Northcall

I've wanted to add a new sense to the folks of Runehack, for some time now. I've narrowed my options down to a single one and felt like writing about it.

"Ever felt that sensation of following the Still Star into the unknown? To see what's in there?"
"Haven't we all?"
A custom artwork drawn by Arell for this article.

Northcall

Due to traveling a lot in the older times, the humanoid species of Runehack have developed and retained a sense of magnetoreception. At all times, they can sense the direction of the true north. Think of it as an expansion of proprioception (the sense of where our body parts are relative to each other, to put it simply), except it's a position relative to the north, letting you know the direction to the north, and while close enough also a rough distance.

In the old times, people considered this sensation to be the call of the unmoving star in the north. Eventually, they came to call this sensation the northcall without realizing what exactly it is or how it works. Grammar-wise, think of it being used in the same way we use words like "sight" or "smell". While it was very useful for orientation and long-term travels, some have wondered what this sensation actually leads to. Early communities were, understandably, under-prepared for such journeys, which is why they always ended lethally. Thus, "reaching for the north" has become a phrase for hopeless journeys that would be deemed impossible, and/or perilous. One of the symbols associated with this sense is the Still Star, a star that's perfectly motionless in the night sky, right above the true north.

At a certain point in history, humanity has discovered a strange mineral that called for them too, though its call was much weaker. Many names have sprung for the lodestone depending on the cultures: from starstone or starmetal to northrock. The northcall of this rock was much shorter than the call of the true north, but they noticed a strange phenomenon through experimentation: The lodestone attracted itself, and its power grew stronger when more were brought together. This has been an origin to many legends of theirs, one being a legend of Mount Boreal. This mountain was supposedly entirely made out of lodestone, and in some versions of the myths even held a way to reach the Still Star itself. Even nowadays, lodestone is a cultural symbol for love and attraction and used in various gifts for the closest ones.

Another myth says that the Still Star is a heated loadstone, and that little stars are within all of us. Some people claim that their soulmate has a distinct northcall due to the attraction of starlets, but such claims were afterward disproven. While northcall can detect the presence of other people, its strength is so weak that it works only within a room and doesn't let you know where or how many people are in the room with you. You just feel a hunch that there probably are people with you there. According to some, the Still Star beckons all people to join it. When it comes to the afterlife, believers of these myths say that after the death, the little star within a person, too small to be seen by a naked eye, escapes, and flies to the North to finally join the greatest soulmate this world ever had. Understandably, a religion has sprung up around the Still Star, worshipping it as both a deity and an afterlife that one should strive to reach.

Debates have gone on for years whether the source of the true north is the Mount Boreal or the Still Star, so many expeditions have been made to see it in person. The Mount Boreal believers have presented themselves as rational, claiming that the mountain of lodestone is the most sensible explanation, while those who thought it's the Still Star used more spiritual reasoning, with less empirical evidence. After some time, society has grown competent enough to reach the true north of the world. Once they arrived close enough, the explorers made a bizarre discovery: there are two norths calling for them. One that points downwards, and one that points upwards, directly at the Still Star. As the news propagated all over the world, the religion that has grown around the Still Star has splintered. One major branch of this religion is a dualistic faith in two deities who represent different ideals of what the good is: one that claims that intentions are what makes a thing good and another that claims that the outcomes are what makes a thing good. It mirrors the duality of the origin of the earth, and the Still Star high above, and yet people feeling the call of both. Since this religion is one of the two biggest religions currently present in this world though, I think that it should get an article of its own, or at least a segment focused on it some other time.

Those who can't feel the northcall used to be called wayless, but over time this word came to be seen as offensive, so it has been replaced by the term "uncalled". Before the time of monsters, religious fanatics used to pursue the uncalled people, seeing them as people without a moral compass that would help them tell good from evil. It's not a thing that religious people in the present times are proud of, but it's undoubtedly a part of their history.

Lesser Norths

One of my rules for the Runehack's magic system is that the runes can detect and replicate (almost) anything the human senses can sense. This is why I wanted to make an extra sense, to begin with, so let's get to that.

Detection of northcall simply allows people to direct their machines much more easily in movement. It gives them an objective point that can serve as an anchoring point for them. After the runetech revolution, a scientific breakthrough has proven that the Moon does actually have a northcall of its own, although one that's so weak it can only be detected by machinery and not people. With a triplet of points (the north pole, the Still Star, and the Moon), it was only a matter of time before the Global Positioning System has been reinvented, working entirely on the base of runes.

When it comes to the northcall-based illusions, people have started to draw attention to their businesses by their use. These illusions came to be commonly called "lesser norths". But with the abundance of lesser norths and no way to tell them apart, the illusion became so overused it was obsolete. Soon enough, laws have been passed to ban the public use of northcall illusions, reserving them only for the places that can provide emergency assistance. When someone needs help due to a crime that has happened or a wound, they can simply follow one of the lesser norths they sense to get to safety and/or to get the help they need.

Understandably, as with any other illusion, northcall too can be made private, which is not covered by the law. The most common use for private northcalls is finding things when one needs them - stuff like one's phone, keys, car, the hidden box that nobody should ever find out about that's just buried someplace in the forest... you know, the usual.

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That's it for today's article of mine. It feels refreshing to do this sort of worldbuilding again where I start off with an idea and try to grow it as much as I can. I've tried to finish the next article on a Runehack city, but while most of it is done, I'm stuck with the Elvish language at the moment. I'm still tinkering with it, trying to find a good sound for it, altering vocabulary here and there, and tired of rewriting the important words I need for that article. Soon I'll hopefully have the dictionary finished enough to actually finish the article, maybe edit some of the Elvish words in the New Prista article, and continue the series as I hoped I would.

Thank you for reading, hope you've enjoyed this article, and I wish you an awesome day!