On the Magnetic Geography of the Outlands
by Leonardo da Vinci
Former Advisor to the Courts of Tuscany
Knight of the High Academy of Science in Harrīm
Now a Prisoner of His Own Mind's Twists in the Ethereal
Dear Malakon:
I don't know whether you receive any of my letters. Since I trapped myself on this strange place you call a half-plane, I have managed to correspond with many acquaintances all over the Known Planes, including our good friend Galileo in Automata. It seems only your letters remain unanswered; I hope you did not meet some ill fate in your morbid quest of dark knowledge.
As I told you, Galileo now lives in Automata where he can pursue his research on gravity and the movement of liquid bodies without fear of retribution by some superstitious prince, some Clue-Less as you would say. Although Magnetism is not one of his main interests, I convinced him to help me chart the magnetic fields of the Outlands, that most interesting region between the Outer Planes.
I found these fields to be radial and all directed toward the metallic
mountain standing in the middle of the Outlands, Mount Spire if I recall
its name.
To corroborate this finding, I sent one of his scouts with a compass and a
miniature ship's chronometer in order to measure the passing of hours and
of leagues during his journey -- a most arduous task in that strange plane
as we all know.
I ordered him to travel to almost all known places and towns on the
Outlands, and made sure he recorded time and distance well. The results are
somewhat incredible: the Outlands remind me of my own home world in terms
of magnetism.
The Spire acts as the North Pole of my home world: no matter where you
stand, the compass shall always point to it. As a consequence, the
Hinterlands are always in the opposite direction (a good thing to know when
you are looking for a gate town). The gate towns themselves are arranged on
a large circle of exquisite roundness, much like the Equator of my home
world. The land beyond, the Southern hemisphere or the Hinterlands in the
case of the Outlands, are a place of opposite behaviours: vortices spin the
other way around, weather is cold when it is warm in the Outlands, and
winds flow in the opposite direction.
I believe this to be a major discovery: we all know how difficult it is
to-day to stray from well-known routes on the Outlands, with the danger of
unknowingly marching past the Equator and getting oneself lost in the
infinite Hinterlands.
With a compass and a bit of common sense, this shan't happen any longer. As
soon as a traveller notices some odd natural phenomenon -- a change in the
weather, or in the direction of the wind, he knows he's well past the
circle of the gate towns and must hurry back to Mount Spire -- and this can
be done with no error thanks to the compass.
Please feel free to make my discovery known to all in Sigil my friend. I just ask you one thing in return: do mention my name so that some traveller might want to find my abode and enable me to return to civilisation.
Your friend Leonardo
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