A gold-black navigation needle that points toward the most important place missing from the map laid beneath it.
Overview
The Needle ignores north. Placed upon a map, it turns toward whatever significant location the cartographer failed to include. On a good chart it reveals ruins and secret roads; on a dishonest one it may point toward a prison, massacre or erased border.
Its judgement of importance is not human. It has ignored capitals while indicating a single unmarked grave.
History
The Needle first appeared among the possessions of a navigator who returned from the Shattered Coast thirty years after his ship sank. He had not aged and could no longer perceive named islands.
The Seven Ports used it to expose false wartime charts. After the Concord it became the ceremonial instrument of the Office of Soundings, though every port suspects the displayed Needle is a replica.
The present record
When placed on a world map, the Needle points beyond the northern edge. When placed on a blank sheet, it points directly down.
Orunai listeners believe it seeks the same intact city that has begun appearing in memory rain beneath the Viridian Expanse.
Notes and record
This article combines campaign record, spoken lore and the mythic account preserved in the Earin archive.