Like a sling, except it throws spears.

Same idea! Atlatls work as levers that amplify the throwers effective "arm" and are a particularly effective way of imparting a lot of force into a spear or specialized dart.

As someone who has recently gotten into Nahua culture, I like this very much

Hey good to hear! Atlatls are a weapon that we find all over the prehistoric world and were very popular as weapons of hunting by the Nahua culture/civilization and was repurposed more into a war weapon in the Aztec civilization, I think the only continent where to my knowledge archaeologists have not found atlatls on is curiously Africa though I don't have all the sources so I won't say whether or not there were or not as at this point its impossible to say (though my opinion is that they probably did exist but that is just an opinion)
Atlatls were also a weapon used (by many names) throughout written history which is awesome. Atlatl being the Nahuatl word and the most popular one in the Americas.
In the precolombian americas the bow did take a while longer to pick up, we believe the technology was understood, there is also debate that the bow and arrow came and went multiple times in North America, so for a while the Atlatl was the go to hunting weapon of choice across the Americas at least until 1200AD when the Bow started to pick up more actively in parts of the Americas.
and of course in Australia the Woomera (their style of atlatl) never got supplanted. They knew of bow and arrows but like the people of the Americas, they just felt the Atlatl was plenty good enough and kept using it and it still sees use to this day.

But yeah atlatls are cool, I own two and throw and practice with them for personal target practice and fun.

Nice!
Actually the first depiction of an Atlatl (on this site) i have ever seen.
Tried it once myself too, it's HARD xD

Yeah they are a pretty underrepresented device for sure, its a shame but fair

Too bad Oli doesn't know how to make hooks or fishing rods in this time, nor what resources to use for it since it mighr make the process easier on their part, however I do feel like spear fishing could be easier and faster depending on how good you are at it.

Spear fishing is a plenty effective way to fish and, at least for this culture since they know of hook and line fishing, prefer it for their general fishing. I am sure Oli will acclimate to the local perspectives in time

If you think about it, the idea of "throwing a stick with a stick" is so unintuitive to be genius.

"Stick not working? Use more stick."

Just keep adding more stick until it works

Yeet the stick with a stick simple.

Stick yeeter 9000, the greatest innovation in draconic history

May need some hints here…

“Fer Hooks’re roads” -> “Since hooks are roads”?

“All‘ve it Cama’ith me ir” -> “I’ll have it commeth(come with?) me here”?

"Fer hooks're roads." implies a phrase common to the area, Fer x're roads" means more like they are "Road hooks" IE They're for traveling. It's a frequent bit of dialectical slang in the region.

You're close on the second one. "All've it Cama'ith me ir" is "All of it come with me here". The suffix of 've means both have and of. a good example is the aforementioned "Dragon've Paradise" (The Dragon of Paradise)

I don’t often see Atlatls represented zhat often in media, like at all. Seeing zhis actually made me really happy

As someone who owns multiple and throws as regularly as he can, they are a very underappreciated weapon I agree

Oh I thought that was an atlatl!

Also pink n' turquoise in panel 1 are my faves and waaaait a minute I just now noticed their teeth

Atlatls for days

And yeah those are egg teeth, or if you mean the extra teeth in the adults I’ve been meaning to draw more teeth in them

Oh I remember seeing those things before. It really does make a difference on the speed and distance the spear is thrown compared to just throwing it by hand. Nice touch by the way. It shows what kind of tools a younger culture uses compared to the older ones.

Can I assume the reason for no hooks is because the fish they are after are much bigger than the ones Oli is use to?

yep they're just levers, gives you more "arm" with which to throw. Though I wouldn't associate them with "old" or "young" cultures as very complex and long lasting civilizations have used atlatls plenty.

It is more cultural preference, the Broncens like to use one tool for their fishing and hunting and they prefer that convinience. if they need smaller fish or if they're traveling and need a smaller hook and line for fishing on the road.