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Basics
Basics
For countless generations the Wayfinders have used the stars to navigate through the desert to make sure they wouldn’t get lost when travelling between their wells. To understand how they do it, there are a few basic things one must keep in mind as they determine how certain techniques and tricks may change depending on certain factors.
Our roleplay takes place in the Northern Hemisphere. To use celestial navigation, one must be aware of how the world works, how it affects which constellations are visible and how that will help determine the best course of action to find your directions.
There are also other ways to find the cardinal directions, such as the sun rising in the East and setting in the West, which are certainly used by the Wayfinders quite often but due to their habit of traveling at night to avoid the desert’s heat, using constellations is usually the techniques they use the most.
Will I be required to roleplay navigation in a detailed, accurate manner?
No. This guide is here for those who are interested in knowing more about celestial navigation and how it connects to the Wayfinders and affects their lives in-roleplay and for the Staff Team to make sure they're not making mistakes when taking these things into consideration.
Guides
Guides
These simple but extremely useful tutorial videos made it very easy to understand how celestial navigation works, so we decided to share them! A small summary of each video will be given for easy access to information, as well as small changes related to Lore (like constellation names, for example).
As a basis, both for simplicity sake and due to the videos, we'll be looking at how to find North using the stars, as finding the other cardinal directions after that can be relatively simple.
Credit to AlfieAesthetics on Youtube for all the videos and images!
Known to the Wayfinders as The Hunter, this constellation is quite large and considerably easy to find. That being said, Orion is a Seasonal constellation - this means it is not visible in the sky all year round. It's considered a winter constellation, as that is when it's full range of movement can be observed. It's not visible in the sky during the summer.
When using The Hunter to find North, one should pay attention to Orion's Belt (called Hunter's Belt to the Wayfinders) and Orion's Sword (Hunter's Tail). It is through those two parts of the constellation one is able to determine their directions.
It follows a pattern similar to the Sun: When it's tilted left and low on the horizon, it is East. If it is upright and high in the sky, it is South. If it is tilted right and low on the horizon, it is West.
Known to the Wayfinders as the Mother Wolf, this constellation is one of the most important to the colony due to its connection to the North Star. Also considered an easy constellation to spot in the sky, using Ursa Major to find North is usually the first things young Wayfinders learn. It is a Spring constellation.
To find North using the Mother Wolf, one must pay attention to the Pointers, as they show the way to the North Star and, consequentially, the Wolf Pup (Ursa Minor). To be facing the North Star is to be facing true North. Because of how all other stars revolve around it, the North Star is the most important star to Wayfinders.
The Summer Triangle is a very large constellation, made up of the three brightest stars in the sky, making it extremely visible and easy to spot. Like The Hunter, this constellation is seasonal, being visible through the Summer as its name suggests. It cannot be seen during Winter.
One way to find North using the Summer Triangle is to visualise an imaginaty copy of the triangle's point under it, below it's base, which is the short side of the triangle, with the other two being relatively similar in length. Finding the point of the imaginary copy means you are looking quite close to true North, with the North Star being in close proximity.
Known to the colony as The Monarch, Cassiopeia is an autumn constellation that is often identified for a shape similar to a W (or an M, depending on its position in the sky). It's quite a bright constellation, making it relatively simple to spot on the night sky.
To find North, one should pay attention to the angles formed by the constellation, having one wide angle and one narrow. If you draw an imaginary line from the center of the two angles until they meet, you will find North, or at least very close to it. This is because the two lines meet right above the North Star, signaling true North.
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