Ephemeris

The ephemeris is both a tool (similar to a sextant) and a map of the night sky -- both guarded as secret knowledge of the Navigators' Guild. As part of their guild training, Navigators memorize the ephemeris sky (the constellations) and learn how to use the ephemeris device (the tool).

The ephemeris sky is based on the n'gholunir neffoth of the panamaris -- updated to include new astronomical discoveries. The minor variations between the panamaris and the ephemeris are particularly interesting. Though known only to those within the Guild, both the neffoth and the ephemeris contain three "wanderers" or "wandering stars," which are not stars at all. Navigators are taught that the wanderers are actually a'an n'tyrl'ygnae ("gods before time") -- a special class of ancient deities who existed before time was time. The three wanderers are Eterra, Zhovia, and Kronia. Kronia wears a distinctive halo, marked by a tilted bar across her body on the panamaris and sometimes visible with a powerful enough telescope. In the ephemeris, Eterra floats with her child (Lunae); Kronia floats with her three children (Tytae, Rhylae, and Iapetae); and Zhovia floats with her three children (Ganimae, Callistae, and Uropae). Lunae appears in the neffoth of the panamaris, but Kronia and Zhovia's children do not -- presumably because they had not been discovered yet. Some Navigators theorize that Kronia and Zhovia's children were born after the panamaris was carved -- supported by the fact that they are all much smaller than Eterra's more mature child, Lunae.

Thus, Navigators think of Eterra as a godly entity, not as a place. They view the creation myth of the Garden of Eterra as pure myth.