underrated).

The sounds for the Chull Scavenger (And soon to be for the new variants) were all made by user NERESH. Thanks so much to him, he was a great help!

That's basically all the content the mod has to offer as of now. Again, this is my first mod, so I apologize for any unintended occurrences while playing with it. Please report any bugs or give any suggestions in the comments!
I also really recommend the inspiration for the mod, Brandon Sanderson's books on Cosmere! Particularly the Stormlight Archive. Thank you for downloading.