I have not been keeping up lately and have missed much, so if this has already been observed please ignore this post.
I assume that the compass debate has decided that Gold is drawn towards Yelm. Thus a perfectly balanced needle with one end made of gold will generally follow the sun's path across the heavens. I make a massive assumption in assuming that it also follows the sun's path through the Underworld. Now mount this needle on a vertical circular disk with marks arround the edge and you have what is known as a "Sun Dial" in Glorantha. This is a reliable method for telling the larger units of time. Obviously, the larger the sun dial is the more accurate it will be (but it will also require more gold in the needle!). Pocket Sun Dials are just Gold Compasses and are sometimes known as such or even Sun (or Solar) Compasses. The devices must be held vertically and are of course relatively inaccurate.
Another type of compass which is often known by a different name is the Plumb Line which is drawn towards the darkness of the Underworld. Of course this tool is useful for builders, although some Solar types have been known to Gold Compasses at midday (derived using a second clock) to find the vertical).
I have a question for my fellow scholars arround the Lozenge and that is do Lead Compasses/Plumb Lines point down towards a central point in the Underworld (in a manner similar to Aluminium & Gold compasses) or do they point towards the nearest part of the underworld? I suspect the latter because they seem to be used by builders throughout Glorantha and of course those peopels who are on the edge of the Lozenge would find their buildings falling over if their Plumb Lines were pointing at the centre of the Underworld (unless it was VERY VERY deep down...) BTW How deep is Hellcrack as with this information we could work out the angle of error in the Plumb Line for different places in Glorantha if the first hypothesis was correct.
Cheers
Lewis
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #22
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