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ShadowKing
Acolyte

17 Posts

Posted - 17 Apr 2014 :  12:27:03  Show Profile Send ShadowKing a Private Message  Reply with Quote  Delete Topic
Did compass exist in the last decades prior to the Spellplague?
How did explorers reach Maztica?
If cumbersome compasses were used on board ships, were there pocket compass spread among the common people?

Kentinal
Great Reader

4684 Posts

Posted - 17 Apr 2014 :  19:32:56  Show Profile Send Kentinal a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I did some searching, however really can not say for sure I can offer a correct answer.

It appears possible that a magical compass could exist in 3.5 Realms. I base this on the SRD 3.5 spell Know Direction. I have not found an old fashion compass as equipment in 2nd or 3rd, at least not yet.

"Small beings can have small wisdom," the dragon said. "And small wise beings are better than small fools. Listen: Wisdom is caring for afterwards."
"Caring for afterwards ...? Ker repeated this without understanding.
"After action, afterwards," the dragon said. "Choose the afterwards first, then the action. Fools choose action first."
"Judgement" copyright 2003 by Elizabeth Moon
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Eilserus
Master of Realmslore

USA
1446 Posts

Posted - 17 Apr 2014 :  20:52:58  Show Profile Send Eilserus a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Use of a lodestone perhaps?
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Ayrik
Great Reader

Canada
7966 Posts

Posted - 17 Apr 2014 :  23:06:55  Show Profile Send Ayrik a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Compasses did exist. They were standard gear available for purchase in AD&D 1E and 2E handbooks. Cartographers of the Realms certainly used compasses and sextants and perhaps even accurate clocks, although their items likely used different measures of angles and distances. (Then again, maybe their measures were much the same as ours, given how often they appear in Realms fiction and adventures.)

Compasses were known (and used) on our own world by ancient civilizations - Greek, Roman, Persian, India, and the Orient. Phoenician sea captains held them as badges of their rank. Although few of these seemed compelled to travel all the way to the magnetic North Pole, which seems odd to me, why not see what that needle is always pointing at?

Pre-industrial societies lacked the ability to manufacture magnets, they had to mine lodestones and pyrite and magnetite wherever these could be found. Much occult lore and superstition once attributed various interesting properties of attraction to magnetic stones.

[/Ayrik]
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