There are three distinct types of compasses that can detect the presence of Evolved humans.
One style are a collection of vintage pocket-watch compasses set in copper casings that measure two and a half inches across of unknown total number. These compasses are fashioned of hand-made parts and feature a faded windrose design on glued parchment as a backing.
An attempted reconstruction of these compasses using modern materials was found at the Colobanth Research Facility in Antarctica, designed by the Company. This compass was non-functional, but appeared to match prototype designs found on film reels at Coyote Sands made by Doctor Chandra Suresh.
The last model of compass was a digital wrist-mounted model constructed and employed by the Commonwealth Institute. These compasses used modern technology to detect the same fields the hand-made, older compasses do but to a higher degree of precision with the capacity to filter out — to modest degree — background radiation that could interfere with signals.
Compass technology was made illegal in 2016 by a Presidential Executive Order.
Significance
These compasses do not detect magnetic north, but are of a special design capable of detecting the minute radiation emitted by all Evolved persons. This energy, which exponentially increases when Evolved are in proximity to one another, becomes easier to detect at further distances with the compasses.
The origin of the compasses is not known, but it is suspected that their design may date back as far as 1940s Germany during the initial time of Project Icarus. There is an unknown number of the original compasses in circulation and it is likely that if they were present in Nazi Germany during World War II that they fell into American hands, given where they next show up historically.
The compasses re-emerge on the historical scene in the early 1960s, utilized by American scientists at Coyote Sands research humans with supernatural abilities. Lead researchers Doctor Chandra Suresh and Jonas Zimmerman studied the powers of the compass and how these uniquely designed objects do not detect magnetic north, but rather a wholly unique and different type of energy.
After the destruction of Coyote Sands, the compasses seemingly disappeared into the annals of history. Likely many of their number were destroyed by the Company. A large number of them came into the possession of the Sullivan Brothers Carnival years later when it was founded by Samuel Sullivan and Joseph Sullivan. These compasses eventually became waypoint finders, allowing those possessing the Compass to find large concentrations of Evolved, the largest of which being the Sullivan Brothers Carnival, up until its destruction by DHS and the Company in 2007.
From there the compasses scattered to the four winds, and many of them were lost or went missing. It is unknown how or when the organization known as the Institute obtained designs for the compasses, but they soon produced refined and modern variations of the objects utilized by their agents in detecting the presence of Evolved humans living in large gatherings.
