Overview
Navigation
With the exceptions of the Tassèrus and Teréðor, the majority of the World of Teréth End can be explored without venturing far from a coast. Due to this reality, there was no impetus for the world’s Mortal Races to develop advanced navigation techniques until the latter half of the Fourth Age. Much of the required mathematics were developed much earlier and used to a lesser extent by the Lyrásti to navigate the Sea of Zalū. It was perhaps the greatest contribution by the Dekàli Empire to develop much of the navigational “sciences” still in use to this day. Standard navigation, as developed in the Old Empire by the early 8th century HK, required the use of a sextant, a compass, and an Oðàri clock.
Waypoints
Another Dekàlan development was the use of waypoints in conjunction with standard nautical navigation. Waypoints are a constellation of map positions for navigating the high seas. More important than the actual points were the avenues that connected them. Ships that sailed along these imaginary avenues could hope to avoid treacherous currents and weather patterns in the most volatile of regions. This is was important for the shallow draught Dekàli ships. The necessity for waypoints was most crucial in the Mar Dekàli due to the number of Tapestry frays found there. These avenues were also believed to be safe from sea denizens with whom the Old Empire had entered into Pacts ensuring that the ways would remain untroubled.
The earliest waypoint maps date to the late 8th century HK. Most of these scrolls are now fragmentary, their information being so coveted that the maps were carved and sold in pieces. Today many of the waypoints are no longer used. Those ship captains that are fortunate to know of two (or more) hold their secrets very closely. Ship merchanting is a very competitive business and every edge one keeps over the competition can be counted in gold. It is of equal interest that no Old Empire ships commandeered during the last Acèntyri-Dekàli War was found with its maps intact. Most captains, upon the recognition of their imminent defeat, destroyed what was then considered a state secret.
The Shipwright Guilds that emerged following the Treaty of Fivèndam in 35 DR, secretly continue their efforts to reconstruct the ancient maps. In the first few centuries of the Dekàli Reckoning, a number of these guilds claimed knowledge of the waypoints and immediately became targets of guild espionage and assassinations. It is likely that these campaigns did more harm than good. In one recorded instance, a spy who had stolen a map fragment from the Shipwrights of Tahl in 152 DR was found trying to auction his prize in the Ôldyuh Market of Æzàlar. When his employers discovered his treachery, the spy was hunted down and killed. The map was never found.