Isles of the Emberdark

by Brandon Sanderson

The Knell—the name they had for the enormous natural beacon near Threnody—gave at least one data point. Anyone with a proper navigation device—or hell, even a hint of a sensory power, like Allomantic bronze—could sense the invisible waves it gave off, called the Current. So if you wanted to go to the Knell, then great, you could just follow the Current. Unfortunately, eldritch entities born of a god’s death tended to haunt the area immediately surrounding the Knell. So visiting it, and Nazh’s homeworld nearby, was not advised. Still, so long as you knew where you were, you could use the Knell as a reference point and create a heading to where you wanted to go. Things got tricky, though, if you didn’t know where you were. If you were lucky, you’d be close to someplace inhabited, as they tended to have beacons to light the way. Most could be sensed by the same devices that could locate the Current, but many others were more mundane, like radio. Large trade routes usually had small ones all along their path.