Abysm - Compass
Added 2025-09-02 15:59:44 +0000 UTCQuickie done in 2 days over the weekend for warmups/fun. Working on getting a very quick version of my painter style going so I can make more frequent art.
Not much to say on this one, but I did have a friend on discord ask a pretty interesting question regarding Compass functionality in the Abyss/Maze.
- Magnetic compasses are useless entirely, as there are no known poles in the Abyss to use as a universal waypoint.
- Occasionally a large mineral deposit called a Lodestone gets unearthed with the simple property of attracting only to itself, which means any fragments from its larger self try to find its way back to the whole. Because of this, some settlements in clearings have created short-range compasses that can be 'attuned' to their lodestone. As a result, it is possible to have a compass that points to a particular settlement which it was created, but it prevents the use of a compass to find anything new, rather opting for for a known safe haven (or potentially the ruins of a once-safe place).
- Since compasses universally are limited in use, Cartographers are still the primary system for diving deep into the maze, as lodestone compasses have a limited range. Deep mazes also cause compass malfunction entirely due to euclidean space and other anomalies.
- Matilda can't read, so a compass has limited use (lol)
