Chokestuff

Chokestuff is the seventh of the firststuffs; its token is N. The unclefts of Chokestuff have seven firstbits, seven bernstonebits, and seven or eight evenmotes. They most often make three bonds, and can be found as the two-uncleft loft N2, which is the main share of the Earth's loftsea, making up eight deals out of ten. Chokestuff cannot feed fire or uphold breathing like Sourstuff can, but it is still needful for life.

The strong threefold-bonds holding chokestuff bulkbits together make the loft somewhat idle, and in this form it cannot be brooked by most lifekin. Instead, their needs hang on minglestuffs such as hartshorn (NH3). These are made from chokestuff in the loftsea by lightning strikes and, more often, chokestuff-fastening rodwights, which dwell in the root-knots of worts like beans and peas. For this thing, farmers often shift beans back and forth with other crops in their fields, to keep the earth rich in chokestuff-bearing minglestuffs. In latter days, bats' dung and man-made mulches have also been brooked to furnish farmland with the needed chokestuff.